Contesting

Recapping 2017 CQWW Phone

October 31, 2017

The world came out to play in the 2017 CQWW Phone contest, October 28-29. See a brief analysis of running domestic stations vs. chasing DX in one of the biggest worldwide contests of the year.

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Adding the Ameritron AL-80B to the shack

June 12, 2017

The VA7ST station has a new contesting amplifier — the Ameritron AL-80BX joins a pair of SB-221 amplifiers for high-power operation.

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Introducing the Zone Zero podcast

April 21, 2017

It’s time for a podcast devoted to amateur radio contests. Now we have one. Welcome to Zone Zero.

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New radio room is on the air

August 24, 2016

After two years of “all talk, no action,” the radio room has been rebuilt.

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Heathkit SB-221 brought back to life

May 9, 2016

An overview of my SB-221 amplifier repair project — a notebook about what it needed and what I did.

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The Large and Powerful Spider Beam

January 23, 2016

Here’s a homemade, lightweight but full-size triband yagi (with directors and reflectors in V configuration) interlaced on a 32-foot boom. And it works like a dream.

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Hybrid wire element SteppIR 40M yagi

January 23, 2016

Expand a 40M rotatable dipole into a 2-element yagi with a fixed wire element. Add a relay to the wire and get instant 180-degree rotation, too.

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LED lighting for CDE/Hygain rotator meter

September 7, 2015

Tired of burned-out bulbs in your CDE rotator meter? Replace the bulb with an LED strip — it’s inexpensive and LEDs will last a very long time.

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Rebuilding the radio room

August 15, 2015

Big plans for the radio “shack” at VA7ST… will it ever be built?

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Astron power supply digital meter (volts/amps)

July 10, 2015

Want to know what that “blind” power supply is putting out? Add a digital volt/ammeter to your meterless Astron power supply

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