Amateur Radio

I made my first contact yesterday after many years.

I ran an End-Fed Half Wave (EFHW) as a vertical up the side of a tall palm tree using the rope and pulley installed recently while having the trees trimmed.

One of my passions is experimenting with antennas, wire antennas for HF to be precise. I want to be able to improvise and adapt to the situation at hand whether I’m at home, traveling on business, or hiking in the desert or deep forest.

I’m using PC board to construct some custom enclosures. The materials and construction techniques will be the topic of a future posting here.

My wife and I live in Phoenix Arizona. Our house is situated on a nearly square 1960-sized residential lot. I mention the year because city lots have shrunk in the past couple of years and our 100x105 foot property might seem large in some areas these days.

After many years of inactivity in ham radio, I decided to “go all the way” (while I still could) and get my Extra Class ticket. So in the middle of 2009, I bought the ARRL’s Extra Class study guide and started on page one.