What did you do in the shack today?

n1oty said:
I worked a couple of European stations on 10 meter mobile today. Booming signals.
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Yeah, 10m was wide open today. I considered doing the CA QSO Party but I got busy doing other things. I thought 10m would be good, but a lot of times it skips over CA.

My SWR was really high today. I'm hoping it's because the wires were wet, changing some kind of characteristics. I don't remember too many times operating in rain like that. The coax should be good. It's sealed pretty well and I put some petroleum jelly on the outside of the connectors to keep the water from sitting on them, and it's still on there. We'll see what happens the next dry day, whenever that is.

@Coyote33 , yeah something like those. The one with the rubber cover that comes off, maybe. I looked at arcade buttons, too. It needs to be pretty easy to press and hold because you're on and off the mic a lot.
 
ToddDubya said:
Yeah, 10m was wide open today. I considered doing the CA QSO Party but I got busy doing other things. I thought 10m would be good, but a lot of times it skips over CA.

My SWR was really high today. I'm hoping it's because the wires were wet, changing some kind of characteristics. I don't remember too many times operating in rain like that. The coax should be good. It's sealed pretty well and I put some petroleum jelly on the outside of the connectors to keep the water from sitting on them, and it's still on there. We'll see what happens the next dry day, whenever that is.

@Coyote33 , yeah something like those. The one with the rubber cover that comes off, maybe. I looked at arcade buttons, too. It needs to be pretty easy to press and hold because you're on and off the mic a lot.
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I made a couple of 5-9 contacts to CA on 10m and one in Slovenia, S51DX......using 20w and an 80m dipole 8 feet off the ground. European signals were 20db over S9 here most of the day. Best 10 band conditions I've seen in many years.
 
Uzi2 said:
I made a couple of 5-9 contacts to CA on 10m and one in Slovenia, S51DX......using 20w and an 80m dipole 8 feet off the ground. European signals were 20db over S9 here most of the day. Best 10 band conditions I've seen in many years.
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They were frequently +20 dB over on my MOBILE antenna in my truck!! It's been a long time since I've heard things at that level!!
 
ToddDubya said:
I got the perv stick wired up today. Seeing as it looks a little wang-ish, I might have to come up with a nickname for it.

I only had stereo cables, so it ended up using the ring/sleeve contacts. Weird. I got that wrong at first assuming it must use the tip. I also forgot to put heat shrink around the cable and feed the cable through the strain relief hole BEFORE soldering it so double snafu there. But the glue lined heat shrink should be just fine as long as I don't tug it too much.

It works really well. The button is a little cheap so that may need replacing at some point, but I've been using it here in the shack and it works just great. I can kind of hook the pinky around it and free up a couple fingers to stroke the keyboard.

View attachment 803473
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"Hand Job"? Sorry, I couldn't resist...:cool:
 
ToddDubya said:
I also forgot to put heat shrink around the cable and feed the cable through the strain relief hole BEFORE soldering it so double snafu there.
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While I was in the Navy, I had to repair a connector with 144 pins in it. Very tedious and a very long job. The whole time I was doing it, I had this nagging feeling something wasn't right. Well, crap, I forgot to put the connector shell on [banghead]. All 144 pins had to get pushed back out to put the shell on and then had to reinsert the pins....all being done in a space 15 inches deep, 3 inches wide and 11 inches high. It sucked! Needless to say, the plane I was working on missed it's sortie that day. The shop chief was pissed.

Now, when putting connectors together, no matter how simple the job may be, all the parts get lined up in order of assembly on my bench so I can see if a part has been forgotten.
 
timbo said:
While I was in the Navy, I had to repair a connector with 144 pins in it. Very tedious and a very long job. The whole time I was doing it, I had this nagging feeling something wasn't right. Well, crap, I forgot to put the connector shell on [banghead]. All 144 pins had to get pushed back out to put the shell on and then had to reinsert the pins....all being done in a space 15 inches deep, 3 inches wide and 11 inches high. It sucked! Needless to say, the plane I was working on missed it's sortie that day. The shop chief was pissed.

Now, when putting connectors together, no matter how simple the job may be, all the parts get lined up in order of assembly on my bench so I can see if a part has been forgotten.
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Yup, you'll only make that mistake once or twice in a lifetime. I do the same thing with connector parts.
 
