Sunday, March 28, 2021
I plan to list at least three code keys from my collection this week as my first attempt to start to thin out the herd. I’m going to get the collection down to the more rare and unusual keys and sell the extras.
BAD NEWS. Sad news tonight while listening to the guys on my 75 meter roundtable ..
I just overheard the guys on the frequency I listened to most nights that one of the guys — who is a nurse in Florida — has been diagnosed with lung cancer. He’s been battling leg cancer, and I guess it was only time before it should up elsewhere.
I don’t think it was a surprise for him. He gathered his family back at Christmas to talk about how he wanted to handle the property he owns. He wasn’t sure if his kids wanted the property, which he said was a large tract or two work over $1 million if put on the market. Anyway, the kids wanted his farm, so his plan was to put the property in their names and then he would live there and pay the taxes, etc.
This ham is one of 75 meter’s most knowledgeable hams when it comes to amplifiers. I remember listing to him in the mid-1980s before I got my ticket when he was part of the 3898 gang. The cancer is not advanced, so the hope is that it can be treated.
NEXT PROJECT. This week, the remaining parts should arrive for the remote SWR bridge pickup that I need for my Hallicrafters HA-20, the outboard VFO for my Cyclone SR-400 transceiver. The unit arrived complete — with the exception of the SWR pickup.
The schematic shows a very simple, handbook-style pickup unit, and I found a kit on eBay that replicates the original unit. I think it should work just fine. There are few parts, and the toroids show come pre-wound — that’s a big plus given the small size of the toroids.
Not much on the radar this week, so I plan to spend time putting this little board together. My goal is to make the HA-20 fully functional. Might be worth writing an article about it or creating a video if successful.
The bridge kit arrived this past week; a small metal enclosure and two SO-239s should arrive this coming week.
SHACK MOVE UPDATE. Progress moving my shack up to Studio C is going to be slowed by the arrival of Spring. There’s grass to mow, garden to break, etc. But the main issue I’m facing is that I need a place to store stuff — and the end of the storage chain is the attic. Now I’ve made room in the attic,, but I have my kids stuff to go through and sort and rebox. Its not hard work, just time consuming.
I have sooo much stuff in my current shack, most of which I want to keep. But where?? Studio C is still full of the junk my wife put in there; there are boxes of clothes none of us have worn forever, and we need to donate those. There are boxes of just plan junk to discard. And I still have a bunch of cardboard shipping boxes I need to knock down or cut up and discard. No shortage of stuff to do.
Well, one step at a time, I’ll get it done.