my first try at welding

[kf4anm]

put down some major cheese for a new cb/intercomm/weather radio for the gw. I wanted to mount the cb antenna a little differently than i have had it. (down on the light rail.) I looked at the oem mounts but wanted something a little higher. my neighbor has a nice harbor freight arc welder and some roundbar. we bent the round bar and he showed me how to lay the weld. i put a plate on the bottom and the side of a chain link on top. i ground everything down and painted it. getting the angle on the top plate was a challenge. it was interesting trying to get into the rythmn of getting the rod flowing and still feeding it evenly. the antenna coupler fit on the other end of the link perfectly. it grounds to the frame and created a good ground plane. i was able to trim my antenna to a nice 1.5 swr across the band. the last thing i added a truck stop fold over so i can add my cover or get into the barn. the whole experience was a blast. now i'm thinking of making my own backrest.


the new radio


my bracket









as always koday dx7590 5 mega-p