ITT We post pics and talk about our ham projects, big or small. (Page 17 of 19)
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Originally Posted By TVille: LOL, I just realized I didn't even say what it was! It is the DX Engineering HD 46' mast. Seven sections totaling 46', they say. It is heavy, probably 40+ lbs. But, it is the best way I have found to get that high and be able to leave it out and not worry about it. Once I add in some guys, it should withstand about anything around here. You should know another ARFcommer bought this same pole. This damned place spends my (and others) money!! ETA: @tyrex13 I like your bridle guy approach. Any issues with that? I thinking of doing that to connect all the guy rings. Yes, I will use a slip ring, chain link, something to equalize pressure on the two guy rings. @TVille I'm very happy with my guy setup. I used 3/16" Dacron from Amazon and I just used these slip rings and these snap hooks. I wanted 4 guy points on the mast, but I thought 4 guy lines would just be a lot. I made my bridles 2x the length of a section, so about 15'. I also used 4 direction guy instead of 3. It seems really sturdy. I did guy the top most section where the feedpoint for the loop is, but i only put one guy rope directly opposite of the loop feed point at the top section to take the bend and tension out of the top two sections. It's pretty true and seems super sturdy. At the base I used a 3" stick of 3" PVC and strapped it to the fence corner with SS bands. Attached File Attached File |
| Next week will be the 3rd net I have to run from the porch, marking more than 3 months since I had to backpull my exterior antennas to get the house sided. I need to get things reinstalled. I wasn't happy with my initial install done 5 years ago when I first got licensed and knew nothing, but time to get this done escapes me. I need to put an order in with DX and pick it up. |
| Well, I didn't get anything up this weekend, so tonight's nets are not from the base station. The first I used the IC705 with V/U whip for the repeater net and Buddipole vertical for the 40m net. Last month I used an HT for the repeater net, and the IC705 with 45W amp and portable EFHW. Tonight, I think I'm going to run stationary mobile for both, FT891 with Little Tarheel II for the 40m net. While this has been a fun exercise, and mixing things up has shown what works better for local contacts vs long distance contacts, I'm over it after tonight. |
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Originally Posted By lorazepam: I got a random wire back up so I have 80m again. I only had enough good wire for a 71' wire, and I will see if I can get an 84' wire up later on. I would like to put up a 107' but it would have to drape over a tree limb. |
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I want to eventually use this for a permanent installation. I will probably get the 100m roll, and replace the long wire, and the efhw. I'm using silicone wire, tinned copper right now, and the sun wears out the outer coating after a couple years in the sun and the cold. The linked wire is mil spec, and should last a long while. I can repurpose the current long wire to make 40m extensions for a couple 20m portable dipoles. The antenna works pretty well! I just made 3 contacts on 80m, two were WI, and another northern MN. The WI stations were 20+ over, and I had the MN station 58. I was looking for regional 80m for the most part. 70w is not going to get me much dx.  Like aiming a squirtgun at the sun.
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World ain't what it seems, is it Gunny?
