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Build: • Pro-Style ~ ESR Meter / • K.I.S.S. Trickle ,,- Charger ..-
Beautiful HI-land Unleash The Power
R-605TQ VHF/UHF Dual-Band Mobile/Base Full 2 Meter/440 Performance DR-620T VHF/UHF • 100 memory ch.1nnels, + a -Ca'" ch.Jnnel for each band Dual-Band Mobile/Base •cress encoded+dN:OdN and tone scan • CrcJSj-band repeat iind full duplex capability First Amateur Twin Band Mobile To Support • 9600 bps packer ready with dedicated terminals Optional Digital Voice Communications' • Internal dup'e1Cer ~ one easy antenna connection • RX·VHF 136-173.995 MHz, UHF 42tJ...449.994 MHz • TX·VHF 144-147.995 MHz, UHF 430-449.994 MHz • RX·VHF 108·173.995 MHz, UHF 335-480 MHz • MARS capability (permit requim/) • TX-VHF 144-J47.995 MHz, UHF 430-449.995 MHz • OUTPUT HIL - 5015 watts VHF, 3515 watts UHF • Receives Airband and Wide FM • Time-out timer (ideal for repeaterand padcel • Front control unit separation (optional EDS-9 kit required) operation) • Advanced 10F3 digit." mode with speech compression technology (Ej.47U required)- • 200 memory channels • Advancrd EI·SOU TNC (optional) supports dig;-peat mode • Remote control features including parameter setting and direct frequency entry through the microphone DJ- V5TH VHF/UHF • Dual-Bimd receiver with VIU, VI¥, UlU capability Dual-Band FM Transceiver • CTCSS/Des encode/decode and European Tone..bursts 5 watts ofoutput power, in a compact package. • OUTPUT: HIMlL·50/10/5 watts VHF • Alphanumeric Display, up to 6 characters • OUTPUT: HIMlL·35/JO/5 watts UHF • TX·VHF 144·147.995 MHz, UHF 420449.995 MHz • 200 memory channels plus two call channels • Full VHF + UHF Amaleur Band Coverage • Receive Range, (76 • 999MHz) Ask your dealer includes Wide FM capability • Up to 5 W.1tts output, 3 output settings about the full line of •crcss encode+decode DrMF squelch and Iron Horse antennas & European Tone bunts accessories! • 4 scan modes,. 5 programmable scan banks • MARS capability (pMnit required)
DJ·596T VHF/UHF Dual-Band HT with Digital Voice Option' Loaded with features! The breakthrough design supports optional digital voice communications and you can easily switch the unit between analog and digital modes!
• Full 4.5 watts output VHFI4w UHF • Full 2m and 440 band coverage • Powerful NiMH battery • Accepts 6 to 16 VDC' direct input • roo IMmories in any combination • Illuminated Keys and display of VHF or UHF channels • Wide and narrow FM modes • Direct frequency input from keypad • to aurodial memories • Each memory capdble of"odd splir- operation. • Theft a/ann feature • Alph.lnumeric channell.lbels • Optional E/-40U Digital Voice Bo.1m!· • crCSS/DeS encode+decode plus tone bursts • Programming/Clone softw;are available
Distributed in North America by Amateur Distributing LLC • 2] S. High SL. Covington. OH 45318 • (93n 47]·2840 Specincationssubj«t to change without notice or obligation. ' Digital tommunitaliQfl\ flC'q\li~ at Iea~ t'oW s.imilarly equipp«!lt;lnKeiven. Digiloll mode lTWy noIlx- ~l in \Orne tounlrie\. See FAQ on digital ,II ....ww.alirw;o.wm. ProdtK'" ifllended lor use by properly liceesed opt"taKlo'\. f'tomlih requin-'d for MARS use. Spe\:;ifteliom ~ ubit' ASlociale Publisher F. l. MariOn Amateur Executive Editor Jack Bumeh Radio Today Managing Edit or Joyce Sa wtelle TABLE OF CONTENTS Technical Editor Larry Antonuk WB9RAT FEATURES DEPARTMENTS Conlrib!Jling Culprit . 10 Build This Amazing ESR Meter - K8Z0A 48 Abo ve & Beyond -WB61GP Mike Btyce WB8VGE A simple project for everybody's shack. 49 Ad Index Jim Gray II 64 Barter 'n' Buy Jack Heller KB7NO 19 K.I.S.S. Trickle Charger- K9TRG 41 Calendar Event s Chuck Houghton WB61GP And the ABCs of battery maintenance. 42 The Dig ital Port - K87NO Andy MacAnisler W5ACM 46 Hamsats - W5ACM Joe Moell KOOV 25 Experimenting with Hall-Effect Sensors - W6WTU 52 Homing In - KOOV 8 Letters Steve Nowak KE8YN/O For fun and knowledge. Dr_RiCk Olsen N6NA 4 Never Say Die - W2NS0l1 45 On the Go - KE8YNlO 29 On the Face of It, A Good Idea - AA2JZ 60 Propagation -Gray Advertising Sale. How to ace those finishing touches on your 1 OR X Everyn Gallison WS7A home-brewed pride-and-joys. 63 Radio Bookshop 21704 S .E. 35th 51. rssaouen WA 98029 35 Travels with Henryk - Part 9 - SMOJHF E-Mail 425-557 -9611 The Dominican Republic. where the main mode Fax: 425-557 -961 2 IS merengue. design73@3;ol.com crre uteucn 382m FM Ham History 101 - K1NUN Frances Hyvarinen It's time you got your degree. w eb P.a~ t' www.wayncg rccn.corn Data Entry & Other Stult 40 To the Rescue - KE6FBO Norman Marion A story about 2m and winches - we hope. Business Ottlce 2002 Annual Index EdilOlial • Advertising • Qrrulation page 31 Feedback · Product Reviews 73 Amateur Radio Today Magaz ine 70 Hancock Rd. COVER: House and antenna Peterborough NH 03458·1 107 of Romeo HJ3 BR R. Santiago, 603-924-0058 Dominican Republi c. Photo Fa x: 603-924-8613 ORH by S~1 0JHF. Reprints: 53 per article ••• Back issues: $5 each Printed in the USA II you look on the front of the bill. you will see the Dollar Power United Sta les Treasury Seal. On the top you will see Take out a one-dollar bill and look at it. The one lhe scales for a balanced budget, and for fairness. In dollar bill you have fi rst came off the presses in 1957 the center you have a carpenter's square, a 1001 used in its present design. lor an even cut. Underneath is the key to Ihe United This so-called 'paper" money is in fact a cotton Stales Treasury. That's all pretty easy to figu re out, and linen blend, with red and blue minute silk fibers but what is on the back. of thatdollar bill is something running through it. It is actually material. We 've all we should all know. washed it without it falling apart. A special blend 01 Tum the bill over and you will see two crces. Both ink is used. the contents we will never know. II is circles together comprise th e Great Seal of the United overp rinted with symbols and men it is starched to States.The First Coolinenlal Congress requested that make it water resistant and pressed to give it that nice crisp look. Continued on page 6 ;;J",ASP0TR~N 9 Autry Irvine, CA 92618 O" ~ ,O~ (949) 458·72n . {949} 458-0826 ... POWER ON WITH ASTRON I ~Gi ( E SWITCHING POWER SUPPLlES _ SPECI AL FEATURES: PROTECTION FEATU RES: • HIGH EFACIENCYSWITCHING TECHNOlOGY • CURRENT LIMITING SPECIFICALLY FILTERED FDA USEWITH • OVEAVOlTAGE PROTECTION CQMMUN1CATQ.lS EQUIP MENT. FOR All • FUSE PROTECTION FREOUENCIES lNCllJDlNG jjf. • OVER TEMPERATURE SHIJTDOWN MODEL 55-1OTK • HEAVY DUTY DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS: • lOW PROFil E. LIGHTWEIGHT PACKAGE INPUT VOLTAGE : 115 VAG Sl),'6OHZ • EMl FILTER OR 220 VAG SO'60HZ • MEETS FCC CLASS B SWITCH SELECTABLE OUTPUT VOlTAGE : 13, 8VDC AVAILABLE WITH THE FOLLOWING APPROVALS: UL, CUL, CE,TUV. MODEL 55-1 21F DESKTOP SWITCHING POWER SUPPLIES MODEL CO NT. (Amps) ICS SIZE (Inches) Wl {lbs.) 55-10 7 10 t ~ x 6 x9 32 55-12 10 '2 1% x6 x9 3A 5$·18 15 ia 1%x 6x 9 55·25 20 25 2'li x 7 x 9'1i '6s.a 55·30 25 30 3'1, x 7 x9'JO 5 0 MODEL 55-18 DES KTOP SWTTCHII'+G POWER SU PPlIES WITH VOlT AND AMP METERS MODEL CONT. (Am ps) ICS SIZE (inches) wt.(lbs.) SS-25M ' 20 25 2- ~ . 7 .9"'0 4.2 SS-3OM ' 25 30 3%. 7. 9'10 5.0 MODEL 55-25M RACKMOUNT SWITCHING POWER SUPPLIES MODEL CONT. (Amps) ICS SIZE (inche s) W1.(lbs.) SAM·25 20 es 3 ~ x19 . 9-11 6.5 SRM ·30 25 30 31t x 19 . 9'1i 7.0 WITH SEPARATE VO LT & AMP METERS MODEL CO NT. (Amps) ICS size (inches) Wl.(lbs.) SRM -25M 20 25 3 ';' x19 X 9'/, 6.5 SRM -30M 25 30 3Y, x19 x 9Y. 7.0 MODEL 5RM-30 2 ea SWITCHING POWER SU PP LIES ON ONE RACK PANEL MODEL CONT.IAmps) ICS SIZE (inches) Wl.(lbs.) SRM-2S·2 20 25 3',1; x19. 9'~ 10,5 SR~,t.30·2 25 30 3',1; .19 .9'.; 11 ,0 WITH SEPARATE VOLT & AMP METERS MODEL CONT· IAmps) ICS SIZE ( i nc~l wt..(lbs.) 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S5-16V MODEL 55-10EFJ-98 QRP TRANSMITTER Available in 20. 30, Of 40 Meters. these neat ittIe trans mitters put 0lA. 1 wan! $ 155 Sold Separately HR RECflVfR Visit www.ramscykits.com!QfJ) Avai lable in 20. 30. or 40 Meters. 1.0 uV sensitivity to order this special deal! rivals the bg rigs...ac a fr.Jction of the pOre! CW700KEYfR 599 price kJelJcb QRP rf1lfJS(1ll(ter k(. HR Rea:Ner .lt Jnd (WlOO ,I,.fjcro.f> L'....y With adjuslabIe pitch & speed from 3-60 v.pm. featlR:S ~ kit ~ the m¥drirtg t;3!ie & knob sets sItotm. true iarTbc keyW1g and EPROM merJ1Of)'! VI$if '""".~ .eurtV'" to orde1" this special deal! 3S WAIT LPFM STEREO TRANSMITTER PROFESSIONAL FM STEREO RADIO STATION ./ 35W RF ()I..(pl(. VS'NR proIected ./ S)1llhesired 88 to 108 MHz oMth no Oiit ! ,/ Aulomalic audio & power controls ./ Buit ·in rma- - 2 line ilpUtS and one . -•• - . rricrophone npuc! -. . . ./, ""'"ftj lrort"""""'"panel c:ooodPU ./ High jlOWO" moWIe avaiabIe for ellJl(Xt use ,/ 11 O!22WN::.. l2VOC opef3liOn ./ low p3SS filer lor great audio response Whether )'(U iIJ'lJkalioo is expoc1 ot lPfM, the PXl has )'OO coeed From the OYef-rared CXIflfflJous X Again lid is on tight, ~ ASA has I hope the new book will 680,000 licensees on the FCC Congress muzzled. Senators explain thc footprints and tire rolls, with today's average Has my tolli ng the Planet X and representatives know that tracks in the dust on the life span being about 75 bell of coming doom got you if they cause NASA any prob Moon. Since it requires some years, and with the average worried yet'? If you've been lems, their district will be cut sort of atmos phere for there ham age today at about 63 able to whistle yourself past from any further government to be any dust, 3 fact which years, we should see about this potential graveyard then funding of projects. can be substantiated in any 28.333 die per year (unless one of the last things you' ll NASA = Never A Straight lab with a bell jar and a they read 73 and change their want to do is read James Answer, and National As vacuum pump, how did they diets). That's about 255,000 McCanney's P/(I/I et-x' Comets tronomy Security Agency. make those famed Moon boot possible silent mikes over a & Earth Changes. l im says that our mountain footprints? Plus 44 other nine year period that the FCC This $ 18 book. ISB~ 0 ranges, coal, and oil deposits damned good rea ...ons to be is still counting as licensees. 9722 186-0-2. is self-published. were all formed in a matter of convinced the Apollo trips That would bring the total See [wwwjmccanncyscience. hours as the result of passing were hoaxes. down to more like 425 .000. com]. It' s a chronicle of l im's comets or past Planet X visits somewhat lowering that growth 22-year fight. mostly with - and that they don 't e ven Weird fi gure. NASA, for recognition of his have to pass very close to Counting the silent mikes. theory that cornets are not cause severe effects. Hillary gets $8 million for about a quarter of one percent dirty snowballs. and that com This helps explain the re her memoirs. Bill gets about of Americans (dead and alive) ets have had and still are ha .... cent discovery of a city 2,500 SI2 million for his as-yet-un have ham tickets. That's a ing a profound influence on feet under the Caribbean, written memoirs. This from pretty exclusive club, eh? No Barth. ncar Cuha. And the sudden two people who spent eight wonder we don't get no respect. Using his model he's been disappearance of Atlanti s, and years being unable to recall, Please let me know when able to accurately predict its colonies all around the while under oath, anything you think it's time for some hurricanes. tornadoes, and ty· world around 10,000 years about past eve nts. group (0 start promoting the phoons. His model also ex ago, which would be three hobby so wc'Il see some plains how and why Planet X, passes ago for Planet X. Roger growth. Oh. and tell me what though still far out in our so As Alfred E. Neuman says, group you recommend for the Roger on the rig there. lar system. ha.s already had a "What, me worry'?" job. Roger on the antenna. Roger profound infl uence on the Sun. We Did, Too! on the weather. Thanks for Iconoclast extending the sunspot maxi- the nice QSO . 73. mum beyond all previousty ~ASA made worldwide news lconoclast: a person who recorded cycles. He's predict- (my thank s to LA-tYE for an The Hobby Growt h attacks cherished belief sys ing that as Planet X gets Oslo newspaper clipping) by tems or institutions which he closer, we'll be seeing devas- funding the writing of a hook The latest FCC fi gures thinks are wrong or foolish. rating weather on Earth, with debunking the crazies who show that the number of lic Well, that sure describes the risk of repeating what's have been questioning the rc ensees has grown by about me. I' m out here with my happened with past extinction ality of those ast ronaught 1,800 over the last two years. . little pocket knife attacking events. Moon visits thirty years ago. (Yeah. see that stuff in Hoo-pound gorillas such as So why haven't we been The writer sure has his work "Q RX," and then read this.) our public school system hearing anything about all cut out for him . That's about an eighth of a NEA. the AMA -~DA -phar this in the news'! It turns out Why am I reminded of the percent per year. If that isn' t maccutical industry, the cool that all NASA scientists are famed Condon Report which bad enough, this figure in oil-natural gas industries, the restricted by an NSA decree de bunked the presence of cludes tons of silent mikes. power industry, the post of to not discuss or admit pub- UFOs'! It didn't help Condon's With today's ten year li fice, the farm ing and food licly to any event or situation credibility when his assistant censes. there are nine years of processing industries, colleges that might cause public alarm. "fesscd up later that Condon dead hams still being counted and universities, NASA, and Data about the arrival of got the project with the pro - like the voters in Chicago. a bunch more...Iike our Planet X is not being allowed visa that he was not to find Now let's do a quick calcu bnbed-to-thc-gllls Congress. to he released. any credi ble evidence for lation and estimate the actual And, just to make sure the UFOs being real. live ham population. With Conrutuect all page 33 4 73 Amateur Radio Today· January 2003 Uni NERS Bearca~ 245XLTTrunk Tracker II AORS AR8200 Mark liB Radio Scanner Mig. suggested list ooc e $429,95JCEI price $189 .95 AOR8200 M;R liB-A _ ha_ IC8tlI'MlfISPECLAL $$3U ~ 300 Ch a nn els ·10 banks · Trunk SCan and Scan Llsta 1,000 Chlnnsls. 20 ba nks • ~ O Sslecl Scan Chennsl" T.unk Lockout ·Trunk Delay· Clo ning Capab ility P"'SS c ha nnsl", 50 per search bank + ~o for VFO sea.ch 10 P rio rity Channell . Prog ra m med Service Search Frequs ncy " tsp progrsm"",bls In multiple" of 50 H~ . Siz e : 2"'" Wide l( 1W' Deep J( 6" High Size : 2''''' Wide K1..... Deep J( 6'''' H igh Fr9quency Covwege: FrlqUI Good Numbers in the USA Last year at this time, there were nearly 683,000 hams licensed by the FCC.As of Octo ber last year,there were 2,235 fewer - butnum bers are not always what th ey seem. The reality is that ham radio in the United States is growing once again. First, the Genera l and Extra classe s have in creased substantially since th e 13- and 2D-word per-minute Morse code exams were eliminated on April 15th of 2000. In teet. the number of people holding these licenses has increased by S(; -2U2U SG -2020 ADSP well over 25,000 for each license class.And that's C at. IIUS-tJ] Cat. IIU5-02 S 7 9 ~, 0 0 great news for ham radio equipment suppliers, $675.UO since they rely on higher dollar high frequency transceiver sales for much oftheir yearly income. The Technician class is holding its own, too. Adaptive Digital Signal Processing Thenumber of new Tech license holders iskeep ing pace with th e number of hams either upgrad Eliminates Noise for Unsurpassed Signal Quality ing or dropping out of amateur radio. The net change is close to zero, For the fi rst time ever. the popular SG-l020 is available with optional digital Only the Novice and Advanced classes are seeing significant drop s in numbers. No new signal processing. Receive clearer AM, F~ 1 , SSB. CW at all speed levels and Novice or Advanced class tickets have been is data in all existing different modes. :-':0 other machine under $800 even comes sued since April, 2000. And while existing li close to the many features of the SG·2020ADSP. censes can be mOOifiedand renewed, it appears as if that's just not happening among Novices. \Vben you need a great little IIF-SSB rig, choose the standard SG-l020. Or, for They appear to be fading away, and quickly \hefe were 65,000 Novices ill 1997, but now there the clearest possible signal, the new SG·2020 ADSP is the right unit for you. are only about 37,000. The bottom line is that for the last 12 months Find out what everyone is talking about! ham radio has seen an average of 1,600 brand new ham licenses issued each month. That's an Get free QSL cards, and download the manual at improvement of 160 a month over the previous year. And that improvern ent is very good news www.sgcworld.com for ham radio. , As to the state with the largest number of ;:== hams? II's still California, which can now claim being home to more than one seventh of all the nation's hams. Latest figures show there are more than 100,000 hams now living there, Toll Free l SOlI ) ~ 5 9-- 73 3 I " Tel ( 4~5 J 7-1.0-6310 " Fa.'I H~ 5 1 746-63 s-t - Email: 5g."~ sgc.... orId ,oom The state with the fewest hams? North Dakota ~ lail ;ng. : PO Box 35! 6, Eklte".." WA 'l1l009 _ Shipping: 13737 SE 16th St. fk l1",,"~ . WA 98005 LS A with only 1,575. 73 Amateur Radio Today " January 2003 7 LETTERS From the Ham Shack Dain Lones KC6\VZK, 3332 Palos present all-home-brew station: The bottom In 1974. he earned his master's degree in Verdes Dr. N., Palos Verdes Estates CA unit is my e-band (3- 30 MHL) s uperhetero education. He was a leader in th e Boy 90274. After reading Carl Herbert's article dyne receiver with a home-brew worm gear Scou ts of America. on writing a short story. on page 4 1 in the as modified for an old General Radio dial Joe was a joiner and very active person August issue of 73. I thought the enclosed providing a 200: I ratio. On top and at the around this area. He taught first aid for the might be of interest to some of your readers. front of the receiver is my digital readout Red Cross, and amateur radio in the local even though there arc not many "horne for the receiver that can he set for any IF North Beach High School. He was a mem brewers" around these days. May be this value (I use 10.8 MH1.). On top and at the ber of the local YFW post. He was also a might crank some of them up. rear of the receiver is my QRP, CW, and member of the Ocean Shores Elks Club. He First, a little background might also be voice IO-meter transmitter. On top of the was a member of the Grace Harbor Ama of interest. Some 72 years ago while in el transmitter is my roller coiltransrnatch with teur Radio Club for as long as Thave known ementary school, I built my fi rst transmitter; cross needle, digital and bar graph, and him (2 1 years). Joe was a doer all his life a spark gap unit, with which I spoiled all powerlSWR readout (for those who want a and was always willing to help. He will be the neig hbors' radio reception, and at w hich choice). On top of the transmatch is my 50W missed by the radio group of Grace Harbor. time I also bui It my first crystal set. A couple CWo 35 W voice linear broadband power of years later. while in junior high school, I amp. The driver is my QRP transmitter. So Ray J. H owes G40 WY, Dorset, En built my fi rst tube-type transmitte r (a one there you have it, a co mplete all-home-brew gla nd. Was it sere ndipity or what? There tube 20 IA). as we ll as a two-tube receiver. station. I was, moaning about th e lack of QRP High school found me more interested in . Here's to getting some of the newcomers coverage in 73, and 10 and behold , in the cars, girls. and sports. and as a result I got interested in home-brew! October issue , an article courtesy of away from ham radio for many years. KF6FJU. interv ie wi ng Marshall Em m After retirement 2 1 years ago, my inter Arn old Samuels KH6COY, Ocean N I FN - QRP devotee and president of est peaked once again. Tgot my license and Shores ' VA. It is my sad duty to announce Milestone Technologies, Inc. Well do ne ! started building home-brewed projects. To the death of my good friend, Joseph "Pop" Like KF6FJU. I too fon dly remember da te I havc completed some 440 of same. Bushnel l WA7BLE, on Nov. 9. 2002. He my first kit build many years ago. How In so doing. I use segments or many articles was 76 years old. ever, unlike KF6FJU's first effort. mine in 73, CQ, and QST m agazines, and the Joe was in the Army Air Corps during ended up a bit like a mini-nuclear explo ARRL handhooks, to build modules which I World War II. He served in the Asian/Pa sion. I forgot to reduce the volts input! can choose in building my fi nal projects cific theater with the 5th Air Force, 22nd Silly me. T he second attempt worked fin e none of which are built from kits, including Division. He also served in the Germany - and still does. what is shown here. airlift and flew with the Hurricane Hunters So there you have a little history on how while stationed in Berm uda. He married Just got my November issue of 73 in the I got started and learned a to t. 1recommend DianaJ. Kilber WA7BLF in 1949. daily deluge of mail. and as a fan of QRP, the same ro others. Joe retired from 2 1 years of ac tive duty. guess which page I turned to fi rst'? Yep, page The photo and the following describe my He earned his bachelor's degree in education. 53! - written of course by the irrepress ible Michael Bryce WB8YGE. After my moa ns about the lack of QRP colum ns of late, someone at the top must be listen ing. Keep 'em co rn ing. now! By the way, been enjoying "The History of Ham Radio" series. I'm a sucker for a ll things nosta lgic - I just can't help myself. Suhscriptions 10 73 Magazine Only $24.97 - 1 year $44 .97 - 2 years $65.00 - 3 years" *hes t buy (54% o ff co ver price') Call 800-274-7373 Photo A. KC6WZK :f all-home-brew station. a 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 ~~~1J:CONOMY ~. FM EXCITERS: A microprocessor-controlled repeater with full '. . .. 2W continuous duty autopatch and many versatile dlmf remote con ONLY $29Iw&t . ~ .' - oufpuf. trol features at less than you might pay for a •Miniature MOSFET Preamp. T301 Synthesized bare bones repeater or controller alone! • low noise figure VHF Exciter: There are more REP-200's on the air than any • Available for various bands from 28 to 450 MHz. for various bands 139·174 MH<:, 2 16·226 other repeater in the world. LNK-( ) MH<: , Dip switch Ireq setting , TCXO freq PREAMP stability ONLY $59/w&t • Kit 2M only (TCXO option S40).. .. $109 Low noise pream p in • W iredltested, incl TCXO . ... $189 alum case wlBNC jacks. T304 Synthesized UHF Exciter: • kit stili only $1095 for various bands 400-470 MH<: , • factory assembled still only $1295 LNP-( ) PRESELECTOR O NLY $39Iw&t • Kil (44Q-45() ham band only) inel TCXO .. $149 f>O--54, 14:>-174 , 213-23J, 420-475 MHz • Eliminate intermodl • Wiredltested ...... $189 ( FCC type ouep'.d lor commertial ..,rv"'" .... 1$0 3.0$0 Mfi1 b"""",) • Sharp a-eecuon filter • low noise preamp CRYSTAL CONTROLLED: Digital Voice Recorder Option. Allows message up 10 20 sec, to be remotely recorded off the air. Play • Available for bands from • TA51 : lor 6M. 2M, 220 MHz kit $99, wit $169 back at user request by DTMF command, or as a 137 to 170 MHz • TA451 : lor 420-475 MHz __ kit$99,wlt $169 • TA901: for 902-928 MHz, (0,5W out) ...... wit $169 periodic voice id, or both Great for making club announcements! . only $100 VHF & UHF POWER AMPLIFIERS: REp·200C Economy Repeater, Real-voice 10, no Output levels from 10W to 100W .,..... Starting at $99 dtmf or autopatch Kit only $795, w&1 $1195 • AM receiver for the REp·200N Repealer. Without controller so you can 118-137 MHz aircraft band. FM RECEIVERS: use your own...... ,..,..... ,...... , Kit only $695, w&t $995 • Allows pilot control of Very sensitive, runway lighting. O.2IJV. • ElT monitor to detect and Superb selectivity, locate downed aircraft. >100 dB down at ±12 kHz, • Used at small airports best available anywhere, across the country. nutter-proof squeich. • Dip switch frequency selection . Hamtronics has the • Superior sensitivity and selectivity. R301 Synthesized most complele line R121 Receiver module wired/tested ,$209 VHF Receiver: of modules for Recei ver i n cab i n e t (5 e e _ b " ~e ) R121 , __$299 various bands 139· making repeaters, 174MHz, 216-226 MHz In addition to Dip sw itch Ireq. setling , exciters, pa'a, and TCXO Ireq stability receivers, we offer the following controllers. •Kit2monly (TCXOoplion$40) ,,., .. only $139 J oin the fun. Gel striking • Wired/tested (incl TCXOj ...... $209 COR·3. Inexpensive. flexible COR module with timers, Images directly from the weather courtesy beep, audio mixer. ..only $49/kit, $79 wit sat",Uitesl R304 Synthesized UHF Receiver: CWID·2. Eprom-COrltrolled rrrer...", o nly $54lkit, $79 wit A ~ery sensitive wideband 1m various bands 4 00-470MHz. DVR.1. Record your own voice up to 20 sec. For voice "'~'-::':::::::::-I • Kit 44Q.45() only (ind TCXOj ...... $179 receiver optimized f or NOAA APT id or playing club announcements ,...... $59/kit, $99 wit & Russian Meteor weather fax on • • W iredltested ...... $209 the 137MHz band COR"". Complete COR and CW ID all on one board. ID Covers ailS satellite channels, Scanner c:ircuit & recorde r CRYSTA L CONTROLLED: in eprom. Low power CMOS ...... " o nly $99/kit, $149 ""It control allow you to automatically capture signa ls as sater • R100 for 46-54,72·76,140-175, or 216·225 MHz, COR..fi. COR with recorded-voice id, Low power CMOS, lites pass overhead, even while away from home kit $129 , wit $189 non.volalile memory, .... kit only $99, ""II only $149 • R139 Receiver Kit less case , $159 • R451 lor 420--475 MHz kit $129, wit $189 COR.5. Microprocessor controller with autopatch • R139 Rece iver Kit with case and ac power adapter $189 • R901 lor 902·928MHz kit $159, wi t $219 reverse ap, telephone remote control, lots of DTMF • R139 Receiver wit in case with ac pow",r adapter ,..,$239 control furx:tions , all on one board, as used in REp·2oo • Turnstile Antenna .. " ...... "...... "" ..