My Pac-12 in its Radio Shack back-bag


- posted by Leigh @ 21:22 z 0 comments

 
My KX1 Bag
I got the idea for this from Wayne N6KR designer of the KX1.

The Pack and Front Pocket Front pocket contains Sony 108dB/mW earphones and compass Middle Pocket With antenna wire, connectors, and paddle Back pocket With KX1, log/copy book, pen, extra battery, foam pad. Not shown but also in there is a Maldol 20M whip. Side Pocket Digital clock set to Zulu Time

- posted by Leigh @ 21:21 z 1 comments

 
What a difference...

Field day is over.
- posted by Leigh @ 18:53 z 0 comments

 
20 Meters on Field Day 0530Z

Here it is now.
- posted by Leigh @ 05:26 z 0 comments

 
20 Meters on Field Day 0250Z

20M is still hopping.
- posted by Leigh @ 02:54 z 0 comments

 
PAARA Field Day

I am just leaving thw PAARA Field Day site. It will be going on until tomorrow at 11am... I helped set up the PSK 31 station for non-hams.
- posted by Leigh @ 23:06 z 0 comments

 
I got my Olimex PIC-MT-A and Microchip PIC 18F252 to send morse code in the speaker, LED, and relay. Unfortunately, the SDCC C compiler is just barely working for the PIC18 and it's way too frustrating for me to try to get anything done, so I'm putting all my PIC project plans back on hold. For documentation on how I got the basics to work, see here: Spark Fun Microcontroller Forum.
- posted by Leigh @ 18:19 z 0 comments

 
Indoor QRP VA7WHY
I ran a 28ft wire and a 24ft wire through some convenient cracks between the ceiling and the wall and tossed one into a tree and the other looped around a water pipe and listened around a bit. On 10.111 Mhz I answered a CQ from VA7WHY (QRZ.com says Jim in Hornsby Island, BC, Canada) who gave me a 229 but we couldn't get much beyond that (he was 439).
- posted by Leigh @ 05:30 z 0 comments

 

My Saratoga EZ-Charge from HamStop came today. It has a small 16v wall wart and this box, and a Molex connector that goes to a AA to D cell NiMH pack to charge it. I figure it will be much better than taking my Maha C777-II on my next trip. The prototype I saw had APP connectors on both sides, but this one has a Molex on the battery side. I imagine they did it to make it clear which side is which, but I don't want to make yet another adapter to lose, so I asked if they can change it for me, or sell me the PC board pins for the APP so I can change it myself.
- posted by Leigh @ 21:26 z 0 comments

 
Sunset at the pier (Webster, NY)

Sunset at the pier. First picture is looking West (the DX direction).
- posted by Leigh @ 00:10 z 0 comments

 
EA6UN (Don't send $3, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain) from Lake Ontario, New York on my KX1 and PAC-12

I set up the KX1 and Pac-12 on a pier in Webster, NY in lake Ontario about 100m off the shore, among some fisherman. I tried to make my Pac-12 look like a fising rod until I put it up. I listened a bit and heard EA6UN Jurek in Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, calling CQ on 14.034. He answered someone else but then called QRZ QRP WA5 for me an gave me a 569 with QSB. He wanted to know my power (4W) and said the Elecraft KX1 was doing FB. He was running 100W into a beam.

So for me that was Grid FN13 to Grid KM71 which is 9200KM or 5,750 miles, so at 4W that's 1437.5 miles/watt or 2300 km/watt! So I am now eligible for the 1000 mi/watt club.

QSL via EC6TK (qrz.com confirms and gives more directions).

Update: I sent the $3 but never got the QSL. Don't make my mistake.

- posted by Leigh @ 23:45 z 0 comments

 
N7OG in Ogden UT
I heard N7OG Ken in Ogden, UT call QRZ after a QSO and answered him. He gave me a 449. He was patient and wanted to know my power (4w). end 8:00PM EDT.
- posted by Leigh @ 02:13 z 0 comments

 
Picnic Table to Picnic Table
I worked N9IP/4 CW on 14.028.0 who was also picnic portable though on an ICOM-706 @100 watts into a Hustler vertical, from his poolside table. Ed was on vacation and had time for a quick QSO after walking Coolonial Williamsburg, VA and before taking a dip in the pool. Ie was 599 and gave me a 569 when I answered his CQ. As I was running 4W and he was running 100, by reciprocity that means he should have heard me about 2 or so S units down so that is about right.
- posted by Leigh @ 22:17 z 0 comments

 
DX Pileup or County Hunter net?
I worked W0GXQ in a county-hunter net, from a picnic table at Xerox in Webster, NY on 4w with my KX1 and a sorta-vertical wire on 14.05650 2330z,, but I had no idea what it was. I thought it was a DX pileup. OM was 579 and gave me 449 on my KX1 at a picnic table in Xerox. As I did not copy the call in 20 minutes of listening. I copied other QSOs and sent email to W6RLL Joe who kindly identified it as a county-hunter net and gave me the calls he worked.
- posted by Leigh @ 22:13 z 0 comments

 
Ant Climb Tree

Picture of operating position. The first picture shows the area the picnic table is in, and the second the entrance to the building I was working in. The antenna was in the big tree to the right in the picture with the picnic table and sunset. I had the ground wire running away from it for a while, then under it. On the table you can see the waist pack that holds the whole rig, and in the other picture you can see the KX1 and the external AA pack I was using to get 4W.
- posted by Leigh @ 00:17 z 0 comments

