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THE TEAM
DECEIVfBER 2002
ISSUE #505
El Supremo & Founder
Wayne Green W2NSD/1
Associate Publisher
R I. Marion
Executive Editor
Jack Burnet!
Managing Editor
Joyce Sawielle ,
Technical Editor
Larry Antonuh WB9RRT
Contributing Culprits
Mike Bryce WB8VGE
Jim Gray II
Jack Heller KB7NO
Chuck Houghton W861GP
Andy MacAltister W5ACM
Jog Moell KOOV
Steve Nowak KE8YN/0
Dr Rick Olsen N6NR
Advertismg SaJes
Eveiyn Gamson WS7A
21704 S.E. 35lhSt
IssaquahWA 93029
425-557^9611
Fax; 425-557-9612
Circulation
Frances Hyvarinen
Data Entry & Other Stuff
Morman Manon
Business Office
Sdlprial - AdvefttsJng - Circulal^on
Feedback * Product Reviews
73 Amateyr Radio Today Magazine
70 Hancoc^k Rd.
PelEjrbofOugh NH 03458-1107
603-924-0058
Fax: 603-924-861 3
Reprirris: S3 per atlide
Back issues: S5 each
Printed in the USA
Manuscripts: Conthbutions for
possitiie piibficaiion are rrkost
welcome. Well do the best we can to
relum anything you request, but we
assume no riesponsibflity for loss
or damage. Payment for submitted
articles wiit be made after pubiication.
please submit iDOth a cisk and a
hafd oopy of your articte {IBM (ok)
Of Mac Ipt^rr&l) fomials], careMy
chedced drawings and schematics,
and ttie deansst^ best focused and
Itghiad photos you cari manage. How
to wnte for 7T guidelines are availabte
on request. US dozens, pfease
include your Social Security number
with submitted manuscripts so we can
submrt it to you know who.
Amateur
Radio Today
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FEATURES
10 Commercial-Quality Function Generator — K8IHQ
Will you outfive it — or vice versa?
22 Shedding Some Light on Dimmers — W2GOM/7
Why not put one of Ittese triacs to use?
24 Eager for Meager — AD1 B
Try an 11m vertical on 160.
27 Shack Switch for Foot Fetishists — WA20KZ
Not that it's THAT kinky.
28 Ashore at Sacrifice Rock! — VU2SBJ
The saga of a masterful DXpedition,
36 Hamfest Success Formula — K9TRG
How to make sure your lest is a success.
58 Read All About It! — K8JWR
Part 13 of good stuff from The Hertzian Herald.
DEPARTMENTS
40 Above & Beyond — WB6I0P
49 Ad Index
64 8arter n Buy
39 Calendar Events
47 The Digital Port — KB7N0
44 Hamsats — W5ACM
Homing In — KOOV
Wever Say Die — W2NSD/1
New Products
On the Go — KE8YN/0
Propagation — Gray
ORX
Radio Bookshop
52
4
48
43
SO
1
63
Web Page
www.wavnCizrcen.com
QRK
COVER: ThiN hciiuiifd gdd-
plaicd key is the 2002
Christmas Key. F^ch key has
a serial no,, and there are
only 250 oi' them, $60 each
from Morse Express iwww.
MorseX.cx«Ti/xni;ts; 303-752-
3?S2KPhotohy NIFN.
Bye-Bye Betamax
A legend is being put to rest. After twenty-seven
years \n production, Sony Corporation says that it
will finally pot its famed Betamax tape format to bed
forever.
Jt's said thai Belamax opened the world of home
video as the first practical constimer format. Sony,
JVC, and Panasonic first tried with the famed 3/4-inch
U-Matic machines, but consumers were reluctant to
buy a videotape machine that was bigger than most
TV sets of that era and looked more at home in a
television station than their livingroom.
My own first home VCR was a Sony 51-7200
Betamax. It would record a whole hour of pretty-high*
qualily video and audio on a tape cassette that was
only 3-1/2 by 6 inches in size. I paid almost S2,0O0
for the machine, and each cassette cost me close to
S25, That was in the late 1970s, and despite losing
the 1980s video format war to VHS. BetamaK has held
on as a niche product all these years.
Coniinued on page 6
73 Ammteur Radio Today (ISSN 1052-2522} is published monttity by 73 Magazine. 70 Hancock Rd.,
Peterborough NH 03458-1107. The entire contents ©2002 by 73 Magazine. Ho pan of this publication may be
reproduced without written pefmission of Ihe publisrier. whicri is not all that difficult to gel. The subscription
rate is: one year S24.97. two years S44.97; Canada: one year S34.21, iwo years S57.75, including postage and
7% GST. Forefgn postage: S19 surface, $42 airmail addilional per year, payable in US funds on a US bank.
Second class postage is paid at Peterborough, NH, and at additional mailing offices, Canadian second class
mail registration #173101. Canadiarr GST registration #125393314. Microfilm edition: University Microfilm, Ann
Arbor IWI 46106. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 73 Amateur Radio Today. 70 Hancock Rd.,
Peterborough NH 03453-1107 73 Amateur Radio Today is owned by Shabromat Way Ltd. of Hancock NH
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Director Duty
Maybe you've noticeti iliai
we* re attracting fewer and
fewer new hams, wirh the
fewer paniculiirl)" concentrated
in the yoyth department. Hey,
you read the papets and
watch TV — when's the last
time you saw an article in a
newspaper or magazine, or
anything on TV or radio about
amateur radio?
If you "re a League member
there's a remote possibility
that you've read the reports in
OST on the board of direc-
tors' meetings. Have you seen
any hint of a movement by
HQ to get the hobby better
known so wc can attract more
newcotTiers?
The League directors have
a serious decision to make.
They have to decide whether
they are on the board to rep-
resent HQ to the members, or
their members to HQ. In the
over 60 years thai Fve been a
member, Tve seen almo.st no
sign of tlie directors making an
eQon to represent die mem-
tjers. They've l)een kept busy
brim^inu messages frotn the
Newington ivory tower to the
.unwashed. Indeed, in my talks
with many of them, Fve been
appalled at the contempt
they've had for their mem-
bers. "Sheep/' they've called
them.
As an emreprenetir who's
started a bunch of successful
businesses, I know that if you
want to sell a product you
have to advertise and promote
it. This is called marketing.
Promotion gives a business
the best bang for the buck —
when it's done right
So, with wireless technology
exploding, and with it an in-
creasing demand (or more
spectrum space, here we are
with a declining number of
hams, and with only a small
percentage really active, I'll
hei we don't have 50,000 ac-
tive hams anymore — less
than wc had 60 years ago. Ex-
perimeniin^ and pioneering
today ? Tell me about it.
Thirty years ago we devel-
oped and pioneered repealers,
bringing the world cell phones,
S(]on after WWU, Jack Babkes
W2GDG developed NBFM
for us. A few years later, we
pioneered SSB and RTTY,
then slow scan. Heady times.
Please explain to your di-
rector that he's supposed to
represent you and that you
want him to get HQ to start
promoting the hobby. Tell
him you want to start seeing
stuflTin print and on TV about
amateur radio. And if the HQ
gang hasn't a clue on how to
do it, have 'em give me a call.
I'll send them a video I made
on how to get plenty of free
promotion for any product or
sendee, It*s mv SI Million in
Added Sales video. And if he
doesn't have the balls to
speak yp, then find someone
who has and elect them. It's
time for a serious shakeup in
Newintiton,
Am I 'Irashins the Leaaue*"?
No way — Fm hashing the
League meml>ers for being
sheep and allowing the only
national ham organization to
let our hobby slowly die.
I first got involved when I
was 14, and the hobby has
provided me with a lifetime
of excitement and adventure.
It sure got me into high tech
businesses, and I learned all I
could about electronics he-
cause it was so much Tun. So
I'm anxious for us to get as
many kids involved as pos-
sible. Unless Planet X wipes
us out, America is going to
need all of the high tech
people it can gel. The day of
the uneducated blue coUai*
w^orkcr is long gone. The day
of the semi-literate white col-
lar worker is fading fast.
We're in a tech world thafs
aettinu techier cverv minute*
Football and soccer are fiin,
but sure are lousy career
choices for most kids. Fd
rather see kids with QRP rigs
in their backpack, with a
whip slicking up and (hem
making DX contacts as they
are going to and from school.
Dn Doom
So what's doin' with Planet
X, which Mark Hazelwotxl
predicts w ill wipe out around
90% of humanity next sum-
mer? At this writing the me-
dia, en masse, is consumed
with the E>C area sniper. WelL
the looming end of civiliza-
lion as we know it isn't on
their radar yet.
The ''Out There'' program,
which is a radio talk show on
TV with Richard and Kate
Mucci as co-hosts, did a nice
show with Hazelwood. And
one with me about the Mtx>n
hoax. Then one with remote
viewer Ed Dames, a,k,a. Dn
Doom, because of his usual
dire predictions. Kale scnl me
a tape of the Dames show in
which Ed agreed that Planet
X was on its way and v^'ould
cause a pole shift which
would get rid of our coastal
cities and bring us 300 mph
4 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
winds in some areas for a
week after the shift. His pre-
diction of a 12^ pole shift
could put the new equator
ihroogh Cuba, bringing New
England Georgia weather in
the future. Mmm, love those
Vidalia onions.
The idea of such a monu-
mental catastrophe is so pre-
posterous that it has no reality
for me. 1 don'i w^ani to believe
it.
Now that Fve learned how
children can easily learn to
speak and think in a dozen
languages, how their IQs can
be raised by around 50 points,
how they can easily be taught
to speed -read at over lOIKK)
words per minute, and how
we can provide them wiih an
incredible education ai a frac-
tion of today's school cost, I
feel we* re on the brink of a
new kind of world ctviliza*
tion — one without wars,
where weTl be able to control
the weather and where poverty
and hunger will no longer be
problems, I'd sure hate to see
all that blown away*
Is Planet X, if \\\ real un-
stoppable in its regular 3,630-
year sweep through our solar
system? The one chance I see
for changing things would be
for earth's entire population
to concentrate on praying for
it to change its course. The
combined prayers of billions
of people might be a pow erful
enough force to do die job.
Meanwhile, let's enjoy the
extended sunspot cycle the
ncaring Planet X may be
causing and work that DX.
You can get a tape of the
Ed Dames *Out There " TV
Continiied on page 8
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continued from page I
Now, according to Larry Bloomfield's Tech
Notes news service. Betamax for consymer use
is being phased out. This is because of the new
consumer digital tape formats like Mini D V that
are literally delivering a death blow to Betamax's
future prospects.
Sony reportedly wiH manufacture only 2,0CM}
more Betamax machines before discontinuing the
product altogether. But Beta will Uve on in the
worid of television journalism. That's where a
spinoff tape format called Betacam with suffixes
like SX and SP became Ihe de facto news gath-
ering videotape of choice and have remained so
for the past decade and a haff.
Me? I've got an SL 7200 Betamax still sitting
someplace out in ihe garage — gathering dust
Thanks to Biff Pasternak WAGtTE editor in
Newsline.
Blame it on Him
North to Alaska ...er,
Sorta
The magnetic north pole coufd soon abandon
Canada and migrate to north of Alaska.
The e-newsletter SaiencB Today tells of Larry
Newitt. Newitt is a researcher with the Geotogt-
cal Survey of Canada, And Newitt says that the
magnetic pole is on the move.
The researcher says that the pole, which has
steadily drifted fo r decades, has picked up speed
in recent years. He says that at its current speed,
it could exit Canadian territory as soon as 2004.
And. says Newitt, if the pole follows its present
course, it will pass north of Alaska and arrive in
Siberia in a half century,
If you are worried that you may soon have to
trade in your old compass for a GPS to know
where you are, don't. Researcher Newitt cautions
that such predictions could be wrong.
Thanks to Newsline. BitI Pasternak WA6ITE
editor.
not going to watch it in this househotd. and I dont
want il in your intellectual diet,"
Thanks to the Southeastern Massachusetts
Amateur Radio Associati(^, Inc., newsletter Zero
Beal August 2002.
Oops Oops
Phi to T Famswofth was the inventor of modem-
day television. Legend has it that he conceived the
idea of making a picture by scanning back and
forth, top to bottom, across a screen while tilling
a potato field in Idaho al age 13!
In 1927. while a student at Brigham Young
University, he transmitted a television image using
the scanning method he had conceived years
before. The image was produced on an oscillo-
scope screen by the scanning eieclron beam
within the tube. Sixty horizontal fines were used
to make the image. Allegedly a dollar sign was
the first image transmitted.
Famsworth became disenchanted when his
invention was used commercially, and told his
son, 'There s nothing on it worthwhile, and we* re [
6 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
Thanks to Dave Turner N7QP for pointing out
that in Figure 2 of WSWTU's September article,
"Mobile Ham Repeater/ the 1N4148 diode across
the relay coil is shown reversed; as drawn, it is
forward-biased. In Figure 3, the diode is shown
correctly.
And speaking of W6WTU, we thank him too
for 'fessin' up to the tact that he is not the author
of Novembers "Solid State Junk Bok Thermom*
etersf as our Table of Contents would have you
believe. W6WTU notes that correct author Buri
Rogers K4VYU6 is indeed duly cited on the title
page of the article, although "I would have liked
to have done the work — he did a nice job!"
Our apologies to all for these oversights.
One Whale
of a SONAR Enterprise
In what sounds like if s right out of a Sfar Trek
movie plot, will Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock have
to go rescue some whales from oblivion after
all? And what does this have to do with radio
communications?
In the movie Star Trek: The Voyage Home, the
crew of the starship Enterprise — without the
Enterprise— takes on the job of saving our planet
from annihilation by a space probe. The probe is
angry because It is programmed to contact hump-
back whales, but it cannot find any because all
the whales are long gone from the planet. To save
the worid, Kirk and crew travel back In time to
get some whales and bring them into the future.
With that in mind, picture this: The Administra-
tion has now given the Navy permission to begin
using a powerful new low-frequency SONAR to
identify enemy submarines.
SONAR, which stands for Sound Navigalion
and Ranging, is usually used lo observe objects
in water to determine distance. According to Ihe
Navy, each of the new SONAR s 1 S transducers
produces an audio signal equivalent to the noise
level you would hear if you slood next lo an F-15
fighter {et white it was taking off. II is this high
power that makes it possible for the sound waves
to travel several hundred miles and relum an
accurate target echo.
But environmentalists are worried. They note
that the new SONAR system operates in the
same band of frequencies used for communica-
tion by n^ny large whales, including humpbacks-
They say that whales are particularly susceptible
to SONAR interference because they rely on
sound for communication, feeding, mating, and
migration. In fact, they navigate the oceans of
the world using a kind ot natural SONAR of their
own*
Some scientists believe Ihat whales will mis-
take the Navy SONAR signals for other whale
pods and swim in the wrong direction. And they
believe that if this happens, the worid's whale
population will decrease. Others disagree. This
group of researchers believes that the two can
co-exist with careful monitoring of the whales for
any adverse effects which might be noticed. Ad-
justments could then be made to the SONAR
system's operation to minimize or eliminate any
problems.
The bottom line is that its a tradeoff in com-
munications —that of the whales versus the need
of the public to tje safe from enemy attack.
The National Marine Fisheries Service says
that with proper monitoring and safeguards, the
Navy's new SONAR is not Likely to injure whales
or any other marine mammals. But to be on the
safe side, we hope that Captain Kirk. Mr. Spock,
and Scotty are standing by.
Thanks to Henry Feinberg K2SSQ. via
Newsline. Biff Pasternak WA6!TF, editor.
Techno-Junk Piling Up
A new study called "Waste in the Wireless
Worid: The Challenge of Cell Phones" says that
130 million wireless devices wili be discarded
annually in the United States. This equals
65.000 tons of two-way radio garbage,
The study makes several recommendations
regarding both the design of cell phones and the
disposal of them. It says that the use of toxic sub-
stances in them should be reduced. It also sug-
gests that device standardization be implemented
so that users are not forced to purchase new
phones when they change service providers or
for travel . Finally, the study says that cellular tele-
phones should be designed tor disassembly,
reuse 1 and recyding.
II should be noted that the study was limited
to cellular phones and other two-way radio de-
vices, tt does not include the tons of VCRs and
TV sets that are disposed of each year.
Thanks to Newsline, Biff Pasternak WASfTF,
editor, and its listeners.
X-Ray Eyes
If you thought only cari:oon superheros like
Superman could see through walls to detect the
villains, guess again. New technology called
ultra-wideband will soon allow mere mortals
to detect objects buried underground and to
build cars enhanced with sensors that help
avoid collisions.
According to press reports, ultra-wideband
uses millions of narrow pulses each second to
get an accurate reading of location and distance^
opening the door for new applications in radar
tracking, precise positioning, and wireless com-
munications. The possibilities vary from short-
range computer networking for homes to devices
that determine the kx:atiofi of goffers on a course.
What regulators like even better is that ultra-
wideband devices {^n work within frequencies
already allocated for other radro services — help-
ing to maximize this dwindling resource, The Fed-
eral Communications Commission t>elieves the
technotogy is so promising that the agency has
proposed allowing it to be used on an unlicensed
basis.
But it may be a whtle before the new technol-
ogy is avaiiable. First, government agencies and
private groups are testing to make sure ultra-
wideband can safely coexist with other services,
like the Global Positioning System. More infor-
mation is on the ultra-wideband working group
Web site at [www.uwborg].
Thanks to Science Today, via Newsline, Biif
Pasternak WA6ITF, editor.
Do You Know
Who You Are?
Since the 9/11 disasters, lawmakers and busi-
ness leaders have been clamoring for a tjetter
ID system for everyone. ID cards that contain
specific biometric data, making them harder to
forge than your driver^s license, may t* in our
hiture. Privacy advocates are m strong opposi-
tion to this, but Congress and businesses are
looking reat hard at it. Besides your photograph,
which will probably be laser-engraved, they
would contain such vital statistics as your social
security number, date of birth, name, and an ID
number issued by the government. It would most
likely contain an optical memory strip, which
couid only be read by an optical scanner; it could
contain your fingerprint as well as an eyeprint
(iris). It could contain smart card technology with
the addition of an integrated microprocessor. An
internal memory strip could be rewriteabfe, and
could contain many megabytes of data — as
mudi as woyfd fit on a dozen floppy disks. These
coukj contain health records such as heart rate,
face scans, fingerprints, DNA sequences, and
much more health and body data that can be
compared. It could even contain a 2-D bar code.
So you think the government doesn't know who
you are? This is almost a surety for the near future,
especially if the U.S. soffers another terrorist
attack.
Thanks to The Modulator, the News and Views
of the Fort Myers (FL) ARC, Inc., August 2002.
A. Prose Walker W4BW —
SK
A. Prose Walker W4BW, the man considered
as the father of the ^'WARC bands,^' has died.
Walker headed up the FCC's old Amateur and
Citizens Division from 1971 to 1975. While there,
he made the initJal proposal for the creation of
the 10, 18. and 24 MHz bands at a conference
in Geneva in 1972. Later Walker organized and
chaired the United States Advisory Committee
of Amateur Radio, This committee took the ini-
tial steps to turn the idea into reality at tlie 1979
World Administrative Radio Conference.
But there was another side of Walker that
hams in the worid above 50 MHz do not remem-
ber very fondly. It was a set of highly restrictive
repeater regylations promoted by Walker back
in the early 70s. Among other things, these
njles required the submission of what are today
called engineering feasibitity studies in order
to get a required WR prefix repeater license.
The regulations were so strict that repeater
growth almost ground to a halt for the better part
of half a decade. Eventually, the ham commu-
nity. led by 73 Magazine publisher Wayne Green
W2NSD. rebelled against the Walker-inspired
rules. They were repealed as a part of repeater
deregulation a few years later.
Walker was living in Rochester NY at the ttn>e
of his death. He was 92.
Thanks to the ARRL, Repeater Rsmaiter, and
W9JUV. via Newsline. Biti Pasternak WAStTF.
editor.
Two Step Tuning
Step One: Pick up microphone
Step Two: Transmit.
(Please note: HF Tuning doesn't get much easier tlian this.)
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73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002 7
Neuer srv die
continued from page 4
show for $20 + S3 s/h bv call-
ing 775-751-2379. Tclf Kate
Wavne sent vou.
OK one more itenh I un-
dersiand thai an a&lronomcn
concerned enough over the
Planet X situaiiun lu take the
trouble and expense, went to
Ausiralia so he could look
Lhi\m^h a telescope lliere for
the incomins bmun dwarf.
He called home* savinn he
had some spectacular pic-
tures. Then somennc killed
him and the pictures have dis-
appeared. He's coming back
in a box.
Tolja
The August i.ssue of the En-
ropeun Journal of Cancer
Prey eta ion published an ar-
ticle on the Swedish research
which showed that cell phfinc
users had a much higher rate
of brain tumors than average
,., and the more thev used
■m
them, the higher the rate.
A Finnish study showed
that one hour of cell phone
use measurably arrecicil brain
cells.
The American cell phone
industry is, of course, disin-
terested in any research, or in
reading the published work of
Ro!ss Adcy K6UI, the world's
leadins researcher in this
lield. But, if you watch what
these guys do, you'll see *em
using a headset wire to iheir
cell phones.
We may soon see a head-
line-making trial as brain-can-
cer stricken neun>Iusisi Chris-
topher Newman sues the cell
phone industry. He\ repre-
sented by the Peter Angelos
firm, which has gotten huge
fees from its actions aaainsl
asbestos and cigarette firms,
With over a billion people
now using cell phones world-
wide, this may be the biggest
biological experiniciit in history.
It's something to think about
the next time you pick up a cell
phune or an HX And we hams
ane the ones who developed
cell phone iechnt>logy for the
world some thiny years ago.
The Secret
Hie fact that any illness
fi 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
can be cured without drugs is
something doctors never hear
about in their years in medi-
■I
cal schmiL And since it would
put them out of business in
shon order, it's something
they don 'I want to hear about.
It's their worst nightn>are.
There's just Dr. Lorraine Day
in San Francisco, Dn Bruno
Com by in Paris, and Wayne
Green up in New Hampshire
preaching to empty pews.
Instead of people griping
about the cost of prescription
drugs. I reconmiend tlieir
spending a liny fraction of their
dru!^ cost on educatimi them-
sehes so they won"t need to
wuiie all that money.
More Mercury
The medical industry is be-
coming more and tnorc aware
of the dangers mercury has
for us. When I was a kid it
was something we played with.
We'd coat dimes with it to
make them shine. No big deal
Wrongo. Again,
It turns out that one lousy
sram of mercurv' can con-
laminate a 20-acre lake for up
to a year! So now there's a
growing concern about cap-
turing (he mercury residue
denial patients spit out when
they're told to rinse. This
goes down the drain into the
sewage system, polluting the
environmenl for years.
So what's the big deal?
98^ of muliiple-sclerosis pa-
tients have mercury poisoning.
Mercur) is a deadly p*iist>n
which seriously impairs brain
function.
So, what about all thai mer-
cury you are not spitting out
when the dentist asks you to
rinse? Thai slays in your
amalgam Hlling — for a
while. It gradually is released
as n^ercury vapor and goes
into your body ,., and your
brain.
Weil Fve written about
that before, and it's covered
in my Secret Guide to Heahh.
If vou still have amalizaiii fill-
ings, get "em replaced with
plastic.
Meanwhile, as the concern
over mereur)^ pollution grows,
they're working to remove all
of the mercur)^ switches from
old cars before they are
melted down, and the EPA
got on the case of the sneaker
company that put mercury
switches in their shoes to
switch on lights in their shoes
when kids wctq running. The
mercury in ihennometers has
been replaced with some sort
of less toxic red stuff.
Americans
A recent PBS series on
Australia almost got me
thinking. Close call.
One of the big concerns in
Australia has to do with re-
cent immigrants, who arrive
complete s\ ith their homeland
lan*>uai!es, ciisioms. religions,
and ways of dressing, and
then tend to live in enclaves
lo help perpetuate their heri-
tages. The older Australians
view is that if they come lo
Australia they bloody well
should become Australians.
They should speak the Aus-
tralian language, adopt I he
Australian customs, and inte-
grate with the Australians
rather than live in separate
ethnic groups.
We has e this same situation
here in America, and Fve
seen it played out in one
country after another.
When the Europeans ar-
rived in Africa thev found il
■J
peopled with almost stonc-
age-ignorant savages, so they
had no trouble taking over the
whole comincnl. The natives
were no problem, it was just
the other Furopean countries
thai they had lo deal wiih,
Germany grabtx^d big chunks,
as did France, Belgiitm, Spain,
Portugal, amt the Dutch.
In East and South Africa,
the British got busy exploit-
ing their tcrrilories. In South
Africa, it was gold and dia-
monds. In East Africa, it was
growing crops such as coffee.
But all this business activity
required wtirkcrs, and no way
had been discovered lo get
the native blacks to work „.
so thev bn)ught in Indians to
build the roads and railroads,
and to work on the fanns.
With Africa being tropical,
the living was easy. The black
way of lite was to live in
small mud-hut villages, with
the women doing all the work
... growing the crops, bring-
ing up the children ... and the
men hunting and killing their
neighboring tribes. This had
been going on for thousands
of generations, so it wasnl
going to be easy to change.
The whole concept of w^ork
was total 1) alien to the men.
That was for women ! And any
nuui who worked was ridiculed
and humiliated by the others
for being woman-like. Sissies.
Education? The only pur-
pose of cducali<jn was to 111 a
man to work, so just as many
American blacks humiliate olh-
^vs who try to learn to speak
Atiierican as trying to liecome
white, the Alncao black men
avoided education. And that
made them sittins ducks for
ihe invading Europeans,
The slave trade developed
when the black men discov-
ered that there was money to
be made by selling instead of
killing the prisoners when
they raided a neighboring
village.
The Indians who were
brought in to do the work
settled into enclaves, where
ihcv avoided almost all con-
lact with either the whites or
the blacks. They opened
stores and, by cotv[ierating
with each other, easilv drove
any competing black or
white-owned stores out of
business.
I saw this same pattern in
Kenya. Uganda, and Tanza-
nia, when I first visited the
area 35 years ago. This was
shortly after colonialism had
been replaced by black rule.
It didn't lake long for the
black hatred of the Indians to
result in their bciuii forced bv
the new black leaders to leave
the East African countries,
and that led lo the disintegra-
tion of the cities and towns as
things went back to the bush.
The white farmers were also
forced to leave and their
farms also went hack to the
bush. With little to export,
these countries skidded into
poverty.
Here in America we've seen
similar situations where immi-
grant groups who live in en-
claves and avoid assimilation
are hated.
When I visited Fiji the is-
land was on the verge of a
revolution. The Fiiians were
furious with the Indians, w^ho
ConimiiedL on page 39
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R121 AVIATION RECEIVER
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Rt2t Receiver modute wired/tested $209
R121 Receiver in cabinet (see websiie}.. ............. ,..$299
WEATHER FAX RECEIVER
Join the fun. Get striking
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• Rt39 Receiver Kit less case $159
• R139 Receiver Kit with case and ac power adapter, S1&S
• R139 Receiver w/t m case with ac power adapter.. ..$239
• Internal PC demodulator t)oard & i magi ng software.. $2B9
Turnstile Antenna .^..1.:..,...,^...::.... $135
WEATHER ALERT RECEIVER
A sensitive and selective profes-
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Automatic mode provides storm watch, alerting you by
Linmuting receiver and providing an output to trip remote
equipment when an' alert tone Is broadcast. Crystal
controlled for accuracy; all 7 channels (162 40 to 162,55)
RWX Rcvr Ilit, PCB only :^±.L ....S79
RWX Rcvr felt witti Cdbin«t sp^ak^r, & AC adapter S99
RWX Rcvr wireditested in tAbmivtlih speaker & adapter SI 39
WWV RECEIVER
G6t time & frequency checks
without buying multibafid hf
fcvr. Hear solar activity reports
affecting radio propagation.
Very sensitive and selective
crystal controlled superhet,
dedicated to listening to V\^WV on
10 MHz. Performance rivals the most expensive rcvrs..
• RWWV Rcvr kit, PCB onFjr .........$S9
• RWWV Rcvr kit with cabt, spkr, & 12Vdc adapter $89
• RWWV Rcvf w/t m cabt with spkrS adapter .„..,,... $129
HIGH QUALITY VHF&UHF
EXCITER & RECEIVER MODULES
FM EXCITERS:
Rated for continuous duty,
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T301 Synthesized VHF
Exciter: for various
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226 MHz. Dip switch freq,
setting.
• Kit (ham bands onty) (TCXO option §40)
• Wired/tested, trdTCXO
T304 Synthesized UHF Exciter:
for various bands 400-470 MHz.
• Kit {440450 ham band only) ind TCXO
• Wired/tested ..........,,.„
CRYSTAL CONTROLLED:
• TA51 : for 6M, 2M, 220 MHz ktt $99,
• TA451: for 420-475 MHz kit $99,
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$1S9
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$189
w/t $169
w/t $169
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FM RECEIVERS:
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R301 Synthesized VHF
Receiver: various bands
139-1 74MHz, 216-226 MHz.
• Kit (ham bands orHy) (TCXO optbn $40}
• Wired/tested (iriciTCXO) .................
on(y$139
$209
R304 Synehesizecl UHF Receiver:
various bands 400-470 MHz.
• Kit (440^50 ham band only) |ind TCXO) $179
* Wired/tested ,.„..„„.,....., $209
CRYSTAL CONTROLLED:
* R100 for 46-54. 72-76. 140-175, or 216-225 MHz. .
.,. kit $129, w/t $139
• R144 Like R100, for 2M, mih helical resonator in
front end kit $159, w/t $219
- R451 for420^75MHz kit $129, W^t $1B9
. R901 For 902-928MH2 .............. kit $159, w^t $219
CTCSS TOniE EIUCODER/DECODER
Access all your favorite
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• TD-5 CTCSS Encoder/Decoder Kit ..„ $39
• TD-5 CTCSS Encoder ^Decoder Wired/tested , „ , $59
TRANSMITTING &
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• Receiving converters (shown above) available for
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^-54, 143-174, 213-233, ^20^7b MHz.
{ FCC typo accepted for oommercial senrice in 150 A 450 MHz bards.)
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AP-3. Repeater autopatch^ reverse autopatch, phone line
remote control. Use with TD-2 kit $B9
TD»2. Four-digif DTMF decoder/controller. Five latchmg
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TD-4h dtmf controller as above except one ornoff
function and no loll caEI restrictor..—-..H. ....w/t $89
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Seie special offers and view or download
complete catalog on our web site
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11 570 Taylor Wells Rd.
Ciaridon OH 44024-891 0
Commercial-Quality
Function Generator
How about this addition to the bench?
mmm
How niRiiy times have you needed a I unction generator to provide a source of sine or
square waves to test your ham equipmem or a new circuit idea? More than a couple, at
least if you are anything like most experimenters. A good, high-quality, dual-tone
sine wave generator is a really needed item also, if you need to check out your SSB
transmitter and linear amplifier performance.
W
ell, here is such an instru-
merit that does those jobs
nicely, with the added fea-
ture of a frequency counter that is also
a nice extra to have. So let us take a
look at what is required.
