3 Things to Keep Busy This Fall

Fall is upon us. The time for playing outside is coming to an end. I have a few projects planned for my work bench. With luck, I will complete them before it gets too cold outside.

Building an AS-2259/GS Antenna

Jamboree on the Air is October 14-15 this year. Rainbow Council BSA will be on the air as K9RSR from Morris, Illinois.

Besides deploying a folded dipole 80 feet in the air, I want to show the Scouts NVIS mode communication. To do this, I will build an AS-2259/GS antenna for amateur user.

It should be an inexpensive project that I can complete in a day.

QRSS Experiment on 2200 Meters

I have a Part 5 Experimental License that expires next February. The license allows me to experiment in new 2200 Meter Amateur Service allocation at 136 kHz.

For the past few months, I have researched articles to help me build the antenna and matching network. I want to get the station on the air before December so I can present data to the FCC in a renewal application.

The project is multi-faceted. I need to build a spiral top-loaded aerial and a matching network. I also need to build a harmonic filter for the Raspberry Pi that will be the 15 mW transmitter.

Needless to say, this is a big project.

Practical Antenna for 160 Meters

This antenna project relates to the QRSS Experiment on 2200 Meters. The FCC expects my transmitter to have a frequency tolerance of 0.5% on 2200 Meters. Before I operate on 137.5 kHz, I want the station to work in a place where I have more room to make mistakes.

I plan to build a practical antenna based on a design by G3YCC.

The unintended consequence is that I will have a Top Band antenna that is portable and easy to deploy.