K7JEB AM Log: 17-26 Mar 2006

Started out the week by handing off the Heathkit SA-2060 Tuner to Max,
K7CAX, for transport down to Floyd, N7WEK, in Oracle, AZ.  Hopefully
this will put more fire in the wire for Floyd on 160 and 80 by giving
his amplifier a better impedance match. 

It warms the cockles of the old K7JEB heart to hear that W8QYT and W1ZD,
Tom and Lock, are making use of Jim Tonne's (WB6BLD's)
meter-scale-generating program.  Their activities inspired me to fire up
my copy of the program and become a little more familiar with all the
buttons, sliders, bells and whistles on it.  I am truly impressed with
the capability to control and automate so much of the drafting involved
with making a new meter scale.  Note to self: Ask Jim Tonne about doing
an "upside-down" meter such as found on the Johnson 6N2. 

(Trial version available from www.tonnesoftware.com)

George, W8QBG, informs us that he is becoming a PC hardware monger,
forcing new life out of old machines, sort-of.  Nice to know that those
old Pentium I's can live out their golden years as W8QBG's DX-spotter
terminals. 

Bob, WB6QWC, was on the air with his Kenwood 940 driving an Alpha 374
linear amplifier on 7293.  Very nice signal over here in Arizona, but,
unfortunately, Bob later informed us that the 374 had developed a
problem and was off the air.  It was nice while it lasted.  AM operation
with a linear amplifier does require a strong box.  That 25-33% final
efficiency really puts a strain on the output tubes or transistors which
have to be watched very carefully. 

Did a manual download from BAMA for Ted, WA6TJN, on his HP-141T spectrum
analyzer plus plug-ins.  Total file size was 210 Megabytes, each plug-in
module having a PDF file of about 25 Megs.  Went pretty smooth and I
felt I was, at last, getting my money's worth out of the cable modem.  I
burned the whole lot onto two CD's and snail-mailed them over to Hemet.
I can do the same for anyone else who has a dial-up connection -- it's a
piece of cake on this end. 

Continue to hear old SSB rigs making FB AM on the bands.  Latest is from
Dale, K6UA, over in Fallbrook, CA, with a Yaesu, FT-910 driving a
home-brew 4-1000 linear.  Dale reports that his biggest problem now is
that his R-1000 receiver doesn't cope too well with the crowded band
conditions on 80 and 40, but he enjoys the laid-back ragchewing he hears
on 7293, 3870 and 3855 AM.  And it's nice have a well-respected DXer
like K6UA among our AM congregation. 

I allowed my growing curiosity about peak-reading wattmeters to be
voiced in an over-the-air poll of what everyone was using when the
announced their PEP readings.  Mirage seemed to get good marks, but the
peak-reading enhancement to the Bird 43 doesn't seem to be able to cope
with SSB too well.  Other brands seem to be a mixed bag. 

Had a nice QSO with W7ZIP, "Zip", in Parks, AZ, on 7293 on the 25th.
Zip is new to AM with a ten-Tec Jupiter, knurled down for AM ops, but
has a DX-100 and Ranger under refurb.  I advised him about his neighbor
there in Parks, WA8ULG, who has been seen on AM as well.  Parks, by the
way, is halfway between Flagstaff and Williams on I-40. 

Had a small discussion about what constitutes an official "Elvis"
microphone.  I maintain that it requires a dynamic element so that when
you get up close to it and mumble "Thank yuh verry much" that you get
the proper bass boost.  Electret elements, no matter how attractively or
authentically packaged, still doesn't do it. 

Here's a list of the usual suspects, plus a few new ones:

W7CPA    AE8O 
K7CAX    W6OOQ 
W7XH     K0ETD 
K6CJA    WB6QWC
K0VY     KF6AR 
W7ISJ    N6DXN 
K7BDY    K6KSG 
N6IME    W8QYT 
K7JWA    W7MD 
W8QBG    W7QHO 
KK6BS    KC7BGE
AI8Z     K7AK 
WA6TJN   W1OSV 
W1ZD     W7CCC 
AE8O     W9FGJ 
W8QAQ    K7VZP 
K6UA     W7ZIP 
W7GMK    WA6JUS 

That's all Folks!!

Jim, K7JEB