Voor de zendamateurs die net een nieuwe D-Star set gekocht hebben en graag willen weten hoe het werken over het D-Star netwerk nu precies werkt, hoe te registeren (verplicht als je op de gateway wilt gaan) en hoe de verschillende instellingen te doen, is een fraaie handleiding aanwezig op www.joppe.net.

De link naar die pagina is <hier> te vinden…..

Our clubstation with the call PI4UTC is now also on the D-Star network via the local repeater PI1UTR which is located in IJsselstein Utrecht. The frequency of that repeater is 438.075 MHz with a downshift of 7,6 MHz.

Speciaal op verzoek hierbij het schema van de junkbox.

Zie ook mijn eerdere artikel over de instellingen van de Icom E-880.

Twitter and your exact location

There is a possibility to send your location together with your tweets. If you want to do so, go to your Twitter account and change your settings. Go to <Settings> and turn Tweet-location to ON. Next go to <profile> and add your location, for example: 52.122666,5.10883, which is my location.  If you want to check if your geographic location is correct, go to Google Maps and fill in your longitude & latitude coordinates and see if it correspondents with your location on the map.

For those who uses Tweetdeck, you must also turn your location to ON. Fill in your coordinates and your done!

Cursus Autocad (in Dutch only)

In de maand september ga ik een beginners cursus AutoCad geven, waarschijnlijk op de woensdagavonden.

Zelf denk ik om er 4 avonden aan te besteden, kan mogelijk, bij voldoende belangstelling, uitlopen naar meer.

De cursus gaat gegeven worden op het fort bij de Veron afd. Centrum.

De bedoeling is om electronica schakelingen te gaan tekenen, maar in principe kan alles met AutoCad getekend worden, van bouwkundige tekeningen tot printplaten aan toe. Voor een mooie, door mij zelf gemaakte symbolenbibliotheek met electronica symbolen wordt gezorgd, zodat u thuis zelf kunt oefenen.

Het hebben van een laptop waar AutoCad op staat (of gezet kan worden) is wel een voorwaarde, maar een laptop heeft iedereen tegenwoordig wel.

Als iemand zich wilt opgeven, kijk dan op de website van www.pi4utr.nl en geef u daar op.

Crystal tester

If you have lots of xtals, just like me, you need a crystal tester to ensure of the xtal you want to use is working and what the resonance frequency will be. I build a simple crystal tester from a schematic I found in the Veron electron magazine 2008 april page 167. And it works fine for me. You can measure xtals from 1 to 20 Mhz. Instead of the 3-way switch I used a 3 pin-header, because there was no room enough for the switch.

The iPad top 10 programs

The best programs for your iPad (in alphabetical order):

  1. Camera for iPad (works together with your iPhone)
  2. Evernote
  3. Free HD Compass
  4. iCluster (a hamradio cluster program)
  5. NU HD (newspaper in Dutch language)
  6. Pocket Informant
  7. Telegraaf HD (a newspaper in Dutch language)
  8. Weather Pro for iPad
  9. Zoek & Vind HD (a search program for telephone-numbers)
  10. …. ?

The iPad story

Since summer of 2008 I use an Iphone 3G with 16GB and I am very happy with it. Later on I subscribed to Mobile.me, an Apple email account which synchronise all my emails, agenda and contacts between my desktop PC and my iPhone.

Because of that I was interested in the iPad, the tablet-PC of Apple.

So for € 499,- I am now the owner of a iPad 16GB with wifi-connection. A lot of money, but it’s worth it. I do not need 3G, because everywhere I am I can connect with wifi.

Did I needed that gadget, no!  but it’s a very nice thing to have. It synchronise with Mobile.me and my iPhone and desktop-PC.

For hamradio there are some programs, I installed iCluster, a DX cluster application and it works fine. There are lot’s of RSS-feed readers available , even with Google-reader support so you can read your favourite feeds on the iPad.

Synchronised my favourite music in MP3. But there is one minor remark: for video the iPad only plays video in MP4 format, and the video I have is in Mpeg, avi or mov-format.  So you need a program to convert between all that other video-formats to MP4 and I can ensure you, that is a lot of work.

The second minor remark: you can not connect a SD memory card to expand.

