KG9DW Heyworth, IL 442.825 Ham Repeater

It's up, and it's working great! We actually got the repeater on the fire tower back in October, but I forgot to post the update here! With a handheld, you can work all around town very easily. With a mobile, the south side of Bloomington, up to Washington, down to Lincoln, and south to Dewitt are all workable. I've submitted a request to move the repeater to the grain elevator south of Heyworth. This would put it up at 185 feet and greatly expand its coverage. Because of where the equipment room is at the elevator, we'll still have 100 feet of coax loss. Anytime I'm in the truck, you can catch me on the air. I also try to have a handheld handy when I'm watching TV or piddling around the house. Give me call, and enjoy the repeater! KG9DW/R 442.825+ PL141.3

The Heyworth Repeater...coming soon....

Someone asked me for a link to my profile, and while sending that along I realized it had been a while since I'd posted. So here's an update on what's going on in Heyworth. I'm working on putting up a new 440MHz amateur radio repeater. It will be owned by the fire department, up on their tower...and can be used for fun and also for official duties. We're waiting on some antenna mounts to be created, and then it will be tower climbing time! The repeater is in pieces in my office. The controller just arrived, so some wiring and soldering will be in my near future. It's fun to dust off the old engineering skills! KG9DW/R will be up and live soon, on frequency 442.8250+ with a 141.3PL. The corn and beans are doing quite well this year. It's amazing what rain will do! Last year was awful...this year has been much more typical. We are in a bit of dry spell right now...no rain for the past week and nothing in the forecast until almost Labor Day. So far, everything is still looking good.

Yaesu parts

I've been helping out at the fire department working on their radios. Let me tell you, Motorola is robbing everyone. The cost of parts is outrageous. And the cost of software? Yeah, it's crazy. $200 for software to program handhelds? That's on the low end.

So when I needed to order a new knob and speaker for my Yaesu HF radio, I was expecting OUCH. Nope. Cost for knob? $0.57. Cost for the speaker? $5.75. Neat. Standard shipping, should be here in a week from California.

Gettin' my Ham on

I've had my amateur radio license since 1991 (or 1990, I can't remember for sure). I haven't been active since...well....that's been a long time as well. I think the last time I was active was when we lived in Indiana. It has to be at least 8 years ago. I've recently got a station put back together. I made a 2m/440 J-Pole out of aluminum, ordered a Windom wire antenna, and a bunch of coax. The first HF rig will be a FT-897 I bought off of eBay. I picked up a keyer from eBay as well. eBay is like the modern day hamfest that runs EVERY DAY. I like it a lot.

Sandborn, IN farmer fights Monsanto

Pantagraph article

I've reported on this before. It's the case of a Southern Indiana farmer that wants to replant some of his soybean crop as the seed for next year's crop. Monsanto says no. Court says no. Appeals court says no. Let's see what the Supreme Court says. As soon as someone patents water, we're all screwed.