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And More...
FESTOONS OF JOY
Jim Kaplanm, KG7FU
Submitted by Bob Hess, W1RH
I've recently been introduced to one of the best kept ham secrets ever. Jerry Nichols W7AXN brought a Potato Cannon to a recent Saturday afternoon hilltop affair. The Potato Cannon is a device for launching skywire supports. When Jerry shot a potato about 100 yards over K7TBL's tower and new building I knew I had to have one. Construction is simple. Mine is composed of a 2 foot long 2 inch o.d. piece of Schedule 40 ABS, a 2 inch to 3 inch reducer, a 2 foot long section of 3" o.d. ABS, a female coupler and threaded end-cap assembly. The parts are welded together using black abs cement.
The igniter is a replacement part from the Coleman stove people, intended for a gas BBQ grill. The fuel is supplied from a can of Aqua Net hairspray (unscented). My first few potatoes went this way and that until I got the hang of firing the hip cannon. I use 25lb test monofilament secured to a #8 x 2" screw secured to the potato and pull the antenna wire or stronger line over the tree tops. I am now the proud owner of a full size 75m dipole, up 65 or 70 feet in the trees, thanks to Jerry's wonderful 200 yard potato launcher.
-Editor's note: FARA does not recommend that you try this at home.!
DTV-
THE LOCALCHANNEL ASSIGNMENTS
Submitted by Bob Hess W1RH
The final (don't bet money on this) Digital Television assignments were released by the FCC a few weeks ago. The full document may be downloaded in either WordPerfect 5.1 or as an Adobe PDF file at: www.fcc.gov/oet/headline/fcc97115/Welcome.html
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