$135 Repealer .." ...... ,...... ,...... " ...... ,,, $379 wlt AP.3, Repeater autopatch , reverse autopatch, phofle line Access all your favorite remote control. Use with TD-2. ....kit $89 Fi ~ e A sensitive and s elective profes repeatersl TD-2. Four-digit DTMF decoder/controller. latching sional grade receiver to monitor or-ott functions. tall call restnctcr...... kit $79, wit $129 •Enc odes all standard sub-aud critical NOAA weather broad. ible tones with crystal accuracy casts. Good reception even at aOO DIP switch tone selection distances of 70 miles or more with HANDY FREDUENCY COUNTERS • Decoder can be used to mute receive audio and is -- SUItable antenna, No comparison optimized for installatIon in repeaters to provide dosed Pocket sized, but lab quality! 3GH<: with ordinary consumer radios access. High pass filter gets. rid annoying revr buzz, bandwidth, 1ppm accuracy, very afford· pro~ides ' of Automatic mode storm watch, alerting you by able. NiCd battery, ac adapter/charger, • TD·5 CTCS$ EncoderlDecoder Kit. ,$39 unmuting receiver and providing an output to trip remote rugged black anodized aluminum case, • TD-5 CTCSS Erx:oderlOecoder Wiredltested .,,$59 equipment when an alert tone is broadcast Crystal Telescoping whip anlenna and great controlled for accuracy; all 7 channels (162.40 to 162,55). sensitivity allow measurements even from • RWX Rcvr kit, PCB only . " ...... ""...$79 a distance. • RWX Rcvr kit with cabinet. spkr. & ac adapter .. .$109 Two models with prices Irom $149. • RWX Rcvr wit in cabinet with spkr & adapter ...... ,..,.$149 Both go up 10 3 GHz; one goes down 10 10 Hz with noise filters and other advanced features. see our website for details. No need to spend thousands Get time & ff'equency checks Hamtronics, Inc. without buying multiband hf on new transceivers f or ea ch rcvr. Hear solar activity reports band! 65 Moul Rd; Hilton NY 14468-9535 affecting radio propagatioo. • Convert vhf and uhf signals • Ph: 585·392-9430: Email: sales@hamtronicscom Very sensit ive and selective to & from 10M. crystal controlled supertlet, L.'l;';;:,-~.:~~ • Receiving converters availabi£ dedicated to listening to WVN on • for various segments. of 2M and 432 MHz bands . 10 MHz. Periormarx:e rivals the most expensive rcvrs. • Rcvg Conv Kits. from $49 , wired/tested units. ooly $99, • RWWV Rcvrkit, PCB only ...... " ...... " " ...... $69 • Transmitting converters for 2M. • RWWV Revr kit with cabt, spkr, & ac adapter " $109 • Kits only $89. • Power amplifIers up 10 50W • RWWV Rcvr wit in cab! wllh spkr & adapter .. , $149 Jack R. Smith KaZDA 7236 Clifton Rd. Clifton VA 20124 [email protected]] Build This Amazing ESR Meter A simple projectfor everybody sshack. There are only two types of electrolytic capacitors in your equipment - those llJat have failed and those that will fail. Only a small percentage ofbad electr oly tics fail as a short circuit. Rather, most dry alit and gradually become less effective at their filtering, coupling, or bypassing job. roubleshooting a dried-out elec What is equivalent series resistance, the series combination of the reactance ~t hc trolytic isn' t easiest task, and how do ,·ou measure it? of Land C and Rs- If we usc a reason T even if your workshop is ably high frequency. typically 100 equ ipped with a capacitance bridge. A A real capacitor isn't the simple per kllz. the reactance of L and C will be feet device that the schematic symbol relatively new test msuumcnr. the negligible in comparison with Rs for equ iva lent senes resistance (ES R) might lead one to believe. Tv...'o com reasonable capacitance values. We can meter; makes this task simple. AI-, mon capacitor models arc shown in illustrate this with an example. though ESR meters arc commercially Fig. 1. WcIl he co ncerned only with Consider a I0 ~ F nominal aluminum avai lable. it isn't hard to build one. the simplified model: electrolytic capacitor. From measure This article takes you through the de ments. at 100 kHz we know that C = •L represents the inductance of the sign and construction of a simple ESR 12A ~ F. Rs == 1.5 ohms. and L = 35 nH meter, lead wire and capacitor construction. (i ncluding In -inch leads). • Rs represents all the loss clements of the capacitor, including lead wire loss, capacitor electrode loss and di (al 1------I , electric loss. • C is an ideal capacitor. with no loss and zero inductance. As an electrolytic capacitor dries out, R, increases, while L and C re main relatively constant. Thus, if we can mea (b) I ------I sure Rs' we can detect faulty capacitors. , (r We obviously can't measure Rs with a 1 L R, C 1 standard DC ohmmeter; C blocks DC 1 current Flow and at most we would measure the leakage resistance R in 1 : L I F i~. l(a). ~ 2i~Jfl9d ~1ode...!...of Capaotor _ 1 However, suppose we had an ohm Fig, I. A real-life capacitor call be mod meter that worked with AC instead of eted differenttv llcf/cllding UpOIl the leve! DC. W ith such a device, we would then of detaitnecessarv. measure the composite impeda nce Z of Photo A . Finished ESR meter. 10 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 R1 470 Ohms 100 KHz Sine I Source C\ ->-- vonece v, (;1 :~ ~ ~_~ VOI~ele r Ohrrts'-.L__.l-----~~~) Reads V2 Capacitor Under Test Rs Fig. 2. The principle behind the ESR meter. Pholo B. J built the ProlotYfK using Mallharroll"style construction. We now calculate the reactive com C ircuit description The 100 kHz sine wave feeds the poncnts of the model at 100 kHz: voltage di vider R I6 and R I H. The un Our ESR rue ter has three mam known cupucitor is connected across c lements: Xc = 1/(2.FC) = 1/(2. , 100 , la', R l R. a 5. 1 ohm resistor. Diodes D2 12.4 , 10-') = 0.1280 and D 3 protect the instrument fro m 1 XL= 2n:FL = 2n:FL = 2n: x 100 X 10 • A 100 kl-lz sine wave source damage, should the capacitor under X 35 x 10 ' ~ ) = 0.0220 • An AC vohmetcrIcalibratcd in terms test have some residual charge. of ohms of ES R) T he maximum (open circuit) volt The impedance magnitude o f the • An LED bar graph di splay age applied to the capacitor under capacitor is thus test is about 110 millivolts. peak-to U5 is a CMOS version of the popu peak. By intention ally lim iting the 121= ~ R S 2 + ( X l - X d2 - lar 555 timer chip. It generates a 100 test voltage to such a low va lue. it is kl-lz. 50% duty cycle square wave. The possible to test a questionable capacitor ~ 1. 52 +(0.022 -0.128)2 = 1.5030 :-. quare wave is fed through a low pass in-circuit, even if a diode or transistor filter consisting o f L l , C9. and C I O. junction shunts it. A silicon PN junction T hus, at a frequency sufficiently Ry stripping off the higher harmonics, req uire s ahout Cl OO millivolts to high to make Xc small. yel low enough the low pass filt er converts the square for X L to also be small. Z is approx i wave into a reasonably good sine wave. Continued 0 11 page J3 mately equal to Rs' Fig. 9 shows esti mated IZI over the range 100 Hz to 1------ 100 MHz and ill ustrates that between 10 kl-lz and 5 Ml-lz, the impedance is dominated by Rs.lhc Equivalent Series Ham Mall Resistance. (Flg. 9 is only approximate. The world's largest internet store dedicated 10 lIam Radio,' a... it assumes that L. C. and Rs remain www.HamMall.com constant. In fact. these parameters arc This is the inte rnet store that has it all ! Open 7 days per week - 1-t hours per all somewhat frequency dcpendcnt.) day. Browse through our catalog viewing pictures.descriptions. accessories, Our "AC ohmmeter" can be as and our low pri ces. If you arc loo king for a hard to fi nd item.Email us at simple as F ig. 3. If the ESR dominates Rill @HamMall.l:om. and we will try to locate it for you. the impedance of the capacitor under lest. a hit of simple algebra shows that Check out all we offer! the voltage V 2 is proportional to the Call Wall QSL Manager Listing Ne ws. Annou ncements and Specials ESR: Ham-to-Ham Discussion Groups Ham Shad Photos ESR = (V,R,R,lN,R,- V,(R, + R,) Vh~ l a<, t erCani accepted on line. Free shipping in continental US on all orders over S100. Fortunately, we won't have to use this When in Seattle visit us at: equation: ramer. we will simply calibrate Radio Depot. Suite 176. 5963 Corson Ave.. So. Seattle. \VA 98108 the voltmcter scale in terms of ESR. TI1C Phone (106) 763-2936 Fax (206) 763--t1 72 scale won't he linear, ofcourse. 73 Amateur Radio tcaev » January 2003 11 The Gordon West • • • Study Guides i t • Examination Test I, Questions & Answers for General Class and Extra Class " \' with explanati ons of the answers I' " General Class I' p r, " $12.95 F, , Plus $3.50 S&H 'I 1 J', i' 1'.i 1, r Extra Class I c , $14.95 Plus $3.50 S&H "f----'.,,. ,j' J', Omega Sales P.O. Box 376 I' F I' j' Jaffrey, NH 03452 (VISA I "f----' , , "! • 800-467-7237 \g ,j! I • P SAVE 47%! i ! " , , 'I I on 12 months of 73 l • l " • ,i ~n jl I' Only $24.97 • , Call 800-274-7373 I( ~ '.• " I I I J I 'I I I , ~ 'I I I I• i' IPr~ pare fo r J our ham test wi~h "Gordo". I! 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Discover. & AMEX Accepted I W5YI Group I I PO. Box 565 101 0 Dallas TX 75356 1 1-800-669-9594 I I www.wsyt.crg .. _------_.1 Fig. 3. Schematic diagram ofthe ESR meter. 12 73 Amateur Radio Today 0 January 2003 --- -Al • . , ALL \ • ELE COR RA T a N • • Incredible Price! 12 Vdc • r 4 • o 120mm Cooling Fan wI Screen •o o • • - J MC* 1225·12HBA • o -_...Jr' 120 mm (4.12") • square x 25 mm • o • • • • • (1 ") wOe oooIi ng tan. • o • - Dual ball beanng fan • o provoes reliable • • output ol 88 CFM 0 2600 APt.A . 12 Vdc 0 •o • • o · ·0 o 6 Amps. 45 Dba max @lM Desigoed lor • • 50,000 hours 0 25 de 9· C. ThermoplastIC : • J •• hOUSing and 1 D1ade impeller. Three r: pIlJla ~ . "'-. leads With 3.pn connector (0.1" mrs). ThiA1 lead is for sensing rotalion. Prepped With • • • : oJ • • melal "roger guard. UL GSA,CUI... CE. Large quantity available...... 'lJ • • CAT' CF.153 90 for $3.00 each 450 for $2.25 each • ------_. •·.I 00 990 for $1 .50 each each 1980 for $1.00 each Fig. 4. 100% PC board layout - top copper (top \'i('K.'J. $4 SHOP OUR ONLINE STORE Build This Amazing roll off frequencies below 100 kHz. www.allelectronics.com The emirter resistors (R8 and RIO) are ESR MeIer 5mm Ultra-Violet LED intentionally not bypassed (0 increase I continued f rom page 11 I stability. Emits blue 395nm UV light. 0 cause significant current n ow, so it The ampli fier output feeds Q3. an water-cieer lens. 3.7 voc. 20 rnA. 15 degree be arn patlem CAT. ULED-l looks like an open circuit to the test emitter follower. D1 is forward-biased Z5. 100 for $1.1 5 each voltage. by the DC across R1 2. so DI ,R13. and $1 each 1000 for S5e each QI and Q2 arc a simple RC-coupled C8 act as a peak detector. The voltage amplifie r. The coupling capacitors at Test Point 1 ranges from 3.9 volts L-~=.....;..;...._I (C7, C4, and C5) have been chosen to (short circuit across the input) to 5.5 volts • • • • • •••• ••• 10 for $15.00 • • •• 100 for 51 00.00 ••• • • • •••• •• • ORDER TOLL FREE • • ',J 1-800-826-5432 ••• • ~ CHARGE ORDERS to Visa. MltsterClIrd. •• American Exp ress or DiSCOlier •• • ITI'I'oIS. 1#01I1MUtMDRD£R ~ _~Il:w IN • • "'_ ...... U.S.... 106.00 IW (lOdet . .... _ rdtJ:longNl.. •• ,.,.. Pfl 01 e.- _ ~ u ~ .... """"" Fig. 5. / 00% PC board Jayoul - bottom copper (top ~·iew). 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 13 Photo C. The prototype display Wilt IS built 011 standard Photo D. The finished design. with a commercially made double perfboard. sided PC hoard. (50 ohm resistor across the input). This The LM391 4s contain a volta ge re f voltage settings. R24 and R25 arc ad vol tage is applied to the signal input of erence and internal voltage di vider. justcd to tum on the 20th LED when a the display section. R I4, R15, ami Rl7 adj ust the voltage resistor correspo nding to full scale ( 10 U I through V4 form a moving dot applied to the low end of the voltage ohms or 50 ohms) is connected across LED bar graph to display the DC output di vider chain. R17 is used to adjust the the test terminals. R20 also functions voltage from DI. The circuit is taken di bar display "zero" setting. correspo nd as an LED display c urre nt control and rec tly from National Semiconductor's ing to the voltage output when the test is set for approximate ly 12.5 rnA. data sheets for the LM 391 4 linear bar terminals are short-circuited. R14 also Po wer for the circuit is regulated by driver. By cascading two L\139 14s functions as an LED display current V6. a low-power 9 volt integrated (V I and V3). the voltmeter range is control and is set for approximate ly regulator. DC input power sho uld be in spread o ver 20 LED segments. U2 and 12.5 rnA. the runge 12-1 4 volts. or up to 18 volts U4 are LED bar graph displays. I used RlO, R22, and e ither R24 a nd R25 if V6 is eq uipped with a slip-over red displays becau se they are brighter perform the same function for the high hcatsmk. I' ve powe red the LEOs from for a given current consumption than end or the voltage di vider chain. A the +9 volt reg ulated hus. If power other colors. switch permits selecting between two consumption or regulator po wer dissi pation is a concern. the LED drive c ur re nt can he provided from a separate , source of 4 volts or more. •x r I've used 5% carbon f ilm resistors throughout the design because the ulti mate display only sho ws 20 resistance steps and usi ng the more e xpensive 1% • • .D'• metal film compone nts isn't justified. I CyJ built two unit" and fo und the stated - values were satisfactory. It's possible. however, that an accumulation of re .H sistor tolerances might require chang . 5 ing R 15 or R22 slightly in order to II 10 1 calibrate the display. , e. :(0) 0 Construction I I Lr'-.J r;~ + ~ DQ ~ I built a prototype using Manhattan ". '--:::---' I style construction. popularized by Wes s. ..c'\ F;t .1 .. .u Hay....'ard W7Z0L A n e xcellent de ~ ;----" \Y II :.; II~ scription of the nuts and bolts of Man • ! Ilt.1 S "'1 00.<1 1' 0 6 •• r • "T. •• •r hattan-style co nstruction can found " he at K7QO's Web page [http://www.qsl. Fig. 6. 100% PC board layout - pa rts placement (top j1iew). nellk7qoIJ. The display section used 14 73 Amateur Radio Today. January 2003 ArkanSlLs S Communication WCf Kenwood, Icom. AliI/CO, ADi, 171 0 East Parkway Police & Fire Communications Equipment, Russellville, A R 72801 Surveillance Electronics (installed). Phone 479-967-8315 1ft> sell amateur & commercial band radios. Fax 479-967-831 7 1-888-315-7388 www.rtsetcetronlcs.com A GREAT gift idea for yourself, your ham friend(s), or your child's schoo/library conventional perfboard. Manhattan is a subscription to 73 Magazine ." only S24.97! style construction goes rapidly, and I Call800-274~7373 or write to 70 Hancock Rd.• Peterborough NH 03458 built the prototype in a couple of hours. So, don't feel that a printed circuit board IS necessary. I also laid out a double-sided printed ci rcu it board and had it fabricated by runner a prototype board house. I used this professional board fo r the completed Intelligent DC power panel unit. • Conveniently paNer your station with Anderson PowerPoIe"!l connectofs. • 40 Amps total. outlets to run all ofyour b'ansceivers and accessories. It's always a good idea to build and • Each and every outlet Individually ATC fused with LED open fuse Indicators. debug a project in stages. The ESR • Precision LED and audio alert ofsafe, averor undervoltage, 4012 & 4008, meter has three logical stages that you • No messy binding posts, frayed wires. black tape or short circuits. can build and check sequentially: • Safe, secure, hot connect, polarized, color keyed, unisex, connector system, • Conforms to the ARES. RACES, RSGB recommended standard. The 9-mlt regulator circuitry, the • Perfect for home, mobile, rover, portable, emergency and contest stations. 555 timer and low pass fi lter (includ ing R1 6 and Ri B). The output of U6 3 Models from should be between 8,55 and 9.45 vol ts. $49.951 ---- At U5 pin 3, you should see a 100 kHz square wave, with a peak-to-peak volt age of about 8 volts. The precise fre quency isn't critica l, but it should be within 15% of 100 kHz. At the output of the low pass filter (junction of LI and RI6), you should sec a clean 100 kHz sine wave with a peak-to-peak ampli tude of approxi mately 10 volts. At the test lead connections (across RI 8), aster you should see a 100 kHz sine wave Have more fun with your radio with a peak-to-peak amplitude of about 110 millivolts. The onty no compromise Th e amplifier andpeak detector (QJ, sound card interfaces. Q2 and Q3 and D1). The following The easiest to set up, high measure ments are all peak-to-peak quality, complete solution. and assume the 100 kHz signal levels The best support tool in the previous stage are correct. At Read our user comments! the base of Q I, you should measure about 105 millivolts: at QI's collec See our new ptO tor, 390 millivolts. At Q2 's collector and at Q3's emitter, 3.8 volts. All elsewhere in this QST should be clean 100 kHz sine wave RIGblasters: Pro, Plus, Me and Nomic signals. Check the DC voltage at the junction of 0 I, R 13, and C6, With the http://www.westmountainradio.com input terminals open-circuited. you West Mountain Radio de N1ZZ and K1 UHF should measure about 5.5 volts. With 18 S h eehan Avenue .Norw al k, C T 0685 4 (203) 853 8080 the input terminals short-circuited, this 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 15 Photu E. Drilling the from panel. Photo f : The completedfront panel and applique. voltage should drop to 3.7 volts. These Calibration tic.) I attached the plastic lens to the values are nO I overly critical, but you aluminum panel with a couple drops of To calibrate the display, first verify the should see a good 1.75 to 2 volts swing super glue. Although a milling ma zero adjustment and that R24 and R25 between open-circuited and short chine makes these tasks easy, you can have heen accurately set as described ci rcuited input conditions. accomplish the same with an electric earlier. With the range switch in low po LED display. With the input termi drill and file. sition, connect a 1 ohm resistor across nals shou-circuired, you should be I also made four custom-length the input terminals and note which LED 3/8- i nc h ~ di a mete r able to adjust the "zero adjustme nt" is illuminated. Repeat with 2.7 and 5.1 spacers from alumi pot, R 17. so that the first LED segment ohm resistors. Switch to the high range num round stock and attached these to is illuminated. Temporarily co nnect a and repeat with 1. 2.7, 5, 10. and 20 ohm the front panel with countersunk 4-40 10 ohm resistor across the input termi resistors. The spacing will not be linear. x 3/8-inch Phillips nat head screws. nals. With the range switch, SW2, in You should usc short leads when con For my board, choice of Ie sockets, low position, you shou ld be able to ad necting the calibration resistors. and LED displays, the spacers were just R24 so that the last LED is illumi 0.680 of an inch long. I drilled and nated. Remove the 10 ohm resistor, Mechanical tapped the spacers for 4-40 threads. The aluminum cover plate is only connect a 51 ohm resistor across the I designed the printed circu it board 0.038 of an inch thick, so part of the input termi nals , and place the range layout to fit a Radi o Shack 270-1806 tapered screw head appears on the in switch to the high position. You should plastic box, 6"x4"x2". This box. is a side of the fron t panel. Hence, you be able to adjust R25 so that the last tight fit and req uires the zero pot to be should countersink the spacer as well LED is illuminated. You may see a Slight squeezed between the board and the - otherwise the spacer will n degree of interaction between the zero front panel, but it permits a compact ot be ght against the panel. adjustment pot and R24 or R25. package. ti It's important that the heads of the I milled a slot 2 inches long and 3/8 screws be Ilush with the front panel if ofan inch wide for you intend to use a panel applique. It the LED display. I will be impossible to retighten the also milled a 2-1/2 screws without destroying the applique inch x 3/4 inch once it is in place, so I used Loctite piece of 1/8-inch thread locker to prevent loosening. thick red Lucitc I laid out the front panel applique us plastic to fit !lush ing Visio Technical for Windows. but into the slot. (The any drawing program would work. Lucile lens re When you lay out the applique, place sembles a mesa the calibration numbers to coincide when done; a 2" x with the spacing you recorded during 3/8" rectangular calibration. I then printed the applique section sticks up on an inkjet printer, and laminated it Photo G. Rack view of the front panel showing the mounting 0.040" from the with a thin, flexible, self-adhesive spacers installed. body of the plas- transparent plastic sheet. After cutting 16 73 Amateur Radio Today. January 2003 _____.M' e-...."._ C' ,..... ",- ....,-- ---====...._~....".===-",--...., __"",,M__~"""""k'~C."". n. -- -!--- -_. I -~ .-- ~ • --- ~ -.- ! I • __u_ § g . --.-_.--- g• •" _.-_. ! " ------ , - -C ... Ion- - Fig. 7. ESR vs. capacitance &: voltage: Nippon Chemi.Con SME Fig. 8. ESR vr. capacitance &: voltage: Nippon Chemi-Con KMY miniature aluminum electrolytic copocuors. standard construction: miniature electrolytic capacitors. 10K' ESR construction. out the LED window, I then attached would run the ESR meter from a 12 provide 18 volts in series connection. the applique to the aluminum front volt wall-wart power supply. I changed A pair of fresh alkaline batteries will panel with 3M artist's spray adhesive. my mind and decided to make it bat give about 10--12 hours running time. I had to do three panels before I got tery-powered. I epoxied two 9-volt Using a 78L09 with 18 volts input and it close to right, so you can benefit battery holders to the plastic case to a current draw of 50 rnA places it at from my mistakes: • It's difficult to get the LED slot ex Back Issues actly right in the aluminum panel, so Sur plus Microwave Parts & Test cut it a bit oversize and add a thick of 73 Magazin e Equipment black mask to the applique. Cut the Only 55.00 Each! dudleylab.com opening of the applique slot to match Call 800-274-7373 Visall\-lCJDiscover the LED size. 732·240·6895 • Usc special inkjct paper and use Tu rns River. NJ 08757 the hi gh quality setting on your printer. Back Issues • A full-size zero adjustment potenti of ometer doesn't clear the PC board by 73 Magazine much and requires bending some com Only $5.00 Each! Say You Saw it In 73! ponents out of the way. A mini ature CallSDO-274-7373 pot is a good idea. • Give the Loctite enough time 10 set up before attaching the applique. oDIP 5WiIdl proQrammahle o M1 rnature .. !iI ~ · fu ~ ..dIr.;od CTess I didn 't, and you can see a blue circle • 37 EIA 101leS. 21 llOO-St.ll'da-rd 10ne5 from 33 0 III 2:;.4 I Hl lrIduded •"""""All 32 EIAlore5 from where one screw leaked onto the • RMlI"!Oe Ilolm bI.ott.... 67.010 203 5 1tz ~ backside of the appliq ue. • Easy 3 ~ tIootUjl • Perlect!of...... moIJoIt I SS-M cress E!'ICOOtf ... • The fro nt panel is only 0.038 of an 66'" "08" . 21· n·" 5~ . ar.l.r inch thick, so it requires attention 10 SS~ DIP Switd! F'rotI'lIllMlbl, cress ElCodtr S2U5 TE-J2lI"'i·Tont cress EICDllIf WU5 prevent the countersink from going ' 51 CTCSS T_ • EigIlI PfOQfMllNble. 0106 DCS COlIs 5 · ' ...... messiQl!S right through the panel. o Sl4Jports 151 ~ SooOsenber$ · ~ "" prOOO . ' "'''' • Precisely aligning the applique takes olJll.lJAt (;,omputeo- HelP oil! n::tulIed ~ o Re«lN\ef CW III • UetI:s ill FCC ~ IIlnlral'... ~an"", 0110 )'1'/35 vo~ ...."mon""" t l.clrolytic Cal"'cilor good unit. fo r p u b lic a tion in 73. Q.SIOGh b. ~ . For more info, write to: References Joyce Sawtelle, 73 Amateur Radio Today, 1. Kemet Elcc ~ 70 Hancock Road tronics has several Peterborough NH 03458. technical notes available at its Web site [http: // Subscriptions www. kcmet.com]. to O f particular in 73 Magazine - terest arc: What is a Capacitor? F Only $24.97 - I year 2856E; Tantalum $44.97 - 2 years , Leaded Petfor " ,.'I , $65.00 - 3 years* " '" "" mana Characteris tics (09/01 edition). *best buy (54% oil cover price !) Pig. 9, Illustrative impedance of 10 j.lF/35 v aluminum electrolytic 2. A data sheet Can 800-274 -7373 capacitors, O.5-in. leads. for the LM39 14 18 73 Amateur Radio Today. January 2003 Art Housholder K9TRG [ahousholderl @aUbLcom] K.I.S.S. Trickle Charger And the ABCs ofbattery maintenance. A fter my battery charger a r ticle in the March 2000 issue of 73 Maga zine was published, I received dozens of letters, cells, and E-mail., asking if some chargers migh t OVERCHARGE some batteries. The simple answer is "YES. " hen we have a discharged circuit could overcharge the battery if Nicad batteries, as well as other battery, we generally want left on for an extended period of time. types. are rated in ampere hours. to quickly recharge it and another pilot light and an SPDT switch Manufacturers rate their batteries ac get it back in service as soon as pos were added. One light was used for cording to the chemistry used. One sible. The only way to achie ve that is high current and the other for trickle may rate an AA battery at 6 PILOT LIGHT T1 DI SIo/ HI 120V PILOT 120V AC LOIo/ <::» LIGHT BATT AC = = BATT ~ ~ Fig. J. Motorola HT200 charger circuits. 