Kenwood TM-D710A installation in a 2014 Ford Focus

I finally got around to finishing the installation of my Kenwood TM-D710A into my new Ford Focus. I took this out of my F-150 when I traded it in a few weeks ago. I feel like less of a man driving this little car, but I can't argue with cutting the car payment in half and cutting my fuel usage by 2/3.

For the installation I tried running the wire myself, but an almost 300lb 6'2" guy just doesn't fit well in the small spaced under the dash, so I paid someone to run the cable for me. Since I was having a pro run the wires from the battery to the trunk, I decided to go with 4ga wire so that I would only have to do it once.
I mounted the radio body and the power point under the rear deck with self-tapping screws. The control cables run down different sides of the car. The cable to the mic goes down the driver's side, and the control head cable runs down the passenger side. They are neatly tucked inside the molding along the floorboards, then cross under the seats to the mic and control head.

The control head is mounted using the MT-7 mount from AES . It only required loosening the seat mounting bolt, sliding the mounting arm under the bolt, and tightening it back up. It was the easiest part of the install!

I still have some wiring clean-up in the trunk, but I ran out of wire loom, so that'll be a project for another day.

Next up is a Little Tarheel II HP , an Icom IC-7000, and hopefully an Ameritron ALS-500MR

Quick, easy, and cheap 1090MHz ADS-B antenna

Having recently discovered the joys of RTL-SDR dongles, I decided that I wanted a dedicated ADS-B receiver using one.  The details of setting up the dongle and configuring the software are beyond the scope of this post.  If you're interested I'll be happy to make a post about it sometime, though.

I'm sure that if you've read any of the other posts that I've made on this blog, you have come to the realization that I am an unrepentant cheapskate.  Since I spent a whopping $12 on the USB dongle, I sure didn't want to spend very much on the antenna.  After finding suitable plans online (the math on single-wire collinear antennas is beyond me), I headed off to Home Depot to see what we can find in the way of suitable materials.  Here is what I came up with:

12ft of 10ga solid copper wire: $8

Two 1.25in x 24in PVC pipe: $5

Two 1.25in PVC caps: $2

One 1.25in PVC coupler: $1

I already had an SO-239 panel mount connector in the parts bin, so that sums up my cost on this.  $16 total.  Can't complain about that, I guess.

This pile of parts will eventually become the antenna:

If you looked at the antenna plans that I found, you'll see that some coils are needed in the antenna.  The outside of a PL-259 is almost the proper dimensions.

To get it up to where it needs to be I added a couple turns of masking tape to the outside of it.

After a bit of practice (as you can see in the background), I had two lengths of wire with suitable, although not perfect, coils.

Here is where I deviated from the flight plan on this.  It turns out that Home Depot doesn't stock flat pipe caps, or even PVC pipe flanges, so having a flat sheet of metal as the groundplane was right out.  Instead, I decided to build a vertical collinear dipole!

I had a dilemma on this.  If I used wire thin enough to fit into the SO-239 I was worried that it would bend when going into the radome.  But a larger wire wouldn't fit properly, so I decided to take a small piece of 1/4in copper tubing and use it as an adapter.  I solder the solid wire into it first, then created a solder filled cup in the other end, into which I set the post from the SO-239.  It works well, just be care to not get the connector too hot, otherwise the teflon in the connector will melt.  Also, be sure not to torque the post too much, it breaks easily.  This is why I decided to use a radome of PVC, to protect that fragile part.

The one step that I didn't take pictures of was putting the antenna into the PVC radome.  I used some foam wafers cut from old packing material as a dielectric standoff to keep the wire centered in the pipe.  I also built a 2m groundplane that used a similar technique, I will post pics of it soon so that you can get the general idea.

And here is the end result!  It seems to work fine business!  Within a couple of seconds of plugging it in I was up and receiving ADS-B signals.  And this is with the antenna at a measly ten feet off the ground!

Anyhow, I hope that you have enjoyed the post and wish you the best in your antenna making adventures!

73,

Richard, KK4JDO

5630mi per watt!

The other day I had an amazing low power but long distance QRP/p PSK31 QSO between me (KK4JDO) and Michael (VE3NOO).  His QTH  in Canada is 1126.8mi (1813.4km) from mine here in central Florida.  At the start of the QSO I was running just a meager 0.2 watts.  That's right, less than a quarter of a watt!  He started out running around 35 watts, I believe, but when he heard what I was doing he lowered his power down to less than a watt also!  How cool is that?!  We had a fine QSO, 100% copy both directions, and it felt like the conditions were going to last forever.  We eventually said 73 ourselves well before the ionosphere did it for us.  The math on that works out to 5,630mi (9060.6km) per watt!  How cool is that?!

