985 Workbench: 2025-09-29

Week in Radio

Welcome Manny!
Attended the 3D Printing show in Belair on Saturday
activated a new-to-me park in MD
WW RTTY contest
- 66 contacts, QRP, Rookie
leaving on a cruise on saturday:
- no ham radios
- will miss Red Rose Hamfest

Others

W3JAM, Jeff:
- Skywarn in Dauphin county
- Simplex Net
- OCF antenna finally installed
- 2m antenna mounted higher
- received a 16 element yagi to refurbish
AC3NW, Manny:
- new extra license in January
- building a shack
- running coax outside
- working on getting operational in general: VHF and HF
- looking to install a vertical for VHF and dipole for HF
- budget
WA3VEE, Ron:
- getting ready for Red Rose Hamfest
  - testing some scopes and power supplies
- setting up his military station
KC3RFG, Jim:
- fixing up an antenna and its connections, so radio will tune better
  - replaced a lightning arrester
WA3KFT, John:
- hearing some other traffic in his location on 985
- advice: always have an SWR meter in the coax line to keep an eye on things.
- reading high SWR on current 2M rig
KC3OOK, Bill:
- hosted welfare net on sunday
- working at joe’s on tower
  - final install this weekend
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- working on his feed lines on tower
- attempted to check-in to the old forks net on Saturday
  - but found Puerto Rico and Scotland instead, so made those contacts
- hula hoop antenna on top of tower
- evaluating performance and noise of different antennas he has up
- noise from air conditioner unit
- one more antenna to move, and then they’re all on the same mast
AB3AP, Mike:
- CW and POTA contacts
- playing with PLL to track broadcast AM modulation
AF3Z, Jim:
- found the rtty contest
- 7030kHz, found the FOC CW party there
  - worked some of them
  - 2 UK, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, US
  - exchange: signal report and name + FOC number
KD3AIS, Tim:
- another week waiting for an antenna bracket for the 2024 Tundra
  - keep getting the wrong bracket
KB3ZIM, Bob:
- more 10M activity
- worked a 6m repeater in Honey Brook: K3CX?
  - linked to other repeaters
  - enjoying morsle.fun: very helpful, 40wpm
AA3LH, Leon:
- playing with a receiver on the long wire again: China, Russia

Questions

AF3Z, Jim:
- With surface mount, integrated circuits, chips in modern rigs, how repairable do we think they’ll be?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - surface mount requires specialized equipment for soldering
  - swap whole boards
  - send it for repair
- W8CRW, CR:
  - shipped a radio back for repair
  - parts sometimes aren’t available for repair
  - obsolete
- KD3EE, John:
  - Xiegu radios: my X6100 or G90
    - cheap, chinese
    - Radioddity sells a “refresh kit” with common parts
    - I have internal battery to swap in some day
  - updatable software means new features and optimizations in the future
  - is it like cars, where they don’t need repair as much?
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - like TVs, some high power componests with heat sinks will still be replaceable
  - update-able firmware can extend the life
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - for icom rigs with burn-in problem, like ic-7610, repair turn-around is expected to be slow, but it got repaired quickly: 18 days turn-around.
  - updated firmware, totally refreshed, settings restored, replaced clock battery
  - great service from shop in MN
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - late 80s kenwood, never had anything wrong with it.
  - can deal with some surface mount
  - flashing may or may not be possible for replaced chips
  - never missed old car tech: more complex but less likely to fail
  - modifications to yaesu for external audio
    - days of work to make mods, so not accessible to most people
  - keeping rigs as long as possible
  - repairable: connectors, finals, power supplies
  - done with boat anchors
- AB3AP, Mike:
  - old C64 computer had such a following there’s an FPGA reproduction of it.
  - favorite old radios may be cloned, emulated, or new chips fabricated.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - both his rigs have the original Motorola transistors that have been discontinued
  - ebay supposedly has equivalents (or fakes?)
  - other companies stepped up to make replacements
  - if there’s demand there will be supply made available
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - ARRL had insurance for ham radio gear: preparation
  - amazed at longevity of solid-state gear: Triton IV since the 70s
  - computers with high clock speeds
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - labor is getting expensive: $1000 labor to install $7 part
  - SDR radios, like 7300 is 10 years old, and working well
  - 10 years is probably a good lifespan
  - with labor price, budgeting to buy replacement might be best
  - doesn’t miss old car systems
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - they seldom commit suicide, but they sometimes get murdered
  - some new radios promise updates, but never deliver

Week in Radio

Others

Questions

See also