What's so hard

So among my projects (I try to have a few open at any time so I can work on something I feel like doing when I get a few moments.) . . .anyway, I picked up a Kenwood 2 meter rig with no CTCSS tones. A tone board goes from $12.00 to $60.00: a bit much for a radio I spent 40 bucks on! I also used to love to build things. I have recently discovered Eagle Cad and the idea of printing the layout onto a glossy magazine page so it can be ironed onto the pc board material.
The last pc board I made involved rub on transfer pads and tape. Wow, does this do a better job! Not only is it much, much faster, I can do down to 20 mill or less pitch -- that's darn near my limits for hand soldering. Anyway, the key to the process is the correct iron temperature -- too hot ad it smears, too cold and it doesn't stick, For my iron it is two clicks above "woolens." I wish I had a thermometer so I could do this a little more accurately.
Anyway, I decided on my tone encoder to use a MX465 chip and surface mount parts (the chip is a 24 pin wide dip.) By mistake I ordered 603 components instead of 1206. I found that it was not that difficult to solder. I do have to admit to having a bit of experience with hand soldering, and really it is more about technique than some unique skill. It went OK (other than losing a few parts!) and the board works, although I ended up hacking up the rigs case trying maintain access to the dip switch on the tone board. My mechanical engineering skills are still no better than they were 15 years ago!
I also have parts for a smd bitx20 that I laid out the board for. I am excited and a little nervous about it. I would like to build it into a small rig I can use in the car. I am including a mod for CW (yet to be finalized,) and provision for at least 40 and 20 meters (I would like to also have 15 and especially 10, but we shall see.)

My Challenges

After a 20-year hiatus I am trying to get back into Ham radio. I am amazed at how much it has changed. Surprised that my prize transceiver is now considered a “classic” - or even worse - “antique” radio. Perhaps I would appreciate it more if the title “boat-anchor” were used.

Perhaps my biggest challenge is the dreaded CC&R's which are attached to my property, along with the included HOA (Home Owners Association.) When we were looking for our home, we found it impossible to find a home that we could afford, that was in a decent neighborhood with decent schools that did not include CC&R's. It seems that developers and the city love them as a means of helping to sell homes and as “free and easy” code enforcement.

Along with the HOA and CC&Rs, I also am married to a wonderful wife, who unfortunately does not share my aesthetic appreciation for antennas. To me, few things are so inherently symmetrically beautiful as a four element multi-band beam on a 60 foot tower. Except, of course, the aforementioned wife. Even a dipole has a certain simple elegance and no-nonsense visually clear purposefulness. To my wife (and to my HOA) they destroy the beautiful clean uncluttered roof lines. They clutter up the yard . . .

So where do I stand? How do I get on the air?

A wire run under the eave shows promise, except that the noise is well over S8 – S9 . . . not so useful. One day when no one is home, I plan to turn off / unplug everything to see if I can localize the noise. My portable antique short wave radio shows that the AC wiring in my walls is where it's coming from. In fact, I can trace the wiring with the radio! A spectrum analyzer would be handy, then I could watch what EMI disappears when I unplug, say, the wireless phone base station (another one of my offenders.)

I have been playing with the mag-loop; I think that will be my answer. I have a 16-foot circumference square loop that listens great! I am still working out the kinks with the trombone cap. I can get 40 and 30, or 30 and 20; I can't quite get 40 – 20 meters. I am close to making the darn thing a 40 and 30 meter antenna, and then make another one for 20 – 15 ( or maybe even 10.)

I would be in a bigger hurry to get back on 2 meters, except that 2 meters is fairly quiet compared to where I used to live (in K6 land.)

I also used to have a whole bedroom dedicated to my hobbies; now I have an entertainment Armoire! But, I think I can make it work. The first project I really want to share is the insert I made for it. See, the ground rules are that I can make no irreversible mods to the furniture. Now the biggest problem so far is what to do with the computer monitor. You see, this amoire also contains my computer. I think I got that solved and will share that as soon as I work out the kinks.

Enough for my first post here. More to follow.