Thinking Ahead to Next Year

The Past Ten Days

I haven't made many contacts over the past ten days.  For most of that time, we've spent the Christmas Season at my mother-in-law's house.  It might go without saying, but I only have one radio and one antenna - and they're not at her house.

I have had to go by the house just about every day, though:  to water the cats, to feed the fish, to scoop the litter pans, to get the mail - and to try to track down a bad odor that's either "something moldy" or "something dead".  I still haven't found it, but it does seem to be abating.

However:  when I got the chance, I would sit down at the radio for 10 minutes or so, fire up the DXSummit website, and see who was calling on which bands.  I'd tune nearby, tune up the transmitter and the antenna, and then try to answer the calls.

And, on each of my last 8 or so attempts, my callsign transmission was answered on the first call.  I've rarely had this happen, but especially not 8 times in a row.  Even with the pileups with people trying to reach the roaming W1AW stations, I got through on my first attempt - even the Hawaii station on 15 meters, and even the busy Iowa stations on both 40 meters and 20 meters.  Even the busy "ARRL Centennial QSO Party" stations.  I just couldn't believe it!

This just goes to show me that there is plenty that I accomplish with my modest station consisting of a 40-year old transceiver and a couple pieces of wire strung between a couple trees.

What About Antennas?

I still need to post pictures of my "shack" and my antenna.  But I'm thinking ahead to two antennas that I would like to put up.

I'd like to put up a longwire antenna and use it to get on 80 meters.  I know very little about this, but it definitely sounds like something I want to do.

I'd also like to put up a Hexbeam antenna.  They look like this:

(This picture is linked directly from the website of KJ6YVT; I hope that's OK.)

Hexbeams are lightweight multi-band beams, with each band's pair of elements bent into a hexagonal shape.  They have good gain, a great front-to-back ratio, and they are very lightweight.  They work on 6, 10, 12, 15, 17, and 20 meters with a single feedline, and they can be put on a lightweight mast and turned with a TV antenna rotor.

These antennas are available from a few different sites; perhaps the two most well-regarded suppliers are K4KIO and NA4RR.  They're still considerably more pricey than a wire dipole; we'll get new furniture for the living room before I get a several-hundred-dollar antenna.

I need a better way to get my antenna cables into the house; I'm interested in something like the MFJ-4602 feedthrough panel if I can get a good deal on one:

What about other modes?

I've been working on my Morse Code skills by hanging out at the Learn CW Online website.  I need a lot more practice at hearing and copying Morse Code; I've still got a few letters confused (F versus L, B versus V) and it takes me too long to figure out each letter.

For real-world practice at listening, I fired up the Michigan WebSDR website (because, after all, my radio is at home and I'm not) and listened to CW conversations on 40 meters.  I found a couple people working under 10 words per minute; I found it quite hard to copy.  I'll keep at it.  I'll make sure I can copy Morse Code before I pick up a keyer.  I've seen some good deals on Heathkit HD-1410 keyers and MFJ-422 keyer/paddle combos; when the time comes, I should be able to find something reasonably cheaply.

I'm also interested in some of the digital modes, particularly JT65 and JT9-HF.  Their ability to pick signals out of the noise is really interesting.

So - maybe next year I will put up a longwire and get into CW and maybe one of the digital modes.  And then, sometime after that, maybe it will be time for the next step - the Hexbeam.

73 de Mike, K9MJA

The Past Ten Days

Lemme 'splain.  No, is too much.  Lemme sum up.

I've been quiet on the blog, but I've been having fun with the radio.  Since my last blog post I've made 38 more contacts:

• By band:
• 40 meters: 18 contacts
• 20 meters: 8 contacts
• 15 meters: 10 contacts
• 10 meters: 2 contacts
• Foreign countries by band:
• 40 meters: Costa Rica and the Czech Republic
• 20 meters: Canada and Aruba
• 15 meters: Spain (2 contacts), Cuba, Nicaragua, and Guadalupe

I mostly stayed away from 10 meters, as there was a contest going on last weekend and it was just a series of pileups that I didn't feel like trying to punch through.

Over the last week or so, I haven't been spending as much time as I was previously.  I was frankly getting a little obsessed with it, I guess.  But it's just so interesting!

WebSDR

On the Yahoo Kenwood group, some people were talking about "web SDR" sites where people had put up web-based Software Defined Radio stations for listening.  This seemed like a good way to hear what you actually sound like on the air.

So, I checked out websdr.org where the list of these sites is kept.  I found a nearby site in Michigan that listens on 40 meters, and I used it tonight to listen to myself on 7.139 MHz.  It has a handy recording feature so that I could record what I actually sound like on the air.  I transmitted a short sequence saying that I was testing, but I couldn't really hear if my audio was clear or not.

Shortly after that, I heard W3AMF calling on that frequency.  I was still watching the WebSDR site, but it was delayed from the radio by about a second.  So, I hit the "Mute" button on the website, turned up the volume on the radio so I could listen in real time, and hit Record on the website.  I had a nice 30-minute conversation with W3AMF (Duff), during which he said that he could not discern any RF on my audio signal.  After he faded into the noise, I signed off with him and then downloaded the recording.

And guess what?  I should have muted the computer instead of muting the audio on the WebSDR site.  I downloaded 30 minutes of silence. :)

I won't make that mistake again.  I'll try recording myself next time I check in to the MIDCARS Net on 7258.

I turned off the radio and got back to work; making up some time in the evening due to being a zombie in the afternoon.

Until next time -

73, Mike

It Was The Microphone!

So I Rewired It!

I had some lingering suspicions regarding the microphone.  After all, when I bypassed the amplifier in it, I just left all the other wiring intact.  I started to wonder if perhaps the amplifier in the mic was acting strange since I unhooked it.  So, I decided to do an experiment:  I moved the mic audio wire back from contact #2 to contact #8 (the amplifier output), put in a 9V battery for the amplifier, and turned the volume down most of the way.

Also, I had taken the stalk apart to take a look at the relay contacts.  Tonight, I cleaned them by pulling an eyeglass cleaner patch through the contacts - a little alcohol and the slightest bit of abrasion.  I also straightened a couple of the springs, and I bent the spring at the bottom of the stalk so that the PTT grip bar would spring back out like it should.  I've read horror stories about trying to get these things back togethers; I expected it to take about 20 minutes, a microscope, four hands, tweezers, and a dose of Divine Intervention.  But somehow I managed to get the relay and the mic plug back into the stalk in only a couple minutes.

I hooked it back up to the radio and talked into the dummy load.  I had good ALC and power meter movement.  I ended up with the Mic control on the radio set to about 4 and the (unlabeled) volume control on the mic base to about 1 or 2.

So, it was time for a test.  40 meters was wide open tonight, so I hunted around for an empty portion of the band.  I tuned up the transmitter into the dummy load, and then tuned the antenna.  And then I started talking to myself (saying "K9MJA testing").  And the radio was behaving like it should!  At least as far as I could tell by looking at the meters.

So, it was time for the real deal.  I heard VE4VT in Winnipeg calling CQ on 7.264, so I answered him.

And he repeated my call back to me, without confusing "Juliet" and "India"!  He gave me a solid 59 report.

