Thanks guys. It looks like it is not required to be that accurate. hopefully it will not prove to be a problem.

Dose any one know of a inexpensive tripod that has azimuth and elevation dials on it? preferably adjustable ones? I am thinking about using one with an Arrow Antenna that is supposed to have a threaded hole in the base that matches standard photographic tripods.

Or for any one that does satellite portable how to you work out azimuth and elevation? For azimuth I could try and use my mapping comps as a guide but it isn't that clearly marked. as for elevation I can approximate it but are there any clamp on tools that could be secured to the boom to read elevation?

I guess that the question here is how do you experienced guys figure out what your azimuth and elevation are?

Dwayne

Hi Jim
I have to agree with KA8WFC you are receiving current coming back on the coax shield. Your solution is just fine.

The Idea is to put a choke (sometimes called a Current Balun) in line what ever you make it out of. If you have seen people use a coil of coax just under the antenna feedpoint this is for the same thing. It is a choke. If it is convenient to place one of these coil chokes in the feed line just under the antenna feedpoint attachment I like to do so. I do this on almost any antenna as it can't hurt your signal.

One of the reasons for using a coax coil choke instead of ferrite beads (other than the cost) is the coax choke will resist saturation. At different frequencies and power levels the ferrite beads may saturate and stop working in that situation, they won't be damaged they will just not function as they could. Where it is extremely hard to saturate air. Of course depending on how your antenna is setup it may be difficult to put a coax coil choke in line, particularly if it is a stealth antenna.

Coax chokes like this are most effective if they are placed near as possible to the feed point of the antenna. Any ware from 6-10 turns about 6-8 inches in diameter depending on your coax and frequency should be fine. Basically the more the merrier. Of course depending on how much extra coax you have you may not have enough. This can easily take up any ware from 15-22 foot of coax. So it may be hard to add this kind of a choke after the fact. Some people say that you should line the coax up in nice controlled turns using a form if necessary and some people say just to role it up like a rope (scramble wound). And of course people have very strong opinions about this. I personally like to role them up nicely and tape them good so they will stay. If you chose to use a coax coil choke I will leave it up to you to decide which way to make it.

As for the 706MkIIG that is a tough little radio. Mine has received much abuse and has no problems. I even know a fella that keyed down on CW at 100w without any coax connected and the radio sensed the problem in time and backed down the power, no damage was done. Of course I don't suggest that you try abusing your radio!

Good Luck, 73

Dwayne WB5PLJ

I am aware that this is the case but going out and buying a "hi-end" radio is not an option for me and for most hams I would suspect. While it is true that the upper ten or twenty percent of radios on the market have this feature it seams to me that the vast majority do not, at least of the radios currently on the market. Looking back through my log most of the stations that I have worked seams to have "other than hi-end" radios, Meaning that when I look up manuals on them they do not have built in DVR's.

As for the component requirements a product such as the ISD2560 (Jameco part number 120643) already has built in the Internal Clock, Timing, Sampling Clock, Amp, pre-Amp, Automatic Gain Control, 5-pole active Antiallasing Filter, address buffers, address buffer decoder, 5-Pole Active Smoothing Filter in addition to the actual storage areas and other sundry points. From there you have the option of controlling the thing with a simple pile of switches or with a programmed chip of some kind to offer many advanced functions. In this case the control logic would not have to be as complex as the control chip for IdomPress CMOS4 CW Memory Keyer and that kit (with nice enclosure and all) sells for just under one hundred dollars.

There dose in fact seam to be a small or nearly nonexistent market for this type of item, I would personally suspect that most people are using AFSK type interfaces with tier computer to provide this functionality. It comes built in to most contest logging software and there are numerous stand alone software apps out there to do this. Again if you have a computer hooked up at the time.

As far as "...those who need this stuff already have it" Well I guess that I am just not rich enough to afford a "hi-end" radio so I must not need it. Apparently this functionality is meant only for my betters.

WB5PLJ 73

Voice Keyers!
I have been looking for a Voice Keyer for some time. By the way I know all about using a computer to do the job but that is not what I am interested in. I don't always turn my computer on or take it with me when operating portable. I am talking about little device, kit, black box, what ever that you plug your mic into and plug the device into your radio. It seams that there are scant few of these devices on the market. MFJ sells one and there are a couple geared toward contesting. The cheapest of them (the MFJ) is almost two hundred dollars! yikes, In this day and age it seams that is way overpriced. In addition to the cost, and maybe related to it, most of them also do lot's of other things or at least also are a cw memory keyer. I personally have a wonderful CW Memory Keyer (IdiomPress CMOS4 Keyer) and don't want to drag around a bulky box that dose all sorts of things that I don't kneed. I was hoping to find something similar in size to the CMOS4 Keyer with just the basic functions. maybe four memory slots, a repeat function, some way to change the repeat delay, and that would be about it.

I have looked into building one and have discovered that there are chips available that are supposed to make it easy for as little as nine dollars. There are other parts to be considered of course as well as the enclosure so I don't expect to find the twenty dollar voice keyer out there any ware but I would expect it could be done for less than two hundred to four hundred dollars. The unfortunate part about looking into building one is that I understand extremely little about electronics, no formal training. If you are in my boat there is quite a bit of information gap, for instance of the chips I found available there where manufactures data sheets available for them and they helped a bit but to be honest they are written for engineers of which I am not. About ninety five percent of it is gibberish to me because of this. I figure until I get lots of learning under my belt I aint going to be designing my own. What surprise me is when I go looking out there in ham land I don't find any available, other than the previously mentioned ones. I am wondering why? Is it lack of interest? Is it because people don't call CQ that much any more? I personally call CQ almost all of the time I get on, one of the reasons that I want a voice keyer.

please share your comments, ideas, knowledge.

thanks
WB5PLJ

Well I am not sure that I am an expert but I have lived in apartments ever sense I was a ham. I would warn you that the apartment complexes ground wiring may be quite larger than your antenna and this could cause difficulties depending on your planed antenna and if you are using a tuner what kind. your radio could easily think that the ground is the antenna and that the antenna is the counterpoise. often the solution is to run without a ground. picking your antenna around this issue. or if you must use a ground I suggest the cold water pipe over the ground on the electral system. it is more reliable rout to ground than the electrical system which may not actually go to ground.

