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    Surfin': Finding More DX and VNAs

    By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
    Contributing Editor
    February 08, 2008


    This week, revisit the past two installments of Surfin’ and find out what we missed.


    screenshot
    N0HR’s DXpedition Map provides a cool graphic presentation of what is going on in the world of DX.

    Still Finding DX

    Two weeks ago, the Finding DX installment of Surfin’ got N0HR’s attention and Pat wrote, “Some good DXing sites, Stan. In fact, great minds think alike because I had just days ago blogged that NG3K’s site was my ham site of the week. Naturally, my favorite DX ‘awareness’ site is still my own DXpedition Map, which gets data from NG3K.”

    I visited N0HR’s map, and being an amateur cartographer, I liked what I saw and I think you will like it, too. Just make sure you have the latest Flash Player installed in your Web browser of choice. If not, you can get a free one here.

    Other readers wrote in to mention their favorite DX Web sites. Matt Cassarino, WV1K, and Tom Hadley, K1YQ, suggested the DXSCAPE Web cluster, while Fred Scholz, K6BXI, recommended DXWATCH.COM.

    More VNAs in Your Future

    After last week’s Surfin about Vector Network Analyzers (VNAs) appeared on the ’net, Leigh Klotz, WA5ZNU, wrote to tell me about two other VNAs that I missed: The two-port miniVNA from Mini Radio Solutions covers up to 180 MHz and there is a project on its support group to build an extender that covers up to 2.4 GHz.

    The deluxe, ham-designed TimeWave TZ-900 AntennaSmith deserves a mention, even though at $1000, it just might be out of many ham’s budget.

    Until next time, keep on surfin’!

    Editor’s note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, used homebrew beer and ham gear; he recommends not sampling the two simultaneously. To communicate with Stan, send him e-mail or add comments to his blog. By the way, every installment of Surfin’ is indexed here, so go look it up.


       



    Page last modified: 03:20 PM, 07 Feb 2008 ET
    Page author: awextra@arrl.org
    Copyright © 2008, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.