What did you do today with your radio (or amateur radio related)? - Page 7

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - What did you do today with your radio (or amateur radio related)? (Page 7 of 10)

Posted: 1/27/2017 12:13:33 AM EDT

[#1]

Was browsing the bands after the local net ended and made a couple of SSB QSO's on 60m, WP3UX in Puerto Rico & LZ2DF in Bulgaria both having called CQ on 5.4035

Nick

Posted: 1/28/2017 4:42:37 PM EDT

[#2]

I needed to add a 240v outlet for the amp coming in. Since I was going to be in the sub-panel box anyway, I also added a 20A 120v breaker in addition to the 20A 240v for the amp. I used two pieces of 12-2 w/ground romex for the run to the desired location, stapling them to the floor joists (I'm working in the basement).

I ran the feed from the 20A 120v to a 4 outlet box. It lets me have all the radio stuff on an breaker separate from the rest of the house. The 240v outlet got its own box.

Now just waiting for brown santa to arrive Monday ...

Nick

Posted: 2/2/2017 12:55:01 AM EDT

[#3]

Took the Hamaha out into the Mojave to try out my solar setup. Still ironing out kinks in the gear to speed deployment. Did about half an hour of full 100 watt SSB QSOs on 40m with about 50/50 listen/xmit and the battery (18Ah SLA) was still showing fully charged. Was getting +10 signal reports into neighboring California. Came across an old mine site that had a nice north/south ridge with decent drop-off on either side that should help take-off angle I'll have to try some time.

Attached File

Posted: 2/2/2017 9:11:54 AM EDT

[#4]

Quote History

Quoted:
Took the Hamaha out into the Mojave to try out my solar setup. Still ironing out kinks in the gear to speed deployment. Did about half an hour of full 100 watt SSB QSOs on 40m with about 50/50 listen/xmit and the battery (18Ah SLA) was still showing fully charged. Was getting +10 signal reports into neighboring California. Came across an old mine site that had a nice north/south ridge with decent drop-off on either side that should help take-off angle I'll have to try some time.

View Quote

Looks like so much fun. Thanks for sharing the pics. Not much for trees out there, eh? Have you considered a wire antenna on a telescopic pole?

Posted: 2/2/2017 9:35:23 AM EDT

[#5]

Found this:

....which led to this:

...and this:

As they say, QRO will help you find your weakest spot. The Alpha Delta was shorted in both positions 1 and 4 when position 4 was selected. I've had this issue before, and is reportedly caused by the arc plug being over tightened. Seems like a crummy design. Broke out the needle nose, did some tweaking, and now have good connections on all positions ONLY when they are selected.

All of this was probably caused by a crummy RCA connector on the amp, which led to intermittent oddities, which started the witch hunt. I see the RCA being replaced with a BNC in my future.

Posted: 2/2/2017 2:05:29 PM EDT

[#6]

Quote History

Quoted:

Looks like so much fun. Thanks for sharing the pics. Not much for trees out there, eh? Have you considered a wire antenna on a telescopic pole?

View Quote

I use a 23' painters pole on a PA tripod for dipoles. That's what's in the background behind the buggy. I've thought about a fiberglass mast like the MGS4U offerings but it is cost prohibitive at this point when I have the painters pole. Downside to the painters pole is the metal segments. When I use it with a G5RV jr I try to pull the ladder line away from it as best I can.

I found out quickly there is a point of diminishing returns when running the elements of the antenna out to where I anchor the cord on the ground. As I start to get further out the droop in the element and line along with the increasing angle doesn't get the ends up that much higher. From where I had them they were about 10 feet off the ground.

Posted: 2/2/2017 2:25:01 PM EDT

[#7]

Took down the 6BTV with coax 40m trap and 160m inverted L to repair wind damage to the trap feed wire (strain relief failed & subjected wire to flex & stress).

