Silent Key Equipment For Sale

Dear Club Secretary

I have been asked by the widow of Keith G3TLB to try to sell off his amateur radio equipment. Below is a list of available items, in addition there are numerous smaller items and components. I would be grateful if you could distribute this list to your club members and if anybody is interested in anything then they could contact me.

Many thanks

Mr. M. Sheppard
G4FWG
Tel: 01892 652272
Mob: 0790 820 84 84
Email: malcshepp@hotmail.com

Shack contents sale list. 28/08/2009

1. Transceiver TS-870 + speaker and power supply £900 ONO
2. Belcom Linear 2. 144 transceiver £50
3. Trio TM201A 2m Fm mobile £60
4. Kent side paddle non-iambic key £25
5. 8 amp army key £10
6. Repro desk mike astatic £20
7. Welz CT-530 500 watt dummyload £10
8. Heathkit audio generator AG 9U £10
9. VHF/UHF SWR meter. SP-45M 100w £25
10. Farnell sine-square Oscillator LFM4 £30
11. Evershed & Vignoles megger 500v. £10
12. Homemade cap meter £5
13. Micomatch SWR meter £5
14. Sigmasizer 200R 2m FM10 £40
15. Toyo SWR meter 3.5-150 £10
16. Palomar PK44 Electronic Keyer £25
17. 4 position coax switch £45
18. Heathkit Grid dip (mains) £15
19. Fluke 8022A Multimeter £25
20. Wire stripper £3
21. Eddystone Marine Receiver 659/670 £150
22. “ “ “ 730/4 £150
23. “ “ 840A £150
24. IC210 2m Transceiver £40
25. SP430 Speaker £25
26. Heathkit Laboratory Generator RF £25
27. 3 section 60ft Versatower with K2550 auto brake winches and KR400 rotator £800
28. Three element triband Yagi beam £110
    
    

Breakthrough for Code Breakers!

Wih the latest cash injection - half million awarded by the lottery fund - Bletchly Park has finally been recognised for the crucial part it played shortening the second world war by at least two years. This grant will undoubtedly help Bletchley Park become a World Heritage Centre.

Interest in Bletchley has been growing, with nearly 100,000 visitors so far this year.

Carole Souter, from the Heritage Lottery Fund, said: "Bletchley Park is an extraordinary part of the UK's heritage.

"We... recognise the importance of preserving the site as a tribute to the men and women who worked there with quiet and tireless dedication during World War II."Without their dedication, our nation's history might have been a very different one."

Let's hope that we can now stop worrying about the Park's uncertain future and celebrate the fact that, in official circles, folk have finally woken up to the unique importance of this national treasure!

IC92 Display problem - the conclusion

This blog entry is a pointer to the IC92 Display problem article which I updated to show how the story ended.

Stewart/G3YSX

SteppIR and Other CARC Equipment

An afternoon of tinkering and the SteppIR now follows the FT1000 frequency. The antenna needs to be in GENERAL mode for this to happen. While the elements are moving the controller shows a flashing * next to the frequency. When the * disappears the antenna is tuned. It is also necessary to have Ham Radio Deluxe running on the PC as the controller listens to the comms between the PC and the radio. This is the only way of having both connected at the same time.

Please don't use the amp while the elements are in motion. Kind of obvious I know but important.

If you ever get a strange response the SteppIR use the CALIBRATE function in the Setup menu to reset the element lengths.

The rotator is working well. In order to show the correct heading I've just pulled the needle of the controller and pointed it where the antenna points. When we put the VHF/UHF antennas up we'll need to:

a. Turn the rotator so that the HF beam is pointing straight up with the tower luffed.
b. Loosen the SteppIR on the stub mast.
c. Turn the rotator until heading points straight down the hill.
d. Put the VHF/UHF beams on pointing down the hill (towards K2).
e. Clamp a large U-bolt onto the stub mast below the SteppIR.
f. Crank the tower vertical.
g. Climb the tower and spin the SteppIR round to match the other beams and tighten the bolts.

The aim is to get the rotator controller pre-sets working properly which will also allow correct PC control of the rotator once the interface is fitted into the controller.

I've managed to get the full output of the amplifier on all bands from 40 - 10m. The best procedure to achieve this seems to be to:

a. Check that the SteppIR frequency is correct and that tuning has finished.
b. Ensure that the amp is in STBY (disabled).
c. Select RTTY on the radio.
d. Select SWR for the TX meter.
e. Set the RF PWR to minimum (fully counter clockwise).
f. Use MOX to transmit.
g. Increase the power from the radio until the SWR meter begins to function.
h. Ensure a VSWR of less than 2:1 is shown.

Don't use the internal tuner to achieve this and DON'T proceed until the VSWR is lower than 2:1.
The first thing to try is to CALIBRATE the SteppIR from the Setup menu.

