Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014 — I think a lot of hams I know are “tinkerers” … they enjoy getting something done on their own, like making their own antennas, cables, etc. I can’t tell you how exasperating it is for me to talk to fairly new hams who come up to me with a ham retailer shopping bag and show me — quite proudly — their purchase of an amazing thing called a “dipole” antenna!
Really? Two pieces of wire attached to a center insulator and a coax or balanced feedline?? I understand the convenience factor of buying “ready made,” but the cheapskate in me shudders to think of what all of my antennas I’ve made over the years would have cost had I purchased them all retail! Just like my automotive and body work skills, my ham radio “tinkering” skills are based on my desire to save a buck, hi hi!
This week I had to put my tinkering skills to work on a couple of projects … one, to say a bundle of money, the other, to fix an eBay “bargain.”
My wife came to me in a huff the other morning, upset that our clothes washer was broken; it filled with water but then quit — it would not agitate. I’ve fooled with washers enough to know it was probably the lid switch; unfortunately, this was one that required taking the control panel off. The most difficult part of the work was locating the final screws that held the end caps in place mounting the control panel. You couldn’t feel them (they were recessed), and I didn’t find them until I used a mirror (I couldn’t easily move the washer away from the wall and get behind it). Got it fixed in short order.
The other repair took a little more research.
I bought an Acer Iconia W500 tablet on eBay recently … its a tablet that comes with a keyboard dock, and it runs Windows 7 or 8.1. I have an Android tablet, an Acer A500, and its quite a moose — heavy and bulky to carry around. In my work, I was looking for a Windows-based, fairly lightweight tablet. Unfortunately, the W500 isn’t exactly the tablet I thought it would be.
The docking arrangement with the keyboard works great, don’t get me wrong. The tablet really works well too … the specs say it weights 2 pounds, but it has a bulkier feel to it. Maybe its just my fumble fingers, but I get really nervous carrying the tablet. The thing needs a handle or something.
I bought the tablet worth the money, and as I’ve said, it works well. However there was a problem that the eBay listing failed to mention — the battery was shot. The original battery gave the tablet a 5 to 6-hour life per charge, according to reviews. My tablet’s batter pooped out in about 35 minutes on a full charge — which was completely unacceptable.
My research showed changing the battery was no easy task; there wasn’t a lot of information out there, but there were a lot of complaints about short battery life. I ordered a replacement battery from Bulgaria of all places. Once it arrived, I started the precarious job of getting the case apart. It was much easier than all of the online literature suggested, one just has to be careful. After charging, the tablet’s battery life shows up at just under 6 hours .. anything over an hour or two is as huge improvement.
I’m probably going to send the Acer back to eBay … I picked up an Acer Aspire One netbook with a 10-inch display that weighs about the same and is easier to hang onto that the tablet. It will do what I need and its easier to mess with than the tablet.
SDR RECEIVER. I have a Cross Country Wireless SDR 4+ receiver coming in the mail today or tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to getting that setup. I’ll have a review of it once I get a little time in listening to it.
My main HF receiver here in the library is an FT-817 (no DSP), and I have never been really happy with the receive audio. Perhaps the DSP version reduces the amount of hiss and white noise … the receiver is just not pleasant to listen to. In some ways, it reminds me of my Icom IC-706s (original version) … they were annoying to listen to compared to the IC706MKIIG, which is a joy to listen to in comparison.
I’m a little curious how well the SDR receiver will work, given the high level of RF noise in the house (multiple computers). We’ll find out soon enough, eh??
73 de KY4Z … SK