FifSt, we must understand what I
was interested in when doine the dc-
sign phase. The absolute number one
RJNCTlOiSl GENERATOR
(A3
U
Ff^EQUENCY
n
^
% PULSE WIDTH
1j
SQUARE/PULSE
-RIAMGLE
REFe^GNCE SCHMlTT-TRIG-OSC i^rfEGRATOR
COf^ARATOR
DRIVER
(C)
]^
IN y
GAIN>f-
MAAt^
/77
u
OUT
+^eV+/=300(PPMA)
OFFSET
^77
SINE GENERATOR
(B)
JWV
OUT
FREQUENCY
y^ ^
WIEhJ 3RfDGZ .
0.01%THD
swrrcHiNG
ANALOG ^ /
GATES ^ /
7^
ANALOG
SATES
HC4520
RANGE
SW1
/77
1
i
FUNCTION
SW2
Fig. L Simpiified schematics.
10 73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002
POWER SUI'PLV
WALL
TWWSFORMER
COUT^TET?
j±i
OSC DIVIDE BY 2'
DIVfDEBYb
I
l-WV*-|f-|
SIS
:zi
^
-. E R
DrVlDESVIOOO
E R L
DtVIDEBriOCiO
ri
eee
1
HZ
--VW
eee
NOTES:
1. RANGE AND FUNCTIONS SELECTED BY ANALOG GATE tCs U7,U8, U13. U14 (NOT SHOWN),
REFERENCES:
1. NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR OPAMP DATA BOOK. PAGE 1-465 "FUNCTION GEN "
2. SINEWAVE OSCILLATOR FROM EDN MAGAZINE "INNOVATIVE LINEAR CIRCUITS;- PAGE 144.
Fig, /* Simplifwd schemaftcs (coftiinued).
4S-
Ui4
HC4ifS2
HDd
1113
MC405i|
e
[
117
M
HD3
HC4Q53
LI [mC*®9[
3 [
IC40S2
U11
TUJSt
Ufa
<i
LJ3
HC4IW i:
^Cl
4Q22
1114
•lis
UQ
4fiSl
4£S3
40A3
1«"
»i^
ms
UW3Z1
HE»
-m UG
®
&IF»20
-•20 !• •S
S4Pf
e
SIPS
SIP^
©
sr
IQOK
10K
10K
4. 5-^
®
Dsa
C)S5 : D34
DSSJO^
DS1
©
U21 usa LUe yta ui7 uie
e
jrN^^J^: . HD7
K
5.3-
F(f , 2. Component locations.
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73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 11
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priority was to get the best sine wave
oscillator I could. My requirement was
a 0.01% total harmonic distortion
(THD) sine wave, which I was able to
accomplish. This design is a Wien
bridge arrangement with four select-
able ranges with continuously variable
overlapping hands.
The next absolute was to have an
onboard digital counter circuit. It must
be inexpensive and reasonably accu-
rate, with an externa! input for measur-
ing a test circuit frequency. The
counter circuit is a watch crystal time
base which is divided down to provide
a one second window as a counting
period. The second one second period
is used for the latch and reset func-
tions. The 0.5 Hz is well within the tol-
erance required to accurately measure
the one hertz to one megahertz range
of the function generator.
The six stage counter circuit consists
of two MC-14553 CMOS digital
DIP 16 ICs which provide the six de-
cades of counting. The output is multi-
plexed so as to have a small,
inexpensive IC package. These multi-
plexed BCD outputs are then loaded
into the latching and decoding seven
segment displays that arc made by
Hewlett Packard. These displays are
PCBOAfiO
DRIVER
+ ^2V[>C.
lEOVAC
3ew
0=^"^
UNEAR IC«
COUWTER
BODmA LOGIC
(A)
U1 Q1 Q2
LM2940T PN2222 PN2907
DB1
W02G
HD2DIP18
Q1
C10 E B C
O
AfA
C B E
1 2 3
IN GND OUT
g 2 C11 E B C 2 5
Q2
NOTES:
1 . WC 1 = 1 6\/CT @ 1 .8A (UL/CSA) , -
2. SHUNT REG OUT ON AUTHOR'S UNIT +6.25V AND -e.2SV,
3. C7, C6. C12 SOLDERED DIRECTLY TO Ut PINS.
4. 03-06, Z1 , \N0 SOLDERED DIRECTLY TO L1 PINS.
(B)
Fig. 3* Schematic, power supply section.
12 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
1
1
1
1
2
1
S
i
1
€
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
2
4
4
6
1
3
1
a
9
2
8
5
1
2
4
1
2
e
2
4
2
1
2
2
1
1
2
2
1
X
2
2
1
1
2
1
3
1
3
2
3
2
1
1
0
8
1
3
1
2
2
1
X
1
1
a
*wc
Ul
U2
us
U7-9,l3a4
UIO
Ull, 12,22
ms
U16-U21
BZ2
B^3
Jl, J3,J4
J2
Ql
02
DBl
JPl , B2
D3,D4
DS-BB
D9-D12
S34-11
PCB
Bl,3,3
XI
Ten -Tec Enclosure (TEH-TEC-JWIO) $
0^75" (#4) St3ind-0ff CHosf6lt-28-146}
15VAC-l,aA (CT>Kall Xfmr (Hosfelt 56-7&1)
I.M254DCT-5 5V-1A Reg IC (Jameco- 107182)
HC40eO CMOS IC DIP mouaer-Sll"M74HC40€0)
4Q2 2 CMOS rC DIP (MOuser-511-4022)
4553 CMOS rC DIP CJamfico-13709'J
4093 CMOS IC DIP {Jaiiieco-l4300j
RC40S2 CHQB IC DIP (Mcmaer-511"M74HC4 052)
1£
1
00
£0
2,95
1.29
.€4
5,90
*29
4.20
HC4520 c::MO& IC dip tMoUBer-Sll-M74HC4520} .62
TL064ACN Ouad OPAmp IC Wouser5ll'Tlt0e4ACH}3 .00
LW633i Iiinear IC {Digi -Key LM632ll*J 5.2S
HP"5Q82-73tlO 7Seg IC (Jaiueco-173633 1 29 ^7Q
3&Z&1-- S^S^'-Blac* a5igiJtey"PaD25DB) 2. OP
Beael— 3, 5 "--Red Lens (DigiKeyPRDasoR) l.SO
Besel-- 3, 5 "--CI ear Lene {Digiifey-PJ?D25Dffl)l-6D
Jack Smy. BulKJ^eaa Pem Coax(Janijeco-1532e5) 7*S0
Jack fTest Point J
PN2222 ISfPN Tran
Pja29D7 PMP TrBU
2 GOV- 1,5 A Diode Bridge
1W5232B Saner Diodes
DELETE
T-1 iSwm) Green IMD
T-1 (Btlkn) Red LED
3DiIl LED Bezels (LH-IDO)
Perf PC Board
^1240 Lamp Tl
fAnyJ .25
(Janieco-lVBSllJ ,16
(M0uaer-625"W5 2G] .3S
iJatflecO"l7905S> .14
{4THineco-34€06)
(Jameco- 94529)
(Jameco-95Sl3)
4.5x17" fMouseE-574-1^9P44)
Wire Leads {Eoflfelt-25-2SC})
SIP-1,2
C1,C2
W^tQli Ciyst*! TF2 (DiglKj^ ^flOX)
(Mach PiTi ) SDcke t (Hoe f el t-21-174)
(Mach Pin) Socket (Hosfelt-21" ISO J
WW (ri^achP) Socket {Hosfelt-2l-lS4)
WW (MachP) Socket (Hosfeit- 21 -183)
Header {JaTUeco-ieoeSX]
Decal Kit [Radio Shack) CRS-270-201J
6800MF-16V-Blect-Cap(iax36) ^JaniBco-31510)
3276S KZ
DIPIB m
DIPie WW
DIP24 m
DIP24tSJ
SIP40 WW
C3,4,aX.22 a.OUyiF-SOV-Mqno-Cap
{tlouser-21RX41&}
C9
ClO-Cll
C13
C13-C17
C5-CS
100MP-16V
Elect Cap (SXil) f Janieco-93551)
Elect Cap {6x5} (JaTneco-9443l}
.60
.76
.96
10,59
1.05
.30
00
50
.ao
.80
00
IB
.44
.1$
.IB
4
4
3
2
22 0MF-10V Elect Cap(Digikey 140-M3URL10V220} ,17
{MOii9er-21RS31D)
(MouBer-21RK310)
,48
1.72
0,IKF-50V Mono Cap
OjlHF-50¥ Mono Cap
C23 "037,050,052
C19 100PF-50V-NPO-Mono Cap
C20,CS1 lOPF-50V"tiI?0"«ono Cap
C3fi-C4l 0,002MF-50V-S%-Styreiie Cap (MouBer-23PW220) .95
042, C46 0,001MP-50V"5%-Styrene Cap {Mouseir-23PW210) .22
(Mouser-21RD610J
(Mou ser- 2 1IED7 10}
,10
^20
CIS
C43,C47
C44,C43
C45,C49
LI
£1
Rl,Jt2
R3.tt4
**R5A,R5B
AI teroate
Optional
^6
R7/Re
R9^R27
214
RIO *
H15,H1€
R20,R22
H1S,R19
R12
R13,32,33
R17,24,25
R21
R22,23,26
R28,R3L
ail, 29,30
R35.R36
R35
H37
R3S
R39-R46
RN*
SMI, 2
SW1>2
SI
S2
S3
O^lrfllF- 50 V- Mono Cap fAxial) (Hosfelt- 15-407) . 08
0,OlMF-SOV-5%'Styrene Cap |MotiS6r-23PW310 .3S
0,22MP-50V-llect . Cap [Houeer-14 0-L50V, 22) ,09
4,7MF-L6V-Blect Cap {Mouser-l40-L16V4/7) .09
pual 8,2MH Choke(PE9«lS0) (Koefialt"18-129] ,3&
IIVAC/ISVAC Clamp MOV [Jameco- 190449) .25
56-5%-lW-M0:^-ReEletora (Mouaer-2ei-&6) .33
320-5%-0,25W-CF-ReB |Jafflecc5-3O4 70) .10
lOE-lOT-Dual POT(Bo^imB#^4A2DB2BJlS/JlSJ
lOK-lT-Dual POT tMon0er-31VW4Ol) 2.10
15:1 Mechanical Dial (Mou6er-5940-I6111) 13.00
lOOK-lT-POT (MCFUBer-31CN50a) 1,02
lOK-lT-POT (Mouser-31CN4 01) 2.04
22K-S*-0.2SW-CF-Res tJatneco-30453} .10
10K~15T-T"POT (Bourns- 3006) (Hosfelt-3e0135) ,d5
15H-20%-0,25W-CF-Hes (Moueer-29l-lSM> .10
XK-5%-0,25W-CP-ReB (Jaineco-29663) .15
47IC-5%-0,2SW-CF-EeS
2200-5%-0 H 2Stt-CF-Rea
150 - 5% ' 0 , 2SW-CF-Res
330"5%-0,25W-CF-Re&
33-&t-lW-MOF-lies
lOK-5%-G.25W-CF-ReB
56K"5%-0,25W-OF-2es
100K-5%-0,2 5W-CF-ReB
1200-5%-0.25W-CF'Rea
l800-5%-0;25W-CF-Res
560-5%"0 , 25W-CF-Rea
DELETB
CAL Res 5%-0,25il,CF"Rea
IQiob" 0^25 "-Black (I^arge)
Knob-Op 25 "-Black (Small)
100Kx8-2%-DrP16-E3^T
PB SvitclxeB (KRS-1273-^)
PB Caps (KRS-CAP-S)
DP0T (2-PoB)SutiMinl Toggle
{Jameco-31149)
jJatrteco-30314)
{Jameco-30162)
[JamecO"30a67)
(DlgiKey-F33W"2BK)
(Jamec;o-2991l3
{Mouser-291-seK)
(Jameco^29997J
(Jaraeco-29735)
( Jams CO ~ Bulk )
{Jameco-31376}
(Any)
(Jameco- 138481)
{JaittfiCO"l62499j
(Jaineco-10B544J
{JamecO"15B379)
{Jameco-155408)
(Ja^^CO- 75377)
SPOT U-Pos)SiibHini Toggle {JamecD-759fi3)
SPOT E3'PQS)SutiWiiii Toggle f Jaineco-725S7)
0,25" Rubber Gromet (Any)
0,25** Nyioa Standoffs #4 screws [HOsfelt)
.10
.05
.15
.15
.30
.15
.10
,15
.10
.06
.05
,40
.2S
.75
.60
,80
.30
.29
.IS
as
.10
APPROK. TOTAL: $ 132.00
NOTE:
(1) ACE Hardw^are #1003979 Almond Spray Paint (ISoz) $3,00
(2) Minwax Polyur ethane #33050 Clear Glosa Spray (lloz) $4.00
(3) * WC is Groupweet #57A-is-i0OqCT (3gw) wall TransEorroer.
(4)*+ Author used Bourns 10 turn pot because it was available
Tests show Mouser part 1© 0,K. (Optional) 15:1 Dial.
(5) Out/In=6FT Coax with n^l* SMA'e (JaBiieco-159450) $5.75.
Table L Bill of materials.
Wigh -quality, dot matrix hybrid types which are very
compact and high-contrast. They are small enough that
three digits can be handled by a standard DIP24 socket, 1
use the least significant digit's decimal point to show the
SMITTER LOC ATIO
:i:- ■ : •; ^ ^v-'m:
I New ijxed site direction ^
^fifiders proi/ide 2 degree*
""esfsuracy, and incluilii^^^p
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[a ctntraS contrnt site. Mo bile j
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50MHz to 1 GH2^
|PO ...^K 2780 Camfr^^.-AZ 85377 ■
w:.l.~i _T V%"ii5 5?aj- k!
r.Esjropeant -Ma. I
D Bex 2. Seatovi. Bevon EX 12 2YS:Engii,
If youYe a No-Code Tech, and you're having fun
operating, tell us about it! Other No-Code Techs
will enjoy reading about your adventures in ham
radio — and well pay you for your articles. Yes, lots
of nice clear photos, please. Call Joyce Sawtelle at
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73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002 13
C1S -^^TfiAl-l? ^^
1 0OPF NPO 1 0P- N PO'
C13 +5V R9> R10
TP
32768HZ
SIP30 PIN2fi
l^rriN
DISPLAY PCB
HD1 D1P18
o
C21 C10 Z X1
ex HP5062-7300
2X DIP24 (W) SOCKETS
NOTES'.
1 . Li2-U6 HAVE 0.1 uF CAPS ABOARD.
2. RT1 ON HD5.
3. J3 TEST POINT JACK OM REAR OF ENCLOSURE.
4. AUTHOR'S COUNTER DRAWS 536mA @ 5V.
5. U14 DECIMAL POINT = GATE LED, 1 SEC. PULSE.
oo
u
66
ooo
666
c?i
j:^ C22 S 2 C19
q: a:
Fig. 4. Schematic, counter sea ion.
PholoA* The completed JlmcUon generator with wall converter.
14 73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002
counl gate action. Since upon power-
up we do not know what ihe oscillator
lime base chain has in it, a couple of
seconds is sometimes required to clear
and get the first one second count pe-
riod. The flashing decimal point indi-
cates that everything is working
correctly.
The next section of the generator is
the triangle, square, and pulse genera-
tor. Since we do not normally need an
extremely low THD for these func-
tions, a simple quad op amp IC was
used to perfomi these functions. An IC
such as the 8038 could have been used
but again, something a little better than
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Russellville^AR 72801
Phone 479-967-8315
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the 1% specified (THD) was desired.
So a voltage reference, Schmitt trigger,
integrator, and comparator circuit was
designed using a quad JFET op amp
IC, TL064A. The circuit also uses a
couple of analog gate ICs to do the re-
sistor and capacitor selections. The
timing resistor and capacitors are the
same ones that are used in the Wien
bridge sine wave oscillator. Two addi-
tional analog gate ICs were also used
to select the LED indicators for range
and function. These gates are selected
digitally with push-button switches to
a dua[ binary counter IC, U-10.
The multiwave output is then sent out
to the gain and offset controls so that am-
plitude and position relative to ground
can be adjusted by the user, Tlie fre-
quency is controlled by the ten-turn dual
lOk-oliiii pot, R5. The output of the gen-
erator is run through a special current
mode driver IC. This IC provides 200
mA of continuous drive and is short-circuit
and thenual protected Quite a bmgain at
under six dollars and in a DIP-8 package!
The power supply circuit was my
next concern. The use of a wall con-
verter is most desired so as to keep the
liigh voltage AC out of the enclosure.
These wall converters or transformers
are UL and CSA approved for safety
and are very inexpensive. Ours brings
a 15 volt centertapped winding to the
PC board and is rated at 1.8 amps. This
AC voltage is put through a bridge rec-
tifier to get our POS and NEG 12 VDC
at over 1 amp. Note that at 1,8 A the
voltage would be about 8 VCT, but
since we have a maximum of 12 VDC
@ 200 mA requirement, we do not
level. The two shunt regulator circuits
draw another 200 mA to acliieve the
POS and NEG 6 VDC power for the
Continued on page 1 6
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73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 15
+V 1 2
20
tS 7
IXM
/77
Z4
S
SIP20 FINS
▲ 4
il 23 22 21 20il9 13 17
16
14
14
A
DfP24tW)
SOCKETS
8
U21
6
Ml O^IOO
I 5 I 6 7 6 5
m 15
12
U20
U19
U1S
U17
U16
12 3 4 12 3 4 1 ITT 4 1 2 T 4 I 1 2 3.4 1 TTT 4
O0oi i\\\\\% IMMli 00»i 4M»oi MIMIO
LSD
4 5
NC
8 5
10
+V
1
3 4
11
12
MC
a
NC
6
U
7 & 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16
SIP2C #«#••••••#•«# ••444
S2 PIN2'^ — 4—^ R11
17
6 g
NC
10
11 ,^'2
18
19 20
Fig. 5. Schematic, counter display secuon.
Commercial-Quality
Function Gene rater
continued Jroni page 1 5
Op ainps and CMOS logic compo-
nents.
Now, the digital logic TTL display
hybrids which draw about 100 iiiA
each will need thai high-current 5V
source. I took the +i2VDC line and
put the U-1 series voltage regulator IC
on it for the 5VDC 600 niA require-
ment. The regulator TC LM-2940-5 is a
low dropout type which can work down
to the one half vok dilTerential point, so
no problems in our application. The 5
VDC 600 mA display requiremeiU does
not throw our bridge rectifier circuit
out of balance. The regulator is rated
for 1 amp, so 600 mA docs not exceed
its specirication, but do expect a little
heat on the TO-220 package running
at about four watts. No heat sink is
required!
Sonic folks might ask why the shunt
6V regulators instead of the series
ICs? Well, we find that transients,
noise and such, w^ill not get through as
sometimes happens with series regula-
tors. The use of a dual 8 niH choke L-1
is to eliminate the common mode parts
of that powder line stuff!
Now, we look at how to put it to-
gether. No etched and drilled PC boai^d
is available to my knowledge. There
does not seem to be an interest in that
for this project. I chose to use wire-
wrap technology, as always, with this
project. The use of machine pin-type
wire-wrap sockets to accommodate
both ICs and passive components
works very well. I also use SIP (single-
in-line) wire- wrap binding posts for
the termination of wires. These wires
go between boards, controls, switches,
and die like.
I chose my usual Ten-Tec enclosure
and t^MI plastic display bezel so that
w^e can get a good professional looking
instrument. All of die connectors,
switches, and test lines are the sub-
mini types. They look and w^ork good,
and the cost is very reasonable-
I added an additional two Wien
bridge oscillators to provide an SSB
test circuit. This is a 700 and 1900 Hz
dual tone source. When you put the
signals into the microphone jack of
an SSB transmitter, you will have
the required envelope lest to check
the rig and linear amplifier for linear
operation.
I provided simplified schematic func-
tions in Fig. 1. All of the component
placements are also shown in Fig, 2. All
of the header details are in Fig. 3. I
provided a bill of materials (Table 1),
the approximate cost, and the sources I
found for them. A template is also pro-
vided as a guideline for the metalwork
necessary on the JW-10 Ten-Tec en-
closure. 1 recommend that a nice coat
of enamel spray paint be used after the
metal work. The decals make things
Photo B. Phoro of components on PC hoard using wire-wrap
technology.
16 73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002
Photo C Sine wave.
PERIOD
4HZ-CK
CYCLE-1
I I i I I I
12 3 4 5 6 7 8
U3 CO/CE -^
HOLD
CYCLE-2
5
<— I — h- f
12 3 4 5 6
COUNT
7 8 >
U6LE
U6R
"L
HOLD
5
5
5
NOTES:
1. COUNT, 1 SEC, 0,5HZ (4HZ/8 = 0.5HZ = 1SEC. WINDOW)
2. LATCH, 100mS,0.5HZ
3. RESET, 100mS,0,5HZ
4. COUNTER AND DISPLAY UPDATE = 2 SEC. INTERVALS - 1 CYCLE = 0,5HZ
Fig. 6. Timing diagram counter section.
look very professional and can be
found at your local Radio Shack or of-
fice supply stores. A couple of very
light coats of poI}airethane gloss will
ConLiniied on page 18
DIP16(HC4052)
OOOOOOOO
U14
OOOOOOOO
HD8DIP24(S)
C49 C4B
oooooooooooo
DP16(HC4052)
DIP16(HC4052)
OOOOOOOO
) U7
OOOOOOOO
666
Oi C3 ^ oi (i> h-^TTTrfOtntD
<^ ^ ^ -^ -^ -^OR-fl-^^^r
q: (T q: a: (^ oPQiririrQ;
HD3 DIP24(S)
C23 B1 C45 C44 C26
oo
OOOOOOOO
U13
OOOOOOOO
DIP16(HC4052)
0.1 Si
^i
4.7 0.22 0.1
o o 6 6
DIP16(HC4520)
OOOOOOOO
) U10
OOOOOOOO
C24 R13 3^ o 5 o C25
O o o o
o
HD4 DIP24(S)
C27 C29 CI 8 C31
oooo
OOOOOOOO
^ U8
OOOOOOOO
DiP16(HC4052)
"^"^
DIP18(TL064A)
onnnooonn
U11
c?6ooooooo
C2e G52 ^ ^ ^ C30
HD5 DIP24(S)
nnnnnnnnn
oooooooo
U9
oooooooo
ooooooooo
P RN
oooooooo
CO
U
CO
O
DIP18{TLD64A)
oooononno
U12
ooooooooo
O
DIP16(LM5321)
C31
noon
'^p
0.01 ijf) U15
HD6 DIP24(S)
OOQQOOOOOOOO
o o o o o o o
<0 J^ r^^Tf
C51
oooo
CM CM
6666
HD7DIP24(S) ^^^
D5 ^ ' D10
QOOQOOOOQOgO
OO O O O O O OO O O O
(N n rf 1^
r\J CM. CM f\J
a: [1^ Q^ £t
D7
D8
D11 D12
SIP30
o o o
1 2 3
■^o o o
28 29 30
G S D C B E
Q3 Q4
MPF102 PN2907
NOTES:
1 MACHINED PIWS-WW
2. R39-R46 CALfBRATION
RESISTORS OR WIRE JUMPERS
3. R38 DELETED
Fig, 7, Header component ouUine.
EVERY ISSUE OF
/^Amateur
Radio Today
on Microfiche!
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73 Amateur Radio Today • December2002 17
«4V C:34
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1 RESISTOR3 IUW.15KED WITH ft,N ASTE P ISK .;' J Ai?£ D(CJ1 & R ESlSfOR PACK ifl )i tOOKj
Ffg. S, Schematic, fiiHctiongem^'otor section.
Commercial-Quality
Function Generator
contmuedjrom page 1 7
4
make it pretty and quite durable, aiid is
definitely well worth the effort,
I have iiicloded a couple of photo-
Photo iX triangle wave,
18 73 Amateur Radio Todny • December 2002
graphs to show tlip extremely low dis-
tortion of the wave forms. Note that
the fourth range position is for die sine
wave only. The triangle (sweep wave),
square, and pulse ai^e not usually
needed above about 20 kHz. The range
can be used, but will have distortion
especially on the triangle wave, A note
of caution regarding the B 1,2,3 #1240
incandescent lamps is that they should
not be substituted with any oUier type
if the 0,01% THD is to be expected.
This type Is the best I found to produce
low distortion Wicn bridge oscillator
sine waves. This 0,01 % THD was veri-
fied on a laboratory distortion ana-
lyzer. Only the zero crossover
produced a slight distortion, but still it
was below the 0.01% if the TL064A
quad op amp IC was used.
I also included an optional time base
crystal oscillator output via a jack on
the back of the enclosure. The counter
probe, in the external position, can be
SIPS
+v
C38
0.002UF
i}^ *-
R30
100K
C39
D.002LIF
R29
i.aK
R36
J,
R33
-AAAr-
150 OHMS
R37
560
OHI/tS
SSB
TEST
+/-6VPP
R2a
1900HZ <5SK
(B)
0.002UF :
Q.OOZuF
(A)
HD9 DIP24(S)
B2 R32 R33 B3
OOOO
C38 C39 o cr> oo x:; C40 C41
rO CN CM S3
d:: q:: £r: o!
HD10DIP24(S)
oannnnnoo
>r :>
U22
oooooooooooo
to
o
i/> ^ i/> CD
CO C^ 00 CO
o or Qi Dc:
REF: 1986 ARRL HANDBOOK
SECTION 25-27, FIG. 50.
(B)
Fig, 9, Schematic, SSB tone test (optional).
placed on the jack to read the time
base frequency of 32768 Hz (±1 Hz).
I need to make mention of resistors
R28 through R36, which are used to
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73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 19
8" X 3/16"
©
DISPLAYS
®
®
-^ — ^ — ^ — 6-
DRILL TEMPLATE
NOT TO SCALE
(r' = 25.4rvTM)
1.6" X 3.6"
(40.6MM X 92MM)
3/16 = 0.188" = 4.76MM
5/16 = 0.313" = 7.94MM
1/8 = 0.125'' = 3.18MM
13/64 = 0,203" = 5.1 6IV1IVI
9/32 = 0.281" = 7.1 4MM
3/8 = 0.375" = 9.53MM
0 1/4" NYLON
STAND-OFFS
5/1 B"
SW1
SMS"
SW2
2.9" X 1 .00"
(68.6MMX25,4MM)
PC BOARD
;■♦
''*
I'S
' I
_ <
. 4
I
Vil
'■>'*
■"*■
t
R8
R7
R5
* ■ h ,
('cb'H'cb'Hb';; [ cb
<^ © <& 0 -0
0
13/64 1/8 1/8 1/8 13/64
^ J1 J3 M S3
0.20T 0.125'^ 0.125" 0.125" 0.203"
JW-10 ENCLOSURE
9/32
9/32
9/32
R5
R8
R7
0281"
0.281'"
0.281
13/64
SI
0 203"
NOTES:
1 . SW1 , SW2 MOUNTED TO JW-10 PANEL USING CLEAR 100% SILICONE CAULK.
2. DISPLAY PC BOARD ASSEMBLY MOUNTED WITH 100% SILICONE CAULK.
3. DISPLAY BOARD IS MOUNTED TO ENCLOSURE USING 100% SILICONE CAULK.
4. REAR POWER CORD ENTRY IS A 5/16 " HOLE.
Fig, 10. Enclosure Template.
calibrate Llie IVequency ranges. We are
using timing capacitors which have
tolerances of 5 and 10 percent and do
require a selected resistance value to
set the bottom end frequency of each
of the four ranges. If you do not care
about the exact seitingj these resistors
can be omitted. Use jumper wires in
their place. The triangle, square, and
pulse frequency goes from 1 Hz to
about 15 kHz in the four ranges. The
sine wave goes from I Hz to about 50
kHz in four ranges. The frequency
counter measures the exact frequency
in all bands, which is a marked im-
provement over a calibrated dial knob.
The caHbration is complete when you
adjust the triangle wave to the same
frequency as the sine wave. Set the
sine wave in the second band and read
the frequency. Then move to the tri-
angle function and calibrate it to the
same frequency by adjusting R14.
That is all there is to it! Well, that is
about It for this project! It took quite a
little bit of time to desism this one, but
I feel it was well worth the trouble.
Photo E, Pulse wave.
20 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
•Trt". *M=
T^^
rv
5 I !«
.% i ^ i
"OF J
# *-♦■
UTS
TT
1J_11
I w.
v^j tin
v^
JiJi f 1
1^
LXl
n^ri
1BF I
tin
y-
hT *f y| *
it * *
.^ EIW=
:.tl
II *ii ,1 ,v. ,
ti.BK;in:H
I~B~
**T
vrMtj
* -
aJWiTEn
/
rWTF
1:
/77 /h
K
Lfl4L3lUH
fig, 11. Overall block diagram.
MV1
■o
iJJr;
HS^
HD-a
R41
--- CAL RES
3,22
HEADER
msi
PINS
HO" 8
HD-8
R42
R43
CAL RES
--- CAL RES
4,21
9,16
HD-1
R9
22K RES
6,13
HD-1
ElO
15M RES
7,12
HD'8
R44
--- CAL RES
10, IS
HD-1
Rll
10 K RBg
5,14
HD-S
R45
--- CAL RES
11 , 14
HE-1
R12
2200 RES
2, 17
HD-S
R4€
--- CAL RES
IS, 13
NOTE:
HD-1
C13--C17
C15
O.IMP CAP
lOOPP-NPO CAP
Part of IC»6
8,9
U*15
112 e
IDE R^S
1,16
HD~1
C20
lOPF-NPO-CAP
15, 1€
U-15
R27
22K R&S
2,15 i
HD-1
C21
€,01MF CAP
i,ia
U-15
C32
0,1«F CAP
3,4
HD-1
C22
O.OHflP CAP
3,4
D-IS
C33
0,1MF CAP
13.14 '
HD-2
lO
220 RES
S,ll
U'll
C34
0, IMF CAP
i,ie
HD-2
R4
220 RES
2,17
U-11
C3S
O.IMF CAP
9,10
HD-2
HD-2
CIO
Cll
lOOMF GAP
lOOMF CAP
15,16
3.4
tJ-12
C3€
0,1MF GAP
i,ia
HD-2
Dl
liIE232 DIODE
9,10
U-12
C37
0,1MF CAP
9,10
HD-2
D2
1N5232 DIODa
1 la
HD-2
Ql
PN2222 'TRAM
12,13,14
HD'&
R28
S€K RES
5,20
HD-2
02
FN2907 TRJiN
5,6,7
m-9
R29
lOOK RES
6,19
BD-9
hD-9
R30
R31
lOOIC RES
5SK RES
7,16
8,17
ED-3
R13
ISO «KS
5,20
HD-3
C23
OaWF CAP
23 , 24
HD-9
E32
150 RES
21,22
HD~3
C24
O.IMP CAP
1,2
HD-9
R33
150 RES
15,16
HD-3
C2 5
0,1MF CAP
11,12
HD-9
C38
0, 002MF CAP
1,2
HD-3
C2«
0,1MF CAP
13.14
HD-9
C39
0.002MF CAP
3,4
HD"3
C42
O.OOIMF CAP
7,8
HD-9
C40
0,002MF CAP
9,10
HD-3
C43
O.OLMF CAP
9,10
HD-9
C41
0jO02HF CAP
11,12
KD-3
C44
0,22HF CAP
15,16
HD-9
B3
#1240 Bulb (3msn)
T-1
23.23
HD-3
C45
4.7MF CAP
17,18
HD'9
Q4
#1240 Bulb Omm)
T-1
13,14
Wi-J
BX
#1240 Bulb (31510)
21,22
HD-10
HD-lt)
R34
R3S
120Q RES
1800 RES
10, X5
11,14
MD-4
RIS
IK ms
E , 20
MD-4^
ttl€
IK RBS
€,19
HD-10
R3€
12 OO R5S
12,13
HD"*
R17
330 RBS
10,15
HD-10
C34
Q,1MF CAP
1,24
HD-4
C27
O.IMF CAP
24,23
HD-10
C3S
0,JJ«F CAP
3.1^
HD-4
C2g
0,11^ OVI'
1,2
HD-10
U23
TL064A IC
2-7,17-23
BD-4
cas
0,1MF CAP
31,22
HE-4
C3a
0,1MF CAP
11,12
PC Board R1,R2
56-lW RES
KD-4
C31
0,1MF CAP
13,14
PC Board Cl,ca
680D HF CAP
HD-4
CB2
0,1MF CAP
3,4
PC Board C3-C4
0,01MP CAP
HD-4
cie
O.IMF C^p (A^lal^
9,16
PC Board C5-C8
PC Board C9
PC Soard C12
O.IHF CAP
lOOMF CAP
2 20MP CAP
HD-5
Ria
IK RES
10, 15
HD~5
HD-B
R19
R37
IK RES
560 RES
11,14
1,24
PC Board DEI
PC Board L-1
PC Board tr-l
Diode Bridge
Choke
IiM-2940CT
HD-5
Ell
IDOK RSS
12,13
PC Board Z-1
PC Boaird SIP
HOV
SIP'S
fiD-€
R2a
IK RES
1,24
PC Board R14
10K-10T-TrtH> POT
,p - ^ — - -
HD-C
HD-6
1121
R22
33 -IW RB3
lOK RES
2,23
5,20
jwiq
Front R*iA,RSB
lOK-lOT POT
1
HD-6
R23
lOK RES
Cild
JMIO
Front Re
lOOK-lT-POT
HD-6
H24
330 RES
7,18
JWIO
Proat R7,Re
1 OK -IT' POT
HD-6
R25
C51
330 RES
lOPF-EfPO CAP
S,17
21,22
eoi,2.
