AmateurRadio.com

Had some time today and for some reason I had a look at the top of the line dream HF rig's. First off is the  Elecraft K3S with the contest and DX package priced at 5900.00 (all prices in Canadian dollars) to be fair to all the other high end rigs you would have to add a power supply bring the price in at 6050.00.

Next in the line up is the Kenwood TS 990S priced at 7995.00 ( or as I like to say 8,000.00) for the price this is a nicely packed rig and unlike the Elecraft or Flex radio it does not need a power supply. Like the Elecraft you get 2 independent receivers but you get the added bonus of 200 watts of juice to send out your call.

Moving along to the Flex radio 7600-GPSDO in at 10,800. This rig is the top of the line for Smart SDR rigs and the one feature that sticks out to me is the 8 slice pan-adpater. Having said that just a bit of over kill for me. Here is a link for all the features of this amazing Smart SDR rig.  This rig also needs a power supply so I will add another 150.00 (same supply that was priced for the K3S) now you are looking at 10,950. The price does include the GPSDO module which is not cheap and also this rig has VHF an option not included in the K3S price.

Icom has a heavy hitter when it comes to high end rigs and it's the IC-7851 and a break the bank price at 17999.00 ( or.......you got it 18000.00) It does have a great TFT display, two receivers and 200 watts out.....but really 18,000.00 freaking dollars!!!!

The Yaesu FTDX-9000MP comes in next at 14,500.00 as with the other rigs 2 independent receivers and a whooping 400 watts output.......oh hang on just been checking and the 9000 and 5000 series rigs have been discontinued by Yaesu!!! The only rig that is left for the high end category is the FT DX 3000 at 2499.99 (lets call it what it is 2500.00).
Please correct me if I am going down the wrong path but I think Yaesu may has seen the light in that the cost to produce the very very high end rigs is just not drawing the sales to make it profitable? Now the DX 3000 rig is (in my humble opinion) a mid range rig and hopefully Yaesu will produce a rig above the DX 3000.....independent receiver and so on. BUT maybe Yaesu has taken a step back to move forward with a  "high end rig" that is within range of more hams.

In closing as my readers know I am an Elecraft nut!!! Not to be tooting my Elecraft horn but they do have a great concept and that is you purchase a radio and in time add to it. The purchaser may add to the rig in time maybe due to budget restraints at the time or maybe your ham experience changes and you may want to dive into the digi modes or VHF.
In conclusion I just can't understand rigs that cost 18K or 10k for that matter but as I said before this is my humble opinion.

A belated Happy New Year to all the readers of the blog! So now that we are 2 days into the New Year what is the long range forecast for VE3WDM? While we are on the subject of forecast the weather up this way has been to say the least DAM COLD!! There does not seem to be a break anytime soon with the forecast this weekend temp's are to be in around -30 with the windchill.  Lets warms things up with some 2018 plans. This year Julie and agreed that it's the year to cut back starting with our cable TV that can run way over 125.00 per month. I purchased a small HD antenna and am able to pickup (for free) close to 30 channels. This week the cable company will be getting a disappointing call with our cancellation. We also have Apple TV 4k and pay a minimum for Netflicks and Crave TV. The other cord we are cutting is the eating out which we are planning on moving to only once a month as eating at home is cheaper and can be healthier as well. Regarding ham radio I have all I need and some but my plan this year is to get on the radio and pound out some CW! With the conditions not being so great I have still been able to make contacts both here in North America and over seas.  I worked dam hard over the years to learn CW and get my speed up and it's like a language that if you don't use it you loose it. I am also set up for the digi modes just to change things up a bit. Finally with less TV and going out it looks like I am going to catch up on my ham radio  reading. These are not drum roll type plans for the New Year but it's a start!

Well here we are it's almost the end of 2017 as I was out for a pint with my Ipad and looking at some of the blogs  I follow. I came across PE4BAS's blog and after reading his post I checked out the blogs that he follows to see what else was new in blog world. As I scrolled down I came across the blogs that have not posted in over a month. Low and behold there was VE3WDM.....it has been over 4 weeks since my last post!! I have to be honest this is not the first time I have gone for a month without posting. There was a time when I was posting twice a week and for sure once a week, since our move to Toronto I have not been on the radio as much as I would like. In the evenings  after dinner I just feel too tired to get on the radio. Anyway......I did get on the radio this weekend and found the RAC Canada Winter contest in full swing. I was not prepared to give the contest a full out go but I was able to make a leisurely 7 contacts. With my modest setup I was able to contact CW coast to coast in Canada and a station in France. What I like to do is have QRZ.COM going in the background on the computer as I make a contact I look them up and read about their station.

