3D Printing and Ham Radio

3D Printing to the Rescue

I find that my hobbies tend to come together. I have been into 3D printing for nearly 20 years, with my experience going back to the very first RepRap printer almost 20 years ago. I just got into amateur or ham radio in September of 2025. It's funny how hobbies have a way of coming together.

Wire Winders, Insulators, and Tensioners

As I get further into the ham radio hobby, I have been spending most of my time on HF while I am playing radio. I have a basic magnetic-mount antenna that I put on my car. I got this because it is really easy to deploy in the cold, and since I am doing a lot of Parks in the Air (POTA) mobile activations, I like to be able to throw my antenna up in about 2-3 minutes.

I have just started to move to wire antennas, and my first builds will be dipoles and resonant vertical wire antennas. To help me with thi,s I have made some simple wire winders to allow me to make the antennas and throw them in my gear bag or box. I have also made some insulators and tensioners for Paracord to make it easier to deploy these wire antennas in the field. Not counting coax or the coax adapters, the cost per antenna, including these spools, tensioners, wire, and Paracord, will be around $10 for 10M and 20M options. This, of course, doesn't include the mast or any chokes or similar, but if I can find a tree, I don't need a mast. Of course, larger antennas require more infrastructure and cost more when you go from 30-40 feet of wire to 100 feet of wire, but still, the cost of silicone wire is only about $0.08 per foot at the moment, and the highest cost is actually the coax and masts (assuming I can't mount everything in a tree).

Finally, a Use for Filament Spools

I finally found a use for empty spools. I had an empty filament spool, and it is the perfect fit for a 50-foot length of coax. I have switched to reusable, recyclable spools for most filaments, but I still have some "single-use" spools with filament on them, so I am glad I found a way to keep them out of the landfill. I might make an insert for the center of the spool to make it easier to unwind by sticking a screwdriver through the middle, or by adding a similar axle for winding or unwinding.

Links to Files

One common thread between ham radio and my other hobbies is the openness and willingness of participants to share resources. Many ham hobbyists share their design files freely for simple tools and document the build processes for different types of antennas.

Here are the files that I printed:

Wire Spools
https://www.printables.com/model/181484-lightweight-antenna-cable-spooler

Insulators
https://www.printables.com/model/415312-ham-radio-antenna-insulator

Paracord Tensioners
https://www.printables.com/model/18560-simple-paracord-tensioner

52 for 52 - Week 4

Week 4

This week started out with very bad band conditions 

Starting on Monday, the A-Index was over 100, with most subsequent checks showing the number around 150 to just under 200. The K-Index has been around K6 or K7.

Midday Wednesday, the bands opened up a little more, and most were "Fair" rather than "Poor." On Thursday morning, band conditions were substantially better, although even though the bands were pretty weak the first half of the week, on Wednesday evening near UTC rollover, I was able to make an FT8 contact with Fiji (3D2). After the UTC day roll over the conditions didn't really get any better. The only station calling was the same Fiji station I had contacted earlier, so I waited for at least 45 minutes since the first contact and the next UTC day, and made contact again.

I am glad that I am experiencing this now. Band conditions were weak, it was after sunset, and I was still able to make a 6,200+ mile contact on 10 meters. The conventional wisdom says I shouldn't have been able to make that contact, but finding the right conditions, the right mode, and someone sitting in the right place listening. It is definitely helping me to be willing to try and not give up. I keep hearing that we are at the downward side of the solar cycle and that HF conditions are going to get worse.

I was able to get some cash together and ordered some parts and pieces to make some wire antennas. I started by 3D-printing parts and accessories to help me organize, store, and deploy new wire antennas.

POTA Activations

This week, I did not conduct any POTA activations this week.

Totals

I am a little confused; my numbers don't line up on my general logs, LOTW, or QRZ. I know I have done an additional 64 contacts this week, so I am going to go with that number and just use the additional contacts for each week.

