More Radio Stuff & Friday Music on Tuesday??

So once again – if something can be screwed up – it will be . . .

Busy times, so I scheduled several posting to drop – don’t know for sure how I screwed up – but I managed to do it – OOPS . . .

Now onto some radio stuff . . .

The loop antenna and the wire antenna both perform beyond my expectations – but – They are both all done doing what they do when you get above 30mhz – so I picked this up from Nevada Radio . . .

I had to pay about 50 bucks for shipping – worth every penny – ordered zero dark thirty on a Monday morning – it was sitting on my porch Thursday afternoon ( not Tuesday afternoon – LOL! ) Incredible service from Nevada Radio!

One of the negatives mentioned in reviews – the radials come loose after time – most radio geeks are not mechanics per se – people say use lock nuts and or thread lock – how about tighten the damn things down!

The only fidgety part is getting the first “down” radial started – the threads are very well done – you have to have just the right angle – don’t cross thread as that would not end well – unlike a lot of the others Scanking uses solid radials – not foam filled hollow tubes held in with set screws – this is a precision built antenna – good stuff!

Ready to go outside and get install-ated – YAY!

Really straight forward – flat board to clamp to – a little concrete pad for the weight to settle on – pretty much done!

I just thought I got some strange looks from folks with just the loop! – LOL!

A couple of pieces of chain link fence top rail – about 4 hours of labor total – ran a #6 ground from the top of the mast to the ground rod – no real provision to ground the “negative” side of the antenna – bundled the coax with the rest and into the entry box – in-line coaxial lightning Arrester/Supressor and into the radio room . . .

Add any more antennas gonna have to put another entry box up – <VBFG> – LOL!

And it works!

And a quick video of Foss field ATC – prior to adding this antenna the only way to hear it – and poorly I might add – was outside with a portable . . .

I get like 6 or 7 NOAA weather broadcast stations – from Huron SD to halfway across Minnesota – my available listening time slots and weather satellite pass times have not overlapped as yet – so I don’t know about that yet . . .

500khz to 30mhz? A lot of the comments about it states that the discone is a little deaf in that frequency range – for the most part I’m finding it performs right in line with the wire antenna – of course neither performs quite as good as the loop with the LNA . . .

One advantage the discone has is vertical receive orientation on lower frequencies – the white fiberglass part sticking out the top – signal strength may be a little less – but the noise floor is reduced significantly – you end up with a better signal to noise ratio (SNR) overall – which is a good thing.

Remember folks – everything you are doing with all this radio “stuff” is a compromise – either physical space limitations – money limitations – or both. Without those limits? Things “can” get a little out of hand – here is one of the best examples of no concerns over money/space conundrum I know of <<Click Here>> – glorious isn’t it? And <<Click Here>> to get an idea of the scale of the discone at the Titan 2 site . . .

The tiny white dot is a balloon at about 65 thousand feet seen through the discone early one morning . . .

So we’re heading straight into the bottom line of this post – two things for you . . .

#1 – The Scanking discone 500khz to 2000mhz is overall a good to very good antenna – very well made – not a lot of space needed to put it up – a lot of folks just don’t have a “spot” to put up a random wire antenna and they sure don’t want to spend the money for a loop– easy to assemble – once you get the first downward radial in place just match the angle on the others – if you want the lower frequency coverage – down to 500khz – like I wanted – it’s a really good choice . . .

#2 – I still don’t understand all I don’t know about WordPress – LMAO!

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!

Friday Music ( sorta ) – Christmas in July

Depending on your BSA council – Christmas in July was celebrated either the 1st or 2nd week after the week of the 4th. It was a fun week for all – decorating campsites – of course that was a contest – “Santa” showing up in shorts and a t-shirt at the Friday night campfire – real and gag gifts – “Good Times” were had by all!

Is Christmas in July even a thing anymore or is it now politically incorrect?

Here’s Gene Autry – a “Silver Screen” cowboy for you – and if you haven’t seen this movie – what rock have you been living under?

