This sure is fun
I'm glad that Mike KG7HQ has worked so hard to make this possible. Guess I will share what I'm doing to enjoy the hobby.What I'm into:Homebrewing: I just can't stop building. QSO's are better with homebrew! I just modified the program for the PIC controller and it is quite nice and perfect for old tube gear. Now grandpa may have tuned for you in the old days, Not the new snotty nosed OPS! You better QRG spot on. DXCC: Got my first DXCC Mixed award in 1972 only have five more "new ones" left. Figuring I'll never "work-em-all but why spoil my fun and leave a few for old age! Currently pursuing CW Honor Roll. Adding to awards for 40M, 10M and RTTY. I really love the QSL cards I've collected over the years. Had the opertunity to be DX twice once as TF2WLR in Iceland and as GM5DVL in Scotland. A wee bit of tube gear! Not enuf loot to own all the rigs I'd like but do enjoy the smell of hot dust baking away on a vacuum tube final. I really like my 1967 era Drake 2-C RX 2-NT TX rig. True break-in CW right out of the box! Sometimes I pair the Drake 2-C with my homebrew Commander N-61. Reading about the electrical pioneers! What a great treat to know of their lives. A real mix of discovery, disapointmant, dedication in the pursuit of greater truths. Sometimes there is no easy answer! Ragchewing via CW. Some are CW quick studys, I was not and I think wisely decided to be a radio technician rather than an operator when I joined the Navy. But I always sensed I was missing out on a lot of fun so stuck with it and now enjoy CW at a 20-30 wpm clip. My secret to learning CW is never give up on yourself. I discovered a few years ago that I liked writting. Now those days of reading CQ Magizine stuffed inside of Shakespear in Mrs. Harms highschool English class was paying off. I find writting helps me organize my thinking and enjoy drawing up my homebrew projects.
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Tune up QRM
One of my gripes about on the air behavior is the on the air tune up. Watch your S-meter sometime the needle never moves. You want to yell "enough already,your station isn't VOA!" They have succeeded in a satisfactory match but they are going for the golden 1:1 SWR.
My fellow ham there is several things you can do to stop wasting bandwidth. Get a dummy load tune your rig/amp to that. Most modern radios are designed to load 50 ohms period. Tune your antenna / antenna tuner for 50 ohms using very low power using an antenna analyzer or a SWR null meter that dumps 99.9 % RF into the dummy load. SWR means standing wave ratio in other words it is not power dependent. There is no difference in SWR between say 100mw and a KW so why not dump the excess power where it does the most good (heating your shack) rather than in my receiver?
If that doesn't convince you, think how much time it takes to find a clear spot on the band every time you want to "politely" tune up. Can't find a SWR null meter? Start bugging MFJ telling them you want the no QRM method of tune up. Enough hams ask for it and it will be built. It would probably increase dummy load sales as well. Oh yes this is the way professionals do tune up for they know it ain't cool to QRM. Just saying, Roger K7NTW
Roger K7NTW