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

Bathroom Floor Repair

This is not a post about radio.  Rather, it's a post about what has occupied much of the past three weekends for me.

Over the last couple years, our bathroom developed a "soft spot" in the floor, right where you walk in.  It was right in the middle of the doorway, and just over the threshold - so it was quite noticeable whenever you walked in or out.  My wife wisely said "you should really fix that".

My initial suspicion was that the subfloor was just worn out.  In a previous life, this bathroom was an outdoor porch.  When we remodeled it 19 years ago, I didn't replace the subfloor (which my wife maintains was a mistake - she's probably right).  So, I thought I'd cut out a chunk of the subfloor and put in a replacement and move on.

Weekend #1

I started by tapping on the floor to locate the floor joists, and then cutting a hole ...

No, that's not true.  I started by making a trip to Sears to buy a couple saws.  I haven't had a circular saw for a few years, and I needed a table saw both to make nice straight cuts on OSB and luan (and for lots of upcoming trim work).  So, that came first, on a Saturday morning.  I also stopped at Lowe's and bought a piece of 3/4" OSB and a piece of 1/4" luan.  I had them cut both pieces in half, so I had two 4x4 pieces of each.

So.  I started by tapping on the floor to locate the floor joists, and then cutting a hole between them (about 14 x 16) with my newly-acquired circular saw.

There's a hole in the floor!

The first thing I noticed was that the subfloor was unexpectedly solid.  And rather recent looking - as it "it's not the 50-year-old wood that I was expecting to find".

No going back now.

So, now that I had located the floor joists, I expanded my hole by cutting 1" deep along the middle of the floor joists, and most of the way back to the door.  I noticed that there was a slight gap between the joists and the floor, and my first thought was "SHIMS!!"

But then, I wondered why the shims were needed.  As I stood on the floor and felt it move a little, I took a closer look at the floor joists.

Looks pretty OK from this angle.

Uh oh - that looks suspicious.

And that looks even more suspicious!

That's right - both of these floor joists had been severed and then supported with only a 2x4 underneath them.  The ends of the 2x4 are well supported atop the foundation on both side.  But, the 2x4 is lying on its side, with nothing supporting the middle of it.  Of course it has sagged a bit over time.  Sigh.

This was quite disheartening, and plenty enough a Saturday.  I poked around a bit more on Sunday, trying to see how I could improve things.  While I stared at the woodwork and considered my options, my wife looked up a number of Youtube videos.  None of them gave me the answer I needed, but it turned out that I was able to use bits of a few videos during the following weekend.

Over the following week, I talked to a few men at church, and got some ideas.  I also talked with my best friend (who used a week of his vacation to help me remodel the bathroom 19 years ago). Through this, I gathered a number of ideas.  Coupled with some YouTube hints, it was time to attack the fix.

Weekend #2

The next weekend's work on the floor started on my birthday, right after my radio died.

My approach was going to be:

• Remove the stubs of floor joist still attached to the beam (hooray for owning a reciprocating saw)
• Sister a new length of floor joist next to each of the severed joists, attached with carriage bolts
• Use joist hangers to attach the new sistered joists to the beam under the doorway
• Cut new piece of OSB to fit
• Cut new piece of luan to fit
• Use wood putty to fill any cracks and voids
• Finish installing the remainder of the vinyl tile to match the rest of the bathroom

I had stopped at Menards earlier in the week to purchase joist hangers and bolts - and some construction adhesive to keep adjoining pieces of wood from rubbing together and squeaking.  So, I was ready to go!

Fixing the joists

First, I found a spare 2x8 in the garage and cut it in half, figuring that this would be enough support for what I was trying to accomplish.

I used a Sawz-All reciprocating saw to cut through the nails between the severed joist stubs and the beam they were attached to.  For some reason, I thought this would be really hard - I think it took less than a minute in total.  That's OK; most of the rest of the job ran consistently over estimate.

Then:  I needed to make sure that the original floor joist was at the right height so that the floor would be solid and level.  This is where YouTube came in handy.  I had watched a video where a guy had used his automobile jack to hold a floor joist in place.   So, I got a piece of OSB to place the jack on, and then I jacked up the first of the old joists until it was at the right height.

Then, I measured the vertical space for the new floor joist.  It turns out I needed to rip 1/2" off of the length of it and notch out a corner to fit under the original door sill.  I also drilled four 3/8" holes through it, which is where the carriage bolts would be placed:

The first of the support joists

With much trial and error, I placed the joist into place and got it also up on the jack so that it was tight.

Trial fit of the first joist

When I made sure I had the fit right, I pulled it back out, put the joist hanger into place, replaced the joist, and then attached the joist hanger to the beam and to the joist.  In the picture below, you can see why I quickly switched from nails to deck screws.

