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Electric Utilities is one that you’ll want after a big storm and lots of power outages.
http://forums.radioreference.com/new-hampshire-radio-discussion-forum/110044-psnh-frequencies.html
Also during an emergency you might want to be able to monitor FRS/GMRS frequencies – These are the low cost HTs you see on many building supply and in many stores for public consumption.
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/FRS/GMRS_combined_channel_chart
Hi Murray:
I echo Fred’s comments. Besides Fred’s blog, I really recommend reading http://www.K0BG.com, it’s “The book” on mobile HF. I’ll be happy to show you my mobile HF install and talk antennas, etc.
73 Dave N1RF
Hi Tony,
Where was this question last month, when I was doing mine.
I put put my ground rod about 3-4 feet away from my house. To sink the ground rod I used a water drill which worked really well and is very easily constructed for less tha $20. Here is essentially the model I used.
Attached to the ground rod I have a Z bracket (the thing you got at HRO) with two lightening arrestors, one for my vhf, and one for my hf antennas, I also have my #6 solid copper wire which I have run to the ground bar of the AC panel inside the house. Like you my AC main ground is a long way from the shack entrance. It is important to ground your lightening protection to your AC main ground otherwise one day you touch something and you become the element that completes the circuit- not a good outcome.
For RF grounding, I use separate 1/2 inch braided copper to a 4′ length of 3/4″ copper pipe from each of my components attached with hose clamps. Then 3/4 inch copper braid also attached with hose clamp to just before the exit of my house where I have joined it to #2 heavy gauge stranded copper out through the wall and to the ground rod.
I will upload pictures when I get home this weekend.
Like you at the Tech Night, I struggle with disconnecting the feed lines outside of the house, how do I keep my coax from getting wet? I waterproofed the connections the best I could at install with the rubberized coax tape and electrical tape, which completely covers the attachments on both sides of my lightening arrestors, hoping this would be a somewhat permanent connection. I don’t relish the idea of doing this everyday. I do however unplug the feed lines from my gear inside the shack.
The correct answer, of course, is to unplug outside, but I wonder how many folks really do that? I would welcome comments on that point with the full understanding and acknowledgement that this is merely an expression of what others do, and in no way advice on how I should proceed!
I mostly followed Fred’s (AB1OC) article when planning, any errors in implementation were mine…
73
Greg
Fred I think having the 4 x 4 concreted in the ground provide to me a couple of options that I might not otherwise have it allows me to elevate the rotor should I go with the bottom mounted rotor as opposed to a mast mounted rotor that really enables me to keep the rotor out of the snow in the winter time. The additional rigidity that the 4 x 4 provides would allow me to actually put a ladder on the 4 x 4 not in the mast itself which should help when extending the mast. Also I am hoping it will provide horizontal support additional to the guys.
Curtis:
FB. VERY COOL! Congratulations. And the JT contacts you have logged
on your QRZ page look impressive.
Dave N1RF
Thought you might enjoy a link on Straight Key Night (SKN) operations. The videos demonstrate a variety of vintage radios and keys. Note the general speed of the contacts… The operator must form each dit and dah by closing a manual key contact. This requires better dexterity and control than that needed for an electronic keyer.
CAUTION: those early key contacts had over 300 VDC on them (keyed cathode operation). And the real early vintage equipment was often built on a wooden frame (and quite exposed).
Some of the setups also show “rock bound” (crystal controlled) setups using FT243 crystals. These could often be obtained as Military Surplus ( slightly below the bands) and then the crystal could be ground with an abrasive to move the frequency higher and into the CW band. The quartz crystal required care during the grinding process as they can be rather fragile. I saw a video on youtube for those interested in the crystals history.
ARRL Straight Key Night – another side of CW operations
Straight Key Night 2013 Fun with Simple Gear – WU2D
– Mike gave the club an excellent presentation at the April 2015 club meeting.
Quartz Crystal Documentary – Crystals go to war
FT243 – crystal grinding video
Fabrication d’un tube Triode – Bonus video
– (hint: it’s a hollow state transistor with a filament) 😉
Enjoy
I thought I would share some Morse Code links with some others exploring the CW -questions forum who want to explore the process further. I have added a couple of “fun” links as well.1) “ how it works: Morse Code (720p) ” – early ARMY training tape– some good details2) “ technique of hand sending “ – 1944 NAVY training film– using a straight key, explanation of timing for good sending.– good background information4) “ abbreviations used in cw communications “ – by Ray Anderson– discussion of the many abbreviations that are often used for CW mode5) “ five tips for learning morse code “– thoughts on good and bad learning techniques.6) “ DA operating W6CF ” – enjoy7) “ the rythem of the code ” – morse code set to music– fun introduction for the younger crowdNOTE: There are lots of other CW training sites out there – but this should help wet the appetite of those interested in exploring this medium. Members that discover other helpful sites are encouraged to share there links with the forum.The method used to learn CW is intended to help you avoid the old mental speed limits that almost everyone encountered. The original Novice and Technician licenses required 5 wpm CW, the General and Advanced License required 13 wpm CW and the Extra class required 20 wpm CW. Natural “learning speed” limits were encountered at about 1 or 2 wpm below each speed required for a higher license. These “plateaus” were a serious problem that the CW operator had to deal with. The learning process can be thought of as learning a “fresh” set of characters at each new operating speed.
Many learning methods evolved to try to improve learning CW and improving newcomers skills. By learning characters at higher speeds with larger spacing between characters should make it easier to learn the unique rhythm or sound of the characters at higher speeds. Slowing the character rhythm down should help avoid the traditional learning problems with starting to learn at 5 wpm and having to grow from there.
Characters are combined to form words and you will eventually recognize the words without hearing or focusing on the indvidual letters that make up the word. Again, it’s all about learning to hear the rhythms – so I would encourage you to turn your keyer speed control down when engaged in a lower CW contact or if you receive a QRS request. There is somewhat of a “balance” where the method you suggest would work – perhaps at average speeds of 16 – 18 wpm or higher… but for now, I would strongly suggest you turn the keyer speed knob down.
A good CW operator will always accommodate the operator on the other end! If they send very slowly – you should try to send in a similar manner – don’t need an exact match… but caution if your speed makes it easy for you, but hard for them.
Exchanges can be difficult sometimes given the “texting” style shortcuts that are taken during a QSO. Example: “R R tnx fer the call es wx hr is vry cold. QRM and QRN makes cpy difficult.” Can be a challenge sometimes – number 1 rule – have fun.
Hope this helps – but don’t be afraid to experiment some as well. Lets see what other opinions are out there.
The IC-7300 has an option to export the 12 KHz IF signal. That IF signal can appear on the USB sound card audio or on the ACCessory audio. But the manual does not define how that 12 KHz IF works.
The Gnu Octave program has the ability to plot graphs of data and to read data from the sound card, so maybe it can show what’s going on on the IF.
After some work with Octave…
- The USB sound card supports two channels and they appear to have identical contents…but need more work on that
- The IF is centered on 12 KHz
- USB signals are above 12 KHz
- LSB signals are below 12 KHz
- AM and FM span across the 12 KHz center freq
- The IF filtering has already been applied
I was sort of hoping that the IF had a wider bandwidth but it does not.