Everybody has room for a 20m dipole (coil shortened of course).
If you'll notice from the article link - 102" end to end will do it ! Doesn't need to be a shower rod, wire will work - as long as the coils are correct.
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What did you do in the shack today?
- Thread starter CatSnoutSoup
- Start date
If you'll notice from the article link - 102" end to end will do it ! Doesn't need to be a shower rod, wire will work - as long as the coils are correct.
ToddDubya
NES Member
Mounted in the middle of your 10x10 cell you could still rotate that 360 degrees!Everybody has room for a 20m dipole (coil shortened of course).
If you'll notice from the article link - 102" end to end will do it ! Doesn't need to be a shower rod, wire will work - as long as the coils are correct.
Dark mode on phone didn't show the link, I'll read it tonight.Everybody has room for a 20m dipole (coil shortened of course).
If you'll notice from the article link - 102" end to end will do it ! Doesn't need to be a shower rod, wire will work - as long as the coils are correct.
I'd assumed we were talking like a 50' dipole
Took some time tonight and grabbed that shortie choked USB and ran it through my laptop.
What a f***in difference.
Got WSPR connections in Virginia, Alabama, and Kansas in short order, FT8 Connection in Montanna too.
Little more time I'm out in Oregon and the Canary Islands.
Mucked around with my DT gain and am happily sitting on a ALC of about 2. Not convinced my SWR is reading right, but it's below 1.
This is a big difference than using my desktop, any time I get an ALC reading I get a ham.lib crash. Longer cord comes tuesday with chokes, hoping that makes a difference.
**Edit**
Victoria, Austrailia (VK3STW). Guess that wins WSPR, at a distance of 10,558 miles- at 24902mi in circumference that's probably about as far as other side of the world I'll get.
What a f***in difference.
Got WSPR connections in Virginia, Alabama, and Kansas in short order, FT8 Connection in Montanna too.
Little more time I'm out in Oregon and the Canary Islands.
Mucked around with my DT gain and am happily sitting on a ALC of about 2. Not convinced my SWR is reading right, but it's below 1.
This is a big difference than using my desktop, any time I get an ALC reading I get a ham.lib crash. Longer cord comes tuesday with chokes, hoping that makes a difference.
**Edit**
Victoria, Austrailia (VK3STW). Guess that wins WSPR, at a distance of 10,558 miles- at 24902mi in circumference that's probably about as far as other side of the world I'll get.
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ToddDubya
NES Member
USB is not so universal after all. I've been fighting with it at work and it works great until it doesn't. I'm glad you got it working. If the new cable still gives you problems, you can wrap it in foil and ground one or both ends and see if that helps. It hadn't occurred to me to recommend shielded cable.
Well, I installed that choked 6' USB cable.
Ran through all my settings, made sure they perfectly matched my laptop.
Desktop still crashes on transmit
![[laugh]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/012.gif "Laugh [laugh]")
Honestly don't know what the problem is now. Everything from the baud rate in the device manager to mic and speaker volume levels and WSJT settings are identical and perfect.
Still crashes on transmit with a ham.lib error.
Uninstalled the latest version of WSJT-x and installed the previous version, desktop working fine now.Well, I installed that choked 6' USB cable.
Ran through all my settings, made sure they perfectly matched my laptop.
Desktop still crashes on transmit
Honestly don't know what the problem is now. Everything from the baud rate in the device manager to mic and speaker volume levels and WSJT settings are identical and perfect.
Still crashes on transmit with a ham.lib error.
On more frustrating news, I reomved the antenna from my 991 and hooked up my 891 to give it a good once over. Unplugged the power and re-plugged the 991a to my power supply but forgot to change over the antenna.
Definitely sent some wspr packets at 100w through it before I noticed the problem.
Pretty sure I didn't f*** anything up, but I'm rather irritated at myself for such a rookie move, should have at least put my dummy load on the 991 when I removed the antenna, just didn't think of it. From now on I'm doing a lock out tag out on antennas- If I gotta pull one a dummy load goes on. Currently have a 15w average (100 peak) DL, gonna try picking up a 100w in the future, don't see myself going over that for a long while.
