73 magazine - january 2003

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THE TEAMEI Supremo & FounderWayne Green W2NSD/t

ASlociale PublisherF. l. MariOn

Execut ive EditorJack Bumeh

Managing Edit orJoyce Sa wtelle

JANUARY 2003ISSUE 1506

THE NEW!

AmateurRadio Today

TABLE OF CONTENTSTechnical EditorLarry Antonuk WB9RAT

Conlrib!Jling Culpri t .Mike Btyce WB8VGEJim Gray II

Jack Heller KB7NOChuck Houghton WB61GP

Andy MacAnisler W5ACMJoe Moell KOOV

Steve Nowak KE8YN/ODr_RiCk Olsen N6NA

Advertis ing Sale.Everyn Gallison WS7A21704 S.E. 35th 51.rssaouen WA 98029425-557 -9611Fax: 425-557 -961 2

crreuteucnFrances Hyvarinen

Data Entry & Other StultNorman Marion

FEATURES10 Build This Amazing ESR Meter - K8Z0A

A simple project for everybody 's shack.

19 K.I.S.S. Trickle Charger- K9TRGAnd the ABCs of battery maintenance.

25 Experimenting with Hall-Effect Sensors - W6WTUFor fun and knowledge.

29 On the Face of It , A Good Idea - AA2JZHow to ace those finishing touches on yourhome-brewed pride-and-joys.

35 Travels with Henryk - Part 9 - SMOJHFThe Dominican Republic. where the main modeIS merengue.

382m FM Ham History 101 - K1NUNIt's time you got your degree.

40 To the Rescue - KE6FBOA story about 2m and winches - we hope.

DEPARTMENTS48 Above & Beyond - WB61GP49 Ad Index64 Barter 'n' Buy41 Calendar Event s42 The Dig ital Port - K87NO46 Hamsats - W5ACM52 Homing In - KOOV8 Letters4 Never Say Die - W2NS0l1

45 On the Go - KE8YNlO60 Propagation - Gray

1 ORX63 Radio Bookshop

E-Maildesign73@3;ol .com

w eb P.a~t'

www.wayncg rccn.corn

Business OttlceEdilOlial • Advertising • Qrrulation

Feedback · Product Reviews73 Amateur Radio Today Magaz ine70 Hancock Rd.

Peterborough NH 03458·1 107603-924-0058Fax: 603-924-8613

Reprints: 53 per article

Back issues: $5 each

ORH • • •

2002 Annual Indexpage 31

COVER: House and antennaof Romeo HJ3 BR R. Santiago,Dominican Republi c. Photoby S~10JHF.

Prin ted in the USA Dollar PowerTake out a one-dollar bill and look at it. The one

dollar bill you have fi rst came off the presses in 1957in its present design.

This so-called 'paper" money is in fact a cottonand linen blend, with red and blue minute silk fibersrunning through it. It is actually material. We've allwashed it without it falling apart. A special blend 01ink is used. the contents we will never know. II isoverprinted with symbols and men it is starched tomake it water resistant and pressed to give it thatnice crisp look.

II you look on the front of the bill. you will see theUnited Stales Treasury Seal. On the top you will seelhe scales for a balanced budget, and for fairness. Inthecenter you have a carpenter's square, a 1001 usedlor an even cut. Underneath is the key to Ihe UnitedStales Treasury. That's all pretty easy to figu re out,but what is on the back. of thatdollar bill is somethingwe should all know.

Tum the bill over and you will see two crces. Bothcircles togethercomprise the GreatSeal of the UnitedStates.The FirstCoolinenlal Congress requested that

Continued on page 6

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NEUER SRY 0 I EWayne Green W2NSOI lw2nsd @aol .comwww.wavneqreen.ccm

lconoclast: a person whoattacks cherished belief systems o r institutions which hethinks are wrong or foolish.

Well, tha t sure describesme. I' m out here with mylittle pocket knife attackingHoo-pound gor illas such aso ur public school systemNEA. the AMA-~DA-phar

maccutical industry, the cooloil-natural gas industries, thepower industry, the post office , the farm ing and foodprocessing industries, collegesand universities, NASA, anda bunch more .. .Iike ourbnbed-to-thc-g llls Congress.

680,000 licensees on the FCCrolls, with today's averagelife span being about 75years, and with the averageham age today at about 63years, we should see about28.333 die per year (unlessthey read 73 and change theirdiets). That's about 255,000possib le silent mikes over anine year period that the FCCis still counting as licensees.That would bring the tota ldown to more like 425 .000.somewhat lowering that growthfigure.

Counting the silent mikes.about a quarter of one percentof Americans (dead and alive)have ham tickets. That's apretty exclusive club, eh? Nowonder we don't get no respect.

Please let me know whenyou think it's time for somegroup (0 start promoting thehobby so wc'Il see somegrowth. Oh. and tell me whatgroup you recommend for thejob.

Conrutuect all page 33

Iconoclast

The latest FCC figuresshow that the number of licensees has grown by about1,800 over the last two yea rs. .(Yeah. see that stuff in"Q RX," and then read this.)That's about an eighth of apercent per year. If that isn' tbad enough, this figure includes tons of silent mikes.With today's ten year licenses. there are nine years ofdead hams still being counted- like the voters in Chicago.

Now let's do a quick calculation and estimate the actuallive ham population. With

Roger

I hope the new book willexplain thc footprints and tiretracks in the dust on theMoon. Since it requires somesort o f atmos phere for thereto be any dust, 3 fac t whichcan be substantiated in anylab with a bell jar and avacuum pump, how did theymake thos e famed Moon bootfootprints? Plus 44 otherdamned good rea...ons to beconvinced the Apollo tripswere hoaxes.

Hillary gets $8 million forher memoirs. Bill gets aboutSI2 million for his as-yet-unwritten memoirs . This fromtwo people who spent eightyears being unable to recall ,while under oath, anythingabout past eve nts.

Weird

Roger on the rig there.Roger on the antenna. Rogeron the weather. Thanks forthe nice QSO . 73.

The Hobby Growt h

lid is on tight, ~ASA hasCongress muzzled. Senatorsand representatives know thatif they cause NASA any problems, their district will be cutfrom any further governmentfunding of projects.

NASA = Never A StraightAnswer, and National Astronomy Security Agency.

l im says that our mountainranges, coal, and oil depositswere all formed in a matter ofhours as the result of passingcomets or past Planet X visits- and that they don 't e venhave to pass very close tocause severe effects.

Thi s helps explain the recent di scovery of a city 2,500feet under the Caribbea n,ncar Cuha. And the suddendisappearance of Atlanti s, andits colonies all around theworld around 10,000 yearsago , which would be threepasses ago for Planet X.

As Alfred E. Neuman says,"What, me worry'?"

Has my tolli ng the Planet Xbell of coming doom got youworried yet'? If you've bee nable to whistle yourse lf pastthis potential graveyard thenone of the last things yo u' llwant to do is read JamesMcCanney's P/(I/I et-x' Comets& Earth Changes.

This $ 18 book. ISB~ 09722 186-0-2. is self-published.See [wwwj mccanncyscience.com]. It' s a chronicle of l im 's22-year fight. mostly withNASA, for recognition of histheory that co rnets are notdirty snowballs. and that comets have had and st ill are ha.... ing a profound influence onBarth .

Using his model he 's beenable to acc urate ly predicthurricanes. tornadoes, and ty·phoons. His model also ex plains how and why Planet X,though still far out in our solar sys tem. ha.s already had aprofound infl uence on the Sun. We Did, Too!extendi ng the sunspot maxi-mum beyond all previousty ~ASAmade worldwide newsrecorded cycles. He's predict- (my thank s to LA-tYE for aning that as Planet X gets Oslo newspaper clipping) bycloser, we 'll be seeing devas- fund ing the writing of a hookrating weather on Earth , with debunking the craz ies whothe risk of repeating what's have been q uestioning the rchappened with past extinction ality of those ast ronaughtevents. Moon visits thirty years ago.

So why haven't we been The writer sure has his workhearing anything about all cut out fo r him .this in the news'! It turns o ut Why am I reminded of thethat all NASA scientists are famed Condon Report whichrestricted by an NSA decree de bu nked the presence ofto not discuss or admit pub- UFOs'! It didn't help Condon'slicly to any event or situation credibi lity when his assistantthat might cause public alarm. "fesscd up later that CondonData about the arrival o f got the project with the proPlanet X is not being allowed visa that he was not to findto he released. any credi ble evidence for

And, just to make sure the UFOs being real.4 73 Amateur Radio Today· January 2003

X Again

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Benjamin Franklin and a group of men come upwith a Seal. It look them four years 10 accomplish this task and another two years 10 gel itapproved.

The left -hand circle contains a pyramid. Nolice the face is lighted, and the western side isdark. This country was just beginning. We hadnot begun to explore the West or decided whatwe could do forwestern civi lization. The pyramidis uncapped, again signifying that we were noteven close 10 being finished. Inside the capstoneyou have the all-seeing eye, an ancient symbolfor divinity. It was Franklin's belief thai one mancouldn't do it alone, but a group of men, with thehelp of God, could do anything.

"IN GOD WE TRUST" is on this currency. TheLatin above the pyramid, ANNUIT COEPTIS,means "God has favored our undertaking." TheLatin below the pyram id, NOVUS ORDOSECLORUM, means "a new order has begun."Al the base of the pyramid is the Roman numeralfor 1776. If you look at the right-hand circle, andcheck it careful ly, you will learn that it is in everynational cemetery in the United States . It is alsoon the Parade of Flags Walkway at the BushnellFL National Cemetery, and is the centerpiece ofmost heroes' monuments. Slightly modified , it isthe seal of the President of the United States,and it is always visible whenever he speaks, yetvery few people know what the symbols mean.

The Bald Eagle was se lected as a symbol forvictory for two reasons: First, he is not afraid of astorm; he is strong, and he is smart enough tosoar above it. Second, he wea rs no materialcrown. We had just broken from th e King of England. Also, notice the shield isunsupported. Thiscountry can now stand on its own. At the top ofthat shield there is a white bar signifying Congress, aunifying facto r. We were coming togetheras one nation. In the eagle's beak you will read,"E PLURIBUS UNUM", meaning "one nation frommany people."

Above the Eagle, there are thirteen stars, representing the thirteen original colonies, and anyclouds of misunderstanding rolling away. Again,we were coming together as one. Notice whatthe eagle holds in his talons. He holds an olivebranch 'and arrows. This country wants peace,but we will never be afraid to light to preservepeace .The Eagle always wants to face the olivebranch, but in lime of war his gaze turns towardthe arrows.

It is said that thenumber 13 is an unluckynumber. This is almost a worldwide belief. A room isseldom numbered 13, and few if any hotels ormotels have a 13th floor. But consider: 13 original colonies, 13 signers of the Declaration ofIndependence, 13 stripes on our flag, 13 stepson the pyramid, 13 letters in the Latin above, 13leiters in "E Pluribus Unum," 13 stars above theeagle, 13 bars on that shield, 13 leaves on the

6 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003

olive branch, 13 fruits, and if you look closely, 13arrows. And, for minorities: the 13th Amendment.

Your children don't know this, and their history teachers don't know this. Too many veterans have given up too much to ever let themeaning lade. Many veterans remember coming home toan America that didn't care.Too manyveterans never came home at all.

Thanks to Internet author(s) unknown, via TheTuned Circu it, bulletin of the L'Anse Creuse (MI)Amateur Radio Club, October 2002.

Barcodes Can Save LivesYou know those barcodes that grocery work

ers scan to let you know how much your cerealcosts? Well. hospitals are now using the sametechnology to help save lives, thanks to a computerized medication system. A nurse scans thebarcode on a patient's 1-0 bracelet, along with abarcode found on the medication itself, beforeadministering the drug. This enables the cornputer to verify and check the barcodes to makesure the patient is gelling the correct medication. A green signal tells the nurse it's okay toproceed.An error warning, and red signal, alertsIhe nurse if something is not right.

To dale, only about two percentof the nation'smedical facilities use barcode technology to verifymedication administration, but that number isexpected to rise. Statistics show that the systemprevents anywhere from 84 10 264 potential errorsa week at one hospital alone.

Thanks to Science Today, via Newsune . BillPasternak WA6ITF, editor.

FCC Honors World War IIComanche Code Talkers

The Comanche Code Talkers were membersof a specialized communications unit of the U.S.Army 4th Signal Corps . Using thei r ancestralComanche language, they created an unbreakable code used by All ied Forces in World War II.Now. decades later, our own Federal Communications Commission has paused to honor thisgroup of Native Americans for their meritoriousservice to our nation.

Charles Oubitty of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was theFCC's guest of honor at the recent ceremony.He told how he and 16 other young men , whohad grown up together and were all members ofthe Comanche Tribe of Oklahoma, used theComanche language and their Army communications skills to create a military intelligence codethat was never broken by the enemy.

Even more interesting, Chibitty also sharedanecdotes from their enlistment and training. Heexplained that they even had to create Comanchecode words for "bomber" and "tank." These arewords that didnot exist in theComanche language.

Chibitty is a decorated veteran and the lastsurviving member of the 16 Comanche CodeTa lkers. You can read more at [http://hraunfoss .fcc.gov!edocs_pub lic/attachmatchlDOC-228074A1.docj. Thanks to CGC Communicator and the FCC. via Nonn Seeley KI7UP inNewsline, Bill Pasternak WA6ITF, editor.

The War on Terror:a Banner and a Link

Pieter Wycoff KG4UPX says overthe Internetthat he has found an important tool that everyconcerned ham should have on his or her personal Web site. Wycoff says that the HomelandSecurity Knowledge Database has a banner thatcan be posted to any web site notifying visitorsof the current color status of alert to terroristthreats.

The site also contains lots of other information relevant to homeland security and how youcan play a part. You can even sign up to receivethreat notification updates by E-mail. To learnmore on how you can add this feature to yourham radio Web site, take your Web browser to{hllp:llwww.twotigersonline.com/resources.htmlj.

Thanks to Newsline, Bill Pasternak WA6ITF,editor.

How Slow?Thirteen (yes, 13) reasons why the English

language is so hard to learn:1. The bandage was wound around the wound.2. The farm has land and was used to produce

prod uce.3. What dump was so full that it had 10 refuse

more refuse?4. We must polish the Polish furniture.5. He could lead if he wou ld get the lead out.6.The soldier decided to desert his dessert in

the desert.7. Since there is no time like the present,

they're ready to present their present.8. Abass was painted on the head of the bass

drum.9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.10. I did not object to the object.Thanks to The Tuned Circuit, bulletin of the

L'Anse Creuse (MI) Amateur Radio ClUb, October2002.

Be Careful What You SayOn the Air

Use discretion on the air, and help defeat theterrorists. That's the sub title of Bill Sexton'sMARS column that appeared in the Decemberissueof Worldradio Magazine. And in it, Sexton ,who holds the call N1 IN, says that Americans

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Continued on page 58

This accidental reinvention of the radio fol·lowed an experiment to see if an automated designprocess thatusesan evolutionary computerprogram could be used to "breed" an electroniccircuit called an oscillator. An oscillatorproducesa repetitive electronic signal, usually in the formof a sine wa....e.

Paul Layzell and Jon Bird at the Uni....ersity ofSussex in Brighton applied the program to asimple arrangementof transistorsand found thatan oscillating output did indeed evolve.

The bottom line is this: Restructuring seemsto be doing the job it was intended 10 do. It's nowup to those in the hobby 10 workto swell its rankseven more,

Thanks to W5YI via David Black KB4KCH inNewsline, Bill Pasternak WA6ITF, editor.

Radio ReduxA self-organizing electroniccircuit has stunned

engineers by turning itself into a radio recetver.What should have been an oscillator became aradio.

now face a new concern over the indiscreet transmission of material that may seem harmless butwhich could be used against us by a terroristenemy.

Byway ofexample, Sexton cites the well-published airline schedules that were used by aIOaeda terrorists to coordinate their September11th attacks on New York and Washington. Thisis material still available on every airline's Website.

Sexton says that we all must be concernedwith what the military calls Operational Securityor OPSEC. And he indicates that it is very important for hams to consder wtlat they are saying on the air, because you can never tell who islistening in. And he says that even the most 1--- - - - -------- - - - - - - - - - ---- - - - - - - -seemingly innocuous tidbits of information,monitored by hostile ears, are probably being handedon to the enemy's intelligence analysts in thehope that it will reveal some weakness or secretthat can be used against us.

Thanks to NewsJine, Bill Pasternak WA6ITF,editor.

73 Amateur Radio Today " January 2003 7

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Good Numbers in the USALast year at this time, there were nearly

683,000 hams licensed by the FCC.As of October last year, there were 2,235 fewer - butnumbers are not always what they seem. The realityis that ham radio in the United States is growingonce again.

First, the General and Extra classes have increased substantially since the 13- and 2D-wordper-minute Morse code exams were eliminatedon April 15th of 2000. In teet. the number ofpeople holding these licenses has increased bywell over 25,000 for each license class.And that'sgreat news for ham radio equipment suppliers,since they rely on higher dollar high frequencytransceiver sales for much of their yearly income.

The Technician class is holding its own, too.Thenumber of new Tech license holders iskeeping pace with the number of hams either upgrading or dropping out of amateur radio. The netchange is close to zero,

Only the Novice and Advanced classes areseeing significant drops in numbers. No newNovice or Advanced class tickets have been issued since April, 2000. And while existing licenses can be mOOifiedand renewed, it appearsas if that's just not happening among Novices.They appear to be fading away, and quickly \hefe were 65,000 Novices ill 1997, but now thereare only about 37,000.

The bottom line is that for the last 12 monthsham radio has seen an average of 1,600 brandnew ham licenses issued each month. That's animprovement of 160 a month over the previousyear. And that improvernent is very good newsfor ham radio.

As to the state with the largest number ofhams? II's still California, which can now claimbeing home to more than one seventh of all thenation's hams. Latest figures show there aremore than 100,000 hams now living there,

The state with the fewest hams? North Dakotawith only 1,575.

LETTERSFrom the Ham Shack

Dain Lones KC6\VZK, 3332 PalosVerdes Dr. N., Palos Verdes Esta tes CA90274. After reading Carl Herbert's articleon writing a short story. on page 4 1 in theAugust issue of 73. I thought the enclosedmight be of interest to some of your readers.even though there arc not many "hornebrewers" around these days . May be thismight crank some of them up.

First , a litt le backgrou nd might also beof interest. Some 72 years ago while in elementary school, I built my fi rst transmitter;a spark gap unit, with which I spoiled allthe neighbors' radio reception, and at which

time I also bui It my first crystal set. A coupleof years later. while in junior high school, Ibui lt my fi rst tube-type transmitte r (a onetube 20 IA). as we ll as a two-tube receiver.High school found me more interested incars, girls. and sports. and as a result I gotaway from ham radio for many years.

After retirement 2 1 years ago, my interest peaked once again. Tgot my license andstarted building home-bre wed projects. Toda te I havc completed some 440 of same .In so do ing. I use segments or many articlesin 73, CQ, and QST m agazines, and theARRL handhooks, to build modules which Ican choose in building my fi nal projects none of which are built from kits, includ ingwhat is shown here .

So there you ha ve a little history on howI got started and learned a tot. 1recommendthe sam e ro others.

The photo and the following describe my

Photo A. KC6 WZK :f all-home-brew station.

a 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003

present all-home-brew station: The bottomunit is my e-band (3- 30 MHL) s uperheterodyne receiver with a home-brew worm gearas modified for an old Ge neral Radio d ialprovid ing a 200: I ratio. On top and at thefront of the receiver is my digital readoutfor the receiver that can he set for any IFvalue (I use 10 .8 MH1.). On top and at therear of the receive r is my QRP, CW, andvoice IO-meter transmitter. On top of thetransmi tter is my roller coiltransrnatch withcross needle , digital and bar graph, andpowerlS WR readout (for those who want achoice). On top of the transmatch is my 50WCWo 35 W voice linear broadband poweramp . The driver is my QRP transmi tter. Sothere you have it, a co mplete all-home-brewstation.. Here' s to getting some of the ne wcomersinterested in home-brew!

Arn old Samuels KH 6COY, OceanShores ' VA. It is my sad duty to annou ncethe death of my good fr iend, Jose ph "Pop"Bushnel l WA7BLE, on Nov. 9. 2002. Hewas 76 years o ld.

Joe was in the Army Air Corps duringWorld War II. He served in the Asian/Pacific theater wi th the 5th Air Force, 22 ndDivision. He also served in the Germanyairlift and flew with the Hurricane Hunterswhile stationed in Berm uda. He marriedDianaJ. Kilber WA7BLF in 1949.

Joe retired from 2 1 years of ac tive duty.He earned his bachelor's degree in education.

In 1974. he earned his master's degree ineduca tion. He was a leader in th e BoyScou ts of America .

Joe was a joiner and very active personaround this area. He taught first aid for theRed Cross, and amateur radio in the localNorth Beach High School. He was a membe r of the local YFW post. He was also amember of the Ocean Shores Elks Club. Hewas a member of the Grace Harbor Amateur Radio Club for as long as Thave knownhim (21 years). Joe was a doer all his lifeand was a lways willing to help. He wi ll bemissed by the radio group of Grace Harbor.

Ray J. H owes G40 WY, Dorset, Engla nd. Was it sere nd ipity or what? ThereI was , moaning ab out th e lack of QRPcove rag e in 73, a nd 10 and be hold , in theOc tober iss ue , an art icl e cou rtesy ofKF6FJ U . inte rv ie wi ng Marsha ll Em mN I FN - QRP de votee and president ofMilestone Technologies, Inc. Well do ne !

Like KF6FJU. I too fon dly re membermy first kit build many years ago. However, unlike KF6FJU ' s first effort. mineende d up a bit like a mini-nuc lear explosion. I forgot to reduce the volts input!Silly me. T he second attempt worked fin e- and still does.

Just got my Nove mber issue of 73 in thedaily deluge of mail. and as a fan of QRP,guess which page I turned to fi rst'? Yep, page53 ! - written of course by the irrepressible M ichael Bryce W B8YGE. After mymoa ns about the lack of QRP co lum ns oflate, someone at the top must be listen ing.Keep 'em co rn ing. now!

By the way, been enjoying "The Historyof Ham Radio" series . I'm a sucker for a llthings nosta lgic - I just can 't he lp myself.

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Build This Amazing ESR MeterA simple project for everybody sshack.

There are only two types of electrolytic capaci tors in your equipment - those llJathave failed and those that will fail. Only a small percentage ofbad electr oly tics fail as ashort circuit. Rather, most dry alit and gradually become less effective at their filtering,coupling, or bypassing job.

Troubleshooting a dried-out electrolytic isn ' t ~thc easiest task ,even if your workshop is

equ ipped with a capacitance bridge. Arelatively new test msuumcnr. theequ iva lent senes resistance (ES R)meter; makes this task simple . AI-,though ESR meters arc commerciallyavai lable. it isn' t hard to build one.This article takes you through the design and construc tion of a simple ESRmeter,

(al 1- - - - - - - - - - I,

(b) I - - - - - - - - - -I, (r1 L R, C 1

1

1 : I~ 2i~Jfl9d ~1ode...!...of Capaotor _ 1

Fig, I. A real-life capacitor call be modeted differenttv l lcf/cllding UpOIl the leve!of detaitnecessarv.

10 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003

What is equivalent series resistance,and how do ,·ou measure it?

A real capacitor isn ' t the simple perfeet device that the schematic symbolmight lead one to believe. Tv...'o common capaci tor models arc shown inFig. 1. WcIl he co ncerned only withthe simplified model:

• L represents the inductance of thelead wire and capacitor construction.

• Rs represents all the loss clementsof the capacitor, including lead wireloss, capacitor electrode loss and dielectric loss.

• C is an ideal capaci tor. with no lossand zero inductance.

As an electrolytic capacitor driesout, R, increases, while L and C remainrelatively constant. Thus, if we can measure Rs' we can detect faulty capacitors.We obviously can't measure Rs with astandard DC ohmmeter; C blocks DCcurrent Flow and at most we wouldmeasure the leakage resistance R

Lin

Fi~. l(a).

However, suppose we had an ohmmeter that worked with AC instead ofDC. W ith such a device, we would thenmeasure the composite impeda nce Z of

the series combination of the reactanceof Land C and Rs- If we usc a reasonably high frequency. typically 100kll z. the reactance of L and C will benegligible in compari son with Rs forreasonable capacitance values. We canillustrate this with an example.

Consider a I0 ~F nominal aluminumelectrolyt ic capacitor. From measurements. at 100 kHz we know that C =12A ~ F. Rs == 1.5 ohms. and L = 35 nH(i ncluding In -inch leads).

Photo A . Finished ESR meter.

Fig. 2. The principle behind the ESR meter.

100 KHz Sine ISource C\

vonece v, (;1

R1470

Ohms

->--

:~ ~ ~_~ VOI~elerOhrrts'-.L__.l-----~~~) Reads V2

CapacitorUnder Test

Rs

Pholo B. J built the ProlotYfK using Mallharroll"style construction.

Continued 0 11 page J3

The 100 kHz sine wave feeds thevoltage di vider R I6 and R I H. The unknow n cupuci tor is connected acrossR l R. a 5. 1 ohm resi stor. Diodes D2and D3 pro tec t the instrume nt fro mdamage, should the capacitor undertest have some residual charge.

T he max imu m (open c ircuit) voltage applied to the capacitor undertest is about 110 milli volts. peak-topeak. By intention a lly lim iting thetest voltage to such a low va lue . it ispossible to test a questionable capacitorin-circuit, even if a diode or transistorjunction shunts it. A silicon PN junctionreq uire s ahout ClOO mill ivolts to

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C ircuit descri ptio n

Our ESR rue ter has three mamc leme nts:

• A 100 kl-lz sine wave source• An AC vohmetcr Icalibratcd in te rms

of ohms of ES R)• An LED bar graph di splay

U5 is a C MOS version of the popular 555 timer chip. It generates a 100kl-lz. 50% duty cycle square wa ve. The:-.quare wave is fed through a low passfilter consi sting o f L l , C9. and C IO.Ry stripping off the higher harmonics,the low pass filt er converts the squarewave into a reasonably good sine wave.

121= ~RS2 + (Xl - Xd2 -

~ 1. 52 +(0.022 -0.128 )2 = 1.5030

Xc = 1/(2.FC) = 1/(2. , 100 , la',12.4 , 10-') = 0.1280

XL= 2n:FL = 2n:FL = 2n: x 100 X 101

X 35 x 10'~) = 0.0220

We now calculate the reactive componcnts of the model at 100 kHz:

The impedance magni tude o f thecapacitor is thus

T hus, at a freq uency suffic ientlyhigh to make Xc small. yel low enoughfor X L to also be small. Z is ap prox imately equal to Rs' Fig. 9 shows esti mated IZI over the range 100 Hz to 1--- - - --- - - - - --- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 100 MHz and ill ustrates that between10 kl-lz and 5 Ml-lz, the impedance isdominated by Rs.lhc Equ ivalen t SeriesResistance. (Flg. 9 is only approximate.a... it assumes that L. C. and Rs remainconstant. In fact. these parameters arca ll somewhat frequency dcpendcnt.)

Our "AC ohmmeter" can be assimple as F ig. 3. If the ESR dominatesthe impedance of the capacitor unde rlest. a hit of simple algebra shows thatthe voltage V 2 is proportional to theESR:

ESR = (V,R,R,lN,R, - V,(R, + R,)Vh~la<,terCani accepted on line. Free shipping in continental US on all orders over S100.

