The AM Forum

Well, unfortunately the Summer is winding down as Labor Day approaches.... and thoughts of snow (sorry, I didn't mean to use that dirty 4 letter word), cold and inside projects arise (you may be able to tell, I'm not a fan of winter).

What are your winter project plans?

To keep sane this winter, I plan on finally building that 100-some-odd pill transmitter that I've been talking about for about 5 years.  Particularly needed on 160 meters at night.

And of course ship the software mod monitor...

How about you??

Down here in Mississippi,,, the winter is when we get out and do stuff. HAHA,,  Its to dang hot in the summer and of course we dont get the white stuff in the winter,, so its great.
Good luck with the winter projects,,, and stay warm.

I'd LOVE to build a Class-E transmitter to put on the air!    ;)
(actually just need to build a modulator)

4CX3000A back on the air

Gonna finally get my antennas fixed, hopefully before snow flies.  Project has been on again, off again while I have been trying to get everything together before getting a bucket truck and hired hands to do the aerial exercises.  When you are paying $75 an hour...you want to have everything well orchestrated and ready to go.

73,  Jack, W9GT

Thoroseal the cave walls.
Build in shelves to get various carcass of of bench(es).
Split and add lectrical ckts to cave.
Cat proof the crawlspace.
Throw the Al baseball bat higher into the crabapple tree.
Add gutters to keep basement drier.

Operate??


klc

fix 4WD so I can drive up the driveway.

summer stinks.  glad it is winding down.  heat and humidity....no thanks.  want to restring 160  m. inverted L with one stretch of no. 12 and get rid of spliced up no. 14 now that I know how long it needs to be.

I want to try a ball gap out at the base of the 75 m. vertical made with two brass balls maybe quarter inch spacing for lightning.

My summer on-going project has been to clear out the garage and house of junk.  I have finished the garage, and upstairs of house.  Some stuff hauled out to the curb disappeared, some got picked up by city trash collection, some went to various recyclers.  I've started on the basement, which is the big enchelada but want to get it done before it gets too nasty outside to be able to haul stuff out to the backyard and sort through it.   What's amazing is that I can clear out the livingroom and dining room and a month later it is filling back up.   

The goal is to have a proper work shop where I can put tools, test equipment, lights, outlets and lots of table space and be able to work on my hamfest etc. purchases and homebrew projects and get stuff up off the floor.

Rob

Throw out lots of stuff.

Beef up the old straight 6 class E to at least a V8, bore and stroke the modulator while I'm at it.
Rebuild the carburetor I mean VFO on the 100V
Fix a few of the boat anchor receivers that have been sitting around
Do some work on antennas when it's raining

Hi temps around here are dropping into the 70s, brrr upper 40s at night. Antenna is repaired and ready to rock and roll!

Pair of 304-TLs modulated by a pair of 304-THs ready to warm up the abode on 75.

I hope to finish the pair of GS-35's linear. Service the 2 element array for 75 meters; Install the beverage or at least put the k9AY receive loops up in a quiet area of the back property; Add 160 to the 24 pill class-E rig.

This is the short list....looks to be a great fall and winter to come.

And the big one is the Bariatric surgery this fall. Soon to be a few lbs. lighter YAY!

Brent"Tina"
W1IA

Gotta get that gas line run to the shack.  Tired of having to hover over an electric space heater.

How about posting the results of the contest?????


C

i got painting to do.
would like to gut the basement and rebuild the studio down there.
also am planning on selling some stuff, anything ham radio related I will post here first

Except for maintenance, the station is finished and I don't plan on adding to it. (When have you ever heard THAT from a ham... is it even possible?)

OK OK - I'm secretly adding a pair of phased NE beverages to compete with HUZ and Tina, but no new ham projects planned for the near future. I'm quite busy with other things lately.

It would take something like QIX getting a 100 piller on 75M to get me moving again.

Nature abhors smugness, so I'd better watch out..

T

Ha Tom when you take a photo of ur station, how long does it take for the pic to be out of date?  24 hours i bet hi hi  ;D

Clean up shack
Finish 2E26 AM mobile rig for 50 GMC*
Finish PMR-6 repair for truck*
Mount Bug Catcher in truck*
Finish 813 RF deck
Clean up shack
Build 811A mod deck

*Target date is to drive to Nearfest in truck

Do all the antenna work that it was too damn hot to do in the summer. Id rather be on the tower in calm 30* weather than this 95* crap.

Ive been getting all my winter projects done instead since the basement is nice and cool.

