985 Workbench: 2025-10-20

My Week in Radio

enjoyed getting to the breakfast
- great to be unemployed this summer
- time to find a job, though
10M open lots for FT8: Azores today with 4W
headed to ham fest in harrisburg on saturday
great collection of probes for my multimeters

Others

W1RC, will:
- local hamfest flea market
  - great gear
  - ten tec 555 scout, a favorite
    - adjustable bandwidth
W3CRW, CR:
- breakfast
AC3NW, Manny:
- considering budget and layout for first HF station
WA3KFT, manny:
- some nets
KC3SCY, Luke:
- working on CW
- building a rig
WA3VEE, Ron:
- Perkasie RF Hill hamfest
- 10M this weekend for HF DX: CQ WW SSB Contest
  - great for technicians
- acquired a cool cat whisker receiver before it got trashed
  - to restore
- winter field day work
AF3Z, Jim:
- carried QRP gear to the beach, but didn’t use it.
KC3OOK, Bill:
- usual nets
- breakfast
- finished his table and a row of equipment
- working on a heath kit
- ordered a speaker for the heath kit
KC3NZT, Harvey:

Questions

AC3NW, Manny:
- Considering antennas for HF in his neighborhood.
  - Trying to remain low-profile.
  - Vertical for HF: Hustler 5BTV
  - trapped vertical
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - used that antenna previously when he was a kid
  - 190 countries
  - 75m resonator
  - WAS on 75M SSB
  - for CW as well
  - solar cycle 20
  - Russia, China, Australia
  - used raised verticals
  - we’ve used that antenna at the field day site
- K3FS, Renee:
  - an end-fed wire can be pretty invisible
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - that vertical could be sort of conspicuous
  - an 80m dipole with ladder line would be a great multiband
  - has chosen to an EFHW for his home
- W1RC, Mike:
  - likes his 130-ft EFRW + tuner for agility
- AC3NW, Manny:
  - end-fed sounds interesting
K3FS, Renee:
- has an older amplifier, Clipperton L
- runs 4 5072 tubes.
- does not have a tuned front-end
- used pi network to match impedence to the amplifier
- there’s a tuning module that can be inserted to give 50-ohm interface for transceiver.
- doesn’t have that module
- would an automatic tuner match the amplifier that’s not tuned?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - uses a 7300 with that Clipperton L for 10 meters
  - has inserted an MFJ tuner between the transceiver and the amp.
  - built-in tuner may not have enough range
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - has no trouble driving the Clipperton L with 7610
  - caution: built a circuit to key it
- WA3KFT, John:
  - also has a circuit of a transistor driving a relay to key the amplifier
  - DIC relay
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - can share keying circuit to be safe
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - learning about his Clipperton L
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - another word of caution: look at the voltage on the relay.
  - it’s driver at a high voltage, so it runs hot.
  - use an LM317 regulator to bring it down
- K3FS, Renee:
  - great to see so many Clipperton Ls around.
  - already has some tuners to use
  - thanks for relay advice
  - will use a quiet relay
KC3OOK, Bill:
- How would one adapt a new speaker impedance to an old radio that uses higher impedance? matching wattage?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - speakers are pretty forgiving
  - the volume may vary a little
  - large speakers could require more current to move the cone
  - try it and see
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - 25W speaker doesn’t need 25W, that’s just the max
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - speakers going into clipping is what damages them.
  - sensitivity is rated in dB at 1W at 1M from the speaker
  - pick a speaker that sounds good to you.
  - Liisong speakers are a great option for radios
  - pay attention to how it sounds. a clipping speaker sounds like garbage.
  - 90dB is the benchmark: quite loud.
  - 200-5000Hz is about what we need for SSB
  - find 8ohms or higher
KD3EMS, Chris:
- Church is using FRS Retevis radios, Does anyone have any recommendations for ear pieces for extended use?
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - SAL Notes Zero

My Week in Radio

Others

Questions

See also