After graduating RIT this May with a BS in Information Technology, I moved out to rural Livingston County; some 30+ miles away from Interlock and downtown Rochester. Partially because of the distance to the local repeaters, and partially to impress the ladies, I picked up an Arrow Antenna dual-band (VHF/UHF) j-pole style antenna from our friend Steve KC2YTC along with a used 30′ antenna mast. Installation entailed mounting the mast to the side of my house, installing the antenna, soldering the PL-259 connector to a coax cable (LMR-400 from hamfest) and running it down to my Yaesu FT-8800 that sits in my office. This ended up being a great little antenna and now I’m back talking with my friends on the Rochester repeaters. Special thanks to Chris N2CDO for help soldering the PL-259 connectors on the coax.
N0BDW is back on the air!
For all you Hams out there, check in to the Monroe County ARES/RACES net on 146.61 / 444.45 (N2MPE) repeater on Thursday nights at 9pm EST and you’ll likely hear me there.
I’m also volunteering with Livonia Fire/EMS, so for the public safety scanning enthusiasts listen for 298[X] (EMS) or 25[X] (fire) on Livingston County Fire/EMS dispatch (46.16).
from Ben on August 15th, 2011
0 Comments
Given our number of active (“radioactive”?) amateur radio enthusiasts, we recently applied for a club station license to give Interlock its very own call sign. The paperwork arrived last night and we’re pleased to announce that Interlock now has an official presence on the air. The aptly named call sign, K2HAX, has also been applied for.
We are currently VHF/UHF capable using a homemade J-Pole antenna. Our roof antenna project is progressing nicely and, despite a few snags, the necessary supplies will soon be ordered in hopes of being functional before the city experiences any significant snowfall. When all is said and done, we will have a fairly powerful ham station capable of reaching the far edges of Monroe County and beyond.
Upcoming projects include using modified Motorola Bravo pagers for paging over ham frequencies, and setting up a WinLink node to allow for e-mailing over ham radio.
from Ben on November 10th, 20100 Comments
Next Thursday, July 15th, we will be making amateur radio 2M antennas (half-wave, j-pole). If anyone is interested in learning about antenna theory, soldering, or anything else that goes into making antennas… come down and check it out.
UPDATE: Due to a mixup with our supplier we won’t have the materials to make
antennas until NEXT Thursday, July 15th. We will hold antenna make
night then.
from Ben on July 1st, 20100 Comments
Thanks to everyone who made it out to our first of hopefully many successful Lightning Talk nights sponsored and hosted by Coworking Rochester.
Special thanks to Dave M. and his crew for their hospitality, as well as Remy D. and the RIT storytellers who recorded most of the talks.
If you missed them, you can watch them on ustream:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/rit-storytellers
Read the rest of this entry »
from Ben on May 14th, 20103 Comments
After graduating RIT this May with a BS in Information Technology, I moved out to rural Livingston County; some 30+ miles away from Interlock and downtown Rochester. Partially because of the distance to the local repeaters, and partially to impress the ladies, I picked up an Arrow Antenna dual-band (VHF/UHF) j-pole style antenna from our friend Steve KC2YTC along with a used 30′ antenna mast. Installation entailed mounting the mast to the side of my house, installing the antenna, soldering the PL-259 connector to a coax cable (LMR-400 from hamfest) and running it down to my Yaesu FT-8800 that sits in my office. This ended up being a great little antenna and now I’m back talking with my friends on the Rochester repeaters. Special thanks to Chris N2CDO for help soldering the PL-259 connectors on the coax.