Date: Thu, 20 Jan 94 18:36:07 PST From: Info-Hams Mailing List and Newsgroup Errors-To: Info-Hams-Errors@UCSD.Edu Reply-To: Info-Hams@UCSD.Edu Precedence: Bulk Subject: Info-Hams Digest V94 #59 To: Info-Hams Info-Hams Digest Thu, 20 Jan 94 Volume 94 : Issue 59 Today's Topics: Bencher Straight key BRAIN CANCER, LEUKEMIA FROM HAM RADI FRG-9600 CAT controller program for grabs Heath SB-1400 problem HP's vector modulator Kantronics and VIC-20 Kenwood radio software Latest verison of SuperMorse Low Power VCO more on nts welfare msgs to losangeles QST Article on Balloon Tracking using GPS Rcvr Ramsey FX Transceivers Seeking Opinions of Memory Keyers Special Event Station Send Replies or notes for publication to: Send subscription requests to: Problems you can't solve otherwise to brian@ucsd.edu. Archives of past issues of the Info-Hams Digest are available (by FTP only) from UCSD.Edu in directory "mailarchives/info-hams". We trust that readers are intelligent enough to realize that all text herein consists of personal comments and does not represent the official policies or positions of any party. Your mileage may vary. So there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 19 Jan 94 07:54:01 GMT From: ogicse!cs.uoregon.edu!sgiblab!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!not-for-mail@network.ucsd.edu Subject: Bencher Straight key To: info-hams@ucsd.edu anyone see one of the new Bencher Straight Keys in person.. look interesting. 73 Jeff, AC4HF ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 1994 11:33:13 GMT From: noc.near.net!news.delphi.com!gilbaronw0mn@uunet.uu.net Subject: BRAIN CANCER, LEUKEMIA FROM HAM RADI To: info-hams@ucsd.edu >Let's hope that the news media don't feed the sense of hysteria that many >people feel when confronted by something they don't understand, and that we Did you see Wayne Greens drivel in his latest editorial in 73 on this subject. It almost makes me ashamed that I have a lifetime subscription. He even says it can do good too. It can cure aids he says. Very easily he says. Why doesn't he develop it and make his millions? Gil Baron, El Baron Rojo, W0MN Rochester,MN "Bailar es Vivir" PGP2.3 key at key servers or upon request ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Jan 1994 18:15:30 GMT From: library.ucla.edu!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!newsserver.jvnc.net!raffles.technet.sg!ntuix!ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg!asirene@network.ucsd.edu Subject: FRG-9600 CAT controller program for grabs To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Hi all FRG-9600/FRG-965 users, I have available a CAT controller program for the YAESU FRG-9600 which multitasks in the background and does everything the FRG-9600 can do to the max. Brings to the radio, all the features you would see in a modern scanner. Also includes a very simple and cheap CAT interface which is better but compatible with the FIF-232-C from YAESU. It has enhanced features as well. E-mail me for it. 73 de 9VG Daniel ------------------------------ Date: 20 Jan 94 13:53:17 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!caen!usenet.cis.ufl.edu!bennett@hplabs.hp.com Subject: Heath SB-1400 problem To: info-hams@ucsd.edu I would appreciate some help with a small problem that just reared it's ugly head. I have a Heath SB-1400 HF Transceiver(cousin of the Yaesu FT-747GX). Over the weekend, receive sensitivity went blah. Ah ha! consult the schematics and manuals time. While thumbing through the manuals I found reference to a small light bulb installed on the receive side of the T/R relay that could cause the problem if it were blown. I checked the bulb, and, sure enough, it is blown. Well the manual gives the specifications for the bulb as any 8 volt, 100ma pilot lamp(wire pigtails to be precise). Out come the catalogs. I have not yet been able to find a pilot lamp even coming close to those specifications. Therefore I approach the net.wisdom in locating the part number and manufacturer for the appropriate lamp. As this is my only HF rig that is even remotely capable of meeting my fully legal and licensed requirements, it is rather important to me to get the unit back up quickly. If I can find a standard lamp part number, it will be comparatively easy. (And I will definitely purchase spares this time!) Any help or information the net can provide me with will be DEEPLY appreciated. Thanks Paul R. Bennett N4EGO (General class .. FINALLY) bennett@mail.cis.