K7JEB AM Log: 12-29 June 2006 Q: I seem to get left out of all the logs. Wonder if it's because no one hears me? Bad propagation I'm sure.... A: Yeah, our current spate of bad propagation does play a very big role in what I write down. The 40-meter roundtables lately have had me not copying anyone in Arizona and, therefore, missing out on a lot of good stuff. My initial goal in writing my AM Log was to generate some traffic on the Arizona-AM Yahoo Group. I was hoping others would sign-up and post their comments as well. Everyone has a standing invite to join the group and get their two cents in. The URL is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Arizona-AM/ Just hit the 'Join This Group!' button. 6/13 Good "short skip" propagation on 7293 AM this noon with a nice, copyable roundtable for a change. We have a lively discussion of several timely topics (gas prices, retirement "take backs", outsourcing). W0OGH reports hearing me using the 51.86 FM repeater and we try some experiments but Larry can't hit that machine from out in Gilbert and I can't hit the Motorola ARC machine from Glendale. He advises that a second tower at his QTH devoted to VHF/UHF antenna support should make him a better copy on 6-M FM as well as 2-M AM. My 6-meter antenna, a 1/4-wave whip in a magmount stuck to the rooftop A/C unit, could also use a major upgrade as well. Tom, AE8O, out in NM, continues to review audio mods for the Viking Valiant he acquired on E-Bay, but is worrying about getting it shipped from the seller in a timely manner. The articles on Valiant mods in the April and May 2006 issues of ER by Chuck Felton, KD0ZS, are prominently mentioned. I dig out those two issues and note with approval the inclusion of an LED/Photocell AGC/Limiter scheme in the circuit changes. Way back in the stone age, when I was in broadcasting, my colleagues and I built a number of "squeeze boxes" using this approach when the boss was too cheap to buy the highly desirable Audimax/Volumax combination. On AM, everyone is such a reserved gentleman that no one hears the screams of pain. Lock, W1ZD, reluctantly admits that he twisted his ankle, or did something to it, and can barely walk. While such stoicism avoids the hypochondriacal excesses of the SSB Geritol Net, the AM community should be concerned when one of its members is under the weather. On another subject that I often scream loudly about, W1ZD mentions that he is having local noise problems on 40 meters as well. Welcome to the club, Lock. W8QBG shows up on the 2M AM net with a Mirage linear amplifier on the back end of his Clegg 22er and now puts in a slam-dunk signal at my QTH. Larry, KO6SM, out in Sun City West reports hearing George for the first time. And it works both ways. The Mirage's GaAs-FET receive preamp gives the 22er's receiver just enough edge for George to copy Larry. George got this goody on E-Bay from a fellow in, and I'm not making this up, Jackalope Junction, Wyoming. Some traffic on 40m and 2m about plans for the upcoming Williams hamfest. K6CJA plans to attend. I give Lock CJA's super-secret 2-meter frequency for coordination. The plot thickens. 6/14 No on-the-air radio today. George and I decide that this is the day the Bauer gets its new feedthrough insulators and some photos of its insides taken for the Arizona-AM website. I also make arrangements with Larry, W0OGH, to take some photos of his shack and equipment for the 'site - thus knocking over two Eastside tasks with one tank of gas. The photo shoot for the Bauer (and ART-13) goes well in the W8QBG Studio B due to foresight in scheduling it in the cool of the early morning. I leave the insulators and Ann, George's XYL, fixes me up with a giant coffee cup - which I promptly forget to take with me. George and Ann mail it to me later, thus enabling my caffeine addiction to reach an even higher level. The photos at W0OGH go well. Larry has some rather rare TMC gear that will make interesting browsing on the 'site. It is 2pm when I wrap it up, the heat is oppressive, and I scurry back to my cool burrow on the Westside like some secretive desert arachnid caught out in the midday sun. 6/15 Began processing photos for W0OGH and got