To give an example, using that kind of power for distance ratio, you could talk to the moon using mere 42.4 watts.  Now I know that ionospheric propagation doesn't work like that, but it does give a fine example of the kind of distances we're talking about.  :-)

I took a few pictures to commemorate what - to me at least - was a special event:

Here is a shot while receiving him, note the power setting and how sharp his signal is in the waterfall.

Here is a shot of my radio while transmitting, again, note the power level!  Woot!

Here is a screenscrape of his signal before he turned down his power.

And again after he turn down the juice to 1 watt.  He went lower with a lot of success but I didn't think to grab a screenshot.  I was too busy geeking out.  :-)

So all-in-all, it just goes to show that you don't need a lot of power to talk long distances.  Even chatting across the internet can't compare to the power levels used here.  We're talking less than the amount of power needed to light an LED!  And I was able to talk from Florida to Ontario with it!  Just the optics used to send signals around the world via the internet use more juice than that, let alone the hardware that supports said optics.  Talk about energy efficient!  Now if the ionosphere had the same reliability factor as the internet we'd be in good shape.  :-)

Anyhow, I just wanted to share something that I found absolutely amazing.  So if you have a RockMite or SoftRock, don't despair, you can make some long distance contacts as well!

Thanks and 73,

Richard, KK4JDO

Homebrew CW Paddle: Cost $0

So browsing around various email reflectors and online communities I keep hearing about how expensive ham radio gear is.  People keep saying that it costs too much to get into HF.  I wanted to debunk that a little.

I have already built a SWL RockMite-40 kit, but I didn't have a paddle to go with it.  So I wanted to build one, and at the same time show what could be done on the cheap.  The paddle that I came up with isn't overly elegant, other than in its simplicity.  My craftsman ship isn't compliment worthy, other than to say that it works.

The parts list is simple.

• Base moulding corner block laying around, but any scrap piece of 1x4 would work.  
• Three inches of scrap of 1x2 white pine left over from a different project.
• One cheapy kitchen butter knife that I found in a scrap bucket
• Stereo cable from an old set of headphones
• Some screws from the "misc fastener" bucket

And that is it.  I used basic tools (as you'll see from the pictures, things like a drill press would have made for a cleaner job), nothing special was required.

My tool list was pretty basic also:

• Power drill
• Drill bits
• Hacksaw
• Screwdriver
• Pliers

You don't get much simpler than that.  Now then, on to some pics:

Heck, I even took a short video!  This is me keying CQ into a dummy load.  Imagine that, a dummy on both ends of the radio!  ;-)

And, for the nay sayers, here is a pic of a fully functional HF station, ready to rock on 40m.  Total cost:  ~$50

What's that?  You need a tuner?  Well, at 250mW-500mW, I would recommend a resonant antenna instead of a tuner.  But if you must have one, add in the $65 Emtech ZM-2 tuner (which would happily tune a clothes hanger) and you're ready to go.  Total cost for a flexible HF station: $115

Well shoot, you also don't have an antenna either?  Not a problem, we can cover that too.  A 100ft roll of RatShack speaker wire is $14.  Measure out ~31', split it (use a zip tie to keep it from splitting further) and use the rest as the feedline to your tuner (or just cut it at that length and solder it to some 50ohm coax and go straight to the radio). You can find it elsewhere much cheaper, you just have to look around.  You could probably score some wire for free by doing a bit of dumpster diving or asking a local construction company nicely.

Here is a completely portable ready to go HF station, with tuner and antenna, for a total cost of ~$130.

Now, admittedly, it takes some time to put the kits together, and you need some tools to do so, which also cost money.  But most of the tools needed are already laying around the house with the possible exception of a soldering iron, but those can be had cheap, just look around.  If all else fails, a RatShack soldering iron will get the job done for $10 and it even comes with some solder!

After the tools, it takes the knowledge.  Which is the essence of ham radio.  You don't need a lot of knowledge about electronics to assemble the kits, just follow the directions and you'll be done in no time.  But use it as an opportunity to learn about how the radio works!  Then you'll have the knowledge for next time, and you get tackle a bigger project.  Maybe a BitX or something like that!

Which brings us to the crux of it.  After the tools and the knowledge comes the drive.  The desire to make it happen.  The willingness to put effort into something.  If the desire and drive are there, all the rest will fall into place.  And if it doesn't, call me and maybe I can help!

73 and Happy New Year!

