Tag: hacks

Clipboard Keyer

I purchased a set of Palm Mini paddles for portable operating a while back. I love the magnet base, which attaches nicely to the side of my little YouKits HB-1B transceiver. However, in some situations — like sitting on the ground or operating from inside my truck — that isn’t always the most convenient arrangement for me. Here’s a little hack I came up with to solve that problem.

clipboard-1
Figure 1. Washers attached to clipboard
clipboard-2
Figure 2. Paddles attached to clipboard

I purchased an inexpensive 6-inch by 9-inch, acrylic clipboard at my local office supply store. I used some GOOP adhesive to attach two steel washers to the clipboard, as shown in Figure 1. I made sure that the washers lined up with the magnets on the base of the paddles. Figure 2 shows the paddles attached to the clipboard. Figure 3 shows the clipboard in use during a recent outing. For transport, the little clipboard fits in the small plastic container I use for the HB-1B and accessories.

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Figure 3. Clipboard & paddles in use

For less than $2.00, this little accessory makes portable operating a bit more convenient.

73, Craig WB3GCK

Jackite Pole Hacks

I’m a big fan of the Jackite fiberglass poles for portable antenna supports. I have two of them have have seen a lot of use over the years. Here are a couple of quick and simple hacks that improve (in my opinion) on an already great product.

Keeping the Cap From Falling Off

While the overall quality of Jackite’s products is excellent, there is one thing that I find annoying — the caps have a tendency to fall off when transporting the pole. To overcome this, I attached a velcro strap to the cap (Figure 1). The Velcro is something I had on hand in my junkbox. It’s about 8 inches long by 1 inch wide. I used a #4 machine screw with some flat washers, a lock washer and a nut (Figure 2). I used an awl and a small phillips screw driver to make the hole in the cap. I then attached two Velcro strips (the fuzzy part) on either side of the pole (Figure 3). When transporting the pole, just secure the Velcro straps (Figure 4) and you’re good-to-go.

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 4

Easy Extension

This quick mod might seem kinda pointless to some users. In fact, I hesitated about writing it up. Anyway, you be the judge:

Figure 5
Figure 5

In cases when I need to bungee or strap the pole to a fixed support, I would first need to extend the top-most section first. This is because the top section sits down inside the other sections when collapsed. What I did was attach a key ring (aka split ring) to the eyelet on the top section (Figure 5). The ring I used is approximately 7/8-inch in diameter. So, I can strap the collapsed pole to a support, remove the cap, reach in and use the ring to pull the top section out (Figure 6).

Figure 6
Figure 6

Again, you might not see the value in this one, but I find it helpful.

73, Craig WB3GCK