Time for another test.  I saw on DX Summit that WK9U from Wisconsin was calling on 7.272, so I went there and answered his CQ.  He was coming in at well over S9.  I asked him for a quick audio check due to my lingering audio issues.  He said that my audio was strong and clear, and that I didn't have any sign of RF on my signal at all.  I thanked him and looked around for another contact.

I found Milt, AD5XD near Dallas, on 7.239 and had a quick little conversation with him.  He was being very polite and patient, as the conversation was interrupted by my phone ringing in the background.  I could heard Barb asking me to answer it, while I was also trying to listen to Milt.  I jumped up to find a phone, and I finally found one - just after it quit ringing.  I jumped back to Milt and apologized for missing his last comments because I was running around trying to find a ringing phone.  He just laughed and repeated his comments, which were well wishes for my family for the Christmas season.  I returned the well wishes, thanked him for his patience, and bid him 73 so that he could make more contacts (hopefully more coherent than me).

Epilogue

I wrote this and left it sitting for a half hour while I spun around the 40 meter band.  It was just so noisy.  I heard a few guys speaking Italian and lots of pileups.  I decided to try somewhere else.

I peeked at DX Summit again, and saw that RX0AK was calling CQ on 20 meters.  So I found him.  He was just above the noise level; I had to strain to hear him.  But I could hear him.  I tuned a little off-frequency and tuned up the radio and the antenna tuner.  I tuned back to him and heard him answer a couple calls.  So, after a couple minutes, I answered his CQ.

And he heard me, with the correct call on the first try.  I gave him a 57 report; he gave me a 55 in return.

From Asiatic Russia, over 5,800 miles away.

Two minutes later, the path to him had faded and he was gone.

This is one happy guy sitting right here!

Tonight's contacts from my QRZ logbook:

73 - and look for me on the air, where I will now be able to be understood!

- Mike, K9MJA

Audio Issues - The Saga Continues

RF and Grounding?

I'm really trying to track this down, because it's getting a little frustrating.  Here are the things that I'm seeing and hearing.

• When I tune the radio up in CW mode and flip the Transmit switch (either while connected to the tuner's dummy load or while connected to the antenna thru the tuner), I get a steady 100+ watts out.
• When I talk into the dummy load in the tuner, the ALC meter and the watt meter behave as expected.
• When I talk into the antenna, the ALC meter doesn't move as far and I don't send out as much power.  The ALC goes up to about 1/3 of the way and then immediately drops back down; the wattmeter maybe hits 30 watts and then drops back down as well.
• What few contacts I have made lately have a hard time hearing me; they report some sort of clipping and/or distortion.
• I do know that I seem to have a problem with the relay contacts in my microphone.  If I squeeze the grip bar too tightly, it causes the ALC meter to jump really high.

Given the first four points above, it sounds like RF getting back into the radio.  My first thought is that I do need to ground my station.  This is one thing that I know I need to do.  I need to run a ground wire around from my service entrance to outside the shack (about 75 feet around the perimeter of the house) and bond it to another ground rod; then I need to run a wire to the back of the radio and to the tuner.

It has rained for 2 days straight here; I don't think I have any water in my coax on my homemade dipole, because I can tune to 1:1 SWR on various parts of the 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands.

Another thing I need to do is shorten my feed coax.  I have a hundred feet of it, most of which is just lying outside the house on the ground (the center of my dipole is about 15 feet off the ground, and only about 10 feet from the shack - but I have 100 feet of coax).  I've felt bad about cutting this coax, as my friend Keith WA9DRO passed it along to me.  But, I think it's time to cut this one to length; I'll just buy him a replacement.

My friend Fred, W0FMS, suggested using ladder line to feed the dipole - less loss, but takes a little more care getting it into the house.

Microphone Issues

I also need to clean the relay contacts in the microphone and adjust the spring for the grip bar, so that I don't have to constantly worry about squeezing it too hard.  So, I took it apart:

I can already see that I need to straighten a couple of the relay springs in addition to cleaning the contacts.  Here is a closer view:

I'm chalking all of this up to being part of the learning experience.  But it's a little aggravating to not even be able to reliably check in to a semi-local net (MidCARS on 7.258) - and it's even more aggravating to hear Japan and Venezuela and Brasil and Spain coming in at S9 and not be able to contact them.

I'll get it figured out.  In the meantime, I keep practicing tuning the radio.  I also need to adjust my S-meter; it doesn't go all the way down to zero.  I can't really adjust it for S9 without a signal generator (which I don't have).

I hope to be back on the air soon!

73 de Mike K9MJA

Audio issues tracked down?

More audio issues?

This morning, I checked into the MIDCARS net on 7.258, at around 9:30 AM.  The reply I got from the service control operator at the time, George K8HLJ, was that my audio was quite distorted.

What?  On 40 meters?  I had not had such a report on that band before.

Another guy chimed it to say it sounded like I perhaps had RF coming back into the radio; maybe I didn't have a good enough match to the antenna, or maybe I had a ground problem.

I turned down the Mic gain a bit (I noticed while talking that I was overdriving it a bit).  George said that it did get better, but was still somewhat distorted.

I was a little disheartened.  But, I tuned aside a bit, tossed out a carrier, and checked my meter.  Sure enough, although I had tuned 7.258 to a 1:1 match the night before, I was now at about a 1.2:1 SWR.  It seemed that I couldn't get quite a good match at my "normal" antenna tuner setting (capacitors at about 2, and the inductor on H).

So, I consulted the manual for the tuner.  It said that if you're unable to get a match, turn the inductor down one letter and try again.  So, I turned the inductor down to G and the capacitors up to about 6.  I was still not able to get a really good match.

So, down once more for the inductor, down to F.  I had never tried tuning 40 meters with the inductor on F.  But, with the capacitors at about 8, I got a perfect match.  Hey!  Here is picture of the rig putting out over 130 watts on 7.258 with practically zero reflected power:

(Note: the tuner manual does say "Always use the lowest alphabetical setting possible."   Also, the manual suggests both 6/G/6 and 8/F/8 as potential matches for 40 meters.)

In the early afternoon, I checked in to the net again and asked for an audio report.  This time, I was met with glowing audio reports from Jim KT4FQ as well as one other perosn.

I said "Well, the main thing seems that I need to get better grounding in my shack.  Which means that I need to get some grounding in my shack."  I was met with laughs of agreement.

When I posted a similar story on Facebook, my friend Jeff (W0ODS) also agreed that the grounding is important.  Currently, I have none at all.  I need to route my cables into my house a little better (currently they come in through open windows) and I need to ground the shields at that point and run a ground wire around to the service entrance ground.  Then I need a ground bus on the desk so that I can also ground all my equipment.  Also, I'm planning on wiring up the TS-520 for DC power (I have an Astron 35amp power supply sitting mostly unused) and also providing DC to light up the lamp on the tuner meter.

Working QSX

In my previous blog post, I mentioned trying to "work split" with a station that was "listening up 5".  Well, today, I found one again.  This time, it was C6ADX calling CQ from the Bahamas.  He was transmitting on 21.285 and listening on 21.290.  I tuned about 10KHz away from him to tune up my transmitter and antenna, ensuring I had as good of a match as I could get.  I tuned back to him and practiced my "RIT button / knob twist" technique for a couple minutes to hear the calls and replies, and then tried calling him.  This meant that I needed to turn the knob 2KHz to the right, key up the mic and talk, and then turn the knob 2KHz to the left so I could hear his reply.