Joined:
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USA
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Originally Posted By lorazepam: I want to eventually use this for a permanent installation. I will probably get the 100m roll, and replace the long wire, and the efhw. I'm using silicone wire, tinned copper right now, and the sun wears out the outer coating after a couple years in the sun and the cold. The linked wire is mil spec, and should last a long while. I can repurpose the current long wire to make 40m extensions for a couple 20m portable dipoles. The antenna works pretty well! I just made 3 contacts on 80m, two were WI, and another northern MN. The WI stations were 20+ over, and I had the MN station 58. I was looking for regional 80m for the most part. 70w is not going to get me much dx. Like aiming a squirtgun at the sun.70w can get you DX. I just had a 50w 80m SSB contact to Venezuela the other day. |
Joined:
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Originally Posted By lorazepam: I have done that as well as new zealand with 20w and an efhw. 80m seems to be a different animal. Originally Posted By lorazepam: Originally Posted By Emoto: I spoke with Australia from New England with 100w and a wire in the trees. I have done that as well as new zealand with 20w and an efhw. 80m seems to be a different animal. 80m can be tricky. Here at the cabin I have a 56:1 EFHW mounted at about 60' with a 136'-ish wire sloping to about 30' wire aimed directly south (I am in Bayfield county Wisconsin half a mile away from Lake Superior). And a 1/4 wave vertical in a inverted L pattern. Both work well. Between the 2, I have confirmed QSOs on 6 of the 7 continents on 80m with 100w or less. |
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Originally Posted By CashOnlyLargeBills: 80m can be tricky. Here at the cabin I have a 56:1 EFHW mounted at about 60' with a 136'-ish wire sloping to about 30' wire aimed directly south (I am in Bayfield county Wisconsin half a mile away from Lake Superior). And a 1/4 wave vertical in a inverted L pattern. Both work well. Between the 2, I have confirmed QSOs on 6 of the 7 continents on 80m with 100w or less. I may try a 1/4 wave inverted L. That sounds like a good project. |
World ain't what it seems, is it Gunny?
Joined:
May 2024
Posts:
1976
EE: 0% (0)
USA
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Originally Posted By lorazepam: I may try a 1/4 wave inverted L. That sounds like a good project. Originally Posted By lorazepam: Originally Posted By CashOnlyLargeBills: 80m can be tricky. Here at the cabin I have a 56:1 EFHW mounted at about 60' with a 136'-ish wire sloping to about 30' wire aimed directly south (I am in Bayfield county Wisconsin half a mile away from Lake Superior). And a 1/4 wave vertical in a inverted L pattern. Both work well. Between the 2, I have confirmed QSOs on 6 of the 7 continents on 80m with 100w or less. I may try a 1/4 wave inverted L. That sounds like a good project. When you think you have enough radials, add 10, 33'+ more.
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Originally Posted By lorazepam: I want to eventually use this for a permanent installation. I will probably get the 100m roll, and replace the long wire, and the efhw. I'm using silicone wire, tinned copper right now, and the sun wears out the outer coating after a couple years in the sun and the cold. The linked wire is mil spec, and should last a long while. I can repurpose the current long wire to make 40m extensions for a couple 20m portable dipoles. The antenna works pretty well! I just made 3 contacts on 80m, two were WI, and another northern MN. The WI stations were 20+ over, and I had the MN station 58. I was looking for regional 80m for the most part. 70w is not going to get me much dx. Like aiming a squirtgun at the sun.I've really enjoyed working with DX50 for my big loops. It's sooo light! |
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Added this to my bench. Got tired of using a Solderpult & iron. Pretty happy with it so far. Seen folks say they dislike having to choose between the iron or the solder vac but the iron heats up in seconds. By the time you get the replacement component in the hole it's up to temp & ready to go. The solder vac takes few minutes to heat up from cold. Haven't used it for SMT yet. Got it for $235.97 on eBay . It's no Hakko but it will do. Attached File |
How come every time there is a shooting, they want to take away the guns from the people who didn't do it?
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Update on my aviation portable base station build... I installed a couple of MOLLE panels, one vertical and one horizontal, on 1/4" standoffs. This will allow the use of the usual Velcro straps and bungees to secure batteries and other stuff in the "flex/accessory" area. The initial load-out is: - Two, 10AH LiFePO batteries with power cables - Universal battery power cable (to use random car batteries) - Charger, charger cables, and storage bag - Hand mic and storage bag - 25ft coaxial cable The station will get its first real test at an event in a couple of weeks. Attached File Attached File |
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum."