Furnish new shack (already did the Project room)

• Wide screen TV.
• Audio entertainment
• Bed for snoozing after late nite fudging around and a nice chair for reading etc
• Assemble vintage table using either SX-73 or SP-600 and Viking 2
• Build 813 AM XMTR

Won't finish it but that's my list

Al

This weekend is "re-EQ for the RE20" weekend.

Then, the fall looks something like this:

• Wire in the Inovonics 235
• Barf together some headphone amps to take one of three line-level inputs each
• Evict that enormous yellow-jacket colony from the tuner doghouse
• Finally get some decent monitoring set up

...but that'll have to squeeze itself into all of about two free hours I'll have to do it all winter. :(

Headed for just north of Pittsburgh for the winter or longer. I'll have the VKII set-up in the RV. Hope I can be heard amongest the flagships.

Get the dual 4-65 transmitter and modulator finished. Get a PWM 750 watt modulator finished. Finish a 250 watt class D transmitter  and build a larger class E transmitter.

Probably start 15 more projects that get in the way of the above ones.

Got the toroidal transformer for the PWM and have the audio chain PCBs done and have the Hammond rack panels,

I need to mount it all and wire it up as soon as this damn knee heals up from last Fridays surgery. It is slow going.

"unfortunately the Summer is winding down" - good riddance to it and the heat.

as it cools, I'll finish repairs on a couple transmitters and finish the dipole and the top section of the tower. Also work on my 5 ton military truck, finish the APU housing and fuel system, and take it to have the bodywork done, rust removed, etc, and painted. Some time during all of this I will run out of money and have to wait again.

Bunch of projects here. I'm going to continue the Viking II repairs and mods. Then, when that's working, I'm going to fix my HQ-129x so I can have a proper station.

When it gets cool enough to get up on my roof, I'm going to put up a 75M and 40M dipole as high as I can, which is not too high in my case.  :'( Then I can get the station on the air!

During all of this, I'll be working on the design for my 4X1 X 833s rig. Hopefully, when that gets finished, it'll make up a bit for the antenna height.  ;D

Lots to do!

Time to light them filaments, I expect to see around 40 degrees by Friday morning.
Then back up to 90 on Monday.
Now- How to make the QRN go away?
------------------------------------

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
325 AM MDT THU SEP 2 2010

...CHILLY CONDITIONS EXPECTED EARLY FRIDAY MORNING WITH AREAS OF
FROST...

A RELATIVELY COLD AIR MASS IS EXPECTED TO MOVE ACROSS THE REGION
TONIGHT INTO EARLY FRIDAY.  THE WINDS DURING THAT TIME WILL BE LIGHT
AND WITH CLEAR SKIES TEMPERATURES WILL FALL TO THE COLDEST SO FAR
THIS SEASON. PATCHY FROST IN LOW LYING AREAS WILL BE POSSIBLE LATE
TONIGHT INTO EARLY FRIDAY MORNING. <snip>

I'll be down at the huntin' cabin. Gotta cut the grass and make a path to the doors, ripout the carpet and kitchen floor vinyl and replace with new stuff. Then we got 3 treestands to hang and clear the shooting lanes of newly grown arrow catching branches.
Then the next day the roof needs a coating makeover, the hanging pole needs a new step and then we gotta put 20' of drain tile across the lowspot in the access road and fill it with gravel.

Bow season is only 22 days away!

Fishing the fall migration. Until that's done everything is on the back burner. When that's done cut and split firewood. Clean up the yard. No projects until late fall early winter when the cold and damp settles in.  But need to redo a feedline and would like to string a 160m dipole up.  Modify the modulator on the 813 rig.  Get the PW rig going.  Unload some junk and clean up the shack.  Get on the ether.

well ....thats what I did LAST year ....I am trying to stay more focused and get this dual GPT750/BC610 project finished so can get to Globe kings and EFJ 500

the house moving is eating up a lot of time and $  ...73 ...John

Jeez, Buddly..What a nut-buster of work.
Doesn't the Safeway meat department sound a lot easier? LOL

Good luck!

Small game season just opened here on 1 Sept...A cottontail makes terrific spaghetti sauce (recipe on request). Never underestimate a .22 long with a scope. I also have a terrific recipe for poached pheasant with gravy. It would be a $100 meal at a fancy restaurant.

Same here Bill, small game opened Sept. 1st.
Already have 5 squirrels in the freezer.(killed 6 - froze 5 - ate 1)

Ya gotta eat "poached" pheasant quickly before the game warden comes lookin' fer ya!  ::)

I was leaning toward a complete revamp for the ground screen for my 160M vert. using vinyl covered welded fencing as a screen. But I am going to experiment with 6 elevated radials instead and see what happens this Winter.
Fred

I want that Software Mod Monitor, mate!!! It caught my eye the first time you presented it on the forum.
Fred