 
Too much stuff

I have my KX1, FT-817, K5OOR amplifier, Z100, PAC-12, VX-2 and associated batteries and and antennas packed for a trip to Webster, NY, Grid Square FN13, near Rochester, NY.
- posted by Leigh @ 20:38 z 0 comments

 
CW is going to the dogs

My father N5LK sent me this.
- posted by Leigh @ 20:43 z 0 comments

 
W4REF CW 7026.85
I heard Calvin W4REF calling CQ and answered him with my new KX1. I had just finished the ATU but was running it straight through to the HFPacker amp and the Z100. There was a lot of crashing QRN on my end and Calvin with his 44 years of CW only had a fine signal from his Drake TR-4C and dipole, but I missed a good half of it.
- posted by Leigh @ 06:51 z 0 comments

 
Things that bug me about the KX1

1. Zero beating is hard. The sidetone test mode blocks out the RX so you can't beat the, you have to swap them. I might try turning off the TX and sending dits to beat, but there really ought to be a one-button solution to mix 600Hz with the received audio, especially since the TX offset is fixed at 600Hz. Wayne N6KR said that the sidetone is wimpy because it is mixed from two PIC output lines with a couple of resistors and is "wimpy" so he has to mute the RX, but I still think a one-button zero-beat could be done. I'll have to get my scope out, but it sounds to me like the harmonic content is fairly rich (i.e., it's probably a square wave) and makes it harder to tell right. Narrowing the filter and peaking the RX audio first helps, as it puts you in the right ball park. Another thing I do is to tune the carrier to 0Hz and then go up or down 600Hz but that's kind of a pain as there can be QRM 600Hz away and it's hard to remember whether to go up or down as the injection is different on the different bands.
2. The chorded-hold key combinations (menu-band-hold for Tune, menu-RIT-hold for display mode, etc.) are hard to get to, because if you hold the first button for > 0.5s then it does the unchorded operation right away. That is, if you do menu-hold-band it just does menu-hold, which is enter edit menu. To make matters worse, once you're in edit menu mode, the chorded menu options aren't available any more, and you have to tap menu once to get back to VFO display mode. I complained about it, but apparently I am the first, and the K1 and K2 do the same thing. Still, I think it shouldn't perform the hold operation until you release the keys, and at that point it can decide whether it was chorded or not.

- posted by Leigh @ 23:47 z 0 comments

 
QRV with KX1 on 30M; no contacts
I finished my KX1 30M option. The installation instructions weren't making sense. It turns out I'd put one of the "G" wires in the wrong "G" through-hole on the board. It does say not to do that, but I thought it was referring to the G near the 2003 on the main board, not on the option board. Duh. It went together fine but didn't work; it turns out I'd put the nylon shoulder washer for the final transistor back in the wrong place when it fell out. It is supposed to go between the tab and the standoff, not between the tab and the case. The case insulation is provided by the Sil Pad. Once I fixed that it worked great and re-aligned quickly. My G5RV hears little and gets out even less on 30M, so I took two pieces of teflon wire (24 ft each) like it says in the KX1 FAQ, and used my Z100 to load it up with a bananna jack and an alligator clip, on top of a hill at work at lunch time. I had forgotten to bring two pieces of Coax, I hooked the Z100 to the rig with a stack of BNC->UHF->BNC adapters, and then the power/swr meter with the coax, and then the antenna. It was difficult to find a match on 40M but it would match on 30M and 20M. I called CQ a few times on all 3 bands and answered a few, but no takers.
- posted by Leigh @ 23:41 z 0 comments

 
KX1 pack at WalMart for $4.79

I got a pack for $4.79 at Walmart. They had thinner ones for $1 less with one fewer pocket, and wider ones ("Fits up to 60 inch waist!") for $1 more. Thee brand is "Eastsport." Some had prominent logos, and some didn't. They had thick polyester (what I chose), thin nylon that looks like it would rip but was lighter, and that material known as "pleather" (for $7.99). They also had some styles in other colors such as purple.

They also had slightly larger shoulder packs for $7.99, good for carrying an HFPacker amp and D-cell NiMH pack.

- posted by Leigh @ 04:42 z 0 comments

 
First QSO with Elecraft KX1
I finished my KX1 #712 and it was late, but I heard J1DOT on 7.083.25 5x9, running 1KW into a 4EL beam up 26 meters high. He made a cross-mode contact so I gave it a try, but he didn't answer me, so I turned on the HFPacker amp and he heard me at 50W on my G5RV and gave me 589, and said he would QSY down later for US CW stations. 2004JUN06 1040z
- posted by Leigh @ 10:47 z 0 comments

 
First time on 60M 5731.5 USB.
I hooked up my Pac-12 with the 40m coil, a 4ft aluminum extension, and then the 20m coil, and lowered about 2 top sections. I added the longest elevated radial I could make and put the Z100 tuner at the base of the antenna, and ran the coax to the shack. I could get about 1.8:1 out of it, so I turned on the HFPacker Amp and talked to WB6MLC Ken in Fremont and Bill K6ACJ in Huntington Beach, CA. Neither could hear me or each other very well, but I could copy them Q5 with my Autek QF-1A audio filter. I talked to Ken a little more after Bill went QRT and he could copy my 5x1, probably NVIS he said. Probably I should tune some radials for 60M and wind a coil for it, hi hi.
- posted by Leigh @ 04:17 z 0 comments