Sunday, April 08, 2007
Hello all,
Finally got to to participle in my first RTTY contest running power. 500+ Watts (as opposed to 100W) makes running a frequency marginally more productive.
Anyway. The amp gets warm... really warm... when "running."
I've got the drive dialed back so the amp is only putting out about 500W, but it still gets plenty warm on top. I'll need to see if adding some additional cooling would help.
The system also "locks up" in transmit mode on 80m. Sorta weird.
Went through and added clip on cores to all of the leads attached to the microKeyer. They seemed to help... Perhaps tripling the power required for a lock up.
My next step is to get real torrides, or perhaps "double up" the cores.
Not sure what my rate is going to look like. Also seems to be a new noise source.
The 3.1 MHz noise source is still there. At this point the smart money says it is in the SLVWD plant.
Zzzzz, Good night.
Finally got to to participle in my first RTTY contest running power. 500+ Watts (as opposed to 100W) makes running a frequency marginally more productive.
Anyway. The amp gets warm... really warm... when "running."
I've got the drive dialed back so the amp is only putting out about 500W, but it still gets plenty warm on top. I'll need to see if adding some additional cooling would help.
The system also "locks up" in transmit mode on 80m. Sorta weird.
Went through and added clip on cores to all of the leads attached to the microKeyer. They seemed to help... Perhaps tripling the power required for a lock up.
My next step is to get real torrides, or perhaps "double up" the cores.
Not sure what my rate is going to look like. Also seems to be a new noise source.
The 3.1 MHz noise source is still there. At this point the smart money says it is in the SLVWD plant.
Zzzzz, Good night.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
I knew things were going too well.
The SB-201 is supposed to read 2400V. It is only reading 1800V. (OK, closer to 1890V, but still)
Pulled it out of the shack this evening and will take it into work. Craig and I might be able to check it out tomorrow.
Nite nite!
The SB-201 is supposed to read 2400V. It is only reading 1800V. (OK, closer to 1890V, but still)
Pulled it out of the shack this evening and will take it into work. Craig and I might be able to check it out tomorrow.
Nite nite!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Made my first QRO contact this afternoon. Milt, K4OSO sounded curious about my tuning up on 20m. (Yes, I actually IDed).
He gave me a true 599 "arm chair copy" in Rockville, VA as the band was on its way out. (I gave him a 579, but it faded all the way out towards the end).
The Heathkit SB-201's relay is very loud. I'm using the MicroKeyer's built in PA (power amplifier) interface (set to RElay contact) to drive the amp's Tx/Rx.
It tuned up pretty well. Seems happy to run 500W or so according to the power meter on the Ten Tec 238B tuner.
The oak tree is still standing. Nicki says that the lights didn't flicker and no other weirdness occurred.
So... I guess I'm good to go on the Heathkit.
Now I REALLY need to get my shack decluttered and reorganized so that I can get things together in a semi-professional manner...
He gave me a true 599 "arm chair copy" in Rockville, VA as the band was on its way out. (I gave him a 579, but it faded all the way out towards the end).
The Heathkit SB-201's relay is very loud. I'm using the MicroKeyer's built in PA (power amplifier) interface (set to RElay contact) to drive the amp's Tx/Rx.
It tuned up pretty well. Seems happy to run 500W or so according to the power meter on the Ten Tec 238B tuner.
The oak tree is still standing. Nicki says that the lights didn't flicker and no other weirdness occurred.
So... I guess I'm good to go on the Heathkit.
Now I REALLY need to get my shack decluttered and reorganized so that I can get things together in a semi-professional manner...
Monday, February 12, 2007
Got the TenTec 238B High Power Antenna Tuner and an MFJ dummy load into the shack this evening.
Time to play with the antenna tuner and my current antennas.
A couple interesting discoveries.
It was funny discovering the feedback between the rig's SWR protection circuit and the tuner as I was dialing things in. As the tuner was tuned better, the SWR would go down, allowing more power through and generally messing with the metric that I was using to judge "success."
Once I figured out what was going on I could compensate, but things were really weird for a couple of minutes... ;-)
All in all a good evening. It will take one more evening to formally characterize the antennas and create appropriate "cheat sheets."
Once I have that down it will be time to lay in...
(crack of thunder and organ music)
.. the amplifier.
Time to play with the antenna tuner and my current antennas.
A couple interesting discoveries.
- My rig's SWR protection circuit will "fold back" the power to about 10W.
- It takes about 30W to get the 238B's SWR meter to set correctly.
- The 238's tuning procedure assumes that its SWR meter is set correctly.
- Things tune easier if you understand what the instructions REALLY say to do when the best match is obtained when the capacitor is set to zero. (Go to the other side of BYPASS)
- The G5RV Jr REALLY sucks on 30m (I knew that, but rediscovered it).
- My 80m EFHW inverted-U tunes pretty well on 30m (I didn't know that)
- Next time I'd rather play with the antenna tuner using an antenna analyzer rather than my nice expensive rig...
It was funny discovering the feedback between the rig's SWR protection circuit and the tuner as I was dialing things in. As the tuner was tuned better, the SWR would go down, allowing more power through and generally messing with the metric that I was using to judge "success."
Once I figured out what was going on I could compensate, but things were really weird for a couple of minutes... ;-)
All in all a good evening. It will take one more evening to formally characterize the antennas and create appropriate "cheat sheets."
Once I have that down it will be time to lay in...
(crack of thunder and organ music)
.. the amplifier.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The AL-80A arrived, as did the dummy-load/watt-meter. Paid a bit more than I wanted to for a Ten Tec 238B on ebay, but they're a little rare in the used market. It should get here in a week or so.
The only antenna I trust using the amp on without a tuner is the 15m dipole. It's pretty close in tuning and has the advantage of not being close enough to any trees to burn them down.
My wife is a bit afraid of the amp. I have a history of "explosive" incidents and my comment about burning the tree down seems to have sensitized her somehow...
The only antenna I trust using the amp on without a tuner is the 15m dipole. It's pretty close in tuning and has the advantage of not being close enough to any trees to burn them down.
My wife is a bit afraid of the amp. I have a history of "explosive" incidents and my comment about burning the tree down seems to have sensitized her somehow...
Labels: QRO
