AmateurRadio.com

I just got round to checking the Sport Radio page of the May RadCom so as to transfer to my wall calendar the dates and details of any contests I might be interested in making some contacts in this month. I happened to notice that the exchange for the 144MHz Contest on 15/16 May is RS(T), serial number, grid locator and post code.

Post Code??? What’s the point of that? And what if you are operating portable from a hill somewhere and don’t have a post code? Daft idea if ever I saw one.

I’m not paranoid, but I think everyone is out to get me!

I ordered some connectors from eBay seller m0jpm and, because I have been thinking about getting a radio that has N type connectors on it, I decided to order a couple of BNC to N-type adapters so I could use the much easier to obtain BNC plugs on my antenna cables. The listing I ordered from is shown below.

The package arrived this morning and when I opened it, to my dismay I found that the adapters were the reverse of what I wanted. As you can see, they are for attaching N-type plugs to BNC sockets.

It has sometimes happened that I ordered the wrong thing by mistake, so I was relieved when I checked the eBay listing and saw that this time it was the seller’s mistake not mine. But my relief turned to anger when I emailed the seller to inform him of the error and received the reply: Dear g4ilo, Hi we have send you what you have ordered, as this is the only n-type to bnc we have listed. but if you not happy send it back for a refund.

Is it really necessary to insult my intelligence by telling me “we have send (sic) you what you have ordered”? I will send the adapters back for a refund (and no doubt be out of pocket for the postage) because they are no use to me. But I shan’t be buying anything from m0jpm again.

In a comment to my previous post Ricardo CT2GQV said that I should give up buying on the Internet. I wish I could, but if I did I would have to give up the hobby because it is not possible to buy radio stuff round here.

Ryan, K3SFG, asked us to pass this along to our readers:

CQ young hams…CQ young hams…

The Youth Net takes place every Saturday @ 2 pm (CA Time, PDST)

It is on the N6NFI Repeater, 145.230 -100. Young hams, 18 or younger, can also check-in through Echolink, using KR6DD-R (271122) or N6WN-R (477737).

Please help us get the word out, and if you have any questions, suggestion, etc., please contact K3SFG at [email protected].

Note: Only hams 18 and younger can check-in to this net. Unlicensed youth can check-in under the supervision of a control operator.

Please visit http://www.sbara.org/index.html and click on Youth Group in the left side bar.

Thanks and 73!

– Ryan, K3SFG

In State County Expedition Multi/Multi.

• KE7DX | 87 CW | 25 SSB | 25 Mults | 10.5hrs | 7,775 Points [Arizona Outlaws Contest Club].

n = 1 score submitted in this category.

In State Multi/Multi.

• KB7QND | 281 SSB | 54 Mults | 17hrs | 30,348 Points [Arizona Outlaws Contest Club].

n = 1 score submitted in this category.

In State Multi-Single.

• K7LED | 286 CW | 120 SSB | 52 Mults | 12hrs | 56,940 Points.

n = 1 score submitted in this category.

In State Single Operator CW.

• KK7S | 595 | 62 Mults | 18hrs 110,670 Points.
• AB7R | 640 | 53 Mults | 11hrs | 101,760 Points [WWDXC].
• W7Z (W7ZR) | 500 | 53 Mults | 12hrs | 79,500 Points [Arizona Outlaws Contest Club].

n = 11 scores submitted in this category.

Out of State Single Operator CW.

• N6MU | 191 | 98 Mults | 56,154 Points [SCCC].
• K0IO | 134 | 59 Mults | 23,718 Points [Newton ARA].
• K1TN | 99 | 49 Mults | 6hrs | 14,553 Points.

n = 14 scores submitted in this category.

A tough weekend inside the cans given changing ionospheric conditions although KK7S captured a 3830 top slot position prior to log adjudication. Out of state participant, N6MU, battled tough conditions on 20m leading the Southern California Contest Club to its banner position in the low power category.

It was not easy with near flat conditions however KK7S and N6MU get the honors! Well done.

Contest on.

Not much happening today. I have been WSPRing on 10m with 5W but heard nothing and have been spotted just once – by OY1OF on the Faroe Islands.

