Mar 16, 2014

Ham update

I haven't been doing a lot with the radios lately. Worked a lot of overtime, got MrsZ moved out here permanently, closed on the old house, etc. I've finally started making efforts to correct this.

Our duplex has a DirecTV dish up on the roof that we don't use - and have no intention of doing so. I'm going to remove the dish from its little mast, and put an antenna up there. I've ordered a smallish (in the scheme of things) Arrow GP antenna to use, along with the necessary cabling and seals.

In the same vein, a co-worker does stormchasing but doesn't have a communications guy to go with him... so I'm putting together a portable mobile kit. I've got a Yaesu FT-90, which is one of the smallest VHF/UHF mobiles ever made - smaller than a VHS tape. I've got a little faux-Pelican case to mount it in, and a magnetic antenna to stick on a roof. I've ordered a small battery and a 12V cigar plug to add into the case...

Stay tuned. (Pun fully intended.)

3 comments:

Laura said...

a friend and i are taking a freebie SKYWARN class through NOAA. might be worth it to take it if there's one in your area.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/skywarn/

the basic one is required for the others, and they occasionally hold a HAM specific one.

ZerCool said...

Took the weather spotter class last week, and work paid me to go. It was some good information, but they didn't touch on ham stuff at all. I did dig out the Skywarn frequencies though, and need to get those added to the radios.

Old NFO said...

Good idea... And that IS a nice little antenna!