--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: DDA00012 Date: 09/05/96 From: BOB FIKE Time: 06:01pm \/To: WAYNE SAROSI (Read 7 times) Subj: Ham Fixes Hello Wayne! Tuesday September 03 1996 20:33, Wayne Sarosi wrote to Bob Fike: WS-> No problem. It's my way of helping the amateur hobby. Anyone who can WS-> glean info from them is just a plus for me and the hobby being able WS-> to pass info on to others. WS-> WS-> And yes, RS does make some cheap antennas but buying Amphenol chassis WS-> mounts are expensive in comparison and not that available in a short WS-> order. Right now I'm working on repairing an HT that took a hit WS-> during a lightning storm, boarding up for FRAN and some other WS-> tasks. I hope FRAN behaves herself, but it never hurts to to be safe. We almost had to bug out last winter with the rains. Average rain fall here is 59 inches per year. Thats a never ending battle over here. Just took my TH-78A apart to fix the mic and spkr jacks. Looked like when they ran the pcb thru the furnace, they didn't touch up the larger sized leads which made cold solders. Ofcoarse the whole HT was built around this board so had to remove two layers of pcbs' and the metal cage to repair it. Now the antenna on the truck went out, and Kathi's power cord in her car has blown a fuse. Soooooo there ya have it! 73 KO6XX Bob Fike --- GoldED 2.40 * Origin: BOB'S HOBBY HOUSE @ BEN LOMOND, CA. @ (602)336-1102 (1:216/522) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: DDA00013 Date: 09/05/96 From: BOB FIKE Time: 06:14pm \/To: STAN PHILLIPS (Read 8 times) Subj: Silver Solder Hello Stan! Tuesday September 03 1996 16:24, Stan Phillips wrote to Wayne Sarosi: SP-> Hi there Wayne, There are two kinds of silver solder. The silver that SP-> needs a propane torch and the tin-silver solder that you can use with SP-> an ordinary soldering iron. A 75 watt iron is quite good enough for SP-> this solder. Yep'er! SP-> As far as 'coat hangers' are concerned. Tin the end of SP-> the coat hanger using normal acid flux. Clean well and then solder SP-> into the co-ax plug. Works fine. SP-> SP-> 73 Stan Stan! Yer givin' out all our tricks! ha ha ha ha ha, OH sorry, hi hi hi hi 73 KO6XX Bob Fike --- GoldED 2.40 * Origin: BOB'S HOBBY HOUSE @ BEN LOMOND, CA. @ (602)336-1102 (1:216/522) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: DDA00014 Date: 09/05/96 From: WAYNE SAROSI Time: 08:15pm \/To: BILL EWALD (Read 8 times) Subj: Loopy Antennas In a message to Wayne Sarosi <03 Sep 96 12:59> Bill Ewald wrote: WS> you have a full wave loop antenna with traps. At 20m the antenna would WS> know no better, but at 15 and 10m what is it? I don't really know. BE> Seems like I'll just have to try putting a trap in the loop, and BE> see what happens... WS> Let us know what happens. Remember that the trap will block the higher WS> frequency and the loop will not be complete. BE> So a bypass switch of some kind would be needed... It wouldn't help. If you bypass the traps then you have a 20m loop again with no traps. 20m doesn't care about the traps as the traps are electrically a short to the band. However, if the traps were for 10m the traps appear as an open to that band and a short to 20m. Some traps are actually resonators and traps in one. Mosley uses that idea. The elements are cut for 15m. The units resonate on 20m making the element appear electrically longer and trap 10m appearing as an open. At 15m the trap/resonator is electrically not there. So ... you have a 20m loop with one or two traps for 10m. What's going to happen? And what do you have at 10m? At 20m? At 20m you have a 20m loop. At 10m you have a fullwave upturned dipole. This is probably why when a multi-band loop is made it's three loops, smallest inside 10m, then 15m and 20m, the largest outside. Give it a whirl. You may find something new. -WS --- * Origin: Editor HTL, Moderator HAM_TECH (Quick 1:374/73.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: DDA00015 Date: 09/05/96 From: WAYNE SAROSI Time: 09:07pm \/To: STAN PHILLIPS (Read 8 times) Subj: Silver Solder In a message to Wayne Sarosi <03 Sep 96 16:24> Stan Phillips wrote: >WS-> Nope. You can't solder with Tin-lead solder a coat hanger to anything. >WS-> Silver solder is different and I'm suprized you can do it with a 75w >WS-> iron. And i have never been able to solder with tin-lead solder SP> Hi there Wayne, There are two kinds of silver solder. The silver that SP> needs a propane torch and the tin-silver solder that you can use with SP> an ordinary soldering iron. A 75 watt iron is quite good enough for SP> this solder. As far as 'coat hangers' are concerned. Tin the end of SP> the coat hanger using normal acid flux. Clean well and then solder SP> into the co-ax plug. Works fine. I've tried that method but never had any success. Sometimes the solder appears to have done the job but in short time the joint breaks. The coat hanger always rusts outside but he stated that the antenna was going to be in the attic. I say let him try it. I'm just saying I haven't had much luck with coat hangers and soldering them to anything. The solder IMHO just won't stick to the coat hanger like it will brass & copper. -WS --- * Origin: Editor HTL, Moderator HAM_TECH (Quick 1:374/73.