3.4
tI2-
US
DIP 1 8
SOS
S06,7,
8
HDl
,2.8
DIP16
DIPIS
HD-7
DS'D12
LEO'S
sos.iq
S011-S017
U12
U7-
.ua3
U10.U13-1S
DIP18
DIPIS
HD-8
€46
OcOOlWF CAP
5,6
HD-S
C47
0, DIMF CAP
7,8
S01B-S03S
HD3
-HDIO
DlP24fSJ
HD-8
C48
0,22KF CAP
17,18
S02e,27
tFl6
-021
DTP34^wii
HD-B
C49
4 7MF CAP
19*20
HD-8
R39
CAL RSS
1,24
mjD
NOTEt
SOI
-S05 Sockets Aiithor
used
sockets with
HD-e
R40
CAL RES
2,23
on J
board OjlMF capacitors*,.
vice OlPie,
Table 2, Header component pinout tocator:
Good luck on yours! I can answer
reasonable questions if I receive an
SASE with the request. For those
folks who would like more research
information, I have included some
references.
References
1. Ham Radio Magazine, Sept,.
1979; Aug. 1980; June 1982; April
1988.
2. Electronic Design Magazine, July
1993.
3. National Semiconductor Op Amp
Data Book,
r:>'r
Parts sources
L HosfeU Electronics, catalog 1~
800-524-6464.
2. Jameco Electronics, catalog 1-
800-831-4242.
3. Mouser Electronics, catalog 1-
800-346-6873,
4. Digi-Key Electronics, catalog 1-
800-344-4539.
5. Ten-Tec, Inc., catalog 1-800-231-
8842.
Subscriptions
to
73 Magazine
Only $24.97
$44.97
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3 years'^
^best buy (54% off cover price!)
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The New Poolsl
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P.O. Box 376
Jaffrey, NH 03452
800-467-7237
73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 21
Parker R. Cope W2GOM/7
6040 E. Tranquil Blvd.
Prescott Valley AZ 86314
[pamaco @ commspeed .net]
Shedding Some Light
on Dimmers
Why not put one of these triacs to use?
When you need to control the AC mains and an auto transformer like a Variac is not
available, the line voltage can be controlled with an inexpensive light dimmer: Light
dimmers are available from the local hardware store or one is easy to build.
onti'oLling the voltage to an in-
ductive load liJke a trans Ibmier's
■primar-y with a hght dimmer
may require a little cut-and-tiy, be-
cause light dimmers are intended to
conti"ol a resistive load and not an in-
ductive load. An appropriate RC in
parallel with an inductive load can
make it look resistive.
In a ligW dimmer, a triac or bidirec-
tional triode ihyristor switches the
voltage to the load tor part of every
half-cycle. The voltage across the load
will be near maximum if the triac
switches on at the start of the half-
cycle and be less if the switching oc-
curs later in the cycle. Tlie switched
voltage is no longer a sinusoid and in
some cases may cause difficulties. For
example, a power supply with a ca-
pacitor input filter. More about that
later.
A triac that controls the conduction
angle of the dimmer is svv' itched on by
a voltage applied between the gate and
temiinal 2, the cathode. Fig, 1(a)
shows the voUage-cun-ent characteris-
tics of a triac. The device is bistable;
the triac exhibits either a high imped-
ance (Off state) or low impedance (On
state). For cither polarity of applied
22 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
voltage, the device can be triggered
into the on state by a pulse of current
of either polarity into the gate. Once
triggered, die triac remains in the On
state until anode current is reduced to
zero by the external circuitry.
The pulse of trigger cunent to the
gate is obtained with a diac. The diac
is a two-terminal bistable bidirectional
switch with voltage-cuiTcnt character-
istics shown in Fig, 1(b), The diac
exhibits either a high impedance (Off
state) or low impedance (On state).
The device exhibits a high impedance,
low-leakage-current characteristic un-
til the applied voltage reaches the
breakover voltage. The breakover volt-
age is in the order of 35 volts. Above
breakover, the device exhibits a nega-
tive resistance, so that the voltage de-
creases as cun-ent increases. When the
diac turns on, a pulse of current trig-
gers the triac on. Some triacs have the
diac function buik-in, but a dimmer
using a simple triac requiring a diac is
described. An SBS (silicon bilateral
switch) like the 2N4991 can be used
instead of a diac. They both perform
the same function and are essentially
equivalent devices.
In the basic light dimmer shown in
Fig, 2. a diac is used in conjunction
with a capacitor to generate current
pulses to trigger the triac into conduc-
tion. The voltage on the capacitor in-
creases until it reaches the breakover
voltage of the diac. at which point
the diac voltage becomes low and
the capacitor discharges into the triac
gate.
At the beginning of each half-cycle,
the current in the triac and load is zero
and the triac is in the Off state. The
triac acts like an open switch. The en-
tire Line voltage appears across the
triac and none appears across the load.
The voltage across the triac drives cur-
rent through the pot Rl and charges
the capacitor CL When the capacitor
voltage reaches the breakover voltage
of the diac, the triac is triggered on.
At this point, the triac looks like a
closed switch and the voltage is ap-
plied to the load for the remainder of
that half-cycle.
The resistance of the potentiometer
detennines how quickly the capacitor
chai^ges. When ihe resistance of Rl is
low, CI charges more rapidly, breakover
of the diac is reached earlier in the
cycle, and the power apphed to the
load increases.
■^^
\J^0
\/
Off 57flTF
Oti STAje'.
<^N 57A7f
— W
Mho
VBOx~55V
an
OH -SH^Tif
pffSJflXiT
V
VBO ^ 3?[/
rb)
F/g. L (a) A triac is gate-controlled bistable, (b) A diac is a
bistable diode.
Fig. 2. A light dimmer phase-conirols the voltage across the load.
RPT
F/LTFfZ
uny^
1 lyMH
^fc^i^™^^"^^^^^*^
€>f
I
//f//
Ntvc^n^^^^
/|70^
/5«:
a
^
Bi - -
i
Fig, 3, An extra RC reduces hysteresis. Afdter can wduce cotuhicted
interference.
Most commercial light dimmers
have the circuit shown in Fig. 2. Tliis
circuit has hysteresis. That is, the triac
doesn't switch on when the control is
set for minimum load vohage. Adding
an additional R and C as shown in Fig*
3 reduces hysteresis effects and ex-
tends the effective control range of
the light-control potentiometen Since
including the extra R and C increases
costj most commercial light dimmers
expect you to accept the hysteresis.
Since the triac switches when the
line voltage is nonzero, noise can be
produced when the triac switches on.
Again, adding the noise-reducing fil-
ter increases cost, so noise is ig-
nored. However, a 0.01 |iF capacitor
and two small inductors can filter the
noise from the line. Manv times, the
inductors are just a few turns wound
oh a piece of ferritc. This arfangetnent
takes care of the conducted noise but
doesn't do anything for radiated noise
— a metal minibox enclosure is
needed to control the radiated noise. If
' you have only a plastic project box,
line it with aluminum foil and vou'll
be in business.
The light dimmer is intended to con-
trol a resistance, a light bulb, in which
the voltage and current are in phase,
but when the load is inductive, like a
transformer or universal wound motor,
the vohage and current are no longer in
phase. The inductance tends to keep
the current flowing even when the
voltage is zero. The inductive current
in the anode holds the triac on while
the line voltage goes though zero.
A series RC in shunt with the induc-
tor can put the voltage and current
back in phase. That's where the cut-
and-try comes in. A capacitor across
the load can absorb the inductor's cur-
rent and make the current in the triac
zero when the voltage is zero. The
resistor in series with the capacitor
damps any tendency of the L and C to
ring.
Accommodating the inductance is
straightforward if the exact inductance
is known. But usually the inductance
isn't known. Finding the capacitor that
will absorb tlie inductive current and a
resistor to eliminate ringing requires
some cut-and-try. The ringing sup-
pressing resistor is not terribly cridcal,
but if it is too large the effects of the
capacitor can be compromised. Some-
thing in the order of 100 ohms is a
good starting point
Continued on page 55
J
i .. ,
4
<
> ?
>I2 ?I2.
m
Fig. 4. The load can be made to look
resistive.
73 Am^t&ur Radio Today • December 2002 23
»^
Thomas M, HartADIB
54 Hermaine Ave.
Dedham MA 02026
[torn-dot-com @ juno,com]
Eager for Meager
Try an 11m vertical on 160.
Several years ago, Richard KAIINO, now a silent key, gave me an old 11 -meter half-wave
vertical for conversion to 10 meters, I used the antenna on that band for several vears
and then changed it to a quarter wavelength vertical on 15 meters.
The anlenna was a nice supple-
ment lo my G5RV dipok as I
completed WAS on 20, 15, and
10 meters, Tlicre were times that the
dipole did not work as well as the
vertical and vice versa.
After reading the ARRL Antenna
Handbook on base -loaded short an-
tennas (8- fool whips are suggested)
for mobile work, I decided to try a
conversion of the venerable 1 1 -meter
antenna to the other end of the HF
spectrum: 160 meters. My reasoning
was that I would never be able to
erect a full quarter wavelength verti-
cal for the top band and had to be
ready lo compromise. Some other lo-
cal amateurs have suggested to me
that making contacts on the dummy
load would probably be as pfoduC"
tive as using a short vertical on 160.
However, placing the project in con-
text, it is clear that a loading 16- fool
vertical on 160 meters is neither
ieom
80m
1/4 wavelength
130 ft.
67 ft.-.
% of 8 ft.
iVa
12%
% of 16 ft.
12%
rt/a
more nor less optimistic than using
an 8- Foot vertical on 80 meters.
Table 1 shows that a 16-foot vertical
is 12% of a full quarter wavelength
on 160 meters. The same percentage
is found for an 8 -foot vertical used
on 80 meters.
The computations needed to deter-
mine the inductance of a coil for base
loading are found in ARRL Hand-
books. The Antenna Ilandbookch'dpi^r
on "Mobile and Marine Antennas''
states that:
1. The height of the antenna in elec-
trical degrees is:
h = (L/984) ^f^ F * 360
2. The mean characteristic imped-
ance is:
K^^ = 60*((hi(2^^H/a))-l)
Table L Comparative length percentages.
24 73 Amateur Badio Today • December 2002
3. The inductive reactance required
is:
X, = K,, ^^ cot (h)
■M
Deteimination of inductance from
reactance for a given frequency is
described in the A/?/?L Amateur Hand-
book chapter on ''AC Theory and
Reactive Components."
4. The corresponding inductance is:
L = XJ(2 =^ 71 ^ F)
The symbols used in the formulas
are:
h = antenna height in electrical
dearees
F = frequency in MHz
L - antenna length in feet
K^ = mean character! sdc impedance
H = antenna length in same units as
"a"
a = antenna radius in same units as
"H"
X|_ = inductive reactance
71 = 3.14
Notes:
cot - ( I /tan)
"H" and "L" are antenna length. "L''
must be in feet; "H'' may be in any unit
also used for *V\
In the case of my topband antenna, I
was able to stretch the overall length
of the 1 1 -meter unit to 1 6 feet 4 inches
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(16.3 feet). The antenna is made from
three sections of aluminum tubing;
1.25 inches, 1 inch, and 0.5 inch diam-
eters. I decided to use a blended diam-
eter of one inch for computations
because no formulae were readily
available for tapered elements. Solv*
ing the equations for the required in-
ductance gave a value of 158 )iH.
The actual coil design was simpli-
fied by using a utility program called
Coil Designer, by K6ML0. I chose a
PVC coil form that is 11 inches long
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and 2375 inches inside diameten Us-
ing 18 AWG wire, I found that I
needed 108 evenly spaced turns.
The coil form has a PVC end cap on
each end with an S 0-239 socket on the
cap that connects to the base of the an-
tenna. A male Pl.-nnn adapter makes
the coil to antenna connection- Black
plastic electrical tape is wound over
the entire coil and held in place with
plastic wire- wraps. A drip hole was
made at the bottom of the lower end
cap to provide drainage for any mois-
ture that might find its way inside the
coil form.
The biggest compromise in my de-
sign was the decision to use a single
one quarter wavelength 1 8 AWG wire
radial as a counterpoise- The antenna
is on a bracket at the end of my garage,
1 had space and resources for a single
radial that meanders across the build-
ing and then follows a fence in an arc
around the back yard. Multiple radials
or a good earth ground would probably
improve the performance of the an-
tenna, but this was a low budget job,
intended for casual use only.
How did the project turn out? Pretty
much as expected. My intention was to
recycle an old antenna into a topband
vertical that would allow casual use on
CW or SSB, I have managed to make
contacts all over New England, the
mid- Atlantic area, and as far as Ohio.
The signal reports have been adequate,
but not stellar. It seems likely that any-
one who is interested in a low profile
160- meter antenna could use die verti-
cal portion of this design and work up a
better groundmg or radial system in time
for next winter Despite predictions from
friends, tlie final resuU does a much
better job than the dummy load that 1
use to tune up the transmitter.
Photo A, This meager antenna is capable of operating on 160 and 80 meters.
26 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
Kenneth Pietrucha WA20KZ
610 Springfield Ave.
Cranford NJ07016
Shack Switch for Foot Fetishists
Not that it's THAT kin hi
Aidiough I get lots of comments from visitors hi the shack, tJie Uithmne Foot Switch was bom
out offnistration and definitely senses r function far greater Uian entenainiiig visitors.
When I wcni from a push-to-
lallc mic to a fool switch to
coiurol my tran.sceiven I
never thought about the possibility of
not being able to lirid the switch under
the desk with my lot*L
On more then one occasion while I
was getting ready to ,sUde my call letters
into that small window hclwecn the time
that the DX station stops transmitting
and the rest of the hajii community
starts callinc him. I missed mv chance
because the ibot switch moved and 1
couldn't key the transmilicn
Over the next few weeks. I iried to
position the fooE switch so thai I coij|i
find it under the desk without looking,
I tried to hold it in position with
double-sided tape, then Velcro .strips,
and then I finally mounted it on a
small board. I siill liad the same prob-
lem. Basically, the foot switch I was
using was just too smalK and loo light.
I mentioned this problem on our lo-
cal repeater and got some interesting
suggestions. The next day, I stopped in
at the music store to find out what type
of a fool switch musicians use, and 1
was somewiiat disaj^poinied in their
lack of ingenuity.
Photo A. The Ulii/naie Fool Swiith.
One thing tliat the lady of the store
did show nie was what they call a wa-
wa pedal. Not exactly w^hat I wanted,
but now I was getting some flashbacks
to the '60s. when we had fuzzy dice on
the mirror and a large foot straptx^d to
the gas pedal of our cars. No, I don't
kjiow why we did it, and you really
had to he there to understand!
Now I knew what I wanted, and I re-
membered where I saw it. I thanked
the storeowner and was on my way.
Here in New Jersey* we have a few
Conttiued on page 55
Photo B. A small hinge moitim rbe "foot"
to the wood bose^ Use double -sided foam
tape to moiini the switch.
73 Amateur Radh Today * December 2002 27
Srikanth Bhat VU2SBJ
37 Ananth Nagar
Manipal 576119
India
Ashore at Sacrifice Rock!
The saga of a masterful DXpedition,
It all began one evening in early 2001, when Chets VU3DMP dropped into my office
after work. We began talking about an IOTA operation from St Mary's Island, which
was fairly close by. A few inonths iater^ we successfully activated AS-096, our first
IOTA, and our first ''not-so-small" operation.
The experience and the sheer
thrill we gained from organiz-
ing and participating in the AS-
096 IOTA really pushed us to form a
group of like-minded, activiiy-thirsty
hams, the VUIOTA Group, We were,
and still are, an informal group with-
out presidents, secretaries, and thai
kind of stuff.
*'What next?" was the most asked
question. Obviously another IOTA,
This time we aimed for the Sacrifice
Rock, in the Kerala group of islands —
an inactivated island, and a not- so-
popular place either We began work-
ing on getting more information about
the island in September. It took us a
good couple of months to get full in-
formation about the place, make two
visits to the island and realize it was
Photo A. DKpedition QSL card.
28 73 Amateur RBdio Today • December 2002
only a plain solid rock in the middle of
nowhere.
The first reconnaissance visit was
pretty discouraging — there was no
boat access, there was not a single tree
or even a leaf on the solid rock. It took
about one hour by those tiny fishing
boats from the coast of Thikkodi near
Bagadara in Kerala (about 45 km norlh
of Calicut or Kozhikode). The rock
was standing in the middle of the sea
without any sand around anywhere,
unlike what we imagined any island to
have.
This made it impossible for the boat
to move very close to the rock — it
had be anchored some distance away,
oUierwise it would be pushed toward
the rock by the waves and eventually
get damaged. So we had to swim to the
rock from tlic boat (some 100 feet or so),
and the deptli of the water was about 18
meters aU the way. What's more, the en-
try point on all sides of the rock were
filled with razor sharp barnacles, and
should one step on tliem without some
footwear, or happen to be pushed against
the rock by die waves, he's sure to cut
himself very badly. To top it all off, the
rock was pretty steep at the places where
the boat could go neai' it.
The v&y idea of carrying in Uic sta-
lion gear was mlTid boggling. The four
of us who made the first inspection
visiu myself, Chets VU3DMR Ro
VU2RDQ, and Mor VU2MTT, thuugh
never speaking it out aloud, definitely
thought this to be impossible.
Despite these discouraging thoughts,
we still went ahead with the formali-
ties involved with the WPC (Ucensing
authority in India) for tnaking the
DXpedition. Lots of question^ began
popping into each of our minds about
the various '*how to's" associated with
the irip. How to take the .station
through the water? How to transport
people who do not know swi milling
(there were a few such people)? How
to climb the rock with those huge lead
acid batteries, even if we manaijed to
somehow get them from the boat lo
the bottiun of the rock? How to erect
the antenna and shelter on the rock,
which was solid granite without a
patch of loose soil? And so on. Too
many questions, no answers.
Off we went to a local beach, called
Kaup. What came out of a few hours
of thinking out on the beach thai
evenFng was to use that magic hard-
ware known as "anchor bolts'* for an-
tenna erection and tent erection — this
required us to carry some hammer
drilling equipment, an electrical gen-
erator to power the drill, and lots t)i"
anchor bolts*
These are wonderful things lo have.
All we needed to do was to drill a suit-
able size hole in the rock, insert the
bolls, and fasten them — they expand
on the inside and anchor into the rock
really hard. We could then use them lo
hold the guys of the antcmia masts and
the tents. Another idea was to build a
raft out of plastic drums — we ihought
this would help us transport all equip-
ment from the boat to the rock. The
rest of the arrangements were pretty
standard, just like our previous [OTA,
but we decided to be very strict on the
BOM, since excess luggage would
only mean excess trouble. We also de-
cided to make one more trip, sort out
some of the local permission issues, and
just have anitther proper look before we
actually finally went
The day we decided to make our
second inspection
trip to the rock
apparently turned
out to be a new
mtxin day. Tliis day
is supers titiously
considered bad to
set out to do any-
thing worthwhile.
None of us be-
lieved in this, and
we planned to
travel to the rock
anyway. This dme
additionally Pra-
kash (VU2JIX)
accompanied the
remaining four who had gone the firsi
time. Since I lived ancuher 70 km away
from the city where we had to board
ihe train, and where the remaining four
lived, I camped at Mur's home the
night before we sel out The train was
to leave at 03:40 hotirs (local lime).
Chets and Prakash also joined us here
in Mur's place, and we all were talking
undl aboul l'3i\ when we decided
we'd better have at least an hour of
sleep. We woke up at about 2:30, had a
quick bath, and set nut. When we went
outside we realized Chets* motorbike
had been stolen. He didn't believe me
when I noticed it Hrst and told him, he
thought I was joking and had hidden it
someplace. We were alirady getting late
to calch the train. Dilemma: Whether
to go or not lo, as Chets was pretty up*
sel — quite naturally so. We made a
quick trip lo the local police statioa,
and tried lodging a complaint —
though they began sending out wire-
less messages to the patrol all around
the tow n, we were not able to formal !v
lodge the complaint, as ihe concerned
person wouldn't work at this time of
the night. Meanwhile, Ro, who had in-
dependently gone to the train station
from his home, had alread>' bought us
all the travel tickets and was waiting
with some other mountaineering friends
who wanted to join us to see the rock.
Consoling Chets iliat the police were
now working on the motorbike search.
all of us sped away lo the train station
— only to see llie last compariment of
the train just moving out of the plal-
form, Ro was in the train with four
Photo B. One of the ^i^litA t^it ihe Sacnfke Rock — a iklicately
bdhmreti rock struct it re.
Phato C Main camp area — all the gear is
slovvly heginning ro come in.
Photo />. Chets V USD MP burns the
midnight oii as SWLAdarsh looks tm.
extra tickeis and some other friends.
The four of us who missed ihe train in-
quired to Hnd that there was another
train traveling in about 45 minutes but
from aiiolher train station on the out-
skirts of the city. We could make it. We
also decided to have a quick look
around Murs house locality to see if
we could fnid Chet's mobike someplace,
Nt> luck, though. When we reached the
otlier train station, the train had already
arrived, 1 volunteered to gel the tick-
ets, while the remaining three would
get all the stuff near the platform inside
73 Amateur Radio Today ■ December 2002 29
1
i
1
■9$^^^'
1^
1
i_ "-r'
J
/:!' r-
.
Photo E. Our faithful but overbuoyant txtft
made it possible to transport everything
over the water.
i)
Photo E Antenna must for base station
{Fritzel) with Indian national flag (it was
Republic Day in India jy and our banner.
■•
the station. We were carrying 6nc
Tiidio station, including a lead acid
battery (which we now realizxd was a
stupid idea) to try it out frt>m the
rock. While ihey were carrying all
the things to the platform inside, I just
managed to buy four tickets and rush
inside to find out the train had already
begun moving. Man, this was turning
out io be a nightmare — and whatever
I:
Photo C, Our team, left to right: Chets VU3DMF, Su VU2RDI
PralcfLsh VU2JIX (holding tiie left end of the banner), Ro
VU2RDQ, Mar VU2MH\ Manu VIJ2JR0, SWL UixminidKu Pai
VU2PAI, Boatsman Baijo, Sri VU2SBJ (holding the right end of
tlw banner),
30 73 Amateur Radio Today ■ December 2002
superstition-free minds we all had now
began wondering if there was indeed
something bad about this new moon
day. as the elders used to believe. We
just got in whatever compartment that
was closest, and decided to sort out our
actual compartment once we were in.
Getting in with those things, especially
the battel^, was pretty adventurous.
The compartment we went in was
full up to its brim. There w^ere no seats
even to sit on tetuporarily, and much to
our dislike we ended up sitting on tlie
floor near the toilets. (Prakash and I
then went seai"ching for our actual
compartment, should the ticket inspector
fine us for being in the wrong place.
To our disappointment, the connection
doors to other compartments were
locked, so we were forced to continue
where we were,) Meanwhile, Chets '
was woiTying about his mobike. He
eventually decided to get off at the
next station to go back home and try
looking for the mobike. It seemed
pretty sensible, so he got off at the next
stop. Stops were really short, so we
didn't risk transferring ourselves with
all that luggage to our actual compart-
ment (God knows how far it was any-
way!). As our destination (Badagara)
approached, some seats became va-
cant. There was hardlv 30 minutes of
journey remaining — we were thank-
ing our lucky stars that the ticket in-
spector didn't turn up after all. When it
was just 5 minutes till Badagara — lo,
the ticket inspector. He just wouldn't
listen to our story about getting into
the train at the
last minute with
the heavy lug-
gage, and the fact
that the connec-
tion doors were
closed, and tlie
fact that we were
sitting just out-
side the toilet for
most of the jour-
ney. We ended up
paying heavy pen-
ahy — Hell, no
more doing any-
thing on a new^
moon day, we
decided.
We met Ro and his other mountain-
eering friends at the Thikkodi beach.
The boat people and the local fisher-
men folks ntiw seeing us for the second
time, probably realized we were in-
deed not joking about staying on that
rock in the sea for two days. They also
saw prospective business due to in-
creased demand — tiom zero in the
last few years to two trips in within a
couple of months for nonfishing pur-
poses! Their rates were already up by
about 30% this time. No alternative, so
we had to accept. We set out toward
the rock. This trip, however, was a real
morale booster. It didn't scare us as
much as the first lime, Probably because
things looked much more familial* than
the very first tune. We knew exactly
where we were going, how long it
would take to reach there, and how-
things looked at the other end. This
time we looked for the most conve-
nient place to enter on the rock, and
earmarked locations on the rock for
setting up the various antennas, sta-
tions and the main camp. Another idea
that we had, about transporting stuff
through a rope-way from the boat,
looked impossible once we went there;
so we decided to slick with the raft
idea.
After we went back on land we vis-
ited the local police authorities, and
were successful in gaining permission
to stay on the rock for two days and to
travel by fishing boats. Though this is
not a tourist spot, and there was no for-
mal mode of transport, the police were
very undej'Standing and realized the con-
tej^t well and gave us the permission.
This had always been a big question
mark, so once this was cleared up we
were hlerally on cloud nine.
Each way to reach Ihc rock from our
hometown took about 5 hours by rail,
another hour by road, and finally an-
other horn" by sea. Had we used the air
mode to travel somewhere in between,
we would have covered them all. Prob-
ably the cloud nine we were in a little
while ago could be attributed to air
travel?
Things appeared more concrete after
this trip. We began making all the ar-
rangements as the days went by. First
we had the raft built by a boatbuilder
friend. He made it out of scraps or
wood and two empty plastic oil drums.
We wanted to test it out so off we went
to the local fishing harbor, and tested it
out — it seemed too buoyant — ap-
peared as if it required some support
from the sides to ensure it didn't
topple. We decided that two people
should escort the raft while the raft
carries the station stuff, else it would
topple. To have a person sit on the raft
was out of cjuestion. We did not have
the resources or the time to have a
better one built.
Transport by road instead of by rail
was preferred as we had a lot of stuff
that was not praciical to be taken on
the train- We arranged a 15~seater van,
and requested the driver to have some
seats removed to accommodate the raft
and the rest of the stuff.
D-day arrived. Our tlnal team was as
follows: Chets VU3DMR Prakash
VU2JIX, Ro VU2RDQ, Su VU2RDJ,
Sri VU2SBJ, Pai VU2PAI, Mur
VU2MTT, Manu VU2JR0, SWLs
Laxminidi and Adarsh. Ten of us in all.
We were to set out at 7:30Z on the 25th
January 2002. We soon realized we
were running late and also that the van
wouldn't be able to accommodate all
the stuff and all the peopFe — some
more seats had to be removed to ac-
commodate the raft. We decided some
of us would use the train while some
would go on the van.
We all reached our destination in
one piece. The van people arrived well
before the train people in the late
evening, and occupied the dinky but
well known hotel in Bagadara which
was arranged by a friend. The dinner
was simple but good, and we were also
paid a visit by the friend who arranged
this hoteL The place Badagara is lo-
cated in the neighboring state of Kerala,
and most speak only the local lan-
guage Malayalam, Only a couple of
us in the entire team knew about 50%
of the language. It was quite some
achievement to communicate one
single sentence for the rest of us.
We slept as early as we could, and
woke up at about 4 a.m. All of us had a
quick shower, the only fresh water
shower that would be possible for the
next two days, and drank the coconut
water thai was so
kindly provided
by the friend who
visited us the pre-
vious night. It took
quite an effort to
gel the van out of
the crainped park-
ing area of the
tiny hotel, and
we were off to
the beach by
about 6 a.m.
We reached the
Thikkodi beach
by about 6:30 a.m., and began unload-
ing all the stuff from the van to the
beach as close to the water as the van
coutd possibly go in the sand. We soon
realized that the boats thai were origi-
nally spoken for were already out on
their fishing duties as early as 4 a.m.,
though we w^ere assured they wouldn^t
be going as a special case to accom-
modate our transport arrangement. The
boats came back only by about 9. We
had a li^ht breakfast on the beach
meanwhile, and began loading the boats.
We thought we should get some ex-
tra lifesavfng equipment, as the ones
we had were damaged. So two of us
went in search of tire tubes, which are
pretty good alternatives for life jack-
ets. The sea was already getting pretty
worked up, and the morning was
windy. The boat people discouraged
our traveling on that day unless we set
off immediately. Of the two boats that
were beins loaded, one of them set off
in a hurry with only four of us. The
remaining six were still on the shore.
The six who were on the beach
waited for the two who had gone in
search of the tires. They had already
taken over an hour, so the second boat
had started off with only Ro and few
other boatmen. The plan was to have a
third boat get the rest of the people and
also some stuff that wouldn't fit in the
first two boats. The whole launch of
the boats from the beach was so mixed
up that we were totally confused by
what was happening. The boat people
simply refused to listen as they felt
that they couldn't wait any longer on
the beach.
The first boat that took off pre-
schedule had Su, Laxminidlii. Manikant,
Photo H. A view of the gigantic Sacrifice RocL
Photo I. The raft, being loaded with our
belongings after the event — it would then
be pulled by ropes to the boat.
