Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Time to do a little catch-up here on the Zedman’s blog.
FIELD DAY. Due to a busy day away from the shack, I didn’t spend much time working Field Day. I made just a few contacts. I didn’t realize it at the time, but one of the conductors on my knife switch for my 300-ohm twinlead was broken at the switch, so I was operating on just half a dipole. I still managed to make contacts, though I didn’t have the strongest signal on the band.
TEN-TEC. My main rig is still the Ten-Tec Omni 5.9. Its an excellent CW rig, and the passband tuning is nothing short of spectacular in combination with the crystal filters. I have the Ten-Tec 705 electret mic, and I also have a cheapie hand mic I bought on ebay. Both work well on phone. As of late, I’m using an MFJ-490 keyer with the series of momentary contact switches on the top of the box mounted on a Bencher BY-1. I was using the Heathkit UltraMatic keyboard keyer, but typing CW seems wrong somehow., hi hi.
DRAKE TR-7. I’m planning to move my Drake TR-7 up to Studio C soon. I moved the stuff off the radio and matching power supply.. I’ve never had that rig on the air, and I would like to give it a try.
EBAY. I haven’t sold much of anything on eBay in several months. I have several radios I probably should sell on eBay. I have two or three SB-102s that are in fine condition, and I don’t need all three. The truth is that nostalgia drove my purchases of the Heathkit rigs; I have had my use of the rigs, and really not sure I want to go use them again for any length of time.
Also in Studio C I have the IC-756PROII and a Yaesu FTDX-3000 that I’ve not used in quite some time.
I also found that I have two working Hallicrafters HT-44 transmitters with power supplies. I really need to clear off a desk and set one of them up with my SX-117 receiver. Right now I would have to move my Hallicrafters Cyclone SR-400 station and VFO off the desk. I have assorted other goodies I could sell, and probably should if I’m not using them. Damn this hamitis!
MOVE TO STUDIO C. I haven’t accomplished much of anything on my plans to move my shack up to Studio C. Part of the problem is that I’m not devoting time to the project. And I need to clear crap out of Studio C to make room. There’s a bunch of clothing in boxes that no one has worn in half a dozen years; I say throw it out, but my wife likely wouldn’t agree to that. She’s anxious to get her sewing room set up in my former shack, but there’s always a lot of stuff to do around the house during the summer months.
73 es CUL …. de KY4Z … SK SK …. (dit dit) ….