Hy-gain LJ-103BA 10m monobander

I finally made a decision on what beam antenna to put in the air on my short tower. I have a Comet GP-15 vertical tri-bander at the top and right below that an old 432 Yagi. Both work well although the 432 needs to be higher. I also really wanted My ATB-34 tri-band on this tower but no matter how I try to figure a way to fit it up there---its just too big! I also too k down from the rafters a homemade 17m yagi but it too is big. Better than the tri-bander but still big. It also needs more than TLC-- it also needs parts and time I just don't have now!
  So -what to do? Well one thought came to mind was putting up a mono- bander for 10m. I check into a 10m net every Sunday, band has had some nice openings lately and several 10m contests are occur throughout the year. The boom size is only 8 feet as compared to 18 feet for a tri-bander and the longest element is 18 feet. Big but not overwhelming!
  Several manufacturers i looked at had mono-banders but the price was too high. Hy-gains LJ-103 is in My price range and has good reviews so I placed My order on Thursday. I guess they sold alot of these at Dayton!
  I took time this morning to finish the rotor/mast issue and now it turns the complete 360. I have some minor coax alterations and need to bring down an old CB vertical that is too close to the tower and will interfere with the new 10m beam. I'll tackle those when I have time. Excited for the new antenna to arrive. Finally aluminum in the air for HF. Maybe it'll also tune on 6m !!
 73--Tim

Baudette Loran-C tower down!!

I was up in the Baudette area this week for work and noticed the Baudette Loran-C tower is on the ground in sections. Not sure when this was taken down but last time I drove by in July 2010 it was still standing. I read that unofficially it has now cost 25 million to remove many of these old towers. Hope the savings of decommisioning is worth it. It does sound like testing is being done for a backup to the GPS system.

  By the way- the above picture is from the coast Guard site during maintenance on the guys when it was still in service.
  73---Tim

Roller Inductor damage



Roller inductor damage



close-up of damage





Superior Hamfest

The local radio club again hosted a Hamfest in Superior ,Wisconsin and I was lucky to find the time to attend. I had many eyeball QSO's with both Hams I've met many times and several I've only talked to on the radio. Another good part is the "for sale "stuff and I found several items to buy. I bought the above Vectronics HFT-1500 tuner for less than half the new price. Tuners and amplifiers can be good "used" buys but as always buyer beware. When I took this one apart at home I found  the roller inductor damaged from arcing. This is the second tuner i've bought used and the first time I've encountered any trouble. The cross-needle meter and digital bargraph work and after cleaning with alcohol and cotten swabs in the damaged area this works at low power. Since I currently have no amplifier, high power is not an option. I did buy this to support My inverted "L" at 160m so this should still be OK. MFJ is now the owner of Vectronics, although this one is older and made by the company when they were in Canada. Maybe a roller inductor replacement would be possible.
  I also found some good buys on Heliax connectors, some PL-259 and "N" adapters, a 50mhz-700mhz Polyphaser and a Icom AH-7000 discone antenna. It was a good time and as always I'm glad I took the time to attend.
  73---Tim