Yesterday evening I was receiving EA4SG in Spain but he was running 20W. I upped my power to a similar level, and was spotted by G0HNW and M1AVV in the early evening. I left the system running all evening but after it was dark I noticed my neighbour’s security lights were coming on at the start of my WSPR transmissions. Not good when you are trying to maintain a “stealth” station!

Before I started with WSPR today I got out the old DOS laptop and the Motorola programming software to make a few changes to my GP300 configuration. I reduced the squelch threshold slightly, reduced the power from 6W to 5W which should help the battery endurance more than it will affect reception of my signals, and I programmed the radio for 16 channels.

Now there are 16 channels it’s difficult to remember what they all are so I made a paper scale to go under the tuning knob which shows the 2m channel numbers or repeater calls. I had to use the magnifying headset to do the very small lettering and I can only read the scale with my reading glasses on – which I don’t when I’m out and about. But I couldn’t read the channel numbers on the original dial scale either so I’m not actually any worse off. I used to have great eyesight – this is what happens after spending most of your life in front of a computer!

I spent the morning building this constant current charging circuit on to the circuit board of the junk Motorola charger I bought on eBay. I also made a power lead so that it is powered by my K2 power supply, eliminating the need for yet another wall-wart. The charger was supplied with a UK type switched mode power supply rated at 12V 1000mA. In view of the “quality” of the charger itself it is unlikely that I would want to use the wall-wart that came with it for anything, but surprisingly when I tested it I couldn’t find any obvious interference. As I have said before, the electrical noise level here is so high that something would have to be pretty bad for me to notice it, but that was a device which I expected to be pretty bad.

As I was checking the bands for new unwanted noises I heard a CW signal on the 6m band. That turned out to be EB1EHO, whom I worked for my first Sporadic-E contact of the year. I spent an hour or so on the band and worked several stations on the west coast of Spain and one in Portugal, CT1ANO.

As you can see from the DX Sherlock map, the reflective Sporadic-E cloud appeared to be located somewhere over South Wales. I did hear a Scottish station working EA6/M0DLL on the island of Menorca. The DX was right down in the noise and not copyable on my dipole but might have been workable if I had a beam. So clearly there was Sporadic-E about elsewhere.

This opening was a nice treat for a Bank Holiday and I hope is an indicator of things to come this year.

I’ve bought loads of radio and electronic stuff from Hong Kong and China on eBay and most of it has been okay. But I’ve had the occasional duff purchase, like the stubby dual band antenna allegedly made by Diamond which I’m pretty sure was a fake.

I bought a Motorola GP300 radio body at the Blackpool rally a couple of weeks ago but I needed accessories like a battery pack, charger and speaker mic. Ebay was the obvious place to look for them. The 1800mAH NiMH battery pack was fine, and a good price. The speaker mic is obviously a clone of the original Motorola design but a lot less solidly made, but I have received good audio reports using it so no complaints there. However I was a bit suspicious about the “overnight charger” purchased from RadioFactory because after 6 hours of charging the battery pack was really hot.

The GP300 battery ran out while I was on Watch Hill this afternoon so I need to charge it back up, but before I do I thought I would take a look inside. The case is conveniently designed so that you can pull it apart after pushing back four flexible plastic clips. The circuit board then just lifts out. I got quite a surprise after I did!

The top of the circuit board is printed with component outlines but most of the components marked are not present, and many of the components that are there don’t correspond with the outlines. In the middle of the board is an unidentified component that looks as if it has overheated.

On the underside of the board, again, most of the components that are supposed to be there are missing. Some of the tracks are bridged together with solder blobs or a wire link. I haven’t got the time or, more importantly, the clarity of mind to work out exactly what the circuit on the board actually is, but it doesn’t look much like something capable of charging a 7.2V battery pack from a 12V wall wart.

I’m not quite sure what to do about this. I have the plastic case and the charger contacts, which as I know from the charger I made for the TH-205E are the hardest parts of a battery charger to make. So I could simply make up another constant current charger circuit on Veroboard and put it into the existing case. Or I could simply cut my losses and buy another Motorola charger from a reputable source. I’m sure that one of my readers will know of one.