New Call From the FCC

The FCC issued a new sequential call sign (system generated) not a vanity call as a result of my passing the Extra Class exam this past week.

Central Carolina Emergency Net

Found the CCEN net on 75m on 3907 Kilohertz. The net controller tonight was Aubrey K4ATH.

Spirit Net on 3.905 MHz

Great study tonight moderated by Phil WA3MNS - as we finished Matthew 22 and started Matthew 23. Phil has such a humble spirit.

Built A Copper J-Pole

I recently completed the construction of a copper J-pole antenna for 2 m and 70 cm. The construction is from 3/4 copper pipe. The connection is via an SO239 mounted on a plexiglass plate. The center conductor is connected to the stub witha 16 gage copper wire via 3/4 pipe clamps mounted to the plexiglass S)239 holder. The shield is mounted to the radiating element

The SWR is optimized for 146.610 which is the BRARS repeater. The SWR stays quite low - 1.0 to 1.1 between 144 and 146.8 MHz with a minimum at 146.6 MHz and does not exceed 1.5 at the end of the 2m band at 148 MHz.