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Projects update

[Today’s run: track workout in Starkville, 3+ miles]

Station monitor:  I have been using it to gather temperature and forward/reflected power data.  Eventually I want to have it send me alerts if something goes wacky.  I have the FM chip thing working on my bench but have not moved forward with it as a silence detector yet.

Antenna and Feed line:  I removed about half of the hardline and reconfigured the entry to the new transmitter shack.  That helped my SWR quite a bit and subsequently the heating issue is relieved.  But I still want to replace it all up to the antenna.  Maybe we can work on that this weekend.  I need a nice day to climb the tower.

Tower takedown:  I have the opportunity to take down a 100′ tower up north of here.  I don’t know when I will be able to do it.  But I could put 3-4  10′ sections on the stack we have now to get up to 100′ for the FM station.  I need to talk to a guy about borrowing a gin-pole (or I could use the jury rigged thing I have here).

AVNA: I’m gathering the parts to build the Bob Larkin AVNA (audio frequency vector network analyzer) which was featured in the May/June 2018 QEX magazine.

Job searching:  My work is going well, but there is the looming end still estimated to be about 2-3 years out.  I’ve been looking at job boards and sending in the odd resume.  Nothing happening yet.  I am trying to get up to speed with some of the recent technologies, at least enough to be able to converse about them.

Transmitter shack:  I need to put the 2nd coat of paint on 2 more walls and the door then I’ll call it good.

Weather station:  It has been running OK.  I just cleaned it up with de-oxit spray and got it started up again.  I guess it was just dirty (?)  My fears of some fundamental problem seem to have been unfounded.  I need to get over to Starkville and do the same to the station over there.