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 19 most impossible shuts down the equipment when the to ever fC VCfSC this battery reaches approximately 1.1 volts • problem. per cell. as an indicator, and to then re • charge the battery. They don 't mean to Never discharge run the battery down to zero volts. a battery Most of us have many battcry-opcr completely ated devices and if we had to have a separate, expensive charger for each of Most manufac the devices we could fi ll a small room turers of battery with the chargers. Would you like to operated equipment have a charging device that could l E K such as l-ITs, cam charge and or maintain charges on G R corders. and "'PlOP AAA, AA. sub C, C. D, and 9-volt computers tell us to types almost all at one time? Well. read "CO:VIPLETELY" on .. . Pnoto A. Completed single-unit cha rger. discharge the bat- Remember. ni cads and most battery tery once In a types are not voltage-sensitive. De go to zero volts. there is an 80% to while and then recharge it. Taking this pending on your choice of the power 9(}ll, chance of ce ll voltage reversal. literally. you might be tempted to use a transformer for the circuit, you could and resulting destruction ofthat cell. It is pilot light or a short piece of wire easily charge 8 battery cells at one across the terminals to DIS CHA RGE time, except the "D" and 9-volt types. Type Sire Capacity (rnA) the battery completely. DON'T DO D cell types would need a little more IT! In most cases this will destroy the current for trickle ch arge than the stan AAA battery. What the manufacture rs really dard 20 mAh LEDs will handle. For AA mean is (0 use the low voltage indica the 0 cells use the high-current 50 mAh GIOOIel< NiCad tor that is built into most devices that LEDs. Use 2 volts per cell to calculate e D T1 DI RI R2 LED tzoc ~ ee c 1800-2400 C 3200-3500 120V AC D 9000 - -I-B-AAA ~ CI AAA 250-280 ' ~ ...... , 1-----4AA ---5SO-1--08O - -' NCad S D 1QOG- 15OO e D 6500 "" 1450-1650 see c 2100-3000 e D "00 Table I. Some examples of popular battery cell manufacturers es they rate their cells. Photo H. Completed single-unit charg er with: wall-wart- type power slIpply. 20 73 Amateur Radio roasv » January 2003 EVERY ISSLIE OF 73Amateur Radio Today on Microfi che! The entire run of 73 from October 1960 through last year is now available. Over 800 fichel You can have access to the treasures of 73 without several hundred pounds of bulky back issues. Our 24x fiche have 98 pages each and will fit in a card file on your desk. We offer a batteryoperated hand Photo C. Completed six-unit charger: held viewer for $150, and a desk model for $260. Libraries have your transformer size and you won ' t enough room in the standard package these readers. go wrong. All 9 volt batteries are for enough high current cells for 9 volts. The collection of microfiche, is NOT really 9 volts. There is not Some battery packs use more lower available as arrentire set, (no partial sets) for $325. plus $10 shipping (USA). Annual updates available for $10, plus $3 shipping/handling, T1 DI RI R2 LED Satisfaction guaranteed or money /;t backl 6111~~~~~";l \" = \ Iinera!. Virginia :!3i 17 l 'SA 120V ;~) : SI)-1-;777-SOO::!S:!-;h:!S ~CI .¢, - 1- 9-MA Fax 5-l0:X9-l-9 1-l 1 AC.3~~ c-m:uI: imoe-buck.com LOW PROFILE HF ANTENNAS TlIAT REAllY WORK! ~ Work the World Without Worlung upthe Ntighborltood ~ • ~SOTRON BILAL COMPANY Call for aFREE Catalog: -1-9-C CELLS 719/687·0650 @l .¢, 137 Manchester Dr. Florissant, CO 808 16 ...",,,,.fa.l'fi eId.neIi i.\01mil good deals on what j nn want • Keeping the FUN in Ham Radio is what we're all about! Since 1980! ~ - 1-9-0 CELLS - Great prices & customer care on teday's major brands, including: MU D1.... \IO!';D MA li." QR1. BATTERY TECH lI.ll GOR()()N """;51' ARRL PA1'nn1\1 PIHK'O\11\1 TRANSEL R....MSE Y CAI.LBOOK W4RT EU :CT. POWUIPOltl' IRO 'llIlORSf; xxn MORE! \ IlRACU; U >G EU:CT. ANH;)I;)I;A Call Today - 9V BATT 21 7-352-1 725 -1-2- -& " Our name says it all!" Amateur 1'0 8<>~ 7J.lJ. <1u " , p.o l ~n . 1l ~ 18! ~ • ...... mal..ur...... ,n ...ri...... m Accessories kr.h @m,n.c<.m Fig. 3. New charger, 4 circuits. 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 21 ••rt Description Rad io Shack II Cost I Pti 12O VAC, 'n ",.,,.. see as VAC $5.99 I Diode,2per DO - 27&1102 ",,, 1 I R1. R2 2k pol. eocn ..,..." $1.19 I Regular 20 LE D mA LEO. 2 276-330 $1.29 per pack A.AA o:lu al 270-3988 $0,99 balta')' holder AAA quad 27o- ~t1 $ 1,49 banery holde r AA dual 51.4-9 balte ' 270-391 $1.69 batte C C,"'" "~390 59 baltetY holde. 51. 1 current cells that add up to 9 volts hut with AC or DC output. At this point it o dual baltery 270·3Be $1.69 have lower current available. Read the won' t make any difference w'hich one holder battery label carefully. you lind,Either will work in this cir o quad 270·398 $1.79 Let' s look at a ci rcuit that will c uit. T he type, AAA to D a nd the banery holder charge and or maintain the health of number of cells yo u want to c harge C, Almost any ALL rechargeable batteries including will determine the current capacity of small ~ I t e r eae -=J lead- acid. nicad. and nimh. ALL of the transformer needed. If you usc the Table 1. Parts Jist. these battery types can he charged by single charger circuit, a transformer limiting the charging current. with only 20-30 mAh capacity is all Lees use 8 "AA·· batteries for start that"s needed. If yo u use the -t-circuit AA cells in the above e xample arc the ers. So 8 x 2 volts = 16 volts. There are board and choose to use ALL high-cur 800 mAh type. The sta ndard rate of lots of 18-volt transformers available re nt LEDs, use 4 x 50 mAh, or about charge is IO%- of their rated capacity at hamfests. Radi o Shack and other 200--250 mAh transformer capacity. for 12- 14 hours. This comes to ap stores for not much cost. Look for a Batteri es are charged with the indus proximately 80 rnA. Any more, or any " wall wart" or plug-in transformer try standards in mind. Let's assume the longer may damage the battery with excess heal. After the 12-1 4 hours, at the standard charge rate, use 10% of • the standard charge rate or approxi - mately K- IO rnA. T he battery at this - rate can be charged forever. I have • • some Dustbusters that have been • charged thi s way for years with NO problems. It might be desirable to have se ve ral " mai ntenance chargers" all going at the sa me time for maximum uti lity a nd usefulness. Most cells or batteries have the rated capacity indicated 0 11 them. From that information you can calculate 10% of • • III • rated capac ity for the 12-1 4 hour charge, then 10% of that fig ure forever • after. The circuit in Fig. 2 is simplicity in -. • itself. If the wall wart supply you are using: has a DC output, you sa ve the • • • - cost of pu tting a simple diode and ca Photo E. This versatile charger is able 10 charge lip to six differentconfigurations ofbat pacitor on the PC board. Simply put a teries, f rom single cells to battery packs, all at different voltages and currellts at the same jumper in place of the diode on the time, board and leave ou t the filter cap, If the 22 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 I II I ..I -{Qil- RiDII ~ R1 D ' ~ MER '- -{Qil o-z MO~~ +~ C1 I ~I SINGLE KISSLED ~ ~+ ~HARGER =t .. • -.-1 i!! ~ 12128101 o had no fi lter capacitor. Most of today's ~ I chargers usc a pulse charge circuit. which sounds like AC. doesn't it'! Well !JJ+ the battery itsel f is a very good filter so don't worry about installing much of a filter capacitor. You can usc 22 ~F 10 470 J.1E with a rated voltage that is above the transformer output voltage. Sometimes old ideas are not so bad I after all. With this NEWER, Keep It Simple. Stupid, circuit, we usc small + resistors and an LED as the current limi ting device and an indicator. D I is any general purpose rectifier diode . RI is only a high set currentlimiter so you do not blow out the LED. Tum R I and R2 to the halfway position. Then tum I R2 full clockwise slowly to minimum resistance while monitoring the cur + rent through the LED; and the battery to 20 rn A maxim um if you use " STANDARD LEDs." Now turn R I so that 20 rnA is not exceeded as you turn R2 to the muxi mum clockwise position. With this combination you cannot exceed the I current limitation of the LED. From + then on. use R2 only to set the current desired to trickle charge or maintain the battery. RI cou ld he eliminated if you are careful as to how you set R2. or it can he replaced with a fixed resisto r if you will he charging only one type of hat I tcry, Single circuit hoards (see FiJ.:. 2), + 4-circuit hoards (see Fig. 3), and 6-cir cuit boards are available from Far Cir cuits. 18:\640 Field o., Dundee IL L J 601 18; fax/voice: 847-836-9 148; E mail: [[email protected]}. Or the circuit Fig. -I. PC boa rdfoil lavout, l -up ando-up. can be built in about the size o f a Fig 5. Component placement. postage stamp on a simple vector- or wall wart is AC output install Dl and prototype hoard . quantities of batteries as your heart de the f Iter cap on the PC board. Remember. I staled that you could sires. With the a-circuit hoard you Remember. the Motorola charger literally charge as many types and could charge some AAA. AA , C, and 73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003 23 The circuit is so simple and low cost Ha ndy Milliammeter that almost any number of them can be I think that most of us at one time or another have had the need, and or the tied to ONE transformer. The "COM desire, to measure the current in a battery-operated device. Many of these de MON LED" has a current limit of vices have a battery holder where the battery or batteries snap down into a about 20 rnA. This is enough to trickle "well" or pocket. Getting a multimeter in series with the batteries sometimes charge and maintain all common cells can be very trying. • up to full size "C" ce lls. There are sev Here is a device that I have used for years with great success. Get a piece of eral manufacturers o f HIGH-CUR the thinnest double-sided PC board material that you can find - some is made REl\'T LEOs that will handle 50 and about 0.015 thick. It can be found in ample supply at most harnfcsts. (If you are 60 rnA. They would be ideal for "0" buying the K.I.S.S. C harger hoards from Far Circu its, they might send a small cells and 5-amp lead acid types. Just piece of the thin PC hoard material for this project, if you ask.)Cut it to ahout substitute the high current LED for the 2- 3 inches long and hy about 1/4 inch wide. If you make it wider you will not regu lar one on one hoard for your be ahle to use the same board on some AAA battery devices. Material that thin higher current applications, or you can be cut easily with a pair of scissors - just don't let the YL catch you using could take a step backward in tech her good pair ... nology and use the grain-of-wheat Ne xt, sharpen one end like a screwdriver blade or chisel. Make the angle as size incandescent bulbs at the proper shallow and as sharp as you can; it will make the insertion, as described later, current rati ng . much easier. Next. at the other end solder a short piece of wire to each side of For those among you who like to the PC board material, some thing tha t you can attach your multimeter to on experiment, here is a new route to each side. pu rsue ... I have one with short bare wire leads AND small test lead sockets; that way, I For a litt le more than a year I have can use alligator clips or just plug the multimeter leads into the sockets. been trying some thing different. but it Have you figured out where we are going with this ye t? Just slip the sharp is a little early to make too much of a ened end ofthc PC hoard material between 2 batteries or between a battery and definitive statement. We have all read the contact on the device that you are going to measure. This opens up the bat that many chargers today use a pulse tery circuit and puts your milliammeter in series so that you can measure the charging system that is hard for many curre nt that your device is drawing. of us to dup licate with the surface mount parts that are being used. I have been trying a system using FLASH BAn ERY ING LEOs, instead of regular LEOs. ,,-..:W:;:'RE First, most Flashing LEOs will handle DOUBLE-SIDED PC BOARD ...... + r- up to 70 rnA; this can he a honus whe n cha rging C and 0 or high-current cells or batteries. Another plus is that you BAnERY can still use this same PC hoard; j ust WIRE use the flashing LEDs in place of the regular ones. Now the DOWNSIDE Fig. Sl. Milliammeteradapter: they cost more . The current is hard to measure IN T HE FIELD, because it is pulsed, and 9-volt batteries all at the same time and etc. with no way to auach alligator clips, most analog and or digital meters will at different charge rates for each etc., to them, try this. Take a thin piece of give false readings. One partial way charger circuit. wood with 2 nails driven through in the around measuring the current is to set I use snap in battery holders similar proper place, fasten the charger leads to the current with a regular LED in to the Radi o Shack part numbers listed them, and lay the battery contacts on the stalled. then put in the flasher. This in Table 2, or you might already have a nails. Something a little more universal SEEMS to work OK in most cases; good junk box with some in it. and easy to confi gure would be a thin some regular LEOs will take 50-70 rnA I ha ve several 6- and 8-celJ battery piece of cardboard. with thumb tacks for a short peri od of time. long enough holders and if I do not have many cells pushed through in the proper places; to set the current properly. One more to charge at a time, instead of solder again, just lay the battery contacts on the plus and/or minus is that in "theory" it ing the charger output wires to the sharp end of the tack ... crude but it will take twice as lung to charge the holders, l use alligator clips to hook up works, and can be configured for most battery because of the 50% duty cycle the needed number of cells. The indi battery types. The contacts on most hat flashing on and off. On the other ha nd. vidual cell connections are easy to get teries are steel, does that light up a hulb pulse charging is supposed to take less at in most of the cell holders. in your mind? Try using small magnets time to cha rge. If you have battery packs, such as with wire leads to the charger. This used in HTs, camcorders, compute rs, works just fine. Conun ued on page 56 24 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 Hugh Wells W6WTU 141118th St. Manhattan Beach CA 90266·4025 Experimenting with Hall-Effect Sensors Forfun and knowledge. There are times hams get involved in some interesting technological experiments. Some of those experiments develop projects that apply to electronics and ultimately to ham radio. ccausc of my interest in both Actually, the use/application of a Hall movement sensing and direction of experiencing technology and Effect sensor is limited only by your movement; rare of change (movement); B developing test equipment to imagination. They come in two types: proximity sensing; liquid-level sensing: make my life easier al the workbench, switching and ratiornetric (l inear). I'll noncontact sensing ; RPM measure I tackled Hall-Effect sensors to sec limit my discussion and experiments ments; object speed of acceleration/de what I could learn about them and per to the linear sensor, since it offers the celeration; position limit detcction! haps find an application for ham radio. greatest window of opportunity for switching ; antenna posi tion sensor; What's a Hall-Effect sensor? I' m ham project development. and wind direction and velocity sensor, glad you asked that question . Hall-Et feet sensors arc semiconductor devices Applications Experiments mat are sensitive to the presence of a My personal interest in the Hall-Ef To gain an understanding of how magnetic field. When in the presence fect sensor was in understanding the Hall-Effect sensors function, I set up a ofa magnetic fie ld they provide a volt age change response as a function of linear device. though switching sensors series of experiments on my work bench to evaluate the linear device that the flux field intensity. In fact, the sen arc very important contributors to many sors are also sensitive to the Dux line project applications. In fact. Hall-Effect was available to me. It was a sensor manufactured by Tl. circa 1985. The direction as produced by a magnet. switching se nsors were used in some I have an early date code sensor computer printers to sense the end of first step was to set up a circuit with made by TI and I've heen told that carriage travel. T hey also work we ll sufficient metering to allow interroga those early sensors were subject to in burglar alarm window and door tion of the device to see how it reacted. thermal drift - mine ex hibits a little. movement detection in addition to a Photo A shows the top side of my test But the sensors bei ng manufactured multitude of other uses. board. and Photo B shows the bottom today by Allegro Micro Systems are I'll cite a few applications to give side . Operating at DC levels. the only temperature-stabilized using a tech you a kick-start with ideas, but you purpose of the board was to keep all nique referred to as "chopper-stabili need to think ofadditional applications of the parts conveniently Fl ying in zation." Perhaps the using circuit is as they apply to your needs and envi form ation. more subject to temperature effects ronment. Here is just a sample of pos Having limited previous experience than is the sensor itself. sible uses: magnetic flu x indication with Hall devices, I wasn't sure what I suppose your next question is. "So and intensity measurement; magnetic to expect, so that metering was essen what is a Hall-Effect sensor good for?" polarity detection; current sensi ng (AC tial. Fig. I shows the basic circuit that Again. that's a good question as it and DC); power sensing : current trip I used 10 begin experimentation. For leads me into a d iscussion of them. point detection: strain gauge sensor; the first experiment. the objective was 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 25 to determ ine device pin functions and to apply a suitable voltage to see how the device would respond. After doing an Internet search I determined (hat no test or technical data was available for my sensor. However, I did obtain compa rable data from Allegro Micro Systems. F ig. 2 shows the basic empirical spec information that I discovered through experimentation. allowing the TLl 73C sensor to he used in w a project. D Once power was applied I determined that the nominal c output voltage was approximately Vccl2. and that was a c good sign. but at that moment I didn't know what else to :-t - expect in the way of a response to a magnetic fi eld. I did note that the sensor's output voltage was subject to change • as a function of Vee. Therefore, stabilizing the Vcc value ," ~ • ... . -. with a regulator wou ld he required for solving any serious - .••"'...... • stability issues.But for my experiments, only a small •-.:1-.'" • amount of regulation was used . 1'11010 A . Top side ofthe circuit hoard IIJl'dfor experimenting with Knowing that a Hall device is se nsitive to a magnetic Hall-Effect linear sensors. field, I did wave a magnet close to the sensor and got an in dication, though at a magnitude well below that expected. What I expected was the output voltage to swing between Vcc and ground during the test - hut a much lesser swing was observed. Fig. 3 shows the second test that I performed + and the response obtai ned. The graph shows a generalized (f r operational curve and a voltage sv...-ing away from QOP (Quiescent Operati ng Point) along the curve relative to the + o~ presence of a magnetic field. r y IZ'IOC It occurred to me that the magnetic lines-of-force had to /l P S pass through the device for it to respond properly. As I de + - t) E" termined later, the Hall device that I was using provided a response perhaps in the range of 1-2 mV/gauss. Devices available from Allegro Micro Systems vary in detecti on - _L - • • sensitivity by device and provide an output from about I roVl gauss up to 5 mY/gauss. Fig. I. Basic circuit usedfor the first tests performed with (/ Hal/ With a VO~ 1 set to the 3-vo h range and attached to the Effect S('I1S0 r. output pin of the sensor. a horseshoe-shaped magnet was 1 Output 2 Ground/common I .. :5 3 + Vcc Derived infQnnation Vee 3-5.5VDC Vcc max 6V Ic 4ma nominal Sensitivity Estimated to be 1-2mv/gauss • "sweet spot" for max sensitivity Output swing +/- 35mv Gauss response Linear Response time 43 microseconds Package T()..92 Fig. 2. Tile above data 011 tire TLJ 73C linear Hall-Effect Jellsor k'a "~ 1'11010 R. 8 0110m side ofthe c ircuit board. deri\'eli empiricoliyfrmn expenmems performeddl/ring bt:nclr testing. 26 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 : , R' D I ., ... I• ,.. < • 10K R' .. _-- " 701( D - I' _I 6t2t +C4 3 JjJ1 3 J+- ::f,1 U.0' U lIIs o ll I • r-- r TL #17$C • •• 1 ~ CloP . OK 0 ,...... " Vce/z. / • - T. ev p, CI1M Plg. -t, A complete circuit usedfor testing and evaluating II TLJ 73C Hall-Effect ~-en.m r. Fig. 3. Experiment showing the direction An 01' amp is used to raise lite sensor 's output voltage s .....ing mfficiently to drive an ana of voltage output from the sensor as a log \'OM. Resistor R2 is used 10 create a balanced input into the 01' amp. magnet of given polarity approaches the sensor. Approaching as ShOlHI. the output voltage decreases. the output vo ltage to shift up or down needn't be a magnet as long as it is (flux polarity) the operational curve. ferrous. I tried approaching the sensor slipped over the Hall sensor. The out the detection sensitivity appeared to with a nonmagneti zed metal shaft of a put responded suftic icntly to be evi remain constant. Biasing the sensor to screwdriver. and the sensor was able to dent. but not at a desirable level . one side of its operational curve all ows detect both the presence and move However. the response was markedly the device more room to swing in a ment of the shaft. Thi s experiment im greater than when only a single mag given direct ion. placing the output plied that a biased sensor would work netic pole approached. My particular voltage above or below the nominal well as a tachometer or as a position sensor provided a direct output voltage Vccl2 value. With an approaching sensor of a rotating antenna system. swing in the range of 25-30 mv To magnet. the output would change as a Fig. 6 shows how the sensor may be obtain a larger output voltage swing. I function of field strength and distance used as a "null" or "off-null" sensing assembled an amplifi er using an to the opposite voltage value (if biased device. Any movement of the magnet LM741 op amp. A complete test cir below. it would swing to a value above right or left of the null point will cause cuit is shown in Fi~ . ~ . Details of the nomi nal). the sensor's output to create a voltage amplifi er will be discussed in another In addition . with a biased sensor. as section. Now, knowing what 10 expect shown in }'i~ . S. the approaching metal Continued on page 28 from the device made the rema ining experiments much easier. Several setups using magnets uti lized in various positions provided some really interesting insight into possible device applications. During the initial experiment. a horseshoe style magnet was used . A "sweet" spot was determined to exist at the ncar center of the device package. Another experiment involved placing a fixed magnet on one side of the sensor while approaching the sensor with a d ifferent E magnet from the opposite side . The Phone first magnet biased the sensor and (937) 426-8600 FAX shifted QOP along the response curve. (937) 429#3811 Although the biasing magnet caused 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 27 Experimenting with The second fact relates to the mag se nsor/dctcctor. Tbc frequency of 23 kHz Hall-Effect Sensors netic gap. If the gauss level re mains translates to a response time of 43 usee. continued from page 27 constant. the output response is non For most any ham application. that re linear as a function of the gap width sponse time is perhaps sufficie nt to and polarity change appropriate to the change. My method of m easurement meet most needs. direc tion and magnitude ofthe response. was very crude, but it did definitely prove the effect. For this measure Am plifier Temperature drift ment, I placed a plastic measurement Because the voltage output swing scale in front of the sensor to identify During my experiments, some heat from the T Ll73C sensor was in the ing drift was noted: it was traced to the physical movement distances. Magnet location distance s were plotted against range of 25-30 mV, I elected to in TL1 73C sensor. The drift occurred crease the output level usmg an only during the fi rst 2-3 minutes fol the ind icated output voltage creating a curve approximating the letter "5". LM741 op amp. My objective was to lowing the application of power before drive an a nalog VOM operating on the stabilization occurred. Pinching the Field polarity 3-voIt range to a di scernible level. device with my fi nge rs reduced the That objective was achieved with the internal heat level and that effect was What was interesti ng to me during circuit shown in Fig. 4. Using my par noted in the output voltage indication. the experiment was the determination ticular test magnet. the output voltage Drift occurred until the sensor again that the direction of the magnetic field would swing up to 2+ volts from QOP. stabilized at a te mperature value. (nux line direction) was detectable. As Knowing that op amps generally ex Judging from the Allegro Micro Sys shown in Fig. 3, reversing the mag hibit some output offset, and my tems' published information, sensors netic poles caused the output voltage TLl 73C produced an output voltage of manufa ctured by them arc chopper to re verse direction. As an example, if approximately 1 volt above Vcc/2, I stabilized to reduce or stop the ten the output was indicating a positive elected to equip the amplifi er wi th two dency for thermal drifL susceptibility. offset of I volt from QOP (VOM read potentiometers. One pot was to pro ing), reversing the magnetic polarity Response linear tty vide a vo ltage to balance the offse ts. caused the output voltage to drop I volt and the other was for gain control. from QOP. This experiment also sup From my experiments. I was ahle to With the nearly I volt offset of the determine two very important facts ported the theory of a linear response as a function of flux density. se nsor's output voltage. I found it nec that relate to any a pp lication of the essary to parallel the upper resistor. device. The output response is abso Frequency response R3. with a shunting resistor, R2. When lutel y li near within the limits of the device as a fun ction o f gauss level. Hall sensors are sensitive to motion Continued on page 56 Th e assumption is that any open gap that translates to a n AC function. But between the se nsor a nd metal fl ux what is the highest frequency that can , conductor remains consta nt as the be detected by a sensor? Actually, the , gauss le vel varies. frequency response is very low as , JJ U Lt. compared to most , ham radio appli D cations where RF , is involved. The ( LfFT 1I. \ C.I1T highest-response - ~- frequency. from what I've been , able to deter , , --- ~ APt' IlO AGWlmi oBJIIi'(.T mine. was 23 kllz for the T Ll73C r r >: GO P device. Perhaps Qo P , , L Ii~ T R I6HT , newer sensor de signs will allow ,, , , for an increase , in response fre / quency. Fur non Fig. 6. Experiment shows the output volt RF applicati ons. a age change as a function of a magnet s po response of 23 kHz sition. A null occurs (at QOPJ when the Fig. 5. Experiment showing how tile sellsor responds to the //Ii H'e is generally fast magnetic pole is centered with the sellsor. ment of a non-magnetized ferrous object. A biasing magnet is enough to be usable Reversing the magneticpoles a1.1'0 reverses placed Oil the opposite side ofthe sel/ sorf rom the ferrous object. as a movement the output voltage response. 