Fortunately, we won't have to use thisequation: ramer. we will simply calibratethe voltmcter scale in terms of ESR. TI1C

scale won't he linear, of course.

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73 Amateur Radio tcaev » January 2003 11

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1'.1 ri ,

• Pi 'I ! ", I

l • il~n

• • jl,

I( ,

"~ '.•J I

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Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the ESR meter.

The Gordon West••• •

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www.wsyt.crg.. _---------_.112 73 Amateur Radio Today 0 January 2003

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roll off frequencies below 100 kHz.The emirter resistors (R8 and RIO) areintentionally not bypassed (0 increasestability.

The ampli fier output feeds Q3. anemitter follower. D1 is forward-biasedby the DC across R1 2. so DI , R 13. andC8 act as a peak detector. The voltageat Test Point 1 ranges from 3.9 volts(short circuit across the input) to 5.5 volts

Build This AmazingESR MeIercontinued f rom page 11

cause significant current n ow, so itlooks like an open circuit to the testvoltage.

QI and Q2 arc a simple RC-coupledamplifie r. The coupling capacitors(C7, C4, and C5) have been chosen to

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Fig. 5. / 00% PC board Jayoul - bottom copper (top ~·iew).

73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003 13

Photo C. The proto type display Wilt IS built 011 standardperfboard.

Photo D. The finished design. with a commercially made double

sided PC hoard.

voltage settings. R24 and R25 arc adjustcd to tum o n the 20th LED when aresistor correspo nd ing to full scale ( 10o hms or 50 ohms) is connected acrossthe test terminals. R20 also functionsas an LED di splay c urre nt control andis set for approximate ly 12.5 rnA.

Po wer for the circuit is regu lated byV6. a low-power 9 volt integratedregulator. DC input power sho uld be inthe runge 12-1 4 vo lts. o r up to 18 voltsif V6 is eq uipped with a slip-o verhcatsmk. I' ve powe red the LEOs fromthe +9 vo lt reg ulated hu s. If powerconsumption or regulator po wer dissipation is a concern. the LED drive c urre nt can he provided from a separatesource o f 4 volts or more .

I' ve used 5% carbon f ilm resistorsthroug hout the design because the ulti mate d isplay only sho ws 20 resistancesteps and usi ng the more e xpensive 1%metal film compone nts isn't j us tified . Ibuilt two unit" and fo und the statedvalues were satisfac tory. It 's possible.however, that an accumu lation of resistor to lerances might requ ire changing R 15 o r R22 slight ly in order tocalibrate the di splay.

I built a pro totype using Manhattanstyle construction. popularized by WesHay....'ard W7Z0L A n e xcellent description of the nuts and bolts o f Manhattan-style co nstruction can he foundat K7QO's Web page [h ttp://w ww.qsl.nellk7qoIJ. The di splay section used

Construction

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The LM391 4s contain a vo lta ge re ference and internal vo ltage di vider.R I4, R15 , ami Rl7 adj ust the vo ltageapplied to the low end of the vo ltagedi vider chain. R17 is used to adjust thebar display "zero" setting. correspo nding to the voltage output when the testterminals are short-circuited. R14 alsofunctions as an LED display currentcon tro l and is set for approximate ly12.5 rnA.

RlO, R22, and e ither R24 a nd R25perform the same function for the highend o r the vo ltage di vider chain . Aswitch permits selecting between two

~I

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Lr'-.J r;~ +

s. ..c'\ F;t .1 ..

;----" \Y I I ~ :.;! Ilt.1 S "'1 00.<1 1' 0 6• "T."

Fig. 6. 100% PC board layout - pa rts placement (top j1iew).

14 73 Amateur Radio Today. January 2003

•x

(50 o hm resistor across the input) . Thi svol tage is applied to the signal input o fthe di splay section .

U I thro ugh V4 form a moving do tLED bar graph to display the DC outputvo ltage from DI. The circuit is taken direc tly from National Semiconductor'sdata sheets for the LM 391 4 linear bard river. By cascad ing two L\139 14s(V I and V3). the voltmeter range isspread o ver 20 LED segments . U2 andU4 are LED bar graph displays. I usedred d isplays becau se they are brighterfor a given current consumption thanother colors .

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conventional perfboard. Manhattanstyle construction goes rapidly, and Ibuilt the prototype in a couple of hours.So, don' t feel that a printed circuit boardIS necessary.

I also laid out a double-sided printedci rcu it board and had it fabricated bya prototype board house. I used thisprofessional board fo r the completedunit.

It's always a good idea to build anddebug a project in stages. The ESRmeter has three logical stages that youcan build and check sequentially:

The 9-mlt regulator circuitry, the555 timer and low pass fi lter (including R16 and Ri B). The output of U6should be between 8,55 and 9.45 vol ts.At U5 pin 3, you should see a 100 kHzsquare wave, with a peak-to-peak voltage of about 8 volts. The precise frequency isn't critica l, but it should bewithin 15% of 100 kHz. At the output ofthe low pass filter (junction of LI andRI 6), you should sec a clean 100 kHzsine wave with a peak-to-peak amplitude of approxi mately 10 volts. At thetest lead connections (across RI 8),you should see a 100 kHz sine wavewith a peak-to-peak amplitude of about110 millivolts.

The amplifier and peak detector (QJ,Q2 and Q3 and D1). The fo llowingmeasu re ments are all peak-to-peakand assume the 100 kHz signal levelsin the previous stage are correct . Atthe base of Q I, you should measureabout 105 millivolts : at QI's collector, 390 millivolts. At Q2 's collectorand at Q3's emitter, 3.8 volts . Allshould be clean 100 kHz sine wavesignals. Check the DC voltage at thejunction of 0 I, R 13, and C6, With theinput terminals open-circuited. youshould measure about 5.5 volts. Withthe input terminals short-c ircuited, this

Photu E. Drilling the from panel. Photo f : The completedfront panel and applique.

Mechanical

Calibration

Photo G. Rack view of the front panel showing the mountingspacers installed.


tic.) I attached the plast ic lens to thealuminum panel with a couple drops ofsuper glue. Although a milling machine makes these tasks easy, you canaccomplish the same with an electricdrill and file.

I also made four custom-lengthspacers from 3/8-inch~diameter aluminum round stock and attached these tothe front panel with countersunk 4-40x 3/8-inch Phillips nat head screws .For my board, choice of Ie sockets,and LED displays, the spacers were0.680 of an inch long. I drilled andtapped the spacers for 4-40 threads.The aluminum cover plate is only0.038 of an inch thick, so part of thetapered screw head appears on the inside of the fron t panel. Hence, youshould countersink the spacer as well- otherwise the spacer will not betight against the panel.

It's important that the heads of thescrews be Ilush with the front panel ifyou intend to use a panel applique. Itwill be impossible to retighten thescrews without destroying the appliqueonce it is in place, so I used Loctitethread locker to prevent loosening.

I laid out the front panel appl ique using Visio Technical for Windows. butany drawing program would work.When you lay out the applique, placethe calibration numbers to coincidewith the spacing you recorded duringcalibration. I then printed the appliqueon an inkjet printer, and laminated itwith a thin , flexible, se lf-adhesivetransparent plastic sheet. After cutting

I milled a slot 2inches long and 3/8of an inch wide forthe LED display. Ialso milled a 2-1/2inch x 3/4 inchpiece of 1/8-inchthick red Lucitcplastic to fit !lushinto the slot. (TheLucile lens resembles a mesawhen done; a 2" x3/8" rectangularsec tion sticks up0.040" from thebody of the plas-

To calibrate the display, first verify thezero adjustment and that R24 and R25have heen accurately set as describedearlier. With the range switch in low position, connect a 1 ohm resistor acrossthe input terminals and note which LEDis illuminated. Repeat with 2.7 and 5.1ohm resistors. Switch to the high rangeand repeat with 1. 2.7, 5, 10. and 20 ohmresistors. The spacing will not be linear.You should usc short leads when connecting the calibration resistors.

I designed the printed ci rcu it boardlayout to fit a Radi o Shack 270- 1806plastic box, 6"x4"x2" . This box. is atight fit and req uires the zero pot to besqueezed between the board and thefront panel , but it permi ts a compactpackage.

voltage shou ld drop to 3.7 volts. Thesevalues are nOI overly critical, but youshould see a good 1.75 to 2 volts swingbetween open-ci rcuited and shortci rcuited input condi tio ns.

LED display. With the input terminals shou-circuired, you should beable to adjust the "zero adjustme nt"pot, R 17. so that the first LED segmentis illuminated. Temporarily co nnec t a10 ohm resistor across the input term inals. With the range switch, SW2, inlow position, you shou ld be able to adjust R24 so that the last LED is illuminated. Remove the 10 ohm resistor,connec t a 51 ohm resistor across theinput termi nals , and place the rangeswitch to the high position. You shouldbe able to adjust R25 so that the lastLED is illuminated. You may see a Slightdegree of interaction between the zeroadjustment pot and R24 or R25.

I

I

-

------~.-----.-

-C ... Ion-

...._~....".

__"",,M__ ~"""""k'~C."". n.-!----_.", - ....,- - ---=======-",--....,

•~§•g! "

__e-...."._ ,___.M' C' .....--

- ,

__u_-.----_.-_._.-------- --- -

~!•g .•"

Fig. 7. ESR vs. capacitance &: voltage: Nippon Chemi.Con SMEminiature aluminum electrolytic copocuors. standard construction:

Fig. 8. ESR vr. capacitance &: voltage: Nippon Chemi-Con KMYminiature electrolytic capacitors. 10K' ESR construction.

out the LED window, I then attachedthe applique to the aluminum frontpanel with 3M artist's spray adhesive.

I had to do three panels before I gotit close to right , so you can benefitfrom my mistakes:

would run the ESR meter from a 12volt wall-wart power supply. I changedmy mind and decided to make it battery-powered. I epoxied two 9-voltbattery ho lders to the plastic case to

provide 18 volts in series connection.A pair of fresh alkaline batteries wi llgive about 10--12 hours running time.Using a 78L09 with 18 volts input anda current draw of 50 rnA places it at

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Although I origi nally thought I

• It's difficult to get the LED slot exactly right in the aluminum panel, socut it a bit oversize and add a thickblack mask to the applique. Cut theopening of the app lique slot to matchthe LED size.

• Usc special inkjct paper and usethe hi gh quality setting on yo ur printer.

• A full-size zero adjustment potentiometer doesn 't clear the PC board bymuch and requires bending some components out of the way. A mini aturepot is a good idea.

• Give the Loctite eno ugh time 10set up before attaching the app lique.I didn 't, and you can see a blue circlewhere one screw leaked onto thebackside of the appliq ue.

• The fro nt panel is only 0.038 of aninch thick, so it requires attention 10prevent the countersink from goingright through the panel.

• Precisely aligning the applique takesa bit of time. Accordingly. use an adhesive that allows sliding the applique overthe panel. Contact cement is not agood idea!

• In general. remember the oldcarpenter's maxim: Measure twice, cutonce.

Photo H. Board mounted to the [rom panel and battery holders. Photo 1. Hack view of PC hoard mounted all the panel.

LED graph display chip can be foundat Natio nal Semicond uctor 's Web site[htt p: / / ww w. n ati0 na I.c om /d s/L MILM39 14.pdtl

3. Many capacito r manufacturersprovide detai led ESR data. See. for ex-ample, Corne ll Dubilier Electronicsrhttp ://www.comell-dub ilier.coml).Nippon Chcmi-Con's electrolytic ca-pacitor cata log is available at [http://www.c hc m i-co n .co.j p/pdf/cata l0 g/ALU M INUM/E/a ll/a l- 100 Id-c-a ll-O10730.pd11. AVX Corporatio n's ESRdata for tantal um capacitors can befound at rhtrp .z/www.avxcorp.com/docs/masterpubs/tan tlcad.pdf] . III

WANTEDFun . easy-to -bu ild p rojects

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1. Kemet Elcc~

tronics has severaltec hnical notesavailable at itsWeb site [http: //www. kcmet.com].O f particu lar interest arc: What isa Capacitor? F2856E; TantalumLeaded Petformana Characteristics (09/01 edition).

2. A data sheetfor the LM39 14

References

,

""

In ge nera l, the higher the voltagerat ing , the lower the ES R for thesa me capaci tance. The larger the capaci tance va lue , the lo wer the ESR.Tanta lum capacitors have m uchlower ESR than an equivalent alumi num e lec trolyt ic. In addition, speciallow-ESR capacitors are made forswitching power supplies and can havean ESR of a few mi lliohms.

I' ve plotted 100 kHz ES R data fortwo types of leaded a lumin um electro ly tic capac itors man ufactu red byNippon Chcmi-Con. T hese arc onlyguides, however, and the best comparison will be a known good capacito r of similar value a nd vo ltagerating by the same man ufact urer.

A defective electro lytic will d isp lay

an ESR of severaltimes that o f agood unit.

'"" 'I,.,

"

IIlnlral'...~an"", 0110 )'1'/35 vo~ ...."mon""" t l.clrolytic Cal"'cilorQ.SIOGh b.~ .

-

It isn't usually necessary to remove acapacitor from its circuit before lesting. Just put the test leads across thecapacitor and read the ESR. O f course,first remove powe r from the equipment and allow time to d ischarge thecapacitors. If you inadvertently attemptto measure a charged capacitor, diodesD2 and D3 wi ll limit damage to theinstrume nt.

Remember that long test leads, orcoiled test leads, add indu ctance andwill add some appare nt ESR.

the edge of its d issipatio n specific ations. Hence , I made a heatsink out ofa piece of 3/8-inch-d iameter a luminu mrod and slipped it over the 78 L09.

How to use the ESR meter

Pig. 9, Illustrative impedance of 10 j.lF/35 v aluminum electrolyticcapacitors, O.5-in. leads.


Art Housholder K9TRG[ahousholderl @aUbLcom]

K.I.S.S. Trickle ChargerAnd the ABCs ofbattery maintenance.

A f ter my battery charger a r ticle in th e March 2000 issue of 73 Maga zine waspublished, I received dozens of letters, cells, and E-mail., asking if some chargersmigh t OVERCHARGE some batteries. The simple answer is "YES. "

hen we have a dischargedbattery, we generally wantto quickly recharge it and

get it back in service as soon as possible. The only way to achie ve that isto use a charger with a high currentoutput. But high current creates heatand heat destroys batteries.

In the 1960s. Motorola developedthe famous HT 200 "BRICK" handietalkie. and the charger was as simpleas it could get. A transformer, a diode.a pilot light. a line cord, a fuse. and acase to put it all in. There was no filtercapacitor. The pilot light was used tolimit the amount of current that wouldcharge the nicad battery,

When someone discovered that this

circuit could overcharge the battery ifleft on for an ex tended period of time.another pilot light and an SPDT switchwere added. One light was used forhigh current and the other for tricklecharge.

Fig. 1 is the simple circu it that wasused at that ti me.

Most batteries are "CURRENT"sensitive. not "VOLTAGE" sensitive.e xcept for the relatively new Li-on."lithium ion" types. These are quitevoltage sensitive and SHO ULD NOTBE CHARGED IN OTHER THANAN APPROVED Li-on charge r. Limitthe current and you can charge mostbatter ies with almost any voltagehigher than the rated battery voltage.

Nicad batteries, as well as othertypes. are rated in ampere hours.Manufacturers rate their batteries according to the chemistry used. Onemay rate an AA battery at 6<X) mAh(milliampere hours). while anothermay rate theirs at 800 mAh. Table 1shows some examples of popular battcry cell manufacturers as they ratetheir ce ll s.

This means that an 800 mAh batterycell is expected to deliver 800 rnA forI hour. before droppi ng to the 1.1 voltper cell rating that is a standardadopted by most of the industry. Somemanufacturers say I volt per cell. Thisis true in all nicad battery packs of allsizes and types. If a cell is allowed to

120VAC

PILOTLIGHT = BATT

~

120VAC

T1 DI SIo/

PILOTLIGHT

HI

LOIo/ <::» = BATT

~Fig. J. Motorola HT200 charger circuits.


shuts down the equipment when thebattery reaches approximately 1.1 voltsper ce ll. as an indicator, and to then recharge the battery. They don 't mean torun the batte ry down to zero volts.

Most of us have many battcry-opcrated devices and if we had to have aseparate , expensive charger for each ofthe devices we could fi ll a small roomwith the chargers . Would you like tohave a charging device that couldcharge and or maintain charges onAAA, AA. sub C, C. D, and 9-volttypes almost a ll at one time? Well. readon .. .

Remember. ni cads and most batterytypes are not voltage-sensitive. Depending on your choice of the powertransformer for the circuit, you couldeasily charge 8 battery cells at onetime, except the "D" and 9-volt types.D ce ll types would need a little morecurrent for tric kle ch arge than the standard 20 mAh LEDs will handle. Forthe 0 cells use the high-current 50 mAhLEDs. Use 2 volts per ce ll to calculate

Never dischargea batterycompletely

most impossibleto ever fC VCfSC thisproblem.

••

Most manufacturers of batteryoperated equipmentsuch as l-ITs, cam

corders. and "'PlOPcomputers tell us to"CO:VIPLETELY"discharge the bat-tery once In a

while and then recharge it. Taking thisliterally. you might be tempted to use apilot light or a short piece of wireacross the terminals to DIS CHA RGEthe battery completely. DON'T DOIT ! In most cases this will destroy thebattery. What the manufacture rs rea llymean is (0 use the low voltage indicator that is built into most devices that

Capac ity (rnA)

AA

l E KG R

AAA

SireType

GIOOIel<NiCad

Pnoto A. Completed single-unit cha rger.

go to zero volts. there is an 80% to9(}ll, chance of ce ll voltage reversal.and resu lting destruction of that cell. It is

e

T1 DI RI R2 LED

~120VAC

~ CI- -I-B-AAA

~

tzoc

1800-2400

D 9000

C 3200-3500

D

AAA 250-280 '

ee c

AA 5SO-108O

Fig. Z. New charge r. single circuit.' »0-3000

1350-2100

c

......., 1-----4------ -'NCad S<JlI C

D

e

D

see c

e

D

1QOG-15OO

6500

""1450-1650

2100-3000

"00Table I. Some examples of popu lar batterycell manufacturers es they rate their cells. Photo H. Completed single-unit charger with: wall-wart- type power slIpply.

20 73 Amateur Radio roasv » January 2003

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9V BATT--& -1-2-

Fig. 3. New charger, 4 circuits.

Photo D. Six-unit charger with watt-wan-type power suppl):

AA cells in the above e xample arc the

800 mAh type . The sta ndard rate ofcharge is IO%- of their rated capacityfor 12- 14 hours . This comes to approximate ly 80 rnA. Any more, or anylonger may damage the battery withexcess heal. After the 12-1 4 hours, atthe standard charge rate , use 10% ofthe standard charge ra te or approximately K- IO rnA. T he battery at thisrate can be charged forever. I havesome Dustbusters that have beencharged thi s way for years with NOproblems. It might be desirable to havese ve ra l " mai ntenance chargers" allgoing at the sa me time for maximu muti lity a nd usefu lness.

Most ce lls or batteries have the ratedcapacity ind icated 0 11 the m. From thatinformation you can calcu late 10% ofrated capac ity for the 12-1 4 ho urcharge, then 10% of that fig ure foreverafter.

The circuit in Fig. 2 is simplicity initself. If the wall wart supply you areusing: has a DC o utput, you sa ve thecost of pu tting a simple diode and capacito r on the PC board. S imply put ajumper in place of the diode on theboard and leave ou t the filter cap, If the

••rt Description Rad io Shack II Cost I'n

Pti 12O VAC, ",. ,,.. $5.99 Isee as VAC

DODiode,2per 27&1102 ",,, 1-

IR1. R2 2k pol. eocn ..,..." $1.19 IRegular 20

LE D mA LEO. 2 276-3 30 $1.29per pack

A.AA o:lu al270-3988 $0,99

balta')' holder

AAA quad27o- ~t1 $ 1,49

banery holde r

AA dual270-'" 51.4-9

balte<y holder... ..' 270-391 $1.69batte<y 1lOIOe.

C <l.Ia' banery270-385 $ 1.4 9 I..-

C,"'""~390 51.59 1baltetY holde.

o dual baltery270·3Be $1.69

holder

o quad270·398 $1.79

banery holder

C, Almost any -=Jsmall ~ I ter eae

Table 1. Parts Jist.

•

••

••

with AC or DC output. At this poin t itwon' t make any difference w'hich oneyou lind , Either will work in this circ uit. T he type , AAA to D a nd thenumber of ce lls yo u want to c hargewi ll determine the current capacity ofthe transformer needed. If you usc thesing le charger circuit, a transformerwith only 20-30 mAh capacity is allthat"s needed. If yo u use the -t-circuitboard and choose to use ALL high-curre nt LEDs, use 4 x 50 mAh, or about200--250 mAh transformer capacity.

Batteri es are charged with the industry standards in mind. Let's assume the

-••

•

•

-.•-

III• •

•

Photo E. This versatile charger is able 10 charge lip to six different configurations ofbatteries, f rom single cells to battery packs, all at different voltages and currellts at the sametime,


current cells that add up to 9 volts huthave lower curre nt available. Read thebattery label carefully.

Let' s look at a ci rcuit that willcharge and or maintain the health ofALL rechargeable batteries includ inglead- acid. nicad. and nimh. AL L ofthese battery types can he charged bylimiting the charging current.

Lees use 8 "AA·· batteries for starters. So 8 x 2 volts = 16 volts. There arelo ts of 18-volt transformers availableat hamfests. Radi o Shack and otherstores for not much cost. Look for a" wall wart" or plug -in transfo rmer

-

I+

I+

I+

I+

~ R1D'

'- -{QilMO~~

C1

I~+..i!!~o

~ I!JJ+

LFig 5. Component placement.

quantities of batteries as your heart desires. With the a-circuit hoard youcould charge some AAA. AA , C, and73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003 23

had no fi lter capacitor. Most of today'scharge rs usc a pulse charge circuit.which sounds like AC. doesn't it'! Wellthe battery itsel f is a very good filter sodon't worry about installing much of afilter capacitor. You can usc 22 ~F 10

470 J.1E with a rated voltage that isabove the transformer output voltage .

Sometimes old ideas are not so badafter all. With this NEWER, Keep ItSimple. Stupid, circuit, we usc smallresistors and an LED as the currentlimi ting device and an indicator. D I isany general purpose rectifi er diode . R Iis only a high set currentlimi ter so youdo not blow out the LED. Tum R I andR2 to the halfway position. Then tumR2 full clockwise slowly to mi nimumresistance while monitoring the current through the LED; and the batteryto 20 rnA maxim um if you use" STANDARD LEDs."

Now turn R I so that 20 rnA is notexceeded as you turn R2 to the muximum clockwise position. With thiscombinatio n you cannot exceed thecurrent limitation of the LED. Fromthen on. use R2 only to set the currentdesired to trickle charge or maintainthe battery.

RI cou ld he eliminated if you arecare ful as to how you se t R2. or it canhe replaced with a fixed resisto r if youwill he charging only one type of hattcry, Single circuit hoards (see FiJ.:. 2),4 -circuit hoards (see Fig. 3), and 6-circuit boards are available from Far Circuits. 18:\640 Field o., Dundee IL601 18; fax/voice: 847-836-9 148; Emai l: [[email protected]}. Or the circuitcan be built in about the size o f apostage stamp on a simple vec tor- orpro totype hoard .

Remember. I sta led that you couldliterally charge as many types and

J

12128101

I II ..I I-{Qil- RiDII

o-z~ MER

~I+~

• SINGLE KISSLED ~

-.-1 ~HARGER =t

wall wart is AC output install Dl andthe f Iter cap on the PC board.

Remember. the Motorola charger

Fig. -I. PC boa rdfoil lavout, l -up and o-up.

Ha ndy Milliammeter

I th ink that most of us at one time or another have had the need, and or thedesire , to measure the current in a batte ry-operated device . Many of these devices have a battery holder where the battery or batteries snap down into a"well" or pocket. Getting a multimeter in series with the batt eries sometimescan be very trying. •

Here is a device that I have used for years with great success. Get a piece ofthe thinnest double-sided PC board material that you can find - some is madeabout 0.015 thick . It can be found in ample supply at most harnfcsts. (If you arebuying the K.I.S.S. C harger hoards from Far Circu its, they might send a smallpiece of the thin PC hoard material for this project, if you ask.) Cut it to ahout2- 3 inches long and hy about 1/4 inch wide . If you make it wider you will notbe ahle to use the same board on some AAA battery devices . Material that thincan be cut easily with a pair of sc issors - just don 't let the YL catch you usingher good pair ...

Ne xt, sharpen one end like a screwdriver blade or chisel. Make the angle assha llow and as sharp as you can; it will make the insertion, as descri bed later,much easier. Next. at the other end solder a short piece of wire to each side ofthe PC board material , some thing tha t you can attach your multimeter to oneach side .

I have one wi th short bare wire leads A ND small test lead sockets; that way, Ican use a lligator clips or just plug the multimeter leads into the socke ts.

Have you figured out where we are going with this ye t? Just slip the sharpened end ofthc PC hoard material between 2 batteries or betwee n a battery andthe contact on the device that you are going to measure . Thi s opens up the battery circuit and puts your milliammeter in series so that you can measure thecurre nt that your device is drawing .

DOUBLE-SIDED PC BOARD ...... + r-

,,-..:W:;:'RE

WIRE

Fig. Sl. Milliammeter adapter:

9-volt batteries all at the same time andat different charge rates for eachcharge r circuit.

I use snap in battery holders similarto the Radi o Shack part numbers listedin Table 2, or you might already have agood junk box with some in it.

I ha ve several 6- and 8-ce lJ batteryholders and if I do not have many cellsto charge at a time , instead of soldering the charger output wires to theholders , l use alli gator clips to hook upthe needed number of cells. The individual ce ll connec tions are easy to getat in most of the cell holders.

If you have batt ery packs, such asused in HTs , camcorders, compute rs,24 73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003

BAn ERY

BAnERY

etc. with no way to auach alligator clips,etc., to them, try this. Take a thin piece ofwood with 2 nails driven through in theproper place, fasten the charger leads tothem, and lay the battery contacts on thenails. Something a little more universaland easy to configure would be a thinpiece of cardboard. with thumb tackspushed throu gh in the proper places;again, just lay the battery contacts on thesharp end of the tack . . . crude but itworks, and can be configured for mostbattery types. The contacts on most hatteries are steel, does that light up a hulbin your mind? Try using small magnetswith wire leads to the charger. Thisworks just fine.

The circuit is so simple and low costthat almost any number of them can betied to ONE transformer. The "COMMON LED" has a c urrent limit ofabout 20 rnA. This is enough to tricklecharge and maintain a ll common ce llsup to full size "C" ce lls. There are several manufacturers o f HIGH-CURREl\'T LEOs that will handle 50 and60 rnA. They would be ideal for "0"cells and 5-amp lead acid types. Justsubstitute the high c urre nt LED for theregu lar one on one hoard for yourhigher c urrent applications, or youcou ld take a step backward in technology a nd use the grain-of-wheatsize incandescent bul bs at the properc urre nt rati ng .

For those among you who like to

experime nt, here is a ne w route topu rsue ...

