Here is my station. The HF rigs consists of a Yeasu FT-847 coupled to a MFJ 993 tuner which is hooked to a run of 450 ohm ladder line terminated into a 260 ft loop.  Also just under it to the left is a FT-450 coupled to a LDG z11-pro and switchable to a G5RV, 5btv and a 10m hex beam.  This is my primary 10m rig as it sits on 28.4 listening for an opening while the 847 does all the rest of the hf duties as well as 6 meter.  An Astron 40 amp switching supply provides the power to everything except the vhf Alinco DR-135 which is powered by a deep cycle gelcell.  The antenna system for the 2m rig is switchable from a 10 ele horiz beam ( a cure for multipath I found ) and a 11 ele vert beam. I am trying tto get another antenna to cure the path problem and free up the horiz beam for the 847 but so far no luck.  Also in there is an older pc with all my ham stuff on it. Multiplke dragons, wizards and of course "M" the shack bear.

FT 450---FT 847

WIZARDS-N-DRAGONS PROTECT MY TOYS

One rather unique aspect of the set up is the mic setup. My hands are paralized and so holding a mic requires using both hands making it kind of a pain. To simplify things I made one mic PTT to operate both stock hand mic's.
As you see in the picture there is a dual switch (right side with small wizard on it).  the right switch trips the ptt on the DR135 via the data port in the back.  The left switch is the ptt for the ft847 using the foot switch connection on the back of the radio.

This setup allowes someone to also just pick up either mic and use as a standard mic and also it does not requiring modifying either stock mic.  Also you will see that the mic's themselfs are hanging on a goosneck so I can adjust them where I want them. the system works real nice for me as I can just lay my hand on the ptt and not need to hold a mic.


 
The switch is made from tiger wood











 

fat boy he-self

***Rigs & Stuff***My first rig as a Novice was a Kenwood 820s I paid $120 for.  The rig was very forgiving and worked rock solid the whole time I had it.  Due to my hands being paralyzed the big hassle was having to tune the rig each time I changed bands. Being a tube rig it required tuning the circuits with the plate, drive and so forth, the problem there was that due to my paralysis I had to use both hands to turn the knobs and I would invariably bump one or more of the tuning controls while adjusting the control beside it. Fortunately the 6146's were tough little buggers and forgave me for my sins against resonance.  I soon upgraded (?) to a new TS 140s.  This was a real nice rig and enjoyed the ease of just hitting a button to go from one band to another.  The down side of this rig is the small slide pots for the mic gain, power,nb control and such.  These controls are not user friendly to say the liest.  I next purchased a ts450sat.  I really liked this rig with is auto tuner and flashy lights meters and what all.  About 1997  I decided to get out of ham radio and sold it but that didn't last long and now  I picked up a used  ts 140s which i run until Jan 2001 when I bought a new Knwd TS570DG  which was running into a G5RV antenna and an old CB 5/8 wave cut for 10m. I also had a HTX10 that I was going to leave on 10m packet but give that up, just no activity there anymore so was hooked up in the shack and monitors the 10m fm frequencies (primarily 29.600) it has sence been sold off. The 570 was sold and I bought a FT847 all band all mode which is my primary rig now.  Although the above rigs were my primary HF rigs I have at one time or the other had a Kenwood 130s, Heath kit hw 7 (2 of them) hw 22, hw 12, dx 100, hw 29, 2-Uniden hr 2510's, RCI 2950, modified HiGain cb-to-10m rig several xtal cw rigs.  VHF rigs have included Kenwood TW4000a, knwd 7730, knwd 7950, Yeasu 2m all mode, knwd th 215, 2 - th 28a's, Yeasu dual band ht (cant remember model),  Alinco dr 110 (in my opinion the best 2m rig ever made), dr 112, dr 119, dr 130, dr 150, icom 228h, ADI 146,Alinco dr-600, a old yeahoo memorizer several other xtal 2m rigs including an old Drake portable...was kinda like a Fred Flintstone handheld.
    My present vhf station is an Alinco dr135 for the base 2m rig running into a 11 ele beam . I had picked up a RCI 5054 6m rig which has sence been replaced by a Ten Tec 526 which was replaced with a ft-847.  I have had a little (very little) experience on 6m.  I once had a HW29 (lunchbox) AM job with one xtal and worked one station on it (in Tx if I recall) and also had a converted commercial rig that had a repeater freq set in it and a simplex xtal. I did make several contacts on it. See my 5054 vs 526 below . With the purchase of the 847 I had no need for the 526 so e-bayed it as well as the 1500.

