So far I've counted 96 posts on soldering connectors onto coax. Really?
Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ / J68HZ/ 8P6HK/ ZF2HZ
---------------------------
Yep! What I have found is the three most asked "technical" questions
by (beginning) hams are:
1) How do I program my HT?
2) How do you make antennas?
3) How do you put connectors on coax?
Note the non-specific nature of the questions. A lot has changed
since I became a new ham (1958):
Radio kits are almost non-existent; my first radio was a kit and I
taught myself how to solder (no elmer).
People do not look up things in books - just google it or "better"
just ask someone All my early knowledge came from ARRL publications
which I read cover-to-cover many times (because as kid I had no money
to buy anything; nearest ham was in the next town and I did not drive
until age 16).
(today) If you want it just buy it. That was not true for a lot of
ham radio stuff back in the "day"! There was more building.
Today's beginning ham is coming from a very different experience;
usually computer and smart phone wise. Computers occupied whole
buildings when I was a boy. In college one only had mechanical
calculation (pencil or slide rule) and had to punch IBM cards at the
computing center to use a computer (If you were lucky to have a
programming class or were a graduate student with a research project)
When I began college, the typical HS graduation present was a
typewriter - today it is either a laptop or tablet.
My first antenna was a 40m folded dipole made from TV twinlead (Huh?
what's dat?). I soldered the PL-259 directly onto the twinlead to
connect to my transmitter which loaded it just fine (6146 with pi-network).
Reality - It is what it is! (yeah an old ham)
<bleep> Now back to the present!
73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
[email protected]
"Kits made by KL7UW"
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