[SMCARA] Balun building project

[Tom Shelton]

On August 11th, beginning at 10:00 AM, the SMCARA will be presenting a seminar on building a balun – well, not officially a balun – but rather an Air-Choke which will eliminate RF currents from flowing on the outside of your coax cable.  This “ugly balun” can become the heart of your dipole, delta-loop, or even a random-wire antenna.  I’ve been using this design at my home station on an 80 meter dipole and have made contacts on all continents, breaking contest pile-ups.

The location will be the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum: http://paxmuseum.com/ (just outside of Pax River Gate 1).

The cost for this seminar will be $5.00 for SMCARA members, and $15.00 for non-members.  The actual cost of individual parts will be around $35-45 and the club is subsidizing the difference.

We will provide all the parts in a kit and help you put it all together.  We’ll start the day with a brief presentation on antenna theory, including why the ugly balun works and will improve your home radio station’s output and input signals.  We’ll then move to putting a PL-259 connector onto your coax (involving trimming, soldering, and continuity checks).  Next will be wrapping the coax, splitting the coax on the other end, splicing wires onto the shield and center conductor, learning about Our-Friend-Shrink-Tubing, final assembly, and cutting two sets of dipole wires (your choice of bands).

I need to have an idea (along with a commitment to attend) if you plan on coming out so I can purchase the parts.  Whether you’ve already expressed an interest or not, please send me an e-mail letting me know for sure you’ll be there.

I’m also looking for anyone who would come out and help people put their stuff together – If you are really good at (and maybe have the necessary tools) to put PL-259’s onto RG-58 coax, you’re skill would be especially appreciated – send me an e-mail if you can help as an Elmer for this project.

If you’re looking to upgrade, there will be a test session at 9:00AM – Contact Eric Heard, N3UH (n3uh at usa.com) for more information.

Starting at Noon, and going until 8:00-ish on Saturday the 11th, and from Noon to 6:00-ish on Sunday the 12th, the club station will be on the air as K3NHK for the Maryland QSO Party http://mdcqsoparty.w3vpr.org/Documents/MarylandQSOPartyRules2011v2.pdf and you are welcome to join in the fun.  We’ll have two rigs up and running and are looking for operators and loggers.

On top of all that – the new Navy Chiefs will be doing a car-wash at the museum, so you can get your car cleaned up and donate to a worthy cause.

Tom Shelton, AB3IC

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
Albert Einstein