KT4B – Amateur Radio

Tag: Amateur Radio

  • Amateur Extra Class via Zoom

    Amateur Extra Class via Zoom

    My brother, N3AU, a very active leader in Amateur radio in the Niagara Falls, NY area, will be offering an Amateur extra class via Zoom.

    The class will meet every Thursday evening at 7 pm starting 10/15/20. It will continue as long as necessary. The textbook is the study guide by Gordon West, WB6NOA.

    For more information, including the zoom link and meeting ID, contact Bob Neufeld.

    Featured image credit: Image by Michael4Wien from Pixabay

  • My Rigs

    My Rigs

    Since I’m actually back on the air, I thought I’d post a couple of notes about where and how. First, here’s a picture of the shack before antenna cables.

    Icom IC-706MKIIG with LDG Z100 autotuner. (The Yaesu FT-880 was headed to my car.)

    The Icom rig has two antenna inputs, and one now connects to a Hustler 6BTV vertical, which is tuned adequately on 10/15/20 Meters, but needs some work for 30/40/80. It’s all within range. Here’s the picture. The branch with about a 2 inch clearance is scheduled to go, the rest of the foliage around I’m stuck with.

    My 6BTV. The branch (2 inch margin!) will go shortly. The tree I’m stuck with.

    Another vertical (not even sure of brand) serves me for VHF/UHF.

    VHF/UHF Vertical. I use a 2×2 nailed solidly to the building. Under the duct tape, which is surprisingly resiliant, the antenna is connected to the post with a steel clamp. Yes, the building looks awful. It will look good for about two weeks when I pressure wash it.

    For mobile use I have a Yaesu FT-8800. Yes, indeed, for those who debate the utility of this approach, I use one of the auxiliary plugs, rated and fused at 20 amps with a jack rated and fused at 15 amps. I have had no difficulty. I most commonly work 146.52 simplex and have had a number of fine QSOs while traveling.

    Yaesu FT-8800 with connections. I can keep it in the hump in the center when necessary. Maximum simplex contact was about 40 miles, but that involved some altitude on one end of the QSO.

    I have my brother Bob, N3AU to thank for most of this equipment. He’s set up for 160 Meters through 70 cm and very involved in VE work and emergency preparation.

  • Playing with Antennas

    I’m active again, and here’s a starting Facebook post:

    https://www.facebook.com/hneufeld/posts/10155699489252685

  • Hello world!

    Why KT4B Blogs?

    I originally designed the header image I’m using for this site when I inherited my father’s callsign.  When he passed away, I had an Advanced Class license as KE0OY.  I tested for my Extra Class specifically to inherit that callsign.

    The header image was shown at my computer services company blog for some time, but it was time to change that.

    There will be software experimentation going on here, but I think that’s in the spirit of Amateur Radio.  Any blog that deals with Amateur Radio in any way is welcome here.  It doesn’t have to be exclusively radio talk, but should have some relationship to radio.  Each site can have up to 3GB of files uploaded.

    If you don’t find a plug-in or a theme that you would like to use, e-mail me.  If it’s not a security risk, I’ll be glad to add it.  If you need a host for your self-hosted WordPress blog, please e-mail me about that as well.  I’ll post information on such hosting here soon.