W6FSB - Four Seasons Beaumont

This is the DIY page - Do It Yourself
(Often referred to as "HomeBrewing")

>>click here for:
power point presentations

The following are Sites where either reasonably
priced Kits are available or Instructions for a project.

A certain level of construction & Soldering ability is necessary
to construct such Equipment - Just doing one well is its best reward SO TRY IT!

The Four State QRP club Specializes in producing commercial quality kits. For those of you with a desire to get into the Digital Modes on HF here is a relatively simple Kit That will easily isolate (i.e. No Ground Loops) your Computer system and allow the Digital software to communicate via this Kit to the Audio stream in your HF Radio. Includes a TX control to manage the Power setting. Psk31 is now easy! (You all know this is the proper way to manage Power in Digital modes, right?? Check it out >>> 4S-link The club also has kits for: NM0S Cyclone 40M Transceiver NM0S Hi-Per-Mite CW Filter NM0S QRPometer Power/SWR Meter K8IQY SS-40 Stable and Sensitive 40M Receiver K8IQY Magic Box TR Switching System NM0S NS-40 Transmitter Kit Check out the kits at >>> Kit Page Ken, K4EAA, has a nice writeup on how to build a 50 Ohm Dummy load. Depending on the Wattage of the resistors used, This device will manage 100 Watts easily or up to 200 Watts for several minutes. (Home Depot usually has a stock of the Smaller Paint Cans used) Get your Dummy Load here >>> Dummy Load Want a better 2 Meter antenna?? How about a 2 Meter Vertical Dipole? Remember no messy Radials -or- ground planes here. You can push lots of watts through this guy. Includes a choke balun to keep that RF from Burning your lips! (Google W7LPN for other notes on Vhf/Uhf gear) The dipole is also resonant on 440 - 2 for the price of one. Get your Vertical Dipole here >>> 2Meter Vertical Dipole So you really want a Simple Ground Plane for 2 Meters that also resonates on 440?? The following works well and can be hung from a rafter in your Attic. We got a 1:1.1 SWR with this ground plane. Loads up fine on 440 also. You can find 1/8" brass rods, 36" long for construction at: K & S Metals Ground Plane (1/4 Wavelength) here >>> 2Meter Ground Plane End fed Wire Antenna with Toroid matching "Matchbook 6 - 40 Meters". Wanna throw a non resonant wire into the trees and work DX? What is described here is a simple endfed antenna and a Matchbox network: "This project creates a trifilar wound, 9:1 UNUN (unbalance to unbalance) toroid matching transformer that will match the high input impedance of an end fed antenna into the range where most antenna tuners can produce good performance. The matchbox handles 100 watts of power. This project requires an antenna tuner to achieve satisfactory SWR." With the Parts List one could build this for under $15. Antenna wire can be obtained at The Wireman.com [Elecraft has a 20W autotuner for $139] Purchase is $79 to the Emergency Amateur Radio Club of Honolulu. Go here >>> End Fed 6 - 40 Antenna For info on Random Wire Antennas - Best Length, Look here >>> Random Wire Antennas - Best Lengths.pdf 40-10 Meter Portable Dipole, Phil Salas - AD5X. Phil Salas's Website contains a multitude of DIY projects, reviews, and fixes/additions to well known Amateur Radio Equipment. (AD5X WebSite) I have hosted Phil's website for 5 years now and am always amazed on how Phil simplifies the design of Radio Gear. The 40-10 Meter portable dipole is no Exception. It actually is resonant on the 40 - 10 Meter Ham bands. This is accompolished via clever usage of Slide switches to adjust the length of the dipole and a shunt to allow usage of the 30 and 40 meter bands. And all at little cost. Go here >>> 40-10 Meter Portable Dipole Tape Measure 2Meter Yagi Beam. Much has been written about using a steel tape measure for the elements in constructing a 3 element 2Meter beam. It is extremely portable and is most useful for Transmitter hunts because of the directionality of a beam with> 7DB of gain AND > 50 Db FB ratio. Here is a list of sites that cover actual construction: Go here >>> The Original and best: Tape Yagi Go here >>> Tape Yagi Go here >>> This is an EXCELLENT summary of Tape Measure Beams 2Meter DF Antenna Go here >>> 2Meter Fox Hunting Beam The above are but a few of the items that are of interest to Ham Radio Operators. There are a number of active sites on the Internet that specialize in Kits, or contain writeups of useful items to ham radio ops. Hendricks QRP Kits is well known to all "HomeBrew Hams", their selection seems endless! Kits even include complete SSB Transceivers Go here >>> Hendricks QRP Kits These are just a sampling of what is available: The BitX20A and BitX17A are complete SSB kits 3 Band Portable Field Radio CW Transceiver for either 30m or 40m KD1JV Tri-Bander CW transceiver Two Tone Test Generator I lost count at 40 or so kits! A large list of Kit sites can be found here: Go here >>> Homebrew Kits

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