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Getting Back in the Saddle

The past year or so has been really hectic.  My professional workload has been much higher than I would like. Things are starting to settle down now. Time to give some attention to my much-neglected ham station.

This morning’s task was to get my weather station connected to the Internet once again.

My weather station is an older Acu-Rite 5-in-1. I was using an old laptop to collect it’s data and send it to Weather Underground.  Several months ago the old PC died but I never got around to doing anything about it.

With a little spare time on my hands, I ordered a replacement laptop from Dell.  This morning I unboxed it, and set it up.  I installed Acu-Rite’s data collection and connectivity software, and within minutes everything was fully operational again.

Click Here to view my Current Weather.

Building the New Heathkit Clock

I could stand it no longer – I HAD to build something. I decided it would be Heathkit’s resurrected Most Accurate Clock (GC-1006). Way back when, I lived 1/2 mile from the Phoenix, AZ Heathkit store. I bet I was there once a week. At one time my entire ham station was Heathkit.

A full assembly review will follow, but in this post I want to talk about the tools that make the building not only possible but pleasurable.

LED Magnifying Lamp

I’m 66 years old now, and my eyes are not what they were when I was nineteen. This thing is nice and bright and the magnifier allows me to give those solder joints a close inspection. I got mine from Amazon.

Aven 17010 Adjustable Circuit Board Holder

For $12.27 I was not expecting much, but this quality of this thing surprised me. I wish I had bought this 30 years ago when I was building Heathkits all the time. It holds the pCB nicely, and the PCB can be rotated so you can work on either side. I purchased it from Amazon.

Weller WE1010NA Digital Soldering Station

Nothing symbolized the words “I’m Back” more than this.  Many years and two houses ago (and back when my entire ham station was Heathkit) I owned an older (non-digital) Weller soldering station.  I loved it.  In 2007, I moved into a new house.  It was a very nice house. I had kinda lost interest in Ham Radio and so the fact that there was no room for a ham station didn’t bother.  Nor did the fact that there was an HOA and antenna restrictions. I sold all my ham gear, my test equipment, and my tools. Including that Weller soldering station.

So when I moved into this house out in the country and saw that I would have room for a nice bench along the wall behind me to hold ham gear, and there were no antenna restrictions, I started reacquiring the tools and gear. And one of those tools was this Weller soldering station.

Goin’ Down Memory Lane

My first HF rig was a Heathkit HW-100


I bought it use.   I think I paid $125 for in around 1979. It was old and tired when I bought it.  As a result, I probably spend as much time with the covers off, fixing it as I did operating.  I discovered first-hand what the term ‘gassy finals’ meant.

By then, Heathkit had already brought out its slightly improved successor, the HW_101.  The 101 had a switchable CW filter so you could switch between SSB and CW filters.  It also had several technical improvements.  I bought the HW-101 manual and spent a lot of time with the 100 and 101 manuals and schematics side by side.  I eventually incorporated most of the 101’s improvements into my 100.

 

Drake Station Is Now Complete

I decided to add an MN-2000 tuner to my Drake station to round it out.  I now have my have station set up to my satisfaction. it’s interesting that the single small Kenwood TS-590s way over on the right contains all the functionality of those three big Drake cabinets.

PSK31 Is Great For Rag Chewing

Ipsk31 TS-590 Mact’s like PSK31 was invented just for guys like me.

I live in an HOA with antenna restrictions. I try to operate in ‘stealth mode’ (low power, hidden antennas). I also enjoy ragchewing. I get a lot of satisfaction out of finding out about other people and places.

Operating PSK31 couldn’t be much simpler. It’s just my TS-590, MacBookPro, and a USB cable between them. The Mac version of fldigi is free and easy to set up. 20 watts of power is all it takes. (I could probably do it with much less.)

PSK31 is keyboard-to-ketboard.  A modern version of RTTY (I admit I miss the sounds and smell of my old Model 19 teletype, but that’s a different story.)

Another thing about PSK-31: It’s quiet. With the AF Gain control and TX MON controls turned all the way down it is absolutely quiet in the ham shack – Great for late night and early morning QSOs.

So if you too are a ragchewer frustrated by antenna restrictions give PSK31 a try.

 

 

 

 

New Heat Pump = Summer QRM is Gone!

I’ve been plagued here at the new QTH with terrible QRM during the summer on 20M. There was no question is was caused by the heat pump.  As long at it was off everything was great. When the heat pump was on the QRM was S9. It made 20M unusable during the summer.

A couple of months ago we needed to have the old heat pump replaced.  The QRM is gone!

10M, 15M Band Opening Today

I’ve gotten to where I distrust the solar-terrestrial data as a predictor of band conditions.

Today’s chart says that 17M-15M is Fair and 12M-10M is Poor. Yet, 15M is hopping.  Stations participating in the Washington State Salmon Run QSO Contest can be heard up and down the 15M band.  Here in AZ they are booming in.  I literally walk walking up and down the band contacting every station. Many remarked upon how great my signal sounded (I’m running 100W and a dipole in the attic – what a morale boost, eh?)

I was hearing stations all along the eastern seaboard and down into the south talking with the WA stations and both end were booming in here.

I thought, “What’s going on on 10M?” I switched.  Granted, I called CQ and did not make any contacts but I heard many beacons.  10M was open but nobody knew it.

I’m now an Extra Class

One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2013 was to upgrade from a General to Amateur Extra.I accomlished that today.

I’d been casually studying using the Gordon West book but about three weeks ago I discovered two things:

  1. I took an online practice exam and almost passed it
  2. The local ham radio club would be holding VE testing in three weeks.

I’ve been hitting it pretty hard for the past three weeks, taking the online exam at qrz.com a couple times a day and giving the Gordon West book serious study.

Today I aced the exam.  That’s right. I aced it.  No one was more surprised then me.

Thoughts From a Returning Ham

I’m really getting a lot of enjoyment out of ham radio this time around.  I was inactive for about 15 years and got fired up again about 6 months ago. I promptly went out and bought a Kenwood TS-590s and put up an Alpa Delta DX-EE in the attic. Recently I added a Heil ProSet Elite headset.

Before the break my rig was a used Heathkit HW-100 that was old and tired when I bought it. Antennas were a mixture of dipoles, inverted Vs, and a beam up at about 25 feet. Each contact was a struggle.  Even minor pileups were impenetrable.

Things are different today. I certainly cannot compete with big guns but I’ve had no problems in minor pileups. I can make contacts with ease and have no trouble being understood. And that’s with 100 watts and a dipole in the attic.

A lot of it is the radio (I call the TS-590 a ‘Miracle Radio’). The speech processor adds punch to my signal on transmit and the DSP allows me to pull the signals out of the noise.  I have noticed a definite improvement since I added the Heil headset too.

 

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