Dwayne WB5PLJ

dwayne@wb5plj.org

Ok, I am building a "crash case" for lack of better a better term. I have a rather large ammo can that is in good shape and has a good seal. I want to pack in a radio, power supply, small battery, tuner, and all the rest of the junk that I take with me when I go out on a "daily". It will all fit and I think having it all packed up would encourage me to go on more of these such things. I should point out that I am not trying to make a case from which the radio and such will operate, just a transport case. When I arrive I will still have to take the equipment out of the case (ammo can) and set it up just as I am doing now with my card board box. I am merely looking for a safer and wether protected way of transporting the gear.

I am an experienced welder and intend on welding in some partitions in the lower portion of the ammo can. I also plan on welding up a tray for the top portion of the can. Something similar to the tray that is in the top of a tool box. This will be much deeper of course. I have laid everything out and have all of my plans. There is only one thing remaining. Foam!

Ok, in the compartments that the equipment will go into I need to put some foam. I would like to custom cut some foam to fit the pieces of equipment in question. So what kind of foam, and where to get it?

I have found some sources of foam but for the most part it is open-cell (not preferred) type of foam used to re apulster a chair. I am looking for something that is much firmer. there is not much space for each piece of equipment and a wimpy foam will not do. I would like also to use some kind of closed-cell foam as opposed to open-cell foam for obvious reasons. I have seen cases in the past for transporting electronics with nice firm foam sockets for everything. This is what I am going after.

So is there any one out there that is in the foam business and could suggest some types of foam? I have found many on line but not enough information for me to understand what I am looking at. In case you have not looked at this kind of thing before there are plenty of materials out there that foam is made of.

Polyimide, Polyethylene, Neoprene, Melamine, Ethylene Vinyl Acetate, Epichlorohydrin, Polystyrene, Polyurethane, PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride), Vinyl/Nitrile.

And in each type of materiel there are typically several different types of implementations to make foam. When you go looking you find that foam is often listed in several different categories.

Acrylic Foam, Anechoic Foam, Antistatic Foam, Aquazone Foam, Confor Foam, Convoluted Foam, Cross-Linked Foam, Double-Sided Tape Foam, Egg Crate Foam, EVA Foam, Evalite EVA Foam, Evalite Foam, Exobloc Foam, Fire-Retardant Foam, Foam-In-Place, Food-Grade Foam, High Temperature Foam, Isothane Foam, Low-Perm Foam, Minicell Foam, Noise Control Foam, Packaging Foam, Polyethylene Foam, Polyimide Foam, Polyurethane Foam, Polyvinyl Chloride Foam, Poron Foam, PVC Foam, Pyrell Foam, Reticulated Foam, Silicone Foam, Sound Absorbing Foam, Specialty Foam, Static Control Foam, Unifoam Foam, Urethane Foam, Volara Foam.

And not all of these sources actually say what kind of foam it is that they are selling. just (for instance) "packaging foam" well that tells me a lot.

Help!!

Dwayne T Walker
WB5PLJ
WB5PLJ@arrl.net

Hi
this is not really a solution but is my experience. I to had a grandfather that was a ham. I got curious about what his call was and started looking into it to see if I could find out. I started liking this ham radio community that I was reading about (I was not a ham) and ultimately I became a ham as a direct result of looking into what my grandfathers call sign was. I simply sent an email to several groups, I did this several times as you never know whom will run across or just miss a simple email. The ARRL, eham.net, QRZ.COM, etc... where all emailed at one time or another, any one I could find that had any thing to do with ham radio. I made sure to give the known information about my grandfather. A helpful ham located the call sign in an old log or call book. I wish I could remember whom it was (all I remember is that he lived in AZ) I would like to thank him. I believe that the email that trickled down to him was the one that I sent to QRZ.COM. When I got an email from the ham with the call sign and the associated information it hit me like a tun of bricks, I recognized much of the information right away. It seams to me that I got that email just a few days after (or maybe before) I tested. The same ham pointed out to me that I could get it in a vanity. I took his advice and sucked off my generated call (KC0IBR) and now I am WB5PLJ. In short I would say to your fiend to make requests to any and every one that they can and give all the information possible about their grandfather that they can. All that I knew was my grandfathers name and the city and state that he lived during a certain decade. As far as I know their is no system or method to just do this the easy way.

hope this is encouraging

Dwayne WB5PLJ

Hi all
Their are plenty of wireless computer devices (not talking about 802.11 stuff hear) out their these days. Stuff like keyboards, mice and darn near any other perifferal can be wireless. From what I can tell their are "Bluetooth" devices and "Other" such as Logitech wireless mice that use some standard to be sure but what it is I would not know. Their are also X10 type devices. Does any one have any expirence with these types of devices in conjunction with ham radio? If used on your ham shack computer do they cause noise in your radio? Dose your radio interupt the use of these devices (particularly when used less than three feet from your radio!) How about those X10 devices, do you have your light's and applinces switching on and off when you are working 440? At any rate just general discussion. I have been asked twice within the month about this type of issue and thought I would see what others have to say about it.