I Miss HF

I miss being on the air on HF.  It's been almost a year since my radio died.  Many other competing priorities have intervened over the past year, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I started hanging around the ##hamradio channel on IRC, and discussed my TS-520 woes.  A couple of the guys on there who have owned Kenwood hybrids said that it sounded like the power transformer gave out with an internal short.  I haven't actually diagnosed it yet, as that would entail fully isolating the transformer and then checking the voltages under no load.  It could be a couple other things (AC to DC capacitors, some resistors, etc).

I found a guy on swap.qth.com who was parting out a TS-520 that powered up.  (Hey, that's better than mine!)  So, I bought from him the power transformer, the power cord, and the door that covers the adjustment pots on the left side of the radio (since mine was missing when I bought it).

I plan on keeping the nicer of the two power cords, and using the plug from the remaining cord to wire up a DC power cord.

Shortly after the radio died, I also picked up a complete capacitor replacement kit and a finals resistor kit from hybridrestore.com - and I might tackle that at some point.  I think I would need to beg/borrow/buy a decent soldering station, though; my 30-watt soldering pencil has proven itself a little underpowered for some of the solder joints in this radio, and my butane soldering iron is, well, a little overpowered.  It's only 50 capacitors; should only take me about 7 weekends or so. :)

On that note, I hope to be back soon with update on my repair progress.

73, K9MJA

Dead Radio, and a Delay

So, Eight Months Have Passed...

... when we last spoke, I had just hung and tested a W4KGH end-fed antenna.  Well, I had tested it on receive, anyway.

The End-Fed Antenna

This antenna proved to be quite useful.  Even though it is hanging along a SW/NE axis, I still have had pretty good coverage with it.  Its quieter nature has really helped me make a number of contacts.  I was even able to make 4 contacts on 80 meters with it during the North American QSO Party just a couple weeks after my last post.

In fact, I have made 277 contacts since I last posted on this blog - 123 of them were during the ARRL DX SSB contest a month ago.  I even made a contact on 20 meters to New Zealand - by far my farthest contact.  I've had DX contacts and ragchews; I've gotten reacquainted with a couple old friends via the MidCARS net on 7.258.

But... I didn't make the ZL contact on the end-fed antenna.   I actually made that on my original 40-meter dipole.  And there's a reason for that.

You see, the combination of the end-fed antenna and my radio have started to have indigestion on 20 meters.  When I even tap the mic, it starts to feed back within the radio, pegging the ALC meter and drowning out my audio.  I'm not sure why this is - could be poor grounding, could be some water or a loose connection in the antenna / feedline, could be a problem starting to appear with the radio.  In any case, I started avoiding 20 meters with the end-fed antenna in about January.

But that hasn't stopped me from making 29 contacts on 20 meters with the dipole - mostly during contests.

The CW

(The mode, not the TV network!)

I bought a Heathkit HD-1410 Electronic Keyer at a local hamfest for $25 (cheaper than eBay!) without even plugging it in.  When I got it home, I took it apart and looked it over.  Someone has added a switch to it in order to bypass a diode or two; I haven't yet figured out what effect this mod has.  I plugged it in, and played with it for a few minutes, getting used to the iambic paddles.  It is a little "clicky" but I like the feel of it.

So - I cobbled together a RCA-to-phono cable to hook this keyer to my radio.  And then I read the CW section of the radio manual (as I've admittedly never worked CW before).  Once I understood how to set the various switches (CW mode, VOX on, SEND on, appropriate VOX delay for semi-breakin operation) and verified that the keyer would actually key up the transmitter, I sent my first-ever CW transmission on March 14th:

A full 100 watts out, on 20 meters (on the dipole, of course).

Time to dig deeper into learning Morse Code!

The Wind

I have a habit of looking up into the trees every couple days to make sure my antennae are still in the air.  Well, on March 23rd (two days before my birthday), I couldn't find my end-fed antenna in the air.  I found it on the ground:

The problem here is that the only physical connection to the matching transformer was the end of the wire and a wingnut.  I'm going to solder a ring terminal onto the end of this wire (or just solder it into a loop) and re-hang it.

But, you may ask - "Hey Mike, why haven't you done that yet?"

Well, there are two reasons.

Reason #1:

Dead TS-520

On Friday, March 25th (my birthday), my company gave us the afternoon of Good Friday off.  I got a late start, so I worked until about 2 PM.  I had a nice contact with CN2CO (Dimitri) in Morocco and another one with M0TAZ (Dave) in England on 15 meters (which is by far my favorite band), and then had about a 15-minute conversation with VE7MTW (John) in British Columbia.  This was my third contact with John; he was my first contact outside of the U.S. back in November 2014 (and my 9th HF contact overall).  As we were finishing up, I had made my final transmission and I was listening to his final transmission.