Richard, KK4JDO

Enclosure for KF5INZ "Easy Digi" Sound card interface

To follow up on the last KF5INZ "Easy Digi" post, I wanted to show you the enclosure that I made for it.  This post will be more pictures than typing, because it is easier to show than to type.  Plus I'm feeling kinda muddled this evening and am having trouble typing.  Blood sugar must be messed up again...

I decided to use the venerable Altoids tin for this project.  They work great for this sort of thing.  Plus the mints are delicious!

I decided to use 1/8" Stereo jacks for all I/O ports.  I've done this before on a past project and it works well.

I marked the locations for the audio jacks by putting them in the bottom of the tin and marking the location with a Sharpie.

If you look close, you'll notice that the line is a bit higher than the jack, this is due to the pens thickness and ends up giving a perfect location for the jack with enough room to close the lid.  I discovered this method after messing up and putting one just a bit too high.

I found the perfect method (courtesy of Don, K3RLL) for making holes in Altoids tins.  A simple, basic, paper hole punch makes just the right sized hole and leaves a nice clean edge.

You can see where I have tried using a step drill.  Not nearly as clean.  All jagged and full of burs.

Test fitting the jacks in place to verify that the lid would close with the slip ring in place.

 Now to connect the PCB to the jacks.  I started by soldering the wires to the board with plenty of excess wire to reach the connectors.  I then did a test fit to get the proper wire lengths and attached the jacks with the whole mess outside of the tin.  I used heatshrink tube to clean up the clutter.

I used two layers of double-sided tape to hold the board into the tin to avoid any short circuits.  I cleaned the inside of the tin with alcohol before sticking it down.

And the finished product!  The flash made pictures difficult due to the shiny tin, but you can see the cable routing.  This was a quick and easy project from getting to kit to having a completed and usable sound card interface!

Here are the details on the cabling.  The jacks on the left go to the rig, and the jacks on the right go to the PC.  Something like this:

Rig	Left (To Rig)		Right (To PC)	PC
Spkr	RX Audio		RX Audio	Mic
Mic	TX Audio		TX Audio	Spkr
Mic	PTT		PTT	Serial

The columns labeled rig and PC denote what ports the jacks on the interface connect to.

I hope that you enjoyed the little picture show!  Best of luck with your project.  If anyone is interested I will post about how I built the cables.

73,

Richard, KK4JDO

Christmas Ham

My wife did the best that she could as far as getting a present for a ham radio operator goes.

A speaker mic for my iPhone!  Who knew that these even existed?  ;-)  What a better way to show off how HamSexy I am than using a speaker mic when talking on the phone!  Of course, now I'll probably ID when on the phone out of sheer habit.  I can see it now:

Ring...ring...ring...

Mom:  "Hello?"

Me:  "Hi Mom, how are you today?  From KK4JDO"

Mom:  "Ummm, hi, I'm fine?  What were those letters and numbers?"

Me:  "Oh, that was just my call, don't sweat it.  Gotta go!  Love you"

Mom:  "Ummm, love you too dear"

Me:  "Talk to you later, 73, KK4JDO clear"

Mom:  "Uhhhh, bye!"

How absolutely awesome will that be?  I guess it would be less awkward with family than it would be with the doctor or a work call.  Although telemarketers could be fun.  I could give them reception reports and be sure to throw in a lot of hammy slang and abbreviations.  ;-)

Anyhow, what a great present!  I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas replete with family, friends, and food.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each and every one of you!

73,

Richard, KK4JDO

KF5INZ "Easy Digi" Build

Today's post is to cover the quick build of the KF5INZ "Easy Digi" Sound Card Interface.  This was a great little kit.  I can't find the parts separately for what this kit costs.  I can't stress enough what a great value it is at $11 shipped.  The pcb is good quality and the instructions are almost unnecessary it is so easy to assemble.  I think that it took me a total of 15 minutes from opening the package to having a completed board.  I still need to build a box for it, but the board itself was done in just a really short amount of time.

On to the pictures...

The kit came in a typical little yellow envelope, with the parts and pcb in a little zip-lock bag.

The parts are all easy to identify and can be sorted in seconds.

Here is the optoisolator IC and diodes installed .  The polarity of the diode is silk-screened on the board.

Then the resistors.

Then onto the capacitors, all two of them...

And finally the audio transformers.  Quick and easy!

That has it all completed and ready to go, now I just need to build a box for it and build some cables to connect it.  The intent of this board is to connect my 2m rig to my Raspberry-Pi using a USB soundcard to build up an APRS Igate using Xastir and one of the soundcard modems.

I'll do another post once I have it completed.

Thanks and 73,

Richard, KK4JDO