QRZ! Ham Radio 3/QRZ Ham Radio Callsign Database - Volume 3.iso/digests/infoham/931355.txt

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Date: Tue, 16 Nov 93 10:28:53 PST
From: Info-Hams Mailing List and Newsgroup <[e-mail]>
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Reply-To: [e-mail]
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Subject: Info-Hams Digest V93 #1355
To: Info-Hams


Info-Hams Digest            Tue, 16 Nov 93       Volume 93 : Issue 1355

Today's Topics:
                       10 year old Extra Class
                            950s vs 950sdx
                             A/D for DSP
                              DSP units
                        Elmers are Dead, etc.
             Elmers are dead, god help us HAMS! (3 msgs)
                             Gary-bashing
                   Gary bashing ---> crossed wires
                      Info-Hams Digest V93 #1351
                Miss Manners in the Novice Sub-bands?
                   need qsl route for ZL2K (cq WW)
              Opinions and Real Life Experiences Wanted
                         Swan 350 Info wanted
                      Telescoping antenna on HT
                    Using modified HT in emergency
                          What do I do now?

Send Replies or notes for publication to: <[e-mail]>
Send subscription requests to: <[e-mail]>
Problems you can't solve otherwise to [e-mail].

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: 15 Nov 1993 14:05:01 GMT
From: mvb.saic.com!unogate!news.service.uci.edu!usc!wupost!gumby!destroyer!news1.oakland.edu!vela.acs.oakland.edu![e-mail]
Subject: 10 year old Extra Class
To: [e-mail]

Wow... just ten years old.  I'm not so impressed with the memorization
of the test that we have now a days, but anyone who passes that 20 WPM
code gets a tip of the jzl topper any day!

What was her "old" call?  73 =paul= wb8zjl

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 14:57:45 GMT
From: pacbell.com![e-mail]
Subject: 950s vs 950sdx
To: [e-mail]

Can anyone tell me what the differance is between these two radios?
I saw a two page sheet from Kenwood about a year and a half ago
and I cannot find it anywhere.
de WV6U Steve

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 93 15:50:44 GMT
From: psinntp![e-mail]
Subject: A/D for DSP
To: [e-mail]

In rec.radio.amateur.misc, [e-mail] (Cecil A Moore) writes:
>
>Text item: Text_1
>
>In the Nov QST, page 79, some specs are given for the TRFT-550
>Backpacker II transceiver. The blocking dynamic range is 100 db
>and the two-tone intermod distortion dynamic range is 81 db.  Is
>this enough information to answer the following question?
>
>If one were trying to do some state-of-the-art Digital Signal
>Processing on the audio from this direct-conversion receiver, how
>many bits of A/D would one need?

No.  However, it does set an upper bound on the number of bits.

The two-tone dynamic range refers to signals outside the audio
channel.  What you really want to know is the in-channel two-tone
dynamic range, which is often quite a bit less.  Essentially, this
is the measurement of the receiver amplifiers without *any*
filtering.  With a well behaved receiver, this measurement is
pretty easy to get.  On the other hand, one can easily envision
a narrow bandpass filter reflecting signals at a mixer, resulting
in numbers that vary from excellent to poor, depending on the
exact frequencies used.  The impedance of a filter outside its
passband is usually well behaved, as opposed to its in-band response.

Also, in practice, the system noise figure is quite a bit worse
than the receiver noise figure on HF, which often results in a
dynamic range degradation (10 or 20 dB wouldn't be unusual).
Proper use of an attenuator helps to restore the dynamic
range.

It is my opinion that a state of the art receiver would
allow phase locking your carrier insertion oscillator to a
broadcast carrier.  DSP could then be used to convert the
signals to the desired pitch.  Some operators attempt to
do this by zero-beating broadcast carriers, but most rigs
aren't really optimized for this.

Zack Lau  KH6CP/1

Internet: [e-mail]           "Working" on 24 GHz SSB/CW gear
             Operating Interests: 10 GHz CW/SSB/FM
US Mail: c/o ARRL Lab           80/40/20 CW
 225 Main Street    Station capability: QRP, 1.8 MHz to 10 GHz
 Newington CT  06111                modes: CW/SSB/FM/packet
            amtor/baudot
Phone (if you really have to): 203-666-1541

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 93 07:05:49 GMT
From: ogicse!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ennews!anasaz![e-mail]
Subject: DSP units
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] (Jim Arnold) writes:

>[e-mail] (John R. Moore) writes:

>> I have a Timewave DSP-9 on my TS-430 and I think it works VERY WELL. Nice
>> widget - inexpensive also.

