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