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Hardwired an old Midland mic to the Dakota Alert MURS base and made a shelf mount. Added an external speaker jack too. Drives the old Motorola speaker great. 10 miles to another base both on home-made quarter wave GPs at 20 feet no problem. Fun and cheap way to get into VHF but also makes me...

My friend and I have been wanting to get into MURS for a while, pretty much got our GMRS stations dialed in. I'm really intrigued with all the telemetry and remote control possibilities with MURS and it being VHF in general. Anyway, I built a Moxon and he did a 3 element Yagi with a gamma...

My homebrew 12 element GMRS Yagi "Jacob's Ladder" trying to burn through my neighbors Cedar trees...

I inherited a very clean SSK. I've searched and just couldn't find a solid answer. Did Turner use red for TX and black for RX? Bonus if someone can just tell me where shield, white, red, black go on Realistic 5 pin connector (TRC-458). Also, the gain control underneath is turned clockwise almost...

My inverted V sharing some real estate with my homemade GMRS antenna. I've got the span a little wide on the vna but not bad for an old extension cord huh? In hindsight, I think that ugly choke should be at a right angle to the mast but it's a working.

I ended up with two TRC-458s in a trade. One worked and the other had been hacked on pretty bad, probably be good for parts. Knowing they both have original caps, I rolled the dice and started using the one that works. A few days in I heard a bit of a hum and figured it was outside interference...

A little fun with some 8awg ground wire and a (surprisingly straight) 1/2 x 3/4" furring strip. Swept well and works great. I call it Jacob's Ladder.

I'm going to start experimenting with GMRS Yagis and so now I'm building my first balun ever. The plan I'm using calls for a 1:1 coax balun using a 1/4 and 3/4 wave sections. Am I correct that I can connect a 50 ohm load across the leads and check impedance on my nanovna and adjust? I went ahead...

Found some 1/4 and 3/8 OD and 1" ID copper tubing. Shined up nice. It'll be my first attempt at a Topfkreis build. Hoping I can get that impedance close.

I'm having a heck of a time with the online moxon calculators and can't get moxgen to install on my old linux system. I'm using insulated solid 14AWG. Thanks in advance.

1/2 over 1/2 over 1/4. Not sure why I had to lengthen the top element but it sure works good. Also bent the radials down a bit to get the impedance right. Hooked it up to my little Retevis RB27 and made it out of our basement to a repeater 13 miles away with multiple structures in the path. I'll...

One thing that's really nice about UHF, the small antennas. Made this little guy the other night. Fun to watch the impedance change with height above ground and nearby objects. VNA sweep is with antenna about six feet above ground outside. Calibrated at the feed point. Able to hit my usual...

Our four children all chipped in and got dad a NanoVNA H4 for Christmas! What a great tool. I tested all of my mobile antennas yesterday and each one needed some fine tuning to get spot on. I calibrated at the feed point so the NanoVNA was only looking at the antenna. I'd never studied Smith...

All I want for Christmas is to move into our new property and get a proper antenna up in the air. Have a great day!

2 hour project. Used 10awg ground wire. Hooked it up to my Retevis RB27 with a 3 ft TNC to PL239 cable. No way to measure SWR but works great and easily hit a repeater I usually have trouble with even with a super smiley telescopic.

Made me cringe a little when I read it. https://shopgoodwill.com/item/181542252

I hate call buttons, especially when they're right under a menu button. A razor blade took care of the little nub that actuates the switch. Stuffed a thin piece of foam behind the PTT button as it's way too easy to accidentally key. Pulled the weight out also. Suits my preferences much better now.

I acquired a TRS Challenger 850 and have determined that the 9.785 crystal in the LSB circuit (X1) is bad. I know very little about these circuits. I'm assuming this is an SSB filter? Anyway, when I tap on it, I get audio on LSB. USB and AM are fine. Solder joints look good. Anyone have one of...

SWR started acting sketchy the last few days. I disassembled the antenna and found the area inside the item circled to be full of corrosion. Only that area. Not sure if moisture got it from the top where the whip enters and ran down or if it got in lower and condensed up in that area. It was a...

Neighbor rang the door bell, said he was thinning out his collection, and handed this to me. He said it's a spare and works fine. Thanks neighbor!