Have had a great weekend on the radio logging up QSO’s via FT8. I’m now also using LoTW and importing those into QRZ – this has helped with getting more awards. I dont think i will do any more ‘logging’ tho as managing two (and wanting to automate them) is getting enough !
Was really glad that I got another award via QRZ – the grid squared award !
Grid2 accomplished !
For the non amateur radio users what this means is that the globe is segmented into ‘grid locations’, the reference codes being ‘maidenhead locators’ – for this award there has to be 100 unique and confirmed grids. Was very happy to get this done on my foundation licence.
Also was very lucky and got a QSO in the Canary Islands – which is officially classified as being in Africa, which means I’m now only one continent away from the continents of the world award !
Whilst i have heard south america, i’ve never yet managed a confirmed QSO – so it will be quite a challenge but hopefully with the summer hear propergation will improve and i can make that QSO !
Its been a lovely warm weekend down in Dorset, and that seems to have affected the propagation. I had a great time on FT8 and JS8 Call, reaching amazing distances and really good signals being put out and received. I had many logged contacts and good signal reports.
40m got *busy*
By the evening 40M got as busy as I have *ever* seen it, as shown in the picture above i switched about the bands and was making contacts on 15M as well, it was the best conditions I had seen so far !
Resume work on the Kanga Kit !
After a break of sometime, I have resumed work on my Kanga Kit – this fits in with the news I’m putting below, but I have a big thanks to John Clements who helped me fix a fault with the kit I was unable to locate. John found the issue (soldered pin-header together – hidden by the plastic) and returned the now working Kanga kit to me ! I have resumed work and am taking my time – I’ve completed more work on the resistors and capacitors on the Active BPF.
kanga kit with added capacitors for BPF stage
I’m taking my time, esp as the board is now quite ‘busy’ – the next step is to add diodes and IC’s. Its really close to completing the build, but taking my time to ensure no more mistakes !
RSGB Announce Intermediate Exams on-line !
As shown in the picture above from the RSGB site Intermediate exams will be available from the 13th ! (in 8 minutes time as of writing) i’m very excited that i will be able to book my exam and get use more wattage but also gain more insight to a very interesting hobby as I continue my amateur radio development.
Whilst the practial assessment is waived currently, i will continue to build my Kanga Kit, so if the issue did come up of what Kit I did build, this is well recorded and documented.
To close the evening off I had a splendid evening enjoying the good propergation and just listening to the QSO’s on 40m. The ICOM’s filter and noise blanker are amazing, SSB has never sounded so good.
The waterfall is incredibly useful for visualising contacts
What i really like about the 7300 is the ability to visualize all or in very close range the frequency. I can easily find conversations happening and enjoy what is being talked about and the signal reports. Almost everyone i hear on 40m is using 100W but the distances are still several hundreds of miles – in particular hearing about life on Guernsey was very interesting – seems they are Covid free and back to some ‘normality’.
Well, heres waiting on being able to book my Intermediate Exam and enjoy more contacts around the world !
UPDATE – Have booked Intermediate exam today (13 June) for in August for more time to do a structured revision plan and passing !
Am still planning to finish my Kanga Kit ! making daily progress !
So I’ve had a very busy week or two both on day-to-day 9-5 (+!) and around the shack.
I am lucky enough that I get a gardener once a month to do all the lawns and bushes, and I used the opportunity this time to take down all the antennas allowing for a very good tidy lawn.
DX Commander #1 in place, very well guyed down due to the wind we are having of late
I also wanted to try out a method of increasing gain and reception using a 2 Element Parasitic Array on the 40m band – the youtube video here is really good at explaning how the setup works. I was already lucky enough to have another DX Commander on order before Calum goes on his holiday, so I set about measuring the distances and getting the 2nd DX Commander setup for just 40m
The main difference between a parasitic array is that its just for a single band and the distance between the two is 1/4 wavelength, in this case 10m. The wire *should* be a little lower on the 40m frequency than the ‘driven’ – but I am going to double check that when it comes to more fetteling (cant ever get an antenna too perfect imho !).
radials, still 4*5
that lovely wire
radials meet driven plate
parasitic 40m dx commander
As you can see in the pictures, I have followed Calum’s advice pretty much and put the radials down, doesnt matter on the 360, but the length is there for 40m. The main difference is that the radials are directly connected to the driven element plate and there is no physical wired connection between the two antennas. I did check the S.W.R. on 40m (and 15) and it was a more than acceptable 1.4:1 across the band *before* moving the radials up. (Note will be finding a cover for the SO239!)
