User Panel
Posted: 12/25/2015 11:41:19 PM EDT
It seems like every other forum has a similar thread.
I have not been very radio- active lately. My job takes a lot out of me. Today I finally had some time to play with my radios. I also started removing my HF and VHF/UHF rigs out of my Tacoma and getting everything ready to install them into my new SUV. It takes a lot of time to get everything right and functional. I also kept putting off to pay my Arfcom membership dues because this site is blocked at work and it's a pain to do this from a pad I use at home. I have a desktop in my shack but the shack is 80 yards from the house. Finally today I was in the shack and remembered to pay the dues it but noticed that it has been paid 2 days ago. WHO DID DAT? It's either that or I'm loosing my freaking mind completely. I have several suspects in mind, thanks but guys, you did not have to do this. I'm back to working and can afford this. Nice gesture though. It's greatly appreciated. How about we keep this thread to share our daily ham radio related activities and adventures? MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL! |
|
Called CQ on 20m Guard freq (Olivia 16/500) this afternoon with my FT-817ND and indoor wire loop, and heard someone come back to me, but they quickly faded into the noise. Thanks for trying whomever you are!
Moved up to JT65 and called CQ for four or five cycles but didn't get any takers. Checked the pskmap and over 50 stations spotted me from coast to coast, so at least I was getting a signal out there. If any of you guys haven't tried it yet PSKmap is such a great tool to check out your equipment. Without it I would have been left scratching my head wondering why nobody heard me, when in fact I was being heard all over the place. |
|
Have been trying to decide whether to put up a crappy end-fed wire or an 80-meter dipole at my new QTH which is in a really sucky rf location at the base of a couple of 500 foot hills.
Finally found a hank of shiny new copper wire and some ceramic insulators that I stashed in a box a few years ago, so I probably now have enough wire to make a dipole. |
|
I just got back from a 9 month hiatus (decided to get another degree and so classes take up all my time). I did just go through and try to clean things up with my go-box (FT857D), and yesterday I broke out my buddie pole and I am trying to figure out a good portable configuration for at least 20-10M (that is the task for today). I have a 9.5' shock whip with it, so I am going to be looking for something vertical.
|
|
I calibrated my homebrew V/UHFtoroid current meter.
So I measured up a few types of VHF and dual band antennas, and the amount of current that flows common mode on the shield. I often post about the evils of common mode current, and thought it woiuld be a good idea to actually have some real data to back up my yammerings - what a concept! Anyway, it turns out that a typical metal cactus type J-pole has fairly serious common mode current at 10 to 12 dB down from antenna current - no surprise there. A standard 1/4 ground plane has common mode shield current about 20dB down from the antenna current - not bad. The surprise was the ladder-line Slim Jim. Turns out that my eBay Slim Jim is a very nice dual band design, and also has a nice core choke incorporated. It's shield current is tiny, and is at least 25 dB down from antenna current. Have just started setting up the 3-antenna gain test range, but it also looks like this Slim Jim is a true 1/2 wave on both bands, unlike many of the dual band designs out there that spray high angle lobes on 70 cM where they go 3/2 wave... Ya, measuring stuff - this is the way we have fun here on the KF ranch! (That, and we put a few 12G slugs through the old annoying DVD player...) |
|
Not a ham yet, but doing lots of reading to get my Tech license in a month or two.
I did reprogram all my /\/\oto's for the wife and I's GMRS system for a more seamless and better channel management. Also thanks to Zap, was able to get MDC signally up and rolling on all the radios as well as got aliases to work. Looking forward to some 2m/70cm fun...maybe a little 10m... |
|
|
|
|
Most spare time recently has been spent at the reloading bench. Working up test batches of 9mm. Six powders, three bullets, two primers. End result will be 36 loads in the books so I'll have something to shoot whatever components I can find during the next shortage. Always ongoing .223 brass prep. Reloading my short line and long line loads for High Power. Starting the process of converting 500 .223 brass to 300blk. Loading up a few more test loads for the AR-10. Didn't know how far behind I was till I got going at it.