On the fourth try, he heard me.  He gave me a 59 signal report; I gave him a 58 in return.

I tried making a few other contacts on 10 and 15 and 20 meters, but to no avail.  That's OK - I think I ran my audio problem to ground, so to speak.

Hopefully soon I'll actually get a "shack" picture and an "antenna farm" picture posted.

73 de Mike K9MJA

A quiet week - and then...

Busy Busy Busy

I had a busy week since last weekend.  With a shortened work week, I had lots to do in three days - so I worked a little extra and left the radio off during the mornings (instead of listening to the MidCARS net on 7.258).  Then, the family spent most of the Thanksgiving holiday at my mother-in-law's house.

I did have to do some water heater maintenance at home on Friday and Saturday, so I did have a little excuse to play with the radio (since I was home and all).

Friday

While waiting for the water heater to drain (which took hours, thanks to the 2 inches of lime sludge in the bottom of the tank), I tuned up on 15 and listened around the band.  I heard EA8YB call CQ from the Canary Islands, so I answered his call.  He said that I was very faint, and he kept asking me to repeat my call suffix.  He never could pick out the "Alpha" at the end.  On one hand, it was a little disheartening because I never completed the contact.  On the other hand, though, I was being heard at 4,000 miles away.

I spent a little time on 10 meters as well; I heard PU2YZP and PP5EI from Brasil, but neither of them could hear me as I replied to their CQ calls.

Listening Up 5

I heard several people Friday on 10 meters calling CQ and "Listening Up 5".  This was my first experience with this type of operation; I had read about it, but had not experienced it yet.  So, when I heard one particular station coming in at S9 and Listening Up 5, I decided to give it a shot.

First, I spun my VFO knob up 5 KHz and listened to all the people trying to answer his CQ calls.  Then I spun back and forth between his transmitting and listening frequencies.  This proved to be error prone and somewhat annoying.

Then I remembered the RIT (Receiver Incremental Tuning) feature.  So, I played with the RIT control until I figured out how it works.

By turning it all the way to the left, the receiver was listening 3KHz below the VFO frequency.  This wasn't quite enough to cover the 5KHz split between his transmit and receive.  However, it was much easier to move the VFO only 2KHz than to try to manage a 5KHz swing without using RIT.

So, I practiced a few times:  Spin the VFO knob about an inch to the left (2KHz down) while pressing the RIT button to turn it on, and I could hear him calling CQ; spin the knob back about an inch to the right and turn off RIT, and I could hear all the responses.

I tried answering a couple times, but to no avail.  But at least I was transmitting on the right frequency.  Several times, I heard a distant station ending in "Sugar David" trying to answer on his calling frequency instead of answering up 5KHz.  After about the 4th instance of this, someone else replied quickly "Sugar David, you're stupid!"  That's not particularly helpful, is it?  I would have answered "Sugar David, he is listening up 5 kilohertz.  Please move up 5 kilohertz to transmit and then listen on this frequency."

Saturday

I only really had a little time to listen.  I heard OD5ZZ from Lebanon booming in at 59+10 on 21.335.  But, once again, no contacts.  I started to wonder if I still had my audio problems on 15 meters.  So, late Saturday evening, I posted a question to the Kenwood Hybrid Yahoo group about how to track down this issue.

Sunday

In the morning, I got a response in the Yahoo group from K9TW, who worried about the driver tube and suggested checking the RF drive - providing steps for doing that:

Can also test the RF drive level on all the bands by turning off  the SG switch and with rig in CW mode flip to send and adjust Car Level for max ALC and watch the key down level to see if it holds where you set it. Do this on all bands and let it rest a little between bands. 12BY7A cathode emission begins to fall off on the higher bands as the tube ages.

So, this evening I performed those checks; all bands held the meter steady for 10 seconds.  It even held steady on 10 meters, which is the first band to go "soft" when the driver tube starts to wear out.  I hope that 10 seconds was a reasonable duration for each test; I was driving the 12BY7A at full output each time, and I didn't want to overheat it.

I haven't seemed to have much luck on 15 meters except in the early afternoon, but I decided to give it a shot anyway in the evening.  I spun around the band, and I heard PY2VI (Brasil) calling CQ on 21.318.  I tuned about 8 Khz away, tuned up the transmitter and the antenna tuner, came back to his frequency, and waited for him to call.  I answered him.

And he heard me.  He kept thinking that my "Juliet" was an "India" (the same problem that EA8YB had on Friday).  I think I might have to substitute "Japan" into my call when repeating it, or maybe I was overdriving the audio a little bit.  But, he gave me a 58 report once he got my call right; I gave him a 57 and thanked him for the DX contact.  He is 17 miles shy of being 5,000 miles away from me - my farthest contact so far.

I jumped up, ran into the bedroom, and told my wife and my daughter that I just talked to Brasil.  They looked at me kinda funny.  (This would be a good time to point out that I live just outside of the town of Brazil, Indiana).

So, I spun around the band some more.  It seemed like the band was closing, but I heard KB7MBI near Seattle calling CQ on 21.285, so I answered him.  We chatted for a bit and then I described the problems I had been having and asked him for an audio report.  He said that I was coming though with a strong 58, with no audio issues at all.  And he remarked that my D-104 and the TS-520 were remarkably well matched and that my audio was very strong and clear.  I thanked him, chatted for about 20 seconds, and waited for him to respond.  But the band had faded away, just that quick.  I threw him a 73 without knowing if he could hear me or not; then I spun around the band for a couple minutes.  Where I had previously heard a reasonable amount of chatter, now I heard nothing.

But the good news is that it seems that I actually did fix my audio issues when I fixed the two bad solder joints last weekend.  I'm going to keep an eye on it, but the big picture is that my sub-$300 eBay special is actually in pretty good shape and working pretty darn well.

73 de Mike, K9MJA

3 Days of Radio Fun, 1 Day of Radio Repair

Contacts, Contacts, Contacts

From Wednesday to Friday, I had fun on 40, 20, and 15 meters.  I contacted W1AW/4 in Florida on all three bands; I talked to KE7JNT on Vancouver Island on 15 and I talked to CO4LS in Cuba on 20.  I had my first non-net non-friend conversation with KI4UIE in Kentucky.

I've learned to quickly tune up my radio, making notes of what tuner settings work best for each band.  Tuning the radio and the tuner now takes me about 20 seconds.

15 Meter Audio Problem

I had a 15-minute conversation with W1KA in New Hampshire on 15 meters early Friday evening.  He gave me what seems to be the best explanation of my audio problem on 15 meters:  He said that when it was working, I was coming in at 5 to 10 over S9 - but when it cut out, it sounded like I was talking from across the room.  He helped me try a few different things - wiggling the mic wires, wiggling the Drive knob (where I know the bad solder joint is)... but nothing helped.

He had lots of nice things to say about my signal and the radio and the audio quality of the mic (when it was working), and he said that he looked forward to talking with me again when I get the audio problem sorted out.

