Radio W4KAZ Thanks for stopping by the virtual KazShack. Feel free to comment - I often approve them.
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By w4kaz, created on 2009.04.07 at 17:26:55 | last changed on 2009.04.07 at 17:26:55 | This is pretty cool. The first completely mobile blog posting I’ve had chance to log. The eldest harmonic is putting his hard won driving skills to the test, and I get to play with his spanky new Toshiba Satellite laptop using the XYL’s wireless access thumb port. The connectivity fades in and out on the interstate, but it is better than dial-up. Almost better than my own personal home PC. It’s a real dinosaur, almost eight years iold, plus being maxed out with 512mb and running win XP.
Note to self: Learn how to disable this stinking touchpad! Too hard to type without touching it by accident!
Not too happy with the Vista look and feel neither. I’m not opposed to change if it adds value, But change simply for the sake of change is for malcontented idiots.
All irrelevant. Lots of shack projects, not much contesting. The Russian DX was lost to the smell of solder smoke in the shack. The vocal cords were still dysfunctional during CQ WPX SSB. So, only 17 QSO’s logged in both combined.
On the other hand, I’ve had a good run using the vacuous rainy winter hours productively out in the shack working on projects.
Goodies that need to be documented here in the log>
- K2 heat sink/fan project
- SO2R Box w/schematic
- Band Decoder w/schematic
- More Band Pass Filter Fever
- Antenna revisions & model
- Remoting antenna switches
- Incorporating SixPak
- K9AY control box re-build
- K9AY band splitter
That doesn’t include doing maintenance on antenna ropes out in the 80×100 antenna field. The 15m/10m antenna came down back in January, and the 160m L hit the ground sometimes in March. My afternoon of shooting new lines was very frustrating. A combination of difficult high shots and not enough patience worked against a high success rate. I managed to get two really good new ropes hung, and one necessary replacement.
The rope stringing also inspired a planned change to the antenna layout. I’ll see how that goes, but by moving the 15m and 10m antennas there should be room for an additional 40m antenna, placed at right angles to the NE/SW dipole. Maybe also another dipole for 20m at right angles to the existing 20m dipole. N4YDU seems to be having good results with his crossed dipoles, so it seems worth trying.
Lots of things to try to do, and so little time.
By w4kaz, created on 2009.03.21 at 06:29:18 | last changed on 2024.03.17 at 21:18:04 | A little look at some interesting remote switch projects.
Far Circuits has the KO4NR project from QST, April 05antenna switch project. It is the circuit board and a full set of the required Zettler relays(az755-1c-12DE). A six position remote switch for only $36 plus shipping. Not bad. It is listed under “Repeater, Controller, and Station Accessories”.
Also KK1L has a 2×6 switch project posted on his site. It uses the same Zettler relay as the KO2NR project. A quick look at the data sheet shows that the P&B relay RTE24012F or RT424012 has a pin layout similar enough to be substituted for the Zettler. The Zettler has a 20A rating(both poles) while the P&B is rated at 16A. Pricing is similar, and the 16A P&B is in wide use in full power stations. Boards are not currently available from KK1L, but he has the full schematics posted. Â Here is an analysis of the switch by AC0C.
Lacking PCB etching supplies and skills, it might be possible to produce a usable board for the Ko4NR project using a dremel tool. My own home brew switch was constructed dead bug style. It shows losses on 15m and 10m. I have a couple more antenna problems begging to besolved with 2 or 3 position remote switches. I think I’ll take a swat at connecting the so239 jacks via home brewed stripline. Â Here’s an online stripline calculator.
KK1L also has a nice SO2R home brew project.
By w4kaz, created on 2009.02.24 at 05:51:15 | last changed on 2010.10.27 at 13:15:47 | Okay, it is pretty minor, but in listening to the K5D pileups last week, I figured out that the K2 is less user friendly for chasing splits than the FT-920. Even though the second VFO on the 920 is not a genuine second receiver, it is a lot simpler to use than the K2 for hunting down the guy the DX is working. So the 920 is definitely the first choice for hunting DX. The close in capability of the K2 is not as important when the DX is working split. But the ergonomics of using the 920 is so much easier for split DX hunting, it will take a lot of effort to adjust to the K2 ergonomics.