Photo J* Prakash VU2JIX, rente k and
other people from the boat, pull the loaded
raft toward the boat, Tlds overbuoyant raft
kept the owners of our gear very anxious
during each trip,
and me on it. Not one of us knew
Malayalam, and we never were able to
find out why he took off without Ro,
who was supposed to come with us in
that boat, nor what the plan for the rest
was going to be.
In the confusion, the VHF bandies
were not accessible to any of us, as the
entire luggage was mixed up in the
hurry. So no way of talking to the rest
of the team either. We reached Sacri-
fice Rock in about one hour's time —
73 Amateur Radio Today ■ December 2002 31
•rN*T* — «■-■-
Photo K. A view oj the feni occupied by ihe
only couple in rhe team, YL Su VU2RDJ
ami OM Ro VIJ2RDQ. One of the antennas
is visible in the hackgiound.
Photo L* MA5B Ciishcrafi antenna being
installed. This was the antenna for Station
L The mast and guys were fixed to tfie rock
by andwr holts drilled uito the granite, it
stood well for the entire n\o windy days.
!F^.r2^'J«*»rSba^i' -j-
Photo M. Packing off! The raft gets hito
the water with anotlier load of gear: it was
then pulled towards the boat with the help
of several rofjes.
Ro's boat was much filter, as it had
less luggage. So we arrived aimost at
the same time though he started out
later. The third boat was not yet seen,
and we had no idea what its status was.
Il finally aiTived in about 45 minutes,
and we began unloading the stuff.
Getting the raft into the water from
the boat was easier than we expected.
They tied all the three boats together
so that those tiny boats wouldn't
32 73 Amatsur Radio Today * December 2002
topple with all the imbalance in
weight while unloading. The sea was
not so rough, so the boats went as
close as about 10 meters to the rock.
At one point, they even took it as
close as 2 meters, to one small ex-
tended part of the rock, while Su and
Manikant jumped on so that they
didn't have to i^et into the water. Thev
had to also do almost a mini pole vault
exercise to reach the main rock — they
probably prefen"ed this to getting into
water. They didn't know how to swim!
As the stuff was being transported
over on the raft, two of us, myself and
one boatsman, were guiding the raft
from the boat to the rock. Ro and oth-
ers were putting stuff piece by piece
onto the raft from die boat. The sharp
baiTiaeles and shells stuck to the rock
at the intersection of the rock and the
water made it pretty difficull lo go
close to the water to pull off the stuff
from the raft,
SWL LaxminidhE at one point under-
estimated the weight of one pack of
several mini lead acid batteries, and
lost his balance, to land face up on
those barnacles, with the box of batter-
ies falling over his palm. He really hurt
himself pretty bad on the back of his
hand, and was forced to take it easy for
the rest of the expedition. Manikant,
who is a doctor, really made things a
lot simpler. He took care of cleaning
and dressing the wounds. Looking at
the amount of bleeding, we would
have otherwise probably been very
nervous and uncertain what to do next.
He said it was perfectly OK and that
Lax just needed some rest.
While Su began setting up the camp
kitchen, Ro and the others were getting
all the stuff Lo the main camp location
on the rock. Baijo, the accompanying
helper from the boatsmen team, de-
cided to stay with us through the 2-day
camp. The boats left shortly after all
the stuff was on the rock. Even if we
wanted to return, there was no w^ay we
could get out from here. But then we
had the radios — - we could communicate
the world over.
Without wasting any more time,
Prakash and I set out drilling holes at
suitable points on the rock for anchoring
the anchor bolts for antenna erection.
The electric drill was powered by the
generator. The process was a lot easier
than expected. It took us about an hour
to finish enough holes to support all
antennas in three different locations.
The stations we began setting up were
as follows, also in order of setting up:
STATION 1 ; HF
RIG — Kenwood TS-2000, barefoot
lOOW limit
ANT — 3-element, 5 -band yagi,
CushcraftMA5B (10/12/15/17/20m)
CABLE — RG-2 13
MAST FOR ANTl — 10 ft.
BATTERY — Lead acid
CHARGER — 35VA solar panel
STATION 2: HF
RIG — Kenwood TS-850S
ANT — Diamond CP^6 (used for
80/40/20/ 15/ 10m)
MAST — 1 0 11
CABLE — RG 213
BATTERY — Lead acid
CHARGER — 35 VA solar panel
STATION 3: HF
RIG — Icom IC-735
ANT — Fritzel 3-band (20/15/10)
vertical
CABLE: RG-2 13
MAST— 10 ft, aluminum
BATTERY — 125 Ah lead acid
CHARGER — 35VA solar panel
STATION 4 :HF
RIG — Yaesu FT-840
ANT — Longwire with SGC^230
tuner
CABLE: RG^2 13
BATTERY — LEAD ACID 88 Ah
Station 1 was set up by about 10:00Z
(26th Jan). VU2PAI took over the sta-
tion and began on 15 meters. The band
sounded very, very good. As he began
operations on Station I, the remaining
stations were brought up one by one.
Within a couple of hours, we re-
ceived our AS 161 IOTA number from
OM Roger Balister (G3KMA, RSGB
IOTA Manager). MUR, VU2MTT on
CW, mostly occupied Station 2, The
TS-850 with the CP6 was doing great.
Stadon 3 was with the IC-735, with the
Fritzel 3-band vertical The vertical
was erected altingsidc the Indian na-
tional flag and the IOTA hanner that
wc hoisted in the center of the rock.
Station 3 was just beside the main
camp kitchen, and a general-purpose
station thai was operated by most of
the team. This was operated by several
operators in random order, so this sta-
tion did the maximum number of
QSO^, Siatiun 4 was net up ver> late in
the evening. For some reason, the FT-
840 that was operating there was not
ver\' well beha\cd. Mavbe the RF in-
terference from ilie Ions wire with the
SGC-230 (which was not earlhed. as it
was too far away from the salt waier)
was causing the radio to malfunction
— the display malfunctioned and
bands were changing randomly upon
TX. So station 4 was not used very
much.
The Rock was so windy that we
were not very sure if the tarpaulins that
we carried should be used as tents. We
then decided not to. So all stations
were operating without any shelter.
Being windy throughout, the heat from
the sun during the day was bearable. A
large diameter hat was all that we man-
aged with. Su was mostly in the camp
kitchen preparing food and diink for
all of us. She did operate once in a
while. We lived mostly on bread, orange
fruit, lemonade, aiid noodles, Drinking
water was available in abundance ^
hence nothing to worry.
As niaht fell, and some bands be<ian
closing or all the stations were occu-
pied, the remaining people began retir-
ing after a very long day. Though
windy, it was very humid and wann in
die beginning of the night. Most just
found a relati\ely Hat surface to open
out a simple sleeping mat. However, as
the night progressed, it got very windy
and the temperature began to I all It
was shivering cold on the first night,
Ro and Su were the only couple and
they were fortunate enough to get to
use the dome tent dial they had carried.
The rest (w^ho were not operating)
were sleeping in die open.
The 27ih went on very well too. All
stations were operating continuously
excepting Station 4 due to the radio
problem. Station 1 and Station 2 were
occupied mtistly by PAI and Mur
Station 3 had to serve the balance
team. Those not on the radio were
mostly found either exploring the rock
and various types of animals living in
all the dark comers, crevices, and wa-
ter puddles on the rock, or trying to
swim in the sea (with saiety rope and
inflated tire tubes of course), or cook-
ing, or eating and drinking. Speaking
about eating, excretion (fondly re-
ferred to as "faxing*') was a major ad-
venture for most. Some dark comers
served the purpose, or we had ici wail
for nightfall — when wider choices of
natural toilets were available. Some
others decided to hold on for the enure
two days. (I have been advised to lea\ e
out the names here J For those who de-
cided to try out, rules were strictlv laid
down. Waste paper was used to collect
the "stulT* and had to be packed and
thrown into the %vater as far as possible
so as to not pollute the rock. It was
indeed fun.
Coming back to the radio stuff, the
propagatioi] con-
dition from Sacri-
fice Rock was very
good on 10/15/20
meters on tlie 26tii
(Saturday), and
the peak was
high on Sunday.
Ten meters was
Photo :V, Jusi before we began saiiing m-
wards the Socrifice Rock on the 26ih. The
ieanh mth atl our stuff pUed up prior lo
loading on the boats at Thikkodi beach.
I8:20Z toward N, America and S.
xAmerica. On the 27th of January, from
05;50Z to 7:]0Z, conditions peaked
touards Japan and generated a good
pile-up.
Twenty meters was the best during
17:30Z to 03;00Z on 26th Jan with sta-
tions from Etirope. N. America and S.
America coming in with strong sig-
nals. On 27th Jan. between 16:00 and
commg
ihj'ough
pretty well at
13:00Z and there
was a huge pile-
up from Europe
till 16:00Z. On
27th Jan,, from
about 06:50Z to
14:O0Z, there was
a good pile-up finm
Europe — a sta-
tion from Oceania,
Asia, also came
in with good
signals.
Fifteen meters
w'as good on the
26th during 1 1 :00Z
to I5:00Z. with
good signals com-
ing from Europe.
The band opened
from 17:00Z to
Photo ft A view of an entire fleet of four fishing boats (the big-
gesr you can get to see bereh passing by the rock The Cnshcraft
MA5B can be seen in the corner.
Photo P. Another strange structure around Sacrifice Rock — a
spooky, skiitl-like structure.
73 Arnaleur Radio Today • December 2002 33
Photo Q. Ro VUIRDQ icenfeK inskle ihe
boat) and other boatsmen unloading the
Sii0 onto the raft after arriving close to
Sacrifice Rock on the 26ih. Sri VU2SBJ i in
the waten right} guides the boat to the rock
with the aid ofanotiur boatman and ropes
pid led from the rocL
23:50Z, stations Irom Europe, N*
America, S. America, and Japan came
through with big signals.
CondiLions on the 1 2/1 7/40*meter
bands was not getling any better dur-
ing our operation. There was pretty
hiQh static on the 40-meter band and
we could not hear any station on the
12/17 meier band. Though we could
gel stations from India on 40 meters
pretty well, there was no DX heard on
lhe40meter band.
The Sacrifice Rock was quite small
in length and width and the four sta-
tions were quite close lo each other.
We had splatter on the same band iT
two operators worked at the same time
with CW and SSB. We did tr^^ the best
lo avoid the splatter and sometimes we
had to down one station on CW or SSB
during peak band condition,
Wc did our best to log maximum
QSOs with optimum band propagation
and minimum operating Utile, We
managed about 3,800 in all. We were
satisfied, and told ourselves Uiat we
did an OK job*
We stopped operations at about
1 :30Z on the 28th (Monday). We be-
gan packing up all tlie stuff. Removing
tlie aniennas was obviously much sim-
pler and faster. However, waterproof-
ing all the stulf was a major task. It
look the II (10 of us and the boatsman
Baijo) of us more than 2 hours to have
all the stuff neatly packed at one place.
The boats were asked to arri\'e by
2:30Z, but they didn't show up,
Evenmallv hv the lime thev arrived
— it was almost 7:00Z. Halt the day
was gone. The sea began getting
rough, as it usually does once die early
morning is gone. The boalsmen were
really struggling to keep all tliree boats
LOLiciher. The idea was to gel it as close
to the rock as possible and tie the three
boats up to each other, so that the
rough sea would disturb the stability as
little as possible due to the three boats
being tied together The depth of water
all around the rock was about 18
meters, without a shore to land. The
excessive length made the slack in the
anchor rope pretty high, w hich did not
allow the boats to be in one place.
After quite an effort they got the
boats together one behind the other
(long sides parallel) and tied them all
up. It looked pretty stable, but was still
moving around the threesome. The
boats could now not come as close as
they did when we landed two days
ago. They were at least 120 feet aw-ay.
Things be&an looking scar\'! Gctlins:
all the heavy stuff
Pkofo R. Prakash VU2JIX (left) operates while Sri VU2SBJ
monitors the pile-up,
34 73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002
into the
unstable raft to
travel all the dis-
tance in the very
rough sea was
just not a com-
fortable thing to
think about ~ es-
pecially for those
who brought their
only radios.
The idea was to
liuide the raft
t.r'
with three ropes
on either side —
Photo S* Mur VU2MTT (cetuer), operates
Station 2 while Chets VIJ3DMP (tight}
and Pntkash VU2JIX (left} look on.
one set from the rock, other set frooi
the boats, Prakash \^ent over to the
boat side with the rest of the boaismen
with him. It was quite task to also tie
the ropes and get them to the proper
ltx;ations on the rock. The raft was
pretty heavy — it required at least four
people on the rock to pull on it for
every loading event.
The boatsmen were not game for
this idea, and were pressurizing us to
cancel the return trip that day — they
kept suggesting we set out early next
mominu. The thought of stavins one
more day with food and water supplies
coming to flie end was also pretty
scary. We eventually said that if the
first raft trip succeeded in getting to
the boat OK, we w^ould return the same
day — ollierwise, it would be tlic next day
So we began trying out sending the
first consignment. We tied a metal
trunk to the raft top and filled it with
some heavy stuff that was not very
valuable. The thine was so unstable
(top-heavy) that it was almost certain
it would topple. However, with a lot of
difficulty, the raft was guided with the
six ropes towards the boat. The first
trip was successful — so we decided
to indeed leave the same day.
The raft was pulled back to the rock,
and the next consignment had a few
valuable items including two antenna
tuneiT>* As il left the rock, the sea that
was now pretty rough unfortunately
toppled the jalL The trunk vvitii all the
stuff was completely in the water.
There was nothing anvone could da —
fortunately all the stuff was packed
lightly in plastic, and the lid of the
trunk was also tied — and the trunk
held on to the raft — else it would all
have gone straight down in the sea —
some 1 8 meters below.
Two hoatsmen went and upturned
the toppled raft and it was quickly
pulled towards the boat. It was not so
damaging — Ihc plastic packing was
pretty good — and the tuners just had
some moisture on the cover inside the
plastic. There was also one IIF power
supply — it was carried just in case we
had to use it with the small generator
we carried for the drilling machine. It
was unfortunately not packed.
Prakash. who recent!) had purchased
the power supply, looked disap-
pointed, ft was most certainly useless
after all the salt water inside. However
we hoped we could do something —
we proceeded with the next trip — this
lime in addition to all the lOpe guiding
business we decided two boatsmen
should swim with the raft, holdrntz it
frojii toppling. It then took us about 10
to 12 trips to get all the stuft* back on
the boat.
Once the stuff was all loaded, there
were still people to get in the boats —
120 feet awav. What about those who
didn't know how to swim? It scared
the wits out of them! 60 feet of sea wa-
ter — without k no wins how to swim.
\\ must sure sound scarv. There was a
rope lied all the way from the rock to
the boats. We had to hold it and come
across. For those of us who knew
swimming, it was pretty easy. Swim-
ming as such was difficult, as the sea
was very rough. So the rope guide re-
ally helped us. For those w^ho didn't
know swiniminiz. the boatsmen ac-
companied them. Eventually everyone
came aboard safe and sound.
The entire exercise was so anxiety-
filled thai no one had the presence of
mind to take pictures of the ad\eniur-
ous bo at- loading event. It took us 4
hours to gel all the stuff loaded on the
boat — it was about 1 1:00Z when we
started off from die rock.
Hiat was the end of all the adven-
ture, we thought. We'd just get back to
the shore in about an hour, iiet off
these boaLs. and load the van with the
stutr and act eoinu home.
Unfortunately it was not to be that
easy. The sea continued to roughen up.
The waves were gigantic. The tiny
boats were simply matchless. The
boatsmen quickly decided to travel all
the way with the three boats tied. It
was quite an eftori to drive the three
boats this way — each had to run the
boat very carcl'ully — and in syn-
chrony. Imagine what would happen if
the boats on the sides were to get out
of synch and one of them ran it faster
than the other — the entire assembly
of three boats would slaii turning and
probably be unstable. They were pretty
good at it.
The waves were huee — ihev al-
ways tried to move on the lop of the
wave — it was a real roller coaster
ride- They had us seated carefully at
difterent points on the three boats to
have some sort of balance. Every time
a huge wave came and the boat rode on
top and came down, so much water
came in. We were busy emptying the
water manually. The entire hour back
was so very tense il really had each
one of us praying for our miserable
souls. Goint: to this remote rock in
the middle of nowhere for operating
the radio — such a stupid idea* we
thought.
Land at last — 70 minutes seemed
like etemiiv. The btial owners had as-
sembled on the shore. They were re*
ally worried, a,s it was almost 4 hours
later than expected. Besides it was also
beginning to get dark. They all wore
that "I told vou so*' look. We had made
it back — safe and sound and in one
piece.
The van loading took us an addi-
tional hour We quickly iiad some food
in the village nearby, and set off. We
decided to just uU pack in the van,
even when it meant some people had
to sit on someone else's lap. The driver
who had wailed on the shore tor the
previous two days was probably dying
of boredom. He drove really fast and
Photo Z Sunset rime — Sri VV2SBJ, set-
Ihiji tip the tongMire antenna while SWL
Laxminiilhi { injured) looks on.
Photo [\ YL Sti VV2RDJ tries to cook a
meal at the camp kitchen.
Phoio V SWL Adarsh (right} watches
whUe Sri VU2SBJ (left) operates Station J.
we reached Mangalore at about half
past midniglit (local time) on the 28th,
Some of us from Manipal had to
travel another hour to get back home.
Just had a shower and hit the sack. A
busy day at work lay ahead for each of
us.
The entire experience of the Sacri-
fice Rock IOTA was ab.solutcly thrill-
ing and satisfying. Though some of the
trying nKinients made us think other-
wise for some time, we asked our-
selves if we wanted one more ol' such
events.
Continued on pagp 56
73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002 35
Art Housholder K9TRG
350 West Schaumburg Rd. A261
Schaumburg IL 60194
[ahousholderl @ attbi.com]
[ahousholder@junoxonn]
Hamfest Success Formula
How to make sure your Jest is a success.
So much has happened to the electronic industry and tlie hobby of amateur radio in
the last 25 years of the almost 50 since my first hamfest
During that Lime, T have been a
spectator, retail exhibitor, manu-
facturer flea market seller, and
even a hamfest committee member
Probably the questions most asked by
the hams, the flea market sponsors, the
exhibitors, and especially the hamfest
coiTimiitee are, "What makes a good
hamfest?" and *'Whal can be done to
make it even better?"
Here are some very simple answers
to the tirst question.
As a spectator, finding something
you wanted at the price you wanted
made it a success for you. As a seller
who goes home with a lot less inven-
tory than what you came with, and a
pocket full of money, success is yours
also. Commercial vendors and manu-
facturers who sell a lot of product have
their measure of success. It is all quite
simple! The real trick is to make it all
happen.
Without pulling any punches, telling
it like it is, many hamfesis fall by the
wayside. Everyone is excited and en-
thusiastic in the beginning, but some
volunteers find it more work than they
wanted while some stick it out and just
plain become burned out.
1 have attended most of the major
hamfests in the United States, Hawaii,
36 73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002
Europe, and Asia. I was one of the
hams on the committee that started Ra-
dio Expo in Chicago In 1971, the
ONLY hamfest, in the world that has
had Robot, Hewlett Packard, Standard,
Antenna Specialists, Dycom, CBS Ra-
dio, Motorola, National Computer,
Robyn, Swan, RCA, Sentry Crystal
Regency, Clegg, Hal Devices, ARRL,
Ham Radio Magazine, 73 Magazine,
CQ Magazine, RPT Magazine, Mid-
land Radio, LafayeLle, Hallicrafters,
Hy-Gain, Galaxy, E.F. Johnson. Avanti.
S9, Alpha Seventy, Signetics, U.S.
Navy Training School, General Elec-
tric Radio, U.S. Coast Guard, and
many more, all at the same time —
though unfortunately many of these
folks are now long gone. Not even
Dayton has ever accomplished that
many luminaries at one time.
A club that runs a local hamfest
gives a very nice pocket daily diary to
each of its members and also to each
commercial vendor who attends the
hamfest. Recently a major vendor did
not receive the pocket dairy. They told
me how they had looked forward to
getting one and were disappointed that
tbey did not get one. When I told the
club president, he immediately had one
sent to the vendor in a plain envelope,
did not call him as I suggested, did not
put a note in ihe envelope with an
apology for overlo^jking them, and did
not thank the vendor for showing an
interest in the small gesture of appre-
ciation. Later when I spoke to the
vendor, they told me of the cold and
impersonal mailing, obviously disap-
pointed in the brusque way it was
done. A marvelous opportunity was
missed to engender some real good-
will, and probably some ill will was
fostered. Often it is the little things like
this that can make or break an excel-
lent relationship with vendors and in
turn spell your success or failure in the
hamfest.
While the hamfest committee is ba-
sically responsible for making it happen,
it is largely a thankless job. As a club
member, give them all the support you
can and then some! A hamfest MUST
be run as a business. If you are inca-
pable of doing that, as many of us are,
or if you don't have the time or desire
to do it, well, then don't volunteer to
be on the committee. Volunteer for one
of the other jobs involved in running a
hamfest, like setting up tables, chairs,
helping with parking, or one of the
endless list of things that need to be
done to have a successful hamfest.
With luday's free telephone calls al-
lowed lo many subscribers or the inex-
pensive 3- to 10-cents*a-minute long
distance charges for others, it is not an
expensive thing lo do to make a lew
calls for the committee, and it can be a
great big help to them. Here's another
thing to do after the hamfest. No longer
than 30 days after, send a thank -you let-
ter to all of the commercial exhibitors
... the Alincos, Icoms, Kenwoods, and
Yaesus. Send thank-you letters to the
dealers and to everyone who bought
booth space. Possibly include the reg-
istered flea marketers — especialh if
they BOUGHT table space. A short
telephone call a few weeks after ihai
for follow-up might ask what they
liked and what you could do to make it
a better atTair for ihem next time.
When making such calls, be sure they
have a business flavor be tactful, be a
good listener and above all do not pro-
long die call — be respectful of Lhc
value of the other person \s time. Ev-
eryone enjoys a little personal atten-
tion, and most will welcome the
opportunity to give their comments or
complaints about the show. Be sure to
thank them for their time and. finally,
try to get a commitment fur next year's
hamfest. Then a few months later
niiike a foUow-up call, again using
members with free phone privileges.
By spreading out ihe effort, you will
give members a sense of involvement
without bein^ too demandine of their
time and money. Make sure you pick
the people who make the calls VERY
CARHFULLY. Try lo use die brightest
crayons in the box to do thi^ for the
club.
Consider offering a prize for the
"BEST" commercial display. Maybe
for the size or inventory. Maybe for
having the most visitors. Maybe for
havine tlie best HAM and NONHAM
infonnation to pass out, verbally and
on paper. Maybe for the most exciting
booth for **NONHAMS" ... let's not
forget them. Maybe for being espe-
cially helpful to youngsters. The prize
miubl be a free booth the following
year, or a discount, or an award plaque.
A comment here for flea marketers!
A little soap and water, a wiping or
dusting rag, and a little elbow grease
please! Clean equipment ALWAYS
sells better and for more money.
Ladies' programs seem to be forgot-
ten lately. We found out many years
ago that more OMs would show up at
hamfests if the YLs had somethina to
do or see. Hundreds of YLs would
show up for the Tupperware, Avon,
etc., seminars and demos. How many
of you have stayed at home on a
hcUTifest weekend because the YL
wanted to be with you and had no inter-
est in the hamfest? A ladies' program
might make the difference.
How' about an incentive to any ham
bringing a lionham/' getting a free ad-
mission for his friend. 'Miile hams are
not cheap, hi hi, they might bring in
more guests, for the right incentive.
This could work towards doubling the
attendance to the show and exposing a
lol of new folks to the hobby.
How about a buffet dinner and open
bar for the first hour on Saturdav nis^ht,
for the vendors and committee only?
An excellent way to get to know the
vendors and their tikes and dislikes.
Then, after the first hour, open the
party to everyone on a cash basis. The
profits from the general crowd will
help defray the costs for the free party.
The general crowd will be able to
mingle and talk to the vend(jrs in a
more relaxed atmosphere and environ-
ment. Be prepared to hear comments
from some of the vendors about being
tired after traveling, maybe all night or
all day, and then setting up their booths
and standing all dav Iojili, and be un-
derstanding. Think about questions that
may be asked and have the answ^ers in
advance.
Every hamfest needs to have an in-
teractive Elmer booth. You should
have at least one demo going on at all
hours of ihe show. It can be anything
from kit building, APRS demo, build-
ing an antenna, ATV demo, to filling
out a QSL card. Get members of the
dub tt> help who have favorite special-
ties. Not only newcomers, but other
members of the club can Icam from
this booth.
Vendors sometimes attend with a
minimum size crew and if business is
good, it might be difficult for them to
get away for coffee, doughnuts, lunch,
potty breaks, etc. Some years ago I
suggested using Boy Scouts, Girl
Scouts, CAP cadets, etc, as help for
the xendors, to watch the booth for a
few minutes, run for coffee, get a sand-
wich, etc. If your event is in a faciHiy
that wants no outside food or drinks
brought in, use this to vour advantage.
Ask them to provide this service for
you. They make a little extra money,
and you are not burdened with this
detail. You might even be able to
strike a good deal with them for cater-
ing your Saturday night budel. Caution
the young volunteers not to interfere
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73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 37
with the vendors' activities and to only
respond u> requests for assistance.
If you have access to a large elec-
tronic billboard next to a major ex-
pre!>sway. advertise ihe eseivi a month
or two beforehand. Have a radio per-
sonality plug your hamtesl. Allow the
radio station to set up a booth at the
hamfest al no cost to the club. Many
amateur radio clubs have members
who are in these various fields who
can be called upon to help. Arm your
pu hi icily committee with enough good
PR inlorrnalion to make it easy for
these folks to provide you with the
publicity. Publicise the public service
ynur club provides in your advertising.
Make sure yonr event is well adver-
tised ill the ham magazines and other
ham publications. Get listed in the
'^Events Calendar. " Drop oit flyers at
your local Radio Shack and eleclrnnics
parts stores, but make sure you ask
permission first Use your Web site to
advertise the event, and be sure your
Web site is updated and carries no in-
formation that would detract fiom the
positive image of a viable club.
Be sure your club members who at-
tend other hamfests are we!! supplied
with your llyers to make them avail-
able at I hose hamfests.
One of the toughest problems that
especially new, stari-np hamfests are
faced with is picking a date and ex-
plaining to thousands of people why
your date conflicts with another
hamfest or event. In many areas you
can find a hamfest within an hour or
two drive EVERY weekend through-
out the summer and sometimes into
the wintertime. Here's w^hat to do. If
you want your event lo take place in
July and you know of a good site, a
fairground, a coUseum, a convention
center, etc., send a committee to check
out the prices and availability of space
for July, ir you find out that the best
time for your event is already taken,
use it to your advantage. See ilyou can
join forces with them and hold both
event.s ut the same time at the same
location. If the hobbies are compat-
ible, this is an excellent way to intro-
duce a whole new group of one hobby to
the other You might even join forces
with another ham club. By doing so*
38 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
you effectively double your available
workforce. One BIG plus to this is that
now you may have THE NUMBERS,
that major vendors and magazine pub-
lishers look at to attract them to your
event-
A trap that new start-up hamfests
should not fall into is for eager people
that want to start aiunher Dayton. Most
of the time they lack the experience
and or background to do it RIGHT. A
NATIONAL convention held some 25
years ago. involved a club that had not
run a national cunvcjition for more
than 5 years. Many of the older mem-
bers who were involved in the prior
event were not available. The remain-
ing veiT-we II -meaning and eager
members who decided to "PUT ON
THE SHOW^^ had little or no CUR-
RENT experience. But even so, some-
times things that worked 5 to 10 years
before simply don't tly today, although
experience is a GREAT teacher. Mak-
ing the hours longer is not attractive to
exhibitors. Especially on hard floors.
So place carpets In booths even if they
are a gaudy color. Exhibitors will ap-
preciate it. These carpel pads are avail-
able from local carpel stores, which
will often give them away. These pads
will also make nice pads to put between
items so they don't get scratched in tran-
sit. You might want lo provide several
for yourself and other people manning
the booth.
Now here is something that should
interest all of you: making mot^ money
for the club and cutting down on the fi-
nancial exposure. Start by planning the
purchase of the major door prizes. Pick
a dollar amount you think is reasonable.
Bu) ilie prizes or make a conmiitmeni
to buy them. Put the w^ord out as to
what you arc going to be giving away
at your event and be sure everjahing
goes as planned
Maybe you had a gi^ioi WoM out at
last year's hamfest and you expect the
same or better tills year. But MLTIPHY
strikes. It rains, it snows, or you have
60 mph winds forecast or it's 110 de-
grees in the shade. Less than one half
of the last year's attendance shows up.
You have spent or committed your
"wad" on the door prizes. You don't
take Ln enough money lo pay some of
die other expenses you cx:curred. Where
do we go from here?
How about if the committee had de-
cided lo commit to only "one" major
door prize. Or if the club states in their
flyers that a certain percentage ot the
gate receipts w^ill be spent on dour
prizes. The flyer can even slate that the
more attendees who show up, the more
door prizes Uiere will be. By doing ihis,
you have held your up-front exposure
and expenses to a minimum. II you have
a good accounting system in place,
you know what advance monies have
come in and how much is cnmniitlcd.
Now comes a good part! You notify
all your prospective vendors that all
door prizes will be purchased from
vendors Uiat attend your event and tliat
special mention will be made for that
vendor One hamfest that I know of in
the West keeps an hourly account of
the gale receipts as they come in. They
take the agreed percentage of the gate
around the floor and continue to buy
from as many of the attending v endors
as possible after getting some feed-
back as to what items might make the
best door prizes. The first year they did
this they spent more than twice the
amount they spent the year be lore on
dotir prizes, and had a lot more money
[ell for the club also. Remember, you
arc only spending a percentage of Ihe
gate receipts.
This only scratches the surface of a
very complex issue, I hope that 1 have
given you food for thought and caused
you lo rethink some of the things you
may be doing now. All of these ideas
mav not work all of the time. Ideas
that did work years ago in one area
may not work there again, but might
work in another area or al another
time.
This is a collection of thoughts and
ideas and experiences that I have been
exposed to over many years. Giving
credit to all of the people who have
added thoughts and ideas for this ar-
ticle over the years would be impos-
sible. But thanks very much for your
input and thoughts over those many
years. If anyone reading this gets just
one good idea or constructive thought
to use* this effort will have been more
than worthwhile.
Chlendrr euents
Listings af'^-Xfi^ff pf charge ^s space permits. Please send us your Caiendar Event two months in
advance of the issue you wa.nt it to appear in. For example, if you want it to appear in tlie
March issue, we sliould receive it by December 31. Provide a clear, concise summary of the
essential details about your Caiendar Event
JAN 11
GREENWOOD, SC The Greenwood ARS
2003 Hamfest wiiJ be held at Greenwood Civic
Center, January 11th, 2003, Contact W4JAK,
President, GARS, 106 Dorchester Dr.,
Greenwood SC 29646, for further information.
JAN 26
NEW PHILADELPHIA, OH The Tusco ARC
Hamfest will be held at New Towne Mall, 400
Mill Ave. SE. New Philadelphia OH. Sunday,
January 26th 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Setup is at 6
a,m. Admission is a S4 donation al the door,
dealers admitted at no charge. Tables S11
each. Food will be available on site and starting
at 7 a.m. at the restaurant next door.
