Baluns have always been a bit of a homebrew boogeyman to me, mainly due do what appeared to be some sort of magical winding technique around a toroid. However, given the prices of baluns these days seems to range from $60 AUD upwards, given I have all the parts already at home to make one … Read more
For a long time it has been a goal to take my own station portable to work HF. This week I finally achieved that goal.
It’s taken me a long time to get there, with the project starting in 2006 when I purchased a portable aluminium mast for the car that can be assembled as high as 12m (39.3 feet). With the help of Bruce (ex VK7MBD) a custom tow bar mount was made, allowing the assembly and raising of the mast to be possible by 1 person. After this, things went quiet on that project as a result of my hiatus from the hobby.
Although it is almost certain that future generations (and the more expensive versions!) of radios will have rig control and digital mode keying built in with just a USB cable to go between radio and computer (such as Yaesu’s FT-991), for previous generations of radios, such as my FT-DX1200, the Yaesu SCU-17 Interface is required to act as that bridge between radio and computer.
There is nothing particularly special about the interface – you could make one yourself at home if you wanted. It consists of 2 USB to Serial ports, a sound card interface and a little bit of wizardry to wire it all together. As for me I’d rather just spend the money to save myself the hours of frustration of putting one of these together (and troubleshooting issues) and end up with a professionally made, compact unit.
However what I wanted to address was the distinct vagueness of documentation around that covers how they operate.
Once you start accumulating more than a couple of pieces of radio equipment, the questions around power supply quickly comes up. Radios can quite easily draw in excess of 15 Amps @ 13.8 Volts depending on the model. My two main HF rigs have a specification of 23.8 Amps and 18 Amps respectively. This is generally more than your standard off-the-shelf supply.
For domestic consumption, linear type supplies (Transformers) are only really viable up to 25-30amps. After that the cost starts going up significantly, as does the weight of the unit. Thankfully switch-mode technology seems to have come a long way in recent years, which resulted in me purchasing a 40 Amp power supply, and no noticeable RF QRM.
With power sorted out, the next thing to deal with is how to get the power from the supply to the devices. With a 40 Amp supply, you can power a whole lot of things, but I quickly discovered the posts only allowed me to connect 2 devices after I attached lugs to the leads. Also, lugs generally are not that portable going across different power supplies – what works on my QTH setup will not work in my car, or at someone else’s house. There had to be a better way.
The CQWW DX Competition would have to be the biggest radio contest of the year for the casual contester such as myself. It is also important reminder that you need to be under no illusion of the capabilities of your equipment, otherwise you may quickly find yourself very frustrated. This is my first crack at … Read more
“A QSL Card is the final courtesy of a QSO” – ARRL Operating Manual for Radio Amateurs In recent years online QSL services such as eQSL and the ARRL Logbook of the World would have you believe that confirming DX QSOs has moved into the electronic world and QSL cards are no longer required, however I … Read more
If my saved contest log files are anything to go by, this is the first Oceania DX contest I have participated in since 2008.
I’ve been looking forward to this contest now, as it is one of the “big ones” for the year, and a big opportunity to obtain some new DX countries. It guarantees me a eQSL eDX award as well as more uniques DXCC. It also means I really need to get around to getting some real QSL Cards printed (Do people have suggestions?).
It made for a bit of a busy weekend, as most of Saturday was spent cruising around Hobart, getting home in the afternoon an then settling down to contest in the evening (0800 UTC = 6pm AEST).
I decided to use the N1MM+ Logger for the contest. I have used it before in the Penstock Lagoon RD Contest, where it worked well but was largely hampered by not having a definition file for the RD Contest. N1MM+ does know about the big contests though and I was keen to get hands on with it again.
I’ve played about briefly with AX.25 in the past when tinkering with APRS, but never really had much success with it and with TNCs being both hard to come by and damn expensive for what they are, it has always been out of my reach. Recently I acquired a couple of second hand TNCs and have … Read more
The last time I was active on air was a brief period in 2011. During this time, I just wasn’t that interested in radio and it took a back seat to other projects and interests. Fast forward to July 2015. My lovely partner has gone overseas for a few weeks and I decided to spend … Read more
It’s been a while since I was regularly operating my station and much of the coax that is in use has been exposed to the outside environment for over 10 years. I know the best way of testing coax is by using specialised sweep tools, but having only basic testing equipment available I though I … Read more
