A few months ago, I installed a new 40 and 80-meter dipole. My shack and my antennae are on opposite sides of the house. My feed line goes through narrow spots inside the house and runs underground from the house to the antenna. Installing a new feed line for this …
I have been working on building a remote antenna switch to switch from my 40-10 meter to my 80-40 meter antenna —more on the switch in an upcoming blog post. My remote switch will be sitting at the base of the antennae and needs to be powered by 12-volts. I …
Humidity control is essential to make sure your home is healthy and comfortable. Too much humidity is bad but so is too little. In the summer, air conditioning dries up the air. I have been running a humidifier to help mitigate that problem. To ensure it provides enough moisture in …
At home, I wanted to install lights along the fence to create an ambiance in my backyard. I wanted to have the lights turn on at sunset and turn off a few hours later, entirely automatically. The last requirement was to be able to control the system remotely. I also …
When I build or install a new antenna, I always run a series of tests. Like everyone else, I look at the resonant frequency and SWR. But to see how the antenna is performing, I run WSPR1 for a few days. Then I use the data collected by WSPR …
With the Covid-19 shelter in place, I have decided to make my bread again. A few years back, I was baking bread with my starter. This time I have decided to go the easy way and use commercial yeast. Also, I wanted to make bread with as little kneading as …
I live in the middle of Silicon Valley in a suburban setting with small front and back yards. My property does not have tall trees to take advantage of when installing an antenna. Given these conditions, my best option was to use a vertical antenna. I got a Hustler 4BTV …