Directions: Exit 81 off 1-77 to SR 250 East to
SR 416 Exit, At end of ramp, turn left at light
(under SR 250 bridge), then turn right at the
firs! light. New Towne Malf is on the left. Talk-
in on 146.730{-). Free parking available at
the mall. Dealers welcome. ARRL/VEC
sponsored exams by appointment. For
additional info and to reserve tables, contact
Gary Greer} KB6WFN, 32210 Norris fld,
Tippecanoe OH 44699. Phone 740-922-
4454: or E-mail [kb8wfn@tusco.net].
Reservations must be paid in advance and
received by January 20th to insure the return
of reservation confirmation. Remember to
enclose an SASE. Make checks payable to
Tusco Amateur Radio Club.
SPECIAL EVENTS, ETC.
DEC 14, 15
WICHITA, KS Special Event Station W0SOE
will be on the air from the Kansas Aviation
iVIuseum in Wichita KS from 13:00Z December
14th to 23:O0Z December 15th, to celebrate
the 70th birthday of WARC, and the official
opening of the Club station in the old municipal
airport building- Listen on or near the
frequencies of 7,270, 14.270, 21.370 and
28.320 IVIHz, A certificate will be available for
confirmed contacts. Send an SASE to Bob
N4BM, 12135 W. Lynndale, Wichita KS 67235.
For more details, visit the club Web site at
[http://www, ware 1 , org].
Neuer shv die
continued from page 8
lived entirely separately and cooperated
to close down any Fijian who dared to
start a competitive business. In otlier
countries it was the Chinese who w^ere
hated . . . for the same reason.
The situation in Germany in the 1930s
was similar J with the Jews protecting
each other in business in the same way.
This made it easy for Hitler to use the
German hatred of the Jews as a way to
build his power.
When I was young any major Ameri-
can business wouldn't consider hiring a
Catholic or a Jew. Jusi as most liotels
were closed to blacks until fairly re-
cently, many of the hotels in the 1930s
were ''restricted." That meant no Jews
permitted.
I remember when I started tiiy first
business in 1951 to make loudspeaker
enciosures. The office was a desk in my
bedroom in my folks' house in Brooklyn
and my first employee was Jordan Polly
K2AZL. My father was aghast. He's ...
he*s ... he's a Jew!
In the past immigrating groups at first
kept together in enclaves, but by the sec-
ond generation the integration of the
Irish, Italians, Germans, Poles, and other
Europeans had toirned most immigrant
families into Americans.
The color difference has made black-
white integration much more difficult.
Ditto the brown-white integration. But,
maybe a few more generations will solve
most of our ethnic conflicts.
When I was in college sixty years ago.
w^e had a few Hispanics, onG^ black, and a
few Jews. The Jews had their own frater-
nity and didn't mix with the rest of the
students. The black was in several of my
classes and it never occurred to any of us
to think of hitii as anything but just an-
other student. The Hispanics didn't keep
separate either. I remember often bring-
ins a classmate from Bolivia to my
ham station .so he could talk with his
family in Cochabamba via CP5EA (I
still remember the ham's call).
The more ethnic groups stick together
and avoid speaking English, the longer
integration is going to lake. The longer
ihey hold onto being Mexican- Ameri-
cans instead of Americans, the more
probletns they're going to have enjoying
the benefits of being American.
The blacks have done it to themselves
by insisting on being African-Americans
instead of Americans. Note that 'Afri-
can'' comes first. Yet I doubt that you'll
be able to find any American blacks with
the slightest interest in living in any of
the African countries. Fve only visited
ten African countries so far, but I sure
wouldn't want to have to live in any of
them.
When an Irish-American man mames
an Italian- American woman, arc their
children Irish-Italian- Americans? No.
they ' re Americans . Period .
Hnrnij so how about the Chinese? I
haven't seen any sign of them making
any effort to integrate. Our local Chinese
restaurant has been run by a different
Chinese family every couple of years,
with none of them making any effort to
learn English except the waiter ... and
then just enough to deal with customers.
What master organization is setting up
these thousands of Chinese restaurants?
Where are they getting the families to
run them? Who suddenly moves one
family out and another in overnit^ht? Are
we being infiltrated with ''sleepers" in
preparation for an eventual war with
China? Every little town in New Hamp-
shire has one or two Chinese resiaurants.
Is it the same where you live?
Our Schools
Have you ever wondered why our
public school system is so bad, and why
it's getting worse? As usual, just follow
die money.
The teacher unions, which have well-
heeled lobbyists in Washington and in
every state capital, have a huge vested
interest in tilings not changing (except for
the government spending more money),
and they're willing to spend whatever it
takes to make sure nothing really ch binges.
Then there's the government. It's
run by three groups — Congress, the
Continued on page 57
73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 39
Rboue & Bevond
VHF and Above Operation
C.L. Houghton WB6IGP
San Diego Microwave Group
6345 Badger Lake Ave.
San Diego CA32tt9
[Wb6igp@ham-radio.com
[dhough @ pacbeli .net
Microwave Frequency Meters
Frequency meters and Chrisimas time, f hope you have a counter in your Christmas stocking
this year. If you donX here are some of my suggestions for your next Christmas wish list.
A]] of the mentioned fnequencycoymers
I currenilv have or have used on niv
workbeiicK. Hope yuu loo can locate one of
these fine frequency counters in surplus at
a reasonable cosi for vour workbench.
Just the mention of the frequency counter
topic brings mctnories of my fii^t frequency
meter for which I barely remember the pari
number If I remember correct I v, ii was an
HP-523 mainiranic aboul one half the size
of a bale of hay and accepting a plug-in to
extend its mainframe frequency range from
10 MH/ to tJie ouirageoub upper frequency
of 500 Mm.
Ii weighed a ton. seemed like maybe 50
to 75 pounds as I remember, I could check
carefully after a Z-hour wann-up (great on
a cold night from all the tubes in^^tde) and
measure m\ --niciei en sul-cimirolied HT.
All 2 channels narrow band FM. To this day
1 don'i remember if ihe HP-523 relays or
tlie b]ovver fan produced more noise, bui it
was a great shack warmer This was in the
late '60s to early *70s, I should have kepi
that frequency counter, as it would be a great
museum piece now.
Today if we can't measure our microwave
10 GH? frequency hopefully to less than
Phoio A. HP- 5 MO compunng counter: basic 3o0 MHz mainframe and good to 18 GHz
with associated plugs. Can tise the same plug-ins as the HP- 5245 counter hut requires an
HP105S6A to adapt the physically smaller 5245 plug-ins to the larger HP-5S60 main-
frame^ This IIP-5J60 counter is shown berween an old Drake R7 monitor receiver and a
60 kHz VLF tracking receiver for time and frequency accuracy comparisons to \\^W\^B at
60kHz^ This frequency counier is capable of reading accuracy of a few millihertz. Shown
in picture is 10 MHz measurement to 9 decimal points or 9 MHz accuracy.
40 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
I kHz accuracy, il's not doine well at all
(from a mierowaver point of view). With-
out knowing where we are located as to our
operational frequency on microwave, it
would be disastrous. I would compare op-
erations to tr\ ing to fish in murkv waters
where you have no clue where the fish arc
and just hope one swims by for the ban. At
least when you know where you are tuned
to for operations as to frequency, it elimi-
nates one wobble in the cos on your wagon.
In Photo A the VLF receiver located below
the HP5360 counter was used to keep (he
main counter time base reference accurate
comparing it to WWWB on 60 kHz, Now I
use aTrinible GPS receiver tracking 10 sal-
el litcs and making frequency reference mea-
surenients to parts in ten to the twellili to
ensure frequency meter accuracy. But that
is another story for another column.
Other wobbles to minimize for good suc-
cess at microwave operations are system
sensitivity, transmitter power output, good
SWR match to the antenna, proper point-
ing of the antenna system, liaison talk chan-
nels, and plain old good propagation for
contacts. AIL necessarv^ objectives, but if you
cannot verify frequency, you're swatting at
tlies in a dark room blindfolded
There are many variatioiisof c^ouniers and
different attributes to choose fa>m in both
swap meets and auctions like eBay. The nice
thing about frequency counters is that they
are such a prolific device, used in almost
every commercial shop, making them about
as plentiful as the Pentax camera mount
!ens. To a very large extent they are avail-
able in surplus in great quantity. The
counters 1 am to describe are not the only
ones available but rather what I have been
able to find and have on mv workbench.
In my shack on the workbench 1 have
the old v^ orkhorse HP-5245, whose main-
frame is good to 50 MH? and frequency
is exianded to 18 GHz with appropriate
plug-ins. The time base is not bad bul I rate
ii fair, accurate to about I pari in 10 to tlie
6th or 7th over a short mn. Not bad for a
\\urkhorse and an inexpensive counter ibai\
quite available.
With the time base runntivg off a station
master frequency 1 MHz clock (AN URQ-
H)A), the time base clock is less than
I {} millihertz, improving accuracy due to
external frequency reference. Plug- ins thai
are available are the S257-A, which acts as
a transfer oscillator and converts input RF
to 50 MHz mainframe from any frequency
in the 50 MHz to 1 8 GH? input range. There
are other HP i Hewlett Packard) plug-ins
available that \^nll function from 150 MH?:
to 3 GHz (5254C), and the 5255A plug-in
from 3 to 12.4 GHz. Still a very handy
counter selling for S5 to S40 at swap meets»
with the frequency counter plug-ins for
slightly more. Have seen the 5256A, an
8 GHz Lo 1 8 GHz PIU, go for $65 each,
working of course.
An update of ihe HP-5245 is the HP-
5248L. which is good to 150 MHz directly
and has a better time base oscillator than its
brother the HP-5245. Externally, it looks
identical to the HP-5245; you ha\e to read
the counter label to know the diflTerence.
Both counters accept the same brand of
plug-ins. The 5248 counter is a little harder
to find on the surplus market but still some-
what available, selling for S40 to $75 for
the mainframe counter — sometimes with
an orphaned plug-in unit.
Getting into specialty counters are the
HP-5360-A computing counter which has
three inpui ports, DC to 1 0 MHz, 1 kHz to
300 MHz. and a plug-in of your choice, us-
ing the same plug-ins as the HP-5245
counter. To do so requires a plug-in drawer
adapter HP-10536A. The 5245 PIUs are
smaller than the opening on the 5360 so the
adapter unit must be used or else use the
very expensive 5345 plug-in units. Another
pricey counter Similar bul not exact. The
5345 will function to 18 GHz as the 5360,
but the difference is that the 5360-A will do
Boolean algebra using all three of its RF
inpiii pi>rts. It uses all ihree ports to calcu-
late exact frequencies, sampling IF strips,
local oscillators and such, and RF conver-
sion LOs all at the same time, and almost
tell you which one is off frequency, and how
lo reset it* The 5360A is also a very fast
counter and can do period sampling at RF.
One tlick of the quickest tlnger on the VTT
switch, be it 2 meters or 1 296, and ii counts
it 10 a hertz if asked to perform, tt's a speed-
ster. Ti me base just as gtxid as my URQ- 1 OA,
which is under 10 millihertz accuracy at
;
clock frequency and very stable for long
periods of lime, Surplus cost in the SI 00
to S200 range or more when working and
S40 when broken, miiinly because it has
a hand wrapped motherboard, a real TTL
giant to trouble shoot. A giga bunch of
ICs* if not a thousand. I would pick up a
dead HP-5360 just for the master time
base oscillator to use as a great reference.
Then comes in surplus the HP-5328A
counter good lo 500 MHz, very good for
low frequency work and I believe not too
long removed from HP catalogs as a sale
item. It's capable of period and frequency
measurements to 1 part in 10 to the 8th
and reasonably fast in operation. Cost on
the surplus market is about S75 to $100,
depending on condition and ihe gleam in
the buyer's eye.
Now comes some real special toys — the
EIP-451 microwave counter, which is an
autohci counter from 300 MHz to 1 S GHz.
Autohet means no tuning, just plug and play,
insert the frequency under test at prot>cr
level and there is your frequency displayed
accurately to 10 kHz intervals, lis sensitiv-
ity frequency is from -10 to +10 dBm for
input power It's a very versatile fast
counter, small profile, ihree inches high,
19-inch rack mount. Two inputs, 300 MHz
!o 950 MHz and 900 MHz to 1 8 GHz direct
reading. Will not read down to a hertz but
will tell you to 1 0 kHz accuracy points, Vciy
good for quick bench confirmation work at
microwave. Cost surplus $ 1 50 and up, again
depending on the gleam in the buyer's eye.
Photo B.
Ttie companion counter in the Hewlett
Packard arsenal is the HP'5340. Tliis is a
very nice top-of-the-line counter thai is also
autohet from DC to 1 8 GHz. It has a very
accurate time base and is sensitive to about
minus 20 to near 30 dB on RF to 18 GHz.
Will read frequency to I hertz accuracy or
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meets in the [.os Angeles area, Don*t know
if working or not ai thai low price.
1 have not had much experience with this
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has been a unit I have looked forward to
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In the short time I have been using this
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73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 41
only i 111 pro vemeiu would be if it coulilfeaci
frequency higher than 18 GHz to include
our 24 GHz mnaleur band endeavors,
I have no plans to get rid of any of the
previou.slj mentioned couiners, us lhe> all
serve a specific use on the woricbcnch. The
5245 requires u plug-in ihat will give accu-
rate readings irum 3 to 1 2,4 GHz and is used
for final LO adjusimenl of frequency
sources. With the use of a plug-in, it is
accurate bui requires setUng the Tmal fre-
quency to be read to within 50 MHz hash
martis on the plug -in dial to obtain results,
It is ptissible lo be upside down in 50 MHz
dctcriiiinalion as it will be translated off
frequency if you are nol carelul to read a
higher 50 MHz increment.
For example, reading a frequency of
3456 MHz, it is possible to set die 50 MHz
diid to 3450 and read 6 MHz on the main-
frame counter. If going to the next higher
50 MHz increment of 350(K the counter will
read upside down or 44 MHz, the inverse
of 50 MHz -6 MHz. You just have to be
careful and make sure you arc using tlic low
side frequency not the high side product of
this plug'in unit. Come up in frequency
fiT^m the low frequency end of the plug-in
expected frequency and you should ha\ e no
tixiuble finding die proper frequency. This
little trick will eliminate your being iricl
into using a high side mix product.
Same results for the computing counter
( w hen using HP plug-in units) the HP-5360
will read correctly up to 300 MHz as it uses
the mainframe basic counter and not the
plug-in. I use ihc computing counter for
making high accuracy frequency measure-
ments, as I tmsi it !o be accurate to less than
1 0 mi Hi hertz. That's reading a 10 MHz fre-
quency and displaying the frequency to read
10.006,000,009 MHz accurately with sam-
pling (clocking) going on every 100 milli-
seconds (tendis of a second). This connter
is fasU accurate, imd still working, Consid-
ering its age of 15 tn 20 years, Qiis is very
remarkable for the quiility HP put into these
counters.
t have 3 other 5360s that don't work due
Ui troubles and old a^ic. Kerrv N6IZW and
1 have been using these hangar queens to
maintain the working counters we have. 1
will be very unhappy when I lose the last
working 5360 1 have: il hits been a pleasure
lo use it to sample TCXOs for proper op-
eration to a very fine resolution in frequency
quickly. The HP-5328A is the backup
counter for this operation. Tl w ill display a
10 MHz frequency to 7 decimal places, I
guess I am somewhat crazy in that if one is
Photo B. ElP-451 mainframe has two fiequency iupim. Input #A MKI lo 950 MH:. ami
iaput ^2, 900 MHz to JS GHz. The coitnier displays frequency in attiolwi fashion in 10
kHz steps fines! resolution. The EfP counter is locked in on my workfjench perched just
below my HP'H620 sweeper fluu has simitar capabilities as ilw EfP counter. !wo lo eigh-
teen GHz operations. Just above the ElP-45! is my new HP-5340 frequency counter, also
autohet, with higher minimum input sensitivity, greater than anything f have had before.
Input umsitiiiiy is about tninus SO dB input and good from I MHz to IS GHz. A real find
and sotnethmg every microwave enthusiast should have on their Christinas list.
42 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
gdod, a backup is essential, at least if you
don*t want to be stuck with repairing equip-
ment part of the dme. Also it*s not a bad
idea for you to collect broken instruments
inexpensively for a source of parts to keep
your good stuff running and a source for
knobs and source for specialized pans
particular to the unit you are using. We
have come to call these pari^ devices "Han-
gar Queens/' giving us the :ibiliiy of pans
robbing on a defunct unit,
I broke several knobs on my 8620 HP
sweeper mainframe over years of usl\ and
HP wanted over $35 per knob. 1 was able lo
purchase a defunct HP-S620A broken but
with a good set of knobs for $25. 1 did not
even turn it on to see if il worked as all I
warned was the set of knobs. On a lark I
(ircd the new junker up with my plug in-
scrLed and it worked belter than my main-
frame. I deposited my old muinrrame in ihe
working- hut-spare hangar queen deposiiory.
Yes, you must have some space to store all
this stuff, hut then it's onlv a hobbv and the
Stuff is not stored under the couch in the
living room. Got lo keep some of these
ihings in perspective. Anybody need Si)me
HP plug-ins? I have too many in storage for
200 to 3 GHz and 8 to 18 GHz — whai was
1 thinking at (hose swap meets? 1 guess that
if one is sood then two or three are even
better!
As to the EIP-45K it's a quick counter to
verify ihings are functioning as well as ex-
pected, and il is die workbench quick an-
swer lu many rrequency-relalcd questions.
It has limitations, as do all things — one
being in that it will not read below 300 MHz
at alk and resolution is onlv iiood lo 10 kHz
steps. If thai is a problem then it's not a
counter for you. I personally love it and
hiuhlv recommend il.
If reading below 300 MHz is a problem,
gel a plastic handheld counter like the
Digimax or many other handheld counters,
I have two of them, one that functions lo
500 MHz and another that reads to 1 .2 GHz.
Keeping charged batteries in these units has
become a problem and they're not used very
often; howeven they're sdll on the work-
bench and work when the batteries are on
speaking temis \\ iih me. If this is not suit-
able, then save up and find an HP5340. It
will be accurate, fast, and reads from DC lo
1 8 GHz. All you have to do is nnt purchase
I hat new HT you have been ogling and gt>
to swap meets and find a 5340 in working
order, then join in on the fun with a top- line
counter for amateur microwave work.
Well, that's all the damage I can cause
Continued on page 56
On the Go
Mobile, Portable and Emergency Operation
Steve Nowak KE8YN/7
804 Bonanza Trail
Cheyenne WY 82009
IKE8 YN ©netzero.neij
Dear Santa,
Wiihoui making any claims about how
*:uod I have or have not been, Tm
sending you my Christmas list. I don't watil
to sound greedy, bui the list is a bit longer
than normal this year. You have always
seemed preiiy creative, and this year you
may have to issue extra thinking caps for
die ekes. Unfortunately, many oi^ ihe items
on my list have not been invented yel.
Formy emeigency support work, V II need
a few things. Usually I ask you (or exira
baliery packs for the HT. This yean how
about a baiterv' system thai uses intcrchaniie-
able batteries like ihe baner\ packs that can
be used in electric drills and other power
tools'? Different radios would have adapt-
ers to allow the appropriate number of these
interchangeable batteries to be used. You
could even use different numbers of cells
for high power or iow^ power transmitter
outputs. They could be used for everything
from handie-taikies to emergency lights fn
laptops. In fact, in the event of an emergency
I could pull the batteries from the power
tools and put them with the ham gear
With such a high importance on emer-
gency ctnnmunicalions, a clear identity for
amateur radio operators thai would be rec-
ognized by Homeland Security and local
public officials would be great. This could
be used for everything from ID cards lo
ideniif) ing vehicles used for support opera-
tions. ARES and RACES cards are good if
you want to be greeted w ith a blank siare,
so coming up with something beiier
shouldn't be too hard. Maybe Honiehmd
Securit) cuuld provide cards that would
identify hams as similar to the old Civil
Defense volunteers.
I'd also like a good all-band antenna that
can be erected quickly. In fact, tor the high
whtds in Wyoming, one that erected itself
and CDiild be retracted in high wind would
be perfect. Tm sure dial the folks along the
Atlantic and GulT Coasts would appreciale
such a device during hurricane season. Ide-
ally it could be retracted into a position ihat
did no! preseni a hazard to others.
For portable operations, why noi send a
selection of antennas. Tve always thought
that hams should have an antenna bag
^
comparable to a golf bag. ll would have
small flexible antennas, mid-sized antennas
and the big dogs. You could have an antenna
bag for each radio, I caji almost hear a ham
deciding which antenna to use. ^'Hmmm.
This is adifriculi pt)siiinn. I guess Til have
to use the 5/8 wave."
Speaking of antennas, how about a nice
mobile antenna that covers 10 meters and
up Oiat can be driven into a commercial
parking garage without hitting the o\'erhead
obstructions? And while vou're at it, Fve
been dreaming of a durable antenna mount
that can be used on tixlay^s alloy and plas-
tic cars. Something that doesn't use mag-
nets, doesn't require djilling visible holes
in the auto body and doesn't fear plastic
bumpers. Maybe a double screwdriver an-
tenna. Have one switch to tune the antenna
and another to retract i[ before pulling into
the low overhead parking deck.
As you know^, Santa, 1 do a lot of my ham
radio operating from Ihe car, so naturally I
am as fnterested in what goes into the car
as well as what goes on it. I\i really like lo
take advantage of some of the technology
that has become commonplace in ihe last
few years. I like the detachable control
heads that are becoming commonplace, but
we need to go a step or two fun her. Ideally,
a clear LCD display could be mounted on
the top of the dashboard as a heads-up-dis-
play. You could see the necessar>' informa-
tion and vet not have it obstruct vour \1ew
of the road. Add a few LEDs at the edge
and YOU could even use it at night.
If I can't have my heads-up-display, then
can ihe control heads be made a little thin-
ner or others ise designed so that they can
be mounted by Velcro* lo the dashboard
with no loss of functionality? There's got
10 be some good way lo mount a radio in
todav*s cars without a tot of hassle. Putdnc
the main portion of the radio under the seal
works well just a little more ingenuity for
ihe controls would make it significantly
better,
1 can program one of my mobile radios
by connecting it to my lajitop computer with
a serial cable. What Fd like to do to trans-
fer the same inibrmaiion using the infrared
feature on my laptop or PDA, Imagine how
handy it would be to keep the repeater fre-
quencies for various cities stored in the
pocket computer. Press the beam button and
those would he transferred to the radio.
Travel to a different city and you could
reprogram your radio with no hassle.
On a smaller scale, Vd really like a new
handie-talkie case. The ideal case would be
easily attached to the belt without having
10 unbuckle the belL periiaps using a du-
rable bell clip or a hea^^-duiy Velcro strap.
It would be well padded and provide
protection from rain. Finally, it would
be designed so that the connection of ear-
phones, microphones, etc., could occur
within the case w ithout breaking the plugs
or stressing the radio. It would be easy to
remove the radio from the case or the radio
and case together, but w ould never, ever fall
oflf*
Santa, there are several things Tve been
wishing for, for many years, Td love a good
reason to get into 1.2 GHz, There*s just
some kind of cachet about that rrcqucncy,
but 1 haven't been convinced to make the
jump, yel- And anotiier thing, I haven" I seen
a sigjiificant change in repeaters in 20 years.
The same computer-generated voice has
been heard IDing repealers from coast to
coast since 1 first got my license. Maybe
this year we could go digital or sometliing?
fd really like to see something different —
in fact anything different. Two meters used
to be exciting, but now that we all have cell
phones* iTs kind of losing ground.
ATV has always fascinated me. but has
been a bit costly. Can you leave me a book
that tells me how to use low-cost compo-
nenLs and softwat^ that would use my ex-
isting 440 MHz equipment? Cameras that
mount on lop of computers are relatively
inexpensive. Could one of these be used?
1 love APRS* and often run it frojn my
car. Maybe you could leave a new APRS
rig with a real video screen designed for
mobile work under my Christmas tree. 1 like
the features in mobile systems, but a screen
display that is visible in a wide range of
ConLinued on page 56
73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 43
Hrmsrts
Amateur Radio Via Satellites
Andy MacAllister W5ACM
14714 Knights Way Drive
Houston TX 77083-5640
In Pursuit of Mode A
Just when you think AMSAT-OSCAR-J (AO-7) is permanently hung hi Mode B (70 cm up and
two meters down), it waives up in Mode A (two meters up and 10 meters down). This was fine
22 years ago when mosl satellite diasersliad excellent, or at least adequate 1 0-meter antennas, but
it^s not the case anymore. Most Immsat enthusiasts liave gone on to VHF, UHF, and microwave
antenna arrays.
Since Pal Go wen G3rOR's discc*¥^ on
June 20th of AO-7's rebirth, hundreds
of hams around Lhe world have been moni-
toring lelenielry and making contacts
through this amazing satellite. The last time
AO-7 was heard was in 198 L When ihc in-
ternal batteries shorted out over 21 years
ago, the satellite was given up for losL Now,
with the batteries in an open-circuit mode,
the satellite has been operational whenever
the solar panels are illuminated. Don't give
up on a pass if nothing is heard when the
saielliie comes over the horizon. Many
limes, especially during late evening passes,
AO-7 may be in darkness, and nut yet trans-
mitting. A significant pT^oblem is thai when
AO-7 Hnally Lurns on when fully illumi-
nated, it comes up iti a random fashion. Ii
could he in Mode A, Mode B, ModL^ C
(tow-power version of Mode B), or Mode
D (recharge). The 70-cm beacon may also
come on when the satellite is in Mode A or
Mode D.
Many ptiicntial operators are not set up
for quality Mode A reception. While the
RS saieliites from the USSR made use of
10 meters for their downlink for manv
modes, tlie signals were usually so strong
that simple antennae would work, Di poles
and whips did well for all except RS-15.
which is very difficult to hear, even with a
good yagi. AO-7 can be heard and worked
with simple antennas, but tliere are better
alternatives.
Mode A on AO-7 actually works as well
?t% Mode B or Mode C, if you have the right
receive antenna. The Mode A transponder
is wider than the Mode B system, and it is
less susceptible to overload and the subse-
quent frequency shilling caused by strong
uplink signals. There arc also fewer strange
signals in the passband and less chance of
the satellite receiver having problems dur-
ing the course of a pass. Mode A can be a
lot of fun if you arc ready for it.
Mode A antennas
More is belter The best 10-meter antenna
for AO-7 reception would be a iliiiJli-ele-
ment crossed yagi tuned to 29,450 MHz
with a/imuth and elevation coniroL If you
live where there are no deed restrictions, go
for it. Build a six-element crossed yagi
(three elements vertical and diree horimn-
lal L "ict it for axial or circular polari/ation
(right- or left-handed), and enjoy. You may
also be able to make some rare RS-15 Mode
A contacts. While you are at it take some
pictures and send them to me!
The next best AO-7 Mode A antenna is a
vertically polarized Oiree-elemeni, 10-meter
yagi mounted on your satellite-antenna
boom. This assumes that your present sat-
ellite antenna array includes at least a VHF
two-meter hcam antenna and a 7()-cni beam
of similar size. If you have sufficient clear-
ance for such a 10-meter beam, and a rota-
tor system that will take the additional toad,
this arrangement will provide excellent re-
sults. Although there will be some fades
when the satellite's 1 0-meter antenna is out
of phase with yours, signals will be good
Photo A. The Texas Bugcatcher dipole adapter,
44 73 AmatBur Radio Today • December 2002
Photij B, The Pro-Ain DAK-AD dipole adapter.
even at ihe horizon, TTiere are a number of lii^hlweishi commcr-
cial lO-meier beams available, or you can build your own. It's not
a significant project, but when you put it up, your neighbors will
notice. Once again, lake pictures!
Another yagi aJtemaiive is a horizontally polarized beam located
fcjelow your hamsai antenna array. Mount the lO-meter beam just
abuAe the azimuth rotator. Place the elevation rotator far enough
above the 10-meter beam to allow the two-meter, 70-cm. and other
sateliite antennas to rotate in elevation wiUiout hitting the I O-meter
yagi. This will work an a tower where the a/innith rotator is m the
upper lower section wilh a thrust bearing al ihe tower top Just bc-
h)w the 10-meter yagi. Ii may also work wilh a sturdy azimuth
rotator above the lower or lop of a pole, when the usual satellite
array does not have serious wind loading chaniclerisiics. Although
the 10-meter yagi can only track azimuth witli this system, it W'ill
pruvide excellent reception ai the horizon and quite sufficient
operation on high-eievalion passes.
A good option wonh considering is a vertically poianzed dipole
on the satellite-antenna boom. Like the vertically polarized yagi. it
will need clearance for both azimuth and elevation rotation. If its
presence does not invalidate deed restrictions and it fits, this ar-
rangLTiiciii will provide excellent results lor most AO-7 passes.
The driven element from an old 10-meter beam will work welK or
you can design and build a decent dipole frnm aluminum tubing
with direct or ganiQ:ia-match feeds.
Another dipole option is a horizonially piilarized version. Like
the horizontal ly-polariited yagi, the best mouniing arrangement is
to place the dipole above the azimuth rotator, but below the eleva*
lion swing of the VHF and UHF antennas in the original satellite-
antenna array. If the dipole is mounted close to the VHFAJHF
antennas, it can be placed in-line with the booms of the VHFAJHF
antennas to allow them to swing past the dipole or in-line with the
satellite-antenna array boom. The latter condition will require that
the array never be allowed to closely approach 90 degrees, where
it will hit the dipole, unless the dtpole can bo offset a few feci in
front of the vertical mast. Both options have ihcir good and l>ad
points. With the dipole in-line with the bootns of the VHF/UHF
antennas, the dipole will no\ he oriented for quality reception. With
the dipole in-line with the VHF/UHF array boom, the possibility
for an inadvertent collision during overhead passes is dangerous.
Low-end options are numerous. Hang a 1 0-meter dipole m the
trees or use an existing outside 80-meter anienna. Connect to a
longwire or use some other outside HF" antenna. Verticals or hori-
zofical loops are also viable options. The worst-case situation is to
use an atdc- or room-mounted antenna. If you have any computers
in the house, anything in the attic or the radio room will pick up
noise that can easily mask the downlink from AO-7. You may
be able to log a contact or two, but it's not worth it. At least use
something outside, and iu the clear.
The compromise
With multiple HF antennas in flie attic and a few outside. Mode
A via AO-7 at W5ACM was marginaL The lO-meler attic dipole
had good reception, but computer and LAN noise was bad. The
outside SO-meter invened V was quiet, but didn't do well with the
ever-changing position of AO-7 in the sky.
My satellite antenna array includes yagis on 23 cm, 70 cm, and
two meters. A semi-dish with downconverter for i3-cm reception
is sandwiched between the 23-cm and 70-cm yagts. There is even
a i 5-meter dipole under this array parallel to the yagi booms, ft
was getting crowded, and deed-resiriction enforcement folks
wouldnH appreciate any 10-meier beams.
r
1=S
• L
it'
•J, .
2V-974
@
■^
lie CB Antenna
■■'^
■n
Fiberglass Wh
Replacement for RadtoShack
Single-Trucker Tunable
' Fiberglass Mirror- Mount
CB Antenna (#21-973)
Tunable for best perfortmance
Standard V*" 54 thread
connector
Photo C A Radio Shack nmahle whip CB antenna.