I got the new ZS6BKW (updated G5RV) antenna up at the super secret squirrel location today. It took three hours to thread it through all of the f***ing trees, that f***ing snag on everyf***ingthing. I hate beeches more than anything. After the first leg, I just started cutting everything down for the second leg.

I scanned it with the antenna analyzer and it's good on 40, 20, 12 and maybe 17 without a tuner. I need to bust out the manual for my tuner to see what the LEDs mean, but it seemed to tune up 80 and 10. 60, 30, and 15 are no good, sadly. 6 should tune up, too and it's close to 1:1 around 52.520.

I heard a ZL station (New Zealand) 59+ before I packed up for home. I had the FT-818 so 6w was a stretch that far, but I tried.

The jury is still out on the antenna. It's about 45' at the center, down to 20-25' on the ends. I was hoping that'd give me a good omnidirectional pattern but I really wasn't hearing much to the south.
 
timbo said:
While I was in the Navy, I had to repair a connector with 144 pins in it. Very tedious and a very long job. The whole time I was doing it, I had this nagging feeling something wasn't right. Well, crap, I forgot to put the connector shell on [banghead]. All 144 pins had to get pushed back out to put the shell on and then had to reinsert the pins....all being done in a space 15 inches deep, 3 inches wide and 11 inches high. It sucked! Needless to say, the plane I was working on missed it's sortie that day. The shop chief was pissed.

Now, when putting connectors together, no matter how simple the job may be, all the parts get lined up in order of assembly on my bench so I can see if a part has been forgotten.
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That builds character. It also builds a sailor's vocabulary.
 
timbo said:
While I was in the Navy, I had to repair a connector with 144 pins in it. Very tedious and a very long job. The whole time I was doing it, I had this nagging feeling something wasn't right. Well, crap, I forgot to put the connector shell on [banghead]. All 144 pins had to get pushed back out to put the shell on and then had to reinsert the pins....all being done in a space 15 inches deep, 3 inches wide and 11 inches high. It sucked! Needless to say, the plane I was working on missed it's sortie that day. The shop chief was pissed.

Now, when putting connectors together, no matter how simple the job may be, all the parts get lined up in order of assembly on my bench so I can see if a part has been forgotten.
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I'll count myself fortunate to have made that mistake only on smaller connectors with lower stakes.

I mean... I've never done that. But it sounds rough.
 
n1oty said:
That builds character. It also builds a sailor's vocabulary.
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It did indeed! You gotta know after I realized what I'd done, I was trying to figure out how to finish this job any way possible without having to go through the inevitable. The other end of the cable was about 30 feet away which went through three bulkheads and under the aircraft floor and then ultimately behind an aircrew's console so putting the shell on from the other end was a no go. Many other ideas went through my noggin but they too were wishful thinking. In the end, everything had to come apart to get that darned backshell on.

I was an avionics tech in a E2 Hawkeye squadron and there was only one other job that we dreaded more and that was replacing the "rotary joint" which was basically a rotary waveguide for the radar but also contained electrical signals for the IFF and other electrical systems in the plane. It was located through the top of the rotodome. Fortunately I never had to replace one. It was a difficult enough job to do when in a land based hangar, but at sea topside on a pitching deck when you're standing on the top of a wet slippery rotodome it was downright dangerous. We had to wear a harness much like a tower climber would wear. I'm very glad that that part was very robust and rarely ever failed.
 
timbo said:
It did indeed! You gotta know after I realized what I'd done, I was trying to figure out how to finish this job any way possible without having to go through the inevitable. The other end of the cable was about 30 feet away which went through three bulkheads and under the aircraft floor and then ultimately behind an aircrew's console so putting the shell on from the other end was a no go. Many other ideas went through my noggin but they too were wishful thinking. In the end, everything had to come apart to get that darned backshell on.

I was an avionics tech in a E2 Hawkeye squadron and there was only one other job that we dreaded more and that was replacing the "rotary joint" which was basically a rotary waveguide for the radar but also contained electrical signals for the IFF and other electrical systems in the plane. It was located through the top of the rotodome. Fortunately I never had to replace one. It was a difficult enough job to do when in a land based hangar, but at sea topside on a pitching deck when you're standing on the top of a wet slippery rotodome it was downright dangerous. We had to wear a harness much like a tower climber would wear. I'm very glad that that part was very robust and rarely ever failed.
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I wouldn't know about such things in the military. I spent most of my time as a Military Policeman, so much of my experience was fighting drunken Marines and sailors.
 
n1oty said:
I wouldn't know about such things in the military. I spent most of my time as a Military Policeman, so much of my experience was fighting drunken Marines and sailors.
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Ah yes...I had my share of that as shore patrol. I was one at Gitmo while we were there one time and man, when sailors and Marines have one (or more) beers too many in one place, it becomes a recipe for brawls.
 
