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Diploid
Cuban


Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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Bouncing Radio Waves Off The Moon!
#5215552 - 01/23/06 08:48 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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I just picked this up at a ham fest:
This is what the finals look like:

This is vintage gear. The finals are two 6146B vacuum tubes, none of that solid state crap. 220 watts PEP sideband, 185 watts CW! on all the bands from 160 to 10 meters and a 2000 watt linear amplifier is in a FedEx plane right now.
I used to have one of these when I was a little haploid but sold it and dropped out of the hobby when science and math grabbed all my attention. I was prompted to get back into this after reading a recent thread about ham radio operators talking by bouncing radio off the moon. That beats the shit outta IRC in my book!
A high-gain directional antenna and mast are under construction in the back yard. I'll post more pics as the project progresses.
Wish me luck!
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
Edited by Diploid (02/03/06 01:27 PM)
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero


Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 3 months, 8 days
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Re: Bouncing Radio Waves Off The Moon! [Re: Diploid]
#5216674 - 01/24/06 03:28 AM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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In my best childishly mocking voice... "Somebodies gonna get in trouble!"
This reminds me of the "BamBam" guys in East St. Louis. They spend every last scrap of money they can find on radio transmitters. At night, they hold contests to see who can transmit the furthest. These are always portable units, in their cars, with a CB at one end, a large copper tube/antenna at the other end, and a honking linear RF amplifier in the middle along with a trunk full of batteries to power the damned thing. At night you can usually see the corona discharge around the antenna. They sit around in parking lots, going "Bam bam bam bam" into the mic while another "team" drives off to see how far the signal will transmit.
> when I was a little haploid
*laugh*
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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HagbardCeline
Student-Teacher-Student-Teacher


Registered: 05/10/03
Posts: 10,028
Loc: Overjoyed, at the bottom ...
Last seen: 20 days, 17 hours
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Re: Bouncing Radio Waves Off The Moon! [Re: Diploid]
#5220018 - 01/24/06 11:02 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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My grandfather (step grandfather actually) is a ham radio operator. He loaned me his books to study for the test and was supposed to teach me the ways of the ham, but being the lazy bastard I am I've never made an effort to follow through with it. He had an entire bedroom full of equipment, both vintage and modern, that he's been collecting for the last 50 years. I think he has 4 antennas, one of which is like 80-100' tall if memory serves (I haven't been out to his place in 7 or 8 years.) I asked him one time, when I was younger and far more rude, how much all of that cost...he just laughed and shook his head really slowly.
Since my stepdad has no interest in it, but would never sell it, I guess maybe I'll take it up when he no longer needs it.
-------------------- I keep it real because I think it is important that a highly esteemed individual such as myself keep it real lest they experience the dreaded spontaneous non-existance of no longer keeping it real. - Hagbard Celine
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ZippoZ
Knomadic


Registered: 06/17/03
Posts: 13,227
Loc: Pongyang, North Korea
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Re: Bouncing Radio Waves Off The Moon! [Re: HagbardCeline]
#5220067 - 01/24/06 11:18 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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i want some linear amplifiers for my CB!
-------------------- PEACE
zippoz "in times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings - artists, scientists, clowns, and philosophers - to create order. In such times as ours however, when there is too much order, too much m management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relieve the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption" "People do it every day, they talk to themselves ... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it."
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vermonster
Lost Sailor

Registered: 10/17/03
Posts: 207
Loc: Shangri La
Last seen: 10 years, 7 months
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Re: Bouncing Radio Waves Off The Moon! [Re: ZippoZ]
#5228055 - 01/26/06 08:00 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Listen to 6925 on the weekends for some cool pirate broadcasts. www.frn.net/vines
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Diploid
Cuban


Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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Re: Bouncing Radio Waves Off The Moon! [Re: Diploid]
#5257261 - 02/02/06 09:21 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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Woohoo! Antenna!

You should see all the concrete we had to pour for the foundation!
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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