K7JEB AM Log: 26 Nov 2006 - 28 Jan 2007
Sparse pickings this time around due to holidays and
an early-January bout with the flu.
* 11/26/Sun morning/3855 kcs
True crime stories: Tom, W8QYT, gets his pickup truck stolen
from his driveway in Sun City. It is later recovered over
in Scottsdale after an apparently wild joyride with
considerable, resultant damage. And Lock, W1ZD, reports a
recent mail theft that was only detected when overdue
notices began appearing from credit-card companies.
Shep, W5EOE, is working on installing a new,
self-supporting, motorized crank-up, 70-foot tower to
handle a beam for the higher frequencies. Due to this and
other commitments for his time, he advises he will not be
coming down for the Mesa hamfest. He does expect a
complete report of the goings-on via this frequency on
December the third, however.
Ken, K6CJA, is looking for a good receiver by frequenting
the 20-meter swap net. He also reports listening on the
supposedly dead 15-meter band and hearing quite a few stations.
He is working through some minor problems with his recently
acquired Collins 32S-1 transmitter.
* 11/29/Wed noon/7293 kcs
George, W8QBG, is contemplating a wire-antenna project.
Various configurations of multi-band dipoles, linear-loaded
dipoles and bobtail curtains are being mulled over.
Cold snap today bodes a chilly morning for the Mesa hamfest
this coming Saturday. Everyone is advised to wear their
wooly underwear and bundle up for it.
W7XH, Bill down Tucson way, advises that W7MAL here in
Phoenix is currently working the world on 15 meters with
only 10 watts of transmitter power.
WA4KCY's extensive boat-anchor collection is showcased on
his website: http://wa4kcy.com and is mentioned on the air
today.
* 12/03/Sun morning/3855 kcs -- Special Hamfest Debriefing
Ted, WA8ULG, finds an HV vacuum switch for his loop antenna,
an edge-wound variable inductor for his Collins 820-D2 and an
old RCA scope in surprisingly good condition.
Lock, W1ZD, acquires an apparently unmodified AN/ART-13
transmitter with an LF tuning unit installed. K7JEB
remarks that W1ZD is now ready for experimental operation
on 500 kcs if that is ever expanded.
Max, K7CAX, picks up a nice Heathkit DX-100 from
'California Tom', K6TK. When he gets it on the air, this
will put K7CAX back in the swim on 160-meter AM since his
other AM rig, a B&W 5100, only covers 80-10.
The same gentleman who sold Lock his ART-13 also had for
sale three of the companion receivers, BC-348's, in varying
conditions of repair. Also noted was a nicely modified
BC-348 on another table with its covers off to show off the
handiwork.
Tim, AL0F, misses lunch working a deal on a Viking I
transmitter, another addition to his collection of E.F.
Johnson gear.
Greg, WA7LYO, acquires a Gonset GSB-201 linear amplifier,
the companion piece to the GSB-100 SSB transmitter.
Although not part of the hamfest, Damon, W7MD, announces
that he picked up an HP 606 HF signal generator on E-Bay.
Is it a rule of thumb in boatanchor circles that one's
signal generator must out-weigh the receiver one is using it
on? The 606, as well as its VHF/UHF brother, the 608,
certainly fills that bill.
Gordon, W8QAQ, informs me that the CD-ROM with the SX-122
manual and schematics in PDF format I sent him is unreadable
on his machine. Back to the drawing board on that one.
Question and remarks about being able to recognize fellow
AMers at hamfests: Should the Arizona-AM website have
close-up photos of the station operators?
* 12/09/Sat morning/3855 kcs
More Mesa hamfest reportage: Fairly good offering of
vintage Hallicrafters transmitters noted -- HT-37's
and HT-34's.
W5EOE, Shep, reports one of his cars got banged up and
he is down to one vehicle. Kinda tough when you are out in
the country as he is. Shep also mentions liking the Google
satellite imagery I sent him. Although his son has an MS
in computer science, Shep still finds himself somewhat out
of it in cyberspace. Welcome to the club, Shep!
Ted, WA6TJN, reports problems getting his browser to do FTP.
I suggest 'FTP Commander', a free, reduced-capability
version of a commercial product. Ipswich seems to have
withdrawn its 'lite' version of WS-FTP. Native FTP seems to
be a plus when dealing with BAMA. However, there is a
mirror site at http://bama.edebris.com/manuals/ that seems
to be trouble-free and browser-accessible.
