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on 160m again

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This time RBN IS picking me up :-)

I am qrp and into a 140 ft long wire and tons of radials!.

Inverted L setup with vertical section about 30 feet and rest going down the garden.

SK3W picked me up in seconds.



CQ'ing 1.822.50 for now... I'll be out every night this week.

on 160m making qso :-)

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Finally got the antenna and rig working nicely... cqing on 1.825 and just qso with S51EC and LA7AK.

I am QRP.

BIG GRIN :-)

I am qrp into a 140ft inverted L abt 25ft AGL.

160m antenna

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Asked for some photos...

Looking down the rear garden.

The two lines yellow and white going across the garden are washing lines.


One end (house end) with an insulator.


 The end wire support is off a TV pole on the house so about 20ft agl.

 The wire is almost invisible looking up.



 The two garden supports, centre one and the end (by shack) the long wire is on small string loops.


Cumbria DSP Components

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Those who expressed an interest in a component set for Ron (G4GXO) board please get in touch (do not send a comment it will not have your email on it!) the Farnell back order for the 470uF caps has come in and so I have sets ready to post out now.

Cumbria DSP

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Just set sets to:

M6EST
G4DYT
G1LHL
G3ROO (Ian got yours ready for your return from ZS)
G7VKQ (2nd set of discretes included)
Alan R ?? No contact
ZL2CCO got a set for you... send me an email please.

Flying Pig Rig #'45 arrived...

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As I am FP#2233 I will also get involved in trying to contact some other piggies this winter and next year.

Diz FP#1 has come up with a wonderful homebrew rig for all piggies... http://www.kitsandparts.com/fpra-7030.7.php





There is no tuning... turn it on listen and if you hear anyone it is likely to be another piggie.


Flying Pig Rig #45 Build

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Building...

The parts in plastic bags

All the R installed

The Transformer T2 is really big :-)

T1 and T2 mounted
Capacitors  and IC installed.
All the transistors

Got food now ... will complete rest tomorrow...

Flying Pig Rig #45 Build Part2

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Got a few minutes so added the toroids, PA and heatsink.

I added the label to the rear of the heatsink.




Got to do some more tasks then will add all the other bits and align.



Flying Pig Rig #45 - Completed build (no case yet)

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No case yet.



Powered by NiMH 10AA 12.6V

Turns on fine but no 'OO' :-)

Got to run but will come back and trouble shoot.

Doh,,, forgot to plug in battery!

Get the 'OO' big grin...

Flying Pig Rig #45

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OK no RF out... :-(

Done a bit of probing. Going to do some operating using another rig for a bit then will come back to this.

Supply is 10 1.2V NiMH batteries and supply is 11.29V.

At Junction of R12/C14 have nice clean 230mA 7.03070 MHz signal (after turned C26 a bit).

Just to make sure that on key down I get a voltage  to PA... R23/R26 11.15V on key down so the keying voltage is appearing.

Junction of C43/T1 11.05V and drops to 0V on key down

Junction of Q3/C31/T1 11.05V drops to 0V on key down

Q5 and Q6  (BD139)  collector on both 11.25V key up or key down and emitter and base both remain at 0V

U1 Pin 7 11.27V
U2 Pin 8 5.94V
U3 Pin 6 11.22V
U4 Pin 8 5.25V


Flying Pig Rig #45 More debugging

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Voltages

Supply 11.90V

U2 Pin 6

DC RX 5.90V DC TX 5.90V
RF RX 247mV RF TX 247mV

Q2 Collector
DC RX 11.64V DC TX 11.64V

Q3 (Junction with R25) Emitter
DC RX 11.90V DC TX 11.89V

Q3 (Junction with C31) Collector
DC RX 12.16V DC TX 1.3mV


Not measured the RF voltages on Q2 and Q3 yet,,,

Shack PC

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Over Xmas the shack PC failed... so the shack website has gone down so anyone that had noted designs (I see the download logs)

It seems that something got too hot the northbridge on the motherboard failed :-)

I have a new video card and water cooler for the CPU coming.

I'll get the website back up shortly.

SPS250A power supply

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Small error lead to quite a problem...

A SMPS I take on trips I forgot is NOT auto voltage sensing on input and was still set to 110V after recent US trip... plugged it in and lets just say it died and let out the magic smoke, oops :-)

Pretty obviously the power transistors got fried and rather than junk it I thought I should fix it

This is dealing with mains voltage so do not do this unless you know what you are doing as the voltages are lethal.

It took a bit of digging to find the circuit diagram (thought it was on the pdf that came with it), still haven't found it exactly but this is very similar except mine appearstorunthefanfullallthetimeinsteadofhavingafancontrolboard on the lower right here.


