Field Day Satellite Antenna System Up And Running

And had more than enough daylight to put the tools away, and clean up!

This iteration of my portable setup is WAY easier to put together, align to North, and calibrate.

I was able to tip it over and rest it on a "saw horse", and get the cross-boom with antenna through the Elevation rotor, get the clamps on, and get it tightened down, all by myself.

Doing this with the 9' tower took two people, and they had to know what they were doing.

And with the short cross-boom, both the preamps (red and blue boxes) and the diplexer (little thing between the preamps) get mounted on the far side of the Elevation rotator, allowing a nice cable path from the antenna.

So, after I got the top end assembled, I tipped the tower/antenna up, and walked if over to where it clears all the overhead power/fiber/phone/cableTV wires.

And then I ran the rotators full CW/CCW in Azimuth, and from 0* through 90* to 180* in Elevation.

No cable bind anywhere in the range of travel, which is always a good thing!

For now it's sitting at "North, 0*", and when I get home from work tomorrow I'll connect the coax and DC power up to the two preamps, drag out the radio, power supply, and rotator/laptop interface, and see how it all plays together.

This is a shot I took of the preamp end of the cross-boom. You can see the wood dowel in the grey fiberglass tube, and my somewhat sloppy job of "securing" the diplexer between the two preamps.

So another hour or two of connecting stuff up, and I'll be on the air.

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"Silk Pursing" for Field Day 2013

Well, since I'm feeling much better, I reversed my decision to not operate at Field Day this year, but I will be scaling things down a bit.

Rather than bringing the "big" tower, seen in the background, I've come up with this smaller, lighter, and easier to handle replacement.

It's based on a Rohn "Non Penetrating Roof Mount" leftover from when I ran my community wireless (WiFi) Hot Spot back at my bachelor pad. The rotator is about 5-1/2 feet off the ground, with another 24 inches of mast sticking out of the top. Up on top of the stub mast will go the elevation rotator:

The four studs sticking up out of the housing are part of a set of clamps Yaesu calls a "Separation Kit", which allows you to split the Azimuth and Elevation motors and mount them separately. The two halves of the clamp spread apart, then slip over the stub mast, and you tighten the bolts to clamp it down.

Through the elevation rotator will go a tubular fiberglass cross-boom with a wood dowel inside so you don't crush the tube when you tighten the clamps, and mounted on the cross-boom will be the "Dual Band Easy Satellite Antenna" I purchased several years ago from Gulf Alpha Antennas.

I'm calling this "Silk Pursing" because I'm making it up out of bits and pieces I've had laying around. The rotators and cross-boom were going to be used on my "New And Improved" portable satellite station I was building to use for the even on the Iowa a while back. That got canned because the "Heavy Duty" eBay tripod I bought wasn't, and I busted the legs on it. The antenna was bought for previous Field Day events, worked extremely well, and got stored in the rafters when I built the "big" tower, and the preamps I'll be using came from a couple of places.

Coax I have by the spool, and connectors by the box!

I should be able to get the rotors and antenna all put together in the next day or two, test them, calibrate the rotor position pots and see how well it plays with the control software, and possibly be On-The-Air with it Sunday.

Set up at the Field Day site is in 10 days, and the clock is ticking......
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"Gun Control" for Dummies

Massad Ayoob knocks one out of the park.

It's not about "guns", it's about "control".

But then you knew that already.....
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Vahevala by Loggins and Messina

One of my favorite songs from days long gone....





I'm thinking about when I was a sailor
Spent my time on the open seas
When we'd stay off the coast of Jamaica
I'd secretly steal ashore
The natives were waiting for
The boy with the lazy soul
To sing with the sailor
[Chorus:]
Vahevala, homeless sailor
Vahevala, homeward sail away
Vahevala, homeless sailor
Vahevala, homeward sail away
Every evening I'd be gone
Back on board by break of dawn
I'm thinking about the nights in Jamaica
Pretty girls dancin' here and there
Stole a keg and now I'm drunk as a sailor
The captain he don't know
Where Billy he done go
But I'm singing with native girls
The songs of a sailor
[Chorus]
Every night in Jamaica I'd sing with the lady
And drink with the men till the morning appear
Healthy sunshine is fresh on my face
As the songs of the night puts the ring in my ear
[Chorus]
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15 Minutes of Nuclear Explosions

Definitely not something you want to be near, but beautiful in a scary sort of way.

H/T to The Market-Ticker!

Radio Weekend on the Battleship Iowa

As part of Museum Ships Weekend, one of the groups I'm with was able to secure permission to operate from the Comm Center aboard the Iowa this weekend.

