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The Ham radio thread in DIY seems to be dead so I thought I should crosspost this here. So, I'm going for an upgrade to General soon. I picked up a WRL Galaxy V transceiver on ebay for $40  And a Heathkit HP-23A power supply that I got locally for $20 to run it. The Galaxy still needs one more 12VDC rail at 1A to make it work. I can do that... The PSU and Transceiver will need a full electronic restoration. I'll post my progress here. ***Three weeks later*** I made some progress on the Galaxy 5 Transceiver. I found a seller on ebay that offered a kit to make a new 6ft interconnect cable for the Heathkit HP-23 Power Supply. I happened to have the correct female 12 pin cinch-jones plug to mate with the Galaxy, it was used as the AC power connector for an early 60's RCA tube CB transceiver i picked up for $2 at a yard sale years ago because it came with a great turner hand mic. Soldered up the the cable and replaced one dried out electrolytic cap in the power supply and this is the result: https://youtu.be/yrOkI1rcOmM  It's still going to need a lot of work. The 10 meter band is dead, from what I can tell it's looking like a dirty or corroded bandswitch. The S meter works during final tuneup but is non-responsive on receive. The radio has some paper caps in the RX and TX sections, and small electrolytic caps in the solid state audio output stage that definitely need to go before I can put it into everyday use. The tuning vernier is full of dried grease and stiffer than it should be, but all in all, I consider this to be pretty good progress for one evening. Edit: I forgot one thing. The 12VDC rail needed to operate the RX/TX relay and transistor audio amplifier for the speaker is being fed by a wall wort from a long dead linksys router. The Heathkit doesn't have a 12vdc rail but there is an unused 6.3V 5A filament winding on the power transformer that I will eventually use to drive a rectifier and voltage doubler to get the 12V 1A I need rather than the janky Linksys hackjob. Here's a couple shots of the vacuum bulbs. Its amazingly compact for a tube rig. These were very popular as HF mobile rigs in the mid to late 60s. This one came with a massive under dash mounting bracket that I will never ever use.  
MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 09:41 on Oct 11, 2016 |
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Oct 11, 2016 09:23
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Jonny 290 posted:welcome and thanks for joining us! Yeah that thread is sleepy, i try to poke it when i can. I have another potential suspect now. The Galaxy uses a couple of crystals that mix with the VFO frequency to derive 15m and 10M. I've had bad crystals in Cb radios and tube color TV sets of the same era. Hmmm... MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Oct 11, 2016 |
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Oct 11, 2016 09:52
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Working CW with an Intel Compute Stick and a Heathkit HW-100. 
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Oct 23, 2016 04:39
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Jonny 290 posted:wait isnt that a ssb only rig? so you're running a tone in SSB? cool The Heathkit HW-100 does CW as well. That rig just became part of my collection this week. I picked up a cheap USB keying interface from some english guy who makes them himself and sells them on ebay. Also, I may have found Grandpa Ham Prime  This could be thread title material. Radio Thread: My Other Hobbies are genealogy and singing in barbershop quartet. MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 08:21 on Oct 23, 2016 |
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Oct 23, 2016 08:14
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I made my first DX 10M contact with the Heathkit since I finished recapping it. HI8RD in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1739 miles away. The Caribbean was coming in like gangbusters here in NE Ohio this afternoon. It's the first activity I've heard on 10M in a long time.
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Oct 27, 2016 21:42
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Jonny 290 posted:10m is open way more than people think, very awesome. I have a dedicated 10m rig that i leave on 28.400 24/7 and when it squawks i come running. trans equatorial propagation happens a whole lot, people think that because its not 20m wall-to-wall signals that it's 'dead'. Yeah, I should do that. I've got a cheap little radioshack HTX-10 that I could leave on. Also, is 7.2MHZ the 14.313 of 40 meters? Right now someone is blasting Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" and screaming the N word along to the melody.
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Oct 27, 2016 23:48
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I broke my 10M record today. 5223 Miles I had a nice 10 minute chat with an operator at the PQ5B club station in Rancho Queimado, Brazil. He was pumped that I was running a tube Heathkit rig and an old Turner 254 microphone. http://www.dxwatch.com/qrz/PQ5B MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Oct 30, 2016 |
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Oct 30, 2016 08:47
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Btw, This is the Antenna I've been using. http://myantennas.com/wp/product/efhw-8010/ It's an end fed half wave that is supposedly resonant on 80-10. 130ft long. I went for it mainly because I live in a neighborhood full of NIMBY jerks and needed an antenna that was inconspicuous. Plus It was ready made and the reviews were good. Matching box is mounted outside my second story office window, wire goes from about 15ft up to about 35ft in a tree about 75 feet away, then comes down and is anchored to a fence post with dacron cord. It's basically an inverted L shape that fits the corner of my back yard. Works great. Hardest part was driving the ground stake. 