I need to find a ‘good’ way on proving the parasitic is having the desired effect. Out of interest i did attach my rig master to it whilst transmitting WSPR on 40m and sure enough the SWR did go up, which does at least prove that its resonating a transmission on the right frequency.
In practice I gave trusty FT8 a go, and sure enough I was getting far more +db on the map than i have ever had. Now this isnt particuarly good ‘science’ as there could be so many reasons why that was happening, so i could of got lucky. But I will find (and if someone wants to add a comment please do !) on how to test the effectiveness (i’m expecting something like +3-5db gain) I’d be glad to accept it !
I have also upgraded my ‘main’ tranceiver, the reasons are multiple, but mostly the Icom 7300 got very good reviews and the price/performance balance looked amazing.
The Icom 7300 now in the shack
That is not to say that all the hard work and effort put into the Kenwood TS690-S will be wasted, absolutely not ! I have actually made another addition from Japan, this lovely microphone unit !
This pristine MC-85 came from Japan, sadly without box, but its immaculate !
I am hoping i can use the output switch between the Kenwood and Icom as this looks such a gorgeous microphone and the reviews of it are very promising.
I am going to put an end-fed multi bander on the TS-690S and having seen UK Antennas posted on the DX Commander Discord, done some research and went for it !
I have yet to install the antenna as I have moved my 2m/70cm mast to the rear garden. Putting out a big thanks to the after-sales support from Moonraker as I wanted to fully extended my 40ft antenna so i can use the 30m point as a ‘fulcrum’ for the end-fed antenna, creating a nice inverted ‘V’ to use.
Here is the mast I bought from them – the TMF-2 – it really is an amazing mast, yout get what you pay for with this. I looked at several sites, including this one on how to guy a mast. For 40ft it seemed i would need more guys – but gave the chaps at Moonraker a call to explain my mast, antenna and use, and re-located my guy-ring to a centre point on the sectional mast would be ok for a temporary antenna, with the obvious warnings for wind,etc.
I set about with my son (always good to have some help!) with getting the mast up and really well guyed in. I’m made up with the results, I’ve never seen the antenna looking so good and secure. The heavy duty base will be getting some additional ground-pegs but trust me that thing is HEAVY, its not going anywhere 🙂
40m mast with 2m/70cm J pole on top
I was able to reach all the local repeaters as before, but have yet to get a contact to check my signal report (such is VHF during the day time).
So there has been alot of change in the shack, but i’m really happy with the direction its going in !
Well its been busy and for the last few weekends very mixed weather here in the UK with masts going up and down due to the winds and more recently forecasts for thunderstorms ! having just passed a mini heat wave here in the uk, it seems the weather, albeit the wind is still blow a bit, has calmed down somewhat !
With that I have been tidying up in the shack some more whilst I coudlnt transmit. One thing I was not happy about was the amount of vertical stacking on the TS690s.
The TS690s – keep it ventilated !
I had a room re-jig and moved all the book-cases to allow an additonal desk to put the associated radio equipment on. This got the same earthing/bonding treatment i had done for the orginal table, which is giving a good common ground amongst the equipment.
A well-breathable TS-690S and DSP100
I’m much happier that with moving the printer and giving room for the equipment it gives a better layout to operate it. I can quite comfortably operate the transceiver from my computer, or if i want to get close and use it direct, have plenty of room.
I have been doing antenna fettling and this weekend and general mast tidying, but thats for another post when i figure out how to show some other developments as well 🙂
So I have been using Wefax for getting fax weather transmissions. I really enjoy them and also find it useful in seeing how much QRM I am getting on the ‘wire’ so to speak. Recently a gentleman on youtube by the name of “Tech Minds” published this excellent video
Build a V-Pole for weather sats
Now I loved the instructions on this video and it has been something I’ve wanted to do. I asked “Tech Minds” if i could put the V-Pole adjacent to a 2m/70cm vertical, to which he said yes, so i was then on a mission to build my V-Dipole.
