There's also a fair amount of CW. I worked piles of Europeans this summer on CW and the CW beacons make great propagation indicators.

Dale W4OP

I wonder about the upgrade also. The original tubes perform well and can last nearly a lifetime if treated properly. The conversion will also reduce the price should you decide to sell down the road.

Dale W4OP

Belden sells it under their trade name Beldsol. As above, Mouser is a distributor for them.

Dale W4OP

In order to offer an opinion, we need to know over what frequency range will the balun/choke be used.

Dale W4OP

I have not seen the Elecraft K3 mentioned- maybe I missed it. But it has the best AM sync detector I have ever used- even better than the Lowe receivers. In combination with the P3 panadapter, it's a killer receiver. Excellent roofing filters, industry best close in dynamic range, excellent IP3. DSP filtering, NR etc. It's only limitation I see is that  the low end is currently 490KHz, so I use a Palomar LF converter for NDB, LowFers etc.

Dale W4OP

During the time period my company manufactured the EndFedz line of antenna, we sold somewhere around 6000 antennas. 46 of those were 12M models. Ten Tec did their homework with polling the amateur community before making the decision. For my operations- they are spot on.

Dale W4OP

I have posted an ARGO software (http://www.weaksignals.com/) screen capture I made a couple days ago centered on 13.5554 MHz. From bottom to top:  EH    SIW     RY     MP


http://www.parelectronics.com/images/ARGO00000.jpg

73,

Dale W4OP

I spoke with Stan @ Ten Tec this week. The rig will be ready for September/October. Likely for their hamfest.

Dale W4OP

Although I'll never own a piece of MFJ gear, I think they make a 10M model of their QRP SSB rigs.

Dale W4OP

MP in Ontario is now copyable on 13555.390 KHz. 552 Miles.

Dale W4OP

Now seeing beacon RY very strong in QRSS mode on 13555.386KHz. 906 miles away.
Also beginning to see another beacon about 19Hz lower, but I cannot yet make him out.
Dale W4OP

Hifer beacon EH has been in here all day (EM85). Running very narrow FSK- maybe 1 or 2Hz shift. You'll need to be running ARGO or have  a waterfall panadapter to be able to visually decode him, but he is loud.
Here's a link to the operation:
http://vk2xv-hifer.blogspot.com/2012/04/third-hifer-beacon-seen-eh.html

He is 702 miles from me and I copy him on 13555.451KHz.

Dale W4OP

Hi Mike,
Any 100KHz rock will work fine.
I would lay out a towel (light colored) on a smooth surface and disassemble the drive.
There are number of drawings of the exploded drive on the internet. Completely clean the races and ball bearings. I used lithium grease when reassembling. The trick is clean parts and properly adjusting the three tensioning screws w/o overtightening. The end result is a beautifully smooth drive. I still don't have a clue about that weird spring loaded coupling piece.

Dale W4OP

Does anyone else monitor the beacons on 13.555MHz +/-?
Currently hearing WV on 13.55567MHz running 4mW into a vertical:
http://www.wa8ywo.com/HiFerbeacon.html

A couple nights back I copied MTI also running 4mW on13.557.540. I saw MTI earlier on the Elecraft P3, but he has faded now.

Fun stuff.

Dale W4OP

It is also possible that the cap stators/rotors are shorting out. Look at the VFO circuit and determine if you can measure the resistance w/o disconnecting anything (if the VFO main cap is capacity coupled). Other wise you will have to diconnect the rest of the circuit and then make the measurement.

Dale W4OP