AmateurRadio.com

Status report

My digi adventure is slowly coming along, I have decided to start off with WSJT-X this will give me JT9 and JT65 to start off with. I found  a GREAT user guide that takes you step by step through installation and setup. Right off the bat the guide stresses the importance of your PC's clock being spot on! With these modes the timing of transmissions and reception can make or break your success with this mode. The user guide suggests using Meinberg Network time Protocol and gives you a link to the web page.  That for me is just way to easy to turn down, for me its "KISS....keep it simple stupid". Not wanting to search all over the web for a program I went with Meinberg NTP program. In the past I have found the internet can be a great resource and at other times a HUGE waste of time. With this program right at my finger tips time can be saved and I will be able to speed up my setup and that's all I needed! This user guide walks you through each step with  suggestions regarding best directory locations. As with most programs as you install them you come across "suggested" install options, this user guide makes it very clear as to the best choice to make. Nothing bothers me more when you install a program and click through the options only to find out via trouble shooting that other options should had been chosen!! I have have used other time protocol programs in the past and to be honest I was  not sure if it was working or not. With Meinberg NTP program you can go to your Windows command prompt and type in ntpq -p and see what's going on with the program. Now having said that after entering this code and hitting the enter button you are shown a screen of numbers, letters and columns such as ST, T, WHEN, POLL and REACH.........if your like me this is a foreign language! Fortunately the Meinberg Network time Protocol link also explains very simply what all the numbers mean and how to tell if what your reading is correct and if not suggestions needed to fix the program so it's running properly. So my clock sync program is working great it's now time to get to the install of the actual program!

Once upon a time my digi experience

With reports of the solar cycle on the decline and considering I'm not a big gun station that can belt out 1KW into a multi element beam I have to somewhat raise the white flag. I'm not going to give up on CW , getting contacts into the states is great and Morse code is like having a second language and I'm not going to give it up! When the solar cycle is in a low time I find it amazing that during a CW contesst my QRP signal is still able to get across the pond. It makes me think that just the idea of a decline in the solar cycle just has hams not turning their radios on and not giving it a go. For me I'm in a condo with the MFJ mag loop antenna and then to add to it QRP power I figure over the long haul the digi modes are going to be my best option for reeling in some DX. I have reformatted my PC's hard drive and just installed Windows 7 so it's time to start fresh! I have WSPR installed and up and going, in the past I had JT65HF and PSK31 installed and making contacts………..so ham folks what's out there that you have having had great success with?? I have a balcony antenna and QRP power that can go to 5 watts max. Whats nice with the digi modes is the MFJ 1788 will not have to be constantly returned. The bandwidth required is so narrow I can concentrate of making contacts.What programs do you use and where do you get your support when things don't work out as planned? I have always become frustrated with setting up the digi modes but I am going to have to bite the bullet and plow through the up's and downs of setting up the digi modes on my PC along with my rig.     

I was on the HF bands today and there was a QSO party happening state side but other than that the bands were dead. Is this what I have been missing for the past few months?? I am thinking the way to go at this point in time may be the digi modes? Once again I will have the joy of setting up my sound card modes…..thats always "fun". I ordered Win7 64 bit and according to the online tracking it should be here Monday. Not wanting to really setup any radio related programs on my desktop PC as when I install Win 7 64 bit it's going to be a clean install. Time to head out and  pick up  my better half from work, hope your weekend is going well out there!

So where have I been..........really nowhere actually I can't believe my last post on the blog was June 10 but at least I am still in the year 2015!! The blog has gone quiet for almost 3  months and really so has ham radio here at VE3WDM. I have been very busy with work, here in Toronto we hosted the Pan Am games and I was directly involved with that.......to the point of around the clock standby. Before Pan Am there was the prep time and then after the post Pan Am "stuff" To be honest there was time at home but after getting home I just just to tired to turn the rig on or post on the blog. I have been reading all your posts and really enjoyed that. Now that things are slowing down a little bit of "normal" seems to be happening I'm back in the radio saddle. I did check my blog stats and readership sure has fallen to almost nothing but that makes sense seeing it's been same old same old regarding my blog content. So what is new here? Well, most of the "new" things happen in the last few weeks as I started to slow down. First off I sold my Alexloop antenna it seemed I just was not using it  now that I moved to Toronto. I posted the sale online and it was gone within an hour! With the sale of the Alexloop I was able to purchase the P3TXMON add on to my Elecraft P3. This week I also upgraded my PC.  One of my hard drives gave up the ghost, the one with the OS on it!!. At the same time I figured it was time to move up to the next level with my PC.  So I looked at purchasing a new machine or just upgrading what I have. I decided to upgrade the PC as I have 3 fairly new hard drives in the tower, up to date video card, I just replaced the power supply and the DVD player has no issues. The decision was made to upgrade the motherboard, the processor and ram. So the new system is Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 motherboard, AMD 8320 8 core processor at 3.5 GHz, 8 Gb (2x4) of DDR3 ram at 1600 mhz. I really had not done this before so lots of reading on the internet and YouTube videos, surprisingly things went smoothly. I now have an Asus M3A76-CM motherboard, AMD Phenom IIx4 2.8GHZ fan cooled processor, 4 Gb of SDram, Zoltac GT620 64 bit graphics card, and D-Link 1GB lan card hanging around..........may put it up for sale.

