It's a rhetorical question because yes, you can, and yes....... I did  8)

With my upcoming backpacking trip, I decided my old tent that has served me well for almost 17 years and has LOTS of repairs, has seen it's better days. That combined with the my desire for a smaller, lighter tent led me to purchase an inexpensive Ozark Trails one man tent for $30 at Wal-Mart.

The problem was the bright burnt orange and light gray/silver color would stand out like a sore thumb. A Google search on the feasibility of painting nylon turned up responses all over the map, from 'it'll work just fine' to 'the paint will eat the nylon' and everything in between. I actually found someone warning of the danger of suffocation since the nylon will no longer breathe............. dude, it's a tent, not a garbage bag.  :o

My solution.......... just paint the damn thing! At worst I'm out 30 bucks so I took the gamble. It was already clean and dry since it's brand new so I set it up in the yard and sprayed it with the same Rust-Oleum Camo series paint I use to paint gun parts using very light coats, closer to an over spray than a coat of paint, then I sprayed it with Scotch Guard silicone spray. It turned out pretty well in my not so humble opinion. After it dried completely I set it up outside for a water resistance test, after last nights rain it was bone dry inside and the water was beaded up on the outer surface. Time will tell how well it holds up.

Quote from: s2man on May 08, 2013, 08:33:47 PM
<spooky music> I look into the crystal ball.  I see a rat tail in my future... 

Can I assume a rat tail would be worthless with aforementioned mag-mount roof antenna?  Or, more important, would it be detrimental?

You would assume correct. In that case the roof is your rat tail.

The rectifier temp controller I built is dirt simple, it's nothing more than a 1N4001 diode in series with the hot side of the iron which will rectify the current allowing only half of it to reach the iron. To switch to high power a switch on either side of the diode shorts it out when turned on. I mounted it all in a small NEMA box I had in my junk box and finished it all off with an on/off switch and LED to indicate power.

The fully adjustable version uses a standard light dimmer switch instead of a diode. Personally I prefer the rectifier set up, with the dimmer switch I had a position marked for low/idle which was probably close to half power. Basically I was always fiddling with it to find the just the right spot. With the rectifier I just flip the switch to low power when I won't be soldering for several minutes then flip it to high when I'm ready to solder again.

Neither one of these methods is true temperature control but it does increase tip life compared to a straight full power iron when used for relatively long periods of time.

Sounds like a nice amp Ray but come on, we need photos! Is there a link to the application notes?

Quote from: s2man on May 08, 2013, 08:13:36 PM
Thanks for the warm welcome, guys. 

Until a couple of weeks ago, I had zero interest in CW.  After reading your thoughts and Gil's feedback on his learning curve, I am certainly becoming curious.  And the QRP/RockMite stuff!  My goodness, a couple of years ago that was science fiction out of a James Rawles novel.  Now, I'm thinking, "Where could I put a HF antenna"?  LOL

Thanks again,
Stew

P.S.  I just created a new email account for myself, KD0VBG at themillers.us.  I guess I'll be needing it to keep ham traffic separate.

There you go, positive attitude! You can learn code, hundreds of thousands (hell millions for all I know!) of people before you have done it, you can too. If I can do it........ anyone can   ;D

Quote from: KC9TNH on May 08, 2013, 07:04:33 PM
Continued thanks, trackin'.
Favorite accessories for the table, e.g., something to hold a small (QRP-kit size, use your kit-fu) board whilst working on it, etc.?

Honestly, I just lay the board down on the bench and go at it, sometimes I'll prop it up on whatever's handy at the moment if need be.

Definitely get a helping hand type tool of some kind, it's indispensable when soldering connectors to cables. If you're really on a budget you could homebrew one out of a chunk of wood, a coat hanger and a couple of alligator clips.

Welcome and congratulations on the new ticket................... you've only just begun into this highly addictive hobby 8) If you haven't already I suggest you learn Morse code. You can browse the code forum to read about all kinds of advantages to CW operation. 73 de KK0G

It depends on your definition of basic. You can buy brand new el cheapo soldering irons for about $10 or less all day long on the internet, I've used a few of them and they're all pretty much the same. Look for a grounded tip to help prevent ESD sensitive components. Weller is a little better quality name brand plus better replacement tip availability for not much more money. One of those plus rectifier type or dimmer switch type controller (Plans are in the ARRL Handbook or do a Google search) to help control tip temperature would work pretty well for a basic set up. My current set up is a homebrewed rectifier type controller powering a Weller 30 Watt iron but I'm looking to upgrade to an actual temperature controlled soldering station. My problem is that even by cutting the power in half with a rectifier, I solder enough and have the iron idling for such long periods that I quickly burn through tips. I'd love to have a new Hakko soldering station but they're not cheap and truthfully I'd rather direct that money else where.