My second choice was a vertical dipole between the 70-cm yagi
and the IS-cm semi-dish/downconverter. There was space on die
solid fiberglass boom, but a full-size dipole was nearly 16 feet
long. A shorter version was still too long to clear the roof. I needed
an antenna that was no more than ten feet in total length*
Some prcliminQry Web searches turned up some possible loaded
whips from Radio Shack and two adapter mounts for making a
dipole using two mobile antennas with standard 3/8" x 24 threads.
Sources for the dual-whip adapters included Pro- Am 's DAK (lug
Photo />, Hemoving part of the coil from the HcuHo Shack whip
antenna.
73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 45
!tl9 . 4 1 4
50
a I
V
13 SbJR
F SWR ANALYZER
OdEL MF J-259B
Photo E, Before anr! after mmng the Radio Shack antennas for
the dipole,
connections) or DAK-AD {SO-239 connectar) and a similar unit
from Lhe Texas Bugcatcher made I rum statniess steel using lug
connectors for the coaxial cable. 1 also noted that the Pro- Am units
were also available as rnJiihorse Antenna prixlucis. After purchas-
ing the Texas Bugcatcher unit and the Pro- Am DAK-AD. I opted
for the siaialess-slccl unit, hut discovered that the bolts were <mly
long enough lo attach the unit to a IJ 25" bmiiti, and my llberglass
boom was larger (L25" diameter). The Pro-Am unit came with
two sets of mounting bolts. Neither the lung nor the short set was
stainless, but at least I could gel the Texas Bugcatcher adapicr on
the biHim with the long bulls, now permanently borrowed lYuni the
Pro- Am unit. Til worry about the rust later.
A tour uf the local Radio Shack store turned up what looked like
the perfcei antennas for my new dipotc. Although T had a list of
possible antennas gleaned from lhitp;//www,radioshackxoml, the
''Mobile CB Antenna — Tunable Fiberglass \^^ip**' part mimher 21-
974, appeared to l>e peri'eci, and ai a bit under S 15 each, a pair of these
fourTooi-long. while. uiickerCB whips looked like the answer.
Testing and adjusting
Back at the bouse, the two CB antennas were screwed into the
dipole adapter mounted on a ten-foot wooden pole, attached lo a
short length i)f RO-58 coax und tested in ilie back yard. Resonance
was found near 27 MHz using a MFJ~259B SWR analyzer The
tuning slugs in the ends of the shrink-iube-covered llbcrglass an-
tenna rods managed to move the resonant frequency <inly a few
hundred kHz. I was hoping for more, but they arc only designed
for the 1 1 -meter CB band. The tuning slugs were removed since
they would be ol little use for the nearly 2.5 MH/ move to the lop
of the iU- meter ham band,
A slit was cut in the shrink tubing on both antennas to tuid the
end of the wire used to make these top-loaded short whips. Pieces
of wire were unwrapped and cut off in fn e-inch incremenLs. After
removing 30'* of wire from bt>th whips, I had llnally reached the
goal of resonance in the lop nf the ten-meter band. In fact, I had
gone a bit past the desired target of 29.450 MHz — the center of
AO-7's Mode .\ downlink. Another 1.5 inches of wire were un-
wrapped from the end of each coil and turned out straight along the
fiberglass rods. This brought the resonant point to 29.414 MHz,
Close enough. The excess tlberglass was cut i>ff with a hacksaw,
the shrink tubing trimmed, a liltle glue was added to keep lhe wires
Continued on page 57
Photn E A close-up view of the dual-whip, now dipole, amcuna
mount.
46 73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002
Photo G. The finished short i 0-meter dipole mounted hetween the
70'Cm vagi and die 1 3 -cm .semi-disii/doivnconverten
The Digitrl Port
Jack Heller KB7N0
P.O. Box 1792
Carson City NV 89702
[http:i^ykb7no.lTome.att.net]
Fun Time
How about a little fun exercise today/ Well, mavbe some of us have a different definition of fun
and games, but tliis appeared to be a challenge in tlie beginning and tire more I played with it,
the more rewarding (FUN) it became.
I am speaking of getting the macros mas-
saged in OUQ glilie less-spoken-of pieces
of ham software, TrueTTY, available at
[wwwJxsoli.com/miiitty,htiii], Of course,
there is more to softwane than getting the
macros to cooperate, but even the best pro-
gram gives the feeling of a millstone when
we lia\c to do evervLhin? manual l\.
This is a really great package. Some of
you have used it I am sure, but I hear ver>
few on-the-air reports of its usage, though I
have heard users give glowing testimonials
once they use it for any length of time. I
think the real problem is it is different and
has a feeling of complexity. It is shareware,
rather than freeware, hut the registraiinn is
only $35 US.
Here are just a few items worth mentinn
aboui ihc program. I firsl got a copy ol ihis
about two years ago and the improvements
via revision have been coming in a steady
stream. The author, Sergei UA90SV, puts
forth a real effort to develop a good
package by making additions as hams
have requested.
One of tlie llrsi things you notice when
you download this program is the fact it is
so compact. Here is a mukimode conrunu-
nicalion package for RTTY, BPSK3L
AMTOR, and packet thai is abiiut 3/4 of a
megabyte total when zipped. That speaks
well for painstaking programming.
As the name suggests, the first thrust of
the software is RTTY, and it is a whiz-bang,
hard-to-beai program for tliat mode — very
responsive and intuitive. The layout of the
program display is not really foreign but
departs from what we tend to think of as
the '*nomi/' There is no waterfall Instead,
you tunc with a very effective spectral dis-
play, which is definiiive enough to give
reports on signal quaUiy even for BPSK
witliout an IMD readout.
It won't be long after you begin the in-
sialJation wlien you will hit the Help but-
ton. There is a neat, concise bit of
documeatation that 1 w anted to study a bit
and so I printed it Almost a surprise, the
entire file covers four pages and tells ev-
erything you need to know except one little
side trip click to the "macro- sequences" file
that covers the codes you need to get your
personal macros working. Short and to the
point — I like diat
Once you are past the setup portion of
the instaUadon, which is fairly straightfor-
ward as soundcard software goes, you will
want to gel to the macros. The furnished
macros are not ready to fly for your per-
sonal contacts. If 1 recall, the audior of the
program has his own into entered, and that
has an advantage because it gives you a
pattern to follow. I always welcome any
hints the author leaves for me.
After a few years of using many digital
soundcard prograrns I have devised a pat-
tern that I follow. "^\)u win notice from the
screenshot that the macro buttons are la-
beled, which helps me recall the pattern that
slides easily from the little gray cells. That
labeling technique I discovered almost by
accident in this software. 1 had the edit dis-
play on the monitor and clicked on the "Fl"
designator box and the cursor "stuck" there,
which meant I could edit ii. That promptly
became "CQ" instead of Fl and I was in
the renaming business. Later as I was
reading the instructions, I found a sen-
tence that 1 had breezed over earlier that
said I could do just that little operation.
If alt else fails .,.
You will learn quickly why writing these
macros differs from most of the ^'plahi lan-
guage" macros. It is necessary to grasp the
use of the various symbols and codes to
make each macro work as you desire. The
nice thing is thai you can tesi these macros
wiUi die rig off. You can waich tlie whole
process, including ''transmit", *'callsign'\
"line feed'\ and "receive'' each lime you
make a change. As I mentioned earlier,
this started as a challenge, then became a
rew^arding exercise.
You will notice in the sdeensbot there
are two rows of macro buttons. I am get-
ling to the point that I think I must have
more than 10 or 12 macros. TrueTTY al*
lows 36 macros. When you go down the
Setup pu It-down to View you will find the
choice to display I, 2, or 3 rows of macro
bullons. They will work even if they are not
displayed hut that is a bit taxing on the gray
cells- The second row requires use of the
Ctrl key^ or of course you can click any of
them.
After getting all the aforementioned
ducks in a row, I just had to make a few
contacts. This is die last part of September
when this is l>eing written and the bands are
beginning lo sparkle with some DX and
fairly good paths for closer range rag
chewing. One of the first contacts was
with a station in Poland on RTTY That
was a pleasant start.
As I recall, the next was a stateside con-
tact on PSK3I. That went well enough, I
could see this was going to t>e a success, so
it was lime to finish sett ins mv act together
and make provision for logging. Quite a few
of you folks are insistent about my keeping
records and sending you cards from Nevada,
and I expedtnent a lot with log programs.
On the UYueTTY Web site (DXSofl) you
will also find a truly excellent log pro-
gram named AALog that is written by
Alexander RZ4AG. especially to interface
with TrueTTY. So 1 set about gelling that
Continued on page 50
73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002 47
Neuj Products
NEWTWINBAND MOBILE TRANSCEIVER
Alinco has developed a new twinband mobile inmsceiver
operating on the 2*nieter and 70 cm bands. The new mobile
has tmiisniil cov erage ofl 44 .(X) lo 1 47.995/430,00 lo 49.995 MHz.
The receive coverage is 108.00 lo 1 73.995/335.00 lo 480.00
and 87.50 lo 108 MH/ (VVFMK
Additional fcalurei» include from control unit !separation (op-
liunat EDS-9 kit required); advanced 10F3 digital mode with
speech cumpre^siuti technology (EJ-47U required); 200
memory channels: and advanced EF-50UTNC (optional ) and
D-SUB9 connector that suppons digi-peat mode for APRS
tracking and 96(K) hps packet. RcEnote control features includ-
ing parameter setting and direct frequency entry through the
microphone.
MSRP h $48 i .95. See your local dealer or contact Alinco
for more infurmalion at 937-473-2840.
NEW DATAK 440 KHZ TO 105 MHZ PLL-VFO
EXPERIMENTER S KIT #80-1401
Claiming to have the most sophisticated VFO kit ever of-
(ered, the Datak Division of LKG Industiies has announced a
new product intended primarily for hams. The new VFO kit is
PLL-con trolled (phase-lucked luopj. The lop board of this iv^o-
circuil board kit contains a keypad for entering the frequency,
as well as the dii^iial readout mudulc. The bottom board con-
tains the VFO with an area for the experimenter to add his
own circuit, whether a receiver, transmitter, signal generator,
etc.
Nol iniendcd to be a complete circuit, the kit isoonsidered
to be a platfomi lor ilie builder to work from, adding just abottt
any circuit that requires a precise frequency control circuit.
Included are circuil ideas, including a two- wait 40 meter CW
transmitter a receiver circuit, and others.
The circuit operates on 12 vohs DC and may draw up to
100 mA, Don't forgei to add enough piiwer supply capacity to
run whatever circuit you mighl add as well, die maker reminds
us.
For funher infimnation, contact Datak at 800-645-2262.
Back Issues
of
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4fi 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
t
/A /j¥
IJNe our VJD^ OUT
-.^^
AOR IMTRODUCES TV-5000 SCANNER VIDEO CONVERTER
AOR USA has released the new TV-5000 Video Converter,
an accessory that adds die ability to monitor NTSC video when
using wide range receivers (such as thei\R50(X)or AR5000+3)
thai have wide-bandwidth 10.7 MHz IF outputs.
**The TV-5()00 allows the user to monitor conventional
NTSC broadcast transmissions but also adds the ability to
ub^erve inieresiing video outside the tuning range of most
broadcast reception units. One may be able to view video
used by public safely agencies including video downlinks
from aircraft. Amateur Radio fast-scan TV. news media
feeds, NTSC wireless video monitors and more/' said
Taknshi "Taka" Nakayama KW6I, Executive Vice President
of A()R*s Norih American operations, "Video cameras are
becoming more cotiimonly used every day. The TV-5tK)0 gives
video monitoring capabilities to the owners of high-qiiLiliiy
wide-range scanning receivers,"
The TV-5000 is compact, easy to connect, operates on
just two A A batteries (or a 1 2 VDC external power source),
and provides NTSC video output to a TV monitor, along
with line-level audio output. It connects to the lOJ MHz
IF ouiput of a wide-range receiver via a shielded cable with
two BNC connectors (cable is provided with the TV-5000).
The opemtor then cuiuiecis ihe video and audio output pons to
the inputs of a monitor, using shielded cables with RCA-lype
connectors.
The TV-5000 is literally "plug and play" in thai there are no
settings or adjustments to make. The operation manual states
thai minor "fine tuning" of the receiver may be needed to op-
timize video reception, once a video signal is located. Depend-
ing on the observer's location and antenna system, it may be
possible to observe video from satellites, in-car cameras, or
any other of sevefal NTSC video sources. The TV-5000 could
also be used to monitor cameras in a w ireless security system
that uses NTSC video. "The TV-50()0 is yet another step for*
ward in the art of monitoring." said Mr. Nakayama. "Users
may he surprised at how much there is to see.
/
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R.S.# pagt
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13 Doppler Systems 1 3
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73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 49
F. -rKLJHTTMT7#4$<7 tfl I ■ fcPtHMilYX
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Fign L TmeTTY and AALog — Thh shot shows the TnicTTY in action with the AALog
entry screen in the tower rii^ht. A small portion of the log proiinun is in the upper right.
You see the spectral display at the top. Tlw receiver pa^sband is set at 400 Uz at this
time. Even at 3 kH: the display window is not piled. Lots of room if yott have a really
wide open passbund. The text panel just below is the reeeivt' screen. Below that is an ac-
tive osciihgram displmin^ the decoded xignai Two rows of macro buttons are dis-
played. Three are possible. (See texL) The four OSO info windows will gather info by
double or single click (selectable) and that transfers directly to the entry screen. In (his
case^ the col I sign was grabbed from (he receive panel, but the others were r\pt d in as the
reception was not that good. (OtherMise it would be alt-caps in RTTY.) The horizontal
line across the middle part of the spectral display is a guide of where the squelch is set
compared to signal sttx'ngtlh You can adjust this to improve print. No guesswork here.
Tire two programs work together without any flaw I detected. A package worth a htok if
you (ike RTTY with a Utile PSK3I thrown ui and a great togging system.
The Digithl Port
continued Jrom page 47
soflware in order As of this writing I have
iiol regislered Ibe AALug so there are a few
crippled functions, hul there are plenty of
featuri^s operating to atlww me to impi.>n my
current ADTF file and gel the program to
record contacts made with TrueTTY.
T was highly impre^ised as I saw how well
the data was rccojclcd iji the new sofLware=
A large hatch of data was imported al once
and it was very guotL Then a week or so
later 1 decided to sec h^m well an update
would go from the same AD IF file, which
had more QSOs added. The program popped
up that there were some dupes but seemed
to lake that tn stride and not insist on any
action from me. The new QSOs uere simply
added, end of task, ver) neat and tidy.
Once all the data is tn place, you can
chsdtLog Summary in ilic Tools pull-down
and find a listing of most of the logging
aclivilies you mighl c\ cr imagine a need for,
as well as some you never thought about.
50 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
The ottly missing column 1 noti^fl in the
program was one for U,S. counties. The
counties listed in mv ADFF file were not lost
in space, they were simply relegated to the
Notes file for the appropriate contact. If you
are a county hunter this will not work for
you. But that is the only real ^^fiaw," if you
can call it such, ihat I detected in AALog.
There is one other area not yet well ad-
dressed in this little suite of programs, and
thai is rig controU but Sergei is working
on it. On the same Web site, you will find
a small program called Ham port that is
destined to talk to itie modem rigs, I down-
loaded and installed it but found that mv'
particular rig had been bypassed in the de-
sign. There arc many others not listed in
the Hamport setup and I am sure it is just a
matter of time before this feature will be
available as well
Now that we had a working version of
both the TrueTTY and AALog it was lime
to get it all laid out on the monitor and put
it to work. There are a lot of excel leni litilc
features built into these programs, One is
the ease to bring up a log entry window.
Simply hit the ^Insert" on your keyboard^
when AALog is active, and the infonmauon
will start transt^rrina from TrueTTY to the
entr\^ display.
You w ill have to make edits lo die eflliy
according to how picky you are about fre-
quency lisling and RST readings, but a
number of obvious entries such as callsigii
and name are automatic and there is one that
is not obvious. You can set that "Odier'' field
to grab QTH info and that will go directly
to the entry panel. The options for the Other
field are selectable from the Selup menu.
Incidenially. >peaking of entries, I noticed
a lack of certain rnodes listed in ^UU^og such
as MFSK, HELL, and THROB to name a
few. 1 found Uiere is a file in the I older con-
taining the program where you may add any
mode vou desire.
When you get to operating this software
in RITY you will discover a ver\' high level
of vei:satility. You can select Shift in all die
popular widths from 23 Hz to 1 000 Hz and
baud rates from 45 to 12Q0, Flus^ 1 realized
die shift will adjust to fit slight variations,
so the copy is about as good as RITY gets.
What I found exceptionally useful is the
ease of Xmii-Rcv offset. I happened on a
DX station specifying receive frequency a
little over 2 kHz abo\'e his calling or transmit
frequenc) . Tliis is very^ easily accomphshed
with TrueTTY. Left click places you on the
receive frequency and right click sets your
transmit frequency wherever you select.
This meant it was only necessary to check
the olTsei frequency in the Status Line at
the bottom of the display. A mental cal-
culation showed I needed to separate the
frequency readout in die two boxes by ap-
proximately 2000 and I would be in die
ballpark. With ihe bandpass filter wide open
at 3 kHz. 1 wis able to ahematelv monitor
the DX station and the linlc bumps 2 kHz
up the band. No dials to change, just click
and operate. Really slick.
The above incident made me aware thai
TrueTl Y has space in ihe display for ap-
proximately a 5 kHz wide spectrum display.
The average is usually 2.5 to 3 kHz and
one other program displays 4 kHz. All this
is of little value unless the rig has a pass-
band width to match. I don*t kiiow^ of a
rig that has, but it does stimulate the mind
to possibilities.
I didn^i mention the TrueTTY has
AMTOR and Packet capabilities. A^^rOR
in FEC mode, not linked TOR mode. I only
checked to see that il would transmit and
did noi attempt to find someone to make a
contact with, but it would be interesting to
work someone because Sergei has enhanced
die AMTOR FEC as a selectable option.
Also. I checked the packet capabilities by
muiiiLoring a message board. It does receive
well hut does not [lave transmit iupahiliiy.
It is hard to imagine what the future holds
for this program. The development goes on
and the produci to this point is well ap-
pointed and has enough differences that it
is worili a look-see especially by those who
enjoy a robust RTTY performen
Ail in all the TrueTTY-AALog experi-
ence is a fascinating one. After you work
with the softw arc for a white you begin to
realize why some hams who are dedicated
RTTY folk swear by this program. One little
bit of fore warn iiiiz. You will liiid I he
TrucTTY will Juwnload and install and
jump through its hoops just fine wiihoui
registering, but you will have to reconfigure
it each tittie you boot die program uiiiil you
register it. And 1 believe thai includes the
macros, so doif t spend a lot of lime per-
fecting the macros until you register your
copy.
One other minor item, this does not ap-
pear (o be a itsoufue hungry piece of soft-
ware. Check the requirements on the Web
site. It appears it should run well on an eariy
Peniiuni- based computer. That is always a
good sign to me that the programmer has
put forth the effort to write good code.
Education
Every now and then I pay a small price
for abusing the computer. I am careful uuL
to allow grand kids to install games nor
cruise the Internet, but I still find ways lu
mess the thing up on my own.
Recently, 1 purchased a set of reasonably
priced speakers for this computer. The
speaker history here has evolved around a
mismatched pair of speakers that probably
came from some AM radios older ihan mv
kids. These worked okay with a SB 16
soundcard, but these new 64 series cards do
not have enough drive to run them,
I have a few applications such as a dic-
tionary that pronounces words and find it
nice to have sound capability. The new
speakers have a small amplifier in them and
I do not know how they can produce these
things at the price I paid.
Tiie problem took about an hour to rear
its ugly head, I had noticed the volume con-
trol for the soundcard ouipui became inef-
fective, but all was going well as I checked
the system with an E-mail from one of llie
major on-line suppliers that contained a
promo including some music clips, Sads-
fied the speakers were well worUi die in-
vestmenl. I turned my at ten lion lo the
soundcard coniruls. Somediing did not secni
correct — response was not normal.
I brought up a ham PSK program and
could not reduce the ALC to zero, Thene arc
at least four displays with volume controls
and diese seemed, wtthoul any reason I
could understand, to go to mavimum set-
ting about ever> other lime I checked them.
I could not get this thing under control and
began lodoubi my abilities (and sensibilities).
I wiU admit I stepped away fn>m tiie com-
puier and had dinner before tackling this
problem, but it took the better part of an
hour to add all the facts I just described and
realize that some bugs, probably from die
Internet sound source, had crept into the
operating system and the eventual cure was
to shut down and reboot the computer. The
first reboot rcsiured some sanity to the
soundcard control but all things were nol
quite right until I wo more startups.
The lesson learned is it can hapj^n to any
of us. Don^t even need teenagers around to
help us out. AIj, well — education. I know
there are hams who are happy as a clam w ho
dedicate a computer to nothing but ham soft-
wane in the shack, Mayl>e they are the truly
educated.
More SSTV
A few^ months agtJ* in the Sept. column. I
wrote about using the SSTV-PAL editor
with the MMSSTV coiTmiuntcations pack-
age and between the time I wrote and the
time you received your magazines, the
Web Site where you find the SSTV-PAL
lhttp://users. origin. nei.au/~crac/] con-
tained a whole new group of downloads.
Fortunately, since The Chart is easily ac-
cessible from here. I v^ as able to put a note
on the link to help guide you to the correct
dow^nload.
This wasn't realty a bad thing. What
happened is there is now a new program
developed by the author of SSTV-PAL
termed SSTV-PAL+ (plus is all that is
added) and what a plus it is. It is software
for communicating with SSTV and includes
the aforementioned editor as an all-in- one
program. I downloaded the new software
and w as simply amazed.
it uses the MMSSTV engine which you
have 10 install in the same folder and you
are off and running. lus a beta version with
a few kinks still to be deatt with at the time
I tried it but workable and another clever
approach by a creative programmer. You
have to try it to see for yourself.
Speaking of die KB 7 NO Web site, I keep
makina little chanties and additions. There
is so much to tell that il feels like a project
W'ith no end in sight. ! found a small item
that makes the loading of ihc first page much
faster. By reducing the pixels/inch (lower
quahl\ '? L the file is enough smaller (hat the
load lime widi this dial-up modem is cut in
half lo about 7 seconds. Interestin^ilv. ihe
before and after displays on diis monitor
seem identical. Something to keep in mind
when storing and transferring your images,
especially via modem, is that a smaller file
mav be jusi as sood as a file that is the
better part of a megabyte,
A little on Windows
[ am forever giving the newer Microsoft
plattbmis a bad rap, especially the Millen-
nium Edition (Me) — ^wetk that one deserves
it. If you notice, quite afew^ ham program-
mers are avoiding the problems associated
with making their programs run on Me.
They simply do not bother to make their
software run on Me.
However, there are quite a few excellent
programs available to run on the XP op-
erating system. I have avoided using it
because not ever> thing we have available
will run on XP. But I see programmers ex-
tolling the virtues of the XP platfomi and
they are writing some lop notch software to
run on that platform.
What I am getting at is the lime is upon
us when XP is standard fare on anv Ci>m-
puter we are apt to buy new. I recently had
a few experiences with the XP and it does
perform well with software that is written
for it. The age-old problem of lock-ups and
"blue scieen" syndrome is as nearly licked
as can be expected,
I saw a lock-up during a video session
on a laptop thai was visiting this house,
and the system was truly locked tighter
than a drum. The only cure was to switch
I AT the power, I hale to do that due to the
usual subsequent boot-up problems with
earlier Windows systems after being shut
down improperly/' This was a learning
experience as I watched it powder up, load
Coniiriaed on pcige 57
Wheieis:
taUp://fcb7tioiiofQeJttLiiet
L
Fig. Z Where The Chart is.
73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 51
Homing in
Radio Direction Finding
Joe Moell RE. K0OV
RO. Box 2508
Fullerton CA 92837
E-mail: [Homingin@aolcom]
Web: [http://www.hom(agin.corni
ARDF World Championships
Part 2 — Closer to the Gold
"! felt like I was at an Olympic event!'' Thats how Dave D'Epagnier K0QE described bis first trip
to the World Championships of Amateur Radio pirection Finding (ARDF), from September 2-7,
2002, m the High Tatras of Slovakia. '7t was a real eye opener to see how seriously the rest of the
world takes tliis sport. The competition was very fierce and USA is indeed starting to gain respect "
K0QE was one of the last to gel back to
the USA folio wins the Eleventh ARDF
World Championships ( WCs), because he
went on a two-week climbing trip lo Italy
right afterwards. Last month *$ "Homing
In." ihe rirst of a two-part series on ARDF
Team USA and the WCs, featured stories
of the first of our darine dozen to reium.
Among them were Bob Frcy WA6EZV
and Dick Arnen WB4SUV, whose return
trip didn't go exactly as planned.
'*We left the mountains of Slovakia at
5 a.m. in a hurry to make our 1 2:50 flight
from Budapest/' Bob recalls. "Wt got to
the Hungarian border at 11:10 and real-
ized thai wo were barely going to make
it. Finally we got to the airport and dis-
covered that it was virtually empty. Air
France was on strike. The good part was
that the airline folks put us up in Bydapc&t
overnight in a beautiful hotel, right on the
river. They paid for our meals, bussed us
over and back. Next morning we went out
on a different carrier into Rome, then home
from there "
I expected to gel regular on-the-scene
updates from Team USA via the Internet
as I did during the Championships in
China two years ago. But that was not
to be, "There was only one Internet ter-
minal/' says WB4SUV, "and when you
were on, there were ten people looking
over your shoulder wondering when
you'd be done," Because they had
brought their own laptops, Bruce Paterson
VK3TJN and Adajn Scammell VK3YDF
(Photo A) ended up being the official
scribes of the events, sending regular de-
tailed reports to their friends in the states
and down under.
Contouring and sinkholes
The three Australians joined six Team
USA members at a special training camp in
Hungary just before the WCs, The camp had
a double purpose — to improve participants'
skills in bodi radio direction finding and in-
the-woods orienteering. "We did two days
of fox-oring," WB4SUV reported. *1t s a
combination of ARDF and orienteering that
teaches you to keep track of where you are
on the map. You had to orientecr your way
to the marked circles on the map- You
couldn't hear the little fox transmitters un-
til you were about 30 meters away."
Team member Gyuri Nagy KF6YKN
hosted the camp in his native Hungary,
Gyuri h a true ham, as his workshop attests
(Photo B). Campers made use of his shop
and tools, because some had to re tunc their
Photo A, The rtwee- person team of Bryan Ackerly VK3YNG,
Adam Scamfnell VK3YDF and Bruce Paterson VK3TJN trained
with the USA team in Hungary. Each of them attended prior
AROF events in the USA. (All photos courtesy of Bob Frey
WA6EZV)
S2 73 Amateur BadiQ Today ■ December 2002
Photo & Tlieres no doubt that training camp host Gyuri Nagy is
a true ham. Heres the attic workbench wliere he built his fox
transmitters.
2m ARDF receivers to lower European fox
frequencies (Photo C). Tbe 2ni bajid is only
1 44- 1 46 MH7 in Europe.
At ihe camp, long-time orienteer Bob
Cooiey KF6VSE learned about signal
propagation in canyons and rav ines, which
orienieers call re-entranis. 'A iwo-meter
signal bounces up and down a re-entrant/'
he says, "I* ve goiien so that I can recogni/e
when I'm getting into that. And if you get
into a stream bed, you might as well turn
off your receiver to save the baiieries. Ymi*rc
going to gel total baloney for bearings on 2m,
unless the fox is right there/*
Mar\in Johnston KE6HTS tells of a new
technique he learned at camp, called con-
touring. "You don*t want to go up or down
lulls more than you have to/' he says, *'so
you mn along the elevation contour lines
on the map. It worked and I had a great lime,
I missed one contour and it cost me three or
four minutes lo get up and down the hill,
but if I had followed the contour it would
have been no problem.
'The training area had a lot of sinkholes^
Marvin conrinued. "They were big pits
where caves had collapsed. Ii was really
interesting navigating around them/' Bob
Cooiey added. "If a 2m transmitter was
placed on the top edge of a sinkhole, 1 could
get gocnJ bearings on it from a distance, but
when I got within 100 meters, 1 had a hard
time pointing my antenna directly to it/'
This was USA's third trip to the World
Championships. Team USA was up against
more than 3()(> competitors from 28 other
nations. The opening ceremony featured all
of the teams standing at attention, watch-
ing performances by native dancers and
other enlertainers (Photo D).
As you read last month's description
of the separate 2-meter and 80-meier
competitions, you probably wondered
about our two best performers, Nadia
Mayeva and Gyuri Nagy. Nadia took fourth
in her age/gender category on 80 meters,
but was 13th on 2m. Whv? And what ex-
plains Gyuri *s 19ih place on 80 meters,
when he had achieved fifth place on 2m two
days before?
Nadia's two*metcr problem began before
she ever left the sianing corridor. Typical
maps at ARDF championships are pre-
marked with start, finish, and out-of-bounds
areas. But they weren't at these World
Championships. WB4SLrV recalls. "Of all
the conversations we had at the Team Lead-
ers meeting about the most minuscule de-
tails, the organizers never mentioned that
we had lo mark our own maps, and diat there
would be a master map in the starting area
tor that purpose. That threw me a curve.
*'The master maps w ere clear dowTi at ihe
far table and I didn't even realize that I
needed one, I was in a panic when I couldn't
see start and finish on the map diey handed
me. I figured at first thai it was there and 1
just couldn't locate il. I asked and they told
me about the master map. I just had time lo
mark start and finish, not the other deiaits
from the master map. The Australians lold
me later that it's noi unusual ihat maps have
to be marked ai chainpionships/'
Marking her own map was Nadia*s dow n-
fall on two meters, as WA6EZV explains:
'There was a swamp marked on the master
map with a circle, and she thought that this
was the finish. She didn't see the actual fiji-
ish, the double circle on the top of the map.
So she was navigating toward the wrong
place to finish for a long time before she
realized that everyone else was going in the
opposite direction. Her equipment should
have told her that she was headed for the
wrong pbee, but she wasn't listening to the
homing beacon/'
Gyuri *s 80m problem was the result of
loo much activity. The physical stress of
winning a medal in the Hungarian champi-
onships, then pulling on a week of training
courses, followed by the grueling WC two-
meter hunt all took their toll. "'He's ha\ina
kn^ surgery soon/' says WA6EZV. "That's
why he slowed dowTi on 80m. 1 passed him
at one of the transmit^rs and I could see he
wasn*t running real strong. I think his knees
caught up with him,"
The 60- year-old knees of Bob Cooiey also
were prohkmatic. 'T was having trouble
with my feet at the championships in China,
so I was out of ARDF for a year and a half.
I had an operation in April and just started
running in June, so Vm not in as gov)d a
shape as I would like, I hope to get back
there in another six months or so. I ibund
thai if you surenglhen your quads a great
deal, it sort of holds your knees togetlter.
*i*ni becoming allergic to wasp stings,"
Bob condnued. "A year ago I received a bad
sting and got hives all over my IxKly, Now
it usually gets worse each time. Just befoie
the 2m stan I got stung by a litUc bee, I
thought^ *WeIK it isn't a wasp and it didn't
get me very bad/ Turns out it was OK, but I
started out on the course wondering if I was
going to drop dead in the first 30 minutes.
