Radio Society of Greater Bixby

For part of the 35 years Tom WA5MAZ wasn’t active, he designed some com’l HVAC system Control Boxes. Having bot a QMX plus from QRP-Labs, he now wants to make his own QRP rig and thinks the control box (of which he has a bunch left over) could be repurposed to his QRP design (with a few added parts, you know, RF stuff, an audio transistor or two, and a freq synthesizer). John KI5OYW and Mike KI5YX are listening as Tom shows an HVAC ctrl box with some of the functions already redacted. Mike YX and Phillip KI5PFV spent most of the meeting with their ALLSTAR Nodes, and (Late Note) did some addt’l work on them Saturday. Phillip PFV is moving home to TX this week, but will continue to run the Monday night 220 Net at 9PM from his Texas home via Allstar. (224.18 plus 224.38 and more)

Kenny KJ5EKW has a full function Go Bag, not just a couple radios (and the 2 antennae shown above his head), but also other items useful in the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse.

John KI5OYW showed a completed attenuator kit, but said max down seemed to be affected by feed through. It was a bare board (with 4 or more resistors per attenuator section) and we thought it might work better in a metal housing to shield sections and also input from the nearby – 4 inches – output.

Rich ZQG had a comment about the highly regarded Astron (linear) power supplies, used in repeater service Do Not Meet spec on continuous duty. Not even 50% load. Safe continuous load on 35 Amp models is more like 10Amps Unless You Put a Fan on them, and one critical part is the rectifier bridge inside Not Bolted to Aluminum but the steel chassis bottom. Put the fan inside maybe.

RSGB features No Business meeting, No Dues, and a Tech pgm every time, 2wice a month on 2nd and 4th Thursdays, Scott’s hamburgers in Bixby, 7 to 8:15PM. Nets on 146.91 Wed and Fri at 7PM.

John KI5OYW brought in this 16 in circumference 2M direction finding loop on the 2nd Thurs club mtg and showed us the result on his VNA. John likes loops, having previously made a 5 ft HF model using 2 in wide copper tape and some high voltage variable caps. This one uses 1/4 inch copper tube with a piece of coax dielectric inserted at the top gap (as a tuning capacitor ). Apologies: Pic wound up Portrait Mode and WordPress site only used a Landscape (horizontal) section of the pic.

Next RSGB mtg is Sept 24, 7PM at Scott’s hamburgers in downtown Bixby OK. C U There.

Not only was Logan KJ5EDE first to arrive, half an hour early, but he also had the nicest rig for sale, a Yaesu DX-10 HF and 6M With CW Filter, for $1,100 bucks asking price. Total attendance could have been around 50 guys with maybe 10 to 12 vendors, one of which was Mike KI5YX shown here with a few other RSGB members as he offers lengths of #0 (ought) tinned copper stranded cable at a bargain price. You could make jumper or welding cables, or ground an aircraft carrier with this stuff.

Left to right are Tom WA5MAZ, John KI5OYW (hidden), Mike KI5YX, Deb K5DBE, and Sam KJ5BJR. TARC club Pres Mark WA5MA was there too, along with this ‘Twisty’ antenna, an omnidirectional for 2M intended to receive the ISS no matter where it is in the sky, straight up or anywhere else.

Dave K5TZS was the only one who thought ahead and had prices on his offerings. One was an old pre war AM/SW console radio marked $75. It needs a little work, but it’s one of those things that’ll never depreciate and in addition to AM, is marked with 1.5 – 3.5 Mc plus 6 – 18 Mc. (Just add a wire antenna.)

Grant KC1KCE from Sapulpa was there also with a lot of stuff received for review (that he didn’t have to return). He gave four (4) new HTs to TARC pres Mark MA, of which Mark immediately bestowed one on the aforementioned John KI5OYW who has been a bit delayed starting his Amateur career, but who has just made (from scratch) an HF loop. Grant also had GMRS and other commercial stuff.

RSGB mtgs are second and fourth Thursdays, 7 to 8:15 PM at Scott’s hamburgers in downtown Bixby. The club features No dues, No business meeting, and a Tech program every month. Each meeting starts with YOUR SHOW n TELL. Next mtg is Thurs 10 September.

