Re: [Elecraft] Real 2" x 4" Lumber

Even planed lumber has changed.  WW2 era planed 2x4 was 2 3/4 x 1 3/4.  It changed sometime in the late 40s.  Renovators should be equipped with a tape and measure before buying lumber. From: Jim Brown To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Thursday, August 11,

Re: [Elecraft] ½ λ dipoles

Try any handbook before 1957 when transistors became available.  If you can't find them at the ARRL, try E-BAY as they are only available used.K5EWJ (original 1956 issued call sign) From: rick jones via Elecraft To: "elecraft@mailman.qth.net"

Re: [Elecraft] CW Key Recommendation

As a long term member of SKCC (Straight Key Century Club) I offer the following reasons.  It is more fun, it allows easier speed diversity, it is traditional.  If your objective is to strictly send the best CW possible as easy as possible, type it on a keyboard and use a computer.  If you want

Re: [Elecraft] [OT] Ultrabeam, a SteppIR alternative

SteppIR has a new controller with improved lightning protection now. Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, From: Bill Frantz To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Friday, May 6, 2016 9:29 AM Subject: [Elecraft] [OT] Ultrabeam, a SteppIR alternative A German ham informed me

Re: [Elecraft] 4-ohm to 8-ohm question

Eddy, the transformers were made tor tube type amplifiers where the output was several thousand ohms and transforming was needed.  Some audiophiles still use tube amplifiers for mellow sounds from music, but the transistor output stages match either 4 or 8 ohm speakers directly and are fine for

[Elecraft] SteppIR

I have had a SteppIR 3 element with about 250 feet of RG-213.  I have not measured the loss, but with a KW or less can work DXCC in about 30 days without a contest.  I lost an ECU on driven with a tape pawl failure, but pawl has been upgraded twice since purchase.  I lost three ECUs during Ike

Re: [Elecraft] Wattmeter for K3s Calibration

I found a Cavalier King Charles figure stamp, a "This Envelope Sealed with Dog Slobber" stamp and a "I'd Rather be Flying" stamp, several Ink Pads and a re-inking roller in Black.  That is only in one drawer. Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, From: Ron D'Eau Claire To: 'Clay Autery'

Re: [Elecraft] OT: Mobile operation "bible"

Interesting comments Mel.  I have purchased  a Little Tarheel and installed it on my vehicle, but I have not got around to doing anything with it.  I have a MFJ tuner that looks like it will work as well as the one you use.  Are you using a Coax switch?  I would be interested in your pictures

Re: [Elecraft] Long RS232 Runs - RS422

The old criteria was 50 feet, but that was set before the specification for any twisted pair for digital, let alone Cat 5.  In short, it it works well, it is OK but 200 feet sounds reasonable.  RS-232 uses a 5 volt signal level.  RS-422 uses a higher signal level, I believe 12 volts, but that

Re: [Elecraft] SKN.

For everyone's information, the Straight Key Century Club has Straight Key Night every day and night 24 hours per day and 7 days per week all year.  Some of us are Ludites Never get enough Straight Key and Bug operation.  We even have some that like and use side swipers.  Read about us  and our

Re: [Elecraft] QLF?

We have a QLF contest each year at the Tidelands Amateur Radio Society in Texas City, Texas.In the past, we have used a door bell buzzer and a regular CW hand key.  It works well, but last year we had a participant complain that the buzzer was too loud, but one of the judges complained that he  

Re: [Elecraft] OT: B & W antenna

It is true!  It makes a good antenna that tunes easily it you want to use a QRO transmitter work like a QRP rig with a good antenna.  My Dad earned a Novice in the mid seventies at the time that my wife earned an Advanced and I earned an Extra.  He called me one evening to report that his club

Re: [Elecraft] K3S Sub-Receiver: How to Hear Both Receivers?

You don't need to do anything special except have two speakers or a stereo headset.  One output goes to left speaker and the other to the right speaker.   You can hear the difference unless you have a hearing problem.  Likewise with a stereo headset you hear one in the left ear and one in the

Re: [Elecraft] West Mountain Radio CLRspkr

Yes! Send one receiver to one speaker and one to the other.  Check to see which ear hears which speaker.  Same with headsets, but you get more separation.  You can use it for split or for diversity. Willis 'Cookie' Cooke,TDXS Contest Chairman K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS From: Steven Bertsch

Re: [Elecraft] Verticals on mountaintops

If you are really connected to the earth and the resistance of the earth is really infinite then your efficiency is zero and it has the same effect as if you only have a shielded wire connected to the radiator.  But this is impossible in real life, but is you install a counterpoise that is