On the radio side been working on laying out circuit boards for a couple direct conversion receivers. One will be the NE602 / LM386 design from Experimental Methods in RF Design. Second will be from the 2013 ARRL Handbook using a SBL-1 mixer. On the air I've been taking advantage of the lower noise floor during the winter on 80m to log a few more states. JT65 is a great mode for this toy slingshot station on that band. |
|
Later this afternoon and thru Sunday we are going to get hammered with snow. Up to 25" is predicted. NOW someplaces that ain't much but in SE New Mexico that is REALLY BAD. So our local ARES/Skywarn group, along with the County EOM, is already getting a plan in place in case it does go bad! Hopefully it won't but at least there is a plan. Of course we all know...NO plan survives first contact!!
Sarge |
|
I recently picked up a Yaesu FT1DR in order to start playing with APRS. Two weeks later, Yaesu came out with an upgraded version, the FT1XD. So, I priced my radio at $20 under current retail price, and listed it fors sale. I sold it within two days, and bought the upgraded version. I lost a few bucks, but will be happier with the new one!
|
|
Quoted:
I'm aligning my TS-830S that I repaired. Taking my time trying to understand and document each step because I have another one to do someday. http://i.imgur.com/vipdEXC.jpg View Quote Hah! Another ham stubbornly clinging to his Heathkit VTVM! Gotta love that big scale for peaking/nulling circuits. My shack's pretty stable now (30 years in one location), so just cruising the bands looking for CW contacts. I have been playing around with an Arduino board trying to pound C into my aging brain. |
|
work, family, reloading, shooting
my logbook has been pretty quiet I haven't fired up the 590 in a long time |
|
Quoted: I calibrated my homebrew V/UHFtoroid current meter. So I measured up a few types of VHF and dual band antennas, and the amount of current that flows common mode on the shield. I often post about the evils of common mode current, and thought it woiuld be a good idea to actually have some real data to back up my yammerings - what a concept! Anyway, it turns out that a typical metal cactus type J-pole has fairly serious common mode current at 10 to 12 dB down from antenna current - no surprise there. A standard 1/4 ground plane has common mode shield current about 20dB down from the antenna current - not bad. The surprise was the ladder-line Slim Jim. Turns out that my eBay Slim Jim is a very nice dual band design, and also has a nice core choke incorporated. It's shield current is tiny, and is at least 25 dB down from antenna current. Have just started setting up the 3-antenna gain test range, but it also looks like this Slim Jim is a true 1/2 wave on both bands, unlike many of the dual band designs out there that spray high angle lobes on 70 cM where they go 3/2 wave... Ya, measuring stuff - this is the way we have fun here on the KF ranch! (That, and we put a few 12G slugs through the old annoying DVD player...) View Quote |
|
Participated in a couple of nets:
New England Weather Net.. 3905 @ 0530-0630 Eastern time The breakfast club.. 3838 @0630-0700 Eastern. Printed some log sheets for the weather net.. They want me to be a NCS so I said OK to part time. Redid a PL-259 that has been becoming an issue. Cleaned up "some" of the mess in the shack.. Then I fed cows & shoveled shit.. ..FN.. |
|
Checked in with the usual net most nights. Got on 160m & chatted a bit with the Toad Harbor net folks the other night - compared notes on 160m FWL, ladder line & cheap dynamic mics with the TS-590S.
Disconnected/reconnected antenna feeds as thunderstorms came & went. Spent some time getting the replacement PC set up for use with the TS-590S. I had picked up a 1/2 price license for HRD, only to realize that my shack PC had an unsupported OS (XP pro). Did not want to wipe it for a new OS as it has the last versions of the development environments I was using at retirement, so looked for a refurb with a current OS to take it's place. Ended up getting a refurbed HP/Compaq 6005 small form factor w/ Windows 7 Pro for $129 delivered (Amazon Prime). Two core 3.4 GHz AMD 64 bit processor, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB SATA drive, DVD R/W, 2 RS232 9 pin ports, 10 USB 2.0 ports & twin ATI HD 4200 video outs (1 VGA, 1 Display Port), rear line-in line-out audio jacks, front mic and headphone jacks. Win 7 installed no problem, went ahead & did update to Windows 10 Pro. So far, everything has installed OK. Even got the last version of (Legacy) video drivers for Win 8.1 from AMD and got them installed in compatibility mode so the AMD/ATI video control panel app works. 8 GB fills the memory slots, but all expansion slots are free (2 PCIe x1, 1 PCIe x16, 1 PCI). Just got a Display Port -> VGA adapter plug in and added a second LCD. No case screws, so attached the ground connection with a nut and bolt at the case lock hasp. Oh, also started familiarization with the Syma X8C quad that came as a gift. Might give it a try as a pull line delivery mechanism for a future long wire placement . Nick |
|
Made my first HF contact today. Got someone in Ontario 656 miles away on my 817nd and a poorly placed G5RV. My noise at best right now is an S8-S9 across all bands.
