Simple Ham Radio Antennas

The busy weekend is over at last at KKBG-FM//KHLO- AM.  The news room is usually quiet and I get some time to catch up on the federal paperwork, station logs, and equipment maintenance.  It's nice working around state of the art equipment at a commercial broadcast station. 'Makes me wish for similar stuff at the home ham station.  One can dream...or is it dream on?  I managed to monitor some of the traffic going on this weekend in ARRL's newscomer contest, which resembles the old "Novice Roundup" of decades ago.  That contest was a blast, especially considering my dearth of operating skills in those days (mid-70s).  Those in this contest sounded like they were having a good time.  Some of these new operators were quite proficient and I'm glad to see the "newbies" getting into the swing of things. Speakin of new items, what do you think of the newly reworked ARRL website?  It's pretty fancy and seems eye catching--I'll have to...

The 47th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival is wrapping up in Hilo today with a late morning parade and the final hula compeitition tonight.  The event has kept the radio station news room busy.  This event attracts contestants world-wide and is covered extensively by local tv and radio (hence my role today).  The Festival has also brought the Big Island some needed rain.  Hawaii Island has been griped by an extended drought which has raised the fears of farmers and residents alike. After the news shift, it's back to the QTH for some late afternoon cw and local ragchews.  Most likely, I'll be using the under the house 40-meter loop. I've disconnected the vertical because of thunderstorms and lightning.  If the heavy rains continue, I'll just unhook everything. No sense tempting Thor's hammer. A few years ago, a strike from above toasted a fiberglass mast I was using as an an- tenna support. Luckily, the antenna was grounded and all feeders dis...

Now that the holidays are over, it's back to work at the radio station news room (serving 4 Hawaii Island radio stations).  The big item this week is the 47th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival, the premier Hawaiian Cultural event of the year.  Most of the on-air staff will be busy with all of the events surrounding the festival, so I'll have to be creative when it comes to ham radio time.  Every once in a while, one gets a cheery note that adds a bit of perspective to the daily grind.  Today, I received a nice note from John, KS4D (ex-KH6JRN), one of my early contacts when I was a Novice operator.  It was so good to hear from him.  John found me on my other blog site and brought me up to date. Oh, do I remem- ber those optimistic days when our "peanut whistles" gave us access to the world.  Despite all of the truly advanced media in use today, there is a certain warm feeling for launching a signal into the "ether".  I must be gettin...

'Just a quick note to wish all of you a happy Easter. I'm working the Sunday shift at the KKBG-FM/ KHLO-AM news room during the holdiday. Things are fairly quiet for now, as the Big Island prepares for the annual Merrie Monarch Festival which begins Monday.  The event is the premier Hawaiian cultural event of the year.  The station is involved in some coverage, so I will be a busy fellow for the next few days.  I may be able to squeeze in a bit of cw over the next few days. The homebrew fiberglass vertical is working well, although lining up a few more radials will be a problem because of my rental home's small lot.  The four elevated counterpoise wires are helping, considering my lack of space.  I was planning to get a HF rig in my old Tercel, but I was sideswiped by a truck on Saturday morning, so that project will be on hold until the body shop fixes up the vehicle.  No one was hurt....rigs and cars can be replaced.... people can't....