Happy_Hamer (Bill) & I arrived this morning early at the 2009 Dayton Hamvention. We'll continue to update this thread with pics and interesting things as we have time.
Here are a couple of pictures of new Radios being shown. Details to follow...
Here's the announcement from Kenwood about their new HT (no radio shown)
Here's the announcement of the new Kenwood HF Transceiver:
New Alinco 1.2 Ghz HT
This is the only 1.2Ghz HT on the market right now. It's also full duplex, which means it will work great for working Satellites
On Saturday, May 2nd, I attended the Orange County Red Cross May Day Emergency Communications event. Gordon West was the MC (who I got to meet). There were various ECOM agencies represented, including the Orange County Sheriff's RACES vehicle, the San Diego County RACES vehicle, Red Cross Vehicles, and Navy MARS (me!). I took some pictures of the various portable stations and vehicles to share with everyone here.
Just to brag for a minute, Gordon West wanted to see my setup of my Hi-Q 4-80 and 500 Watt amp with the radio, tnc, computer, etc. He closely inspected the amp and antenna installation and declared that it was one of the cleanest installs that he had ever seen. He's a really nice guy to everyone and I'm sure he was just being nice to me, too...but I'll take the compliment!
There were also a lot of new hams or people studying to be hams who had a lot of questions. They were teaching a ham radio license class there and took a few minutes to tour them around with all of the vehicles.
Well after a couple of weeks experimenting with an end fed wire antenna for 11 meters and trying to get the matching cicuit right (and fighting with my OCD ) I have started the "final" design of my vertical ground plane antenna. Once I got the matching circuit right (photo 1), I ended going with an air wound coil and a coax capacitor which brought the SWR down to 1.5:1 on the wire antenna and I'm pretty confident I can get this setup to work with the vertical. I was able to pickup some aluminum tubing that is 7/8" in diameter and about 5' long. I joined them with a two foot wooden dowel and a coupler made from conduit and hose clamps (photos 2 & 3). The overall length is 22.5 feet and seems to be very strong and lightweight. Photo 4 is the completed radiator attached to the base and the enclosure for the matching cicuit. Photo 4 also shows the mount and support which is pressure treated 2x4's I had laying around which is designed to transfer the wind stress around the base and enclosure straight to the antenna mast which will be 1.25" conduit extending all the way to the ground from the... [Read More]
... 
... 
) I have started the "final" design of my vertical ground plane antenna. Once I got the matching circuit right (photo 1), I ended going with an air wound coil and a coax capacitor which brought the SWR down to 1.5:1 on the wire antenna and I'm pretty confident I can get this setup to work with the vertical. I was able to pickup some aluminum tubing that is 7/8" in diameter and about 5' long. I joined them with a two foot wooden dowel and a coupler made from conduit and hose clamps (photos 2 & 3). The overall length is 22.5 feet and seems to be very strong and lightweight. Photo 4 is the completed radiator attached to the base and the enclosure for the matching cicuit. Photo 4 also shows the mount and support which is pressure treated 2x4's I had laying around which is designed to transfer the wind stress around the base and enclosure straight to the antenna mast which will be 1.25" conduit extending all the way to the ground from the... 