Nick

Posted: 2/2/2017 2:25:19 PM EDT

[#8]

double tap, please delete

Posted: 2/2/2017 3:17:55 PM EDT

[#9]

Added a mfj 998rt remote tuner to my full size 80m vertical. Hoping it'll tune up 160 and give me a decent transmit for picking up quick mults during a multiband contest. For dedicated 160 I'll always pull a wire off of it for an inverted L.

Should find out tomorrow when my radio returns from flex. It had a fan error code, which is a bummer but man are those guys are great to deal with! Great customer service.

Posted: 2/2/2017 7:13:17 PM EDT

[#10]

Replaced remote antenna switch controller with raspi + 8 relay module. Wrote some software to automatically switch to correct antenna based on band.

Put a HPF filter on my beverage antenna. Nearby AM station was killing me on 160/80m

Before:

After:

Posted: 2/3/2017 12:54:31 PM EDT

[#11]

Quote History

Quoted:
Replaced remote antenna switch controller with raspi + 8 relay module. Wrote some software to automatically switch to correct antenna based on band.

Put a HPF filter on my beverage antenna. Nearby AM station was killing me on 160/80m

[snip]

View Quote

What a difference! nice work.

I haven't done much lately, but I did hang my packtenna off of an unused 7.6 meter satcom antenna out here in Dutch Harbor, which was enough to demonstrate the sad state of the bands to me and my KX3

I'll keep trying, but we're going to be working on that dish so I need to find a new support structure. Not much for trees out here, so it may end up hanging off the ~15' roof. Better than nuffin'.

I also put SDR# on my new laptop and showed my coworkers the wonders of the $25 RTL-SDR. See a dozen marine VHF channels at once, the whole broadcast band, we even found the audio channel for an analog TV translator. Pretty neat.

I've got my collection of Icom F30s out here, and the programming cable, so I will be modifying my codeplug for them to add some of the stuff I forgot to add the first time around.

Posted: 2/3/2017 7:37:43 PM EDT

[#12]

DirtNasty, nice work on the bpf and rpi remote antenna switch.

I got my 6700 back from flex and it tuns out my mfj 998-rt was DOA. Won't even power on. Fuck.

MFJ and HRO thankfully were great to deal with and HRO already has a new one en route to me. Just have to box this one up and ship it back when the new one comes in!

Posted: 2/3/2017 8:24:07 PM EDT

[#13]

Quote History

Quoted:
DirtNasty, nice work on the bpf and rpi remote antenna switch.

I got my 6700 back from flex and it tuns out my mfj 998-rt was DOA. Won't even power on. Fuck.

MFJ and HRO thankfully were great to deal with and HRO already has a new one en route to me. Just have to box this one up and ship it back when the new one comes in!

View Quote

What was wrong with the 6700? I just got back my 6500 last week but they deemed it a software bug.

Posted: 2/3/2017 10:00:56 PM EDT

[#14]

FPGA Fan Error.

They were superb to deal with. They wound up shipping me a brand new radio because they found another problem and it wasn't fixable on a quick timeline.

Posted: 2/4/2017 9:34:32 AM EDT

[#15]

Fitting 2 pounds of Pixie into a 1 pound box

Power out mod ===> http://vtenn.com/Blog/?p=1348#more-1348

Truth be told, the Pixie CW transceiver really is a crumby RX architecture and needs about 50 dB more gain to hear the noise floor (which I'm also writing up). Still, I'm having a blast modifying them and trying for WAS with 1 Watt !!!

$8 assembled ====> http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.A0.H0.Xpixie+assembled.TRS1&_nkw=pixie+assembled&_sacat=0

Posted: 2/5/2017 8:34:03 PM EDT

[#16]

Sold an AL-80B in less than 10mins on QTH. Already sent me the money. I thought you had to go through 15 lowball tirekickers before you sold anything in this hobby.

Posted: 2/5/2017 8:48:04 PM EDT

[#17]

Made my reservations for the Hamvention in Xenia.

Posted: 2/5/2017 10:12:54 PM EDT

[#18]

Quote History

Quoted:
Made my reservations for the Hamvention in Xenia.

