For several years I have been filming my son’s football games. I always gave a copy to the coach for review. The tapes proved so useful I became a sort of official team videographer. During this time I have collected some tips that help me provide what the coach needs. In no particular order they are:
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A first grade teacher in a Maine classroom explains to her class that she is a Patriot’s fan. More »

I have been purchasing some used ham radio equipment from Ebay and decided to see what the Kenwood TS-2000 transceivers are going for on the used market. I discovered they are holding their value quite well… a bit too well actually.
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During construction of a vertical antenna in my back yard, I wondered if the popular suggestion that ground rods are essential to good RF performance and antenna efficiency even if you have a system of radials was true.

The answer appears to be no. Visit…

http://www.cosjwt.com/index.php?a=21

…for more information.

TenTec Omni VII

A fellow wrote an excellent summary of some possible ways to control a TenTec Omni VII radio from the Internet. Here is the link…
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For those of you building Elecraft Kits like the K2, KX1, etc. you should consider using these lead bending tools to form your components perfectly.

Speedy Bend Lead Formers

It took a little while to locate a source, but I finally found and purchased a set from Production Devices in California.  They are called “Speedy Bend.”

Here is a simple way to protect your radio investment from the high voltages induced by lightning activity.

pl259_protector.jpg

Just attach it to your radio and hook the antenna lead to the protector. Ideally you would put this at the entrance to your house or vehicle, but anything is better than nothing. It is a very simple spark gap device which may not protect your radio completely. However, at under $10 it is well worth having at least some peace of mind.

Football on the wall this season?  I hope so.  We have finally decided to get a wall mount high definition television (HDTV).  The price points are amazing right now.  We stopped by Sears with some idea of the dimensions over our fire place mantle.  Even with written down measurements, we still had a hard time visualizing how the various available flat panel HDTV sizes would look in our home.  So we wrote down some of the actual box measurements for several screen sizes and taped sheets of paper to the wall, just like shingles.  The smaller units did look good, but the paper models helped us rule out smaller sized.  Here it is…
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12 August 2007 · Topic: CB

Since many folks new to CB radio might get confused by the available, but illegal 10 meter radios which have 40 channels just like real 11 meter CB radios do, here is a list of legit frequencies and the corresponding channels.

Good ol’ CB Radio

When shopping for a CB radio you are well advised to ask if it works on the real CB frequencies.

04 August 2007 · Topic: CB

Here is yet another CB shop that got slapped…

 http://www.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2006/DA-06-2549A1.html

To their credit, this shop fought pretty hard with point-of-sale signs explaining the illegal radios were for amateur radio use only.  They even used an attorney to communicate with the FCC.  None of that mattered one wit.  $7,000.  What blows me away yet again is they continued to sell the equipment even after being told how the FCC interprets the particular model in question.  Sigh.

If you are an attorney representing a CB shop concerning so called Amateur Radio Service only transceivers collect your money from your client first because you are probably going to lose.

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