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Bedrooms or Beverages and the 20-meter Money Eater

September 11th, 2008

Two of my favorite QST articles are “Bedrooms or Beverages” by K1TN (Oct 1994) and “The 20-meter Money-Eater” by W7KCN (Apr 1991).  Now that QST is online, you should go look them up. 

The April 1991 issue is the first issue of QST I ever read.  We picked it up at a used book sale before I was licensed in 1993.  It has a lot of hilarious articles in it.  The DXDC (DXCC deleted countries) list is quite funny, too.  “The 20-meter Money Eater” pretty well describes any homebrew project I’ve ever worked on.

The first year Dad and I were ARRL members was 1994.  Those QSTs got dogeared in a real hurry.  Either QST was better then, or I’m jaded now, or both.  Anyhow, I didn’t even know what a Beverage was when I read “Bedrooms or Beverages.”  In fact, I didn’t know what half the article was about.  But, it was good reading.  I read it again recently when I was at Mom and Dad’s place.  It’s even funnier now that I’ve thought about doing some of the things K1TN tells about.  I actually had an e-mail exchange with him a few years ago about joining a Sprint team in which I told him it was my all-time favorite QST article.  He said that all of his years of writing/editing for QST were worth it when people told him things like that.  I always enjoy his writing.

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Sprint Recap

September 8th, 2008 
From 3830: 

Call: K8GU
Operator(s): K8GU
Station: K8GU
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: IL
Operating Time (hrs): 4
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Op Time
---------------------
 80:   83
 40:   88
 20:   45
---------------------
Total:  216    Mults = 45  Total Score = 9,720

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Team: SMC #1
---

This did not get posted to 3830:

I didn’t bring my A-game to this one. The first and fourth hours were decent. But, the second and third hours just plain stunk.

As readers of the blog know, I’ve been trying to get my station almost completely automated. It’s getting there. W9RE told me that his relay box didn’t have good isolation. He’s right. I can hear the broadband noise from my 930’s when I hit the PTT. At this point, I have two options: I can build the KK1L board (not attractive at the moment) or I can add six relays to the W9RE box to add another layer of isolation (this is what I’m leaning toward). SO2R only works if you can actually hear stations on one radio while transmitting on the other. I did manage to run almost the entire contest without the sidetone this time. Progress is progress.

The news isn’t all bad about this Sprint. From a statistical standpoint, my QSO total is basically equivalent to my February 2008 total. But, I did nail a lot more multipliers, including my first KL7 in the Sprint. SO2R was very valuable for about four of my multipliers this time. The NCCC Sprints have really helped me get used to operating SO2R. Although, as K6VVA (I think) said, it’s hard to resist the temptation to dupe. Usually, I do an almost impeccable job duping the Sprint in my head. But, for whatever reason, this time I was surprised how many stations the computer told me weren’t dupes. Glad I had it! That’s probably an indicator that I really sucked in the copying department. Will the Golden Logs continue?

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Sprint

September 4th, 2008
Key and Radio

Key and Radio

The CW Sprint is this weekend.  I need to verify that the band-decoders are RF-proof on all combinations of Sprint bands and get the station ready.  I’m looking forward to it!

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Station Automation, Part 1.75

August 26th, 2008

Last night, I replaced a 2N3906 in the decoder/logic box that I apparently destroyed while testing the relays.  I’m pretty proud of my troubleshooting on that one…narrowed it down to the transistor in about two minutes.  Since W9RE had been driving the relays with another set of relays, he didn’t bother to put back-EMF diodes across the coils.  I think that should help protect my precious (by that I mean pain-in-the-butt-to-replace) transistors.  Both PIEXX boards are talking to the decoder correctly.  I just need to build some coax jumpers, install the diodes, and tidy-up the shack.
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Station Automation, Part 1.5

August 18th, 2008

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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Station Automation, Part 1

August 14th, 2008
Station Automation

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.

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False Precision: A Life Lesson from Tinkering

July 12th, 2008

hp3310a-web.jpg

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

Antenna Work

July 10th, 2008

remote-box-bw-web.jpg

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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Turn the Big Knob: A Life Lesson from Ham Radio

July 10th, 2008

radio-key-web-bw.jpg

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.

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Posted in hobbies, radio

Will the real MV Island please stand up?

June 23rd, 2008

Again, I saw a status message, this time on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) of someone whose geography did not match mine. “MV Island,” it said. “Why would they be going to Malyj Vysotskij Island?” I pondered. Ah, it’s Martha’s Vineyard.

Malyj Vysotskij is arguably more interesting…

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