Amateur Radio

I'm a licensed radio amateur, advanced class, callsign KC0FVV.

I enjoy the engineering aspects of the hobby, and have also made many new friends on the airwaves. I introduced my younger brother to ham radio in 1999, and he was licensed as KB1ESS in December '99. We now have a daily CW sked on 80m, and on days when the propagation gods smile upon us, we also work 10m SSB during his lunch hour, from the parking lot.

Ham radio is so much more "alive" than email, or even telephone. We're having a ball! A complete station, with which you can talk all over the world, can be set up in a weekend, and for less than $500.00.

The group I like the most: 3875 nightly....(Jim, KJ9T's website)

A great page about... "Lids"
(originally written about inane 2m repeater users, but HF has plenty who match this as well...)

The guys on '75 insisted on mug-shots, so here they are....Mug Shots

Antennas:

Antennas fascinate me. I love designing them, building them, testing them, and using them. Especially wire antennas. There's something so satisfying about achieving great radio performance with only two bucks worth of wire! Antennas are a fascinating design study, with many interdependent variables and lots of choices.

My thanks to Ray WA9SXJ, Bill N4VMY, Jim KJ9T, Larry N8DHV, and the many others who've given me sage advice this past year.

Rhombic, for 6m and 10m; also useable on 15, 17, and 20m.

Tilt-tower; my first tower project. Built for 2m beam, FM yagi, etc..

HF antenna tower. My 60' sky-needle...

FM bc antennas

2M antennas

Projects:

I create new products for a living, so I guess it's natural that I design and build a lot of my radio gear myself, rather than purchase it. A few small projects are shown on these pages...

Project Page #1
VHF Preamp, Xformer Rewinding, Man-Sized Balun, Pin-Extraction Tool...

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