--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: F3M00012 Date: 03/15/98 From: MICHAEL STRATES Time: 03:52am \/To: ROB DENNIS (Read 0 times) Subj: Testing... -=> Quoting Rob Dennis to Michael Strates <=- RD> I plan on a Linux system for amateur radio use down the road Michael. RD> For now I'll keep with this DOS/NT mess until I get something to RD> build into a dedicated APRS,Packet,AMTOR etc. amateur radio computer RD> system. Sounds fair enough. The goodies you can download for packet on Linux are enormous. Everything from 6m RTTY login programs, to satellite trackers! RD> Weather seems to kill antennas up here very fast if they are RD> fibre-glass or bare-wire based. Either it is the UV levels we get or RD> the rain and ice that does it. Many stranded wire antennas did not We don't get much snow/ice around here in Melbourne, but it does get pretty cold, and sometimes pretty hot (although not scortching!). The rain we get over here in Winter, and also the hail (anything from microscopic to golf ball sized :-) that falls damages them badly. My 27mhz whip fell from my very unstable tower, onto the roof of my house, and was submerged in water for about two weeks, before I noticed. Needless to say, it wasn't worth saving after that. RD> survive the ice storms we had in January and some fibre-glass antennas RD> simply snapped from the ice-loading. None of my aluminum antennas were Gheez.. Juneish (fall) last year we had a pretty big hailstorm, which brought down a small yagi I had mounted about 40ft in the air. When it hit the bottom, it was a SmAgi (smashed-yagi!) :-) RD> damaged by ice,but then I was nuts enough to go up the tower twice to RD> knock the ice off the booms with a stick! In this area, kids are also a major problem. I put a yagi about 15ft above my window, just for plain FM (80-180mhz) reception, and when I got home, it was on the floor, in bits. I just hope no kid does climb one of my masts, falling from 45ft would cause somebody a considerable amount of damage! (although it might teach 'em a valuable lesson!). Michael. ... Ham towers are marvels, until they fall down.. oopsss**crash** --- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 [NR] * Origin: The Radio Shack BBS (3:635/725) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: F3M00013 Date: 03/15/98 From: MICHAEL STRATES Time: 04:18am \/To: RUSS WUERTZ (Read 0 times) Subj: Re: MFJ TNC.... -=> Quoting Russ Wuertz to Michael Strates <=- RW> I'm just finding that out myself. All of the commands are in RW> the firmware of the TNC modem. CTR-C and others. :-).. You don't actually know what is in your TNC's firmware, until you start 'talking' to it. That's partially the reason why I use SoundModem. If I don't like a command, or want to program another command into its virtual firmware, I just open up the source code and do so :-) RW> electrostatic copier that always made a copy of the ROLLERS near the RW> feed roller! I changed everything in that copier, and it STILL did Did it end up being fixed for good? 73's de Michael. ... The dead lightning-struck amateur said "CQ DX" as he reached Heaven. --- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 [NR] * Origin: The Radio Shack BBS (3:635/725) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: F3N00000 Date: 03/18/98 From: MICHAEL WARNER Time: 04:48pm \/To: BLAKE BOWERS (Read 0 times) Subj: VSWR - VOLTAGE STANDING W Interesting reply. Down the tubes we go! --- FLAME v1.1 * Origin: NCC-1701 ENTERPRISE Platteville, CO 970-785-0217 (1:104/769) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: F3N00001 Date: 03/18/98 From: ROY WITT Time: 04:54pm \/To: ROB DENNIS (Read 0 times) Subj: 11m Packet... 17 Mar 98 20:19, Rob Dennis said this about 11m Packet... to Roy Witt. RW>> The only requirement is for someone to be the "moderator of record" RW>> with the distribution systems. It's not a Fido requirement and no RW>> rules are req'd. CB_RADIO, HAM-ECHO, and AUTORACE don't have any RW>> rules per se' that are regularly posted. RD> RD> Hey,sounds like a prompt to post da rules again....;-) I've got a half-page of guidelines that I post when they're requested, otherwise they're hardly ever used. RW>> In Europe, packet radio is allowed on 11mtrs. This topic is just RW>> emerging as a discussion in CB_RADIO & HAM-ECHO. I don't know if RW>> it's on topic here, but I'm sure we'll be told shortly. RD> RD> Ok,I'll set it straight Roy. RD> 11m radio -conversion- or -modification- to amateur band use is RD> on-topic. 