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Originally Posted By WillieTangoFox: Very nice. What kind of radio/antenna did you use? Radio: Anytone AT-778UV. 25watts Antenna: HYS TC-40UV Dual Band VHF UHF. Mounted on a plastic stick and bungeed to the inside bed of my pickup. |
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I built a mast bracket for the back of my M1102 trailer using the aluminum camouflage netting poles. This trailer has been setup for camping with a bed rack to support a roof top tent, 200aH of Lifepo4 batteries, forced air propane heater etc. I had a few needs here. - I need a way to light up a large area as we typically camp with a lot of other family and friends. There's always been a need to light up the area around camp. - We all hike around and enjoy the area we're in and like to stay in touch locally with GMRS radios and then have the ability to reach out to 2m/70cm repeaters if they need every arose. - I wanted a mast that would allow me to hoist up HF wire antennas primarily for NVIS communications. I built a bracket to attach to the back of the trailer to support the mast. Near the top of the mast is a plate that has a pulley for the HF antennas, a NMO mount for a 2m/70cm antenna and 3 guy line positions. Then up on top of that I built an aluminum plate that holds 4 1000 lumen LED rock lights that cab be controlled via bluetooth. I did a little testing with the lights in a mock up but still need to get the final product together. Hoping to finish that all up here soon and test it all out. The trailer setup prior to getting the bracket fabricated and mounted. Attached File The bracket Attached File Top of the mast Attached File |
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Originally Posted By stanprophet09: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/199367/IMG_1896_jpeg-3519790.JPG Dmr Repeater is done and on air testing is going. I will get some detailed pictures when I take it off the test antenna and get it in its permanent location. I tried a WPSD image and it just would not boot. The repeater was on Pi-star 4.1.6 so I made 2 SD cards for it. I need to get an SD card extension as its a PITA to get to the card. Deployed a card with 4.2.1 but the Pi-star GUI does not work for it. So decided to keep it on 4.1.9 since it is Buster based and the GUI works. Screen is a 7” touch screen from Amazon for a whopping $35. Although I have not had the touch screen work yet it was designed more to monitor the dashboard during mobile deployments. @stanprophet09 - Would love to see a full hardware list. I'd really like to be able to put together something like this that could go mobile. What are you using for a duplexer? |
| This weekend was antenna replacement for the VHF repeater and retuning the duplexer cans. Boy was that a long Sunday. I didn't get to listen to the net last night to verify some of the issues we have been having disappeared, but I haven't heard that they are still there, so I'm taking it as a win. |
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i picked up a pair of these Radio Shack bookshelf speakers to adapt to ham radio use. Radio Shack made their famous tiny Minimus-7 desktop speakers first, with 3-1/2" woofer and 1" dome tweeter. This was way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The Minimus-7 had a diecast metal case, not chipboard or plastic. Nice black textured type finish. Then they produced the larger "Big brother to the Minimus-7", the Minimus-77, which contained a far better 5-1/4" woofer. Woofer is paper cone with foam surround. The finish was the same, a black textured which matches a lot of ham gear, including Icom and Yaesu receivers. By demand, they were packaged singly instead of pairs, as hams did not need stereo. There were several variations, the Minimus-77, the Optimus Pro-77 (p/n 40-2057), which appears to be the same, and the Optimus Pro-X55AV (p/n 40-2082). There was another variation with a different tweeter, but I don't remember the name offhand. The Pro-X55AV had the same size woofer, but plastic cone and rubber surround. It does not turn to crap like paper and foam. These X55AV generally holds up well over time. The AV stands for Audio-Visual, and the woofer and tweeter each had "bucking magnets" to control the magnetic field when it was placed near a TV screen. These speakers are all over eBay. A few days ago I picked up a