[HCRA] Fox II NEWS

[Jim W]

Good morning and happy Friday!

This morning at 0622 hrs local, the RF deck (gratis KC1V) came to life and gave a clear and undistorted 20 second tone on 146.520 and then shut down as designed with the Fox I controller.  

Last weekend, I finished construction of the Fox II controller from Byonics but have not applied power yet.  Always scary in my shack!

This weekend I will build the required DB9 cable, connect and power on the units to try to program them.  If everything works, I will get the container from TUC,  put it together and try it out in my town.   I will be looking for signal strength, sensitivity, battery life, and water resistance of the container.   If that works,  get ready for an outdoor adventure at one of our local parks.

That is all for now. Just thought that some of you might be interested that we are moving ahead.  If you have a favorite park,  trail,  historic location, or just something really cool,  I will put it on the list of potential locations.  I am trying to keep it on relatively level ground, but more challenging, and fun.  No climbing of fences or mountains, or wading to the middle of a pond. No automobiles yet.  

If you are planning on joining us for the next adventure, start researching small, portable yagi's. One that I like is made from an old tape measure.  Don't worry about attenuators, yet, if we keep going, we will build one the way, little by little.  This should be a learning, practice, and fun experience, not costly nor too difficult.

So once again, congrats to the DF dozen who found "Fox I", and prepare for more adventure with Fox II where you will have some control of the fox, and your time!

By the way, a big thanks to Paul N1TUP from CT who has put me in the right direction to help us with an intelligent fox. His offer for continued support is greatly appreciated.
  
73's to all
Jim  K1JAW    Tech something or other
www.hcra.org