AmateurRadio.com

Well it's now Sunday and I just don''t know where the week has gone it does not even seem like the weekend has begun but it's almost over! It has just been "one of those weeks" I have not been able to get any radio time in....for that matter really not to much of anything has been done this week. It has been a busy week but as I look back can't really say anything was started or completed. As I have reported in my blog I am

This is the powerport box without the battery

making my Elecraft K2 portable so I can use it in the car and the out of doors when the warmer weather comes. I ordered a case from the Powerport store the case I ordered was the Radio box. It's been 4 weeks now and no case has arrived I tried to email them regarding this as I was emailed when the case was shipped. I then read on their site that they do not respond to emails just (long distance) phone inquires.  I wanted to wait until Friday just to see if it came in....but nothing. I then ordered some very nice Sony head phones for my portable op's from Ebay....and again 5 weeks have past and nothing. I did email them and was told they were shipped but they will ship another pair on Monday......It's just been one of those weeks!

I just came across some info regarding a replacement for the road warrior FT-817 it's the mystery FT-818? I have read some comments on blogs that wrote about the FT-818. Some seem to be drooling while others see it as wishful thinking. I did try a link on one blog that boasted of a Yahoo group for the FT-818 but it did not exist. The "up coming rig" sure does boast of some very impressive improvements.

• All mode, all bands 1.8-1296MHz with 5MHz and 70MHz
• 5W RF (2W 1296MHz)
• 3.5AHr Li-Ion battery pack (2hr charging)
• Built in random wire and whip auto-ATU
• Full colour OLED display
• Multi-function DSP noise reduction
• RF Speech processor

BUT Yaesu has not even hinted about this rig...nothing at Dayton....and well check out the Icom IC-7000........seems to me the FT-817 has had a photo shop crop job done to it! What do you think is the the FT-818 fact or fiction?

The repaired key ready for action

I have not been able to get around to putting a post out there the last couple of days but I have been busy getting stuff done around the shack and shack related stuff. Some of the action here was been wanting to settle the Begali key issue. I found it to be sending dot's and dash's on it own now and then. The right paddle was sticking very badly so I took it apart. Low and behold  the coffee that splashed some weeks ago here at the operating desk also got on my key in a very hard to see place. So it's all cleaned up, working great and waiting for me to use it!!!

RufzXP happy again

On my laptop I have Ubuntu 11.10 and up until Friday RufzXP was working just great. It was installed using Wine (a program that allows Windows programs to run on Linux machines) along with Netframe 2.0 but for some reason it just went funky and would not load. The error message said Netframe 2.0 needed to be  installed BUT IT WAS!! I tried many times to reinstall it but with no avail. Yesterday I
took the jump and downloaded Virtualbox onto my Ubuntu laptop and installed WinXP. Virtualbox is a great program that allows you to run other operating systems within a "virtual computer" it creates. I now have Windows XP running on my machine and was able to install Netframe 2.0 and RufzXP...all are getting along just fine now.

The KAT2 which also has a "cat" hair

Finally I have started my Elecraft KAT 2 antenna tuner for the Elecraft K2 radio.If you enlarge the picture see if you can spot the cat hair.....Oliver knows he is not supposed to be playing with my toys....BUSTED! I also have picked up some nice headphones at a great price along with a nice carry case for a surprising low price as well....but more on that in another post. Finally my Nikon D60 camera I use to photograph most if not all my blog pictures was giving me troubles. The memory card would not stay in the camera. Each time I tried to place it in it just popped out. If it stayed in the camera would tell me it was not installed. The camera is under extended warranty but the turn around time is 6-8 weeks! I took it in and I demonstrated the trouble....but it functioned fine and has ever since.  Now it's time to get some radio time in as most of the household chores and running around have been done. This week it will be time to setup for the ARRL international CW contest coming up next weekend.

The other day I received an email from the Elecraft reflector site mentioning Plasma TV's and the problems they can cause ham op's. I do have a Plasma TV and it sure does affect things here at VE3WDM so this thread interested me very much. As you know from reading my other posts I do have the MFJ 1026 noise cancelling unit and I have had good success with it. The post on the Elecraft reflector had a great link to a load of information on how the K3 and the MFJ 1026 can work together very well. Well since I have the K3 and the MFJ 1026 I investigated the link.  I found a very cool way to hook the both units together that
has some good advantages over the way I am now......or was using.