28 73 Amateur Radio Today. January 2003 Carl Herbert AA2JZ 43 South Plank Rd. Newburgh NY 12550 On the Face of It, A Good Idea How to ace those finishing touches on your home-brewed pride-and-joys. Sometimes all the hard work and technical expertise that goes into creating your own home-brewed equipment can be for naught if the finishing touches of the unit are less professional-looking than the remainder of it. Some prior planning and caretully applied labels can be the difference. producing a piece that works and looks great. hen deciding to make a par in the area to the right provided there is knobs you inte nd to place on the co n ticular unit - let's just sup· ample room. Use your own j udgment trols, ensure that the outer edge or pose the project is to be a here. See Photo A. "skirt" of each knob clears the bottom QRP recei ver - take a good look at Before drilling holes to mount front edge. Knobs having a flare or "skirt" on the schematic and identify all o f the panel controls. measure the needed their outeredge call for more room at the variable controls, e.g., RIT,VO LUME height from the botrom of the panel to bottom ofthc panel for clearance. CONTROL. TUNING CONTROL. ensure that variously sized controls Lettering to he placed be/ow a con AUDIO FILTER CONTROL. etc. will " fit" above the bottom edge of the trol also requires additional space. Large Next. layout the controls according to front panel. knobs block the operator's view of the their usage. For a right-handed operator Once you are satisfied that all the lettering, especially on smaller pieces this usually means placing the tuning controls will fi t acceptably, measure how of equipment The identity of controls control either in the cente r o f the far up the panel the mounting holes not easily visible to the operator can he front panel or to the extreme far right will have to be placed.Now, using the confusing during operation and detract side of the fro nt panel. Other co n trois are placed from the left edge of the panel. Placing the tuning control on the right side or center of the panel creates an easier. more comfortable operating position for the operator. Avoid plac ing the headphone jack near the tuning control. The plug and wire protrudi ng from the panel often interfere with the operator's hand motion during tuning. and can be avoided by placing this jack as far away as possible. The "key" jack can he placed imme diately above or below or alongside the "phone" jack if the tu ning control is on the right side. If the tuning control is in the center. other jacks can he mounted t'hoto A. Finished project with tuning control in the center: 73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003 29 M 2J Z! Photo B. Place lettering on a d ean sheet ofglass to ensure that you can make straight cuts when you remove the excess backing Photo C. Painter's tape is used to guide lettering into perfect material. aUgnment. from the "professional" appearance After typing and pnntmg the re of the label. Carefu lly place the label desired in a fin ished project. This also quired data, I peel the backing and ad where desired. ensuring that the edge of applies to multiple rows of controls. here the tape or label to a clean sheet the label is parallel with the straight line Allow additional space between rows of glass. Avoid putting fi nger prints in provided by the painter's tape. When all for lettering if needed. the adhesive material. They are often labels to be placed along the line have Lettering the project requires some impossible to remove, and are readily been applied. remove the painter's tape. prior planning. I use a "tape: writing visible forever. Use the tip of an object Rub down labels to ensure total adhesion machine," a device which uses clear (knife. razor blade, screwdriver, erc.) and removal of air pockets, etc. Once all tape with white or black lettering im to pick up the label and place it on the labels have been applied, carefully place posed on it. With this device I can se glass. Once applied to the glass, using knobs on the panel to prove to yourself lect a type size or style that pleases me a straight edge and razor, cut away the that adequate clearance has been al and fi ts the area avai lable on the front excess backing material and leave only lowed and that lettering is aligned cor panel. Computer-printed lettering can the desired lettering. I usually cut rectly, and that you haven't misspelled be used. Experiment with various away the bottom excess material in a any words. See Photo C. gummed labels, paper, and adhesive straight line. Doing this will enable me Once you're satisfied with your front backed tape on label sheet backings to to evenly place lettering along a panel, it can be clear-coated with clear see what is acceptable to you. straight edge later, Sec Photo B. spray, which will protect the lettering With the front panel removed from the from wear and effectively make the ------.., project, without knobs or jacks attached. clear backing disappear if you are using use painter's masking tape to create a a clear tape method. straight line for placement of lettering. When creating your front panel. paint We make II n.w HlImc.lI every Painter's tape is an adhesive-backed pa a scrap piece of the material with the month! Clearly, the most per tape used for masking during paint paint you intend to use. Apply "practice" current and complete CtJ..ROM available. ing and is easily removed without lettering to it, and then spray it with the Latest Features leaving a residue. Office "clear tape" and clear coat you plan to usc. Different D>ooM IontalldeOIOo' ofdIIt" displlly Dt1QI8ya 1Ialllll\d ....p 101' eaen OXIunlry. other tapes I have tried sometimes peel types of sprays from different manufac sr-co.ITU _ . andeont.-.nl H<$\OI'y Ii$tahoM INCh eallsign ...*-<1 paint finish from the freshly painted turers are ofte n not interchangeable. The P ' ''l labe l ~ .. a ....,iel:yol tormata. panel. This can be very disconcerting. v _ &searcl'l " 1. 'estsol 39.ooo l'wns resulting piece using the wrong products SH ,en torclub. military.var'lily. silent k. ya. Painter's masking tape is avai lable at produces a slimy, wrinkled mess which na...... cjdr_ .Rmore. most hardware or home improvement is vel)' disconcerti ng following all of Ove, 1.63 1.OOO U. S. and Intemahonal ~ !Ilr'IQs . 128,000 e - ma j l lddr8S"~ , 4.000 ph 01 ~ af\daSLclrdl .37.000 stores and is vel)' inexpensive. This also your careful planning and work. I cannot vanityca lli, and20.000 ,.f. r. nees10 a SLml nag• •s. provides a resting surface for your fin over emphasize this careful selection of Sl"ooooospathlllSIanCfI & bearing. gers that will protect the surface of the products prior to doing all this work. P.-8CIH Iah!Udeo'longlluo.!orO'o'ef9Q% ofaddfftws. HamCauia150.00 . included 1& 6 montllS t_ acuss 10 panel from scratches and contaminants. The "masterpiece" you have labored OOJ rH&mCIl lntemets.enr.e.. ' eq uest """'n orde~ With the tape in place providing a lovingly over now has a more profes ~1~ ~Wllh mcnecode lele ,._ . straight edge, pick the needed label up sional appearance, using materials eas 7.5' ~ 6' .blue_yeIctoolllltels. $5.00+ $.3"'''Ppin9. S5 00 ~ ($3 ~ PfI ~ _ YlU ~p. iIWt from the glass using the tip/point of a ily available. The keys to a clean look ~ '.lucKMASTm ~ razor knife or tweezers. Moving them in are planning, patience, and care. 6196 Jelte..on H'ghwap M, nerat VA 2Jl 11U$A ""''''a,1 'n'o Obuc.lc com this manner avoids placing unwanted Good luck! And enjoy showing off SaO U4-57'17 '&OO 282_5628' 540 994-9141Ila.) fingerprints in the adhesive on the back your latest creation! fa 30 73 Amateur Radio Today , January 2003 2002 ANNUAL INDEX Subject/Article Description Author IssuelPg. Antennas 2mf70 em Quad Revisited Part 1 K81HQ AUG19 2m170 em Quad Revisited Part 2 K81HQ SEP 18 6m Fun l oop A low-cost gain antenna... N2DCH JUN 10 Above & Beyond 1296 MHz Omni Slot Antenna WB61GP NOV41 Direct-Mount "J" Antenna For 440 MHz HTs W4JC FEB 21 Eager for Meager 11m vertical for 160 AD1B DEC24 I Love My 80m Loop! Horizontal square loop KL7JR NOV 25 Twin for Two Home-made twin loop for 2m AC6XJ AUG30 VLF to HFLoop Receivi ng Antenna Part 1 of 3 K8Z0A JUL 10 VLF to HF Loop Receiving Antenna Part 2 of 3 K8Z0A AUG 10 VLF to HF Loop Receiving Antenna Part 3 of 3 K8Z0A SEP 32 Windowsill Mount for Verticals For an antenna in Dec. 2001 issue. HL1/N8HI JUN 36 Circuits leorn Interface, Texas-Style Mod for 706l706MKII owners. W5RK JUN 35 Multiple CW FiN ers Set up an active audio filter. W2GOMfl NOV 16 Voltage Control for Your Mobile Rig On all night? Th is is for you! W4MEA MAY 37 Clubs CPR for Your ARC How to revi ve the local club. N80MW OCT 52 Computers Interlace Boa rd for the ISA Bus Interface home-brewed applications. AB2LXSEP20 QRP Internet Computing Usi ng the Internet KCOIZI FEB 37 Construction Amplifier Testbench Report A look at broadband amps. K8Z0A SEP 10 Build a 1.2 GHz FM Repeater A complete system from scratch. NY9D JAN 10 Build This Commercial-Quality Counter Part t of z K81HQ MAY 10 Build This Commercial-Quality Counter Part 2 of 2 K81HQ JUN20 Commercial-Quality Function Generator How about this addition to the bench? K81HQ DEC 10 Easy-Build Project of the Month 400 kHz AC low pass filte r... K81 HQ APR 29 Easy-Build Project of the Month Prototyping bench DC power supply K81HQ JUL2Q Glow, Little Glo-Bar High-power RF dummy load K81HQ JUN 33 Keying to a Different Drummer Simplicity for pennies. W2GOM17 MAY 27 Ladder Crystal Filters for NBFM Some tricks of the trade N2DCHJUL1 6 Lamps from Tubes For fun, profit, and gifts! WA20KZ FEB 28 Relative RF Power Meter Add this to your shack's arsenal! KC5MFY MAY 34 Temp-Controlled Solder Station Improve your bench. AA2JZ JUN 25 Vent-a-Fume Remove solder fumes from wo rk area. AA2JZ MAR 17 Your Tum lor a Coil Winder Gingery Universal Coil Winder K8Z0A NOV 10 CW - Code Build This Simple Electronic Keyer Nice little project. Sellen JAN 55 Keying to a Different Drummer Simplicity for pennies. W2GOM 17 MAY 27 Not Simply An other Keyer! With self-completing dots and dashes. W2GOMfl FEB 16 Digital Modes The Digital Port Me 'n' M.E. KB7NO JAN 40 The Dig ital Port More Fun KB7NO FEB 51 The Digital Port Bumpiness KB7NO MAR 47 The Digital Port Freebie Antenna Aid KB7NO APR 46 The Digital Port Macros: Take Control! KB7NO MAY4Q The Digital Port This Twist May Be for You KB7NQ JUN 47 The Digital Port Digital Imaging and SSTV KBlNO SEP45 The Digital Port Sleeper Package Comes Awake KBlNO OCT 42 The Digital Port New and Improved Early PSK-31 KB7NO NOV 50 The Dig ital Port Fun Time KBlNO DEC 47 DX Ashore at Sacrifice Rock! The saga of a masterful DXpedition. VU2SBJ DEC 28 Inkjet QSLs the Easy Way Basic techniques for basic cards. KE8YNlO FEB 38 Make Your Own VHF OX! Need a neat clu b activity? WB9YBM JUL 29 QSL Archiving Made Easy Display those cards. NLlZW OCT 53 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 31 Editorials Never Say Die II You Think . ..; What to Do? W2NSDI1 JAN 4 Never Say Die Hey, AR RL, Wake Up! W2NSD/1 FEB 4 Never Say Die Upsizing America; 0 0 They, Still? W2NSDI1 MAR4 Never Say Die Actlont;Step by Step W2NSDI1 APR4 Never Say Die Better OSOs; Dayton ; Pole Shilt W2NSDI 1 MAY 4 Never Say Die The Begging Bowl; Pole Shift W2NSDI , JU N 4 Never Say Die Shareware; Advertising ; More Sharing W2NSD/ 1 JU L4 Never Say Die Birthday; ABirthday Present; C rackpot W2NSD/l AUG 4 Never Say Die Birthday Present; Perspective; Sharing W2NSD/1 SEP4 Never Say Die Uh-Oh !; Visit New Hampshire W2NSD/1 OCT 4 Never Say Die Bfindsided; Health (Again); Club Talks W2NSD/1 NOV4 Never Say Die Director Duty; Dr. Doom;Tolja W2NSDI 1 DEC 4 Education Eimers Applaud Ham Ambassador Program Progress! WB6NOA MAR 55 Weather Sat Tracking is Awesome! Real science for a-tz-vear-orcs VK2BXX FEB 10 Emergency Preparations An Ounce Of Upgrade your "radio Insurance." K7SUB MAY 38 One Repeater to Go. Please! Another eme rgency tip. KE8YN/CJ MAR 27 On the Go Power tor Emergency Operations KE8YN/CJ JAN 53 On the Go To Change and To Serve KE8YN/CJ FEB 50 On the Go A Wake-up Call KE8YNICJ APR 51 On the Go Power Station 2 KE8YNICJ MAY 48 On the Go Top Secret KE8YN/ CJ JUN 39 On the Go Selting Up a Temporary HF Sta tion KE8YNI CJ SEP 57 On the Go Dear Santa KE8YNf7 DEC 43 Gadgets Ham Window Dressing Car frequency display Rynone APR ' 0 Shack Switch tor Foot Fetishists The ulti mate toot switch WA20 KZ DEC 27 General Interest Mca uosvme. CO...M Are you in one of these OSOs? K6KSR SEP34 Does Your Junk Box Runneth Over? Get organized! W6WTU APR1 9 Hamtest Success Formula Make sure your hamtest is a success. K9TRG DEC 36 Inkjet OS Ls the Easy Way Basic techniques for basic cards. KE8YNlCJ FEB 38 Inside Today's Kit Biz Interview with Marshall Emm N1FN KF6FJU OCT 23 Mt. Wilson Travelogue Privat e tou r of a famous observato ry W6WTU APR 38 On the Go Balancing Act KE8YNf7 OCT 44 aSL Archiving Made Easy Display those ca rds. NL7ZW OCT 53 Snakebit! A ham radio tale. WD9APU MAR 36 Tesla's Champions Increasing recognition for Tesla W8AHB JUL 24 The 21st-Century Scrounger Save money on electronic parts. N8PTG JUL 32 The ABCs of IRCs All about International Reply coupons G3SWH JAN 27 The Hamlest from Hell Are you in this story? K2SDD AUG 40 The Saga of Archie and Tlllie Otherwise known as Elme r. AA2JZ FEB 35 The Write Stuff A work-at-home scheme ... AA2JZ AUG 4 1 Too Many Projects to Build How to reach a nirvanic stat e. AA2JZ J UL 55 Travels with Henryk - Part 2 Poland SMCJJ HF JAN 22 Travels with Henryk - Part 3 East meets West in the north. SMCJJ HF MAR 24 What Amateur Radio Means to Me Do you feel the same way? KD51 DU JUL 37 What's in a Name? Atlanticon badge AA2JZ OCT 33 Your Own Owner's Manual Record your projects! AA2JZFEB 56 History Tesla: Inventor of Radio and Modern-Day AC (Marconi and Ed ison notwithstanding.) W8AHB APR 31 Techniques Tlme Line Evolution of construction practices W6WTUJUN 52 Twisted Tale: The Dial File Ever wonder how dials evolved? W6WTU AUG 23 Vacuum Tubes: Romance and Reality A (mostly) glowing tale. W8QYR AUG ' 6 Mob ile I Portable One Repe ate r to Go. Please! Another emergency tip. KE8YN/0 MAR 27 New Products (by manufacturer) Alan Broadband Co., Inc . Zap Checker Staff JUN 48 Alinco DJ-S40T Pocket-size UHF Transceiver Staff APR48 Alinco New twinband mobil e transceive r Siaft DEC 48 AOR USA AR-ONE monitoring receiver Staff NOV48 AORUSA TV-5000 Video Converter Staff DEC 48 32 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 Black Forest Products, lne. Test Equip. for Radio & Elect. Tech. 12EO FEB48 Oatak Experimenter's Kil #80-1 401 Staff DEC 4S Fisher Space Pens Staff FEB 48 Gordon West Extra Class Prep Mate rials Staff NOV 48 Morse Express 2002 C hristmas Key Sta ff NOV 48 Scienlifics Remote Thermo Weather Station Staff FEB 48 Power Supplies Automotive Battery Voltage Monitor Simple to build. KC5MFY NOV 20 Saving the Fleet Of batteries. that is. Buchmann OCT 36 Switched Mode Pow er Supplies Using batteries? Build one of these. W2GOMn MAR 10 Preparedness On the Go The Physical OSY KE8YNn NOV 47 QRP O RP Ten -Tec's Century 22 WB8VGE FEB44 ORP Ins ide the HW -7 WB8VG E MAR 44 O RP Dayto n Highlights WB8VGE NOV 53 Radio Direc tion Finding, Fox Hunt s Homing In ARDF Championships, Part 2 KOOV JAN 47 Homing In Helping Your Community W ith RDF KOOV FE B 45 Homing In T-Hu nting Fu n in the Sunshine State KOOV MAR 5 1 Homing In USA's Foxhunters Take On the World KOOV APR 52 Homing In Take the Hamfesl Foxhunt Challenge KOOV MAY 53 Homing In X-miner Hunting as a Public Service KOOV JUN 44 Homing In W hat's New in Transmitter Hunting? KOOV SEP 53 Homing In Foxhunting is a "Novel" Idea KOOV O CT 50 Homing In Radio Camp to World Championships KOOV NOV 44 Homing In ARDF W orld Championships - Part 2 KOOV DEC 52 Repeaters Build a 1.2 G Hz FM Repeater A complete system from scratch. NY90 JAN 10 Mobile Ham Repeater Isn't it time your club had one? W6WTU OCT 14 Reprints Letter From the Other Side From The Hertzian Herald K8JWR OCT 35 Read A ll About It ! Part 11 - from The Hertzian Herafd K8JWRAUG 39 Read A ll About It ! Part 13 - from The Hertzian Herafd K8JWR DEC 58 Read A ll About It! Part 12 - from The Hertzian Herald K8JW A NOV 37 SOS .. . SOS... Titanic! Oct. 1997 73 Amateur Radio Today Garcia APR1 4 The History of Ham Radio Pa rt 13 - Birth of the W ouff Hong W 9CI, SK OCT 38 The Histo ry of Ham Radio Part 14 -Hoove r era ends W9CI, SK NOV 39 Underst anding the CWTHA Microwave & Optica f Tech. Letters Hansen MAR 31 Rest o rations Going Over a Gonsel G-77 A transmitter from the old days. W6WTU NOV 33 lOPs to Think About l oca l operating positions W1 ROn FEB 3 1 New Lite for a Pie rson KE-93 Part 1 of 3 W6WTU FEB 24 New Llte fo r a Pierson KE-93 Part 2 of 3 W6WTU MAR1 9 New Ufe fo r a Pierson KE-93 Part 3 of 3 W6WTUAPR 22 Restoring an HO-140-X Part 1 (Hammarlund rig) W6W TU MAY 29 Restoring an HO· 140-X Part 2 W6WTU JUN 27 Review s (by man ufactu rer) Creative Services Software T he CSS Safetenna (O RP) KE8YN/O MAR 45 LED-Ute Company G reat Gift Idea! WB6NOA JUL 38 MFJ 1899T Portable A ntenna K7UGO MAR 33 Peet Broth ers Uttimete r 2000 weather station KE8YN/O JAN 35 Rev iew s (by product) 1899 TPortable Antenna MFJ's 1899T Portable A ntenna K7UGO MAR 33 4-lED pocket light system Great G ift Idea! WB6NOA JUL38 Satetenna O R?- The CSS Sate tenna KE8YNJO MAR47 Ultimete r 2000 Weather Station The Peel Bros. Ultimeter 2000 KE8YN/O JAN 35 Satellite Operation, EME, Space Hamsals Annual Meeting W 5ACM JAN 44 Hamsals Winter Potpourri W 5ACM MAR 42 Hamsats MAROC·T UBSAT W 5AC M APR 44 73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003 33 Hamsats More ARISS W5ACM MAY 46 Hamsats AMSAT Field Day 2002 W5ACM JUN 40 Hamsats Field Day 2002 W5ACM SEP 48 Hamsats AMSAT Meeting Announced W5ACM OCT 45 Hamsats In Pursuit of Mode A W5ACM DEC 44 Test Equipment All-Star Expanded-Scale AC Voltmeter Monitor your line voltage. K8Z0A JAN 15 Commercial-Quality Function Generator How about this addition to the bench? K81HO DEC 10 IF Test Box A real "can"-do project. AA2JZ OCT 10 Inside a Lampkin More secrets of deviant behavior W6WTU SEP 26 Relative RF Power Meter Add this to your shack's arsenal! KC5MFY MAY 34 Solid State Junk Box Thermometers Everybody needs one of these. K4VYU6 NOV 30 Unmasking the Long Ranger dBm meter range extender N2DCH MAY 18 Travel Close Encounters of the 5R Kind Madagascar G3SWH OCT 27 FAIRS in Dominica A beautiful tropical island ... KK4WW SEP 38 The Call of the Maldives 8Q7WH. that is ... G3SWH APR 25 Travels with Henryk - Part 4 All ashore at Malta. SMOJHF MAY 24 Travels with Henryk - Part 5 The niceties of Norway SMOJHF JUN 31 Travels with Henryk - Part 6 Portuguese hospitality at its best. SMOJHF JUL 35 Travels with Henryk - Part 7 Hams in the Aland Islands OH0 SMOJHF AUG 36 Travels with Henryk - Part 9 Havana SMOJHF NOV 22 Tutorials How I Build "Moditied Ugly" "Maul-style" construction? AA2JZ MAY 14 No Place Like Ohm A little refresher ... W2GOMf7 NOV28 Roll Your Own RF Transformers But don't get TOO wound up in it. K8Z0A JUN 12 Shedding Some Light on Dimmers Put one of these triacs to use. W2GOMf7 DEC 22 The ABCs of lRCs All about International Reply Coupons G3SWH JAN 27 This Thing Called Wire-Wrap Wire-wrapping is still valuable to know. K81HO AUG 32 VTVMs and FETVMs Theory and practice. W2GOMf7 JAN 24 Updates Mobile Ham Repeater, Oct. 14 Correction in ORX -Oops Oops Staff DEC 6 VHFIUHF Above & Beyond Microwave Op Tricks of the Trade WB61GP MAY 50 Above & Beyond Oualicomm 2.x GHz-1 0 GHz Multiplier WB61GP JUN 42 Above & Beyond Converting Surplus: Coaxial Relays WB61GP SEP 42 Above & Beyond Coaxial Test Devices WB61GP OCT 47 Above & Beyond 1296 MHz Omni Slot Antenna WB61GP NOV 41 Above & Beyond Microwave Frequency Meters WB61GP DEC40 NEUER SRY DIE counts on our HF bands once an hour 2-4n prevention glasses in the gadget cata ConlinuedJrom page 4 for a co uple of months. Maybe from logs. They' H have blue LEOs built in, Washington. Southern California, Texas, powered by a 9V battery in your pocket. What about the ARRL, you ask? The Maine. and Florida. I'll bet thcy'H lind You wear them fo r three hours a day for only belief I have in the League is that that there are a lot less than 100,000 ac two days befo re your trip and three sorneonc should wake up the gang sleep tive U.S. hams on the HF bands. I'd like hours during the trip. No jet lag. I keep such weird hours at home thai ing at HQ and te ll them to get their ass 10 be wrong, but never in my (H. years on in gear and start promoting the hobby the bands have I heard them so empty. my body is never sure when to give me before it dies. Maybe you can energize I' m going to keep hacki ng away at the jet lag on trips to Europe or Asia. At home I go to hed when I get tired. your local director 10 do more than rub public's belief in doctors. hospitals. and whet her it's 7 p. m. or 2 a.m . I sleep until ber stamp what the HQ gang asks for at prescription drugs, using common sense the next board meeting. I wake up, and take an hour nap during and damned good research as my the day if I get tired. Works for me. Have you even a remote clue about weapon. I'Illcave it to you to either ac ti how much the number of licensed ama vate the League HQ gang or see our Health Notes teurs has grow n in the last five years? hobby blow away thro ugh your neglect. Make a guess? Wrong ! It was 0.5%, Com Every time you renew your ARRL me m A daily banana helps ward off strokes. pare that 10 the 19-46- 1963 17-ycars of bership you are making sure that HQ It's the potassium. Ora nges he lp. too. II% per year growth - a five- year does nothing. That' s the only vote you Hmm. I eat a couple bananas a nd an growth of 168%-. have. orange for breakfast every day. You know what I'd like to sec? The Optimists arc healthier and live longer, ARRL do a survey o f today's ham Jet Lag accordi ng to a Mayo Clinic study. activity on the ban ds . They could ge t volunteers ... retired hams ... to do signal Pretty soon you'll be seeing jet lag ConLln ued on page 41 34 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 Henryk Kotowski SM0JHF SibeliusgAngen 28, XI SE·l64 77 Kista Sweden Travels with Henryk Part 9 The D ominican Republic, where the main mode is merengue. The Dominican Republic (DR) is centratly located in the Caribbcen Se,1, sharing the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Only recently, the DR became economicalIy accessible from my part of the world, so one cold and dark December morning I jumped 0 11 the bandwagon and took a 12-hour nonstop flight from Stockhol m, Sweden, to Puerto Plata, DR. uerto Plata is a medium-size ham radio operators. too , but all the in this area and made a few calls. both town on the north coast. not far HI hams I met proudly display their on 2m FM and telephone. Without P away from the place where Co amateur radio tickets. Rafael's help I wou ld never have found lumbus landed in 1492. This place. Driving had to Puerto Plata from Cosmo H13CVV. who is very active on Cabo lsabela. was the fi rst target of my Cabo Isabella. J SUddenly saw a large the hands. including 11m CB. Cosmo trial ride in a rental car. B)' the way. shortwave yagi in the distance on the lives in a neglected suburb called San renting a car is inexpensive. but Scan left side of the road and instinctively Marcos, hut his home is very neat and dinavian tourists are ad vised to avoid it drove in that direction. It was Rafael he works at Tcle ferico - a cableway because the majority of native drivers HI3RF 's impressive antenna. Rafael running 10 the mountain ridge just have no license. Yet. during my two spent 20 years as the mayor of Puerto south of Puerto Plata. Cosmo has weeks there J did not witness any road Plata. Now retired. will he devote helped visiting hams to operate radio accident - which indicates that one more time to his on-air activity? from the top. Hi s son, named Cosmo does not have to hold a license to he an (Photo A.) alert driver. It might be true in case of He helped me to locate other hams Continued on page 36 • r Pholo R. Cosmo IIUCW and his SOli Cosmo. Jr. , in tke radio rkotoA. Raf ael IIIJRF at his station in Puerto Plata. coma. Puerto Plata. 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 35 He had lived in Florida for some years and is fluent in English. His Web page is at lwww.qsl.nct/hi.Inr/] . One day we drove to Santiago through the picturesque Cordillera Septentrional. Santiago is the second largest city of the DR and the center of tobacco industry and is well represented on amateur radio bands. O ne person. Constantino HI3CCP, is responsible for a large amount (I f thi s activity (Photos C and D). He patronizes a few repeaters around Santiago, supports the local clu b. is often un the air him self, and collects vintage radios. I was stunned by his collection ofAmerican made receivers and transmitters from the ' 50s and ' 60s. I could only look at their pict ures and dream about them Photo C. Constantino lJl3CCP sitrillg at one ofhis modem rigs, Edwin 11l3NR behind him, from the time when I was a newcomer ham in Poland in the early ' 60s. Travels with Henryk - Part 9 found the street he had mentioned hut Funny. at that time you cou ld count conrinuedJrom page 3 5 could not see any amateur radio acti ve Dominican hams on the fin antenna. The street was deserted hut a gers of o ne hand, and possession of a Jr., is a bright student of computer sci car pulled over just a fcw steps from radio receiver was forbidden here. ence but is not interested in radio. where I was standing. Scanning for Other acti ve hams in Santiago I (Photo D.) any aerial, 1 asked the driver if he managed to visit were Chuchu HI3JJS Another day, passing through a knew any radioaficicnado in this area. (Photos E and F) and Romeo HI3BRR wealthy precinct of Puerto Plata, 1 re "I am." he answered. " M y callsign is (Photo G ), and the local radio club membered another him of Rafael's. I H13NR." That was Edwin. who had H13JR. where. in spite of Christmas come to visit his parents' home. The 3 season, a few members turned up element HF beam was waiting in thc (Photo H). A heated discussion took bac kyard to he relocated to Edwin's place here, concerning the use of our new house. Edwin acted as my liaison 2m band by the Civil Defense . It is with local hams for the next few days. quite common in countries with low I'/wtn D, H13CCP :5lllltemlQ . Photo E. Chuchu H13JJS at the rig. Edwin 1f13NR standing. 