View Quote

I made mine as soon as they announced the new venue but now my wife is pregnant and is due may 3rd

lol

Posted: 2/6/2017 3:04:09 AM EDT

[#19]

Quote History

Quoted:

I made mine as soon as they announced the new venue but now my wife is pregnant and is due may 3rd

lol

View Quote

No problem, your two week old can study up for the tech exam!

Posted: 2/6/2017 9:54:31 AM EDT

[#20]

Quote History

Quoted:
Sold an AL-80B in less than 10mins on QTH. Already sent me the money. I thought you had to go through 15 lowball tirekickers before you sold anything in this hobby.

View Quote

Must have been a great price! I've got a bunch of stuff for sale, and in 3 weeks, nothing but tire kickers and 20 questions.

Posted: 2/6/2017 5:42:13 PM EDT

[#21]

Added a phono plug ALC line to the DB-DB7K rig interface cable between ALS-1306 and TS-590S. The cable was constructed from pre-wired DB9 & DIN 7 pigtails. I just had to find the wire on the DIN 7 cable that corresponded to pin 6 on the kenwood's remote connector (in my case it was the red) and solder that & the shield to the phono plug wire.

Ameritron refers to the ALC line as "optional", but I figured I would go ahead & add it in and get things configured for it. Although the ALS-1306 is nominally a 1200 watt amp, I have read descriptions of it exceeding 1500 watts when driven at higher levels. Although it varies by band, I noticed that around 60 watts drive (CW key down) was providing 1200 watts out on the lower bands. I need to make a table of upper limit drive levels by band.

Nick

Posted: 2/6/2017 9:39:18 PM EDT

[#22]

Nice looking equipment you have there, I especially like the piece of equipment labeled Lite :)

Posted: 2/6/2017 9:57:53 PM EDT

[#23]

I finished my pulled system for my 40 meter dipole.

I mounted/installed my AH-4 that had been sitting in the box for 9 months. Compared to the LDG IT-100 tuner, it is AMAZING! I have no basis for comparison, but the noise is soooo much lower on my waterfalls.

Posted: 2/6/2017 10:11:53 PM EDT

[#24]

Quote History

Quoted:
Must have been a great price! I've got a bunch of stuff for sale, and in 3 weeks, nothing but tire kickers and 20 questions.

View Quote

It was priced to sell but still thought I'd have the tirekickers like you.

Posted: 2/7/2017 11:22:12 PM EDT

[#25]

So I played around with my Ham Radio 360 Antenna Analyzer with my 40m OCFD antenna.
I tested it both with the vertical (Windom) element with and without, with a 100' LMR 240 feed line, which has an "ugly balun" air core choke, and a 50' LMR 400 feed line (which only has some snap on ferrite chokes at the antenna end).
Without the vertical element the antenna's SWR was way high across the band, pretty much unusable. Didn't see any of the typical dips I would expect from an OCFD.
With the vertical element, which incorporates a balun (1:1 I'm guessing), I get the dips I would expect to see. The LMR 240 appears to do the best with the lowest SWRs compared to using the 50' LMR400 feed line. I wasn't expecting to see this. I guess with whatever loss the LMR240 has over the LMR400 is made up for by the lower SWRs. Routing path for the two lines is the same.

LMR240 (100') feed line:

Attached File

LMR400 (50') feed line:

Attached File

While I'm not seeing much for super low SWRs, this could also be due to the fact that the antenna is at 40' AGL in an Inverted V form which comes down a few feet from my roof at the end of the short leg pointing north. I have a 6' fiberglass rod that I'm going to mount to the eve to bring that end up some. Hopefully I'll get that done Thursday as tomorrow I'm planning on taking the Hamaha out and activating a mine for MOTA--Mines on the Air.

Posted: 2/9/2017 2:07:13 AM EDT

[#26]

I got the TNC-Pi operational as an i-gate/digipeater after listening to the aprs episode of the HamRadio360 broadcast.

Attached File

Posted: 2/9/2017 3:01:52 AM EDT

[#27]

Got the shack set up on Kahoolawe and plan to be on the air 20mm SSB at 1700UTC.