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: DDA00016 Date: 09/05/96 From: WAYNE SAROSI Time: 09:18pm \/To: CLAY HARTSOE (Read 8 times) Subj: FM antenna 88-108 In a message to Wayne Sarosi <04 Sep 96 3:51> Clay Hartsoe wrote: WS> | 5 feet | WS> ___________________________________________ ___ WS> (____________________ _____________________) ___ 4-6" 1 inch WS> The copper tubing was just a good purchase at the time. You WS> can use aluminum tubing with no problem. CH> 1) I assume that the one inch measurement is the gap, correct? Correct. Quoting and reposts have messed up the spacing. I fixed it here. CH> 2) How was the antenna mounted? With PVC or some non-conductive support(s). Like this: ____________________||___________________________ (____________________||__ _______________________) || || CH> 3) What is the impedence? About 270 to 320 ohms depending on the spacing. Close enough for a 300 to 75 ohm BALUN and a 75 ohm cable or TV ribbon cable to the FM antenna. CH> I've found that aluminum does not perform nearly as well copper CH> tubing. I've gotten vastly superior CH> performance using copper.---Later---Clay I've done test on receive and transmit using stainless steel, copper, and aluminum. There is no difference in impedance, SWR, receive sensitivity, or transmit power. Just some facts about the subject. I tested the above because I thought the same. Even after 8 months of sea side oxidation (save the stainless) no difference. -WS --- * Origin: Editor HTL, Moderator HAM_TECH (Quick 1:374/73.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: DDA00017 Date: 09/05/96 From: ROB DENNIS Time: 04:54pm \/To: GARY SMITH (Read 8 times) Subj: Coming next week. GS> Hello Rob, GS> I'm really looking forward to this posting. We haven't had much of a GS> problem around this are until very recently. Now we've got a fellow GS> that professes that he's listened to ham radio operators on his scanner GS> and has decided to "knock them off their high and mighty attitude." He GS> started on one repeater and is now expanding to two more. When he gets GS> on the air, some of use just go to keyboard-to-keyboard packet. But GS> he's become a real obnoxious pain in the arse and needs to be exposed GS> and stopped. Well we have had our fair share of twits,dorks and morons who think they can get away with it and harrass a repeater to death. Eventually the real hard-core bozo does it once to many times and gets nailed. One fellow did for over a week trashing everything in range of him before he was tracked down one night around 2 am. He doesn't do things like that anymore after he was told politely how he could be very easily unmasked at his next club's meeting. Shut him off like a blown fuse. Another younger twit happened to be doing his shtick next door to a trustee of the repeater he was playing with. The kid was given the choice of ending up in jail when the DOC were called r smashing his radio in front of the trustee. He smashed the radio and the trustee ended up with spare parts. As most jammers are looking for attention or out to vent their frustrations at anyone and everyone in general,they are only BEGGING to get nailed. There is the odd bird who sees it as an ego trip,but they can usually be delt with very quickly when they are found by letting them know how manyof their friends are waiting to talk to them... Most when caught DENY it was them or plain cease any further activities. Shame is the number one reason most quit doing it. A hint for those with more harder heads that need to be told is letting air out of their tires or a plastic sheet under the mag-mount on the roof. GS> If I somehow miss your posting would you be inclined to e-mail it to me? GS> My e-mail address is: gsmith@michiana.org If you miss it let me know and I'll e-mail it to you,no prob. --- GoldED 2.42.G1219 * Origin: VE3SJN,Assistant-Moderator,HAM_TECH (1:163/506.4) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: DDA00018 Date: 09/05/96 From: ROB DENNIS Time: 05:05pm \/To: ALL (Read 8 times) Subj: Jamming hints,tips and kinks. All: Author: Rob,VE3SJN Subj: DF'ing a Jammer,some Hints,Kinks & Tips We have all at one time or another run into the button-pusher on our local repeaters. This `twit' takes great delight in cancelling an uto-patch,dumping a tone or carrier on a conversation,and generally being a pain in the butt. This question/answer file was put together about 4 years agao as a guide to nailing a few of our more infamous twits here in Ottawa. Take it as it is,a bare bones hint,kink and tips check-book to nail that pesky twerp or at least give him a case of the shakes after you find him,her or it. ------------------------------- First ask yourself some general questions about the jammer and he/she/it's jamming habits. Most,and darn near ALL jammers will have a set pattern if you pay close attention to their activities. 