>Yeah, this little puppy interests me.  Talked to a guy on 17M who raved
>about it.  Claimed it suppresses receiver noise too.  I'd like to know
>a bit more about its capabilities (and price!).
It does suppress receiver noise. It doesn't really pull voice "out of the
noice" but it does make the noise go away when no one is talking. It's
a wierd effect but it does make listening easier.

It has a CW and a Voice mode (red button selects).
The filter can take out tones (one button) and/or random noise (another
button).

One can also get bandpass filtering - 2 buttons select 3 bandwidths -
different ones for voice and cw.

>Any enlightening info on the DSP-9 ?

   voice   cw
   3.1k    500
   2.4k    200
   1.8k    100

It also has a volume control knob. One annoying thing is that they used
RCA connectors instead of mini-phone jack.
--
DISCLAIMER: These views are mine alone, and do not reflect my employer's!
John Moore 7525 Clearwater Pkwy, Scottsdale, AZ 85253  USA  (602-951-9326)
[e-mail]   Amateur call:NJ7E  Civil Air Patrol:Thunderbird 381
 - - A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality! - -
 - - Support ALL of the bill of rights, INCLUDING the 2nd amendment! - -

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 17:23:50 GMT
From: library.ucla.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!darwin.sura.net!wupost!crcnis1.unl.edu!news.unomaha.edu!cwis![e-mail]
Subject: Elmers are Dead, etc.
To: [e-mail]

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:

>As a interesting side note I was living in the Northern Va area of
>Washington DC metro, while talking to a friend of mine from work
>KD4DN, we were told "Get the hell off this repeater" by some unkown
>person. So dont feel to bad about being ignored, the DC area has
>more obnoxious Ham per capita.

I think you've gotten an extremely skewed sample there (one repeater
incident that could have happened anywhere).  I can say with reasonably
authority that the repeater you were chased off of was not the
146.76/22?/44? statewide repeater run by the MD FM Assoc. (ever hear of
the "Insomnia Net?"), the wide-area 147.18 machine, or even a machine
run by a club I was associated with, the University of Maryland ARA,
145.49.  In my travels across the country, it's been my experience that
the DC repeaters are generally some of the most open and friendly
around.  In fact, it's one thing that I miss in Omaha (not that Omaha
hams are rude, just that they take their repeaters a bit more seriously
out here, with Skywarn tornado spotting, ARES/RACES, Winter search and
rescue, etc.).

In short, all geographic areas have their cranks and repeater control
freaks.  They also have many more friendly people who welcome all hams
who behave as gentlemen (ladies).  If you are in DC, please try out the
above repeaters I recommended.  Tell them I sent you.

--
73, Paul W. Schleck, KD3FU
[e-mail]

President Emeritus, Univ. of MD ARA (W3EAX)

------------------------------

Date: 15 Nov 93 10:32:08 EST
From: world!ksr![e-mail]
Subject: Elmers are dead, god help us HAMS!
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] (Chris Levin) writes:
>I've got my code down and I'm looking forward to the test not so
>I can talk to any of you but simply to prove that a young, stupid,
>Nintendo playing no code can enter your glorified world of HF.  If
>anything HF is worse.  You flip on your kilowatt powered xcivers,
>and blow apart the airwaves do discuss the state of your bowels with
>a friend two states away.  You can't even here me over your self
>generated noise.  Not that you would respond if you could.

Well, unless you upgrade to General at the same time you take your code test,
you may be in for a pleasant surprise; the CW subbands tend to be more
civilized than the phone bands.  At least when I was a Novice, there were
elmers who made a point of engaging Novices in conversations (admittedly,
this was some time ago).

>I also wonder what all of these knobs on my HF rig (Kenwood TS-820) do.

Gee, I'm afraid I wouldn't know.  That's one advantage to building all one's
equipment; you always know what the knobs do :-).

>People [who flame rather than help] ruin the hobby, not new no-codes who
>are still learning.

Amen.