Posted: 2/9/2017 11:36:24 AM EDT

[#28]

I got my portable battery solution setup for my 857d, and ordered some non-old-man callsign patches for a hat or wherever else it sticks

Attached File

Posted: 2/9/2017 8:30:57 PM EDT

[#29]

Quote History

Quoted:
Got the shack set up on Kahoolawe and plan to be on the air 20mm SSB at 1700UTC.

View Quote

I got your message a little late and got on around 1735, pointed my beam your way and scrolled up and down 20m but couldn't find you. Maybe another day. What part of the band are you normally in?

Posted: 2/9/2017 9:26:06 PM EDT

[#30]

Quote History

Quoted:

I got your message a little late and got on around 1735, pointed my beam your way and scrolled up and down 20m but couldn't find you. Maybe another day. What part of the band are you normally in?

View Quote

I usually call CQ around 14.250 - 14.280. There is a net at 14.265 at that time of day so I usually call lower. I'm going to try again tomorrow but we have volunteers coming in by boat in the morning and that tends to keep me busy.

Posted: 2/9/2017 10:42:27 PM EDT

[#31]

Quote History

Quoted:

I usually call CQ around 14.250 - 14.280. There is a net at 14.265 at that time of day so I usually call lower. I'm going to try again tomorrow but we have volunteers coming in by boat in the morning and that tends to keep me busy.

View Quote

Roger that. I was diagnosed with mumps yesterday and I've been on a weird sleeping schedule and not feeling all that great. I'm hoping to work the rtty contest this weekend but we'll see. Hopefully I can catch you on tomorrow since I know where to look. Just need to set up my voice skimmer ;).

Posted: 2/10/2017 9:37:12 AM EDT

[#32]

Moving my shack into the house today and out of my outdoor barn. I am tired of freezing or sweating.
I have assembled the stuff for the move and it is happening today.

Posted: 2/13/2017 5:54:03 PM EDT

[#33]

Moved the shack into the house. HF stuff is ran but waiting on VHF coax...needed a temporary antenna.....
Can't get no more redneck country azz than this home brew ground plane stuck in a moonshine jug LOL

Shot of my HF coax running through the plate and into my den.

Posted: 2/13/2017 6:01:25 PM EDT

[#34]

Not rare or exotic, but just logged my first QSO with Serbia today...also bagged Iceland a little while ago. Lot of good DX right now on 40m

Posted: 2/14/2017 8:44:12 AM EDT

[#35]

I've been working on a GPS driven clock kit from QRP-Labs.com. I have the enclosure pretty much ready to go. Still waiting on the slow boat from China for some panel mount power connectors to feed it. I'll be swapping out the voltage buck converter for a switching 7805 regulator.

Display Video

Posted: 2/15/2017 3:23:16 PM EDT

[#36]

This came in the other day

It is a -30 dB rf sampler from Electro-Resales that uses a wound toroid pickup in a nice metal enclosure that I can use with the oscilloscope as a station monitor. There are 32 wraps on the toroid & a 50 ohm terminating resistor across the BNC feed.

I had been using a wrapped clip-on ferrite on the station ground as a source, but it really varied over different bands. This one tracks the output power nicely.

Nick

Posted: 2/15/2017 9:01:10 PM EDT

[#37]

Quote History

Quoted:

I use a 23' painters pole on a PA tripod for dipoles. That's what's in the background behind the buggy. I've thought about a fiberglass mast like the MGS4U offerings but it is cost prohibitive at this point when I have the painters pole. Downside to the painters pole is the metal segments. When I use it with a G5RV jr I try to pull the ladder line away from it as best I can.

I found out quickly there is a point of diminishing returns when running the elements of the antenna out to where I anchor the cord on the ground. As I start to get further out the droop in the element and line along with the increasing angle doesn't get the ends up that much higher. From where I had them they were about 10 feet off the ground.

View Quote

What about some fiberglass surplus military radar poles? The ones I got are 4 foot sections and come in a golf bag type arrangement.

