I use my laptop for digital but the power supply broke the other day. I don't really want to spend $80+ on a new one if I can at all help it. I do have a Pyramid PS 9KX power supply that I bought at a truck stop when I was a truck driver. Thought it would be good in a pinch for whatever.
The laptop power supply is rated at 15V x 5A
The Pyramid power supply is rated at 12V x 5A
If I rigged a plug that fit my laptop, I could use it right? I think my math is right on this isn't it?

I posted awhile ago that I was wanting to build a dual band 144/440 antenna and today I finally got it built. I settled on the homebrew version of the OSJ 146/440. link is here; http://www.arrowantennas.com/j-pole.html I put it up and it required absolutely no tuning whatsoever. This thing was so much easier to build that the copper cactus and it looks soooooo much better too. Very low VSWR at the center of both bands. I live in Mountain Grove, MO and all of the repeaters here in town are not working. Anyway, I am very happy with it. Just thought some of you would like to know. The antenna cost approx. 20 for materials. The only thing I had to buy was the aluminum and I bought that with the proceeds of selling my CB radio left over from when I stopped driving a truck. I had all of the other parts in the old junk box. (NEVER throw anything away).

As some of you know I rolled my big rig. I rolled it on ice onto the left side of the tractor where my Tarheel was mounted and it destroyed the mounting bracket and bent the main tube of the antenna at about 2 degrees. It also creased the metal. Also it shattered the top cap but didn't hurt the lexan tube. I was really depressed about the whole thing because at this time I didn't have the money to buy the parts to fix it from tarheel.
I thought about it for a while and got to work. After disassembling the whole thing I found some long pipes close to 2" in diameter and placed them inside the aluminum tarheel tube so that the ends of the steel pipes met at the bend in the tube put the ends of the tube on blocks that I made (the blocks were made from 2x6's with a 2-1/8" hole cut in the center and then cut in half so that the tube wouldn't deform) and made sure that the crown of the bend was facing up. I then had a friend hold  me steady and I bounced the tube till it bent back straight. It took a few tries but I was able to make it almost perfectly straight.
The coil still rubbed on the creases so I placed one of the steel pipes all the way through the tube and with a BIG hammer, I did a little blacksmithing and pounded the metal smooth (or close to smooth). The base of the coil still rubbed a bit so I took it out to the shop and using a belt sander, I sanded the PVC part of the base down a little (probably a 1/16") and it worked great.
For the top cap, I couldn't find any 3" I.D. pipe caps but I was able to find a cap that fit a 3" I.D. thin wall PVC pipe which was too big but looking a little more, I found a threaded insert that filled the gap. I had to replace the screws that held it on with longer ones. I also to be safe I used a rubber washer on top to seal out any rain that might get in under the whip stud.
After all the repairs were done, I now have a half tarheel half Frankenstien screwdriver antenna that works just as good as before.
I plan on replacing all the parts that were damaged in the wreck with tarheel parts but in the meantime I was able to repair what was damaged for around $3.50.

I can watch tv, talk on the radio, read a book, take a walk or a multitude of other activities on my time off or just sit around and do nothing. OR I could build an antenna with things I have in my junk box and tune it. Either way I will have filled my unoccupied time with something. The time and labor cost me absolutely nothing.
Or, if I go by your logic, where personal labor is not free and it is cheaper to buy a radio rather than build one, I can say that since I am doing the labor I can set my own labor rate, so my labor rate per hour on projects is $1,000,000/hrs. Using the logic that you and many who think like you (where a person HAS to put a dollar amount on everything they do) The antenna that I build will be worth around 3 million dollars. But I will sell it to you at a discount of $50,000.
People like you say that there is no such thing as a free lunch and that is true to people who have to make a profit on EVERYTHING. If, however, I give you a free sandwich, it is a free lunch. It just depends on your way of thinking.

I found instead the plans to the end fed aluminum jpole antenna made by Arrow. It claims to be a good performer and I have had very good results with Jpoles in the past. I also have the parts lying around the house to build this also.

Actually there are three repeaters listed and I have had them programed into my radio for about a month now but I was just wondering if there were any people from Mountain Grove on this forum who could let me know if those frequencies are correct because none of them respond to a subaudible tone.

I just moved here and I have been trying to pick up any talk on the local repeaters but the repeaters don't even respond to a sub-audible tone. I would like to start a radio club here but I don't know how to get it going or how it would go over. I checked it out and there are like 20 hams who live here in town. I have also tried the 2 meter calling frequency but also no copy. I don't know anyone in town so it is kind of difficult to contact anyone. I kind of feel funny cold calling people at home on the telephone. I guess I could dial their number and when they answer just say CQ CQ CQ KD0AFK. hihi.

Does anyone read my posts? I stated that I have the parts lying around the house to build the antenna so there will be no expense at all.

The thing is, I have to be really tight on money right now. I wrecked my semi truck. I just started a new job. I borrowed money from my grandfather to buy a van and I have to save money to move into an apartment, not to mention the deposit on electric, phone, etc.. I guess I could scrape some money together to get a dual band whip. If I went with any one maker it would be Diamond. I have owned a couple of theirs and I was really happy with the performance. As always, thanks for the input guys.
73

I was going to build this once but had trouble finding the telescoping whips at Radio Shack they don't sell them anymore. Seems that Radio Shack still hasn't changed their name to the more appropriate "Cell Phone Shack". I think we need to find a way to communicate our homebrew project needs in some way that the executives who run Radio Shack can't find out. I appears that when someone comes up with a homebrew project, the people at Radio Shack delete those items from their inventory.

I am wanting to build this antenna or on lik it http://www.qsl.net/ve3rgw/uvant.html
for my van but when I bought my analyzer I went for the lesser expensive MFJ 25B. I have to tune the UHF element but I don't know how I am going to do this. I have the parts lying around to make the antenna myself and I really don't have the money to order a UHF/VHF antenna on line. Is there a better homebrew dual band mobile antenna that I can build to measurements and not have to tune the thing on an analyzer? I would like to have a dual band antenna so when I get my tarheel fixed I can install my radio in my van.

Haven't posted in a while and I thought it about time to submit my latest hair-brained idea.
I rolled my semi on the ice a few months ago and it trashed my tarheel.
I bought a 1990 GMC Vandura van the other day. And I was thinking about replacements for the tarheel. I have been toying around with the magloop idea. My little twist so that it could be used mobile is to make a helical wind on a PVC for the loop and running shorted coax through the inside of the pipe to serve as the faraday loop. I know that the j pole evolved from the dipole and took on a different configuration.
The reason I would like to do this is that theoretically would make it more compact and able to mount on the bumper of my van.
My question is; am I just tilting at another windmill, or do I actually have something here?

If I were to put them both on the same mast, what would be the spacing? Would it be one wavelength of which frequency?

I have a switch, I'll probably just use that till I get a duplexer. Thanks for the help guys.
73

The blue tooth unit in the video is the jabra unit I was talking about. Thanks for the link.