Joist hanger in place

A quick note about the joist hangers.  I wasn't sure what I'd need when I went to the Menards, so I bought a pair of joist hangers that could be used for anything from 2x6 to 2x12.  They look like this:

My, what big ears you have!
(Picture credit: Menards.com, SKU 227-1549)

It turns out that I needed close to 2x6 rather than 2x12.   It also turns out that there was a slight gap between the old door sill and the beam beneath it.  So, after measuring the appropriate length, I bent the "ears" and slid them between the sill and the beam.  Unfortunately, they were too long - so out came the tin snips.  I cut the ears so that only about 1-1/2" was sticking out past the bend.  This turned out to be quite handy, as the joist hangers were then mostly self-supporting until they were actually fastened to the wood.

Next, I moved the jack to the other end of the new joist, and jacked it up tight against the floor.  Then I used the handy Milwaukee heavy-duty right-angle drill to finish the bolt holes, drilling through original joist by starting in the 4 holes that I drilled in the new joist.  I then started putting bolts in.

At this point, I realized that I bought bolts that were too short.  Apparently 3-1/2" bolts aren't long enough to attach two floor joists together.  Sigh.  So, I had to run to the local hardware store for some 4" bolts.  By the way, they were at least three times as expensive as the bolts I got at Menards - but it was an hour less of driving.

But, then, I had one of the two floor joists installed!  It was certainly fun trying to tighten the nuts onto these bolts, especially the ones farthest from the door where my arms barely reached through the hole.  It was also fun trying to finish drilling these holes, for the same reason.  (There is a crawl space under the bathroom, but it's not the roomiest of workspaces - I avoid it whenever possible.)

The next joist repair went a little quicker - partly because I had a better idea of what I needed to so, and partly because I took the opportunity to employ a second jack so that I could support both ends of the work at the same time.  Glad we have two vehicles!

The second floor joist installed, showing one of the bolts.

OSB subfloor

Next, it was on to the replacing the flooring.  My wife was studying the flooring that was installed atop the old door sill, and suggested that I remove that and put in one piece of subfloor to cover all of it.  As usual, she was right, so that's what I did.

Old flooring removed from atop the original door sill.

At this point, I'll stop and note that things started to make more sense here.  This appears to be an original door sill for an door leading outside to the porch.  I will also note that this door sill is sloped slightly (so that rain hitting it would run away from the house, apparently).  That slope would make the next step very interesting.

First, I measured the opening, marked it off on a piece of OSB, and then broke out the table saw.  I had bought a plywood blade for it (in addition to the ripping blade that it came with), so I installed that blade.  My son-in-law helped me guide the OSB through the saw, including cutting the inside corners.  Boy, I like this saw.

Next, I needed to bevel the underside of the OSB over where the door sill is.  "Bevel."  Hmm.  Hey, my table saw supports beveled cuts!  So, I did some measuring and figuring, and then I raised the saw blade all the way up, beveled it at about 4 degrees, and fed a test piece of OSB through on edge to bevel it away.  After a couple tests, my son-in-law helped me guide the "real" piece of OSB through the saw to bevel it.

I knew that I'd need to do some sanding as well, because the saw blade only sticks up about 3", whereas I needed to bevel about 4-1/2" of wood.

So, I got out the belt sander with its old mostly-worn belt - and I sanded and sanded.  And sanded.  I didn't get particularly far.

My wife was headed to the mall with her mom later in the week, so I had her pick up some new sanding belts at Sears.  I was ready to finish the floor during the next weekend!

Weekend #3

So, I sanded and sanded...  And performed test fits.  And sanded some more.  And more test fits.  The new 80-grit sanding belt really helped - I spent only about an hour trying to make this board fit.  In the end, this is what I ended up with:

The piece of beveled OSB.

A close-up of the beveled section.

As I was considering installing it, my wife stood on the old door sill - and said "hey, this thing rocks."  Sure enough, I watched it rock along its long axis as she moved her weight back and forth on it.  I cut a piece of 2x6 to use as a support, got the jack back out, jacked up the block underneath the door sill, and then screwed the block to the beam:

Door (sill) stopper.

I also installed a similar block in the space to the left, under the old floor - I jacked it up and screwed it in blind.  And, I put about a dozen deck screws in the top of the sill, securing it to the beam.

Then, I put the OSB into place - after tracing its shape onto a piece of luan.  I ran a few beads of glue on the sill and the joists to hopefully prevent future squeaking.  Then, a dozen or more deck screws and it is there to stay.

Floor!

