How do you key the next track, show that you are on air, mute the studio monitors, answer the phone and show when it is ringing? Easy… With this:
It is a work in progress…
How do you key the next track, show that you are on air, mute the studio monitors, answer the phone and show when it is ringing? Easy… With this:
It is a work in progress…
Here is the audio from my call with Dave Cameron, VE7LTD, regarding unlicensed use of the two meter band by paragliders.
We were discussing a bulletin released by RAC discussing this matter. http://rac.ca/en/news/bulletins/2012/49/ Dave was working up at a repeater site in Penticton BC which was just a few kilometers from a launch site being used for the Canadian Paragliding National Championships 2012. The issue started when Dave heard the traffic and noticed that there was no identification happening. Dave was not too concerned until he did a little research and found that on the organizer’s rule book for the event they had required that all pilots use a frequency in the ham bands.
8. Communication
8.1 Safety frequency is 146.415 MHz. All pilots must have radios equipped to receive and transmit on this frequency.
8.2 All pilots must submit cellphone numbers during registration.
A cell phone is required so that the organizers can ensure communication with a pilot in case of failure to report at the end the day’s task.
8.3 For pilots using SPOTS, contact information will be given out during registration.
RAC has engaged IC who reminded the group of the requirement to hold proper certifications and the group agreed to do their best to comply. The organizers did mention that it was particularly difficult to police this as they have no idea who is and who is not a licensed operator. Dave did go through the list of names and found that of the Canadian participants, at least 40% of their names were found in the RAC callsign database.
I worked the 6 meter band as VE7WNK/VE6 and the first day I made a whopping 1 contact. See the spot from vhfdx.info’s spot-mapping
More to come…Headed from DO13 to CO82 in the morning… I hope to have an entry into the VHF contest this up coming weekend, however there is a wedding that will be in the way of my prime operating time…. -.-
I watched a YouTube video by Randy, K7AGE, where he talked about building a 6 meter dipole. This super simple antenna is so easy that I would have to find an excuse to NOT make it. Randy’s video (and many others on the net) made me want to try it out and I wanted to play on “the magic” band. After a few minutes of thinking I jumped in with two feet and started looking for 6 meter yagi antenna designs. I stumbled onto the YU7EF EF0604s antenna.
This antenna is a simple 4 element beam that is relatively compact, the longest element is just over 9ft and the boom is only 8ft! I started off wanting to make this antenna portable, however after drawing up the design I visited my favorite metal retailer for some aluminum tubing and discovered that they did not carry the sizes that I needed to make the elements telescopic. I ended up settling on single lengths of 3/4inch aluminum tubing with 1/16th inch walls for the elements. The boom is an 8ft piece of 1inch square aluminum tubing. The elements are held to the beam using hydraulic hose clamps. The boom is mounted to a pole using a pair of pipe/exhaust clamps which are bolted to a 4inch square plate of 1/8th inch think aluminum.
I posted the pictures from the build and testing phase via Google+
Click here do download the PDF sketch of the visio drawing I did:
The VE7SCC, VE7BAR, and VE7NWC clubs got together again at Blue Mountain Park in Coquitlam for the 2012 Field Day!
See this video of me operating…
Photos here:http://wenko.ca/pub/fd2012/