I presume this would apply to the earlier 706's (e.g. pre MKIIG) as well?

I finally have acres of room so I'm contemplating putting up my first tower. Nothing huge, not over 50' and a rotatable 'mid-sized' tri-beam.

Once obtained I would of course follow the manufacturers specs for the base, guying, etc.. But what I'm looking for first is (hopefully) a 'Antenna towers 101' or 'Ham radio towers for dummies' website.

That is, basic info of what to consider before buying/erecting the tower, i.e. How to select proper tower, determine proper placement, etc.

Any help/pointers would be appreciated.

Burning the CD in a format readable by home/auto CD players wasn't the problem. Virtually any/all S/W capable of burning CD's provide that ability.

The problem was creating CW in an audio format CD burners recognized. I was finding that all the programs that generated CW audio files created the files in a MIDI format. CD burning S/W (nor home/audio CD players) do not recognize/play .mid files.

However, as mentioned before Sound Forge resolved that problem. By being able to *capture* CW in the proper format I was able to create a couple 'custom' CD's with multiple 10 min tracks (consisting of 5-6 different characters each) sent/spaced at my desired speed goal. For a reference I also titled the tracks so the characters in each track were displayed on the face of my auto CD player. Finally, I created some tracks of common words & some typical QSO's for when the groups of random characters got to be too much .

Since I don't have a mobile HF rig I now have something 'productive' to do during my time in the car.

Again, many thinks to AG4RQ for showing me the way to do this.

OK, an apology is in order then. Sorry... sometimes it's hard to accurately decipher someones meaning in a short post.  

As far as doing it myself I'm sure I could (at least eventually). I was once quite skilled in assembly & Fortran. While I'm certainly not current at least the 'art of programming' isn't an new and/or alien concept to me.

If I did it I'd would want to approach it at a lower level than what VB (etc.) would provide. If for no other reason than to avoid the canned, generic windows look/feel (bleah

Problem is, I just don't have the time/inclination to undertake such a long term project (starting with learning C++, etc.).

Given some of the assumptions I've made concerning Windows (that you have corrected) it should be obvious to you I am not a programmer.

So I hope I'm mistaken when I intrepret your comment(s) of "perhaps you should develop it yourself" as being rather snide. You know, actually prefaced with a 'If you're so smart...'.

As popular as DXLabs suite seems to be you have every right to be proud of your hard won accomplishment. Again, what my personal preferences are regarding a more 'unified' user interface should absolutely not be construed as being critical of YOUR work.

Doesn't mean I can't hope/wish for a 'single window suite' nor do I think I should I be taken to task for preferring it over 'a new window for everything' approach.

My pleasure Don...

p.s. I'm the guy that emailed you asking if you ever planned to port MacLoggerDX to the PC.

To everyone pointing me to one-window loggers, Thanks. But I'm not looking for just a one-window LOGGER. There are plenty of those to choose from.

I'm looking for a one-window interface for rig control, mapper, DX spotter, callsign lookup AND logger.  All in ONE window (i.e. not have to open a new window for each & every function)

Exactly what MacLoggerDX offers, but for a PC.

Alas, no such thing exists for the PC anywhere. Makes me wonder if Windows can even support such a 'singular' interface ala MacLoggerDX.

Call me peevish but I'm just getting annoyed needing a seperate, 'discrete' window for each and every function you want available. One window here for the mapper, another over there for the logger, one unknown something peeking out from underneath the DX spotter... alt tabbing between this & that or the clickfest using the mouse.

Thank you for pointing out how to do this.  I happened to have an older copy of Sound Forge (4.5 for Win95 & NT) that I I'd forgot I had and hadn't used in a long time.

Anyway, loaded it up on my XP machine and it seems to work fine. I started my G4FON Koch code S/W, clicked 'record' in Sound Forge and sure enough, it recorded the output as a .wav file. A simple 'save as .mp3' and there you go.  I just have to play with, balance the levels a bit (the recorded file audio level was low) and I'll be burning custom practice CD's!

I suppose I could even get 'fancy' and edit the sound file, adding the spoken chars after each code element, or 'speak' the sentence before/after the actual code.

Again, thanks for the tip!

The problem is converting Midi files into something playable on a audio CD player. You must first convert the Midi into .wav or MP3, etc.  

None of my CD burning S/W (Nero, EZCD, etc.) recognizes Midi files. Even if they did allow me to burn a MIDI file onto a CD an audio CD player would not know how to play them.

I've not found any free S/W that will convert MIDI to .WAV, MP3, etc.

I know you don't want to wait and/or pay over $200 but...

I just received my Bengali (magnetic professional) and I simply cannot imagine how anything could be better. No joking around, it's built like a tank yet can be adjusted so light & close you cannot tell you're even moving anything (hand or paddle) to send code. Way beyond my needs right now but it's nice to know I can grow into it and even then it'll stay way ahead of me.  

It is very likely the LAST instrument... err, paddle I'll ever need to purchase. It simply blows away any other key I've seen/tried/used!

If the $200 barrier is an absolute, although it's not magnetic I'd be confident the Simplex ($136 = $12 shipping) is of the same high quality construction/materials of his other keys. Otherwise, try and cough up the extra $60 over your budget for one of the magnetic versions. It is simply astounding how smooth & precise my Magnetic Pro is (not to mention just how good looking it is .