Well today was the day I was going to put my ZS6BKW antenna through its paces at the Super Secret Squirrel Location. QRP last weekend was not a good test, so I brought the 857D and a tuner to give it a good workout. SIKE, the jumper from the tuner to the radio is on the other tuner, so that was a bust. Fortunately the antenna is excellent on 40 and 20 and decent on 17 and 12, so I stuck to those bands with very good success. Just about everyone I heard was 59 on my end and I was getting mostly 59 reports from their end. I've never messed much with 12m before this weekend and it's a nice band.

I have it setup basically north/south (so broadside is to the east/west), and I was hoping I'd get some omnidirectionality by lowering the ends, and that seems to have worked.

I had a few people comment on my audio again, too. Not just "nice audio" but they were enthusiastic about it. And not straining to listen through the hiss on the stock speaker is a real bonus. The headset is a winner. Heil BM-17 if anyone is interested.

All in all, I'm pretty stoked.

Not shown: Italy, Belgium, Costa Rica.

1697327312038.png
 
ToddDubya said:
Well today was the day I was going to put my ZS6BKW antenna through its paces at the Super Secret Squirrel Location. QRP last weekend was not a good test, so I brought the 857D and a tuner to give it a good workout. SIKE, the jumper from the tuner to the radio is on the other tuner, so that was a bust. Fortunately the antenna is excellent on 40 and 20 and decent on 17 and 12, so I stuck to those bands with very good success. Just about everyone I heard was 59 on my end and I was getting mostly 59 reports from their end. I've never messed much with 12m before this weekend and it's a nice band.

I have it setup basically north/south (so broadside is to the east/west), and I was hoping I'd get some omnidirectionality by lowering the ends, and that seems to have worked.

I had a few people comment on my audio again, too. Not just "nice audio" but they were enthusiastic about it. And not straining to listen through the hiss on the stock speaker is a real bonus. The headset is a winner. Heil BM-17 if anyone is interested.

All in all, I'm pretty stoked.

Not shown: Italy, Belgium, Costa Rica.

View attachment 805913
Click to expand...

I've always had great success with Heil products. Heil microphones will generally give you very articulate audio, as long as you don't fool around too much with audio settings in the radio. I currently run a Heil Pro Set on my Kenwood TS-890 and get glowing audio reviews.
 
n1oty said:
I've always had great success with Heil products. Heil microphones will generally give you very articulate audio, as long as you don't fool around too much with audio settings in the radio. I currently run a Heil Pro Set on my Kenwood TS-890 and get glowing audio reviews.
Click to expand...
I've been going back and forth between a headset for home and a desk/boom mic. I've been very pleased with the audio from an external speaker, and I finally put a mic hanger up so the mic isn't always on the desk (or draped across the keyboard more specifically). But man, the headset is so nice.

I'm surprised, Kenwood isn't known for good audio ;).
 
I fired up the 3D printer and am making some side rails for an 857. I can only fit one on the bed at a time, so it's taking a while. This is my first attempt with PETG, so we'll see how they turn out. They're designed for the 891 but should fit the 857 too. This design has a regular and an extended version to provide better coverage for the rear connectors. Since the 857 has a hard wired power connection I opted for that version.

Looking at it some more I may print the second one on edge as originally designed. I think the curves will be smoother. That'll be a good test I think.

1697383637764.png

2-piece - Yaesu FT-891 protection rails by IU1OPK
1-piece - Yaesu FT-891 Rails by mbrewha04
 
Tuned in on 40m a little while ago and it sounds like every distorted, over modulated fool in ham radio is on the band within 1 kc of each other participating in the PA "qso party". 👎👎👎 I couldn't hit the OFF switch fast enough.
 
40 was a mess yesterday. My friend was doing it and sent me this shot of 80m last night.

Check out the labels just above the waterfall. I think those are spotted stations. That looks so handy for contests. The spoiled brat has a Flex.