I already had decent electrical terminator blocks, so didnt need to order those.
I followed the instructions and set about mounting the antenna on the mast – i have to say i found this quite challenging on my own on how to attach the pvc pole to the mast, but sure enough, and with a few ‘oh dear’ (swearing may of been harsher) on dropping nuts/clamps i got it attached.
I then fed the coax from the mast back into the ‘shack’ where I put a PL-259 socket on .
I do love this video, and the guys no nonese approach
the method i use for puting on a PL259 onto coax.
With that i put the antenna via a PL-259 – SO-239 to SMA cable attached it to the RTL SDR Dongle.
Sure enough, i could pick up radio sounds no problem, so all the effort was worth it !
I then set about installing all the necessary software on my HAM computer, following yet another excellent tutorial from Tech Minds
Setting the software up on Windows
I initally tried with the HackRF, but for some reason it wasnt playing ball. Ironically as I knew that a sat should be overhead, i hooked up my other SDR to a basic scanner antenna, and i could hear the sat overhead ! Immediatly i set about setting up my mac for the receiver.
On the mac I used gqrx. The satellite track software is avaiable via macports, but i couldnt find a stable 64 bit version of translation software so used noaa-apt, which whilst not as feature rich, works incredbly well on a mac, as in being actively developed.
I tested with a ‘sample’ NOAA recording, and that produced the required map output ! iwas all set.
I waited patiently for the sats come and tracking and sure enough within an hour i had my first sat pass over ! Whilst the intial result wasnt amazing, it at least proved that antenna, SDR and decoder worked.
My first NOAA decode !
I then looked for future NOAA passes and a good candiate for going directly over was on for 6pm, so i waited and recorded, sure enough, i got a signal and a decode, and whilst the results arent amazing, its a good start in my book.
Second attempt at 6pm
As it was some time before the next pass i set about doing some fettling on the antenna, and found i hadnt got it North-South Aligned that well, so i rotated the antenna and made sure that all the connections were in good form after a full day up in the air.
checking connections
looking good, but those trees !
nicely on the mast, but requires orientation
checking after one day
I’ve not really done a write up of just how good the mast is I use for VHF/UHF, but you can see in the pictures below how high quality it is. All the stages are locking and push up/down without problem, even after rain, they is no fricion on the joints. The locking mechanisim is tough, but gives real confidence the pole isnt going to slip down. I use a ‘light’ guying system as i’ve only got 2 very light weight antennas on the mast (the 2m/70cm and now the NOAA) – any more would be overkill. The guy ropes and ground stakes are incredbly strong and go into the ground some 2ft at a guesstimate, the antenna only ever comes down for the worst weather forecasts.
If you want to invest in a good mast system i can really recommend these
With the antenna back up I now wait for the next good pass to try out how good the scan comes out. Its very exciting (for me) and thanks again to Tech Minds YouTube channel who puts really great content !
I’ll upload my pics to my STOATOPIC account as I get more decodes
gqrx receiving noaa 18gpredict communcating with gqrxtracking NOAA18 as it flys over my QTH
Tracking pattern
tracking of the pass, i can pick it up from 21:43Decode in NOAA-APTIts another fuzzy one!only the code-strip is visble, but keep trying !
*** PLEASE NOTE PHIL’S OBSERVATION OF MY BUILD (FILTER ORIENTATION) BELOW ***
I was using the origninal picture and refrencing off the *EARTH* location post, and not looking at the label (LOAD/LINE) – I have since corrected – afaik no damage done, but good to get right first time if you are using the same filter (FN2030-16-06 FILTER) which has a different layout and orientation to the one used in the slides
*** PLEASE NOTE PHIL’S OBSERVATION OF MY BUILD (FILTER ORIENTATION) BELOW ***
Back in May I built this filter for my shack, which provided suitably good results for the time and effort employed. Further to that post G8KVM (Personal “Bern”) posted a follow up link to an updated filter here.
The main difference to this filter was it contained multiple and updated ferrite types as well as a mains-filter. I was immediatly drawn to the idea of further reducing the QRM into the shack as the first filter provided good results.
