Perhaps, looking on ukrepeater.net shows that MB7USD is no longer licenced, so as soon as I have my full licence this may be an opportunity to fill in a gap in APRS coverage and packet access to and from the APRS-IS.
My plan is to run an igate or digipeater, whichever, to cover the area once covered by MB7USD, using a self-contained setup of a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (or whatever will be the highest performing Pi by that time), with solar power, a reasonably high capacity battery (probably a leisure battery), and my Leixen VV-898 for an output of about 10 watts, hopefully linked to my home WiFi and kept in my shed to start with until I can find a suitable place elsewhere.
The VV-898 being a 10 watt radio should more than suffice for this job, and being a cheap radio to get hold of should it fail I can swap it out for another one, and being low power draw it is suited to this ultra green setup.
I need to fit a shelf in the rear of my shed which means moving some of my antenna mounting hardware up to the shack, there are already mounting points to do this and a convenient air vent at the rear, though I suspect I ought to tread carefully as I did see a wasp nest near the vent and therefore there could be wasps but the nest may be derelict or all wasps in it dead due to this very cold snap we've had lately, the air vent is convenient as that will serve as a path for coaxial cable to feed through, RG8-mini preferred as that is small enough in diameter and low loss compared to RG58, the vent will also serve as access to solar panel power cables.
The need for GPS is not required for this setup as it is fixed, it's precise location will, for its and my security, be off slightly (appearing on the map on the roads near to my home QTH.
As a temporary antenna I could use an off-the-shelf mobile antenna on a magmount on top of a suitable piece of metal, I have an old magmount that I got with the Team RoadCom-FS that I don't plan to put on a vehicle, I just need to change the coax (with RG8-mini) as it needs a coax change anyway
I've not even started my training for my M0 call and I am already planning on what NoV to get when I am able to, and when this is done I hope to restore local APRS-IS access in the local area.
73 de 2E0EIJ
Ban PLT
Sunday, 27 January 2019
Thursday, 24 January 2019
The dilemma of my soldering iron
Almost every Amateur will have a soldering iron in their shack, given that Amateur radio operators are more often than not building their own gear, some have a basic cheap soldering iron, some have a temperature controlled soldering station, I have the latter, and the one I have is a unit sold by Maplin under their Precision Gold label, trouble is now that Maplin have gone bust getting new tips and irons may prove a challenge.
The same unit is sold by Rapid Electronics under the Atten brand (which appears to be what it actually is), the iron is rated at 28V AC rather than the 24V AC some other generic Chinese soldering stations are rated at (though the measurement I got with my multimeter suggests the voltage out of the transformer is in fact around 30V (I put a voltmeter across the two yellow wires inside the base rather than across the connector), I also discovered construction of the unit is similar in fashion to units disassembed by Clive on his 'bigclivedotcom' YouTube channel, however the wires are connected onto the board using connectors rather than solder)).
The fact the transformer put out 30V did puzzle me at first, though I suspect this is because I am supplying the transformer with 240V on the primary, and it is labelled for 220V on the primary, though I have no means to test my incoming mains supply, the only sure fire thing I know about the iron is that earth is connected straight from the iron to the earth pin on the plug, thus backing up the ESD safe claim and meaning I can replace sensitive components without risk of ESD damage, modern radios do use a lot of solid state components so this is critical.
So Rapid sell a replacement iron for the pricely sum of £10.90 exclusive of VAT, add the VAT (at current rate this is 20%) it is more like £13, all the irons I found from China are in fact for the 24V stations and presumably are not compatible. the iron I have is the third for this unit and the final Maplin sourced one, so new irons would have to be sourced from Rapid or CPC Farnell as I suspect they are the only other supplier and sell this same station though under the Tenma brand, new bits can come from China as they fit a number of irons
So as long as the station is being sold I should be good for a new iron should I need one as they'll always be available separate to the station (though the last two were destroyed while being used at the same time as my former PMR446 gateway was in transmit, though when I say destroyed it is more likely they need a new heater element).
Naturally this only occurred to me while the iron was being used for component salvaging in the shack, and I don't want to be without my soldering iron, as it is the most useful tool any Amateur could have and I certainly plan to use mine for as long as possible, and also so I can actually turn the temperature down a bit I plan to switch back to leaded solder, a lot of the hams I know that solder prefer it.
not too much radio related but it does go with our hobby, and with that I could see if it is possible to repair the Intek DRS-5070 as I suspect the finals have failed inside it.
