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Messages - KK0G

#31
General Discussion / Re: Survival Radios, Really?
February 02, 2017, 08:46:30 AM
Quote from: gil on February 02, 2017, 06:53:24 AM

The two most important factors are light weight and low current draw.

Gil.


Exactly, with a HUGE emphasis on the latter. It doesn't matter if you have the latest, greatest, most high tech whiz bang radio using some super cool highly secure, fail safe mode......... if you can't power it because it sucked up all the precious electrons you stored up, it's just an expensive paper weight.
#32
Morse Code / Re: cw on 2 meters
January 03, 2017, 08:44:38 AM
As others have already replied; you must be horizontally polarized, you are attenuating most of the extremely weak signal by being cross polarized. They call VHF/UHF CW and SSB weak signal for a reason, it truly is weak, don't expect to hear much on a dipole, go for a directional gain antenna mounted very high and in the clear - remember, it's line of sight on VHF. High quality feedline with a low loss at VHF is another requirement. Don't worry though, you made the same wrong assumptions that many hams before you have made, VHF weak signal is nothing at all like HF, it has to be approached differently.
#33
General Discussion / Re: Talk to me.
December 13, 2016, 08:22:46 AM
Good article Gil. I didn't head over to eHam to read the comments but I already know what they say.  8)
#34
Technical Corner / Re: How to solder aluminium rods?
December 12, 2016, 08:49:57 AM
I'm just going to ignore the Vaseline comment 8) .


I've attempted soldering aluminum and it's an exercise in futility. I ended up using a mechanical connection.
#35
Quote from: thunderkiss65 on December 08, 2016, 05:51:57 PM
Hi. I am new to all this, but to me it seems there is no affordable radio out there that will let you exercise your full general license privileges. It makes no sense to me. Also, the captchas on this site seem excessive.


You think that's bad? Try finding an affordable radio that lets you exercise your full Extra class license privileges! :o  Hint - there isn't any rig I'm aware of that will allow you to exercise full privileges for either General or Extra class, hell there isn't even one that would allow full exercise of Technician class privileges. Full privileges for General would have to cover every band and mode all the way from HF to microwave. Affordable is also a completely relative term, what's affordable to me may be astronomical to someone else and vice versa. What exactly are you looking for and what kind of budget can you afford?
#36
Well, despite my complete lack of literacy in the French language I managed to muddle through the process and I now have a one year subscription. Once I figured out where the pay with PayPal button was - actually I sort of accidentally stumbled onto it - it was back to English which I at least have a passing knowledge of.  :o  The core group of us regulars will no doubt make the effort to figure it out but it might just put some people off and they decide it's not worth the trouble. Although honestly it will probably only be us regulars subscribing anyway. Just my two cents worth.
#37
I tried to pay but the PayPal link directs me to a French version - well, what I'm assuming is French since I don't read French - and I can't see how to get to a U.S. version.
#38
General Discussion / Re: Gas Generators
November 08, 2016, 08:48:20 AM
Quote from: cockpitbob on November 07, 2016, 01:41:50 PM
I called the kit manufacturer and learned something.  Residential natural gas is at crazy-low pressure:  7" water column = 1/4psi.  The kit is designed for bottled NG which is at 10"-11" water column.  They are probably going to send me a new spring to install in the pressure regulator.


Why would they design the kit for relatively rare CNG when probably 98% of their customers will be plumbing it into the NG line coming into their home? The whole point of using NG is because it's a very reliable, cheap, uninterrupted fuel supply, CNG would be the opposite of that. Sounds like they're working with you though.
#39
General Discussion / Re: Gas Generators
October 25, 2016, 08:51:23 AM
Quote from: cockpitbob on October 24, 2016, 06:18:49 PM
KK0G, I love your home-brew 12V generator!  My dad grew up in rural Oregon during the great depression and I was raised to appreciate that kind of ingenuity and frugality. :D  And it has the distinct advantage of providing enough power for a few essentials while using 5-10X gas less than my set-up uses.


