[AK-VHF] Checking In

[Brandon Clark]

Hello group,

It's been pretty quiet lately with the quasi-lockdown, but I thought I
would send out a CQ and see how everyone is doing. I hope you are all
weathering the "new normal" and staying healthy.

On my end it's been pretty busy for a "lockdown". I've moved to a 2-story
place in Anchorage by Arctic and 76th. That means antenna plans!

I am looking at setting up an omnidirectional vertical for 2 M and 70 cm. I
am also going to build a yagi stack on a rotator: vertical beams for 2 M
and 70 cm, with a horizontal dipole for 6 M. 220 MHz capability will come
later this year. For HF I'll be setting up an off-center-fed dipole along
the roof line.

I also finally set myself to learn CW. Activating for Summits on the Air
using FT8 was a success, but it never hurts to have another high efficiency
mode available. I have an app on my phone that provides exercises based on
the Koch method, and am slowly learning. I also picked up a very used j-38
key on eBay for $25. It's ugly, but works. With a little metal polish and
new washers it should be good as new very shortly.

What about the group? Any other good ham radio projects happening out there?
73,
Brandon