Hello, I just discovered this thread and was surprised that there are so many Hams here. I have been a Ham since 1997 and hold a General class license. I have seen so many changes to the hobby and am really glad that it is still around today, I still enjoy it. The biggest changes have been in the digital modes, it seems like a new digital protocol was being invented or released every 6 months to a year since 2000. Some of the modes are better then others and some are fantastic at compressing data and using spectrum very efficiently.
If you have questions please ask me and I will tell you what I know about it.
U.S. Marine Corps (retired)
Gong Shooter Fanatic and Reloading Fool
Okay, I'm not sure if we should start a new thread about this, but ... I hang out on these two repeaters:
145.400- 100.0 PL and
145.145- 107.2 PL
I do not transmit at all usually.. but if you want to know my call, PM me
Morning commute around 0800-0830
Evening commute around 1700-1800
PS:
I GOT A VANITY CALL SIGN! LOL
I looked up my own call sign today and saw it was CANCELLED! Then I looked up one of the vanities that I requested... awesome!
Last edited by rbeau30; 07-09-2014 at 22:38.
You're 2FNCY right?
"There are no finger prints under water."
Finally got a real 2m/70cm antenna installed at my house this weekend. Big improvement from the 19" HT antenna or a borrowed 5/8 wave mag mount 2m antenna I use from my place in the basement. I had planned to put it on a mast 28 feet up on the side of the roof. Bought 10' PVC pipe sections for this, glued them solidly, but the pipe was way too whippy to get vertical and clear the eave of the roof. So plan B was putting it in the attic - which would actually be about 3 feet higher than with the mast. Bought 60 feet of LMR-400 good cable - which was the perfect length. Had to get on the roof to feed the coax to the side of the house (a bit scary since the roof is really narrow where I had to go). Both rcv and xmit much better than before. I can pick up 4 of the 10 NOAA weather channels now and hear much more than before. FYI the antenna is a Diamond X-50NA, which was highly recommended and I would recommend as well. Installation was a breeze!
"Guilty of collusion"
That is awesome!
I have some stuff I need to install in the attic, but the last week was way to hot to go up there. I was up there for a little while wondering how the heck I was going to run some wires (the ceiling is pretty low, and half of the house has vaulted ceilings.) So I chickened out. I might attempt it again this weekend, but my motivation is nil.
I already have coax running to the attic, so It should be pretty easy to get an antenna up there, I just don't have room for a dedicated ham shack.
I hear ya on the heat. In the 1 hr I was up there last weekend I downed 2 bottles of H2o. Most of the time was laying the boards to get to end the end of the attic.
Today I drilled thru about 12.5" of stone, concrete, plastic, particle board and wood to get the cable into the room. Very slow going thru the concrete, and couldn't have done it without a 12" 5/8" concrete bit from home depot. Backfilled the holes with backer rod and weatherproofed with external Silicone RTV.
I love Silicone - my dad worked out of the GE Silicone plant in Waterford NY and sold the industrial glues for them. One of his biggest customers many years ago was Rockwell. They had this new space contraption they called the space shuttle. Rockwell bought a 5-part silicone glue from GE to put the tiles on. Remember the problems they were having with the tiles falling off? The first time it was not following the directions to cure each layer of glue in-place. The second time it was a bad batch of the binder (layer 2, I think). Man was it crazy at our house for a month or two. My dad was practically living in Palmdale CA until they got it right. That glue at the time cost about $1500/oz., but could withstand extreme heat, cold, and pressure.
RBeau - great that you already have coax to the attic - that was one of the headaches for me.
"Guilty of collusion"
Unfortunately I think it is just the TV cable coax. the HoA frowns on aerial TV antennas and I think this was pre-positioned (with a run of Cat 5 as well.... weird) to mount an antenna in the attic. Not sure if I can put a HAM stick or something in the attic, but I suppose it is a possibility.
I need to run some A/V cable back down, and the chase I want to use is little bit inaccesible along with the ret of the ttic, Like you I think I am going to run some boards up there so I can crawl around easier.