For a litt le more than a year I havebeen trying some thing different. but itis a little early to make too much of adefinitive statement. We ha ve all readthat many chargers today use a pulsecharging system that is hard for manyof us to dup licate wi th the surfacemount parts that are being used. I havebeen trying a system using FLASHING LEOs, instead of regular LEOs.First, most Flashing LEOs will handleup to 70 rnA; this can he a honus whe ncha rging C and 0 or high-current cellsor batteries. Another plus is that youcan still use this same PC hoard; j ustuse the flashing LEDs in place of theregular ones. Now the DOWNSIDE they cost more .

The curre nt is hard to measure INT HE FIELD, because it is pu lsed, andmost analog a nd or digital meters willg ive false read ings . O ne partia l wayaround measuring the current is to se tthe current with a regular LED insta lled. then put in the flasher. Thi sSEEMS to work OK in most cases;some regular LEOs will take 50-70 rnAfor a short peri od of time. long e noughto set the current properly. O ne moreplus and/or minus is that in "theory" itwill take twice as lung to charge thebattery because of the 50% duty cycleflashing on and off. O n the other ha nd.pulse charging is supposed to take lesstime to cha rge .

Conun ued on page 56

Hugh Wells W6WTU141118th St.Manhattan Beach CA 90266·4025

Experimenting withHall-Effect Sensors

Forfun and knowledge.

There are times hams get involved in some interesting technological experiments. Some ofthose experiments develop projects that apply to electronics and ultimately to ham radio.

Bccausc of my interest in bothexperiencing technology anddeveloping test equipment to

make my life easier al the workbench,I tackled Hall-Effect sensors to secwhat I could learn abou t them and perhaps find an application for ham radio.

What's a Hall-Effect sensor? I' mglad you asked that questi on . Hall-Etfeet sensors arc semiconductor devicesmat are sensitive to the presence of amagnetic field. When in the presenceof a magnetic fie ld they provide a voltage change response as a function ofthe flux field intensity. In fact, the sensors are a lso sensitive to the Dux linedi rection as produced by a magnet.

I have an early date code sensormade by TI and I' ve heen told thatthose early sensors were subject tothermal dri ft - mine ex hibits a little .But the sensors bei ng manufacturedtoday by Allegro Micro Systems aretemperature-stabil ized using a technique referred to as "chopper-stabil ization." Perhaps the using circuit ismore subject to temperature effec tsthan is the sensor itself.

I suppose your next question is. "Sowha t is a Hall -Effect sensor good for?"Again. tha t 's a good question as itleads me into a d iscussion of them.

Ac tually, the use/application of a HallEffect sensor is limited only by yourimagination. They come in two types:switching and ratiornetric (l inear). I'lllimit my discussion and experi mentsto the linear sensor, since it offers thegreatest window of opportunity forham project development .

Applications

My personal interest in the Hal l-Effec t sensor was in unders tanding thelinear device. though switching sensorsarc very important contributors to manyproject applications. In fact. Hall-Effectswitching se nsors were used in somecomputer printers to sense the end ofcarriage travel. T hey a lso work we llin burgla r a larm window and doormovement detect ion in addition to amultitude of other uses.

I' ll ci te a few applications to giveyou a kick-start with ideas, but youneed to think of additiona l applicationsas they app ly to your needs and environment. Here is just a sample of possible uses : magnetic flu x indicationand intensity measurement ; magnet icpolarity detection; current sensi ng (ACand DC); power sensing : current trippoint detection: strain gauge sensor;

movement sensi ng and direct ion ofmovement; rare of change (movement);proximity sensing; liquid-level sensing:noncontact sensing ; RPM measurements ; object speed of acceleration/deceleration; position limit detcction!switching ; antenna posi tion sensor;and wind di rection and ve locity sensor,

Experiment s

To gain an understanding of howHall-Effect sensors function, I set up aseries of experiments on my workbench to evaluate the linear device thatwas ava ilabl e to me. It was a sensormanufactured by Tl. ci rca 1985. Thefirst step was to set up a circuit withsufficient metering to allow interroga tion of the device to see how it reacted.Photo A shows the top side of my testboard. and Photo B shows the bottomside . Operating at DC levels. the onlypurpose of the board was to keep a llof the parts conveniently Flying inform ation.

Having limited pre vious experiencewith Hall devices, I wasn't sure whatto expect, so that metering was essential. Fig. I shows the basic circuit thatI used 10 begin experimentation. Forthe first experiment. the objective was73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 25

to de term ine device pin funct ions and to apply a suitablevoltage to see how the dev ice would respond. After doingan Internet search I determined (hat no test or technica l datawas available for my sensor. However, I did obta in comparable data from Alleg ro Micro Systems. F ig. 2 shows thebasic empirical spec information that I discovered throughexperimentation. allowing the TLl 73C sensor to he used ina project.

Once power was applied I determined that the nominaloutput voltage was approx imately Vccl2. and that was agood sign. but at that moment I didn't know what else to

expect in the way of a response to a magnetic fi eld. I didnote that the sensor 's output voltage was subject to changeas a function of Vee. Therefore, stabilizing the Vcc valuewith a regulator wou ld he requi red for so lving any seriousstability issues. But for my experiments, only a smallamount of regulation was used .

Knowing that a Hall device is se nsit ive to a magne ticfield, I did wave a magnet close to the sensor and got an indica tion, though at a magnitude well below that expected.What I expected was the output voltage to swing betweenVcc and ground during the test - hut a much lesser swingwas observed. Fig. 3 shows the second test that I performedand the response obtai ned . The graph shows a generalizedoperational curve and a voltage sv...-ing away from QOP(Quiescent Operati ng Point) along the curve relative to thepresence of a magnetic fie ld.

It occurred to me that the magnetic lines-of-force had topass through the device for it to respond properly. As I determined later, the Hall device that I was using prov ided aresponse perhaps in the range of 1-2 mV/gauss. Devicesavai lable from Allegro Micro Systems vary in detecti onsensitivity by device and provide an output from about I roVlgauss up to 5 mY/gauss.

With a VO~1 set to the 3-vo h range and attached to theoutput pin of the sensor. a horseshoe- shaped magnet was

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1'11010 A . Top side ofthe circuit hoa rd IIJl'd for experimenting withHall-Effect linear sensors.

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Fig. 2. Tile above data 011 tire TLJ 73C linear Hall-Effect Jellsor k'a"~

deri\'eli empiricoliyfrmn expenmems performeddl/ring bt:nclr testing.

Vee 3-5.5VDCVcc max 6VIc 4ma nominalSensitivity Estimated to be 1-2mv/gauss• "sweet spot" for max sensitivityOutput swing +/- 35mvGauss response LinearResponse time 43 microsecondsPackage T()..92

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An 01' amp is used to raise lite sensor 's ou tput voltage s .....ing mfficiently to drive an analog \'OM. Resistor R2 is used 10 create a ba lanced input into the 01' amp.

Fig. 3. Experiment showing the directionof voltage output from the sensor as amagnet of given polarity approaches thesensor. Approaching as ShOlHI. the outputvoltage decreases.

sli pped over the Hall sensor. The output responded suftic icntly to be evident. but not at a desirable level .However. the response was markedlygreater than when only a single magnetic pole approached. My particularsensor provided a direct output voltageswing in the range of 25-30 mv Toobtain a larger output voltage swing. Iassembled an amplifier using anLM741 op amp. A complete test circuit is shown in Fi~. ~ . Details of theamplifier will be discussed in anothersection. Now, knowing what 10 expec tfrom the device made the rema iningexperime nts much easier.

Several setups using magnets utilized in various positions providedsome really interesting insight intopossible device applications. Duringthe initial experiment. a horseshoestyle magnet was used . A "sweet" spotwas determined to exist at the ncarcenter of the device package. Anotherexperiment involved placing a fixedmagnet on one side of the sensor whileapproaching the sensor with a d ifferentmagnet from the opposite side . Thefirst magnet biased the sensor andshifted QOP along the response curve.Although the biasing magnet caused

the output vo ltage to shift up or down(flux polarity) the operational curve.the de tec tion sens itivity appeared toremain constant. Biasing the sensor toone side of its operational curve all owsthe device more room to swing in agiven direct ion. plac ing the outputvoltage above or below the nominalVccl2 value. With an approachingmagnet. the output would change as afunct ion of fie ld strength and distanceto the opposite voltage value (if biasedbelow. it would swing to a value abovenomi nal).

In addition . with a biased sensor. asshown in }'i~. S. the approaching metal

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needn 't be a magne t as long as it isferrous. I tried approac hing the sensorwith a non magneti zed metal shaft of ascrewdriver. and the sensor was able todetect both the presence and movement of the shaft. Thi s experiment implied that a biased sensor would workwell as a tachometer or as a posit ionsensor of a rotating antenna system.

Fig. 6 shows how the sensor may beused as a "null" or "off-null" sens ingdevice. Any movement of the magnetright or left of the null point will causethe sensor's output to create a voltage



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Because the voltage output swingfrom the T Ll73C sensor was in therange of 25 -30 mV, I elected to increase the output level usmg anLM741 op amp. My objective was todrive an a nalog VOM operating on the3-voIt range to a di scernible level.That objective was achieved with thecircuit shown in Fig. 4. Using my par

ticular test magnet. the output vo ltagewould swing up to 2+ volts from QOP.

Knowing that op amps genera lly e xhibit some output offset, and myTLl 73C produced an output voltage ofapproximate ly 1 vo lt above Vcc/2, Iel ected to equip the ampli fi er wi th twopotentiometers. One pot was to provide a vo ltage to balance the offse ts.and the other was for gain control.With the nearly I volt offset of these nso r 's output vo ltage. I found it necessary to para llel the upper resistor.R3. with a shunting resistor, R2. When

A m plifie r

Fig. 6. Experiment shows the output voltage change as a function of a magnet s position. A null occurs (at QOPJ when themagnetic pole is centered with the sellsor.Reversing the magnetic poles a1.1'0 reversesthe output voltage resp onse.

se nsor/dctcctor. Tbc frequency of 23 kHztranslates to a response time of 43 usee .For most any ham appli cation. that response time is perhaps sufficie nt to

meet most needs.

as a movement

Frequency response

Hall sensors are sensitive to mot io nthat translates to a n AC function. Butwhat is the highe st frequency that canbe detected by a sensor? Actually, thefrequency response is very low as

compared to mostham radio applications where RFis involved . Thehighest-responsefrequency. fromwhat I' ve beenable to determine . was 23 kllzfor the T Ll73Cdevice . Perhapsnewer senso r designs will a llowfor an increasein response frequency. Fur nonRF applications. aresponse of 23 kHzis generally fastenough to be usable

Field polarity

What was interesti ng to me duringthe experiment was the determinationthat the direction of the magnetic field(nux line direction) was detectable. Asshown in Fig. 3, reversing the magnetic poles caused the output vo ltageto re verse direction. As an example , ifthe outpu t was indi cating a positiveoffset of I vo lt from QOP (VO M reading), reversing the magnetic polaritycaused the output voltage to drop I voltfrom QOP. This experiment also supported the theory of a linear responseas a function of flux de nsity.

The second fact relates to the magnetic gap. If the gauss level re mainsconstant. the output response is nonlinear as a function of the gap widthchange . My method of m easurementwas very crude, but it did definitelyprove the effec t. For thi s measurement, I placed a plastic measurementscale in front of the sensor to identifyphysical movement distances. Magnetlocation d istance s were plotted againstthe ind icated output voltage creating acurve approximating the letter "5".

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Fig. 5. Experiment showing how tile sellsor responds to the //I iH'e

ment of a non-magnetized fe rrous object. A biasing magnet isplaced Oil the opposite side of the sel/ sor f rom the ferrous object.


From my experiments. I was ahle todetermine two very important factsthat relate to any a pp lication of thedevice . The output response is absolutel y li near within the limi ts of thedevice as a fun ction o f gauss level.Th e assumption is that any open gapbetween the se nso r a nd metal fl uxconduc tor remains consta nt as thegauss le vel va ries .

During my experiments , some heating drift was noted : it was traced to theTL1 73C sensor. The drift occurredonly during the fi rst 2-3 minutes following the application of power beforestabilization occurred. Pinching thedevice with my fi nge rs reduced theinternal heat leve l and that effect wasnoted in the output voltage ind icat ion.Drift occurred until the sensor agai nstabilized at a te mperature value.Judging from the Allegro Micro Systems ' publi shed information, sensorsmanufactured by them arc chopperstabilized to reduce or stop the tendency fo r thermal drifL susceptibility.

Temperature drift

Experimenting withHall-Effect Sensorscon tinued from page 27

and polarity change appropriate to thedirection and magnitude of the response.

Carl Herbert AA2JZ43 South Plank Rd.Newburgh NY 12550

On the Face of It, A Good IdeaHow to ace those finishing touches on your home-brewed pride-and-joys.

Sometimes all the hard work and technical expertise tha t goes in to creating your ownhome-brewed equipment can be for naught if the finishing touches of the unit are lessprofessional-looking than the remainder of it. Some prior planning and caretullyapplied labels can be the difference. producing a piece that works and looks great.

t'hoto A. Finished project with tuning control in the center:73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003 29

hen deciding to make a particular unit - let' s just sup·pose the projec t is to be a

QRP recei ver - take a good look atthe schematic and identify all o f thevariable contro ls, e.g., RIT, VO LUMECONTROL. TUNING CONTROL.AUDIO FILTER CONTROL. etc.Next. layout the contro ls according totheir usage. For a right-handed operatorthis usually means placing the tuningcontrol either in the cente r o f thefront panel or to the extreme far rightside of the fro nt panel. Other co ntroi s are placed from the left edge ofthe panel.

Placing the tuni ng control on theright side or center of the panel createsan easier. more comfortable operatingposition for the operator. Avoid placing the headphone jack near the tuningcontrol. The plug and wire protrudi ngfrom the panel often interfere with theoperator's hand motion during tuning.and can be avoided by placing thi s jackas far away as possible.

The "key" jack can he placed immediately above or below or alongside the"phone" jack if the tu ning control is onthe right side. If the tuning control is inthe center. other jacks can he mounted

in the area to the right provided there isample room. Use your own j udgmenthere. See P hoto A.

Before drilling holes to mount frontpanel contro ls. measure the neededheight from the botrom of the panel toensure that variously s ized contro lswill " fi t" above the bottom edge of thefront panel.

Once you are satisfied that a ll thecontrols will fi t acceptably, measure howfar up the panel the mounting holeswill have to be placed. Now, using the

knobs you inte nd to place on the co ntrols, ensure that the outer edge or"skirt" of each knob clears the bottomedge. Knobs having a flare or "skirt" ontheir outer edge call for more room at thebottom of thc panel for clearance.

Lette ring to he placed be/ow a control also requires additional space. Largeknobs block the operator 's view of thelettering, especially on smaller piecesof equipment The identity of controlsnot easily visible to the operator can heconfusing during operation and detract

M 2J Z!Photo B. Place lettering on a d ean sheet of glass to ensure thatyou can make straight cuts when you remove the excess backingmaterial.

Photo C. Painter 's tape is used to guide lettering into perfectaUgnment.

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Ove, 1.63 1.OOO U.S. and Intemahonal ~!Ilr'IQs . 128,000e-majl lddr8S"~, 4.000 ph01~ af\daSLcl rdl .37.000vanityca lli, and20.000 ,.f. r. nees10 a SLml nag• •s.

Sl"ooooospath lllSIanCfI & bearing.P.-8CIH Iah!Udeo'longlluo.!orO'o'ef 9Q% ofaddfftws.

HamCauia150.00 . included 1&6 montllS t_ acuss 10OOJ rH&mCIl lntemet s.enr.e.. ' eq uest """'norde~

of the label. Carefu lly place the labelwhere desired. ensuring that the edge ofthe label is parallel with the straight lineprovided by the painter's tape. When alllabels to be placed along the line havebeen applied. remove the painter's tape.Rub down labels to ensure total adhesionand removal of air pockets, etc. Once alllabels have been applied, carefully placeknobs on the panel to prove to yourselfthat adequate clearance has been allowed and that lettering is aligned correctly, and that you haven't misspelledany words. See Photo C.

Once you're satisfied with your frontpanel, it can be clear-coated with clearspray, which will protect the letteringfrom wear and effec tively make theclear backing disappear if you are usinga clear tape method.

When creating your front panel. painta scrap piece of the material with thepaint you intend to use. Apply "practice"lettering to it, and then spray it with theclear coat you plan to usc. Differenttypes of sprays from different manufacturers are often not interchangeable. Theresulting piece using the wrong productsproduces a slimy, wrinkled mess whichis vel)' disconcerting following all ofyour careful planning and work. I cannotover emphasize this careful selection ofproducts prior to doing all this work.

The "masterpiece" you have laboredlovingly over now has a more professional appearance, using materials easily available. The keys to a clean lookare planning, patience, and care.

Good luck! And enjoy showing offyour latest creation ! fa

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Afte r typing and pnntmg the required data, I peel the backing and adhere the tape or label to a clean sheetof glass. Avoid putting finger prints inthe adhesive material. They are oftenimpossible to remove, and are readilyvisible forever. Use the tip of an object(knife. razor blade, screwdriver, erc.)to pick up the label and place it on theglass. Once applied to the glass, usinga straight edge and razor, cut away theexcess backing material and leave onlythe desired lettering. I usually cutaway the bottom excess material in astraight line. Doing this will enable meto evenly place lettering along astraight edge later, Sec Photo B.

With the front panel removed from the--- - --- - -----.., project, without knobs or jacks attached.

use painter's masking tape to create astraight line for placement of lettering.Painter's tape is an adhesive-backed paper tape used for masking during painting and is easily removed withoutleaving a residue. Office "clear tape" andother tapes I have tried sometimes peelpaint finish from the freshly paintedpanel. This can be very disconcerting.Painter's masking tape is avai lable atmost hardware or home improvementstores and is vel)' inexpensive. This alsoprovides a resting surface for your fingers that will protect the surface of thepanel from scratches and contaminants.

With the tape in place providing astraight edge, pick the needed label upfrom the glass using the tip/point of arazor knife or tweezers. Moving them inthis manner avoids placing unwantedfingerprints in the adhesive on the back

from the "professional" appearancedesired in a fin ished project. This alsoapplies to multiple rows of controls.Allow additional space between rowsfor lettering if needed.

Lettering the project requires someprior planning. I use a "tape: writingmachine," a device which uses cleartape with white or black lettering imposed on it. With this device I can select a type size or style that pleases meand fi ts the area avai lable on the frontpanel. Computer-printed lettering canbe used. Experiment with variousgummed labels, paper, and adhesivebacked tape on label sheet backings tosee what is acceptable to you.

30 73 Amateur Radio Today , January 2003

2002 ANNUAL INDEX

Subject/Artic le Description Author IssuelPg.

Antennas2mf70 em Quad Revisited Part 1 K81HQ AUG1 92m170 em Quad Revisited Part 2 K81HQ SEP 186m Fun l oop A low-cost gain antenna... N2DCH JUN 10Above & Beyond 1296 MHz Omni Slot Antenna WB61GP NOV41Direct-Mount "J" Antenna For 440 MHz HTs W4JC FEB 21Eager for Meager 11m vertical for 160 AD1B DEC24I Love My 80m Loop! Horizontal square loop KL7JR NOV 25Twin for Two Home-made twin loop for 2m AC6XJ AUG30VLF to HF Loop Receivi ng Antenna Part 1 of 3 K8Z0A JUL 10VLF to HF Loop Receiv ing Antenna Part 2 of 3 K8Z0A AUG 10VLF to HF Loop Receiving Antenna Part 3 of 3 K8Z0A SEP 32Windowsill Mount for Verticals For an antenna in Dec. 2001 issue. HL1/N8HI JUN 36

Circuitsleorn Interface, Texas-Style Mod for 706l706MKII owners. W5RK JUN 35Multiple CW FiNers Set up an active audio filter. W2GOMfl NOV 16Voltage Control fo r Your Mobile Rig On all night? Th is is fo r you! W4MEA MAY 37

ClubsCPR for Your ARC How to revi ve the local club. N80MW OCT 52

ComputersInterlace Boa rd for the ISA Bus Interface home-brewed applications. AB2LX SEP20QRP Internet Computing Usi ng the Internet KCOIZI FEB 37

ConstructionAmplifier Testbench Report A look at broadband amps. K8Z0A SEP 10Build a 1.2 GHz FM Repeater A complete system from scratch. NY9D JAN 10Build This Commercial-Quality Counter Part t of z K81HQ MAY 10Build This Commercial-Quali ty Counter Part 2 of 2 K81HQ JUN20Commerc ial-Quality Function Generator How about this addition to the bench? K81HQ DEC 10Easy-Bu ild Project of the Month 400 kHz AC low pass filte r... K81 HQ APR 29Easy-Bu ild Project of the Month Prototyping bench DC power supply K81HQ JUL2QGlow, Little Glo-Bar High-power RF dummy load K81HQ JUN 33Keying to a Different Drummer Simplicity for pennies. W2GOM17 MAY 27Ladder Crystal Filters for NBFM Some tricks of the trade N2DCH JUL1 6Lamps from Tubes For fun, prof it, and gifts! WA20KZ FEB 28Relat ive RF Power Meter Add this to your shack's arsenal! KC5MFY MAY 34Temp-Contro lled Solder Station Improve your bench. AA2JZ JUN 25Vent-a-Fume Remove solder fumes from wo rk area. AA2JZ MAR 17Your Tum lor a Coil Winder Gingery Universal Coil Winder K8Z0A NOV 10

CW - CodeBuild This Simple Electronic Keyer Nice little project. Sellen JAN 55Keying to a Different Drummer Simplici ty for pennies. W2GOM17 MAY 27Not Simply Another Keyer! With self-complet ing dots and dashes. W2GOMfl FEB 16

Digital ModesThe Dig ita l Port Me 'n' M.E. KB7NO JAN 40The Dig ital Port More Fun KB7NO FEB 51The Digital Port Bumpiness KB7N O MAR 47The Digital Port Freebie Antenna Aid KB7NO APR 46The Digital Port Macros : Take Cont rol! KB7NO MAY4QThe Digital Port This Twist May Be for You KB7NQ JUN 47The Digita l Port Digita l Imaging and SSTV KBlNO SEP45The Digital Port Sleeper Package Comes Awake KBlNO OCT 42The Digita l Port New and Improved Early PSK-31 KB7NO NOV 50The Dig ital Port Fun Time KBlNO DEC 47

DXAshore at Sacrifice Rock! The saga of a masterful DXped ition. VU2SBJ DEC 28Inkjet QSLs the Easy Way Basic techniques for basic cards. KE8YNlO FEB 38Make Your Own VHF OX! Need a neat club activity? WB9YBM JUL 29QSL Archiving Made Easy Display those cards. NLlZW OCT 53


EditorialsNever Say Die II You Think . ..; What to Do? W2NSDI1 JAN 4

Never Say Die Hey, AR RL, Wake Up! W2NSD/1 FEB 4

Never Say Die Upsizing America; 0 0 They, Still? W2NSDI1 MAR4

Never Say Die Actlont; Step by Step W2NSDI1 APR4

Never Say Die Better OSOs; Dayton ; Po le Shil t W2NSDI 1 MAY 4Never Say Die The Begging Bowl; Pole Shift W2NSDI , JU N 4Never Say Die Shareware ; Advertising ; More Sharing W2NSD/ 1 JUL4Never Say Die Birthday; A Birthday Present; C rackpot W2NSD/l AUG 4Never Say Die Birthday Present; Perspective; Sharing W2NSD/1 SEP4Never Say Die Uh-Oh !; Visit New Hampshire W2NSD/1 OCT 4Never Say Die Bfindsided; Health (Again); Club Talks W2NSD/1 NOV4Never Say Die Director Duty; Dr. Doom; Tolja W2NSDI 1 DEC 4

EducationEimers Applaud Ham Ambassador Program Progress! WB6NOA MAR 55Weather Sat Tracking is Awesome! Real science for a-tz-vear-orcs VK2BXX FEB 10

Emergency PreparationsAn Ounce Of Upgrade your "radio Insurance ." K7SUB MAY 38One Repeater to Go. Please! Another emergency tip. KE8YN/CJ MAR 27On the Go Power tor Emergency Operations KE8YN/CJ JAN 53On the Go To Change and To Serve KE8YN/CJ FEB 50On the Go A Wake-up Call KE8YNICJ APR 51On the Go Power Station 2 KE8YNICJ MAY 48On the Go Top Secret KE8YN/CJ JUN 39On the Go Selting Up a Temporary HF Sta tion KE8YNICJ SEP 57On the Go Dear Santa KE8YNf7 DEC 43

GadgetsHam Window Dressing Car frequency display Rynone APR ' 0Shack Switch tor Foot Fetishists The ultimate toot switch WA20 KZ DEC 27

General InterestMca uosvme. CO...M Are you in one of these OSOs? K6KSR SEP34Does Your Junk Box Runneth Over? Get organized! W6WTU APR1 9Hamtest Success Formula Make sure your hamtest is a success. K9TRG DEC 36Inkjet OS Ls the Easy Way Basic techniques for basic cards. KE8YNlCJ FEB 38Inside Today's Kit Biz Interview with Marshall Emm N1FN KF6FJU OCT 23Mt. Wi lson Travelogue Private tou r of a famous observato ry W6WTU APR 38On the Go Ba lancing Act KE8YNf7 OCT 44aSL Archiving Made Easy Disp lay those ca rds. NL7ZW OCT 53Snakebit! A ham radio tale. WD9APU MAR 36Tesla's Champions Increasing recognition for Tesla W8AHB JUL 24The 21st-Century Scrounger Save money on electronic parts . N8PTG JUL 32The ABCs of IRCs All about International Reply coupons G3SWH JAN 27The Hamlest from Hell Are you in this story? K2SDD AUG 40The Saga of Arch ie and Tlllie Otherwise known as Elmer. AA2JZ FEB 35The Write Stuff A work-at-home scheme ... AA2JZ AUG 4 1Too Many Projects to Build How to reach a nirvan ic state. AA2JZ JUL 55Travels with Henryk - Part 2 Poland SMCJJ HF JAN 22Trave ls with Henryk - Part 3 East meets West in the north. SMCJJ HF MAR 24What Amateur Radio Means to Me Do you feel the same way? KD51 DU JUL 37What's in a Name? Atlanticon badge AA2JZ OCT 33Your Own Owner's Manual Record your projects! AA2JZ FEB 56

HistoryTesla: Inventor of Radio and Modern-Day AC (Marcon i and Ed ison notwithstanding.) W8AHB APR 31Techniques Tlme Line Evolution of construction practices W6WTU JUN 52Twisted Tale: The Dial Fi le Ever wonder how dials evolved? W6WTU AUG 23Vacuum Tubes: Romance and Real ity A (mostly) glowing tale. W8QYR AUG ' 6

Mob ile I PortableOne Repeate r to Go. Please! Another emergency tip. KE8YN/0 MAR 27

New Products (by manufacturer)Alan Broadband Co., Inc . Zap Checker Staff JUN 48Alinco DJ-S40T Pocket-size UHF Transceiver Staff APR48Alinco New twinband mobil e transceive r Siaft DEC 48AOR USA AR-ONE monitoring rece iver Staff NOV48AOR USA TV-5000 Video Converter Staff DEC 48


Black Forest Products, lne. Test Equip. for Radio & Elect. Tech. 12EO FEB48Oatak Experimenter's Kil #80-1 401 Staff DEC 4SFisher Space Pens Staff FEB 48Gordon West Extra Class Prep Mate rials Staff NOV 48Morse Express 2002 C hristmas Key Sta ff NOV 48Scienlif ics Remote Thermo Weather Station Staff FEB 48

