Wow ... 4 years 5 months

Wow ... 4 years 5 months since my last blog post.  Kinda fell out of the hobby for a while and now I got the bug again to get back on the air. All my antennas had storm damage so I got the 2meter/440 antenna back up on Friday and got the S9 vertical repaired today. This blog has had over 20,000 views and hopefully I'll put some more content on here that will help folks out.

Hope to catch you on the air
Peace
Kelly

Breedlove Mounts

Like I said from the previous post I did some stuff to my jeep. I ditched the screwdriver antenna and decided to go the mono bander / ham stick route ... The High Sierra was a good antenna but the off roading I do to go shooting was just going to kill the poor thing and before I totally destroyed it I sold it to a buddy who will treat it much better than I would have. Which brings me to the reason for this post Breedlove Mounts. KF7WFB , Pat turned me on to these mounts and boy are they something. If you are looking for the best possible mount for your antenna and Breedlove makes the style you need look no further and don't complain about the price shutup and order it .... Its just that simple He makes the finest machined antenna mounts I have seen anywhere bar none !!!! Everything is thought out and made from the best material available. Last time I took the jeep to HRO every sales guy came out to see the mount and could not believe how well it was made and how sturdy it was.
The picture below has a 2 meter Hustler on it for testing now she is sporting a 10 meter MFJ mono bander with a Hustler stainless steel spring ....
73
Peace
Kelly / K7PWT

No posts for a while

Hello all  - Been fighting some major back issues lately and haven't been on the air or doing much Ham related stuff lately. Pretty tuff to talk when your in pain and not complain about things so I don't want to be one of "those guys" lol ...
But anyways I did do some stuff to the jeep in the past few weeks and I will create another post but I wanted to make this one to explain the gap ...
So onward and upward .... Field day is coming soon so I hope to get some of the 52 guys up to the rim and make some contacts for the day ....
73
& Peace
Kelly
K7PWT

Kenwood TH-D72

Greeting from Goodyear Arizona -
About 2.5 weeks ago while using my TH-D72 crossbanding though my TS-2000 in mid QSO my speaker quit working. At first I thought it was something else like my 2000 had a problem or something of that nature but several press's of the moni button revealed I had a problem. So off to HRO and then its off to Kenwood (under warranty thank goodness). Two weeks later my radio is back and working as good as new.  One thing that struck me when I picked up the HT from HRO they guy told he just got another D72 with the same problem. So my question is whats up Kenwood ??? Do we have a problem here ???? $450 + HT shouldn't be having that kind of issues.
So I will post any further info as I find out more ... or if you have any info please let me know ...
Until next post
peace
kelly
k7pwt

Still looking good .....lol sounds better now with the speaker repaired ...

New Ham Shack with pictures

4 months 2 days since the last post ... My goodness where does the time go ....
Well the new shack is complete.  We have enclosed a portion of the back patio and it seems to be working out well. The space is considerably smaller than my last space but none the less I can close the doors and be in my own space that has air conditioning (very important here in AZ).  No matter how hard I try keeping things straightened up it is a challenge and I never can seem to get the wires in the back looking good (oh well) ... Nothing has really changed as far as equipment goes but my feed line runs now are about 100 feet shorter and it seems to make a difference  ... Thanks for taking the time to look at the pics and let me know what you think .... Hope to catch you on the air
Peace for now
Kelly
k7pwt

The back of the house before

The back after (new Shack)

Walking in

K7PWT .... Goodyear Arizona ...

My other desk (what a mess ugh)

4:1 UNUN from Balun Designs

We forgot to check the mail yesterday so my son just went and got the mail and to my surprise my 4:1unun from Balun Designs came in. This was needed to be able to run the amp on the S9 vertical as the current LDG unun only can handle 200 watts. What a incredible unun ... This thing is so well built I am speechless ... I could have not done a better job myself.  So if you are looking for a balun or unun checkout  http://www.balundesigns.com and they are way cheaper than DX Engineering..... You will not be disappointed ....

Peace

Kelly

Morse Code and Vibroplex Iambic Standard

A few days ago some of the folks on .52 here in Phoenix were talking about code and one of the guys started to send some code over. I made the statement that I could never do code and that my brain was way too slow for that. After a round table about it for a while and one of the guys showing me some of the easy letters and how it can come together rather quickly I started thinking. So I asked some of the more experienced code guys what they would recommend and most had either a Bencher or a Vibroplex iambic keyer. I had no idea the difference between a bug, straight key or an iambic, so after many questions later and some research on the net I know know that the iambic is the way to go for me. Now one ham was very adamant about the Vibroplex and the quality of these keys so I took a look at the keys and the company and made the decision that this was the route I was going to go. So on Friday I stopped by HRO and picked up a Vibroplex Iambic Standard and a premade cable. Connecting it was fairly easy but I had to go though the 590 manual to figure out some of the settings but I think I have a handle on that now. Now its off to learn code as of today I can sent K7 and I get lost on the rest of my call ... learning this is going to be a challenge and that's what its about

Peace
Kelly