🙁
I guess the solution is to buy a second K2. 🙂
But that’s not going to happen with the first college tuition check for the eldest only months away. Until that is behind us, I’ll just need to use the 920 for SWL’ing and some DX’ing. And SO2R, if I ever get geared up to practice that.
And of course, the K2 can’t get WWL during LSU football season. We won’t count that as a demerit since it was not designed for that purpose.
– more – at the K2 Impressions page
By w4kaz, created on 2009.02.22 at 20:29:07 | last changed on 2009.02.22 at 21:11:51 | No goals to acheive for this one, just some fun spinning around the bands.
I am sorry I missed operating on Friday night. Saturday night turned up a lot of EU countries on 80m. I’m sure there are a few new ones, since I’ve seldom really worked 80m as seriously as I did Saturday. The side effect was neglecting 40m, as well as missing out on Friday evening.
Started in the late afternoon Saturday on 20m. After the first 15 or so S&P Q’s, I found the NY4A ops and parked to read their mail around 19:50z. It’s probably the easiest way to get a good idea about propagagtion, because Howie has a great signal into EU. Normally, I hear only every third or fourth station, sometimes less.
But Saturday was different. The 100w EU stations had good signal strength, and over a 10 to 15 minute period I was hearing almost everything the NY4A op was working. Hmmmmm.
Sliding up the band, I found a hole around 14081 to try running. I had a nice 40 minute run, then the floor seemed to drop out. The run rate wasn’t fantastic, but it was better than S&P, and it was good run practice. Logged 35 Q’s, mostly northern EU. Later on, there was a JA on 14023 who was about 559 here in central NC. He had a huge pileup, and could not hear the tin whistle from the KazShack. Seemed to be working the Left coast and stations in the Black Hole. I never found any AK stations. A quick spin across 20m at 0100Z turned up KH7S. At that time, he was the only station I was hearing, but he was solid copy. It seems likely that his copy on W4KAZ was somewhat less robust.
Getting a run going on 40m and 80m was just not accomplished. QSB was a problem on 80m. A G4 that called in on a run gave up on it. The QSB got the suffix of his call every time. But for the time I had available, the S&P was fun. I didn’t turn on the packet, so it was fun hunting the pearls. I don’t know how conditions seemed to the big guns, but it was quiet here. Propagation seemed pretty good on 20/40/80. 160m was quiet too, and I was able to work several of the Carribean stations. Did not stay up late enough to try to get the EU sunrise.
The Good: 20m condtions seemed slightly better than they have been, but still nothing fantastic. Working KH7. New DX on 80m. 160m antenna seems to get enough signal out to at least be heard.
The Bad: Missed operating on Friday night. Unable to establish a run on 80m. Insufficient patience for running at a slow rate.
The Ugly: Flubbed exchanges.
To Fix: Mostly the lid operator. 😮
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
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160: 5 5
80: 53 34
40: 40 22
20: 95 39
15: 13 8
10: 0 0
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Total: 207 108 Total Score = 66,744
Station:
- Elecraft K2, WriteLog logging
- 80m dipole @ 50 ft, N/S
- 40m dipole @ 45ft, NE/SW
- 20m dipole @ 50ft, E/W
- 160m Inv-L with 20 very short radials
- K9AY RX antenna
By w4kaz, created on 2009.02.19 at 10:54:02 | last changed on 2009.04.14 at 09:37:16 | John, K3TUP is somebody I wish I had known. Its sad that he won’t live to see the millions of other lives he may save with his inventive cancer treatment. He’s a case study in how one man’s life can change the world.
His former television station has a good report.
By w4kaz, created on 2009.02.08 at 20:32:44 | last changed on 2021.05.06 at 21:16:43 | Obtained a third hand Array Soultions SixPak from N4YDU. The control box needed a wee bit of refurb. The LED indicators were not all working, although the switch itself is functioning well. One LED was cracked, three others blown, along with four of the resistors.
So, heating up the soldering iron and pulling a few parts was needed. This was more trouble than expected. The board is very well done, and it is simple to remove from the box. But I didn’t anticipate the minor fly in the ointment. The holes are ‘plated through’. The LED’s were simple enough to replace, and I had close match replacement LEDs in the parts bin. The four bad resistors were a bit less cooperative. It was difficult to remove enough solder with the solder wick.