36 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 I I'hoto (;. Romeo I1I3BRR at the microphone. Edwin HJ3NR behind him. de las Tclccomunicaciones in San to and humid here, people arc friendly, Domingo, A visitor's license is easy and the merengue music is addictive. to obtain: howe ver. power outages I'll be back here, and will bring my Photo F: HI3JJS 's a llfelillO. are common, so better hotels have radio next lime. fa amateur radio populations to find that their own gene rators. And a lot of cheap and easily available 2m FM ra people who can afford it have invert 11 0 VAC 12 V dios arc used by non-amateurs. but ers supplyi ng fro m here the hams are numerous. Going bancries installed at home. Every ham , back from Santiago through the town I visited has a set of 12 V batteri es as t of Imbert. I stopped by to visit Jose backup. HI3JRV, alias "EIArabc" (Photo I) on To a touri st. the country offers long. the I Im CR bands, sandy beaches. caves and mountains, - I The licensing authority is, after rc excellent fruit and fi sh, fi rst-class to structuring, the Instinno Dominicano bacco. and delicious rum. It's warm Photo I. Jose 1113JBV, "£1Arabe," in the to" '11 of Imbert. between Puerto Plata and Santiago. SAVE 47%! on 12 months of 73 Only $24.97 Plroto H. Radio Club of Santiago 1I/3JR. From left: I1I3AP, 1I/3A\V, HI3CCP. 1113F1. HI3NR, Call 800-274-7373 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 37 Eric Falkof Kl NUN 2 Hickory Hill Rd. Wayland MA 01778 2m FM Ham History 101 It 's time yOIl got YOllr degree. To know where we are going, it helps to know where we have been. ere are three "lec tures" that two-way radio was in its infancy. there hams who we re two-way radio service tel l us a bit about our ham were few radios and few freque ncies pcople who kne w how to put com H heritage. as well as give the available and in use in any geographic mercial gear on ham freque ncies. origin of some or the conventions we area. Consequently, frequencies were These first adapters brought with them may tend to overlook. ignore. or forget. shared . The oil delivery company used the practices they used in commercial the same frequency as taxis, fire de se rvices. Initially. "everyone" used '\'b)' do we announce we are leaving partments. fhc automobile travel club's 146.94 Me - megacycles, now MHz the frequency? trucks, municipal services. and so on. - simplex. Repeaters wcrc yet to come. This common frequency was a Were you ever listening to the dead. Since frequenci es were shared. it was shared resource and it was necessary empty repeater output freque ncy, when necessary to listen before talking to to use courtesy for all the same reasons all of a sudden someone said. "W Iblah amid interfering with another service's the commercial services did. There hlahblah leaving the frequency" or transmissions. As frequencies were fore. the hams announced they were "KBIyadayada clear"? Did you ever shared resources. people were careful leaving or clearing the freque ncy. wonder why thcy announced they not to interfere. or else they might be And so. some of the next generation interfered with themselves. The Golden were no longer liste ning'! Didn' t make of hams copied the pract ice, and then Rule appl ied. much se nse. ch? Here's an explanation the next generation. a nd so on and on. It was more than a courtesy to an of why that person did it. In ham radi o, anno unci ng that one is nounce that a series of transm issions First. it is wrong to do so in amateur leaving or clearing the frequency is a was complete - it was a requireme nt. practice. However. it is proper in dif practice that no longer makes sense. It was necessary to announce that a fercnt serv ices. but only in a historical nor is it desirable or needed. But now context. Unless considered a one-way station was going out of service or off you know why some people do it - it broadcast of general interest to ama the air so that other listeners would is a borrowed practice from long ago. te urs. it is an anno unce ment that the know the frequency was available It is just one vestigial trace of our ham is not listening for responses nor agai n and they could usc it. Also. a he ritage in the radio arts. conducting a test. Furthermore, it is di spatcher would know a truck. for But that accoun ts for some of the impolite to tell e veryone within listen examp le, was not going to he available single-frequency simplex activity that ing range that you are not going to for a call. characterized early FM activity, The listen to them any longe r! So what does thi s have to do with practice continued eve n when repeater But why was it OK to do so in differ ham radio'! In the early days of ham operation became commonplace. But ent services? In the old days. the '50s FM radio. using converted commercial repeaters use two frequencies. How and '60s. when commercial (business) equipment, the primary uscrs were and why did that eomc to be ? 38 73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003 "l1l do some repeaters s hift up or separate signals as close as 1-1-6.64 frequencies to be within tuning range down'! and 1-1- 6.655. Therefore . the plan with minimal compromise . called for the intermediate frequencies But it wasn' t always that way! The Until abo ut the mid -1 9 80 s. Te ch and in verted split directions. Thank concept of 600 kHz splits was not in nic ian-class hams could on ly usc fully. this idea did not gain widespread tuitive. It required repeater owners be two-meter band frequencies up to acceptance! convinced they should conform to this 1-I-7. 73 Amareur Radio tcaey » January 2003 39 Peter Egypt KE6FBO P.O. Box 804 Redwood Valley CA 95470 To the Rescue A stOJY about 2m and winches - we hope. This is a little tale about how a car and two tow trucks gal stuck in the mud, and how it took a search-an d-rescue member to save the day. hadn't been a ham radio operator place the wood under the spinning when he should have gone left. His for all that long of a time. but I was wheels - it was useless. And what tires were spinning. but nothing else I more than happy to have access to was the point to keep on trying'? was happening. He got out of his truck an autopatch - I had no cell phone. But "Call Mom and tell her we need a and tied his winch to a nearby tree. who really OCL"'t1s a cell phone when you tow truck," Dad told me. He turned the winch on and pulled have the ability 10 talk on 2 meters'! I grabbed the mike and dialed in for his truck off to the side of the road. an autopatch. Obviou sly. his situation was made This is how it happened "Juliet is dialing the phone." the re worse. peater said. "Say again'!" the dispatcher said. h was a coo l fall evening. about five "Yeah. that's ri ght! I need another o'clock on a Saturday. Dad and I de The phone rang and mom answered. Thank goodness I didn't gel the answer tow truck becau se I am now stuck. cided it would be a good time to fly too," the driver said. our remote control gliders. Because ing machine. "Morn." I said."we need a tow I guess I should have warred the driver we are both barns (dad is KE6FBK). of that tow truck. but he is supposed to truck. we are stuck in some mud." I he and I have the privilege of using a be a pro. had little time to say much else before special band j ust for us licensed radio At about that time. our friend Blair the autopatch went dead. Luckily, operators. We headed out to the model Mitchell K6CPY called my dad on the Mom got all the information we aircraft field just south of Ukiah. two-meter repeater. As we made our way to the airfield. needed to he saved from that muck. "What's going on. AI'!" K6CPY we monitored one of the 2-mcter re The tow truck was on its way. asked. peaters. Not too many people were I walked down to the end of the " Well. Blair. we got stuck in the mud talking. but we always liked listening muddy road. A few minutes later the out here at the airfield. The tow truck anyway. tow truck arrived. I Flagged him down. got stuck. too. so they are sending After Dad and I put in a few hours of jumped into his truck. and we started another tow truck." flying our gliders. we decided to pack on the way back to my car. A search-and-rescue worker was up and make our way home. "00 you have four-wheel drive on monitoring the same repeater. He That's when the trouble began. this thing?" I asked the young man. called out to my dad. "Do you need When I tried to back the car out of the "No. are you kidding?" he answered. some help? I have a heavy-duty truck mucky place where I had parked, all I had a bad feeling about this ... and can pull you out." the tires would do was spin. Dad got out Then a somewhat fu nny thing hap- "Thanks!" Dad said. to check on the situation. He saw some pened - the tow truck got stuck in the wood next to the road so he decided to mud. The tow truck driver went right Continued on page 56 40 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 [RLENDRR EUENTS Listings are free ofcharge as space permits. Please send us your Calendar Event nVD months in advance of the issue you want it to appear in. For example. ifyou want it to appear in the April issue. we should receive it by january 3 1. Provide a clear. concise summar y of the es- sen tiel details about your Calender Event.- - JAN 11 January 26th, Sa.m. 10 2:30 p.m. Setup is at with a grand prize of $500. VE exams. Tickets 6 a.m.Admission is a $4 donation at the door, 56 in advance wi th four door prize stubs, sa at GREENWOOD, SC The Greenwood ARS dealers admitted at no charge. Tables $1 1 the door with one door prize stub. Contact 2003 Hamfesl will be held at Greenwood Civic each. Food will be available on site and WCRA, Po. Box OSLo Wheaton IL 60189. E· Center, January 11th, 2003. Contact W4JAK, starti ng at7 a.m. at the restaurant next door. mail [[email protected]}, or phone Pres ident, GARS, 106 Dorchester Dr., Directions : Exit S1 off 1-77 to SR 250 East to 630·604-0157. vlstt [http:// ww w.wheaton Greenwood se 29646, for further information. SR 416 Exit. At end of ramp, turn left at light hamfes/.org). (under SR 250 bridge), then turn right at the JAN 25 first fi ght. New Towne Mall is on the left. Talk FEB 9 in on 146.730(·) . Free parking available at LOCKPORT, NY Th e l ockport ARA Inc. will the mall. Dealers welcome. ARRLIVEC MANSFIELD, OH The Mansfield Mid"Winter host a HamfestlA uclion on saturday, January sponsored exam s by appointmen t. For Hamfesl/Computer Show will be held Sunday, 25th, at the South l ockport Firehall, Transit additional info and to reserve tables, contact February 9th, at the Richland Counly Rd.(AT. 78), corn er of Ruhlman Rd. in Gary Green KB8WFN , 32210 Norris Rd., Fairgrounds, Mansfield OH. Plenty of prizes Lockport NY. Talk-in on 146.820 PL 107.2. Tippeca noe OH 44699. Phone 740-922 and an over 400-table flea market in three Setup for vendors is at 6 a.m. The hamfest is 4454: or E· mail [ kb8 wfn@tusco. netj. large modem heated buildings. Doors open to open to the public at 7 a.m.; auction starts at Reservations must be paid in advance and the public at 6:30 a.m. TICkets $5 in advance 11 a.m. Admission $5. 8 ft. tables 55 each. received by January 20th to insure the return and $6 at the door. Tables $12. Talk-in on Refreshments available. Con tact Duane of reservation confirmation. Remember to 146.34/.94 W8WE. Advanceticketltable orders Robinson W2DLR, p. o. Box 142, Ransom ville enclose an SASE. Make checks payable to must be received and paid by February 1st, NY 141 3 1. Phon e 716-79 1-4096; E-mail Tusco Amateur Radio Club. send SASE 10 Dean Wrasse KB9MG. 1094 {[email protected]}. Please visit the Seal Rd., Mansfield OH 44905; or call 41g. Web site at [httpJl1ara.hamgate.net). ST. CHARLES, IL The Wheaton Community 522-9893 and leave a message for a return Radio Amateurs' Midwinter Hamtest will be call. Info is also available al [www. JAN 26 held at Kane County Fairgrounds, 525 S. MASER.org}. There will be a l eague Nighl Randall Ad.. 51. Charles IL, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. banquet the night before the hamfesl. More NEW PHILADELPHIA, OH The Tusco ARC on January 26th. Talk-in on 145.390. Heated info on the banquet wi ll be available on the Hamfest will be held at New Towne Mall, 400 indoor flea market tables and comme rcial Web slte, or call Bill Marlin N8TO al 419-526 Mill Ave. SE, New Philadelphia OH, Sunday, booths. Free parking. Hourly prize drawings 4661 . Fa NEUER SRY DIE on the latest Staphylococcus mutation? surgeon's oops, prcscn puon error. or Infections by this m utant staph are no w some other hospital -gained infection colllin uedJrom page 3 4 routine in hospi tal s. This is a nightmare may. The Archives ofInternal Medicine People who don' t get enou gh sleep th at doctors have been dread i ng (and published a study in September tracking have double th e heart attack risk. A ngry expecting ) for years. drug use in 36 hospi tals and nursi ng and depressed people are also more Several years ago I review ed th e w on homes in Colorado and Georgia. The re likely to have heart attacks. derfully documented 75 0-page book by port showed that in th e average 300-pa Super germs have escaped ! T he wide Eileen Garrett. The Coming Plague. tient institution an error was involved in spread overu se of anti biot ics has re A ccording to the C DC, of the (en m il o ne out of five cases. Seven percent of sulted i n th e breeding of drug-resistant l ion patients who entered hospitals in the errors w ere "really, really bad:' germs. These arc no w escaping from 1999, tw o million caught bacterial or vi That's more than -1-0 really bad errors per hospitals o n the clothes o f patients, ral infection s, and over 9OJXlO died o f day. workers, and vi sitors. Genus used 10 them . This makes hospital infections the quickly d ie after exposure to the outside number 5 killer in the U .S. Russia Today world, but the new resistant germs are The research loo king for a cure for able to stay alive, even for months, w aiti ng staph is being don e by th e pharmaceuti What' s happe ned (0 the " other" super for a new host to attack. cal companies. A re they check ing out power? Today Russia has a GOP smaller T here's much to he said for keeping silver colloid? Of course not. T hat's not than C alifornia's. Its hirthrates and adult your imm une sy stem at industrial life expectancy arc declining, so m uch strength, plus a supply of silver colloid an option since it can't he patented and so ld i n $20 a day dose s. so thai by 2050 it could have fewer on hand. Just i n casco I n the meanwhile, perhaps you' d do people than Iran. Maybe you' ve noticed thai while a 101of The Staph of Death well to do everything in your power to stay the hell o ut of ho spitals . .. w here, if D 'ja see the five-page article in Fortune the staph of death doesn' t get you, a Confinued on page 58 73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003 41 THE DIGITRL PORT Jack Heller KB7NO P.O. Box 1792 c arson City NV 89702 {hnp:Jlkbzno.bon e.att.net] New home of The Chart Vive la France! Do you supp ose if the French call build the highly successf ul Concorde SST airplane. would it be safe ro bet one of those folks could write a good PSK31 program? Well, one of them did an d has not sa id much abolll it. So here it is for you to observe an d enjoy. hiS is another program written utiliz for something broken, I checked those icons DXPSK from sneaking into the background Ting the AE4JY PSK engine. with the again and the uppermost icon suggested when I accessed Logger. author's (F6GQK) own innovations and "Connect soundcard." I clicked it and the preferences built-in. I must say. right to he waterfall began to play. Now we were getting Use the Task Bar gin, this is an intuitive program to use that some whe re. This me rely meant I had to click the wiII not disappoint the casual user, and the Did I neglect to mention that I did not DXPSK bu tton on the Task Bar to reawaken more you usc it the more you find it may make the proper effort 10 download and its panel o n the monitor so I could see what just cover yo ur needs - plus. of course. the install a Help Rle? This software is intuitive was happe ning and control/participate in a price is right: free! enough that even I can get it go ing without QSO. Yo u wi ll see the advantage in the J happened on this so ftware at Dave's crutches - okay, up (0 a point anyway. scrccnshot. I happened across a familiar (G3VI-l» Web site as I was searching for Later; however. I found the Help Fileresiding callsign and double-clicked it so it was in something new for your reviewing pleasure. nicely in the DXPSK folder and doub le the call cell in DXPSK. then e ntered it in There are several pieces o f software that clicked it and got the Help displaying j ust the Logger entry panel which showed the haven't gotten a lot of play in this column fine. Still later, 1clicked the Help ico n and pre vious QSOs in another pane. The re is no du e 10 confl icts with some of the installed it worked just like wo uld expect. Goofy one connection between these two program s. hut TSR programs. Those are good pieces of Windows! I like this info available so it is worth the work hut I like to work with stulT that down There followed a of pleasant sur num ber effort to me. loads, installs, and plays which is exactly prises, First, I took the time to write a few One of the neat features yo u will discover wha t DXPSK does. My favorite kind of macros. One might loo k at these and say, right away is that c hanging receive panes is program to talk abo ut. "They are a bit diffe rent from the ' norm' o r as intuitive as it gets. When yo u place the Funny I sho uld say that, as I think abo ut the way we are used to writing o ur mac cursor o n the waterfall a tool-tip po ps up to it. because on the very first contact with this ros." bu t as soon as you get into it after click re mind yo u that left click is Frequency I program someone was asking for help with ing (he "Create/edit a macro" icon you will (uppe r receive pane ) and righ t click is Fre MixW 2 mer the air. So I ne ve r got to tell find that this system is also very intuitive. q uency 2 (lo wer pane ). The marke r is what fun I was ha ving with this software. Yo u have the capability of 20 macros. I numbe red and everythi ng associa ted is (Funny to me. you had to be there.) quickly wrote seven. o ne of which I d upli color-coded . You soon have your brain Back to the setup. It is simple enough. ca red d ue to being too q uick. and that was thinking upper is green and lower is ye llow You notice something righ t away. There are almost the extent of my preparatio n. I added and you can look to see wha t is that color no pull-down menus across the top of the a few more that do not show in the screen and you know what trace. freq uency, report. display. Instead. the re is a row of icons o n shot after I detennined there were no hot and text belongs to whome ver, the left side with "T ool-tips" that tell yo u keys for transmit and rcccive. A re view of Plus. when you click with o ne or the other what the icon stands fo r whe n you to uch the macrocommands revealed it was simple mouse keys in the waterfall. the Cha nne l I it with yo ur c ursor. One of those say!'> e nough to assign macro s 10 perfo rm those o r Channe l 2 tab is actuated for you so that "Ge ne ral setup" when yo u touch it. functions. all the ligu res apply immediately, Of co urse Naturally. there is a box where you can There was one more step, I attempt to yo u can click on either of those tabs to make insert your callsi gn and choices for yo ur have a log handy that wi ll tell me of previ the change from o ne Channel to the other PIT port and pin along with a few other o us QSOs when I enter a callsign. DXPSK with yo ur mouse. Just as good as I could available choices you can make at the time has a very good log system built-in. but it is ha ve ordered it. or get back to later. Three or fou r c hoices not that sophisticated. My quickest solutio n Yo u will notice more hidden features as and yo u are in business. I could think of was to get the Logger data you usc this program. I had already success The next thi ng I noticed was that there base up-to-date and run it with (he DXPSK fully had tWO QSOs when I got 10 tooking was no activity in the waterfa ll. The rig was program. It worked as yo u can sec. There during a lur king session tha t the transmit on and the cahles in place, so be fore checking was o ne little hitch. I fo und no way to keep and recei ve frequ encies were way di fferent 42 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 as displayed. A q uick experiment showed the transmit frequency to immediately jump to the receive frequency when going into transmit mode. One o f the minor aggravation s when working with a program fo r a short time is logging those test QSOs with pencil and pad to he transferred late r. This program has the answer in place. No pend I needed . There arc two little icons j ust below the Call and Na me boxes. One of those is 10 delete or clear the entries in those boxes. The o ther starts you into a log dialog whi ch, wh en you fi ni sh. produces an adequate ADI F log within the DXPSK folder. You can import FiX. 1. DXPSK ill action. Monitoring two signals at alice. YOII may recognize the Logger it directly into whatever popular log yo u are panes to the left. The program.s do 1101 talk to each other. It is simply that invariably, using, no co nve rsio ns needed. Just do it. when I test a new program. I will cOlllact a call i should recognize and it is hard to ex All-in-all. thi s program is well thought plain wh)" I "don't keep records." The value is obvious as I entered a cal/sign in the log OUI. Yo u ca n see that the programmer c us and 3 previous QSOs came lip. The important part is the intuitiveness of DXPSK. The tomized features 10 fit his o wn tastes and macros are simple to write. The coior coding oftile 151 and 211d channels make it a map these qualities resu lt ill a package that is to tell which: station you are copying. The widTh of the waterfall is adjustable quickly very easy to gel acquainted with. So he care f rom setup. The icons 0 11 the left are ill lieu ofpull-down menus. When Y OI/ click Oil them, ful, in just an ho ur or so you could get as well as most other places ill the display, "toot-tips " gives you a description oftheir hooked 0 11 so me of the unique ideas. [unction. A very nice piece of work that includes limitelJ but adequate Jog capabilities. (See text.) And it is a f ree download.' Another special application While nosing about reccnny, I ran across ago . Since all the c hanges in the shac k One thing I discovered as a little aside as a handy little program thai I did not know computer. I had not rein stalled it. Recently I attempted to get the macro described in existed when I wrote the No vember article I no ticed some discussion on the MixW the somewhat dated Mixw He lp File 10 o n the early PSK3 JfPSKGNR software refl ector concerning a macro 10 brin g it work was a minor flaw in the macro lan combo. I mentioned that PSKGNR wo uld up fro m within the Mixw program. guage. Here was another learning moment. wri te a log file. hUI there was no other log That motivated me 10 reinstall thi s cle ver I copied and pasted the mac ro language fac ility a vailable. I was nOI quite correct. piece of softw are and get it acce pting in from the He lp File to the Mixw macro. There is a program named PSKlog. by fo rmation from the Mixw 2.06 program. closed the mac ro edit screen and clicked Cristi Y0 3FFF, that is meant 10 fill thai which it does exceptio nally we ll. It is a lot o n it. It did no t work . A fte r a quick loo k, need. I downloaded it and it is shown run of fun to usc besides being very useful and, r rea lized there is some ve rsio n of the ning in a c ropped screcnshot (Fig. 2) a long 10 me at least. ed ucational as well. Lo ts of Windo ws operating system. in use. r assume with the other two progmms. I foun d that things you can discove r about geography in other parts of the world that docs not have my co mputer had a conflict of interest with whe n you click a world atlas into fu ll scree n a folder named "Program Files" but rather this little program having to do with o ne o r mode for a bit. Just for a c hallenge. try find "Programmer... more of the TSR programs. ing the exact opposi te spot on the other side The described macrocontained Program However. the program is available and is of the world from where you are slui ng. It mer in the path to o pen the fil es and all likely to work o n your nice "clean" ma can be done using this soft ware. that was nec essary was to c ha nge that to chines that aren't cl uttered with all these toys. Jusl wanted 10 lei you know I Sland corrected on my state ment abo ut log pro -- - grams fo r this setu p. It e xists a nd is listed in The Cha rt on the Web. Pl us, you wi ll sec it is a serious log effort as you re ad ,==,==,aI T" ", I the info on his We b page. Incide ntally, as I looked 0 11 Ihe Y03FFF Web site, I found there were updates available that co uld re aT" lieve my pro ble m s. Only hi tch was the download didn't work. so it became too late to e xperiment thi s month. DXAtias software Another area of inte rest for so me of yo u Fig. 1. This is the log software from Cristi r03FFf: that works with the PSKGNR soft is a program called DXAllas. T his has ware mentioned in the November column. I mistakenlv mentioned there "'CIS no log [unc been available for so me time and has bee n tion included. bill here it is. It appears LO be an ambitious effort to develop a compreben upgraded since I reviewed it a year or so sil'e log program. See text and Web sire. 73Amateur Radio toaev » January 2003 43 ,~------ ( M ixW2DX At las) attempts to get tha t system up and running, a nd related items. I usually get a few notes of enco urageme nt. go to the MixW So. briefly, the fi rst news item co nce rned home page . click the anno uncement of an o perating system o n " A dd e nd um " that would allow the use of both Wi ndows a nd f o llo w t he software and Linux applicatio ns. "Hmrn?" path,"Ex porting to says I, "I will chec k into that." I looked ee e cc -e t map p rog ram s ." briefly and it was, as of some months ago. D X A t ias is a an underde velopment process that a llowed standalone program us to participate with the authors for around ada VP2M PA de KB1NO that dues not have to a $100 investment. The name of the system he run with MixW. is Lindows. I didn't feci the need to con Therefore yo u can tribute. so the idea was relegated to the download it from bottom of the think tank pile he re. the URL lis ted in The second. more recent, ne ws item The Chari o n my concerned a seemingly st range mention '" Web site. of a computer for sale from w al-Mart. of all places. for $200 with Lindow s in New antenna sta lled . T hat got m y attention. It was o nly thoughts available from the retailer via their o n- line storefront. 