Steve Burel, AD4LY, lived most of his life in Lawrencville, GA. He lost his sight an an early age but is pretty much an independent soul. Steve is one of the best CW operators that I have had the pleasure of working. About 6 years ago Steve moved to Florida and teaches computing at the Lighthouse for the Blind in Ft. Lauderdale. In the move he sold his TS-450 with the VS-2 speech option.
Steve was in town for Thanksgiving and I enjoyed visiting with him and demonstrating my K2 with K2 voice which would be perfect for him. He was not ready to make that investment but really wanted to get back on the air. I was able to get him an MFJ-9020 transceiver in good shape for less than half price.
I built a resonant feedline antenna out of the NoGa Compendium, Vol. 1 and it really works great. There is no SWR between 14000 and 14040 and it only rises to 200 mw between 14040 and 14060. I wound the choke on a piece of 3 inch PVC pipe and capped the ends since Steve wanted this part of the antenna outside. I put a steel eye in the top cap and glued that cap down and I put a coax connector on the bottom and ran a single sheet metal screw in the side to hold the bottom on. I wrapped the choke with electrical tape just to hold it solid. I put hot glue in all the holes except for a drain hole in the bottom.
My NoGaWaTT meter shows 3.5 watts out at 14050 with .1 watt SWR. I tested the whole thing in my upstairs bedroom since I could run the 33 feet of antenna down the hall. I got a 459 report from Columbia, MD and the op there said it would have been better but I was off the end of his antenna.
HTMF
Pickett, AD4S
(click on the small picture to get the "BIG" picture. Use your <back> button to return to this page.)
 Steve's rig on my bed for testing. Using a straight key on a bed is not real good CW. |
 Bottom view of the antenna choke. |
 Top of the choke with the steel eye for hanging the whole thing up. the 33 feet of antenna is coming out of the cap just to the right of the steel eye. |
 Steve, AD4LY, operating the K2 using a laptop with K2 Voice. Set up on his Dad's back porch using a MP-1 antenna. Steve worked Michigan right off the bat. |
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The page last updated 05/23/2010