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Here are a few of the items I have either
designed, bought, built, bartered, or destroyed during a foxhunt.
2 meter yagi
This was my first antenna - a Cushcraft 3 element yagi. When I first
started hunting, I would jump out of my vehicle, and take bearings over the top
of our mini-van. I could still find the fox, though! (eventually)
2 meter Quad
I bought this quad at Dayton from Arrow Antenna. It's a 4 element quad
on a square fiberglass boom, with round fiberglass poles as spreaders. The
elements are #12 insulated wire, and during frequent replacements, I have color
coded the wires for easy reference. I think I paid around $50.
2 meter mobile radio
This is my first radio - I bought it from a nice ham from Canada - a
Kenwood TM-201A. 2 meter only, nice front end, and an easily-accessible S-meter
tap point. Still going strong!
2 meter hand-held
A HTX-202, what else? It's the best I've used for sniffing. Sure wish it
would go down to 142 for offset work.
Dual band hand-held
I've had a few - currently it's an Alinco DJ-G5TH - love the
channel-scope feature for locating frequencies that are a little off.
70cm yagi
I'm not sure where this design originated, but it works great. A 7
element 440 yagi, spaced on a small enough boom to make going through the trees
at high speed possible. I've built a few and killed a few. I like to put a small
tray on the back end to clip my ht to.
Offset Attenuator (assembled)
Another Dayton purchase, again from Arrow Antenna. 1 mHz offset
attenuator, in a plastic case. Works fine. Again, I think it was $50
Offset Attenuator (project)
I wanted to build an offset attenuator that I could change the offset on
- so I settled on this
design, thanks to Charles Scharlau, NZØI
! I used a DIP socket for the oscillator, and I have 500 kHz, 800 kHz, 1 mHz,
1.5 mHz, 3 mHz, and 4mHz oscillators. Also used a metal case - big improvement!
2 meter tape measure yagi
This is the great design by Joe
Leggio, WB2HOL - the design is here.
Works great! Especially useful for those 'through the jungle' hunts, when I tend
to come crashing out of the woods!
Roanoke style Doppler (first try)
I saw this design in the THRDFS
bible, so of course - I saw, I wanted. The first try I did using wire-wrap and a
big old board. It worked, kind of. Never got a good bearing on anything. Never
blew a fuse, though!
Roanoke style Doppler (second try, kit)
So, not to give up, I built again. This time I tried buying a board at
Dayton, and stuffing it myself. It worked, and I got fair bearings, but a lot of
problems due to construction and mounting methods.
Doppler (final)
Finally, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel! Jaques
Brodeur, VE2EMM, has designed a PIC based Doppler, here.
So, I etched a PCB and programmed a PIC, and I was off! I like it so much, that
I send the PCB layout to a board shop and had a bunch of boards made, and 9
people in the OhKyIn club made them, too!
Expanded S-meter
What a good idea! I built this
design, thanks to Byon Garrabrant, N6BG! I
built mine with 30 segments and mounted it in the same box as my Doppler
display. Almost don't need an attenuator with this.
POLAR project
See my Polar page
2 meter pre-amp
The small antennas on the Doppler don't pick up much signal, so on the
advise of Bob Frey, WA6EZV, I bought and built the Ramsey 2 meter preamp kit.
All I can say is, how did I ever get a bearing without it? I have to remember to
switch it off as I get a better signal, though. It really messes up the Doppler
with too much signal!
I'm sure there will be more......
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