John, WB7EEL

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 07:47:36 GMT
From: usc!yeshua.marcam.com!news.kei.com!eff!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!agate!library.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com![e-mail]
Subject: Elmers are dead, god help us HAMS!
To: [e-mail]

Richard Webber ([e-mail]) wrote:
: I agree with some of the comments about repeaters.  I have not
: enjoyed using repeaters that much - there do seem to be many
: cliques - the same callsigns are heard all the time and if
: you're not a member of a club it can be difficult to talk much.
: On the other hand I have had two really enjoyable QSOs on 2m
: simplex recently.  Even in the (SF) Bay Area where there are
: probably more 2m rigs than cell phones, there doesn't
: seem to be much simplex traffic.  I have a Yaesu FT-530 and
: have programmed all of the North CA simplex frequencies into
: it and then use it's scanning to find an active
: frequency.  I then wait until the QSO is over and call one of
: the parties - I have done this a couple of times recently and
: had some very enjoyable QSOs.

I live in SF and wonder what freqs you've been listening to;
each evening there's a "Going Home Club" for commuters where
new users are often welcomed, and I often hear newbies (to
both U/VHY and HF) talk with the same old voices on 145.15.

I'd appreciate getting the "North CA simplex frequencies" from
you.  Lookiny forward to meeting you on the air...
--

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael S. Sattler         [e-mail]        [phone]
Digital Jungle Software    Encrypt now; ask me how.   (finger for PGP key)

               All that is required for evil to triumph is
                for {wo}men of good will to do nothing.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 15:47:43 GMT
From: library.ucla.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!emory!kd4nc!ke4zv![e-mail]
Subject: Elmers are dead, god help us HAMS!
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (David Stockton) writes:
>Chris Levin ([e-mail]) wrote:
>:
>: Old hams helping new hams, Yea right.  First of all, most of you
>
>  You're quite right, around the world (I'm in Scotland) 2metres is
>largely a group of cliques which hardly ever talk to someone in a
>different clique, certainly never to strangers.
>
>  This will give any newcomer a bad feeling of being snubbed. As you've
>listened to their conversations, I cannot, for the life in me, understand
>why you would want to converse with them.

Oooh, let me talk about cliques. They exist, and some of them can be
really nasty. But there are others (try our machine for example) where
everyone is welcomed. We have some rules we ask you to follow faithfully
when you come on our repeater, but we won't be hard on you if you don't.
Our number one rule is that there are no rules. We're fully interrupt
driven. If you have something to say, jump in, otherwise you'll be left
out forever. :-) No boring roundtables for us.

>  "W11WWW Monitoring" is a clique - call. some member of his clique will
>respond to him. You, as a non-clique member will get no response to such
>a call because there is no-one in your clique (Those who do it are actually
>in transmit when they say they're monitoring :-) No clique member will
> EVER call CQ on 2m or on any repeater because it risks ANYONE replying.
>There are terrible penalties for any clique member calling CQ or talking
>to strangers that make the Wouff Hongg seem tame.

Calling CQ on a repeater is a regional thing. In some areas it's encouraged,
and in others the "monitoring" line is SOP. It's not necessarily a clique
thing. It's just a matter of local custom. When someone comes on our repeater
and says he's "monitoring", I usually chime in and ask if he's heard anything.
That usually throws them for a loop. :-)

>  There are a few people worth meeting on the air, but it takes some
>effort to find them in some areas. It is worth the effort, though.

Yep.

[nice explanation of pi nets and why they're there deleted]

>  Light loading is GOOD, your tubes run less current, last longer run
>cooler, your pi tank is running with a higher Q, which makes it sharper
>(and more difficult) to tune, but gives much more attenuation of
>harmonics.

Now here's where I want to pick a slight quarrel. Too light loading
will screw up the linearity of the PA. It presents an impedance to the
tube that's too far off the design load line. Normally you want to load
fairly heavily for best linearity. If you want less power, reduce the
grid drive instead. The tube is much less prone to distortion with
lowered drive than with too light loading.

>   Your Pi tank can be adjusted to avccomodate non-50 ohm loads, rather
>like a reduced range ATU (It has as much range as many built-in auto
>ATUs.

You bet. When radios went to fixed 50 ohm outputs, they had to put
the pi net in another box and call it an ATU. That way they get to
charge you twice for what should have remained in one box.

>  "You are no older than you think you are" is a cliche, but as I
>estimate my mental age at 6.125, perhaps it's not far off target. Age is
>not the problem, it is a matter of attitude to life.

Absolutely, but you don't want to know how old I am in dog years. :-)

Gary (not *that* Gary, the other one.)