WA6TJN also is concerned about the popular, free anti-virus
program AVG not being available. The authors have made a major
revision to their code that requires a complete
re-installation, but it remains free. I use it on my
non-Norton computers now that I have installed a router
that allows Internet access from my entire network. It can
be found at: http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1 and then follow
the links to the downloads page. Latest version is
7.5.441, about 10.5 Megs. Highly recommended.
Damon, W7MD, proves that this entire sunspot-minimum story
is a hoax by working 170 stations on 10 meters in the latest
ARRL contest. It's kinda like that soundless tree-falling
conundrum. Does a band opening really exist if there are
no stations on the air to provide signals for propagation?
Another of life's persistent questions for a dark night.
Tim, AL0F, becomes one of a host of motorcycle-riding
Santas as he participates in bike ride to raise money for
toys to go to deserving kids.
Randy, W7CPA, is having problems installing a precision
TCXO master oscillator in his software-defined radio. This
jewel will provide +/- 0.5 Hz accuracy over the range of
the FlexRadio module. Difficulty seems to be in a mismatch
in clock frequencies and phases between the stock
oscillator and the new TCXO from Bliley. This problem,
Randy, when solved, will be simple.
K7JEB sends his ailing IC-746pro up to Mike Nadeau, N1EQ,
in far-away Maine for driver-transistor replacement and
modifications to prevent problem recurrence. UPS shipping
bill is $75 one-way. K7JEB also learns the difference
between the websites and tracking numbers for the "real"
UPS and the UPS Stores.
* 12/10/Sun morning/3855 kcs
Ted, WA8ULG, in Parks, Arizona (near Flagstaff) advises he
has all the parts on hand to modify his recently acquired
Collins 820-D2 for operation on 160, 80 and 40. He is
having trouble deciding how to handle the exciter
redesign. The original scheme divided the crystal
frequency by 4 before amplifying it. George, W8QBG,
suggests foregoing tricky preservationist schemes and
simply driving the finals from a 100-watt transceiver in CW
mode.
Also, some discussion about choice of 5-500's for finals and
modulators in the 820-D2. I have the answer, straight from
the original designer's, er, notebook. Jack Sellmeyer, now
AD5VO, chose those tubes over 4-400's for having double the
cathode emission capability. This gives one, among other
things, a modulator that doesn't run out of steam on high
positive modulation peaks, something you want when you are a
one-kilowatt rocker in a 50-kilowatt market. It's also a
nice feature to have for certain situations that crop up on
Wednesday nights on 3870.
WA8ULG also mentions seeing an advertisement for the Bauer
707 back in the 60's when they were selling that 1-kW
transmitter as a kit. The ad stated that the kit was so
easy to put together that they hired 'Kelly girls' to do
the job. Yeah, I can just see some of those gals from the
secretarial pool manhandling that modulation iron into
place in the cabinet.
With several ART-13 transmitters undergoing conversion to
fixed-station use and power-supply construction, there is
some discussion of what the target voltage for the plate
supply should be. The original B-29 operation used 1000
volts, but that is waaay too conservative for ham radio.
George, W8QBG, reports running his at 1860 volts for a
not-so-cool 250+ watts out. The 1500-volt maximum rating of
the 811A modulator tubes might be a cause for concern.
K7JEB has seen an ART-13 hot-rodded to 2200 volts. W7MD
mentions that his Globe King 500 runs its 811's at 1000
volts. W1ZD plans to shoot for 1500 volts but will take
what he can get.
Art, KB7LOQ, has a business trip to Austin, Texas coming up
and queries K7JEB about barbeque joints there. I recommend
Threadgill's for down-home, stick-to-your-ribs conventional
fare and the County Line out on Lake Travis for authentic
Hill-country BBQ.
* 12/15/Fri noon/7293 kcs
Ron, W6MAU, is on from San Jacinto, CA with a Valiant he
rescued from the junk heap at the local airport and
restored to health. It is sounding very good and Ron is to
be commended for this effort to "save our history", even if
it is only one boat-anchor transmitter at a time. This
leads into an on-the-air discussion of how to improve the
modulation sound of old Johnson rigs like the Valiant and
Viking II. Unlike the Ranger, these rigs did not have
negative feedback around the modulator stage.
There was actually a piece of traffic passed using AM on
the ham bands! K0ETD, relayed a message from WA6TJN to
K6CJA concerning the arrival of a shipment of crystal
holders, CJA and TJN being out of contact with each other
due to semi-lousy band conditions.
