The Book:

http://www.radioamateur.eu/schemi/FT101E_user.pdf

And more than you ever imagined there is to know about the FT-101 series:

http://www.qsl.net/nw2m/

As a general rule on rigs with tube finals you adjust the preselector for best RX noise, then set the DRIVE knob for maybe 1/4 power and work on the transmitter tuning. Tweak the PLATE & LOAD knobs per the meter, advance DRIVE until the ALC reads full power, then touch up PLATE and LOAD as needed.

It has been a while since I've done this so don't take my word for it. The book remembers these things better than I do.

Tyler:

Just because an antenna is made from 300 Ohm twinlead does not make it a 300 Ohm antenna. If you look up the derivation of the J-Pole you'll see similarities to a Zeppelin antenna (often called a Single Zepp or just 'Zepp') which is essentially a full wave wire fed 1/4 wave from one end (Lo-Z feedpoint) with the 1/4 wave section folded over to parallel the longer section.

This makes for a very convenient package to dangle from the passenger compartment of an airship... Which is exactly how they were first used and hence the name.

The J-Pole takes this a step further by adding a shorted tuning stub below the feedpoint which allows for a range of impedances to be found along the length of the lower section. Assuming the antenna is cut to proper size you can match 50, 75, or 83.78952 Ohms at some point along the tuning stub. The match is determined by * where * the feedline is connected, not the impedance of the twinlead itself. The antenna resonance is determined by the total conductor length within the J-Pole.

Assuming everything lines up according to theory and your SWR meter is fairly accurate, you're looking at a best match of 75 Ohms at the radio which translates to a 1.5:1 SWR. This is absolutely usable and don't be surprised if it comes in a bit less due to the slight loss within the cable.

A few years back I used to rag chew on 2 Meter FM simplex with an OM about 20 miles from me who is a firm believer in using what you have on hand 'cuz any moron with a credit card and a Crescent wrench can become an appliance operator using pre-made parts. Dude was ornery (but with a sense of humor) and that's why I liked chewing rags with him.

In any case, I recall he ran a J-Pole for a while fed with cable TV coax until he had a bigger & better idea while rummaging through his junk pile. The politically incorrect J-Pole (as we called it) worked about as well as the Cushcraft he ran before a storm turned it into scrap metal and about as well as anything he came up with after that. Yeah, he was on high ground and that helped too, but when you're talking 2 Meter FM any signal strength above full quieting is mostly for show on the S-Meter.

If you can hit the repeaters 'solid' that's as good as it gets. Hassling over a fraction of a dB out of a temporary antenna is likely pointless as the location of the antenna will have far more effect on its performance than textbook perfect construction. Some places it will work well. Other places not so much. But, if it works, it works, and that's the point of this exercise...

Sounds very much like RG-6 or it could be video cable, but the video cable would likely have a solid polyethylene dielectric. Either way it's 75 Ohm cable and more than adequate for 25 watts of TX. The beauty of a J-Pole is that the feedpoint can be easily adjusted for the best match. Just slide it up or down on the low end of the J until you find the best SWR reading at the rig.

Yeah, that isn't the textbook way of tuning up the antenna / feedline system, but it's definitely the way I'd do it.

The more significant consideration regards matching efficiency and signal levels and the following comments relate to dynamic / crystal mics more than electret types.

As a general rule it's OK to wire a lower Z source to a higher Z input. That's why you'll see mics spec'd @ 150 ohms intended for a Lo-Z 600 ohm preamp. A Lo-Z mic can work well with a Hi-Z preamp in terms of distortion and frequency response although the levels will be less than with a Hi-Z mic... Assuming the preamp has enough gain to overcome the loss without introducing too much noise in the process.

Hi-Z mics into a Lo-Z input are usually not a good idea. A simple one transistor bipolar or FET 'cathode follower' circuit is useful in this case even when operated near unity gain. Matching transformers are the traditional method are making this match but this tends to be more expensive and adds some risk of ground loop hum and reduced frequency response.

For more on the topic visit:

http://shure.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/shure.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=224

Here's the source page with the full list of topics:

http://shure.com/ProAudio/TechLibrary/EducationalArticles/index.htm

A few years back I decided a Shure 444 would look good sitting in front of the IC-756 and discovered the mic preamp didn't have enough gain for a straight dynamic element through a DC blocking cap (the stock mic is an electret and derives 8 volts of phantom power thru the mic jack). Poked around the instruction manuals for Shure comm products and found a nifty little circuit using a single generic NPN transistor that was cobbled together inside the base of the 444.

Works FB.

Blocks the phantom DC to the element and gives me enough gain to run the same mic setting as the stock mic. I get good audio reports (unsolicited) on SSB and I'm told the combo plays extremely well on FM.

The generally accepted calling frequencies are:

50.110 --- DX
50.125 and 50.200 --- Domestic SSB
52.525 --- FM Simplex

We're approaching Sporadic E season and I've been known to park a Bearcat on 52.525 just in case. Another trick is to set a memory slot on your AM / FM stereo receiver to a local LPFM station and check it periodically. I have a soft jazz station @ 107.9 that I kinda' like and when it gets scratchy that tells me the band is open into Ft. Smith, AR.

Not that working Ft. Smith on VHF is my idea of a good time, but it's a clue...

