It's Summer Time And Maybe There's A Field Day Coming Up

   Now that the weather is getting warmer and nicer maybe you have a field day coming up. Most items are really Camping Gear. What made me think of this was that we went to the park for Memorial Day and we thought about bringing our tent and some tarps to sit under. I know that when I would go to the Hamfest here in Rochester New York I would see the various Ham Radio Operators set up under their tent or some just had a tarp set to sit under with their various Ham Radio Equipment. This was generally good enough unless the weather got nasty.
   Obviously you are going to need a table of some sort to sit your Ham Radio Equipment on. I think the easiest table would be just a folding table, because it is sturdier than just a card table. The card tables seem to be too weak. I would not want my thousands of dollars of Ham Radio Equipment crashing to the ground. The other thing you will need is some sort of chair to sit in. You could just use a folding chair, but may not be too comfortable. I think I would prefer some kind of a computer desk chair. That would be comfortable and give you some back support.
  Now if you are just going to the park then I would keep it as simple as possible. I would just get a cheap folding chair or a folding camping chair. The folding camping chair would be much easier to carry. As far as a table goes there are some simple folding tables usually somewhere. There may be something in the camping area or just find a picnic table. There are some simple tarp type tents that are easy to carry.
   The next item you may want to have is an extendable fiberglass mast that is light to carry. There are some made by jackite that do pretty good in the reviews. If it is close to you vehicle then you could go with one of the Rohn Push Up Masts. I would just make sure you have some guy rope anchor mounts and some of the Dacron Polyester Rope to guy your mast. I have seen some fiberglass that may be a military type mast that you can find through Ebay. The easiest antenna to work with may be a dipole antenna of some sort or a folded antenna. Some of these are multiband and may cover more frequencies.
   You may want to have some general tools with you. I would recommend a good hammer to pound in any guy anchor stakes. I would suggest to have some work gloves to wear. You can get some good mechanics gloves to wear to protect your hands from handling the fiberglass mast or the Rohn Push Up Mast. I would also have a good pocket knife to cut guy rope. If you are spending the day or night in the field then I would invest in some camping and cooking equipment. I would also recommend a good tent to sleep in. Also and most important bring a First Aid Kit.
  Well that's all I can think of for know. Thank You for reading and have a nice day from Dan KC2YTI 73s.   

Every Ham Shack Should Have A Good Scanner

Uniden BCD536HP Digital Phase 2

Uniden Beartracker BCT15X

 My first scanner was a Handheld Radio Shack Scanner. In fact I still have it to this day. My second scanner that I bought is a Uniden Bearcat BC898T scanner. It is a 500 channel base scanner with ten memory banks. It covers frequencies from 25Mhz to 800Mhz, which are quite a few different Ham Radio bands. You have coverage on fire, police, air and other groups as well. It also has the connection for a external antenna, such as a discone antenna. It has always been an excellent scanner and can be used in mobile situations.
  The newer model scanner from my Uniden Scanner is the Uniden Beartracker BCT15X. It does have the trunk tracker III technology, so you can keep track of Motorola, EDACS and LTR systems. This Uniden Scanner has a unbelievable 9000 channels available. It has the capability to be connected to a gps receiver. It has a frequency range of 25Mhz to 1.3Ghz, which is not bad at all. It has the weather alert system as well as many other nice features. There are other Uniden Mobile Scanners such as the Uniden Digital Mobile Scanner model BCD996XT. It to has an awesome array of features. Here is a list of some of the awesome features.

Uniden Digital Mobile Scanner  BCD996XT

1. Mobile BearTracker scanner with 25,000 Channels, advanced dynamic memory system, close call RF capture technology, and more
2. TrunkTracker IV technology lets you can keep up with the action on P25, Motorola, EDACS, and LTR Trunked systems
3. Connect compatible GPS receiver for location-based scanning, location alerts, crows-flight navigation, GPS control of sites/channel groups
4. NOAA weather/emergency with S.A.M.E. weather alert for tracking severe conditions in your immediate area
5. 100 system Quick Keys with 10-channel group Quick Keys per system; system/channel number tagging for rapid access
6. 100 system Quick Keys with 10-channel group Quick Keys per system; system/channel number tagging for rapid access
7. NOAA weather/emergency with S.A.M.E. weather alert for tracking severe conditions in your immediate area

   
There are some other base/mobile Uniden Scanners that do a nice job when starting out. One of them is the Uniden 500 Channel Clock/Radio Scanner. It does have the weather alert, which is a nice feature. It has about 500 Channels in 10 memory banks for storing your favorite channels for scanning. It has more of flat desktop look to it, so it would look very nice on your Ham Radio bench in your Ham Shack. It would also look very nice on your desk or a nightstand.
  Another type of Uniden Scanner is the Hand Held Scanner. These are more made for the person on the go or out there in the field on field day. They basically will fit in the palm of your hand. You can easily cover Ham Bands, Police, Fire, Emergency and Weather Bands. I did look at the reviews on these scanners and for the most part they were very good. It was funny, because one person had an old radio shack scanner from about ten years ago and they said it was like night and day. Ten years ago would be about how old my first Hand Held scanner is. They basically run on two AA rechargeable batteries.
  There many other Scanners made by Uniden that do a very nice job. There is even a nice model Uniden Scanner that even covers 11 Meter Single Side Band. I probably will get some heat for that band of frequencies. 
  Well I hope you enjoyed my short take on Uniden Scanners for your Ham Radio Shack. So take care and have a nice day from Dan KC2YTI 73s.  

    

Antenna Tuner For Your Ham Radio Shack

Right now I have two different antenna tuners for my ham shack. I have an MFJ-949E Antenna tuner. This is a manual antenna tuner. It will tune it will tune dipoles, inverted v antennas, beams, verticals, mobile whip antennas, scanner antennas and shortwave antennas. I use it with my 10 to 80 meter dipole antenna. It does a pretty good job at tuning to a low swr reading. The only drawback I have found with it is that the knobs are not very comfortable and after awhile your fingers get sore. As far as tuning goes I wrote down the various settings for different frequencies. I keep a chart handy so I can easily tune to the frequency I am on using my Kenwood TS-2000 Ham Radio. I have tuned frequencies from about 1.8mhz to 30mhz. I would recommend it to anyone as a manual tuner if you are running np more than 300 watts.
  My other antenna tuner is a MFJ 993b automatic antenna tuner. It pretty much covers the same Ham Frequencies as the MFJ 949E antenna tuner. It does take a little getting used to with all the different settings and button choices. However once it is set up it works like a charm. It does only go up to 300 watts so do not go higher than that. The only problem that I ran into was with the on off power button. It last somewhere between 3 months to a year and then it has to be replaced. I had replaced it with switches from MFJ quite a few times and decided to do something different. I replaced the on off switch with a good toggle switch. I wrote about this in an earlier post. I have no had any more problems with the switch since then. This is my main antenna tuner at this time.
  There are quite a few good antenna tuners made by MFJ despite the varying reviews I have read. There are other brands of antenna tuners that have caught my eye. Some of those brands are Palstar, Ameritron, Vectronics and LDG Electronics. I really like the Palstar Antenna Tuners, but they are out of my budget at this time. I do have to say the reviews are very good and they look like they are built like tank. I also like the high end automatic tuner in the LDG Electronics line. I read the reviews and they seem to be pretty good. For myself I am not running an amplifier at this time and have no need for one. Maybe one day in the future I will be looking more at one of them. Also most Base Ham Radios have an antenna tuner built in them that usually is good up to 100watts.
 Thank You for reading 73s from Dan KC2YTI