At the beginning of October, I got to work again and made some changes on my antenna. I added a Comtek W2FMI balun from DXengineering and changed to using a LDG AT-1000Pro antenna tuner. What a difference! No rf in the shack any more and instant tuning.

I have been running JT-65 HF mostly and I am playing with the latest version of JT-Alert. It’s a great upgrade and Laurie, VK3AMA is doing a wonderful job with the upgrades on the program.

That’s all for now, as winter sets in I will post some more info on the various projects I will be working on.

Take a look at heathkit.com and you will see they are launching two new kits this August with more to come.

They are asking for ideas for new kits, so email them at info@heathkit.com with your Amateur Radio ideas.

I have been a big fan of Heathkit for a long time and love building kits, so this is great news to me.

How about Switching Power Supplies, Antenna Tuners, Small SDR Transceivers?

When I got back into the hobby a few years back, I didn’t have any QSL cards.  When I got my General ticket and started making contacts, I thought I would just print out some QSL cards for the few that I got by mail and that would be good.

Well of course I fought the printer when feeding the card stock and then I didn’t like the design I came up with and of course when I designed them, I needed to send them in an envelope and they didn’t fit in a standard envelope.

So of course they just piled up on my desk.

Not anymore.  I finally got to the point where I was feeling guilty and just ordered some from www.cheapqsl.com.  They showed up in about 3-4 days and today I spent about an hour filling them out.  To anyone that was waiting on a qsl card, I sincerely apologize and promise to not let it happen again.

A couple of things I have learned from this:

1.  Keep it simple.  I need to just have a card that I don’t have to mess with putting in an envelope.  One that I can just fill out, slap a stamp on and mail.

2.  I don’t need to mess with label printing programs.  Since most of my qsl’s are through eQSL.com, I don’t really receive too many in the mail.  So for me it’s just best to hand write them out and get them taken care of before I push them under a pile of papers.

Sometimes I tinker too much and end up not fulfilling my obligations.  I really need to take that to heart with everything else in my life.

So in a matter of about 2 minutes I made that last contact needed to get the award.  Thanks, KØJV I really appreciated.

Only two more steps and the main transceiver will be done.

I added a Kenwood TV-502 Transverter to our Odds and Ends page in our store.

I am including the rare 12pin connectors to make the interface cables.

If you are interested, go to my Odds and Ends page in my new under construction online store.

So during the summer I typically work on my other hobby/passion/obsession. If you want to check out what KBØASQ does for fun when he isn’t tinkering with Ham Radio, take a look at Classicpickups.com.

Vintage Pickup Trucks have been a part of my life for almost 20 years now.  I have let it slip for the last five years or so, but the bug bite bad again this year, so off we go again.  At least Ham Radio is less expensive.

SB QST ARL ARLB014
ARLB014 Senate “Companion” Bill to HR 607 Avoids Impacting Amateur
Spectrum

On Thursday, May 19, Senators Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and John McCain
(R-AZ) introduced S 1040 — The Broadband for First Responders Act
of 2011 — in the Senate. While it has a similar objective to HR
607 — introduced in February by Representative Peter King (R-NY-3)
– this Senate bill, unlike HR 607, does not call for auctioning any
portions of Amateur Radio spectrum. Both bills call for the
allocation of the so-called “D block” of spectrum, 758-763 and
788-793 MHz, to facilitate the development of a public safety
broadband network.

On learning in February that a Senate version of HR 607 was being
drafted, ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, met with
staff members of the Senateâ?Ts Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee who were working on the bill to share the ARRL’s
concerns with regard to HR 607. “They seemed very receptive to our
argument and appreciative of the public service contributions of
radio amateurs,” Sumner said. “It is gratifying to see that S 1040
avoids impacting our spectrum allocations.”

Sumner explained that while some media reports are referring to S
1040 as “the Senate version of HR 607,” it is important that radio
amateurs not oppose S 1040: “There is no reason for us to do so. We
support the creation of an interoperable broadband network for first
responders. Other than to oppose any method that would impact
amateur spectrum use, we do not support one method over another of
achieving that objective. We only oppose one aspect of HR 607, not
the entire bill.”

S 1040 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Science,
Commerce, and Transportation, chaired by Senator Jay Rockefeller
(D-WV). Senator Rockefeller earlier introduced his own bill, S 28,
to address the same general topic. Neither Senate bill would impact
amateur spectrum.
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