On Saturday 24 May I connected my newly acquired K1EL keyer to a little homebrew 10 meter beacon transmitter that I'd built about 10 years ago. (The transmitter is based on the "Lil Slugger" design by Doug DeMaw -- about 1 watt out.) Ten meters seems pretty dead these days, so when I turned the thing on and put it on the air, I had the feeling that no one would hear me. It sort of felt like throwing a message-in-a-bottle into the ocean. I put my e-mail address in the beacon transmission. I've had the thing on the air very intermittently over the last few days.
Imagine my surprise when this morning my e-mail box contained a message from Andre in Germany. He'd heard the beacon in its first day on the air! Wow!
During daylight hours I can hear beacons from all over Europe on ten.
I have left space in my "beacon box" for a very QRPP 30 meter transmitter. The K1EL keyer will generate QRSS. Where is the best place to get a crystal for 10.140 Mhz?
See if you can hear my beacon on 28.240 MHz. I'll have it on during daylight hours (Italian daylight hours).
I'll post some pictures soon.
April 27, 2024. Tubes or Transistors?
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A recent acquaintance and newfound friend suggested I cover the tube versus
transistor dilemma. Some Blog readers may even be saying why are you
wasting my...
1 hour ago