Over the last few weeks our domestic life has been a bit different to what it used to be. A change in how we work as a family has happened and it meant a hold on radio, or rather a less than active summer is the result.

I have one the other hand spent more time away from work than normal which meant that I didn’t have to chance the normally predictable weather in Cumbria at just the weekend if I was going /p. I am fortunate to live within 30 minutes of both the Ennerdale and Wasdale valley’s. If you know where they are you might also know that the meet between Pillar and Great Gable with Ennerdale being further inland to Wasdales long views out to sea. I’ve been to Ennerdale quite a bit so Wasdale it was for this couple of trips.

Operating in the he lakes gives up a few challenges. The harshest being the number of people that visit the 8+ point summits. One solution is to stay off the beaten track, the other is to go early. Combine the 2 on a sunny day and you’ve got English summer nirvana.

First up, Pillar and Kirk Fell – Wasdale head pub to Pillar via Mosedale and a short trot along to Kirk fell then down the front face of Kirk Fell. To get this view climb straight up the Mosedale scree slope (beware it is hard work). The view is worth it. Looking towards Scafell you can almost see the small tent I passed on the way up. Needless to say some geology buff will tell you different but it looks to me like a glacier made this shape.

The next shot is from Kirk Fell. Showing the sea off in the distance and Burnmoor tarn on the left, Wastwater (the chilly-est lake ever) with Illgill head in between the two. Kirk fell is a good summit to SOTA, its very accessible but if you go up the front be prepared for some heavy going.

Great Gable was attacked another day and the weather came in so it was a short activation. Another popular summit and at 8 points it is worth it. I like the route up to Styhead tarn the turn left. You get a good view of the unspoiled wilderness that is the route to Scafell Pike from Borrowdale. I’m sure the path would accept either 10 people abreast or a land rover. Its like a motorway.

The last trip was another early morning ascent, this time Scafell Pike. The quick route from Wasdale head car park during the summer is punctuated by knackered looking ‘3 peakers’. Some who look like they haven’t spent a lot of time preparing for what they were doing. Or, over-preparing in the pub. This was the first time I’ve been up and down without being in the cloud. This is not a quiet summit, even at 7:30am.

 

Whilst the blog may have been quiet over the summer I did manage to get 8 points for Pillar, 8 for Kirk Fell, 8 for Great Gable and 10 for Scafell Pike. If I carry this on for the next 25 years I could be part way to being a mountain goat.

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

One of this summer's radio workbench projects was to refurbish my Drake 2NT transmitter for this winter's NRR event. The 2NT was introduced in 1966 with the 'novice' ticket-holder in mind, selling for $129. It was the first and only CW-only transmitter produced by R.L. Drake.


As novice transmitters go, the 2NT was a cut above some of the others out there, boasting interesting features such as a built-in antenna changeover relay, sidetone oscillator, grid-block keying and built-in low pass filter.


The tune-up procedure was simplified as well and with Drake's reputation for quality construction, the 2NT became a popular choice for Novices and Generals alike.





My own 2NT was purchased, along with the matching 2C receiver and speaker/Q-multiplier combo over 25 years ago at a Washington state ham fleamarket. Ever since then they have been patiently sitting on the shelf, trying to catch my attention.

The motivation and much-deserved attention finally arrived this year after enjoying last winter's NRR and hearing several great-sounding 2NT's on 80, 40 and 15m CW. I operated the week-long Roundup with my homebrew 'Longfeller' at 5W output, in order to qualify for the QRP category.

6AG7 - 6V6 'Longfeller'

I have to admit, the Novice Rig Roundup, was one of the most enjoyable contests I have entered in many years! Hearing many rigs from the 50's and 60's sounding so good was just a bonus. It was particularly gratifying to be able to work the midweek daytime activity on 15m ... a luxury that we may not enjoy now for several years if most of the long term solar forecasts are correct.

I eventually ended up with 68 contacts, but at 5W, it was a challenge ... most of my many 'CQ NRR' offerings were unanswered, so it was mostly a 'search and pounce' operation. With this in mind, I soon decided that next time, I'll get the 2NT ready to go and hopefully, with a little more oomph, can attract some callers.

Each entrant received an NRR certificate - a nice touch

Rather than hunt down and purchase the individual replacement electrolytics, especially the multi-unit can capacitor which was impossible to source, I ordered the '2NT re-cap kit' from Hayseed Electronics. They supply replacement kits for several boatanchors and are able to make and stuff multi-section can capacitors to match the original size and specs ... and all at affordable prices.

After cleaning the chassis and all of the switches, re-tubing with new tubes and removing / replacing all of the electrolytics, the 2NT was ready to go. Using a crystal for excitation, the following results were obtained:

         80m 103W input 75W output efficiency = 73%
          40m  92W input 65W output efficiency = 71%
          20m  92W input 65W output efficiency = 71%
          15m  92W input 55W output efficiency = 58%
          10m  92W input 50W output efficiency = 54%

Keydown voltages averaged ~520V while plate current ranged from 170-200ma. All-in-all, right on target and not bad for a 51 year old transmitter!

The 6EA8 modified Pierce oscillator in the 2NT seems particularly 'crystal-friendly', as every old style FT-243 style crystal that I tried sounded great. Even the newer ones from AF4K using a modern HC-49 crystal slab mounted inside a vintage FT-243 holder sounded great and worked perfectly.

My newly refurbished 2NT - ready to go

A couple of days later, I returned to the bench to take some blog photos of the rig delivering power into the wattmeter. When I turned the 'stby' switch to 'transmit', the plate current suddenly shot up (with no keying) and the meter on my Variac supply indicated over an amp being drawn by the power transformer ... all with zero output and no crystal plugged-in!