Digging into the Radio

I decided to try to fix up the known problem with my radio - the visible bad solder joint on one of the air variable capacitors.  I also picked up a can of DeOxit from Radio Shack so that I could clean the dirty volume pot (and all the rest of the pots and switches as well).

I unhooked the power cord and the antenna and the microphone, took the top and bottom covers off - and then I proceeded to take the front faceplate off.  I technically didn't need to do this, but I decided to do it anyway just to see that I could do it.

This involved taking all the knobs off the front of the radio.  Here is what it looked like spread out across the desk, with the knobs and the screws (in an Altoids tin) on the Mac and the front faceplate over to the left.  There's also some tools and some solder wick and some flux and ... well, I don't keep the neatest work area.

After turning the radio upside down, I could spray the DeOxit into the bottom of each of the pots.  I could tell after a couple sprays in the volume pot that it was already turning smoother.  I also went ahead and sprayed every other pot and rotary switch I could get to, including all the wafers on the bandswitch.  I even opened the antenna relay compartment at the back of the radio and sprayed the last (hidden) section of the bandswitch.  Five minutes later, I re-sprayed all the pots and switches again.

After letting that dry for a bit, I took a good look at the repair I needed to make.  In order to fix the bad solder joint, I had to remove a metal shield between two of the coil boards:

If you look closely at the top and bottom of the shield, you will see that each screw is attached to a blob of solder, which is attached to the Heterodyne Oscillator board.  This is so that there is a good grounding connection between the Het Osc board and the shield.  So, my first task was to remove this solder.

I got out my trusty Radio Shack soldering iron.  After about 4 or 5 minutes, I realized that 30 watts wasn't going to make a dent in this solder, even with a bit of flux on it.  So, I got out my trusty PowerProbe butane soldering iron and the "Solder Sucker".  I was able to get enough solder removed from each side with the butane iron and the solder sucker (and a little bit of solder wick) so that I could loosen the screws and remove the shield.

Now I had reasonably good access to the bad solder joint.  I got the electric soldering iron out again and tried to heat up the pin on the capacitor.  Once again, it just wasn't doing the trick.  So, I made a gamble.

I approached the guts of my radio with a butane soldering iron.  Note that this thing gets hot.  The soldering tip has a flame vent where the extra heat escapes; I made sure that this vent was pointed vertically (rather than at either of the coil boards near where I was working).  I put a little bit of flux onto the problem area, heated up the pin and the surrounding solder with the very tip of the soldering iron, and then applied a nice clean blob of solder that completely coated the pin and the surrounding contact area.  Success!

Second Verse, Same As the First

As I looked over my work, I studied some of the other parts of the radio.  I happened to notice a second bad solder joint; this one was on the rearmost air variable capacitor, and was visibly in worse condition than the one I had just fixed:

Thankfully, the nearby shield did not have the grounding blobs of solder on its screws.  It did, however, have a ground jumper soldered right to the middle of one side of it.  After removing the screws, I grabbed the shield with a pair of needle-nose pliers; then I heated the solder with the butane iron until it loosened enough for me to pull the shield out.

Once again, I applied a little flux to the bad joint and resoldered it (again, with the butane iron!).  Then I screwed the shield back in place and re-soldered the ground jumper to it.

That's enough working inside the radio for one day.  I reattached the faceplate and put all the knobs back on.  The reattaching of the knobs was interesting, as I had to try to figure out how to align all the pointers with their appropriate markings on the faceplate, and I had to put the knobs back on in a particular order so that I could actually reach all of the set screws.  This took a few minutes, but I finally got it all back together.

I screwed the bottom cover back on, reattached the speaker connector, and laid the front cover on top of the radio.  I plugged the power cord and the antenna back in, and turned the radio on, hoping to hear the hiss of atmospheric static.

Uh oh.

Instead, I was greeted with silence, except for the sound of the meter needle being pegged all the way to the right.  I was stunned, although not entirely surprised.  I retraced my steps in my mind.  I did make sure not to melt or unsolder any other wires, right?  Yes.  I did remember to pull out that one piece of dried solder that fell out of the solder sucker when I reset the plunger while holding it over the radio instead of over the desk, right?  Yes, I did remember to get that.   I tried flipping the meter switch and the band switch; nothing.  All the while, I was only leaving the radio on for a couple seconds at time, just in case.

Frustration set in.  And disappointment.  And discouragement.  I have been having so much fun getting to know this radio; and I had no idea what I had done to it.

I turned it on one more time and listened.  I thought I heard the faintest bit of sound from the speaker, so I turned up the volume.  And then I absentmindedly turned up the RF Gain.

And the radio came back to life.  Loudly.  And I laughed at myself and shook my head.  The RF Gain acts as a squelch control; it's really handy when listening to loud signals, because it allows you to cut back the gain so that the static disappears.  I usually leave the RF Gain set at 10 so that I can hear even the weakest signals that float slightly above the noise.  As you turn it back, the meter needle moves to the right to show you the minimum level of signal that is being received.

When I had reattached all the knobs on the front panel, I had set all of them to zero so that I could line them up (and get to the set screws so that I could tighten them).  I had never had the RF Gain knob set at zero before, so I did not expect this behavior (complete silence and a pegged meter).  But once I turned it back up, and the radio came back to life, I realized exactly what I had done.  I went to 40 meters and spun the frequency knob, the familiar sounds of lots of conversations (strong and weak) gave me great comfort.

Heating It Up

I decided to tune it up on 40 meters.  I tuned the transmitter into the dummy load, and then I tuned the antenna.  And then I switched to CW to adjust the Load for maximum output.

And my radio was putting out almost 150 watts.  I've never seen a reading that high on the radio.  Could my cleaning and soldering have made that much of an improvement?

I tuned to 15 meters and tuned up there as well - probably about 130 watts.

And then I wondered...

What About 10 Meters?

My radio had been deaf and mute on 10 meters - no receive, and no power out.  I decided to give it another shot.  I turned the bandswitch to 28 MHz and turned up the volume.

And I heard something.

I consulted my tuner manual for appropriate inductor/capacitor settings for 10 meters, and I adjusted the Drive control for the loudest noise.  I then spun through the band - and I heard signals!  I heard Japan calling CQ; I heard lots of digital traffic.

So, I decided to try to tune up the transmitter as well.  Wow, the tuner is much more touchy at the higher frequencies!  But, I got a good match on the antenna and hit CW Send.

125 watts out.  On 10 meters.  Into a 40-meter dipole.  With about a 1.2:1 SWR.  From a radio that was previously DEAD on 10 meters.

Whether it was the two solder joints, or a dirty bandswitch, or something else - doesn't matter at this point.  The crazy thing works and I'm pretty ecstatic about that.

And a New Mic Cable

I had ordered a replacement mic cable from eBay, expecting it to arrive on Monday.  Well, it arrived today!

So, after getting the radio working (and then taking a break), I tackled the mic cable.  I had to search carefully to find out which had a shielded audio cable in it; the one I found actually has an extra wire in it - it is 4 conductors, with one of them shielded, which makes it actually a 5-conductor wire.

I carefully trimmed back the cable on both ends.  The plug was on the "straight" end of the cable, but I needed the straight end of the cable to go into the microphone - so I unsoldered the plug.  (By the way, the electric soldering iron was plenty capable for this job.)  I then trimmed back the cable jacket - about 1 inch on the coiled plug end, and about 3 inches on the mic end.  I soldered the appropriate wires onto the plug and tested them with the ohmmeter; I then clamped the cable into the mic stand and soldered the 4 wires in that end.

