Despite the snowy conditions today, I finally got the 20m ground plane antenna up and adjusted. As suggested in the Handbook, it’s hanging from a tree branch. I think I adjusted it a little too short, though, as the low-SWR point seems to be about 14.150. Even so, the SWR is only about 1.3 at 14.050.

The antenna’s bandwidth seems to be quite wide. It’s less than 1.5:1 across the entire band. Who knows? I may even try to work a little SSB with it.

While this book’s title might lead you to think it’s just about DX, it’s really about HF operation, in general. In Chapter 2, for example, Rod talks about equipment specifications. This is all good stuff to know even if you only plan to rag chew once in a while. Here’s an excerpt…

I have a couple ham radio websites that I visit regularly…

It’s been a while since I bought a new Handbook, so I was excited when these arrived here at QTB.Com. This book is amazing in that it really does cover it all–from the basics of AC and DC circuit theory to more advances topics, such as satellite operation and moonbounce….

I really hate PL-259s. Well, not PL-259s, per se, but soldering them onto coaxial cable. It took me four tries yesterday to finally get one connector on properly. I suppose I should look into getting crimp-on connectors, but the tools are expensive, the connectors themselves are more expensive, and I have a gut feeling that they don’t perform as well as soldered-on connectors. I guess I’ll just have to learn how to do it correctly.

My VA3TO kit arrived Thursday, and I began building it yesterday. The layout is very professionally done, and the instructions are well-written. I hope to finish building it today.

Next, I’ll have to reconfigure my computers. The computer that I want to use for the link is currently being used by my wife for Hotmail. I’ll have to move it downstairs to my shack and put a wireless Ethernet card in it. Another complication is that it’s currently running Linux, so I’ll have to make sure I have a Linux driver for the wireless NIC and then get the EchoLinux software to connect it to EchoLink.

My biking and ham radio buddy, Mark, came over Monday evening. We had three objectives:

1. measure the SWR of J-pole I built a couple of months ago,
2. measure the SWR of the 2m/440 antenna I just purchased from Purchase Radio, and
3. build a 2m J-pole for Mark

I had a rather busy weekend with my real life–including raking up a mountain of leaves and visiting relatives–so I didn’t have much time for hamming…..

Tuesday, I ordered the VA3TO board to set up a local link to EchoLink. It looked like it offered the best price/performance. In addition to EchoLink, the website noted that it would also support PSK31 operation, which is something I’m interested in trying….

A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting with a guy on our local repeater, and he happened to mention that a friend of his had started using something called EchoLink. I just happened to be in my office, so I pulled up the website. How cool, I thought!