--
Gary Coffman KE4ZV          |   Life's a journey,   | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary
Destructive Testing Systems |   not a destination.  | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary
534 Shannon Way             |   Live it.            | emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary
Lawrenceville, GA 30244     |                       |

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 93 12:58:53 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Gary-bashing
To: [e-mail]

Friends -

OK, so sometimes _everyone_ gets a little carried away.  Sometimes
we get snippy.  Big deal.

Gary Coffman has provided more sound, solid, correct, and
useful information to this net than anyone else - perhaps
more than everyone else combined - during the 2 years that
I have subscribed.  I don't always agree with him, but at
least he's not filling up my mailbox with useless drivel.
He doesn't play lawyer-wannabe, scanner junkie, or knee-jerk
CW hater/lover; he sticks to technical topics and he's usually
thoughtful [and correct] about whatever he posts.

Gary is one heck of a good guy and it's sad that some readers
are so sensitive as to take offense at a momentary lapse.

W9IP

************************************************************************
Michael R. Owen, Ph.D.                        a.k.a.: W9IP
Department of Geology                         Northern Lights Software
St. Lawrence University                       Star Route, Box 60
Canton, NY  13617                             Canton, NY  13617
[phone]             -  voice  -        [phone] (6-9pm)
e-mail: MOWE@SLUMUS            FAX   -        [phone]
************************************************************************

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 93 16:15:33 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Gary bashing ---> crossed wires
To: [e-mail]

Several individuals have pointed out to me that I have
my Garys confused.  Guess I shoulda kept my mouth shut.
-sigh-
MRO

************************************************************************
Michael R. Owen, Ph.D.                        a.k.a.: W9IP
Department of Geology                         Northern Lights Software
St. Lawrence University                       Star Route, Box 60
Canton, NY  13617                             Canton, NY  13617
[phone]             -  voice  -        [phone] (6-9pm)
e-mail: MOWE@SLUMUS            FAX   -        [phone]
************************************************************************

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 93 13:09:36 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Info-Hams Digest V93 #1351
To: [e-mail]

unsubscribe info-hams

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 93 16:04:37 GMT
From: ogicse!uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!col.hp.com!fc.hp.com![e-mail]
Subject: Miss Manners in the Novice Sub-bands?
To: [e-mail]

Douglas J Renze ([e-mail]) wrote:
: It wasn't anything big tonight, since even that area was uncrowded, but I'm
: just curious...the novice subbands are supposedly "training bands"
: Peace es 73 de Doug N0YVW

At what speed does training stop?? Perhaps one of them was a novice
getting ready to try and upgrade all the way to extra soon. Sorry but
in any event I don't see anything wrong with this practice.

73, Jay K0GU                  [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 20:56:55 GMT
From: usc!wupost!waikato!comp.vuw.ac.nz!frc![e-mail]
Subject: need qsl route for ZL2K (cq WW)
To: [e-mail]

QSL via the ZL bureau to: ZL2IR (India-Radio).
See you in the CQWW-CW.

Wilbert, ZL2BSJ.



--
Wilbert Knol       MAFFISH Marine  Research,       Wellington,  New Zealand.
Usenet: [e-mail]  PACKET:[e-mail]  AMPR:[44.147.180.88]
AX25, NET/ROM, TCP/IP mailbox 146.625  MHz Wellington Data,  144.650 Simplex

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 15:52:37 GMT
From: library.ucla.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!att-out!cbnewsl![e-mail]
Subject: Opinions and Real Life Experiences Wanted
To: [e-mail]

I am thinking of buying a TS-690. Does anyone have any information for me,
good or bad, on this piece of equipment? Also, can you get a built in
antenna tuner as an option? All comments are welcome!

73

Tony Gaeta
N2NKC

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 14:55:06 GMT
From: nntp.ucsb.edu!library.ucla.edu!agate!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!hpscit.sc.hp.com!hplextra!hpfcso!hplvec![e-mail]
Subject: Swan 350 Info wanted
To: [e-mail]

Mark,

If I'm not mistaken, there was a Swan 350 on the desk at HRO in Denver last
Saturday for $90.  In my opinion (and having never been a Swan fan), a hundred
bucks is much more like it for a 350 in *any* condition.  The best thing about
a Swan is the dial mechanism - wonderfully smooth.  Unfortunately, what was
behind the knobs was only average, even when they were new.  Of course, for
gear of this vintage, you will get a lot of opinions about worth and quality.