The result?  A mic cable that looks like it actually belongs:

I haven't actually had the mic on the air yet, but I have verified that it moves the meter when talking into the dummy load.

Now, I just need to make another contact on 15 meters to see if my audio problem is still present.

All in all, a day of radio repair that turned out good - in fact, it turned out better than expected!

73 until next time!

- Mike, K9MJA

Working 40 Meters

The Good

I listened around on the 40 meter band today.  Keith told me that he often hung out on 7.258 in the MIDCARS Net, so I hung out there starting in mid-morning.  A little before noon, I checked in and got a good report from WX9DX in Illinois.  During lunchtime, I heard Keith on there, so I contacted him.  I got good radio reports from him and from KT4FQ, the Net Control operator at the time located in Tennessee.

A little later in the day, I was tuning around the band and heard "CQ 40 from W1AW portable 5 in Mississippi".  I answered his CQ and had about a minute of conversation with him.  He also said that I had a nice clean signal and that my audio sounded really nice, and he also likes the old Kenwood hybrid radios.

I logged all my contacts in the logbook on my QRZ page.

Throughout the course of the evening I've gotten better at tuning my radio on different bands and using the antenna tuner to provide a good match on 40, 20, and 15 meters.  I tried reaching W1AW/1 in Rhode Island, but that's directly off the end of my dipole so I doubt he ever heard me at all.  He was working quite a pileup though.

Here's a picture of my radio putting out 100 watts with only about 1 watt reflected, on 14.240.

The Interesting

As I tuned around 20 meters, I heard CO4LS in Cuba (just above the static), and I heard VP2VQ in the Virgin Islands (with a nice strong signal).  I heard guys in Montana and Washington and South Dakota and Texas, but all fairly faint.

The Not So Good

I turned the bandswitch to the 10-meter bands and was greeted with silence.  It seems like my radio is deaf on 10 meters.  This is an unexpected problem, and hopefully not too hard to fix.  Maybe it's related to my bad solder joint (that still needs to be fixed); likely it's something else completely.  I hope it's not the bandswitch.

Oh well - more fun tomorrow!

73 de K9MJA

In The Air, and On The Air!

Building a Dipole

I built a 40-meter dipole yesterday, out of 14 gauge solid wire and some PVC pipe fittings.  Here is a picture of the center insulator and of the ends of the feedline - and my good friend the butane soldering iron:

After soldering it all together and after liberally applying paint-on electrical tape, it was done:

I drilled holes in each of the end insulators big enough to put paracord through.

Hanging the dipole

I really wasn't sure how to do this.  The only two trees that would reasonably accommodate a dipole are about 105 feet apart, on an east-west line.  I bought two 50-foot pieces of paracord thinking that 65 feet of dipole plus 40 feet of cord would leave me about 30 feet of cord on each end - plenty to tie off with.

I decided that I would want to hang pulleys from each of the trees so that I could get the antenna down if I wanted to.  That meant that I couldn't use the bow-and-arrow or slingshot method to get a rope up into the tree - I actually had to get up there myself.  Thankfully, I have a fiberglass extension ladder that let me stand about 15 feet off the ground.

After lunch, I started outside to get busy on this.  This was the point at which it decided to start snowing.  I headed back inside to get a hat.

I started with the tree in the back yard.  It's a maple tree with a couple limbs that could at act as ladder supports.  I cut enough paracord off of one section so that it would wrap around the portion of the trunk that I wanted to tie the pulley to.  I tied the rest of the paracord to the end insulator and took it up the ladder with me while my mother-in-law held the ladder steady.  I tied the short cord for the pulley around the trunk, leaving about 3 inches of slack in the loop for future tree growth.  Then I threaded the antenna rope through the pulley and tied it off on a lower branch.

The other end of the antenna would attach to a poplar tree in the front yard.  My friend Chris offered to come by with his tree climber that he uses for deer hunting.  He showed up with it, took one look at the tree, and said "Nope, tree's too big."  So, I brought the ladder around to the front yard.  I looked up the trunk, made a size estimate on the circumference at about 20 feet off the ground, and cut a piece of paracord off of the other 50-foot section to use as a loop to attach the pulley.  I attached the rest of the cord to other end insulator and headed up the ladder.

When I got up as far as I was willing to climb, I realized that the tree trunk was somewhat larger than I had estimated.  My piece of paracord for the pulley loop ended up being about a foot short of useful (not to mention about 2 inches short of making it around the trunk).  I pulled up more of the antenna cord and wrapped it around the trunk, making a pulley loop before cutting the cord.  (I should have done it this way the first time!)

I threaded the antenna support through the pulley and started taking up some slack, and then I tied it off to the ladder.  I planned on making the antenna "closer" to the maple tree, so the tie-off point would be higher on the poplar tree.  This initial tie-off was temporary, so that we could get the antenna into place.  This was when I noticed something that I hadn't considered to this point.

I had obstacles.

The Obstacle Course

The first thing that the antenna ran into was my homebrew 2-meter yagi at the northwest corner of the back porch.  I managed to "toss" the antenna over the yagi (it's only up about 12 feet), and then the antenna was catching on the shingles at the edge of the roof.  Once it got unhooked from the shingles, it was actually mostly lined up between the two trees.

The second thing that the antenna ran into was the ornamental cherry tree about halfway between the maple tree and the poplar tree.  At this point, Chris suggested that I get up on the roof.  I could use the feedline to pull the antenna sideways, while Chris adjusted the tension.  This worked great, and soon the antenna was out of the cherry tree.  Chris suggested running the antenna across the corner of the peak of the roof right next to the cherry tree to keep it out of the tree until we tightened it - a great idea.  I decided it was time to really tie off the antenna on the poplar tree, so we found a couple branch stubs to anchor the paracord and I tied it off good and tight.

Chris started adding tension to the antenna, and that's when we found the third obstacle: branches in the maple tree.  Thankfully, I had a pole trimmer in the garage.  Chris and I worked together to remove half a dozen small branches that were in the way, and then we started adding more and more tension.

The fourth obstacle:  The paracord came off of the pulley in the maple tree.  I had to bring the extension ladder back from the poplar tree and fix the pulley.  Once I did that, we discovered another couple branches that needed to be trimmed.  Then we were able to pull the antenna reasonably tight and tie it off to the maple tree.

My intention is to replace the "tie-off" on the maple tree with a weight instead; that way as the two trees sway in the wind, it won't change the tension on the antenna - the weight will keep that constant.

I know there are bits missing from this story; I went up and down the ladders more, and I was actually on the roof three times.  Both of us ended up with muddy feet and dirty hands.

I opened the screen to the window behind my radio, shoved the end of the coax in there, and headed inside.  I invited Chris in to listen to his handiwork.

Terminating the Coax

I bought a couple crimp-on solderless PL-259 connectors from Radio Shack yesterday.  Yes, I know they're not perfect or ideal - but I hoped they'd work.  I pulled the coax in through the window and started stripping the end of it.  Note to future self: buy a coax stripper.  I was in a hurry and I got careless and I gave myself a nice cut on the finger from my pocket knife.  One bloody paper towel later (while my wife looked for a Band-Aid), and the coax was stripped and ready.  I attached the connector, squeezed it together with a pair of needle-nose pliers, hooked it into the back of my antenna tuner, and turned on the radio.

