Love it. Great ideas. -------- Original message --------From: Daniel Poirot via BVARC <[email protected]> Date: 9/5/25 9:38 AM (GMT-06:00) To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <[email protected]> Cc: Daniel Poirot <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [BVARC] Antenna Building and Theory class - was The Stir Crazy Net is here for you! Hurray!!!I look forward to hearing from everyone! I see the full syllabus as the following: 1) 1/4 wave ground plane - So simple, so easy. Teach basics of straightening coat hangers! Crimp ring connectors and bolt to the SO239 panel connector. Teach basics of trimming for SWR and the use of tools like the NanoVNA.2) 2 meter 1/4 wave dipole. Dipoles are cool. Use antenna tuning skills in a different format. Explore portable and temporary mounting ideas.3) Turn 1/4 wave dipole into three element Yagi. Discover the wonderful world of aiming the antenna!4) On building a 2 meter J pole. A gain antenna! New skills such as cutting tubing, torch soldering, tuning tubing! 5) Turn your J pole into a Slim Jim. Twice as much gain is always better. 6) Build a roll up Slim Jim using 300 Ohm twin lead. Because, POTA, Y'all.Ideas? 73 Dan KJ5IZKOn Fri, Sep 5, 2025 at 6:58 AM Kelly Reimann via BVARC <[email protected]> wrote:Ditto. Sent from ProtonMail, encrypted email based in Switzerland. Sent from Proton Mail Android -------- Original Message -------- On 9/5/25 08:51, Byron Harris via BVARC wrote: As a newish ham I would LOVE it. Count me in. Blessings, Byron -------- Original message -------- From: mark janzer via BVARC <[email protected]> Date: 9/5/25 8:39 AM (GMT-06:00) To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <[email protected]>, [email protected] Cc: mark janzer <[email protected]>, Rick Hiller <[email protected]> Subject: [BVARC] Antenna Building and Theory class - was The Stir Crazy Net is here for you! We can reserve the same room, after VE Testing (morning) for in the afternoon. How about two Saturdays, October 4th and November 7th, from 12-4? Subject to room availability, at Bayland Park Community Center, 6400 Bissonnet. Rick are you available for those days? 73 Mark K5MGJ On Thursday, September 4, 2025 at 08:09:54 PM CDT, Rick Hiller via BVARC <[email protected]> wrote: Ok, Blake, et al, I would be all in to help instruct with an antenna building and general antenna theory class if some one wants to start getting one together. Let me know if you wish to discuss the possibilities. Quite a few years back BVARC had a Saturday morning antenna seminar covering all types of antennas and it was well received. Coupling that with actually building a sky hook would attract more antenna aficionados and neophytes. Standing by....73....Rick W5RH Rick W5RH [email protected] On Wed, Sep 3, 2025 at 11:45 AM baaelectronics via BVARC <[email protected]> wrote: Dan, I can confirm that an HT with a homebrew antenna is perfectly adequate for uplinking to a repeater. My “base station” for a few months following my tech exam was a 10y/o IC-W32 and vertical dipole made of a wooden ruler, 12AWG electrical wire, GoPro mount, and BNC cable from a UHF microphone system. If anyone’s made a J-pole from those same materials, I’d like to hear about it! I’m still interested in an antenna building class with the club if anyone else is too. N5HCU built 2m tape measure Yagis a while back, and even that taught me a ton.  Blake Alley | BAA Electronics QRZ: N5BAA Mobile: (281) 450-5785 [email protected]     From: BVARC <[email protected]> on behalf of Daniel Poirot via BVARC <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, September 3, 2025 at 11:23 AM To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <[email protected]> Cc: Daniel Poirot <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [BVARC] The Stir Crazy Net is here for you! AND... We also chatted about the intersection of new users, space-constrained antennas, low-cost handhelds, and hands-on projects! The common Baofeng UV-5R has some limitations with the stock antenna. A gain antenna, like the J pole, can do all the good! Friends in apartments, townhouses, and aggressive HOA-spaces can still make good use of the J pole planted in a flower pot or five gallon bucket! Every new Ham, and any interested parties, can learn a lot from building antennas. The Golden Path of antenna building might look a lot like dipole, 1/4 wave ground plane, J pole, Slim Jim. Cool, huh! I think we could manage a guided tutorial on antenna building! So, friends such as N5BAA, with something like a HT, and a J pole in a bucket can really reach out! (lazy Clue metaphor) Thoughts? 73 Dan KJ5IZK On Tue, Sep 2, 2025 at 8:25 PM Daniel Poirot <[email protected]> wrote: We had a great chat today on 146.94 at 12:00 We even had a drop-in from the east coast (I think). Our out of town guest offered up an interesting Raspberry Pi-based Ham Radio project - sBitx The sBitx is a 25 watt, high performance SDR that you can easily build, it has all popular digital modes like FT8 integrated. This reminded me of my interest in the Raspberry Pi-based WSPR project: RaspberryPi WSPR Node : 7 Steps So cool! Everyone should do one! 73 Dan KJ5IZK ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ -- Rick Hiller W5RH e-mail: [email protected] Cell/VM/Text: 832-474-3713 Physical: 9031 Troulon Drive Houston, TX 77036 ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