More than half a dozen guys showed up to see the advertised home made tube linear made from scratch by Tom WA5MAZ. There was other stuff, but the home made linear (Tom had just completed a QRP-Labs kit, and needed a bit more power out to make sure) was star of the show. Functionally listed, he used some power transformers from a high power audio amp; regular (current tech) high voltage silicon diodes; some “left over” scrapped linear parts from EBay; an 814 tube he had; a socket for it; a 3 in fan from an HP desk top computer power supply, and the HP tower case (seen above). Some of the harder parts were designing input and output circuits using the few coils that came in the ‘left over’ parts kit. Above left to right are: Larry W5LQF, Tom WA5MAZ, new Ham Zach KJ5GAC, and Mike KI5YX.

First of all, that’s not a radar dish. It’s a huge parabolic reflector antenna for Gc freqs, possibly for an astronomical purpose. SAC headquarters in Omaha had one, a 45 ft model on 2.2 Gc to send comms to a stationary satellite in 1970. Prior to becoming operational, the techs in charge used it to listen to Neil and Buz on the moon in 1969 (verified by WA0ZQG). We didn’t mention radar at the meeting, instead consumed by several Show n Tells, Larry W5LQF’s (like new) 1969 tube tester With Manual and tube listing. Cute little thing with both 7 and 9 pin miniature sockets along with traditional octal and other larger tube sockets. He was offering a pair of V/UHF telescoping whip antennas with right angle Motorola plugs on the bottom. No one had a matching receiver at home so Larry took them back. Rich ZQG brought in the Lindsay Graham funeral video and handed out a couple of Tic Tac packages (as DJT had done at the funeral). That was the advertised ‘political joke’,

Walgreens doesn’t have a tube tester any more, and in fact, buying tubes is a problem (unless you know an older Ham who still has stock). But if you do need a tester, Larry W5LQF has this nice ‘new’ one. Speaking of tubes, Tom WA5MAZ has a new QRP Labs rig, the one with digital freq readout and a whole bunch of other features (kit form for $165) and is making his own Linear using an 814 tube and some old components. He’s mounted it all in a worn out HP upright desk computer case that leaves room for the QRP rig in the old floppy drive bay. The 814 tube is mounted horizontally, and yes, it’s the right way up (plates to the side so the filaments don’t sag into the grids). We also shared eBay experiences, Tom having bought some (Chinese copy) real nice wire strippers. Mike KI5YX asked, Do the cutter jaws touch evenly? Answ: Yes, at first.

Phillip KI5PFV in Winchester divined that this tower is next to Costco off Memorial around 103rd and even sent in his own pic, taken on a sunnier day. We’ll have more tower pics in the future.

The Show n Tell was overwhelmed by Tom WA5MAZ who just bought a Yaesu 2100B 600W linear to go with his (Raytheon) SBE-34 HF rig. Warned that the caps might be bad, he thought twice about turning it on, but all it did was show 2400V and popped a few times. Works. There was a problem keying it with his SBE, but he adapted the -20V to plus 12, and also filed down a spark induced spur on the finals tuning capactor. He is running it at half power into RG58 feeding his 40M dipole.

This is the bottom of a Yaesu FL 2100B Linear amp (w two tubes). How many parts can you identify? How about the two fan motors? The input and output PL connectors. Anything else? MAZ also showed a HomeMade 2 tone audio generator for testing SSB transmitters. Looks professional.

Other Show n Tell items were an AM/FM/SW radio with solar panel and USB input, a QFX R37 for $25 on eBay. Good sound. A quarter century old Yaesu VX5 H/T has a new battery and charge cord (also for $25 on eBay). The Y. VX5 receives AM to 16Mc, FM broadcast, AM aircraft 118-136, and 220 plus transmits FM on 6M, 2M, and 440.

MEETING MINUTES: In the absence of any club officers, we held a meeting anyway to decide which date to continue, 2nd or 4th Thursday. We decided to continue both dates bc it’s so much fun. Still the same, No dues, No business meeting, and a Tech program every month at Scott’s hamburgers (in the back Party Room) 7 to 8:15 PM on 2nd and 4th Thursdays. MEETING ADJOURNED by voice vote.