I would like to point out that when ordering the mains filter (2030-16-06) the picture on the site is an AC filter. The once I received had DC on it, although the product code was the same.
supplied parts
using an existing 10Amp plug
DC Description on the filter sticker
Components, 10A plug and DC Filter, although same 2030-16-06 name
I was slightly worried about the filter saying DC on it, where this is receiving AC current from the mains supply. Whilst rated for 250V i was not going to take any risks, so setup a test-bed outside, where it was thankfully dry and sunny.
apply voltmeter (AC)
turn power on, read meter
verify earth lead correctly attached to case
voltage testing
I set about by first running an unplugged in extenstion, plugging the filter into that, and setting up my voltmeter to read AC from the output terminals. There is only one earth on the casing.
I then went back in doors turned on the power and no popping/arcing/fusetripping was observed. I then checked the output on the voltmeter, and sure enough it was good 240V AC coming out the filter.
I then proceeded to complete the winding for the ferrites.
The cable i used was SEL 10 m 2.5 mm Twin and Earth Cable. This very good solid copper wire. I did have to put on some Electrical PVC Yellow/Green Earth Sleeving to the earth-copper as this is bare when it comes out the original sleeve. I didn’t want to use my electric drill for the twisting of the wire, so done this by hand. Whilst physically demanding, i felt it provided safer and better results.
I was then able to twist the cable thru the torids as per directions. I was rather happy with the results, as it was quite tough to get the cable thru the torid and space it nicely.
filter and torids fitted into the box
saftey sticker added
installation and safety sticker
Having tested for electrical continuity via a voltmeter, i then proceeded to test with a simple electric lamp which worked perfectly well. There was no issue with the wiring on the toroids or the filter.
I then disconnected my old filter and connected the new filter.
I was immediately impressed that i was now picking out more receive signals on FT8 and Wefax images were incredibly sharp.
cleaner wefax images
I had 4 consecutive QSO’s which had never happended to be before, so was my first time manging a ‘pile up’ of sorts !
In summary for the time and expense this is a fantastic additon to the shack and makes me confident that in terms of power-line RF and QRM I have done as much as I can in terms of mains-filtering.
Thank you again to GM3SEK fantastic blog posting and G8KVM for pointing me in the right direction to the updated design !
73’s and see you on the airwaves soon hopefully !
— Appendix page update ! 🙂
Following Phil’s comments I powered down everythign and re-opened the filter as its been a little while since I closed it up.
In the picture below, the mains is the cable to the top of the page, this connects to the line filter, then in turn the ferrites connect to the output of the filter. I think I have got this correct based on the source picture !
Source – https://gm3sek.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/capture.jpg – All credits to gm3sek.Pic of filter following Phil’s observations
Whilst mine isnt as tidy, i think it is correct. Appreciate if you can reply to comment Phil 🙂
The main speaker on the Kenwood TS690-S is not a bad one. I’ve been using it now for around 5 months, and although no expert, it has been good in terms of being able to listen to what ever made it thru the antenna and to the audio stages of the transceiver.
However, with the addition of the Auto-tuner and DSP, there is quite a bit which ‘blocks’ the speaker. Whilst not muffled, its ironic that I have such a good DSP and not a good external speaker. I do have a very good mixing desk (Behringer X2222) which I use on ocassion to process and amplify the audio from the transceiver, but ordinarily I keep the radio audio seperate from the synths/drums/guitars. Another issue would be managing the sizeable ground loop between mixer and transceiver as the earth/bus bonding isnt the whole way around the ‘shack’ yet.
This lead me to search for a speaker for the TS-690s. Whilst not an ‘audiophile’ I do understand a little about speakers, housing and acoustics of them. I was very lucky to find a really great condition Kenwood SP-23 from ebay. The item itself is in incredbly good condition. I cant tell if its one month or 10 years old. It looks gorgeous. When findng the SP-23 I also searched for upgrades to it, this is without hearing it, but I’ve come to trust the reputable amateur sites on the internet, for example eHam reviews of the SP-23 talk about the quality *compared to other speakers* – I guess when you buy a speaker you want it to be the best buck for money. The most often given upgrade was to the GPH-K23X speaker and applying Phonema K23A PHITS acoustic coupling. I ordered both immediately and was amazed that these arrived from the USA in just a few days – amazing work from FedEx.