1) Is the time of day the jamming occurs the same or does it change with the different days of the week ? (ie:local AM/PM drive time,evenings/mornings/latenight/weekends ?) 2) Does the jammer target only SPECIFIC people,or random ? (He/she/it has a `hate-on' for certain,specific people. You can use this later on for `baiting' the jammer.) 3a) Can you or anyone else hear it on the repeater input,or inputs ? (helps narrow it down into a rough area,and see if he/she/it is only on one band or can do more than one band on full-duplex systems) 3b) Does he/she/it knock out certain stations from a repeater and not others when transmitting and jamming? (depending on who gets blocked you can get an idea of what area the signal s coming from by knowing where those blocked out stations are.) EXAMPLE: Jammer comes on while stations east of a rptr. are talking to those to the west and south of the repeater site. Jammer blocks out the south station,yet any west or east one comes right ver the signal into the repeater,but the western one just barely makes it in over the jamming signal. Knowing that info will place he/she/it probably north and west of the tation to the south of the repeater's location,yet south of the western station that just makes it over the signal. 4) If you can hear the jammer on the input does it sound like it is a mobile (flutter from motion) or base (solid signal,background household noises) or a weak HT (noisey and stable)? (listening carefully to the signal can tell you about its source) 5) Is he/she/it only using 144 or does he/she/it have 440,220 or 6m ? (helps to `know thine enemy' if they only bother one band or side of a rptr. they may only have a mono-band radio to jam with,or they may do most of their talking on another band other than the one they jam.) 6) Does he/she/it jam the same repeaters in a sequence or at random on random repeaters? (they may make a habit of jamming in the same pattern all the time as they programmed their radio's memory position that way.) 7) Does the jammer target specific club repeaters/nets/groups? (once again a pattern to be followed ) 8) Is it happening mainly during winter snowstorms/rainstorms or at night ? (less chance that someone may be out looking for them then...) 9) Do you have 3 or more people with beams who can take a bearing on the signal ? (poor man's triangulation method) 10) Is there a co-ordinated effort to catch he/she/it? (If there isn't START ONE using people who can keep their mouths SHUT if any information is derived from your efforts. ) 11) Does everyone complain,moan and groan or hit their REVerse button to see if they are at all close to the source? (at least a rough area to start in helps more than a `guess-timate') Answering these questions can help set-up a pattern to the jamming and help you to nail the jammer. Most important is a well-kept log of the jamming ime, days of the week and the specific stations jammed. A month of logging can tell you a lot about a jammer's habits and favourite targets he/she/it likes to annoy and give you a base to work from when you do go out to track them down. ---------------------------- Now for baiting the jammer: This is assuming you have a rough area to start tracking in for the jammer's location and are ready to go if they show up to `play around'. 1) Can you get 2 or 3 of his/her/it's favourite `targets' to co-operate and lay a trap the jammer can't resist playing with ? (most if not all victims will agree to do anything to nail the rotten little S.O.B. if they get a chance at them.) 2) Can the `bait' keep a conversation going long enough to get the jammer all `riled up' by ignoring them no matter what they do ? ===TIP: Have two of the jammer's favourite targets talking to each other both on the `phone AND the repeater at the same time! (ignoring the jammer only makes them jam more often if they see it is having no effect on those they're jamming,and gives you a chance to get a good track or bearing on them.) 3) Can you get the local FCC or DOC/IOC field office or local police force made aware of what you are about to do and get some help from them ? If you catch a jammer red-handed it may help to have someone along with the proper authority to shut them down then and there and lay some charges. As jamming of any type is a federal offence under both the Canadian Radio Act and the FCC regulations you may be lucky and get a local police force to help you when it comes time to ID the jammer. (it can also help your case if the local police have been having problems of their own around the same time as the jammer is active.) 4) If you can't get any `official' department presence get the trustee/owner of the repeater being jammed to come along as a witness and to file any ormal complaints with the FCC or DOC/IOC later. Have all the `hunters' as willing and ready court-witnesses against the jammer if the case ever goes into court. 