Luan

Next, it was time for the luan.  Since I had traced the shape of the OSB onto the luan, it was fairly easy to cut out using my RotoZip with its cutting wheel attachment.  The first piece was a little too small, so I cut out a second piece that was a little larger.  I laid it in place and felt around the edges to check how close I was on the depth.

It turned out that two of the edges were a little low - and the end farthest from the door was a little more than 1/16" too low.  So, I shimmed that end up with layers of cardstock, gently ranging from 1 sheet to about 13 sheets thick.  You can see the white cardstock peeking out at the edges of the luan here:

Luan getting ready to be nailed down.

Wood Putty

After another trip to the hardware store to buy underlayment nails, I fastened the luan to the floor.  I checked the depths again, and a couple edges were a little low after being nailed down - so I built them up with some wood putty.  I also filled in all the cracks with putty so that the floor didn't have any gaps in it.

First application of wood putty

Later that night (Sunday), I sanded the putty and then filled in a few voids, leaving it for its last sanding on Monday.

Tile

Most of the bathroom has already been covered with 12" square adhesive-backed vinyl tile; this was the last bit to complete.

So, Monday night, I did the last sanding on the wood putty.  Then, I cleaned the floor three times to make sure it didn't have any dust or dirt on it.  Next, I quickly laid down the 5 tiles that didn't have to be cut.  Afterwards, I cut and placed the two pieces in the middle of the doorway edge, the larger of the two pieces next to the bathtub, and the piece that fit around the corner between the bathtub and the door.  Then, I did some finagling with a paper template to get a rough outline of the piece that had to fit around the left side of the door frame (since there wasn't any clearance to slide the tile under it).  After some trial and error (and a good deal of whittling), I got that piece in place - as well as the final piece at the corner of the bathtub.

I couldn't complete the floor, though, because there was a void in the original floor behind the door.  I filled that with wood putty and left it for the next night.

The end results of Monday night are shown in this picture - you can see a tiny bit of wood putty peeking out from the door at the bottom right of the picture:

Almost done!!

So, Tuesday night, I sanded the last bit of the wood putty.  Then I cleaned the floor again, quickly cut and placed two pieces of tile ...

... and then had to figure out how to make the complicated cuts on the last tile.  Again, at the other side of the door frame, there was no room to slide the tile underneath the frame.  If I wanted it to look good, I was going to have to cut the tile to fit.

I taped a piece of paper to the floor, and then used a 12" strip of cut tile as a guide to transfer the contours of the wall and the door frame onto the piece of paper.  I then cut out the paper to make a template:

Kinda looks like a state.  Massachusetts?

I flipped this paper over, taped it to a piece of tile, traced it with a pencil, and then cut and whittled it out piece by piece.  I did about a dozen "test fit and re-whittle" iterations until the piece looked like this:

I'm surprised I survived the whittling session with zero blood loss.

Here are a couple pictures of the final result in that corner.

Baseboard will cover up that dent in the wall there. 

The kitchen floor is a future project. :)

And the end result:

The floor is done!!

What's next?

The floor is done!  Well, except for some grout (in the whole bathroom).  And some baseboard trim.  And finishing painting the walls around the bathtub.   And figuring out something to do with the ceiling.  

Epilogue: Tool Inventory

The following tools were used in this project, pretty much in this order:

• Craftsman circular saw (for cutting into the floor)
• Tape Measure
• Pencil
• Standard screwdriver (mainly for prying)
• Claw hammer 
• DeWalt cordless drill and square drive bit (for deck screws)
• Milwaukee Sawz-All reciprocating saw (for cutting through nails)
• Needle-nose pliers (for pulling old luan staples)
• Two chisels (for removing stubborn bits of wood that the saws couldn't reach)
• DeWalt portable 10" table saw (for cutting/ripping 2x8s and cutting OSB)
• Milwaukee Heavy Duty Right-Angle Drill (for drilling 3/8" holes through joists)
• Two Toyota Sienna scissor jacks (from two Toyota Siennas, of course)
• Pliers and Tin Snips (for bending and cutting the joist hangers)
• Black&Decker adjustable-grip clamps (to hold the floor joists together)
• Craftsman ratchet with 9/16" socket, and Craftsman 9/16" box end wrench (for tightening the carriage bolts holding the floor joists together)
• Craftsman belt sander (for sanding the beveled edge of the OSB)
• Caulking gun (for applying the glue between the joists and the OSB)
• RotoZip with X-Wheel attachment and wood-cutting wheel (for cutting luan)
• 4" plastic putty knife (for applying wood putty)
• Hand sanding block (for sanding the wood putty)
• Stanley utility knife (for cutting the tile)
• 4 foot level (used as a straightedge when cutting the tile)

Thankfully, I already owned all of these tools - with the exception of the aforementioned circular saw and table saw.

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