a 3-image page up for him: http://www.arizona-am.net/PHOENIX/W0OGH/ 40 meters surprises with an "opening". Hear KD5ULT/7 at Bryce Canyon running an IC-706 barefoot on AM. As much as I moan and groan about PW signals on AM, I guess allowances have to be made. George, W8QBG, and I continue our dialog about peak-limiting and AGC amps. George wants to protect the Bauer when he gets it running but doesn't want to get into rack-mounted "processing". Lock, W1ZD, opines that he doesn't "believe" in audio processing. Consensus is that less is better. George and I go through the Behringer "catalog" in detail off-the-air. He is looking for a stand-alone mike preamp with a built-in limiter. The Behringer DSP-110 "Shark" seems like a good match, although it has a lot of stuff that is not needed (feedback cancellation, audio delay). 6/16 (No AM activity at K7JEB) 6/17 K7EWE is on from Tucson with his 32V3. Lock, W1ZD, also shows up on 3855 with the T-368, his first appearance on the frequency since last year according to him (and verified in my log). George finds a Behringer DSP-110 locally for a very competitive price and goes with it. This is historically significant - the first external audio processor at W8QBG. But it probably won't be heard until the Bauer makes 'first sound'. W7MD is back in Tucson and thinks he finally has his antenna situation straightened out from all the construction mayhem. Damon had a good signal coming up Phoenix way, so here's hoping. W8QBG has Wi-Fi problems and the olde computor whizzard, W7MD, offers advice and consolation. I am no help at all - networking being something I forget 10 minutes after I get it working. 6/18 Jim, K7EWE, checks in on 3855 with his "best friend" Kathryn, KD7LGA, taking over the mike for a round or two. I'm told this dynamic duo used to have a regular talk show going on 160 way back when. Speaking of 160, there's good news this morning on that band as W6OOQ returns to the air with the K7BDY Memorial Gates BC-1G from beautiful, Lawrence-Welkian Escondido California. Bob's problem turned out to be a charred SO-239 coax connector ($0.50 at your local hamfest) rather than a charred modulation transformer ($995.00, FOB El Paso, Texas). I've got to get that limiter over to Bob so that this inadvertent overmodulation doesn't happen again. Max, K7CAX, is back on the air on 3855 with his Viking 500, this time with both 811A modulator tubes perking away. We all agree that it is pretty weird to have a filament in a transmitting tube open up, even in a relatively low-powered one like the 811A. K7EWE relates being weirded-out by a birdy on 10-meter AM while talking to Clyde, N7IOK. Turns out it was coming from an oldish counter he had next to the rig to keep an eye on his frequency. You never know. WA8ULG, Ted, in Parks, Arizona is heard with a big signal from his recently rebuilt Valiant. The rig sounds good, but is a bit thin on the low-end audio, attributable to using a D-104 mike. Ted announces an open-house at his QTH on the Saturday of the Williams hamfest. Parks is just up the road from Williams towards Flagstaff, so it will be convenient and should be interesting. I *finally* get the W8QBG Bauer pictures up on the website. One of the *interesting* aspects of reworking the files and uploading them to the GoDaddy Unix server is that I find out that xxxxx.jpg and xxxxx.JPG are *NOT* the same filename, even though my Microsoft FrontPage program insists that they are. After more computer mongering than I want to admit to, the results are here: http://www.arizona-am.net/PHOENIX/W8QBG/Bauer/ 6/21 Summer Solstice at 12:26Z today. Bands lousy. K6IRD does a great job riding herd on the AMI net on 3870 this evening in spite of daunting summertime QRN. Mickey, WA6FIZ, descends from the mountain and, with Ken, K6CJA, hits salad bar at the local Sizzler in Hesperia. Bob Heil, K9EID/6, is live and direct on 3870 from the elegant studios of WJ6W. 6/23 Work veteran AMer K7POF mobile somewhere outside Tucumcari NM. Although on 3885 SSB, there is a noticeable Doppler shift on the signal as Bob burns up the highway. Hear from W6OOQ on 7293 and he's NOT mobile for a change. Do a radio check with K7SC on 144.45 