11m use for 11m use,no matter the mode,is out. Thanks. RW>> It's interesting to note that someone is playing with packet radio, RW>> using 49MHz walkie talkies...:) I can't wait to read how they RW>> accomplished building up a network with battery powered HT's and RW>> rubber duck antennas. RD> RD> I'm gathering info on converting 49MHz HT's to 6m FM use. RD> Got any ideas on that one Roy? Most of those things are surface mount technology and that makes it tough to make mods, but it's not impossible. I've got a friend who's a commercial radio technician who uses a big magnifying glass with a floursent lamp around it. His specialty is the new Motorola radio's, and I hear him cuss every now and then while he's working on them. I'm wondering what he's going to do when Motorola starts making wrist radios like Dick Tracy used. They already make wrist pagers, so two way conversation isn't far off. Modifying one might be pretty easy if it's big enough to work on. The other problem he's run into is that the radios are made to use and discard if something goes wrong with it. Motorola doesn't even print a service manual for them, other than the shop tune up manual... That's the high priced radio spectrum. Now if you're going to buy a Radio Shack copy, you're in even deeper feces. Like Motorola, they use proprietary circuits in one chip. Mostly made in Malaysia. He told me he's never seen anything worthwhile come from the orient. ... Never test for an error you don't know how to handle. --- T(W)itt Filter Tossed v1.13 * Origin: Moosle Beach Brothel, Moosle Beach, CA (1:202/909.13) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: F3N00002 Date: 03/18/98 From: JEFF EDMONSON Time: 09:03pm \/To: ROB DENNIS (Read 0 times) Subj: 11m Packet... > I'm gathering info on converting 49MHz HT's to 6m FM > use. Got any ideas on that one ... just change the crystal. I'm sure the rig is broad-banded enough to handle the difference from 49MHz to 52.5MHz. ;-) 73 = Best Regards -Jeff KA5THB --- FMail 1.02 * Origin: Electronic Avenue BBS 210-533-5668 San Antonio, TX (1:387/510) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: F3N00003 Date: 03/18/98 From: JEFF EDMONSON Time: 09:06pm \/To: ROB DENNIS (Read 0 times) Subj: Antennas... > I'm going over to the scrapper this weekend looking > to get about 150 feet of solid copper wire to us in > making my new 80 and 160 dipole. > I'd like to get insulated copper,and see how long it > will last,but most of what he has is non-insulated. Gosh, Rob - if you wanna pay the shipping on it, I've got a couple of rolls of 10ga solid, insulated copper. Probably no more than 50lbs... 73 = Best Regards -Jeff KA5THB ka5thb@bigfoot.com --- FMail 1.02 * Origin: Electronic Avenue BBS 210-533-5668 San Antonio, TX (1:387/510) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: F3P00000 Date: 03/19/98 From: RUSS WUERTZ Time: 07:40am \/To: MICHAEL STRATES (Read 0 times) Subj: Re: MFJ TNC.... Do you know where ROM swap outs like you mentioned are had. Where I can purchase them? You mentioned one particular type, but there are others obtained from "Packeteers". TheNet, ROSE, are other swapouts, but I have not had any luck trying to locate a source. Amateur Station KF4ODD - TheStation withthe mostus --- QuickBBS 2.76a Ovr * Origin: The Bear's Cave Titusville FL 407-383-9372 V34/VFC/H16 (1:374/73) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: F3P00001 Date: 03/19/98 From: RAY WADE Time: 10:07am \/To: ROB DENNIS (Read 0 times) Subj: Antennas... On (18 Mar 98) Rob Dennis wrote to Holger Granholm... RD> Is this a four-line phone wire or something different? RD> Canadian and European phone systems being different,I wonder if the RD> wires used in them are the same or different as well. RD> Our wires are four to make up one line,and some are stranded some are RD> not. This is for the inside wire,not the one on the poles. Dunno about Canada, but I would suspect that your phones work like ours do here in the US. It is true that the phone "cable" (grey colored insulation on the outside) that runs inside homes and businesses has four wires. The four wires have insulation on them and are red, green, yellow and (I have forgotten the last one, brown perhaps). It only takes one pair of the four to connect a single phone line, thus each grey cable