Several months ago I built an UNUN, like the one I use for my portable ops antenna, but this one was going in my attic.
I finally had time this weekend to get this thing installed in my attic. I cut a piece of wire 30' long for the radiator. My shack is in the basement, and one wall is the garage wall. So I drilled a hole at the bottom of the garage wall, and in the ceiling of the garage.
I then ran my coax from the basement up into the attic - very easy.
Then came the fun part, walking on roof trusses to get the wire installed. Pretty easy, and luckily it is still cool outside.
Once installed I went down to the shack and hooked up the KX3 to the antenna. It tuned up nicely on 40 thru 10 meters with the internal tuner. So I put a quick CQ on 20 meters and was spotted coast to coast on the RBN - success!
About 11:30 pm on Sunday night I had time to get down to the shack again and see what was going on.
As soon as I turned the radio on I heard W1AW/5 (NM) calling CQ with no takers. So I threw my call out and he came right back with one repeat on my call. We exchanged 599 and it was fun.
I then spent about another hour messing around with FLDIGI and WSPR - with no success. More to report on this later....these modes are all new to me, so there is a pretty big learning curve.
So now I can actually have some ham radio fun from home!
Burke,
ReplyDeleteGlad it's working for you! Nothing like being able to walk into the home shack anytime you want to play radio. Best wishes for much success and fun with your home station.
73 de Larry W2LJ
Thanks Larry! It sure has been fun so far. I have been able to decode some PSK, but I don't have something right for the transmitting side yet. Oh well, keep fiddling. I am really not sure if I will enjoy the digital modes, but I have never worked them, so time will tell.
ReplyDelete