* 12/16/Sat morning/3855 kcs
WA6JUS, John, checks in from San Diego to announce that he
is acquiring and will put up a Tristao telescoping tower
to support a beam for the higher frequencies. He also
mentions his current boat restoration activities, prompting
George, W8QBG, to mention that old (ca: 1940) Chris Craft
motorboats are fetching over $100K at auction. K7JEB has
W8QBG forward additional WA6JUS shack photos taken by W6OOQ
and adds them to the WA6JUS webpage on www.Arizona-AM.net
Ken, K6CJA, and George, W8QBG, spend the better part of
half an hour going over Corvette mechanical trivia.
Listening to these two gearheads is an education in itself.
Max, K7CAX, reports some progress on getting his DX-100
going, but says he really needs some kind of engine hoist
to lift the beast up to his workbench. Even 100 watts
takes some heavy metal for modulation and power supplies.
* 12/17/Sun morning/3855 kcs
KB7LOQ announces he is engaged to be married.
Congratulations, Art, and best wishes to you and your
bride-to-be.
Art also mentions that he was not able to get out to the
County Line restaurant for BBQ while in Austin, but feels
he got a good taste at a place in town. It's all pretty
good over there - you can't go too far wrong.
Greg, WA7LYO, mentions that his wife has obtained a settlement
in a medical malpractice situation and that this has
relieved a big financial burden on his family. One outcome
is that Greg will be able to pursue more amateur-radio
projects now and is thinking about high-stability VFO's and
QRP rigs.
Randy, W7CPA, has some "helpful" suggestions for K7JEB in
dealing with a persistent man-made interference source on
3860 kcs. These involve, among other things, giving the
impression that one is engaged in law-enforcement
activities while DF'ing the exact location of the source of
interference. This is a risky ruse to pull out here in
West Phoenix/South Glendale.
Although he is making nice-sounding AM using his Kenwood
TS-850 and an amplifier, Art, KB7LOQ, assures us that he is
continuing to work on getting a classic station using a
Hallicrafters HT-44 and SX-117 going.
Bob, NA7RH, and K7JEB spend some time reminiscing about
stations heard and worked on 3828 kcs back in El Paso,
Texas during the 50's and 60's when that frequency was the
calling and working channel for the entire city. All the
New Mexico nets were up on 3838, so having a mobile rig
with two crystals in it gave one quite a bit of capability.
* 12/19/Tues noon/7293 kcs
Mickey, WA6FIZ, is in the group with news that W6OM visited
his shack and took some pictures. These should appear
shortly on the California-AM site (www.california-am.com).
Mickey also reports some difficulties getting digital photos
up on his Mac, a crucial problem given an impending trip
down the mountain from Big Bear to visit his grandkids.
Also gnawing at his time -- ongoing SX-28 repairs.
Ted, WA6TJN, casually mentions having repaired a 17"
computer monitor by replacing a varistor. This probably
goes on all the time, but one wouldn't know it from the
growing mountain of monitors at the local landfill.
Jim, WA6WRF in Santa Maria, informs the group that he is
currently working on bringing a Johnson
Pacemaker/Thunderbolt combination on line to provide him
with a boatanchor SSB capability in addition to his 32V3 on
AM.
* 12/23/2006
Sad to report that one of our AM stalwarts here in the
Phoenix area, Ernie, W7CCC, became a silent key on this
date. We will miss Ernie's presence on the air and also at
the local hamfests.
* 12/30/Sat morning/3855 kcs
Heavy Metal event today, but don't hear any exchanges on
this frequency. Maybe on 40.
Ken, K6CJA, gets fed up with futzing around with his $300
studio condenser microphone and reverts back to a D-104 with
a $2.98 Mouser element in it.
K7JEB finally posts shack photo on the Arizona-AM site.
Prepare to be underwhelmed.
Max, K7CAX, reports some progress on the DX-100.
New AM station from Mesa - W5WVI, John, running a Valiant
and a Yaesu receiver.
* 01/02/2007
The AM community suffers another loss with the sudden
passing of Bill Feldman, N6PY in Palmdale. This info
relayed in by W7QHO.
* 01/06/2007/Sat morning/3855 kcs
Veteran AMer K7VZP (Phoenix Bill) returns to the air from
his new QTH in Sun City with a very respectable signal from
a Ranger driving a linear amp. The immediate question
arises: Where is the KW-1? Bill says he has it right there
in his garage operating position, but the the heavy iron
needs to be re-installed. And Bill doesn't feel like he is
ready to unleash it on his new neighbors quite yet. George,
W8QBG, uses this opportunity to seek some (free) advice on
air conditioning units from Bill and the conversation turns
to motor-start capacitors.