Mounted a pole about 10 feet higher on the house and plan to relocate the antenna tomorrow to see if that helps any. |
|
It's been pretty busy with my son being born late October. Between road trips to Oklahoma twice, family visiting, and baby stuff 24/7 my radio and reloading bench time are very sparse.
I have been researching portable antennas like the buddipole to allow me to set up portable operations quickly when on the road. Also been playing with my SDR dongle on my phone. |
|
Tore the shack down for another re-vamp. I haven't been on the air since early summer due to the monsoon storms taking all my antennas down. Have a new Icom AH-4 tuner coming and am going to try to get away with a vertical with the tuner mounted at the base.
Finally replaced the MOV in the power supply that said monsoon storm fried. Power supply still works, just the MOV was shorted. Gotta love the old school Astron supplies. |
|
Just bought a Yaesu 857d and put it in my shop so I can have a station in there too. Still debating on what I want for an HF antenna up there, but will probably set up another OCF dipole. Been using it on 2m and some on HF with a little ham stick base a buddy loaned me. It works surprisingly well. I'll eventually get the pickup set up so I can run that rig in there also.
Brought wife and kids down to AZ for the holidays and some r&r. Should get my winter hiking fix taken care of and then get back and hit the radio and loading bench again until winter is over. |
|
added a rotator to the chimney antenna for TV, rewired Arrow antenna with Low-Loss cable while I was up there. Rotator was a failure, didn't enhance reception-plan to remove when rain stops-again. Need to terminate coax on the bottom end. May remove Arrow and replace with bigger Omni-Vertical
|
|
With radios, not much all year. The time has been consumed with rebuilding the house in Oregon (which became quite an expensive undertaking) then finding and buying a second permanent house here in NM where we live and work. Of course I have big plans for that but the scheduled time for us to take possession keeps getting pushed back and as of now that is supposed to be the last day of the year. Which is only 4 days!
Between new furniture and appliances and ojects of decor the XYL insisted on buying the budget for new toys for me has been decimated but mid year I did get a start on the much wanted QRP kit which sits half finished by my side right now. Reconstruction of the home station and finishing up the QRP package will continue in earnest once the move has been made. As Sarge mentioned upthread there is a BLIZZARD impacting the realm right now. We had one power outage overnight and thank god we have enough propane to keep us warm in this drafty old place. Also it seems the water system shared here in the backside of Humble City is down for the count. Now that there is some daylight we can go see what's going on with that. Hopefully not the pump again, last time we had to pull it the temp was almost 100 degrees warmer than it is right now. We are all too old and broke down to do that in this weather I am almost certain. |
|
It's been unseasonably warm, humid and raining with fog at night. Yesterday my outside thermometer got to 79 degrees. We've been running AC in the house. I have not done much today, just trying to survive this miserable weather.
|
|
I'm shopping for an ANAN 100d.
Does that count? :D Oh, and I bought a compound bow to help me insert ropes in my trees for full wave loops, 160, 80, 40, and maybe 20. |
|
There's a ham that lives two doors down from the club.
