I've thought about it a good bit.  I takes a special level of commitment to put up a tower, also best to know that you will live in that spot for a good while.  Some uncertainties here, plus I'm really pretty happy with the performance of my 80 meter horizontal loop, which really works great on 20 and 18 right now.

So, after all, I'm going to pass on it, I believe.

However, if someone in the metrowest Boston area is interested, I could certainly put them in touch with my neighbors.  I know that the family wants ALL of the tower and antenna pieces removed, that was the only thing they insisted upon.

73,

Chuck

Sounds like it may be worth *not* doing.  It looked to me as if there was a vertical and perhaps even a tribander bundled in the pile there, of course what shape those are in, electrically I have no way of knowing.  They were going to offer the whole schabang for fifty bucks, I believe.  But it sounds like I could be buying a heap of trouble?

When it comes down to it, for 20-18m, I'm actually pretty happy with my 200' of horizontal loop wire mounted up at 60 feet.  

-Chuck

http://www.chuckwyatt.com/tower/

Here's photos at the above link!  The weeds are quickly taking over.  This tower was dismantled at the end of last summer, or early fall, I believe.

-Chuck

I will shortly get a photo and post it, and see if it can be identified.  It seems tubular to me.  What do I look for for signs of rot or freeze damage?

I'm looking at photos now of Rohn tubular sections online, and they look very similar.

Thanks very much for the tips!

Chuck

A neighbor down the street whose husband passed away last year now has a dismantled tower in her yard and she is happy to let me have it for very little $$.  It appears to be a self-standing tower, maybe 60 foot.  Seems in good shape.  

The base section is still anchored in concrete in the ground.  I'm not sure that it can be retrieved.  Would the tower be useable without this base section?  Seems like it would be quite an ordeal to remove the tower base, requiring either cutting with a torch, or digging up the yard and making a big mess of it.  Suggestions?

What about actually moving it?  Certainly very heavy.  Rent a forklift? and bring it up the street?

Thanks for any ideas on this!

73,

Chuck
W1CEW

I bet that's what happened, thanks!

I've just heard from 2 contacts in the last 24 hours that their return QSL was kicked back from the post office. One of them made it through a second time, and I had the luxury of seeing the original envelope that was returned.  It has a white sticker over the correct address with my postal address from a couple of years ago.

If there are US callsigns on an envelope does the US PO somehow check them against a database of callsign addresses for verification?  I've never heard of this, but the only other way I can explain it is that the DX op did the same thing manually before sending out the card.  Of course the database must've been out of date.  As a point of info, I  was lax updating my address info with the FCC earlier this year, so perhaps that played a role?

Thanks for any thoughts!

-Chuck

With all the various PC soundboard-to-rig interfaces, I'm wondering if there is a way to effectively monitor audio quality without doing it the old fashioned way of listening thru an external receiver with a set of closed headphones.

I've tried going through some of the DX receiver web sites, but that seems pretty unreliable, as these receivers are typically "multi-user."

Thanks for any thoughts!

73,

Chuck
W1CEW
Holliston, Mass.

I know that Harbach has a fan upgrade, but I was thinking about adding an auxiliary fan to my SB-200, I found a very slim 25mm fan that runs on AC and does about 50 CFM.

Worth doing?  Or to ask another way:  Is it possible the have too much air blowing through the amp, too much cooling?

Tnx & 73,

Chuck

What do you think of using one of these equalizers?

http://w2ihy.com/eightband.asp

Seems like it might be a good solution.  Thanks for the non-compression tip.

73,

Chuck

Yeah, I think some of that may be do to overloading my laptop input when I captured it, sorry.

I'll give that a try.  I've got a batch of spare components I can plow through, the resistors should help, I imagine!  Actually I do have a non-amplified D104 microphone and the Heil in-line preamp, but haven't yet tried those.  

Just for kicks I've pasted a link to an audio sample below, the first "test 123, W1CEW" is the IC-720A with the Turner mic, and then a 2 second pause and then you'll hear the 735.


http://www.chuckwyatt.com/icom_comp.mp3

Sounds overcompressed or over-clipped, doesn't it?

Definitely going to check out that 8v line, in the meantime I did find this on Heil's website:

>>
Our dynamic elements will work with many of those early models (not the "zero" models) by using the compression all the time at a low level. A compressor at low levels actually acts as a low level preamplifier. Adjust the mic gain to about 3/4 open and set the compression about 4 to 6 dB and those great little 735, 751, etc. usually will work with our dynamic elements such as the HC-4 and HC-5.

<<
http://www.heilsound.com/amateur/icom_fix.htm

Seems like the HC-5 would work?