kc1pyt
| Joined: | Fri, Oct 15th 2021, 15:02 | Roles: | N/A | Moderates: | N/A |
Latest Topics
| Topic | Created | Posts | Views | Last Activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Questions About Promoting NTS | May 9th 2022, 18:17 | 1 | 4,226 | on 9/5/22 |
| What Determines How Many Watts an Antenna Can Take? | May 9th 2022, 18:07 | 2 | 3,954 | on 11/5/22 |
Latest Posts
| Topic | Author | Posted On |
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| Questions About Promoting NTS | kc1pyt | on 9/5/22 |
| I listen in to a nearby NTS net on a regular basis. I'm struck by how few messages get passed some days. I readily see the value of NTS. In a disaster Joe Six Pack is not going to know how to setup Winlink at the drop of a hat with no access to the Internet. I feel like there is more we can do as hams to promote the service. Some thoughts that occur to me: * Why not establish a new tradition of having regular intervals where hams send NTS messages to each other? * If that's not enough, chess by mail[1] has a long history in this country. It seems like it should be relatively trivial to adapt that to NTS and get several games going. * I got one friend interested in ham radio just by sending him a holiday message via NTS. So, it seems like it might be a good "recruiting tool" for some. * Promoting NTS to hams in countries where it is not an established practice. I am still very much the new guy here but I just wanted to share my thoughts. Does anyone else here have any ideas for promoting NTS radiograms to the wider ham community or the general public? [^1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correspondence_chess |
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| What Determines How Many Watts an Antenna Can Take? | kc1pyt | on 9/5/22 |
| New ham (AG) here with a question. I'm going to be making my first antenna soon and there is something I just don't understand. I see antennas available for sale that are rated for a given number of watts. Sometimes its as simple as a fixed watt amount. At other times it's something more complex like "100 watts FM, 25 watts packet" or some similar duty cycle qualifier. I get that "RF gotta go somewhere" and a certain amount of RF is lost as heat with every transmission. But, what part(s) of antennas are subject to failure at higher wattages? More to the point, when I design my antenna, how can I be sure from a design and materials perspective that a specific antenna can withstand some number of watts for a given amount of time at whatever duty cycle I anticipate? My antennas are mostly going into my attic, so I *really* don't want to create a fire hazard. |
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