The Electronics Universe

There are a number of Ham Radio License practice tests available on line. My favorite is at www.qrz.com (click on the RESOURCES tab across the blue bar at the top of the page, then click on PRACTICE AMATEUR RADIO EXAMS then click on which test you want to practice). The following link should take you there.

https://www.qrz.com/hamtest/

Every now and then I take the test just to see how much I have forgotten since taking it the last time LOL.

Anyway, I took the EXTRA test exam this morning and only answered 80% of the questions correctly. Give it a try and post how you did. I am amazed at how much the content has changed since I passed the extra exam back in 1998.

73 and good luck

DE K78RMJ  Frank

I think I mentioned that I got a new tripod tower for putting an HF beam on the roof. So, it is time to get that project moving along. The cable that goes between the rotor control box in the shack and the rotor on the tower has disappeared. I think those pesky gremlins ate it. I checked where it is supposed to be and it is not there so then I checked everywhere else and it wasn't there either.

A couple of days ago I started shopping around the internet. The cable is supposed to be 6-wire, 22 GA stranded cable. The Wireman is the only one who has it with a decent price. I'll probably only need about 75 feet of it but Wireman sells it for $0.59 per foot or in 100 ft spools. The per foot price for 75 ft was $42 and the 100 ft spool was $45 so I sent them an email and asked if they had it in stock and if not, how long will it take to get it here.

Here we are 3 days later and no response from them. Glad I didn't give them my credit card number. Oh well. Then I noticed that the Lowes hardware store had some control cable for sprinkler systems that was the right size wire but only had it in solid wire instead of stranded. Hmm, oh well, at only $25 for a 50 ft spool it was worth a try. At least I will be able to hook up the control box to the rotor and test out my rotor before I bolt it up inside the tower. So we went to Lowes Hardware this afternoon.

This evening I took the control box apart and cleaned it up. All the caps look new and none were the old paper or oil type so I figured it was worth a try so I put it back together and wired it up to the rotor. That went pretty well so I plugged it and turned it on with the rotor on the bench inside the shop here.

It lit up and like magic appeared to be working but the "Azmuth Indicator" meter went all the way over and pegged to the right side of the meter. Okay, I fiddled with the Calibrate knob and it would only go to about East. It wouldn't zero. hmmm.

Opened up the control box again and went after the Calibrate pot with some cleaner. Also, since I was into it anyhow I cleaned all the switch contacts while and guess what? It still didn't work.

I tried rotating it left, then right, then back and forth. No movement. So, I placed my hand on the rotor and tried the left and right control again and I can feel the motor trying to turn but it doesn't move.

I couldn't believe the rotor would be frozen because it worked well back in St Louis up until I took down the tower. I refurbished this rotor about 5 years ago when I put that tower up.

So my question is this. Would using 50 ft of 18 GA solid wire not work on this rotor for some reason? The manual does say to use stranded wire. I rechecked all the wire connections at the screw terminals and they are tight and no broken wires or shorts.

What do you think?

Any input is welcome.

73 DE K7RMJ  Frank

Okay, it has been WAY too long since anyone posted in this part of the forum. So here goes. The attachment is about how a small team of Ham Radio nuts went out in the boonies back in 2014 to enter the Missouri QSO party. Grab a cold one and kick back in your favorite easy chair. It's not as long as a book at only about 14 pages and there are some pictures included so it should be good for at least one cold brew.

I wrote the original of this article for my old club newsletter back in St Louis. The attached document is the updated version of it. Hope I didn't make too many typos.

Anyway... let me know if you like it.

73 DE K7RMJ  Frank

This attachment to this posting shows how to build a very good 10 Meter antenna. It has a small footprint and is easy to install if you have a tree nearby. You will be very pleased with the results. It has very good ground wave performance for local contacts and a low angle of radiation for working DX.

73 DE K7RMJ  Frank

Here is another of those antenna articles I published in our club newsletter back in St Louis. My apologies for the lack of pictures but if you want to know about SWR and how antennas and feed lines work in general terms, this article may help. The BIG point it makes is that unless you have your antenna tuner installed right at the antenna, you might be losing a lot of power due to your feed line.

I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think. Future posts on this topic will include lots more pictures.

73 DE K7RMJ  Frank

I am still working on getting the place wired, cleaned up and organized. Lots of stuff still in boxes because we just moved here in January (11 months ago LOL).

First the Ham Station

Left to right, SB-200 Linear, Drake MN 2700 Tuner with Astron RS-35M 12V power supply on top of it, Yaesu FT-950 Transceiver with MFJ-492 CW Keyer on top of it. filename Station1.jpg

Next is another pic of the station that includes the Kenwood SP-930 speaker and Yaesu MD-100 mic on the right. Ignore the cable mess under the bench. filename stn2.jpg

I routed the ground cable and the antenna feed line coax across wall above a set of shelves next to the window. You can also see the DC power distribution panel mounted on the side of the window frame. Filename cableroute.jpg

The station ground cable connects to the cold water plumbing pipes. You have to look close but this is a pic of the connection to the pipes. I couldn't solder it to the pipes without taking the pipe connection apart and draining the water out of the pipes so I cleaned the pipe with Tarnex and used a hose clamp to bond the ground cable to the pipe. Yes, I have to take the connection apart and clean the pipe again with Tarnex about once a year. You can also see the hole in the wall I brought the coax cable through. filename cablntrnc.jpg

This is the messy workbench and some of the storage bins for small parts on the bench. I could only fit 6 of the small parts bins on the workbench. But that is another story by itself. filename = wkbnchmess.jpg

Storage shelves next to the workbench filename storage.jpg

And last is the computer and audio amp for the station. The amp is an old Sherwood R-325 Audio/Video receiver I resurrected. It was a tough repair I picked up at a ham-fest. The problems it had were all due to a blown fuse on a circuit board. filename compooter.jpg

That's the rundown for my man-cave. There are several more shelving units but I doubt you are interested in old dead radios, half full paint buckets and other treasures that only a home-owner can appreciate LOL.

73 DE K7RMJ  Frank

I ordered a small 40 meter ham radio receiver kit from the 4-States QRP Club over a month ago and it finally arrived. It would have only taken 2 days to get here but good ol' PayPal sent them my old address in St Louis to ship it to even though I corrected that address on PayPal back in January when I moved down here to Arkansas. As soon as I discovered that the original order was sent to the wrong address, I contacted PayPal and they had no explanation on how it happened, but had me submit a claim.

Then I contacted the 4SQRP Club and Johnny sent me one out the same day and said it was not necessary to send them more money since I had given them the correct shipping address when I ordered the kit. It arrived 3 days later. WOW, that is what I call good customer service. He had the Club's PayPal representative checking into it the same day too. Now I am just waiting for them to credit the money back to my credit card. I'll send Johnny at 4SQRP the money as soon as PayPal lives up to their part.

Okay, enough of my whining about PayPal. Everybody makes mistakes once in a while and they seem to be working to get it fixed quickly.

This little receiver is a direct conversion circuit rather than a superhet circuit. You can find more information on the internet about it. I will list a link to a really good set of videos on You Tube about building this receiver in the final part of this build listing. ZI suspect it will take 3 or 4 parts but we will see what happens.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all.

73 DE K7RMJ  Frank