This is closer

These power supplies are widely in use and all are called SPS250A in the name and are all made in China under various names... so if yours has SPS250A in the name and looks like mine then chances are it is the same but no responsibility if it is not, use information at own peril (and this is running at mains voltage which can kill so do not do this without a healthy respect for high voltages).

This is the same supply just a different brand name 'MyDEL' mine says Sharman.





The two NPN power transistors 2SC2625 were removed still attached to their heatsink.


Note all the common mode filtering on the input side (top right corner).
Mine has had the right hand transistor crater and the other is short circuit between the pins.


I'll add the photo of mine shortly.



Anyway suffice to say power supply can be easily repaired.

2Sc2625 were available from a number of sources but ebay was the cheapest.

I hear that it might make sense to replace the 2Sc2625 10A versions with 2Sc3220 which are 15A versions but I could not source them when I looked but they are also on ebay often enough.

paying licence fees for The Gambia before you arrive

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Asked this a few times so I post it here, you will have to confirm with PURA if these details are still correct though. I take no responsibility if they are wrong.

I got this from PURA. 94, Kairaba Avenue, P. O. Box 4230 Bakau, The Gambia Tel. (220) 4399601 / 4399606 Fax: (220) 4399905 E.mail pura@pura.gm  Website www.pura.gm


Type Approval Fees Payment to PURA Account

The method of payment will be by cheque or cash transfer from either a USA bank or a London to the following PURA accounts:

1.       From a USA Bank
BANK:                          HSBC BANK USA NA
ADDRESS:                   452 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
                                    NY10018
                                    USA

FED WIRE:                   021001088

SWIFT CODE:               MRMDUS33

ACCOUNT OF:              GUARANTY TRUST BANK (G) LTD

SWIFT CODE:               GTBCCMGM

ACCOUNT NO:              000141526

FOR FURTHER TO:       ACCOUNT NAME: PURA
                                    ACCOUNT NO: 201-108594-201 


                       
2.       From a London Bank
BANK:                          HSBC BANK PLC LONDON

ADDRESS:                   8 CANADA SQUARE
                                    LONDON
                                    E14 5HQ

SWIFT CODE:               MIDLGB22

ACCOUNT OF:              GUARANTY TRUST BANK (GAMBIA) LIMITED

SWIFT CODE:               GTBGGMGM

SORT CODE:                40-05-15

IBAN:                            GB61MIDL40051558979540(EURO)
                                    GB11MIDL40051558979567(USD)
                                    GB33MIDL40051558979559(GTB)

ACC NO:                       58979559 (GBP)
                                    58979540 (EUR)
                                    58979567 (USD)

FOR FURTHER TO:       ACCOUNT NAME: (PURA)
                                                                                    ACCOUNT NO:  (201-108594-110)


472KHz Nov


si570 in KX3

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Was asked... what is the Si570 in a KX3...


KX3 RF board

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This is the RF board of my KX3 before I start building.

LARGE IMAGES



















PS-SPS250A Power supply

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Transistors arrived from CPC.

Follow original here.
http://m1kta-qrp.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/sps250a-power-supply.html

Note that both are open and one had cratered.




CT1/M1KTA

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I'll be CT1/M1KTA/P between 9th and 17th Feb.

KH6/M1KTA

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Have been asked for a few words about KH6, where, when and what frequencies I was QRV from KH6/M1KTA.

I hired a car from the Honolulu airport and drop through Honolulu pased Diamond Head and Hanama Bay (I had been to both on a previous trip), follow the coast for a while longer and just as you start to head up the NE side of Ohau you will come upon a layby with a number of 'surf dudes' complete with VW camper vans etc and a layby off the main road.

I pulled in and at the far end of the car park stopped next to and between a row of tal palm trees.

At 08:38 local/18:36 UTC QRV from Sandy Beach, NE Ohau

After listening to the bands I started a CQ at 18:46 UTC (08:46 local)

Frequencies & Modes operated:

21.015 CW
18.075 CW
18.130 SSB
24.895 CW
14.015 CW
10.105 CW
7.005 CW
28.055 CW

40m and 80m had no disernable signals.

All 5W from my KX3 #1082 into a W3EDP (84ft & 17ft counterpoise) hung vertically  up one and then horizontally between two tall (30ft+) palm trees at the edge of the car park on the shoreline right by Sandy beach. A good operating location for any that look for one in the future.

Sat in the shade by the car I was operating with power coming from the battery of the rental car using a set of jump leads, as the KX3 had no other power. The car was left running whilst I operated.

QRT just after 12:00 local time, completely forgot to take a photo of the setup but did take a photo of Sandy bay (because the QSL card) and returned to airport for flight to Houston where I met up with AE5X.
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