The new resistors were difficult to install, because the plated through holes were a close fit even when clean. Downright difficult with a coat of solder in them. I resorted to alternately heating the holes and pushing each lead through a couple of millimeters at a time. Once I had enough fed through, I was able to grab the leads with forceps. Then I was able to hold both leads, apply hot iron, and pull the part down flush with the PCB.
So what should have taken 15 minutes tops probably took almost 90 minutes. Grrrr. Not difficult, just frustrating. The LEDs I had on hand are not exact color matches, but very close when lit. The red matches better than the greens, but I didn’t want to chance messing something up – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I’ll replace them if they blow up.
The SixPak is probably overkill here, but will be a good thing if a certain SB-1000 ever migrates into the KazShack. It could happen.
Now I just need to figure out the best way to re-configure the station. The idea is to allow SO2R experimentation at some point. That will require some alternate antennas and a set of filters on each. I’m not there yet. Then maybe a W9XT band decoder board for auto band switching.
Coming along, slow but sure. Sure to slow down that is, because the first tuition check for the college bound eldest is due in three months.
EeeeK!
By w4kaz, created on 2009.02.01 at 12:37:18 | last changed on 2009.02.01 at 12:38:55 | (Apologies to the foreign audience, this contains intentional mis-spelling and slang…)
First there was the E-vul Big Blue. Then the dred MyCrowsofft. E-vul Bigg Oyl. E-vul Bigg Pharma.
But with so many looking to get something for nothing these days, maybe Bigg GooG is positioned to be more hazardous in your day to day lives.. Use those apps with caution kiddo.
That is not to say there are no reasons to use any of the Bigg GooG apps. Rather, maybe take time to think on the ramifications of being hyjacked. If your use of a service is compromised, can any real damage be done? If the answer to that is “yes” or “maybe”, you should be hearing Robot in the background – “Danger Will Robinson…”
And yes, that applies to blog software. You DO look at the PHP code before installing it, don’t you? If you find a program/plugin with binary encoded data embedded within it, be wary.
For those who have never read Heinlein: TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
By w4kaz, created on 2009.01.25 at 15:14:41 | last changed on 2009.01.25 at 22:38:03 | Totally unexpected results. This was nowhere near a serious attempt to maximize the score, but rather have fun playing with the K2 on160m. It turned out to be a lot more fun than I really expected.
I did not operate long Friday. I was just too tired. But I was on long enough to realize the conditions were very good. The noise level was very low on the transmit antenna. It was possible to turn on the pre-amp for the weak signals. The big surprise was that most of the weak stations could hear me. Yikes.
But it just got better. I planned the day better on Saturday, and was more prepared to stay up a bit later to play more radio. Conditions did not seem quite as good as Friday, but the noise level was still low. I worked some new states for 160. Even more unusual, I also worked 14 European stations. Their signals seemed to come up with their sunrise. I knew I could hear them, as I had been listening to a couple of run stations, and I could copy most of their EU QSO’s. Tuning around with the K2, I was able to find several EU stations calling. The booming US signals made some of them too hard to copy, but several others were easy copy.
Low and behold, a handful of those were also able to hear the 100 watt tin whistle. Way fun. Apologies for the guys that really had to struggle to copy my weak signal, but I sure do appreciate the effort! Some of those guys must have really good RX antennas, because they didn’t miss a beat, and got it on the first try.
So I spent the last hour digging through the US QRM for the EU pearls. The K2 is really an S&P operators friend. With the filters cranked down to 200hz, it was easy to find the stations. Not so easy for them to find me, but that is an antenna/ERP problem unlikely to change soon.
The Good: The antenna repairs worked. The extra radials on the 160-L probably didn’t hurt either. Currently 18 radials, between 16 and 45 ft long. The K2 really shines for S&P. Conditions seemed as good as I have ever heard on 160m, but my experience down on 160m is very limited. K2 is generally much better at keeping NT4D out of the front end than the FT-920(exception below). Worked RK2FWA…on 160m! Finally worked ON4UN on 160!
