Observations of the June ARRL VHF contest

 

I decided to try out My new SCU-17 digital interface CAT control for this contest.I only operated for a short time but used the contest to setup the interface and N1MM logger for the CAT function. Eventually I need to spend time with the interface to get it working on transmit--receive works very well along with CAT. Fact is the CAT function thru this interface works fast and flawless keeping track of bands and frequency as I turn the dial. The actual Control function seems to work also but I've not spent lots of time to understand the required keystrokes.

 I haven't operated this contest for many years and always had it running in the background while doing other chores in the shack. When bands are open its a hoot but during slow times- well like watching paint dry. The only fun part of the slow times was chatting on air with other local operators.

 Well times have changed! I didn't hear only one local and looking at DXmaps on the internet for activity I noticed when filtering out the digital activity showed--well very little SSB and CW during the time I was on. This contest at least during the slow propagation times has become a digital contest. I'm not criticizing this--actually a litttle jealous not having the digital working. It would have increased my operating time alot! 

 I did have a few 6m contacts when propagation was up but I only have a 10m mono bander with a tuner for 6m horizontal contacts so not the best situation. I also missed several active openings which even with My setup would have made a difference--it is the magic band!

 My last thought is even though My CAT set up works well, the rig only covers HF+6M so any contacts for 2m or 432 is on a radio not connected to My interface. It seems N1MM needs to have the USB disconnected before it will let me manually switch bands being used by the non-CAT connected radio. Just another reason for a all mode all band single radio I guess!

 73---Tim

Butternut HF6V antenna 40m trouble

 The table above shows the SWR before and after on My HF6V vertical antenna. I recently noticed this antenna would not auto tune on 40m , so I did a more in depth antenna check and realized i had lost good SWR on 80,40 and 30m. The upper bands - 20,15 and 10 tuned OK so the problem was not an open coax feed but more than likely a Capacitor,connection issue.

I read through the manual and realized the 80/40m capacitor assembly was maybe the problem area. I hope the door knob capacitors were Okay since they seem to be a rather pricy item to replace. I began by close examination of the connections, capacitors and related hardware. I did not see any particular issue so I took apart each connection one at a time . I used a anti-oxident compound on each connection I reassembled to prevent corrosion. 

 I periodically rechecked SWR before continuing on with too many connections but had not found any specific problem. Eventually I disassembled the door knob capacitors and found a large amount of oxidation on the screw threads where the capacitor and bracket connected. I cleaned this connection and put back together and tested for SWR. It now tested very good on 30 and 40m and even 80m tested good although for a limited bandwidth--exactly like the specifications show!

  This antenna works for now but I will need to check more connections before too long!

73---Tim

Why I like Radio

 

The picture above shows My first CB radio I purchased when I was in high school.It was a used radio that cost Me $75 which was a lot of money back then but a used radio was cheaper than a new purchase. It also was only a 23 channel CB because the FCC had not authorized the additional 40 channels common today. I think I bought this before I had a drivers license so I had it on my desk in my bedroom and used a 12v power supply. My Father allowed me to put up a small vertical antenna attached to the gable end of the house and I remember running a ground down to a short ground rod.It worked and I used it until I finally had a car to install it into.I still have this radio although I haven't used it in years.

  Like many Ham Radio operators My love of radio started with CB radio and shortwave. My father inadvertently introduced me to both- first he showed me a CB radio installed in his car on loan from the Police department which He was a reserve member. It was an old tube radio but listening to him talk to the station really peaked my interest. I also saved enough money to buy walkie-talkies from the local Holiday gas station. Holiday gas stations back then had an abundance of hunting,fishing and outdoor supplies. Those holiday walkie-talkies used CB channel 14 and I was able to talk to older kids using CB radios in their cars. The FCC required a license back then to operate CB radio and I still remember my call from those days!

   The next radio was a Zenith Transoceanic H500 which He brought home for me to try and fix. He was gifted this radio from a local bus service owner who also had a junkyard and it just so happened my father needed some car parts and in addition to them he brought the radio home too. I still have this radio! The outside leather/canvas was dirty but the inside chassis was pristine. It worked just okay and I wasn't able to make it 100% until vocational school electronics when I was taught enough to figure out several simple problems. It still works to this day!

  My home town was small and I think several Ham Radio operators might have been active during that time. I remember some gossip about a guy across town who spent lots of time in his basement talking around the world. I never met him or was introduced so I missed out on possible "elmering" into the Ham radio hobby. That would not happen until my career at the local utility companies electronics division where I worked with several Ham's. Fun times learning and operating on radios was just ahead . 

73--Tim N0UJJ

 

 

  

Digital Interface to My Yaesu FT-950 part 2

 Part 1 was an overview of My journey with Digital modes and Ham radio. I had a semi working setup but I missed a big RTTY contest because of the difficulty keeping My existing setup working reliably. It was definitely time to upgrade so I started researching manufactured interfaces which would simplify my setup-hopefully. 

Lots of the information on the internet was old and I was careful to only look at newer articles  for my research. The amount of information with new equipment was lacking. It seems many radios now come standard with hardware built in and because of this the number of different manufacturers of digital interfaces has shrunk although some of the big players still exist. I looked at most of these but all seemed to be so universal they needed lots of option settings to have the hardware work with My radios. Then I stumbled across an interface from Yaesu --the SCU-17. The price was about the same as an average interface but because a lot was built in to this device the amount of interface cables to a Yaesu radio was minimal. All it required was one USB cable to My laptop, a RS232 serial cable to CAT port of radio and a connection to the data port in back of the FT-950. Easy peasy!!Power is even provided by USB port-- either AC or battery power to laptop is all thats needed.

 The next part I discuss hooking the SCU-17 up and the software parameters needed for CAT,RTTY and hopefully FT8.till next time---

Tim

 

Digital Interface to My Yaesu FT-950- part 1

 Slow scan TV and PSK31 became popular using a PC with built in sound card and free shareware on the internet which prompted a group of local Ham operators to try these new digital modes for ourselves. We had already tried TNC's and standalone "dumb" terminals to access local BBS connected Nodes but these newer digital modes really peaked our interest. 

  I was a little slower to try mainly because my radios were older ,less stable radios. The local group was on every Friday on 6m using SSTV so I eventually fabricated a interface with audio transformers and a transistor circuit for keying.This set up was useable but several years later I upgraded radios and modified My interface with custom cables to plug into a switch box and Data inputs on a Yaesu 857 and My newly purchased Yaesu FT-950. 

  It was fun to finally have a setup working good for SSTV , PSK31 and Olivia. I also eventually was able to figure out AFSK RTTY for contesting and added CAT to both radios I was using which helped to make contesting band changes easier.

   I used this setup from about 2008 till 2016 which was about the time I took some time away from Ham radio--this was right before FT8 really took off. When I waded back into the Ham radio world, some basic things had changed like I now had a reconfigured Win 7 PC I had upgraded to Win10 instead of My old Win XP desktop. The Win10 laptop had no serial ports so I needed 232 converters to use the digital modes and some software was not as friendly for a new operating system as windows XP had been. It took some time but I finally was able to have digital working---kind of--but not reliably. The drivers for the converters were old and had been made for win XP or older OS and they needed to have PC restarted sometimes to be recognized. I also found hardware and cable issues-- My original setup was getting old and had just too many interface cables. The picture above shows the mess after I removed it.

  It was time to consider other options. I decided I wanted a simple hardware interface with fewer cables and FSK capability and more reliable CAT interfacing.Part 2 I will discuss My choices and what I finally ended up purchasing.

73 for now---Tim