"David & Chris Drake" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> made an utterance to the drakelist
gang
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Jason, and welcome back to the bands. Its difficult to tell where to
start and I'm sure others out there will have separate opinions. I'd give
it a try on 40 first. Without a dummy load, you'll have to look for a spot
on the band that is inactive. Again, since this is the first time, set the
resist, and reactance knobs mid way on the tuner. Then try to load up the
t4x for max output or use the instructions in the manual. Once you get the
t4 idling along, you can adjust the tuner for min. swr, or, as some do,
maximum output on a wattmeter. Go back and forth until you are seeing the
maximum output it will do. Best advise is to just give it a try, with very
short tune up times, and tweaking as you go. You may have to go back and
forth several times, so be patient until you get everything in resonance.
Also, you'll not find much action like you were used to a few years back.
The noise you are hearing is common. We are at or very near the absolute
low for the sunspot cycle, and you have to be pretty dedicated to make
contacts these days. Its likely your rigs are fine, and just a victim of
the times. It will get better, hopefully soon.
Its best to get a dummy load. Then you know you have a 50 ohm match, and
then only have to worry about one thing at a time.
As for working on the rigs, you'll find lots of help here when you need it.
Also refer to www.wb4hfn.com for lots of information and how to's. You'll
also find links to others websites as well.
David
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Bonnough" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <drakelist@zerobeat.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 9:23 PM
Subject: [drakelist] First Steps
Jason Bonnough <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> made an utterance to the drakelist
gang
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello all,
I have been watching the list-serv for about a month now and I have a
question for all that can help.
I have been an amateur radio operator for a number of years but mostly
active on 2M. Never on HF... I bought a R-4B and T-4BX a number of years
ago in hopes that I would start to explore HF more than just the random
perhaps yearly scan through SWL. But then I joined the Navy, (Became an ET
whose primary duty was the URT-23Ds on a ship, HF Transmitters
ironically...) and put my Drakes pretty much into storage. Also, in this
time became an inactive ham due to my command being in Japan and I had no
place to operate.
Well, I am back in the states, have my own place and pretty much the first
thing I did was pull the Drakes out of storage, set them up on a cheap
coffee table (I have no furniture now and am slowly buying more.. no
desk!! gonna build one soon...) and attached a ~75' wire as an antenna
through a MFJ-16010 Random Wire Tuner. And to save space because I have no
room in an apartment that doesn't like things hanging out of their
apartments (even on the 2nd floor) I spun the wire in a somewhat diamond
shape using supports from a cardboard box that I cut up so the cardboard
supports look like an "X" with an inward spiraling wire.
Anywho, after that detailed setup, here is my situation. I can hear some
stations just fine, I even got a SWL QSL card from the Canadian Time
Standard station CAN. but I'm afraid to test TX, especially without a
dummy load. A hamfest will be coming up in September in my area and I plan
on getting one there unless I can get one that I bought that is in storage
in Oklahoma sent to me. (Rargh, I digress again.) I would like to try to
make this system back into full operation both TX and RX. I have no test
equipment other than a pocket mulitmeter from Radio Shack and well, on
very limited budget. I have seen comments here about replacing caps and
such... how can one tell when that is needed exactly? I have so much RF
noise in the area, I cannot tell if its just ambient noise or bad
equipment... Working on this stuff is no where near as easy as working on
the modular designs of the URT-23D and really without an o-scope.. I feel
lost... I like to see
signals...
Any suggestions on how to test and if necessary replace components on this
stuff would be greatly appreciated. I really want to learn my system
inside and out and am willing to do everything it takes to get the Drakes
100%, budget willing...
Thanks!!!
73s
Jason Bonnough
AD5IY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Submissions: drakelist@zerobeat.net
Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body
Hopelessly Lost: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message
Zerobeat Web Page: www.zerobeat.net - sponsored by www.tlchost.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Submissions: drakelist@zerobeat.net
Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - unsubscribe drakelist in body
Hopelessly Lost: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - help in body of message
Zerobeat Web Page: www.zerobeat.net - sponsored by www.tlchost.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------