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: 20 Jan 94 15:46:47 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!hpscit.sc.hp.com!rkarlqu@hplabs.hp.com Subject: HP's vector modulator To: info-hams@ucsd.edu In article <9401201432.AA17203@nms1.abb.com>, Tom_Jennings wrote: >Hello, > >Hewlett Packard's add in Electronic Engineering Times, Jan 17, 1994, >mentions a "vector modulator" chip. I have no idea what it is and >what it could be used for. Does anybody on the list know? The HP HPMX-200_ series of vector modulators (from HPs Communications Components Division) consist basically of two Gilbert cell mixers and a combiner to form an I-Q mixer system. This can be used to make a QPSK modulator or image reject mixer. Some of the chips have on board quadrature networks. The frequency range is over 2 GHz. You can get data sheets and parts from distributors such as Hamilton Avnet, Penstock, Newark, and Arrow. Rick Karlquist N6RK rkarlqu@scd.hp.com ------------------------------ Date: 20 Jan 94 23:43:11 GMT From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu Subject: Kantronics and VIC-20 To: info-hams@ucsd.edu I have both the VIC-20 Hamtext Operator's Manual (30 pages long) and the Kantronics Interface Instruction Manual (20 pages). You want me to make and send you copies or just extract some information? I assume your looking for things like control-E (Return to Receive), control-I (CW-ID), control 0-9 (message ports) sort of information? jd....k1zat ------------------------------ Date: 21 Jan 94 00:14:36 GMT From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu Subject: Kenwood radio software To: info-hams@ucsd.edu I am trying to locate Kenwood radio control software such as COMPTROL or KTWIN either on Internet or BBS. The particular radio I use is the TS-140S. Any replies would be appreciated. SHMC0874@BCIT.BC.CA ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 94 19:34:26 GMT From: ogicse!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!newsrelay.iastate.edu!news.iastate.edu!wjturner@network.ucsd.edu Subject: Latest verison of SuperMorse To: info-hams@ucsd.edu In article drumhell@claudette.nrl.navy.mil (David Drumheller) writes: > It appears that the program SuperMorse is up to verion 4.01. Does >anybody know of an ftp site that would have it? wuarchive.wustl.edu has SuperMorse *4.04* in /mirrors/msdos/hamradio. 73, Will N0RDV/AE (Since Sunday... :-) -- Will Turner, N0RDV --------------------------------------------- wjturner@iastate.edu | "Are you going to have any professionalism, | twp77@isuvax.iastate.edu | or am I going to have to beat it into you?" | TURNERW@vaxld.ameslab.gov --------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 94 19:14:42 GMT From: hsdndev!dartvax.dartmouth.edu!daan220@rutgers.rutgers.edu Subject: Low Power VCO To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Frequency Range: 138-153 MHz Power Supply: 3 Vdc @ 3 mAmp or 5 Vdc @ 1-2 mAmp Output (Power): +8 - +10 dBM (50 Ohm Load Resistance) Control Voltage: 1 - 3 Volts Op. Temp. Range: -45 to +70 degrees Celcius Has anyone been able to find a VCO that meets these specifications? Or just one that is reasonable in meeting them closely? Trade-offs are control voltage, output, and power supply. Total power consumption w/o output should range b/w 10 and 15 mWatts. Need to find someone who may supply this VCO, give app notes, or gave name of a vendor who can meet these specs. Also, design schematics could help us build it ourselves. Help! Daan Goedkoop PLL Group/ES 295 for Lockheed / Sanders Nashua, NH ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 03:26:00 PST From: amd!netcomsv!easyst!rclark@decwrl.dec.com Subject: more on nts welfare msgs to losangeles To: info-hams@ucsd.edu i stand corrected by someone on sending packet nts msgs into the los angeles area...if you are outside of california please address your nts msgs in the following format for packet: outside california: st zipcode @ ntsca qtc cityname,phone prefix the rest of the msg is in standard arrl radiogram format.... for inside california: sysops can point all mail bound for san fernando valley/northridge area to w8akf.#soca.ca.usa or k6ve.#soca.ca.usa.... the major and only bbs for that area is wb6wfh and his system is down for the next several days i would imagine...he lives at ground zero of this 6.6 shaker...so once again the format for internal calif. mail: st zipcode @ w8akf.#soca.ca.usa or st zipcode @ k6ve.#soca.ca.usa this is what w8akf has sent out on our local packet bbs network... thanks for reading....73 de richard n6uzs rclark@easyst.com ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 94 20:31:59 GMT From: ukma!harold.ca.uky.edu!hpeach@rutgers.rutgers.edu Subject: QST Article on Balloon Tracking using GPS Rcvr To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Several months ago there was an article in QST about a guy that was tracking balloons using data from a GPS receiver, transmitted back to a ground station. He had written a spreadsheet in MS-Excell that would graph the balloon's flight path based on the points reported back by the GPS receiver. Does anyone have a copy of his spreadsheet or the algorithim he used? Please e-mail me at . --- Harold hpeach@ca.uky.