AmateurRadio.com

The new setup

Old setup

 On Friday my new P3 SVGA card came in this cool add on allows me to move the band scope that is on the P3 up to a large monitor. This has been an add on I had been looking forward to for sometime. The SVGA card from Elecraft fits into the P3 and took about 20 minutes to complete the installation. It was then

New P3 SVGA

time to give it a whirl. As a side note I kept a monitor that I was not using but knew I would use it some day. Well the day came when I needed a monitor for the SVGA it's great when I can reuse! The P3 was hooked back into K3 I then powered up the K3 and P3.......BUT the monitor was blank!!! Well lets reboot and try again.....NOTHING..........It them came to me go to the Elecraft site and update the P3's software. I did that and low and behold the monitor came to life with a great looking band scope! It sure is nice to have a scope up close and personal. Now Elecraft has plans to add mouse control, RTTY and CW decoding and more suggestions are piling in. When I added the new monitor I had to do some moving of equipment on the desk. The LP-100A, MFJ 1026 and the LDG switches all found a new home. The monitor was mounted on
moveable arm so when not in use I can move it out of the way.  When the final position for all the equipment

P3 apart and ready for SVGA

 was found it was better than the old setup. All my ham equipment is on the same level and easier too view and adjust. Also it was due time to label all the cables and wires at the back of the ham gear. There has been many a time when I have removed cables to only have to re-connect them later that day and sure as shootin somehow I messed it up  with some very strange results. I pulled out the P-Touch label machine and tagged all the cables. It was a job that was long overdue and had to be done.  Now that I plan on making the Elecraft K2 portable I will be removing it from the desk along with all the hookup cables. Once I am done my portable op's the K2 can be hooked back into the desk position via the

SVGA installed

labeled cables. My next project is to investigate logging software, radio control software and propagation software. I have been using a hodge-podge  of software and I want to clean up the software end of my ham hobby so now it is time to look at some of the free ham software out there....any suggestions would be great!

View on the monitor

Monitor out of the way

I really enjoy kit building I find it to be a nice pass time when the propagation is not co-operative and the bands are slow. With kit building it's a learning curve starting out with basic kits and moving up to kits that
contain SMT components....I have yet to dive into that pond. There sure is a reward when you have spent time

Replacing a cable

assembling a kit and then to see it work is  a great feeling.
Recently I had to open up my Elecraft K2 to add an internal antenna tuner and battery. I had not had the top off the K2 for some time.....I was amazed at all the components to which I thought..."I actually put all this together" For those of you who build kits like me you have run into times when things just don't go as planned. I have soldered components in the wrong  place. There has been solder run onto two pads instead of the one the solder was intended for and so on. I would bet there are a lot of kit builders out there who have their own stories.  As kit builders we all have our "tools" from soldering stations to multimeter's

Hakko at work

and everything in-between. One tool I purchased about a year ago and really don't use all that often but when used it sure has gotten me out of many binds. The "magic tool" as I call it is the Hakko 808 desoldering tool. In the past I have used the hand pump, hand bulb and soldering iron and bulb combo. These did an ok job but at times all had failed me. The Hakko 808 is very efficient at removing soldering mistakes and at the same time saving the component if placed in the wrong location. The Hakko heats up very fast, the vacuum pump is powerful, maintenance is minimal lastly its very user friendly for filter changes. I know that solder mistakes only happen now and then but it's sure great having the right tool for the job at hand.

The finished product

Good Sunday evening to everyone, have you ever been blindsided by something? In the past when  blindsided most if not all the time it was not been a good thing. Well I am here to tell you that I was blindsided and it was a GOOD THING!  Here in Ontario spring has arrived very very early the past few weeks the temperatures have been around 19C. The norms are around 3C and at night down in the negatives. This weekend it was great 23C lots of sun and blue skies this was a nice blindsiding. So why is my post topic "shame on me"? Here is the the math..........
Early spring+great weather=yard work, house cleaning, garden prep and blah blah blah and therefore it's > (greater than) ham radio which = shame on me! I have not had really any time for radio!

