Tag Archives: Ham Shack

Loop Antenna

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Got side tracked once again and haven’t posted anything for a month.

To finish what I learned from the 070 Podex three day weekend, I will tell you what I did on memorial day.  I had been running a 100′ windom that worked reasonably well, but I couldn’t tune 15 meters and 40/80 was kind of iffy.

So on memorial day I enlisted the help of my two sons and we added another 120′ of wire to the windom and made a 220′ loop out of it.  It goes ac-crossed the top of the house and then to the back of the lot between two trees and forms a rectangle.

Now I can tune 80-6 meters with no problem and I can even use my Heathkit SB-200 without getting so much rfi into the house that is shuts off the LCD TV.  I have made a lot of contacts with it and have had good reports every time.

Posted in Projects

Power Supply Hum

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Things that make you go hum…  Or maybe bonkers.  I have a Astron RM-50A that I have been using to power two Motorola units that I use for VHF/UHF.  Yes, overkill, but I have been planning on putting it in a console that will also house my Seinna and my Icom IC-746Pro.Astron RM-50A

This last week I finished constructing the console, so now comes the fun part of taking everything apart and putting it back together.  Since I got the PS, it has always had a pretty annoying hum to it, so I thought now would be the time to work on it.

I took the cover off of it, dreading the possibility of what I would find.  I have read too many Amateur Radio horror stories about de-laminated transformers and such.  You know, best to just pretend it doesn’t hum.  Anyway, I found the transformer to be in decent shape, so I checked the nuts and found a few loose and one on the big capacitor missing.  I tightened them up and replaced the missing one.

It seems to be better, but I do still hear some hum when it is on.  The top cover really deflects right over the transformer when I first turn it on.  It doesn’t help to apply pressure to the top cover, so I don’t think that is it.  I guess I will just see what happens.

BTW, I did let the capacitors discharge before working on it.  That’s why I am able to make this post.

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Weekend Shack Cleaning Results

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I spent a couple of hours this weekend cleaning the Office/Shack.  I am always amazed what can happen in there over a few months.  I found about 10 pens and a couple of tools that I had been looking for the past month or so.

The main thing that I came a crossed was a shelf I purchased last year from Richard Robinson K4EIH/G  (www.Novexcomm.com) that would allow me to mount my two Motorola radios side by side in an equipment rack.  I started building a rack out of reclaimed wood and didn’t get it finished yet.  So they have been sitting on the floor getting dusty and kicked around.  So I went ahead and put them on the rack and they are laying on top of the power supply right now.  At least they are not getting kicked around any more.

This in turn led me to work on the rack.  More on this later.

So instead of running out on the weekends to buy more stuff, sometimes it is cheaper to find old stuff in your shack and finish those half finished projects.

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Cleaning the Shack

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I am not a pack rat per se.  I will go along and get busy, take on too many projects and the next thing you know, I can’t walk a crossed the office.  Then when it finally gets bad enough, I spent a few hours cleaning and organizing most of it.  Some stuff gets put in a box for later (which I never get to).

I know it affects the quality of the projects I do.  Most of the time I can’t find things, I loose parts, etc.  So here I am, today and this weekend I am going to once again clean the Office/Ham Shack.  Wish me luck!

If you have any ideas on how I can break myself of this bad habit, please share.  I will probably write it down or print it out and promptly lose it under a pile of papers, but I will probably post it here so maybe some of the other Hams out there with my sickness might be motivated to better organize their shacks.

Posted in Random Thoughts