When I find more hamradio apps you will read it here…or I make a top 20 list  for it… to be continued.

For many years I use a oscilloscope, a 15 Mhz dual channel scope from Philips.

But a long time ago I got interested in a USB scope to connect to my laptop. The problem that time was that those USB scopes were expensive and the resolution was poor.

The latest models are very improved nowadays, so it was time to buy such a scope and to test it.

The model I bought is a PicoScope 2205, a dual channel USB scope for 25 Mhz. The first measurements I performed were very impressive, in fact more than I had expected. The only minor point is the 20V max. input, but with a 1:10 probe this will be 200V and that is for general use enough. This USB scope has a overload protection at 100V and that makes 1000V using  a 1:10 probe.  If I want more then the 200 volts I have always the “good old” Philips scope.

The PicoScope comes with the 2 channels (A and B) but also with a build in waveform generator form many waveforms as sine, squre, triangle and so on with 125 mV tot 2V peak – peak by a bandwith from DC to 200 kHz.

The necessary software is a freeware package, Picoscope 6 for Windows XP, Vista and windows 7.

On the internet I found some information about the various types of vibrators used in militairy (surplus) equipment.

Feel free to use this information.

When you have more then one dynamotor DY-88, like I have 4 of them, you do not always knows of the spare-part vibrator is a good one or just a thing to fill in the empty place for the spare-parts.

There is a way to test them, just replace the working one in the dynamotor with the one you want to test and you will know.

The other way is to build a testbox from old parts with an old transformer, and that is what I did. It works fine and you can measure all the things you want to know. And so I discovered 3 vibrators that where not working.

But the mechanical vibrators run out of stock, so I start to make an electronic model into the old case. I have no schematic for it, but there will be someone who has !

Paraset (photo taken from Yahoo group "spyradiosets")Since 1,5 years ago I wanted to build a replica of the Paraset. This set is a portable transceiver with radiotubes and is made by the British SOE service for the communication between the resistance and London during WWII in the years 1941 to 1945.

Because often the “secret agent” was dropped with this radioset on a parachute in the occupied countries like France, Belgium and Holland they called this radio the “Paraset” and they used a leather suitcase with the radio, the power-supply, headphone and crystals in it.

The problem to build this kind of replica is in obtaining the parts. They must be the same as the parts originally used in WWII in the period 1941-1945, and that is 70 years ago ! so we must sometimes use “newer” parts which where used in old surplus radios.

There are models in wooden cases,but later on, when lots of radios where needed,  they build them in a metal enclosure.

The radio has 3 radio-tubes, a 6V6 for transmitting and two 6SK7 for receive and is operated by a crystal, there is no VFO in the radio, so when you want to change the frequency, you must changed the crystal. Frequency-range from 3,5 Mhz to 7,6 Mhz, selectable in two bands with a switch / tumbler (left of the build in CW keyer).

On the right side you can see the crystal (that round part) as well as the CW-keyer (that little black knob on the right side). To listen they used a headphone of 2000 ohm.

The radio comes with a separate power-supply who makes 360V DC as well as 6,3 V for the radio-tubes.

To be continued….. photos of my replica soon on this page.

On the radio-market at the Jutberg I bought the RT-70 with AM-65 and mounting MT-300 for use with the AN/GRC-7 radio-set.

Frequency is from 47 to 57 MHz in FM mode with a channel-raster of 100 KHz.

Overview Surplus Radio Equipment

My collection Surplus radio equipment is expanding a lot….,  here is an overview:

RT-77/GRC-9 transceiver 2-12 Mhz:

  • RT-77 GRC-9 L.T.G. St. Cloud, serial-nr. 379 with French textmarkings
  • RT-77 GRC-9 ERGMT/SO, serial-nr. 2638 with US textmarkings
  • antenna parts MS-116, MS-117 and MS-118 and IN-127  in bag BG-174
  • antenna bracket FT-515
  • ground pins GP-27-A
  • counterpoises CP-12 and CP-13
  • antenna wires GY-12 and GY-42
  • mounting MT-350
  • bag BG-172
  • bag CW-140/GRC for carrying the GRC-9
  • box BX-53 with spare tubes and signal lamps
  • DY-88-FR dynamotor serial-nr. 272 year 1972 with French textmarkings
  • DY-88-GY dynamotor serial-nr. 3050111 with US textmarkings
  • DY-88-GY dynamotor serial-nr. 3050732 with US textmarkings
  • microphone T-17
  • microphone T-45 with junctionbox SW-141
  • loudspeaker LS-7-GY
  • CW key J-45
  • headset HS-30
  • missing: AT-101 and AT-102
  • missing: hand generator GN-58 with long cable CD-1086 and bag BG-175