There was total chaos tn my mind and it tcjok
me an hour and five minutes lo get the first
U^ansniilier/'
What ailed this fox?
One of the worst nialiuiiares of au ARDF
huntmaster is a malfunctioning fox trans-
mitter Unfortunately, il happened on the
80-meter championship day. An apparent
Photo C. Harley Leach KI7XF, a netired prafe^^wr of engineering,
helped reimie sonte Australian receivers for the law operating fre-
quency of European ARDF transmitters^ and then fixed them when
they slopped working.
Photo />. Opening ceremonies took place next to a scenic lake. By
tradition, each team stood behind its national placard.
73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 53
Pfwio E. On 'Cultural Day" beiween the 2m and SOm compeu-
tiom. the organized acnvity was a 7-mile rafting trip on the
Dunajt'c River that borders Slovakia and Poland.
Photo E Boh Frey WA6EZV tried poling a raft, which was made
from six boats tied together
antcniui problem caused lransrniitL?i" num-
ber Ibur. which was closest to the starting
line, to pia out [in extremely weak signal,
"It niatle nie think it was far away, prob-
ably near the finish/' WA6EZV repoitctl
"So I dibjnissed it from my mind al lirsu I
found fox #5 and expected to hear #4 stron-
ger there, but iiothitig. I lountl ont taier that
U was down in a valley and you had lo be
verv close lo hear it welk I mn within 150
mclers of it and didn't realize it Sonte other
compeiitors had receivers that weren't sen-
silive enough to ever hear it/* Bob Cooley
added, "Enougb people had gone lo ft that
ihcv decided thev shouldn't fix it in the
middle of ihe contest/'
"I was so trustrated about ii that I joined
in With the Norwegians/' say& WB4SUV.
"They drafted a letter of complaint and I
signed it, even though 1 knew it wouldn't
change the outcome. I went right past, prob-
ubly within 50 meieis on my way oul Ii was
right olT the trail from the starting corridor,
but I thought it was on the oMil-]' side t^f the
earth because it was so weak. So I found all
my others and got to the rinish w 1th 37 min-
utes to spare. Some other competiiors, like
Csaba Tiszttarto of our team, did the whole
course and dieii went back lii gel ii lasLThai
made the times higher than usual It wa^ an
54 73 Amateur Radio Today • December- 2002
extremely long course and ihat transmitter
probably affected the limes of evei7one/'
It's a tradition lor die WCs to have a "cul-
tural day'' of rest between the 2m and SOm
competitions. The organizers provide tours
or other activities, ''I went on the tour that
they arranged/' says WA6EZV (Photos E
and F). '*That turned out lo be a great de-
cision. We went rafting on the river» saw
beautiful mouniuins, slopped and had lunch,
tlien went shopping in Poprad."
Since thev had a car available, some
members of Team USA and Team Australia
decided to make up their o\%Tt tour. *They
wanted to see a castle on a hilltop thai they
had heard about/' Bob Frey says. Accord-
ing to VK3TJN, thej^ parked the car and
hiked up about a half mile toward the castle,
only to find a locked gate/That didn't deter
them, as one team member uied to raise the
gale by slipping big rocks underneath it.
Suddenly a woman came running toward
them. Forlunately il was lo let them in, be-
cause diey had parketl in the wrong place.
It turns out thai tlicy could have driven to a
parking lot right in front of the place.
"Nadia was with them and she had just a
one-time-entry visa on her Russian pass-
port/' WA6EZV continued. "While going
around the mountains, thev decided lo cross
o^NSt^Tor a little while inio PoUmd. Thai
meant they had to leave her 'M I he border.
They couldn't loop around and come back
another scenic way, because they had to
return Ibr her. Along the way. they wanted
to find a scenic lake, but they couldn't find
die riiiid to that. It turned oul to be a lot of
driving and not much sightseeing/'
Among the participating countries, there
are wide variations in the level of competi-
tors and training. Some national societies
are big su ppt>rters of Ihis aspect of amateur
radio. Others arent, "The Czech team ap-
peared semi-professional/* says WB4SUV.
"They had a van with 'Czech Republic
A RDF Radiosport Team' stenciled on the
back. The Ukraintans are having an e%'ent
and we got an in\ ilation from their Team
Physician who travels with Uicm, By con-
trast, we don't all wear the same uniform,
and somcuincs not all ihe same colors/'
More to come in 2003 and beyond
Bob Frey lepoits, "Al die meeting of lARU
A RDF Coordinators, I had a great time talk-
ing to all the leaders, I took the juKlium for
ab<iut five minutes, giving greedngs lR>m you,
from Region 2 Coordinator Dale Young
WB6BYU, and from Canadian Coordinator
Joe Young VE7BFK. We gave out cards and
pins fornext year's Region 2 Championships
in Cincinnati . We have addresses for at least
four counlries iJiaL want [bmial invitations
to attend,"
Representatives from iwoARDF clubs in
the Czech Republic handed out invitations
to the next ARDF WCs in Brno, from Sep-
tember 1-12, 2004. Brno is a city of half a
million in tlic Moravian region of the coun-
try, about 135 miles southeast of Prague.
Competitors will stay in dormi lories of llie
Masaryk University, v/hich becomes a ho-
tel complex of over a thousand rooms in the
summertime.
The C^ech organizers are planning two
new and innovative activities for attendees
to their WCs. On the day of the opening
ceremony, there will also be a ''Masters
Race" exhibition of world champions. It will
be a 2()-minute sprint with foxes on boih
bands, for medalists in tlie Senior male cat-
egory only. On die traditional day off between
the 2m and 80ni competitions, the usual
"cultural program" will be supplemented
with a recreational event for non-racing
team members, journalists, and other ARDF
fans. Called "In the Mastei"s' Footsteps/* this
event will take place in the same location
as the previous day-s 2m hunt.
After the Czech WCs. die next will be in
Bulgaiia during 2006, and tlien it's probably
back to China in 2008. ''We were fonnally
asked if we wished to apply for the 2008
WCs," says WA6EZV, "We politely said no-
We know we're still about a decade away
from that, but it's nice to be asked.''
There's no doubt that competition for the
limited number of positions on ARDF Team
USA for the 2004 WCs will be greater than
even so now is the time to start honing your
own RDF and orienteering skills. K0QE
says, '1 know I can do much better and Fm
already making plans for a personal uraiii-
ing program for the next WCs.'' KE6HTS
reports, "Gyuri is willing to put on another
training camp, in the USA this time.
Tchermen Gouliev UA3BF iTom Russia is
also interested in putting on a camp. He won
silver medals on both 2m and 80m at this
year's WCs "
An important qualifying event will be the
next combined USA and lARU Region 2
ARDF Championships, taking place July 30
through August 3, 2003, near Cincinnati. If
you missed the announcements in ''Hom-
ing In" for August and September, see the
'^Homing In" Web site for more details and
a link to the orsaanizers' site.
Another opportunity to test your ARDF
skills against experts from around the world
will be the Fifth lARU Region 3 ARDF
Championships. November 20 to Decem-
ber 3, 2003, near Baliaiat, Victoria, Auisualia,
Visitors from countries outside Region 3 are
welcome at the Australia events, just as visi-
tors from around the world wi II be welcome
at our 2003 championships in Cincinnad,
Several radio-orienteers from USA are al-
ready planning a trip ''Down Under'' next
vean
If it's too cold to have a priictice radio-
orienteering session in your home town this
month, wami up the soldering iron and start
planning for spring by building fox trans-
mitters and RDF antennas for yourself and
to loan to your local Scout troop. There are
lots of equipment ideas at the "Homing In"
Web site. Be sure to send photos and sto-
ries of the mobile and on -foot transmitter
hunts in your hometown. E-mail and postal
mail addresses are at the beginning of this
article.
Shedding Some Light
on Dimmers
continued from page 23
Fig* 4 shows the circuit that can
make the trans fomier look resistive.
The value of the R and C can be calcu-
lated when the inductance and the re-
flected series resistance of the inductor
are known: 4L/R^C = 1 , where L is the
inductance of the load and R is the
sum of the resistance R in series with
the capacitor and the resistance in series
with the inductor.
It's probable that L won't be known,
so make a stab at a capacitor and re-
sistor, 0.22 \xF and a 100 ohm resis-
tor are a good starting point. If the
iriac turns off, that's close enough. A
capacitive diddle box (a capacitor sub-
stitution box) makes finding an accept-
able value of capacitor easy - — just
increase the capacitance until the Uiac
regains control.
You can find the R and C without the
triac: Connect the inductive load with
the R and C across an AC or DC source
through a switch with visible contacts.
Select an R that is equal to the resis-
tance of the inductor and the minimum
capacitor. As the switch is opened an
arc will probably be seen. When an AC
source is used, make several openings
and closings to make sure you're not
switching at the zero crossing of the
voltage, then increase the capacitor
until there is no arc.
ControlUng the AC voltage to a uni-
versal wound motor makes a speed
control. Also, a variable AC voltage
can make a simple unregulated supply
variable (of course, it will stii! be un-
regulated). Applying a variable voltage
to the soldering iron will keep the tem-
perature where you want it without
burning the tip. A variable voltage to
the coffee pot heater will keep your
coffee at the right temperature, too.
You could even use it to control the
brightness of a lamp.
A word about controHing a power
supply with a capacitor input filtef:
This kind of supply has an output volt-
age that is approximately equal to the
peak of the rectified AC. Phase-con-
trolled AC doesn't change the peak
voltage until the conduction is delayed
for more than 90"^, When ihe power
supply filter has either a choke input
or a resistor input, the DC output ap-
proaches the average value of the recti-
fied AC, and a dinnner does control the
average.
Adding a resistor between the recti-
fiers and the filter capacitive reduces
the supply's maximum output voltage
by about 40%. The average voltage,
the DC voltage, is 0.636 x E ^^ or 0.9 x
E„,,,. The resistor need not be large: A
RMS ^
value in the order of 100 ohms when
the capacitor is 100 |lF or larger will
do the job.
When you need to vary the AC line
voltage and a vaiiable auto transformer
isn't available, the light dimmer may
save your bacon. The cost isn't great,
and construction time won't interfere
with watching the 10 o'clock news.
The cost won't break the bank either;
the parts are available from Radio
Shack or Mouser Electronics (1-800-
346-6873).
Shack Switch
for Foot Fetishists
coniinued from page 27
auto stores, like Strauss and Pep Boys,
that still cairy some of the nostalgia
items from the '50s and '60s. At the
Strauss auto store 1 saw the fuzzy dice,
and right below was my Big Foot pedal.
Fm sure thai you know ±at good
73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 55
feeling. It's like finding something that
you want at a Ilea market or garage
sale at the riglit price. 1 went lo the reg-
ister and paid. 1 sonielimes wonder
what the young girl at the register or
the guy in back of me thought this gray
hair guy was going to do with hii^
metal foot-
The rest is history. I went to the craft
shop in town and Ibund the base to
rfiount it on. Craft shops ai^ always a
source of project maierial for me. If
you have one in your town, add it to
your list of places lo visit. 1 guarantee
that yon will corrie away with some
good ideas for ways to improve your
shack.
My wood base cost me two dollars,
Tlie actual foot switch came from Ra-
dio Shack, part number 44-610. By it-
self, the foot switch is a liule too small
and too lieht. I mounted it to the base
with some double-sided loam tape,
and used an old hinge to mount my
'*Eig Foot" to the wooden base. The
foot w^as designed with two bai^s that
went under and across the width of the
gas pedal, so just substitute a thin
piece of wood for the gas pedal and
screw it to the base with a hinge from
the hai dware store.
It works really great! When Vm
ready to transmit, I can be confident
that when I put my real foot down, it
will lind the Bi^ Foot switch!
4. Our Web site is at [http://
www.vuiota.com],
5. This expedition also activated the
Kadalur Lighthouse, Amateur Radio
Lighthouse no. lND-013.
Ashore at Sacrifice Rockl
continued from page 35
Yes, indeed! Very soon, we decided.
Notes
L Report by VU2SBJ, Srikanth B.
Bhat. ManipaK Photographs by
VU2RDQ, Ro, and VU2SBJ, Sii
Band condition report (included in
above) by VU3DMP, Chets.
2. This event was later supported
pailly by the Island Radio Expedition
Foundation — IREF — to whom we
are very grateful
3. QSL cards received direct were
being replied to directly immediately.
(QSL card jpegs are tivailable in at-
lached files and also on otir Web site.)
All other nt>ndirect cards sent via buro.
56 73 AmBteur Radio Today • December 2002
Hboue & Beyond
continued from page 42
this month. Hope you enjoyed the quick
session on frequency counters and a short
discussion of attributes of frequency
counters and what's available in the sur-
plus market that T have tieeii able to look
into. There are many other models avail-
able that are fine frequency counters
also. It's just that I haven't had the op-
portunity to obtain I hem in surplus to
gattier personal experience.
Don't rush out and try to locate a spe-
cific counter for yourself. Wait a bit and try
to see if it comes to you. In dealing with
surplus junk dealers, you will find that they
will push ttie price as high as the gleam in
your eye will tolerate. Be devious! Pick up
someiliijig else or show interest in other
things, and maybe as a last resort, what is
that price for this thing? This approach
might catch you a bargain. It's your hard-
earned cash and you want to get ihe best
value possible. Don't drag your feet too
slowly, as I missed a pair of Motorola HTs
I or 450 MHz being offered i n working con-
dition for $35 each. I missed the deal by
being 15 seconds too late on the trigger lo
say sold. But then you can't have everything.
Go to swap meets prepared ro act and
investigate.
In that light, bring a small set of tools for
swap meet exploradon. A VOM to lest bat-
teries and power meter thennisior heads and
a bunch of other things. Bring a small back-
pack to put your small test kit and other
small goodies you find. To check out fre-
quency meters in surplus dealer's premises,
bring an HT — hopefully a muhiband HT
that will allow you to test on 2 meters,
450 MHz. ami possibly 1296 MHz. Bring
an extra rubber ducky antenna or use a clip
lead or paper clip to gel a sample of your
HT into the frequency counter circuits and
see if it works. Of course, first check to sec
if the internal calibrator is functioning. Just
to be sure, you can power it up on AC. Bring
both the old round HP power cords and one
of the newer 3-prong blade construction.
Check out the swap meet — there might be
an AC outlet for testing in the snack bar or
swap meet area. Most dealers don't have
courtesy test AC cords hanging around, so
do a quick store test, and put some AC cords
in your test back pack.
Well ihaf s it for this month. I hope ev-
eryone has a very Merry Christmas and a
ver}^ Happy New Year. Twill do my best to
answer any questions you might have. Drop
me an E-mail at [clhough@pact>ell.netl for
a speedy reply. 73, Chuck WB6IGR
Dn the Go
continiiedfrom page 43
ligtiting conditions would be outstanding.
When 1 say a real screen, I mean one that
can display maps and such rather than ab-
breviated lines of text. With the price of
LCD computer monitors coming down, this
should be possible. Better yet. make it a
touch screen so I could control the radio and
the APRS message traffic more easily.
Then diere's always the subject of DSP.
Vd really like to have a good signal processor
that can improve the quality of the signal
Fm hearing. Ideally it would have the best
features of both signal processing and fre-
quency equalization as I get older and my
hearing becomes less efficient, h would be
great if I could process signals for digital
modes such as FACTOR or SSTV through
the same system. Add nicrnories so I can
easily change the settings from voice to data
oplinii/ation and that would be extrcmeiy
convenient.
Finally, here in Wyotnirig we have lots of
sunshine and lots of wind. With two envi-
ronmentally friendly and free-for-the-asking
power sources, I sure would like to be able
to tap into them, Fd be willing to buy a large,
economy sized slocking just so you could
leave me some solar panels and a small wind
Rcncrator.
■to-
I don't want to put any pressure on you,
or anything, but Fm hoping that you can
lake care of my Christmas list. If you do, it
will give me material for my columns next
year, too.
73, Merry Christmas, and Happy New
Year,
Steve KE8YN/7
RS. Don't worry aboul tiringing socks,
underwear, or neckties. The XYL will take
care of those.
Say You Saw It In 7J
Hrmsrts
continued from page 46
in place, silicon grease applied to keep oui
moisture and allow the original end caps to
easily slide back on. and the job was done.
The completed short dipole was [hen
mounted between the 70-cm yagi and the
I3"cm semi-dish/downconverter on the fi-
berglass boom. A subsequent SWR check
after attaching a 60-foof length of RG--8X
coax showed that the resonant point had not
moved more than a few kHz.
On the air
Much to my surprise, the first AO-7 pass
after finishing the project was Mode A.
Contacts from Canada to Mexico were easy.
The telemeUy beacon on 29.501 MHz was
stronger on the new short dipole compared
witli [lie 80-meter inveried V, and the noise
was lower than thai heard on the attic-
mounted 1 0-meier dipole. After a fcw^ weeks
of operation, il was obvious that we had a
winner. Although this simple short dipole
was not the best for low horizon passes fl
still want a beam), it did produce consistent
results on most passes,
Whatever route you take with youi^ Mode-
A, AO-7 1 0-meter antenna, make it resonant
near 29450 MHz, tTioimt it in the clear, and
get ready for some excellent satellite commu-
nications. For more information about AO-7,
check the specifications avaihtble on the
Internet at [http://www.amsat.org].
The Dicitrl Port
contmaedfrom page 5 1
Windows XP and go back to work just as if
nothing had happened. Pretty cooi.
Then I have a son with a slighlly aged
laptop who was fighdng the Me syndrome.
He has to run a lot of heavy-duty engineer-
ing applications and asked what I thought
about tipgrading to XE Sounded good to me.
Then I shuddered a bit after making such a
blanket statement, and sat back and waited.
It worked so well we were both surprised.
The XP is as near foolproof as one can ex-
pect and he has really put it through its
paces. He describes softw^are and data man-
agement that one would expect to cause a
meltdown to the hardiest of systems, and it
just trucks right on through diem with very
minimal hiccups.
1 have also heard of those who got too
early into the XP and have had to download
many fixes from Microsoft, but tliat may be
behind us by now. I am not recotmiiending
upgrading from WinQS to XP. Everything
runs on 98, we know that. However, if you
must purchase a new machine, you may nol
be able to run all your favorite programs,
butl think there is sufficient software avail-
able to mn on XP that you can make a go of
it. My opinion? I stick with what I have
working until it smokes. After diat, I have
to go with the flow. Most hams are a frugal
lot and that includes this one.
That's about all there is room for this
month. Take care and enjoy the digital stuff.
Sec you there. Remember, The Chart is now
on die Web at [http://kb7no.home.att.net],
and you can E-mail me at [KB7N0@att.nei]
73. Jack KB7NO.
Never snv die
contUmedfrom page 39
administration, and the bureaucrats who
do 99.9% of what little actual work is
done, and who continue in power while
Congress and administrations change.
None of these groups can see any benefit
to them in a better educated citizenry.
They have a huge vested interest in the
people being manipulated by the media,
and being sheeplike.
Then there s big business. They need
dtmibed-down vvorkers, not creative
troublemakers. They're getting exactly
the kind of workers they want from the
present school system.
About the only conslituency for better
schools arc the few^ parents who care one
way of the other. Fortunately diey Ye un-
organized, so they're ignored.
School administralor.s oppose change.
Teachers oppose change. The govern-
ment opposes change. Business opposes
change.
Is the situation hopeless? Of course
not. But there's no point in marching
around demonstrating for better schools
or bitching abouL it. Total waste of time.
So, w^hat's the answer?
You don't win wars by attacking the
stronger enemy head-on. You attack
from an unexpected flank. This is why
Fve lieen waiting about the need for re-
placing our schools with truly first-rate
education delivered via DVDs. Technol-
ogy can eventually make public schools
iiTelevant, just as cars obsoleted horses
and bicycles.
The teacher unions keep hammering
on the need to spend more money. Well.
we have. Cun'ently the tab is $389 bil-
lion a yean That's with a "B.'^ We've in-
creased spending by 72% in the last
ten years in constant dollars, yet SAT
scores have been steadily dropping.
The spending per student in constant
in nation-corrected dollars has gone
from $3,367 in 1970 Lo S6,584 in 2000,
The number of students per teacher has
dropped from 22 to 17, and yet our kids
are learning less and less.
The National Research Council found
no improvement in student achievement
resulting from greater funding or smaller
classes. The U.S. Department of Educa-
tion foimd last year that 68% of the
fourth grade students could not read at a
proficient leveL Ditto math.
You can't blame the kids, not when
there are some schools out there that are
actually educadng them. For instance?
Like New York's Frederick Douglass
Academy, where 79% of the students are
black, 19% are Hispanic, and one per-
cent is white or Asian. In 1998, 93% of
their students passed the U.S. History
Regents, and 88% passed the English
and pre-calculus exams. 95% passed the
Global History Regents, where city wide
only 54% passed.
The Heritage Foundation recently
published the Carter Report, which cited
21 High Performing Poverty Schools, so
it can be done.
More Smoke
Researchers at Osaka City University,
using new ultrasound technology, were
able to measure the effect of secondhand
smoke on the ceils that line die heart and
biood vessels. They found that the blood
flow^ ill [he hearts of nonsniokers was
20% better than that of smokers. However,
Continued on page 62
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73 Amateur Radio Todsiy • December 2002 57
Dan Metzger K8JWR
6960 Streamview Dr.
Lambertville Ml 48144-9758
Read All About It!
Part 13 of good stuff from The Hertzian Herald,
All about Conductance Units; Dear!SP; Wired!
very ham knows that resistance
is measured in ohms, and is cal-
culated as the ratio of voltage to
cuiTent: R = V / L But there is no in-
herent reason why we speak of a
component's ability to resist current;
we might just as reasonably have cho-
$en to speak of its ability to conduct
cun^ent. Indeed, some engineering analy-
ses, and some electronic instruments,
do make use of conductance units.
The letter C being taken for capaci-
tance, the quantity conductance is
given the symbol G, and it is defined
as the reciprocal of resistance: G = I / V.
Until about 1965 the unit of conduc-
tance was the mho (ohm spelled back-
wards), and the unit symbol was an
upside-down capital omega - the
horseshoe-shaped letter. Then a fit of
internationalism and political correct-
ness overtook us, and the unit became
the Siemens, in honor of Werner and
William Siemens of Germany, who
founded an electrical empire in Europe
that exists to this day. (Note that the
Reprinted witli permission from The
Hertzian Herald, newsletter of the Mon-
roe County (MI) Radiu Communications
Association (MCRCA),
58 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
small letter s denotes the time unit sec-
onds. Capital S denotes the conductance
unit Siemens.)
A 1-ohm resistor might just as well
be called a 1 -Siemens conductor, and a
1-kilohm resistor is also a 1-milHsi-
emens conducton The three forms of
Ohm's law, in conductance units be-
eome:G = l/VandI=:GVandV = I/G.
Conductance in parallel add, so 1
mS in parallel with 1 mS yields 2 mS.
In resistance terms, the equivalent
statement is 1 k-ohm in parallel with
1 k-ohm yields 0,5 k-ohm. Putting this
in equation form, for parallel elements:
G(tot) = G{l)tG(2),
Since G is the reciprocal of R. we can
rewrite this in resistance temis: t / R(tot)
= 1 /Rfl)+ 1 /R(2).
This is the familiar ''reciprocal of
the reciprocals" formula for parallel
resistors.
Note that conductances in series do
not add, they combine by a reciprocals
formula of their own - but better to
change them to resistances so they do
add.
You may know that capacitors and
inductors also oppose the How of cur-
rent — AC in this case — but they do It
with reactance rather than resistance.
Reactance does not produce heal as
resistance does. It limits current some-
what as a spring limits motion; it
stores energy ior a short time, then
sends it back to the source. Reactance
is given another quantity symbol, X,
because it does not combine di reedy
with resistance R. However, it is sdll a
V / 1 ratio, with units of ohms. You are
probably f ami bar with the equations
for reactance of an inductor (L) and a
capacitor (C): X(L) = 2 7i f L and X(C)
= l/(2 7t fC).
When a resistance and a reactance
appear in series, they combine by the
Pythagorean theorem to fonn a quan-
tity called impedance, symbol Z. Tak-
ing R = 3 ohms in series with X = 4
ohms as an example:
Z = SQRT (X^ + R")
Z = SQRT (3- + 4-)
Z^ SQRT (9+ 16} = 5 ohms
All of this translates quite directly to
conductance units. The reciprocal of
reactance (symbol X) is susceptance
(symbol B). The reciprocal of imped-
ance (symbol Z) is admittance (symbol
Y). When a resistance and a reactance
appear in parallel, we convert them to
a conductance (G) and a susceptance
(B), combine them by Pythagoras to
get a total admittance (Y), and take
the reciprocal of Y to get Uie parallel
impedance Z. As an example. Ici us
combine R = ItMJ ohms and X = 50 ohms
IB parallel:
G-l/R=l/100=10niS
B= l/X=I/50=20mS
Y = SQRT (G- -K B-) = SQRT (Iff +
20-) = 22,4 mS
Z ^ I / Y = 1 / 22,4 mS =44J ohms
Reactances (or suscepiances) cause
phase shifts between AC voltages and
currents, and a lull discussion of ihii»
topic would deal with these also. But
we've done enoush for one session.
Maybe next time.
DearTSPs The MTBFof your ISDN
is SNAFU
Here is the FBI's list of w anted tcro-
nyms. Really common ones, like DOS
and FM, have been omitted, as have
really obscure ones, like ISAPL
ALC- Automatic level conlroL A
system for preventing overload and
consequent distortion in SSB amplifiers.
ALU. Arithmetic Logic Unit. A
main part of a computer's CPU,
ASIC, Application-Speciric Inte*
pated Circuit. An IC designed by an
OEM for his specific purpose.
ATE. Automated Test Equipment.
BIOS. Basic Input Output System.
Apart o(" a computer's operating sy,stcm.
CAD, CAE, CAM, Computer-As-
sisted Design. Drafting, Engineering.
Manufiicluring.
CPU, MPU. Central Processing Uniu
Main Processing Unit, of a computer
CRC. Cyclical Redundancy Clxick. An
error detection and correction technique
used in sending digital information.
DARPA. Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency.
Dx\S, DAC, Data Acquisition System,
Data Acquisition and ControL
DIN, German Industrial Standard
(Norm),
EAROM. Electrically Alterable Read
Only Memory.
EEPROM. Electrically Erasable,
Programmable Read Only Memory.
EML RIcctroMaguetic Interlerencc.
ESD. lilcclroStatic Dischaj^e, Damage.
ESR, Equivalent Series Resistance.
Arcprescntalion of the energy loss in a
capacitor as though it occurred in a
series resistor
FAT. File Allocation Table, A portion
of a computer's disk memory containing
the locations of all user files.
FLOPS, FLoaUng point Operations
per Second A measure of a computer's
processing speed.
FSK. Frequency Shift Keying. Send-
ing digital data by shifting a carrier
frequency between two set values.
GUL Graphical User Inlerface,
HVAC. Heating. Ventilation, and Air
Conditioning.
ISDN. Integrated Services Digital
Network.
ISP. Internet Services Provider
ITU. International Telecommunica-
tions Union. Au agency of the UN.
LSB. Low^cr SideBand. Least Sig-
iiiiicant Bit. Least Signilicant Byte,
MUF. Maximum Usable Frequency.
The highest frequency that v\ill be
reflected by the ionosphere,
MIDI. Musical Instrumems Digital
Interface,
MIPS. Million Instructions Per Sec-
ond. A measure of computing speed,
MOV. Metal Oxide Varistor A
surse-voltaiie limitimz device.
b- ^- ^^
MTBF. Mean Time Between Failures.
NC. No Connection. Normally Qosed
Numerical Control.
NTSC. National Television Systems
Committee. The U.S. television standard
since the 1940s.
OCR. Optical Character Recognition.
OEM. Original Hqui]imcnt Manufac-
turer,
PAL. Phase AUematc Line, A TV
standard used in some counuies outside
the USA,
PLC, Ptogmnyiiablc Logic Controller,
POP Post Office ProiocoL
POS. Point of Sale,
PPP. Point to Point Protocol
PPM. Pans Per Million. LOOO ppm
= 0.1%.
PRT. Pulse Repetition Frequency.
PTO, Permeability Tuned OsciUa-
lor. Tunins bv means of a ferrite slus
inserted in a coif usually to achieve
better linearity.
RAM. Random Access Memory. A
memory thai cau he written to as fast
as it can he read from. Random access
(equally last access to any data block)
is no longer its defining feature.
RTD. Resistive Temix;iature Device.
A component \^^hose resistance changes
with temperature.
SCA* Subsidiary Communications
AuUiorizatJon, Subscription music ser-
vice sent as a subcarrier by an FM
broadcast station,
SCSL Small Computer Systems li*
terface. (Pronounced SCUZZ-cc.)
SECAiVM. A television standard
used in some countries outside the
USA.
SI, System International. The metric
system.
SMD, SMT, Surface Mouni Device,
Technology.
TCP/IP, Transfer Control Protocol/
Internet Protocol.
TDK. Time Domain Re flee tome try.
A technique for locating cable faults
by observing the time required lor a
pulse to refiect back from the fault.
THD/Total Harmonic Distortion.
UART. Universal Asynchronous
Recei ver-Transm t tier,
UPC. Universal Product Code. The
bar code.
UPS. Uninterruptible Power Supply.
UTC. Universal Coordinated Time,
Greenwich Mean Time; Zulu.
VAR. Volt'Amps Reactive. The
product of voltage times current, re-
gardlc>.s of actual power.
VXD. Variable (frequency) Crystal
Oscillator,
WORM. Write Once, Read Many.
Wired!
It often suikes me as ironic that our
technt>logy of radio was originally
called "wireless/' because no compo-
nent is more basic to its operation
than wire. Indeed, my project bench
is often a maze of wires. But, as with
other components, choosing the right
wire for a particular job requires an
undcrstandins of its characteristics*
Copper wire is commonly available
in AWG (American Wire Gage) sizes
ranging from 0000, 000, 00, 0, L 2, . ..
up to gage 44. Size 0000 is 0.460
inches in diameter, and no, 44 has a
diameter of 0.002 inch, hi the middle
range, no. 30 has d = 0.010 inch.
Wire diameter decreases by a factor
of 2 for every six size numbers; so no.
26 has half the diameter of no. 20. Re-
sistance increases by a factor of 2 for
Continued on ptige 61
73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002 59
PROPHGHTION
Jim Gray II
210 E. Chateau Cir.
Paysort AZ 85541
[akclhc2pilot @ yahcx).(X3m]
December Forecast
December historically offers some of the best propagation conditions of the year, but sharp
skills, good equipment, and a hit of luck will again be required if you hope to do well this
month. The sun continues to be highly unsettled with numerous moderate to strong flares
expected, but we should have fewer bad days than in November, There are even a few Good (G)
days to be found on the calendar this time, and positive seasonal influences will lend to work
in oar favor during all but the worst solar upheavals.
The monih will open with Poor (P) or possibly Very Poor (VP)
conditions and \ suspect that a Class-X flare or strong CME is
likely. Though not shown on the calendar (because ii is impossible
to predict whether such events will be directed toward earth), we
may experience occasional radio blackouLs between the 3rd and
6th. The next major event is forecast for the lOdi or 11 th but the
after effects should not be as severe. Another highly volatile day is
plotted for the 16lh but again, negative effects are expected lo be
short-lived. Beginning on Boxing Day (the day after Chrismias)
we should look for another period of moderaie solar aciiviiy with
an intense and potentially very disrupu\ c burst coming on the 3 1 st^
perhaps lasting several days into the new year.