KAT2 in the works

It's not to say that here at VE3WDM there has been a total drought of radio time. My plans over the winter were to get my Elecraft K2 setup for portable operation. Which was coming along right on schedule but now the radio bug is bitting as the great weather is here, I have to hurry things along. It was my decision last year to not order the Elecracft KX3 but to use my K2 for going out and about. Here is what had  to be done to make this happen. Remove the KPA 100 option from my radio and remote mount it in combination with the KAT100 antenna tuner. That has been done and it works great. I now want to add battery power to the

The joys of toroid winding

K2 and that is done with Elecraf'ts KB2T internal battery kit. I also wanted to add an internal antenna tuner that is done with the Elecraft's  KAT2 antenna tuner. This sets up the Elecraft K2 along with Palm Radio's mini paddle. The antennas are the Miracle whip or space permitting a wire dipole. When in the car (stationary mobile) mono band whip antennas. This week my time will be spent (I hope) to complete the KAT2 antenna tuner which really just involves toroid winding and mounting. Then the internal battery will be installed and then GAME ON!!!

There were train tracks here at one time.

2 clicks into our walk

It seems that up this way spring has sprung early and I am not complaining at all. Today the temperatures were in the 16C range which has broken a 35 year old record. Today the sky was clear, the sun was shinning and no wind at all so it was due time to take in some nature walking. Very near to our home is a nature trail that winds

A shot of the Grand River

along the Grand river. This nature trail goes for 77 km's (we did 6 of the 77 km's) The trail is an old railroad run that was made into a nature path. Julie took her camera along the only wild life was a red tailed hawk, Cardinal and some Canada geese. The shoots on the blog were taken by me with my Iphone as we walked along.The trail is very well maintained and no motorized vehicles are permitted. In the winter it is a great cross country ski spot as well. I was scouting out some stopping areas for when I bring along my K2 possibly this summer. I did find some nice spots and will see what the summer brings!

To my surprise I have been asked to be a mentor to someone who wants to get their ticket. My wife works with the public and she was chatting with this gentlemen and they were sharing info about their hobbies. It came to light that he was interested in getting his ham license. Julie told him I would be more than happy to help him on his journey.  At first I was excited....not that I am not now but it's been over 20 years since I received my license and things sure have changed from then. I want to sit down with this individual and see what it is they
are looking for in ham radio....strictly VHF/UHF, upgrade to HF and are they interested in code? The meeting to find all this out will be this weekend over coffee. In the mean time I have been on the Internet looking up what is now involved for one getting their Amateur radio license here in Canada! I found out that it sure has changed and in a very good way. It seems to me at first glance anyway that the study materials  exhibit a more practical aspect of the hobby. Sure the regulations are still a part of the exam but there is more on antennas, propagation and even setting up a station. I can see for me this is going to be a learning experience as well. I will have the opportunity to brush up on my theory and who knows learn some new "stuff" about antennas, feed lines, radio equipment, the regulations and the theory! Wish me luck..........

Well it's now Sunday and I just don''t know where the week has gone it does not even seem like the weekend has begun but it's almost over! It has just been "one of those weeks" I have not been able to get any radio time in....for that matter really not to much of anything has been done this week. It has been a busy week but as I look back can't really say anything was started or completed. As I have reported in my blog I am

This is the powerport box without the battery

making my Elecraft K2 portable so I can use it in the car and the out of doors when the warmer weather comes. I ordered a case from the Powerport store the case I ordered was the Radio box. It's been 4 weeks now and no case has arrived I tried to email them regarding this as I was emailed when the case was shipped. I then read on their site that they do not respond to emails just (long distance) phone inquires.  I wanted to wait until Friday just to see if it came in....but nothing. I then ordered some very nice Sony head phones for my portable op's from Ebay....and again 5 weeks have past and nothing. I did email them and was told they were shipped but they will ship another pair on Monday......It's just been one of those weeks!

I just came across some info regarding a replacement for the road warrior FT-817 it's the mystery FT-818? I have read some comments on blogs that wrote about the FT-818. Some seem to be drooling while others see it as wishful thinking. I did try a link on one blog that boasted of a Yahoo group for the FT-818 but it did not exist. The "up coming rig" sure does boast of some very impressive improvements.

• All mode, all bands 1.8-1296MHz with 5MHz and 70MHz
• 5W RF (2W 1296MHz)
• 3.5AHr Li-Ion battery pack (2hr charging)
• Built in random wire and whip auto-ATU
• Full colour OLED display
• Multi-function DSP noise reduction
• RF Speech processor

BUT Yaesu has not even hinted about this rig...nothing at Dayton....and well check out the Icom IC-7000........seems to me the FT-817 has had a photo shop crop job done to it! What do you think is the the FT-818 fact or fiction?