Construction
RF Patch Panel
Having worked in Broadcast engineering for 40 or so years, I have become addicted to the use of patch panels for signal routing in complex instillations. Patch panels allow for an almost total rewire of a work space, without even needing to move the equipment, or pull out the supporting hardware for that equipment. In … Continue reading
Building a coax entry panel
Overview: Legal Disclaimer: I am not an electrician, you must check with an electrician prior to performing any work involving your home. A year or so ago, I got the idea of installing a loop antenna to help reduce some of my RFI. Not wanting to follow some of my previous bad practices with more … Continue reading
6BTV Yearly Maintenance
Checklist for yearly maintenance of a 6BTV antenna Continue reading
Building a K4 external keypad
The K4 is fundamentally different in the way it launches macros than the K3. The K3 launched macros via the SVGA card, (which is an add on to the Elecraft P3 panadaptor), and used an indirect addressing scheme to select which macro was launched. The K4, on the other hand, uses telnet, and accepts macros directly, in real time! You just log into the K4 via telnet, and send the macro. This required a total rethink of the process for communicating with the radio. Continue reading
Review of DX Engineering’s 6BTV 17 Meter add on kit
I am very happy I purchased this kit, as opposed to cheeping out and using PVC, and non Stainless Steel parts. Continue reading
KPA500 Input vs. Output Power
Graphs showing input power vs output power of the Elecraft KPA500 RF Amplifier. Continue reading
Elecraft K3: KSYN3A synthesizer installation notes
Overview: At one point, myself and K7OLN were living about 700 feet apart. Both of us were very active, and as a result could not operate on the same band at the same time. I purchased an Elecraft K3, and that helped, K7OLN then purchased a K3 and that helped more. Then Elecraft came out … Continue reading
Notes on tuning a Hustler 6BTV
I thought I would share a few of my notes on tuning up a 6BTV antenna, and constructing a radial field. I have been using a GAP Challenger DX, (review here), for the past fifteen years, unbeknownst to me, and over that time, water had been slowly seeping into the tuning harness of the antenna. Continue reading
Adding an external keypad to the K3
The Genovation keypads have either forty eight or twenty four keys on them depending on which model you purchase. Each individual key can be programmed to send a single character, or a series of characters. Further, each key has a removable plastic cover so you can put a label under the plastic. All of this allows you to program a key, then label it, then use it to send a macro trigger to the P3. Like the P3, the Genovation also needs to be programmed in advance of use. Fortunately Genovation provides a rather nice piece of software with each keypad for just this task. Once a key is programmed, if you tap that key, the Genovation sends out the character(s) you pre-programmed into it via the USB port. This lends itself well to the function of sending macro triggers to the P3. Continue reading
Review of the 30 Meter MonoGAP
The first thing I did was to start WSPR off using the new antenna… All the usual suspects came in all a bit better than before! Next I decided to see what one watt could do using JT65 and PSK Reporter… The photo at the left shows what happened, I am transmitting from Oregon… Continue reading