Having had the speaker for several days un-modded I was quite happy with the audio quailty. That said I still dont do enough telephony work to really say how good it was, and other than the internal speaker have no real reference on what ‘good’ is in terms of HF transceiver speakers.
As the kit arrived so quick, i jumped over a couple of other projects to immediatly upgrade the speaker and apply the acoustic foam.
Very well packaged a deent box for the foam
The speaker box is very good dimensions
A manual and parts for mounting the speaker, or not
Briliant foam
A good bag as well to keep it clean/dust free from factory
further packing under the speaker
parts packed nicely in a seperate bak
the speaker looks very good quality
the magnet and voice coil look substantial
the foam is very dense
very well packages
even a spacer to keep it tidy – ensuring no bent edges
a useful datasheet
Unpacking the speaker upgrade parts
I was really impressed with how well the speaker and foam had been packaged, its quality throughout and is a good sign that this is a quality purchase.
one last look at the unfettered SP-23
a clever way to mount the speaker imho
removed speaker
woah its big
side by side comparison
so wheres it gonna sit ?
how does that fix in there ?
Removal of original speaker and first attempt to instal GPH-K23
I am always slightly relectant to make changes to orginal equipment, but when I do I make sure i can recover it back. In this case i carefully de-soldered the orginal speaker. I did have to cut a little of the positive wire as it has been wound so well, but it was a minor inconvieane.
I was then able to start trying to work out how to install the new GPH-K23. Reading the instructions it discusses a bracket and furthermore has pictures of ‘clamps’ which are not visible in either the kit or in the existing speaker. I was slightly confused how this could happen, give this speaker is designed for the SP23. In the website for the GPH-K23 is describes a ‘plastic’ front version of the SP23. Mine is very metallic. With that i was somewhat perplexed on how to mount the speaker, especially as I had now de-soldered the orginal speaker just moments ago.
how does that fix in there ?
trying to use tweezers wont help
this picture looks nothing like my speaker cabinet
improvise..
adapt
overcome
succsses ?
speaker cone very central positioned
fitting the GPH-K23 to a metal-front SP23
I was undettered by the fact that the instructions and mounting didnt match. There must be a way to do this. I had kept the old parts safely, ready to be placed in the SP-23 box so that they are there for future records and changes if required. I examined the brackets which held in the orginal speaker. The backing card was too small (diameter of hole) and too thick (widness of backing card) to mount the new speaker on.
Looking at the parts I had and the design of the case, there was a possibility to use the ‘brass’ clamps from the speaker back to hold the new speaker in place. I tried out the existing screws to check a good fit, and sure enough i was able to use the brass/copper mounting plates to hold the speaker in place !
Looking from the front the speaker looks very centrally located.
Foam added
and back in the stack!
the isolation foam makes the speaker a good weight
The foam fitted really well in the speaker, i was very impressed with the cutting and density of the foam. Getting the case back on required some real effort to it fitted, but on it went and back in the stack it went !
Now, i think its very subjective on how good something sounds, so here it is in action.
Sp23 listening to broadcast radio and the 40 meter band
I for one was very impressed and felt the additonal parts did bring something to the speakers audio clarity. I would recommend that anyone that does have the SP-23 to get the coner and baffilng. I had to choose between one or the other, start with the baffling !
bit of a longer post today so grab a cup of tea is recommend, else scroll through the page until you get to the bit you want to know about
Several weeks ago I was browsing the local 2nd hand radio shop where my TS690 came from, and amazingly they had the DSP-100.
Kenwood DSP-100 – finding chicken teeth is easier
The DSP-100 is one of the first ever Digital Signal Processors. Kenwood were pretty ahead of the game when they released it. You will see all the filters and features you see in this unit in most modern transceivers, but this is (I guess) about 20+ years old, and are hard to come by. I dont mind saying this unit, 2nd hand was £333 ,which is only £40 different of what I paid for the TS690S, but what it brings to the radio is RF filtered and processed. The promise of ‘hi-fi’ quality SSB, AM, CW and RTTY was too good to pass up. And it looks gorgeous too 🙂
When I first set it up with my TS-690s I connected in my xggcomms Kenwood interface I started running into issues. I honestly believe this is no fault of the xggcomms device, but moreso on how the RS232 signal from the DSP-100 unit is processed and fed into the transceiver. Its fair to say whilst I was overjoyed in having the DSP, alot of what i do requires a good CAT connection to constantly adjust the frequency (FT8 & WSPR), so I reverted back to the Xggcomms interface only and started investigating.