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Nov 3, 2016 08:31
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So, I've been working CW pretty regularly on the tech sections of the 80 and 40m bands using MRP40 to decode CW and key the transmitter. A side affect of this is that I've basically been subconsciously learning Morse without even realizing it, by hearing the TX key what I type. A paddle may be in my future. http://www.polar-electric.com/Morse/MRP40-EN/ The Intel compute stick I've been using would actually probably be a pretty good computer option for Field day since it runs off of a 5V2a USB charger. Some good size monitors are running on 12-15v now so you could get good time running on SLA batteries and a Harbor Freight solar panel or two. It can handle decoding CW, RTTY, PSK31 and SSTV just fine. A cheap USB hub and USB sound card with a line level input is a must though. I know this seems like a lot of work but I've had bad experiences with laptops and PC's spewing RF hash. I bought an $80 Thermaltake ATX power supply last year that basically snowed everything from broadcast AM-100MHZ in my entire house. Opened it up and found that the entire RF suppression section was missing and jumpered over. My genuine Apple Macbook charger is almost as bad. Jonny 290, Sorry you are having to deal with threats from a bunch of assholes. I can understand that answering this question could be giving out too much information but were the White supremacists Hams? Some of the poo poo I hear on HF makes the intense hatred some hams have for uncouth redneck CB'ers seem pretty loving hollow. MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 09:16 on Nov 15, 2016 |
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Nov 15, 2016 06:22
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Freshwater Louie posted:one of my relatives gave me moneys strictly for the intention of buying an amateur radio (i also inherited an old tube tester and a box full of canadian and american made NOS tubes heck yes) I know I'll probably be in the minority here, but old tube rigs are really loving fun to use. It's the radio equivalent of daily driving a classic car. All the contacts you make, especially the older guys who grew up using the same stuff, freak out when they find out that you're running a vintage rig. Plus, the electronic restoration they usually need (capacitors, drifting resistors, cosmetic restoration and cleaning) gets you a little more up close and personal with basic electronics theory, and makes you feel like you accomplished something that pulling a new Transceiver out of a box, plugging it in, and getting on air will never equal. I also collect and repair vintage TV sets so I might just be a weirdo. YMMV. MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 10:15 on Nov 15, 2016 |
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Nov 15, 2016 10:06
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HOLY poo poo. I was tuning around 28.400-28.450 yesterday and heard a dude calling CQ. I responded. He replied to my call and mentioned his QTH as Gold Coast, Queensland. he faded out seconds later. Australia? Christ.
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Nov 23, 2016 10:07
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I recently picked up an early 60's Knight 6 Meter AM rig with the optional VFO. Cleveland area Hams have a retro 6meter AM net and it's been fun participating when they're on.
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Feb 15, 2017 10:24
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The local Club finally got their weekly 10M net back on the air after a few years of old fart bickering. I Checked in with my Heathkit HW100 and all of the old guys went nuts over my old gear and begged me to come to the next meeting...  YOSPOS ham dudes, Should I go? These same people treated me like a punk kid when I tried to join the club back in 2008. MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 10:34 on Mar 12, 2017 |
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Mar 12, 2017 10:30
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Olivil posted:not ham related but what's a good pocket sized AA powered fm radio these days? If you feel like making this into a fun evening project, take look at the Tecsun 2P3 Kit. Easy to build, cool retro case, and due to the huge ferrite bar and ceramic 455KHZ IF Filter, is actually a great little radio for doing AM DX. Apparently these are a sort of nostalgia item for Chinese radio Hobbyists. During the Cultural revolution the state supplied these cases to students to build their own homebrew transistor radios.    I've built three of them, one of which I modified to pick up 5-10MHZ shortwave. The mod involves adding turns to the ferrite bar and is easy to find online. https://www.amazon.com/Tecsun-2P3-Radio-Receiver-Kit/dp/B00LXK26QW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suDvdfjmNjk EDIT: Oops, I didn't see you wanted FM. Still, you should build one. It's fun. MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Apr 19, 2017 |
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Apr 19, 2017 07:47
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