signs of the times

The TS940SAT is now outside awaiting pickup and subsequent maintenance. The hammer has failed to resuscitate the receiver on the last few attempts and I had no choice but to pronounce the T940SAT dead to ham radio. A couple days ago V44KO dropped by with his antenna checking devices, and that forced me to remove the Kenwood from the operating table and replace it with the Drake TR4CW. After a few minutes and antenna connector cleaning we had audio. If you had told me that after 10 years plus you could just take up a Drake transceiver, plug it into 240 volts ac, connect an antenna, and it would function just like today was the tomorrow of ten years ago, I would tell you "you got to be making joke", but that is the reality, and maybe someone can explain the "why" of it to me.

So why did V44KO bring his modern antenna checking devices? I don't trust the built in Kenwood SWR meter 100%, but I am still guided by it. My old Heathkit HM-102 meter does not agree with the Kenwood meter either, but they are all I use, and I do trust both of them up to a point. My buddy does not trust either of them so he elected to bring his trusted Ten-Tec and Bird calibrated devices to verify my claim to a lower than 1.5 SWR across the 40-meter band. One of these days I will search out the mod for the HM-102, but if I can't find it I can create my own and save something over a Bird. Actually, my wish list of antenna devices does not include the Bird but instead the Coaxial Dynamics wattmeter. I just prefer the larger meter.

The Drake TR4CW brings back favorable ham radio memories, because the Drake audio is unique, and represents the real sound of ham radio to me. Maybe it is the AGC characteristics that helps to shape this audio, but I can listen to it all night. The local hams that had my TS940SAT's "S" meter on the stop, and had me dialing in front end attenuation are now struggling to make it to the 40 dB over S9 mark, with their amplifier on. I believe that the AGC circuit in a receiver is critical to its performance, but I get the impression that some old equipment designers did not agree. My Icom IC-745 was a nice rig but the AGC was hopeless with strong signals. From my observation that AGC only required to develop another 2.5 volts [max] for the rig to be almost perfect, but that rig did not lend itself kindly to an AGC mod.

I have 'barely' played around with the Flex AGC parameters but have not critically analysed the effects/conditions, and I am looking forward to really giving the Flex a real world test in kilowatt alley. The Drake TR4CW is not cutting it but then that is not a fair comparison ... as though most things in life are anywhere near fair. The real test is when my neighbour further up the hill cranks up his ....

July 02, 2010

The three and one-half paragraphs above were written on May 5th but for some non recallable reason they were not completed nor published, and that has nothing at all to do with me loosing marbles or anything. I had even taken a photo of the rig outside in the vicinity of the garbage disposal bin, probably to psyche myself and justify making the move towards one of my three exotic dream rigs or maybe all three. It seems logical to think that if the world is ending in 2012 I may as well get all three rig now, and where it drop it stop. At present the TS940SAT is in the ham radio rigs' hospital undergoing maintenance and repair. I expect to see it back home soon and I promise to work the living daylights [nothing to do with 007] out of it like never before.

The Kenwood TS940SAT is one of the great rigs of its time, as those who should know about ham radio rigs will tell us. Some of these rigs may have come off the line with a soldering difficulty, but once that is fully taken care of the rigs are good to go for another 100 years while operated in an appropriate environment. This is one rig that I am keeping because anything else that comes onto the operating table has to pass that side by side test. I have to move forward, not sideways nor backward, in respect of radio station operating efficiency, etc. So what else is new on the ham radio receiver market? Are the top three still in front? The Sherwood Engineering receiver test data table is my reference, and it appears that nothing has changed since 2009.

I have not searched eBay in a while to see what rigs are due to change owners. This is the place to hang out if looking for a deal or a steal, and I suspect that people are already preparing for winter. I see some smart hams are selling worldwide, which gives those of us not living on the US mainland, an opportunity to get good rigs at good prices. Unfortunately for me the rigs in which I have a particular interest are not readily forth coming. I am off all ham radio gear that is not "made in the USA". I used to think that it was a Caribbean thing that we don't "buy local", but it is the same thing for the USA. More US hams seem to prefer the imported rigs over their own home made rigs which are of better quality and specifications, as shown on the receiver test data table.

I notice a global surge in the interest shown for vertical antennas, and also that more vertical antennas and hardware now appears to be on the market. The vertical antenna home brewers may still have to be creative, innovative and imaginative in their antenna installation. Speaking about the Caribbean, hams wish to install their verticals in the most weird of places. How do you install a vertical antenna six [6] feet up the trunk of a coconut tree on a beach? My home made vertical antenna beach mounting kit comprise a 5-foot length of rebar and a 7-foot length of fence pipe, and nylon rope. At the water's edge I hammer the rebar in leaving a convenient length above ground. I then mount the fence pipe to the vertical antenna, and hoist the whole "shebang" over the rebar and force it down into the wet sand about a foot or so, that is over the rebar. Nylon guys may be attached to the top of the vertical for stability. On dry land this setup is a whole different story, and a different mounting plan is to be preferred, like mounting to and above a chain link fence, or a concrete wall with top row of fashion blocks.

Ham radio help to bring out the creative and innovative ability in some of us hams. People who believed themselves to be 'dummies' have surprised themselves with thinking through an apparent antenna installation problem, and found that they could pull some ideas maybe from deep down in their subconscious and save their day. We never know what we can do until we really try, but some of us first have to be backed into the corner.

What else is new in V4? I missed the postmortem of the exercise and up to now have not heard of or seen any report from the SIM committee or SKNAARS. I know it was a very high level presentation, with power point and projectors, audio mixers, etc but was probably tailored for the "eyes only" of the participants. Maybe something could be in my email inbox right now so I will reserve any other comment until I check. So what else is new in V4? V44KO and I and now V44KW is on the 2-meter j-pole antenna building scene. I still have to try it on DX but it is working local simplex 146.52. I never had any luck with a j-pole so I was using a telephone wire Slim Jim. My scientist friend wants to scale this one for HF, but I am keeping a straight face, not saying anything, not making any comments to avoid any last laugh. You see some people does born lucky.

The grease truck has gone but I am not seeing any action yet, but maybe that is for tomorrow, if no rain, so I am leaving that alone. Let me QSY and QRT for now, be back soon ... and can you really imagine that today I was supposed to be on short time.