Bengali paddles are *absolutely* worth the wait/money.

As an owner of an Idiom Press K3 keyer I can attest to it's quality and its certainly got more features than I'll ever need/use.

Any questions I've asked Idiom has been answered in a complete & timely manner. Realistically I just can't expect any/all companies to have ALL the answers though.  Note I'm not defending them since a link to a small picture would not trouble a dial-up user since it would be voluntary (yet still available if needed). Certainly no more so than the manuals they offer for download.

The point is, if a picture of the rear/connectors was that important you could easily have taken a different approach, ask someone via eHam to send you one. A post in elmers, a friendly email to a product reviewer, etc. would get you the info you need.

Heck, drop me an email, I'll send you a pic of the rear of the K3 keyer. My email address is in my profile.

As a long time user I enjoy/visit eHam almost daily as well. And yes, I understand the (current) forum software can't provide the more common features that the majority of contemporary forums/BBS's use.

Doesn't mean it still isn't annoying when you can't find a topic you've been following because so many new topics have now buried it on page 8 (I finally found my topic).  Interestingly, the forum search never 'pinged' it.

It's annoying because (for me anyway) the forums are THE most valuable asset eHam offers this subscriber. It is a repository of some VERY useful reference information. Problem is, once it gets a few days old it becomes virtually impossible to reference.

I would SEEM simple enough to replace the current software with something commercial (ikonboard, vBulletin, etc.). Those BBS's are not THAT expensive. However, I get the impression that's probably not feasible because the current forum software was hand built/coded to provide a similar look/feel as the rest of eHam and is thus 'shoehorned' into the site design/format.

I don't know either. I think the forums are both the strongest and weakest thing about eHam. Nothing else annoys me on eHam as much as how these forums are constructed. Lots of good information shows up here but it's so disorganized there is no way to keep up.

I've been reading an excellent thread about antenna impedance. I finally added a question a couple days ago and now I simply cannot find the thread anymore. I've looked in every forum (at multiple pages), used search, looked at RAT, etc. and it's just not there.

All the really good forum/BBS software 'floats' a thread to the top if something is added. Here, you might have a 150 post topic that is still very active and it'll be buried on page 6 if that many new topics are added since it started. I appreciate having the forums but frankly, they are a real PITA to use/follow.

Now that the thread is back on track, can someone explain just what the heck 'j' is, as in R+jX?

Per ARRL Antenna Handbook: "The j is an operator function used to indicate that the values for R and X cannot be added directly but that vector addition must be used if the overall impedence is to be determined. (This is analogous to solving a right triangle for the length of it hypotenuse, where R and X represent the length of the two sides. The length of the hypotenuse represents Z, the overall impedence). By convention a plus sign is assigned to j when the reactance is inductive (R+jX) , and a minus sign is used when the reactance is capacitive (R-jX).

Aside from the above making my brain hurt as if I'd taken a great big gulp of a slushy, exactly how do you USE R+jX (or R-jX)?

Let's say I have an antenna analyzer that provides valuse for R & X at a given freq. What do I do with that info to correct and/or optimize an antenna?

Indeed a 'single-window suite' would indeed be my own personal preference these days. I do hope you don't take offense, that as a slight against DXLab. As I mentioned I have, and still use portions of DXLabs. Certainly it's the ONLY complete suite available that is totally integrated. And the not-unfounded reviews here clearly show it has excellent performance and everything works well together.

I'm not so sure my annoyance doesn't stem from the (IMHO) inherent limitations Intel/Microsoft has placed on its developers. I've certainly done my share of programming 'back in the day', both Motorola & Intel (then Zilog) assy language and high level. I changed my career track about the time Intel adopted the segmented memory model and 'C' emerged. I attempted to revisit, get up to speed but was so confounded by that approach I've never written a line of code since (so again, don't think I'm not appreciative of what you've done

I'm sure if the underlying hardware and O/S utilized linear memory addressing, ability to address screen coords directly, (etc., ala Motorola) it would be a whole different world. I suspect Win software would likely certainly look/feel better, not be so bland & cookie-cutter in appearance.

And as far as having someone else do it for me, well, it would be cheaper just to buy a Mac and use MacLoggerDX (Maybe I'm just turning into a Mac user and just don't know it yet?

I'm looking for software that displays everything in one window (ala MacLogger). I'm just tired/annoyed at having to 'alt tab' between windows, and/or arrange windows so enough of each one is showing so I can mouse to the one I want/need. It's just 'messy', kinda like having a Kenwood transceiver, Icom power supply, yaesu rotor control and a Henry amp. Yes, you can get everything to work together but it's a PITA.

I've used DXLab and it's good but DXLab is the 'antithesis' of what I'm looking for, i.e. DXLab has its own seperate lil window for everything.

I've also used N3FJP and agree it's a seriously great logger. But that's all it does and unfortunately it doesn't support DXAtlas (IMHO, the ONLY mapper I've found for the PC that makes the cut).

What would be perfect for me would be N4PY (or HRD) rig control, with DXAtlas & N3FJP logger all in one nicely organized window (again, ala MacLogger). Not critical but the icing on the cake would include Hamscope or Digipan for digital modes. Finally include something like D4 (clock syncro) from thinkman.com and THAT would be a kickA$$ package