Amateur radio tip of the day: Low SWR isn’t the “be all and end all” it’s sometimes made out to be

May 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Ham Radio Tip of the Day
————————————————————
Today’s tip is from Bob, KG6AF. For submitting this tip, Bob will get one of my e-books. Thanks, Bob!

Low SWR isn’t the “be all and end all” it’s sometimes made out to be. Just because you measure a low SWR, it doesn’t mean that your antenna is radiating efficiently. Conversely, a high SWR doesn’t mean that an antenna won’t radiate. Remember that a 50-ohm dummy load has a 1:1 SWR.

Most modern rigs will reduce or cut off transmit power if the SWR the transmitter sees is higher than 2:1, so you do have to make sure that the impedance the transmitter sees at the antenna connector is close to 50 ohms. To do that, we often use an antenna tuner. An antenna tuner will make the transmitter happy, but that doesn’t mean that the transmitter’s output power is being radiated by the antenna. There are many other factors that come into play.

Take the time to read reliable material on the subject. The ARRL Guide to Antenna Tuners, by Joel Hallas, W1ZR, is a good starting place. You can also find lots of solid information in the QST archives.

73!

Dan KB6NU

THIS WEEK’S WINNER!
Every week, I select one of this list’s subscribers to get one of my e-books. This week’s winner is Jared, N7SMI.

SUBSCRIBE
Tips like this one are sent out every day by e-mail. To subscribe to the list, simply click here and fill out the form. Every week, I’ll select a random subscriber and give them one of my books.

GOT A TIP?
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Filed Under: antennas, Tip of the Day

From my Twitter feed: future of SDR, Dayton review, fritzing

May 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

K9ZW
The Future of SDR – Fat-Pipe vs. Thin-Pipehttp://t.co/u6WpGGv6ML

 

ke9v
Dayton in the Rearview Mirror | Smoke Curlshttp://t.co/PI25XUisGR #hamr

 

g6avk
This looks like an interesting and easy to use PCB package - http://t.co/xsL7rY2t7n

Filed Under: Building/Homebrew, Circuit Design, Hamfests, Software-Defined Radio

A long, hot Day One at Dayton

May 17, 2013 by 2 Comments

Well, I made it through the first day at Dayton. I say first day, but it really was my second. Opn Thursday, I attended the Four Days in May seminar put on by the QRP-ARCI. This is a great event, which I’ll write more about later.

My day started very early. I always have trouble sleeping in hotels, and last night was no exception. I woke up about 2:30 am, and didn’t get back to sleep until 4 am. I got up for good at 6:30. Ugggh. At least breakfast was good. The Homewood Suites where I am staying serves a hot breakfast, including waffles, eggs, and sausages.

I got on the 7:30 bus, which, of course,didn’t leave on time, and then got stuck in rush hour traffic. It was after 8:30 by the time we arrived at Hara Arena. Then, there was some confusion with my speaker badge. I finally got that about 9:15, and that only left me with about a half hour to look around the flea market before my 10 am talk.

The talk went really well, I think. There was a good crowd, and my message was well- received. During the Q and A, one of the attendees, a teenager, gave my study guides a big plug. He said that he had used them to get his Tech and General.

The forum lasted until almost noon. Iwas pretty tired already by then,but I still tramped around the flea market and the inside of the arena. I saw some interesting things, but my heart wasn’t really into it. I didn’t buy a single thing. I did see a lot of people I know, including a couple of guys that were in a recent Tech class. That was fun.

Hopefully, I’ll get a little more sleep tonight and really attack the hamfest tomorrow.

Filed Under: Everything Else

Amateur radio tip of the day: DXers have their own set of phonetics

May 15, 2013 by 1 Comment

While it’s always appropriate to use the standard NATO phonetics, DXers have their own set of phonetics. For example, you will often here “Mexico” instead of “Mike” or “Honolulu” instead of “Hotel.” This is especially true in DX contests. So, if a DX station doesn’t seem to understand the NATO phonetics, give the “DXer phonetics” a try.

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Tips like this one are sent out every day by e-mail. To subscribe to the list, simply click here and fill out the form. Every week, I’ll select a random subscriber and give them one of my books.

GOT A TIP?
Do  you have a tip that you’d like to share with other radio amateurs? E-mail it to me. If I use your tip, I’ll send you one of my books.

Filed Under: DX, Operating

Amateur Radio Tip of the Day: Choosing your first radio

May 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Choosing a Ham Radio by the ARRL is a well-written guide designed to help the newcomer choose his or her first radio. It will help you decide which features are the most importan for the type of operating that you plan to do, and the best part is that it’s FREE!

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Tips like this one are sent out every day by e-mail. To subscribe to the list, simply click here and fill out the form. Every week, I’ll select a random subscriber and give them one of my books.

GOT A TIP?
Do  you have a tip that you’d like to share with other radio amateurs? E-mail it to me. If I use your tip, I’ll send you one of my books.

