Last night, I enjoyed tuning around on the 20 meter band from a website in Romania. It was interesting to hear the opening from here in California into Europe from the European side. WebSDR is an excellent place to find software defined radio web sites.
If there was more time, it would be fun to experiment with the open source SDR software available on GNU Radio.
After some thinking, I decided to just re-connect the same dipole for 40 meters. It took less than 30 minutes, and was the easiest solution. Once it was up, the SWR was checked and it looked fine across the entire 40 meter band. Since the roof work started, I had not even listened to the radio. With new roof complete, it was a good time to test the two beams. The A3S and A3WS each had a nice low SWR on their respective bands. The final test was to swing the beam toward Europe to wait for the next opening. I am still thinking about putting something for 80 meters, but need to do more measuring.
I need to re-connect my 40 meter dipole antenna, but am thinking about something doing different. I was not pleased with the dipole’s performance. Perhaps a long wire that could be tuned to 80, 40 and 30 meters would work better. Another option would be to add the 30 meter and 40 meter radiators to the two beam antennas. A vertical is another option, but for it to be effective on 40 meters, the antenna would need to be too tall. Guess I am heading back to get a pen and paper so I can do some more thinking.
[wpsqt name=”Antenna” type=”survey”]
So as to stay current with the latest methods of communication, I signed up for a twitter account. I am amazed at the amount of content being exchanged via social media. Not long ago, business needed to have a web presence, and today, they need to be actively advertising through social media.
Remembering back to when I purchased my first computer, a PC with a 20 MB hard drive, they asked, “why did you buy that?” and “what will you do with it?” My response then is the same as today, “I will try to keep my skills current.”
The Roofing Project began on July 5, 2012, and the new roof was finished on Friday, July 13, 2012. Next job will be to re-connect the 40 meter dipole.
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AMSAT UK ESA Mission Operations Noelophile Cats TwoMaverix