1<2 ,." I have had IwO At this time. I have it on order. The pro CoI»d SGC STEALTH Antenna \ One of the ctuillenges in a disaster sit untion may in volve getting an IlF suuton on the air \ quickly and easily. Tile radio and tile power sup ply are relalively streigtntorward. but the antenna is orren n problem. En ter the SGC STEALTH antenna as a viable answer to this problem. n the past we' ve discussed va ri ous ap The heart of the STEALTH antenna is the O nce a frequency is tuned. the SO·237 I proaches 10 an tennas that can be used for SO-237 Smart uncr, The Smartuner is a self stores the solution for that frequency and HF applications, bu t most of these we re contained antenna tuner that requires only tries that solution first . Because of this tech variations all antennas designed for fixed four connections. There is the PL-259 co nology. it can tunc a wire antenna from 1.8 operations and adapted for emergency work. axial connection to the radio. a 12 volt 60 MHz and handle up to 100 watts PEP at As such. they are less than optimal versions power supply. and. for the STEALTH con a 40% duty cycle for most modes. This of a design with reduced operational utility. figuration. beth ends of the loop antenna. would mean that a maximur- of 40% of the On the other hand, SGC has designed its The Smanuncr has been a well-proven an time wo uld be spent transmitting . Basically. STEALTIi an tenna specifically 10 he a rap tenna coupler for long wire antennas, In keying the microphone is the only act ion idly deployed, no hassle, easily used antenna. general usc. the antenna is connected 10 one required by the operator. the Smanencr does In one small box arc a11 the pieces needed side of the Smartuner and a ground to the the rest. It is durably mounled in a water to erect a loop antenna under virtually any other, By usi ng loop configuration. the proo f case. and in some confi gurations is circumstances. There is the 80-foot wire to ground is replaced by the other end of the mounted by suspending it with the antenna. he used for the antenna itself. nylon ropes antenna wire, Electrically this works well. Thi s is fine for emergency operations. but with insulated clips for suspending it and and from a mechanical standpoint. a loop for long-term exposure to the elements some the antenna tuner. There are abo two manu also makes sense because a wire in a loop addition al protection should be provided. als - one for the STEALTH configuration can be easily supported. T his can be as simple as a plastic bucket and one for the Smurtuncr. The wire and The SG4237 is essentially a custom-de mounted over the Smartuncr, ropes are wound aro und reusable forms so signed microcomputer with a Pi & L tuning As would be the case for emergency opera that the materials can he easily accessed. system. Whenever the system senses for tions. I erected the antenna using available and after use the entire unit can easily be ward RF power. the sys tem activates and returned to the same box for storage. the software tunes to the new frequency. Continued on page 57 1'''010 A . The sec STEALTH allfelll1t1 is lightweight and comes ill t'hoto R. The kit contains 80 feet of wire, lIyloll lines with insu a cardboard case tliat call become till easy addition to your"Grab kued clips, reusable cabte ties. the Smartuner; and manuals. Add & Go " l'IlIergency gear. a radio and /3.8 volts DC, lind you're 0 11 the air. 73 Amateur Radio toasv » Janua ry 2003 45 HRMSRTS Andy MacAllister WSACM Amateur Radio Via Satellites 14714 Knights Way Drive Houston TX 77083-5640 The Hunt It was supp osed to be a be.?r hunt in the wilds of New Mexico.In October of 2002 Mike IVASTIvrand I headed for the Pecos Wilderness via Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Bill IVASVQjI was our host and provided transportation as tsr as wheeled vehicles could go. ~ Ve had everything needed f or hiking and hunting in the mountains, plus a few radios that couldn 't be left behind. t' s. a 101cooler at 9.000 feel in the Pecos some sleep. Bill's comment abo ut getting while hiki ng in the mountains in north I Wilderness than at sea level in Houston. up at 4:30 a.rn. and heading back up the ern Iran , I had many pound s of gear that Texas. Mike and I thought we were ready mounta in to hunt for bear was veto ed. were not necessary, and I paid fo r it. If for the change to near-freezing temperatures Maybe later, much later. you don ' t need it, don't take it. Wh ile pre at night and high altitudes, but it was a Our first fu ll day was to he a sco uting paring for the trip to New Mexico I con shock. When it freezes in Houston, you trip on horseback. Unfo rtunately the outfit sulted my oid Boy Scout handbook and ma ke sure that the kids go outside 10 see ter with the horses had backed our (prob an excell e nt Web site, [hll p :l/ w w w. frozen things, because it's so rare. Here it ably ran out of air), so Bill suggested we backpacklng.nc t]. Between the two lnfor looked more like the norm. simply walk to Grass Mountain, He said it mation sources I gathered the lightest There's no air above 9.000 feet. OUf fi rst wouldn't take long, and we could have lunch eq ui pment I could fi nd. I had hoped to foray into the hills was just after dusk on and a great view when we got to the top. carry enough radios to work severa l sat the fi rst day..Mike and I were having trouble Severa l hou rs later Mike and I collapsed on ellites, hut opted for low weight. I fou nd with anything that even looked like it might the summit of Grass Mountain. Fortunately th at a very simple yet effe ctive FM-only we hadn' t seen any sign of bear. We weren' t be uphill. All of the air is down on the coast. sta tion sui table fo r contac ts via UoSAT interested. Finding air and keeping hydrated How do people live up here? We doubted if OSCA R· 14 (UO-1 4) with an uplink on were our only thoughts. My pack seemed it was possible. and 10 pro ve it, I pointed 145.975 M liz and downlink on 435.070 too heavy, but then again anything would out that we hadn't seen anyone since we had MHz, could be packed into a 10.5" x 5" have seemed heavy at this point. left a small town many miles earlier. Just to bank money bag. These hags are usually com plicate matters the tempera ture was Backpacking found at ham swapmeets and other sur dropping rapidly. plu s outlets. T hey are light. stro ng and After what Bill called a light evening The first time out backpacking you take pro vide enoug h paddi ng to protect their walk , Mike and I were ready for heat and too much. I learned this a long time ago contents. Photo A, Andy W5ACM making satellite contacts from the top of Photo H, Mike nJ\5nvTand Bill mUVQH head up vet another Grass Mountain ill the Pecos Wilderness, hill. 46 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 Plwto C No bears. just paper targets and satellites for this hunt. I'hoto D. A JO,S " .f 5" bank money bag held all of Ihe satellite gear. The portable station th ree models. for Kenwood. Icom. and with integral compass, carry a standard Yaesu HTs. I used the Icom version with compass with your portable station. Wh en My complete portable station weighs the my older Alinco radio. The M FJ·293 is ex not moving. a typical G PS receiver cannot same as a typical MRE (Meal Ready-to-Eat) rrcmely light and small. It fi ts anywhere and tell direction . Knowing you r orientation is in the bag with chemical warmer. about one is surprising ly durable. helpful when follow ing a satellite even pound. 10 ounces. I know because MREs While on cruise ships I track the satel though you will he constantly moving the were the only food provided by our host lites ..vith a Palm-VII from 3Com. An at HT with an tenna during a pass. while out on the trail. I don' t like MREs tached GPS receiver provides my location The final addition to my money-bag sta anymore. All of my sate llite gear was. care and simple Palm satellite tracking software tion w as a Petzl Tikka hcadlamp. I had fully chosen for light weight and usefulness. docs the rest. This time I knew my target never seen one before this New Mexico Compromises were made. but it's the results location within 10 miles. I plotted om its for outing. Bill WA5VQH uses one fo r night that co unt. There were 11 0 experiments on the genera l hunt area (grid DM75et) and time out ings in the woods. Unlike older this trip, j ust sturdy, tested gear. printed them to paper. It's a good idea to units that usc heavy batteries and incandes My radio of choice was an Alinco OJ test your predictions before heading ou t. cent bulbs. the Tikka has three high-output 580T dual-hand HT. It' s. not the newest. Errors are easy to make when plotting or white LEOs runni ng on three AAA baucrics. smallest or lightest HT for the job, hut I have bits for a site other than home. Incorrect The operati ng time is amazing. It will ru n made many satellite contacts with it. My location data or a bad time zone choice can at full brilliance for 12 hou rs. and at lim longtime familiarity with its simple con make a printed page of data useless. I use ited light o utput for up to 150 hours. I was trols, the live-watt output and full-du plex InstamTrack ($30 for AMSAT members) hooked. but Bill kept a sharp eye on his capability made it my rig of choice. Always from AMSAT [hu p://www.amsaLorg] for Tikka. I had 10 buy my own from an online practice at home with the radio you in tend my orbit pred ictions. and 1carry a good pen bac kpac k-supply store for $30. With it in to take to the field. For power I took my 10 write down QSO info rmation on the place at night I could easily look at the radio highest-capacity. higbcst-vohagc battery pri nted orbit prediction pages. pack even though it added weight. Unless you take along a GPS receiver Confin ued on page 57 Although I prefer the Arrow dual-band yag i for portable operation, its size. and the inco nvenience of putting it together and tak ing it apart on the trai I made it a base-camp only accessory. After trying several long "duck" ar ucnnas. I chose the Pryme AL-800 telescoping whip (S30). When collapsed it measures only 9 .5 inches. When extended it has 3.2 d B gain on IWO meters. 5.6 dB on 70 cm. and measures an impressi ve 34 inches. It is also quite rigid. This helps when attempting to find the optimum orientation during a satel lite pass. When working a satellite with a ful l-du plex HT. an earphone is needed to avoid feedback . When you are constantly adjust ing the HT with attached an tenna for best up and down signal levels. a headset with microphone is best. A n effective h UI cost effective choice is the MFJ· 293 (S25) earbud with boom microphone. There arc Pno E. A complete satellite station fits inthe money bag. 73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003 47 ROoUE D BEYOND C.l. Houghton WB61GP VHF and Above Operation San Diego Microwave Group 634 5 Badger Lake Ave . San Diego CA 9211 9 [[email protected]} [[email protected]) A Simple Optical Test Device for the Laser/LED Communicator In June 2000,I published in 73 Magazine the first ofthree articles about an LED communicstor constructed in two sections of PVC t ubing or pipe looking much like a binocular with a rifle scope for pointing the system. he basic concept was to make a light detecto r. The o pposite e nd transmitter is the remote ta rget. It's obvious that some Tcommunication system different from o n 45 kHz. so there is minimal crossta lk help in calibrating this octopus is needed. other devices for optical communications between recclve and transmit a t eithe r e nd First. it's somewhat easy to point o ne due to the difficulty in modulating HeNe ( 10 kHz separation between Rx and Tx). object at a fur source a nd center it up to lasers and safety couccms. Kerry N6IZW. Now. the sne aky part in Kerry ' s design rece ive the far transmissions. be it an LED my partner, developed the co nce pt and is to feed the detected receiver (he it 35 or a higher intensity pocket laser. orcourse, system designs. o r 45 kHL) energy and am plify it and drive the furthe r the distance the harder this pro b Wh at w as envisioned vvas a bigb-output an SRA mixer's IF port and feed the LQ lem gets. and micro positioning is a required LED transmitter and photo detector. each port with a synthesizer's 145 MHz RF sig function to make very fine adjustments in housed in one section of the a -inch PVC nal source. This converts the 35 o r 45 kHL both vertical and ho rizontal directions . To pipe. Rear splice unions (PVC) and end caps receiver photo detector output to the RF port add even more difficul ty to this formula. yo u were used 10 house electronics for the sys at 145.35 o r 145.45 MHz. up-converting the need very beefy tripods for rigidity, and tem. Not wishing to re-invent the whee l. received signa l forinsertion into a 2-meter even then they will still ha ve some small existing systems were used so we did not HT for receiving narrowband FM with 5-kHl. wiggles and nonsolid move ments in them. ha ve to construct a full recei ver system. deviation. This receive system works un A lathe table would be excellent-but then What was done was to use a 4046 Ie osci l believably we ll. hutjust remember to never where would yo u park the crane to ha ul it? lato r functioning at 35 kHz 0 11 o ne end and transmit on the HT - it is for receive op A tripod. being what it is. wi ll suffice and 45 kHz on the opposite end so as no t to feed e ration only. Transmit is the electret mic in allow us to aim o ne single target to align hack to its o wn system. The modulation and the power supply modulator for the LED! ment. Getting them all to the same spot is RF driver for the LED is a 324 op amp and laser. the problem faced here. an electret mic. The rnic can be removed The system loo ks like two -t -inch PVC One solution is to construct a simple os and a computer sound card o utput can he tubes spaced about an inch apart and a rille cillator a t the syste m receive frequency used as well to provide PSK-3 1 for some scope and newly added Laser pen transmit (35 kl-lz, for example) and mount it into a very interesting applicatio ns . ter. beefing it up qu ite a hit over the original tin can to se rve as target to alig n the photo In fact. Kerry N61ZW a nd I have ac LED transmitter system . (When using the detector and tin can's LED together. Now complished a 15-mile-path full -duplex laser we cover up the LED transmitter and add a small automobile reflector in the same o peration f1\.f narro wband communicatio ns its optics with a -i-inch PVC pipe cap to shut tin can to serve as not only transmitting os from ML Palo mar to Valley Center. using the LED down.) Now comes the problem cillato r hut also now reflec ting the return the upgraded Laser o ptical system show n of dealing with 4 tube-like structures: (I) of the laser spot. The laser spot is much here. Also tried war.. PSK-31 and compute r the LED transmi tter. ( 2) The receive photo more intense tha n the test LED in the tin gene rated QSL cards se nt via slow scan detector. (3) The pocket laser, and (4) the can and will overri de it whe n focused o n video. It was an e xciting night demon rille spotting scope. Defining the problem the laser. Usi ng the positioning controls of strat ing the syste ms that Kerry N6l ZW is like wanting 10 hold four penci ls in one the tripod. align the detector o n the LED. had envisioned and developed. hand and have them all be po inting in the and then turn o n the laser and position the Driving the transmitter, he it o riginally same direction. laser's right/left/up/down movement to an LED or. in o ur up-graded ve rsio n. a But fir st. to env ision the problem let's align the laser spot in the reflector in the tin pocket laser. bo th arc fed from the same take the four pencils. or actual de vices we can while keeping the lin can LED aligned modulator oscil lator at 35 or 45 kH L. The described earlier. and make them a halfmile with the receive r. Veri fy by shutting do wn 35 kHz transmitter is made to function with long. or even longer. and keep them all on the opposite end recei ver a 35 kHz photo the same axis pointing at the same spot at Continued on fXlge 50 48 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 ROUERTI SERS' INOEH R.S.' page R.S.I page R.S.lf page R.S.' page •A & A Engineering 59 M' __ ___,._____.._____..____ .. 55 99 Communicalion • • Radio Book Shop 53 • A1 inco CV2 Concepts ...... ••.•.••. 27 • MiChigan Rad iO ...... 49 • Radio Book Shop ••••••. ••••• •• 55 Alinco ••• ...... •• .•....•.••••••••••• eV3 • • CommunicatiOnS • Milestone Technologies ...• 55 • Radio Book Shop .••••••••••••• 56 • All EIeelronics Colp. _ 13 Elect ronics, Inc 5 • Omega Sales ...... 12 • Radio Book Shop 63 • Amateur Accessories ...... 2 1 10 CommuniCatioos • Omega Sales...... 53 34 Ramsey Electronics 3 16 Astron Corporation 2 Specialists. Inc 17 • Omega Sales ...... 59 • RLS ...... •••••••••...... •.•.•.•.• 15 • ATOC Amaleur 13 Doppler Systems 53 • Radio Book Shop ...... 9 25. Ross Distributing 59 Distributing Oorp CV2 • Dudley Lab 17 • Radio Book Shop ...... 12 • Scrambling News 59 • AlOC Amateur •Ham Ma lJ 11 • Radio Book Shop ...... 15 • SGC 7 Distributing Corp. ....•.. 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FT--8 I00R TM-G707A . ~ • •• : ., :::: ' 73 Amateur RadiO Today ' January 2003 49 ~.5 u:.'1S ,L VDC R3 SHROUD Rl.JIl.ECTOR ., 4 8 un PIOOI 2 LED G ~ 3 VNIOKM HOUstNGFOR 6 55. f- ELECTRONlCS TIMER S SGD 3 INCH PVC 3 INCH PVC 3 INCH PVC ~l 7 I I COUPLING PIPE END CAP Fig. 2. lAyout ofconstruction of3-inch pvc pipe. couplings and GND end caps for housing reflector and electronics for test circuitry. Fig. 1. Schematic of 555 oscillator circuitry, construction Reflector is pushed into coupling to touch against center ridge mounted dead-bug style on copper circuit board as common held in place by 6-inch or so length ofpvcpipe. Front section of ground solder surface. coupling/arms lens reflector shroud. RBDUE Co BEYOND up-convened receiver system oscillator of circuit first; mine has a 150 ohm resistor to contln uedJrom page 48 higher frequency. the principle is the same. the anode of the diode to limit current. The lfyou transmit a laser or LED frequency to LED Kerry and I use is from Hosfelt Elec the laser. Align the receiver and tum on the a remote target and refl ect it back to the laser and verify collimation between both tronics. 1-800-524-6464, part # 25-339, and source, you can detect it when you are in systems.Then align the telescopic rifle spot about $5 each. Any other high-output LED alignment be tween your recei ver and ting scope with both the receiver and the will be suitable. You might have to experi transmitter. How. then, do you construct laser spot to the rifle scope. men t with yo ur LED to set the desired a si mple. inexpensive osci llato r LED ' How far away the target is positioned is brightness and current through the LED for transmitter reflector? a fac tor in how accurate you will be and at the one you select. The drivercircuit is noth I located a three-and-one-eighth-inch ing simpler than a good old 555 timer that what distance you will be in alignment. lt's wide round reflector at our local Kragen best to make additional long distance tests uses three resistors and two capacitors be auto pans store.This reflector fit like a glove sides the 555 timer chip itself. The circuitry on some targets (like a power pole trans into a 3-inch PVC splice union meant for is shown in Fig. 1. Place a 10 J.1F cap from former). as the gray surfacegives a fair return joining two sections of3-inch PVC pipe. A the positive battery line to ground. For and sho..... s up on distant targets reasonably snort section of 3-inch PVC pipe (about 6 simple construction, wire the circuit dead well. The "tin can" can be positioned out to 7 inches long) is inserted behind the bug style on a small piece of scrap copper quite some distance and be hit wi th a well reflector to position the reflector tight up PC board. Position the chip upside down, calibrated system. Forexample, an optical to the center ridge inside the splice union, solder pin I to ground on the copper sur quality retro refl ector positioned some 4 to holding the reflector firmly.Arcar 3-inc hpipe face middle. and position the other parts 5 miles away can he re gularly hit and return a cap closes off the rear of the PVC pipe and strong signal to the source for system per allows insertion of controlling electronics accordingly. form ance tests. For closer-in tests, the inside the PVC pipe. Parts values for Fig. 1 go as fo llows (I. simple tin can and auto reflector isjust fine A high-intensity LED is selected for the kHz frequency/35-kHz): RI - 22k18200; for making system evaluationsin a nearrange transmitter LED. By using four and a half R2 - 5 1k/33.3k; R3 - 500- 1500: (stan ofa hundred to several hundreds of feet. volts (3AAcells) fora power supply. I drew dard 500: LED used)1 1500: (high-output If your system uses a I kl-lz tone detection about 17 rnA current through the LED 1 LED); CI - 0.D15 ~FIO .OO82 ~F; C2 system, or something like our synthesized selected.Pretest your LED pon ion of the 10 ~F/IO ~F. I drilled a hole to position the large LED ------1 in the center ofthe reflector. Carefully drill a small hole fi rst, and enlarge as requi red. so as nor to shatter the reflector. I used au tomotive RTV to hold the LED in the cen tcr of the reflector. When dried. attach two wire leads and then heat shrink over the leads. Verify diode polarity and attach in series to the anode end a current-li miting resistor from !he earlier lest for your selected LED. Allow 24 hours for the RTV to set solid before going further. This is a good time to construct your 555 Universal Radio oscillator on a scrap piece ofcopper board. 6830 Americana Pkwy. Reynoldsburg. OH 43068 The pans are not critical and can be trimmed e orce rs : 800 431 ·3939 by extra capacitance or varying resistor val . Inlo: 614866·4267 ues. The output of the oscillator on pin 3 +Fax: 61 4866-2339 can be measured on an o-scope or frequ ency 50 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 co unter. Uyou can't fi nd an "Xv-channel e nhancement-mode MOSFET like the VNIOKM or V:"5001 A MO SFET, send me $3 and I will send you a couple de vices from my junk box (ne w de vices). (Cost will covcr postage and cost of jiffy clivelope.)If yo u need any other parts and I ha .... e them , I will he glad to comply if I can. All other pans in this project are garden variety ones . I se lected 3-inc h PVC pipe beca use it fit the reflector I found in th e a uto parts store. Use your resources, as nothing is critical in cons truction or parts. be it op tics (reflecto r) or LED. A tin can o r a Pringles chip container mi ght work well for you. Just match up your reflector with a containe r diameter and construct away. One note of caution is th ai if you use a filter ove r your photo deice lor, make sure the LED yo u select works in the range of your fil ter. Our laser and LED transmit tcr works at 650 Nm, a wry RED beam /"10'0 It. Picture of neu' laser l.ED transceiver system at \VB6JGP. Electronics and -i of light. and o ur filter is +5 Nm wide . inch Fresnel lens inside white -s -inch PVC tubing, PVC coupling sleeves (/1/(1 short sec Some lasers are 623 Nm. and the y ncver tians of pipe and end cap s /1.\('(1 to create coml,,'rtments for electronics. Bottom right: make it thro ugh th e optical fi lter. Just photo detector; It}!: LED transmitter: Top cellfa : spotting scope; just below: laser inside check out what yo u have. beam expander: laser transmitter: The 3-i nch PVC pipe so lved m any problems. like centering the reflector in suffices for closer work and confirms ba L ED transce iver was publi s hed in 73 the housing. and the rear section on PVC sic alignment of your optics and lasers all Magazine. Part s I. 2. and 3 were in June. pipe gave room to put a sm all plastic box in one test 00.