So . . . is THIS politically correct – or politically incorrect?

And here’s Doris Day – Walking in women’s underwear ( we hope! ) – LOL!

And it’s really hard to find a cover of this that was not a success by whomsoever . . .

And of course – the author himself – The Velvet Fog – Mel Torme . . .

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!

Posting “Stuff” . . .

A lot of you folks just check in every once in a while – and that’s cool. Some of you are impatient to say the least – more T&A pics – more memes – more political memes – Well you get what you get when you get it – and if I haven’t offended YOU yet – never fear – I will more than likely get to YOU at some point. I was getting some SDR stuff together for a post and that really went in the ditch – HARD into the ditch. Had a thunderstorm move through about 5am last Saturday morning – at about 6 or so one big – close – ka-boom of a strike – the Rocket Fish surge suppressor from Best Buy did its job for the TV stuff – we were watching it and it didn’t even blink. The radio(s) setup? It was all powered down – however – both window boxes and the RSPdx-R2 and the Airspy HF+ Discovery – POOF – gone – most interesting neither raspberry pi or the sdr dongles on them were bothered at all . . .

Both replacement SDR’s and the replacement window boxes are on the way and a Rocket Fish suppressor has been put in place in the radio room. Live and learn . . .

One of the techs with Ham Radio Outlet said – Well just open it up – if you see something burnt you may be able to repair it . . .

That’s a AAA battery sitting there to give you an idea – I’m still chuckling . . .

Week 3 underway on the Jalapenos and tomatoes and I’m already getting texts about salsa – LOL!

Curtis came up with an un-chomped chew stick – no idea where he had it stashed – He chomped on it for awhile then left it -Oliver got it and teased him unmercifully with it – Oliver could not care less about any given “toy” unless his brother wants it – then it’s game on – LMAO!

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!

PS – Wow – talk about service and fast shipping – I was just going to publish this when UPS showed up – I ordered this Monday morning – them guys at HRO are good!

What The Actual Frack! / Congress Doesn’t Give A “Frack” About YOU! . . .

A little “Battlestar Galactica” lingo for you, LOL!

Quite a crisis – ( manufactured ) – but a crisis none the less – 3.1 million men, woman, and children ( must put that heart tug in there of course! ) homeless – living in a shit box – rv’s – cars – vans etc. . . .

For less than congress has spent on Ukraine ( just on Ukraine!! ) you can build $55,000 dollar houses for EVERY man / woman / child currently living in a shit box. And it won’t be that many since you don’t need to build a separate house for every child in a family – just for the family itself – but – the money would be able to be better accounted for at a local level – less skimming, kickbacks, and outright fraud and theft – so it won’t happen – period – full stop.

Quite a system congress has put in place for themselves – isn’t it?

Present the problem to Elon Musk – we need 40 to 50 thousand identical houses – or 2 or 3 different models – how little CAN they be large scale mass produced for once production is geared up??

Even with the small scale – inefficient production techniques Box-abl homes are available @ $49,500 . . . DON’T BUY THE LIE that there is no room for them!! Every person on planet earth can have a house with a lot and the lot is big enough for a garden – streets – parks – all the good stuff – and will fit in Texas and a sliver of Oklahoma – EVERYONE!!

EVERY homeless veteran should be taken care of – but they are not.

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!

If Every Country Is in Debt… Who’s the Money Owed To? – OR – How to tell me it’s a Ponzi Scheme without telling me it’s a Ponzi Scheme . . .

When a bank loans, they put an entry into assets (loans collectible) and liabilities (owed to depositor). They do not take the money out of reserves, they create it out of thin air. It’s a double entry on an accounting ledger 27 – Here’s the source for that by the way – Werner, R.A., 2014. Can banks individually create money out of nothing? — The theories and the empirical evidence. International Review of Financial Analysis, 36, pp.1–19.

A good starting point for you is “The Creature from Jekyll Island” by G. Edward Griffin and or “The Obscured Principles” by Dorian Crane – both available on amazonia . . .

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!