Upon searching, other people had experience similar, but not identical issues. The key to fix this was the IF-232C. This translates the serial input into signals at the correct levels for the DSP & the TS690s.
Up until now I have been using a laptop, which had become increasingly over burdened with USB dongles/hubs coming out of it, also getting the computer to be ‘RF Friendly’ and grounded proved a challenge. The only way i could see to easily and reliably RF was via the USB port, and this little lenovo laptop computer already had *alot* coming out of the USB ports.
With that I decided to get a dedicated full-size ham-radio PC. Nothing expensive or new, in fact I was looking for ‘older’ models with a native DB9 Serial interface so USB to Serial issues would no longer be a problem. This HP Elite 8200 met the specification needs for what I would be using the computer for and was a reasonable price/availablity. I could add all the audio inputs and outputs to the native connectors and also use the on-board serial (or so he thought…)
HP Elite ports – native Serial Port and audio on-board
Having migrated PC i went about installing first the apps I know, namely Fl Digi and FL Rig. I have been using these for sometime for WeFax and love getting the images in. The good thing about reducing the QRM, i can visually see it has been reduced, as I will show later.
I did run into some issues with communicating with the PC, the Serial Port settings had to be changed on the PC also, by now I had also discovered i had ordered the wrong cable from RS Electronics, but have a replacement on the way. I went back to using a USB to RS232C interface for now, which after some tweaking worked. I’m sure I’m not the only person who would still setup a IF-232C, so here are the settings I used between my PC and the RS232C.
Screenshot of Windows PC Running Windows 10 and USB Prolific based RS232 connector
Incase its hard to read on the screen, heres the tabulated form
Setting
Value
Bits Per Second
4800
Data Bits
8
Parity
None
Stop Bits
2
Flow Control
Hardware
Advanced
Leave FIFO Buffers at max and on
Table of Settings for the RS232 Port on Windows for Kenwood TS690S and IF232C
In the FL Rig for the Serial port the settings are as follows (Select TS450S as the transceiver) :-
Setting
Value
Baud
4800
2-StopBits
Enabled
PTT via CAT
Enabled
RTS/CTS
Enabled
Retries..Byte intv
Defaults
Init (Click)
Connected
FLRig Settings
Kenwood DSP-100 with the IF-232C
Now I dont mind saying that I’m still learning, so understanding what filter to use when is very much a case of ‘try it and see’, but i will show a comparison between before I started all the QRM clean up and the acculmation of what I have done so far *plus* the use of the DSP-100.
WeFAX – local QRM is quite clear with the ‘banding’ visible across the otherwise clear image
As you can see in the above image, there is alot of QRM in the picture, the ‘banding’ consistant across the image, in this case probably caused by the Ethernet over Power adaptors, is very clear.
Here is a scan today, same antenna, but will all the additonal work to reduce QRM and the DSP in Receive mode filtering.
Reduced QRM, what you do see is from a fan running because its hot today 🙂
When less electical items in the house are running, namely fans, washing machines and the like here is an example image. Again, this is the same antenna, same external line filters/chokes and the DSP and recent QRM work outcome.
The ice-chart from Hamburg
The ice-chart from Hamburg is the equivlant for me as the last row on the eye-test exam. The letters on it are incredbly small and the details/dots equally so. Whilst with a zoom there is some slight distortion (so more to be gained!) there is a total absence of the QRM which was so present in the first WeFax image shown.
I am adding a MFJ-1026 to the mix now (Thank you Nevada radios, you are doing a great job during the lockdown !) and I cannot thank Steve from Xggcomms enough for the assistance he has given me. I asked Steve for some help on how would I go about connecting both the xggcomms and mfj-1026 at the same time, as they need access to the T/R Control line present on the ACC-2 port. Sure enough Steve was good enough to reply on how to do this, by way of opening up the connector and adding a connection to pin 13 and ground (I used pin 12 for ground).