Filed Under: Gear/Gadgets, Tip of the Day

Amateur Radio Tip of the Day: Keep your soldering iron tip clean

May 13, 2013 by 3 Comments

To make good solder joints, you need to keep the tip of your soldering iron clean from any oxides and dust or dirt. A clean, well-tinned tip will transfer heat properly and help you avoid cold solder joints. Many solderers use wet sponges to clean soldering iron tips, and many solder stations have troughs to hold these sponges.

soldering_iron_tip_cleaner

An alternate method is to use a wire cleaning pad like the one shown above. You stick the iron into the pad and then draw it back out. The wire scrapes the oxides and dirt from the tip as you do this. Proponents of this method claim that this method increases the life of the tip as it avoids the rapid temperature changes that using a wet sponge cause.

73!

Dan

OUR FIRST WINNER!
Larry, KB8QJE, is this week’s winner of one of my e-books. His name was randomly selected from the subscriber list.

SUBSCRIBE
Tips like this one are sent out every day by e-mail. To subscribe to the list, simply click here and fill out the form. Every week, I’ll select a random subscriber and give them one of my books.

GOT A TIP?
Do  you have a tip that you’d like to share with other radio amateurs? E-mail it to me. If I use your tip, I’ll send you one of my books.

Filed Under: Building/Homebrew, Tip of the Day

From my Twitter feed: Field Day, HackRF, intruders

May 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment

N5NTG
AMATEUR RADIO FIELD DAY – GET OUT AND OPERATE: Field Day Is Just Around The Corner – Plan Now …http://t.co/crdHOFKEno

Chris_Diemoz
Who’s intruding #hamradio bands (and how)? The answer is blowing in the April @IARU_R1Monitoring System newsletter!http://t.co/Afp6XUScxH

n0rc
Giving Away HackRF #sdrhttp://t.co/zxXnOyg4q2 #hamr #diy#electronics

Filed Under: Clubs, Contests, Gear/Gadgets

Tip of the Day: Add elements to make a single-band dipole a multi-band antenna

May 11, 2013 by 2 Comments

You can make a make a simple dipole antenna into a multi-band antenna by adding an additional set of elements for the band you want to operate. A couple of years ago, I added 30m elements to my 40m dipole and now it works on both 40m and 30m. The reason this works is that when operating 40m, the 30m elements present a relatively high impedance, while the 40m elements a relatively low impedance. RF current, like any kind of electrical current will take the path of least resistance.

As shown below, the 30m elements hang down below the 40m elements. If you space the elements close to one another, you may have to tweak the lengths of the elements for the best SWR. In my case, that wasn’t a problem.

fan-dipole

If two bands is good, why not four or five? Yes, you can do that. You can add as many bands as you have space and wire for.

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Tips like this one are sent out every day by e-mail. To subscribe to the list, simply click here and fill out the form. Every week, I’ll select a random subscriber and give them one of my books.

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Do  you have a tip that you’d like to share with other radio amateurs? E-mail it to me. If I use your tip, I’ll send you one of my books.

Filed Under: antennas, Tip of the Day

Tip of the Day: Collect tech books from the 1970s

May 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

1974-arrl-handbookTodays tip is from Kenneth Finnegan. Thanks, Kenneth!

Collect as much technical literature from the 1970s as possible, including ARRL Handbooks, magazines, etc. This was the decade when transistors and basic ICs were affordable, but monolithic ASICs for every problem didn’t exist yet. I’ve found literature from this era to be the most educational for discrete electronics design and understanding how contemporary one-chip-solutions work.

Filed Under: Books and Magazines, Tip of the Day

Solder: 60/40 or 63/37?

May 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

File this under  ”You learn something new every day.”

A 1-lb. roll of Kester 44 solder with a 63/37 tin-lead formulation is $22.96 from AllSpec Industries. Kester 44 with a 60/40 formulation costs only $21.06.

A 1-lb. roll of Kester 44 solder with a 63/37 tin-lead formulation is $22.96 from AllSpec Industries. Kester 44 with a 60/40 formulation costs only $21.06.

A couple of days ago, someone on the HamRadioHelpGroup mailing list asked, “So I’m about to put up my first antenna and I need to solder the connectors to the coax. I know learned this in the book but I can not find it, so what kind of solder should I be using?”

Pat, K7KBN, replied, “Rosin core, 60/40 lead/tin (63/37 is better).  Don’t use any acid core or acid flux solder, and avoid the no-lead junk.  The diameter of the solder depends on your taste and experience.  Connector work requires more solder than circuit board work in most cases. And for connectors you need an iron with a massive tip that won’t cool off when you touch the body of the connector like a typical gun tip will.”

So, of course, I had to ask, “Why is 63/37 better?”

The answer? “The 63% tin/37% lead solder alloy is “eutectic” (Google it).  Basically it has NO ‘plastic range.’ It changes instantly from liquid to solid.”

Mark, K5LXP, ever the practical ham, added, “For anything hams solder you would be hard pressed to discern the flow, hardness or durability difference between any of these lead alloys. Hams being hams, 60/40 is usually the cheapest. That makes it ‘better’ right there!”

Filed Under: Building/Homebrew
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