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 23:01:58 GMT From: bruce.cs.monash.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!yeshua.marcam.com!news.kei.com!eff!news.umbc.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!news.intercon.com!udel!@@munnari.oz.au Subject: Ramsey FX Transceivers To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Galen Watts (galen@picea.CFNR.ColoState.EDU) wrote: : Didn't H-D change ownership around this time? AMF owned them during the '70s. Employees bought them out. : I believe kits should be engineered better than assembled gear... They are better engineered from the standpoint of building, modifying, repairing... You don't ever have to send it back to the factory. : If they can't afford assembled, how can they afford the test gear to : get a poorly designed kit to work? : Galen, KF0YJ John Ramsey's point is that you don't need test gear to get the FX transceivers working. Once the ARRL used their test gear to find a "problem" (that did not affect functionality), they published the 20 cent fix. All the problems are known and there are published fixes for all of them. And not being able to afford assembled is a blessing in disguise. One learns a lot putting these kits together and getting them working properly. What does one learn when one buys assembled?... the same thing one learns when buying a CB. 73, Cecil, kg7bk@indirect.com ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 94 20:39:04 GMT From: att-out!cbfsb!cbnewsg.cb.att.com!wstrahl@rutgers.rutgers.edu Subject: Seeking Opinions of Memory Keyers To: info-hams@ucsd.edu I am seeking net opinions re: the current crop of contest-style memory keyers. I am very pleased with my present 6502-based Kansas City Contest Keyer. I am considering getting another keyer and was wondering if any of the newer ones are 'better'. It must have at least 4 message memories, serial numbering, message sending via remote buttons on the paddle, and a speed KNOB. What should I be considering, MFJ, Logitek, ??? Your opinions appreciated. Wayne Strahl - W9II wstrahl@cbnewsg.att.com ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 94 21:46:00 GMT From: concert!news-feed-2.peachnet.edu!darwin.sura.net!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!moe.ksu.ksu.edu!engr.uark.edu!news.ualr.edu!chaos!paul.graziani@decwrl.dec.com Subject: Special Event Station To: info-hams@ucsd.edu *** Valentines Weekend Special Event STation *** The Metropolitan Amateur Radio Club of Central Arkansas will hold a special event from 1500 utc to 2200 utc February 13 from Romance, ARkansas. Call will be N5RLJ (Phonetics N5Romeo Loves Juliet) . Cw and phone operation only on 40 through 10 meters. Phone in general portion of band except for ten meters (28.3 to 28.5 MHz.) propagation permitting. CW will be in upper end of general band on all bands except for ten (28.1 to 28.2 MHz.). For commemorative certificate or QSL send with SASE to: MARC Special Event P. O. Box 1793 North Little Rock, Ar 72115 Further information in Special Events Section of January QST. Hope to work you on the 13th for our annual Valentines Day celebration from Romance. 73, Paul Graziani WD5BIV ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 1994 20:24:25 GMT From: koriel!newscast.West.Sun.COM!abyss.West.Sun.COM!sunspot!myers@decwrl.dec.com To: info-hams@ucsd.edu References , <2hhsumINNms@abyss.West.Sun.COM>, ne Subject : Re: Ramsey FX Transceivers In article kg7bk@indirect.com (Cecil Moore) writes: >Dana Myers (myers@sunspot.West.Sun.COM) wrote: > >: The previous point, that H-D product was poor in the 70s and became >: good in the 80s because customers helped the factory improve the >: product is not realistic. H-D product improved as soon as the management >: cared to spend rthe effort to make a good product. > >And why did they spend the effort? They were forced to by the customers. >Customers -were- the reason for the improvements. C'mon, this is circular logic. Of course customers were the reason for H-D improving their products. However, you can not deny that H-D products improved considerably only after the management became committed to improving the products. >: I stand by my assertion that Ramsey kits are poorly engineered with >: respect to performance. > >They are not as well engineered as they might