will support *two* individual phone "lines". Maybe 60 or more years ago three of these conductors were used. I believe they were the red, green and yellow, with yellow connected to "ground", and red and green for the actual "line". The unused conductor was a "spare" in case one of the others were damaged somehow. Substituting the "spare" for the damaged wire allowed them (the phone company) to rapidly repair a damaged "line" with out having to install a new "cable". The "ground" wire was attached to a ground rod that was driven into the ground outside the house or business. Nowdays there is only *one* ground rod and all wiring, including AC power, cable TV etc are connected to this single ground rod. This is to prevent what is called a "ground loop", meaning having several ground rods that may be at different potentials, the result of the "ground" rods having been driven in areas of the property that have a different conductivity because of differing soil conditions. I believe our "National Electrical Code" (the Federally mandated "standard" in the US for all wiring that enters and runs thru a house or business) now specifies what I have said. I say this because *my* cable TV was installed many years ago (1975 when the house was new) by the local cable TV supplier and they put in a second ground rod for the cable TV, that entered my house on the end opposite of all other utilities ground rod. A few years ago they made a service call here to bury some new coax, since the original coax that was installed by them had degraded over time. All of our "utilities" come in underground. They wanted to trench a new ground connection all the way from one end of the house to the other to comply with the new "code". I wouldn't let them do that because I didn't want them to tear up the yard and flower beds, plus possibly damage my underground water sprinkling system. I had to sign a waiver and was told if I took a "lightening" hit that came in the house via the cable TV, that they would no longer be responsible for any possible damage. So be it. BTW, *all* of the grey colored phone "cable" I have seen uses solid conductors, not stranded. About 18 gauge wire, I would guess. And each pair of the wires are "twisted" inside the cable. Still the old "twisted pair"! Do you know *why* they are twisted? ... Dew knot trussed yore spell chequer two fined awl mistakes. --- PPoint 2.00 * Origin: K5JCM, Tulsa OK (1:170/302.4) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: F3P00002 Date: 03/19/98 From: RAY WADE Time: 11:15am \/To: ROY WITT (Read 0 times) Subj: 11m Packet... On (18 Mar 98) Roy Witt wrote to Rob Dennis... RW> I'm wondering what he's going to do when Motorola starts making wrist RW> radios like Dick Tracy used. They already make wrist pagers, so two RW> way conversation isn't far off. They (those clever japanese) already have wrist radios! Cell phones. ... Egotists: People more interested in themselves than in me --- PPoint 2.00 * Origin: K5JCM, Tulsa OK (1:170/302.4) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 188 HAM TECH Ref: F3P00003 Date: 03/18/98 From: IVY IVERSON Time: 05:35am \/To: ROB DENNIS (Read 0 times) Subj: 49 MHZ > 6M? -=> On 03-17-98 20:19, Rob Dennis said to Roy Witt,<=- -=>"About 11m Packet......,"<=- -=> 10 Mar 98 10:11, Ray Wade said this about License to Roy Witt. Hi, Rob; [Gersnippit here] RW> It's interesting to note that someone is playing with packet radio, sing RW> 49MHz walkie talkies...:) I can't wait to read how they accomplished RW> building up a network with battery powered HT's and rubber duck ntennas. RD> I'm gathering info on converting 49MHz HT's to 6m FM use. RD> Got any ideas on that one Roy? Actually, it shouldn't be too hard: Replace the rocks and retune... Duck soup for anyone who really KNOWS how to use a soldering pencil! ;-} Of course, that will probably give you a single-channel radio, and the hardest part will be figuring out what the crystal freqs should be. Anyone want to set up a local-area voice/packet 6M repeater for them? :-} 73 DE KB9QPM Ivy ... QRP: Beep on the Cheap!! -- Ŀ SysOp: Ivy's WALL BBS - 6 Networks 920-457-9255 IMHO: 5 WPM for EVERYONE. KB9QPM/AE as of 11/19/97 :->> Happy New Year to All! May the band always be open! ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 [NR] --- TriToss (tm) 1.03 - (Unregistered) * Origin: Ivy's WALL BBS - Sheboygan, WI 920-457-9255 (1:154/170)