2m sleeved dipole

A'ight.  I ran across some articles about off-center fed, sleeved dipoles for 2m and 70cm use.  They're cheap and fairly simple to make, which is right up my alley.  I was going to mess around with using some copper tubing, but this sucker is working well enough I don't think I'm going to bother with the copper (or I'll save it for another project).  Total price for this thing for me was around $12.

The original articles I referenced were KV5R's OCF Sleeve Dipole and W7LPN's 2M/440 Dual Band Sleeved Dipole Mod.  I ended up keeping the idea of the RF choke close to the bottom element, but went back to simply using aluminum tape on the outside of a PVC pipe.  Instructions after the jump, but here's a pic of the antenna in action:

that's a lotta knobs

There's a reason it takes you years of study and practice to become a black belt: as much as you need to learn the skills of various punches and kicks, you also need to gain the experience of when to use them and the wisdom of choosing the right move for the right situation.  Although going around and using the Crying Dragon Death Touch as the opening move in every fight you get into is a valid strategy, it turns out that you will run out of sparring partners pretty quickly.  Yes you can learn the moves pretty quickly and achieve proficiency with them in short order, but without experience to guide your actions you are still just another n00b stumbling around and making messes.

And that's kind of how it was with my quick entry into the world of ham radio.

mobile nerdness

I put up a post on g+ about getting some ham radio antennae on muh car and thought I would post some pictures in case anyone was interested.

The basic idea was to make something I could easily deploy and take down, so there wasn't a whole lot of hole drilling and a lot of stuff is in temporary locations.  Pictures and a talk-through after the jump.

Which should be coming up right about........ now.

communicating at the speed of morse

So for some reason, radio (ham, not AM/FM) has been a recurring theme for me since Christmas. The last straw has been the discovery that SiX is learning morse code with an eye towards getting a ham license... and if that knuckle dragger can do it, how hard can it be?

I haven't really committed to, like, getting the ARRL study guide or looking into where to go to do the exam. But I have started dinking around with morse code (which you don't need for the technician's license), and I've manage to get A-0 down pretty reliably at 5 wpmin about 2 days (with J and G being the only ones I'm shakey on).

I'm hoping that, at the very least, I'm able to figure out what the hell is being tapped out in the opening credits of Jericho pretty soon. ;)