PRESENTER OPINION : A Backpack Portable HF Beam? Yeah right!

PRESENTER OPINION : A Backpack Portable HF Beam? Yeah right!

It works! The two-element, two band (20 & 10m), single mast, HF Beam is finished at last and has brought in 20w SSB contacts with W, ZS, VK and ZL as well as most European countries from two SOTA activations in DL.

Sounds too good to be true? Well remember the physics of antennas don't really care whether equipment has got some big companies name on it or not, as long as it's the correct size and set up close to what is needed it'll work no matter how scruffy it looks and running low power means it can be made backpacker portable. I have created three different versions of the antenna, each of which can be single or multi-band.

My New years resolution was to finish this antenna and document it for others to build, despite some bad weather sessions (snow, winds, ice, rain etc.) I have now closed out this resolution.

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A Living Language? Or Eu tu, Brute?

A Living Language? Or Eu tu, Brute?

One of the most popular phrases from the dead language of Latin is Et tu, Brute? It is a Latin phrase literally meaning “and you, Brutus?” or “also you, Brutus?”, often translated as “You as well, Brutus?”, “You too, Brutus?”, or “Even you, Brutus?”. I’m sure we’ve all used the phrase at one time or another.

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PRESENTER OPINION : Get S.M.A.R.T. @ the Library

PRESENTER OPINION : Get S.M.A.R.T. @ the Library

Agent 86 in the 1965 NBC Television comedy, Get Smart, was a raging success during the years it was on network television. The phrase, Get Smart, became a water cooler slogan in the United States. While it was a comedy of errors on the part of the “smart” agents, the phrase has continued on for a half century.

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