Posted: 2/15/2017 9:04:17 PM EDT

[#38]

Quote History

Quoted:
What a difference! nice work.

I haven't done much lately, but I did hang my packtenna off of an unused 7.6 meter satcom antenna out here in Dutch Harbor, which was enough to demonstrate the sad state of the bands to me and my KX3

I'll keep trying, but we're going to be working on that dish so I need to find a new support structure. Not much for trees out here, so it may end up hanging off the ~15' roof. Better than nuffin'.

I also put SDR# on my new laptop and showed my coworkers the wonders of the $25 RTL-SDR. See a dozen marine VHF channels at once, the whole broadcast band, we even found the audio channel for an analog TV translator. Pretty neat.

I've got my collection of Icom F30s out here, and the programming cable, so I will be modifying my codeplug for them to add some of the stuff I forgot to add the first time around.

View Quote

I'm using a KX3 as well, and started with a packtenna too. I hadn't figured out the digital stuff before I got my dipole up, but the long and short of it is that digital/CW is where it's going to be until either the bands improve or we get some better conditions,

Posted: 2/15/2017 9:12:48 PM EDT

[#39]

Got thru my first CW contact tonight-but I cheated and used the KX3 encode/decode. I had been having trouble with the text editor on the panadaptor as it comes with basically no documentation as the keyboard interface was an add-on. I was leery of starting a CW QSO because of the delay in typing and sending and eventually figured out how to get it to send as I typed by doing PSK31 and RTTY QSO's. The decoder has a little trouble if the other operator is off a few kHz so it just worked out well tonight and I hope to do more soon. CW gave me more time to type and put thoughts together compared to macro based digital modes where most people are running laptops with most of the QSO being just a few clicks. I need to finish running coax thru my basement to do the same.

Posted: 2/16/2017 12:04:55 AM EDT

[#40]

I upgraded my PiHPSDR console to the newest beta version.

Now I have to remap all muh buttons. Ugh. And it looks like there isn't a VFO lock anymore. :(

Posted: 2/16/2017 12:52:18 AM EDT

[#41]

I added a PTT interface to my home built rig audio interface. It is fully isolated and I can run winlink and APRS as well as the usual JT65 and other modes. Upgraded my fldigi script to switch to the ARF digital net channel, set the wide filter, and set the correct mode and frequency. All that at the push of a button!

It also greatly reduces the juggling needed to run digital modes, I used to have a TX toggle switch duct taped to my keyboard.

Posted: 2/16/2017 12:32:28 PM EDT

[#42]

Quote History

Quoted:

I'm using a KX3 as well, and started with a packtenna too. I hadn't figured out the digital stuff before I got my dipole up, but the long and short of it is that digital/CW is where it's going to be until either the bands improve or we get some better conditions,

View Quote

I haven't had the chance to play with it and find out, but I think I can do PSK31 from my phone with the USB OTG cable and the programming cable using the KX3's internal decoder/encoder. I don't have a full interface (SignaLink) on the road with me. I used to carry wire to improvise a dipole with my KX3 kit but I never used it so I left it out this time... perhaps that was a mistake.

Also I need to learn CW.

Posted: 2/16/2017 1:08:27 PM EDT

[#43]

Figuring out why this thing:

Decided to stop working the other day. I think I'm on to something:

Documentation would be nice, but so far, no dice. Shouldn't be a big deal though...seems they're all pretty similar.

Posted: 2/16/2017 11:38:08 PM EDT

[#44]

Quote History

Quoted:

I haven't had the chance to play with it and find out, but I think I can do PSK31 from my phone with the USB OTG cable and the programming cable using the KX3's internal decoder/encoder. I don't have a full interface (SignaLink) on the road with me. I used to carry wire to improvise a dipole with my KX3 kit but I never used it so I left it out this time... perhaps that was a mistake.

Also I need to learn CW.

