I agree, the Slim Jim is a great antenna for the meager cost involved in building it. There are a couple of suggestions on the ldsradio.ca Antennas section. One is basically made of aluminum tubing from old TV antenna parts and the other is a roll up antenna that's a great performer made from Radio Shack 300 ohm twin lead. If you make antennas be sure to test their VSWR before putting a lot of power intoi them. Bad a bad match can ruin the finals in your transceiver.

The BNC connectors are so nice to use for making quick connections but they aren't well suited for high power, the UHF connectors (PL-259 and SO-239) are easier to use than type N's. The type N's have far less loss than the UHF PL259 connectors at UHF and beyond. You will often find that on dual band radios there is a female N for connector for 440 MHz and a female UHF SO-239 style connector for 146 MHz. 

How silly is it to call PL-259 connectors UHF connectors when we don't want to use them for that. It goes back to early days of radar.  Confusing isn't it?

I don't believe that N connectors are sealed well enough for outside use without some protection, same with BNC connectors and UHF connectors. I used to work at remote radio sites and the seals were forever breaking down in the very bad weather conditions encounterd.

 I use a self vulcanizing tape for that and it's available from plumbing and electrical supply stores. In my case I got some tape from Home Depot. You put a layer of vinyl electrical tape over the connectors and apply it with sticky side out. This is to protect the connector from the self vulcanizing tape which once it pulls in is very hard to remove if you ever wish to reuse the connector. Then cut off about 4 inches of the self vulcanizing tape and apply it, stretching it all the while. You don't need a very thick layer. Do stretch some over the cable itself, beyond the vinyl tape previously applied. If you need more simply cut another piece and stretch and apply. When you feel the connection is well protected go over it again with a layer of vinyl tape to protect it all from UV. It also holds the vulcanizing tape in place while that pulls itself in and fill in any remaining voids. Great stuff. Locally it costs me about $9 for a roll but a roll goes a long way because you use very little per connection.

There are four type of power available, switching power supplies, analog power supplies, batteries, and fuel powered generators.  Each supply has it's pluses and minuses.

Analog supplies: reliable but heavy. They consist of an iron core transformer, rectifier, filter, and voltage regulator. That big transformer being the large body of weight. Analog supplies tend to be more expensive because of the large transformer with all the copper on it and the use of larger more expensive filter capacitors. Still, electrical noise from analog supplies is similar  to batteries, almost none existant.

Switching supplies: light weight less expensive, sometimes electronically noisy. These supplies have a rectifier, filter, switching circuit with ferrite core transformer, smaller final filters and voltage regulator. It's the switching transients that can be bothersome, mostly to HF radio gear. Military grade switching supplies are very quiet. You sort of get what you pay for with switching supplies. Some manufacturers take stupid shortcuts. Make sure you can take it back if it's not suitable. Go to the eHam reviews and see what other users have reported before putting your money down.

Battery power: reliable, quiet. Of course there are different kinds of batteries, the kind we have in our hand helds, lap tops, power tools, and then there are the lead acid types in our vehicles or in our ham shacks. I will just mention the lead acid batteries. There are float batteries and then there are sealed batteries. Float batteries must be kept out doors or in a ventilated space, vented to outside. They give off sulfurous fumes when being charged plus hydrogen and oxygen, an explosive mixture in presence of an ignition source. Float batteries must be checked often, a monthly schedule may be adequate and the fluid topped up with "distilled" water. No other water should ever be added to lead acid batteries. Water occurring naturally has minerals dissolved in it which will gradually neutralize the acid making the battery useless.

All lead acid batteries need to be kept charged up. A small smart charger used to keep up powered wheel chair batteries or golf cart batteries would do the job. A pulse type charger is good if you can afford the extra cost. Pulse chargers are claimed to help cut sulphation problems and make the batteries live longer. I use a 110 amp hour AGM (absorbed glass mat) battery for my ham shack. It's sealed but if it were dropped the acid would mostly stay withing the cracked casing of the battery and remain absorbed in the glass mat. Nice safety feature.  If you deep discharge any lead acid battery there will likely be some sulphation. Each time there is additional sulphation you lose some battery capacity until all you have is water, lead plates, and sulfur at the bottom of the battery. So, be good to your batteries if you want them to last.

Generators: There are lots of choices to make in gen sets. If you are going to run your household from one then you need to assess your needs and buy accordingly. Gen sets rated at 5 KW may seem adequate but then it depends on the nature of the loads being placed on it. Lights are a fairly stable load once lit, whereas an induction motor on something like an air compressor will flatten the generator and may cause a brown out. This is because starting current for an induction motor may be over twice what it states on its plate.

If you only want a gen set for a light and your radio then your needs may be a lot less. Perhaps a 2KW Honda Inverter generator may be what you need. The inverter generators have a constant voltage and frequency output because they do a conversion internally so doesn't matter what the RPM is, the frequency and voltage out are stable unless you overdo it with the load. You just need to remember to stop the generator periodically and check the oil level, change it if it's dirty, and make sure you have adequate reserves of gas or diesel. There  are propane gen sets too and they have benefits and draw backs. Propane left sitting for a few years will still burn in your propane gen set so is a great emergency fuel. On the other hand where are you going to go to get propane if yours runs out. A gas or diesel gen set is easier to find fuel for especially if you have a farm and a big reservoir for tractors, that sort of thing. Both diesel and gas have their problems. Gas gets oxidized over time and diesel grows a form of algae. So rotate your fuel every 3 or 4 months by burning it off in your vehicles and replacing with fresh.

O/K that's it from me. Hope this has been of help to someone.

Donn / VA7DH
ldsradio.ca

The Budipole antenna would be a great item for any ward or stake to have to complement what they may have for scout camps. I can't think of anything better than one of those, a Yaesu FT-817 radio, and a small autotuner, maybe also some spare battery power. Besides think of all those little scouts needing some extra weight to carry.

Glad to know that I am not the only one who has struggled with the issue of radios in church buildings. There are radios in the main Bishop's Storehouses (primary) and the equipment including a tilt tower is supplied by Salt Lk. The secondary Bishop's Storehouses seem to be on their own, same with Stake Buildings. As far as I have been able to discern regarding that the church has left that in the hands of stake leaders and Bishop's Storehouse people. Many bishop's storehouses are in leased buildings and many of the owners of those buildings do not  want large antennas on top of their structures. One way around that is to have remote antennas and HF radios at members residences and a control via VHF or UHF radio at the storehouse or stake building.  It's just money. Yes, the buildings people can be very dogged in their view of amateur radio and equipment in buildings. Just talk nicely to them and point out that amateur radio is the only thing that may get through in a major disaster. We seem to be in those times foretold in the scriptures - you know - the latter days when things start going sideways. Best to be prepared and communications helps us to work together when the going gets rough.

73

VA7DH
ldsradio.ca