Another week of amateur radio has expired. Expired Ham, get it? 🙂
Welcome to another issue of Expired Ham, a weekly newsletter where I discuss the ways I participated in the amateur radio hobby this week.
Over the next several weeks (or months), I will be putting together a new section of the website to showcase and catalog my ever growing Morse code key collection. The oldest key I’ve acquired so far is a 1917 Vibroplex Model X. Second oldest is a Vibroplex Martin Junior from around 1921. It’s been a lot of fun learning about the history of telegraphy keys and also, dare I say, it’s been fun learning to use a semi-automatic bug key and, at the moment, I think I’m a bit infatuated by them. Stay tuned for more on that.
Recently, the wife and I started doing a bit of kayaking now that the weather has warmed. I had an idea to do a bit of POTA activating while on the water and so I put together a small waterproof go-kit for my Elecraft KH1 transceiver. There are many options for doing this and you may be aware that I put together a go-kit for this radio already using an Apache case which is waterproof as well. I wanted something a bit smaller to hold little more than the bare necessities for operating from inside a kayak. You can buy a Pelican M40 micro case that’s been modified to allow proper clearance of the KH1’s collapsible whip antenna from Tufteln, and I considered getting this, but when I compared the price between the modified M40 case and a Pelican M50 micro case, it made more sense to save a dozen bucks on the M50, which doesn’t need any modifications at all. I can fit the KH1, AX1 antenna whip, AXE1 40m extension, short and long counterpoise wires, a Tufteln angle adapter for the AX1, a small Philips screwdriver, the N6ARA Tiny Paddle, a pair of earphones, a small pack of desiccant beads, and a piece of foam padding from my Apache case to snug everything up and keep anything from moving around.
73,
Matthew, K2MAS
As a member of Amazon’s Associate program, I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases made through referrals. This helps offset the costs of hosting this website and are greatly appreciated.
K2MAS.net 