Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Sunday, February 04, 2024
A virtual vacation
Thursday, February 01, 2024
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Origami
here.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gj0kyz
Thursday, December 07, 2023
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Where have you talked
Click to inlarge
Monday, November 20, 2023
Saturday, November 04, 2023
Thursday, September 14, 2023
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
A QSL from 50 Yrs ago (Ham Radio)
Friday, April 07, 2023
Wednesday, April 05, 2023
End Fed Antenna
The antenna behaves like the common dipole but fed at one end. I have installed just about all the antennas, You name it I have had it up. Now please do not get me wrong, The resent end fed will not be as good as a tribander. It will be an antenna for a small yard, an antenna that you will not need an antenna switch, It will work fairly good low to the grown and very easy to install. Most internal tuners will tune it. I have one for 40 20 and 10 meters. After trimming the 40 meter band it has a 2:1 SWR but the 20 and 10 are almost flat and 40 will work fine with the radio's tuner. If you have an external tuner you will be able to work it on all bands 40 up to 10. 40 meters is very good at about 300 miles. I have worked lots of DX stations also, like VK, ZL, YB and tons of Europe. You can build or buy one that will even take 1.5 kilowatt. Mine is a 300 watter and I can run 100 watts on SSB or 50 watts on FT8. All day long. Now everything affects everything when it comes to antennas so try a few ways to hang it, inverted L, vertical, or flat top. Mine tunes best as an inverted Vee at 20 foot. As always higher is better. Just sling it in a tree when operating portable. You can get one for 80 / 10 also.
WB9OTX
Buy one:
https://myantennas.com/wp/product-category/antennas/efhw-multi-band/
Build it yourself :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxhT9uObigs
Read a review by QST:
https://myantennas.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/PROD-REV-MyAnt.pdf
Friday, March 17, 2023
Bad Antennas
It was rainy cold day but I did manage to take the trash out for pick up. I decided to play some Ham Radio. I started on 60 meters, the antenna was a 43 ft vertical. This antenna is way to short so a wide band large tuner was put to use. I sent out a few CQs at QRP (low power) 5 watts. That did not cut it I found very quickly, so I set the power up to 25 watts. This was much better as I contacted several stateside stations, but my signal reports were poor to very poor. Enough of that, I switched to a end fed 63 ft wire antenna that is only 10 foot high. This antenna worked about the same, a few stateside and one in Barbados (8P6).
Now for the faunally, I Stung a wire from the living room to a back bedroom. I started with 10 watts on the 20 meter band. When I transmitted the TV came on and off. I went to 15 meters and the antenna tuned very well and the TV liked it too. A few calls and again about 4 or 5 stations were worked. Not bad with a indoor set up. Now it all came to an end. I do not recommend this set up if you have a wife.
This just shows that a bad antenna is better than none, about anything can work.
WB9OTX Jack
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Radio Propagation Beacon
Being a Ham for over 50 years I have experimented with about all the perks of the hobby This included all digital modes such as SSTV, RITTY, JT65, Jt9, WEFAX, and more. I worked all over the world with QRO and QRP. I tried just about all the antennas in the ARRL books. I even was successful bouncing signals off the moon (EME). One day I read an article about a 10 meter beacon station, and wow a light bulb lit in the 'ol knogan. I had never tried that. There were lots of articles written on the web, I read about all I found and found out its not to costly or hard to get one on the air. I had a couple of tranceivrs that I could use but I did not want to dedicate one of these to full time 24 - 7 use. Most beacon transmitters use the Radio Shack HTX100. This little rig is no longer produced, but many were sold and still going strong. You can find them on eBay, eHam, and Ham Fests. I bought mine from a wanted to buy ad on eHam. This is a 12 volt radio so you will need a power supply. I had a 12 amp that I used on it. This is a little over kill but it is what I had. Now you need some way to key the CW transmitter. I found an ID-O-Matic repeater IDer that was already put togeather and the Ham pre-programmed it for me. Now you need an antenna, I started out with a dipole but I wanted the antenna to be non-directional. I soon bout a 1/2 wave CB antenna and mounted it at ground level with 3 1/4 wave radials. I soon found the antenna worked just as well with out them, so they were removed. The coax I had on hand was RG58 and was berried from the house to the antenna, about 50 foot. Yes, I know RG8 would have had less loss but I knew several beacons were running only millowatts of power so my 5 watts at the transmitter and the gain of the antenna would do fine. Now for the fun part, getting the reports. The first month I only received reports from East and West. I was being heard almost daily in Europe and California, even in Japan, but never North and South like Canada or Florida. But as the season changed the E skip in November and December came to be and my little beacan with F2 & E prorogation became readable in all directions. I can tell you it became fun getting the mail and finding QSLs from the people that hears it. If you want to copy some beacons, listen from 28.1 to 28.3 most run about 10 WPM CW and on a good propagation day you will hear many - may be me at 28.2033.
Jack Demaree Versailles, Indiana WB9OTX/B Grid EM79ib
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
10 Mhz Bragging
With the bands being good but not great this morning and
with 25 watts and a 43 Ft vertical antenna I contacted
VK6 (western Austraila),JA (Japan), and YB (Indonesia) in
a time period of about 15 minutes. I was using a digital
mode called FT8. Either one of these countries are not rare
but between 6000 to 11000 miles from Versailles, Indiana.
Very good for only 25 watts of power from my transmitter.
Isn't Amateur (ham) radio a fun hobby ?
Radio Station WB9OTX Jack Demaree
Saturday, February 18, 2023
Wednesday, February 08, 2023
Radio Station WB9OTX
Versailles Indiana
International Amateur Radio Month is celebrated in April. Hundreds of thousands of radio amateurs worldwide go on air to celebrate International Amateur Radio Month. Ham radio is useful and, in some cases, vital because you don’t need a cell phone network or the Internet to use it. Operators are especially important in a disaster when normal communication channels fail. Read MORE
Thursday, February 02, 2023
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Cpl. John C. Bishop Tribute
Cpl. John C. Bishop, 25, of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina passed away Wednesday, September 8, 2010. Cpl. Bishop was serving with the 2nd Battalion 9th Marines and was killed in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. John was a member of the American Legion Versailles, Indiana.
Please click the below link to view his Tribute via YouTube Tribute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqlDfrRBVaA
Please donate to
John Bishop's children fund
c/o Stratton Karsteter Funeral Home
P.O. Box 84
Versailles, In. 47042
Video Produced and edited by:
Jonathan (jack) Demaree
Thursday, January 26, 2023
Monday, January 02, 2023
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Tuesday, December 06, 2022
Pearl Harbor Day - December 7, 1941
Read MORE
Tuesday, June 07, 2022
Thursday, February 24, 2022
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
ENIAC Computer
On 14 February 1946, journalists gathered at the Moore School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania to witness a public demonstration of one of the world's first general-purpose electronic digital computers: the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC).