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Station Automation, Part 1.5

August 18th, 2008 by k8gu No comments »

Over the weekend, I finished populating the KK1L controller board. Due to some boneheadedness, I managed to destroy two of the CMOS ICs. I have a large cache of 74xx and 74HCxx series parts, but no 4000 series. So, I ordered some more from Mouser. Turns out that NO9Z needed some more of them, too. At least the we had the foresight to socket the ICs. Half of the board works since the parts I destroyed were in the radio B circuit. Thank goodness for small favors.

The next problem was the PIEXX boards in the TS-930S’s. Chris at PIEXX had sent me the band data output information many moons ago. However, that’s the one e-mail account I apparently failed to archive over the past decade. Ooops. I filed a comment through the PIEXX website; but, I still haven’t heard anything. I also inquired on the TS-930S and SMC e-mail reflectors with no success. Armed with a volt-meter and a little knowledge, I was able to deduce the following on J19 (8P8C/RJ-45):

Pin	Function
1	Band Data D (MSB)
2	+5V
3	Band Data C
4	GND
5	Band Data B
6	?
7	Band Data A (LSB)
8	?

The band data are in the standard 4-bit Yaesu format enumerated beginning with 0001 on 160 meters.

Sarah was working on her Adirondack chair project on the front porch on Sunday afternoon; so, I elected to join her outside and build a 10/15-meter fan dipole. On 10/15 and 80/160, I’m adding a second relay box to select the correct W3NQN filter but share the antennas. Given the amount of activity on 10 and 15 right now and my preference toward domestic contests from home, this is an acceptable move. Ordinarily, I would like to have 80 and 160 separate; but, the geometry of our lot just won’t permit it without using a vertical on 80. Even when I stapled radials in the lawn, the man who cuts the grass managed to pull two of them up. Given that my primary foci are SS and the Sprints, the ability to be on both 80 and 160 is just not that important.

The fan dipole is coarsely tuned-up and ready to be installed. I have some ideas on where to put it; but, I haven’t made it up into the tree, yet.

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Posted in radio

Tags: ts930

Station Automation, Part 1

August 14th, 2008 by k8gu No comments »

Station Automation

As a part of my long-term station plan, I wanted automatic band switching. So, when W9RE posted to the SMC reflector that he was selling his relay matrix, I jumped at the opportunity. NO9Z and I had previously gathered the parts to build KK1L’s 2×6 system. However, our friend who made the board was not able to load the Gerber drill file that KK1L had provided. NO9Z reamed his holes by hand. I wasn’t so patient; so, the W9RE box was a great opportunity. That liberated about two dozen nice American Zettler relays, though. These will be great for building other components in my switching system.

Sarah suggested this morning that maybe I should take it easy today since I looked beat. So, I started populating the KK1L controller board so I can use it to drive the W9RE switches. One of the greatest purchases I’ve made since becoming a ham has been my Weller WES51 temperature-controlled solder iron. I breezed through several hundred joints this afternoon no problem. In the last month, I’ve used two different loaner solder irons while on the road, both of which cost less than $10 and it shows. There’s nothing like having a well-cared-for tool that’s perfect for the job.

I’m missing a few parts. So, a trip to RadioShack is in order in the next few days. But, I hope to have this running in time for the Sprint. I have a lot of coax jumpers to make, which implies that I will be buying some connectors. I have hobbies burning my cash flow from every direction these days… I suppose I should try get one of the hobbies to start paying for itself.

» Read more: Station Automation, Part 1

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Tomatoes

August 14th, 2008 by k8gu No comments »

Tomatoes

Last year we collected 40-something tomatoes from our six plants. We were so proud of our little collection when we visited my aunt in Iowa with them. We ended up canning five 5-gallon buckets full of tomatoes with her. She’s on sabbatical this year; so, I don’t think we’re going to impinge on her. But, we have a lot more tomatoes this year and we need to come up with something to do with them. I think maybe I’ll make some salsa soon since we have a variety of peppers. But, at some point, we’ll need to can them.

We picked about a dozen tomatoes last night. The squirrels have probably eaten or spoiled half again that many. It is pretty amazing that no matter where you live, you can almost always grow tomatoes.

» Read more: Tomatoes

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Posted in life

Welcome to the new site

August 12th, 2008 by k8gu No comments »

I’ve decided to redo the site again. I haven’t managed to get my old WordPress blog posts imported into Joomla, yet. But, that will come. I have several options in that regard. Joomla is an excellent CMS as far as customization and ease-of-use. However, it’s not nearly as semantic-friendly as WordPress, which may prove to be its downfall for me. But, for now, that’s what I’m using. I plan to migrate the old articles from the original site into the Joomla format over time. I will symlink them to the old URL’s for bookmarks and search engines. Please bear with me as I rebuild…
» Read more: Welcome to the new site

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Posted in computing, site

Gathering

July 14th, 2008 by k8gu No comments »

Yesterday, we engaged in an activity as old as humanity: friends from church invited us to pick blueberries. They have a two-year-old and a baby. So, it was a long trip without a lot of berry picking. The two-year-old had a difficult time with the notion of saving berries for later. Every time she found a berry (ripe or not), she put it in her mouth. I don’t know why, but teaching a two-year-old to gather blueberries, I felt a strange sense of communion with simpler times. It’s good to be home and moving a little slower.

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False Precision: A Life Lesson from Tinkering

July 12th, 2008 by k8gu No comments »

I’m a tinkerer. I’ve collected some basic test equipment and tools that allow me to work on many things, mostly electronic and mechanical. I have a cheap digital multimeter; but, the rest of my test equipment, like the HP 3310A function generator pictured above, is analog. Unlike digital equipment, where it’s no big deal to add extra digits to a read-out, analog equipment usually offers no more precision in its read-out than it’s capable of resolving.

Recently, I was talking to the guy who was the grader for an RF circuits class I took a few years ago. He was telling me how amazed he was that students would calculate the required inductance for an inductor to five digits of significance. And, they would write it in scientific notation: 3.1562E-6 Henries. We laughed. Nobody can make an inductor that precisely! Yet, we can calculate (and often measure) it that precisely. Tinkering, the process of getting something working, often does not require great precision. Sometimes that’s easy to forget when you have a powerful computer and a lab full of pricey test equipment.

It turns out that a lot of things in life do not demand immense precision. Heck, we might be better off without digital precision…

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Posted in education, engineering, hobbies, radio

Rant: Where did the Simpsons go?

July 12th, 2008 by k8gu No comments »

The last iota of intelligence on the local Fox station vaporized. The FCC could easily revoke their license for failing to serve the public interest. When we moved to Champaign-Urbana, the Simpsons were on at 5:00 and 6:00 on weekdays. If I worked later than 5:00, I could always see the 6:00 episode. The 6:00 episode was replaced about two years ago with “Two and a Half Men.” That’s like replacing your trusty Ford Taurus with a Daewoo, sure it’s a little cheaper, but you’re still driving a Daewoo. No, actually worse, because “Two and Half Men” is inane. I was disappointed; but, I did make sure to catch the 5:00 Simpsons a couple of times a week.

In June, the station discontinued the 5:00 episode of the Simpsons for a second half-hour of “King of the Hill,” which also airs at 5:30. Why anyone would want to see an entire hour of “King of the Hill” every day is beyond me. Although, I am grateful that I’ve seen a few episodes of it because the Simpsons did an awesome “King of the Hill” alley scene. So now, we get an hour of “King of the Hill” followed by an hour of “Two and Half Men.” I don’t know who their target audience is; but, they have to be getting dumber watching that. Part of the grand Fox plan of idiocracy, I guess.

On the bright side, I guess that’s an hour or two of my week I get back. On the other hand, the Simpsons was somewhat educational in the sense that it packed a lifetime of popular culture and historical event references into a half-hour package I could understand without having to sit through all of those other movies and TV shows.

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Posted in communication, life

This is How We Roll: A Life Lesson from Travel

July 11th, 2008 by k8gu No comments »

Even though we did a little too much of it this Spring, I enjoy traveling and seeing new people and places. Certainly, I have been an impatient traveller at times. But, some of the best times I’ve had traveling have been the “eh, stuff happens” times, the times when I’ve just “rolled with it.” Taking the wrong bus. Streets closed on the way to the airport. Delayed flights. Traffic jams. Missed flights. They have been adventures, not always stress-free, but I’ve survived. Luck favors the prepared. Are you prepared?

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Posted in hobbies, life, travel

Antenna Work

July 10th, 2008 by k8gu No comments »

I mentioned a few weeks (months?) ago that I was working on some antenna upgrades and that I had a 20-meter Moxon up. Well, I built the Moxon out of #14 THHN, which has PVC insulation, using dimensions for bare wire. Oops. (This could easily have been a life lesson: read the fine print.) I decided against rebuilding the Moxon for two reasons: First, it was a pain to install in the trees. Second, I can get a dipole up higher. So, I put up a 20-meter dipole yesterday. One end is at about 40 feet and the other at 35 feet or so. SWR is good and A/B tests on receive are good. Looking forward to trying it out in the NS tonight.

I also pulled the 80/160 matching network (see picture) off of the roof and moved it to the ground. This is a major improvement for repairs and adjustments and I gain an extra 10-12 feet of radiator on 160 when I short the feeder. Since it’s now on the ground, I won’t actually get to try it out on 160 until the mowing guy quits for the year. N3OX tells me that he solved the “squeemish about wires in the grass” problem by offering to mow his own yard. We travel too much and I’m really not willing to let the landlady off the hook on anything. So, no 160 during the summer is the price I have to pay. I also rebuilt the box with a much more intelligent layout than before. Let’s just say that I couldn’t bring myself to post the old one on the Internet with my name on it.

I’ll probably try to add 10 and 15 to the 20-meter dipole, just to have them. But, that’s “later” project. I also need to build the W3NQN filters for those bands still, too. I have all of the parts (even the boards) for KK1L‘s 2×6 switch. But, I’ve cooled off on building it. Some day. Maybe.

IARU HF World Championship is this weekend. This had been one of my favorite contests. I’ve hardly participated in it since 2004, when I operated W0AIH SOLP CW. I’m just not much of a single op DX contester these days. Sarah probably is a big part of that. She doesn’t like when I contest much longer than the Sprint at a stretch! We need to work on that. I’m trying to operate fewer contests more intensely. SS CW and the CW Sprints are the ones I’m focusing on. I’ll probably make some Q’s in the IARU, even if it’s just working W1AW/9 and NU1AW/0.

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Posted in radio

Tags: repair

Turn the Big Knob: A Life Lesson from Ham Radio

July 10th, 2008 by k8gu No comments »

Ham radio is a great hobby and I’ve met numerous interesting people through it. But, perhaps more so than some other hobbies, it has its share of sociopaths and nuts who tend broadcast and discuss their intolerant, backwards, or just plain nonsensical viewpoints on the air. There’s even a saying, “If you don’t like what you hear, turn the big knob on the front of your radio.” I am torn by this sentiment. It represents a “tragedy of the commons” that dooms the entire hobby. At the same time, giving feedback to the belligerents usually only eggs them on.

There are some people who are worth your time and there are some who are not. There are even some times when good people try to jerk your chain. Know when to turn the big knob.