Next meeting’s program will be “Tips and Tricks for Frugal Ham Radio,” presented by me—Tony Mendina, NT5TM. I’ll share my favorite techniques for ham radio on a budget, like building my own antennas and even test equipment…but your participation will be important! There’s only so much that I know, and you probably know lots that I don’t. Do you assemble your own cables? What tools have saved you a trip to the repair shop? What non-ham things have you substituted for expensive ham gear? Please bring your stories, tips, and even show-and-tell items to the meeting. We’ll all be glad you did.
Updates: Bill, N5BB, and several other folks recommended this great collection of ham and electronic training videos by W2AEW.
Participants also mentioned the free practice exams at https://hamexam.org/. It’s important to get the URL right—put a .com on the end and you go to a commercial site.
And David, W5EBB, mentioned a site full of antenna schematics in the comments below.
And if you need to zoom in on that picture of Bill’s power supply, the full presentation is here, too. Frugal Ham Radio Tips and Tricks
Antenna #59 from the above link is a 10m rectangular loop detailed here: http://hamantennas.blogspot.com/2011/02/10-m-rectangular-loop-antenna.html I made a 2m version of this simple antenna by reducing the dimensions a factor of 5. Works pretty good!
Here’s a good resource that shows 379 different antenna designs. https://www.qsl.net/va3iul/Antenna/Wire%20Antennas%20for%20Ham%20Radio/Wire_antennas_for_ham_radio.htm