Friday, May 15, 2020
SOLDERING IRON SHUFFLE. One of my recent eBay purchases was a 600 Hertz audio filter to use with my FT-817 QRP rig. You can find these kits for cheap on eBay (I think I paid $14 for mine).
While waiting for the kit to arrive, I decided to put together the tools I’ll need. Solder? Check! Magnifier? Check! Download the step-by-step instructions? Check! Low wattage soldering iron? … … … well, no, I can’t find one. I ordered 40-watt pencil iron from Amazon with the promise of two day delivery. Well, the package arrived on time; unfortunately, the package apparently was NEVER sealed, and the soldering iron fell out in transit. The mail man brought me an empty Amazon vinyl envelope.
I went to my Amazon account to report the issue, and found that there’s no option to report the item wasn’t in the package. You can report it damaged, or that its missing parts, but not that the package arrived empty. They want you to return the item if its missing parts or damaged, and they’ll replace it. I’m still trying to figure out how to tell them a package arrived SANS soldering iron. Wish me luck!
In the meantime, I started the kit using … (forgive me!) a Weller 200/260 watt soldering gun. I know, I know, that’s way too much heat. I soldered four or five resistors and called it quits until I can get something with less heat.
HF SWITCHEROO. I have switched rigs in the past week or so … I’m back using the Yaesu FT-950. It really is no fault of the RS-918 QRP rig that I switched. The rig worked great, though one night the NCS of the Georgia CW net had problems copying me, and he had another station check me in to the net.
The RS-918 allows you to set the sidetone to the tone frequency you prefer (for me its 700 Hz). The only pain in the ass is that there’s no easy way to key the rig and zero in your sidetone with the received CW rig. Of course, there MAY be a setting somewhere to allow that, but I have switched from VFO A to B and briefly transmitted on B and compared the sidetone to the received signal on VFO A. A work-around for sure, but kinda clunky.
I can’t sing enough praises about my Yaesu FT-950; it just works great, and for the money, it can actually be a better bargain on eBay than its big brother, the Yaesu FT-2000.
So far I haven’t done much to set up a rig in Studio C, our former bedroom upstairs. I need to buy another 6-foot table so I can set up equipment and not use my eBay packing table. I have my 300-ohm twinlead and the knife switch here, so I can run the feedline upstairs.
One of the key things I did accomplish this past week was to move the boxes that contain the Hallicrafters HT-44, PS-150, the Heathkit HW-101 and the Hallicrafters SR-150 and SX-117. My next step is a table, so maybe that’s something my son and I can shop for this weekend.
We had several nights in the past couple of weeks when 75 meters was awash in static generated by storms crossing both north and to my south. I hate to flip the rig off, but no one wants to ragchew with that kinda noise going on.
EBAY STUFF. Most of my eBay purchases of late have been related to my work on my Ferguson TO-20 tractor. After 3 years of sitting idle (2 of those on 3 wheels in our garden … don’t ask!), my 1948 Ferguson TO-20 is running like a top again.
HOMEBREW PADDLE. But not all of my eBay activity was farm related. I won this incomplete iambic paddle from Roy, whose eBay handle is Arizona Roadrunner. Its a homebrew key that needs to be finished. It features magnetic lever returns, and the keying levers need to be drilled for paddles. Its a nice unit that I believe will clean up nicely.
ANTENNA ANALYZER. I ran across a nice deal for an MFJ 259B antenna analyzer. The buy it now price was incredibly cheap, and I jumped on it. The unit works great! I already own an MFJ 249, and I bought what was advertised as a “malfunctioning” MFJ 259B a couple of years ago. Ironically, I have found nothing wrong with that 259B — I compared it to the new one I just purchased, and the readings between them are about the same.
FUTURE ACQUISITIONS. I submitted an offer to a fellow with a Hallicrafters SR-150/PS-150 for sale with a Buy It Now of $450; he turned down my offer. With shipping that station was going to be close to $550. It was nice but I’ve got a couple of SR-150s already.
There are some working SWAN rigs listed that I’m watching, though to be honest, I have enough radios I need to get on the air without buying anything else!
Here’s a short list of rigs I need to put on the air sometime:
- Ten Tec Omni V
- Drake TR-7 with RV-7 VFO
- Heathkit SB-102
- Heathkit HW-101
- Heathkit HW-99
- Hallicrafters SR-150
- Hallicrafters SX-117/HT-44
I’m sure I have some rigs in the attic I need to dig out. I would like to check them for function, but the attic rigs probably need to go to eBay.
On second thought, I think I’m going to need to add TWO tables to Studio C!
73 es GN …. de KY4Z …. SK …. SK … (dit dit) …