Not sure if I mentioned, but I installed a 6m dipole next to my 10m. It works, but not thrilled, still not getting voice from anywhere, rather unhappy about that.
I had an almost brand new looking Kenwood MC-60a mic given to me that didn't work. All I had to do was pay the $15 shipping fee. I received in the mail yesterday and had it working in 10 minutes. The impedance switch underneath was intermittent...a squirt of D5 and I was off to the races. Works and sounds great! Even came in the original box!
I emailed the previous owner back, offered to send it back to him working (as long as he covered the shipping fee) and he told me he had gotten rid of most of his Kenwood gear and gone the Yaesu route.
Most of my HF gear is Kenwood and this matches perfectly with it.
Voila!
I emailed the previous owner back, offered to send it back to him working (as long as he covered the shipping fee) and he told me he had gotten rid of most of his Kenwood gear and gone the Yaesu route.
Most of my HF gear is Kenwood and this matches perfectly with it.
Voila!
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ToddDubya
NES Member
This is the kind of crap that turns me off to digital modes. It's always some driver, or a setting or some crap. Yeah, most of the software is free and written by hams, so you can't expect perfection. But every time I couldn't get something to work, it had nothing to do with anything I could reasonably resolve myself.
I'm glad you got it working. WSPR is so low power it probably didn't hurt anything. Another downside of digital modes, you don't get that "Hmm, the bands are quiet tonight" feedback when you forget to connect an antenna.
Still haven't heard a single voice come through anywhere.
Got 10, 6, and a 1/4 wave 2m and haven't heard shit.
ToddDubya
NES Member
I checked 10 periodically throughout the weekend and it was dead. It was bonkers in the spring and I hoped it would keep going through the summer. 6 is even more spotty. I've had a few QSOs, but not as many as I expected. It's good to know that on 50MHz and up people exchange grid squares. Not your local 146.520 chatter, but when you get some distance.
For Field Day I called and called and called on 146.520 for maybe 5 minutes at a time, then back to HF, then back to 2m. I had 50w and a jpole up about 20 feet (and I'm already at 2000-ish feet), and got exactly 0 responses. I could reach the local repeater no problem, about 15-ish miles away as the crow flies. An HT will do the same, but I at least know I was getting out.
I've had the same results with a handheld yagi and a homebrew moxon on 2m. My Super Secret Squirrel Location has a decently steep hill behind it that I climb to try and get any response and nobody ever comes back to me.
Hit up the cousin today for visit 2 to my uncle's things.
Picked up a couple of SWR meters, one's a knockoff MFJ (jetstream), a Yaesu Ys-500, a MFJ945e antenna tuner which I'm about 70% sure isn't working (it's in rough shape), a atas 120a antenna, and a comet CAA-500 mk2.
All this stuff told me my SWR's a bit out of control. (1.8).
There's still a bunch of nice radios and such left- where's a good place to post some for sale?
Picked up a couple of SWR meters, one's a knockoff MFJ (jetstream), a Yaesu Ys-500, a MFJ945e antenna tuner which I'm about 70% sure isn't working (it's in rough shape), a atas 120a antenna, and a comet CAA-500 mk2.
All this stuff told me my SWR's a bit out of control. (1.8).
There's still a bunch of nice radios and such left- where's a good place to post some for sale?
ToddDubya
NES Member
You could try here or in the proper classifieds (or a link pointing one to the other). I already broke the "no new radios" rule twice this year, and I'm sure folks here might be interested as well.
CatSnoutSoup
NES Member
Today I ordered another one of the clip on lights I use at my desk/ham station for additional focused lighting.
Cross posting from Deals and Steals this link is to my post with a description there about the deal.
www.northeastshooters.com
Cross posting from Deals and Steals this link is to my post with a description there about the deal.
Deals and steals
Means I would need two 6.5cm. 65mm????? Damn!!!! Eta: Thought the cm was centimeters… my bad
www.northeastshooters.com
Was looking at this for solderingToday I ordered another one of the clip on lights I use at my desk/ham station for additional focused lighting.
Cross posting from Deals and Steals this link is to my post with a description there about the deal.
Deals and steals
Means I would need two 6.5cm. 65mm????? Damn!!!! Eta: Thought the cm was centimeters… my bad
Back a month or so ago, I bought a new pair of 3-500s for my amp, a Kenwood TL-922a. They were more money than I should’ve spent at the time but the prices of these tubes are not ever going back to where they were even 5 years ago, I figured if one of the ones that are in the amp now shit the bed, my amp would be an 80 pound paper weight. Today I ended up swapping out the pair that was in there for the pair I just got and ran the amp all day with no problems.
The ones I pulled out were Eimacs and they looked virtually new, no discoloration in the lettering on the tube, no browning on the inside of the envelope…they looked practically brand new. I don’t use the amp that much…perhaps that’s why they look as new as they do. I have reason to believe they are original to the amp. I am the second owner and previous owner was a good friend of mine that I think rarely ever ran it and if he did, it was probably run at less than half power output.
I’ve ordered a few upgrades for the amp so as soon as they all come in, I’m going to pull the amp out and install the boards.
I’ll be installing a “soft-start” to minimize the enormous surge when the amp is first turned on from a cold state. If nothing else it’ll save on/off switch contacts. At $50 a pop for a switch, it’s worth it.
Also a new, more robust band switch. The one in there right now has 160 meter contacts that vaporized a few years back due to a “whoops” moment.
I will also install a tube bias board in there and pull out the very rare and expensive zener diode they use to bias the tubes. They typically are not real robust and usually fail at the most unopportune moment. When that happens, the tubes lose bias and very ugly things can happen rather quickly depending on how the zener fails.
There’s also a circuit that I’ll install that fixes the faulty fan delay. The cooling fan is supposed to run for about 2-3 minutes after I shut the amp off but it stops as soon the mains are shut off. It’s supposed to extend tube life.…
And last but not least, I will be adding a meter protection circuit. If you should happen to have a tube flash over internally, there’s a very real risk of zorching the plate current meter which is nigh impossible to find. I actually have one squirreled away, just in case. I could probably get several hundred dollars for it, they are that rare.
There are a few more simple modifications I’ll be making as well such as adding 10 meters to it though when ten is open, you rarely need more than 100 watts to talk worldwide but figured while I’m elbows deep in the guts of the amp I may as well do it.
The ones I pulled out were Eimacs and they looked virtually new, no discoloration in the lettering on the tube, no browning on the inside of the envelope…they looked practically brand new. I don’t use the amp that much…perhaps that’s why they look as new as they do. I have reason to believe they are original to the amp. I am the second owner and previous owner was a good friend of mine that I think rarely ever ran it and if he did, it was probably run at less than half power output.
I’ve ordered a few upgrades for the amp so as soon as they all come in, I’m going to pull the amp out and install the boards.
I’ll be installing a “soft-start” to minimize the enormous surge when the amp is first turned on from a cold state. If nothing else it’ll save on/off switch contacts. At $50 a pop for a switch, it’s worth it.
Also a new, more robust band switch. The one in there right now has 160 meter contacts that vaporized a few years back due to a “whoops” moment.
I will also install a tube bias board in there and pull out the very rare and expensive zener diode they use to bias the tubes. They typically are not real robust and usually fail at the most unopportune moment. When that happens, the tubes lose bias and very ugly things can happen rather quickly depending on how the zener fails.
There’s also a circuit that I’ll install that fixes the faulty fan delay. The cooling fan is supposed to run for about 2-3 minutes after I shut the amp off but it stops as soon the mains are shut off. It’s supposed to extend tube life.…
And last but not least, I will be adding a meter protection circuit. If you should happen to have a tube flash over internally, there’s a very real risk of zorching the plate current meter which is nigh impossible to find. I actually have one squirreled away, just in case. I could probably get several hundred dollars for it, they are that rare.
There are a few more simple modifications I’ll be making as well such as adding 10 meters to it though when ten is open, you rarely need more than 100 watts to talk worldwide but figured while I’m elbows deep in the guts of the amp I may as well do it.
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CatSnoutSoup
NES Member
Today in the shack...