Re: [Elecraft] Verticals on mountaintops

If you feed your antenna as a dipole, then your counterpoise is the lower leg.   Your radiation resistance will be low if your antenna is short.  You need something to raise it to about 50 ohms which will be either a coil across the feed point or a capacitor.  I have found that there are so few

Re: [Elecraft] Amphenol PL-259

DX Engineering Willis 'Cookie' Cooke,TDXS Contest Chairman K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS From: Thomas Taylor li...@comcast.net To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2015 8:21 AM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Amphenol PL-259 On Sat, 21 Mar 2015 17:06:07 +1000 Gary Gregory

Re: [Elecraft] CW listening pitch

I may not have knowledge, but i have a theory.  People use different bandwidth filters for various reasons, some for what they have and some for hearing more after a CQ and other reasons.  If you are listening to a signal at 400 Hertz you also hear QRM that is in your bandpass.  If you are

Re: [Elecraft] CW listening pitch

Ted, the filter frequency is band width, but can be centered with tuning.  IE you can use the 700 filter to hear 200 to 900 with the center at 550 or 300 to 1000 with the center at 650 as you choose and tune.  The CWT on the K3 will center it for you, but you will not need to do this unless you

Re: [Elecraft] CW listening pitch

Phil, I would try both and somewhere in between.  Best will be the frequency where your hearing peaks, optimum will consider other things, but you will still be able to hear. Adjust your volume and practice at the best frequency and see if you can make it optimum as well.  You may be able to

Re: [Elecraft] OT: the cheapest way to build a six meter beacon

I have been looking at a beacon controller using the Arduaino micro processor with an external RF unit, just a 3 to 5 watt QRP CW rig and a simple ground plane antenna.  Have you looked at this possibility?  Looks to be about a $200 deal to me.  I am looking to build one for here, maybe we

Re: [Elecraft] CW listening pitch

The message does not include pitch, but it is my opinion from years of copying cw that the best pitch is a function of the listeners hearing.  It is worth some effort to determine the best pitch for your ears, as we get older we have dead spots which are a function of your experience, so while

Re: [Elecraft] Who said anything about removing diversity? That would *never* happen...

I think he was talking about removing the feature that locks both VFOs together rather than diversity.  The writer said that he did not think it was good to lock both VFOs together, but I think is is required for proper diversity operation to have both locked.  I have not used diversity much

Re: [Elecraft] More Legendary Elecraft Service or The Turning of the Screw

Not a good idea for the screws sticking out of capacitors and transformers.  Willis 'Cookie' Cooke,TDXS Contest Chairman K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS From: Harry Yingst via Elecraft elecraft@mailman.qth.net To: brian als...@nc.rr.com; elecraft@mailman.qth.net elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent:

Re: [Elecraft] K3 13.8 VDC power

I have noted that if you remove power it does not give the processor time to save the last frequency and other settings that it automatically saves (operating conditions).  I had this happen with a defective power supply and a few times when the power was automatically removed.  My dog likes to

Re: [Elecraft] Getting Started With CW

Farnsworth uses a character speed of 15 WPM.  Koch (German for Cook) pronounced Cook, not kotch uses 25 WPM.  ARRL Code Practice uses Farnsworth for Code Practice for speeds below 15 WPM.  I find the Koch method difficult to copy, but Farnsworth not so bad and I use it for Bug sending.  when I

Re: [Elecraft] K3 CW decoder and CQ CW contest

I encountered an operator named DEAN who sent it as de an and I kept copying it as from An. Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS DX Chairman K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart From: d...@lightstream.net d...@lightstream.net To: j...@audiosystemsgroup.com Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net

Re: [Elecraft] K1 IF Amp Mod?

