Regarding a previous post referring to the Clegg 22'er. I have noticed that my mind is very active in the morning lately. My alarm is set for 7am but I usually hit the snooze about 3 times and don't get up until 7:30. Between Jamie milling about, clanking his cereal spoon and Andrew "writing" new songs in his head and singing them aloud in his bed, it is a moot point to try to fall back asleep. I usually lay there in a limbo state unable to turn my mind off. I have noticed during this state that I have many "revelations". The most recent, from today was the fact that I realized that the fact that my Clegg 22'er is not broke but simply needs a microphone wired to it. As much as I hate wiring mics, it has to be done. The manual is not exactly clear on how the "SPOT" feature on the radio works. It says "change the knob to spot and it will resonate the harmonic frequency of the crystal". I tried that and the crystal does not resonate. OK, well, what I didn't obviously realize until my mind activity period this morning is the fact that maybe the radio needs to be keyed in a transmit state first? It is a long shot, but the bottom line is that a mic needs to be wired just to see if the rig even transmits before I give up on it. Looks like I will be hitting radio shack Friday on my travels to grab a phono plug to wire up.
Also, I ordered a full size G5RV dipole http://www.radiowavz.com/html/g5rv.htm The antenna is 102 feet in length and I will have to manipulate it a bit to get it to work. It should be a lot better than the 52 foot long JR version I have now. It should also get me on 75 and 80 meters now which is important for contests. Since the Michigan QSO party is coming up next month, this should do the trick. Tomorrow is supposed to be close to 50 degrees, so it should be OK for a quick "hanging". My current antenna is in need of replacement anyway. I have repaired the wire part already due to the lawn service "whacking" it and cutting it in half while it was down. I have also repaired the 350 OHM twin lead very crudely with electrical tape (also due to the "whacking"). I told Steve (KD8EMZ) that he can have the G5RV JR to mess around with. Hopefully the full size gets me on 80/40/20 at least. I have an Antron 99 for 10/12/15/17 that I can use in full contest mode, or when the DX is rollin'. The 2 meter / 70cm ground plane is coming down by the end of this month anyway so I can switch between the Antron, the 6 meter loop, and the 2 meter beams. I love the spring / summer!
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