RADIO SHACK #2

my 703.. So far about all I can say about it is that it is a real simple rig to use. The menu system is easy to get use to and navigate.  The auto tuner seems to tune everything I have tried so far including 6m on a G5RV .  I think the radio was suffering from a poor antenna system as all I had to stick on it was the G5RV JR and the noise level below 14 mhz is s8 all the time untill I got it onto a full g5rv so now I thisk it does a very impressive job for its max 10 watt output.  It even appears to tune 6m on the full g5rv. I am extra impressed with the auto tuner.  I am really looking forward to trying it mobile / portable with the van and my bugcatcher or a dipole hung in a tree. Due to operator goof up I had to send it back to Icom and have the final replaced but other than that it seems to be bug free. one feature I wish they would have incorperated into it is the radio automatically reduce its power when the voltage drops.  above 13 volts it does fine on 10w but if it drops to 12.9 volt the radio still tries for full power and it distorts the audio.  Seems to me it would been a nice touch to have the radio automaticly switch to 5 watts or the like. also maby a better indicator that your attinuater is on, the little light is hard to tell if its on or off.  I could get glasses but rather they just put a BIG RED LIGHT or something..hi..hi.

IC-703 -out- FT-450 in
Well It was a good thought at the time but the 10 watts on the 703 just wasn't cut-en the mustard.  Missed too many possible late night qso's with the 703 and low power so did some horse trading and selling and replaced the bedroom hf with a new Yaesu FT 450 and a LDG z11- pro tuner. I did not get the 450 with the built in tuner because the LDG has a much broader range on its tuning capabilities.  So for the radio has impressed me with its features however the extensive menu system is going to take a bit of learning, the routine at first seems very confusing but once the key "keys" are understood then it makes much beter sense.  The stock filters are quite good but it takes a longer period of time "get to" the filters you need as opposed to a knob setup such as the 847 uses.  The IF shift needs a detent as it is way too easy to bump and shift one way or the other.  I have had very nice reports on the tx audio ( havn't touched the multiple mic settings yet) .  The main vfo knob is a touch small but works very smooth.  The LDG tuner is a super piece or so it seems so far.  I like the 2 seperate band scan features as I can put the 10m beacon band in one and the 6m beacon band in the other and it will scan one or the other or both.  Lots of memory channels and the display is nicely arranged and easy to read...so far ...so good.

JUST MOBILING ALONG

Here are some shots of my mobil setup. Of course due to my requirement to use hand controls to drive using a standard hand mic is out of the question  ( use one hand to steer and the other to run gas and brake ). To solve this problem as you see there is no mic hooked to the radio. the small red button above the radio is a channel up button, makes it handy to just reach up and push the button with the side of my finger as my hands don't work good enough to turn a knob.

The arrow here is the ptt only in this case being mounted on the hand control to put enough pressure on it with the heal of my hand it kicked off the cruise control or give it gas and made the audio choppy as well...either case not good so what we did was put a dpdt toggle switch there with a little red led to know if I accidentally switched it on ( which by the way the whole thing needs to be moved as when I turn on the right turn sig my hand hits the switch and I have timed out the repeater once already plus put the light up where I notice it.

I had a pretty elaborate mic boom made for it but found out the hard way it was too long ( slammed on the brakes and it poked me in the forehead) so whacked it down to a safer size then discovered the stock mic modified for external ptt works much better.



Steve W7SAV By the way I want to thank Steve in a big way for spending about 6 hrs total mounting and trouble shooting this thing for me. I sure appreciated it.

RIGS RIGS AND MORE RIGS
One of my many quirks is that I enjoy buying, selling and trading radios, I have also kept track of all the radios I have owned at one point in time over my ham years.  Some owned longer than others and some owned just long enough to claim I owned them. Check it out..