have been. So the constructive >thing to do is sit and bitch and moan about how bad they are...right? Funny you should mention that; I've spent quite a bit of effort understanding exactly what the shortcomings of the Ramsey radios re, in particular the FX-440. I've posted constructive criticism to the Usenet, and, guess what, John Ramsey called me up! It turns out he wasn't interested in a thing I had to say, other than to prove to me I was wrong. >: if you get a batch that is right on value or 10% high, you'll have a >: deaf receiver. > >That's why Ramsey offers a free variable cap upgrade PCB. Great. How many people know they need the upgrade PCB when they don't have the equipment to evaluate the performance of the receiver? >: ...mentality is straight out of the 11m linear amplifier crowd, >: where these guys splatter onto 10m and claim nothing is wrong > >A Ham running a KW on 20m gets away with splattering 5w onto 10m. >Why doesn't the FCC care about that? Of course the FCC cares about that, Cecil. You're starting to sound just like John; tryingto change the subject and confuse the issues to avoid the hard problems. Why don't you address my real point, which is: Just because you can talk to someone with a radio, doesn't mean the radio is adequately working. >: John is happy to help you make your radio work >: better when it has design flaws, but he's not ready to upgrade the >: design so people won't have problems. > >Instead of ragging on Internet which Ramsey may not see, how about >convincing John that he needs to upgrade the designs? If more hams >buy his designs after the upgrade you can bet he will do it. But, like >the Corvair, bad publicity can destroy a product even though it was >upgraded to a very good product. I returned John's call and spent 1 hour of my time and $$ listening to John's excuses. I was told that "no improvement can be made to the Ramsey radios because no one could build them then". I tried, vainly, to convince John that he needs to sell kits that include the upgrades rather than expecting people to realize something is wrong and call him. At the very least, he needs to include documentation in his manuals which says "when you build this kit, it stands a good chance of not working well. Please call New York at long-distance rates on your bill and ask for the free upgrades which will make your radio work the way you expected it to". John flat out told me that his designs have been tested and are optimum given the fact they need to be built from a kit by people who don't know anything about radio. He shot down every design alternative I mentioned with "no one could build it". He bad-mouthed other customers of his *by name*. Maybe he'll start bad-mouthing me by name, too. Cecil, rather than trying to convince to stop picking on Ramsey kits for theire technical shortcomings, why don't you convince your buddy John Ramsey to spend some hard earned cash going to a course on customer relations? Then he'd have a chance of addressing the real reasons why his products get bad press. -- * Dana H. Myers KK6JQ, DoD 466 | Views expressed here are * * (310) 348-6043 | mine and do not necessarily * * Dana.Myers@West.Sun.Com | reflect those of my employer * * This Extra supports the abolition of the 13 and 20 WPM tests * ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 1994 14:27:00 GMT From: ucsnews!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!news.Brown.EDU!NewsWatcher!user@network.ucsd.edu To: info-hams@ucsd.edu References <2hfehn$t1o@orion.cc.andrews.edu>, , Subject : Re: Global Alert For All: Jesus is Coming Soon In article , Charles.R.Hohenstein.1@nd.edu (Charles R. Hohenstein) wrote: > In article , > Anthony_Pelliccio@brown.edu (Tony Pelliccio) wrote: > > > > > Can I ask a question? Did you actually sit there and post this to every > > single Usenet group? Enough of your wahoo bs... take this to a more > > appropriate forum since this is for amateur radio. Who knows, maybe one day > > a Ham will have a QSO with God himself. > > > Yes, but would this QSO be voice or CW? CW of course, only you'd better be able to copy at speeds greater than 1e+99999 per minute or you won't understand a thing. Let's face it, God pre-dates amateur radio by quite a few millenia so he's probably using a spark-gap generator and touching two wires together. Tony -- == Tony Pelliccio, KD1NR == Anthony_Pelliccio@Brown.edu == Brown University Alumni & Development Computing Services == Box 1908 == Providence, RI 02912 == (401) 863-1880 ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jan 1994 23:56:06 GMT From: koriel!newscast.West.Sun.COM!abyss.West.Sun.COM!sunspot!myers@ames.arpa To: info-hams@ucsd.edu