SOS recognition by skimmers would be very useful indeed. It’s a shame it’s not implemented. With the miniaturization of HF rigs and subsiquent popularization of portable ops including popular activities like SOTA and POTA  more and more people are taking radios to isolated areas these days. This has also lead to a renewed interest in CW among hams. As good neighbors and safety conscious hams, we should see CW as a valuable and viable way for the growing number of portable operators to call for assistance. Skimmers should be made to recognize distress calls and perhaps some skilled and charismatic writer should campaign to revive the awareness of X X X. An article in QRZ magazine, on their webpage, on some popular CW, portable ops, and general ham radio podcasts. Spread the awareness and make X X X a useful tool in the portable operator’s toolbox.

No, this post is not about Vin Diesel or adult movies. Rather, it’s a question concerning the old practice of sending X X X in CW for Pan Pan, which is a call for assistance in non-life threatening situations. As a pilot I’m familiar with Pan Pan and I was curious if there was a way to call it in CW. So I googled it and discovered it was three x’s sent as distinct letters. I’ve been messing around in CW for a few years now and never have come across this yet so it is not common knowledge like SOS is. I got to thinking about it as I was driving through a really isolated stretch of mountain roads last week, miles from cell service and thought that a way of getting the attention of a ham on the CW bands would be real handy if I had a breakdown and needed to have a ham relay a message for me to my wife to let her know about it and send some help if needed. I know SOS would bust a pileup and get a dozen of willing helpers in seconds. Do you think sending X X X would have any affect at all or am I better off just calling CQ HELP or something like that?

The 7812 is not adjustable.. I did the diode thing once but the drop was more like 0.4V 1N4004..
Gil

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If you simple need a voltage drop (not a current drop!) a couple of garden variety diodes usually give you a 0.9 volt drop per diode.  So, your 13.7ish can RUNNING can have diodes in the power line to drop it below 12 VDC , using your /cigar' lighter/power plug in the car.  I have a bunch of 1N400X series power supply diodes I've de-soldered from junk power supplies, which used for this at no cost.


>RadioRay  ..._  ._

I saw the other post earlier during my lunch break.

I'm assuming you haven't done this already...

The first thing I would do is take the wires off the "bobbin" PCB and using a multimeter  (set to check continuity) check the continuity between the BNC Outer and counterpoise bolt, and the BNC inner and the main radiator wire bolt. Also check for shorts across the BNC outer and inner. Do this in ALL switch positions, as you may have a faulty switch or you could have a dry joint on one of the toroids. I normally do these checks as part of the build.

Once you have verified the continuity of the PCB check the continuity of the wires, mainly the main radiator wire, but also the 4 counterpoise wires. Do the same check with your Coax feeder (Inner/outer/short test).

Lastly check your radio and tuner with a dummy load.

I scratch built mine and its pretty damned good for a homebrew antenna. No tuner required on any of the bands. And all I did was copy the QRP Guys schematic in the manual. But until I'd got the meter beeping on everything but the short tests I didn't hook it up to the radio.

Hope this helps

Andy