73 de 2E0EIJ
The same unit is sold by Rapid Electronics under the Atten brand (which appears to be what it actually is), the iron is rated at 28V AC rather than the 24V AC some other generic Chinese soldering stations are rated at (though the measurement I got with my multimeter suggests the voltage out of the transformer is in fact around 30V (I put a voltmeter across the two yellow wires inside the base rather than across the connector), I also discovered construction of the unit is similar in fashion to units disassembed by Clive on his 'bigclivedotcom' YouTube channel, however the wires are connected onto the board using connectors rather than solder)).
The fact the transformer put out 30V did puzzle me at first, though I suspect this is because I am supplying the transformer with 240V on the primary, and it is labelled for 220V on the primary, though I have no means to test my incoming mains supply, the only sure fire thing I know about the iron is that earth is connected straight from the iron to the earth pin on the plug, thus backing up the ESD safe claim and meaning I can replace sensitive components without risk of ESD damage, modern radios do use a lot of solid state components so this is critical.
So Rapid sell a replacement iron for the pricely sum of £10.90 exclusive of VAT, add the VAT (at current rate this is 20%) it is more like £13, all the irons I found from China are in fact for the 24V stations and presumably are not compatible. the iron I have is the third for this unit and the final Maplin sourced one, so new irons would have to be sourced from Rapid or CPC Farnell as I suspect they are the only other supplier and sell this same station though under the Tenma brand, new bits can come from China as they fit a number of irons
So as long as the station is being sold I should be good for a new iron should I need one as they'll always be available separate to the station (though the last two were destroyed while being used at the same time as my former PMR446 gateway was in transmit, though when I say destroyed it is more likely they need a new heater element).
Naturally this only occurred to me while the iron was being used for component salvaging in the shack, and I don't want to be without my soldering iron, as it is the most useful tool any Amateur could have and I certainly plan to use mine for as long as possible, and also so I can actually turn the temperature down a bit I plan to switch back to leaded solder, a lot of the hams I know that solder prefer it.
not too much radio related but it does go with our hobby, and with that I could see if it is possible to repair the Intek DRS-5070 as I suspect the finals have failed inside it.
73 de 2E0EIJ
Tuesday, 22 January 2019
The beginning of my journey to my full licence, and a few bits of electronic salvaging in the shack (with some interesting discoveries)
As you will recall, at the back end of last year, I enrolled on Steve Hartley's Bath Based Advanced Distance Learning Course, which will take me to the Advanced licence all being well.
The course starts properly a week on Friday, so I hope to get some revision in before then, bearing in mind I have work and will be busy, I have already signed up for the system the course is using though have not had a chance to look at it properly, though that will be something I can do after work tonight (I start 40 minutes or so from time of writing).
I already have the book, a scientific calculator, and the RSGB radio communications handbook, I may benefit of course by getting some other books, I look forward to completing this course, and ultimately getting my full licence before the syllabus change in August of this year and also before the National Hamfest.
So the journey now begins, and I look forward to the challenges I will face, as I love a good challenge, keeps the mind active and healthy.
I also spent the last few days salvaging useful electronic components, I have an old power supply that I have spent years stripping down slowly, some of the electrolytic capacitors on it appear to have failed and show some bulging on the bottom which makes me think if they failed the time the supply itself went pop and a cloud of smoke emitted from it, the actual failed capacitor was removed a long time ago, the resistors, other capacitors and diodes seem fine.
I also cut the connectors off a load of old computer fans that I'd not likely be reinstalling into computers, which run happily of 13.8V DC (they are rated 12V DC and an extra 1.8V should not harm them considerably), the wires then stripped and tinned, and the fans retested on the bench supply, all seem happy and I do plan to put them into service at some point later on, preferably with a thermostatic controller to stop them from running all the time, I also salvaged components from my Internet Radio project including the speaker still inside the box, the amplifier is still in situ, I removed its regulator and the 5V regulator I used to run the latter of the two Pis, this regulator is a 7805 and puts out around 4.98V DC when fed from a supply greater than it, I might use this as a USB outlet regulator and have a handy charge point in my shack, of course I do need to provide adequate filtering and tie the data lines to tell the phone what it can pull, though that information should be readily available on the Internet as a lot of phone chargers should now be reverse-engineered (the regulator is 1A though is fitted with a heatsink so may at a push work higher).
So tomorrow I may tinker a bit more if I have time and start extra revision on my Advanced tonight again if I have time.
