Tower climber Kevin Schmidt is captured by Prairie Aerial’s multi-rotor drone ascending the 1,500-foot KDLT TV tower in Salem, South Dakota.

Although the tower wasn’t in active use at the time the video was made, the lightbulb atop it still needed to be changed. It gives you new appreciation for the work these men and women do maintaining these amazing structures.

The video below, which recently surpassed six million views on YouTube, was recently chosen to be featured in the New York City Drone Film Festival being held next month.

The resurrected Heathkit company has launched a dual band antenna.  As much as I want them to succeed is this the best they can do?

They absolutely have to produce decent kits at decent prices or they will not survive. Their offerings so far do not exactly set the world alight. No, the offerings so far have not excited me. Years ago I started out with a Heathkit  Electronics Workshop. Years later I had an HW8 which gave me loads of contacts with small wire antennas.

Please, think of your potential customer base, think about prices, and look at your competitors. I have no doubt a few loyal USA customers will support you, but far far more is needed in the competitive world of the 21st century.

Kenneth, W6KWF, used to dump all of his N, BNC, and PL-259 RF adapters in two quart-sized Ziploc bags. Now all of his connectors are organized by rows in this Plano 1258 tackle box from Bass Pro Shops.

He mentioned a great old trick for keeping track of your connectors at group events. He paints a little dot of nail polish on each one. Now he always gets them back! 🙂

Check out the video below and lots more at his blog, The Life of Kenneth.

How do you organize all of your RF adapters and connectors?

Life is too short, that’s why in my opinion you should try to work QRP, hi!

This Friday afternoon me and my friend Stan UA3LMR (also RD2A) gave it a try again from Moscow park named “Fili,” a very nice and quiet place. This time my catch on the 20-meter-band wasn’t big at all in comparison with the previous outing which you can see in the video below.

In my point of view, the results of working QRP may sometimes be unlucky, but you will be always happy with the process!

73 and see you on the bands!
Peter R2ABT

Every fall, I take the deep-discharge marine battery out of the pop-up camper and put it safely in the basement for winter storage. I’ve never used it for ham radio purposes, mostly because I’ve never needed it and it’s tied up for most of the summer.

Recently we had a “long-ish” power outage (not uncommon during snowy, windy Maine winters). While we had plenty of heat from the fireplace, it didn’t take long for the batteries in our various phones and tablets to kick the bucket.

Luckily, Verizon’s data network is very robust and almost never goes down — even during extended power outages. Other than listening to the local ham radio repeaters and public safety scanner traffic, we rely on Internet access to check on power restoration and keep track of the weather.

I figured it was time to put that unused high-capacity battery to some good use in the off-season.

I decided to order a 12-volt plug socket with eyelet terminals. There were quite a few choices on Amazon but the reviews of the NOCO GC018 struck me as particularly good and I didn’t have to wait for it to arrive from China. The price was right at just under $7 shipped (with Prime) and 232 great reviews didn’t hurt, either.

I wasn’t familiar with the NOCO brand, but what immediately impressed me was how well made it was. It feels like it will last awhile and the connections are very solid. The 3/8″ eyelets aren’t flimsy and they’re low-set to minimize bending. Unlike other options, it has an in-line 15A blade-type automotive fuse which I usually keep on hand. The fuse is well-protected from moisture and the socket has a durable end cap.

I wouldn’t plug a 100w HF rig into the socket, but a 25w mobile radio should’t draw more than 10 amps. A small “pocket-sized” 175-watt inverter would work great with this setup.

To create my charging hub, I used a little Bestek splitter with two 12v sockets and two 5v USB outlets (one 1.0A, the other 2.1A). I would’t use it to power anything with a substantial current draw, but it works great for charging multiple low-power devices. While a 12-volt cigarette lighter socket isn’t the best connector around, it’s the defacto standard for 12-volt consumer devices. Just don’t charge the deep-discharge battery indoors!

My rough math says the battery should be good for well over 150 hours of continuous phone charging. That should last us for most any power-free scenario short of complete and utter societal breakdown — and if that’s the case, I probably won’t be needing my cell phone!

What does your household emergency power setup look like?

The long-awaited tenth episode is finally here.

txfactor.co.uk

Mike Marsh returns to his old school in Ottery St Mary, Devon to learn how science lessons have changed since he was a lad.

Bob keeps his feet firmly on the ground in his native Cornwall to see why the letter ‘K’ has been making its presence felt. While he’s there, he visits Goonhilly Earth Station to meet Arthur, the satellite dish that made history in the early 1960s and its modern-day equivalent.

Steve Venner G0TAN shows us the ins and outs of the Yeasu FT-991 all-band transceiver.

And the folks at TX Factor make a plea for help.

Hope you enjoy it!

73

TX Factor Team