AM and end up in an hour-long QSO about modulation schemes used by megawatt-level SW and MW broadcasters. They definitely have moved past the big iron in the back room. 6/24/Sat Nice group on 3855 this morning. Jim, K7EWE promises to let us hear his 250-watt Gates on 3870 some evening. George applies HV to the Bauer with no ill effects. He has also installed the HF tank components, including the band switch, brought the crystal socket out to the front of the rig and replaced/upgraded the cooling fan on the back door. Max, K7CAX, wonders aloud if the species of palm tree used for antenna support makes any difference -- apparently using both California and Mexican fan palms for this at his QTH. Ted, WA6TJN, is working an interesting mod - adding true AM capability to the venerable TS-520 transceiver. This will be an add-in board that will duplicate quite a bit of the existing SSB circuitry but not have limitations in IF bandwidth or modulation method. Lots of challenging circuit-design issues here. A couple of rare birds show up in this session: W5EOE, Shep, in Delores CO and AE8O, Tom, in Rio Rancho. Shep has been in Truth or Consequences NM attending to a business interest but is now back at the Colorado homestead. This is the first time I have heard Tom on 3855, I think. The usual contact is on 7293. Also heard from K7DD/7, Mike, who was setting up for Field Day at Wood's Canyon Lake up on the Rim. We were the only signals on the band (75m) that late in the day. 6/25/Sun Get up at 0100 MST and work 62 stations for Field Day on 75 for lack of anything better to do. Kinda fun, but it's SSB doncha know. Best strategy if you have a big 1D signal seems to be to set up shop on a given frequency and let the A's, B's and C's find you. Another good roundtable on 3855. Get a big signal from WA8ULG, Ted, in Parks, AZ, just down the road from Flagstaff. K7CAX has weirdness in the '500. The new modulator tube shows same lack of filament light as the old one - problem is in the socket or wiring. Max is having the same carrier drop-out problems with Cox Cable that I am having; there's a pattern here. WA6JUS, John, mentions the desirability of having an ER article on John Gehman, WB6BKR, and his construction of the 'Big Mamu'. WA6TJN and I pursue some details about the power dissipation of on-chip resistors. 6/27/Tue George, W8QBG, is making a healthy amount of power (600W) with the Bauer on 1900 kcs. He is also working on a control sequence for the transmit/receive changeover. And he receives the Hallicrafters SX-100 he bid on. I download the manuals from BAMA for it and send them to him on CD. I find that pure FTP-client programs like WS-FTP seem to work a lot better with BAMA than web browsers trying to do ftp. Larry, W0OGH, checks in on 7293 with a nice signal from his TMC transmitter. The ionospheric goddess is smiling at us today with good, short-skip propagation. WA6TJN and I have a long conversation about potting compounds. 6/28/Wed WA1HLR, the TimTron, is heard from somewhere in Central NM (Carrizozo, I think) on 7293 AM with a 17-watt carrier. (Kinda ironic from the Denouncer-In-Chief of piss-weak AM signals). Nevertheless, we make do and welcome TimTron to our great (hot) American Southwest. Sharon, K6IRD, does a superb job of herding cats during the pre-net activities on 3870. She seems to get better and better at this every week. It also helps that she and hubby W6IRD now have their air conditioning back on line. Dave, WJ6W, makes it official: Scotty, W6OAU, became a silent key the night before net. Lots of remembrances of him and his longtime participation in amateur radio during the net. 6/29/Thu Weird propagation for 7293 noontime roundtable. It ends with a whimper this time around.... AM HONOR ROLL... (stations logged this period) W0OGH ______ AE8O _______ W8QBG ______ W7QHO W1ZD _______ N6DXN/M ____ KO6SM ______ K7EWE WA6TJN _____ KD5ULT _____ W7MD _______ WA6JUS WD4PLI _____ KC7KW ______ K7JWA ______ WA8ULG W6BCN ______ K6IRD ______ K7POF/M ____ W6OOQ K7SC _______ K7CAX ______ K7BDY ______ WI7M W5EOE ______ K7DD/7 _____ WA1HLR _____ W6IRD WB6YEC _____ K6CJA ______ WA6FIZ _____ KO6NM WJ6W _______ W9FGJ ______ W5VXE ______ K6BT