Bill

Bill Standerfer                        *        Hewlett-Packard Company
CFI-A, IA, ME                          *        Instrument Controller Lab
[e-mail]                      *        Loveland, CO  80539
Baron N222AB - KF0DJ - Pikes Peak 253  *        303-679-2378



>I have a chance to buy a Swan 350 in "excellent" condition.  I know nothing
>about this rig other than that it puts out 300 W and is probably old.
>Anyone have one or know how they do?  Are they tube or solid state, analog
>frequency display, modes, bands covered, general coverage receiver, built
>in filters, suitable for HF packet?  Also, what would be a good price?  The
>owner is asking $325, including speaker and power supply.  Please feel free
>to send replys directly to me if you don't want to clog up the net.  Thanks
>in advance!
>

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 18:24:34 GMT
From: nntp.ucsb.edu!library.ucla.edu!agate!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!hpscit.sc.hp.com!hplextra!hpfcso![e-mail]
Subject: Telescoping antenna on HT
To: [e-mail]

> Is there any potential for damage to the HT by transmitting with the
> antenna collapsed?

Maybe.  I've measured the SWR of my Hot Rod antenna and found that once
you collapse it to less than about 3/4 of full length, the SWR goes to
hell.  Curiously, holding it over a ground plane (large metal vehicle
hood) makes it worse, where it helps a rubber duck.

Anyway, with a high SWR your HT is eating lots of reflected power.  Will
this hurt it?  Maybe, maybe not.  Probably you should feel it get hot
first if it has time to sink the heat out to the case.  (The FT411
apparently uses the metal case back as a heat sink exactly for this
reason; it does get hot on 12V = 5W, and you can feel it.)

> Can I expect better results with a collapsed antenna vs a rubber duck?

No, the rubber duck is tuned and hence is much better at the same
length, although both "capture" the same amount of space.

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 93 13:22:46 GMT
From: ogicse!uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!news.nd.edu!nimtziici.edmedia.nd.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Using modified HT in emergency
To: [e-mail]

I may have missed a discussion about this, I've been unable to read the
news for the past few days.

Last night on the RACES/ARES net someone read an article about a ham that
used his HT to contact the sheriff department to summon help for his
injured friend. They were hiking or something like that in a remote area.
It seems that his friend had fallen and was badly injured.

The ham attempted to reach someone on a number of amateur repeaters as
well as attempting to make a connection using a cellular telephone. Unable
to reach anyone he then climbed to the top of a nearby hill and attempted
once again to summon aid via the amateur repeaters and cellular phone. Only
when these methods failed did he use the police frequency. He contacted the
sheriff department on one of their administrative channels, not a dispatch
channel.

Emergency help arrived and his friend was taken to the hospital. The ham
wasn't so lucky. The sheriff department had him state that he used the
police frequency illegally and persuaded him to surrender his modified
HT. It was not mentioned if the FCC got involved or not.

The person who read the article on the net (the RACES repeater trustee)
seemed to think this is a perfect example why one should NOT modify their
HT.
The RACES Radio Officer, acting as net control, mentioned that he had
another opinion but the RACES net was not the place for that discussion.

I think that if the ham's friend was so badly injured he couldn't transport
himself to help then the ham was justified in using whatever means he had
to summon aid. From what I heard this sounds like a "life threatening"
situation.

Is this a case where the sheriff department's nose is out of
joint or what? Is it just an urban legend that a person can use any
radio or frequency to summon aid in life threatening emergency? Or is it
permissible in the FCC's eyes but not permissible to the county mounties?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rick Nimtz                              INTERNET: [e-mail]
Chief Technician/LAN Administrator      CompuServe: 76207,2432
Educational Media                       AOL: RNIMTZ
University of Notre Dame                Politically correct Tech+HF: N9TJG

B16 DeBartolo Hall                      FAX: [phone]
Notre Dame, IN 46556-5692 USA           Voice: [phone]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: 15 Nov 1993 14:07:56 GMT
From: mvb.saic.com!unogate!news.service.uci.edu!usc!wupost!gumby!destroyer!news1.oakland.edu!vela.acs.oakland.edu![e-mail]
Subject: What do I do now?
To: [e-mail]

What was the "question?"   I built an HW-101 back when I was young and
foolish.  Now I'm old and foolish.

73 -paul-  wb8zjl

------------------------------

End of Info-Hams Digest V93 #1355
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