by Herb, N4HA; posted by Dan, KR4UB

Eggs all around were enjoyed by the attendees of the weekly Saturday morning breakfast at Verlie’s Grill in Pittsboro.

Bill, N8BR, is looking for a DB-25 chassis punch and a source for 5 pole 25 throw rotary switches to control his remote station. Nibblers, drills, Dremels, and everything short of hatchets were offered as alternatives to the $200 price of the chassis punch.

Ray, K2HYD, related his entanglement with volunteering to restore a 160 MHz antenna to its original height at the railroad where he volunteers. It seems any change to antenna height, ERP, direction, range, etc. requires a modification in the FCC permit.

Roy, WA2JLW, celebrated his birthday with us and was treated to the dissonant tones of “Happy Birthday” from members of the group. He enjoyed the up-tick in sunspots by having a nice CW ragchew on 30 meters with a Russian ham.

John, KK4VUR, after performing the almost unbelievable feat of singing “Happy Birthday” backwards, told us of his latest project: using a noise generator, a directional coupler, an SDR dongle, and computer, a sweep frequency report can be generated showing the efficacy of an antenna. (I may have the details screwed up; see John for those.)

John, KQ4P, described a clothesline dipole, a folded dipole which can be tuned to resonance by effectively changing the feedpoint. He also posed a mystery regarding the 80 meter tube transmitter he is rebuilding. There is a ‘tickler’ winding on the output of the oscillator which is connected to the doubler. A few possibilities were proffered, but nobody knew. John says have no fear, Wilson, W4BOH, is on the case.

Nick, KA1HPM, is sporting a new callsign license plate. He told of an acquaintance who erected two tilt-over towers; a shorter one to pull up the taller one.

Herb, N4HA, also basking in the sprinkling of sunspots, has been more active on 40 & 17.

Hope you all can join us on Saturday mornings around 8:30 or so.