pair of Pro-77's that were in very good shape as far as appearance, but the foam surrounds were crumbling. I can fix that. Most 5-1/4" woofers will not fit and work due to a lip on the rim, or other interference. The rim must be flat to fit. I've found these speakers from Partsexpress.com fit perfectly and sound good: GRS 5PF-8. They have a paper cone (CORRECTION... they have a polylam cone), foam surround, but at only $10 each I'd rather drop in these than try to refoam. Attached File Attached File Attached File Attached File The grill is perforated aluminum, I think, and is held in place by globs of sticky butyl rubber, same as Coax Seal tape. Gently pry the grills up at the sides, about 1" from the corners. There are four spots, two even with the woofer, two even with the tweeter. Once the grill is off you can unscrew the woofer, disconnect the wires, and discard the woofer. Swap in the new woofer. You'll have to solder the negative speaker wire due to the size of the terminal. But WAIT! Not done yet. Now remove the tweeter, disconnect either wire, insulate with a little tape or heat shrink tubing, and replace the tweeter. We don't need it reproducing the hiss above 3 kHz. All we need is the woofer working. Push the grill back on. Attached File Done! |
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Originally Posted By Jupiter7200: i picked up a pair of these Radio Shack bookshelf speakers to adapt to ham radio use. Radio Shack made their famous tiny Minimus-7 desktop speakers first, with 3-1/2" woofer and 1" dome tweeter. This was way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The Minimus-7 had a diecast metal case, not chipboard or plastic. Nice black textured type finish. Then they produced the larger "Big brother to the Minimus-7", the Minimus-77, which contained a far better 5-1/4" woofer. Woofer is paper cone with foam surround. The finish was the same, a black textured which matches a lot of ham gear, including Icom and Yaesu receivers. By demand, they were packaged singly instead of pairs, as hams did not need stereo. There were several variations, the Minimus-77, the Optimus Pro-77 (p/n 40-2057), which appears to be the same, and the Optimus Pro-X55AV (p/n 40-2082). There was another variation with a different tweeter, but I don't remember the name offhand. The Pro-X55AV had the same size woofer, but plastic cone and rubber surround. It does not turn to crap like paper and foam. These X55AV generally holds up well over time. The AV stands for Audio-Visual, and the woofer and tweeter each had "bucking magnets" to control the magnetic field when it was placed near a TV screen. These speakers are all over eBay. A few days ago I picked up a pair of Pro-77's that were in very good shape as far as appearance, but the foam surrounds were crumbling. I can fix that. Most 5-1/4" woofers will not fit and work due to a lip on the rim, or other interference. The rim must be flat to fit. I've found these speakers from Partsexpress.com fit perfectly and sound good: GRS 5PF-8. They have a paper cone, foam surround, but at only $10 each I'd rather drop in these than try to refoam. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/344396/1_Optimus_Pro-77_a_jpg-3630888.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/344396/2_Optimus_Pro-77_b_jpg-3630889.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/344396/3_Optimus_Pro-77_c_jpg-3630890.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/344396/4_Optimus_Pro-77_replacement_woofer_jpg-3630891.JPG The grill is perforated aluminum, I think, and is held in place by globs of sticky butyl rubber, same as Coax Seal tape. Gently pry the grills up at the sides, about 1" from the corners. There are four spots, two even with the woofer, two even with the tweeter. Once the grill is off you can unscrew the woofer, disconnect the wires, and discard the woofer. Swap in the new woofer. You'll have to solder the negative speaker wire due to the size of the terminal. But WAIT! Not done yet. Now remove the tweeter, disconnect either wire, insulate with a little tape or heat shrink tubing, and replace the tweeter. We don't need it reproducing hiss above 3 kHz. All we need is the woofer working. Push the grill back on. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/344396/5_Optimus_Pro-77_e_done_jpg-3630892.JPG Done! How's the sound? |
Don't confuse where I live with where I'm from.