73 de 2E0EIJ
The course starts properly a week on Friday, so I hope to get some revision in before then, bearing in mind I have work and will be busy, I have already signed up for the system the course is using though have not had a chance to look at it properly, though that will be something I can do after work tonight (I start 40 minutes or so from time of writing).
I already have the book, a scientific calculator, and the RSGB radio communications handbook, I may benefit of course by getting some other books, I look forward to completing this course, and ultimately getting my full licence before the syllabus change in August of this year and also before the National Hamfest.
So the journey now begins, and I look forward to the challenges I will face, as I love a good challenge, keeps the mind active and healthy.
I also spent the last few days salvaging useful electronic components, I have an old power supply that I have spent years stripping down slowly, some of the electrolytic capacitors on it appear to have failed and show some bulging on the bottom which makes me think if they failed the time the supply itself went pop and a cloud of smoke emitted from it, the actual failed capacitor was removed a long time ago, the resistors, other capacitors and diodes seem fine.
I also cut the connectors off a load of old computer fans that I'd not likely be reinstalling into computers, which run happily of 13.8V DC (they are rated 12V DC and an extra 1.8V should not harm them considerably), the wires then stripped and tinned, and the fans retested on the bench supply, all seem happy and I do plan to put them into service at some point later on, preferably with a thermostatic controller to stop them from running all the time, I also salvaged components from my Internet Radio project including the speaker still inside the box, the amplifier is still in situ, I removed its regulator and the 5V regulator I used to run the latter of the two Pis, this regulator is a 7805 and puts out around 4.98V DC when fed from a supply greater than it, I might use this as a USB outlet regulator and have a handy charge point in my shack, of course I do need to provide adequate filtering and tie the data lines to tell the phone what it can pull, though that information should be readily available on the Internet as a lot of phone chargers should now be reverse-engineered (the regulator is 1A though is fitted with a heatsink so may at a push work higher).
So tomorrow I may tinker a bit more if I have time and start extra revision on my Advanced tonight again if I have time.
73 de 2E0EIJ
Sunday, 20 January 2019
Adding some 'retro' to the shack
I love old tech, which is one reason why I enjoy radio so much as you can still get radios that are very old yet still work very well, and near enough all antenna designs are getting on a bit now and if it isn't broken why fix it?
So in my collection of random bits of electronics I had lying around I had a moving coil DC voltmeter that looks quite old, and works fine, all it needed was a resistor on the positive line (I used the resistor that was originally used on it retrieved from the wiring loom of the equipment I'd salvaged it from, which I measured at about 30k), two wires, and the meter readjusting to read zero when no voltage was applied, I then promptly wired this into my Maplin 13.8V DC 7A power supply and it read about 13.8V (which tallies with my multimeter), the meter will find a new home when I custom build a new supply for the radios, as the 7A supplied by the Maplin supply is not adequate for some of my higher power radios, such as my CRT SS9900, which is capable of 50 watt transmit, though interestingly when I tested the K-po EA35 linear this was well within spec of the power supply though I have not tested current draw fully as yet.
The idea is that I build this meter into the housing of the new power supply because it's so retro, it mounts using a couple of threaded studs on the back so hole cutting into panels is not an issue, and when I go to the next rally I go to I'm going to look for some of these as well as ammeter versions because they have this retro charm, so when this new custom supply is built I can see how much current is being pulled as well as what the output voltage is.
I even took a photograph of it on the operating power supply, the supply is a big heavy linear one, which I have owned for years initially for CB use, then it got used for my VV898 and then my KT-8900D, the latter being a 25 watt radio and does not draw a lot of current despite this high transmission power, wondering how they've done that.
The reason the wire to positive is pink and not red is because this was the wire the resistor was already soldered to, I used a black wire for negative to make it pretty clear how this wired up as the meter is polarised, and wiring it in reverse would cause the needle to go the opposite way and potentially break the meter, and it looks the part with the power supply, sadly though Maplin went out of business last year and the XM21X bench power supply can only be had second hand, however regulated supplies like that aren't popular anymore due to modern switch mode supplies being much cleaner from an RF standpoint due to much better filtering than older designs, and their output currents significantly better and of course switch mode supplies are small and lightweight.
This supply currently drives the blue LEDs inside my homebrew extension speaker and the KT-8900D, and gets occasional use for CB testing as I don't go on 11-meters from home, however I am working to solve that issue in a stealth manner, hopefully it will be solved soon.