The Bad: Missed a golden opportunity by not planning to operate more. Discovered that NT4D causes a mild overload when listening on the xmit antenna with the K2 pre-amp turned on. Discovered an NT4D image 20kc below his run frequency. Gotta get with Jay and do some testing to see if it is an artifact generated in the K2, or if I can hear the same image in my FT-920. (NT4D is a nearby neighbor, close enough to be inside a 500 meter multi circle. We’re gonna pull the trigger on that one day)
The Ugly: Nothing found – yet.
Station:
- Rig: Elecraft K2, 100 watts
- TX Antenna: 160 ft Inv-L
- RX Antennas: Homebrew K9AY, 20m dipole
- Homebrew antenna tuner
- Logging: Writelog
Station: W4KAZ
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): ~9
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 203 State/Prov = 38 Countries = 17
Total Score = 33,220
By w4kaz, created on 2009.01.25 at 06:24:03 | last changed on 2009.01.23 at 16:34:49 | I’ve been running an experiment of sorts with Logbook of the World. I was curious to see where the tipping point might be for getting enough LOTW confirmations to qualify for either the DXCC or WAS awards from the ARRL. Right now, I have 17,829 QSO’s uploaded to LOTW. That is a mixture of both Phone and CW. The other item – they are all contest QSO’s.
Of those, I have 5,789 confirmations via LOTW, or just a hair shy of 33% confirmed. I expect most of the confirmations are from US QSO’s, because it is not very easy for DX stations to participate.
Nothing too shocking there. I think I actually expected more LOTW confirmations from contesters, since their logging programs make it easy.
Anyway, I hit WAS sometime last summer. I’ve been waiting to get WAS on both CW and SSB before getting the certified wallpaper. The last holdout for WAS Phone was NV.
I expected DXCC to take longer. My DX capabilities are poor with no amp, no tower, and no beams. But DXCC happened sometimes between ARRL 160m for 2008 and the NAQP CW. My DXCC total now sits at 102 confirmed in LOTW. The CW and SSB mode totals are 70 and 90. I will probably wait until I hit those to milestones before buying the wallpaper. 17,000+ Q’s is one season of contesting for a top ten station, but it was a few years of operating from the KazShack.
There is a big wiff of “so what” to all of it, but it has been fun rounding them up. I’m not really big into chasing awards for their own sake. I’ve always felt that the logbook itself was the award, and with the logging programs available, it is easy to see the progress. But some decorations are ultimately worth having.
Now I really need to send reply’s to all of those in that box of paper QSL’s. That backlog is unforgivable.
By w4kaz, created on 2009.01.23 at 14:10:30 | last changed on 2009.02.14 at 10:57:05 | The 160m-L has been “on the fritz” (i.e., broken) since the ARRL 160m contest. It went crazy when it started raining during the contest. The SWR went high, and it became deaf.
The ground was still covered with snow from our very rare in central NC five inch snowfall. Old XYL tales relate that antennas work best when installed/repaired in inclement weather, so the time seemed right.
It turns out there was a bad connection on one of the jumpers. I took a bit of time to find the problem, and only about 30 seconds to fix. To debug it I plugged the dummy load into the feedline system out at the antenna end. The high SWR into the dummy load told me the problem was in the line and not the antenna. Fixing the line solved the immediate issue.
That whole antenna system needs closer scrutiny. It was intended to be ‘temporary’ when it was hauled up three years back, and the feed line is a hodgepodge of jumpers which were available around the KazShack at the time. If it stays up, the matching network needs to be corrected. At last count, it now has 18 elevated radials. The feed point is about 8 feet off the ground mounted atop the kid’s wooden swing set. The radials are all of different lengths, tied off to trees. The distance of the tree from the antenna center determines the radial length. It seemed to be playing much better with 18 radials than it did in the original four radial configuration.
I suppose I’ll play around in CQ 160 CW, but I expect it will be an all US contest here in the KazShack. 100 watts is effectively QRP when run into a poorly matched inv-L. I’ll find out if I feel like trying to run stations.
The heavy winds from a couple of weeks back knocked loose a rather large branch, which clipped the nested rectangular loop for 15m and 10m. That simplifies the job of fixing it, something that has been much lower on the radio project list.
But without sunspots, I’m still in no rush to get 10m fixed. 15m either, unfortuneatly.
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