I didn't operate the entire time my buddies were there as I'm still not 100%, but I put in about 4 hours Saturday, and 4 hours today.

We had a pretty good time, although Saturday was a bit uncomfortable, as the ship's HVAC system is non-functional at this time, and we had to rely on box fans in the hatches and passageways to blow some cool outside air into the spaces we were using. By 1400, we were all soaked with sweat, so I left early, came home, and took a nap.

Today was overcast and much cooler, so I was able to hang in there for over 5 hours, at which time we decided it probably wasn't going to be worthwhile operating until the end of the event, and shut down early.

We used pretty simple equipment, an Icom IC-718 compact HF transceiver, and LDG antenna "tuner", and the Discage antenna on the bow of the Iowa, and the "trussed whip" antenna located a bit further aft.

Here's an excellent article about the various  antennas aboard an Iowa-class battleship, courtesy of one of our sister ships, the USS Missouri.

We had a nice 30 minute "rag chew" today the The Mighty Mo, marking the first time we contacted her from the Iowa.

BTW....all FOUR Iowa-class ships were on the air this weekend, marking another first. Next year will be the 60th anniversary of the first time all four steamed together, and we'll be working up a big event for that!

The discage is a rather unusual antenna, in that it can be fed two ways. If you feed it at the junction between the "disc" and the "cage", it acts as an HF Discone antenna, and will radiate efficiently from 10 MHz to 30 MHz.

If you feed the lower cage portion against ground, it acts as a wide band monopole, and works very well from 6 MHz to 10 MHz.

Discones are more commonly used at VHF and above, and you've probably seen one, and called it a "scanner antenna". They don't have ANY gain, so they're not much better than a piece of wire, BUT they are remarkably broadbanded, often operating over 10:1 frequency range, making them very popular with scanner users.

I don't know for sure how many total contacts we made, but I logged almost 200 during the two days, and operated the radio for at least that many more.

The Iowa is a marvelous place. Every time I walk down a passageway, go up or down a ladder, or just sit in one of the spaces, I get an eerie feeling, almost like I'm being watched. Some of the other people who volunteer feel the same thing, and it's a reminder to us that we're merely stewards of the ship, and are just keeping it clean and well kept for the real owners, namely all the people who served on her, and gave her life, during the time she was a Ship of the Line.

And I'm honored to be allowed to help keep her "shipshape"......

Don't Worry, I'm Doing Fine.....

I haven't posted on any of the blogs I regularly visit because I've been using my wife's PC.

And I'm too damn lazy to have to enter all that info on each blog I want to comment on.

Since The Kids moved out, she's been doing a major make-over on their room, and I pulled everything out of the middle bedroom I shared as a Radio Room/Weight Lift Room/Clothes Closet with her son and his girlfriend.

I helped her pull out all the plastic screw anchors, patch the holes, "Vee" out the cracks, and spackle the walls. She handled all the priming and painting, while I dragged *everything* left out of the middle bedroom.

Got some more IKEA crap so it would match the other IKEA crap I bought when I first moved in, and spent a couple of days moving little "scale model" pieces of paper around until I was happy with the new arrangement.

Then I put the "1:1 Scale" furniture in the room, and I'm slowly moving all the computer and radio stuff back in.

I'll have about three times the room I had before, and _might_ be able to move the "Electronics Repair Area" out of the breakfast nook in the kitchen, and into the new "Lab Area" along one wall of the room.

Still taking it easy, and I've been cleared to return to work on June 10.

Go Say "HI" To Tam.......

She's having a major case of the "mehs".

I know the feeling quite well these days....

Memorial Day 2013 Aboard The USS Iowa

I couldn'r make it, but the association sent me this link.

Enjoy!

Memorial Day

Thank you to all our Military people, especially in these troubled times.

And mere "thanks" cannot express our gratitude to those who gave their last, full measure.

God Bless You All....

Blog Tinkering, Part Deux....

At the request of a very good friend, I've bumped up the font size to 16, and changed to color to black.

I'm completely open for ideas as to color and size, as *my* eyes aren't all that good anymore, either.

Frankly, I'm surprised I can hit the target at 100 yards with the iron sights on my Marlin 336 or 1894, let alone get it in the black better than 90% of the time!

Guess I had some pretty good teachers, and the lessons stuck.

And for those that have asked, I'm feeling better, haven't had a cigarette since May 10th, and my caffeine intake is about 5% of what it used to be.

And I have the gouges in the Radio Room walls from trying to climb them to prove it.......

The hives have disappeared, thanks to a medication/dosage change, but I still get the "itchies" from time to time.