These moving coil meters can be picked up at radio rallies and also if you look on eBay you'll often find them, sure digital displays can be a bit more accurate but they just don't have that cool factor.
73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730
So in my collection of random bits of electronics I had lying around I had a moving coil DC voltmeter that looks quite old, and works fine, all it needed was a resistor on the positive line (I used the resistor that was originally used on it retrieved from the wiring loom of the equipment I'd salvaged it from, which I measured at about 30k), two wires, and the meter readjusting to read zero when no voltage was applied, I then promptly wired this into my Maplin 13.8V DC 7A power supply and it read about 13.8V (which tallies with my multimeter), the meter will find a new home when I custom build a new supply for the radios, as the 7A supplied by the Maplin supply is not adequate for some of my higher power radios, such as my CRT SS9900, which is capable of 50 watt transmit, though interestingly when I tested the K-po EA35 linear this was well within spec of the power supply though I have not tested current draw fully as yet.
The idea is that I build this meter into the housing of the new power supply because it's so retro, it mounts using a couple of threaded studs on the back so hole cutting into panels is not an issue, and when I go to the next rally I go to I'm going to look for some of these as well as ammeter versions because they have this retro charm, so when this new custom supply is built I can see how much current is being pulled as well as what the output voltage is.
I even took a photograph of it on the operating power supply, the supply is a big heavy linear one, which I have owned for years initially for CB use, then it got used for my VV898 and then my KT-8900D, the latter being a 25 watt radio and does not draw a lot of current despite this high transmission power, wondering how they've done that.
This supply currently drives the blue LEDs inside my homebrew extension speaker and the KT-8900D, and gets occasional use for CB testing as I don't go on 11-meters from home, however I am working to solve that issue in a stealth manner, hopefully it will be solved soon.
These moving coil meters can be picked up at radio rallies and also if you look on eBay you'll often find them, sure digital displays can be a bit more accurate but they just don't have that cool factor.
73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730
Wednesday, 9 January 2019
Beginning the antenna experiments
Today I popped out briefly to get a bite to eat, I rewarded myself from fighting the cold I've had the last few days and completing the tidy up of my living room after the slowest progress on Earth by getting something to eat from the pizza shop I work at, where I will be going this evening, while I was out I called in at a discount store at the local shopping park and picked up a roll of steel wire, I know copper wire works, as it is logical, though most commercial antennas are made of steel or aluminium as it generally is cheaper, the wire I bought is galvanised so should not rust though corrosion around dissimilar metals may pose a problem.
I still have a square SO239, the last one I ever bought from Maplin since it disappeared last year, and this could be used, the band? 11-meters, I already have a T2LT for that band but it is so narrow banded it will not work at all on 10-meters and I am keen to experiment to see if the trusted T2LT can be beat on 11 with anything else and if a good antenna can be made to work on 11 and 10, though lacking an antenna analyser this means testing will take place in the FM portion of 10-meters for that band, 11-meter tests can take place on any of the 80 channels at present though I avoid testing on channel 9 on both sets of channels, the other part of 10-meter testing will reveal just how much power I'd be able to run through the antenna (up to legal limits) before it would fail, though on 10 I can legally run 50 watts and 11 it is 4 watts or 12 watts PEP on SSB.
So let the antenna experiments begin
73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730
I still have a square SO239, the last one I ever bought from Maplin since it disappeared last year, and this could be used, the band? 11-meters, I already have a T2LT for that band but it is so narrow banded it will not work at all on 10-meters and I am keen to experiment to see if the trusted T2LT can be beat on 11 with anything else and if a good antenna can be made to work on 11 and 10, though lacking an antenna analyser this means testing will take place in the FM portion of 10-meters for that band, 11-meter tests can take place on any of the 80 channels at present though I avoid testing on channel 9 on both sets of channels, the other part of 10-meter testing will reveal just how much power I'd be able to run through the antenna (up to legal limits) before it would fail, though on 10 I can legally run 50 watts and 11 it is 4 watts or 12 watts PEP on SSB.