HF rigs  (knwd=Kenwood, IC=Icom, FT= Yaesu, Hth=Heathkit)
Knwd TS-820s, Knwd TS-140s (2), Knwd TS-130s, Knwd TS-120s, Knwd TS-520s, Knwd TS-450sat,
Knwd TS-570dg (sat), Yaesu FT-847, Yaesu FT-450, Hth HW7 (2), Hth HW8, Hth HW12, Hth HW22,
Hth HW16, Hth DX100, Uniden HR 2510-10m (2), RCI 2950 10m, Radio Shack HX10 10m, Ten Tec CW xmitter,
Icom IC 703+ port, Uniden Lincoln 10m, Cobra 150 10m
VHF /UHF ( M=mobile,  HT=handheld, DB=dual band
Hth HW202, Regency 22 m (2), Knwd TH215a ht, Knwd TH28 ht, Yaesu ft-222 all mode base, Yaesu ft 470 db ht,
Yaesu ft-1500 m, Knwd TW 4000a db m, Knwd TM 7950 m, Knwd TM 7730 m, Knwd TM 231a m,
Alinco DR110 m, (3), Alinco DR 112 m, Alinco DR 119 m, Alinco DR130 m, Alincco DR 135 m,
Alinco DR 150tq m (2), Alinco DR 600t db m, Alinco DJ v5th ht, ADI AR 146 m, old Drake 2m port, Knwd DR 2600 ht,
Azdin m, Clegg 2m m, Icom Ic 22 H m, Yaesu Memorizer m, Hth HW 29 (6m lunch box) Hth HW? 2m (lunch box)
RCI 5054 6m m, Ten Tec 526 2m/6m port
Shortwave Rx
Knwd R2000, Yaesu FRG 7, Hth DX 2120, RS DX 100, Hallicraft SX120

HF rigs = 25, VHF/UHF = 32, Shortwave = 5,     for a Total of 62 rigs that were usable.

***CW*** Although I do not use cw much I still enjoy it but am very slow . I send with a straight key and still have to write down copy.  As for the "code requirements" issue well I think it should still be required for HF privileges but only for nostalgic purposes as it was a cornerstone of the hobby since way back and I do not believe the speed at which you can copy really matters .  I don't buy into the argument that cw is still a valuable mode of communication as other digital modes are much more reliable and secure nor do I believe that because you had to struggle through the code learning process that it makes you a better Ham operator.  Some of the worst Amateur language and practices I have ever heard on the air were hams that had calls older than dust.

***DX***I find this part of the hobby is probably the most interesting.  The ability to communicate with people from different countries and cultures to me is the heart of the hobby. I have enjoyed many qso's with other hams in about 72 different countries and have qsl's from most.  I am not much into the "599..qrz" routine.  I don't like to chase DX just to make contact and move on but rather to chat and learn more about the country or culture.

***QSLing*** Probably my favorite aspect of ham radio, I truly enjoy exchanging qsl cards and especially ones that are of home design.  I have qsl's for each state and US territories.  I have never put in for WAS nor probably never will.  My favorite QSL is from Japan.  Unfortunately the cost of exchanging QSL cards in great quantities is getting close to prohibitive. I enjoy designing my own QSL cards on the computer an as a result very few of them  look the same
***ANTENNAS***Boy now here is a subject that if you put 100 antenna gurus in one room and ask a simple question about an antenna you will get 100 different answers.  The science of RF properties emitting from a metal object and said RF's experiences as it reaches out into free space is a strange science in deed. I like to keep in mind that its is called "radio theory" for a reason and that being it is really not understood but "it is theorized that it does....."  The way I see it is if a simple wire is resonate and whoever your talking to can hear you it is a good antenna.  I do however believe a good resonant antenna is the most important part of the radio station.  I have seen hams that spend so much time and money making or getting that "ultimate antenna" they seldom have the time to actually enjoy it.