Also heard, W0FD, Mike, in Gunnison, Colorado. Mike says
that the New Year's day AMI net on 3875 was a success with
many out-of-state and seldom-heard-from check-ins. Nice
signal from W0FD on the desk that he "inherited" from
George, W4BDG, when George moved to Arkansas.
Sometime during the holidays while I was away from the QTH,
Ted, WA8ULG, completed the mods on his Collins 820-D2 and
now has it on the air on 75. Booming signal down here in
Phoenix as well as into Gunnison and probably all points
east and west. It is a fine-sounding rig and will come in
handy for bad band conditions which seem to be the norm
these days.
We spend some time with Art, KB7LOQ, helping him find the
"sweet spot" for AM operation with his Kenwood TS-850. Art
is finding he really enjoys operating the '850, it having
just enough features to be useful, but not enough to be
overwhelming.
* 01/07/Sun morning/3855 kcs
WA8ULG and WA6TJN arrange for a Ted-to-Ted material
transaction involving some spare 7F8 loctal tubes that
ULG has (somewhere).
K7JEB finalizes plans for the after-hamfest brunch at
Bitz-ee-Mama's Cafe in Glendale.
* 01/12/2007
K7JEB receives Icom IC-746pro back from N1EQ's repair
facility and makes immediate plans to inflict its
lousy-sounding AM on 80-, 40- and 2-meter nets to "smoke
test" its power output capabilities.
* 01/13/2007
The Glendale hamfest is a bone-chilling experience with
temperatures in the upper 30's, a grey overcast and a
cooling breeze out of the north. These conditions, plus
fewer sellers than expected, lead to an early retreat from
the field in favor of the warm environs of Bitz-ee-Mama's
for hot coffee and eggs cooked to order.
* 01/14/Sun morning/3855 kcs
Randy, W7CPA, takes screen shots of the spectrum display
from his software-defined radio for signals from K7JEB and
KB7LOQ and e-mails them out. Very neat! The graphics also
show the controls for the SDR Flexradio software, removing
some of the mystery about how a box plugged into a computer
sound card does all this stuff.
K7JEB getting a solid 40 watts out of the IC-746pro but now
the external keying relay is sticking and holding the
HL-2200 amplifier on the air.
* 01/16/Tues eve/144.46 Mcs
K7JEB checks-in with IC-746pro making solid power on 2 for
a change.
George, W8QBG, picked up a 4-element 2M beam at Glendale
and is now making plans for installing it on a rotatable
outrigger on his closest tower. You may be heard in Tucson
with that arrangement, George.
Larry, KO6SM, sends over dates for Antique Radio Club swap
meets: Feb.12 in Tucson, March 17 in Phoenix.
Answer to persistent fuseholder wiring question: The line
is always connected to the terminal on the rear of the
holder, the load is connected to the terminal nearest the
mounting surface.
* 01/17/Wed noon/7293 kcs
George, W8QBG, sells HF LP dipole and 2-element 40-meter
beam, both on the ground, to a DXer from Queen Creek.
K0ETD, Ron, working on home-brew projects for QRP.
* 01/18/Thurs noon/7293 kcs
K7JEB discovers to his horror that the HL-2200 amplifier,
like its predecessor the SB-220, uses 115 VDC to operate its
keying relay. This explains the sticking contacts on the
little, external reed relay used to interface the IC-746 to
the HL-2200. A beefier keying relay seems in order, with a
low-power, driver transistor used to reduce the
current-carrying requirement on the IC-746 to zero. WA6TJN
offers to send me some power MOSFET's that should do nicely
as relay-coil drivers.
W7QHO, Dennis, checks in with comments about 2-meter AM
activity at Fort McArthur. It seems that Dennis and his
associates put the equipment to the test by conducting field
drills in the surrounding area.
* 01/20/Sat morning/3855 kcs
Randy, W7CPA, finally zeroes-in on a persistent problem with his
FlexRadio and Alpha linear amplifier. The amplifier would
retune itself to a spurious input signal at key-down and
then trip off from off-frequency operation. By
happenstance, Randy happened to test the setup with the
required external soundcard run off of its own wall-wart
power source rather than power delivered through the
FireWire connecting cable. The problem went away.
However, Randy is still going to change out the sound card
for other reasons. Also, the TCXO installation problems
appear to be solved.