 With this configuration I am able to just push the RX ant button on the K3 and both units are inter connected. Also the way the MFJ 2026 is adjusted is a little different than I had previously adjusted the unit. I tried it and it is very easy, fast and works great!! So what are the advantages of hooking up your MFJ 1026 this way....well you never have to worry about the RF from your transmitting antenna getting into your receive antenna. With this hookup they are totally isolated. To include the MFJ 1026 it's as simple as powering up the MFJ unit and pushing the RX ant on the k3 and then some simple adjustment of the MFJ unit. Finally I decided to use my Iphone to video the results of the MFJ 1026 and the K3 and how they dealt with the Plasma TV noise. You will have to excuse the reflection of me in the Elecraft P3 and the audio may not be that great either but give it a go as it does show how the Plasma TV's interferance can be dealt with.

This afternoon when I checked my email there was a very interesting email from the ARRL. In June of this year QST is going digital!! Well almost they are still going to offer their paper addition but ARRL members will also have access (free of charge) to the QST digital version. The digital version will have some content that is only offered in the digital layout along with videos and hyper-links. Now if you are a regular reader of this blog you may remember back in August of 2011 I posted about Monitoring Times digital addition. They were offering a digital only subscription at a cheaper price than the paper version. I went for it and well...it was the reason the alarm bells went off
when I read my email from the ARRL's regarding the introduction of a digital version of QST.  I have to admit I have had the digital version of Monitoring Times for 5 months now and well this digital thing sounds very sci-fi and geeky...BUT......it just has not worked out for me.  For example on December 17th I was emailed the new Monitoring times issue.....it's still in my Hotmail in box a month later. It's almost time for the next issue!!! There sure are some cool things about the digital issue with the hyper-links and instant emailing feedback to articles.
I have come to the conclusion there is nothing like the paper version. There is something to say for pulling out a periodical when you have a spare minute. With the digital version I found this very hard to do. It's not easy to roll up a laptop or Kindle and toss it in the glove box of the car. I think QST has the right idea offering both for the same price and not making you chose between the two. I am looking forward to June and see what this digital version has to add to the paper version.

The shipment arrived

Ready to go

The postal service came through for me and not only was the Elecraft P3 here before Christmas it made it to my home in a record 5 business days. The package arrived on Thursday but I had to wait for Saturday to open the boxes and drool!! Before the P3 arrived I had downloaded the manual and assembly instructions to go over things. I did have plans of participating in the ARRL 10 meter contest but the P3 blinded me to the contest.  The two boxes were very well packed with bubble wrap on all sides and the contents of each box again
surrounded in bubble wrap. I sat down Saturday afternoon as the morning was dedicated to putting up the Christmas tree and decorating our home. As always I took inventory of all the parts I encourage anyone who orders any kit to make sure you do the inventory. This kit is another of Elecraft's solder-less kits. It comes with the boards (front panel board with LCD, rear I/O board and rear RF panel  

Front panel done

board) all ready to go the only real assembly is the mechanical side of the P3.  By spending some time putting the kit together yourself you save some cash. The first step was to install some stand offs onto the front panel board these are used to secure the front LCD board to the front plate assembly. The fit of the front panel board into the front plate was perfect no binding or poor alignment of screws into stand off threads. I have found with all the Elecraft kits the attention to this type of detail makes the kits a joy to put together. It was then time to assemble parts of the enclosure and rear panel. The installation of the I/O board and RF board in the rear panel went very smooth. As the end was near it was time to install the 40 pin ribbon cable. The instructions for this were very detailed and clear. A red stripe on the ribbon cable was to be

I/O board installed

Back panel

oriented toward  certain parts on both the I\O board and the front panel board. Failing to plug the ribbon cable in correctly would result in damage  once power was applied. Lastly there was a TMP coaxial cable from the main board to the RF board and except for a few more chassis screws the P3 was done. The total time was about 2 hours with some breaks and taking my time. This unit is plug and play with the K3 radio. To get the P3 mated with the K3 there was a power cord that plugged into the K3. This way when the K3 was powered on so is the P3. ( there are other options for power up and only involved changing a plug in jumper on the P3) The IF feed comes from the K3 to the P3 with a supplied

The finished product

BNC coax jumper. Finally there is RS232 DE 9 cable (again supplied by Elecraft) between the P3 and K3 so they can "talk". I then brought my RS232 from the PC to the P3. This allows me to update the P3 over the internet and the P3 utility can communicate the P3. I have not had to much time to play with the P3 as Sunday was dedicated to shopping and resting as I worked all night Saturday.

Hooked up to K3

I have been debating this one for a long long time and that is do I or don't I want (want not NEED) the Elecraft P3 pan adapter. There were two factors that drew me away from this unit, the price and the size of the screen.
Well I have sold some unused "stuff" here at VE3WDM so the funds are there. I contacted Lisa at Elecraft and I was told that in a few months there is a board coming out to put the P3 video up onto your monitor along with other goodies that it can do as well. For example decode on the monitor CW, RTTY and PSK31 to name a few. So
 on Friday I called Elecraft and sealed the deal. I hope it comes in time for Christmas and in keeping with tradition I ordered the kit version!!