If the women don't find you handsome they should at least find you handy.  ;D


I can't claim much ingenuity though, I just copied what lots of other folks have done previously. It works amazingly well for what it is which is essentially a car electric system minus the very large inefficient engine driving it and as we're all aware a car is capable of powering up a pretty fair amount of stuff. I've never measured its total power and efficiency but it easily puts out full power at just above idle and sips fuel, if I recall it will run well over 2 hours on a tank of fuel and the tank can't hold much more than 3/4 of a gallon.
#40
General Discussion / Re: Gas Generators
October 24, 2016, 03:28:10 PM
My house is all electric so acquiring a generator large enough to power the whole house is out of the question, fortunately my electric service is very reliable. Several years ago we had an ice storm that knocked out power for over 24 hours, heat was no problem because I have several kerosene heaters that I keep a ready supply of fuel on hand for. After sitting in the warm yet dark house for a few hours I decided to improvise; out to the shop I went to retrieve the 12 volt generator I built for field day several years previously. It's a simple affair consisting of a 5 H.P. Briggs and Stratton engine belt driving a Delco 12SI alternator. I sat the generator away from the house to cut down on noise and connected it to a battery inside via about a 50' cable. My Jerry rigged set up doesnt have enough power to run any large appliances but I was easily able to power up a 1000 Watt inverter to run my modem/router, TV, radio and still had plenty left over for a couple of 12 volt lights. All the stuff I used was "junk" I collected over the years, I doubt I have more than $20 or so in the whole set up, not ideal but it's cheap and it works.
#41
Antennas / Re: Coax Length and SWR.
October 05, 2016, 08:29:22 PM
Quote from: gil on October 05, 2016, 05:19:38 PM
Interesting thanks! So I guess that for a matched antenna the length of coax would not matter... Am I thinking correctly here?

Gil


With a matched antenna there are no standing waves on the feed line. I'm in the camp of amateurs that think SWR is way overrated as a measure of antenna performance, remember a dummy load has a perfect SWR of just 1:1. Go back 30-40 years ago and an SWR meter was a pretty rare sight in most shacks, then during the C.B. craze they became cheap and plentiful and all of the sudden SWR was the benchmark of antenna performance whereas before few hams had even heard of SWR yet they made, tuned, and used antennas and made lots of contacts the world over with antennas that no doubt had extremely high SWR. The real issue with having an extremely high SWR is potential damage to transistor finals and high losses in coaxial feed lines. That's why my main big dipole at home is fed via a tuner/balun and twin lead feed line, there's been times I've had insanely high SWR on certain pfrequencies but the twin lead has very little loss under those conditions and as long as the tuner matches the whole shebang the finals in my transmitter are happy.
#42
Antennas / Re: Coax Length and SWR.
October 05, 2016, 04:36:40 PM
I found an ARRL article that explains it though it's not the one I was referring to. The following paragraph from the article does a much better job of explaining it than I did in my previous post.




"In the case of a mismatched condition, something interesting happens along the transmission line. Before, with the matched antenna, the same voltage existed anywhere along the line. Now as you move along the distance of the line, the voltage will change. It now has peaks and valleys. The 33 percent reflection from the antenna alternately adds to and subtracts from the forward voltage wave. At some places on the cable the reflected voltage adds to 133 percent, and others it subtracts to 66 percent of the matched transmitter output. The voltage ratio is 133/66 or 2.0. That voltage ratio defines the SWR. The fact that the voltage along the line changes with position and is different from what the transmitter would produce is called a standing wave. Standing waves are only present when the line is mismatched."
#43
Antennas / Re: Coax Length and SWR.
October 05, 2016, 08:40:10 AM
Yes, changing feedline length may allow you to see a different SWR but the length doesn't actually effect SWR. It's difficult to explain, and honestly I barely understand the concept myself, but what you're seeing is really the effect of where the measurement is taken along the length of feedline and not the actual length of the feedline. Imagine a length of feedline with standing waves (the SW of SWR) superimposed onto it. If you move a meter along that length the measurement will change depending on if it's at a peak, trough, or where the wave is crossing the line. I read an article with images that explained it pretty well but I don't have a link to it right now.
#44
Morse Code / Re: Copying or Guessing ?
September 26, 2016, 10:36:31 AM
Quote from: gil on September 26, 2016, 10:27:03 AM
You turn it off by drinking three shots of Cognac..

Gil


That'd do it I suppose.
#45
Morse Code / Re: Copying or Guessing ?
September 26, 2016, 08:44:35 AM
Quote from: RadioRay on September 25, 2016, 02:49:10 PM
Please - strive to copy code. Turn off the code reader "feature"'and use your mind. Morse can be very satisfying, and guessing is not the same as copying.


What is this "code reader feature" you speak of and how do I "turn it off"? 8)