The other evening I had an opportunity to get on the air it has just been to long and I was very excited about spinning the dial around the HF band! I ran the coax out to my MFJ 1788 on the balcony and fired up the K3. I jumped on 20m were not to much was happening but on 30m there was some Dutch DX that was calling CQ so I thought I would give them a go. Prior to calling my SWR on the loop antenna was tuned to 1.2:1 BUT when I started to call the Dutch station my SWR readout on the K3 magically became 99.9:1!!! It was like the coax had been removed from the antenna and was sitting on the ground. It was late so I wanted to look into this at a later time, this evening was the later time so I hooked the antenna up and gave 20m a go and the SWR once again on the K3 was showing 99.9:1. It was time to trouble shoot, was it the coax, MFJ 1788 antenna, the K3 or my LDG antenna switch? The first thing I wanted to do was to remove the antenna as the problem.

Without LDG antenna switch

I removed the coax from the antenna and in it's place put a 50 ohm dummy load. In a way I was relieved to see the 99.9:1 SWR thus removing the MFJ 1788 from the problem. Next I bypassed the LDG antenna switch and low and behold the SWR now was 1.1:1 and me saying thank god it was not my K3! So it would seem the LDG  antenna switch is the problem so I took the switch cover off and looked around. I cleaned the SO-239 connectors, check the internal connections and all seemed to be great. The only problem spot to me could be the switching relays with internal contact troubles? After exercising the relays the trouble in the LDG antenna switch seemed to be ok. If the trouble comes back this is a 4 position switch and I only use 2 positions I could swap out relays and look at ordering all new relays. At this point all seems to be working well but stay tuned to see if relay swapping and ordering is in the near future.

Relay in the LDG antenna switch

DSP board version

When I installed my new synthesizer board in my Elecraft K3 I also wanted to take some pictures of the other boards that are in my radio. The reason for this is the K3 has many optional boards that can be added as the operator gets the funds or finds the need to add or upgrade a board. For this reason your rig can have a board with certain versions that go along with it. I have read on the Elecraft site for example a DSP board that is version "C" and above does not need a certain upgrade but the

Filters that are in the K3

boards below that can be improved  with an upgrade. So this begs the question what board do I have??? I really don't want to tear down the K3 just to see the DSP board version. Another example for me is what darn filters did I instal in the K3?? I won't go on and I think you get the idea as to why I took pictures once the K3 was apart. Now having said all this I have on problem that I would like the input from my Elecraft readers. When purchased my K3 I ordered it with  lots of options but since then I have lost the paper work detailing the options I ordered. Most if not all are very easy to see once you open up the rig.... but not the TCXO oscillator. I am not sure if I ordered the upgraded 1 PPM high stability or the stock unit? Below are 2 picture of what's in the rig now your input would be great!

The mystery TCXO

New Elecraft synthesizer

Old synthesizer board

The time sure has been flying here at VE3WDM! I just can't believe it has been over a month since my last post. I have been off and on the radio more off than on, not sure why other than the evenings seem to get away from me. As for the weekends it's sunny out and the weather has finally changed from snow and cold to nice sunny days with great weather need I say more..........guess what I am saying is Julie and I have been out and about. My last post was when I modified the K3 and since then I also installed the new Synthesizer board as well. I have not even had a chance to really give the new addition to the rig a workout. I have been reading very positive reviews on the Elecraft user group site. I am looking forward to getting on the air and trying this new board out. This weekend the WPX CW contest is on and that would had been a great time to check out how this new and improved synthesizer board improved things!

The board installed in the K3