[CQ] Anyone going to HRO sometime?
Bill Paul
wpaul at windriver.com
Mon Feb 22 01:14:54 UTC 2010
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, Jonathan Lassoff had
to walk into mine on Sunday 21 February 2010 15:25 and say:
> Excerpts from Bill Paul's message of Sun Feb 21 13:44:37 -0800 2010:
> > The Ham Radio Outlet store in Oakland is a little tough to get to via
> > public transit, and I haven't been there in a few years. If someone from
> > SF is planning to visit there, I would appreciate if I could ride along
> > with you.
>
> It's a crazy pain to get to. I pretty much just only order stuff online
> to work around this.
Yeah, but then I can't drool over the toys.
> > On another note, I recently acquired a new HF rig (Kenwood TS-850SAT),
> > but still haven't made any HF Noisebridge contacts. :) If anyone is still
> > interested in trying to have an HF QSO, let me know.
>
> Awesome! I've been seeing you doing quite the overhaul on it at 2169. I
> have an Elecraft K2 and a small vertical HF antenna at the space that
> I'd like to try out.
Not so much overhaul as preventive maintenance. The 850 is known for having
some bad surface-mount capacitors that can eventually leak electrolyte fluid.
Those are easy to replace, luckily. Unfortunately I also had to replace a
transistor in the RX IF stage that failed only about 1 week after I got the
radio. The transistor only cost 50 cents, but it was an incredible pain to
replace it without proper surface mount soldering tools.
It's working well now though. I even managed to work Italy this morning on 20
meters. (First European DX contact.) I've heard Germany and France too, but
wasn't able to get through the pileups.
> I used to be much more active when I lived in Fremont, and there was
> tons of space for antennas, but I haven't been back on the air since I
> moved back to SF.
>
> Want to setup a test CW QSO between radios at the space?
I haven't ever worked CW on the air. I don't even have a key (I used to, but I
don't know what became of it). I studied morse code just well enough to pass
the 13WPM test for my general, then never touched it again.
> My radio has SSB, but I don't have a handmic, so I'm CW only at the
> moment.
It shouldn't be too hard to wire up a microphone to that radio. Radio Shack
sells 8 pin microphone connectors. Oddly, it looks like you have to set up
some jumpers in the K2 to use a mic. I don't know if you have them already.
If not, we can probably find some at 2169.
Is your radio the K2, or K2/100?
-Bill
> Cheers,
> jonathan
--
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-Bill Paul (510) 749-2329 | Member of Technical Staff,
wpaul at windriver.com | Master of Unix-Fu - Wind River Systems
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"I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed." - George Carlin
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