***DA BANDS***big bands, little bands, rubber bands..no its HF bands I speak of.  I enjoy the hf bands when I take the time to play with the hf rig.  I don't use 160m,  just never had an antenna for it so never played on it.  80m, here again I don't use much as it is pretty quite during the day and I am not a night person.  40m, I play here a little, mostly on the cw end at around 7.130.  30m, well have ventured there once or twice when I could get my g5rv/mfj tuner to tune there but it usually won't.  20m,  Well this being the "workhorse" of the bands I find it a little too crowded with nets, dx 5/9ers, and 1500 watters to mess with but do go there for PSK.  17m, I really like this one seems like just good folks hang there but again my g5rv don't like to tune there, it is also my other PSK band.  15m,  Play here a little I do.  My favorite use of 15m is the uplink to rs12/13 satellite but it must have fried or something because I sure never hear it anymore.  When I get REAL bored I do play around 21.130 cw.  10m, this one is my favorite.  for some reason the ops seem to just be normal rag chew good-ol-boys and girls, not many mega watters and of course when the band opens it get very active but the fact that it is pretty wide in frequency scope makes it pleasant to use.  The 10-10 net activity gets a little irritating at times but that's why they put a vfo on the rigs...go on up the band. Another reason I like 10 is its diversity, what other band has dx, sb, 1200 baud packet, 300 baud packet, cw, rtty, propagation beacons, am, fm, fm repeaters  and satellite downlinks ? And do most of it with a 200 dollar, 25 watt mobile with a dipole or modified cb antenna...10m...gotta luv it...
    On the vhf note, I of course run 2m fm and am toying with the idea of picking up a ten tec 526 2m/6m to replace the 5054 RCI (on 6) so that means 2m ssb ability.  I had a 2m ssb rig some years ago and never made many contacts on 2 ssb but now have more time and patients so might try it.  I like the 6m grid square chasing thing, kind of fun even though I am a rag chewer at heart when 6 opens I enjoy getting that "new grid" which isn't hard for me cuz I am new at it but I am in a rather hard to get grid (not many hams here especially on 6m) so that makes it fun.
                                                   RCI 5054 vs Ten Tec 526
    As stated above I ventured into the world of 6m in the late fall of 2001.  I picked up a RCI 5054 because of its price and I had owned the 10m version of this rig (2950) some years back and it seemed to be a good rig.  After I had been sucked into the mystery of 6m I started looking at the Ten Tec 526, a 2 band rig with 2m as well as 6m.  Although the 5054 worked flawlesly I opted for the 526 for several reasons.
    first the down side, The 526 is almost twice the cost of the 5054 but does have 2m as well as 6m.  Both rigs are referred to as "all mode" however the 526 does not have AM.  The 526 does not come with an external speaker jack but Ten Tec states that if you add an external speaker jack it will NOT affect the warrentee.
POWER.....the 5054 claims 25 watt on ssb and there is rumer of a high power module available for it.  The 526 is a 20 watt rig ssb and fully adjustable from the front panel. I think they could have went to a 50 watt unit just as easy and would have made a more desirable unit.

Receiver....I think the 5054 had a hotter reciever but have noticed that with say a s-3 signal on both rigs that the 526 is much clearer so even tho the receiver seemed better on the 5054 if you just watched the s meter if you closed your eyes and just listened the 526 was better.  The 526 could use a litle more audio output to speaker and have talked to other 526 owners that have used an amplified speaker with much better results.  I have heard reports of the recieve on the 2m side of the 526 being real poor.  I have not found that on mine and have found that if you get to playing with the filters (dsp) on it one might "think" the recieve has problems.  The dsp filters on the 526 work real good.  The 5054 has no filters and I found the 5054 to "hear" quit a ways up and down the band when sitting on one freq, especially when a strong sig showes up 10 kc up or down.

VFO.....here is my big gripe with the 5054, although the step type vfo works ok it can be a pain when trying to change freqs real fast.  The "real" vfo on the 526 is a pleasure to use compared to the step type. One function I would have like to seen on the 526 tho would be a Mem>VFO contole.  when scanning and you hear a signal on a programed mem channel and it is not quit on the exact freq you have to stop scan , switch to vfo mode and the dial it in.  Now if the last time you were in vfo mode you were say at 50.125 and your busy mem channel was say on 50.140 but the actual signal was at .142 it would be much easier to hit a MEM>VFO button and it would be faster to dial to .142 from .140 than .125.

Memory channels 5054 has 10  526 has 100.  PL's...5054 has none, 526 has all of them. 526 has all the outputs for transverters if needed, is a little larger and has no mob mounting bracket.
thoes are the basic differences in the rigs, the 5054 served me well and worked fine but the 526 just has more refinements but at a double dollar cost.

VHF CONTEST 2000..setup at DN04wx.  just below Anthony Lakes Ski area in Or. 6m dipol and a 5 ele 2 m beam Portable setup.  526, 6m swr meter, cheapo 2m swr meter, vom (watching batt voltage) gps (in case I can't find home again, clock, Les Schwab battery and jug of tea, Made some fun contacts between snow storms






