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VE6BLD
Welcome to the CAARC web site. I have been a Ham since 1978 and I am active on most modes from HF to UHF Satellite communications.
Posts by VE6BLD
VE6BLD’s first try on an Electric Unicycle! TOO MUCH FUN!
Apr 27th
A few weeks ago I was at my son’s place in Okotoks and he helped me try his new Electric Unicycle. It was a very cold and windy day but after 3 tries I managed to go a few hundred feet! What a blast!
Click these links for my 3 best tries…
Dad’s 2nd Good Ride on Michael’s EUC This would be easier on a flat lawn with no wind!!
I may have to get one of these..
Grounding information for everyone
Apr 14th
Jim VE6JHK passed this information video on to me after we had a discussion on the air with a few hams the other day. Thanks Jim.
VE6BLD 144 MHZ SSB horizontal Antenna install
Mar 18th
VE6BLD 144 MHZ SSB horizontal Antenna install. We had a beautiful March plus 15 degree day to get my SSB Quagi antenna up the tower. Many thanks to VE6CIA Garry, VA6MPM Paul and VE6MIM Mike for helping with this rather difficult install. I have quite a few other antenna that could have posed a problem but we found a hole to pull up the 14 foot long Quagi and get it installed above the HF beam, 2 m Quagis, 70 CM Quag-v antennas. Garry climbed to stand on the top plate of the tower and then stood on the HF antenna boom to be able to reach above the 440 MHZ Quagi. He was able to install the new quagi on the verticlal mast of the 14 foot long vertical folded dipole I used for my commercial antenna for my business. He would have been reaching up to about the 63 foot height! The antenna checked out with a great SWR. Thanks all three of you for all the great help!! I should now be able to work Calgary and Edmonton easily on SSB simplex with the other weak signal hams. I an barely remember when VE6BGT Skip and I with Sarina’s and some other hams help built the whole tower and antenna 32 years ago! Check out the great pictures Sarina took in this Gallery.
After you close the picture browser you will have to refresh your page to go back( New problem I have to figure out now !!)
RAC Canada Day Contest
Feb 3rd
I just received this in my in box today!
VE6BLD RAC Canada Day Contest 2020Winter Field Day Fun VE6BLD
Jan 31st
I spent about 6 hours Sat and Sunday working the Winter Field Day. The bands were good until after 9 Saturday night. I slept in Sunday till 9:30 but managed a lot more contacts till noon.
Here are my results.
51 Sections, 38 States, 222 contacts, 1320 points,
80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 6m, 2m.
I hope to see some more results from others here.
Bob VE6BLD
Earthlings and astronauts chat away, via ham radio
Dec 24th
Earthlings and astronauts chat away, via ham radio
The International Space Station cost more than $100 billion. A ham radio set can be had for a few hundred bucks.
Perhaps that explains, in part, the appeal of having one of humankind’s greatest scientific inventions communicate with Earth via technology that’s more than 100 years old. But perhaps there’s a simpler explanation for why astronauts and ham radio operators have been talking, and talking, for years.
NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock was just a few weeks into his six-month mission at the space station when feelings of isolation began to set in.
Wheelock would be separated from loved ones, save for communication via an internet phone, email or social media. At times, the stress and tension of serving as the station’s commander could be intense.
One night, as he looked out a window at the Earth below, he remembered the space station’s ham radio. He figured he’d turn it on—see if anyone was listening.
“Any station, any station, this is the International Space Station,” Wheelock said.
A flood of voices jumbled out of the airwaves.
Astronauts aboard the space station often speak to students via ham radio, which can also
VE6BLD’s solar pop can heater to warm your shack from the sun.
Nov 11th
In 2014 I found a video on you tube of a man in Newfoundland who had built a solar pop can heater. I decided I would build one for my big shop in the back of my large town lot. There is a south facing wall to install it on a foot away from the wall for safety reasons as it can produce 80 -90 degree C! I had an old double pane window in the shop that was about 3 by 7 feet. So the project began. I also had the aluminum frame from a score clock which had been removed from a school gym which turned out to be the perfect depth to fill with rows of pop cans after being insulated with 2 inch styrofoam. The metal frame also had a perfect indentation on the front to install the double pane window. See the pictures in the link below for how I built this pop can heater. I used a small squirrel cage fan on the inlet in the garage and another one on the outlet in the garage. There is a temperature sensor at the top of the outlet pipe connected to an adjustable digital temperature control ($8.00 on ebay). I can set any temperature to turn on the fans and I can also adjust the differential to turn off. As soon as the sun comes up and shines on the heater it will quickly come to the set temperature I programed of 32 C. The heater was tested to produce up to +180 degrees F (+80 degrees C) before I installed the fans. This is a good reason to have 2 fans so it will not melt the heater if one fan quits! Today Nov 11, 2020 the sun was very low (temperature – 12 degrees all day) but the heater quickly rose to +32 C and the thermostat turned the fans on. The heater produced a steady +18 C temp into the garage all day until there was no more sun shining on it. ! Darn nice free solar heat.
Click the pictures in the gallery
Click this link to see the picture gallery of this project
VE6BLD multi-coax junction box on my tower
Oct 16th