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Originally Posted By Emoto: How's the sound? Just fine. I would not go to the trouble had it not been good. I used a pair of these with a 10 w/ch "chip amp" and an mp3 player under my model railroad layout. The mp3 player is a mix of clunks and chanks, forklift sounds, hydraulics straining. Adds realism to a container yard scene. I have a pair in the bedroom with another stereo receiver hooked up to an old tablet receiving Sirius XM. Also a CD player, for other music. Those sound fine, too. Of course, all of these have the tweeter connected, just the woofers replaced. And they make great SWL/ham radio speakers. |
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Wrapped up the project tonight. I ended up writing an iOS app to control the relay board in the lights, they do a fantastic job of lighting up the area. I also hooked up a handheld to the 2M/70CM antenna and was able to make it into some distant repeaters. Overall this turned out really cool, I'm excited to get out and use it. Attached File Attached File |
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Just a few randoms from the past couple weeks. Hams "installed" some ham stuff "years ago". It was poorly installed then, it's poorly installed and failed entirely now. This is a sheriffs office, not a house... need to do things right.  500ft of rope, 60ft from garage to driveway... solution, build an 8:1. Rope inspection day.  Firmware update for Viking. Adds NX capability!  Some of the garbage the shop gets back for ""repair"".   Out to a site around midnight ... was faster and significantly less driving for me to spend the night in the truck out there than drive home, not sleep, then drive to the site.  Customer called early am, saying it was raining in town and wondered if we were still on. "It's beautiful up here." "You're already at the site? I thought you said 0800." "I got up here around midnight, rest of my crew is still on track for 0800 arrival."  Really wanted to get that cable job done, it's an easy job and I had the install crew at my disposal that week. Aspens at peak of pretty, cold/snow the following night killed the color.  Old cable down, new cable up. I took the clips off the back of the ladder while the kid climbed to the top. Once we did the haul and got things set up top, I headed down and reinstalled clips as the ground crew was making final connections. Kid got a couple clips and weathersealing up top done and just as I got to the ground, the ground crew had just made final connections. Kid's first climb.  Antenna and feedline look beautiful. Radio'd up to rip on the weathersealing and come on down. 
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Another site needed some quick work. I didn't need a lot of tools/equipment, so I opted for the little bike. The road up to the site is in rough shape. About 4 hours by truck if you can get up there at all, 2+ hours by ATV/UTV, or a little over an hour by dirt bike.   Aspens really took a beating with the recent snowstorm.  Whole bunch of icefall off the tower on the north side of the shelter.  Forgot my cabinet keys at the house.  Broke into the back so I could plug into the router. beep-boop-bop, update this, fix that, and things are happy again with some help from the ops team.  Wave at and dance for the TV station guys, watching me through their camera.  Lights off, doors locked, site secured and I'm probably the last one that'll be up there till next spring. 
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Originally Posted By SnowMule: Firmware update for Viking. Adds NX capability! https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-JmZB7xz/0/L/i-JmZB7xz-L.jpg I did that same update yesterday and then ordered the feature. I hope it comes in quickly. |
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I bought a 3.75" x 1/8" aluminum disc off ebay, and drilled a hole sort of in the center that the 10mm spike will fit through for attaching my radials on the the red connector chinese vertical. I put bolts on 4 sides so I can alligator clip various radials to tune to different bands. Pic coming. Edit: I tossed a couple radial sets I have made up, and got it to tune with the matching 40m coil to around 1.2-1.4 across the entire 40m band. I couldn't get it to tune 40 with the supplied radials. Attached File |
World ain't what it seems, is it Gunny?
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Had a pretty big day yesterday. I had family in town starting Thursday but they all left early Sunday. After church I got after a couple projects. I don't have pictures yet, but I installed a Motorola XPR 5550 in the truck with a remote head kit. Pretty excited to finally have a DMR capable rig installed. The other rig is a Icom ID-5100, which is digital, but there are very few D-Star repeaters around these days. It's living up to its reputation of Dead-Star. I was also able to get a 200w solar panel, solar charger and Starlink Mini installed in the truck. I just tossed a lead acid battery from our boat in there to test everything out. I have a few other components for the system coming including a self heating 100Ah Lifepo4 battery. I'll most likely toss a Bluetooth relay in to control the Starlink and anything else I want to control from the cab of the truck. Once I have everything in place I'll paint the aluminum plate black to make it look a bit better. Attached File Attached File Attached File |
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Originally Posted By lorazepam: I bought a 3.75" x 1/8" aluminum disc off ebay, and drilled a hole sort of in the center that the 10mm spike will fit through for attaching my radials on the the red connector chinese vertical. I put bolts on 4 sides so I can alligator clip various radials to tune to different bands. Pic coming. Edit: I tossed a couple radial sets I have made up, and got it to tune with the matching 40m coil to around 1.2-1.4 across the entire 40m band. I couldn't get it to tune 40 with the supplied radials. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/242375/IMG_20251003_165441727_jpg-3635089.JPG Very nice |
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Originally Posted By WillieTangoFox: Very nice Attached File |
World ain't what it seems, is it Gunny?