No personal experience with this, but I have seen reports both here and elsewhere that some flat panel LCD / Plasma TV's and video displays generate a fair amount of broadband RF hash.

Same problem computers have always had. Gazillions of transistors switching gazillions of pixels 'cept it's more difficult to shield a display panel than a processor board.

If 20 is going to be your band of choice and if your supports allow for a favorable bi-directional pattern into two of your favorite DX locations... An Extended Double Zepp cut for 20 is ~84' from tip to tip and will offer more gain and bandwidth than a Dipole.

If it should end up around 35' above ground (half a wavelength in free space) all the better.

BAMA has the schematic for a Swan WM-2000 meter here:

http://bama.edebris.com/manuals/swan/wm2000/

...which could be similar to the WM-3000 model but without the PEP feature. The two diodes in the antenna board (RF directional coupler) section show as 1N60 which I recall as a fairly plain-vanilla Germanium diode and a common part of the day.

Check out the BAMA link to see if it looks similar enough to your application.

Note to W6VPS:

Just read the page on your father and it's an impressive career. Unfortunately he peaked in the Philadelphia market during my early childhood and well before I got into the radio thing so I don't recall the name... But... Heckuva' list of 'name' stations in the bio.

I used to work TV then went computer geek in the early 90's. One of my clients was a local TV station and here's a hook that might be semi-interesting:

Your father replaced John Facenda when he made the switch from radio to TV. When I was doing computers the local news anchor was Judd Hambrick... Who replaced John Facenda when he retired from WCAU-TV news.

Some folks are six steps removed from Kevin Bacon, we're two steps removed from John Facenda.

BTW: I have a box of tubes in the garage that were liberated from the original organ played by Larry Ferrari when he did musical backup for a Sunday morning Tee Vee Vangelist on WFIL-TV. The organ was donated to the RTF department at Temple, the engineering folks declared it too old to be worth restoring, and I was standing in the right place at the right time when they tossed the guts in '70 or '71.

Can I have the tubes? Sure, kid, knock yourself out...

It was a beast. Would have scored the PA but hauling a 50-ish pound chassis home on the subway didn't seem like a good idea at the time. No telling what that amp would be worth today to the toob audio crowd, but I think it was a Hammond and had a quad of output bottles of the large persuasion. Coulda' rocked...

In case anyone is wondering how far off-topic this thread is going to roam, Larry Ferrari is SK and ex-WA2MKI.

So there ya' go.

I spent the first two decades of my life well within the WIP coverage area but have to admit my favorite radio spent most of its time on 990 kHz... Big old three band RCA console in the basement with a 12" speaker and that classic big wooden cabinet resonance around 120 Hz.

No treble, but what it did have was smooth and the concrete floor and walls didn't hurt a thing. It sounded big to begin with and even bigger in the basement. Played well with the Motown beat and most announcers sounded like they had a pair. Big pair.

BTW: http://hylitradio.com

Listen long enough to catch the PAMS jingles and the occasional air check. Hyski isn't talking fast, you're just listening slow.......

Point taken... The larger coin batteries like a 2450 have a fair amount of surface area and can survive a spot soldering job.

I'll melt a small-ish drop of solder on each side, let it cool for a bit, tin the wire leads and then press the wire into the solder drop with the iron. Goes very quickly if the battery is clean and the iron is properly tinned.

But... If anyone is concerned about smoking the battery, don't do it.

On a related note, older Apple Macintosh computers used a 3.6v Tadrian lithium battery for CMOS retention that is becoming expensive and hard to find.

I've been known to solder a pair of thin wire scraps to the top & bottom of a lithium coin cell and southern engineer the mess to the battery pads of a motherboard without regret. Best advice is to clean the battery surfaces with WD-40 and a Kleenex before soldering and make sure the iron is nice & hot. Spend just enough time to get a solid joint as anything more is probably going to shorten the battery life and there are no bonus points for making it look pretty.

Lasts around five years or so.

I'm old enough to remember a time when the goal of high fidelity audio was the accurate reproduction of a recorded sound. No more, or less, of the original tonal balance, the least possible amount of added noise and distortion, the best rendition of articulation and nuance within the dynamic range of the recovered sound.

Damn. That sounds so quaint today... Surely an HT can sound like a Bose Wave Radio with enough processing.

Yeah, you can rig up an equalizer and enhance your arsenal of buttons and knobs in the shack, but when you're dealing with audio that's barely the equal of a telephone on a good day to begin with, I think the K.I.S.S. principle is worth considering.

I've had some interesting moments with the AR-10...

When I first put it together I installed the matching ring upside down. Couldn't get it to tune no matter what. The ring spiraling in the opposite direction was something that looked OK until I really, really looked at the assembly drawing. That's not your problem, but it is something to keep in mind.

What might relate to your situation is that the SWR on mine started to fluctuate on windy days after about five years. Took it down, cleaned and greased the overlap between vertical sections with moly grease, cleaned up the insulator above the SO-239 as it had attracted some grime, gave the tuning stub and main connectors a shot of WD-40 and sealed both.

Played well after that, and I worked the world with it during the last solar cycle.

Heck, with a good band opening and a titanium beam, a fella' could probably work the Klingon Empire.

I wonder if they QSL via the buro?