Have an Antenna finally...

So, I bought the book "Low Profile Amateur Radio". One thing I learned from it is Any Antenna Is Better Then No Antenna. So, I went to HRO and bought a RadioWavz brand dipole. 40/20 with Balun. I was going to just staple it to the fence but decided while I was out there that I could hang it from the edge of the roof. So, its slightly better then totall suboptimal, I mean, its not sitting on the ground. About 10ft high sloping to 5' at the fence.

Well, it tunes up with my MFJ antenna tuner, and it seems to work.

Now I just need to get over my fear of the PTT button.

73,
Tom AF6YW
Categories: antennas, hf
Date: 2011-02-23, 13 years and 37 days ago

And another new toy, SGC-37

Friend of mine is selling me ( very reasonably ) an SGC QMS-37 mobile HF antenna setup, which is the SG-237 Smartuner in a really fancy suction cupped thing. This weekend I fully intend to give it a spin with a ground rod, as many radials as I can run in my limited (concrete) yard, and as much wire as I can make vertical. If it works at all, I'll drop the money on a fiberglass flagpole and get the recommendly 28+ feet of wire in the air and *finally* have an HF rig at home on the air. Very exciting for me...

On the mobile front, I am still doing battle with SWR. I've done some more grounding, but I think I have a cable issue due to a rather severe right angle bend the coax has to make. I bought a right-angle connection from HRO, but its standard import *insert profanity here* and broke on the drive home. I've ordered an actual expensive amphenol right-angle and will do some work this weekend and see if I can make things happier. I have to say, the coax that High Sierra uses in their cable assembly seems pretty cheap. The braid is maybe 80% coverage which I'm not a fan of. I grew up mostly using Ancor marine coax which is 95%+ coverage. Maybe High Sierra just had a bad batch?


73,
Tom AF6YW
Categories: hf, base, antennas
Date: 2011-02-02, 13 years and 58 days ago

I'm now rigged for mobile!

Not that anyone actually reads this site, but figured I'd mention I now have a mobile rig set up in my car and I'm quite excited.

Icom IC7000, High Sierra HS1800Pro, BetterRF screwdriver controller and tune control, Diamond triband 2m/220/70cm antenna.

Its not perfect yet. SWR tunes up fine on 40, but is rather high on 80. Need to run some good ground straps and see if that makes things happier.

In non-mobile news, I finally finished rebuilding my Kenwood TS930SAT. Power supply main regulator is fully replaced and I replaced the kinda ugly regulators for other voltages in the unit. Just as a note, if you are rebuilding one of these and its a later serial number version, there is a 21v regulator on the board that is not on the replacement. You will have to come up with something to replace that as it powers most of the radio. I used an LM350. I tested the current draw of that section of the radio and its below 1.5amps, but an LM317 would probably be very unhappy there. Anyhow, powers up just nifty now. After testing it I installed the Piexx CPU board which went in and works like a dream. In a few days I should have an antenna to try running at the house too. Very exciting. Michael (VK4AMZ) who designed the new regulator board was very helpful and patient with questions while I determined that the SCRs I used had some quirks. A couple small caps and its nice and stable.

If you actually read this and have any questions or something, you can email me. tom@ this domain will get me.

Gee, I should also mention that I finally got N4YLC's HPSDR to work and receive something after a protracted battle with firmware. What we've learned is VMWares USB support is not insanely fast and the people who wrote the docs I found to follow are friggen Rockstars. While not perfect, they were detailed enough that I was able to muddle through and make it work. Now I'm afraid he might want it back. Really want to play with it once I have an antenna up for 6meters.

Its been a busy couple months since my last update. Lets see what else... FRG7 got backburnered while I repair the HP sweep generator I bought with the theory it'd make things easier to work on. Trimble Thunderbolt frequency reference is working fine. Besides setting up an antenna at home for HF and fixing the high SWR issue in my mobile setup I also have a Yaesu FT757GXII to work on. Not to mention other non-Ham related activities. At least I feel like I'm making progress...

Ah well, enough updates for now esp as I am talking to myself most likely...


73,
Tom AF6YW
Categories: mobile, hf, equipment
Date: 2011-01-25, 13 years and 66 days ago