***PACKET***   Well here was another one of my favorites.  Packet radio is a digital mode that I find that you either love or hate and your either in one mode or the other with no middle ground.  The mode is not as popular as it was some years ago but there are still some of us die hards that are "keeping the faith alive".  I USE TO HAVE have a packet station on here 24 hours off the ALW node or the BKE node here in E. Oregon but due to the lack of other ops and the less and less bbs traffic and no keyboard to keyboard stuff anymore in the local area and no nodes out to the rest of the world  I have sold off all my packet stuff.  However the mode offers you the ability to have a mailbox available for someone leaving messages for you and or other hams.  Another aspect of the mode is the use of BBS services.  Many dedicated packeteers run a packet bulletin Boards.  These BBS's offer a host of services.  They contain bulletins sent by hams from all parts of the world including comments,wants, news items and my favorite, stuff for sale. Another fun aspect of the BBS is the conference mode, here you can type to live people from all parts of the world, mind you it isn't as fast as the Internet but is fun to find a channel with hams from several parts of the world conversing with each other in a conference style.    Along with that they offer a "home BBS address" where messages can be sent to you from parts unknown, kind of like e-mail but slower but with a laptop,tnc and a radio you can send from about anywhere you can find a node.  With the telnet system it has made packet much more usable for long distance work.  One word of warning tho, it is not a mode you learn overnight and takes time and effort to learn the system and how to use it.  I have been using it for 10 years or more and still don't under stand most I know about it . You can connect to my mbx off the ALW node or the BKE node  in NE Oregon. One of the key components of a packet station is of course the terminal program you use to talk to the tnc with.  I have tried a list that goes on forever.  Just about any communication program will work but there are a host of programs that are specific for packet use. Look at the link page below for a good packet web site.

**PSK31**  This is a relatively new mode to hf.  I will not pretend to tell you anything technical about it because I know nothing technical about it.  This I do think tho, it is a very fun mode. I am new at it but so far I have made the conclusion that it is a very efficient mode.  Many qso's can be going on on one freq separated by what audio tone your using.  Now here is the other cool point...it uses the sound card on your computer, a simple attenuated interface (to attenuate the output of your sound card for your radio to deal with) and your HF rig.  Most of the programs do however require a pretty fast machine (computer).  There are some programs designed for the older 486/66 with dos/win3.1 but most are designed for the 100mhz or faster machines.  PSK31 (Phase Shift Keying @ 31 baud) is a weird sounding thing and one might even mistake it for a bunch of heterodyne noise check these freqs out. Most used is 14.070.15 (usb) but also there is 28.120.15  21.080.15, 18.100.15,  10.137.15, 7.070.15, 3.580.15 (all usb).  here is an example of the efficiency I was talking about.  I had a contact on 10m with a LU call, the rx meter on the 140 was not even moving off 0.  I had 100% copy and to top that off 200hz up was another qso and it wasn't affecting ours at all.  I was using about 15 watts.  The most difficult task (and most important) is to get your sound card output to match you radio input so as to not over drive the audio signal, the whole frequency sharing theory depends on this. check out the psk31 web site on the links page below for allot of good information and psk31 programs.By the way..have tried most all psk programs and keep going back to digipan although hamscope seems pretty darn close to digipan for user friendly.  Watch 20m, 17m and 10m for me, seem those three bands work the best out here in the hay fields of E. Oregon.

**WATTS...WATTSTHESCOOP** Well here we go...I don't believe in running 1500 watts just to talk to some one...sheesh get a life here.  Now in contest mode sure, your in a competition and unless specified in the rules otherwise, use what it takes to give it your best shot.  As for just plain old ragchew stuff if you cant get the job done with 1 to 500 watts or so then you are a very lonely person.  QRP...well nice mode to use and many people enjoy it and it takes a little practice and technique to use it.  Personally I think trying to copy a qrp (true qrp..we are not talking 10 watts here...that is not qrp...that is 10 watts, 1/2 to 5 watts to me is qrp) signal is in most cases a pain in the ear and I don't enjoy it especially cw.
*** NEWS FLASH ***
    Remember that part above about "I don't believe in running 1500 watts", well that was before I started playing on 6m much...I NEED POWER....LOTS OF POWER.  unfortunatly I don't think I could get away with running 1500 but maby 300, sure would help.
***IN GENERAL*** Well in general I really do enjoy the hobby and it has given me allot in the past years, the people you meet as a result of the "contacts" and other things associated with ham radio I have found to be some of the best kind of folks.  Now there are exceptions as with most social groups.  One of the most interesting trends I find now is the younger generation (school age) getting involved with the hobby.  Most that I have met have been a pure joy to be aquainted with .  Seriously....well here is a pet peeve of mine.  Why do some folks take this hobby so serious..its a hobby, enjoy it, its a chance to quit being a stuffed shirt, organized, over IDing, uptight kind-a-folk.  Observe the rules and enjoy it.  If you hear a "new" operator making a mistake or maybe not using proper protocol then find a way to correct them in a tact full way and don't embarrass them over the air by playing a kilocycle cop.  Oh...leave the 10-4ing, rogering, roger  roger, what's your handle, 10-9 stuff on the CB..just a hint. I often here the question " isn't that hoby kind of expensive"? Well it sure can be if you chose to make it so but here is something to think about. Lets say you are just starting out. You are going to invest in a used station which will consist of a VHF (2m) and a HF station. Well lets look at the basic requirements

