20 Meters is NOT Dead
20 Meters is not dead. Everyone thinks it’s dead so there is no activity.
Yesterday was the Texas QSO Party. I heard stations all over the country and made contact with a few of them.
Bringing Back the Drake Blue
Like most older Drake gear, my blue filters were faded. D.A. Buska Engineers sells blue led bulbs that replace the original incandescent bulbs. Installing them was a simple matter of removing the top cover, pulling out the old bulbs and inserting the new blue led bulbs.
Drake Station Is Now Complete
I decided to add an MN-2000 tuner to my Drake station to round it out. I now have my have station set up to my satisfaction. it’s interesting that the single small Kenwood TS-590s way over on the right contains all the functionality of those three big Drake cabinets.
My Drake Station
Way back in the late 1970’s, when I was a newly licensed ham, The Drake TR-4C was my dream radio. It was WAY to expensive for me, being newly married with a mortgage and car payment. (Adjusted for inflation, in today’s dollars a TR-4C would cost about $3400.) I had to settle for a used Heathkit HW-100 that was already tired when I bought it.
Fast forward to today. I’m 65. I’m in a new house out in the country, 50 miles north of Phoenix in the Bradshaw Mountain foothills. No HOA. No antenna restrictions. Nice big man cave with an 8ft bench along one wall. My Kenwood TS-590s serves me nicely, but it would be fun to have a TR-4C. I was browsing the classified on QTH.com and discovered a TR-4C and RV-4C remote VFO for sale by a guy just 45 minutes from my house. Furthermore they had been gone though by WB4HFN, the well-known Drake repair and refurbishment guy. The seller’s price was high but not unreasonably so. Bottom line is they came home with me.
I bought a Heil GMV microphone and am getting good reports. To round the station out, I want to add an MN-2000 tuner. My Hy-Gain AV-640 vertical’s SWR is well below 2:1 on all band so I don’t really need the tuner, but it will make for a well-rounded station. And who knows, there may be other antennas in my future.
Right now I have the Drake and the TS-590s connected through a Daiwa cox switch to the AV-640. At this moment I have the TS-590s scanning 40, 20, and 15 meters. Since the 590 has a connector on the back for a receive-only antenna, I’m thinking about rigging one up so I can have both radios connected to an antenna.
Since I still have the SG-230 SmartTuner sitting in a box and this house does have rain gutters, I’m also thinking of turning those rain gutters into an antenna. There are a few hams around who work 80 meters and it would be nice to join them.
Space Weather Woman
I have recently discovered Tamitha Skov, the Space Weather Woman. If you have an interest in solar phenomenon and their effect on HF propagation then you really want to subscribe to her channel. The style and format is much like the weather segment of your local TV news program.
She makes it interesting, entertaining, and understandable.
Solar Weather Woman YouTube Channel