Some time ago I purchased a Begali Key, the Contour key. I have read lots about having a good key, of how it makes sending the code an art. I have to say that from day one the Contour key and I have had a love-hate relationship! The craftsmanship of the key is next to none as are all of the Begali keys. I am not sure if it's just this key or the contour keys but for way to long when ever I use this key I send extra dots and dashes or the spacing gets screwed up. I used to think it was just me and my sloppy fist until I did more portable op's and used the Mini Palm paddle.  I just never seemed to miss a beat with this paddle there was no extra anything and the code was very smooth all the time. I have contacted Begali and exchanged many emails about adjusting the key, cleaning the contacts on the key and spacing the contacts on the key. It just seems to be the same old frustration with the Contour key. When I got on the radio today for the RAC contest I started out with the Begali key and after sending some very simple but very embarrassing exchanges I switched to the Mini Palm Paddle and exchanges were sent with not one error. I would put the Begali key up for sale in a second but it has my call engraved in it. I still think nothing can be said for a good quality key but it seems the Begali Contour is just not for me.

Where did the site Band conditions go?? I have this site as one of my tabs on the blog and it either seems the link has been changed, the site is temporally down or it's gone? Does anyone have info on this maybe I missed the memo about a new link to the site?

The condo kit corner.

About a month ago my FA-VA4 vector antenna analyzer kit came in and it has sat idle until Friday. I had the day off and with everything done that needed to be done, I say "everything that needed to be done" because there is always something to get done! I decided it was time to put the kit together. This really is the first kit I have attempted to assemble since moving into our small condo in Toronto. I no longer have the huge desk, nice lighting and the room to place all my equipment around me. Now it's a roll top desk with 2 slide out shelves, that is my only choice for kit work now. Trying to get the exhaust fan, soldering station and other small miscellaneous items in place is a real challenge. What was also a challenge was remembering where the heck I placed things in the dam condo! I have a nice Panavise setup for holding my boards in place while soldering. I could find the arms but I was not able to locate the base. I looked everywhere but had no luck and nothing bothers me more than knowing it's somewhere but just not able to find that "somewhere". I had to settle for placing just the Panavise arms on the slide out and do my best. I found very quickly that working in a tight space one has to be very aware of cords and tools, a few times moving the soldering iron in place almost had the soldering iron cord take the make shift Panavise (holding the circuit board) onto the floor. The kit from Box73 comes from Germany, the shipping time was fantastic as well as packaging. There is no SMD work to be done that was done and I only had to mount some connectors, power on switch, pushbuttons and the LCD display. After being away from kit building for a very long time this was a nice way to jump back into things. I first took an inventory of the parts and this is something I always do. I hate getting to the point when a part can't be found and your not sure if it was not shipped or misplaced by me? Doing the inventory allows me to contact the vendor and in the case of large projects the part arrives in time for that point in the assembly. Everything was there and it was now time for the next important step...read over ALL the assembly instructions. In my case I go the extra step and check out YouTube videos and the internet to see if there are any pointers that others have come across to make things easier or things to avoid.  One of the builder beware tips I read was from John AE5X blog to not use lithium batteries as the voltage is to high and the FA-VA4 will repeatedly reboot. This type of information is invaluable when kit building. It saves trouble shooting time and going down possibly a long road of parts testing.
This kit does have SMD parts that I said are factory installed BUT some of the items that the builder needs to install are very close to some SMD parts. This brings me to another important part of kit building....spend the money to get the right tools for the job. In this case my Weller WES51 has a large variety of soldering tips. I find the fine chisel tip (Weller ETM) worked great for soldering the LCD terminals, the larger tip for the BNC connector (Weller ETD) and finally the intermediate tip for the components beside SMD parts( Weller ETB).