A look at the schematic diagram revealed that with the grid-block keying system, the final amplifier's cathode is always grounded and a low voltage negative bias applied to the grid keeps the plate current cut-off until being keyed ... with cut-off bias missing, plate current will soar, along with transformer primary current. I suspected that something had gone haywire with the bias supply.


A quick check of the 2NT's printed circuit board containing the bias system components among others, indicated a discolored silicon rectifier (D5) in the bias supply. An in-circuit measurement revealed that it was indeed shorted, basically supplying raw AC across the filter capacitor and shorting out the transformer winding, quickly elevating the transformer's temperature in the bargain ... not good.

Although the diode only has to handle a small amount of current, it was mounted with a heat-producing 2W resistor straddling its top surface. As well, the phenolic circuit board was noticeably discoloured from the heat. I suspect this was the main reason that D5 eventually failed.

My 2NT was an early one, serial #670, so perhaps this parts-arrangement was re-engineered in later models. Once the diode was replaced with a much smaller modern one, of twice the rating, everything returned to normal. The last thing I would want to do at this stage is to burn out the transmitter's unique power transformer, undoubtedly impossible to replace nowadays.

The next bench project will be to refurbish and improve the stability of my Heathkit VF-1 VFO and to mate it with the 2NT.

'55 QST VF-1 ad

There are several things that can be done to a stock VF-1 to improve its performance. Its wonderful backlit green dial will bring back a lot of memories from my teenage operating days with the VF-1 ... most, but not all of them, warm and fuzzy.



Another small quirk noticed on my 2NT is the meter mount. My early model has the meter mounted so low that the silk-screened 'PLATE CURRENT MA.' label is not clearly visible when looking straight-on.

My #670

Later models show that this was changed by moving the meter a little higher so that the label can be easily seen without having to look down inside. Nothing major, but something apparently missed during the initial panel design.

Later models

I'll have more to say about the 2018 NRR later, but if it's something that you may be interested in trying and you don't yet have a suitable novice-style rig, it's not too late to start looking, building or refurbishing.

You can read many interesting soapbox comments and see some nice NRR station photos from the previous two events here and here, but read with caution as you could easily get hooked. I find pages like this very inspiring and they remind me of the days when QST would publish photos, soapbox comments and exacting equipment descriptions used by each section winner in the annual November Sweepstakes contest.

Winner's gear in '55 CW SS - remember these?

NRR activity really skyrocketed last winter and I expect that it will be an even busier event next time. There are several CW contests that I'm looking forward to this winter and the NRR is right near the top of the list. I hope to see many of you in the 2018 NRR!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 108 is now available for download.

A little bit of everything. George visits friends at Huntsville Hamfest, Tommy explores Icom’s IP100H IP Handi Talkies, Emile studies ITU Designations, and Peter discusses recent FT8 Updates.

1:25:27

Download
YouTube

George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

It's time for Episode 198. Thank you for turning in. In this episode, we discuss earthquakes and hurricanes, WSJT-X and FT8, contesting and sweeps, Synergy and Wayland, caveats for open-source coders, the latest Linux kernel, CloudShack, Mexican food and a Scotch of a different color. There is also much, much more. All the best.

73 de The LHS Crew

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

Amateur Radio Weekly is curated by Cale Mooth K4HCK. Sign up free to receive ham radio's most relevant news, projects, technology and events by e-mail each week at http://www.hamweekly.com.

This week's Sun

Well, just when the sun was showing some nice signs of growing quiet for the upcoming winter, Cycle 24 has once again demonstrated that it's not going down without a fight.



For the past few weeks of quiet solar conditions, low band propagation, in spite of the time of year, had been performing well, with both 40 and 80m having a nice level of evening CW activity stretching out to the central states and to the east coast.

That all changed this week when the Sun let loose with a series of powerful flares, one of which was the strongest in a decade ... all very surprising for a Sun that has already shown us many days of spotless conditions as it winds its way to the bottom of the cycle.





With Solar Cycle 24 being one of the weakest on record, it has shown levels of activity on the way down that could rival the past few much stronger cycles in their waning years. Another oddity for this cycle was its 'double-peak', not unusual per se except that 24's second peak was the stronger of the two.

courtesy: http://www.solen.info/solar/

With the recent flaring and accompanying radio blackouts, HF propagation has been poor and with auroral conditions forecast for the arriving CMEs, it may take some time to recover, especially on LF and MF. But it may not be all bad.

Disturbances like this will normally affect E-W, polar and Trans-Atlantic paths more than N-S paths. Oftentimes, paths to South America on MF and HF will be enhanced as will the Trans-Pacific path, so all is not lost.

There are many websites devoted to providing a 'heads-up' to what might be coming geomagnetically-speaking. Two of my favorites are here and here.

The more northerly you are, the more disruption you will notice and for some reason, VE7 land seems particularly in-tune with solar perturbations as the slightest hiccup on the Sun seems to immediately wreak havoc here. Even amateurs a hundred miles to the south or southeast, enjoy markedly less disruption than us out here on Canada's western edge ... for some reason, we seem more tied-in to the auroral zone activity than we should, given our westerly location. Perhaps the zone dips lower in this region than it does further east but it is something I have observed on LF and MF for decades now.

It seems as though the first hit has just arrived so hold on to your hats:


Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

In this episode of the Everything Ham Radio Podcast, we talk again with Ria Jairam, N2RJ. This time we are talking about the different JT Modes, JT65, JT9 and the new FT8!

We talk about its uses, how to operate and what you need to operate the different modes.

Check out the show notes to listen to the episode as well as get links to all the different things that we talk about at:

http://www.everythinghamradio.com/podcast/85

Curtis Mohr, K5CLM, is the author/owner of Everything Ham Radio Blog and Youtube channel. Contact him at [email protected].