Since you consider yourself as an RF tinkerer, it sounds like an interesting experiment. Since the technology in the K1 predates my interest in Elecraft, probably the up to date inclusions in the Sierra were not available when the K1 was designed 20 years or so ago. The K3 design is not

Re: [Elecraft] BNCs

The practical answer is try to insert your coax into the bushing. RG-59 and RG8X are the same size and RG-58 is smaller. If RG-58 is sloppy in the bushing and RG-59 or RG8X fits then it is OK to use unless you are trying to get an exact match for micro-wave. If you are a micro-wave engineer

Re: [Elecraft] BNC connectors for RG-8X Coax

I don't think you will have trouble with legal power. I regularly run 1 KW through RG8X without problems. I did have some trouble running over about 400 watts with a Carolina Windom running RG8X but I don't know what was shorting, the coax or the chokes or balun. RG8X is the same outer

[Elecraft] Digital Voice Recorder for K3

I have a DVR installed in my K3. I need to record a CW signal and then either put it on the air for the owner to hear (Voice ow CW) or make an MP3 or other audio file to send over the internet. Has anyone done this? Is it possible? I can make a recording and play it back on my K3 to record

Re: [Elecraft] OT: Antenna ideas for a cheap ham

The reason that the 80/40/15 combo does not work well is that the 40 resonates pretty well on 15 because it is 3/4 wave. I have had a lot of difficulty with 80/40/20 and have never had one work well. My current fan is an Alpha-Delta 80/40 with a 75 meter wire fanned. It is the magic formula

Re: [Elecraft] Verticals

Mike, I think you will find that the vertical is a better antenna for stations more than 2,000 miles from your QTH, differing results for stations between 1,000 and 2,000 miles and poorer for stations nearer than 1,000 miles. An NVIS attic antenna or a stealth low dipole may be a beneficial

Re: [Elecraft] A Good Antenna Length?

Off center fed dipoles, Windoms and end fed half waves are primarily low power if not QRP antennas where you can do poorly with any antenna.  They are prone to arcing, heating and RF where you don't want it.  You are better off with conventional low radiation resistance antennas if you plan to

Re: [Elecraft] A Good Antenna Length?

  Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS DX Chairman K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart On , WILLIS COOKE wrco...@yahoo.com wrote: Off center fed dipoles, Windoms and end fed half waves are primarily low power if not QRP antennas where you can do poorly with any antenna.  They are prone

Re: [Elecraft] Ouch

I did a similar thing with my TS-850.  It smoked a lot of relays in the antenna tuner.  I had them replaced, but have not powered it up since It was returned.   Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS DX Chairman K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart On Sunday, June 29, 2014 10:24 PM, Mike Lewis

Re: [Elecraft] WTB: KBPF3 Gen Cov Module

Aluminum/Copper Alloys do not last long in the presence of Sodium Chloride which is present in most soil and plentiful in most water, particularly runoff and sea water.  The alloy use for fence wire should be usable for radials, but will not last as long as copper.   Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS

Re: [Elecraft] Do we need 2 groups?

Why not have someone clone this group for the sore heads who's delete key is broken.   Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS DX Chairman K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart On Friday, June 27, 2014 8:49 AM, Michael Walker va...@portcredit.net wrote: It is clear that the members of this

Re: [Elecraft] Do we need 2 groups?

The actual charter as I understand it is to discuss matters related to Amateur Radio in a rational manner.  It is sponsored by Elecraft, so things related to Elecraft are emphasized.  I do not recall any clause limiting the topics to those which all Amateurs agree (is there any such?)  

Re: [Elecraft] RF in the Trees

This is an interesting discussion about antennas for forest regions where you have very tall trees.  I have a lot of trees, but getting an antenna to 45 or 50 feet would involve very small branches.  I have mostly Chinese Tallow Trees with some Ash and Beech, so stringing a wire from trees is

Re: [Elecraft] Adding an SPE amplifier

The SPE Expert Amp needs a separate connector to the port.  It does not do CAT control, but rather connects to a separate program to duplicate the control functions on the front of the amp.  For CAT control it connects to the DB-15 Acc connector.   Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS DX Chairman K5EWJ

Re: [Elecraft] temperature sensors and convert -- totally off topic

In High School, 1953 to 1958, I was introduced to the Metric System in Chemistry and Physics.  I thought WOW, what a system, I can soon forget the obsolete feet, inches, Fahrenheit stuff and use a system that makes sense.  In college in Engineering School I used mostly the Metric system which

Re: [Elecraft] temperature sensors and convert -- totally off topic

, but in England, it would be in Stones, while the rest of the world would measure weight in Kilograms.So much for standardization.73,Don W3FPR On 6/22/2014 6:43 PM, WILLIS COOKE via Elecraft wrote: In High School, 1953 to 1958, I was introduced to the Metric System in Chemistry

Re: [Elecraft] K3 case

Sounds like the case I bought from Home Depot at about the same price.  I am happy with it and agree with Richard's comments.   Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS DX Chairman K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart On Tuesday, June 10, 2014 6:49 PM, Richard radio...@wideopenwest.com wrote:

