Radio W4KAZ

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Re-purposed HyperDawg as Antenna Launcher

Ran across the hyper dog ball launcher a couple of years ago, and the potential for re-purposed applications as an antenna launcher for hanging antenna supports seemed obvious.  It is not as much fun as a pneumatic launcher, but it sure is easily understood by any boy of 8.  No air pump required.

The modified hyper dogÂ

The normal slingshot type Wrist-Rocket/Crossman slingshot launcher has served the purpose for years, but not always without problems. Â A 1-oz(28g) lead weight works, but not without a relatively high rate of mis-fires, line tangles, and “Oh S**t!” moments. Â The hyper dog is a lot less likely to draw whining complaints from those inclined to wring their hands and moan about things that don’t really concern them..”See, its just a tennis ball. Â Now p**s off!”

The hyper dog has a much larger pouch designed for use with tennis balls.  A slight bit of hacking to the hardware gives a nice re-purposed tool for lofting lines into all of those beautiful deciduous biological antenna supports lining the back yard.  So far it has been a lot more reliable in actual usage than the ole trusty Crossman, although Field Day proved its not impossible to Dork Up.  [You Know Who You Are….lol]

The reel deal:

Here the body was altered by adding a cheap spin-cast zebco reel picked up for $2 at a yard sale. A spinning reel or open faced casting […]

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Why 50 Ohms?

Well, their answer sure sounds plausible to me. Not close to April 1st….

It is a question most will ponder at some point.

Why 50 Ohms?

Link from KI3O via PVRC mail list.

 

2012 ARRL Feel Day(i.e., “Field Day”)

Operated 2012 Field Day with N4YDU and N4GU. Seriously considered entirely ditching FD earlier in the year, but finally decided to swing back into the saddle. Using the Central Carolina Contesters call K4FQU, how could I not?

K4FQU – Class 1A, Ops: N4GU, N4YDU & W4KAZ…. 1499 QSO’s(942CW, 557SSB)

N4YDU bird-dogged an excellent site by getting permission for operating on the north end of the Franklinton High school campus. The school has a horseshoe shaped service road around its perimeter. The north side of campus has a nice line of pine trees parallel to the service road which runs due E/W for about 500 feet. All in a mostly rural very RF quiet location. A very good Field Day site, one of the better sites we have used.

We set up the station near a break in the tree line. Operating as 1A, we put up two antennas. The 80m dipole was set up as a vee, broadside to N/S. The other antenna was the four band open sleeve dipole, set up facing E/W. The apex of both antennas was up at about 70 to 80 feet.

The wx threatened rain on Saturday, but that never happened. The cloud cover helped moderate temperatures right up until almost 1800z, so the set up was not terribly uncomfortable. The humidity levels rose all through Saturday night. A change in the WX about dawn Sunday, and a drier breeze picked up early Sunday morning. The WX was very pleasant for the duration. Probably […]

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Skimmer Notes

Created a page of links and several related pages of information on the ongoing construction of the CW Skimmer station at W4KAZ.

Because of the nature of the blog package used for this website, it is easier to save this skimmer related info on ‘pages’ rather than as a “post” because it seems like a project that I’d like to have semi-permanently documented, and have the documentation easily found. Whooop…there it iz….Incomplete, but slowly growing, and probably to be frequently edited in the short term.