Power Suppl iesAutomotive Battery Voltage Monitor Simple to build. KC5MFY NOV 20Saving the Fleet Of batteries. that is. Buchmann OCT 36Switched Mode Pow er Supplies Using batteries? Build one of these. W2GOMn MAR 10

PreparednessOn the Go The Physical OSY KE8YNn NOV 47

QRPO RP Ten-Tec's Century 22 WB8VGE FEB44ORP Ins ide the HW -7 WB8VG E MAR 44O RP Dayto n Highlights WB8VGE NOV 53

Radio Direc tion Finding, Fox Hunt sHoming In ARDF Championships, Part 2 KOOV JAN 47Homing In Helping Your Community With RDF KOOV FE B 45Homing In T-Hu nting Fu n in the Sunshine State KOOV MAR 51Homing In USA's Foxhunters Take On the World KOOV APR 52Homing In Take the Hamfesl Foxhunt Challenge KOOV MAY 53Homing In X-miner Hunting as a Public Service KOOV JUN 44Homing In What' s New in Transmitter Hunting? KOOV SEP 53Homing In Foxhunting is a "Novel" Idea KOOV O CT 50Homing In Radio Camp to World Championships KOOV NOV 44Homing In ARDF W orld Championships - Part 2 KOOV DEC 52

RepeatersBuild a 1.2 G Hz FM Repeater A complete system from scratch . NY90 JAN 10Mobile Ham Repeater Isn't it time your club had one? W6WTU OCT 14

ReprintsLetter From the Other Side From The Hertzian Herald K8JWR OCT 35Read A ll About It ! Part 11 - from The Hertzian Herafd K8JWR AUG 39Read A ll About It ! Part 13 - from The Hertzian Herafd K8JWR DEC 58Read A ll About It! Part 12 - from The Hertzian Herald K8JW A NOV 37SOS .. . SOS .. . Titanic! Oct. 1997 73 Amateur Radio Today Garcia APR1 4The History of Ham Radio Pa rt 13 - Birth of the W ouff Hong W 9CI, SK OCT 38The Histo ry of Ham Radio Part 14 - Hoove r era ends W9CI, SK NOV 39Underst anding the CWTHA Microwave & Optica f Tech. Letters Hansen MAR 31

Rest o rationsGoing Over a Gonsel G-77 A transmitter from the old days. W6WTU NOV 33lOPs to Think About l oca l operating positions W1 ROn FEB 31New Lite for a Pie rson KE-93 Part 1 of 3 W6WTU FEB 24New Llte fo r a Pierson KE-93 Part 2 of 3 W6WTU MAR1 9New Ufe fo r a Pierson KE-93 Part 3 of 3 W6WTU APR 22Restoring an HO-140-X Part 1 (Hammarlund rig) W6W TU MAY 29Restoring an HO· 140-X Part 2 W6WTU JUN 27

Review s (by man ufactu rer)Creative Services Software T he CSS Safetenna (ORP) KE8YN/O MAR 45LED-Ute Company G reat Gift Idea! WB6NOA JUL 38MFJ 1899T Portable Antenna K7UGO MAR 33Peet Brothers Uttimete r 2000 weather station KE8YN/O JAN 35

Rev iew s (by product)1899 T Portable Antenna MFJ's 1899T Portable Antenna K7UGO MAR 334-lED pocket light system Great G ift Idea ! WB6NOA JUL38Satetenna O R? - The CSS Sate tenna KE8YNJO MAR47Ultimete r 2000 Weather Station The Peel Bros. Ul timeter 2000 KE8YN/O JAN 35

Satellite Operation, EME, SpaceHamsals Annual Meeting W5ACM JAN 44Hamsals Winte r Potpourri W5ACM MAR 42Hamsats MAROC·TUBSAT W 5AC M APR 44

73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003 33

Hamsats More ARISS W5ACM MAY 46

Hamsats AMSAT Field Day 2002 W5ACM JUN 40

Hamsats Field Day 2002 W5ACM SEP 48Hamsats AMSAT Meeting Announced W5ACM OCT 45Hamsats In Pursuit of Mode A W5ACM DEC 44

Test EquipmentAll-Star Expanded-Scale AC Voltmeter Monitor your line voltage. K8Z0A JAN 15Commercial-Quality Function Generator How about this addition to the bench? K81HO DEC 10IF Test Box A real "can"-do project. AA2JZ OCT 10Inside a Lampkin More secrets of deviant behavior W6WTU SEP 26Relative RF Power Meter Add this to your shack's arsenal! KC5MFY MAY 34Solid State Junk Box Thermometers Everybody needs one of these. K4VYU6 NOV 30Unmasking the Long Ranger dBm meter range extender N2DCH MAY 18

TravelClose Encounters of the 5R Kind Madagascar G3SWH OCT 27FAIRS in Dominica A beautiful tropical island ... KK4WW SEP 38The Call of the Maldives 8Q7WH. that is .. . G3SWH APR 25Travels with Henryk - Part 4 All ashore at Malta. SMOJHF MAY 24Travels with Henryk - Part 5 The niceties of Norway SMOJHF JUN 31Travels with Henryk - Part 6 Portuguese hospitality at its best. SMOJHF JUL 35Travels with Henryk - Part 7 Hams in the Aland Islands OH0 SMOJHF AUG 36Travels with Henryk - Part 9 Havana SMOJHF NOV 22

TutorialsHow I Build "Moditied Ugly" "Maul-style" construction? AA2JZ MAY 14No Place Like Ohm A little refresher ... W2GOMf7 NOV28Roll Your Own RF Transformers But don't get TOO wound up in it. K8Z0A JUN 12Shedding Some Light on Dimmers Put one of these triacs to use. W2GOMf7 DEC 22The ABCs of lRCs All about International Reply Coupons G3SWH JAN 27This Thing Called Wire-Wrap Wire-wrapping is still valuable to know. K81HO AUG 32VTVMs and FETVMs Theory and practice. W2GOMf7 JAN 24

UpdatesMobile Ham Repeater, Oct. 14 Correction in ORX - Oops Oops Staff DEC 6

VHFIUHFAbove & Beyond Microwave Op Tricks of the Trade WB61GP MAY 50Above & Beyond Oualicomm 2.x GHz-1 0 GHz Multiplier WB61GP JUN 42Above & Beyond Converting Surplus: Coaxial Relays WB61GP SEP 42Above & Beyond Coaxial Test Devices WB61GP OCT 47Above & Beyond 1296 MHz Omni Slot Antenna WB61GP NOV 41Above & Beyond Microwave Frequency Meters WB61GP DEC40

NEUER SRY DIEConlinuedJrom page 4

What about the ARRL, you ask ? Theonly belief I have in the League is thatsorneonc should wake up the gang sleeping at HQ and te ll the m to get their assin gear and start promoting the hobbybefore it d ies. Maybe you can energizeyour local director 10 do more than rubber stamp what the HQ gang asks for atthe next board meeting.

Have you even a remote clue abouthow much the number of licensed amateurs has grow n in the last five years?Make a guess? Wrong ! It was 0.5%, Compare that 10 the 19-46- 1963 17-ycars o fII% per year growth - a five- yeargrowth o f 168%-.

You know what I'd like to sec? TheARRL d o a survey o f toda y's hamactivi ty on the ban ds . The y co uld ge tvolunteers .. . ret ired hams ... to do signal


counts on our HF bands once an hour 2-4nfor a co uple o f months. Maybe fromWashington. Southern California, Texas,Maine . and Florida . I'll bet thcy'H lindthat there are a lot less than 100,000 active U.S . hams on the HF bands. I'd like10 be wrong, but never in my (H. years onthe bands have I heard them so empty.

I' m going to keep hacki ng away at thepublic ' s belief in doctors. hospitals. andprescription drugs, using common senseand damned good research as myweapon . I'Illcave it to you to either ac tivate the League HQ gang or see ourhobby blow away thro ugh your neglect.Every time you renew your ARRL me mbership you are making sure that HQdoes nothing. That' s the only vote youhave.

Jet Lag

Pretty soon you' ll be seeing jet lag

prevention g lasses in the gadget catalogs. They' H have blue LEOs bui lt in,powered by a 9V battery in your pocket.You wear them fo r three hours a day fortwo days befo re your trip and threehours during the trip. No jet lag .

I keep such weird hours at home thaimy body is never sure when to give mejet lag on trips to Europe or Asia. Athome I go to hed when I get tired .whet her it's 7 p.m. or 2 a.m . I s leep unt ilI wake up, and take an hour nap duringthe da y if I get tired . Works for me.

Health Notes

A dai ly banana helps ward o ff strokes.It ' s the potassium. Ora nges he lp. too.Hmm. I eat a coup le bananas a nd anorange for breakfast every day.

Optimists arc healthier and live longer,accordi ng to a Mayo Cl inic study.

ConLln ued on page 41

Henryk Kotowski SM0JHFSibeliusgAngen 28, XISE·l64 77 KistaSweden

Travels with Henryk Part 9The D omin ican Republic, where the main mode is merengue.

The Dominican Republic (DR) is centratly located in the Caribbcen Se,1, sharing the islandof Hispaniola with Haiti. Only recently, the DR became economicalIy accessible from mypart of the world, so one cold and dark December morning I jumped 0 11 the bandwagonand took a 12-hour nonstop flight from Stockhol m, Sweden, to Puerto Plata, DR.

Puerto Plata is a medium-sizetown on the north coast. not faraway from the place where Co

lumbus landed in 1492. This place.Cabo lsabela. was the fi rst target of mytrial ride in a rental car. B)' the way.renting a car is inexpensive. but Scandinavian tourists are ad vised to avoid itbecause the majority of native drivershave no license. Yet. during my twoweeks there J did not witness any roadaccident - which indicates that onedoes not have to hold a license to he analert driver. It might be true in case of

ham radio operators. too , but all theHI hams I met proudly display theiramateur radio tickets.

Driving had to Puerto Plata fromCabo Isabella. J SUddenly saw a largeshortwave yagi in the distance on theleft side of the road and instinctivelydrove in that direction. It was RafaelHI3RF 's impressive antenna. Rafaelspent 20 yea rs as the mayor of PuertoPlata. Now retired. will he devotemore time to his on-air activity?(Photo A.)

He helped me to locate other hams

in this area and made a few calls. bothon 2m FM and telephone. WithoutRafael's help I wou ld never have foundCosmo H13CVV. who is very active onthe hands. including 11m CB. Cosmolives in a neglected suburb called SanMarcos, hut his home is very neat andhe works at Tcle ferico - a cablewayrunning 10 the mountain ridge justsouth of Puerto Plata. Cosmo hashelped visiting hams to opera te radiofrom the top. His son, named Cosmo


•

r

rkotoA. Raf ael IIIJRF at his station in Puerto Plata.Pholo R. Cosmo IIU CW and his SOli Cosmo. Jr. , in tke radiocoma. Puerto Plata.

73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 35

He had lived in Florida for some yearsand is fluent in Engli sh. His Web pageis a t lwww.qsl.nct/hi .Inr/] .

One day we drove to Santiagothrough the picturesque Cordi lleraSeptentrional. Santiago is the secondlargest city of the DR and the center oftobacco industry and is well representedon amateur radio bands. O ne person.Constantino HI3CCP, is responsiblefor a large amount (I f thi s activity(Photos C and D). He patronizes a fewrepea ters around Santiago, supportsthe local clu b. is often un the air himself, and collects vintage radios. I wasstunned by his collection of Americanmade receivers and transmitters fromthe ' 50s and ' 60s. I could only look attheir pict ures and dream about themfrom the time when I was a newcomerham in Poland in the early ' 60s.Funny. at that time you cou ld countacti ve Dominican hams on the fingers of o ne hand, and possession of aradio receiver was forbidden here.

Other acti ve hams in Santiago Imanaged to visit were Chuchu HI3JJS(Photos E and F) and Romeo HI3BRR(Photo G ), and the local radio clubH13JR. where . in spite of Christmasseason, a few members turned up(Photo H). A heated discussion tookplace here, concerning the use of our2m band by the Civil Defense . It isquite common in countries with low

found the street he had mentioned hutcould not see any amate ur radioantenna. The street was deserted hut acar pu lled over just a fcw steps fromwhere I was standing. Scanning forany aerial, 1 asked the driver if heknew any radioaficicnado in this area."I am." he answered. " M y callsign isH13NR." That was Edwin. who hadcome to visit his paren ts' home. The 3element HF beam was waiting in thcbac kyard to he relocated to Edwin 'snew house. Edwin ac ted as my liaisonwith local hams for the next few days.

Travels with Henryk - Part 9conrinuedJrom page 3 5

Jr., is a bright student of computer science but is not interested in radio.(Photo D.)

Another day, passing through awealthy precinct of Puerto Plata, 1 remembered another him of Rafael's. I

Photo C. Constantino lJl3CCP sitrillg at one ofhis modem rigs, Edwin 11l3NR behind him,

I'/wtn D, H13CCP :5lllltemlQ. Photo E. Chuchu H13JJS at the rig. Edwin 1f13NR standing.


- I

SAVE 47%!on 12 months of 73

Only $24.97Call 800-274-7373

t,

and humid here, peop le arc friendly,and the merengue music is addictive .

I'll be back here, and will bring myradio next lime. fa

Pho to I. Jose 1113JBV, "£1Arabe, " in theto" '11 of Imbert. between Puerto Plata andSantiago.

I

I'hoto (;. Romeo I1I3BRR at the microphone. Edwin HJ3NR behind him.

de las Tclccomunicaciones in San toDomingo , A visitor 's license is easyto obtain: howe ver. power outagesare common, so better hotels havetheir own gene rato rs. And a lot ofpeople who can afford it have inverters supplyi ng 11 0 VAC fro m 12 Vbancries installed at home. Every hamI visited has a set of 12 V batteri es asbackup.

To a touri st. the country offe rs long.sandy beaches. caves and mountains,excellent fruit and fi sh, fi rst-class to

bacco. and delicious rum. It's warm

Photo F: HI3JJS 's a llfelillO.

amateur radio populations to find thatcheap and easi ly avai lab le 2m FM radios arc used by non-amateurs. buthere the hams are numerous. Goingback from Santiago through the townof Imbert. I stopped by to visit JoseHI3JRV, alias "EIArabc" (Photo I) onthe I Im CR bands,

The licensing authority is, after rcstructuring, the Instinno Dominicano

Plroto H. Radio Club of Santiago 1I/3JR. From left: I1I3AP, 1I/3A\V, HI3CCP. 1113F1.HI3NR,


Eric Falkof Kl NUN2 Hickory Hill Rd.Wayland MA 01778

2m FM Ham History 101It 's time yOIl got YOllr degree.

To know where we are going, it helps to know where we have been.

Here are three " lec tures" thattel l us a bit about our hamheritage. as well as give the

origin of some or the conventions wemay tend to overlook. ignore. or forget.

'\'b)' do we announce we are leavingthe frequency?

Were you ever listening to the dead.empty repeater output freque ncy, whenall of a sudden someone said. " W Iblahhlahblah leaving the frequency" or"KB Iyadayada clear"? Did you everwonder why thcy announced theywere no longer liste ning'! Didn' t makemuch se nse. ch? Here 's an ex planationof why that person d id it.

First. it is wro ng to do so in amateurpractice. However. it is proper in differcnt serv ices. but only in a historicalcontext. Unless considered a one-waybroadcast o f general interest to amate urs. it is an anno unce ment that theham is not listeni ng fo r responses norconducting a test. Furthermore, it isim polite to tell e veryone within listen ing range that you are not go ing tolisten to them any longe r!

But why was it OK to do so in different services? In the o ld days. the '50sand '60s. when commercial (business)38 73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003

two-way rad io was in its infancy. therewere few radios and few freque nciesavailable and in use in any geographicarea. Consequently, frequencies wereshared . The oil de livery company usedthe same frequency as taxis, fire departments. fhc automobile travel club'strucks, municipal serv ices. and so on.Since frequenci es were shared. it wasnecessary to listen be fore talking toamid interfering with another serv ice'stransmissions. As frequencies wereshared resources. people were carefulnot to interfere. or else they might beinterfered with themselves. The GoldenRule appl ied.

It was more than a courtesy to announce that a series of transm issio nswas comple te - it was a requ ireme nt.It was necessary to announce that astatio n was going out of service or offthe air so that other listeners wouldknow the frequency was availableagai n and they co uld usc it. A lso. adi spatcher would know a truck. forexamp le, was not go ing to he availablefor a call.

So what does thi s have to do withham radio'! In the early days of hamFM radio . using converted commercia lequipment, the primary uscrs were

hams who we re two-way radio servicepcop le who kne w how to put com mercial gear on ham freq ue ncies.These first adapters brought with themthe practice s they used in commercialse rv ices . Initi ally. "everyone" used146.94 Me - megacycles, now MHz- simplex. Repeaters wcrc yet tocome. This common frequency was ashared resource and it was necessaryto use co urtesy for all the same reasonsthe commerc ial se rv ices d id . Therefore . the hams announced they wereleaving or clearing the freq ue ncy.

And so. some of the next generationof hams copied the pract ice , and thenthe next generatio n. a nd so on and on.In ham radi o , anno unci ng that one isleaving or clearing the frequency is apractice that no longer makes sense.nor is it desi ra ble or needed. But nowyou kn ow why some people do it - itis a borrowed practice from long ago.It is just one vestigial trace of ourhe ritage in the radio arts .

But that accoun ts for some of thesing le-freq uency simplex activity thatcharacterized early FM activity, Thepractice continued eve n when repeateroperation became commonplace . Butrepeaters use two frequencies. Howand why did that eomc to be ?

"l1l do some repeaters s hift up ordown'!

Unti l abo ut the mid -1 9 80 s. Te chnic ian-class hams could on ly usctwo-mete r band frequencies up to1-I-7.<X) MHz. Only General. Advanced.and Extra-class could go above 147.00.So, if a repealer used by the majorityof users with Technic ian-class licensesused a frequency be low 1-1- 7 .00. therepeater could only shift downwardin frequency because the users couldon ly transmit at the lower frequencies;those repeaters with outputs above1-1-7.00 shifted up. (Some hams ca lledthem "exclusive" because those opswo uld not ta lk to Techs! The co nceptof exclusivi ty was disparaged by someand laude d by the rcst .)

After the FCC rules changed. allowing Technicians to usc the whole band.the exclusiv ity was lost and we nowsimply refer to the shift as up or down,positi ve or negative . In fact, we onlyhave to know the repeater 's output frequency to know whether the input isup or down in frequency, and by howmuch. For examp le, if a repeater usesan output of 146.70 (once a popularfrequency for RlTY repeaters). weknow that the input is 1-1-6.10. (1 46.70is below 147J Xl, so the input is lowerin frequency. Further more. it is 601 kHzlower. The same logic applies to re peaters operati ng in the 145 1\-tHlran ge - 145 is below 147.0 M Hz andis. therefore , a downward shift. Thereis no need to indica te the shift o r itsd irec tion unless the repealer docs notfol low convention.

As a historical foot note, thi s was nota lways the case. In an effort to squeezemore repeaters into the avai lable spaceof a given megahertz. there was a planin effect in some areas of the countryto use so-ca lled inte rsti tia l splits . Thismean t that in an area where repeaterswere spaced 30 kHz apart ( 146.64.146.67, 146.70. and so forth) and useda down ward shift. there wo uld heroom to insert repeaters on the inte rmediate frequencies and use an UPWARD shi ft (1 46.655. 146.865. 146.7 15inp uts with 146. 055. 146. 265. and146.11 5 as outputs. respecti vely. andso forth ). Why? Because ham receiverswere not s uffic iently se lec tive to

sepa ra te signa ls as close as 1-1-6.64and 1-1-6 .655. Therefore . the planca lled for the intermedia te frequenciesand in verted split directions. Thankfully. this idea did not gain widespreadacceptance!

why do we have 600-kHz repeutersplits?

In the beginning of ham Ff\.l radioinvolvement in the 19505. the onlyequ ipment avai lable was from manufacturers such as Bendi x (yes. thebrake people ), Aerotron (yes, the samepeople who brought Gonse r to hams).Fede ral Signal (which made railroadequipme nt). and others such as Link,Curphonc. and RCA. You might alsohave heard of Motorola and GeneralElectric . The equipment was commercial and required conve rsion to hamfrequencies. Most radios were wiredonly for single-frequency operation.You migh t get a working radio for free ,but two c rysta ls were required for eachfrequency (transmit and receive ) andthey cost SS to SI5 each. By informalagreement. all two-meier rigs (that is ,converted high-band equipment) cperuted 011 146.94 simplex. There were norepeaters at fi rst. All communication wasstation-to-station. Rigs and antennaswere optimized for that one frequency.

Eve ntua ll y. repeate rs were invented .Actually. they were put into use onham frequenc ies, j ust like they werefor commercial users. Physics and expe ri menta tion showed tha t re peate rreceivers at sites whe re the transmi tterand recei ver were at the same locationsuffered less desensitization if thetransmit and receive frequencies werefar apart . Ham repeaters used variousse parations, but that meant that a tunedantenna or tuned receiver front end hadto be adjusted qu ite differently from thetuned antenna for a transmitter.

What to do to ensure peak performance? Practically, it was discoveredthat a split of 600 kHz was about as farapart as you could separate a transmitter and receiver in frequency to enablea single antenna tuning network towo rk we ll for both functions. Ofcourse. the antenna would he tuned fora midpoint frequency, and that opened abit more of the hand for other repeater

frequencies to be wi thin tuning rangewith minima l compromise .

But it wasn' t always that way! Theconcept of 600 kHz splits was not intuitive . It required repeater owners beconvinced they should conform to thisradical idea. That is, repeater ownersand ope rators had to he convinced thatthe y should spend money to buy morecrysta ls and tunc antennas j ust forconformity to a concept that mean tnothing to them locally. especia llywhe n the repeater was coming in justfi ne. thank you.

Now, aside from the practical iti esof allowing as many repeaters in theavailable frequency allocation. this wasthe tightest freq uency split that wou ldwork . As repeaters' ranges ex tended, itbecame necessary for repeater usersand owners to adopt a wider se t ofprinc ip les. (There were overlappi ngsuper-repeaters everywhere. You coulduse a walkie-ta lkie in downtown Boston and ta lk to hams in Alban y!) Thebig picture became more importantthan local concerns and needs. A national norm was needed. deve loped.and adopted . Tha i norm was 600 kH I. .

True history ... a pra ctical exampleof local cooperation

In New England in the early 1970 :-. ,we had three major repeaters, each ofwhich gave li ne coverage tha t overlapped in Boston and its northweste rnsuburbs. The ConconJ, NH. repeaterhad an ou tput on 146.94 and an inputof 146.31 : a 3 1-94 repeater. Waltham.MA. repeate r 's output was 146.64, inpu t 146.34: it was se t on 34-64. (It hadless than a 600 kHz split because itsreceiver and transmitter an tennas weresepara te and far apart.) Mt. Grcylock,in North Ada ms. MA, had an ou tput of1-1.6 .91 . input I46.0..k se t for 04-9L Asyou see. none used 600 kl-lz splits.Each repeater trustee was reluc tant tochange because of thei r expense andthe expense of thei r users to huy newcrvstals.

But reason prevailed. One fateful dayaround 1973. the repeaters rea ligned to600 kliJ. splits . Use rs in each areavoluntarily swapped crystals (some met

Contin ued on page 5 6

73 Amareur Radio tcaey » January 2003 39

Peter Egypt KE6FBOP.O. Box 804Redwood Valley CA 95470

To the RescueA stOJY about 2m and winches - we hope.

This is a little tale about how a car and two tow trucks gal stuck in the mud, and how ittook a search-an d-rescue member to save the day.

Ihadn't been a ham radio operator

for all that long of a time. but I wasmore than happy to have access to

an autopatch - I had no cell phone. Butwho really OCL"'t1s a cell phone when youhave the ability 10 talk on 2 meters '!

This is how it happened

h was a coo l fall eve ning. about fiveo'clock on a Saturday. Dad and I decided it would be a good time to flyour remote control gliders. Becausewe are both barns (dad is KE6FBK).he and I ha ve the privilege of using aspecial band j ust for us licensed radioopera tors. We headed out to the modelaircraft field just south of Ukiah.

As we made our way to the airfield.we monitored one of the 2-mcter repeaters. Not too many people weretalking. but we always liked listeninganyway.

After Dad and I put in a few hours offl ying our gliders. we decided to packup and make our way home.

That's when the trouble began.When I tried to back the car out of themucky place where I had parked, allthe tires would do was spin. Dad got outto check on the situation. He saw somewood next to the road so he decided to40 73 Amateur Radio Today • January 2003

place the wood under the spinningwheels - it was useless. And whatwas the point to keep on trying'?

"Call Mom and tell her we need atow truck ," Dad told me.

I grabbed the mike and dialed in foran autopa tch.

"Juliet is dialing the phone." the repeater said.

The phone rang and mom answered.Thank goodness I didn't gel the answer

ing machine."Morn." I said. "we need a tow

truck. we are stuck in some mud." Ihad little time to say much else beforethe autopatch went dead. Luckily,Mom got all the information weneeded to he saved from that muck.The tow truck was on its way.

I walked down to the end of themuddy road. A few minutes later thetow truck arrived. I Flagged him down.jumped into his truck. and we startedon the way back to my car.

"00 you have four-wheel drive onthis thing?" I asked the young man.

"No. are you kidding?" he answered.I had a bad feeling about this . ..Then a somewhat fu nny thing hap-

pened - the tow truck got stuck in themud. The tow truck driver went right

when he should have gone left. Histires were spinning. but nothing elsewas happening. He got out of his truckand tied his winch to a nearby tree .He turned the winch on and pulledhis truck off to the side of the road.Obviou sly. his situation was madeworse.

"Say again'!" the dispatcher said ."Yeah. that's ri ght! I need another

tow truck becau se I am now stuck.too," the driver said.

I guess I should have warred the driverof that tow truck . but he is supposed tobe a pro.

At about that time. our friend BlairMitchell K6CPY called my dad on thetwo-meter repeater.

"What's going on. AI'!" K6CPYasked.

" Well. Blair. we got stuck in the mudout here at the airfield. The tow truckgot stuck. too. so they are sendinganother tow truck ."

A search-and-rescue worker wasmonitoring the same repeater. Hecalled out to my dad. "Do you needsome help? I have a heavy-duty truckand can pull you out."

"Thanks!" Dad said.


[RLENDRR EUENTS

Listings are free ofcharge as space permits. Please send us your Calendar Event nVD months inadvance of the issue you want it to appear in . For example. if you want it to appear in theApril issue. we should receive it by january 3 1. Provide a clear. concise summar y of the es -sen tie l details about your Calender Event. - -

JAN 11

GREENWOOD, SC The Greenwood ARS2003 Hamfesl will be held at Greenwood CivicCenter, January 11th, 2003. Contact W4JAK,Pres ident , GARS, 106 Dorchester Dr. ,Greenwood se29646, for further information.

JAN 25

LOCKPORT, NY Th e l ockport ARA Inc. willhost a HamfestlAuclion on saturday, January25th, at the South l ockport Firehall, TransitRd. (AT. 78), corn er of Ruhlman Rd. inLockport NY. Talk-in on 146.820 PL 107.2.Setup for vendors is at 6 a.m. The hamfest isopen to the public at 7 a.m.; auction starts at11 a.m. Admission $5. 8 ft. tables 55 each.Refreshments avai lab le. Con tact DuaneRobinson W2DLR, p.o. Box 142, RansomvilleNY 141 3 1. Phone 716-79 1-4096; E-mail{[email protected]}. Please visit theWeb site at [httpJl1ara.hamgate.net).