And I noticed that he was getting quieter and quieter.  "Well, the band is going away" I thought; I was facing away from the radio, logging our QSO on the computer.   But then I realized that the noise was also getting quieter and quieter.  So, I looked back over to the radio.

Over the next five seconds, I noticed the panel lights getting dimmer and dimmer, until the radio just shut off.

I power-cycled it, to no avail.

And then I smelled "hot".  Not "let the magic smoke out", but "hot dust and/or metal".  I felt the top of the radio near the finals - and it was, well, quite warm.

I waited about 5 minutes for it to cool off, and power-cycled it again.  Nothing.

Time to take it apart - so I did.  And, for the first time, I removed the piece of metal (conspicuously marked DANGER - HIGH VOLTAGE) covering the transmitter tubes.

The first thing I noticed was that the tubes looked rather "used":

Are these S2001s or 6146Bs? Regardless, are they supposed to look like this?

I've looked at Google Images for pictures of these tubes - and they don't tend to have these V-shaped dark deposits on the interior.  I don't know if this means the tubes are gone, or not.

But, in any case, the radio is dead.  So, I pulled the AC fuse to check it.  It's burned out.

After talking with a couple elmer friends (including one that I just met today who used to own and operate a TS-820), it sounds like the power supply filter capacitors might have gone bad.   After almost 40 years of service, a complete re-capping is probably in order, so today I ordered a re-capping kit from HybridRestore.  They say it will take me 4-6 hours to replace the 40+ capacitors (including the high-voltage caps for the finals) - I imagine it will take me longer than that.

In the meantime, I have a spare power cord plug that I will wire up for 13.8VDC (once I get the appropriate wire and fuse holder), and then hook the radio to my 35A Astron power supply (not a switching supply, but rather one of those with a big 20 pound transformer in it).  Maybe it's just the AC power supply that has gone bad; this is a good way to test that theory.

Other possibilities include the plate resistors being shot; I purchased a finals resistor kit along with the recap kit, so I'll go ahead and replace those as well.

When I get around to it, that is.

"What's keeping you?!" you ask.  Well, that's a good question.

And that's Reason #2.  Which is a story for a followup blog post, which will be coming shortly!  (And, by shortly, I mean in the next day or two.  Not eight months from now!)

In The Meantime...

I put the covers back on the TS-520 (primarily to keep most of the cat hair out of it, as I have two cats who frequent the desk which serves as my shack).

I've been spending more time on VHF, meeting new friends on the local repeaters.  I think I've talked to 6 new people in the last two or three weeks.

I helped the Clay County ARES group build out their new emergency AuxComm station at the local hospital - here are a couple pictures from our antenna cable installation work party last month:

Kevin (K9HX) working on an antenna cable

Jim (K9SVJ), Gary (W9EEU) and Kevin (K9HX)

In fact, since I had a handheld radio (and the appropriate antenna connector) handy, they let me make the first-ever contact as N9CCA (where CCA is "Clay County Auxcomm") from the new station.  Pretty cool!

I've been looking into putting up a DTV antenna and a collinear ADS-B antenna to improve my ADS-B reception for my FlightAware ADS-B feeder.  I also want to add UHF elements to my homemade VHF antenna, including adding a simple diplexer (see Page 3 of this PDF) so that I can use one antenna with my dual-band radios.

I also want to add an RF choke (either a toroid choke or an ugly balun) to my 40 meter dipole.

So.  Stay tuned as I work through fixing my genuinely-awesome Kenwood TS-520 and get it back on the air!

73 ES GUD DX DE K9MJA

Another Wire in the Air

Success!

After work today, I was able to hang the other end of the antenna in the walnut tree. It took about 10 tries with the bow and arrow to get the fishing line in the right place in the tree. I looped the end of the antenna wire through the insulator and soldered it together (score another win for the butane soldering iron), tied the paracord to the other end of the insulator, and tied the far end of the paracord to the fishing line - and pulled the antenna up into place.

Here is a picture of the matchbox in the tree.

I had *just* enough paracord to tie the antenna off to the chain link fence. This is temporary; I need something a little better. But, it's up.

I went inside to listen to it for a bit. I found a guy talking on 20 meters and switched back and forth between my original dipole and the new end-fed antenna. For at least this case, the new antenna produced a stronger signal with less noise.  I wonder what it will be like when I *transmit* with it!

In the meantime, here is a quick and dirty and out-of-focus video showing the old and new antennas with that signal. If you listen closely, you can hear less noise with the new antenna; you can also see the signal strength jump from 6-7 to 8-9 on the new antenna.

Oh - and yesterday's stuck arrow was waiting for me, leaning up against the fence by the driveway.

But the spark plug socket and paracord are still up there.