References <940118080104_2@ccm.hf.intel.com>, , Subject : Re: Ramsey FX Transceivers In article kg7bk@indirect.com (Cecil Moore) writes: >Galen Watts (galen@picea.CFNR.ColoState.EDU) wrote: > >: Didn't H-D change ownership around this time? > >AMF owned them during the '70s. Employees bought them out. The previous point, that H-D product was poor in the 70s and became good in the 80s because customers helped the factory improve the product is not realistic. H-D product improved as soon as the management cared to spend rthe effort to make a good product. This happened when a larger corporate entity sold the company to a smaller group of investors that would lose their shirts and jobs if H-D didn't succeed. The "new" H-D started aggressively upgrading the product and abandoning the dated manufacturing and engineering methods for modern methods. John Ramsey spent an hour of my time and phone bill explaining that his products do not need to change; this is essentially what AMF did with H-D during the 70s. >: I believe kits should be engineered better than assembled gear... > >They are better engineered from the standpoint of building, modifying, >repairing... You don't ever have to send it back to the factory. According to John Ramsey, many kits are sent back to the factory when the builder can't get it to work. He told me horror stories of people using pipe solder, etc. I stand by my assertion that Ramsey kits are poorly engineered with respect to performance. The FX-440 front end, as supplied in the kit, is highly prone to overload from HF and VHF radios; this is due to poor engineering and does not reduce cost at all. The FX-440 front end performance is highly prone to component tolerances; because John doesn't want the builder to have to adjust anything, there's no way to compensate for normal differences in components. The high-pass filter in the FX-440 front end can have as much as -20dB of loss in the 440-450 Mhz band while having less than 1dB of insertion loss above 470 Mhz. The capacitors used have at least a +/- 10% tolerance; if you happen to get a batch that is 10% low you'll get adequate performance from 440-450; if you get a batch that is right on value or 10% high, you'll have a deaf receiver. >: If they can't afford assembled, how can they afford the test gear to >: get a poorly designed kit to work? >: Galen, KF0YJ I asked John this and he said "Oh, people learn and that is great!" This is right after he finished telling me how many people can't build his kits correctly, especially Extras. >John Ramsey's point is that you don't need test gear to get the FX >transceivers working. Once the ARRL used their test gear to find a >"problem" (that did not affect functionality), they published the 20 >cent fix. All the problems are known and there are published fixes >for all of them. And not being able to afford assembled is a blessing >in disguise. One learns a lot putting these kits together and getting >them working properly. What does one learn when one buys assembled?... >the same thing one learns when buying a CB. Well, I assert that building any VHF/UHF gear requires the use of test equipment to verify proper and legal operation. Don't downplay the importance od a radio which does not meet the Part 97 requirement for spectral purity. John claimed that Jon Bloom's FX-146 has a -58dB spur that did not affect functionality; I said "It is still illegal" and he said "but the radio worked". I don't think John understands the danger of that logic; the "it works OK cause I can yap on it" mentality is straight out of the 11m linear amplifier crowd, where these guys splatter onto 10m and claim nothing is wrong because they can communicate OK. Radio amateurs are expected to operate their equipment *legally* and to *care* about things like spetral purity. A radio which does not mee the Part 97 requirements is not working, even if it appears to be. Many of the people I know that have built FX series radios have never verified the receiver sensitivity or transmitter purity. These guys are waiting for NALs to show up. By suggesting you can build VHF/UHF radio without any more test equipment than a VOM is naive and not doing his customers any favors. John is happy to help you make your radio work better when it has design flaws, but he's not ready to upgrade the design so people won't have problems. -- * Dana H. Myers KK6JQ, DoD 466 | Views expressed here are * * (310) 348-6043 | mine and do not necessarily * * Dana.Myers@West.Sun.Com | reflect those of my employer * * This Extra supports the abolition of the 13 and 20 WPM tests * ------------------------------ End of Info-Hams Digest V94 #59 ******************************