JAN 26

NEW PHILADELPHIA, OH The Tusco ARCHamfest will be held at New Towne Mall, 400Mill Ave. SE, New Philadelphia OH, Sunday,

NEUER SRY DIEcolll in ued Jrom page 3 4

People who don' t get enough sleephave double the heart attack risk . A ngryand depressed people are also morelikely to have heart attacks.

Super germs have escaped ! T he widespread overu se of anti biot ics has resulted i n the breeding of drug-resistantgerms. These arc no w escaping fromhospitals on the clothes o f pat ients,workers, and vi si tors. Genus used 10quickly d ie after exposure to the outsideworld, but the new resistant germs areable to stay al ive, even for months, waiti ngfor a new host to attack .

T here's much to he said for keepingyour imm une sy stem at industrialstrength, plus a supply of silver colloidon hand. Just i n casco

The Staph of Death

D 'ja see the five-page article in Fortune

January 26th, Sa.m. 10 2:30 p.m. Setup is at6 a.m.Admission is a $4 donation at the door,dealers admitted at no charge. Tables $1 1each. Food will be available on site andstarti ng at7 a.m. at the restaurant next door.Directions : Exit S1 off 1-77 to SR 250 East toSR 416 Exit. At end of ramp, turn left at light(under SR 250 bridge), then turn right at thefirst fight. New Towne Mall is on the left. Talkin on 146.730(·) . Free parking available atthe mall. Dealers welcome. ARRLIVECsponsored exam s by appointmen t. Foradditional info and to reserve tables, contactGary Green KB8WFN, 32210 Norris Rd.,Tippecanoe OH 44699. Phone 740-9224454: or E· mai l [ kb8 wfn@ tusco. netj.Reservations must be paid in advance andreceived by January 20th to insure the returnof reservation confirmation. Remember toenclose an SASE. Make checks payable toTusco Amateur Radio Club.

ST. CHARLES, IL The Wheaton CommunityRadio Amateurs' Midwinter Hamtest will beheld at Kane County Fairgrounds, 525 S.Randall Ad.. 51. Charles IL, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.on January 26th. Talk-in on 145.390. Heatedindoor flea market tables and commercialbooths. Free parking. Hourly prize drawings

on the latest Staphylococcus mutation?Infections by this m utant staph are no wroutine in hospi tal s. This is a nightmarethat doctors have been dread i ng (andexpecting ) for years.

Several years ago I reviewed the wonderfully documented 750-page book byEileen Garrett. The Coming Plague.

A ccording to the CDC, of the (en m i l l ion patients who entered hospitals in1999, two million caught bacterial or vi ral infect ions, and over 9OJXlO died o fthem . This makes hospital infections thenumber 5 killer in the U .S.

The research looking for a cure forstaph is being done by the pharmaceutical companies. A re they check ing outsilver co lloid? Of course not. T hat's notan option since it can' t he patented andso ld i n $20 a day doses.

I n the meanwhile, perhaps you'd dowell to do everything in your power tostay the hel l out of ho spitals . . . w here, ifthe staph of death doesn' t get you, a

with a grand prize of $500. VE exams. Tickets56 in advance with four door prize stubs, sa atthe door with one door prize stub. ContactWCRA, Po. Box OSLo Wheaton IL 60189. E·mail [[email protected]}, or phone630·604-0157. vlstt [h ttp:// www.wheatonhamfes/.org).

FEB 9

MANSFIELD, OH The Mansfield Mid"WinterHamfesl/Computer Show will be held Sunday,February 9th , at the Richland Coun lyFairgrounds, Mansfield OH. Plenty of prizesand an over 400-table flea market in threelarge modem heated buildings. Doors open tothe public at 6 :30 a.m. TICkets $5 in advanceand $6 at the door. Tables $12. Talk-in on146.34/.94 W8WE. Advanceticketltableordersmust be received and paid by February 1st,send SASE 10 Dean Wrasse KB9MG. 1094Seal Rd., Mansfield OH 44905; or call 41g.522-9893 and leave a message for a returncal l. Info is also availab le al [www.MASER.org}. There will be a l eague Nighlbanquet the night before the hamfesl. Moreinfo on the banquet will be available on theWeb slte, or call Bill Marlin N8TO al 419-5264661 . Fa

surgeon's oops, prcscn puon error. orsome other hospital -gained infectionmay. The Archives of Internal Medicinepublished a study in September trackingdrug use in 36 hospi tals and nursi nghomes in Colorado and Georgia. The report showed that in the average 300-patient institution an error was involved inone out of five cases. Seven percent ofthe errors were "really, really bad:'That's more than -1-0 really bad errors perday.

Russia Today

What' s happened (0 the " other" superpower? Today Russia has a GOP smallerthan California's. I ts hi rthrates and adultli fe expectancy arc declining, so m uchso thai by 2050 i t could have fewerpeople than Iran.

Maybe you' ve noticed thai whi le a 101of

Confinued on page 58


THE DIGITRL PORTJack Heller KB7NO

P.O. Box 1792c arson City NV 89702

{hnp:Jlkbzno.bon e .att.net]New home of The Chart

Vive la France!

Do you suppose if the French call build the highly successf ul Concorde SST airplane. would itbe safe ro bet one of those folks could write a good PSK31 program? Well, one of them did andhas not sa id much abolll it . So here it is for you to observe an d enjoy.

ThiS is another program written utilizing the AE4JY PSK engine. with the

autho r's (F6GQK) own innovations andpre ferences built-in. I must say. rig ht to hegin, this is an intuitive program to use thatwiII not disappoint the casual user, and themore you usc it the more you find it mayjust cover yo ur needs - plus. of course. theprice is right: free!

J happened on this software at Dave's(G3VI-l» Web site as I was searching forsomething new for your reviewing pleasure.There are several pieces o f software thathaven 't gotten a lot of play in this column

du e 10 confl ic ts with some of the installedTSR programs. Those are good pieces ofwork hut I like to work with stulT that down loads, inst alls, and plays which is exactly

wha t DXPSK does. My favorite kind ofprog ram to talk abo u t.

Funny I sho uld say that , as I think abo ut

it. because o n the very first contact with thisprogram someone was asking for help with

MixW 2 mer the air. So I ne ve r got to tellwhat fun I was ha ving with this software.(Funny to me. you had to be there.)

Back to the setup. It is simple enough.

You notice something righ t away. There areno pull-down menus across the top of thed isplay. Instead. the re is a row of icons o nthe left side with "T ool-tips" that te ll yo uwhat the icon stands fo r whe n you to uchit with yo ur c ursor. One of those say!'>"Ge ne ra l setup" when yo u touch it.

Naturally. there is a box where you caninsert your callsi gn and choices for yo urPIT port and pin alo ng with a few otheravailable choices you can make at the timeor get back to later. Three or fou r c ho icesand yo u are in business.

The next thi ng I no ticed was that therewas no activity in the wa terfa ll. The rig wason and the cahles in place, so be fore checking


for something broken, I checked those icons

again and the uppermost icon suggested"Connect soundcard." I clicked it and thewaterfall began to play. Now we were gettingso me whe re.

Did I neglect to mention that I did notmake the proper effort 10 dow nload andinstall a Help Rle? This software is intuitiveenough that even I can get it go ing without

crutches - okay, up (0 a point anyway.Later; however. I found the Help Fileresidingnicely in the DXPSK fo lder and doub le

clicked it and got the Help displaying j ustfine . Sti ll la ter, 1clicked the Help ico n andit worked just like one wo uld expect. GoofyWindows!

There fo llowed a number of pleasant surprises, F irst, I took the time to write a fewmacros. One mi ght loo k at these and say,"They are a bi t d iffe rent from the ' norm' o r

the way we are used to writing o ur mac ros." bu t as soon as you get into it after cl icking (he "Create/edi t a macro" icon you will

find that this system is also very intui tive.Yo u have the capabili ty of 20 macros. I

quickly wrote seven. o ne of which I d uplicared d ue to being too q uick. and that was

almost the extent o f my preparatio n. I addeda few more that do not show in the screenshot after I detennined there were no hotkeys for transmit and rcccive. A re view ofthe macro commands revealed it was simplee nough to assign macro s 10 perfo rm thosefunctions.

There was one more step, I attempt tohave a log handy that wi ll tell me of previo us QSOs when I enter a call sign. DXPS K

has a very good log system built-in. but it isno t that sophisticated. My quickest solut io nI could think of was to get the Logger database up-to -date and run it with (he DXPSKprogram. It worked as yo u can sec. There

was o ne little hitch. I fo und no way to keep

DXPSK from sneaking into the backgroundwhen I accessed Logger.

Use the Task Bar

Thi s me rely meant I had to cl ick theDXPSK bu tton on the Task Bar to reawakenits panel o n the monitor so I could see whatwas happe ning and control/partici pate in aQSO. Yo u wi ll see the advantage in thescrccnshot. I happened across a familiarcallsign and double -clicked it so it was in

the call ce ll in DXPSK. then e nte red it inthe Logger entry panel which showed thepre vious QSOs in another pane. The re is noconnection between these two program s. hutI like this info available so it is worth thee ffort to me.

One of the neat features yo u will disco verright away is that c hang ing rece ive panes isas intu itive as it gets . When yo u place thecursor o n the waterfall a tool-tip po ps up tore mind yo u that left click is Frequency I(uppe r rece ive pane ) and righ t click is Fre q ue ncy 2 (lo wer pane ). Th e marke r isnumbe red and every thi ng associa ted iscolor-coded . You soon have your brainthinking upper is green and lower is ye llowand you can look to see wha t is that colorand you know what trace . freq uency, report.and text be longs to whome ver,

Plus. when you cl ick with o ne or the o thermouse keys in the waterfall. the Cha nne l Io r Channe l 2 tab is actuated for you so thatall the ligu res apply immed iately, Of co urseyo u can click on ei ther of those tabs to makethe change from o ne Channe l to the otherwith yo ur mouse . Just as good as I couldha ve ordered it.

Yo u will notice more hidden features asyou usc this program. I had already successfully had tWO QSOs when I got 10 tookingduring a lur king session tha t the transmitand recei ve frequ encie s we re way di fferent

as d isplayed. A q uick experiment showedthe transmit freq uency to immediate ly jumpto the receive freq uency when going intotransmit mode.

One o f the minor aggravations whe nworking with a program fo r a short time is

logg ing those test QSOs with penci l and padto he transferred late r. This program has the

answe r in p lace . No pend I needed . T herearc two litt le icons j us t below the Call andNa me boxes. One o f those is 10 delete or

clear the entries in those boxes. T he o therstarts you into a log d ialog whi ch, wh en you

fi ni sh. produces an adequ ate ADI F logwithin the DXPSK folder. You can import

it directly into whatever popular lo g yo u areusing, no co nve rs io ns needed. Just do it.

All-in-all. thi s program is well thoughtOUI. Yo u ca n see that the programmer c ustomized features 10 fit his o wn tastes andthese qualities re su lt ill a package that is

very easy to gel acquainted with. So he careful, in just an ho ur or so you could gethooked 0 11 so me of the unique id eas.

Another specia l application

FiX. 1. DXPSK ill action . Monitoring two signals at alice. YOII may recognize the Loggerpanes to the left. The program.s do 1101 talk to each other. It is simply that invariably,when I tes t a new program. I will cOlllact a call i should recognize and it is hard to explain wh)" I "don't keep records. " The value is obvious as I entered a cal/sign in the logand 3 previous QSOs came lip . The important part is the intuitiveness of DXPSK. Themacros are simple to write. The coior coding of tile 151 and 211d channels make it a mapto tell which: station you are copying. The widTh of the waterfall is adjustable quicklyf rom setup. The icons 0 11 the left are ill lieu ofpull-down menus. When Y OI/ cl ick Oil them,as well as most other places ill the display, "toot-tips " gives you a description of their[unction. A very nice piece of work that includes limitelJ but adequate Jog capabili ties.(See text.) And it is a f ree download.'

While nosing about reccnny, I ran acrossa handy little program thai I d id not know

existed when I wrote the No vember articleo n the early PSK3 JfPSKGNR softwarecombo. I mentioned that PSKGNR wo uld

wri te a log file. hUI there was no other lo gfac ili ty a vai lable. I was nOI quite correct .

T here is a program named PSKlog. by

C ris ti Y0 3FFF, that is meant 10 fi ll thaineed. I downloaded it and it is shown running in a c ropped screcnshot (Fig. 2) a longwith the other two progmms. I foun d thatmy co mputer had a conflict of interest withthis little program having to do with o ne o r

more of the TSR programs.However. the program is available and is

likely to work o n your nice "clean" machines that aren't cl uttered with all thesetoys. Jusl wanted 10 lei you know I Slandcorrected on my state men t abo ut log pro grams fo r this setu p. It e xists a nd is lis tedin The Cha rt on the Web. Pl us, you wi llsec it is a serious lo g effort as you re ad

the info on his We b page. Incide ntally, as Ilooked 0 11 Ihe Y03FFF Web site, I found

there were updates available that co uld re lieve my pro b le m s. Onl y hi tch was thedownload didn't work. so it became too late

to e xperiment thi s month.

DXAtias software

ago . Since all the c hanges in the shac k

computer. I had not rein stalled it. Recently

I no ticed some d iscussion on the MixWrefl ector concerni ng a macro 10 brin g it

up fro m with in the Mixw program .

That motivated me 10 reinsta ll thi s cle verpiece of softw are and get it acce pting in

fo rmation from the Mixw 2.06 program.

which it does exceptio nally we ll. It is a lotof fun to usc besides being very usefu l and ,

10 me at least. ed ucational as well. Lo ts ofthings you can discove r about geography

whe n you click a world atlas into fu ll scree nmode fo r a bit. Just fo r a c hallenge. try find

ing the exact opposi te spot on the other side

of the world from where you are slui ng. Itcan be done using this soft ware .

--

One thing I d iscovered a s a little aside as

I attempted to get the macro described in

the somewhat d ated Mixw He lp File 10

work was a minor flaw in the macro lan

guage . Here was another learning moment.

I copied and pasted the mac ro language

from the He lp File to the Mixw macro.closed the mac ro edit screen and clicked

o n it. It d id no t work . A fte r a qui ck loo k,r rea lized there is so me ve rsio n o f the

Windo ws operating system. in use. r assumein other parts of the world that doc s not have

a fo lder named " Program Files" but rather"Programmer...

The described macro contained Program

mer in the path to o pen the fil e s and allthat was nec essary was to c ha nge that to

-

,==,==,aI T" ", I

aT"

Another area o f inte re st for so me o f yo uis a program ca lled DXA lla s. T his ha sbeen available for so me time and has bee nupgraded since I reviewed it a year or so

Fig. 1. This is the log software from Cristi r03FFf: that works with the PSKGNR software mentioned in the November column. I mistakenlv mentioned there "'CIS no log [unction included. bill here it is. It appears LO be an ambitious effort to develop a comprebensil'e log program. See text and Web sire.

73Amateur Radio toaev » January 2003 43

,~--------------------------------

Fig. 3. DXAtlas is tfi.~playillg my QTII ill Nevada and a station inMontserrat with data supplied by M i.dV. I usua lly like to use therectal/gular display when I go to full screen just because it see" /!>traditional. Works either \l'ay. The longitude and latitude figuresare displayed ifI the paniatty hidden MitW2DXAtlas pane at thelower right. Ifmy CD Ra\'e those figures for the other station theywould a/so be shown. See text for a macro fix needed to bring upskis program from within MixlY. A lIew twist f or me. The DXAlIasis a fine shareware program »·;tll manv features and »·iII rU1lstow/alone. There an.' upgrades available 0 11 the Web site listed inThe Chan.

ProgramFiles and Presto . the macro workedline . So, for my Engtlsh-as-a-fl rst-languegcWindows-using friends. (here is another oneo f those bits o f trivia tha t will he lp youthrough life . Someone will probably sendme a no te on this and I will learn where" Programmer" is the noon as a Windowsoperating system folder.

For those who are wo ndering where to

get info for do wnloading the little program

attempts to get tha t system up and running,I usually get a few notes o f enco urageme nt.

So. briefly, the fi rst news item co nce rnedthe anno uncement o f an o perating systemthat wou ld allow the use of both Wi ndowssoftware and Linux applicatio ns. "Hmrn? "says I, "I will chec k into that." I looked

bri e fly and it was, as of some months ago.an underde velopment process that a llowedus to partic ipate with the authors for arounda $100 investment. The name of the systemis Lindows. I d idn't feci the need to con

tribute . so the idea was re legated to thebottom of the think tank pile he re .

The seco nd. more recen t, ne ws item

concerned a seeming ly st range mentiono f a com puter for sale from w al-Mart. o fall p lac e s . fo r $200 with Lindow s insta lled . T hat got m y attention. It was o n lyavailable fro m the retailer via their o n- line

storefron t.At this time. I have it on order. The pro

d ucer of this eq uipme nt has a brand nameof Mlcrotcl. I we nt to their Web site wherethey describe several co mp uters bu t refer

you to \Va l-M art o n- line fo r speci fics.Strange indeed. but they admit to an existence, which is a bit more substantial thansome bad-porch co mputer assemblers Iha w dealt with in years past.

One thing in the computer's favor is that

it ha s e no ugh processor speed (800 MHz)to hand le whate ver shou ld be necessary. Onthe downside , the motherboard seems a bitdefici ent in a vailable slots ( I ). But what canI ask fo r at such a price?

We sl13 11sec what co mes o f this adventure . By the time yo u read thi s, I wi ll ei+ther ha ve gotte n this up and runn ing and

doing se m i-g rea t thi ngs wi th it o r willhave learned a nother lesson . In a ny event.there will be a page o n the Web in TheChari concerning my find ings, good o rbad . It is o ne o f those peculiar things tome that so Ii ttlc has come to m y attentiono n th is matte r o the r than through a fewrela tive ly obsc ure ne ws item s.

One last thought and then I will be donefo r the month. I have not iced an appare ntdecline in the usc of eQSL.ec cards of laic .I wo nde r if it is the same with othe rs. The

site is a bit intimidating at fi rst , but even Ieventually figured it out. It seems most hamsare sending hard copy cards these days . Ido n' t care eithe r way. It j ust looks like a

tre nd is ebbing away. It is especially nice toexcha nge Q5Ls with fo reign stations.

So much for what is happening lately. Itis fun to hear from you and know ho w invo lved you arc in these strange modes. Keepup the good work . 73 for now. Jack KB7NO- [KB7NO @att.net]. fa

New antennathoughts

( M ixW2 DX At las)

a nd related items.go to the Mix W

home page . clicko n " A dd e nd um "a nd f o ll o w t he

path, " Ex port ing tomap p rog ram s ."D X A t ia s is astandalone programthat dues not have tohe run with MixW.

The refore yo u candow nload it fromthe URL li s ted inThe Chari o n my

Web site.

1<2 ,."

1- -

In the past several mo nths I have runacross a fe w news items that may be of interest to more than j ust myself. I kno w thereare readers o f this column who are verykno wledgeable concerni ng Linux because

when I mention my inadequacies concerning

News item revelations

I ha ve had IwOon-air disc uss ionswith Jack W0KPHin Co lorado. concerning a novel lim

ited-space antennade sign project thaiap pears to workve ry well . Fro mwhat I C3n see, thisis not an enti re lynew concept I haveseen antenna designtheory thai buck s up

what is bei ng donehere, but this is theonly extensi ve effort

I ha ve see n where the theory is implementedinto a wo rking mode l that is pro ving 10

be a viab le an swer to many hams ' d ilemma caused by the restrictions imposedon antennas in urban U.S. ci tie s.

The design lends itself well to mountingalmost inconspicuous ly o n a backyard deckand when I have worked the owner of thistiny array the signal reports in both directions were in the S9 category. It is worth aloo k and. if yo u are li ke rue . you may hespurred to do a lillie experimenting. Mybrief exposure to this project and the signalreports arc very moti vating . Th is is alsolisted in The Chart on the web.The URL is[http://www.qsl.nctlwOkphl].

'"

CoI»d<Lol

Calbook LI)"lg

71

Where is:

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bttp-JJtb700.hDme en _

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44 73 Ams seur Radio Today • January 2003

ON THE GoMobile, Portable and Emergency Operation

SGC STEALTH Antenna

Steve Nowak KE8YN/7804 Bonanza Trail

Cheyenne WY 82009[ke8yn@attbi,com)

\

One of the ctuillenges in a disaster sit untion may in volve getting an IlF suuton on the airquickly and easily. Tile radio and tile power sup ply are relalively streigtntorward. but theantenna is orren n problem. Enter the SGC STEALTH antenna as a viable answer to this problem.

\

I n the past we ' ve discussed va rious approaches 10 an tennas that can be used for

HF applications, bu t most of these we revariations all antennas designed for fixedope rations and adapted for emergency work.As such. they are less than optimal versionsof a design with reduced operational utility.On the other hand, SGC has designed itsSTEALTIi an tenna specifically 10 he a rapidly deployed, no hassle, easily used antenna.

In one small box arc a11 the pieces neededto erect a loop antenna under virtually anycircumstances. There is the 80-foot wire to

he used for the an tenna itself. nylon ropeswith insulated clips for suspending it andthe antenna tuner. There are abo two manuals - one for the STEALTH configurationand one for the Smurtuncr. The wire andropes are wou nd aro und reusable forms sothat the materials can he eas ily accessed.and after use the entire unit can eas ily bereturned to the same box for storage.

The heart of the STEALTH antenna is theSO-237 Smart uncr, The Smartuner is a selfcontained an tenna tuner that requires onlyfo ur connec tions. There is the PL-259 coaxia l connectio n to the radio. a 12 voltpower supply. and. for the STEALTH configuration. beth ends of the loop antenna.The Smanuncr has been a well-proven antenna cou ple r for long wire antennas, Ingeneral usc. the antenna is connected 10 oneside of the Sma rtuner and a ground to theother, By usi ng loop configuration. theground is replaced by the other end of theante nna wire, Electrically this works well.and from a mechanical standpoint. a loopalso makes sense because a wire in a loopcan be easily supported.

The SG4237 is essentia lly a cus tom-designed microcomputer with a Pi & L tuningsystem. Whenever the system senses forward RF power. the sys tem activates andthe software tunes to the new frequency.

O nce a frequency is tuned. the SO·237stores the solution for that frequency andtries that solution first . Because of this technology. it can tunc a wire antenna from 1.860 MHz and handle up to 100 watts PEP ata 40% duty cycle for most modes . Thiswo uld mean that a maximur- of 40% of thetime wo uld be spent transmit ting . Basically.keying the microphone is the only act ionrequired by the operator. the Smanencr doesthe res t. It is durably moun led in a waterproo f case. and in some confi gurations ismounted by suspending it with the an tenna.Thi s is fine for emergency operations. butfor long-term exposure to the e lements someaddition al protection should be provided.T his can be as simple as a plast ic bucke tmounted over the Sma rtuncr,

As would be the case for emergency operations. I erected the antenna using available


1'''010 A . The sec STEAL TH allfell l1t1 is lightweight and comes illa cardboard case tliat call become till easy addition to your"Grab& Go " l'IlIergency gear.

t 'hoto R. The kit conta ins 80 feet of wire, lIyloll lines with insukued clips, reusable cabte ties. the Smartuner; and manuals. Adda radio and /3.8 volts DC, lind you're 0 11 the air.

73 Amateur Radio toasv » Janua ry 2003 45

HRMSRTSAmateur Radio Via Satellites

The Hunt

Andy MacAllister WSACM14714 Knights Way DriveHouston TX 77083-5640

It was supp osed to be a be.?r hunt in the wilds of New Mexico. In October of 2002 MikeIVASTIvr and I headed for the Pecos Wilderness via Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Bill IVASVQjI wasour host and provided transportation as tsr as wheeled vehicles could go. ~Ve had everythingneeded for hiking and hunting in the mountains, plus a few radios that couldn 't be left behind.

I t' s. a 101cooler at 9.000 fee l in the PecosWilderness than at sea level in Houston.

Texas . Mike and I thought we were readyfor the change to near-freezing temperaturesat night and high a ltitudes , but it was ashock. When it freezes in Houston, youma ke sure that the kids go outside 10 seefrozen things, because it's so rare . Here itlooked more like the norm.

There' s no air above 9.000 feet. OUf fi rstforay into the hill s was jus t after dusk onthe fi rst day..Mike and I were having troublewith anything that even looked like it migh tbe uphill. All of the air is down on the coast .How do people live up here? We doubted ifit was possible. and 10 pro ve it, I pointedout that we hadn't seen anyone since we hadleft a small town many miles earlier. Just tocom plicate matters the tempe ra ture wasdropping rapidly.

After what Bill called a ligh t eve ningwalk , Mike and I were ready fo r heat and

some sleep. Bill's comment abo ut gett ingup at 4:30 a .rn. and heading back up themou nta in to hunt fo r bear was ve to ed.Maybe later, much later.

Our first fu ll day was to he a sco utingtrip on horseback. Unfo rtunately the outfitter with the horses had back ed our (probab ly ran out of air), so Bill suggested wesimply walk to Grass Mountain, He said itwouldn' t take long, and we cou ld have lunchand a great view when we got to the top.Severa l hou rs later Mike and I collapsed onthe summi t of Grass Mountain. Fortunatelywe hadn' t seen any sign of bear. We weren ' tinterested. Find ing air and keeping hydratedwere our only thoughts . My pack seemedtoo heavy, but then again any thing wouldhave seemed heavy at this point.

Backpacking

The fi rst time out backpacking you taketoo much. I learned this a long time ago

whi le hiki ng in the mountain s in northern Iran , I had many pound s of ge ar thatwere no t necessary, and I paid fo r it. Ifyou don ' t need it, don't take it. Wh ile preparing fo r the trip to Ne w Mexico I consulted my oid Boy Scout handbook anda n exce ll e n t Web s ite , [hll p :l/ w w w.backpac klng .nc t]. Between the two lnformati on sources I gathered the ligh testeq ui pment I could fi nd. I had hoped tocarry e nough radios to work severa l sate llite s, hut opted for low weight. I fou ndth at a very simple ye t effe c tive FM-onlysta tion sui table fo r contac ts via UoSATOSCA R· 14 (UO-1 4) with an uplink on145.975 M liz and downlink on 435.070MHz, could be pack ed into a 10.5" x 5"bank money bag . Th ese hags are usuallyfound at ham swapmeets a nd o the r surplu s outle ts . T he y are light . stro ng a ndpro vide enoug h paddi ng to protec t theircontents.

Photo A, Andy W5ACM making satellite contacts from the top ofGrass Mountain ill the Pecos Wilderness,


Photo H, Mike nJ\5nvT and Bill mUVQH head up vet anotherhill.

Plwto C No bears. just paper targets and satellites for this hunt. I'hoto D. A JO,S" .f 5" bank money bag held all of Ihe satellite gear.

Pno E. A complete satellite station fi ts inthe money bag.


The portable station

My com plete portable station we ighs thesame as a typical MRE (Meal Ready-to-Eat)in the bag with c hemica l warmer. about onepound. 10 ounces. I know because MREswere the only food provided by our hostwhile out on the tra il. I don' t like MREsanymore. All of my sate llite gear was. carefully c hosen fo r light weight and usefulness.Compromises were made. but it's the resultsthat co unt. The re we re 11 0 experime nts onthis trip , j ust sturdy, tested gear.