\. The reflector is simple to July. and August 2000. If )'OU have an y for the PC board. I rubber-handed the construct and will serve well until you can questio ns about this optical. or any other three "AA" cells to the plastic box for ri upgrad e your system to greate r distance subject. send an E-mail 10 my address at gldlty. T hen I c ui some packing foam to and possibly a retro reflector in your te st (c1 ho ugh @ pacbell.netl. and I will try to protect the rear of the reflector and LED kit. an swer them as best I can. Best 73, C huck wiring com ing out of the center of the re NOTE: The orig inal article covering the WB6IGP. iii flec tor from the battery and osc illato r box ban ging into it. Some extra foam over the far e nd to keep thing s f rom m o ving aro und fini shes out th e circuitry, save for an on/off switch on the rear cove r. Use a locking toggle switch, if you can find one - it will save you o n batteries. See Fig, 2 or Photo B for constructio n of my os ci llator sys tem using the 3-inch PVC plumbi ng pipe an d fit tings. Be it a I-kHz laser system or a system like ours, the addition of a real retro reflector surp lus can COSI $95. One retro reflector (63.5 mm diam.) source is the Surplus Shell, part #L 1792, [hllp:llww w.s urplusshed. com]. or 1-877· 778-7758 forsurp lus op tics. The retro reflector is actually a trihedral prism that reflects any beam ente ring it back to its source regardless of the prism 's orientation . Kerry and I use a sli ghtly di fferent trihedral prism for our 5-mile test range described earlier. The reflector at the PIIOIo B.Optical reflector in housing with high-output LED ill center of reflector. Elec auto parts store cost $ 1.99 for two of them tronics in rear ofhousing pipe containing 555 timer chip running at 35 kH: rate to drive - qu ite a bargain . While it's not a retro LED transmitter. LED used from llosf elt Electronics, part #25-339: C05(, about 55 each re flector, the automobile-grade reflecto r ( 1- 8()() - 52 -1 ~ 6-I 6·n Other LED diodes suitable. 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 51 HOMING IN Joe Moell P.E. K00V Radio Direction Finding P.O. Box 2508 Fullerton CA 92837 E-mail: [[email protected]] Web:[httpJ/WwW. homingin.com] Squegging: Now It Helps Us Track the Birds You have acquired a sigtuil . You have taken a radio direction finding (RDF) bearing, NoH' you're ready to track it down or make a report.But wait! Are you sure that this signal is what } 'OU 're looking for? onnallY• it's obvio us when yo u' re transmitter sends a unique 10 code, post you would pick a timer Ie such as the ven N tracking the right signal. On a trans tively identifying the vehicle and permitting crahlc 555 for the kcycr and a transmitter miner hunt, you recognize the distinct tone authorities to track m ultiple vehicles at the Ie such as the MC2833. I usc just such a box that the hider uses. A repealer jammer same time.' IO-mi lliwatt mini-T fo r e veryo ne to test may have a distinct ive voice orother signal In wildlife management, some tracking the ir RDF antennas hefo re o ur southe rn cha racteristic, such as hum. Al othe r limes. transmitte rs send 10. But most radio tags Californ ia radio-o rientee ring e vents. But it's more diffi cult and uncertain. for birds a nd small mammals don't. These with a ll the othe r discrete co mpo nents You hear dead carriers or short little de vices must pu t o ut a sig na l to a needed to support these le s, there is no way "kerchunk" signals. Are they all coming ground range of a mile or so for up to a year to make that design tiny and lightweight from the same source? What do you do o r more, yet weigh only a fe w grams, in enough to put o n a small bird. when someone claims that he didn't do the cluding battery. To do that. most of them A squegging oscillator is an elegant twa- jamming, because someone else was play co nsist ofsimple blocking or rela xation os for-one so lution to the problem. Fig. 1 ing recording s of his voice? In suc h cases. cillators with only a few discrete compo- sho ws how simple it can he. If you have measurement of subtle signal characteris ne nts. You may hear the term "squcgging studied for yo ur Extra Class ticket. you"H tic s such as frequency shift d uring key-up oscillator" used to describe them . re member that a Hartley osci llator has a can determine the truth. These "tran smiucr tapped inductor that provides feedback to finge rprinting" techniq ues ha ve been Too much feedback sustai n oscillation. (And if you took your described previously in this column. I test 25 years ago as I did, you' ll remember For some commerci al applications, a dis Early rcgcncrati ve receivers used positive having to do freehand drawings of Hartley tinctive signal is mandatory. so it is designed feedback to increase gain and se nsitivity and Colpitts oscillators as part of the testt) into the transmitter, Fo r example. the Lorack without adding expensive tube s tages. If LI and L2 form the tapped ind uctor in this Vehicle Reco very System enables po lice to yo u adjus ted the co ntrols fo r too much case. Both are wound on the same fonn fo r use Doppler direction find ing for tracking feedback, the radio would intermittently tight coupling. indicated by coupling factor down stolen ca rs. Each hidden vehicle sq uea l or make a put-put sound. called (K) of 0.98 in the schematic. " motorboating" or The combined inductance of Ll-L2 is squegging. The ad reso nated by C2 to set the oscillator's RF .R1 vent ofsuperhc rcro output frequency. The RF would be continu dyne receivers took ous if feedha ck co nditions we re stable. But 4000 V1 squegging out ofthe in this circuit, C I charges in just a few RF r ) Q1 + vocabu lary of most cycles and saturates the transistor. then dis - radio e nthus iasts . charges more slowly. The result is pulsed 2N2369 But in today's wild oscillat ion. as shown in the waveforms of C1 5 I _L Rser=100 life radio lags. this Fig. 2. phenomeno n is still Figs. 1 and 2 we re created in Switcher T 111 L ~ put to good use . CAD III, a freeware circuit analysis program • r .~~ If yo u set o ut to based on the classic SPICE ana lytical en design a transmitter 180 gine. To learn more about squegglng oscil 2°f C2 11 that pulsed on for a lators. download the program.' input this K1 L 1 L2.9 few m i ll iseco nd s circuit. and run a transient ana lysis. Then every seco nd o r so, try varying the compone nt values to see 100p -& your fi rst concept what happens to the RF pulse rate, pulse might ha ve two duration. and RF frequency. Fig. 1, Schematic of a squegging Hartley oscillator as displayed stages, a keycr and The o utput of this rudimentary L-C ;/1 SwitcherCAD lflf or Wil/dows. a transmitter. Maybe Hartley oscillator has very high harm onic 52 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 ..-- -, ... -•• "" " ..... , , . "", ".. ,." -, ''''''', ... , , , • , '" " "" Fig. 2. Transient analysis output of SwircherCAD shows the pulsed RF oscillation that trails offand stops af ter eight cycles. then repeats at regular intervals. content. as the lower trace of Fig. 2 shows. It would also have very poor frequency stability in an animal tag. due to temperature changes. varying pro ximity to the critter, coil movement, and battery voltage sag.' Micro-tags for research solve those problems . " . f. £dt I ...... v_ jj.tI O~ g le lIl l ~ • ., , ,. ,. , Beautifully hand-polished. - I I Stamped brass case and bezel. Curved glass crystal. Wall or bulkhead mounting. Made so well they last from generation to generation! Order this month and save $20! Chelsea Clock Your price $75 Clockmakers since 1897 , Omega Sales .. .. I.*' ... 1 , U 1.8' T he choice of The Coast , I I Guard Foundation. P.O. Box 376 ...... eee ot eD!lo 0l870 ~ OO153 QU01[l29 tv] Quartz Clock Jaffrey NH 03452 Fig. 3. Wm'eSuifer display of an owl radio tag. At the top, a train 4" Dial 1·800-467·7237 of pulses, precisely spaced. At bottom, a dOW- III' ofa single pulse. 73 Amateur Radio Today ' January 2003 53 C ' T here a re lots o f soun d a nalysi s programs for PC . M ac. r- .Lilt 1'...... v_ b" and o the r platforms. Many arc frccvvarc o r inexpensive shareware. I am using WaveSurfe r I A .5 from the Center for Speech Technol co: 'I a III ~ ~ tI . 0 I .. .. "" 1,\ I 00en V ••1 • • ogy in Stockholm. Sweden.' It directly opens WAV files and per rs forms both time and freq ue ncy domain analysis. Fig. 3 is the w aveS urfer display of an actual owl tag. take n from the audio o utput of a receive r in the SSB/CW mode. RF pu lses arc 20 mil liseco nds lo ng and about 1.5 seconds apa rt. with no variatio n in duration or rare. Notice the downward "tilt" of the pulse envelope, which is characteris tic o f the diminishing o utput of a squeg ging oscillator. Also notice the 3lJ.. millisecond " rat-tail" after the pulse. caused hy li ngering low-level operation ofthe oscillator. Compare this actual o wl tag signal to Fig. 4. a fil e sent by a ham shortly after this year's unnounccmcru went our. When I played the 15 ! 16 . 0 16,5 17.0 17. 5 U. U.5 Jill', the transmissions sounded more like clicks than beeps. and the I i FlI 'i ' , it pulsing rate seemed somew hat irregular. The wavcSurtcrdisplay shows why. In the top trace. the pubes arc nor evenly spaced over lime. In .... . the e xpanded trace on the bou om. each pulse is o nly a sing le cycle. It's probably some sort of quasi-periodic noise. M y ears we re eno ugh {Q q uick ly rule o ut tha t file as a pes sihlc o wl tag, hut the sig nal of Fig. 5 a lmost had me fooled.I was suspicious, beca use the pulses we re too "clean" sounding a nd their rate was mo re rapid than anticipated.S ure enoug h, WaveSurfer showed that the blips were exac tly o ne second apart. as if from some clock device . T he pulses were too long (80 mil liscconds). 100 sq uare ( ..'ery sha rp rise a nd fall of the RF enve lope), a nd there was no rat-tail. So this signa l isn't an owl tag. " 4 . 0 50 1 ,0 5 unfortuna te ly. IJl i I i 1111 I '; il 1 II Ii ;; 1,i ! I Fig. 4. Ir's easy to see that this volunteer s \VA \'file is 1101 from all fie ,Eoil: 1I...ro. .... ~ actual radio rag, even though tilt' clicks sound somewhat similar. co: 'l 1. 1Il 1~ IQ ft ~ I ...... "" 100 .. V r...--;;,,-;.;;-:.:-I with crys tal-controlled oscilla tors. hut their pulsing sc heme is almost the same. The characteristics of the pul sing can be used as a fonn of !D. Was that really an owl? Since 1998. I have been asking ha ms and other monitorin g en thusiasts to carefully tunc their VH F receivers in hopes of picking up radio tags on migrating Burrowing Owls. Researchers in Canada and Washi ngton state usc these rrnnsmiucrs 10 keep track of ""'" ,2 1. 1. 6 1.. ,. u hatchlings as they mo ve away from their parents after fledging. • When these o wls hcu d south for the wi nter. they trave l too fast through bad weathe r to be fo llowed with aircraft. In addition to ___-1Icm 00:6l1o 02G.XI iIngIh 02 29J 00 '346 [7045 .X'9J1 hams alo ng the anticipated migration path listening for the tag V ...... signals. I hoped thai RDF-equippcd hams would then track the signals for positive verification of the birds. The fi rst winter. o ne- signal-heard report was recei ved from Texas. In the next year. three reports came in from locations ranging from Arizona to Arkansas. As I write, [his tall's effort has o nly been unde r way fo r e ight wee ks. and six re ports ha ve come in already. The good news is that there are now many hams who arc willing to do VHF monito ring. The had news is thai relatively few of them can do the direction fiuc ing. That makes it important to verify the signals in other ways.There is a sound fi le (OWL. WAV) of an actual Burrow < • 45 2 . 47 ing Owl radio tag at my Weh site. and so me hams have reponed sig , " nals that sound "j ust like the 111e." But were they? This year. I ha ve asked eac h res po ndent to provide ei ther WAY nics or a casscne tape of what they heard. There have been differences in every one Fig. $. Despite its similarities ill sound and wuvefonu titis i... also I have received so far. sometimes subtle and sometimes glaring. I/ot all owl radio rag. 54 73 Amateur RadiO tcasv » January 2003 Although not shown in the fig ures. almost three weeks before leaving, a testa w ave.Surfer will perform fast Fourier trans ment to the warmish weather we had most ~~~~ forms (FFTs) of the WAY file to display of October. A ll th ree are females. The first audio frequency components versus time. two are immature birds. an d the last one is H ORSE Express The pitch of a tone burst on a CW receiver a three-year-old. There will be more in the A D rvision of Mrlestone Tllchnologl':S, Inc varies with the BFO setting, but observing coming weeks. Frankly, since I'm interested the steadiness of that tone might further in their behavior before they leave. I'd be Everythingfor the refine the ID process. Try it. happy if they stuck around for weeks like Morse Enthusiast! the last batch. Latest owl update 'The Saw-whets. which weigh barely as Keys, Bugs, Paddles, Keyers, In previous years, hams helped determine much as a robin and stand just 8 inches tall, Books, Kits, Tools, Software.... that Burrowing Owls ha tching dur ing sum were tagged in Schuylkill County, Pe nnsyl Free Catalogl mer months in the Canadian provinces of vania. about 15 miles north of Readi ng . Saskatchewan and Alberta travel over cen They are ex pected to either cont inue sou th www.MorseX.com tral slates from North Dakota to Oklahoma, through the central and southe rn Appala ending up in southeast Tex as and northern chians, or to move south and east into the (303) 752-3382 states of Mexico. They sometimes fly over Piedmont and coastal plain. It is believed 2.(XX) miles to their winter homes. For the th at most Saw-whets migrating through Pennsylvania spend winter in the mid-A t HOUSTON AMATEUR first time since 1998. there weren' t an y RADIO SUPPLY tagged Canadian owls to track this fall, so lantic states from Maryland to the Carolinas. 267 Cyprcsswoo d Drive ' Spring. TX 77388 our listening effort has shifted to owls But litt le is known about their winter range. 81111-471-7373 banded on both coasts. and the lagged owls may show up anywhere between the Mason-Dixon Line and A la Local: 28 1 ~355-7373 Vicki Garcia at the College of Agricul email: houstonllmateurradio@prodiiQ".nd bama or Georgia. and west through the tu re and Life Sciences at Universi ty of COMPLETE SAI.F.s & SI':R\ ·ICF. Arizona writes. "We 'd like to thank all the Appa lachian and Cumberland plateaus. Yacsu. Icom , AUnco. Ant. Ilustier. Cush;;raft volunteer monito rs who participated last 'The Ned Smith team's research focuses year. This year, we put out about 8.5 trans on how the owls behave and live during the mitters and have been tracking o ur Bur periods when they take a break from active 73 Ad Sales rowing O wls until they leave our study migration. what scientis ts call 'stopover,' Call (-800-677-8838 area in eastern Washing ton state. Fifty which may last days or even weeks. Owls three are still thought to be active . The that are caught twice within a couple of days batteries should last for about 6 months, are the ones being fitted with radios. in the and we transmittered owls from June to hope that they will stick around at least a mid-August. 2002. few days more, giving researchers a chance "we have very little new information to study their habitat usc. roost selection. about migrat ion . We did get one band re and diet. But once they move south again, turn in the San Franci sco area fro m an owl it is possible that hams and VHF monitor that was banded at a nearby study area. We ing enthusiasts will pick up their signals, else got one band return in Montana from providing valuable information about where an ow l banded at the same study area. There they eventually wind up. 'The Saw-whet Owl, named for a rarely fore , it may be possible that migration routes The tried and true KT3-t series an tennas have ex ist both to the southeast and southwest of heard call likened to a file 'whetting' the been made helle! using the Ialest compu ter our owls' original site (Grant and Adams teeth ofa saw, is a small forest-dwelling hird modeling and mechan ical design techniques to provide you wit h the best trihander performer counties in easte rn Washi ngton). We could that preys primarily on m ice and sm all ro available today. Just take II look! potentially find m igrants from our study dents. It breeds in thick forest across southern Canada and the non hern USA, and down INCREASED FRONT TO BACK area in any state west of the Rockies. INCREASED GAIN "Even one finding would be very valu the Rockies and Appalachian mountains. MECHANICALLY SUPERIOR able to us and would add an additional piece Secretive and rare ly seen. it is more often ELECTRICALLY SUPERIOR lOWER WIND LOAD THAN COMPE IIIORS to the puzzle. Although the possible area is heard: the male's territorial call is a repcti LESSWEIGHT THAN COMPEmORS huge, we hope that the greater number of tive looting. very much like the back-up RATED AT 100 MPH WIND SURVIVAL AND OF COURSe , NO POP RIVET S, r-r- _ transmittered birds, coupled with increasing alarm o n large trucks. Transmincrs are numbers of volunteers in a wider geographic mounted on the owls using a figure-eight Contact us tor our new catalog of area, will eventually lead to some findings." harness m ad e o f el astic beadwork cord. ALL the goodieslf Burrowing Owls are n ' t the o n ly designed to allow the transmitter to fall off C"n ', wait? Visit our Website Strigi formes being tracked by volunteers . after several months:' @m2ine.com We're also helping Scott Weidensaul of Will it be a "Homing In" reader who the Ned Smith Center for Natu re and Art mak es the first verified interce pt of a mi in central Pennsylvania. He writes, "Our grating Saw-whet Owl tag'? If you' re in firs t thre e radio-tagged Northern Saw the target area. please spend some time lis whet Owls are headed south" We tagged tening. Belte r yet. build an RDF anten na for them with 1.9-gram radio transmiuers on October 14. 2002, but they lingered for Continued on page 57 • 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 55 K.I.S.S. Trickle Charger voltage slightly above v ccn . balance The second tow truck dri ver pu lled •rontlnuedJrom page 24 compensation was required as discussed his truck hack next to the first one. His earlier. tires then did the spinning-in-place Now you see why I do not have de thing, making him so frustrated that finitive information to offer on this Conclusion smoke practically came out of his ears method. All of my research so far He jumped out of the truck and went seems to lean in the positive direction. Please examine the listi ng of appli over to my father. So far I have not found an y negative cations for a Hall-Effect se nsor and "Is this your property'?" the second aspects. develop some uses for ham radio. driver asked . I would love 10 hear your comments It was hoth fun and interest ing for My fathe r very calm ly said, "No." on this article. me to experiment with an element of The two tow truck drivers stepped Many thanks arc due to Angelo technology that I hadn't ex perienced off to themselves and had a short con Polvcrc KA9CSO. Harry Gilling previously. Learning even a little bit vcrsation. You can probably guess just W9IB. John WA9JBT. and Ron Remus about "strange" technology opens up as good as I can what they were saying WB9PTA. for helping with the editing. your imagination for applications that to each other. But they wouldn't he proofreading artwork. construction. will support ham radio projects and stuck for all that much longer. and photography for this article. fa perhaps make our life easier. The search-and-rescue worker fi My suggestion is to develop some nally arrived and drove his four-wheel. simple expcn mcnts for devices not diesel-powered work truck into the currentIy understood. You'll he amazed Experimenting with mud. But he didn ' t get stuck! Thank at the exhilaration you get with the you , search-and-rescue. Hall-Effect Sensors new experience ! fa con fin u.ed j rom page 28 The S& R man had a winch on the front of his truck. He hooked up the the sensor's nominal output IS high winch to the second tow truck and with respect to common ground. resis 2m FM Ham History 101 pu lled it out. T hen he hooked up to the tor R3 wi ll require a shunt to raise the conrinuedJrom page 39 first tow truck and pu lled him out. voltage at pin 3. If the output is lower After the tow trucks left, we had a than common ground. then the shunt in parking lots to make the exchanges) pretty good laugh . will have to he placed across resistor and few met with any expense. Con The best th ing about my experience? R5 . The actual value of the shunting cord gave its 31 input to Graylock: I didn't have to pay to save the two resistor will have to be determined Graylock was now 31-9 1. Waltham tow trucks. ex peri mentally. hut In my ease the gave its 34 input to Concord; Concord Next time I go to fly my remote-con value was 22k was now 34-94. Graylock gave its 04 trolled g lide r, I will make sure to do it Controlling the op amp gain wou ld input to Waltham: Waltham was nov.... on a dry day. I will make sure to drive he importan t only if a specific sensor 04-64. Agreement and consistency! on solid ground, too. I don' t know if output voltage ratio was desired for a Today, 600 kHz splits are the norm my experience IS a first, but I will given exper iment. For my experi nationwide, and that frequency split is never forget how much two meters ments, I operated the circuit at maxi preprogrammed in all our radios. Now played an importan t part in the "fun." mum gain to achieve maximum YOM you know why. (Ed. note: Another part of the fun oj response. Originally published by the author this article, you can't see - it's been For source power, I used a 15 V split ill TIle SPARC, newsletter ofthe B051011 edited Ollt. Like most of our authors voltage power supply with the intent of Amatellr Radio Ctub. fa and we hasten to say that, because by 110 giving the op amp the best opportunity means do we mean to make fun of or for a linear output response as a function 1------1 criticize him - KE6FHO made some of the input signal level. To the Rescue minor spelling errors in hi.,' original Controlling the supply voltage value conttnuedJrom page 40 manuscript. In this case, though, Peter was also critical to the voltage applied accidentally misspelled "winch" with {I ll to the sensor. In order to provide a stiff 1 can't remember the search-and-res "e ". So. 011 first reading. I\'e were supply for the sensor. zener diodes cue worker's name, but I sure remember greeted with wenches tied to trees. were used to divide the supply voltage. what came next. mounted 0 11 trucks. and so Jon" - at In my experiment. I chose a pair of While the search-and-rescue mem least we hope he mean' "winch."} matching zener diodes having a volt her was on his way to the airfield, the fa age ncar 5. I V. The ultimate objective second tow truck arrived. The dri ver 1------ was to place the sensor supply voltage pulled his truck up to the end of the at a value near 5.0 V and (0 set the muddy road and got out. We pay SCASIIS sensor's QOP output voltage close to "What happened?" he asked the first (well. check) zero volts with respect to common tow truck dri ver. for articles! ground . With a sensor QOP output " I ' m stue,k " was the answer, SEND FOR " HOWTO WRITE FOR 7T 56 73 Amateur Radio Today. January 2003 accepted to be less than 500 miles. If space altit ude, and swore off M REs. For us considerations prohibit a single loop, a tlatlanders it was an adventure. We hiked double or triple loop can be used, although dee per into th e Pecos Wilderness to this wi ll reduce performance . Usuall y Hamilton Mesa at 10,400 feet on the final multiple loop configurations are used in da y. The walking was actually getting easier. doors. The most intere sting approach is a We had finally adapted to the lack of air. fo ur-loop a pproach tha t uses four broom and liked it. For Bill. 1 guess it was just a sticks as the form. The handle ends arc stro ll in his back yard. and a beautiful one connected together in a cross and th e it is. bri stles act as separators to keep the loo ps from touching. A tru ly creative approach. Straight key night on OSCAR Although I tend to foc us on the benefit s You are invited to participate in the 30th of this product for emergency ope rations. if annual Straight Key Night (SKN) on OS you are in a location wherein antennas are CAR. conducted by A~ SAT. It's easy. a problem. this may be a viable answer. An There is no scoring and no logs. Simply 80 foot loop antenna suc h the STEALTH as ope rate CW on any OSCAR satellite. using can be eas ily concealed and yet permit op oo Lrt'C to 2400סס a straight hand key from erations across the high frequency bands. lITC on Jan uary I. 2003. Work as many It would also be an ideal addition to the SKN stations as you can. The moon (OS. gear for vacation time. allowing so me CA R 0) also counts. q uality o perations from a cam psite o r Each participant is asked to nominate one summer cottage with only a minimum of of the operators for " Best Fist: ' Send your effort. nomination to Ray W 2RS at [w2rs@ SGC prOOu CIS. including the STEALTH amsct.org]. Those nominated will be rec antenna arc available from your fa vorite ognized in the AMSATNews Service Billie ham radio dealer. You can check out this tin for early February, and also in the and the other SGC products at their Web AMSAT Journal. Blow the d ust off tha t site. If yo u' re interested. you may find it straight key and join us. fa useful to download the m anua l fo r more inform ation. T hey have a com pari son chart that shows the features of their en tire range of Smanuners. so if your needs are a bit different, yo u may want to check that out. For emergency operations. the STEAI.TI I antenna provides a great solution, and the time to prepare for an emergency is when you have plenty of time. Besides, this antenna is j ust plain fun to play with. SGC P.O. Box 3526 Bellevue WA 98009 425-746-6310 ([email protected]) (www.sgcworld.com] Notes HRMSRTS ronrinuedJrom paqe 4 7 I . See "Homing In" for November 1994. to adjust frequencies. the printed predictions. "Testing the Matron Fingerpri nter," my watch. and the tree limbs that were trying 2. See "Homing In" for May 199 1, "T to cal my antenna. Hunting Stolen Cars:' 3. PC (Windows) version available fro m Results Linear-Technology at [http://LTspice.lincar We never got our bear. In fact. we never tcch.com/sonware/swcadiii.exel. saw one. This was probably good. The pa 4. But it's stable enough for the Electronic per targets that we set up at base camp were Golf Ball. Tak e a look at U. S. Patent our trophies. We did mak e some excellent 3.782.730 at (hup://www.uspto.gov/patftl} . contac ts from some very remote places via 5 . Down load at (http://www.speech . UO- l ~. had fu n. almost got used to th e kth.sezwavcsurfer/l. fa 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 57 years later, math whizzes remain stuck, except the