It's official.. KK4JES

[Dave - KK4JES]

Hopefully you will be hearing Kilo-Kilo-4-Juliette-Echo-Sierra sign on the air soon. It was rather cute actually, I met my wife and kids for dinner in Lake City last night as I was coming back in to town from Jacksonville and the kids told me they had a surprise for me as they handed me the letter from ARRL.

In any case, I will hopefully be on the air soon and already have EchoLink on my phone and computer. Speaking of which, is the Live Oak repeater up? I am having issues hitting that on EchoLink.

Dave

[Wayne KD8MRC]

Hey Dave Congrats and welcome aboard, we are happy to have you join us.  I belive Echo Link is working but don't really use it, would rather use a 2 meter radio.  ( Just Me)  Keep listening I am sure you well catch one of us on the radio or just give a call out and see who answers.

Wayne Peterson  KD8MRC

[Dave - KK4JES]

Thank you Wayne. Indeed, I certainly would rather be using a radio as well. I picked up a 2m radio from Francis just over a week or so ago. The power supply showed up in the mail this week so at this point I need to get the antenna up and my grounding squared away but should be on the air soon.

Take care,

Dave

[KK4HGY-Ron]

Congrats Dave - KK4JES  hope to hear you on the air soon.  I just went through the same thing a couple of months ago when I got my tech license.  I made a 2 meter ground plane antenna out of some 12 gauge wire and some PVC.  It's only about 15 feet up in the air but I can reach the repeater from here 5 miles out in the country with no problem.  Of course I AM using a Kenwood which I understand helps quite a bit.  he he he.

[Dave - KK4JES]

Ron,

Yep, It was hard for me to resist dropping everything and just getting on the air; however,  with five kids, cows to milk, chickens to feed, pigs to look after, and most importantly a wife to keep happy has slowed my progress a bit! LOL!

When I picked up the Kenwood 2M radio from Francis I also went ahead and purchased his 2M antenna. Being a tinkerer at heart I will naturally want to make my own antennas. Francis has me convinced in trying some wire loop antennas once I get my HF rig. I certainly have the room to string up a 160m wire so why not!

Dave

[KI6II-Francis]

Dave,
Congrats on the new call sign. If there is ever anything I can do just let me know.

Be carefull with the full wave loop on 160M a 1/2 wave high is 260'. So with that ground reflections is very sensitive. I can make a NEC model for you if you want.

Francis - KI6II

[Dave - KK4JES]

Francis,

Thank you for the offer, I certainly would like to take you up on that. Based on the trees around the house I am fairly certain I can get a fairly circular loop; however height might be a problem. When you say reflection, are you speaking to ground reflection and the elevation of the loop from the ground. Naturally, I am quite green in this subject so would like to learn and understand these variables.

Thank you,

Dave