Andy, KC7KW, also checks in with his FlexRadio setup. It
can be seen on the web at:
http://www.rentreelaudio.com/SHACK.htm
K7VZP checks in from his cold, lonely, garage operating
position. More interesting air-conditioner talk between
Bill and George, W8QBG.
AL0F touts the advantages of having a speaker in the
kitchen so that AM roundtables may be monitored while
preparing breakfast or lunch.
* 01/21/Sun morning/3855 kcs
WA8ULG reports a substantial snowfall at his QTH near
Flagstaff. K6CJA relates that traffic is snarled on I-15
between San Bernardino and Hesperia for the same reason.
* 01/23/Tues noon/7293 kcs
Still marveling at snowfall Sunday afternoon in Glendale,
Arizona.
K7JEB cures sticking keying relay problem by inserting a
470-ohm resistor in the keying line going to the HL-2200.
This limits the inrush current from a 0.02 uF cap across the
keying line inside the amplifier that tends to microweld
the relay contacts closed. This is a known problem with
Heathkit amplifiers
Damon, W7MD, is having dipole problems and checks in on his
40-meter beam.
* 01/24/Wed nite/3870 kcs
Don, K4KCL, informs us that his latest and newest project
is converting a GE XT1A broadcast rig to the ham bands. It
runs a pair of 833A's, modulated by the same, and should
give K4KCL a very nice signal. Don hastens to assure me
that work will continue on the Kahn CSSB project.
The AMI net faded out right after I checked in at 8:30 pm my
time.
* 01/27/Sat morning/3855 kcs
K6CJA is heard, but not with his usual, stout signal. It's
a bit of a mystery until he reveals that he is talking on a
plate-modulated, Collins 32S-1 with about 50 watts of
output power. Ken wired up the same P-P 6L6 modulator he
was using on his command set to the 32S-1's auxiliary power
connection for a no-holes, no-cut-wires modification. The
result is a rather smooth-sounding rig, not particularly
strong RF-wise, but OK. It would be the perfect driver for
just about any linear amplifier, but Ken doesn't feel like
going there. One wonders if Art Collins is spinning in his
grave. But he did have his designers put in those B+
jumpers.
The ultimate digital boatanchor would be, well, a
vacuum-tube computer. But lacking that, an old H-P counter
that used vertical rows of NE2-type neon lamps for a
readout would come in a close second. Somebody mentions
that and K7JEB remembers that he has one. If someone wants
it, they are welcome to take it and its 30-odd vacuum tubes
home with them.
New station on 3855: KA7SWP in the White Mountains near
Show Low. He is tweaking an Icom IC-718 and Heath SB-200
into giving him 200 watts of carrier. A little bit of
juggling between microphone gain and compression gets a
pretty fair sound going. Welcome to AM, Bob.
01/28/Sun morning/3855 kcs
Shep, W5EOE in Delores, CO, is on with an extremely strong
signal this morning. He tried 160 but found it full of CW
signals from a contest and is not too happy. Shep is going
to go digital on us, having purchased a Rig Blaster
interface box and using the Digipan software. He admits to
feeling like a fish out of water with the technology, but
is assured that understanding will come with time and
nobody knows everything, at least not at first.
KO6SM and K6CJA exchange notes about the Barrett-Jackson
vintage car auction. Nostalgia sure ain't what it used to
be.
AM HONOR ROLL...
(stations logged this period)
W5EOE _______ WA6TJN _______ W8QYT _______ K6CJA
AL0F ________ W1ZD _________ WA6JUS ______ W8QBG
WA6IPD ______ WA7LYO _______ AE8O ________ K0ETD
W7XH ________ WA8ULG _______ KO6SM _______ K7CAX
W7MD ________ N7IOK ________ WA7LYO ______ W7CPA
KB7LOQ ______ W7DEZ ________ NA7RH _______ W6MAU
W6OOQ _______ W7ISJ ________ WA6FIZ ______ W7JBC
W6TPB _______ WA6WRF _______ K0QIG _______ WA0LSB
W5CZ ________ K0OJ _________ KC0SHU ______ N0SP
W0VAD _______ WB6QWC _______ W5WVI _______ WA3QGD
W0FD ________ K7VZP ________ K2YZO _______ W0OGH
AE6QW _______ W6VFT ________ K7JWA _______ K5AYD
WB5KEJ ______ K7SC _________ N6IME _______ W7QHO
W7HB ________ WJ6W _________ KC7KW _______ AJ7T
K6BW ________ WA6MHX _______ KA7SWP