Photo shoot anything lately? Random Photo Thread

[RBsingl]

I turned 62 today and climbing doesn't bother me yet but at some point it will. When I put the tower up, I installed a homebrew 4 element triband quad but I have gotten tired of post ice storm maintenance on the wires. So I bought a new Mosley CL-36 which I will install later this summer. Gain and directivity is less than the quad but having seen Mosley TA and Classic series tribanders surviving hurricanes on the coast I decided it was a good switch.

The photo is of the main tower and Hy Gain 18HT vertical looking towards an outbuilding and the barn shortly after they were installed. I finished off a room in the lower level of the barn for a contest station so that I could operate long contests without worrying about noise. The other photos are of a contest duty legal limit amplifier I designed and built. It uses three 4CX800 tubes in parallel to conservatively run the legal limit with a large safety margin to allow for mistuning mistakes in the late hours of a long operating event. The control system has several safety trips for excessive grid or plate current, loss of cooling air, high return power, etc. but running the tubes well under their rated power also helps. I also enjoy operating vintage gear and I wanted something that would handle the legal limit operating as a linear amplifier for high level modulated AM and this amp works well for that purpose also.

Rodger WQ9E

 

[aaluck]

I finished off a room in the lower level of the barn for a contest station so that I could operate long contests without worrying about noise. The other photos are of a contest duty legal limit amplifier I designed and built.

Sorry for the 'stupid' question, but what contests? I know nothing about this and was just curious.

 

[RBsingl]

Sorry for the 'stupid' question, but what contests? I know nothing about this and was just curious.

NOT a stupid question at all, I should have explained it. A big part of ham radio operating for many of us are the contests and a common style is where it is a worldwide event to see how many foreign operators you can make contact with in a 24 or 48 hour period. Scoring is based upon various methods including the total number of contacts multiplied by the number of different countries contacted.

Another popular operating even that happens every June is "Field Day" where groups, usually a club, set up in a remote location putting up temporary antennas and using emergency power to gain some experience in preparing for an actual emergency.

 

[Lil Foot]

NOT a stupid question at all, I should have explained it. A big part of ham radio operating for many of us are the contests and a common style is where it is a worldwide event to see how many foreign operators you can make contact with in a 24 or 48 hour period. Scoring is based upon various methods including the total number of contacts multiplied by the number of different countries contacted.

Another popular operating even that happens every June is "Field Day" where groups, usually a club, set up in a remote location putting up temporary antennas and using emergency power to gain some experience in preparing for an actual emergency.

Interesting, learned something new today, thanks.

 

[RBsingl]

Interesting, learned something new today, thanks.

You are welcome Bill!

It has been a fun hobby that has led to me become acquainted with a number of interesting people around the world.

I spend a lot of time restoring vintage gear and I think that had a very positive impact upon my daughter because since she was tiny, she has had her own work area on my restoration bench where she started with Lincoln Logs before progressing to Lego and then science projects of her own. She taught herself calculus in the 5th grade and has been working with professors publishing academic research since her freshman year of high school and I attribute her early exposure to math, science, and technology in helping form her interests.

She received a presidential scholarship to her first choice private university based upon her academic accomplishments and will be starting her undergrad on the way to a PhD in applied math next month. The first photo is from several years ago of Anna with my Johnson Desk Kilowatt station which is a pretty rare high power transmitter from the early 1950s. Anna supervised the restoration The second picture is from a few years later when she is inspecting a Gates BC-250GY commercial broadcast transmitter I was getting ready to restore. The final photo is Anna with her Hallicrafters SX-42 receiver from 1947 that she played a big part in restoring and it is a table radio in her home office.

Rodger

 

[aaluck]

NOT a stupid question at all, I should have explained it. A big part of ham radio operating for many of us are the contests and a common style is where it is a worldwide event to see how many foreign operators you can make contact with in a 24 or 48 hour period. Scoring is based upon various methods including the total number of contacts multiplied by the number of different countries contacted.

Another popular operating even that happens every June is "Field Day" where groups, usually a club, set up in a remote location putting up temporary antennas and using emergency power to gain some experience in preparing for an actual emergency.

Thanks for the reply. Interesting

 

[DaveFromMi]

Are you Ham Operators on "Frugals"?
I know they have events a couple times per year.

 

[Kurtee]

Just a fox out the window of the pickup with the wife's phone. Just sitting in the road ditch looking at us.

 

[Fordtech86]

Tonight’s view

 

[RBsingl]

A quick test of a new lens today.

I love my Canon L series fast primes but I don't love carrying them on long mountain hikes so I decided to audition a Sigma 150-600 mm lens that is less expensive than a replacement carbon fiber lens hood for my Canon EF 800 lens.

I am pretty impressed with this relatively low cost wide range zoom. Photos captured with Canon 1DX III and the Sigma 150-600 "contemporary" lens at its full 600mm length @ 1/1250, f6.3, with ISO @ 4,000; 6,400; and 8,000 respectively for these three test shots under rapidly changing overcast conditions.

 

[WhitleyStu]

Giant Swallowtail visiting our flower bed yesterday...

 

[ken erickson]

One from my Prairie oak/savanna open house event at my restoration property. I had a great turn out, perhaps 100 folks total with some good guest speakers and self guided tours , onsite geocaching and photo contest.
This picture is one of mine , a great spangled fritillary on Wild Bergamot.

 

[gfortjr]

 

[GSD-Keegan]

Just some screen captures from my wifi cam I’ve been moving around.

 

[arml]

Just a plain old dandelion that was looking for attention.

 

[PHPaul]

View attachment 83725 View attachment 83725

Ouch. That looks expensive.

 

[sheepfarmer]

I have a 300w equivalent LED "streetlight" up high on the cabin that attracts all kinds of bugs.
Shot this last night, he was about 18-20ft up, .
Appears to be a variety of Sphinx Moth, but never seen one with that exact pattern of "eyes".
Those grooves in the siding are 4" on center.

View attachment 82936

I think it is one of the Saturniid moths, Polyphemis. They are silkworms and the caterpillars spin a cocoon. Live on trees. We used to have them around here a lot, but they like the Luna moth, have become scarce. They are harmless.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

I think it is one of the Saturniid moths, Polyphemis. They are silkworms and the caterpillars spin a cocoon. Live on trees. We used to have them around here a lot, but they like the Luna moth, have become scarce. They are harmless.

I found one on my house several years ago. It was almost as big as, and about the color of, a brick (light colored brick).

I think I read that after they emerge as a moth, their only function is to mate and lay eggs. They don't have mouth parts, so they can't eat and only live a week or so.

 

[ken erickson]

This plant is Dotted Horse Mint which is a native species plant on my Oak savanna. Great pollinator species plus tea can be made from the leaves. I have done this myself and while I am a coffee drinker it was not bad! Has a bit of a mint/woody taste.
The other picture is of a Spotted Knapweed flower head, which is a introduced invasive species. What is interesting about this picture is the two weevils on the flower head. They were imported in 1980's to 1990's as a bio control for Knapweed. The only host plant for the weevils are knapweed. Two different species of weevils, one attacks the flower head and keeps it from seeding, the other attacks the roots and will eventually kill the plant.

 

[gfortjr]

Ouch. That looks expensive.

it’s going to be about 150.00 a side with me doing the work