Ham Shack Upgrade II

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Some more upgrades to the shack.  I picked up a 8 month old Kenwood TS-590s a couple of weeks Kenwood TS-590sago.  It matches the TS-790 and I have always been a big fan of Kenwood.  So now I finally have my all Kenwood Shack.

First impression of the Kenwood are “Wow”.  The setup was easy, just a single USB cable and I have the Cat control and USB sound card setup for digital.  I seem to be able to hear and get into QSO’s with less power.

I will post more impressions as I go along, plus some pictures of the rebuilt ham shack when I have time.

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Ham Shack Upgrade

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I am in the process of upgrading the ham shack.  I collected a variety of different rigs over the years, most of them vintage.  A few months back, I was looking around the Office/Shack and realized they took up a lot of room and I hadn’t turned most of them on in over a year.Kenwood TS-790

So I started to sell off most of the vintage stuff.  I got rid of my Heathkit SB-104, and my SB-200 amp.  I have couple of  old Kenwood Hybrids left to go and a couple of HW-101’s that I plan to sell yet.

Then the other day I realized that I always wanted some modern Kenwood equipment.  So I found a TS-790A on ebay and I just got a TS-590S.  So as soon as I get them setup, I will have my Kenwood shack.  Now I need to sell my Icom 746pro.  The Motorola Spectras that I have been using for UHF and VHF will get put in my Scout that I am restoring.

Now I need to redesign the shack so that it is not so cramped and I have a bench area.  I think that is what I will do for Father’s Day.

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America at a crossroads

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I just read a really informative article interview of  Neal DeGrasse about our space program.  I agree with a lot of what he says.  It seems the last couple of decades we have invested money in making money out of thin air.  Wall Street, the financial markets you know the “Services industry”.

While that is important, we seem to have lost our way in the world and ultimately the universe.  If we won’t or can’t make investments in science and technology, we will just have to accept the fact that we will eventually suffer the fate of all great empires.  Mediocracy.

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Fall Ham Shack Activities

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The ham shack has been pretty quiet since Field Day. Getting work done, other hobbies and vacation.

At the beginning of October, I got to work again and made some changes on my antenna. I added a Comtek W2FMI balun from DXengineering and changed to using a LDG AT-1000Pro antenna tuner. What a difference! No rf in the shack any more and instant tuning.

I have been running JT-65 HF mostly and I am playing with the latest version of JT-Alert. It’s a great upgrade and Laurie, VK3AMA is doing a wonderful job with the upgrades on the program.

That’s all for now, as winter sets in I will post some more info on the various projects I will be working on.

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Heathkit is back in the Kit business!!!

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For all of you that are fans of the old Heathkit products, finally you have hope.

Take a look at heathkit.com and you will see they are launching two new kits this August with more to come.

They are asking for ideas for new kits, so email them at info@heathkit.com with your Amateur Radio ideas.

I have been a big fan of Heathkit for a long time and love building kits, so this is great news to me.

How about Switching Power Supplies, Antenna Tuners, Small SDR Transceivers?

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Better Late than Never?

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That is a question not a statement.  I will admit it, I am a procrastinator.

When I got back into the hobby a few years back, I didn’t have any QSL cards.  When I got my General ticket and started making contacts, I thought I would just print out some QSL cards for the few that I got by mail and that would be good.

KB0ASQ QSL CardWell of course I fought the printer when feeding the card stock and then I didn’t like the design I came up with and of course when I designed them, I needed to send them in an envelope and they didn’t fit in a standard envelope.

So of course they just piled up on my desk.

Not anymore.  I finally got to the point where I was feeling guilty and just ordered some from www.cheapqsl.com.  They showed up in about 3-4 days and today I spent about an hour filling them out.  To anyone that was waiting on a qsl card, I sincerely apologize and promise to not let it happen again.

A couple of things I have learned from this:

1.  Keep it simple.  I need to just have a card that I don’t have to mess with putting in an envelope.  One that I can just fill out, slap a stamp on and mail.

2.  I don’t need to mess with label printing programs.  Since most of my qsl’s are through eQSL.com, I don’t really receive too many in the mail.  So for me it’s just best to hand write them out and get them taken care of before I push them under a pile of papers.

Sometimes I tinker too much and end up not fulfilling my obligations.  I really need to take that to heart with everything else in my life.

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eWAS finally

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I finally got the eQSL eWAS award.  I have been waiting on South Dakota since about March or April.  Sunday night after field day, I came down to the shack to turn the equipment off and noticed a Ø call sign on JT65-HF.  It took me a couple of times, but we made a connection.

So in a matter of about 2 minutes I made that last contact needed to get the award.  Thanks, KØJV I really appreciated.

KBØASQ's eWAS

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