IT WORKS!

I started by tuning where I knew I'd probably find a good signal: the semi-permanent ragchew on 7.200.  I heard Ken and Keith (as mentioned earlier on the blog) in there, along with a few others (mainly from Ohio).  I thanked Chris profusely for his help and he headed out to go home in the snow.

I texted Ken to let him know that I heard him on 7.200; I heard him call for me on the radio.  I texted him again to let him know that I didn't yet have a microphone hooked up, and to give me a few minutes.  I listened while I worked.

So I rewired it!

The microphone I bought has three issues.  One, as noted earlier, is that one of the PTT wires is broken in the cable.  Another, also as noted earlier, is that the plug pinout doesn't match my radio.  The third issue, which I found out later, is that while the D-104 itself is a high-impedance microphone, the amplified D-104 (with the TUG-8 stand) presents a low impedance from the preamp.  My radio wants high-impedance, so it looks like I'll be bypassing the preamp for now.

I started by cutting the original plug off of the cable and going back another couple inches into the cable to see if the break was right at the plug end.  A quick test with the multimeter showed this wasn't the case.  So, in my haste to get on the air, I improvised.

I cut off a length of Radio-Shack 4-conductor signal wire (basically green-red-black-white ribbon cable) and peeled the white and green wires off of it.  I stripped one end of the red and black wires and soldered them into the bottom of the microphone; I stripped the other end of the wires and soldered them into the appropriate pins of the new mic plug that I bought.  That took care of the PTT issue, as verified by my multimeter.

For the audio impedance issue, I consulted the schematic for the mic.  I unsoldered the white audio wire and moved it to the terminal where the crystal mic element is fed.  Now the preamp was bypassed.  I soldered the cable-end of the shielded audio wire to the other two pins of the connector.

At this point, I realized that I had not run the new PTT wires through the new connector, so I couldn't actually reassemble it.  I just had to plug the unsealed connector into the radio.

Here are a couple pictures of the end result:

I tuned the radio to the dummy load on the tuner and keyed up the mic (with the meter set to ALC).  I could hear the click of the antenna relay, and I could adjust the mic level with the Mic control.  The mic worked!

Getting on the air

I went through the transmitter tuning procedure into the dummy load in the neighborhood of 7.205, and then I switched to the antenna - on bypass.  After all, I just put up a 40 meter dipole and I was on 40 meters, so I decided to skip the tuner.  I was clearly putting out over 100 watts, but this time it was into my own antenna.  The cross-needle meter told me that my SWR was around 1.5:1 - pretty reasonable at this point.

I texted Ken again to tell him that I had the mic working, and to ask him if he'd find a frequency to call me on.  He suggested 7.205.  I tuned there and heard him ask if the frequency was in use.  I never heard the response, but he did - and it was in fact in use.  So, I tuned around a bit.  40 meters was pretty busy tonight due to a contest, but I found an open spot around 7.275 and texted him about it.  He suggested 7.276 (there was another signal a little too close to 7.275).  So, he called me on that frequency and I responded.

And he heard me!

We talked back and forth for a few minutes, discussing my wiring and my antenna hanging adventures, and hearing nearby signals and the occasional carrier of someone tuning up.  We talked about band conditions and about the earlier conversations on 7.200.  And then I realized that I had never retuned the transmitter after moving up the band.  I asked Ken to hold on for a minute while I retuned.

I peaked the Drive control, and it JUMPED.  I was quite a bit out of tune!  And then I dipped the Plate current - which dipped considerably.  Then I peaked the Load.  I switched back to LSB mode and heard Ken say he was just waiting around for me - it was nice of him to keep the frequency occupied.  I replied back to him.

His response back to me was "Mike, what did you do?  You just jumped at least 10 dB!"  I said, "Well, Ken, I peaked the Drive and dipped the Plate!"  He laughed.

We talked some more; he asked me how long the rig had been powered up.  I said probably about 90 minutes.  He said that there was a little bit of drift in my signal; I tuned to where he was clearer and replied to him about that.  He said that I also now sounded clearer and more natural, so it looks like my transmit and receive frequencies are very well aligned.

I told him that I needed to find some supper and get ready for church.  He ended by saying that I have excellent audio quality from my old D-104.  That made me quite happy.

All in all, an exceptionally productive weekend for getting my old Kenwood back on the air!  And now, after a little over an hour writing this down, it's about time for bed.

I'll post some pictures of the antenna when daylight returns.

73 until later - K9MJA

On Microphones, Part 2

My Astatic D-104 microphone arrived in the mail today.  My wife posted on Facebook that, since I got my radio and started collecting additional bits for it, "Mike awaits the mailman more eagerly than a grumpy dog."  I opened it up and looked at it.  It even has the right 4-pin plug on it!

The first thing I did?  Take the bottom of the base off, of course.

Look at that, they even included a wiring schematic in the bottom:

So, I started poking around with my multimeter.  At first I couldn't make any sense out of what I was seeing.  Then I studied the schematic a little closer.  What is this E-R switch that they mention on the left of the schematic?  It looks like if it's set to R, then contacts 5 and 6 (red and black wires) will be connected together when the switch is pressed.

A little internet research showed that E-R means "Electronic vs Relay".  My radio definitely wants this set to Relay.  Ah, here's the switch, on the board containing the volume control - and mostly hidden under some wires.  Looks like it's set to E.

I switched it to R.  Then, when I closed the "grip-to-talk" switch, the red and black wires from the cable (contacts 5 and 6) were indeed shorted together (as indicated by zero resistance on my multimeter), which my radio will see as Push-to-Talk.

OK.  Since my mic has the right Kenwood 4-pin plug on it, I can only hope that it's wired correctly.

It works at one end of the cable; how about the other end?

So, I start by plugging my multimeter into two holes on the plug and push the grip bar.  Nothing.  I try a two more holes.  Nothing.  No combination of holes indicates zero resistance when I push the grip bar.

I sense a problem.  So, the next step is to trace each of the wires from the one end of the cable to the other.

First of all, I find out that it's not the correct pinout for my radio:

The audio is on pins 1 and 2 instead of pins 1 and 4.  It looks like I might be re-soldering (or replacing) the connector.

Second of all, I find out that pin 3 is not connected to anything.

So, it's time to dig deeper.  I removed a couple screws from the clamp on the cable and then unscrewed the connector to get at the solder connections on the plug:

I start testing both ends of the cable with the multimeter.  Bad news.  The black wire is broken somewhere in the cable.  For this wiring problem, I can probably hack something temporary together before finding a replacement cable - even just running a separate "black wire" into the plug for the PTT connection for now.

Also, I noticed that the grip-to-talk bar doesn't always "release" its connection upon releasing the bar.  This can probably be fixed by cleaning/aligning the switch contacts in the stalk (according to various internet posts).  If I can figure out how to get the crazy thing apart!  It looks like I would have to start by unsoldering the 4 wires for the cable and the 8 wires coming down from the stalk.  (I have to unsolder the cable because one of the 8 wires from the stalk is soldered to the E/R switch - on the bottom side of a metal plate where I might not have enough access without removing the cable.) Then, after that, I think it gets fun!  Something about "take pictures" and "don't lose the teeny screw" and such.