strongest military in the world. We're for one. His name is Martin Dunwoody. able to spend more on our military than the Dunwoody is described as a British math next IS countries combined. Our small ematics expert. His answer is bare ly six pages businesses arc why America is now the long and only an outline. And as you might ex world's only superpower. They're what pect , Dunwoody's solution - complete with I'm determined to help grow as a group. formulasanddiagrams- has been praised and They're our entrepreneurs. challenged in England . Alas, our universities do not teach the No, we wi ll not try to explain all th e math things small business owners need to here. What is interesting is the reaction of the know. Their courses arc aimed mainly at scientific community. Professor Ian Stewart of preparing grads to work in large corpo the University of Warwick,one of Britain's most nnions. the government. or to teach. I respected mathematicians, calls it thefirst good went through that mill 60 years ago. The shot at th is problem in years . But Colin Rourke, president of the student body at my old another University of Warwick mathematician, school recently confi rmed that "nothing disagreed. Rourke says thai when he raised has changed:' a problem in the solution, Dunwoody admit Our superpower might is comforting, ted on his Web site thai it could be difficult but in the long run wc'Il have a more to overcome. peaceful world if we help ease world Once the math community has accepted the poverty and ignorance instead of trying solution.jheClay Mathematics Institule in Cam to stomp out the fi ghting that results. brid ge , Mass., must conduct its own review. My sneaky plan is to encourage business Only if tha t proves successful will Dunwoody incubator growth in thousands of towns in be rewarded. An d if the reaction of the British America. These would help fi nance (with math professors is any indication, this contro state fund ing help) and manage promising versy could rage on in math circles for years. new business enterprises. And . even if Dunwoody continues to refine his answer and even tually is proven correct. it Business Incubators could be a long time before irs officia1. First. he must get it published in a mathematics jour nal, and then undergo a two-year wai ting period of international review. Thanks to Sci ence Today, via Henry Feinberg K2SSQ in Newsnne. Bill Pasternak WA 6 1 ~ editor. ra NEUER SRY DIE cOlltinued Jrom page 41 me sluff we've been buying has "China" stickers. nothing Ita.. any "Russia" stickers on Answering An 'L So much for socialism. Humans just don't Global Poverty ~e·Old Question perform well using the ani oc bee way oflife. Jules-Henri Poincare was dubbed by E.T. Bell Since there isn't anything that any of Getting Ou t the Vote as the "LastUniversalist": a man who was at ease us can do about it. what do we care if in all branches of ma th ematics. Saddam seems to have solved one of the 73% of the people in Mali earn under a Poincare wa s atso a t stn-centcry profes sor major problems of democracies. He also dollar a day and 58Ck arc illiterate? Or of astronomy who made fundamental contri bu solved me problems of negative candidate Pakistan has 57% illiteracy? Or that tions rega rding the motions 01 the planets. He advertising and keeping people up election most of the Third World isn't doing went on to found the field of topology, a branch night waiting to- the results. HOYo' at..an his much better? of geometry, and even competed with Albert gening )(0% of lnq is to vote? And. even These people need education and a Einstein in the study of relativity. better, to vote tOr the only candidate? No way to make money. In that order. And Before Poincare, ma th ematici ans fu lly under write-in candidates in Iraq! No li ve ones, this is something that the world's only stood two-dime nsional space, such as th e anyway. superpower (us) could easily handle. Eart h's surface, and could list all the possible And it sure would be a lot cheaper than shapes of two-dimensional surfaces and use America's Strength getting involved with more wars, Better mathematical calculations to distinguish be yet. the payoff would be more markets tween mem . But the math mystery Poincare The strength of America I S not the for American products and technology. raised regarded the properties of three-dimen Fortune 500 corporatio ns, each with By making inexpensive first-rate sionar space. His question, or conjecture, was thousand, of employees, Our real strength education available via interacti ve whether the two-dimensional calculations could is in our millions of small businesses, DVDs, we could sow the seeds of suc be easily modified 10 answer similar questions over half of wbich (54%) have fewer cess. Then, with micro-loans for really about three-dim ensional spaces. than live employees. They're what makes small businesses and larger loans avail He was pretty sure mat the answer was ye s, it so we have the highest standard of li ving able through business incubators. we'd but couldn't pro veit math ematically. Nearly 100 in the world. They're why "..e can atford stan them building the small business 58 73Amateur RadiO Today · January 2003 foundation that is the real strength ofany lunch. Or while I'm collating the pages smart---.... co untry. of one of my books . Battery What would it cost for us to start setting The show is broadcast o n over 550 Charger up baby-care ccnrers in Third World coun stations weeknights, and a few less on tries where babies co uld be taught their weekends, when w hitley Strieher and .'- native language.English, and maybe a Barbara Simpso n are the hosts. I can few other languages during the year or two hear the show on about 20 stations as I fOR GEt -tEUSOf IDDACIO aAmR I(S , h "-: PrlDSOl l!mperi1ure trnng votli)e reeece &tllr!le when they're able to easily learn them? tune my A~t radio d ial. molle dlalflQ;l ~ StJllIard ... 6 lor 12\1 fi l Q (J 1 o\mp Well , you get the idea. You 're missing a lot of information lJSel' seleclible C¥I be r.oooectfd to ee battery .ldeltil.e~WII I'd lMfChar;je Weighs 2 p(lJIds ~ measlnS 4WX5 1, 0.2 that you aren't going to get from the L'2'H fnshed enc:losure nckJdellll let Therblig Ctm(tltle u 0",, _ ~ ~ regular med ia - interv iews with e xperts o\s$enI~," I TKld _.. _.____ S1t~ on crop circ les, UFOs, contactees. re CA ~ Il1tJ 15Q\.~ tax; S&H 56 5O (1fl$lffl/) whazzat a therblig? Aha, you haven't For~ ordtrs idd20'\._ more viewing. time travel. and a lot of fot more Iflfo or pta list (lO 10 .-HIIf_Hil/f,CM read the book or seen the movie Cheaper health info that you 're unlikely to hear By 17,e Dozen. Or read a book on time about anywhere else. You know, the • AlA Engineering :E and motion study. 2!l21 W. u Palma 'I- Anabe im . CA 92801 stuff r write about. 714 952-2114 - FAX: 714 952-3280 What's time and motion study? It's the Gilbreth would be proud of me listen tool efficiency experts use to spee d up ing to Coast-To-Coast AM on my TV set repetitive tasks. The pioneer in the field while I eat breakfast. with me collating was Gilbreth, who modestly gave the book pages as I chew each bite. ROSS name "therblig" ("Gilbreth" backwards Distributing Company . .. well, sorta) to the basic eleme nts of Rocket Scientists any repetitive action. 208-852-0830 With people it's a Mars-Venus thing, Hmm. let's see now - in 1999 the with wo me n tend ing to be patient and $125 million mission to Mars crashed. http://rossdist.com men tending to be impatient. Well , 71 S. Stair Sin'ri. Prnt-. ID IJU3 They said that was caused by Lockheed RI)( . H""", T....-Fri_9-12. 2:36-6 ' lot"". 9-1 212:30-3:30 wo me n have to be basica lly patient in using English instead of me tric measure ~ D<-d S••uod"y &. Sundoy order to deal with their children. ments in some of their calculations. So where'm I going with this? Well, it D'uh? And in the same year Lockheed started out when I woke up one morning put a military communications satellite and the fi rst thing I did was rewind the into an unusable low-Earth orbit instead video tape 1 used to capture the George of the wanted geosynchronous orbit. Just Noory Coast-to-Coast rad io talk show. It a little so ftware error. D'uh? And in the used to be the Art Bell (W60 BB) show. same time frame five out of 25 launches but Art several months ago fell off a te le failed due to design errors. phone pole while putting up an antenna While our military are busy dreaming and hurt his back. Since then he's not often up more and more uses for sate llites, a been well enough to host his old show. ge neration of space scientists is retiring The show, which runs for four hours a or losing their jobs as the industry shrinks. night, every nigh t, keeps millions of Gee, weren't we lucky thirty years ago people up listening. Here in the East it when everyone of those Apollo Moo n ru ns from one 10 four a.m.. hours that mission rockets perfo rmed so perfectly? few working people can listen, so the au dience tends to he mainly the elderly Parkinson's with insomnia, long distance truck drivers, and prisoners. Recent research into Lou Gehrig's Which is a pity, because the show often Disease (amytrophic lateral scleros is The New Pools! features some ver-r-r-ry interesti ng guests ALS) has found that it's caused by a bac that you're unlikely to bear anywhere else. terial nucleic particle called a myco Exam ination Test I've solved the problem of listening to plasma. This was also fou nd to be the Q uestio ns & Answers the four-hour show without losing four cause of chronic fatigue syndrome and hours sleep by taping it with my VCR. Parkinson's Disease. The exact questions, multiple cimices This makes it so I can fast-forward And the cure? A n immune system and answers for the Technic ian Class, through the half-hourly Jl(.'\\·S and comrner enhancing d iet. General Class, and Extra Class cial breaks. Further, since the first hour al Gee, what a surprise (not). operator's license. most always is used to air random listener And how does one enhance their im call-ins. I start taping with the scccond hour. mune system? By not eating anything The fourth hour is usually used for listen the immune system reacts to as toxic. ers to ask the guest questions. By then the Only guests have to have covered the ir subjec t Sonograms 59.95 of expertise, so I tape the last hour, but Plus $3.50 S&H seldom bother to listen to it. The use of ultrasound during preg The news and commercials take up the nancy has been termed one of the big first twelve minutes of every half hour, gest uncontro lled experiments in history. Omega Sales so that leaves 18 mi nutes of actual guest Now. finally, serious questions have been P.O. Box 376 raised about the safety of sonograms. It's interviews every half hour. limes two " Jaffrey, NH 03452 ~ hours is 72 minutes. So I'm able to keep about damned time. We're finally starti ng up with the work of a long stream of ex 800-467-7237 '..,. perts whi le I fix and eat breakfast and Continued on page 6 J 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 59 PROPRGRTION Jim Gray II 210 East Chateau Cir. Payson AZ 85541 [akdhc2pilot @yahoo.com] Overall Improvement Compared ro last month. j anuary should bring an improvement in overall conditions. but we'll still have numerous Fa ir-to-Poor (FP) and Poor (P) day s to con tend with. A s marked on the calendar the 7th-9th. 18th-20th. and 2"th- 26th will be the most difficult periods. but only the 25th looks as if it might bring widespread blackout conditions. EASTERN UNITED STATES TO: Once agai n. 11 0 solidly Good (G) days are in the offing. but ~~~~ posi tive seasonal infl uences shou ld continue to tip the scales in I ~m. rica 1' 51 :1Q 20 140] so 140] 2C (401 ,, (1 5·20) , (\0) 1011 !) 10 120) 110) 20 our favor on marginal days. Long nights with few hurricanes or ~ ~ ~ ~ , ,~, ~" (">10) 10 (20) l'Ol ec 1'5-201 ,., other atmospheric disturbances wil l hel p out on the higher bands . " ,, , , , l '<>'~1 (1~ 17 ',0.""" .... ". 101171 1'';'20J eo and minimal daytime absorption will assist us on the lower ones. "" ,, ~ , 1l~20 ~ , , , ,.. ,.. ('(>-201 The fi rst weekend in January is my pick for the best conditions ,,,, ,'. .,OolS) ..~ N ~ ~ ~ "" "", of the month with pretty good worldwide DXing available from ! ~ - , , , ,, , "". ,,, ~ I ~ ~ , , ~ ,,,, most locations. I'S':!O • 110-2OIj ,,, , ,, ,, , l ooking ahead to the rest of the year we should see a slow de- ~ 11';'2OJ ",.. 1' 0-' 1+ I ~ .,0-11) "". ,, ~ .,.. 11~20 ,,,.,. • ~ 11Q.1 S~ cline in solar acti vity. with the SSN (Smoothed Sunspot Number) 1';'11 .... I~U 1';'17 , » . , , , 1';'11 • , ~ ~ ~ ~ , dropping from the 100-125 range to the 75- 100 range b)' next lUll 15 • N,.. - ....- "". 10 ('S/ ,~ ". - 110) 0tJ 11~ OCI ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ,~ ' .N December. The 1O.7cm solar flux values, recently around 160. ,- .... ",.. CENTRAL UNITED STATES TO; should also decrease to about 100. so you can expect some revised I 1'5J 20 ., ,~ ,~ ~ ,~~ , lID) 20 10-' S ' 0 '201 15-20 Ti me-Band-Country charts to appear in the upcoming months. I've IA'-IC& ...... '.. 115) 20 zo ,.. , , , IA"",_ • .,.. ,., ro lQ(20l (1D) 20 been relying on the same set of charts for about the last 18 months ...m ". j.O) , , (15) 20 , .. .. ,.. ,., (10115 11 51 20 ,., and have recei ved no complaints about them, hut they are based on .m '" ,~ ,, ,, , , (20) I~""",- • 11 (>- 15) (10) ' 5 15 • "Ve ry High" solar activity. we're now entering a period of "Mod- , , , , , , ,,, ,.. 110J 20 11<>2Ol ~ ,~ ,~ crate to High" activity so different DX windows will be opening , ~ ,, , I, w (' (>-1$) l 1CHSI • , "" , , , ~ up to us this year. 1;..- 1'5) '" , , 1151 , ,, ,, ~ ~ , The Time-Band-Country charts I publish are necessari ly very • , "". .. I '~-. , , , ...... • ". generalized and at best are only a guideline for finding reliable , ~ ~ • 1',;.201 , ,' , I U~2OI ~ . l'Q. l~ 1' ' " 11 'S • . ,.. ~ "•••. openings. Obviously. due to the size of the geographical areas 11>-11 1';'11" , ,, ."", , , , ~ .. •, • invol ved. the vagaries of operator locati on and equipment. and other I'll! ' 5 " ". • N "" ...."" . "" ". ,'. 1' 5) I'''' ' ~ ' considerations. the openings listed are ofa "ballpark" nature.These WESTERN UNITEO STATES TO: ~ ~ ~ , ~ ,,~ ,, ~ charts are based on decades of historical data collected from .... 11I1I20 11('1 20 115120 H 1001 ~ ,, "",,, (15l ,, ~ ,~ 11 1~ reliable sources all over the world. but the margin oferror is still quite - ,= '<-..lorn , , , , , , 11<#-20) 11'" 20 ,~ ,, wide. For more precision there are many fine communication .. .• •. , , , ,'" , , , (' ~I I "A ~.' ,., 110) 15 (ZOl 115) 20 ,, , ,, , , , , , , , ~ , lIS) (10) 15 (1().ISI ,~ "'w ,.. eo • ,., I ~_.... 0';'201". , '", , , "", , ~ ,,, , January 2003 (I~ 2Q , , ~ , , ,,~ ~. ".~ ... , -ceo (lSI ~ , ,,,,"" ~ 1> ~120 ,~ I1Ool~1 ,(}-,s SU N MON TUE WED THU FAI SAT ' . !lOolS' 1 '~2Ol , , , 1150201 (lOo' S, 1(1-1 S ,, »~ ...... ~ , • - ». • " , '5011" 1 F-P 2 F 3 F-G 115120 ~ ~ _ 115' 20 ,,~ 11l;l1~ I 4 F-G I' S! :10 • - "110-ISI 'O I'S, I , ~ ,~ ~ 11I1l 4Q 1151 0tJ ~ ~~ ""~ ~ _ I'G-2OI -~ [s F 6 f-P 7 f -P 8 P 9 f ·P 10 f -G 11 f -G - I Table 1. Hand, time. country chart. Plain numerals indicate bands [12F 13 f ·P 14 F 15 f-P 16 f ·P 17 F 18 f ·P "hid, should be u'orknble on Fair 10 Good (F-G) and Good (G) days. NlmJiJi'rs ;11 parentheses indicate bands luunlly womlble 011 Good (G) 19 P 20 f ·P 21 F-P 22 F 23F 24 f·P 25 VP days ollly. DIU" numbers indicate that the intervening bands should also be usable. Wilen aile number appears ill parentheses, thatend of 26 f-P 27 F 28 F 29 F-P 30 F·P 31 f·P the range willlmwabfy be open 011 Good (G)days ollly. 60 73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003 analysis programs available for your corn sunrise. Asia and the Orient will only be It's no wonder that all kinds o f abnor puter such as Capstan, GcoClock. Propl.ab. available to night owls. Earl y risers might malities arc popping up later ... such as WinCap. VoaCap, and Bcam Finder. They try long paths across the Antarctic into delayed speech development and mental range in price from free to more than $300. southem Asia and the Near East. Short-skip impairment. so there ' s somethi ng avai la ble fo r can range from 500 miles during the day up Gee. am I surprised? Not! W hcn the book Dlanetics. The Science everyone's budget. You can fi nd a review of to 2,100 miles at night. of Mental Health, came o ut in 1950, I many popular software titles on the Radio 30 and 40 meters immediately gOI a copy. The theo ry made Netherlands Web site at [hup:/lwww.rnw. nU se nse 10 me. so I got together with Joe . a realradiollinkslhtrnUsoftware .hunIJ. "73" Good worldwide opport unities can be fellow announcer at WSPB. and tried it out. T he book claimed that traumas, and Happy New Year! found during the hours of darkness. Central even d uring pregnancy, could effec t Band-by-Band Forecast and South America will be the dominant people's lifet ime behavior. stations, but if you live east of the Rockies We started with Joe's having to switch 10 and 12 meters you may find Europe and the Middle East off his mike to cough every time he had good territory between sunset and midnight. to make an announcement. When I re Worldwide opportu nit ies can be found Operators in the western U.S. will find the gressed him to the origin of thi s problem from sunrise to sunset but openings will be best signals in Central and South America it turned out to be two months before his narrow due 10 our ... ho rt northern days. Once although the Middle East may be workable birth. His mother had a bad cough and agai n. southern Europe, the Middle East. for a few hours around mid-evening. Japan every time she coughed it was pai nful for little Joe. so the pain was equated 10 and Africa should have reliable openings and Australia will also be workable, but only what he was hearing and feeling at the from sunrise through late morning. Central during the hours when mosror us in the U.S. lime . Under hypno sis I ran Joe through and South America will dominate these are asleep. Skip distances will fluctuate be the subconscious memories of these pains bands from mid morning through late af tween 750 and 2,000 miles at night and will 10 decondition them. Joe no longer had to ternoonof course. but the South Pacific and be under 1,000 miles during the day. cough when announcing . I wrote down his Asia should become fairly strong by sun mother's words. which were automatically set. Be sure to check the morning and 80 and 160 meters recorded by Joe when she coughed. The evening gray-line paths for strong propaga cri tical phrase was."Every time I get ner Good worldw ide DXing may become tion into are as thai are n 't no rm ally vous. I cough." So. 25 years later. Joe wus available from sunset through sunrise. but acccssabte at other times. Daytime short coughing whenever he got nervous. high sunspot activity will co ntinue to When Joe's mother visited. I checked skip will range from I. Turn your old ham and computer gear into cash now. Sure, you can wait for a harnlesl to try an d d ump it, but you know you'll gel a far more realistic price if you have it out where 100,000 active ham potential buyers can see it, rather than the few hundred local hams who come by a flea market table. Check your attic, garage, cellar and closet shelves and get cash for your ham and computer gear before it's too old to sell. You know you're not goin g to use it again, so why leave it for your widow 10 throw ovt?Thai stuff isn't getting any younger! The 73 Flea Market, Barter 'n' Buy, costs you peanuts (almost) - comes to 35 ce nts a word for individual (noncommercial!) ads and $1 .00 a wo rd for commercial ads. Don', plan on telling a long story. Use abb reviation s, cram it in. But be hon est Th ere are plenty of hams who love to fix things, so if it doesn't work, say so. Make your list, count the words, including your call, address and phone number. Include a check or your credit card number and expiration. If you're placing a commercial ad , incl ude an additional phone number, separate from your ad. This is a monthly magazine, not a daily newspaper, so figure a couple months before the action starts; then be prepared . If you get too many calls, you priced it lo w. If you don't get many calls, too high. So get busy. Blow the dust off, check everything out, make sure it still works righ t and maybe you can help make a ham newcomer or reti red old timer happy with that rig you're 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 payment to: 73 Magazine, Barter 'n' Buy, 70 Hancock Rd., Peterborough l"H 03458 and get set for the phone calls.The deadline for the March 2/X13 classified ad section is January 10, 2003. 220 MHz Award; see W9CYT on WWW,QRZ. SATELLITE TV - Large selection of items at SMART BATTERY CHARGERS and more, CQM for information . BNB645 reasonable prices. We specialize in Big Dish [www.a-aenqlneerlnq.ccm] BNB653 TVRO C & Ku Band equipment. Check us out at K8CX HAM GALLERY [http://hamgallery.com l. [www.daveswebahop.co m]. BNB646 GET MORE OUT OF HAM RADIO! Books on all BNB620 topics. Up to 15% off. Quality Technical Books. HEATHKIT COMPANY is selling photocopies of [http://qtb.comlhamradiol]. BNB665 TELEGRAPH COLLECTOR'S PRICE GUIDE: most Heathkit manuals. Only authorized source 250 pictures/prices. $12 pos tpaid. ARTl FAX for copyright manuals. Phone:(6t6) 925-5899, BOOKS, Box 88, Maynard MA Ot 754. Telegraph 8-4 ET. BNB964 Museum: [http://wltp.comj. BNB113 WANT ED: USED ROTORS, controls, CO' 44, NEUER SR YDIE Harn-M, 2, 3,4, T2X , or larger. Call C.A.T.S., New miniature oscillator modules are now avail 1-8oo-3ROTORS BNB662 continued from page 62 able ... all under $20 ... plus our great reference book is still for sale. Write to RMTEngineering, Electricity, Magnetism, Gravity, The Big Bang. read the books by Dr. Melvin Page, Dr. 6863 Buffham Road, Seville OH 44273 or see New explanation of basic forces of nature in this 91 · Weston Price, Dr. Henry Bieler, Dr. Bruno our Web site at [www.ohio.neV_rto rmeV page book covering early scientific theories and ex Camby, or Dr. Guylane Lanctot (they're index.html!]. BNB640 ploring latest controversial conclusions OIl their reo reviewed in my Secret Guide to \Visdom ). latlcnshlp to a unified field theory. To order. send RF TRANSISTORS TUBE S 2SC2879. 2SC197 1, They' re all taught to "treat" symptoms check or money order for $16.95 to: American SCi 2SC1972, MRF247, MRF455, MB8719, 2SC1307, with prescription drugs, shots, or surgery. ence Innovations, P.O. Box 155, Clarington OH 2SC2029, MRF454, 2SC3133, 4CX250B, 12006, Like us, they never hear about the 4391 5. Web site lor other products [http://www. 6KG6A, etc. WESTGATE. 1-800·2134563. work of the above doctors from the me asL2000. com]. BNB100 BNB6000 dia and, even if they bothered to read the COLLOIDAL SILVER GENERATOR! Why buy a METHOD TO LEARN MORSE CODEFAST AND medical journals, they wo uldn't learn "box of batteries" for hundreds of dollars? Current WITHOUT HANGUPS Johan N3RF. Send $1 .00 anything about alternatives. The medical regulated, AC powered, fully assembled with #12 & SASE. SVANHOlM RESEARC H LABORATO· journals depend o n pharmaceutical com AWG silver electrodes, S74.50. same, but DC pow RIES, P.O. Box 81 , Washington DC 20044 USA. 't ered. $54.50. Add $2.50 shipping. Thomas Miller, pany advertising and arcn about to kick BNB42t 216 East 10th St., Ashland OH 44805. Web ad billion-dollar gi ft horses like that in the err ... slats. Cash for Collins: Buy any Collins Equipme nt. dress [www.bi oe lectrifier.co m).BNB342 Leo KJ6HI. Tel.lFAX (310) 670·6969.[radioleo @ ANTENNA SCIENCE:Why do antennas radiate Water, water earthlink.net]. BNB425 electromagnetic waves? Learn for yourself from Browse our Web site and check out the this enlightening paper by MAX RESEARCH. With 75% of Americans chronically de "Monthly Speci al." TDL Technology, Inc. [www. Gain an understanding of the radiation mecha hydrated, the odds are that you're one of zianet.com/tdlj. BNB500 nism of antennas! Written in a clear style for radio hobbyists, inquisitive amateurs and experimenters. 'em. So what? Well, the lack of water is # 1 MAHLON LOOMIS, INVENTOR OFRADIO, by $4.95 ... ppd. Order from MAX RESEARCH, P.O, the trigger of daytime fatigue. How Thomas Appleby (copyright 1967). Second print· Box 1306, East Northport NY 1t 731 . about back or joint pain? It only takes a ing available from J OHAN K.V. SVANHOLM BNB426 2% drop in body water to trigger short rcrm memory loss and difficulty in con N3RF, SVANHOLM RESEARCH LABORATO WANTED: ANY MODEL Collins, woric.ing or not, RIES, PO. Box 81, Washington DC 20044. Please including speakers, filters, options, t -piece or centration. Five glasses of water a day de send $25.00 donation with $5.00 tor S&H. collection. Bob, 651-354-5345 days: 651-345 creases your potential for colon cancer by BNB420 3600 eves. E-Mail: [email protected]. BNB661 45%, breast cancer by 79%, and bladder cancer by 50%. Ham Radio Repair, Quality workmans hip. All FREEl! HAMRadio and other co-Roms and Brands. Fast Service. Affordable Electronics, Disk catalog. MOM 'N' POP'S SOFTWARE , P.O. By water, I'm not referring to that 7110 E. Thomas Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85251 . Call Box 15003-TH, Springhill, FL 34604-011 1, 1-352· sewage from your faucet. Drink distilled 480-97().0963. or E-mail [HAM SERVlCE@AOL 688-9108, visit: http://www.momnpopsware.com wa ter, and drink a lot marc of it. The COM). BNB427 BNB660 excess wi ll pass. fa 64 73 Amateur Radio toaev » January 2003 Alineo Delivers HF Adventure! Allnco's HF Transceivers Deliver Incredible Performance at a Tiny Price You 're only a few hun dred dollars away from abrand new AJinco HF Transceiver. That's right! Just a few hundred dollars gets you on the air with a big tOO-watt signal , great audio and an easy-to-operate pac ka ge that's perfect for base , portable or mobile operations.The Alinco DX-70 an d DX- 77 makeit easy for everyone to enjoy HF wi th a dependable transceiver th at's backed by Ahnco's 1 year warranty. The world of HF is calling. What are you waiting for? 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Specificabons s "b j~ClI O cnange withDut noticeOr obligation . All trademarks re mai nthe p mp 8 ~Y of their respective ceners.