Last year, I made a significant purchase at Dayton—my 150 MHz Siglent oscilloscope. This year, I didn’t really buy anything, though not for lack of trying. I was looking for two things: a hex beam and a GPS-disciplined, 10 MHz oscillator.
I was disappointed and kind of surprised that there were only two hex beam manufacturers there: Vibroplex, that sells Spider Beams, and RadioWavs. I also wanted to get a look at the K4KIO, NA4RR, and SP7IDX hex beams, as they’ve all gotten such good reviews on the hex-beam mailing list. Based on the reviews there, I’ll probably go with either the K4KIO or the NA4RR antenna.
I was also looking for a 10 MHz, GPS-disciplined oscillator. It would be really nice to have an accurate frequency source in my shack, and I actually had a good use for one a couple of weeks ago when Thom, W8TAM, brought over a couple of Chinese frequency counters he’d purchased. I didn’t find one there, but not finding one wasn’t as surprising as not finding more hex beams.
There are quite a few options. Force12 has started selling a GPS-disciplined oscillator (GPSDO) made in the U.K. It looks like a nice unit, but it costs $226. There are some used Trimble Thunderbolt units available on eBay for about $150. And if you Google “GPS disciplined oscillator” you’ll find a number of homebrew solutions. I may opt for the easy thing here and purchase the unit from Force12.
If you have an opinion on either hex beams or GPSDOs, please feel free to weigh in here or e-mail me directly.
Aside from that, I was able to find a Bencher BY-1 in the flea market for $50. It doesn’t look like it’s been used for quite a while, and the plug was wired backwards (i.e. the tip was connected to the dah contact, not the dit contact), so I’m not sure how much it was ever used. This evening, I rewired the plug and adjusted the contacts, so it’s ready for the next user.
I also purchased the book, Getting Started with Amateur Satellites, by G. Gould Smith, WA4SXM, published by AMSAT. Oddly enough, this book isn’t yet listed for sale in the AMSAT store, but I imagine that if you contact them, they’ll sell you a copy. The cost is $20.
The book purchase was triggered by my befuddlement at the ARROW Antenna booth. I wanted to buy an antenna to try to work some satellites, but they offer about a dozen different hand-held antennas for satellite work, and I just didn’t know what to get. They were really busy, too, and I didn’t feel like waiting around, so that I could ask them some questions. Perhaps after reading the book and perusing the ARROW website, which has a number of instructional articles and videos, I’ll be able to figure out what to get.