Chase Cam, Headlamp, YAGI Antenna Build, Testing, Christmas Tree, K...

First thing yesterday morning, 3:45am... I woke up feeling the ick that everyone else has had so my day was not looking the greatest. I got up and made the first batch of hot tea for the morning which did help some. I finished printing the pieces for the chase cam for paragliding. It looks pretty slick and seems like it will work quite nicely My camera seems a bit heavy for it but with lines tied in the right spot it should aim correct. Just need a day conducive to flying to try it out now.

Mid morning Hive account@stryeyz and I went to North 40 so I could get the conduit for the antenna boom and the bolts for my ski wax vises.

Nicely my new headlamp arrived and I got it on the charger. HOLY SHIT is this thing bright. INSANELY bright for such a small form factor. Well worth the wait for shipment from China and only $40 which is 1/3 the cost of a Petzl this bright. Even the red light on high is blinding!

3d printer go brrrrrrrrrr eeeee brrrrrr eeee. So many various parts are getting pumped out of the thing. This is a dipole antenna and paper towel holders.

Much of my day was focused on the antenna build and I had to get the spacing measurements marked out on the boom.

All the elements in place I found that they were too loose on the boom but they lined up nicely and looked correct.

I drilled holes in the boom to fix each element to. I then had to wrap the boom with electrical tape at each mounting point so the elements would fit tight.

I'm a bit SOL when it comes to the 50 Ohm coax, all I could find is the 75 Ohm from Direct TV so hacked a length of that off for my antenna connection.

It was easy in the element as the crimps worked fine.

It was the so239 that was my problem, they don't like solder. I ended up putting a terminal end on the shield and fixed it under the frame with the screw. It works.

So outside with the antenna and my NanoVNA to give it a test. I was not exactly understanding what I was doing at first so had to go in and read up a good bit.

So after an hour of digging I managed to figure it out. I had the antenna stood up inside the house while I tested and you can see the marker is showing and SWR of 1:1.715 at 147 MHz which is in the range I want.

I am pretty sure I will be able to tune this thing once it is up on the tower which I am thinking quite hard on how to erect.

OMG I WISH!!!! Lying little bastard, 2 blocks....

It was near 4pm when we all headed for the hillside to get our Christmas tree. I had picked it out a week or 2 ago while cutting trees and it was at the base of the hill, all of 50 feet from the edge of the garden. It has a nice upright shape to it with okay strong branches.

It didn't take long for the boys to get the decorations out for it and had it covered.

I printed out a Tardis and got it hung in the tree. Then I scaled it up and printed out the largest I could and used it on top of the tree as our star.

Home Alone was the movie on while the decorating took place.

Then in the evening the Kraken game came on and they got straight up embarrassed at home. Sad sad sad.

I found a model for dart flights that I gave a try but ended in total failure. I think they could be made possibly with the flights down and threads up? the design needs threads added too. I will; fiddle with the design and try to get it refined. If I can then I could print an entire bed of 51 that would cost about $5 in filament, not $5/set of 3.

I turned the Kraken game off as it was just sad and went out to try and soak but my skin is trying to make me remove it with the itching. My head can't relax when my feet are on fire so I got less than half an hour in.

Managed an hour more sleep this morning and am watching the Man Utd match now which the are winning miraculously. The ick is a lot lighter this morning and my chest feels better. I'll keep working on the antenna today and try to figure out how to get the tower in place, make sure to order more filament while on sale, build the ski wax vises, then the Seahawks play this morning, then this evening we will figure out something to make for dinner.