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