My rad io of choice was an Alinco OJ580T dua l-hand HT. It' s. not the newest.smallest or lightest HT for the job, hut I havemade many satellite contacts with it. Mylongtime familiarity with its simple controls, the live-watt output and full-du plexcapability made it my rig of choice . Alwayspractice at home with the radio you in ten dto take to the field . For power I took myhighest-capacity. higbcst-vohagc batterypack even though it added weight.

Although I prefer the Arrow dual-bandyag i for portable operation, its size. and theinco nvenience of putting it together and taking it apart on the trai I made it a base-camponly accessory. After try ing several long"duck" ar ucnnas. I c hose the Pryme AL-800telescoping whip (S30). When collapsed itmeasures only 9 .5 inc hes. When extendedit has 3.2 d B gain on IW O meters. 5 .6 dB on70 cm. a nd measures an impressi ve 34inc hes . It is also quite rigid. This he lps whenattempting to find the optimum orie ntationduring a satel lite pass.

When working a satellite with a ful l-duplex HT. an earphone is needed to avoidfeedback . When you are constantly adjusting the HT with attached an tenna for bestup and down signa l leve ls. a headset withmicrophone is best. A n effective hUI coste ffec tive c hoice is the MFJ · 29 3 (S25)earbud with boom microphone. The re arc

th ree models. for Kenwood. Icom. andYaesu HTs . I used the Icom ve rsion withmy older Alinco radio. The M FJ·293 is exrrcmely light a nd small. It fi ts anywhere andis surprising ly durable.

While on c ruise ships I track the satellites ..vith a Palm-VII from 3Com. An attached GPS receiver provides my locationa nd simple Palm sate llite tracking softwaredocs the rest. This time I kne w my targetlocation within 10 miles. I plotted om its forthe genera l hunt area (grid DM75et) andprinted them to paper. It's a good idea totest your predictions before head ing ou t.Errors are easy to make when plotting orbits for a site other than home . Incorrectloc at ion data o r a bad time zone c ho ice canmake a printed page of data useless. I useInstamTrac k ($30 for AMSAT mem bers)from AM SAT [hu p://www.amsaLorg] formy orbit pred ictions. and 1carry a good pen10 wri te down QSO info rma tion on thepri nted orb it prediction pages.

Unless you take along a GPS receiver

with integra l compass, carry a standardcompass with your portable station. Wh enno t mov ing . a typical G PS receiver cannottell direction . Knowing you r o rie ntation ishe lpful when follow ing a satelli te eve nthough you will he constantly moving theHT wi th an te nna during a pass .

The fina l addition to my money-bag sta tion w as a Pe tz l Tikka hcad lamp. I hadne ve r seen one before this New Mexicoouting. Bil l WA5VQH uses one fo r nighttime out ings in the woods . Unlike olderunits that usc heavy batteries and incandescent bu lbs. the Tikka has three high-outputwhite LEOs runni ng on three AAA baucrics.The operati ng time is amazing. It will ru nat full brilliance for 12 hou rs. and at limited light o utput fo r up to 150 hours. I washooked. but Bill kept a sharp ey e on hisTikka . I had 10 buy my own from an onlinebac kpac k-supply store for $30. With it inplace at night I could easi ly look at the radio

Confin ued on page 57

ROoUE D BEYONDVHF and Above Operation C.l. Houghton WB61GP

San Diego Microwave Group6345 Badger Lake Ave .

San Diego CA 9211 9[[email protected]}

[WB6IGP@ham-radio .com)

A Simple Optical Test Device forthe Laser/LED Communicator

In June 2000, I published in 73 Magaz ine the first of three articles about an LED communicstorconstructed in two sections of PVC tubing or pipe looking much like a binocular with a r iflescope for poin ting the system.

The basic concept was to make a lightcommunication system different from

other devices for optical communicationsdue to the difficulty in modulating HeNelasers and safety couccms. Kerry N6IZW.my part ner, developed the co nce pt andsystem designs .

Wh at w as envisioned vvas a bigb-output

LED transmitter and photo detector. eachhoused in one section of the a -inch PVCpipe. Rear splice unions (PVC) and end caps

were used 10 house electronics for the sys

tem. Not wishing to re-invent the whee l.existing systems were used so we did notha ve to construct a full recei ver system.What was done was to use a 4046 Ie osci llato r functioning at 35 kHz 0 11 o ne end and45 kH z on the opposite end so as no t to feedhack to its o wn system. The modulation and

RF driver for the LED is a 324 op amp andan electret mic. The rnic can be removed

and a computer sound card o utput can heused as well to provide PS K-3 1 for some

very interesting app licatio ns .In fact. Kerry N61ZW a nd I have ac

complished a 15-mile-path full -duplexo peration f1\.f narro wband communicatio ns

from ML Palo mar to Valley Center. usingthe upgraded Laser o ptical system show nhere. Also tried war.. PSK-31 and compute rgene ra ted QSL cards se nt via slow scan

video. It was an e xciting night demon strat ing the syste ms that Kerry N6l ZW

had envisioned and deve loped.Driving the transmitter, he it o riginally

an LED or. in o ur upgraded ve rs io n. apocket lase r. bo th arc fed from the samemodulator oscil lator at 35 or 45 kH L. The35 kH z transmitter is made to funct ion withthe opposite end recei ver a 35 kH z photo


detecto r. The o pposite e nd transmitter iso n 45 kHz. so there is minimal crossta lkbetween recclve and transmit a t eithe r e nd( 10 kHz separa tion between Rx and Tx).

Now. the sne aky part in Kerry ' s designis to feed the detected receiver (he it 35o r 45 kHL) energy and am pli fy it and drivean SRA mixer 's IF port and feed the LQ

port with a synthesizer 's 145 MH z RF sig

nal source. This converts the 35 o r 45 kHLreceiver photo detector output to the RF port

at 145.35 o r 145.45 MHz. up-converting thereceived signa l forin sertion into a 2-meter

HT for receiving narrowband FM with 5-kHl.deviation. This receive system works unbelievably we ll. hut just remember to nevertransmit on the HT - it is for receive op

e ra tion only. Transmit is the electret mic inthe power supply modulator for the LED!

laser.The system loo ks like two -t-inch PVC

tubes spaced about an inch apart and a rillescope and newly added Laser pen transmit

ter. beefing it up qu ite a hit over the originalLED transmitter system . (When using the

laser we cover up the LED transmitter andits optics with a -i-inch PVC pipe cap to shut

the LED down.) Now comes the problemof dealing with 4 tube-like structures: (I)

the LED transmi tter. ( 2) The receive photodetector. (3) The pocket lase r, and (4) the

rille spott ing scope. Defi ning the problemis like wanting 10 hold fou r penci ls in one

hand and have them all be po inting in thesame direction.

But fir st. to env ision the problem let 'stake the four pencils. or actual de vices wedescribed earlier. and make them a half milelong . or even longer. and keep them all on

the same axis pointing at the same spot at

the remote ta rget. It's obvious that somehelp in calibrating this octopus is needed .

First. it's somewhat easy to point o ne

object at a fur source a nd ce nte r it up torece ive the far transm issions. be it an LEDor a higher intensity pocket laser. orcourse,the furthe r the d istance the harder this pro b

lem gets. and micro positioning is a required

function to make very fi ne adjustments inboth vertical and ho rizontal directions . To

add even more difficul ty to this formula. yo u

need very beefy tripods for rigidity, andeven then they will still ha ve some smallwiggles and nonsolid move ments in them.A lathe table would be excellent -but then

where wou ld yo u park the crane to ha ul it?A tripod. being what it is. wi ll suffice and

allow us to aim o ne si ngle target to alignment. Getting them all to the same spot isthe problem faced here .

One solution is to construct a simple os

cill ator a t the syste m receive frequency(35 kl-lz, fo r example) and mount it into a

tin can to se rve as target to alig n the photodetector and tin can's LED together. Now

add a small automobile reflector in the sametin can to serve as not only transmitting os

cillato r hut also now reflec ting the return

of the lase r spot. The laser spot is muchmore intense tha n the test LED in the tincan and will overri de it whe n foc used o nthe laser. Usi ng the posi tioning controls of

the tripod. align the detector o n the LED.and then turn o n the laser and position thelaser ' s righ t/le ft/ up/dow n movement to

al ign the laser spot in the reflector in the tin

can while keeping the lin can LED al ignedwith the receive r. Veri fy by shutting do wn

Continued on fXlge 50

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73 Amateur RadiO Today ' January 2003 49

,L~.5

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~ G HOUstNGFOR6 55. 3

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ELECTRONlCSTIMER S

~l SGD 3 INCH PVC 3 INCH PVC 3 INCH PVC7 I I COUPLING PIPE END CAP

GNDFig. 2. lAyout ofconstruction of3-inch pvc pipe. couplings andend caps for housing reflector and electronics fo r test circuitry.

Fig. 1. Schematic of 555 oscillator circuitry, construction Reflector is pushed into coupling to touch against center ridgemounted dead-bug style on copper circuit board as common held in place by 6-inch or so length ofpvc pipe. Front section ofground solder surface. coupling/arms lens reflector shroud.

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up-convened receiver system oscillator ofhigher frequency. the principle is the same.lfyou transmit a laser or LED frequency toa remote target and reflect it back to thesource, you can detect it when you are inali gnment be tween your recei ver andtransmitter. How. then, do you constructa si mple. inexpens ive osci llato r LED 'transmitter reflector?

I located a three-and-one-eigh th-inchwide round reflector at our local Kragenauto pans store.This reflector fit like a gloveinto a 3-inch PVC splice union meant forjoining two sections of3-inch PVC pipe. Asnort section of 3-inch PVC pipe (about 6to 7 inches long) is inserted behind thereflector to position the reflector tight upto the center ridge inside the splice union,holding the reflector firmly.Arcar 3-inchpipecap closes off the rear of the PVC pipe andallows insertion of controlling electronicsinside the PVC pipe.

A high-intensity LED is selected for thetransmitter LED. By using four and a halfvolts (3AAcells) for a power supply. I drewabout 17 rnA current through the LED 1selected. Pretest your LED pon ion of the

RBDUE Co BEYONDcontln uedJrom page 48

the laser. Align the receiver and tum on thelaser and verify collimation between bothsystems.Then align the telescopic rifle spotting scope with both the receiver and thelaser spot to the rifle scope.

How far away the target is positioned isa fac tor in how accurate you will be and atwhat distance you will be in alignment. lt'sbest to make additional long distance testson some targets (like a power pole transformer). as the gray surfacegives a fair returnand sho.....s up on distant targets reasonablywell. The "tin can" can be positioned outquite some distance and be hit wi th a wellcalibrated system. For example, an opticalquality retro reflector positioned some 4 to5 miles away can he regularly hit and return astrong signal to the source for system perform ance tests. For closer-in tests, thesimple tin can and auto reflector is just finefor making system evaluationsin a near rangeofa hundred to several hundreds of feet.

If your system uses a I kl-lz tone detectionsystem, or something like our synthesized

circui t first; mine has a 150 ohm resistor tothe anode of the diode to limit current. TheLED Kerry and I use is from Hosfelt Electronics. 1-800-524-6464, part # 25-339, andabout $5 each. Any other high-output LEDwill be suitable. You might have to experimen t with yo ur LED to se t the desiredbrightness and current through the LED forthe one you select. The drivercircuit is nothing simpler than a good old 555 timer thatuses three resistors and two capaci tors be

sides the 555 timer chip itself. The circuitryis shown in Fig. 1. Place a 10 J.1F cap fromthe posit ive battery line to ground. Forsimple construction, wire the circuit deadbug style on a small piece of scrap copperPC board. Position the chip upside down,solder pin I to ground on the copper surface middle. and position the other partsaccordingly.

Parts values for Fig. 1 go as fo llows (I.kHz frequency/35-kHz): RI - 22k18200;R2 - 5 1k/33.3k; R3 - 500- 1500: (standard 500: LED used)11500: (high-outputLED); CI - 0.D15 ~FIO.OO82 ~F; C210 ~F/IO ~F.

I drilled a hole to position the large LED- - - ---- - - --- - --- - - - - - - ---- ---- - - -1 in the center of the reflector. Carefully drill

a small hole fi rst, and enlarge as required.so as nor to shatter the reflector. I used automotive RTV to hold the LED in the centcr of the reflector. When dried. attach twowire leads and then heat shrink over theleads. Verify diode polarity and attach inseries to the anode end a current-limitingresistor from !he earlier lest for your selectedLED. Allow 24 hours for the RTV to setsolid before going further.

This is a good time to construct your 555oscillator on a scrap piece of copper board.The pans are not critical and can be trimmedby extra capacitance or varying resistor values. The output of the oscillator on pin 3can be measured on an o-scope or frequency


/"10'0 It. Picture of neu' laser l.ED transceiver system at \VB6JGP. Electronics and -iinch Fresne l lens inside white -s-inch PVC tubing, PVC coupling sleeves (/1/(1 short sectians of pipe and end cap s /1.\('(1 to create coml,,'rtments fo r electronics. Bottom right:photo detector; It}!: LED transmitter: Top cellfa : spott ing scope; just below: laser insidebeam expander: laser transmitter:

PIIOIo B. Optical reflector in housing with high-output LED ill center of reflector. Electronics in rear ofhousing pipe containing 555 timer ch ip running at 35 kH: rate to driveLED transmitter. LED used from llosf elt Electronics, part #25-339: C05(, about 55 each( 1-8()()-52-1 ~6-I6·n Other LED diodes suitable.

73 Amateur Radio Today . January 2003 51

L ED tran sce ive r was publi s hed in 73Magazine. Part s I. 2. and 3 were in June.J uly. a nd August 2000. If ) 'OU ha ve an yquestio ns about this o ptica l. o r any o thersubjec t. send an E-mail 10 my add ress at(c1 ho ug h @ pacbell.netl. and I will try to

an swer them as best I can. Best 73 , C huc kWB6IG P. iii

suffices fo r close r work and confirms basic al ignme nt of your optics a nd lase rs allin one test 00.\. The reflec to r is simple toconstruct and will serve well until you canupgrad e your system to greate r di stanceand possib ly a retro reflecto r in your te stkit.

NOTE: The o rig inal article covering the

co unte r. Uyou can' t fi nd a n "Xv-cha nne le nha nceme nt-mode MOSFET like theVNIOKM or V:"5001 A MO SFET, sendme $3 and I will se nd you a couple de vices from my junk box (ne w devices ).(Cost will covcr postage a nd cost of jiffyclive lope .) If yo u need any o ther parts andI ha....e them , I will he glad to comply if Ican. All other pans in this projec t are gardenvariety ones .

I se lec ted 3-inc h PVC pipe beca use itfi t the reflector I found in th e a uto pa rtsstore. Use your resources, as no thi ng isc ritica l in cons truction or parts. be it optic s (re flec to r) or LED. A tin ca n o r aPringles chip container mi ght work wellfo r you. J ust match up yo ur reflec to r witha conta ine r d iameter and con struct a way.One no te of caution is th ai if you use afilte r ove r your photo deice lor, make surethe LED yo u se lect works in the range ofyo ur fil ter. Our laser and LED transmittcr works at 650 Nm, a wry RED beamof light . and o ur filte r is +5 Nm wide .Some lasers are 623 Nm. and the y ncve rmak e it th ro ugh th e optica l fi lte r. Justcheck out what yo u have .

Th e 3-i nc h PVC pipe so lved m a nyproblems. like cente ring the re flec tor inthe housing. and the rear section on PVCpipe gave room to put a sm all plastic boxfo r the PC board . I rubbe r-handed thethree "AA" ce lls to the plastic box fo r rigldl ty. T he n I c ui some pac king foam toprotec t the rear of the reflector a nd LEDwiring com ing out of the center of the re flec tor from the batte ry and osc illato r boxban ging into it. Some e xtra foam over thefar e nd to keep th in g s f rom m o vin garo und fini shes o ut th e c ircuitry, save foran on/off switch on the rear cove r. Use alocking toggle switch, if you can find one- it will sa ve you o n batteries. See Fig,2 or Photo B for constructio n of my osci lla to r sy s tem us ing the 3- inc h PVCplumbi ng pipe an d fit tings.

Be it a I-kHz laser system or a systemlike ours, the addition of a real retro reflectorsurp lus can COSI $95. One retro re flector(63 .5 mm diam.) source is the Surplus Shell,part #L 1792, [h llp:llww w.s urplus shed.com]. o r 1-877· 778-7758 for surp lus op tics .The retro re flec to r is actua lly a trihed ra lprism that reflects any beam e nte ring itbac k to its source regardless of the pris m 'so rien ta tion . Ke rry a nd I use a sli gh tlydi ffere nt trihedral prism fo r our 5-mile testrange described earlier. The re flector at theauto parts store cost $ 1.99 for two of the m- qu ite a bargain . While it's not a retrore flector, the automobile-grade reflecto r

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Squegging: Now It Helps Us Track the Birds

You have acquired a sigtui l . You have taken a radio direction finding (RDF) bearing, NoH'you're ready to track it down or make a report. But wait ! Are you sure that this signal iswhat } 'OU 're looking for?

.R1

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2N2369 -5

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2°f C2 18011K1 L 1 L2.9

100p -&Fig. 1, Schematic of a squegging Hartley oscillator as displayed;/1 SwitcherCAD lfl f or Wil/dows.

N onn allY• it's obvio us when yo u' retracking the right signal. On a trans

miner hunt, you recognize the dis tinct tonebox that the hider uses. A repealer jammermay have a d istinct ive voice or other signalcha racteristic, such as hum. Al othe r limes.it 's more diffi cult and uncertain.

You hear dead carriers or short"kerchunk" signals. Are they all comingfrom the same source? What do you dowhen someone claims that he didn 't do thejamming, because someone else was playing recording s of his voice ? In suc h cases.measurement of subtle signal characteristic s such as frequency shift d uring key-upcan determine the truth. These "tran smiucrfin ge rpri n ting" tec hn iq ues ha ve beendescribed previously in th is column. I

For some commerci al applications, a distinctive signal is mandatory. so it is designedinto the transmitter, Fo r example. the LorackVehicle Reco very System enables po lice touse Doppler direction find ing for trackingdown sto len c a rs . Each hidden vehicle


transmitter sends a unique 10 code, po st

tively identifying the vehicle and perm ittingauthorities to track m ultip le vehicles at thesame time.'

In wildlife management, some tracking

transmitte rs send 10. But most rad io tagsfor b irds a nd small mammals don't. Theselittle de vices must pu t o ut a sig na l to a

ground range o f a mile or so for up to a yearo r more, yet weigh only a fe w grams, in

cluding battery. To do that. most o f themco nsist of simple blocking or rela xation oscillators with only a few d iscre te compo-ne nts. You may hear the term "squcggingoscillator" used to desc ribe them .

Too much feedback

Early rcgcncrati ve receivers used positivefeedback to increase gain and se nsitivi ty

without add ing expensive tu be s tages. Ifyo u adj us ted the co ntrols fo r too muc hfeedback, the radio wou ld intermittentlysq ue a l or make a put-p ut sound . called

" motorboating" orsquegging . The advent of superhcrcrodyne receivers tooksquegging out ofthevocabu lary o f mostradi o e n th us iasts .But in today's wildlife radio lags. thisphenomeno n is stillput to good use .

If yo u set o ut todesign a transmitterthat pulsed on for afew m i ll ise c o nd severy seco nd o r so,your fi rst conce ptmigh t ha ve twostages, a keycr anda transmitter. Maybe

you would pick a timer Ie such as the vencrahlc 555 for the kcycr and a transmitterIe such as the MC2833 . I usc just such aIO-mi lliwatt min i-T fo r e veryo ne to te stthe ir RDF antennas hefo re o ur southe rnCali fo rn ia radio -o rien tee ring e ven ts. Butwith a ll the othe r discrete co mpo nen tsneeded to support these le s, there is no wayto make that design tiny and lightweightenough to put o n a small bird.

A squegging oscillator is an elegant twa-for-one so lution to the problem. Fig. 1sho ws how simple it can he . If you havestud ied for yo ur Extra Class ticket. you"Hre member that a Hartley osci llator has atapped inductor that provides feedback tosustai n osci llation. (And if you took yourtest 25 years ago as I did , you ' ll rememberhaving to do free hand drawings o f Hart leyand Colpi tts oscillators as part of the testt)LI and L2 form the tapped ind uctor in thiscase . Both are wound on the same fonn fo rtight coupling. indicated by coupling fac tor(K) of 0.98 in the schematic .

The combined inductance of Ll-L2 isreso nated by C2 to set the oscillator 's RFoutpu t frequency. The RF wou ld be continu ous if feedha ck co nd itions we re stable. Butin this circuit, C I charges in just a few RFcycles and saturates the transistor. then d ischarges more slowly. The result is pulsedoscillat ion. as shown in the waveforms ofFig. 2.

Figs. 1 and 2 we re created in SwitcherCAD III, a freeware circuit analysis programbased on the classic SPICE ana lytica l engine . To learn more about squegglng oscillators. download the program.' input thisci rcuit. and run a transient ana lysi s. Thentry varying the compone nt value s to seewhat happens to the RF pulse rate, pulseduration. and RF frequency.

The o utpu t o f th is ru d imentary L-CHartley osci llator has very high harm onic

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content. as the lower trace of Fig. 2 shows. It would also have verypoor frequency stabili ty in an animal tag. due to temperaturechanges. varying pro ximity to the cri tter, coil movement, andbattery voltage sag.' Micro- tags for research solve those problems

Fig. 2. Transient analysis output of SwircherCAD shows thepulsed RF oscillation that trails off and stops af ter eight cycles.then repeats at regular intervals.

f. £dt I ........ v_ jj.tI

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T here a re lots o f so un d a naly si s p rogram s for PC . M ac .and o the r platforms. Many arc frccvvarc o r inexpensive shareware.I am using WaveSurfe r I A .5 from the Center for Speech Technology in Stockho lm. Sweden.' It directly opens WAV fi les and perfo rms both time and freq ue ncy domain analysis . Fig. 3 is thew aveS urfer disp lay of an actual owl tag . take n from the aud ioo utput of a receive r in the SSB/CW mode. RF pu lses arc 20 milliseco nds lo ng and about 1.5 seconds apa rt. wit h no varia tio n induration or rare. Notice the downward "tilt" of the pulse envelope,which is characteris tic o f the dimini shi ng o utput o f a squegging osc illator. Also notice the 3lJ..millisecond " rat-tail" after thepulse. caused hy li ngering low-level operation ofthe oscillator.

Compare this actual o wl tag signal to Fig. 4. a fil e sent by a hamshortly after this year's unnounccmcru went our. When I played theJill', the transmissions sounded more like clicks than beeps. and thepulsing rate seemed somew hat irregular. The wavcSurtcrdisplay showswhy. In the top trace . the pubes arc nor evenly spaced over lime . Inthe e xpanded trace on the bou om. each pulse is o nly a sing le cycle.It 's probably some sort of quasi-periodic noise.

M y ears we re eno ugh {Q q uick ly rule o ut tha t fi le as a pe ssihlc o wl tag , h ut the sig nal o f Fig. 5 a lmost had me foo led . Iwas susp icio us, beca use the pulses we re too "clean" so und inga nd their ra te was mo re rapid than an ticipated . S ure enoug h,WaveSurfer showed that the b lips were exac tly o ne second apart.as if from some c lock device . T he pulses were too long (80 milliscconds). 100 sq uare ( ..'ery sha rp rise a nd fall of the RF envelope), a nd there was no rat-tail. So th is signa l isn't an owl tag.unfortuna te ly.

Fig. $. Despite its similarities ill sound and wuvefonu titis i... alsoI/ot all owl radio rag.

C '

U.5

1 i ! I,

.... .

1 II Ii ; ;

FlI 'i ' , it

4 . 0 5 0 1 ,0 5

15 ! 16 . 0 16,5 17.0 17 . 5 U.

IJl i I i 1111 I '; il

I i

"

Since 1998. I have been asking ha ms and other moni torin g enthusiasts to carefully tunc thei r VH F receivers in hopes o f pick ingup rad io tags on migrating Burrowing Owls . Researchers in Canadaand Washi ng ton state usc these rrnnsmiucrs 10 keep track ofhatchlings as they mo ve away from their parents after fledging.When these o wls hcud south for the wi nter. they trave l too fastthrough bad weathe r to be fo llowed with aircraft. In addition tohams alo ng the anticipated migration path listening for the tagsignals. I hoped thai RDF-equippcd hams would then track thesignals for posi tive veri fication of the birds.

The fi rst winter. o ne- signal-heard report was recei ved from Texas.In the next year. three reports came in from locations ranging fromArizona to Arkansas. As I write , [his tall's effort has o nly beenunde r way fo r e ight wee ks. and six re ports ha ve come in already.

The good news is that there are now many hams who arc will ing todo VHF monito ring. The had news is thai re lative ly few of them cando the direction fiuc ing. That makes it important to verify the signalsin other ways. There is a sound fi le (OWL. WAV) of an actual Burrow

ing Owl rad io tag at my Weh site. and so me hams have reponed signals that sound "j ust like the 111e." But were they? This year. I ha veasked eac h res po ndent to provide ei ther WAY nic s or a casscnetape of what they heard . There have been differences in every oneI have received so fa r. sometimes subtle and sometimes g laring.

54 73 Amateur RadiO tcasv » January 2003

r- .Lilt 1'...... v_ b"co: 'I a III ~ ~ tI . 0 I .. .. "" 1,\ I 00en

V ••1 • •rs

Was that really an owl?

with crys tal-cont ro lled osci lla tors. hut their pulsing sc heme isalmost the same. The characteristics o f the pul sing can be used asa fonn of !D.

Fig. 4. Ir's easy to see that this volunteer s \VA \' file is 1101 from all

actual radio rag, even though tilt' clicks sound somewhat similar.

Although not show n in the fig ures.w ave.Surfer will perform fast Fourie r transforms (FFTs) of the WAY file to displayaud io frequency components versus time.The pitch of a tone burst on a CW receivervaries with the BFO setting, bu t o bservingthe stead iness of that tone might furtherrefine the ID process. Try it.

Latest owl update

In previous years, hams he lped determinethat Burrowing Owls ha tc hing dur ing summer months in the Canadian provinces ofSaskatchewan and Alberta tra vel over centra l slates from North Dakota to Oklahoma,ending up in southeast Tex as and northernstates of Mexico. They sometimes fly over2.(XX) mi les to their winter homes. For thefirst time s ince 1998. the re weren ' t an ytagged Canad ian owls to track this fall, soour listening effort ha s shifted to ow lsbanded on both coasts.

Vicki Garcia at the College of Agricultu re a nd Life Sciences at Universi ty ofArizona writes. "We 'd like to thank a ll thevo lun teer monito rs who pa rticipated lastyear. This year, we put out about 8.5 tran smitters and have bee n tracking o ur Burrowing O wls until they leave our studyarea in eastern Washing ton sta te. Fiftythree are still thought to be active . Thebatteries should last for about 6 months,and we transmittered owls from J une tomid -August. 2002.

"we have very little new info rmationabout migrat ion . We did get one band return in the San Franci sco area fro m an owlthat was banded at a nearby study area. Weelse go t one band return in Montana froman ow l banded at the same study area. Therefore , it may be possible that migration routesex ist both to the southeast a nd southwest ofour owls' original site (Grant and Adamscounties in easte rn Washi ngton). We couldpotentially find m igrants from our studyarea in any state west of the Rockies.

