Dec. 19, 2024
Last weekend, I had the chance to participate in the ARRL 10-Meter Contest, and I wanted to share a bit about my experience. Over the course of three hours on Saturday afternoon, I managed to make 19 contacts. While all of them were through hunting (since calling CQ didn’t yield any responses), I still had a fantastic time.
For the last hour or so, my 6-year-old son joined in the fun.
Dec. 6, 2024
During the Thanksgiving weekend, I got to play a little radio on 10 meters.
I hadn’t had great luck with my home brewed dipole, despite it coming in around 1.3 - 1.4 SWR. So I tried mounting my 10 meter hamstick on an old microphone stand with 4x 8 foot radials made out of cat5e network cables that I had striped the ends of and twisted all the wires together. The base of the hamstick was about 6 feet off the ground and the ends of the radials about 2 feet of the ground.
Dec. 4, 2024
I got my Technician’s ticket June 12, 2024. Since then I’ve enjoyed meeting many hams in the Chattanooga area where we happen to have several active repeaters. You’ll often find me on 145.350.
I also play on 10 meter when I have time.
Currently I have an Anytone AT-5888UV on my car with a cheap Bingfu magnetic 2M/70cm antenna which is working quite well. For 10 meter I have an Anytone AT5555n-ii.