My daughter Charlotte had a soccer game today so I decided to go watch over at the soccer complex on Sallie Mood Road. Not really that into soccer so I took my scanner and both handhelds along with me. Thought I might take the opportunity to do a little testing of my antennas. I was primarily interesting in testing my Jetstream JT776 146/223/446 antenna that I picked up at the hamfest back in Feb. It's also a recieve antenna for 120/150/300/450/800/900 MHz. I noticed over the weekend that I couldn't pick up anything on 2 meters with it so this seemed like a good time to play with it. I asked Mac, KF4LMT, if he would give me a hand. We tuned up on simplex at 146.520. We did some checks on the VX-7R using the stock rubber duck at various power settings. Then I put on the Jetstream but heard nothing. After closer inspection, it appeared that the center conductor was recessed and not making contact. That certainly would explain it. After I got home I was able to pull the center conductor out with a pair of needle nose pliers and all is well. While I was out there at the soccer complex we went ahead and tested the VX-7R with my scanner antenna. Worked fine. Also did some tests on the VX-2 at various power levels. Later in the evening I joined Mac, KF4LMT, and Robert, KJ4HAL, in playing around on digital simplex using our D-Star enabled radios. Mac and Robert both have Icom IC-91AD handhelds and I have an Icom ID-800H mobile. They were both running to external antennas and I was running to a dual band magmount on the truck. We all copied each other very well. We finished up in time to check in to the SE GA 6Meter Ragchew Net on 50.200 USB at 2100. Had 7 or 8 checkins tonight. Couple of new stations joined in tonight for the first time, K4QBS and KJ4KOD. After the net several of us moved over to 52.525 FM and were amazed at how well the FM was working on the band. After 6 meters, several of us moved over to 10 meters for a while with decent results. I love radio.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Some of the days radio activities
My daughter Charlotte had a soccer game today so I decided to go watch over at the soccer complex on Sallie Mood Road. Not really that into soccer so I took my scanner and both handhelds along with me. Thought I might take the opportunity to do a little testing of my antennas. I was primarily interesting in testing my Jetstream JT776 146/223/446 antenna that I picked up at the hamfest back in Feb. It's also a recieve antenna for 120/150/300/450/800/900 MHz. I noticed over the weekend that I couldn't pick up anything on 2 meters with it so this seemed like a good time to play with it. I asked Mac, KF4LMT, if he would give me a hand. We tuned up on simplex at 146.520. We did some checks on the VX-7R using the stock rubber duck at various power settings. Then I put on the Jetstream but heard nothing. After closer inspection, it appeared that the center conductor was recessed and not making contact. That certainly would explain it. After I got home I was able to pull the center conductor out with a pair of needle nose pliers and all is well. While I was out there at the soccer complex we went ahead and tested the VX-7R with my scanner antenna. Worked fine. Also did some tests on the VX-2 at various power levels. Later in the evening I joined Mac, KF4LMT, and Robert, KJ4HAL, in playing around on digital simplex using our D-Star enabled radios. Mac and Robert both have Icom IC-91AD handhelds and I have an Icom ID-800H mobile. They were both running to external antennas and I was running to a dual band magmount on the truck. We all copied each other very well. We finished up in time to check in to the SE GA 6Meter Ragchew Net on 50.200 USB at 2100. Had 7 or 8 checkins tonight. Couple of new stations joined in tonight for the first time, K4QBS and KJ4KOD. After the net several of us moved over to 52.525 FM and were amazed at how well the FM was working on the band. After 6 meters, several of us moved over to 10 meters for a while with decent results. I love radio.
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