Re: [Elecraft] Hard Case for K3

A lot of people have used various Pelican Cases which apparently give good protection at a moderate price.  I elected to buy an aluminum case from Home Depot which they have for about $20.  This case has ample room and is adequate for Field Day and such, but airline travelers might prefer the

Re: [Elecraft] O.T. Learning Morse Code

typewriter is an IBM Correcting Selectric II. An APL golfball would be icing on the cake. wunder K6WRU On May 31, 2014, at 8:26 PM, WILLIS COOKE via Elecraft elecraft@mailman.qth.net wrote: I had to learn to copy at least three times.  First, I memorized the code from the Boy Scout Handbook with dots

Re: [Elecraft] Antenna choices

The problem with tuning a rotary beam to some other frequency with an antenna matching device is that the directional antenna becomes a rotatable dipole with the parasitic elements still acting at their physical length.  Can you make contacts?  You bet, I made a bunch of contacts on the WARC

Re: [Elecraft] O.T. Learning Morse Code

I had to learn to copy at least three times.  First, I memorized the code from the Boy Scout Handbook with dots and dashes.  That was good for about 5 wpm.   Then I learned to copy with block printing and that worked well to almost 20, but I could not get there.  I had to learn to copy with

Re: [Elecraft] Learning Morse Code is Like Learning to Dance

Slava and others learning Morse ot trying to get better.  Listen to all the advice you get, most of it is right on the money!  But, when itch comes to scratch, scratch where it itches, which means that if the best advice you have is to do something that you don't want to do, do something else

Re: [Elecraft] Setting up reflector topics

Bill, I don't know of any such utility on the reflector.  You need to use an email program that furnishes that utility if you want it.  I would not recommend it because threads seem to morph into all sorts of topics and you will miss a lot of content if you pre-sort.   Willis 'Cookie' Cooke,

Re: [Elecraft] Interfacing TS480 to KPA500

I have found while trying to interface the TS-480SAT with my computer and my SPE Expert 1K that I have not been able to make everything work the way it does with my K3.  The RS-232 port on the TS-480 seems to want the computer to be the master and if connected to the computer it does not

Re: [Elecraft] Band Data

I have an SPE 1K-FA and my K3 switches bands with no mods, just a cord.  The band data is available on the 15 pin D Shell connector on the back.  My TS-480SAT has some issues but does most of the functions.  I don't know, but suspect that the 1.3K works like the 1K.   Willis 'Cookie' Cooke,

Re: [Elecraft] K2 Keying on SSB

I don't know about the K2.  It is an option on the K3 and many operators switch to CW to finish SSB contacts or make CW contacts in the phone band when conditions are marginal.  I have elected to have the option on my K3 and wish I could have it on my TS-480.  If you have it on your K2, enjoy,

Re: [Elecraft] K3 Kit Wisdom (or experience, anyway)

I would agree, but I prefer a bifocal magnifier head band with an external light.  I have two, one with an extra magnifying loop..  You definitely need some kind of magnifier unless you are very young with great eyesight or have a pet hawk or eagle to help.  Seeing eye dogs don't help much as

Re: [Elecraft] K1 test problem

I have no direct experience with the K1, but the first think I would look for is the diodes installed backward.  The band will be on the output (negative) end of the diode.  The next thing to look for is that all the diodes are open.     Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS DX Chairman K5EWJ Trustee

Re: [Elecraft] K3 Kit Wisdom

If you are going to use the power tips a lot as hand drivers, but the magnetic handle to hold them, not a regular nut driver.  The difference is that the nut driver has a hardened tip and a recess for the bolt, but probably not magnetic.  The handle has a longer 1/4 inch recess, the magnet and

Re: [Elecraft] QRQ CW

I eight years as a flier in the Air Force during the Vietnam era and 15 years as  private, instrument rated pilot I do not recall ever hearing Copy That on the radio.  We were trained to use Niner for Nine because it was easier to be sure what you heard in a series of numbers.  It is really

Re: [Elecraft] QRQ CW

A lot of contesters can manage a 30 WPM Contest QSO or even 50 WPM, but would be hard pressed to get solid copy of a 25 WPM Rag Chew or even slower with W1AW sending QST Text.  I can get a DX call sign at 50 if I get to hear it several times and there is good signal strength and not too much

Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft UPS deliveries

If I lived in Alaska I think I would rather have Good Wood Delivery than Good Elecraft Delivery.   Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS DX Chairman K5EWJ Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart From: Edward R Cole kl...@acsalaska.net To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: