Sorry I forgot to send a second reminder until now.

John AA0VE

Thanks, I will read up on it.
de Paul N0NBD

________________________________

Check this one out:

It is hot in Humboldt today with storms brewing SW of here but no rain yet. My corn and other things in the garden sure could use a drink.
Is there an antenna analyzer kit out there? I have a Deluxe Tenna dipper but the freq pot sure could stand to be a 10 turn or something. It is jumpy! I didn't get much googling any ideas?
 de Paul N0NBD

To all -

I’d like to say thanks to all who have responded to my newbie questions about kits and connectors. I’ve had some interactions in amateur radio in the past that were, how shall I say, less than helpful or friendly? Kind of like if I have a license I should already know the answer. Hmmm.

Well, I appreciate the helpful and friendly responses. That’s what the hobby needs in order to survive. Of course, I am talking to QRPers, so I should know I’m talking to good people. ;-)

Please accept my sincere thanks and very 73.


Paul Hoegstrom (N1HOB)
OKC

6 meters is fairly well open US wide -- ARRL June VHF QSO Party and
there are lots of signals and grids to be had.

W0EB

Using dipoles and beam. My radio only works on 40 meters. Other bands dead. No receive, no transmit. I have to get a hold of LNR.

Just got an mtr5b, what are you using for an antenna?

Sent from my iPad

Many years ago we were traveling at night (well, sunset into night) when
I noticed that the low beams didn't seem to be working. High beams
worked just fine, as did parking lights. Both low beams had been working
earlier, as I drive with headlights on, and when we switched drivers I
saw that they were on. Pulled into a service station and BOTH low beams
had burned out. They said they had never seen that before. I traded the
car before the bulbs burned out, so I don't know if those two bulbs
would have burned out together.

Sometimes there really are coincidences. Glad the radio works well.

On 11/6/16 17:44, nv9x@yahoo.com [4sqrp] wrote:

Everything is fine. 2 bad speakers and 2 bad headphones. Never seen
nothing like it. Crow is not bad with garlic.

Jim, NV9X

--
David Lininger, kb0zke
Rev. 2:10
kb0zke@gmail.com

Hello,

This is to all who asked questions or commented on my DL3ECN " Ameco AC-1
clone kit ".

The below comments were previously posted on the Ameco AC-1 reflector. I am
including it here for those who missed out on my previous trials and errors.

Several commented and/or asked questions which I will attempt to answer here.


As I previously stated, I picked up the wrong roll of copper wire when I
wound the 40 meter plug-in coil and needed to take some turns off to bring it
to resonance. Before, I could only get 200 milli-Watts output, but did have a
QSO with KG5HCF in West Helena, Arkansas with it at this power level. Using
the tried and true " let's try this " method, I took 2 turns off the coil, and
it raised the power output from 200 milli-Watts up to 1 Watt.

I took two more turns off and brought the power output up to 5 Watts, but the
plate tuning capacitor was still at full " minimum " position, just like it
was at 200 mW and 1 Watt. But, it was getting close.

The third time was a charm. I took only one turn off the coil and the dip in
plate current is at near mid-range, and I can adjust the pi-net tank circuit
from perhaps a half Watt up to 9 Watts, easily being able to bring it down to
the QRP range of 4 or 5 Watts and also down to at or below 1 Watt to be able
to honestly be in the power range for QRPp. Key-down plate Voltage is 240
Volts DC. I chose to use the Ken-Rad tube, although the power with the Chinese
6V6GT is the same as with the Ken-Rad 6V6GT.

Over the years I have acquired about 25 good working FT-243 crystals in the 40
meter CW range, plus a lot of other AM band xtals also. Now - for the funny
part of this. Some of the older FT-243 xtals are old World War II period xtals
and they work fine with my Heath-kit AT-1, DX-20 and DX-60, along with my WRL
Globe Chief transmitters.

When I plug some ( but not all ) of these real FT-243 xtals into the Ameco
AC-1 clone, some are " mushy " or simply won't oscillate even though they do
in the other boat-anchor rigs.

Some of my other FT-243 xtals are simply old FT-243 xtals that were on useless
frequencies. These have been gutted of everything inside the old FT-243 shell
and a small HC-49U xtal on a useable frequency has been soldered inside the
old FT-243 shell and the FT-243 shell then re-assembled. Some of these tend to
chirp because of xtal heating when used with the old boat-anchor rigs. I
assumed the same would be true with the AC-1 clone. Not always true. I am
going to use a touch of my wife's fingernail polish and put a red dot on the
xtal cases that work with the AC-1 clone.

To answer someone's question, yes, I would do it over again. My main problem
is in finding good FT-243 xtals, although I have ended up with about 10
useable 40 meter xtals, including 7122.

The paint job is excellent and the pre-drilled holes in the chassis is perfect
so.

I got a " you have a small chirp " report on 7122 and listened to the second,
third and fourth harmonics on 20,15 and 10 meters. It was pretty bad on the
fourth harmonic frequency of 28,488 KC ( fourth harmonic of 7122 KC ).

My QRP station receiver is an Icom 756PROII so I gave a listen to the 8-th
harmonic signal up on 56,976 KC. Wow! Up there, where the chirp was really
exaggerated, it was bad enough that I could see the CW signal drift from one
side of the center frequency to the other side over about a 1.5 kHz range, on
the band scope as the xtal heated.

In many of the older boat-anchor rigs, especially in the homebrew rigs, the
builders placed a small flashlight lamp in series with the xtal, between
ground and the xtal to limit xtal current to protect the crystal and prevent
this. Any ideas and/or comments/suggestions on this?

I used it Tuesday night of this week to check into the 4 State QRP Net on 7122
this week and got a generous 569 RST from net-control.

So far, I have worked the following stations:

KG5HCF West Helena, AR 200 milli-Watts
WI9S Garfield, AR 4 Watts
KV6Z Claremore, OK 4 Watts
AC0BQ Lebo, KS 4 Watts
WD9F Springfield, Il 4 Watts.



Thanks to W0IIT, WA0ITP, K8WPE, N0NDB & ON6RL for suggestions and comments.

72,

Sam Neal N5AF
______________________________________________________________________________



Hello,

After receiving it, it was on my work bench in it's box for a year. I put it
together in 3 or 4 sittings, except for winding the coil ( 40 meters ). I
just had to see if it worked, so, with no pi-net 40 meter plug-in coil wound
yet, I plugged in a hefty old BC-610 crystal and taped the key a few times,
into a dummy load. No need to, since no signal was getting past the missing
pi-net tank coil.

Anyway, it sounded great, with no chirp or hum ( this clone version has no
filter choke in the power supply ).

I took my time and wound a perfect looking coil, 15 1/2 turns, just like the
instructions in the Ameco AC-1 manual and the DL3ECN " AT-1 " clone
instructions. The result was a dismal 200 milli-Watts output into the
antenna as measured on an Oak Hills Research QRP Watt-meter. Nary a milli-Watt
more! At maximum output, the loading capacitor was around 60 on it's 0-100
range, and the plate capacitor was at absolute minimum capacitance, with 200
mW
reached just as the plate capacitor hit the stop at minimum .

Key-down Voltage is 240 VDC and since there was no dip in plate current at
resonance, since there was no resonance, the plate current was constant at
about 55 milli-Amperes.

Two 6V6GTs were tried, one a Ken-Rad and the other one was a Chinese 6V6GT.
Same power output with either tube. I have two 6X5 rectifier tubes, both
Sylvania JAN/CHS mil-spec with almost no difference in current. My kit came
with a crystal marked 7120, which I measured at 7120.22 on my Icom 756PROII.

I re-counted the coil turns and it has the needed 15 1/2 turns. I have not
tested for resonance with my Millen grid dip oscillator yet and will do that
tomorrow.

I called CQ many times on 7122 and finally ( at 200 mW output ) got an
answer from Dave, KG5HCF in West Helena AR who was QRP running 5 Watts ( this
during a thunderstorm! ). He was 559 and he gave me a generous 449 RST.

Back to the instruction manuals. As best as I can find after reading both
sets of instructions, in the kit of parts, a coil of enameled wire is
provided
for the coil winding(s) but no mention is made of the wire's gauge. Having
more
than one project on the test bench, apparently I used the wrong coil/gauge
of wire. One is or looks to be 20 gauge and the other one 22 or 24. I think I
used the 20 gauge to wind my coil.

Since the tank coil is " trying to reach resonance with the tuning cap at
minimum, am I correct in assuming that resonance is somewhat just below the
40 meter band, meaning I should be able to remove a couple of windings of my
wrong gauge wire and raise the resonant frequency of the pi-net tank coil,
raising it up into the 40 meter band?

Any help, aid and assistance in this matter would be duly and truly
appreciated!

" Inquiring minds want to know! ".

73,

Sam Neal N5AF
__________________________________________________________

As the Sun settles down to a more quiescent state,propagation will suffer. There are two ways to fix that problem. First, if you are big into science fiction, you can invent a sunspot gun and shoot a few sunspots in the direction of the Sun (good luck there). A much more practical and successful way would be for a lot more people to participate in the Second Sunday Sprint this Sunday night. The more people on the airwaves, the more likely it is you'll hear someone. And the June SSS is less than two weeks from Field Day. It will be a great opportunity to knock some rust off your key/paddles, clear a few cobwebs from between your ears, and sharpen your sending and receiving skills, just in time for Field Day.

The complete rules are available on the 4SQRP website (under 4SQRP On Air Activities). They can also be accessed via qrpcontest.com/4SQRP, which happens to be where you will enter your score for the contest. As usual, the sprint starts at 7:00 PM CDT, which is 0000Z Monday and lasts for two fun-filled hours.

72 and good luck in the contest,

John AA0VE
4SQRP Contest Coordinator

Thanks for that info. Although licensed since 1977 I'm only now getting into building and really learning about radio. I was wondering if I needed some RG174, but that tip helps. I think Rex said the same thing or similar.

Much appreciated.
Paul

Sent from my iPhone