"Caveat Emptor" indeed.  My wife's suggestion?  "You're likely to get screwed on eBay.  You should probably buy things like this at a hamfest where you can at least see them and maybe try them out first."

Good advice!  Her clear thinking is one of the key things that drew me to her over 25 years ago. :)

I'd hate to think that I'm just out the $45 (plus shipping), so I'll try to get this working.  

73, and thanks for following along!

- Mike, K9MJA

On Microphones

The radio I bought didn't come with a microphone.  Sigh.  I did know this when I bought it.

However, in my näiveté, I thought "I'll just hit up eBay for a cheap mic, or borrow one from soneone."  After all, microphones are easy to find, right?

Well, yes and no.  Microphones are indeed fairly easy to find.  But the right kind of mic is a little trickier proposition.

Impedance to my Progress

The issue with my radio is that it expects a high-impedance microphone.  As in 50k ohms.  Later radios in the Kenwood Hybrid line (the TS-820, TS-530, and TS-830) would accept lower impedance microphones (500 ohms).  Finding a high impedance microphone is a little more challenging.

After a little research, it seems that two microphones keep popping up as popular and well-suited for my TS-520.

You want *how* much for an old desk mic?

The first is the Kenwood MC-50.  This is a dual-impedance desk microphone that was listed as an accessory for the TS-520.  The following image was plucked from radio-mart.net:

These microphones are pretty solid and reliable.  They are also pretty pricey.  I haven't seen one sell for under $70, even though they are probably 30-40 years old.

The second is the Astatic D-104, often referred to as the "lollipop" microphone.  It is available in amplified and non-amplified versions (I bought an amplified one, which takes a 9-volt battery), and it attaches to a variety of bases.  Many have a "grip-to-talk" bar on the stand.  The one I bought looks like this:

These tend to go for a little cheaper, although not a lot cheaper - I got mine for $45 plus shipping.  Lots of these are for sale on eBay, often as CB microphones; many of them are listed as "untested."  I opted for one that was "known working the last time it was used".

Variations of this microphone sell for one or two hundred dollars; a "new old stock" specimen recently sold on eBay for just over $100.

Since I'm not sure of what connector is on the end of the one I bought, I also bought a Kenwood 4-pin plug for $3.  It's also supposed to arrive on Thursday.  A little time with a screwdriver and a soldering iron (if needed), and a fresh 9V, and I should hopefully be good to go!

Of course, I still need to put up some sort of antenna...

Asking for help, and Exploratory Surgery

Yahoo!

I joined the Yahoo Kenwood Hybrids group and asked about my possible cold solder joint.  A few hours later, I got a response from Terry, K9TW.  He gave me some suggestions about testing the solder connections and what I might need to remove from the radio in order to get to them in order to fix them.

Opening Up the Patient and Prodding Around Inside

So, I started poking around in the radio.  I took the top and bottom covers off and stood the radio on its left side (the "service position").  While wiggling the "problem child" capacitor, I could hear a clicking sound telling me that it was actually moving.  Here is a picture of the loose post:

So, I tried to locate this from the bottom of the radio.  I found it here:

The "Het Osc" board is the Heterodyne Oscillator; it contains the crystals and tunable coils for the various bands that the radio operates on.  Terry said that I would probably have to remove the bandswitch.  It is the middle of the three metal rods extending through the picture.  Removing this one component is an operation that, in itself, is fraught with peril and frustration.  I would also have to remove the HetOsc board and the metal shield next to it.  However, as I looked at the one known bad spot, I realized that I could probably fix that one solder connection by only removing the shield.  If other connections on the relay are also bad, I will then have to remove the HetOsc board as well (after removing the bandswitch).

Which presents an interesting problem.  For the board, there is some solder to remove, and a couple screws.  And there are four posts from the "hanging" HetOsc board (in the bottom of the radio) that stick up through the RF board.  These posts are connected to the RF board with wire-wrapped connections visible from the top of the board.  This picture shows 3 of the 4 connections:

I would have to cut all 4 of these wires in order to remove the HetOsc board.  But, it's basically impossible to re-wrap them, so I would have to clean all 8 connection posts and solder new wire for each connection.  That's 8 more solder joints, in some very tight areas.

So, I want to try to avoid this unless I have to tackle it.

Was this a fancy CB?

Terry also asked me (after noticing that this is a "new-to-me" radio) if I had tested the radio on 10 meters to make sure it hadn't been "hacked for CB".  I think that the CB hack includes replacing the three 10 meter crystals with some slightly lower-frequency crystals and then tuning the coils appropriately.

Of the three highest-frequency crystals on the HetOsc board, I can read the frequency on two of them:

These frequencies match the two highest frequencies on the schematic.  The third crystal starts with "36", but I can't read the rest (I don't have a mirror small enough to fit in there).  However, this likely matches the "36.895" for the 28 MHz band.  So, hopefully, this radio hasn't been hacked for CB.  But I wish I would have tested 10 meters at Ken's house!  We tested 20, 40, and 80 meters - and it was on 80 meters that I found the VC1 problem.  We never went back and tried 10.  Sigh.

So, I've been passing messages back and forth with Terry.  I hope to try the initial solder fix soon, and I also hope to get back up to Ken's house again - there's four more positions on the band switch that I need to try out (one for 15 meters and three for 10 meters).

P.S. Kudos to my Android phone's High Dynamic Range camera mode and my Streamlight ProTac 1L flashlight, which teamed up to take these pictures.  Also kudos to GIMP image processing software, which I used to add the callouts to the first two pictures.

Testing my radio: A real antenna makes a difference

Preliminary apologies for the fact that I took no pictures of this evening's fun.  I should have done better at chronicling this event.  Sigh.

W0THI

My friend Ken lives about 40 minutes away, on the north side of Terre Haute.  His day gig is Director of Engineering for some local FM radio stations, so he knows his way around RF.  And, he has a pretty nice HF shack of his own.  I asked him about a week ago if I could bring my new radio up to his house to test it out.  We arranged to do that this evening.

So, after work, I headed up to his place.  His wife works the evening shift, so it was just he and I - and his friendly canine companion Candy, who greeted me in the driveway with a wag and a smile. He showed me around the house, and showed me the antenna farm outside (a nice tower with a couple beams on it, a G5RV, a longwire for NVIS, a delta loop, a sloper for 80 meters, and probably a couple other things I missed in the twilight).  We then headed inside.

He started off by showing me his SDR setup that he uses for his HF work.  He modified an older Kenwood TS-140 to get an IF sample out of it, and then he got a guy to build an SDR board to work off of the IF.  We played around with that a bit and listened around.

Warming up the tubes

He scratched his head a bit looking for a place to plug in the radio - and then he unplugged his dedicated antenna analyzer and plugged my radio instead.  That way, we could switch between his radio and mine easily by just turning a knob.