Hopefully in the next day or two I will get the opportunity to play with transmitting.  I expect that it might tune differently than my dipole.

73, K9MJA

The Joy of Antennas in the Trees

Things that happen when you use a bow and arrow to hang a new antenna in a couple trees:

1. You read an article about using a bow and arrow (or slingshot or fishing reel) to hang antennas. From this you learn that you need to shoot fishing line through the tree, and then use it to pull your desired rope/wire back through the tree. You figure this ought to take about a half hour.
2. You try about 10 times to get the line in the right place in the first tree. You finally succeed, run up a 50 foot length of paracord, and attach it to the matchbox transformer. Both the transformer and the other end of the paracord are about 5 feet off the ground, which means you've gone over a branch about 25 feet up. Not too bad.
3. You try about 20 times to get the line in the right place in the second tree. During this time, you continually forget to watch where you are walking and keep getting your feet tangled up in the 100 feet of fishing line lying loosely in the grass. On about the 20th attempt, the arrow gets stuck in the tree branches.
4. You pick a replacement arrow whose fletching is bright yellow so that you can see it better. You try about 5 more times before getting that arrow also stuck in the second tree.
5. You decide to get at least one of the arrows out of the tree. You find the first arrow about 30 feet up. It takes about 70 attempts (along with a trip inside to the A/C and a glass of water) to hit it with a soccer ball in order to knock it out of the tree. During this time, the soccer ball ends up on the other side of the fence four times, requiring you to take a little walk to get to the other side of the fence in order to retrieve it. You now have your first arrow back. You still haven't found the other arrow. Its more-visible fletching now seems ironically irrelevant. It's gonna really surprise someone when the next windy day causes it to end up in the driveway next to the fence.
6. You line up your next shot with the newly recovered arrow and fire - only to have the fishing line immediately detach from the arrow. You hear the arrow bounce off of your neighbor's tree about a hundred feet away and then you have to go find it (since you can't follow the fishing line, which is lying at your feet). The arrow is sticking in the ground next to their shed. You're thankful they're not out in their backyard watching you and trying to stifle their laughter (or wondering why you're trying to rain arrows down on them).
7. You try about 10 more times and get a good shot. You tie some paracord onto the fishing line and tie a spark plug socket (for weight) onto the other end of the paracord. You pull it back and try to let the cord and socket drop through the tree on your side of the fence, only to have the paracord end up wrapped around a branch. You cut the fishing line loose and leave it (and the paracord and the socket) about 25 feet up in the tree. You make a note that you need to buy a replacement spark plug socket.
8. You decide that the walnut tree at the corner of the yard (with its lone branch about 35 feet up) might make a much better second tree, so you stop to regroup and get some help from your son-in-law.
9. You realize that you still need to get the antenna wire through the first tree, so you take about 5 attempts to shoot a second line through the first tree. You attach the antenna wire to this line and pull it through the tree. You hook the antenna wire to the matchbox transformer (along with the counterpoise and your RG8X feedline with its 1:1 toroid RF choke) and pull the matchbox about 25 feet up in the tree. Success. You tie it off to the tree.
10. You realize that you've now been outside for over 2 hours, and that church is in less than an hour. You're a sweaty mess and you desperately need a shower. You tie a knot in the loose end of the antenna wire, put it around the arrow, and drive the arrow into the ground. You'll return in the next day or so (hopefully) to hang the other end of the antenna from the walnut tree.

Further bulletins (and pictures) as events warrant.

A quiet couple months

Busy, busy, busy...

First, my older daughter got married in May.  That took up all of my spare time for a couple weeks.  And then it was a business trip, and helping my younger daughter with her 4-H projects...  and the bands have just been really noisy.  I haven't made an HF contact since May 23rd.  Granted, I've only spent a total of about 30 minutes trying.

My older daughter got her Tech license about 3 weeks ago; I gave her a cheap handheld as a reward.  She and I have been having fun seeing which antennas work better and how far we can push the range on our little radios.

My Next Antenna

I decided to pick up a W4KGH End Fed Matchbox Antenna from eBay.  I thought about building one, but after pricing out the various parts I decided to just buy the kit (and a couple toroids for RF chokes):

I also picked up 50 feet of RG8X (with PL259s on each end) from Amazon.  I love Amazon; I ordered the coax at 5:30 p.m. and it was at the house by 11 a.m. the next day.

I wound 8 turns of the coax through the toroid and tie-wrapped it all up.  Then, having picked out two trees in the yard, and having read an article on hanging antennas in the trees, I set out with a bow and arrow and (as it turns out) an oversupply of confidence.  That story warrants its own post, so that's next.