1697385508286.jpeg
 
One side done. It sagged a little at the front where it was unsupported, but otherwise came out really nice. I'll try the next one on edge with supports and see if it comes out better. That is going to take an hour longer because of the supports, so I'll have to kick it off tonight.

1697388415862.png
 
Second rail complete. I printed this one on edge (as opposed to flat on the print bed) and I think it came out better. The curves are smoother and the flat surfaces are flatter. Strength wise I'm not sure I could say which is better. I believe the slicer alternates directions for strength (like plywood), so they're probably pretty close.

I'm pleased with how these came out. The designer put some nice features in there for strapping things to it, such as a tuner. My tuner is too wide so if I do it'll have to go underneath as shown, but I don't see the need to do that.

1697429229296.jpeg

I also changed the PowerPoles for the tuner. I made it into a splitter, so I don't have to remember the distribution block. When I have the tuner, I'll just plug the battery and radio into the tuner cable and everything gets power. Gotta order some more PowerPole supplies soon.

1697430020223.jpeg

This afternoon I helped a friend test his 10m antenna in his vehicle. He bought everything at a ham fest and had no idea if the antenna was any good. So we got that all checked out and it was fine. Then we spun the dial on 10m and found a station in Argentina coming in pretty strong. He wondered if it would reach... only one way to find out. Two calls later, we got him. He had the look like "Wait, I can just sit in my truck and talk to Argentina?".
 
I had started a 2m/70cm vertical dipole build about 10 years ago and I keep moving the parts around trying not to lose anything. Last night I set myself to the task and it was quite easy to put together. I don't know why I stopped. I set it up on a short piece of military mast and it tuned up like ass. That's it for the night.

Tonight I took a closer look at the FM portions of the two bands and it's actually quite reasonable.

446.000 is about 1.23:1

1697595657765.png

146.52 is in the 1.7:1 ballpark, but the sweet spot is a little high.

1697596806772.png

Oh well, it's good enough for government work. I'm probably going to get that tri-bander before winter anyway so this was just something to do.

Next order of business was to print legs for the front of the FT-818. If you've ever used one, or an FT-817, you know it sits too low to the table to read very easily. I did one set that swivels into place and they're okay but they turn the screws and I didn't like doing that over and over. And they didn't fit great. So I tried another style that hooks onto the strap mounts. It was originally designed for the 817 and had that marking on the front, so I had to do some work to change that to say FT-818. And another couple places weren't refined enough for me, so I rounded them over a bit. The print just finished and I'll get some photos up in a little bit.

www.thingiverse.com

FT-817 STAND by VILLOZZO88

Stand for Yaesu FT-81725% infill PLA
www.thingiverse.com www.thingiverse.com

Original: See the hard corner where it hooks onto the strap mounts on the side. And note it says FT-817.

1697597441818.png

My version: Note the rounded tops where it mounts to the radio, and the corrected FT-818 (that's tough to read in this light).

1697597850688.jpeg

1697597915170.jpeg

I could probably clean it up a little if I really care, but I probably won't. Just pick off the hairy bits and call it good. I'm glad I did this, that always drove me crazy that it didn't come with legs of any sort.
 
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Cool. I want to like digital stuff, but I don't. But I can definitely appreciate this sort of device.

What's that lighted magnifier/parts holder you have there? That looks nice.
 
Awhile back I made a linked end fed antenna so I could have it resonant on every band from 10-30. Well, as I added lengths and cut them to resonance it was throwing all of the higher frequencies out of whack. Even disconnected, the wires must have been interacting somehow. So today I decided I'd rather have it good for one band than none, so I carefully cut off the glue lined heat shrink and now it's pretty good on 10m (and coincidentally not terrible on 2 or 70cm). I'd like to look at the actual R+jX to see if there's something I can change to make it even better.

The idea here is to have a more manageable length of wire when I don't need 40m. 15-ish feet is much easier to work with than 67 feet. I'll try it out on the air after work tonight and see how it performs.
 
I gave that 10m end fed a run tonight with the FT-818 and my buddy maybe 10 miles away couldn't hear me. I went inside on the main rig, turned it to 5w and he could hear me just fine on my 1/4 wave vertical. So the end fed is a bust. Oh well.
 
Put a GP-9 up on a temp tower until I throw my antenna farm up on the roof. Wired it up to my FT-2980 with some LMR400. Been a fun night chatting up simplex with people all over the place.

20231019_174833.jpg
 

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