I swapped batteries on my Yaesu FT1D handheld which I had brought in from the truck where I keep it.
I was putting on a charged OEM Yaesu 2200mAh battery and removing the after-market one I had bought last month and which just now needed charging.
Here is a link to the after-market battery that I can now say was a good purchase and performed very similar to the OEM battery. The listing says it fits VX-8DR, FT-1DR, FT-2DR, FT-3DR, as I only have the FT1DR that is all I can confirm but I do not doubt it fits the others.
www.amazon.com/dp/B07RV274F4/
The other thing I bought at the same time was the desktop charger that is now charging that spare battery. I had never originally bought the Yaesu branded desktop charger and had always charged the battery through the radio and its included wall wart or the cable off a 12V power supply.
So when I saw the good reviews I decided to give this inexpensive desktop charger a try and was surprised when it arrived that the sticker on the bottom read Vertex Standard LMR, Inc. which is the commercial side of Yaesu. Now perhaps that label is there because this charger is sold as a counterfeit in some places, or perhaps it is an over run actually made by a Vertex Standard OEM supplier.
In any event it works to charge an OEM Yaesu battery and the price is certainly right (in fact now $2 cheaper then when I bought it).
www.amazon.com/Fumei-Charger-Li-ion-Battery-VX-8DR/dp/B07KB17HLM/
I swapped batteries on my Yaesu FT1D handheld which I had brought in from the truck where I keep it.
I was putting on a charged OEM Yaesu 2200mAh battery and removing the after-market one I had bought last month and which just now needed charging.
Here is a link to the after-market battery that I can now say was a good purchase and performed very similar to the OEM battery. The listing says it fits VX-8DR, FT-1DR, FT-2DR, FT-3DR, as I only have the FT1DR that is all I can confirm but I do not doubt it fits the others.
www.amazon.com/dp/B07RV274F4/
The other thing I bought at the same time was the desktop charger that is now charging that spare battery. I had never originally bought the Yaesu branded desktop charger and had always charged the battery through the radio and its included wall wart or the cable off a 12V power supply.
So when I saw the good reviews I decided to give this inexpensive desktop charger a try and was surprised when it arrived that the sticker on the bottom read Vertex Standard LMR, Inc. which is the commercial side of Yaesu. Now perhaps that label is there because this charger is sold as a counterfeit in some places, or perhaps it is an over run actually made by a Vertex Standard OEM supplier.
In any event it works to charge an OEM Yaesu battery and the price is certainly right (in fact now $2 cheaper then when I bought it).
www.amazon.com/Fumei-Charger-Li-ion-Battery-VX-8DR/dp/B07KB17HLM/
CatSnoutSoup
NES Member
Today in the shack...
I grabbed a bottle of water without having to go to the kitchen fridge.
As part of my birthday swag my wife got me one of these mini fridges. It runs on 120V AC or 12V (cigarette lighter plug). It says it is 10 liters but I measure its usable volume at 519 cu. in. (7.5 liters). Footprint on the shelf is less than 1 sq. ft. and it has a folding carrying handle on the top.
Holds 6 or 7 bottles of water upright and you could probably do more canned beverages than that if you stacked them.
Going to be useful anytime, but particularly contest weekends.
Don't tell her I looked it up on Amazon
www.amazon.com/Cooluli-Infinity-White-Liter-Fridge/dp/B07Y8TXQHD/
I grabbed a bottle of water without having to go to the kitchen fridge.
As part of my birthday swag my wife got me one of these mini fridges. It runs on 120V AC or 12V (cigarette lighter plug). It says it is 10 liters but I measure its usable volume at 519 cu. in. (7.5 liters). Footprint on the shelf is less than 1 sq. ft. and it has a folding carrying handle on the top.
Holds 6 or 7 bottles of water upright and you could probably do more canned beverages than that if you stacked them.
Going to be useful anytime, but particularly contest weekends.
Don't tell her I looked it up on Amazon
www.amazon.com/Cooluli-Infinity-White-Liter-Fridge/dp/B07Y8TXQHD/
CatSnoutSoup
NES Member
Today in the shack...