The instructions had me installing the ON/OFF slider switch first and this was a great start for this old rusty kit builder.  I then moved onto the 3 rails in which the LCD would eventually plug into. You will notice from the picture these are raised up on the board. Each pin has a "collar" so the rail will be at the proper hight but the builder has to be cautious and make sure the rail is firmly seated and upright and straight. One rail is 20 pins and once it's in....it's in! In the past I have had to remove these types of components due to my own lack of attention. IT IS NOT FUN and I have a Hakko desoldering tool  which make desoldering a pleasure but even with that tool removing a 20 pin rail is not fun at all. Take the time to set these parts up for first time correct soldering. My method was taping the rail in place, solder the 2 opposite end pins, check for upright correctness and firm seating on the board. If all is good solder the remaining pins. The other components were easy to solder in place when using the proper tips. I have a magnifier head set  and use it to make sure all connections are soldered properly and that all were done. You would be surprised how many times when multiple pins are involved how easy it is to miss a pin.  The LCD needed to be soldered to the backlight, it involved a 20 pin connection on one side. The instructions said I only "had" to solder the 2 outside pins. I chose to solder all 20 and then on the opposite side of the LCD there were 2 sets of 3 pin connections that need all pins soldered. To make sure the LCD was firmly against the backlight I used some tape. Once the LCD was ready to go again I took time to inspect the pins that were going to plug into the 20 pin and two 3 pin rails. I did find one of the 3 pin setups ups on the LCD was bent! I corrected this but if I failed to see this could had resulted in broken or bent pins.
There is two AA battery holders that need to be soldered in and all I can say is check and double check this. Mixing this up polarity can bring smoke to the smoke test. Believe me it can happen. One of the Elecraft K2 kits I put together almost ended in disaster when I was not paying attention and soldered up a power cable with Anderson pole connectors. I soldered red wire to Anderson black connector and black wire to Anderson red connector. It gets better.....I then plunged it into the K2 and powered the K2 on!! The Astron power supply made a noise and both the inline fuses on the main Astron power supply blew. I was very luck and now double check everything.
It was now time for the "smoke test" and I was so proud of my first kit in over 4 years I had my dear wife Julie come over for the ceremony.......I flipped the switch and........yup you guessed it...NOTHING!!!!! Yup nothing.....but no smoke and that is a good sign. Julie giggled and moved on to other tasks. I made a mental note to always solo a smoke test and avoid the embarrassment. The problem was one of the AA batteries was not firmly in place. Once looked after the power on test was a success. I called Julie over for her to check out the kit but it just did not have the same excitement. That was it for the kit building for the day I still have to preform the calibration. Over all the kit was a  joy to put together and by way of some side notes. The case is a brushed aluminum with attention to detail such as counter sunk screws for securing case, the LCD and buttons lined up perfectly and a nice touch was not having stick on rubber feet (that always over time seem to come off and get lost) This kit came with pull through rubber feet. I still have to calibrate the unit and actually use it but that will be another day.

Completed kit

Smoke test

Bent LCD pins

Supporting the 20 pin connector.

The view from my other spot along the lake

I had the day off work today and it was another amazing day up this way for fall so I headed outdoors again with my KX3. This time I was out and about in the morning and was expecting 20m to be shut down and possible 40m opened up. I found 20m was open and never ended up checking 40m at all. Once again I headed toward the lake and this time my "spot" was taken with someone who also was taking advantage of the great weather. I was watching the weather forecast this morning and it looks like "seasonal reality" is going to set in very soon! This time I set up a little further along the lake at a picnic table. Today I was happy to make 3 CW contacts:

1. WA5OVB Phil's IC 7200 was doing a great job picking up my portable signal I gave Phil 579 report and I was given a 569 with some QSB.

The Chameleon CHA P antenna setup

2. KW7D Paul's signal was strong, he was in New Mexico where the weather is much more pleasent than it is going to be up this way. Paul was calling CQ and I was able to catch his attention with my portable signal.

3. K3PR is Joes call and we had a nice long QSO exchanging as much info as we could. At first my signal was in around a 229 but conditions changed and I moved up the scale to 559! Joe and I had a nice QSO about antennas, rigs, WX and just what we were up too.

I did hear a station 4U1A the United Nations in Austria and when I first heard their CQ call they had not been spotted and I was trying to get their attention from my portable setup. I did not have any luck and even less luck after they were spotted and the pileup began.

Things pack up very nicely.