KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog
Now that I've survived New Year's Day, it's ever onward into the news cycle at the radio station news cubicle. Due to work requirements, I wasn't able to do much on Straight Key Night, but I did fire up the the Icom R-75 receiver in the studio and "read the mail" between news breaks. The antenna projects slated for the first days of the year are nearly done. While I'm happy with the 40-meter loop under the house, the 40-meter vertical still needs work. The old MFJ fiberglass mast has been battered by the elements. It needs to be replaced. I have a jackite pvc mast in the garage that will be standing in the backyard soon. Hopefully, a spare weekend will be available to install the mast and get a decent ground screen in place. The old system was a variation of a 33' vertical wire with tuned counterpoise--all this fed with 450- ohm window line. The setup worked reasonably well and could work bands from 40-10 meters. No complaints a