Whoops, I wasn't paying attention. I see Gil just recommended pretty much the same thing just a different brand.

Or for only $30 you could buy a SOTA Tuner kit - http://www.qrpkits.com/sota.html - which will result in the same thing plus the ability to tune a 40-15M EFHW, plus you'd get an SWR indicator. That's what I'd do if it were me............. come to think of it that's exactly what I did  8)

Quote from: KC9TNH on May 06, 2013, 03:45:38 PM
LOL, show off!  I'm at about 260mA; yes, it's a hog in comparison, your KX1 is drawing, say, 12% of the 817. :)
They really are apples/oranges, though. People always compare little CW QRP radios to an 817, when the 817 is really just a baby 897.

BUT, tiny current draw on a receive means you can listen for a very long time for those Cubans that wandered through Gil's campsite...
jes sayin'.
8)

Yeah, that's several orders of magnitude difference but but then the 817 is an all mode, all band, DC to daylight, do everything rig. Of course that comes at the price of current draw, like you said; apples to oranges.

Quote from: KC9TNH on May 06, 2013, 11:28:32 AM

Quote from: KK0G on May 06, 2013, 10:57:05 AM
I'm guessing the ham in Earlham is WA0AUX, if you get Ames that easily I'd guess it's a null on his end.

No I don't have the 30/80M module..............yet  ;)

Guessed right. Could be a variety of things; the Ames station has his G5RV broadside to me, which probably makes up for my end (or lack of it). 40 would likely be doable then.

As in another old QRP thread said (elsewhere) it's all less about the box at the end of the coax and more about propagation and the antenna, operator then maybe, the box down the list in terms of importance.

I still find it funny that, as nicely as they lend themselves to low-footprint operations and certainly cater to the CW community, they (Elecraft) don't ditch 80 as an option and do something like 17 simply because it takes more wire out on 80. 17 is a small band but it is one of those wavelengths that is quite often useable & can be less congested than 20. The MIL keeps a slice of 18mHz around in their toolkit for just that reason. Oh well, rant over. It's all good.

If starting over I'd probably look into Elecraft heavily but already have the 817 and a separate h/t for VHF/UHF use. Having done a few of the usual tweaks to reduce current draw the 817's pretty friendly.

Looking forward to your trip, in a vicarious kinda way. :)

Honestly I haven't used 17M all that much. I've had quite a few QSO's on it back during my phone days but nowhere near the number of 20 and 40M contacts. I'm not in front of my log right now but I don't recall ever making a CW contact on 17M.  As you pointed out though it's a moot point since the KX1 doesn't cover it.

Just out of curiosity, how much current does your tweaked 817 pull? I measured my KX1 at 31 mA on receive  ;D

I'm guessing the ham in Earlham is WA0AUX, if you get Ames that easily I'd guess it's a null on his end.

No I don't have the 30/80M module..............yet  ;)

Quote from: KC9TNH on May 06, 2013, 08:46:54 AM

Quote from: cockpitbob on May 05, 2013, 11:45:29 PMYou're going to need road maps for sure, and topo maps may be valuable.  Got a good old magnetic compas?

Of some importance, can you correlate what you're seeing on a topo map to what your eyes are looking at & vice versa?

Yep, and in addition to being a valuable skill, it's a heck of a lot of fun. It's one of those skills that you have to actually do hands on out in the field to learn. Not difficult once you've done it a few times.

I've contemplated this very subject before. While I have a decent library of paper based books on many different subjects, by far the overwhelming majority of all my info is in the hard drive of the computer I'm typing on at this moment. With the vast knowledge available on the internet and my seemingly unquenchable desire to learn a variety of subjects, to print out my documents folder would probably take months, fill up two rooms of my house and bankrupt me from buying paper and ink jet cartridges.

I have printed some things from my documents folder that I think could be essential and i try to remember to do that when I come across new essential info on the internet. It comes down to prioritizing which things are essential info that need to be in hard copy which is harder than I first thought.

Two of the things amateur radio related that I recall printing off include rig service manuals and local repeater list with coverage maps. In addition I have a bunch of books including several ARRL Handbooks from different years (every amateur should have at least one copy of the Handbook!), ARRL Antenna Handbook, ARRL Hint and Kinks, several books on wire antennas, QRP, emergency power, digital modes and others I can't think of I'm sure.

The internet has made available an unprecedented vast wealth of knowledge a mere split second away from typing into a search engine the likes of which mankind has never seen before. Unfortunately it's completely dependent on a fragile infrastructure that won't be available when the SHTF.