Sweepstakes – Close Again

Well, had a good time in the ARRL CW Sweeps this year. Still no sweep. It was the curse of the 'askas. With a couple hours to go I needed Alaska and Nebraska. Surprisingly enough, I got Alaska but never heard Nebraska. Oh well. At least I am convinced that poor antennas is no longer... Continue Reading →

December 28, 2013 0

Update on ZS6BKW Antenna

I did some tuning of my ZS6BKW antenna just before the 2012 ARRL CW Sweepstakes contest. My goal was to get the SWR in the CW Bands down to 3:1 or better. The reason I wanted this was that the internal tuner on my IC-7600 can quickly tune that range, without the need for my... Continue Reading →

November 10, 2012 1

Remote Audio for Ham Station

I have been using Skype for remote receive audio. That seems to work fine except I have to mute the microphone at the remote location to hear the audio from the rig clearly. So that is what I have been doing. But now I want to setup the transmit audio link from the operating position... Continue Reading →

December 17, 2011 0

PSK Modem Assembly Update

Well I got most of the ICs onto the board. THe first three are fine-pitch (0.5 mm between pads). They were difficult to hand solder. The best approach seems to be the "drag solder" method, where you pull some excess solder across a whole row of pads, then use solder wick to remove any shorts.... Continue Reading →

July 10, 2008 0

Surface Mount Assembly

I now have most of the parts for the NUE PSK modem, so it is time to setup for assembly. This uses SMT parts, so it will require some careful soldering. Instead of starting with the ICs (one-of-a-kind and many leads), I am trying the caps first. Starting witht the 1206 size caps, which are... Continue Reading →

June 23, 2008 1

Welcome

Today, March 23, 2008 I started this Blog. The main intention is to have a place to capture my activities in Ham Radio. My callsign is KG3V. I have been a Ham for many years, but just get "re-energized" in the past three years after a long inactive period. So this will be my notebook... Continue Reading →

March 23, 2008 0