So let the antenna experiments begin
73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730
Tuesday, 8 January 2019
examining the other accessories sold with the RoadCom-FS
So after my last post I returned to the shack and had a proper look at the other bits I got, the magmount needs a new cable but that is not a big problem as I will look into this at a later date anyway, the mount converter to convert an SO239 mount to 3/8" fitting seemed fine and my orbitor screwed into it without a problem, the switch had some corrosion on some of the SO239 connectors so I had a quick peek inside, the switch was very simple, in being only a switch and some stiff wire connecting the SO239s to the switch and presumably the chassis connecting them all to ground, it functions fine, I did a test of it into both the Zetagi dummy load and the saltwater dummy load, though the saltwater load needs a little calibration though it still works, the switch worked with RF through it no problem, that also allowed me to test a couple of patch leads that were included, they were functioning fine.
The RoadCom-FS itself has been put back into the car for tests, I still have the Grant II and the SS9900 in the car as well, and as I have a long list of things to tidy up, and the car is one of them, they will probably make it back up to the house at the point I tidy the car out, though as part of the big tidy up I am doing I will more than likely have to do some tip runs before the car can be cleaned out so it may not be for a while just yet.
With all the tests done it's time to do the big test, putting the RoadCom-FS on the road, and advertising the benefits of two-way radio communications as I go of course, and as some hobbyists move up to Amateur radio from CB, much like I did in a sense, it could encourage more people to get on the air and hopefully we'll have some more M7 calls out there soon.
73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730
The RoadCom-FS itself has been put back into the car for tests, I still have the Grant II and the SS9900 in the car as well, and as I have a long list of things to tidy up, and the car is one of them, they will probably make it back up to the house at the point I tidy the car out, though as part of the big tidy up I am doing I will more than likely have to do some tip runs before the car can be cleaned out so it may not be for a while just yet.
With all the tests done it's time to do the big test, putting the RoadCom-FS on the road, and advertising the benefits of two-way radio communications as I go of course, and as some hobbyists move up to Amateur radio from CB, much like I did in a sense, it could encourage more people to get on the air and hopefully we'll have some more M7 calls out there soon.
73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730
Monday, 7 January 2019
Team RoadCom-FS UK in the shack (and a stint on the road too)
The Team RoadCom-FS UK and other bits (a switch, a K-po linear amplifier and a combi SWR meter along with some very used antenna mounts and cables) arrived today and after visual inspection tests were then carried out on the radio and amplifier, the radio had an intact fuse, however the amplifier had a blown under rated fuse covered over with foil, a big no-no for electrical safety so a trip to the local auto parts store for a replacement fuse and a safe test could be carried out, the fuse did not blow, and the amp has only been tested for FM operation, not AM and SSB as yet, these tests, along with the radio on its own, were done into the dummy load, running the rig with the amp off though still in line gives the rig's legal output, so all is good.
The rig was put onto the antenna on the car for the run out to the auto parts place, and an opportunity was taken to test the SWR meter which is working just fine as well so now I once again have 3 SWR meters for CB/11 meters, though I will continue to use the Zetagi one as that can cover most of HF, but it is nice to have extras.
The rest of it, the antenna switch, cables and mounts will be given a proper once over at some point today, as noted above the coax cables were very used, some having been removed from vehicles, the magmount is indeed a Sirio magmount and appears to be an older one, there is a fixed body mount of PL259 type and an adaptor to 3/8" along with another 3/8" type mount (my orbitor is a 3/8" mounting antenna), the biggest surprise was a cable with two PL259s crimped on it and the cable marked as "low loss", but without knowing the specifics of this cable I would not know if it truly was low loss, the cable was intact for it's run, it's short but that shouldn't be a major issue.
So with the RF generating components tested, the SWR meter also tested that leaves me to test all these cables and recycle what I can.
73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730
The rig was put onto the antenna on the car for the run out to the auto parts place, and an opportunity was taken to test the SWR meter which is working just fine as well so now I once again have 3 SWR meters for CB/11 meters, though I will continue to use the Zetagi one as that can cover most of HF, but it is nice to have extras.
The rest of it, the antenna switch, cables and mounts will be given a proper once over at some point today, as noted above the coax cables were very used, some having been removed from vehicles, the magmount is indeed a Sirio magmount and appears to be an older one, there is a fixed body mount of PL259 type and an adaptor to 3/8" along with another 3/8" type mount (my orbitor is a 3/8" mounting antenna), the biggest surprise was a cable with two PL259s crimped on it and the cable marked as "low loss", but without knowing the specifics of this cable I would not know if it truly was low loss, the cable was intact for it's run, it's short but that shouldn't be a major issue.
So with the RF generating components tested, the SWR meter also tested that leaves me to test all these cables and recycle what I can.
73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730
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