Links / Operating

by Jurgen

Since I threw my television set out of the shack I should have more time to finally find that nasty bug in my K2 but now I spend my time surfing the net… Again I found some interesting links I wish to share with you:

  • Although there is nothing to see related to Ham-Radio you should check these great pictures on the site of Aime ON4AIM:[inside view] and [outside view] (you’ll need Java to open them!). Don’t forget to click your mouse and drag it around to see the full panorama. This is the lighthouse of Ostend on which the ON0OS ATV-repeater is located.
  • Another interesting text for all ham-radio operators can be found on the site of Marc ON4WW: Let’s make DXing enjoyable again. Please.
    Are YOU sure your operating practice is correct? Yes?

Microcontroller / Award

by Jurgen
  • I have always been more of a software man than a hardware man and I have been playing with the Basic Stamp on and off for a few years now. They are great microcontrollers but the big disadvantage is that they are *VERY* expensive. During one of my strolls on the internet yesterday I discovered an other microcontroller which can be programmed in a kind of BASIC and which is way cheaper than the Basic Stamp. I guess one of my next projects will be to test the Picaxe.
    To be honest, it looks very promising.
  • I forgot to mention it here but I have also discovered a new award for ham-operators (and even non-hams!). We all know sitting at your desk for too long is not healthy so it is time to do some sports. The ideal motivation therefore is the Polar Bear Challenge. For now I have been doing some walking and some swimming but as soon as my K2 is ready I guess I’ll go out to operate it portable too. Weather permitting I’ll get the bicycle out soon again too.

K2 measurements

by Jurgen

Due to some health worries I haven’t looked at the K2 project the last few weeks. Upon ‘deeper’ analysis in the hospital it seemed the worries were far greater than the real trouble. I’m fine now thanks.
So today I started looking at the K2 again and I started with the homework I received from Gary AB7MY at Elecraft to try and find the causes of the spurious signals that come out of my K2 on 10 and 12m.
But, it seems my Digital Multimeter has trouble with the HF-signals. When my K2 is on transmit (on dummy load of course!) it seems to measure voltages even without the leads being attached to anything…. So I guess I’ll need a better DMM or a better dummy load?

Comments

by Jurgen

Received the following comment this morning (translated from dutch): “I just had a look at your site using MSIE6. I don’t know whether it is IE6 or your code but I saw some errors on the site. Regards, Bart“
Well Bart, thanks for your comments and rest assured, it is not my code but IE6 that causes this. Have a look at the column at the left hand side of the page… And, no need to try with IE7, it has the same problem. Maybe you could try and find Bill Gates’ e-mail address and complain to him?