985 Workbench: 2024-11-18

My Weeks in Radio

QRP on a couple Hawaiian islands
Not much 2m activity on the islands
- added some repeaters and scanned
POTA
- no summits
- all successful activations via FT8/FT4
  - allowed me to use pskreporter to study my propagation on different bands, even if other stations didn’t answer my call
- practiced some CW on the beach when I didn’t get out the computer
- mostly turned up to 8W
- mostly 10m-30m and everything in between
- challenging to be on an island where you have to go thousands of miles or you reach no one.
- 6 parks and 2 trails on 2 islands:
  - inside Diamondhead caldera
  - atop steaming Kilauea
  - rocky lava fields
  - sandy beaches
- reached:
  - west: Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Japan, Russia, China, South Cook Islands, Samoa
  - east: North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Dominican Republic, Argentina
- antennas:
  - 40M EFHW where I had room,
  - 21.5M-long EFRW with less room
  - vertical whip and coil attached to a fishing pole for a less conspicuous setup on some beaches
It may be time to start cobbling together an allstar node.

Others

W3JAM, Jeff: Jerry Sevic (w2fmi) books on transformers and baluns
KC3TMZ, Matt:
- Lives in a park
- Built a dipole and analyzed it
  - really good SWR: 1.048:1
  - 20 ft into the tree
  - reached California on 20m
  - ran into ARRL Sweepstakes
  - dipole in a tree is a lot of work
  - playing with Inovato Hamclock
WA3VEE, Ron:
- worked ARRL Sweepstakes a bit
- cleared the bench
- may have gear to sell soon
KB3ZIM, Bob:
- avoided ARRL Sweepstakes
- enjoying 10m
- some 10m AM as well
- spent time in Honolulu and enjoyed the Diamondhead years ago
KC3RFG, Jim:
- had a balun fail
KC3YSM, Steve:
- getting an HF antenna up with help from Chuck and Bill
- George lent the launcher
KC3TYX, Vic:
- Sweepstakes: 75 contacts
- VaraC for keyboard chat on HF
  - lost settings and had to setup again
W3QP, Tim:
- found the 4th edition of the balun book on archive.org
- winding 2 wires around the toroid is a lot like winding coax
- winding 4 wires in opposite directions will give more bandwidtch
NA3CW, Chuck:
- learned lots from W2FMI book
  - W2FMI tested everything extensively
- got Steve’s antenna in the air…through the vines, thorns, etc
- normal nets, including PMA AM net.
- working on an ultimate transmatch tuner
KC3OOK, Bill:
- helped with Steve’s antenna today
- 2m band opening on Sunday: PA to Ottawa on DXView
W8CRW, CR:
- 985 breakfast
- showed wife around 10m tech area
AF3Z, Jim:
- built a Hartley transmitter for 1929 AMA event
  - 1 tube
  - 1-2W
  - worked 5 stations over 80 minutes
KV3JGB, Matt:
- 985 breakfast
- launched an antenna with help from 985-ers after breakfast
- starting cwops
W3MFB, Mike:
- just chatting locally on the radio
W3FES, Fred:
- building out a new, larger ham desk
W3MOW, Mike:
- quiet week

Questions

KC3TMZ, Matt:
- setting up shack in the garage, and ordered a hamclock. wifi is a bit weak. can he extend with a yagi?
  - W3CRW, CR:
    - years ago, had a yagi antenna for wifi, and it worked
    - wifi extender/repeater does even better
  - W3DIB, Greg:
    - trench fiber instead of cat5/6.
      - isolated from electrical storms
    - if you don’t need a ton of bandwidth, try wifi halow bridge on 900mhz.
      - 4Mb
    - yagi antenna may pull in noise from others
  - KB3ZIM, Bob: Adam, KB3ZUV, another 985-er, is working on a similar project
- flying with HTs?
  - WA3VEE, Ron:
    - bring a good copy of your license printed from cores
    - batteries must be carried on, not checked
  - KB3ZIM, Bob:
    - batteries are the concern
    - check size with the airline
  - KC3WWC, John:
    - wonderous bag of radio gear
      - HT
      - 10Ah lifepo4
      - QRP radio
      - antenna wires
      - if you check any gear, separate out the batteries to carry
  - WA3VEE, Ron:
    - sent link to website
    - limit 8wh, do the math.
    - precheck helps smooth the screening
  - W8CRW, CR:
    - CR has more trouble with carrying powertools since they’re not marked than HT
KB3ZIM, Bob:
- wants to get a wire for 160M in the air.
- could be a long wire with a tuner
- what’s a good length for a random wire
- W3QP, Tim: lots of tables out there
- KC3WWC: google “udel random wire”
  - always choke and counterpoise to avoid common mode current
- KB3ZIM, Bob:
  - google “ham radio secrets”
    - talks about tuning the counterpoise
  - could try a super-slinky
W3DIB, Greg:
- recently got on RF instead of
- has anyone reverse-engineered the serial connections for Yaesu
- W3QP, Tim: could use wireshark to look at serial traffic through usb serial adapter
- KC3WWC, John: there’s cat and drivers for everything
- W3DIB, Greg: this is a lesser radio without cat control, so he’s looking to control all the comms himself

My Weeks in Radio

Others

Questions

See also