There has been an upsurge of interest of late in the the low VHF spectrum around 40 MHz and 60 MHz as radio amateurs in some countries have gained access to the experimental 8-metre and 5-metre bands.
Radio amateurs from Ireland, Lithuania, South Africa and Slovenia can currently transmit on the 40 MHz band while amateurs from several other European countries are interested in trying cross band experiments, usually from 10-metres or 6-metres.
In order to promote the sharing of information about equipment, antennas, propagation and tests, a new Facebook group has now been established and anyone with an interest in this part of the low VHF spectrum is welcome to join and contribute.
The group can be found at... https://www.facebook.com/groups/2897330140356898/

Call me a cheapskate or miser if you will, but I prefer to build my own radio stuff. And often, I don't have a suitable enclosure for my home made circuit boards. Actually, although a nice slick Hammond box looks great on the radio desk, it isn't always necessary. Sometimes it's enough to simply protect a circuit board from rough handling, or the environment (especially for hams like me who like to operate outdoors).

Some time ago I started experimenting with recycling plastics. I seem to accumulate a lot of plastic containers so I researched online to learn more about the different kinds of plastic materials and what could be done with them. First, the word plastic is an adjective, not a noun. Plastic materials are polymerized (i.e. long chain) molecules that behave in different ways depending on how they are made.

When I moved to Owen Sound I learned one thing really fast - the water tastes absolutely awful! I have a basement full of sophisticated equipment to process the water but the drinking water filters are expensive to replace, so I supplement that with plastic bottled water. Then I discovered that the plastic material used for drinking water bottles shrinks when heated. Great discovery. Now I use it for shrink-wrapping my circuit boards. Cost: zero. Processing time: about thirty seconds! It doesn't result in the neatest encapsulation, but with a bit of practice you can do a decent enough job.

Attached is a picture of one circuit I shrink wrapped just recently. For anybody who is curious; it's an Ezitune - a circuit using a noise bridge for finding the resonant frequency of an HF antenna.
John, VA3KOT    

When Yahoo Groups went down, many forums migrated to groups.io, some did not.

An enterprising ham archived all the ham radio related Yahoo groups that he could find, before they disappeared.  They are at this URL:

https://www.k5qo.com/yahoo_groups/

They are searchable & may be a useful source of info if you are looking for a solution to a problem.

73
Dave, VE3WI

5G Explained

Since I have all this spare time on my hands from self-isolation, I thought I would share my tower project with you as I go through the various stages.  Amateur radio is a new hobby for me and I'm treading on uncharted territory.  I'm thankful for the assistance I've received from Tom (VA3TS), Jeremy (VA3JL) and You Tube!  Learning by the seat of my pants is what I'd call it!

I have a small lot in Owen Sound close to the river.  Because I'm down the bottom of 10th street, I'm expecting city noise and the escarpment to be an issue.  To help mitigate this, I have a Wade DMX-40N 40' heavy duty tower that was dropped off last weekend in sections by TDL Canada.  The specs call for a 4' x 4' x 4.5' concrete base reinforced with concrete.  As soon as the weather clears up, I plan to hand dig this, or at least start it.  I have two other volunteers willing to help with the dig so that is a relief.

One of the obstacles I have run into before even starting is concrete.  Harold Sutherland Construction was a customer of mine before they were bought out by Walker Aggregates.  I had their concrete guy Mike Gowan stop by to see how we were going to get 3 cu. yds. of concrete in my back yard when the space between the houses is just under 10'.  We couldn't use a pump because of the utility wires.  This  left us with the conveyer option.  However, the conveyor was short 15' from the hole so we would still have to hand bomb with a wheel barrow.

All that changed.  Harold Sutherland Construction redi-mix division is not an essential service unless you had a permit prior to Doug Ford's list of essential services.  As a consequence, they can't supply me and are struggling themselves to stay open.

Unless there is a change, my backup plan is to do this with a rented 9 cu. ft. mixer from Sunbelt and 160 bags of concrete from one of the local building suppliers.  This is a lot of cement to mix and I'm not a spring chicken anymore.  Once again, I'm grateful to have a helper or two that can help and and also practice safe distancing.

I will keep you posted.  Today I'm going to go pick up my TGM MQ-36SR quad cubical and Hy-Gain vertical I have stored in someone's barn.  At the very least this week, I would like to get these set up on temporary masts and tuned with my Rigexpert AA-220 Zoom, a toy I am really anxious to play with.  I was able to get my mast material yesterday from Elma Steel.  I got two 12' lengths of 2" galvanized with almost 1/8" wall.

73's to everyone!

Hello GBARC.  My summer project is get my tower and antennas up.  I was wondering if anyone had any mast material I could buy from you.  I am looking for some heavy duty 2" mast maybe 10' long.  I plan to have about 8' or 9' above my bearing.  Locally I can buy 12 gauge galvanized.  Thanks for any assistance. 73 Rob

Photonic Breakthrough: A New Light-Emitting Silicon Eliminates Heat in PCB Design

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/ph...cb-design/

I have been wanting to get on 160M sense I was first licensed.  Of my reading, my conclusion is that an inverted L is the most practical way to get on due to antenna size and height requirements to use any other antenna.  My thought was to use one of my towers as the base of it, (the vertical section on the inverted L), and then run a wire south to the peak of my barn roof, to give me as much length and height as I could.  then start with the analyzer and trip accordingly.

Looking for the Elmer's to chime in with their thoughts and suggestions.

So, a couple of years ago, I was gifted some Aluminum Tube.  Maybe 4 inches in diameter, and 12 - 16 feet long.  I am wondering about making vertical antenna's out of them, as was the plan of the fine man who gifted them to me when he was moving and was unable to take them with him.  They will need to stood on an insulator of course.  And then a ground plane of some sort made.  I'm looking for thought's and idea's.