1... (used) vhf rig..... ...................................aprox cost $90                     
2... (used HF rig...........................................aprox cost $300 (10m-80m)
3....(new) 20 amp minium power supply.....aprox  cost  $100
4...vhf antenna (build a j-pole)....................aprox cost $30 (with coax)
5...HF antenna (build a multiband dipole)....aprox cost $40 (with coax max)
Now you have around $560 into a full usable amateur radio station. If care is taken this equipmeent will last at least another 5 years or more. thats $112 worth of enjoyment a year or a little less than $10 a month. Now explain to me another hobby that would come in under that and still be able to resell and recover some back.  My first HF cost its original owner just under $900 new. I sold it 8 years later for $375 and probably could have got $500 but after what I paid for it I felt a little guilty as the person I sold it to knew what I paid for it. This is not to say one can not get some big bucks wrapped up in to it as I can vouch for that fact.


                    looking up to the 2m / 6m horiz beam set with the 11 ele and 4bvt in the background                                       
     

another shot

ringo on the carport roof. I have been a good part of 9 years tryin g to get all my antennas up and running and now thanks to Marc KC7NXX it looks like I will have all the stuff working for the long winter (whoich is when I play with the radios the most). Marc spent the best part of 3 days removing, repairing, rearanging amnd putting up all the antennas. The big challange was the 4bvt, I have had it for about 3 years and have had it in every configuration one could think of and just couldn't make it work. Marc had a thought about the metal roof being grounded to earth ground, something I hadn't even thought of and of course it wasn't. He mounted the 4bvt at the edge of the house and we tested it, same problem..wouldn't tune anywhere. He then grounded it to the metal roof with some 1 inch wide braid and grounded the roof to a ground rod opn both sides of the house and BINGO...the thing come right in all except for 80m which I am sure is a whip tunning issue and the 20m trap needs to be adjusted a little but it will tune 20 with the tuner but 10,15 and 40 are right in there direct without the tuner. all the 2m and the 6m are very minimal vswr (6m and 2m horiz don't even make the reflected needle move at 144.2 and 50.125). Marc also cleaned up the coax mess that run down the side of the house off the tower so it not only works oooie groups better but looks oooie groups better (oooie groups is a dirivity of groups of oooie...like ...oooie thats more better..a techenical term). In side we hooked up my 4 pos ant switch to totally mess me up on which antenna I am on along with a 2 pos for the 2m fm ants. A big thanks to Marc KC7NXX for his time and help besids getting all my antenna work done I enjoyed his company and we had a good time laughing at each other during the process (plus I got to play with one of the coolest RG cars I have ever seen, a 1hp 4 wheel drive that weighs 5 pounds..thats .02 hp per lb so it is equivelent to having a 5000 pound pickup with a 1000 horsepower motor....what a blast)

AND THERE IS MORE

looking out my shack door to fish pond
sing along


Just got back from downtown
To the shack to wind down

Opened up the shack door just to check out the back yard
Sparrows n robin chirping, water fall ah gurgling
Do do do out my radio shack door

Squirrels holding green plumbs, even though he aint got no thumbs
Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn
Checking out he fish pond
Soon my worries all gone
Do do do out my radio shack door
Catfish and the crawdads are basking in the sun
And the gold fish are ah playing with the koi do do do do
Look at all this sunshine now I’m feeling real fine
Do do do out my radio shack door

A COUPLE ANTENNA PROJECTS
MY 10 METER HEX BEAM

hey...check out this weird antenna..can you id it?
click here

Well there is some of my thoughts on Amateur Radio.  I will be updating these pages so check back for  other stuff when I think of it.. and please flame-at-will.
if you want my opinion on something send me a note, ..73..cul..Neal  N7MSH