Imagineer @ Walt Disney Imagineering
Former Apple. Commercial Pilot. RF enthusiast. Amateur radio dork (K0VCZ)
Maker of Trailwave, fine POTA hunting software for Linux and macOS (gettrailwave.app).
| Location | Los Angeles, CA |
| Github | https://github.com/jaybaird |
| Attraction? | Pirates of the Carribean |
6m dipole is a success! Took a bit more care of construction for my center post, but one air choke and a lot of trimming on the ladder and I've made three contacts in the PNW from DM14.
Guess I missed the fun today.
But hey! I made an antenna. That part never seems to get old and tickles me every time.
Millenial ham problems: whenever I'm having a slow day on FT8 I never blame propagation, my equipment, or any of the myriad challenges radio brings.
I wonder what I did to make every one mad at me.
Maxim's Maxim: "Any amateur radio software project, sufficiently advanced, becomes a logbook.”
The kid was having me listen to what her and her friends are calling "funk" music. Thinking this was an opportunity to share (classic dad) I started listening to Parliment.
She had the nerve to leave the room when I started discussing the geopolitics of Parliment vs Funkadelic leading to Parliment-Funkadelic and the Bootsy Collins Treaty of 1982.
Working on my GridTracker alternative and RR73 was getting hilariously picked up as a grid square... ooooof
6m dipole constructed, but getting super high SWR (3+) on transmit. No shorts, lengths are good (4ft 10" a leg for 50.313MHz). No balun, just coax shield tied to one wire and the center conductor tied to the other (with spade connectors). Continuity checks are good along the coax to the ends of the wires...
I'm stumped. I can't seem to find a frequency where the SWR drops, so this seems like a short?
Watching all these folks having a blast on 6m. That’s the one band I don’t have an antenna for. Going to try and make a simple dipole tonight.
When 6m goes dark the rest of the year tomorrow you can all blame me.