If you have a good match barefoot then you can think about bringing the amp online.

a. Ensure that the FT1000 is in receive and that the RF PWR is set to minimum.
b. Check the amp is switched to the correct band.
c. Turn the LOAD dial to around 4.
d. Flick the STBY / OPR switch to OPR.
e. Using the MOX button put the FT1000 into TX.
f. Slowly increase the RF PWR until the amp shows that ANODE current is being drawn (lower LED bar meter).
g. Use the PLATE knob to peak the output power.

N.B. NEVER allow the amp to show more than 3 red bars of negative grid current.

h. Slowly increase the RF PWR knob on the FT1000 until either 3 red LEDs of -ive grid current is shown or the desired output power is achieved.

N.B. You should never need to turn the RF PWR knob beyond the 1 o'clock position.

If you have 3 red LEDs showing and have not yet reached the required output power:

i. Reduce the LOAD setting by a small amount.
j. Retune the PLATE knob.

Repeat i-j until the desired output power is reached. Be careful not to reduce the LOAD too far but just far enough.

I've easily achieved full output power on all bands 40 - 10m.

Have a look at the on-line log. Two QSOs with Indian Ocean DXpeditions on 12m and 17m worked first call.
Pile up, what pile up.

Enjoy the DX.

Tektronix Concepts

So good were their designs, that many years the Tektronix was completely synonymous with oscilloscopes. Every self respecting engineer wanted a Tek scope by their bench and hated being palmed off with a second class substitute. They are still very good popular deigns, though I doubt that they retain absloute the dominance that they once held.

One of the marketing products that Tektronics produced was a series of technical tutorials called Tektronix Concepts, and number of which have been scanned and placed on the web. Even though old, these are very readable documents are worth downloading and reading.

Stewart/G3YSX

At Long Last, SUNSPOTS

So far this year only a handful of sunspots have been observed. Well at long last we have a whole group of sunspots, 32 of the little beauties. Not much effect on propagation yet but this is an excellent development.


Check out the latest images of the sun at the SOHO website and wait for the DX to start rolling in.

For of you who use Firefox as a web-browser search for the PropFire add-on which gives a live status in the lower right of the window.

Fingers crossed
Mike
G0KAD

Rebirth of Scanning?

Some time ago Mike, G0VYN introduced me to a series of podcasts called Security Now. These are normally a bit too geeky, even for CARC, for me to pass comments on them in this forum! However episode 213 is of particular interest.

In amongst the general discussion of security issues in IT, this weeks issue deals with the hacking into GSM phone conversations. The GSM organization claim that this is not possible, but the podcast describes some very plausible ways that are open to the committed scanning enthusiast.

The core of the approach is to receive the phone signals on a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP). The USRP and USRP2 work with GNU Radio, a free-software (open source) framework for the creation of software defined radios.

The podcast then describes weakness in the encryption of GSM phone transmissions, and how they can be exploited using a technique called rainbow tables in which most of the information needed to decipher the conversation is pre-computed and stored in a 2GB table. They then point at an open project similar to SETI that is aiming to compile the 2GB table and put it in the public domain.

There is also some material on how insecure supposedly high grade secure phones are and a note that 3G phones and a bit better than GSM, but not much better than GSM.

The podcast is available as audio (or in lower quality audio), and there are extensive show notes. It is well worth listening to from the perspective of a radio technologist.

Now of course it is not legal to listen to traffic that you are on licensed to receive, and I am neither personally interested in this traffic nor do I condone the activity (TM). However I do wonder how long it will be before the scanning enthusiasts are back in business.

Stewart/G3YSX

SteppIR is QRV

At long last we have the first of the CARC antennas up on the mast and on the air. Early on the evening of 3 September first the rotator and then the 3 element SteppIR beam were tested at the CARC shack. Both worked well with a VSWR of 1.1:1 being measured across the 20m band.

The amplifier was then run up to its full 400W O/P with no problems at all. Only time for one quick QSO (first call) with A41OD (Hamed in Muscat) with 59+10 received.

Unfortunately the QSO was not logged online as the feeder currently runs over the ADSL modem which strangely doesn't like 400W of HF next to it!

More later.

Mike
G0KAD

CARC and RATS Win VHF NFD

After many years of trying and some close calls, the combined forces of the Crawley ARC and the Reigate ATS have finally won a major UK contest. And not just any old contest but the big one, VHF NFD.

I suppose I'd better put pen to paper and give a full account of the outing but that will need to wait until I return from holiday in rainy GW land and of course the September 2m Trophy weekend.

Until then can I give personal thanks to Peter (G0VVE) whose hard work and years of dedication made it all possible, Derek (G3GRO) for building the winning 23cm station, Gerry (GI0RTN) from travelling from Belfast to operate 23cm alomst single handed. Sorry to all those I've missed but the library internet is about to time out.

73 for now.
Mike
G(W)0KAD