WA5PSA
WA5PSA
hamlog 2/27/03. This is the home page of WA5PSA. My name is Brad Smith and my home address is 4711 W. 88th St., Tulsa, OK 74132. I've been a ham since 1966. At the current time my old Swan 500C is sick. A buddy (ex-WA5PSE) is trying to commit surgery on it. Until it's fixed, he's graciously offered to loan me his TS 440. I've got to get a long wire up and get on the air. It's been a while, but I'll get back. See you all on the air!
hamlog 3/30/03. OK, so things change. My buddy wasn't able to send the TS440, but he did something else wonderful. He bought a Heathkit SB101, cleaned it up, aligned it, and sent it to me. I ended up buying it pretty cheap, along with an MFJ antenna tuner and a Heath SWR meter. I just got them by UPS yesterday, and got them on the air this morning. All I'm using so far is a long wire run through the attic out to the driveway and sloping to the front fence. That's gotta improve. But right now all I need is a good receive antenna. As I get more secure with this long wire, I'll take a run at loading it up and seeing how the MFJ works. It's amazing how tentative you can be when you haven't been on the air in about 15 years.
hamlog 3/31/03. Went out and bought some 24 gauge speaker wire, split it in two, and created two 100' wires. I ran these from the peak of the garage to the back yard and into a tree, and from the peak into the front yard and into another tree. This is an untuned dipole arrangement. I presume the MFJ can match this OK. Gotta do more research to make sure this is an acceptable antenna. I am nervous re-learning how to tune a transmitter while, at the same time, learning how to run the MFJ. Hope I don't do damage to the SB-101. I feel stupid having to re-learn this stuff after all these years. But it's fun. Michael, my son, is talking about getting his license now. Hope he follows through with it. That would be fun. And, if he wants to be an engineer, like he says, then ham radio would be a good learning experience.
hamlog 4/26/03. Lots of things have happened. The dipole is working great. I turned it into a tuned dipole for 80m, with the transmatch working into some Radio Shack twin lead. I can work everything I can hear on HF. I got out my old TS820 and dusted it off. It had some problems with drift (a common TS820 problem), but I think I've got it fixed. Also, the PLL was unlocking, and that turned out to be grounding problems within the rig. I installed a ground wire and freshened up some board grounds, and the PLL has stopped wandering around. Now it's working good. So I thought I'd get on 2 meters too. I got a little Radio Shack 2m rig on sale, and I'm getting it on the air. Strange to be on 2m. I'm new to repeaters and such, so I've got to learn the etiquette.
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73 and Thanks,
Al K3TKJ
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since 12/22/02