5) With the advent of home-video it may even be a good idea to video-tape any of the jam-signals as recieved on a radio parked in right front of a jammer's suspected location with no visible antenna connections on the radio. And if you are REAL LUCKY you may get a video of the culprits themselves through a window from across the street. ---------------------------- Tracking A Jammer: Methods can and do vary depending on the terrain you have to go under,over r through to get a bearing on the signal you are after. Short of a full-blown Doppler on the mobile to play with here are some ways that may sound strange at first but odd enough they WORK. 1) Tracking a signal starting in a rough area close to the source: PLEASE obey any and all rules of the road,don't go driving around like your out to try for the INDY500. The driver does the driving and the co-pilot does the tracking,PERIOD. Some simple tools to carry along for hunting: -4 element 2m beam -1/4 wave magnetic-mount antenna -PL-259 and/or BNC connector with 2 inch length of wire soldered into the center pin of the connector,insulated from the connector's ground-side. (this depends on the radio you are using.) -an ordinary paper-clip -an up-to-date city map (helps if you know where the heck you are) -LOTS OF PATIENCE!!! Find yourself a high-ground spot such as a parking garage roof and use the 4 element beam to get a rough direction to head for to start a search. Drive about 2 or 3 blocks in the indicated direction from your high spot and find a parking lot to pull over in. Use the magnet mounted 1/4 wave stuck as far back as you can get on the runk lid of a car or roof of a van,and drive in circle in the nearest large arking lot. Have a co-pilot aboard to watch the signal meter in the radio for a peak as you drive around. This peak should come directly in front of the car's hood,and that's where you should head for. Drive about 2 or 3 blocks in the general direction indicated and find nother parking lot to repeat the `doughnut' driving again to get another bearing. Repeat as needed until the signal can be heard with the radio squelch set on fully. Un-do the co-ax connector on the radio so that only the center pin makes any contact with the jack and see what the signal strength is. If you can still hear and see the signal you're close to the source. Now use the PL-259 or BNC connector inplace of your normal antenna and see f you can still hear/see the signal. Replace the connector with a paper clip in the center of the radio's antenna jack and see what the difference is in the signal. If you can still hear it and see a weak signal on the radio's display you're close enough to get out of the car and look around for antennas/towers etc. If no parking lots close by,then look around for something you can use as a `block' to knock the signal down. A `block' can be anything solid from a garbage dumpster to a full-size van r tractor-trailer's trailer,human torso, or driveway beside a two story house. As you move behind or around a `block' the signal should drop on one side of your blocking object only. When this happens the incoming signal should be on the OPPOSITE side of the blocking object as you have just given yourself a `null' point. If you are using a hand-held for close-in work you can use your own body as the `block' by holding the HT close to your tummy and turning around in a ull circle to find your `null'. The null will be when the incoming singal is blocked by your tummy from the radio's antenna and the singal meter in the radio drops. The paper clip can then be used in place of the HT antenna by simply ticking it into the center of the BNC connector on the HT. With the paper clip acting as the antenna you should be able to walk right p to the signal's source. Once you have the source of the signal pegged down to a specific address or vehicle (it may be a parked jammer) get the address or licence plate tag for later. Also take note of specific identifying details of the vehicle or property of the jammer you may want to use later.(see the `What Happens...' section.) UNDER -=> NO <=- CIRCUMSTANCES: -CONFRONT THE JAMMER FACE-TO-FACE. -TRESPASS ONTO THE JAMMER'S PROPERTY. Since he/she/it is the one breaking a law why should you? A face-to-face may turn ugly if the jammer decides to make it so,and since you may not know who or what you are dealing with,it makes sense to play it safe for all the hunters involved. Give all the necessary info to the proper authorities and let them deal with it,as they have the authority to issue search warrants,fines or seize the offending person's gear. Lodge a formal,written complaint with the local FCC or DOC/IOC office signed by all witness or hunters involved in tracking the jammer. If a repeater trustee/owner is involved they should file their own formal written complaint against the jammer as well. Be prepared to go to court IF needed as witnesses.