As I wrote before: I’ve managed to store my HRD-logbook on a online MySQL database. My plan is to show my logbook live at the logbook-url of this very site. I’ve wrote a little PHP to be able to do this. So from now on you can take a look at my logbook live! Any changes will be online immediately.
On my wish-list is a search option to look for your own call in my logbook and be able to select one year of QSO’s.
Enjoy!
We did need a new transceiver for the club. After looking around we’ve found a good one: a Kenwood TS-870S in mind condition. In comparison to the new rigs it’s a real muscle radio for not too much money. It came with speaker SP-31. Very nice sound IMHO. I put it on top of my TS-850S. It’s receiving capabilities are alike but the 870 has a little more bass. Of course the digital filters are awesome and 2 antenna connections are very convenient.
Now I’ve to do the wide transmit modification to let it work on the new upper piece of the 40 meter band. I think I’ll ship it tomorrow evening to it’s new destination, the shack in the club building!
After studying several articles on the webs I tried to figure out a concept construction for my first Cobwebb antenna. An awful lot of tie wraps, a few fishing rods and a almost 50 meters of electrical wire. A few hours DIY in the rain and you see the result beneath. First test results: even at only 2,5 meter height very nice reception! In comparison to my end fed wire it’s a lot less noisy and picks up even very weak signals. Last night I was even listening to local QSO’s of amateurs in North America on 20m! Transmitting is another story on this height of course. No one heard me since, but almost all dipoles are resonant in the band and SWR is good. I think it will be even better when it’s on good operating height of 10 meters. I’m planning to put it on a pole on the roof, then it will be 14 meters high and more ore less 360 degrees free around.
The construction is of course just for testing purposes only. I need to construct another feed point which is waterproof. I’m not satisfied with the tie wrap solution to attach the wires to the spreaders. I think it’s not UV-proof too. I’m thinking about drilling little holes in the spreader to put little screws in them. And the end of the dipole wires I want some elastic pieces in. Then the wires will be tight all the time. Just haven’t figure out what to use for the elastic material yet.
And the baseplate needs some adjustment too, no possibility to attach a vertical pole in it now and the spreaders are not properly aligned. So need to do some rework… Then again, it’s only version 0.1!
