Took some photos of today's work party:
Assembling antenna number one. Just about ready to go onto the mast.
Here is antenna #1 up in the air - we are using the county communications van to test. RACES/ARES stands for Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, ARES for Amateur Radio Emergency Service. These are both community service emergency communications services provided by volunteers to the County, State and Federal governments in the event of an emergency. In our area it is not if, it is when. We are seriously overdue. Our group - Whatcom Emergency Communications Group is a subset of the Whatcom County ARES services.
Here is Don (W7AIN) talking to someone in Colorado using the new antenna. Jim (AE7UQ) is listening along.
Here is the second of the three antennas we tested today. We are in the process of tuning it for the frequencies we will be using. For different spots on the band, we need to have different lengths on all of the rods. A fraction of an inch makes a big difference so careful measurement is needed. It certainly paid off as we were able to immediately get a very solid contact with someone in Connecticut.
Temps at the farm hit 74.5°F today - it was nice at our headquarters North of Bellingham. Colorado and Connecticut were both under several feet of snow.
Lots of learning, fun and a great day to be playing outside.