52 for 52 - Week 3

Week 3

With the start of week three of this challenge, I have decided I need to work harder on becoming a better operator. To assist myself with this, I have started to force myself to make at least one phone contact per day. Unfortunately, where I am operating from in town, my radio has a noise floor at about S5 or S6, making it nearly impossible for me to hear phone contacts. But when I do POTA activations, the noise floor is really lo,w so I am able to make phone contacts, and I have made sure to make at least one phone contact per 

POTA Activations

This week was my first activation of Boysen State Park, and my second and third as well. I have found that one spot in Boysen State Park is the closest POTA spot to my house, so I will probably be activating it pretty frequently. I may even try to make it my first 20-activation spot.

This past weekend (17th and 18th) was a support your parks weekend, so I decided to make sure I activated as much as I could to help hunters and increase my park-to-park numbers.

Totals

I have been trucking along with my radio operating. I have been able to keep up with both operating every day and hitting my 52 contact target. I have also been making contacts every day. Of course, due to the high noise floor of my QTH, I have been operating mostly in WSJT-X modes FT8 and FT4. So far, I have been averaging right at 100 contacts per week.

52 for 52 - Week 2

Week 2

Week two started with the last day of my kids' Christmas vacation from school, so we went on a little adventure to Thermopolis to visit Hot Springs State Park, Legend Rock, and the Wyoming Dinosaur Center.

If you are ever able to go, you should check out the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. They have a lot of exhibits, even though the space is somewhat small compared to larger museums. There are many specimens from Wyoming, and many that were collected right in Thermopolis.

One extremely interesting fossil is the "Thermopolis Specimen," an Archaeopteryx fossil that is really cool, as long as you know what you are looking at.

Here is a link with some more information on the Thermopolis Specimen.

The end of week 2 came with more POTA activations and my first POTA Rover Award. I activated a total of six entities on January 11th. My first activation was just after UTC rollover. It was pitch black, and the wind was making sounds that were creeping me out, so I got out of there as quickly as I could, which is why I only have a photo of the road on my way out.

POTA Activations

I activated Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis and for my next activation and my first time visit we went to Legend Rock. Then the following weekend I made a late night visit to Lake Cameahwait but didn't stay too long because I was super creeped out by the sounds of the wind. The next day my family and I went to Sinks Canyon and activated a couple of two-fer parks.

Totals

My second week of 52 for 52 was pretty successful. I was able to activate 5 times (with three two-fer activations) and I was able to get my first Rover award.

52 for 52 - Week 1

Week 1

The first week is the shortest, only four days, but fortunately, I was able to meet my target. This week was pretty fun. I only worked on WSJT-X modes, but I was able to reach Japan, Cuba, and even Australia (although it hasn't been confirmed yet). I am learning how to operate SSB as well, but I haven't had luck getting anyone to hear me on the other side yet.

POTA Activations

Totals

This is the first week of 2026. I want my week to start on Sunday and end on Saturday. Because I don't want to have a super short week for the start of the year, I will include January 1-3 in week one numbers. 

52 for 52 - Week 0

Week 0

This is the start of my radio logs. I had some UHF/VHF radios, but I hadn't really started keeping a log until I got on HF. I got a Xiegu G90 for Christmas and a Radioddity HF-008. I wasn't able to make any contacts on Christmas Day until after UTC rollover, so even though the local time was still Christmas Day, it was Dec 26th by UTC, so that is what I am going with for my recording purposes.

My first POTA Activation. While I was working toward my general license and deciding what I wanted to do once I had it, I found Parks on the Air. I have decided to try to do as many POTA activations as I can. My first Activation was a two-fer at Lake Cameahwait/Sand Mesa, known locally as Bass Lake.

It was crazy to see the lake open. There was just a tiny amount of ice around the edge, but it created some super cool reflections on the lake.

Totals

This was my first week with my radio and actually only ran from December 26th to December 31st since I didn't make any contacts on Christmas day by UTC time.