If you happen to have an oscilloscope at your station that's a good way to check the speed/timing as well.

Also, I don't know if this is still an issue or not, but over the decades, Vibroplex would go through various "lots" of mainspring stock and the thickness/stiffness would vary.  Sometimes quite a bit.  If you have, say, a 1967 bug and a 1950 and a 2005, the same weight on all three could result in an entirely different range of speeds on each of the three.  So the best thing to do is to have plenty of all three weights!  :-)

73

Tom AE5I

Yes!

If you'd like a new rig, then I would highly recommend an Omni VII.  It's the best CW rig I've every operated and you can add Collins mechanical filters to it (all the way down to 300 cycles).  It'll dig a tough one outta the mud better than anything else I've ever had.  The QSK is also the best I've ever experienced.  When I run an amp, I use an Ameritron QSK-5 PIN diode switch to interface the rig to the amp and you get full power and still have the Omni-VII's great QSK operation.

If you're used to good, full QSK, I can't imagine that you'd be happy without it.

Best of luck shopping!

Tom AE5I

Thanks much for the info!

Tom AE5I

I sure appreciate the info.

I'm figuring that it's going to wind up pretty heavily weighted toward SMA.  I just don't know how many older BNC type rigs are still in heavy use.  Might not be too many.  I have several, but I do tend to keep stuff a while....  :-)

Thanks again,

Tom AE5I

Folks, I'm wondering how complete the transition from BNC to SMA is as the standard  antenna connector on handheld rigs these days.  I know that most of the new ones are using SMA, but I'm more interested in what's actually in use at this time.

When you have time, I'd love to know what connector is on the handheld rig (2 meter, 70 cm, whatever) that you use most.

Thanks so much for the help with my research!

Tom AE5I

When the "gate" opened and I applied for my current callsign, my primary goal was to find the quickest-to-send-in-code callsign available in the 5 area.

AE5E and NE5E were not available and the next one I checked was AE5I...  

Tom

73 DE AE5I

K8AC wrote:
" I submit there are NO current rigs that are calibrated to 6dB per S-meter unit"

Actually, there's at least one:  the Ten-Tec Omni-VII.  I measured one over most
of the S-meter's range and it was within +/- 1 db of that standard.

The old Collins and Drake rigs were calibrated well too.

Agreed on lots of current rigs though:  their meter calibration is all
over the place.  Not necessarily 3 db per unit, but 1 at one point, 2 at another
point and 5 somewhere else...  Not useful for much other than giving
signal reports that will make the other op happy!  ;-)

73

Tom AE5I

Thanks very very much for the great reply!  I really appreciate it...

Part of my problem is that am not familiar enough (yet) with Linux to know if I have the compiled version or not.  

How can I tell if I have a "package" or not?  

I'm pretty sure the source is there and I've run more or less the steps that you outlined in the process but no luck so far.  I'll have time on Saturday to get deeper into it and hopefully get 'er going then.

I'll have your reply with me and I have no doubt that it'll get me going.

Oh, and what are "repos" and what is "Synaptic"?

No rush....  Just know that I really appreciate the help!

If I continue to use Linux at all I intend to get deeper into all this stuff...  :-)

Thanks again,

Tom AE5I

Good thought, but it's not a "company".  The software for the MiniVNA is all written by hams and is free to use.  The documentation that I have seen is written toward the user who is familiar with Linux and includes a suggestion that if you are new to Linux then go read about it...  Which is not unreasonable and I plan to do just that, but I was hoping to get the program working without having to get quite so deep into running Linux before hand.

Thanks very much for the suggestion though!

73 and GL DX...

Tom AE5I

Thanks very much for the suggestion, but again, I may not have properly conveyed my situation...

I run Windows for every application except for this one and I have software that runs in Windows for the MiniVNA.

There is another program that runs the MiniVNA that only runs in Linux and my reason for adding a Linux partition to my computer is that I would like to run the Linux MiniVNA program to see if it has any good features that the Windows versions don't have.

My computer's not a "Linux machine" that I need to run Windows based software on, but rather, is a Windows based machine with a Linux partition added in dual-boot configuration, solely for the purpose of evaluating this program.

Thanks so much for the suggestion, though!

73

Tom AE5I

Hi Kevin-

You're preaching to the choir:  I've been a Windows user since version 2.11c and wish this program ran in Windows.  I have installed Linux in a dual-boot arrangement for trying out this program.

My problem is that I'm not an experienced Linux user and haven't had time to research all of the configuration/libraries/compiling processes that are apparently necessary in order to get this software working.  Some of the command line stuff I've seen so far reminds me of the old command line version of PKARC....  ;-)

I hope my first impression is not typical of Linux operation....  It would be cool to have a second operating system to boot into in case of trouble with my Win installation, but so far, trying to get this program installed has been nothing but aggravation.

I have several programs that run the MiniVNA in Windows and I like 'em a lot, but I read about this one on the internet and would like to see if it has anything additional to offer.  The MiniVNA is a LOT of bang for the buck.

Thanks for the suggestion, and my hackles are fine...  ;-)

73

Tom AE5I

Good afternoon-

I am trying to get the Gnome/Linux version of the MiniVNA software installed on an Ubuntu Linux computer and, since I'm totally new to Linux, I know I have a lot of reading to do.

My question is:  have you installed this software on a Linux machine and if so, do you happen to remember exactly what all you had to do in order to get it working? I know that I can do a lot of research and figure it out and I definitely plan to do the research when the time becomes available....  But if anybody can give me a leg up on it I would really appreciate it.

Thanks very much for any help you can provide.

Tom AE5I

I agree completely.  Great advice!

73

Tom AE5I

Man!  I'm with you there...

As they say, though, it seemed like the thing to do at the time....  ;-)

73

Tom AE5I

I considered both amps last year and decided on the AL-572.  It's been a very good amp and I'm totally happy with it.  I run CW on it most often and it runs cool and doesn't give trouble.

I think you'd like either one, though...

73

Tom