My Small Wonder Labs PSK-20 kit arrived.
- posted by Leigh @ 02:09 z 0 comments

 

Rich and I are done with our HFPacker Amplifier MOSFET boards. Only 2 more boards to go (power supply and filter).
- posted by Leigh @ 01:37 z 0 comments

 
I'm switching over to Anderson PowerPoles for my '817, PSKMeter, and PSK interface. I got some 7.5AH gel cells from Quicksilver Radio and some cables from them and an 8-position distributor box from HamStop.com and now I have to get some spade lugs and fused lines from Radio Shack...
- posted by Leigh @ 21:09 z 0 comments

 

I went to a parking lot near the SF Bay in Palo Alto and operated "mobile" with my FT-817 and Pac-12 antenna on the trunk and the laptop inside the car. I heard someone on CW on 14.070 calling CQ Test even before I plugged the antenna in! Thankfully he went away quickly. I ran the radials over the car and the roof and a few trailing to the ground. As they aren't tuned (or tunable in such a state, probably) I just relied on the Z11 to match it through 1 ft of coax. I heard someone in Wayne County, NY (near Rochester) in QSO with France, but couldn't hear the other side. I answered W9JIF Jerry in Sun City, AZ, who retired from being a middle-school teacher in Oskosh, WI. He was 599 and I got 589. I broke for lunch at 1:30 PST and it started raining a half-hour later. I couldn't get my PSKMeter to work -- it dailed to erspond when I transmitted -- probably from RF getting to the uP because it was inches away. Once I get approval from the ranger I will try operating portable from a little closer to the water, but he is out this week, so I stuck to mobile operation from the parking lot. I have staked out a spot that looks good, a park bench right by some grass near the water. I switched to 18157.5 USB with the 20M coil and relied on the tuner and heard some HFPack QSOs -- a W0 and a local SF W6 were very strong but the W6 was working the other stns in a roundtable and I wasn't interested in the local.
- posted by Leigh @ 23:05 z 0 comments

 

I put together a hamstick dipole and mounted it up about 8.5ft on a piece of PVC pipe and shored it up with a ladder. I was going to test it against my Pac-12 but the center line feeding the BNC broke sp I wasn't able to try it. Accoding to my Tenna Dipper the hamstick dipole was resonant about 13.7Mhz, but the Z11 did OK through 18ft of coax. There was lots of activity on 14.070, and when I called CQ W8FDV answered me right away and we were both 599. Jim was on a low dipole too, in Apache Junction, AZ. We both had to QRT due to family obligations.
- posted by Leigh @ 22:33 z 0 comments

 

My HW-16 arrived yesterday and I copied a few QSOs on 80M, one in Crooked River Bend, OR and another from Fremont, CA. I have a few 40M crystals. I want to the get the HG-10B VFO, though when I upgraded to Technician I had the VFO-1...and I have my eye on a Heath antenna tuner...
- posted by Leigh @ 23:14 z 0 comments

 

I set up my Pac-12 antenna at the local school athletic ground about a block from my house, and tuned It to 14.070 with my 4SQRP Tenna Dipper. Right away I picked up a lot of CW and PSK activity on 20m. But I had no output power, and thought perhaps I had blown my finals in the FT-817, but the mic worked fine up on the HFPack calling frequency (no answer). So I checked my Buxcomm interface and found a mechanical problem with the transmit level adjust pot, which had always been flakey.

I called CQ a few times but no answer, so I tried answering WA5EOG (EM34) and he came back first time, but gave me a 349. I have not finished the 2nd power cable for my PSKMeter so I was being too conservative in modulation. I upped the modulation a bit and got a 579, to his 589. I was probably running 1.5W before and 2.5-5W after. 1600 miles isn't bad for 1.5W for getting through and a few watts for a QSO.

Ken's wife is also a ham and she looked up my QRZ page while I was talking to him, hi hi.

- posted by Leigh @ 04:49 z 0 comments

 

I got 4 40M Xtals for my HW-16; 7125, 7069.444, 7011.111, and 7061.111.
- posted by Leigh @ 01:58 z 0 comments

 
US Hams and US DSL Lines Both seem to follow population, except for the state of Michigan, which is extremely densely populated with hams. Maybe the influence of Heathkit in Benton Harbor?


- posted by Leigh @ 18:13 z 0 comments

 
I bought a 500Hz Collins Mechanical Filter on an INRAD board for the 455KHz IF of my FT-817 from W6OA. It definitely works for PSK31 and I'm using it now to monitor N5DEN talking to KC0CWI on 3580, and AB7BS in Florida talking to K4XY in Virginia on 7070. When I bring the filter in the received audio frequency goes up by 250Hz. Hmmm.
- posted by Leigh @ 05:45 z 0 comments

 

I took my Buxcomm rascal interface apart and added a Ramsey VOX board kit I got at Halted for $10. I had to change the timing resistor from 220K to 1K ohm and then put a 10K ohm resistor in serirs with the input audio signal. The goal is to free up the lone serial port on my Libretto so I can use the PSKMeter. It worked great the first time and I had a long QSO with John WB6JNY in Menlo Park, CA. He answered my CQ on 14.070 0055z 02 Feb 04 and thought I was in 5-land, but we had a nice long QSO anyway, which ended when I had to clean up the MESS I made on the floor. Now I need to use that drill press I bought on sale at SoftwareandStuff to fit the two boards into a project box.
- posted by Leigh @ 01:51 z 0 comments