73, K9MJA

The last month

Starting Off The Year

In the first ten days or so since my last post, I spent some time hanging out on 15 meters and 40 meters.  I made a few American contacts, along with contacts in nine other countries.  These included my first two contacts with Japan - at almost 6,500 miles away, they were my furthest contacts to that point.  I even made a contact with Belgium on 10 meters - that was a pleasant surprise!

40 Meters and RF

I tried making a contact on 40 meters on the 9th.  I answered a call from K0DK - his reply was (and I quote) "You've got a hell of a lot of RF on your audio!"  I thanked him and told him I'd look into it.  I know that I still need grounding - for electrical safety, for lightning projection, and for keeping RF from coming back into the radio.

Ten Days Away

Between the 10th and the 16th, I was away for work, so the radio sat idle just waiting for me.  Once I got back, I was pretty worn out and had plenty to do around the house.  I didn't make any contacts until the 19th, when I had a short conversation with Ted, XE1YQQ, in Mexico.  This was on 15 meters, and he remarked that my audio was very clean and strong.

Knowing that I seem to have RF issues on 40 meters, I decided to stay away from it until I get some grounding.  I had already laid out some plans for a couple ground rods and some #6 wire to bond them to the service entrance ground.  I told my wife about these plans, as well as their cost (about $100).  She said, "Of course, it sounds like you need that.  But on one condition - you finish the paint and the tile in the bathroom first."

You see, the bathroom improvements got put on hold back in November when I got this big heavy box in the mail with a Kenwood radio in it... :)  So, I did do a little more work in the bathroom, stripping off the last remnants of wallpaper border above the light bar over the vanity.  Now the rest of the room can be painted, and the rest of the self-adhesive vinyl tile can be laid (after I strip the old adhesive off of the floor).  And then - grounding!

Winter Field Day

I mainly continued to stay away from the radio for a few more days.  But then, on the 24th, I made a couple contacts with people working Winter Field Day - N5HR on 15 meters and N3FJP on 20 meters.  I heard a number of people who reported that they were working outdoors - which makes sense, considering that it was Field Day and all.

The Past Week on 15 Meters

You know what?  It's a shame that I have to work a full-time job - because 15 meters is a lot of fun between about 10:30 AM and 3:00 PM.  Starting on Monday, I started taking a couple breaks here and there to listen to what was happening on 15 meters.  I was just spinning the knob, not even looking at the DX cluster on dxsummit.fi for the first couple days.  I kept running across country after country and answering CQ calls, often on the first attempt.

During the past 5 days near lunchtime, I made 26 contacts in 23 countries.  (One contact was with KL7YK in Alaska, who reported his country as "Alaska".)  I do admit that I started looking at the DX cluster a couple days ago in an attempt to catch as many countries as possible.

I tried working South Africa and Namibia, but I couldn't punch through the pileups.  I heard Japan starting in the late afternoon when I was too busy to try to work them.  But that's OK.  I've now talked to the USA and 34 other countries, and I've talked as far away as 6,500 miles - all with a 40-year old radio (with possibly all original parts except for one transistor replaced in the late '70s) and 65 feet of wire strung between a couple trees.

Looking Ahead

I've been thinking about antennas; here are a couple things I'm considering in addition to the HexBeam that I mentioned last time:

• Replacing the coax feedline on my dipole with either ladder line or 300 ohm twinlead.  My tuner has balanced inputs and an internal 300 watt balun, so this would be fairly easy to do.
• Stringing a random wire through the trees around the yard so that I can start working 80 meters.
• Building a Swiss Quad for 10 meters.  VK4JU has six homemade Swiss Quads on two masts.  I figure I could start with the smallest one fairly cheaply, and at least give it a shot.  They are reported to have excellent gain and an excellent front-to-back ratio.

 I've been thinking about other things as well... 

• Use of Arduino and/or Raspberry Pi hardware for things like Morse Code keying, frequency display, DDS VFO replacement, etc.  Although since my radio doesn't have the DK-520 adapter for the external DG-5 display, it might be rather difficult to get an external frequency display together.
• Continuing learning Morse Code - although I think I want to start with a straight key rather than a paddle keyer.
• Different logging software.  Currently, I am using QRZ.com for my master logbook and occasionally transferring updates to LoTW and eQSL.  I also just started uploading logs to ClubLog as well.  I trled LOG4OM on my old Acer laptop - it seemed to work OK, although it took a little setup and a little getting used to.  And then the wires to the charging jack broke yet again.  It's time for a more permanent fix there.
• Grounding, shack arrangement, power distribution, mast/tower, test equipment... :)

I'll try not to be such a stranger.  But I think I'm settling in to a more appropriate focus (as in "less obsession") regarding the radio.  A little less time working it than back in December, and probably a little less frequent updates here on the blog.  But hopefully not a month apart!

73 - Mike

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