"Even one finding would be very va luable to us and would add an addi tional pieceto the puzzle . Although the possible area ishuge, we hope that the greater number oftransmittered birds, coupled with inc reasingnumbers of volunteers in a wider geographicarea, will eventually lead to some find ings."

Bu rrowin g Owls a re n ' t the o n lyStrigi formes being tracked by volunteers .We're a lso helping Scot t Weidensaul ofthe Ned Smith Ce nter fo r Natu re a nd Artin centra l Pennsylvani a . He writes, "Our

firs t thre e rad io-tagged Northern Sawwhet Owls are headed south" We taggedthe m with 1.9-gram rad io transmi uers onOctober 14. 2002, but they linge red for

almost three weeks be fore leaving, a testament to the warmish weather we had mostof October. A ll th ree are fema les. The firsttwo are immature birds. an d the last one isa three-year-old. There will be more in thecoming weeks. Frankly, since I'm interestedin their behavior before they leave . I'd behappy if they stuck around for week s likethe last batch.

'The Saw-whets. which weigh barely asmuch as a robin and stand just 8 inches tall,were tagged in Schuylkill County, Pe nnsylvania. about 15 miles north of Readi ng .They are ex pected to either cont inue sou ththrough the ce ntral and southe rn Appalac hians, or to move south and east into thePiedmont and coastal plain. It is believedth at most Saw-whets migrating throughPennsylvania spend winter in the mid-A tlantic states from Maryland to the Carolinas.But litt le is known about the ir winter range.and the lagged owls may show up anywherebetwee n the Mason-Dixon Line and A laba ma or Georgia. and west through theAppa lachian and Cumberland plateaus .

'The Ned S mi th team's research focuseson how the owls behave and live during thepe riods when they take a break from activemigration. what scientis ts call 'stopover,'which may last days or even weeks . Owlsthat are caught twice within a couple of daysare the ones being fitt ed with radios. in theho pe that they wi ll stick around at least afew days more, g iving researchers a chanceto study their habitat usc. roost selection.and d iet. Bu t once they move south again,it is possible that hams and VHF monitoring enthusiasts will p ick up thei r sign als,providing valuable information about wherethey eventually wind up.

'The Saw-whet Owl, na med for a rare lyheard call likened to a file 'whetting' thetee th of a saw, is a small fo rest -dwelling hirdthat preys pri marily on m ice and sm all rodents. It breeds in thick forest across southernCanada and the non hern US A, and downthe Rockies a nd Appalachian mountains.Secretive and rare ly seen. it is more oftenheard: the male 's territorial call is a repctitive looting. very much like the back-upalarm o n la rge truck s. Transmincrs aremounted on the owls using a figure-e ightharness m ad e o f el astic beadwork cord.designed to all ow the transmitter to fall offafter several months:'

Will it be a "Homing In" reader whomak es the first verified interce pt of a mi g ra ting Saw-whet Owl tag '? If you ' re inthe target area . please spend some time listening. Belte r yet. bui ld an RDF anten na for


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To the RescueconttnuedJrom page 40

1 can' t remember the search-and-rescue worker 's name, but I sure rememberwhat came next.

Whi le the search-and-rescue memher was on his way to the airfie ld, the

second tow truck arrived. The dri ver 1-- - - - ----------pulled his truck up to the end of themuddy road and got out.

"What happened?" he asked the firsttow truck dri ver.

" I ' t k " hm s ue, was t e answer,

2m FM Ham History 101conrinuedJrom page 39

in parking lots to make the exchanges)and few met with any expense. Concord gave its 31 input to Gray lock:Graylock was now 3 1-9 1. Walthamgave its 34 input to Concord; Concordwas now 34-94. Graylock gave its 04input to Wal tham: Waltham was nov....

04-64. Agreement and consistency!Today, 600 kHz splits are the norm

nationwide , and that frequency split ispreprogrammed in a ll our radios. Nowyou know why.

Originally published by the authorill TIle SPARC, newsletter of the B051011

Amatellr Radio Ctub. fa

Please examine the listi ng of applications for a Hall-Effect se nsor anddeve lop some uses for ham radio.

It was hoth fun and in terest ing forme to experiment with an eleme nt oftechnology that I hadn't ex pe riencedprevious ly. Learning even a little bitabout "strange" technology opens upyour imaginat ion for applications thatwill support ham radio projects andpe rhaps make our life easier.

My suggestion is to develop somesimple expcn mc nts for devices notcurrentIy understood. You 'll he amazedat the exhilaration you get with thenew experience ! fa

Conclusion

voltage slightly above v ccn . balancecompensation was required as discussedearlier.

The second tow truck dri ver pu lledhis truck hack next to the first one. Histires then did the spinning-in-placething, making him so frustrated thatsmoke practica lly came out of his earsHe jumped out of the truck and wentover to my father.

"Is this your property'?" the seconddriver asked .

My fathe r very ca lm ly said, "No."The two tow truck drivers stepped

off to themselves and had a short convcrsation. You can probably guess justas good as I can what they were sayingto each other. But they wou ldn' t hestuck for all that much longer.

The search-and-rescue worker finally arrived and drove his four-wheel.diesel -powered work truck into themud. But he didn ' t get stuck! Thankyou , search-and-rescue.

The S& R man had a winc h on thefront of his truck. He hooked up thewinch to the second tow truck andpu lled it out. T hen he hooked up to thefirst tow truck and pu lled him out.

After the tow trucks left, we had apretty good laugh .

The best th ing about my experience?I didn't have to pay to save the twotow trucks .

Next time I go to fl y my remote-controlled g lide r, I will make sure to do iton a dry day. I will make sure to dri veon solid ground, too. I don' t know ifmy expe rience IS a first, but I willnever forget how much two me tersplayed an importan t part in the "fun."

(Ed. note: Another part of the fun ojthis article, you can't see - it 's beenedited Ollt. Like most of our authors and we hasten to say that, because by 110

1--- - - - -------- - --1 means do we mean to make fun of orcriticize him - KE6FHO made someminor spelling errors in hi.,' originalmanuscript. In this case, though, Peteraccidentally misspelled "winch" with {I ll

"e ". So. 011 fi rst reading. I\'e weregreeted with wenches tied to trees.mounted 0 11 trucks. and so Jon" - at

least we hope he mean' "winch."} fa

K.I.S.S. Trickle Charger•rontlnuedJrom page 24

Now you see why I do not have definitive information to offer on thismethod. All of my research so farseems to lean in the positive direction.So far I have not found an y negativeaspects.

I would love 10 hear your commentson this article .

Many thanks arc due to AngeloPolvcrc KA9CSO. Harry GillingW9IB. John WA9JBT. and Ron RemusWB9PTA. for he lping with the editing.proofreading artwork. construction.and photography for thi s article. fa

Experimenting withHall-Effect Sensorscon fin u.ed j rom page 28

the sensor 's nominal outpu t IS highwith respect to common ground. resistor R3 wi ll require a shunt to raise thevoltage at pin 3. If the output is lowerthan common ground. then the shuntwill have to he placed across resistorR5 . The actual value of the shuntingresistor will have to be dete rminedex pe ri menta lly. hut In my ease thevalue was 22k

Controlling the op amp gain wou ldhe importan t only if a specific sensoroutput voltage ra tio was desired for agiven exper iment. For my experi ments , I operated the c ircu it at maximum gain to achieve maximum YOMresponse.

For source power, I used a 15 V splitvoltage power supply with the intent ofgiving the op amp the best opportunityfor a linear output response as a functionof the input signal level.

Controlling the supply voltage valuewas also critical to the voltage appliedto the sensor. In order to provide a stiffsupply for the sensor. zener diodeswere used to divide the supply voltage .In my experime nt. I chose a pa ir ofmatching zener diodes having a voltage ncar 5. I V. The ultimate objectivewas to place the sensor supply voltageat a value near 5.0 V and (0 se t thesensor 's QOP output voltage close tozero volts with respect to commonground . With a sensor QOP output56 73 Amateur Radio Today. January 2003

accepted to be less than 500 miles. If spaceconsiderations proh ibit a single loop, adouble or trip le loop can be used , al thoughthis wi ll reduce perform a nce . Usu a ll ymult iple loop configura tions are used in doors . The most intere sting approac h is afo ur-loop a pproac h tha t uses four broomsticks as the fo rm . The handle e nds a rcconnec ted toge the r in a c ross a nd th ebri stle s act as sepa rators to keep the loo psfrom touching. A tru ly creative approac h.

Although I te nd to foc us on the be nefit so f thi s product for emergency ope rations . ifyou are in a location wherein antennas area problem. this may be a viable answer. An80 foot loop antenna suc h as the STEALTHcan be eas ily concealed and yet permi t ope rations across the high frequency ba nds.It would also be an idea l addition to thegear for vacation time. a llowing so meq uali ty o pera tio ns from a ca m psite o rsummer cottage with only a mini mum ofeffort.

SGC prOOuCIS. including the STEALTHantenna arc available from your fa vo ri teham rad io dealer. You ca n c heck ou t thisa nd the o ther SGC produc ts a t their Website . If yo u ' re interested. you may find ituseful to download the m anua l fo r moreinform at ion . T hey ha ve a com pa ri sonc hart that shows the features of the ir e nti re range of Smanuners. so if your needsare a bit d ifferent, yo u may want to checkthat out.

For emergency operations. the STEA I.TI Iantenna prov ides a great solution, and thetime to prepare for an emergency is when youhave plenty of time. Besides, this antenna isj ust plain fun to play with.

SGCP.O. Box 3526Bell evue WA 98009425-746-6310(sgc@sgcworld .com)(www.sgcworld.com]

HRMSRTSronrinuedJrom paqe 4 7

to adjust frequenci es. the printed predictions.my watch. and the tree limbs that were tryingto cal my antenna.

Results

We never got our bear. In fact. we neversaw one. This was probably good. The paper targets that we set up at base camp wereour trophies . We did mak e some e xcellentcontac ts from some very remote places viaUO- l ~. had fu n. almost go t used to th e

a lt it ude , a nd swore off M REs . For ustlatlanders it was an adventure. We hikeddee per in to th e Pecos Wil de rn es s to

Hamilton Mesa at 10,400 feet on the finalda y. The walking was actually getti ng easier.We had finally adapted to the lack of air.and liked it. For Bill. 1 gu ess it was just astro ll in his back yard. and a beautiful on eit is.

Straight key night on OSCAR

You are invited to participate in the 30thannual Straight Key Night (SKN) on OSCA R. conducted by A~SAT. It's easy.There is no sco ring a nd no logs. Simplyo pe rate CW on any OSCAR satelli te. usinga straight hand key from ooסס Lrt'C to 2400lITC on Jan uary I. 2003. Work as manySKN stations as you can. The moon (OS.CA R 0) also counts.

Each participant is asked to nominate oneof the o perators for " Best Fist: ' Send yournom in ation to Ra y W 2RS at [[email protected]]. Those nominated will be recognized in the AMSAT News Service Billietin for ea rly February, and a lso in theAMSAT Journal. Blow the d ust off tha tstraight key and join us . fa

Notes

I . See "Homing In" fo r November 1994."Testing the Matron Fingerpri nter,"

2. See "Homing In" fo r May 199 1, "THu nting Stolen Cars:'

3 . PC (Windows) version a vailable fro mLinear-Technology at [http://LTspice.lincartcch.com/sonware/swcadiii.exel.

4. But it's stable eno ugh for the ElectronicGo lf Ball. Tak e a look at U. S. Patent3.782.730 at (hup://www.uspto.gov/patftl} .

5 . Down load a t (h ttp://www.speec h .kth.sezwavcsurfe r/l . fa73 Amateur Radio Today • Ja nuary 2003 57

Answering An~e·Old Question

Jules-Henri Poincare was dubbed by E.T. Bellas the "LastUniversalist": a man who wasat easein all branches of mathematics.

Poincare was atso a t stn-centcry professorof astronomy who made fundamental contributions regarding the motions 01 the planets. Hewent on to found the field of topology, a branchof geometry, and even competed with AlbertEinstein in the study of relativity.

Before Poincare, mathematicians fully understood two-dimensional space, such as th eEarth's surface, and could list all the possibleshapes of two-dimensional surfaces and usemathematical calculations to distinguish between mem. But the math mystery Poincareraised regarded the properties of three-dimensionar space. His question, or conjecture, waswhether the two-dimensional calculations couldbe easily modified 10 answer similar questionsabout three-dimensional spaces.

He was pretty sure mat the answer was yes,but couldn't prove it mathematically. Nearly 100

58 73Amateur RadiO Today · January 2003

years later, math whizzes remain stuck, exceptfor one. His name is Martin Dunwoody.

Dunwoody is described as a British mathematics expert. His answer is barely six pageslong and only an outline. And as you might expect , Dunwoody's solution - complete withformulasanddiagrams- hasbeen praised andchallenged in England.

No, we will not try to explain all the mathhere. What is interesting is the reaction of thescientific community. Professor Ian Stewart ofthe University of Warwick,one of Britain's mostrespected mathematicians, calls it the first goodshot at this problem in years . But Colin Rourke,another University of Warwick mathematician,disagreed. Rourke says thai when he raiseda problem in the solution, Dunwoody admitted on his Web site thai it could be difficultto overcome.

Once the math community has accepted thesolution.jheClay Mathematics Institule in Cambridge , Mass., must conduct its own review.Only if that proves successful will Dunwoodybe rewarded. And if the reaction of the Britishmath professors is any indication, this controversy could rage on in math circles for years.

And . even if Dunwoody continues to refinehis answer and eventually is proven correct. itcould be a long time before irs officia1. First.he must get it published in a mathematics journal, and then undergo a two-year wai ting periodof international review.

Thanks toScience Today, via Henry FeinbergK2SSQ in Newsnne. Bill Pasternak WA61~

editor. ra

NEUER SRY DIEcOlltinued Jrom page 41

me sluff we've been buying has "China"stickers. nothing Ita.. any "Russia" stickers on'L

So much for socialism. Humans just don'tperform well using the ani oc bee way of life.

Gett ing Ou t the Vote

Saddam seems to have solved one of themajor problems of democracies. He alsosolved me problems of negative candidateadvertising and keeping people up electionnight waiting to- the results. HOYo' at..an hisgening )(0% of lnq is to vote? And. evenbetter, to vote tOr the only candidate? Nowrite-in candidates in Iraq! No li ve ones,anyway.

America's Strength

The strength of America I S not theFortune 500 corporatio ns, each withthousand, of employees, Our real strengthis in our millions of small businesses,over half of wbich (54%) have fewerthan live employees. They' re what makesit so we have the highest standard of li vingin the world. They're why "..e can atford

the strongest military in the world. We'reable to spend more on our military than thenext IS countries combined. Our smallbusinesses arc why America is now theworld's only superpower. They're whatI'm determined to help grow as a group.They' re our entrepreneurs.

Alas, our universities do not teach thethings small business owners need toknow. Their courses arc aimed mainly atpreparing grads to work in large corponnions. the government. or to teach. Iwent through that mill 60 years ago. Thepresident of the student body at my oldschool recently confi rmed that "nothinghas changed:'

Our superpower might is comforting,but in the long run wc' Il have a morepeaceful world if we help ease worldpoverty and ignorance instead of tryingto stomp out the fi ghting that results.

My sneaky plan is to encourage businessincubator growth in thousands of towns inAmerica. These would help finance (withstate fund ing help) and manage promisingnew business enterprises.

Business Incubators

Global Poverty

Since there isn' t anything that any ofus can do about it. what do we care if73% of the people in Mali earn under adollar a day and 58Ck arc illiterate? OrPakistan has 57% illiteracy? Or thatmost of the Thi rd World isn' t doingmuch better?

These people need education and away to make money. In that order. Andthis is something that the world 's onlysuperpower (us) could easily handle.And it sure would be a lot cheaper thangetting involved with more wars, Betteryet. the payoff would be more marketsfor American products and technology.

By making inexpensive first-rateeducation available via interacti veDVDs, we could so w the seeds of success . Then , with micro-loans for reallysmall businesses and larger loans available through business incubators. we'dstan them building the small business

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Sonograms

The use of ultrasound during pregnancy has been termed one of the biggest uncontro lled experiments in history.Now. finally, serious questions have beenraised about the safety of sonograms. It'sabout damned time. We're finally starti ng

Continued on page 6 J

lunch. Or while I'm collat ing the pagesof one of my books .

The show is broadcast o n over 550stations weeknights, and a few less onweekends, when w hitley Strieher andBarbara Simpso n are the hosts. I canhear the show on about 20 stations as Itune my A~t radio d ia l.

You 're miss ing a lot o f informationthat you aren' t going to get from theregular med ia - interv iews with e xpertson crop circ les, UFOs, contactees. remore viewing. time travel . and a lot ofhealth info that you 're unlikely to hearabout anywhere else. You know, thestuff rwrite about.

Gilbreth would be proud of me listening to Coast-To-Coast AM on my TV setwhile I eat breakfast. with me collatingbook pages as I chew each bite.

Rocket Scientists

Parkinson 's

Recent research into Lou Gehrig'sDisease (amy trophic lateral scleros is ALS) has found that it ' s caused by a bacterial nucleic particle called a mycoplasma. Th is was also fou nd to be thecause of chronic fatigue syndrome andParkinson' s Disease.

And the cure? A n immune systemenhanci ng d ie t.

Gee, what a surprise (not).And how does one enhance their im

mune system? By not eating anythingthe immune system reacts to as toxic.

Hmm. let's see now - in 1999 the$125 million mission to Mars crashed.They said that was caused by Lockheedusing English instead of me tr ic measurements in some of their calculations.D'uh? And in the same year Lockheedput a military communications satell iteinto an unusable low-Earth orbit insteadof the wanted geosynchronous orbit. Justa little so ftware error. D'uh? And in thesame time frame fi ve out of 25 launchesfailed due to design errors.

While our military are busy dreamingup more and more uses for sate llites, age neration of space scie ntists is retiringor losing their jobs as the industry shrinks.

Gee, weren ' t we lucky thirty years agowhen everyone of those Apollo Moo nmission rockets pe rfo rmed so perfectly?

whazzat a therblig ? Aha, you haven'tread the book or seen the movie CheaperBy 17,e Dozen. Or read a book on timeand motion study.

What's time and motion study? It's thetool efficiency experts use to spee d uprepetitive tasks. The pioneer in the fieldwas Gil bre th, who modestly gave thename "therblig" ("Gilbreth" backwards. .. well, sorta) to the basic eleme nts o fany repeti tive act ion.

With people it's a Mars-Venus thing,with wo me n tend ing to be patient andmen tending to be impatient. Well ,wo me n have to be basica lly patient inorder to deal wi th their children.

So where'm I going with this? Well, itstarted out when I woke up one morningand the fi rst thing I did was rewind thevideo tape 1 used to capture the GeorgeNoory Coast-to-Coast rad io talk show. Itused to be the Art Bell (W60 BB) show.but Art several months ago fell off a te lephone pole while putting up an antennaand hurt his back . Since then he's not oftenbeen well enough to host his old show.

The show, which runs for four hours anigh t, every nigh t, keeps millions ofpeople up listening. Here in the East itru ns from one 10 four a.m. . hours thatfew work ing peop le can listen , so the audience tends to he mainly the elderlywith insomnia, long distance truck drivers ,and prisoners.

Which is a pity, because the show oftenfeatures some ver-r-r-ry interesti ng gueststhat you're unlikely to bear anywhere else.

I' ve solved the problem of listeni ng tothe four-hour show without losing fourhours sleep by tap ing it with my VCR.This makes it so I can fast-forwardthrough the half-hourly Jl(.'\\·S and comrnercial breaks. Further, since the first hour almost always is used to air random listenercall-ins. I start taping with the scccond hour.The fourth hour is usually used for listeners to ask the guest questions. By then theguests have to have covered the ir subjec tof expert ise, so I tape the last hour, butseldom bother to listen to it.

The news and commercials take up thefirst twelve minutes of every half hour,so that leaves 18 mi nutes o f actual guestinterviews every half hour. limes twohours is 72 minutes. So I'm able to keepup wit h the work of a long stream of ex perts whi le I fix and eat breakfast and

foundation that is the real strength of anyco untry.

What would it cost for us to start settingup baby-care ccnrers in Third World countries where babies co uld be tau gh t thei rnative language. English, and maybe afew other languages during the year or twowhen they' re able to easily learn them?

Well , you get the idea.

Therblig

PROPRGRTIONJim Gray II

210 East Chateau Cir.Payson AZ 85541

[akdhc2pilot @yahoo.com]

Overall Improvement

Compared ro last month. j anuary should bring an improvement in overall conditions. but we'llsti l l have numerous Fai r-to-Poor (FP) and Poor (P) day s to con tend with.

A s marked on the calendar the 7th-9th. 18th-20th. and 2"th-26th will be the most difficult periods. but only the 25th looks

as if it might bring widespread blackout conditions. EASTERN UNITED STATES TO:

Once agai n. 11 0 solid ly Good (G) days are in the offing. but~~~~posi tive seasonal infl uences shou ld contin ue to tip the sca les inour favor on margina l days . Long nights wi th few hurri canes or I ~m.rica 1' 51 :1Q 20 140] so 140] 2C (401 , , (1 5·20) , (\0) 1011 !) 10 120) 110) 20

~" ~ ~ ~ ~ ". , (">10) 10 (20) l 'Ol ec 1'5-201 ,., ,~,

other atmospheric disturbances wil l hel p out on the higher bands . " .... "" l'<>'~1 101171 (1~ 17 1'';'20J',0.""" , , , , , eoand minimal day time absorption will assist us on the lower ones.

~,.. ,.. , , ~ , ('(>-201 1l~20 ~ , , ,

The fi rst weekend in January is my pick fo r the best conditions "" "", , , , ,'. .,OolS) ..~ N ~ ~

of the month with pretty good worldwide DXi ng available from ! ~-, , , , , , , "". , , , ~ I

most locations.~

I 'S':!O • ~ ~ , , ~ , , , , 110-2OIj

l ooking ahead to the rest of the year we should see a slow de- 11';'2OJ , , , , , , ",.. 1' 0-' 1+ , , , I

cline in solar acti vity. with the SSN (Smoothed Sunspot Number)~ .,0-11) "". , , ~

.,.. .... 11~20 ,,,.,. • ~ 11Q.1 S~

1';'11 » . , , , - - 1';'11 I~U • , 1';'17 ,

dropping from the 100- 125 range to the 75- 100 range b)' next - lUll 15 ~ • ~ N,.. ~ .... ~ "". , ". 10 ('S/

December. The 1O.7cm solar flux values, recently around 160. ,- 110) 0tJ 11~ OCI ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ .... ",.. ,~ ,~ ' . N

I CENTRAL UNITED STATES TO;should also decrease to about 100. so you can expect some revisedTi me-Band-Country charts to appear in the upcoming mon ths. I've IA'-IC& 1'5J 20 .,.. ,~ .. ,~ ~ ,~~ .. ,.. lID) 20 '.. 10-' S ' 0 '201 15-20

been relying on the same set of charts for about the last 18 months IA"",_ 115) 20 • . ,.. zo ,.. ,., , , , ". ro lQ(20l (1D) 20

...mj.O) .. .. ,.. ,., (15) 20 (10115 11 51 20 ,.,

'", , ,

and have recei ved no complaints about them, hut they are based onI~""",-

.m • ,~ 11 (>- 15) (10) ' 5 15 (20), , , , , , •"Very High" solar activity. we're now entering a period of "Mod-

~, ,.. , , , , , 110J 20 11<>2Ol , , ,

crate to High" ac tivity so different DX windows will be opening I, w ,"" '" ~ , , , (' (>-1$) l 1CHSI ,~ • ,~

up to us this year. 1;..- , 1'5) , , , , ~ , 1151 , , ,The Time-Band-Country charts I publish are necessari ly very ~- ~ • .... ,.. "". I' . , ,

~ • , .. ".generalized and at best are only a guideline for finding reliable

~, , , , ~ ~ • 1',;.201 ". , ,'. , I

openings. Obviously. due to the size of the geographical areas ' " 11 ' S " U~2OI • . ,.. ~ ."" ~ • • • l'Q.l~1'

11>-11 1';'11 , , , "" ,.. • • , , ,invol ved. the vagaries of operator location and equipment. and other I'll! ' 5 " ". • N "" .... . "" , ". ,'. 1' 5) I'''' ' ~ '

considerations. the openings listed are of a "ballpark" nature.These WESTERN UNITEO STATES TO:

charts are based on decades of historical dat a collected from - .... ~ ~ ~ "", ~ 11I1I20 ,,~ ,,~ 11('1 20 115120

reliable sources all over the world. but the margin oferror is still quite '- H 1001 ~ , , , , , (15l ,, ~ ,~ ,= 11 1~

< ..l orn

wide. For more preci sion there are ma ny fine communication ", , ,.. .•, '"

, ,•. 11<#-20) 11'" 20 ,~ , ,IA~.' ,., 110), , , , , , , (' ~I 15 (ZOl 115) 20

~", , , , , , , , , , , ,

'w ". ,.. '" eo • "" , lIS) (10) 15 (1().ISI ,~ ,.,I~_.... 0';'201 , , , , , ,

~ , , , ,January 2003

~.(I~ 2Q ".~

, , ... ~ "", , , ,,~ -ceo

(lSI ~SUN MON TUE WED THU FAI SAT ' . , , , , , ~ 1>~120 ,~ I1Ool~1 ,(}-,s- !lOolS' 1 '~2Ol , , , .... .... • 1150201 " (lOo' S, "I I

1(1-1 S , , »~ - ». ~ , • " , '50111 F-P 2 F 3 F-G 4 F-G

~115120 I' S! :10 • ~ "" ~ _ 115 ' 20 ,,~ 110-ISI 'O I'S, 11l;l1~

[s11I1l 4Q 1151 0tJ ~ ~~ ~ ~ _ I'G-2OI ,~ ,~ - -~

F 6 f-P 7 f -P 8 P 9 f ·P 10 f -G 11 f -G I Table 1. Hand, time. country chart. Plain numerals indicate bands

[12F 13 f ·P 14 F 15 f-P 16 f ·P 17 F 18 f ·P "hid, should be u'orknble on Fair 10 Good (F-G) and Good (G) days.NlmJiJi'rs ;11 parentheses ind icate bands luunlly womlble 011 Good (G)

19 P 20 f ·P 21 F-P 22 F 23F 24 f·P 25 VP days ollly. DIU" numbers indicate that the intervening bands should

26 f-P 27 F 28 F 29 F-P 30 F·P 31 f·P also be usable. Wilen aile number appears i ll parentheses, that end ofthe range willlmwabfy be open 011 Good (G)days ollly.

60 73 Amateur Radio Today · January 2003

30.5% of Americans are obese and64.5% arc overweight. A nd this accounts for the S11 7 billion a year spenton obesity- related illnesses, plus about300,000 deaths , second only 10 tobacco .The food industry knows what it's doingwhen it spends $33 bi llion a year to encourage us to eat more.

We 're eating more and getting biggerport ions. Muffin s. w hich we ighed an

Fa tso

Con tinued on page 62

73 Amateur Radio roosy » January 2003 61

It's no wonder tha t all kinds o f abnormali ties arc popping up later ... such asdelayed speech development and mentalimpairment.

Gee. am I surprised? Not!W hcn the book Dlanetics. The Science

of Mental Health, came o ut in 1950, Iimmediately gOI a copy. The theo ry madese nse 10 me. so I got together with Joe . afe llow announcer at WSPB. and tried itout. T he book cla imed that traumas,even d uring pregnancy, could effec tpeople's lifet ime behavior.

