n9ik’s radio blog

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Originally uploaded by tfarrow

I finally dug out my “QRO” rig, an old Kenwood TS-130S HF transceiver, and got it set up on my deck for some late afternoon operating. On the table with the radio are: to the left is a Shure Brothers Model 440 microphone on a Electro-Voice 423A stand; on top of the TS-130S is a Kenwood remote VFO; to the right (white panel) is an MFJ-948 Versa Tuner II; on top of the MFJ tuner are my RockMite 40-meter QRP transceiver, BLT (Balanced Line Tuner), and dummy load; to the right of the MFJ unit are my Fluke multi-meter (for checking battery voltage), and the West Mountain Radio “RigRunner” 40 amp, 12 outlet DC power strip. Not seen below the table is my salvaged car battery, which currently is my only power supply, and on the railing to the right is a battery charger to keep the battery topped up.

This is the first time in several years that the Kenwood rig has been powered up. So far it seems to be working well.

Recently, I bid on a key to add to my fledgling collection of Morse keys, and hopefully would be a good key to use on the air.  This key was a CJB 26003A “Flame Proof” key, and is a key that seems to be one of the most highly praised keys by members of the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC).  The description for this key on eBay included “Used on Neptune maritime aircraft and other RAAF aircraft of the time such as Lincolns etc.  Label dated on box 1984 where they may have been reidentified when the aircraft was decomissioned.” 

I won the bidding for the key!  I’d resigned myself to not being able to afford a good key, and in fact I’ve bid on, and lost, quite a few straight keys and bugs recently on eBay.  I didn’t really expect to win the bidding, but I think that I got lucky.

I received the key a couple of days ago, and I am very, very pleased.  This key is in mint condition, still has the little plastic cover over the binding posts, and in fact it came in the original box.  It’s apparent that this key is “NOS”, or New Old Stock, and had never been issued.  Taking off the paper wrapper with customs stickers and Australian postage, seeing this original press-board box with manufacturers markings and military stock label was quite a treat.

Opening the box, you find a solid looking, black crinkly-finished key, with a tall “Navy” type knob.  The mechanism and contacts are sealed inside the metal housing, preventing any potential sparks from igniting any flammable fumes - hence the “Flame Proof” moniker.

This key has been manufactured by several different companies for the US and Allied military, primarily the Navy, going back (I think) to WWII.  You can tell who the manufacturer was by the three-letter prefix of this key’s model number.  This one, for example, is CJB 26003A, with CJB being the “code” for J. H. Bunnell & Company.  Bunnell produced telegraph keys beginning in 1878, and produced keys and other electronic equipment to the military from the time of the Spanish American War through 1988 at least.  During the last 30 years of that the Flame Proof was manufactured, ending in 1988, Bunnell was the sole manufacturer.

Manufacturer codes:

• CJB- J. H. Bunnell
• CTE- Telephonics
• CMK- McElroy
• CMI- Moulded Insulator Co.

After making some adjustments and playing around with the key for a few minutes, I have to say that the action on this key is the best that I’ve been able to use so far.

Well, I did it.  I’ve been wanting to register a domain name for my “Ham Radio Identity” for quite some time, and when I saw that I could do so, for free (for the first year), using the Microsoft Office Live Small Business service to host it, I jumped at the opportunity to give the service a try.  If I don’t like it, I’ll transfer the domain to another provider later. 

My new domain is n9ik.net, and the blog I’m trying out is at n9ik.net/blog.

While getting caught up with Bill - M0HBR’s podcast “Soldersmoke“, I took a look around his web site, Gadgeteer.us.  There he has a video made by a French ham, Claude Paillard, call sign F2FO, showing Claude homebrewing some triode tubes.  Plenty of people homebrew tube receivers and transmitters, but how many hams do you know that take homebrewing quite so far?  Claude puts quite a few skills in play, and it helps that he seems to have all the right tools for the job.

from vodpod.com posted with vodpod

WordPress Tags: homebrew, tubes, triode, diy, videos

Mr. “Hieronymus Isambard” (Jake) von Slatt, the Proprietor over at The Steampunk Workshop, has created a couple of very nice telegraph sounders.  Taking it even further, he interfaced one with his PC to “copy” RSS feeds in Morse code!  I attempted to post his video of one of the sounders “sounding off” an RSS feed in code, but I couldn’t get WordPress to accept it.  Take a look at his description of the project.

I finally got an antenna in the air temporarily this afternoon, and got out my RockMite 40, BLT and Nye Master Key.  The 40 meter band seemed very active; at least there was lots of activity around 7.030 MHz, which is the frequency of the crystals currently installed in the RockMite.  Everyone that I heard was a bit fast for me; I was able to copy only about 15% or 20% of what I was hearing.Most of the calls that I was able to copy were in 4-land.  One person was having a ball with his “bug” slowed down to about 15 wpm - I forgot to write down their call, but they had a very distinctive “fist”, with comparatively long dashes.

The photo above shows my portable station:  Battery pack with 8 “AA” cells, RockMite transceiver on 7.030 MHz, Nye-Viking Master Key (model 330-001), NorCal BLT (Balanced Line Tuner) modified to also tune unbalanced feed lines, and my cheap, worn-out Koss UR/29 headphones.  The BLT is feeding a speaker-wire doublet as an “inverted-V” with the apex up only about 25 feet or so.  The tuner handled it easily.

I’ve been looking for a cheap GPS to use for APRS in my car.  I think I’ve found it!

Randall Munroe (XKCD), #40

Very interesting…  But I have to wonder just how much power is needed to run the RF generator…

Ever want to get on the air with CW, but couldn’t find your key?  OH6CD solves this problem with some inventive, and strange, solutions.  He improvises keys using everything from a toaster to a trailer hitch. 

Visit his “Strange CW Keys” page at http://tinyurl.com/3wf725.

Here’s a video of his bicycle pump hey:

Video from GHD - “”How To Operate a Straight Key”.  This is an instructional video showing how to properly set up and use (Japanese style) a straight key.  The video concludes with demos of a bug, and a “side-swiper” or “cootie” key.. 

Japanese language, but with English sub-titles.  Nicely done.