I am working the IARU HF Championship contest as Single op/ CW / Low power. I spent earlier in the day primarily searching for HQ stations for multipliers, then I had and early dinner and a nap, now I am filling the log as best I can with anyone.
For those interested this is one of the easiest CW contest, yes the speeds are usual pretty fast, but the exchange is very predictable with RST and ITU zone, the only difference is with IARU HQ stations giving member abbreviations.
Sorry in case I give the wrong impression; this is a mixed mode contest so you can work phone, I just chose to enter CW only because there is lots of activity (including loads of Italians using 1x2x1 WRTC Competitor Team calls).
WA7BNM Contest Calendar: 8-Day Calendar
EDIT: I just worked 9N7AA on 15m CW. I have never been able to get a confirmation from Nepal the couple times I have worked it; I hope this guy uses LoTW.![[banana]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/029.GIF "Banana [banana]")
EDIT 2: Don't know when you guys will read this but to let you know conditions are really good across the pole on 15m right now, just worked Thailand, practically no atmosphere noise on the band and none of the skew signals usually get with signals I hear across the pole. I am using 100w and 3 element Yagi.
EDIT 3: 03:22 UTC 10m opening to Hawaii now, just worked W1AW/KH6 and a KH7.
I am working the IARU HF Championship contest as Single op/ CW / Low power. I spent earlier in the day primarily searching for HQ stations for multipliers, then I had and early dinner and a nap, now I am filling the log as best I can with anyone.
For those interested this is one of the easiest CW contest, yes the speeds are usual pretty fast, but the exchange is very predictable with RST and ITU zone, the only difference is with IARU HQ stations giving member abbreviations.
Sorry in case I give the wrong impression; this is a mixed mode contest so you can work phone, I just chose to enter CW only because there is lots of activity (including loads of Italians using 1x2x1 WRTC Competitor Team calls).
WA7BNM Contest Calendar: 8-Day Calendar
EDIT: I just worked 9N7AA on 15m CW. I have never been able to get a confirmation from Nepal the couple times I have worked it; I hope this guy uses LoTW.
EDIT 2: Don't know when you guys will read this but to let you know conditions are really good across the pole on 15m right now, just worked Thailand, practically no atmosphere noise on the band and none of the skew signals usually get with signals I hear across the pole. I am using 100w and 3 element Yagi.
EDIT 3: 03:22 UTC 10m opening to Hawaii now, just worked W1AW/KH6 and a KH7.
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I was on the IARU contest last night for a while (SSB)...it took me a while to figure out what ITU zone I was in because there are two zones in MO....I finally figured out I was in Zone 07...Zone 08 is about 30 miles to the east.Today in the shack...
I am working the IARU HF Championship contest as Single op/ CW / Low power. I spent earlier in the day primarily searching for HQ stations for multipliers, then I had and early dinner and a nap, now I am filling the log as best I can with anyone.
For those interested this is one of the easiest CW contest, yes the speeds are usual pretty fast, but the exchange is very predictable with RST and ITU zone, the only difference is with IARU HQ stations giving member abbreviations.
Sorry in case I give the wrong impression; this is a mixed mode contest so you can work phone, I just chose to enter CW only because there is lots of activity (including loads of Italians using 1x2x1 WRTC Competitor Team calls).
WA7BNM Contest Calendar: 8-Day Calendar
EDIT: I just worked 9N7AA on 15m CW. I have never been able to get a confirmation from Nepal the couple times I have worked it; I hope this guy uses LoTW.
EDIT 2: Don't know when you guys will read this but to let you know conditions are really good across the pole on 15m right now, just worked Thailand, practically no atmosphere noise on the band and none of the skew signals usually get with signals I hear across the pole. I am using 100w and 3 element Yagi.
EDIT 3: 03:22 UTC 10m opening to Hawaii now, just worked W1AW/KH6 and a KH7.
I worked a few last night, nothing too rare but I did get a twofer...TF/4X6TT (Iceland and 4X6TT). I've worked TF a few times but there is almost always a pileup when they are on. I've also been chasing Amir, 4X6TT for years, always a pileup when he's on. I worked him on 15 meters last night at exactly midnight UTC (0000 UTC). I'm going to drop his QSL manager a card (I need to print some off). Anyone know a good QSL card generator?
