Menu

Show posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Show posts Menu

Messages - Sparks

#46
Military Radios / Re: The UK PRC 316 / A-16
November 09, 2019, 09:20:34 PM
This radio has been mentioned once before in this forum, with reference to the same PDF:

Quote from: RadioRay on September 14, 2018, 02:55:05 PM
when I was working in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia , I picked-up a locally published book; "SAS In Malaya" and, like you said, Gil - the jungle warfare people did amazing things.  They Malay campaign drove the development of a far better radio;  the PRC-316 and STRONG reliance on NVIS.  Here is a link to an interesting article from your mates at VMARS, describing it's use.

http://www.vmarsmanuals.co.uk/newsletter_articles/prc316.pdf

>RadioRay ..._ ._

I wanted you to see the beauty of this one. And in that PDF you can see the PRC 316 and accessories.

I wonder if you can buy this radio somewhere?
#47
Military Radios / Re: The UK PRC 316 / A-16
November 09, 2019, 09:06:23 PM
I found this photo in the public Facebook group of the Norwegian Radio History Society:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2431146277159756&set=gm.1611087139030995

Information about this military transceiver in this PDF:

http://www.vmarsmanuals.co.uk/newsletter_articles/prc316.pdf


QuoteThe UK PRC 316 / A-16
by John Teague, G3GTJ

INTRODUCTION

This paper describes the PRC 316 and is an expanded version of an earlier contribution to the Centre for the History of Defence Electronics (CHiDE) colloquium on Military Communications, held in September 1999.

The radio was designed and developed for the British Army in the mid-sixties by the Signals Research & Development Establishment (SRDE) at Christchurch. Designated X3145 in the experimental phase it became "Station Radio A-16"; later it was given the Clansman style designation of "UK/PRC 316", which is how it was generally known in service.

To quote from the November 1968 edition of the User Handbook: "The lightweight HF patrol radio PRC 316 is a compact, simple to operate transmitter-receiver developed primarily for use at the halt. It provides 45 crystal controlled communication channels in the band 2 - 7MHz . . . . (It) is intended to operate at ranges up to about 800 km using CW."
#48
Military Radios / The UK PRC 316 / A-16
November 09, 2019, 08:52:43 PM
#49
Quote from: gil on July 19, 2019, 04:20:25 PM
And then there is the new Minion SDR...  ::) 

https://qrpver.com/transceivers/all-band-10-band-hf-sdr-transceiver-minion-sdr.html

If having to decide between these two, what are the pros and contras?
#50
Morse Code / Morse Code Class 01 & 02 by KN4GB via W4EEY
September 24, 2019, 11:04:15 PM
69 plus 75 minutes of Morse Code classroom instruction for beginners, well worth viewing for those who want to learn [Learn Morse Code with KN4GB and the class]:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR0NESR3tJY [Morse Code Class 01]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN0c6_VAyJ0 [Morse Code Class 02]

Homepage: https://w4eey.com/index.html

YouTube channel, many Morse videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI3DKjqB4OLY2UXm2KqDpwQ

W4EEY linked to a 31 pages long PDF:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mhnd6i4cnp8bjag/AADrb7-Uyu5iLfc8CKuQvI7ra
[Introduction To Morse Code — By Melvyn Robinson — KN4GB]
#52
Quote from: solaris0121 on December 18, 2018, 06:06:10 AM
https://qrp-labs.com/qsx.html
Quote
When will QSX be available?
We don't have an exact date, it depends how long it takes to finish all the above features and manufacture it etc. *Hopefully* something like November 2018, but this could change. Any updates will be published on this page.

Update 25-Jan-2019:
Development continues, progress is being made but there are a lot of details to take care of. Still no update on projected completion dates yet.

Update 05-Nov-2018:
We have some delays due to poor health, see https://groups.io/g/QRPLabs/message/27851 - recovering nicely now so will make more progress soon and update on this page.

Regarding the last link in there — I wish Hans Summers the very best health recovery!
#53
Quote from: gil on June 15, 2019, 04:07:12 PM
If the QSX kit wasn't coming out, presumably soon, I might have bought one already.

The thread about that one: http://radiopreppers.com/index.php?topic=1507.0
[... looks interesting - QRPlabs QSX all mode, all HF bands, 10 watts - $150 !!!!]
#54
https://qrpver.com/transceivers/all-band-hf-direct-conversion-transceiver-qrpver-dc-3001-minion-mini.html

This $350 transceiver from Odessa in Ukraine looks very interesting and affordable to me.

• "This is a small-size 10 band short-wave QRP transceiver."
• "The transceiver has small dimensions of 100x103x30 mm. and a light weight of 430 grams. It will suit both for work on the field trip, on nature, at the dacha .... So for everyday work, at home."
[...]
• "Power supply voltage: 9-14.8V (Rated supply voltage 13.8V)".
• "Consumed current in the "RX" receiving mode and 25% loudness: ~ 120mA. At 100% loudness: up to  ~ 250mA."

— They say nothing about batteries — so what would be an optimal battery taking this set for hiking in the mountains?

Also, any comment, such as user experience, will be valuable to me.

Edit: Removed 'the' before Ukraine: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18233844
#55
Morse Code / Re: CW Operators needed ...
April 29, 2019, 11:14:04 PM
Quote from: Michael on April 29, 2019, 06:18:55 PM
An interesting thread has shown up on the SKCC Google Groups mail list.

That Google group is history by now (my bolding):

Quote from: https://groups.io/g/skccThe Straight Key Century Club is the fastest growing group of  straight key Morse code operators and enthusiasts in the world. Organized in January 2006 the club has thousands of members around the globe. This Groups.io group is a meeting place for general discussion by SKCC members of all topics related to manually keyed Morse code, including mechanical bugs and sideswipers. It is the successor to the Yahoo SKCC group as of September 2017.
#56
Morse Code / Re: CW Operators needed...
April 29, 2019, 10:56:25 PM
Interesting to read, once you have registered (and been accepted) in three stages:

First, register here: https://groups.io

Then, apply for membership here: https://groups.io/g/skcc

To be accepted there you must be a member here: http://www.skccgroup.com
#59
Antennas / Re: Ground Tuning Unit.
November 19, 2018, 11:32:46 AM
Quote from: gil on November 19, 2018, 06:51:03 AM
If someone could turn it into a PDF and email it to me: gil@thisdomain.com (switch thisdomain.com for radiopreppers.com). I can only open it on my phone but not my Mac...

I just emailed you the requested PDF (12 pages), converted from DOCX to PDF, made by my MacBook Pro using Microsoft Word.app from Microsoft Office Home and Student 2016 for Mac suite.

Afterwards I discovered that a somewhat earlier version is available online at this URL:

https://www.vk5pas.com/uploads/1/3/9/8/13982788/-guide_to_building_a_portable_station_complete_with__gtu__1_.pdf

That one is signed: "Alex, VK2HAS", while the one I converted ends with: "Alex, VK2HAS now changed to VK2PRC". However, they both begin thus: "Date: 06.02.2016 —  By: Alex Ball VK2HAS".

BTW, there are several more or less free online services to convert from DOC or DOCX to PDF, here are the five top hits in my Google search:

https://smallpdf.com/word-to-pdf
https://www.ilovepdf.com/word_to_pdf
https://www.freepdfconvert.com/
https://online2pdf.com/doc-to-pdf
https://convertonlinefree.com/

I have used the first one earlier, when in a hurry, and I just tried it with your DOCX. It worked fine, except it downloaded with about half the size of what my Word.app yielded. I guess this matters only if you need high quality printouts.