Painted brown the white PVC pipe (that is in a concrete-filled work blue Lowe’s bucket) into which my aluminum mast will slide into to when I put my MFJ mag loop on top of it. Prepped the large planter that I’m going to put the whole thing in, to be filled in with dirt and flowers planted in it. The mast and MFJ loop and housing will eventually be painted brown so I can hide this in plain sight as yard art and for bird feeders. On the housing, I plan to put a fake birdhouse (the entrance hole will be painted on) to complete the illusion. Will have a bird feeder somewhere on the mast as well. Currently, my mag loop is in the attic. I also scouted out some locations in the yard to put a wire beam. I found a good place with a bunch of trees that form a polygon with a circumference of about 42 feet on the ground. The trees slope outward as they go up, so it looks like I might have a good place for either a stealthy wire beam anchored to 4 of the trees for the 10m band. Alternatively, perhaps I could just go with a mast and a more solid beam up there. All depends on being able to hide it in plain sight. A wire beam would have no issues with that. A mast, guy wires, and a solid 2- or 3-element beam? Probably a bit more difficult. With a mast, I could use a rotator. The wire beam would point in one direction, luckily it looks like it’s the direction I want. 73 de Jeff, KF5KWO
Not today, but yesterday, I started digging around in the foot deep pile of detritus on my bench, & I'm actually starting to find things! I left the batteries in a clamp meter some time ago, but luckily, a bit more recently, found a set of identical battery connector clips in an old TV remote control, & fitted them to replace the corroded ones. I was thrilled till I looked for the battery cover,------nowhere to be seen! Since then, I have been keeping any similar covers I came across, & yesterday found one in the junk pile. "That looks similar" thought I-----& so it should, as it was the "lost" original! "Winner, winner, chicken dinner!" I also found the Baofeng, and its charger, so maybe I will get a programming cable & try to resolve the "always muted" problem!
Thanks Gents. Slow process but its getting there. Though I just watched the video and it looks like I have Parkinson's.