Monthly Archive: February 2015

Feb 19

The Phonetic Alphabet

Categories:

Best Practices, Front Page Slider, Soap Box

by

February 19, 2015

The phonetic alphabet is one of the “basics” of communications.  It is my understanding that it came about in the 1950’s. Its purpose is minimize potential misunderstandings in communication due to mispronounced leters.  The words assigned to each letter were selected based on thousands of tests involving 31 different nationalities and accounts for the differences in linguistics of those nationalities.

Here are the letters of the alphabet and their associated code words:

Letter Phonetic Word Letter Phonetic Word
A Alpha N November
B Bravo O Oscar
C Charlie P Pappa
D Delta Q Quebec
E Echo R
… -continue reading

This post has no tag

Feb 18

K400 Diamond Antenna Mount

Categories:

Antenna Mount, Equipment

by

February 18, 2015

Back in September of 2010, I purchased a Diamond 400 Antenna and it has worked very well for me on several vehicles, including my current Ford Excursion.

The Diamond 400 mounts on the edge or lip of the vehicle or other solid conductive material that can be used to support the antenna.  It is secured with four set screws and is a solid mount.

My current antenna is the ATAS-120, which has a wide wind profile and have only had one issue, of which I believe the root cause to be “operator error” (more on that later).… -continue reading

Tags: , , , ,

Feb 17

Welcome to the KE7TVZ Blog

Categories:

Uncategorized

by

February 17, 2015

Welcome to the KE7TVZ Blog.

I got my start, and my love, for electronics as a little kid with my Radio Shack 150 Project Kit. The “AM Broadcaster” was my favorite circuit to build. I figured out that connecting the “antenna” output to other metal objects increased the range I could hear my “broadcast” signal from. My “dx” dreams began!

In the mid 70’s our family got a CB Radio. I soon learned about SSB, Channel 38 and  “skip” – I was hooked!  In the early 80’s, I was in highschool in a small town. messing around … -continue reading

This post has no tag