R-77/GRC receiver 2-12 Mhz:

  • R-77 receiver + mounting + carryage-bag with German textmarkings

Tube testers:

  • Tube tester I-177-A, Simpson Electric CO, Chicago IL, serial-nr. 1891
  • Tube tester I-177-B, Triplett Elec.Instr.Co Bluffon Ohio serial-nr: 2041
  • Tube Socket Adapter Kit MX-949A/U, Mungston MFG & Service INC
  • Tube Socket Adapter Kit MX-949A/U, Mungston MFG & Service INC nr. 1495

Racal receiver 0-30 Mhz:

  • Racal RA-17L receiver 0-30 MHz, serial-nr. 3341 RL Year (RL = dec 1960)

Radioset AN/GRC-3-4-5-6-7-8:

  • Receiver R-108/GRC (20 – 28 MHz in FM mode) serial-nr. 52900413 (1952)
  • Receiver R-110/GRC (38 – 55 MHz in FM mode) serial-nr. 340 (1962)
  • Power Supply PP-112/GR (for the RT-66/GRC, RT-67/GRC or RT-68/GRC)
  • RT-70 tranceiver Telefunken serial-nr. 52707360
  • AM-65/GRC AF amplifier Telefunken serial-nr. 52808855
  • Mounting MT-297/GR (is by a friend)
  • Mounting MT-300/GR
  • bag CW-331/GR  for the RT-70 with AM-65/GRC
  • loudspeaker LS-166/U
  • handset H33/PT
  • control box C-375/VRC

Notes:

The tube tester I-177-A is dated before June 1949, but it is mounted in a carrying-case with a ID-plate mentioned a type I-177-B version, so somebody placed the tester in a wrong case !

The tube tester I-177-B is dated somewhere in the year 1952 or later.

HF antenna

Today I have placed another HF vertical ground plane antenna (with the help of my friends). It is a vertical for 6 bands, the Maldol HS-680S (like a CP6), for the 80-40-20-15-10-6 meter-band. The tests I have done so far are super, more signals and less distortion on the bands. Now I am enable to be QRV on the 40 and 80 meter-band, which was not possible with my old Fritzel GPA30 antenna. My apartment on the 10-floor give me some restrictions in placing antennas, so a vertical is the best solution, a beam is not an option.

LOTW logbook

The LOTW, Logbook Of The World is a digital logbook which contains all the QSO’s the members have uploaded by means of an Adif-file (the most common file-exchange format).

On april 1 (it is not a joke) I did a request to the ARRL Logbook Administration to use the LOTW logbook.

The use of LOTW is free, but you have to be a registered member.

That is why I send a letter with a copy of my license-registration and a copy of my passport.  Now I have to wait until the registration is completed and I can start using the LOTW logbook. Normally it takes about 3 weeks, so end of April or the first week of May I hope to upload my ADIF-file with all my logs.

UPDATE:

LOTW is now working completely, 962 QSO uploaded, 162 confirmed… up to the number 1000 !

The Racal Pages

For many years I use a Racal  RA17-L receiver.  It covers from 0 to 30 MHz in AM and with some fine adjustment even in SSB.

Here are some pictures of it:

QSL online log

Click on the picture below for my online ham-logbook…..

If you also wish to have an online logbook, visit the website http://www.hamlog.eu to create your own personal online logbook.  You have to registrate (it’s free) and it works very simple, just upload your new log by an ADIF file and that is all to be done.   Go for it!

QSL card PA3GER

Tubetester I-177-A

When working with tube-radios and transmitters  it is a must to have a tubetester.  There are many different tubetesters available, for example the AVO and Hickok testers, but my interrest is always been for a Hickok tubetester in  the militairy version called the I-177-A or the B-version.  Read the rest of this entry »


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