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Originally Posted By 3one5: Had a pretty big day yesterday. I had family in town starting Thursday but they all left early Sunday. After church I got after a couple projects. I don't have pictures yet, but I installed a Motorola XPR 5550 in the truck with a remote head kit. Pretty excited to finally have a DMR capable rig installed. The other rig is a Icom ID-5100, which is digital, but there are very few D-Star repeaters around these days. It's living up to its reputation of Dead-Star. I was also able to get a 200w solar panel, solar charger and Starlink Mini installed in the truck. I just tossed a lead acid battery from our boat in there to test everything out. I have a few other components for the system coming including a self heating 100Ah Lifepo4 battery. I'll most likely toss a Bluetooth relay in to control the Starlink and anything else I want to control from the cab of the truck. Once I have everything in place I'll paint the aluminum plate black to make it look a bit better. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/13223/IMG_5752_jpeg-3641072.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/13223/IMG_5753_jpeg-3641073.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/13223/IMG_5754_jpeg-3641074.JPG Yesterday on the way home from the office I noticed my new additions were whistling like a freight train. When I got home I quickly fabricated a wind deflector out of some HDPE plastic and found that it stopped the whistling. This morning on the way into the office I picked up a piece of 1/8” thick aluminum bar and then tonight made up a permanent wind deflector. This should also keep the complaints from passengers down. :) |
| No photos, but I did manage to get the HF antenna reconnected last night, including the new ground rod and cleaning up the grounding entrance box. I would have had the V/U antenna up, but the mast fell and broke things on the base antenna. I have to pick another one up tonight from DX. With any luck, I'll have everything back together this weekend. |
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Originally Posted By WillieTangoFox: Today I successfully broke into 7.200 on 10W and they all took turns giving me a signal report. I feel bad because I think they forgot what they were yelling about. Lol, that's funny. I should try one of these days. |
World ain't what it seems, is it Gunny?
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Originally Posted By Mauser556: Tomorrow, I take my General. 25 years as a Tech+ shall end tomorrow. Been going after it for a month now. Awesome! When you pass General, go ahead and take the Extra exam. It doesn't cost any more (you pay for the exam session not the individual test) and you might pass. The worst that could happen is you don't pass. It's multiple choice, so why not. |
Don't confuse where I live with where I'm from.
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My preference has always been to keep my radios and associated equipment in 2 post data racks. Since getting back into radios I've been wanting to get another to setup in. Found this one on Facebook for $100. I keep all antennal connections on one side and power on the other. Attached File |
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Originally Posted By Mauser556: Tomorrow, I take my General. 25 years as a Tech+ shall end tomorrow. Been going after it for a month now. And I passed. Only missed 2. Took me about 10 mins. Did the Extra...and I need extra study. 31%. After 25 years, I got it. Now, I'm waiting on my G90 to come to get into more HF than what I've done. /AG |
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Originally Posted By Mauser556: And I passed. Only missed 2. Took me about 10 mins. Did the Extra...and I need extra study. 31%. After 25 years, I got it. Now, I'm waiting on my G90 to come to get into more HF than what I've done. /AG Congrats! 
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Don't confuse where I live with where I'm from.