First to arrive John KI5OYW won early arrival prize of a ferrite and magnesium forever match, and brought along his new Power Pole crimpers and supplies. Tom WA5MAZ showed his newly made Under Window coax passage made of brass strip and a female UHF connector. Larry W5LQF had a selection of those old HBO and other premium channel filters that the cable company put in your cable feed to filter out channels you weren’t paying for.

Most of our meeting time was spent discussing and dissecting ferrite cores Kenny KJ5EKW brought in, one of the variety looking as if it’d come right out of the ARL end fed antenna kit. See pic below.

Note: If you want to build an End Fed kit, Gabe K5LDX has some made up. Look him up on QRZ dot com. He was showing them at the TARC Field Day in Haikey Creek Park.

As advertised, we did explain and debunk the idea that it doesn’t matter about the amount of copper below the U part of a home made J-Pole antenna. RF will flow down there, radiate, and mess up the radiation pattern of the antenna. Phillip KJ5PFV bypassed the 5 foot tall J controversy with 3 beautiful examples of quarter wave ground planes, copper wire and a chassis mount UHF connector for 2M, 220, and 440 bands with 19. 13, and 6 inch dimensions .

Dr Mark and Rosemary, NM0D & KE5CMS, hosted the Evergreen Church Group (EverGreenCG . org) at their hilltop venue Saturday morning 06.13. It’s a great place for Field Day type operations with a large pond (reflecting ground) and plenty of trees for antenna support and shade. That’s Mark K5LGS in blue.

Kenny KJ5EKW arrived early with his car full of: backpack with a Yaesu 857 all band all mode rig inside; MFJ manual tuner; large (4 in) screen VNA; hundred Amp LifePo; table and chairs, and a six foot (the yellow stick on the ground) high power Sling Shot to put his 88 foot end fed antenna in the trees. After setup he went back home to get his mom.

Deb K5DBE and Sam KJ5BJR also showed up. In this pic Lt Dan K5CAY has his (red) chair and wide range (25 to 1000 Mc) Discone antenna out of the car. Almost out of sight in hte previous pic, Denny KI5VWF is down by the pond with his Yaesu 891 HF and 6M rig. Evergreen group meets 2nd Saturday at the church on 111th, and talk on 145.25 Mon and Thurs at 7PM.

Tom WA5MAZ, having renewed his license after a few decades, has also renewed his SBE-34 HF rig by replacing a couple of electrolytic capacitors, one of which has begun to exude white stuff. The SBE 34 came out in late 1960s, well before the Kenwood 520 and Yaesu 101. The SBE was all tubes and had No noise blanker, No speech compressor, No crystal dial calibrator, and didn’t run all bands. What it did have was a low price, over 50W output, and a VFO. It worked. Tom bought another one at a recent Hamfest for 75 bucks, and after fixing a debilitating error in IF tuning, now has 2 good rigs on which he’s contacted 46 of the 48 states (all but Idaho and N.Mexico) plus Guam, and all on 40M.

Pictured above are Tom MAZ and Larry W5LQF who brought in some of his old equipment, 5 vertical antennas (which MAZ took home); an SDR radio (which Phillip PFV took home), and assorted other items. Larry LQF is another ‘experienced’ Ham whose interest has been rekindled recently (using a recent Yaesu 2M monoband rig to join the “Tech Net” on 146.91 at 7PM on Wed and Friday nights).

LQF also brought in an SDR radio which Phillip KI5PFV volunteered to take home to see if he can make work. SDRs typically have a wide range and work multiple modes.

The rest of the ‘program’ was a review of ARL Field day rules, noting that it only takes ‘three persons’ to run a Class A station on Field Day, also a review of 2 dipole antennas they used to advertise in the magazines, one a scam with .01 capacitors in each leg (that had no noticeable effect), and another with a hundred Ohm resistor in the center that assured a SWR of less than 2 (true, and the thing worked reasonably well With Any Length of Wires attached). A final segment was how Leo W0GFQ of Council Bluffs IA made hundreds of thousands of crystals for the Army in WWII. The trick was grinding dozens at a time using a drill press, and a Hallicrafters receiver to monitor the progress without having to test each crystal separately. The result was our Sherman tanks could instantly switch any of 10 channels while German tiger tanks had to painstakingly tune their radios with a VFO.