The International Morse Society sponsors America’s FISTS CW Club, whose purpose is to help Hams enjoy the feeling of being a real Ham Radio Operator. Ham Radio is fun, but when using CW, is really fun. Learn more about this great organization that welcomes “beginners” and offers everything a Ham needs to enjoy CW friends worldwide.
Author: caryarc
”Ace is the place” CW Paddle Project!
Remember Samuel Morse’s original telegraph key, made from custom machined parts. It was good enough to introduce the world to the telegraph signal that would become CW. But what if Sam could have had a neighborhood Ace Hardware store? Would have opted for a key made from nuts, bolts, screws and a hacksaw blade?
Take a look at the photos below to see Morse’s first key, and then compare that with an Ace Hardware “sideswiper” key that can be made by anyone.
And if you are wondering what kind of antenna works well with the “Ace” special – a special choke and its accompanying 30m/17m dipole.
Letter from the Club President
Hello Fellow Hams / Cary ARC members. This is Larry Schroeder, President of CARC.
We had a good year. But attendance has not been as good as we would like to see.
We had a number of great presentations:
- We discussed grounding
- Had a presentation on fox hunting with actual transmitters to find.
- We also had a presentation on how to build a directional antenna from a tape measure and other parts. We also built one.
- We also had a class on weather watching members could attend.
- Jim Carrol did a presentation on radio telescope on its history and ham involvement.
So Jim has been doing a great job of having presentations for the club meeting. Don is doing a great job doing the Feedline, taking minutes of the meeting, sending out notifications of club events. He also helps organize Field day and the SwapFest as well as the Scout Merit badge class.
We have an election coming up in our October 24th meeting. I hope as many members as possible will attend, giving us their input and electing officers who will help grow our Club. We need fresh ideas on how to make our meeting more interesting, to encourage more hams to attend and join the club. We will be doing a mailing at the September meeting to all new hams in the area, introducing them to CARC and inviting them to our meeting.
The current officers Don Hurlbert Secretary, Jim Williams, Treasurer, and myself are willing to continue in our offices. I have been President for a number of years, and even though I am willing to serve another year. I think, we need to have new blood as officers every so often so the club does not go stale. If someone else wants the job of President, I will be glad to step aside. Please think about being running for an office and attend the October meeting.
Lastly, we have voted for a holiday dinner on December 5th (Thursday). Details will be sent well in advance.
Have a good day and I look forward to seeing you at our September meeting on the 26th.
Larry Schroeder KD4HSL
Let’s Go Fox Hunting!
Every weekend, in cities and towns all across the country, ham radio operators gather on hilltops for a very special kind of contest–the Fox Hunt. A small, low power transmitter is hidden and the rest of the crew tries to find it. Sound simple? It can be very challenging and a whole lot of fun. The direction finding skills learned in this activity can be very valuable in locating a repeater jammer, or a lost hiker.
At our August CARC meeting we learned how our Club can get started joining the thousands of Hams who compete regularly in hunts for a “Fox” transmitter in their area that hones their skills at making direction finders and in using the “beams” to track down the elusive signals in urban and wooded areas.
We built a hand-held two meter yagi from a handful of pvc pipes, a few pipe clamps, and a yard or two of steel measuring tape!
Build it: 2 meter Tape Measure Yagi Beam Antenna, by KB9VBR
The 2 Meter band tape measure beam antenna is a 3 element Yagi with about 7.2 db of forward gain. This lightweight antenna is perfect to use for fox hunts or as a portable directional antenna for public service events.
There are plenty of plans online to build your own tape measure antenna, but no good step by step video that takes you through the process. So with that, watch the video and go ahead and build your own tape measure yagi.
Parts List
- 1 25 foot 1 inch wide steel tape measure
- 1 10 foot piece of 3/4 inch Schedule 40 PVC Tube
- 2 3/4 inch PVC Cross connectors
- 2 3/4 inch PVC T connector
- 6 3/4 to 1 1/2 inch stainless Hose Clamps
- 1 5 inch piece of 14 ga wire
- 1 length of RG-58 cable, approx 6 foot
- Solder and Flux
- Electrical Tape
Tools
- Soldering Iron
- Tin Snips
- Wire Cutter
- Screw driver or nut driver
- PVC cutter or fine tooth saw
- Sand paper or Dremel tool with sanding disk
- Ruler or tape measure
Step 1
Cut three pieces of PVC tubing. One piece will be 11 1/4 inches long and the second will be 6 7/8 inches long. These pieces will make up the support boom for the antenna. The third piece can be any length, it will be the handle for the antenna, so give yourself about a foot or foot and a half. Whatever is comfortable.
Fit the pieces of PVC tube together with the crosses and the T. You may PVC cement if you wish to make the connections permanent, otherwise dry fitting them will be fine. The distance between the first cross and the middle cross has to be 8 inches and the distance between the middle cross and and the T has to be 12 1/2 inches. These are measured from the center points of the connectors. Make adjustment if necessary.
Step 2
Cut the tape measure into four pieces. One piece will be 41 3/8 inch and the second will be 35 1/8 inch. These are the reflector and director elements for your yagi. The driven element is made up of two pieces, so cut two pieces that are 17 3/4 inches long.
Step 3
On the two driven element pieces, sand or grind away the paint from one corner. This is where we will solder the the coax and the hairpin match. Apply flux and use your soldering iron to tin this area. It’s easier to tin this area now before attaching the elements to the support boom.
Step 4
Assemble the director and reflector elements. Making sure they are centered, use the hose clamps to attach the elements to the T and Cross connectors.
Step 5
Assemble the driven elements. Using the hose clamps, attach each half of the driven elements to the Cross connector. There should be a one inch gap between the two pieces.
Step 6
Attach the hairpin match. Take your 5 inch piece of wire and strip 1/4 inch off each end. Bend the wire so it is in a U shape with a 3/4 inch gap. Solder this to the tinned ends of the driven element.
Step 7
Attach the coax. I’ve got a six foot length prepared piece of RG-58 coax where I put a BNC connector on one end and stripped the braid and center conductor on the other. You’ll solder these two ends to the driven element of the antenna. It doesn’t make a difference which end goes where. Now before you solder, you can drill a hole in your boom and thread the coax inside the pipe. Otherwise just use a couple of cable ties or electrical tape to secure the coax to the antenna.
With that, your antenna is complete. With these dimensions the antenna should be resonant at about 146.5 Mhz. If you are going to use this as a receive antenna for fox hunting, tuning isn’t critical, but if you plan to transmit with it, then you can check it with an antenna analyzer or power meter and make any small adjustments by varying the gap between two parts of the driven element.
Magnetic loop antenna
“A great magnetic loop antenna, from inexpensive lumber and easily assembled parts, that cost less than $100.”
Live in a location with HOA restrictions? This is a great “stealth” antenna.
At the March 22 meetup Jim (W4VCF) and Jim (N4CAE) gave a presentation on magnetic loop antennas – detailing the components and construction techniques as well as the technical characteristics inherent to these antennas. The surprise conclusion of this session was a live over-the-air QSO using one of these homemade antennas to Herb who reported a good RST!
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