I QSO'd with him today and asked him to run over and see if Bubbles was working this afternoon. |
|
Quoted:
Have been trying to decide whether to put up a crappy end-fed wire or an 80-meter dipole at my new QTH which is in a really sucky rf location at the base of a couple of 500 foot hills. Finally found a hank of shiny new copper wire and some ceramic insulators that I stashed in a box a few years ago, so I probably now have enough wire to make a dipole. View Quote Didn't have enough time or wire to put the dipole together, so instead I just installed the crappy 36-foot long end-fed wire by itself (with another wire to the house's ground rod) as a temporary measure. Hooked it up to my bought-years-ago-but-never-took-out-of-the-box AH-4 tuner. Just for fun, tried to work a friend who is 50 miles away on HF - both on 40 meters and 15 meters (yeah, I know, not the best choice for that distance at 5 PM, but at least the IC-7000 thinks that the tuner works OK on those bands). He heard me on CW (both frequencies), but I could not hear him due to severe local noise. So, I will need to figure out what's going on with my local noise level. Oh, and tomorrow I'm meeting up with some friends at ARRL Hq. and W1AW. |
|
Quoted:
I'm aligning my TS-830S that I repaired. Taking my time trying to understand and document each step because I have another one to do someday. http://i.imgur.com/vipdEXC.jpg View Quote Is that an 8566 or an 8568 to the lower left? A or B? Last night and today I repaired an HP 8935A... Cleaned up the lab. SO is stuck at the AP in TX, bad WX. Complete RF test set in one box with RF gen, Receiver, Scope, Spec Analyzer, Xmitter Tester, 100 watt Load, Modulation Meter, SSB, AM/FM, on and on... |
|
Quoted:
Is that an 8566 or an 8568 to the lower left? A or B? Last night and today I repaired an HP 8935A... http://www.ab4oj.com/test/images/sig_gen/hp8935.jpg View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Quoted:
I'm aligning my TS-830S that I repaired. Taking my time trying to understand and document each step because I have another one to do someday. http://i.imgur.com/vipdEXC.jpg Is that an 8566 or an 8568 to the lower left? A or B? Last night and today I repaired an HP 8935A... http://www.ab4oj.com/test/images/sig_gen/hp8935.jpg Good eye, it's an 8568B. I wish my bench was still this clean. |
|
Quoted:
Good eye, it's an 8568B. I wish my bench was still this clean. http://i.imgur.com/KkHViOn.jpg View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
I'm aligning my TS-830S that I repaired. Taking my time trying to understand and document each step because I have another one to do someday. http://i.imgur.com/vipdEXC.jpg Is that an 8566 or an 8568 to the lower left? A or B? Last night and today I repaired an HP 8935A... http://www.ab4oj.com/test/images/sig_gen/hp8935.jpg Good eye, it's an 8568B. I wish my bench was still this clean. http://i.imgur.com/KkHViOn.jpg That analyzer is as good or better than most built today AFA noise floor and oscillator/synthesizer noise. If you ever have issues w/ it IM me. Had one in the mountain lab until this summer when something happened to it and stuck an HP 70004A in it's place, with the 70908A RF section Those Fluke sig gens are nice, especially with the built in deviation meter, but the HP8648's with a tuning knob are cheap now on eBay. |
|
Well, in the last month, I've graduated college, moved from Lubbock to the DFW area, and been all over the state. In the last week I've been to San Angelo and back, Lubbock and back, my truck made an emergency trip to Abilene and back yesterday (XYL took it to pickup her brother and parents from the hospital following an event that caused a 2014 F350 King Ranch Edt, Alumiline 38' stock trailer w/living quarters and a 1979 El Camino to be written off), and now I'm currently in Austin.
Traffic on I35 was nightmarish...but I did have the opportunity to fire up the Astro Spectra in the pickup and use the P25 repeater in Austin. Oh, on top of that I decided to start my own business (radio related). |
|
DF'ed a missing person who has a PLS braclet, christmas night.
|
|
|
Quoted:
I'm interested, My back yard is full of buried radials from my 6BTV, I've been pondering something that could use that ground-plane on 160m View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Quoted:
I also made new transmitting antennas for 160, 80, and 40 meters. .... I'm interested, My back yard is full of buried radials from my 6BTV, I've been pondering something that could use that ground-plane on 160m I'll get back to you as I'm headed to bed right now. The new feedpoint is placed where it is because it's directly under a rope going from the top of my 46' tower to a 21' mast at the SW corner (lower left) of the yard. 40M vertical straight up to the rope, 80M Inv-L up and to towards the 21' mast, and 160M Inv-L up and to the Walnut tree at the SE corner of the lot. Also, the bullseye marks on the drawing are the old radial field locations from where my 6BTV was in the back, and my old 160M Inv-L towards the front. I tied into both of those. |
|
Quoted:
I also made new transmitting antennas for 160, 80, and 40 meters. I thought I had taken more pictures but I guess not. I was going to make a thread on it, but it might not be until Spring with snow and cold starting tomorrow. Too dark for pictures right now... Currently 44 radials on the ground at the feedpoint of a 40M vertical, 80M Inverted-L, and 160M Inverted-L as a fan from this feedpoint, the base of my old Hustler 6BTV. Seems to work really well, even on receive. http://i.imgur.com/j1cZwdB.jpg http://i.imgur.com/8QbNT9N.jpg Here's the paper that I use to keep track of the radials. Over 3000' of wire over the past month! I guess the last 16 radials will have to wait until Spring. http://i.imgur.com/GnuO7Of.jpg View Quote Low band DX is where all of the action will be in the next few years. |
|
|
Met up with TLF in Austin today...fondled his APX7000...drove back to DFW. I had a full day.
|
|
I just put the transmitter on the subject two days previous.