We started with Joe's having to switchoff his mike to cough every time he hadto make an announcement. When I regressed him to the orig in of thi s problemit turned out to be two months before hisbirth. His mother had a bad cough andevery time she coughed it was pai nfulfor little Joe. so the pain was equated 10what he was hearing and feeling at thelime . Under hypno sis I ran Joe throughthe subconscious memories of these pains10 decondi tion them. Joe no longer had tocough when announcing . I wrote down hismother's words. which were automaticallyrecorded by Joe when she coughed. Thecri tical phrase was. "Every time I get nervous. I cough." So. 25 years later. Joe wuscoughing whenever he got nervous .

When Joe 's mother visited. I chec kedthe thin gs Joe had "remembered" hersaying and she confirmed it a ll.

I was so im press ed by this experiencethat I quit my job a t the station and went10 the Hu bbard Dianetic Research Foundation in New Jersey and took a six-weekcourse to improve my auditing skills.

I confirmed tha t the th ings that happen10 a baby during pregnancy can affec tthc child's life sig nific ant ly. Severalcases I audited were so lved by de conditio ning prenata l trauma memories.

With that background you can understand why 1 have been opposed 10

sonogrums. 1 fe lt that tho se would haveto be traumatic to the baby and co uldeasily leave their mark on its life ... andthat 's not counting the explod ing of thebaby 's brai n neurons and any damage [ 0

the D NA.Why lake a chance o n lo wering the

baby 's IQ ?

sunrise . Asia and the Orient will only beavailable to nigh t owls. Earl y risers mighttry long paths across the A ntarc tic intosouthem Asia and the Near East. Short-skipcan range from 500 miles during the day upto 2,100 miles at night.

30 and 40 meters

Good wo rldw ide DXing may becomeavailable from sunset through sunrise. buthigh sunspot act ivity will co nti nue toweaken signals. Easterners should fi nd thebest openings to Europe or North Africafrom just afte r sunset 10 midn ight. Midwestern operators will find the Cartbbcunand the Ame ricas strong all nigh t. whilestations west of the Rock ies will experience weaker openings bot h there and inthe So uth Pacific or Far East. Expect skipto be betwee n 1.000 and 2,000 miles atnight . Ell

NEUER SRY DIEcontinued Jrom page 59

to see medical journals publishing peerreviewed papers showing a re lationshipbetween sonograms and growth restriction. delayed talking. mental impairment.dyslexia, and non-right-handedness.

Co nsideri ng the current interest insonotuminesccncc. it makes sense to methat ultrasound exposure should causeproblems. particularly with neurons (brai ncells). When water is exposed to ultrasound tiny flashes of light can be seen.These are tiny exp losio ns as bubbles arecompressed by the sound waves to thepo in t where they are healed to thousandso f degrees and explode . I' ve publishedtechnical articles on th is phenomenon inmy Cold Fusion Journal.

Is this what we want happening to fetuses? Brain neurons which arc des troyedduring sonograms will never be replaced.

Good wo rldwide opport unities can befound during the hours of darkness. Centraland South Ame rica will be the dominantstations, but if you live east of the Rockiesyou may find Europe and the Middle Eastgood terri tory between sunset and midnight.Operators in the western U.S. will find thebest signals in Central and South Americaalthough the Middle East may be wo rkablefor a few hours around mid-e vening. Japanand Australia will also be workable, but onlyduring the hours when mosror us in the U.S.are asleep. Skip distances will fluctuate between 750 and 2,000 miles at night and willbe under 1,000 miles during the day.

80 and 160 meters

20 meters

Good DXing should be available aroundthe clock. Look for peaks just after sunrise,during the late afternoon, and again in theearly evening. Try Australia from sunriseto mid-morn ing. Europe from mid-morningthrou gh ea rly afternoon. and Africa in thelate afternoon. Central and South Americashould be open most times except around

analysis programs available for your cornputer such as Capstan, GcoClock. Propl.ab.WinCap. VoaCap, and Bcam Finder. Theyrange in price from free to more than $300.so there ' s some thi ng avai la ble fo reveryone's budget. You can fi nd a review ofmany popular software titles on the RadioNetherlands Web site at [hup:/lwww.rnw.nUrealradiollinkslhtrnUsoftware .hunIJ. "73"and Happy New Year!

Band-by-Band Forecast

10 and 12 meters

Worldwide opportu nit ies can be fou ndfrom sunrise to sunset but openings will benarrow due 10 our ...ho rt northern days. Onceagai n. southern Europe, the Middle East.and Africa should have reliable openingsfrom sunrise through late morning. Centra land South America will dominate thesebands from mid morning through late afternoon of course . but the South Pacific andAsia should become fairly strong by sunse t. Be s ure to check the morn ing andevening gray-line paths for strong propagation i nto are as tha i are n 't no rm all yacccssabte at other times. Daytime shortskip will range from I.<XXIto approximately2,000 miles.

15 and 17 meters

As on ten and twenty, your openings willfollow the sun and occur from sunrise tomid-evening. Southeas terly through southwesterly paths will be the strongest and mostpredictable but some northerly areas willbegin to compe te as the month progresses.Southern Europe should often be workablebefore noon but North Africa and the Middle 1------------------1East will be easier targets. Central Africamay also become readable j ust before noonbut South African stations usually don'tconnect until after lunch. Pointing south. theCaribbean. La tin A merica , and SouthAme ric a should be a "no brainer" fromj ust past noon into the evening. l ook fo rtraffic from the South Pacifi c. Austra lia, andSoutheast As ia fo r a few hours afte r supper. Short-sk ip will average from 1,00 0to 2,200 miles.

NEUER SR Y DI EcontlnuedJrom page 6 1

average of 1.5 ounces in 1957. now average a half a pound each! Mcfxmald'sfries used to he 200 calories vs. roday's6 10 calories super-size fries . In 1970. wedrank an average of 22.2 gallons of sodas a year vs. 56 gallons now. Half of theschools now have exclusive con trac tswith the soft drink makers - and a nicepayback for the exclusivity.

A nd so it goes. w ith more and moreschools contract ing to have fast foodcompa nies sell in the ir schools.

Kids were hit hard during the Saturday TV ...bows when they were exposedto an average of 225 commercials. By1995 thi s was up to 997. with two-thirdsof those promoting foods or little nutritional value. Kids aged 2 10 18 now spendan average of over five hours a day infront o f the tube. And, Y" OW. me they fat !

Big Brother

With our prison population now at twomillion. mainly thanks to Congress' ssupport of the lucrative illegal drug Industry, high tech is finally going to replacethe counti ng of heads eight times a daysystem for keeping track of priso ners.It's about time !

Twenty years or so ago I proposed thatwe farm out our prison busines s to countries where the costs would be lower tohouse and feed our miscreants. Further,instead of building maximum securityfacilities. I proposed that the prisonerswear a wristband which would make ifso the prison would know exactly whereanyone was at any time.

I also proposed that the prisoners hefed slop (actually, probably the same asmost an: being fed ri ght now). but giventhe opportunity to grow their own food... fruits. vegetables. chickens. pigs,cows, etc. Li ke a large farm.

This could cut the cost of our pr isonsby around 90'K. plus teach prisoners thevalue of work and cooperation .

S ow I see that Illinois has signed a 3million contract with Technology Systerns of Scottsdale to outfi t a prison witha trucki ng system. The wristhands wouldsend a serial number every two secondsshowing where the prisoner is. The system would alert guards when a prisonergot close to a perimeter fence or spenttime with a gang member or a rival. It....'ould also prevent prisoners from doubling hack on the chow line.

My proposal also included mak ing24/7 audio recordings of each prisoner.These could be saved for only a day ortwo unless something happened wherethe recording might be of value,

By locating prisons in Chad or Jordan ,it would make it so there's nowhere 10


go if someone does try to escape. When Igave a talk to the hams on Guam I suggested that their isl and might be ideal forsuch an industry. It's remote, making escape very difficult. And when you planta seed there you have to jump backquickly it grows so fast. The hams lovedthe idea.

The next step. of course. would be tohave the employees of bigger companieswear the wris tbands. Then. perhaps. kidsin school. Hey. where will this end'?

As Shakespeare said, "First, kill allthe lawyers." Despite my losing a fewfriends in the process. and the problemof moving thousands of tons of bodiesfor burial to Nevada , along with the radioactive waste. it could clear up a lot ofour problems and enormously improve ourpersonal financial situations. It would alsopretty well clean out Congress. which isalmost justi f ication in itself for the project.

On the positive side, this could provide a source of organ replacement partsfor people who have destroyed their livers , hearts. and so on through reallylousy nutrition, dehydration. and ingestingtoxic substances.

Tort reform" When this is a zilliondollar industry with the fox running thehen house':' Snicke r.

Michael Freedman reported recentlyin Forbes that 42CK- of obstetricians arcleaving the Las Vegas area now that 76%of them have been sued. 40% of them.three or more times !

You want to know why we have somany lousy teachers? Because it's sodifficult and expensive to get rid of therotten apples. In New York State it costsan average of $ 194,000 in legal bills toterminate a teacher. In Detroit it's aseven-year process.

Now, where do you think all of themoney is coming from to pay for theselaw suits, settle ments and awards?We' re all being shaken down . Irs wesuckers who are paying for the most expensive and least productive school system in the developed countries. Andditto our sickness care system. All of ushave to pay when a Mcljonald 's customer spills coffee in her lap and sues.And we have to pay, one way or another,whether she wins or loses.

Are we totall y helpless pawn s in theescalating extortion. or is there somethingwe can do about it?

Hel l's hells, just go to step two in yourthinking. If lawyers are feathering theirnest with laws made by lawyers we haveelected to state legislatures and Congress,then STOP electing these buzzards.Never, ever. contribute one dollar to alawyer's election or re-election campaign.Ever! Whenever a lawyer runs for any

office. get out there and do everythingyou can for his opponent, even if he's a. .. a . .. Democrat.

If we can' t legally kill 'em, we can atleast stop leuing them take us to thecleaners by electing businessmen who willstan undoing the mischief the lawyershave done.

G:\I Worr)' Wart

With genetically modi fied food creeping more and more into our food supply,I' m worried. If you've done much reading on the subject (which I seriouslydoubt), you know that G~1 foods arerested on mice. By the company makingthe seeds, not by the government. Thebottom li ne on this is that the big companies have a long history of cheating tothe max on food and medicine researchin order to keep those quarterly profi tfigures booming. The small companieswould. too, if there were any of them left.

What are the possible long-term "sideeffects" of humans eating geneticallymodi fied com? No one bu.s a clue. But I' llOct the brass at Monsanto isn't eating any.Considering the long list of drugs that theFDA okayed and then had to have pulledfrom the market after the side effccus hecame no longer hidable. I' m siding withthe Monsanto brass. The whole process iscorrupt and, as usual. we're the patsies.

The BBC reported that a lab experi ment on chickens fed GM maize (that'scorn ) in 1996 resulted in twice as manychicke ns dying as the control group fedon conventional maize .

Then we have the Monsanto suitagainst Percy Schmeiser. It seems thatpollen drift from nearby farms usi ngMonsanto seed crops got into his canolacrop, so Monsanto sued him for violating their patent ... and was awardedabou t SIOO,OOO. Monsanto held thatPercy should have known that the patented pollen had reached his crop andnotified them to come and get it.

The USDA says that this year 74% ofthe American soybean crop and 32% ofthe corn crop will he from GM seeds.

Well , if the terrorists or Planet X don' tget us, maybe Monsaruc will.

Don 't Blame Doctors

In my estimation the mcdical/pharmaceuticaVHMO industry is one of the bigscams . .. right along there with our govcmmeut-run public school system andCongress.

But I don't blame doctors for not knowing what's going on. They're brainwashedin medical school and never even hearabout alternatives. I'll bet not one doctorin a thousand (maybe ten thousand) has

Con tl'nued on page 6 4

73 Amateur Radio Today· January 2003 63--- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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of your friends. SO (#781"·a~'n l"·s Carthbean Adventeres: Mysuper budget trawl stories - where Ivisit the hams and scuba dive most ofThe islands of the Caribbean. You'll10\'1' the special Liar fare which let mevivit I I countr ies in ~ I days. divingall hUI one or ue islands. Guadeloupe.where the hams kept me too bus)' withparties. 55 (/t 12 )

Cold Fusion O\eniew : This is botha brief history of cold fusion. '" hich Ipredict .", il l be one of the largest industries in the world in the 21 st centUI). plus a simple explanation of howand wh)' it works , This new field isgoing 10 generate a whole new bunch(If bilfionaires. just as the personalco mputer indusll)' did. 55 ( #~O)

Improving State GOlernmeDt: Hereare 2.f ways That s tate gove mrncr uscan cut expenses enormously. "'hileproviding far bener service. I explainhow any government bureau or J('parunenr can CUI its expenses by atleast 50% in three years and do itcooperatively and enthusiast ically.I expla in how. by applying a newtech nology, the >laTe can make it possit- Ie to pro\'ide all nt"eded serviceswithout having to le\'y allY tH eS a[alJl Read the book. run for your legislature, and Ict"s gel busy making thisl;oul1 try wurk like its founders wantedillO. Don'f leave this for "someoneelse" to do. $5 (#30)~fankind"s Extinetiun l'n'dictiuns: rfanyone of Thc ex.perts who have wrilk n books prediCl ing a so<m·lO--COlllecaTa_tml,he which will virtually wipemo_t of us out are rig hT, we ' re illtrouhle , In Ihis book I explain .loomth(' variousdisaster scenarios. like thaTof Nostradamus. \\. ho says th(' poleswill ....lCWl shift (as they. ha'eSl'wral rilllCS

in !he pa<.t). wiping out 97'k of mankind.Olay. <,0 he's IlI.ldc a long string of pa'ilIud) ' gue'i-.-.e.\. The worst pan of thesepredictions is till" al;CUraC)' record ofWille of the eJlpl'I1s. \\111 it be a poll'shift. a uew ice age, a massi' e solarnare . a comet or asteroid. a biOlerrorislattack? rm getting ready-', how abouty-ou? S5 lIt31 )\loon dol1J!:le: After readin g Rene' sbook. NASA MOQI"d AmenC£I. I reade\L'f)1hing IcoukJ fmd onour ~100II1.100iop.1"'atehedthe :"ASA \ idl'o:;., kdedcareful!)'at the~ read thea>lJmal.lr"s~ an.:! talked "'lib~ reader> woo .", orked for :\ASA. This lo:>kdtl"S"5good rea.-;ons I bl'liew the wOOleApollo program had 10haw bl'l'n fakedS5 l lt.l~ )

IIt'O' are some ofm~' hook..'" hich canchan l!e ~our life (if~ou 'lIlel ·l"m ). 1fthe idea of bem!:ht'".tIlh)~ " l-allhy andwise intl'n."'i1S you. sllIrt J"l'adinl'l. YIL"".~oo can beall that. hut onl)' ''' hm ) OU

know the seere ts ",hkh I'l l" spen l a

lifetilllt' uncol eri nl'l.

T he SeeN'1 O utde 10 Health : Yes.the-re really is a secret to regaining yourhealth and adding 30 to 60 years of

health) ' Ii \'ing 10 y'OUl'" life. The answer issimple. but it meaa.. making some serious lifesryje changes. Will you he skiing the slopes of Aspen with me whenyou' re 90 or doddering around a ......ingooll~?Orpu.hingupdlisk'$? 1'0. I' mnot selling any heehh products, but Ican help you cure )'OUNelf of cancer,heart trouble, or- any other illne..s . Get

this ne w. 2002 expanded edition(I6Op). 51O (#()..l)

The Secret Guide 10 weahh : Just aswith health. you'Il fi nd that you havebeen suckered by " the system" into apattern of life that will keep you frumever making much money and havingthe freedom 10 travel and do whatyou want. I ex plain how anyone cangel a dream job with no college, noresume, and eve n withou t any e:l·pericnce. l e :l pla in how yuu can gelsomeone to happily pay you to learnwha! you need to know 10 ~ t art yourown husine", $5 (#03)The Seert'l Guide 10 \Visdmll : Thisis a review of around a hundred hooksthat will boggle your mind and hl'lpYllU change yonr life , :'-l'u, [ don' t sdlthese hooks. 1bcy' l\: un a wide r.ulge ofsubject> and will help 10 make you an"ry interesting pCTS"". Wait' lI yousee some of the g.ems y'ou' \,c miss('dreading , You'll ha\'e ple:nty of fasci·nafing stuff to talk ahouTon the air.S5 (#021Poll' WWII Suhmarine AdH;,ntul't"!; :Yes. I spent from 1~3 - 1945 Oila ~ ul;l

marine, right in the middle of the war.",lth Japm. We aIm...... got '>UlIk <;o;:\ eral

limes. and twice I .", as in the right placeat the right time to sa\'e the boat ,Wha t's it really like 10 be dept hcharged·1 And what's tbe daily lifeahoard a submarine Iile? How al:ooutthe Ameli a Earhart in~ide slOr)'? lf)'ou're near Mobile. pleas<: \ i ~it theDrum. S5 (# '0)l'rawl Diarit"O: You can lfa\e1 amazingly inexpensivel)' - OI1ce you kIlO'"the ropes. Enjoy Shen)' and my' hudget\-j~ib to Europe. Ru~~ia. and a bufll:hofOlher intl:1"<:Sfmg places. Ilow ahoouta fmt class fli ght to Munich. a rentedAudi. drh 'ing t\J visit Vienna. Kralo'"

.. . ...wayne

Barter 'n' Buy _

Turn your old ham and computer gear into cash now. Sure, you can wait for a harnlesl to try an d d ump it, but you know you'll gel a far morerealistic price if you have it out where 100,000 active ham potential buyers can see it, rather than the few hundred local hams who come bya flea market table. Check your attic, garage, cellar and closet shelves and get cash for your ham and computer gear before it's too old tosell. You know you're not going to use it again, so why leave it for your widow 10 throw ovt? Thai stuff isn't getting any younger!The 73 Flea Market, Barter 'n' Buy, costs you peanuts (almost) - comes to 35 cents a word for individual (noncommercia l!) ads and $1 .00a wo rd for commercial ads. Don', plan on telling a long story. Use abb reviation s, cram it in. But be honest Th ere are plenty of hams who loveto fix things , so if it doesn't work, say so.Make your list, count the words, including your call, address and phone number. Include a check or your credit card number and expiration.If you're placing a commerc ial ad , incl ude an add itional phone number, separate from you r ad.This is a monthly magazine, not a daily newspaper, so figure a couple months before the action starts; then be prepared . If you get too manycalls, you priced it low. If you don't get many calls, too high .So get busy. Blow the dust off, check everything out, make sure it sti ll works righ t and maybe you can help make a ham newcomer or reti redold timer happy with that rig you 're not using now. Or you might get busy on your computer and put together a list of small gear/parts to sendto those interested?

Send your ads and payment to: 73 Magazine , Barter 'n' Buy, 70 Hancock Rd., Peterborough l"H 03458 and get set for thephone calls. The deadline for the March 2/X13 classified ad section is January 10, 2003.

220 MHz Award; see W9CYT on WWW,QRZ.CQM for information . BNB645

K8CX HAM GALLERY [http://hamgallery.com l.BNB620

TELEGRAPH COLLECTOR'S PRICE GUIDE:250 pictures/prices . $12 pos tpaid. ARTl FAXBOOKS, Box 88, Maynard MA Ot 754. TelegraphMuseum: [http://wltp.comj. BNB113

New miniature oscil lator modules are now available .. . all under $20 ... plus our great referencebook is still for sale. Write to RMT Engineering,6863 Buffham Road, Seville OH 44273 or seeour Web site at [www.ohio.neV_rto rmeVindex.html!]. BNB640

RF TRANSISTORS TUBE S 2SC2879. 2SC1971,2SC1972, MRF247, MRF455, MB8719, 2SC1307,2SC2029, MRF454, 2SC3133, 4CX250B, 12006,6KG6A, etc. WESTGATE. 1-800·2134563.

BNB6000

METHOD TO LEARN MORSE CODE FAST ANDWITHOUT HANGUPS Johan N3RF. Send $1 .00& SASE. SVANHOlM RESEARCH LABORATO·RIES, P.O. Box 81 , Washington DC 20044 USA.

BNB42t

Cash for Collins: Buy any Collins Equipment.Leo KJ6HI. Tel.lFAX (310) 670·6969. [radioleo @earthlink.net]. BNB425

Browse our Web site and check out the"Monthly Special." TDL Technology, Inc. [www.zianet.com/tdlj. BNB500

MAHLON LOOMIS, INVENTOR OF RADIO, byThomas Appleby (copyright 1967). Second print·ing available from J OHAN K.V. SVANHOLMN3RF, SVANHOLM RESEARC H LABORATORIES, PO. Box 81, Washington DC 20044. Pleasesend $25.00 donation with $5.00 tor S&H.

BNB420

Ham Radio Repa ir, Quality workmans hip. AllBrands. Fast Service. Affordable Electron ics,7110 E. Thomas Rd., Scottsda le, AZ 85251 . Call480-97().0963. or E-mail [HAM SERVlCE@AOLCOM). BNB427

64 73 Amateur Radio toaev » January 2003

SATELLITE TV - Large selection of items atreasonable prices. We specialize in Big DishTVRO C & Ku Band equipment. Check us out at[www.daveswebahop.com]. BNB646

HEATHKIT COMPANY is selling photocopies ofmost Heathkit manuals. Only authorized sourcefor copyright manuals. Phone: (6t6) 925-5899,8-4 ET. BNB964

WANT ED: USED ROTORS, controls, CO' 44,Harn-M, 2, 3,4, T2X , or larger. Call C.A.T.S.,1-8oo-3ROTORS BNB662

Electricity, Magnetism, Gravity, The Big Bang.New explanation of basic forces of nature in this 91 ·page book covering early scientific theories and exploring latest controversial conclusions OIl their reolatlcnshlp to a unified field theory. To order. sendcheck or money order for $16.95 to: American SCience Innovations, P.O. Box 155, Clarington OH4391 5. Web site lor other products [http://www.asL2000. com]. BNB100

COLLOIDAL SILVER GENERATOR! Why buy a"box of batteries" for hundreds of dollars? Currentregulated, AC powered, fully assembled with #12AWG silver electrodes, S74.50. same, but DC powered. $54.50. Add $2.50 shipping. Thomas Mil ler,216 East 10th St., Ashland OH 44805. Web address [www.bioe lectrifie r.com). BNB342

ANTENNA SCIENCE: Why do antennas radiateelectromagnetic waves? Learn for yourself fromthis enlightening paper by MAX RESEARCH.Gain an understanding of the radiation mechanism of antennas! Written in a clear style for radiohobbyists, inquisitive amateurs and experimenters.$4.95 ... ppd. Order from MAX RESEARCH, P.O,Box 1306, East Northport NY 1t 731 .

BNB426

WANTED: ANY MODEL Collins, woric.ing or not,including speakers, filters , options, t -piece orcollection. Bob, 651-354-5345 days: 651-3453600 eves. E-Mail: [email protected]. BNB661

FREEl! HAM Radio and other co-Roms andDisk catalog. MOM 'N' POP'S SOFTWARE , P.O.Box 15003-TH, Springhill, FL 34604-0111, 1-352·688-9108, visit: http://www.momnpopsware.com

BNB660

SMART BATTERY CHARGERS and more,[www.a-aenqlneerlnq.ccm] BNB653

GET MORE OUT OF HAM RADIO! Books on alltopics. Up to 15% off. Quality Technical Books.[http://qtb .comlhamradiol]. BNB665

NEUER SR Y DIEcont inued from page 62

read the books by Dr. Melvin Page, Dr.Weston Price, Dr. Henry Bieler, Dr. BrunoCamby, or Dr. Guylane Lanctot (they'rereviewed in my Secret Guide to \Visdom ).

They ' re all taught to "treat" symptomswith prescription drugs, shots, or surgery.

Like us, they never hear about thework of the above doctors from the media and, even if they bothered to read themedical journals, they wo uldn't learnanything about alternatives. The medicaljournals depend o n pharmaceutical company advertising and arcn 't about to kickbillion -dollar gi ft horses like that in theerr . .. slats.

Water, water

With 75% o f Americans chronically dehydrated, the odds are that you're one of'em. So what? Well, the lack of water isthe # 1 trigger of daytime fatigue. Howabout back or joint pain? It only takes a2% drop in body water to trigger shortrcrm memory loss and difficu lty in concentration. Five glasses of water a day decreases your potential for colon cancer by45%, breast cancer by 79%, and bladdercancer by 50%.

By water, I'm not referring to thatsewage from your faucet. Drink distilledwa ter, and drink a lot marc of it. Theexcess wi ll pass. fa

Alineo Delivers HF Adventure!Allnco's HF Transceivers Deliver Incredible Performance at a Tiny Price

You're only a few hundred dollars away from abrand new AJinco HF Transceiver. That's right! Just a few hundred dollars gets you on the airwith a big tOO-watt signal , great audio and an easy-to-operate package that's perfect for base, portable or mobile operations. The Alinco

DX-70 andDX-77 makeit easy for everyone to enjoy HF with adependable transceiver that's backed by Ahnco's1 year warranty.

The world of HF is calling. What are you waiting for?

Alinco oX·70TH Base/MobilelPortableHF +6Meter Transceiver

• 100 watts SSB, FM & (W, 40 watts AM

• Continuous coverage HF receiver+ full 6 meter coverage

• 100 memory channe ls• Speech compresso r

• Great CW rig, fuLL aSK, semior automatic break-in

• Standard narrow filter fights QRMon 558, CW or AM

• Two VFO's and easy "split" operation• RemovabLe face for remote mounting.• RIT / nUT, IF shift• MuLti function controL fo r easy operation

Alinco oX·77T Desktop HF Transceiver• 100 watts SSB, FM & CW. 40 watts AM• GeneraL coverage receiver

150 KHz - 30 MHz• Two VFO's; easy "split" operation• Standard speech processor• Front paneLspeaker provides Loud,

clear audio• Bui lt-in eLectronic keyer 6 - 60 wpm• FuLL aSK. 7-step semi break-in or auto break-in

Options• EDX-2 automatic wire antenna tuner• EMS-14 desktop microphone1------------------------1 . DM-330 MVT switching power supply• DM-340 MVT regulated power supp Ly

Iron Horse Mobile HF antennas for Alinco and other HF transceiversOrder the Iron Horse IHF55 package from your dealer and go mobile fast!

IHKDJS QuickDisconnect Kit

You get a package of 5 rugged, easily tunedantennas fo r 10, 15, 20, 40 & 75 meters fromIron Horse, a name recognized fo r its strengthand dependability. Each has 3/8 x 24 threadsand is rated for 500 watts. Order the I HK D355 antenna quick disconnect mounting kit tomake changing bands aquick and easy operation,just push, turn & go!

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IHF5SMobile HF Antennas

~,~; www.ALINCO.com~~ Distributed in North America by AlDC Amateur Distributing LLC • 23 S. High St., Covmgton, OH45318. (937) 473-2840

sneemcauens subject to change without nenee or obligation,PrMucts intended for use tly p rop~ , ly lit enscd op~ralofS_ Permits r~Q"irM for MARS/CAP "s~ . Specificabons s "bj~ClI O cnange withDut noticeOr obligation . All trademarks re main the p mp 8 ~Y of their respective ceners.

IH1H-1Optional

Trailer Hitch Mou nt

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73 magazine - january 2003

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