Hi all,
Hope everyone who went enjoyed Dayton. Nice to see Jay, K4OGG; Neal,
K4EA; Steve, K4RF and others at the big one.I was worn out after the first
day. I can't take much of non -stop ham radio talk. It's radio for
breakfast, lunch, contest dinner, then hospitality suites where they talk
even more radio! Three days of that and I'm ready to go home BIG TIME!
Thank goodness for wine, women and song!
I managed to find everything I yearned for. One of the
goodies I bought at Dayton was a band output detector for use with 12vdc
relays. Unfortunately all of my external relays require 28vdc. Thank
goodness for Radio shack and their little blue 12vdc relays and project
boxes. I whipped together a driver board for 5 bands and can now experience
the pleasure of instant band change/low power with the FT1000MP. Next step
is to figure out a way to autotune the AL1200! Now I have more of an
incentive to enter an NAQP or two since I don't have to worry about being
on the wrong antenna.
I also found a couple of those green ,military surplus,
connectors. These were 24 pin jobs with a chassis mount and the matching
male plug. I was having lots of problems with the Cinch Jones 8 pin
connectors on my rotor disconnect cables. The alum- inum corrosion was
causing the meters to not display direction or keeping the brake from
engaging/disengaging. I replaced 3 pairs of these connectors with a single
surplus connector and now have instant, reliable quick disconnects of 3
rotor/control boxes for the HF antennas. The best part of this was that the
chassis mount fit PERFECTLY inside an outdoor, waterproof electrical a/c
outlet box with single outlet cover. Lift the cover and insert connector
and voila, 3 rotors at your disposal and instant disconnect for lightning
protection.
Also bought an International Radio 250hz cw filter for the
MP. I really needed this! 500 hz is sometimes a little too wide in a
contest..... I have converted the backup rig (TS850) into the second
station along with the Henry 3KD Classic amp. I hope to use this as an RTTY
station when I get the 599zx RTTY software up and working. I need to find a
cheap Windows 95 install CD and I'll be RYing on 20 meters.My radio
computers are still on Windows 3.1 and DOS.... Looking forward to the IARU
contest where I hope to do a single op effort. I'll be able to test the new
3/3 15m antennas. Will sure be nice to get my mind off of work!
73 Guys and hope you all have a good time in Atlanta! Ken
N4UK
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