Quoted:
Nice. I bet that felt good when you found 'em! View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Quoted:
DF'ed a missing person who has a PLS braclet, christmas night. Nice. I bet that felt good when you found 'em! |
|
Quoted:
Well, in the last month, I've graduated college, moved from Lubbock to the DFW area, and been all over the state. In the last week I've been to San Angelo and back, Lubbock and back, my truck made an emergency trip to Abilene and back yesterday (XYL took it to pickup her brother and parents from the hospital following an event that caused a 2014 F350 King Ranch Edt, Alumiline 38' stock trailer w/living quarters and a 1979 El Camino to be written off), and now I'm currently in Austin. Traffic on I35 was nightmarish...but I did have the opportunity to fire up the Astro Spectra in the pickup and use the P25 repeater in Austin. Oh, on top of that I decided to start my own business (radio related). View Quote did you get stopped on southbound 35 just north of Waco by chance? I was heading back to DFW from Austin and around 6pm there was 20-25 miles of southbound traffic just stopped. Looked painful. |
|
Got farther along in getting radio related software loaded on the replacement PC (Win10 Pro). Since it came with RS-232 ports as well as USB, I have been doing my installs with the CAT connection for the TS-590S being the hardware COM1 port for most of them. So far I have plugged in, configured and tested the TS-590S software suite, the current version of HRD, FLDigi, WSPR, WSJT & WSJT-X, and RMS Express.
Nick |
|
I talked on a local repeater to a guy about DMR. He had just bought a new DMR radio and I have been doing a lot of messing with them lately.
|
|
|
Back on the insland of Kahoolawe for another two weeks so I'll be playing around on my KX3 when not working.
|
|
Welp, I put my 7100 up for sale.
Next on the menu is an ANAN. |
|
I'll be net control for a big regional net in an hour. And did the same Sunday night, too.
|
|
|
I've been taking my 817 kit with me while working around the farm. I'll cut and pile brush for a few hours before I play radio. At the moment I'm only using SSB so contacts are well earned but I enjoy the challenge and also enjoy being out in the woods.
|
|
Installed GQRX in my Mint Box and have been playing with it. Neat software and very simple to use, like SDR#.
Any other SDR or HAM software for Linux that I should try? Have been also goofing around with my Raspberry Pi's. Installed the latest release in one of them ad it was a pain to get it connected to my Wi-Fi network. Apparently the developers dropped support for WEP so I had to so it manually. It was great because made me learn several commands and "under the hood" settings. I live in a sparse area so never cared much about changing my router's settings. Maybe it's really time to move to WPA2. Waiting for some stuff to arrive so I move the G5RV to another location and make it higher. |
|
Quoted:
I've been taking my 817 kit with me while working around the farm. I'll cut and pile brush for a few hours before I play radio. At the moment I'm only using SSB so contacts are well earned but I enjoy the challenge and also enjoy being out in the woods. View Quote Doing that is so much fun. I got a QSL card once from a guy who was working on 2 watts in a national forest in TN. Probably one of my most prized contacts. |
|
Sign up for the ARFCOM weekly newsletter and be entered to win a free ARFCOM membership. One new winner* is announced every week!
You will receive an email every Friday morning featuring the latest chatter from the hottest topics, breaking news surrounding legislation, as well as exclusive deals only available to ARFCOM email subscribers.
AR15.COM is the world's largest firearm community and is a gathering place for firearm enthusiasts of all types.
From hunters and military members, to competition shooters and general firearm enthusiasts, we welcome anyone who values and respects the way of the firearm.
Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter to receive firearm news, product discounts from your favorite Industry Partners, and more.
Copyright © 1996-2024 AR15.COM LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.
AR15.Com reserves the right to overwrite or replace any affiliate, commercial, or monetizable links, posted by users, with our own.