View Quote

I regret not making the effort to get the wire to set my packtenna up as a dipole, might have made a difference for me this summer. Conditions were much better then, good enough for me to have a number of voice QSO's. I haven't had a single voice QSO since then, but I am having at least one digital contact every night-in mostly bad conditions for either myself or the receiving station. If you start getting frustrated, I highly recommend trying digital-I'd have sold the radio by now and gotten out by now if I hadn't seen what better conditions were like this summer.

It's nice to be able to do more than talk to contesters who only tolerate a weak voice contact long enough to get an entry logged. I had a really nice QSO with a guy down in TX on the night of the Super Bowl on PSK31, we were just hanging out in the radio and waiting for the game to start. We both had each other at 599, both runnning very low power.... low power is one of the nice things about digital, you just don't need a lot to have a solid conversation.

Posted: 2/17/2017 1:01:44 AM EDT

[#45]

Went up to the club station at work after my shift. Spun the dial on 40 and 80. S7 noise every where but listened to what i could hear of a net.

Few days ago, did the same thing but on lunch and 20m. Spun the beam around and got Port au Price, Hati real fast. Nice lound signal.

Small perks of working at a major hospital. Full HF station with amps tuners beams and wires at 100feet.

Posted: 2/17/2017 3:15:47 AM EDT

[#46]

Quote History

Quoted:
Figuring out why this thing:
http://i.imgur.com/sQt3l6t.jpg

Decided to stop working the other day. I think I'm on to something:
http://i.imgur.com/m604gD3.jpg

Documentation would be nice, but so far, no dice. Shouldn't be a big deal though...seems they're all pretty similar.

View Quote

Looks like one of the resistors in the middle has been overheating and has probably burned out. Can't tell why without a schematic. I usually try to replace all electrolytic capacitors if they are more than 20 years old, when I work on repairing something at a component level. I doubt this is what caused your problem though, but you never know.
Look for false. loose solder joints too.

Posted: 2/17/2017 3:30:13 AM EDT

[#47]

I ordered another IC-7300 to use as my regular radio while I'm on Kahoolawe.

I'll probably put the KX3 and amp up for sale on the EE since I'm not traveling as much as I expected.

Posted: 2/17/2017 9:51:28 AM EDT

[#48]

Good choice. I had that combo as well and sold it. I figured even if portable it'd be easer to carry around a 7300 or 991a than the kx3/xpa100 and the cables. I bought a kx2 for portable and told myself i'm just going to live with 10w portable.

Posted: 2/17/2017 10:32:51 AM EDT

[#49]

Quote History

Quoted:

Looks like one of the resistors in the middle has been overheating and has probably burned out. Can't tell why without a schematic. I usually try to replace all electrolytic capacitors if they are more than 20 years old, when I work on repairing something at a component level. I doubt this is what caused your problem though, but you never know.
Look for false. loose solder joints too.

View Quote

I've been scouring the internet for a schematic, and continually come up empty handed. Even if I replace all the components on that board, should not amount to a whole lot. No fuses blown. Seems like a protect circuit is enabling...If I flip the power switch, I get full voltage, then it shuts down. No shorts or overcurrent that I can tell. I purchased it from a Radio Shack that was going out of business. They used it to power their car stereo section. Probably in use 24-7 for a decade or two (or three). I've had it on 24-7 since I bought it ~3-4 years ago. Entirely possible one of the components just gave up the ghost, and after that sort of usage, not unheard of.

Yo dawg, I herd you like diodes....

Posted: 2/17/2017 8:01:59 PM EDT

[#50]

LOL!!!!

Despite that fried resistor and zener, this bastard would still be running.

....if it weren't for a shit toggle!

Decided it would be wise to trace the AC from the line, past the fuse, and follow it on it's journey till I found the issue. Checked output side of switch, no voltage. Unplugged, toned. Neutral was good. Hot side, no tone. Pull switch out, wire stays in case.

If I bypass the switch, mofo runs like a bulletproof champ. Time to order a new switch....and a resistor....and a diode.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - What did you do today with your radio (or amateur radio related)? (Page 7 of 10)

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