I plugged in my radio, turned it on, and turned on the heaters for the tubes.  We started by listening.  He tends to hang out on 7.200 in the evenings, so we started there.  He used his radio to make sure there was a conversation going on on that frequency, and then he switched the antenna switch over to my radio.  I set the mode switch for LSB, set the band for 7 MHz, and turned the VFO until it read 200 on the LSB mark.  And I was hearing the same conversation.  This was the first voice that I heard coming out of my new (old) radio - and it sounded good.  Ken remarked on how good of a receiver it was.  And it was apparently really well aligned, as my frequency was dead-on with the frequency on Ken's radio.

We found W1AW/7 (the ARRL station), operating from Washington state - and we heard people from all over the country contacting them as they try to get their "Worked W1AW in All States" achievement.  It was thrilling to hear so many people from so many places all on one frequency.

Then, it was time to see how much power it would transmit.  We found a dead spot on the band; Ken started by hooking his antenna analyzer back up and tuning the antenna for that frequency, and then we hooked my radio back up.  I followed the tuning procedure prescribed in the manual:

1. Set the plate control in the middle of the desired band, set the mode switch to LSB or USB, and set the carrier control to "something above zero" - I think I had it set at about 4.  Set the meter to IP (plate current), and flip the standby switch to Send.  Check the plate current on the meter - it should be 60 ma.  It was reading about 75 ma; a quick adjustment of the "bias" pot on the side of the radio brought it back down.  Flip the standby switch back to Receive.
2. Set the meter control to ALC and set the mode to TUN (which greatly reduces the power output).  Flip the standby switch to Send and adjust the Drive control for maximum meter deflection.  Flip the switch back to Receive.
3. Turn the meter back to IP and flip the standby switch to Send.  Adjust the Plate control for minimum plate current (this is known as "dipping the plate").  Flip the standby switch back to Receive.
4. Turn the meter switch to RF, turn the mode switch to CW (for full power output), and flip the standby switch to Send.  Quickly adjust the Plate and Load controls for maximum meter deflection (indicating maximum power output).

This took probably a minute, as I was doing one step at a time as I followed the manual.  But, when we got to the last step, Ken said "there we go".  While I was watching the small meter on the radio, he was watching a larger wattmeter in his shack.  My radio was putting out about 120 watts on 40 meters.

We did the same thing on 20 meters; again, about 120 watts.  The tuning procedure went a little quicker this time, as I knew which knobs to twist.  (I kept getting the Drive and Load knobs confused the first time around.)  This will become a commonplace procedure with this radio, and it will probably get to the point where it takes 5-10 seconds instead of a minute.

About this time I mentioned that the radio had a dedicated WWV mode, which can be used for calibration.  Since WWV transmits AM at 10.000 MHz, it's a great reference for checking the alignment of the receiver.  I pushed the WWV button, and we listened to it for awhile.

80 meters brings questions

Next, Ken suggested trying the 80 meter band.  This is where I ran into two problems.

First, I couldn't actually hear any conversations on the 80 meter band.  By comparing his radio with mine, it looked like my radio was about 66 KHz high on its frequency reading.  We found a couple CW stations, but I couldn't actually pull in any voice signals.  This was quite concerning to me, and we spent 10 or 15 minutes trying different things to figure it out.  I even turned on the 25 KHz calibrator signal, which acted really weirdly - I was hearing "early echoes" of the signal at about 8 KHz below each 25 KHz boundary.

And then Ken asked me:  It is still in WWV mode or something?  I smacked my forehead; I had left the WWV button pushed in.  I turned it off, adjusted the VFO to an area where we had heard a conversation earlier - and there it was.  I laughed, and said I will probably do this 2 or 3 more times before I remember to turn off WWV mode.

Once again, Ken unhooked my radio, found a dead spot on the 80 meter band, tuned his antenna to it (within reason - it was still at about a 1.4:1 SWR), and hooked my radio back up.

He excused himself (for a bio break) and I proceeded to try to tune up my radio.  I got to step two (adjusting the Drive control) when I ran into a problem.

If you read my second post, you remember my statements about the "dirtiness" of the the Drive control which I attributed to a bad antenna connection.  Well, I encountered it again.  This time, I knew it wasn't the antenna connection - it was a problem in my radio.  If I pushed on the knob or tapped on the case, I could get the meter to move - otherwise, it was undeflected.  When Ken came back, I mentioned this to him.  He asked me a number of questions about the radio; I responded by taking off the cover so he could see.

At first, we thought that the problem might be in the high voltage section, since the Drive shaft extends into that area.  But then Ken said "let's try poking around in the front of the radio, where we can see".  He got a plastic pen and started tapping on the three air-variable capacitors linked to the drive shaft.  Two of them seemed fine.  However, whenever he poked and prodded the frontmost capacitor, it clearly affected the received signal.  He said "I think you have a cold solder joint between this capacitor and the board."  That makes good sense to me as well; a cold solder joint is a poor physical connection, and at RF frequencies it will certainly make itself known.

To my knowledge, the way to fix a cold solder joint is to find it, heat it up, remove the old solder, clean the area, apply some flux, and re-solder it right.  Probably not a huge deal, since I learned about the benefits of flux when I decided to do some rewiring on my electric bass.

However:  I do not yet know how to get to the bottom of the RF board.  The Service Manual has a lot of great information, but it doesn't include that.  It does say to work quickly and use the least heat necessary to perform the work; too much heat can lift the traces from the PC board.

I did notice that the linkage between the Drive shaft and the capacitor is a little misaligned; the chain is stretched a little tight because of it.  It's possible that, over time, this could have weakened the solder connection between the capacitor and the board, due to the chain providing some extra upward/sideways force on the front edge of the capacitor.

In any case, I was a little disappointed to find that there was a slight problem with the radio.  It does seem to only affect 80 meters; we were still able to tune up the transmitter and put out about 100 watts on 80.

My antenna tuner

I also bought a MFJ-949E antenna tuner via the eHam.net classifieds.  It is a 300-watt tuner with a built-in dummy load.  It showed up today before I headed up to Ken's; I took its cover off to find that it was a fairly simply T-match tuner with a couple variable capacitors and a variable inductor.

I hooked this in to the mix while we were working on 80 meters.  Ken bypassed his antenna tuner so that I could use mine.  It seems that the meters in my tuner might need some adjustment; thankfully there are 4 adjustment pots specificallly for that purpose.  Using my tuner (and its built-in dummy load) we were able to get the 100 watts output on 80 meters (as noted above).  I'll leave meter adjustment for a later exercise.

After all, I still don't have an antenna at my house.  Or a microphone.  But the radio works.  Mostly.  I'll have to see if I can figure out how to fix the cold solder joint in the next few days.

So, thanks to Ken (W0THI) for the loan of his shack for a couple hours.  I had fun catching up with him, playing with my radio, listening to his gear, rubbing his dog's belly, and laughing along with him at the conversation on 7.200.  He even fired up his amp and jumped into the conversation - at 1200 watts.

Back home

Once back home, I was talking to Barb about the evening, including a description of Ken's antenna farm.  She asked me, "so what sort of antenna does this thing need?"  I said that it would be best served by stringing a wire between two of our trees, at about 30 or 35 feet off the ground.

Up until now, she has said "I blame Keith" anytime I acquired a bit of radio hardware.  Now, with the concept of a wire strung over the house between two trees, she said "well, now I blame Ken." :)