From Page 22 of the TS690S user manual
I had recently performed an inventory of all the wires/cables,etc I had, so it was easy to find the phono socket I required to connect the back of the MFJ-1026 phono socket to the ACC2 DIN plug.
I first tested the connectivity between socket and plug, to ensure it would work correcly before opening up the xggcomms. I am generally unhappy about opening working equipment in that I could break it and make it unoperational, but as Steve had already offered his support should anything go wrong, i bit the bullet and went for it. Needless to say, it wasnt an easy job for me who doesnt do this type of soldering reguarly.
xggcomms intact
removing the flexible case allowed easy access
respect for that soldering
this is going to be interesting..
pin 13 & 12…
there they are…
Examining the DIN socket before modification
I had already pre-tinned and checked the continuity between socket and wire on the phono socket, so was confident that as long as I was careful I would be able to add the necessary wires to the respective pins.
a good start
nice on the earth
crock clip on shielding
pin 13 result
pin 13 checking
phono live pin
another nice result
soldering was a challenge
using a croc-clip helped the measurements
down to 001 with a better fit of testing equipment
ensuring the pins are level and connected
‘live’ socket
testing for no interference, result!
Adding pins 13 and 12
I dont mind saying that upon putting the shielding on and checking before plugging in that i found that the case (which should be grounded/seperate) ended up being ‘shorted’ and no resistance was shown on the voltmeter. Undeterred I undone the case and carefully applied a small piece of masking tape across the top pins ‘tucking’ between pins to give some isolation. I apologize i didnt take a picture of this. This had the required effect and that when the casing and flexible connector were restored, the isolation between pins had been restored.
Having completed the cable, the next step is to install an external auxiliary antenna for the MFJ-1028 to match against. I considered several ideas, as in just using a simple end-fed piece of wire, to a range of ‘small’ antennas from Russia that attracted QRM to be used in this way. In the end I decided to get another DX Commander. Whilst I wont totally multi-band this will all 6 elements (in particular 80m requires alot of space) I can setup the 2nd vertical ‘auxiliary’ about 2~3 meters from the ‘transmit’. With this I should be able to ‘phase out’ both any local QRM as well as distant QRM meaning I should not only be able to get out more cleanly, i should also be able to hear and filter those very feint remote signals that currently sit ‘below’ the noise table.
As ever, I will keep posting with my battle with QRM, which I think I am winning one week at a time.
So having got my webcam up and running with streaming, i had to migrate the streaming server to another PC (in this case a macbook) and relocate the USB cable going into it.
I resumed my daily antenna observations with the inclusion of checking over the camera and re-routing the cabling from the camera so it would be ‘free’ from the mast allowing more length into the ‘shack’
Come the afternoon I’m now perplexed why i can TX and seem to get out well, but RX is non-existant, apart from 18m, which seems odd. I walk the path backwards of changes, of which there have been a couple in the shack with the QRM bonding and all, to try and work out why my reception is so bad.
As i work thru the devices directly connected to the transceiver, no change in reception. I then go out and check the mast, no problems there. I unplug all the connections between mast and and tuner. No change ! What on earth can it be !
At my whits end I relocate the macbook and suddenly see the usb cable from the mac to the camera, albeit on the 2m/70cm mast, it now does have a different ‘vector’ from mast head into the shack.. could this be the source of my problems.
Low and behold, unplugging the mac and the webcam suddenly the channels come alive again. I had created a USB transmit antenna blocking pretty much everything.
I set about removing the camera and cable from the 2m/70cm mast and tidying the cables I had previously disconnected. Full filtered resumed, minus the webcam 🙁
After all this I remembered the advice from the ARRL and Youtube videos “EVERY THING IS AN ANTENNA, EVEN IF YOU CALL IT SOMETHING ELSE”. Hence why my issue had occured, i saw it as a USB cable, but it was an antenna, and blocking my HF.
I probably can fix this, but I’m already battling QRM and I want to reduce issues, not add new ones, so for now the camera stays off, but I was glad of the experience and I could fix and understand the issues.
