W8VZM.COM

2012 in review

W8VZM Ron — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 04:06:06 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,600 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Is that the Island of Manhattan?

W8VZM Ron — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 23:42:42 +0000

This past week I completed the transition into my new position where I work. This puts me on regular daytime 8 hour days Monday thru Friday. I said goodbye to the 3:30am alarm and the 12 hour days. They are just a little too much for me at my age (lol). With the resulting extra sleep and reduced stress I was able to start to act like a regular human being again. Now to start back with my hobby.

I had previously announced my plan to build a 2N2-40. I was able to procure a lot of the parts and other needs at Dayton this spring. I had seen a blurb on one of the maker sites about using a diamond tip tile hole saw to make “islands” for Manhattan style construction. I found the saw at my local big box hardware. Below is card and a view of the saw.

Diamond Hole Saw

Hole saw for Islands. Business end is up.

I setup the drill press and tried it out. Wow, did it do a nice job. The islands are about the same size as the ones that you glue on. I guess you could use this saw to make them. My plan is to just drop the bit far enough to remove the copper to create the island. The drop figure I used is 0.02 in as I noted on the card for future reference. Below is a picture of the finished product.

The end result of the hole saw and some mounted components.

The two circles in the back are what the hole saw cut. The resistor is mounted across two islands with the cap as a bypass to the ground plane.

The disadvantage (or not) I see with this technique is that once the Island is cut there is no moving it. For projects with a established layout this is not a problem. Experimentation might be a little difficult but still could be done. I had a little issue with the rosin flux running into the groove. A little alcohol cleaned it up well. A suggestion from the QRP-L list was using paint or nail polish to provide a better look to the finished product. I was thinking about using a color for Tx and another color for Rx circuits.

So now I guess I need to get going on the rig. Ok now, what did I do with those parts?

It’s been a crazy summer!

W8VZM Ron — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 01:35:10 +0000

Wow I really let this blog go. It has been a crazy summer and fall so far. I have had too little time for radio recently, but I think that’s about to change. I will be changing positions within my company on 11/26. My hours will change from the 3 12 hour days that causes me to get up at 3:30AM. I will be on a regular 8 hour daytime schedule Monday thru Friday. I also will return to the technical end of things doing repair and maintenance on Dialysis equipment. With the change of positions and seasons, I hope to get active again in radio.

Last week along with all the end of season yard work I was able to put up another antenna. It is an old HyGain AV-18s vertical. I have about 50 feet of 7/16 hard line feeding it. Mounted in the back yard on a deck post with the base at about 5 feet above the ground. I am going to replace the base coil with a home brew one that hopefully will give me something better than my G5RV Jr. for 80 meters. I will post some pics when I get a few.

I did get to work a bit in the CQ WW DX Phone the other weekend. Got 3 all time new ones and some band fills. I am also planning to work the SS Phone this weekend.

I also picked up 3 12 volt 7 AH UPS units and am working on some plans for their use.

It’s good to be back.

Antenna Part Deaux

W8VZM Ron — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 19:27:11 +0000

G5RV Jr. Back in the air.

Today I put the G5RV Jr. back up. As you can see above the feed point is in the clear! It wasn’t before. Hopefully the clear feed point will work out much better for operating QRP. I knew the leaves and branches were reducing the radiation because the tuner settings changed from winter to summer. Although I have not checked it yet I expect to see dramatic changes in the tuner settings now that the tree is gone. If you look at the photo below you can see a wide shot of the antenna. The legs go over the tops of two Pine trees and are tied off. on the left of the picture the end is secured with a three foot bungee cord. It allows a little give with the wind (and falling Mulberry trees) and also has about 6 feet of the UV resistant end rope in a loop and secured to the fence. That way if the bungee breaks, the antenna doesn’t come all the way down. The darker part of the feed line is 300 ohm window line. At the edge of the garage roof it switches to grey RG-8X to the shack. By the way the Jr. is a converted WA2NAN Trutalk 204′ model as I don’t have enough room for that size. It is well constructed and has been in the air for 5 years at 3 different locations. In this photo you can also see the stump of the Mulberry tree and remaining sawdust.

Wide Shot

The right side of the antenna is though the top of a substantially larger Pine tree which is also on a rise in the yard. Below is a a street view of that tree with the antenna tied to the gutter. I know you can’t see it but that’s the idea isn’t it? So you get an idea of why the antenna in the pictures has a slope to it.

Street View

I will post some reports when I give it a try this week. I do have plans for a 31 ft vertical support for an 80 and 160 Inverted L for fall. When it is installed I will have coverage for all HF bands.

The Antenna Gods smiled upon me today!

W8VZM Ron — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 22:19:40 +0000

My HF antenna got stretched a little today. The G5RV Jr. runs from the corner of the second story roof over a Pine tree then a Mulberry tree and then another Pine tree and is tied off to a chain link fence. The feed point is in the middle of the Mulberry tree. Or at least it was until today. When I walked through the house this afternoon I noticed a low hanging branch and out I went to investigate. Well it was more than a branch, it was about half the tree. The Mulberry tree belongs to the neighbor and it had split about 3 foot down the middle. He is going to have it taken out. That is a wonderful thing for my antenna. It was not damaged in the fall. The bungee cord I use to maintain tension stretched a bit, it was time to replace it anyway. The best part about the tree getting removed is that the feed point and vertical component will now be in the clear. In the winter the bare tree didn’t seem to affect the radiation. The leaves seemed to affect it during the summer as you would expect. So even though I wont be on HF for the next couple of weeks, my signals should be a little better when I return!