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CatSnoutSoup
NES Member
![[party]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/021.gif "Party [party]")
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Parker Duofold
NES Member
9N7AA...
He will confirm your contact via LOTW. He is an acquaintance of mine and I have known him for over 10 years. Reliable guy and a great CW operator. I assume you worked him in the IARU contest during that great 15 meter band opening this weekend. I logged 9N, VU, BY, JA, HS, YB, ZL, VK, W1AW/KH6 and much more great DX during that opening. All with 100 watts to my OCF 80-10 dipole at 35 feet high.
He will confirm your contact via LOTW. He is an acquaintance of mine and I have known him for over 10 years. Reliable guy and a great CW operator. I assume you worked him in the IARU contest during that great 15 meter band opening this weekend. I logged 9N, VU, BY, JA, HS, YB, ZL, VK, W1AW/KH6 and much more great DX during that opening. All with 100 watts to my OCF 80-10 dipole at 35 feet high.
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ToddDubya
NES Member
I'm thinking about upgrading my 'feng to not have a lanyard. I'm sure I put it on when it was brand new and I'm sure I've never used it, and I'm sure it's always in the way. It's not a huge shack improvement, but more of a quality of life improvement.
Update: I chose to be bold and just went for it.
Update: I chose to be bold and just went for it.
CatSnoutSoup
NES Member
Today in the shack.
I installed a tube warmer...
I installed a tube warmer...
Back a few years ago, I bought one of these but never set it up due to moving to Missouri and just generally not having the ambition to make up the cables that would be needed to make it work (call it lazy if you want 
). With three HF radios on my desk, it was a pain to have three separate mics, speakers, etc. Putting this together made it possible to have one mic feeding three transceivers, three transceivers feeding one HF amp and also all the transceivers feeding one speaker. I think I paid around $100 for it on ebay. It works great and the only thing left I need to fabricate is a speaker cable from my TS-520s to the iplus box (1/8" plug to RCA plug) which I'll finish up tonight after supper.
). With three HF radios on my desk, it was a pain to have three separate mics, speakers, etc. Putting this together made it possible to have one mic feeding three transceivers, three transceivers feeding one HF amp and also all the transceivers feeding one speaker. I think I paid around $100 for it on ebay. It works great and the only thing left I need to fabricate is a speaker cable from my TS-520s to the iplus box (1/8" plug to RCA plug) which I'll finish up tonight after supper.
ToddDubya
NES Member
Awhile ago I put together a sparkplug endfed kit from K6ARK, but never cut a wire for it. Today was the day. I cut it a little long for 40, strung it up, put the analyzer to it: F-
The dip was around 6.800 MHz, which was not unexpected, but the SWR was 4.2:1. I fooled with the windings on the toroid to see if squishing them helped, but I couldn't really tell since touching them also changed the tune. The thing is pretty much un-tweakable once soldered, so I think I'm going to tear it apart, get some new magnet wire, and rebuild it on as small a circuit board as I can. I was excited to have this tiny QRP antenna, but it just didn't work out.
I was also overly optimistic about the BNC connector. This is intended to plug directly into the radio, and the odds of stringing up a 67' wire and having it land where I'm sitting is practically nil, so I'm going to build the new one with the opposite connector so I can use coax. I've got a few of those already.
The dip was around 6.800 MHz, which was not unexpected, but the SWR was 4.2:1. I fooled with the windings on the toroid to see if squishing them helped, but I couldn't really tell since touching them also changed the tune. The thing is pretty much un-tweakable once soldered, so I think I'm going to tear it apart, get some new magnet wire, and rebuild it on as small a circuit board as I can. I was excited to have this tiny QRP antenna, but it just didn't work out.
I was also overly optimistic about the BNC connector. This is intended to plug directly into the radio, and the odds of stringing up a 67' wire and having it land where I'm sitting is practically nil, so I'm going to build the new one with the opposite connector so I can use coax. I've got a few of those already.