In between these times we can expect mostly Fair (F) condiHias
to prevail, which means that the more patient and experienced
DX'ers can usually come up with some interesting contacts. The
best intervals are centered on the 7ih. 14ih, and 21 st and may in-
clude the 24 to 36 hours on either side of these days. Remember
that the conditions shown on the calendar are expected averages
for each 24'hour period, so good conditions can often be found at
other times than the Good (G) days that are shown. Quite often the
very best conditions follow^ right on the heels of the worst ones.
During the northern w inter* aumral effects over the U.S. are more
pronounced ihan at other times of the year, so operators living in
the most southerly regions will fare the best. High power, careful
tuning, and directional control can help those at high latitudes over-
come the disadvantages of living near the auroral belt, but liming
is the best antidote. Geomagnetic considerations aside, the auroral
zone retreats die furthest northw'ard at local noon, so mid-morning
December 2002
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17 F
18 P
19 F
20 F
21 G
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24 F
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27 P
28 P
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the range will probably be open on Good (G) days only.
60 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
through mid-aftenioon are usually the best
hours to be on ihc air. You can view the size
and location of the auroral oval online at a
number of Web sites including [htlp://
www, space.com/spacewatch/aurora_cam.
html].
That's all until next time. Happy Holi-
days and good luck! Jim Gray [akdhc2
pilot@yahoo.com] .
Band'By-Band Forecast
10-12 meters
Worldwide opportunities can be found
from sunrise to sunset, but daylight lasts
only 8-9 hours for most of the U.S. so open-
ings will be narrow. Southern Europe, the
Middle East and Africa will be your best
bets from sunrise through late morning*
Central and South America will dominate
these bands from mid morning through late
afternoon, but the South Pacific and Asia
will begin to pick up around noon and
should be fairly strong around sunset and
a little bit into the evening. The morning
and evening gray-line paths will provide
shorten ved but very strong propagation
conditions, although your geographic
choices will be limited. Daytime short-
skip will range from 1 ,000 to approximately
2,000 miles.
15-17 meters
Worldwide openings will occur from sun-
rise lo mid-evening. Paths to the equatorial
regions and the southern hemisphere will
be favored, aldiough a few northerly loca-
tions will be accessible. Europe might be
workable before noon but that path is often
blocked by auroral activity, so North Africa
and the Middle East is a better bet. Most
stations near or below the equator won't
come aUve until after huichtime, but cen-
tral Africa may become readable shortly
before noon. As usual, Latin American traf-
fic will dominate diese bands most of die
afternoon but Asia and the South Pacific
should begin to compete around supper
time. Short-skip will average from 1,000 to
2,200 miles.
20 Meters
Good DXing should be available around
the clock but solar activity will tend to di-
minish openings. Look for peaks just after
sunrise, during the late afternoon, and again
in the early evening. Try Australia up to mid-
morning, Europe from mid-morning
through early afternoon, and Africa in the
late afternoon. Central and South America
should be open most times except around
sunrise. Asia and the Orient will only be
available to night owls- Early risers might
try long paths across the Antarctic into
southern Asia and the Near East, Short- skip
can range from 500 miles during the day up
lo 2,100 miles at night.
30-40 meters
Good worldwide opportunities can be
found from about 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. local time.
Central and Soudi America will be the domi-
nant stations, but operators east of the
Rockies may find Europe and die Middle
East just as strong between supper time and
midnight. Hams living in the western U,S.
will probably only find strong signals in the
direction of Cenn-al America although the
Middle East may open up for a few hours
in mid-evening. Japan and Australia will be
limited to late night hours for West Coast-
ers. Skip distance is between 750 and 2,000
miles at night but but less than 1,000 miles
during the day,
80-160 meters
Some decent worldwide DXing will be
available from sunset through sunrise, but
high sunspot activity will again weaken sig-
nals. Easterners should find the best open-
ings to Europe or North Africa from just
after sunset to midnight. Midwestern opera-
tors will find the Caribbean and the Ameri-
cas strong all night, wliile stations west of
the Rockies will find weaker openings both
there and in the South Pacific or Far East.
Expect skip to be between 1,000 and 2,000
miles at night.
Read All About It!
continued Jrom page 59
every three gage numbers. For example,
no. 13 copper ware has 2.0 ohms per
1000 ft., and no. 16 has 4.0 ohms per
1000 ft. Another way of saying this is
that resistance is cube-root-of-two or
1.26 rimes higher for each number
increase in gage.
One of the most practical questions
about wire is, '*What size wire do I
need to carry a panicuiar current?" For
wires in bundles or in confined areas,
and a temperature rise of 1 0 degrees C
(18 F), the following table may be
used:
No, 28 (wire- wrap) 3/4 A
No. 22 (hookup wire) 2 A
No. 1 8 (lamp cord) 5 A
No, 12 (house wire) IDA
For a si^^glc wire in free air, or if
temperature rises up to 35 degrees C
(63 F) are permissible, these allowable
currents may be increased by a factor
of two.
Stranded wire is sized to have ap-
proximately the same resistance as
equivalent- sized solid wire. For ex-
ample, no, 18 stranded may consist of
16 strands of no. 30, or 65 strands of
no. 36 wire. The advantage of
stranded wire is that it flexes more
easily, and resists breaking under
continuous flexing.
Al high frequencies, magnetic fields
within the wire force nearly all of the
current to flow at the surface of the
w lie, leaving the inner core relatively
useless. This is called "skin effect/'
Copper-clad steel antenna wire con-
ducts Ciuite as well as solid copper^
because all the RF current flows in
the skin anyway. Plastic TV antenna
elements with a thin aluminum coat-
ing are as effective as solid aluminum
elements for the same reason.
At audio frequencies single- wire
conductors (such as antennas, coax
cables, and power lines) experience
skin-effect problems for wire sizes
larger than about no. 10. When wound
in coils, wire sizes larger than no. 22
are seriously affected.
At a frequency of 100 kHz, single
wires larger than no. 22, and coils of
wire larger than no. 42 suffer in-
creased resistance from skin effect.
Above 1 MHz, virtually all wire sizes
are seriously affected.
To give you a practical example of
what diis means, a single-layer 1004urn
coil of no. 32 wire on a 1/2-inch di-
ameter form will have a DC resistance
of 4.2 ohms, an inductance of about
50 |lH, and a reactance of about 640 ohms
at 2 MHz, The Q might be expected to
be 640 / 4.2 or 1 50, but skin effect will
raise the AC resistance to about 42 ohms,
and the Q will actually be about 15,
Stranded wire suffers from skin ef-
fect as much as solid wire. However,
back in the 1920s radio coils were of-
ten wound of separately insulated
strands soldered together at the ends.
This "litz" wire gave some relief from
skin-effect resistance and resulted in
sharper tuned circuits. S
73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002 61
Neuer srv die
continued from poge 57
jusi 30 minutes of breaihing secondhand
smoke brought ihcir hlood How down lo
thai oi ihc smokers. Thaf s soiiiething
for smokers to think about when they
light up in the car wiih their kids in die
back seat.
Still Another Poison
Since acrylaintde is well known to
cause cancer in lab animals, and the EPA
allows no more than 0.12 micrograms in
an S-oz. glass of water, what are some
other Ci)inmon sources? The Swedish
government ran some tests on some
items which might he of tniercsi.
In micrograms per sening iticy re-
poned that Tosiitos tortilla chips had 5.
Honey Nut Chcerios 6, Cheerios 7.
Lays ptJiaio chips 8, Fritos corn chips
II ^ Pringles 25, Wendy's french fries 39
(big: 530 calories), KFC potato wedges
52, Burger King trench fries 59 (large:
600 calorics), and ihe winner by a mile:
McDonald's french fries 82 (large: 610
calories), No wonder kids arc gelling
cancer al such early ages, as well as fat.
West Nile Hype
Ya wanna have some fun? Try and get
any honest data on West Nile virus vie-
tims from the CDC or state authorities.
Investigative joumalisis have and failed.
You may remember that New York at-
tributed seven deaths to WNV, but you
won't gel any details. Independent re-
search found that iill seven were over
75 years t>ld, one had a serious heart
condition, two had cancer with heavy
chemotherapy (no immune system left),
and all had ptxir immune systems. None
of the deaths were aciuall) attributed to
WNV.
WeVc told that children and the eld-
erly are at risk. Baloney, Children are
far more al risk from pesticides and
mosquito repellents.
So whal^s different about WNV? Not
much. In its effect on humans it is just
like St. Louis virus, v\hich has been around
since 1933. Less than l^ of people in-
fected with WNV or SLY develop any
serious illness,
Pottcnger'sCats
Back in die '40s, Francis Pottenger, a
dentist, decided to see what effect diet
might have on longevity. He picked cats
for his research. H(M) of *cm. He split
them into iwo groups. He led one group
raw food. This group remained healthy
throughout the experiment. The other
group he fed processed food. Junk fotid.
The first generation of the second
62 73 Amateur Radio Today • December 2002
group developed arthritis, diabetes, al-
lergies, and cancers, jusi like we humans
do. They developed these diseases to-
ward the end of their life span, which
was about iwo-lhirds as lonsi as ihe raw
food eaters.
The second generation junk tbod eaters
developed these same diseases tow ard the
middle of their lives.
The third generation developed them
earlv in their lives. There was no fourth
generation, since the third-generaiion
cats were unable lo conceive, or when
they did, they aborted.
It was Pottenger's research that helped
convince Dr. Bruno Comby to put his
sicker patients on all-raw -food diets.
The resuhs were spectacular, as rcpt)rted
in his book. Maximize Irmmwiiy {see
page 8 of my Secret Guide to Wisihm}.
Today, in America, 25% of our young
adults arc unable to conceive. Spontane-
ous aborlion and miscarriages are on the
rise. The number one killer of children
under ten tiHiay is cancer!
Well, look at how our diet has changed
in the last hundred vears. abtuit four
generations ago. That was before super-
markets and tist fotxi. We ate fresh food,
raw milk, and meat with no growth hor-
mones or antibiotics. That was before
packaged and fro /en food. That was
when people were eating anumd tlvc
pounds of sugar a year instead of 150.
Tliai was before our farmlands were de-
pleted of minerals. That was before
crops were sprayed with pesticides. That
was also before deodorants, bug sprays.
toothpaste with Huoride, and so on. Our
kids are coming down with diseases
which used to only strike the elderly.
Potlenuer found that he could reverse
the problem by changing the cat's diet to
raw food, but it took three generations to
do it-
It's something for parents who are
feeding their cliUdren sugar-frosted cereal,
swimming in a bowl of growth hor-
mone- and anlibiolic- laced pasteurized
milk, for breakfast to think about. Oh,
and Pop-Tarts,
American Imperialism
With the collapse of the USSR* which
we bankrupted wiUi our military spending,
(he U.S. is the world's only superpower.
WeVe not sure just what this means or
how we sliould aci» but we do seem to
feel a growing collective responsibility
for manai!in!i the world. Like our excur-
sions into Haiti, Somalia, Kt>sovo, the
Gulf War, and so on. Oh. we try to wrap
ourselves in the cloak of the U.N.. but
it's a thin disguise.
We arc. by far, the mightiest military
power ill the world. Today we spend
more on our miliiarv than the niilitaries
of the next Tifteen largest countries com-
bined. Thai's major mighty. Our economy
is larger than tliose of Geniiany, Japan and
Great Britain combined.
Box Cutters
Have you seen anything in the media
aht>ui how all of those 911 hijackers
manaiied lo ijet box cutlers through the
airline security systems? I haven t lieard
an > thing about anyone being stopped
with a box cutler. There was a sugges-
tit^n al Ihe time about the possibility that
ihey might have been hidden in the scats
by conspirators in the ground crews.
Wliat I haven't seen mentioned anv-
where in the news was a report 1 goi from a
good friend who is a flight attendant for
Delia.
One of the first moves by Delta after
the attack was to have the seats of all
Delta planes checked for any possible
weapons hidden in them. My infor-
mant says ihai box cutters were found
hidden in the seats of 23 of their
planes. Wouldni you expect that this
would be a screaming headline in the
newspapers?
Which raises the question ... how
much else are we not bein? told.
Conspiracy buffs arc having a hall
with the WTC attack.
When you read fmo The Buzzsan^
which documents one huge sovernmcnt
cover-up alter another, and Day of Deceit,
which dcxrumcnts Presitlcnt Roo.sevelt's
planning and arranging the Pearl Harbor
attack, we begin to suspect that con-
spiracies may be more the rule than the
exception, and that our hope thai the
media wilt blow the whistle is a fantasy.
It could be that the last airline action
in reniovinu box cutters from who
knows how many planes may explain the
lack of the second expected aiiack. If
one airline found 23 planes with box
cu iters in the seats, how many were
found by other airlines? And how about
I he coordination it took to get so many
of them hidden in the planes by ground
crew terrorists? I don't recall anything
ever being in the media about these
members of the terrorist group beine
hunted or caught. Eh
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Here are^ some of my bool^s whkh can
chyngf your life (If you' 1] kt 'em). If
tlw kti-a <^f [>el£ig healthy, weiifthy and
wwe intiTc^ts you, start tcudin^* Ye%
you Clin !>e all that* but only w hen you
know the secrets which Tve spent a
lifetime uneovering.
Wayne
The Secret Guide to HeaTlh: Yes.
ihe re rca 1 1\ i s a secret lo rega i n i ng your
healili and adding 30 ro 6() years of
heaJihy livbg lo your fife. The answer is
simple, but ir means making some se-
rious lifestyle changes, Will you be ski-
ing ihe slopes of Aspen with me w hen
you're 9(j or doddering around a nurs-
w^ haine?Orpushing updaisks? No, Vm
not selling any health products, but I
can help you cure younielt' of cancer,
heart trouble, or any other illness. Get
this new, 2002 expanded edition
(160p), $10(#04)
The Secret Guide to Wealth: Just as
with healih. youll find ihai you have
hem suckered by "the sysiem" into a
pauem of life that will keep you from
ever making much money and having
the freedom to travel and do what you
want I e^iplain how an>one ^'an get a
dreajujob with no coDege. no resume,
and even without any experience^ 1
expbin how you can get someone to
happily pay you to learn vvhai yon need
to kni>w to Start your own business. S5
t#03)
The Secret Guide to Wisdom; This
is a reviiaw of around a hundred books
thai will boggle your mind and help
you change your life. No, 1 don'l sell
Uiese books. They're on a wiiie nmge of
subjects and will help to make you a.
vcc\ iniefesting jiersoo. Wait '11 ytni see
some of the gems you ve missed read-
ily. You'll have pkxit>' of fiisdnatlng stuff
to talk about on the air. $5 ( #02}
The Blood Purifier HandTMMjIc: This
cspUuns hou 10 build or buy (SI 55) a
little electrical gadget that can help
clean your bbod of any virus, microbe,
para&iiet fungus or yeast. The process
was discovered by scientists at the
Albert Einstein Coilegc ot'MiiJiciiii.\
quickly paten led. and huilied up. ll's cur-
ing A£DS, hepatitis C, and a bunch of
other serious iUnesses. It's working
miracles! S10I#01)
Plant Growih Stimulator: This has
llie same circuii as the above, all ready
lo use. Many cusionters are buying
second and third units for ibeir familv.
Postpaid: S 1 55 «#PGSj.
My WW II Submarine Adventures:
Yes, I spent from 1943-1945 on a sub-
marine, right in the middle of the war
with Japan, We almost got sunk ^veral
times, and twice 1 was in the right place
at the right linie to save the boat.
What's it really like to be depth
charged? And what's the dailv life
aboard a submarine like? How about
the Amelia Earhart inside story ?if
you're near Mobile^ please visit the
Dmm. $5 ttlOl
Travel Diaries: You can travel amaz-
ingly inc?t pensively -once you know
the rDpes_Enjo)f Sheny andmy budget vis*
its 10 Eurtjpe, Russia, and a bunch of
other interesting places. How about a
first class HtghE lo Munich, ii rented
Audi, driving to visit Vienna, Krnkow
in Poland (and the famous sail mines )»
Prague, back lo Munich, and ihc tml
class night home for two, all for under
Si, 000. Yes* when you know how you
can travel ine:^ pensively, and still stay
in llf^[ ^ Ltxs boiels. S5 (I U
Writer"* Guide; lis easy; fun, can pad
yourr^ume, and impress the hell out
of vour friends SO (78)
W*a V ne*s Cari h bean Advent u rv^ M \
super budget travel stories - where I
visit die hams and <icuba dive most of
the islands ot the Caribbean, You'll
love the special Liatfare whicli let nie
visjl I ] coil nines in 21 days, diving
all but one oi [he islands, Guadeloupe,
where the hams kepi me loo busy with
parties. 3i5 (#12*
Cold Fusion f Ken iew: This is both
a brief history of cold fusion, which 1
predict will be one of the largest in-
dus tries in the world in the 2tst cen-
tury, plus a simple explanation of hov,
and whj it works. This new field h
going to generate a ^ hole new bunch
of billionaires* just as the personal
computer industrv' did. S5 (#20)
Improving State Government: Here
are 24 wavs that stale govenunents c:in
cut expenses enonnously, while provid-
ing far better service. I explain how any
govemnieiu bureau or depaitnient can
be gotien u* cut its expenses by at least
50^ in ihree yeais and do it co(J|kiu-
lively and enthusiastically I explain
how^ by applying a new lechnologv; the
stale can make it possible ro provide all
needed services without having to levy
^v taxes at all! Read tfie book, run for
your legislature, and let *s get busy mak-
tng this countrv work like its foundei^
wanted it to. tXjn*t leave this for'*some-
one else" to do. $5 (#30)
Mankind's Extinction Frediction.s: If
any one of Ihc experts who have writ-
ten btioks predicting a soon-lo-coina
catastrophe whict] will virlually wipe
most of us oui i^ right, we're in tnHjl>le
In this book I explain about the
various disaster scenarios, like
Nostradamus, who says the poles will
soon shJli tas ihey have se\'sal time** in
the past I wiping ixn 97% of mankind
Ok^, so he'^ made a long string of past
hicJcy gue^es. The w orst pan of these
predictions i'^ the accuracy record of
some of the experts. Will it be a fwle
shift, a new ice age, a massive solar
flare, a Comet or asteroid, a bioterrorist
attack? I'm getting ready, how about
you? $5 (#3 1)
Moondoggle: After reading Renews
book, NASA Mooned America^ I read
every tiling I conlil find on our Moon
landings, 1 W'alched the NASA videiis,
lookied carefully at the photos, read die
astronaut's biographies^ and talked
with some readers who worked for
NASA. This t»ook cites 45 good rea-
sons I believe the whole Apollo pn>
gnun had to have been faked. S5 (#32)
Classical Music Guide: A list of ICK)
CDs which will provide you with an
outstanding collection of the finefil
classical music ever written. This is
what you need lo help you reduce
stress. Classical music also raises
youngster's IQs, helps pi ants grow
faster, and will make you healthier Just
w ait' 0 VTMi hear btm le of Gcvu^dtaik's fabu-
lous music! $5 (#33)
The Radar Coverup: b pdBce radar
dangerous? Ros^s Adey K6UL a world
authority, confirms the dangers of ra-
dio and magnetic fields, including our
HTs and cell phones, S3 (#34)
Three Gatto Talks: A prize- winning
teacher explains what's wrong with
American schools and why our kids
are not being educated, Why are Swed-
ish youngsters, whii start school al 7
years of age, leaving our kids in the
dust".' (Jur kids are inieniionaliy being
dumbed down by our school system
— the least effeciive and most expen-
sive in the world. $5 <#3S)
Aspartame: a.k.a. NutraSweet. the
stuff in diet drinks, etc., can cause all
kinds of serious health problems. Mul-
tiple sclerosis, for one, Read all about
it i\^ o paiiiphleis for a bucL (#38)
Si Million Sales \'ideo: The secret of
how you can generate an extra mil-
liondollais in s;des jiist by using PR. This
will be one ot ihc best investments you
or yoir business will c\a n^tke. $4t)i#52)
Reprints of My Editorials from 73.
Very^ few things in tliis world aje as we've
been taught, and as they appear. As an
iconoclast 1 blow die uhisiJe un the scams
annind us. such as the liealth care, our
school sv'Siem,. our monc); the dnie: vtan
a colkse education, sufiar. the food slants,
our imhealdiy food, tluorides, EMFs,
N'unaSv\ eet esc.
1996 lOU Editi^ial Esiis^ $5 ( #72)
1997 157 Editori^ Essmni $& (#74)
199S 192 Editorial Ei^^ $10 (#75)
1999 165 Editorial Essays: S8 (#76)
2000 1 01 Editorial hlssays: S5(#77)
20U] It^ Editorial EiLsav^: $5 (#78)
Silver Wire: Wiih iwo 5-in, pieces of
heavy pure aiver wire + three 9V t>aner-
tes \ou can make a thousand dollars
worth of silver colloid. What do you do
with it? It does what the atui bio tics do,
but genns can*t adapt to it. Use it to
get rid of genu s on food, for skin fun-
gus, warts, and even lo drink. Read
some books on the use^ of silver col-
loid. it*s like maeic, S15 (#80)
CoUuid Repfint, April '97 article on a sil-
lier colldd maker, hisiorv; and how to use
thesiufT.S5i^^j.
CoUotd Clips, Three 9V baiter> clips. 2
aligaior clips Si imtmctjLins- S5 (**y9K
AC^pot^ened Colloid Kit: 12V power
supply, siher wires, reprint, including pri-
t>rity mail shipntent. S3 7 (#82|
Four Small Booklets Comho: S3 (#86).
Superflh^nic Food: a trillion tbUar new
indMstr}^ Schools in 2020: anodier S iril-
lion industry. Anthrax, a simple cure.
Dowsing: why and how it works.
My 1 992 We The People Detlan? War!
Chi Our l^iusy Gov enwjenl book-36()
[lages and packed w iUi i deas ihaf 11 gel you
all excited Was S13, While tliey last SIO.
Just a few (eft found in tlie waiehoi^e.
Last chance for diis classics #06)
StutT I didn't write, but >ou need:
NASA Mooned America: Rene
makes an air-tight case thai NASA
faked the Moon landings. This book
will convince even you. S3€ *#90>
l^st Skeptic of Science: This is Rene's
btXfk where he debunks a bunch of ac-
i.:e]iEed scierthlic beliefs - such as die ice
ages, tlie Earth being a magnet, the Moon
causing llie ddes, and etc. S3(l (#91 )
Hark Moonr 568 page*^ of carefully
researched pmof that Ihc Apollo Moon
landings were a hoax — a capping blow
for Rent's skeptics. S25 (#92)
19S2 General Class License Studv
Guides. Teaches the fundamentals of
dKlio & elcctricii). Was S7 I found a
few in the warehouse. S3, while they
last. Great book? (#83)
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73 Amateur Radio Today * December 2002 63
^a^m
mm
Barter 'n' Buy
Turn your old ham and computer gear into cash now. Sure, you can wail for a hamtest to try and dump it but you know you'K get a far more
realistic price if you have it out where 100.000 active ham poleniial buyers can see it, rather than the few hundred local hams who come by
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The 73 Flea Market, Barter 'n' Buy, costs you peanuts (almost) — comes to 35 cents a word for individual (noncommercial!) ads and Si .00
a word for commercial ads. Doni pian on tetling a long story. Use abbreviations, cram it in. But be honest, Tfiere are pienty of hams who love
to fix things, so If tt doesn't work, say so.
f^yiake your list, count the words, including your cali, address and phone number. Include a check or your credit card number and eKpiration.
\t you re placing a commerciai ad, inctude an additional phone nurriber. separate from yourad.
This is a monthly magazine, not a dally newspaper so figure a couple months before the action starts: then be prepared. If you get too many
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So get busy. Blow the dust off, check everything out, make sure il still works right and maybe you can help make a ham newcomer or retired
old timer happy with that rig you Ye not using now. Or you might get busy on your computer and put together a list of small gear/parts to send
to those interested?
Send your ads and pajinent to: 73 Magazine. Barter 'n* Bu\, 70 Hancock Rd.. Peterborough NH 03458 and jit't set for the
llhuiie calk. The deadline for the Februai) 20(J3 classitied ad section is December 10. 2002.
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"Monthly Special." ID L Technology, Inc, [www.
2ianet.CQiTT/td]]. BNB500
MAHLQN LQOMIS, INVENTOR OF RADiO, by
Thomas Appleby (copyright 1967). Second print-
ing available from JOHAN K,V. SVANHOLM
N3RF. SVANHOLM RESEARCH U^BORATO-
RIES. RO. Box 81 . Washington DC 20O44. Rease
send S25.00 donation with $5.00 for S&H.
BNB420
Ham Radio Repair, Oualily workmanship. All
Brands, Fast Sen/(ce. Affordable Electronics.
7110 E, Thomas Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85251 . Call
480-970-0963, or E-mail [HAM SERVICE® AOL
COM]. BNB427
64 73 Amateur Radio Today ■ December 2002
SATELLITE TV — Large selection of items at
reasonable prices, We specialize in Big Dish
TVnO C S Ku Band equipment. CIneck us out at
[www.daveswebshop.com], BN B646
HEATH KIT COMPANY is selling photocopies of
most Heathkil manuals. Only authorized source
for copyright manuals. Phone: (616) 925-5899,
8^ ET. BNB964
USED ROTORS, controts. CD-44, Ham-M, 2,
3.4. T2X. or (arger. Call C.A.T.S., 1*800-
3 ROTORS BNB662
Electricity^ Magnetism. Gravity, The Big Bang.
New explanation of basic forces of nature in this 91 -
page book covering eafiy scientific theories and ex-
pforing latest controvei^ial conclusions on their re-
lationship to a unified field theory. To orderi send
check or money order for S16.95 to: American Sci-
ence Innovations. RO. Box 155. Clarington OH
43915. Web site for other products [http;//www,
asi_2000. com], BNB100
COLLOIDAL SILVER GENERATOR! Why buy a
"box of batteries" for hundreds of dollars? Current
regulated, AC powered, fulfy assembled with it 2
AWG silver electrodes. S74.50. Same, but DC pow-
ered. $54.50. Add S2.50 shipping. Thomas Miller.
216 East 10th St.. Ashland OH 44805, Web ad-
dress [www.btoelectrifier.com]. 8NB342
FOR SALE — DRAKE TR-7/TR-7AyR-7/R-7A
Service kiL Includes 13 Extender Boards and
Digital Jumper Card. $63.85 includes postagen
See Ihttp://www.atne1.net/-^rsroffne], Bob W7AVK,
2327 Malaga Rd. NE. Moses Lake, WA 98837,
w7avk@arrLnet. 509-765-4721. BNB664
ANTENNA SCIENCE: Why do antennas radiate
eiectro magnetic waves? Learn for yourself from
this enlightening paper by MAX RESEARCH.
Gain an understanding of the radiation mecha-
nism of antennas' Written in a ctear style for radio
hobbyists, inquisitive amateurs and experifnenters.
S4.95 ... ppd. Order from MAX RESEARCH, P.O.
Box 1306, East Northport NY 11731.
BNB426
GET MORE OUT OF HAM RADIO? Books on all
topics. Up to 1 5% off. Quality Technical Books.
[http://qtb.corn/hamradio/]. BNB665
SMART BATTERY CHARGERS and more,
[www,a-aeng]neering,com] BNB653
FREEH HAM Radio and other CD-Ronns and
Disk catalog MOM 'N' POPS SOFTWARE, RO.
Box 15003-TH, Springhill, FL 34604-0111, 1-352-
688-9108, visit; httpy/www.momnpopsware.coni
BNB660
WANTED: ANY MODEL ColHns. working or not
including speakers, filters, options. 1 -piece or
collection. Bob. 651-354-5345 days: 651-345-
3600 eves, E-Mail: rkemp@mr.nel. 8NB661
WANTED: Yaesu FT-101-ZD Extender Cables
for sen/tdng. Conrad, K7CHC. 360-68 1-2774,
Email: [bm438@scn.org]. BNB663
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Alinco Delivers HF Adventure!
Allnco's HF Dransceivers Deliver incredible Performance at a Tiny Price
You're only a few hundred dollars away from a brand new Alinco HF Transceiver. That's right! Just a few hundred dollars gets you on the air
with a big 100-watt signal, great audio and an easy-to-operate package that's perfect for base, portable or mobile operations. The Alinco
OX-70 and DX-77 make it easy for everyone to enjoy HF with a dependable transceiver that's backed by Alinco's 1 year warranty.
Tiie world of HF Is calling. What are you waiting for?
Alinco DX-70TH Base/IVIobile/Portable
HF + 6 Meter Transceiver
• 100 watts SSB, FM & CW. 40 watts AM
• Continuous coverage HF receiver
+ full 6 meter coverage
• 100 memory channels
• Speech compressor
• Great CW rig, full QSK, semi
or automatic break-in
• Standard narrow filter fights QRM
on SSB, CW or AM
• Two VFO's and easy "split" operation
• Removable face for remote mounting.
• RIT / TXrr, IF shift
• Multi function control for easy operation
Alinco DX-77T Deslctop HF Transceiver
• 100 watts SSB, FM & CW, 40 watts AM
• General coverage receiver
150 KHz - 30 MHz
• Two VFO's; easy "split" operation
• Standard speech processor
« Front panel speaker provides loud,
clear audio
• Built-in electronic keyer 6 ^ 60 wpm
• Full QSK, 7-step semi break-in or auto break-fn
Enhanced Direct
Digital Synthesis
(DDS) eliminates
need for SSB Narrow
Filter
Front panel connections for mic, key, speaker
& phones
Options
• EDX-2 automatic wire antenna tuner
♦ EMS- 14 desktop microphone
* DM-330 MVT switching power supply
• DM-340 MVT regulated power supply
Iron Horse Mobile HF antennas for Alinco and other HF transceivers
Order the Iron Horse IHF5S package from your dealer and go mobile fast!
IHTH'I
Opimnal
Trailer Hitch IVIount
IffF^S MobilB HF Antennas
You get a package of 5 rugged, easUy tuned
antennas for 10, 15, 20, 40 & 75 meters from
Iron Horse, a name recognized for its strength
and dependability. Each has 3/8 x 24 threads
and is rated for 500 watts* Order the IHKD3S
5 antenna quick disconnect mounting kit to
make changing bands a
quick and easy operation,
just push, turn & go!
J
www.
AUNCO
•com
IHKP3S Quick
Disconnect Kit
Dfstflbiitetf In Umh ftmerica by /tTOG Amateof DIstrmufIng LLC • Z3 S. Higit SI. Covm0fOil, OH 45318 • (937) 473-2M0
Spgcitoliona subjact to change without notict or obH gallon.
Products intendtid rof tm by prop&rl/ iitetisett opurrilars. Perjnit& rtiquirecl fcii MARSj-'CAP use. Speciiftcatione subject \o change withouT rtntice or obligattan. M\ trad&miirks t&mm Itin property of Eh^ir r«sp«cttve owners.
i)
J!/l
iJj
Own the brightest star in the Ham Radio Galaxy! The exciting
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Wide -Cover A ffe interne I Repeater £nftan£ement Syitem.
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56/t44/430 MHz 5W FM Transceiver
Actual Size
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