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Comment by Minuteman on December 11, 2009 at 5:51pm

Good luck to you guys on the groundwave 2meter contact.

Tell me Jonesey, are you as entranced as I was reading Lights Out? I couldn't put it down till I was done. I'm a sucker for dime novels I guess....

Hope you guys connect!

Comment by JED on December 9, 2009 at 11:33am

Jonesy, thanks for the link on that downloader for videos. Hope it works better than the previous one I had tried, which is complicated enough that I can't get it to function at all. The new program took about 45 seconds to download and probably won't take much longer to install.

Regarding contact, the time is fine but will have to wait till Friday or Sat evening. One problem is that I do not have sideband on my 2 meter rig so we'll have to try without it for now. As far as frequency goes, since we won't be using sideband unfortunately, we should probably use the national simplex frequency.

Comment by David A Jones on December 9, 2009 at 3:40am

JED,

Here's kinda what I'm thinking. And this is just sketchy...put in your nickel, too, and we can get it down solid.

At 2000 (8 PM central) I will try to get you for 5 minutes at 30 second intervals. If there is no contact, then from 2005 to 2010, you can do the same thing.

I'm figuring 144.300 Upper Side Band. I don't have my 13 element up, yet, and my 5 element is mounted vertical, so I don't know what success we can hope for, but we gotta start somewhere.

When you get something for 10 meters, we can try that, too. I have my A99 the top of it is at about 30-32 feet. I hope to move it so it will top out at 45 feet, but I have to wait on roof climber, and now that the weather has turned, who knows when that will be?

Let me know what you think, and we can nail down a day a time.

jonesey65244
KC0OUF

Comment by David A Jones on December 9, 2009 at 3:19am

This is probably a bit off-topic for ham, but then, maybe not.

I only have dial-up, so if I take the hour or more it takes to dl a 5 minute video from youtube, I'd like to keep it. I almost bought a flash recorder from Applian a year and a half ago for a hundred bucks, but could not get myself to bite that bullet.

Well, Applian has a program out they are giving away for free. I dl'd it and have recorded about 10 vids with it. It seems to work well, and it really is free. None of this demo crap, or "free" for 14 days. Near as I can tell, it is completely, fully functional and totally free. Of course, Applian still offers higher powered stuff for a fee, and people who spend hours and hours a day doing this stuff might need it, but for me, this program works great.

When you dl it, I guess it embeds in browsers like Firefox and IE. I was nervous it would not work with Chrome, which is what I use, and won't go into why. But the program works fine. As soon as I click on a youtube vid, it kicks in and starts recording it into a temp file. When done, you can rename it and put it where you want, or chuck it, if it isn't any good.

Don't mean to get long winded on this, and my being a dinosaur with no broadband, maybe everybody already knows about it. But for any fellow dinosaurs who don't know about it, here's the link.

http://applian.com/freecorder4/download.php

jonesey65244

Comment by JED on December 8, 2009 at 12:52pm

Jonesy, my power supply has made it through testing and I'm hitting our club 2 meter repeater at 5watts, using the new vertical base station antenna, like I'm parked right next to it even though it's a good 35 miles away. Would like to try and connect the 300 mile stretch between you and I sometime soon on simplex. I'm hoping that pushing my 65 watt max will help make the trip. Let me know when would be good for you and we'll give it a try.

Comment by Minuteman on December 8, 2009 at 6:55am

ICOM IC-706MKIIG - the final word

Amateur Radio Victoria reports that the Icom IC-706MkIIG transceiver will definately cease production. In a news report just received, they say: Despite deniers in the USA, it has been confirmed that Wednesday 9 December is the last day that the ICOM plant in Wakayama, Japan will produce the IC-706MKIIG transceiver.

ICOM Australia said it has checked with Japan and been reassured that the earlier advice received that the popular transceiver has been discontinued is correct. The reason is that some components used in the IC-706MKIIG are no longer available and the model had to cease production.

For more on this story see the news section of the Amateur Radio Victoria website www.amateurradio.com.au

Comment by Minuteman on November 27, 2009 at 2:10pm

Umm correction that was 80 miles out....not 180 geez..

Comment by Minuteman on November 27, 2009 at 2:03pm

Jonesey we'll try this before the weekend is out. There is some added benefit to riding the greyline when the sun is 12 degrees from the horizon. I'll email you the times and freqs when I get them figured.

That must be a real nice LogP and he certainly is using groundwave comms at that band. Don't think I've ever heard of skywave prop at that band. What is a good explaination is he is using reflectors either natural or manmade. Those can redirect such a high frequency with great efficiency. I once chatted with a guy 180 mile out on a repeater in NH. His location and the repeater was due north at 010degrees. I found him at talked with him at precisely 037 degrees. When I moved the beam to anything other than that I lost him totally. Complete FM dropout.

Kind of neat working those bank shots....

The HF Packer Amp is well underway and about 60% built. I'm gonna take some pictures of the go-pack with the amp fitted and post them here....

Later

Comment by David A Jones on November 27, 2009 at 1:34pm

MM,

Give me a couple times and freqs for 40 and 80, and I'll monitor here and see if I can hear you. I have some fencing wire strung out for SWL. No way good enough for transmit, but as I have said, I am more a listener than talker. Besides, currently I'm unlicensed for those, too.

If you want to try to shout out on 10, I can switch over to my A99. I figure just to hear you, but at least I could legally try try transmit back.

I was reading reviews on the Create Log Periodic antenna last night, and there is a guy in England who gets all over Europe and once hit East Africa on 2 meter sideband, so I guess maybe we might have a chance, yet. I'm pretty sure JED and I should be able to hit each other at 300 miles, but you on the east coast might be a trick. One of the local club guys gets into MN and WI from here in MO, and that is at least 400 miles, depending on where they were in MN/WI, it could have been upwards of 700 miles.

My 10 el, 2 bander worked OK Wed & Thurs night on 2 different 2 meter nets. The other day, when I tried to use the 2 bander, I could not get anyone. Must have been a gremlin playing with me.

If you give me some times and freqs, I'll try to hear you, and report back.

BTW, a local ham near me I talk to some has been hitting all over the east coast on 40 meters with under 5 watts doing CW. I ordered the cable for my MFJ-462B the other day, so at least I'll be able to read what they are saying.

I'll yammer at ya later,
jonesey65244

Comment by Minuteman on November 27, 2009 at 1:22pm

Yes Jed it is a fun journey. A large part of this hobby is to keep it cost effective. Hams are generally cheap. The below listed options are for hard core operators that have already maximized their existing lower technology stations. I've yet to see this option in person myself but the technical data supports its implementation. Building this seems feasible if you have the tools. It is a 4.5 wavelength boom. Not a small feat.

To get the most of any rig requires the 80/20 rule be disallowed. The point of diminishing returns is reached very early on in the expenditure column.... I will not be buying this option either.

The AMSAT option is much more manageable in both dollars and real estate requirements. Many hams use simple handheld beams from hilltops and open field to communicate through satellites. Low dollars, low real estate required. Like you said though it is fragile and easily preyed upon by those who will.

On the MUF you can see the advantages of lower frequencies for 24/7 non stop comms. Look into the dark countries and you can see the only useable frequencies are 8mhz and below. Denoting no sun provided radio energy to smash around.....

Good luck with the mic and antler project! Gie that General or better yet the Extra. I'm testing for the Extra in January.

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