From wang!elf.wang.com!ucsd.edu!info-hams-relay Sat Apr 13 14:50:15 1991 remote from tosspot Received: by tosspot (1.64/waf) via UUCP; Sun, 14 Apr 91 19:13:31 EST for lee Received: from somewhere by elf.wang.com id aa10474; Sat, 13 Apr 91 14:50:13 GMT Received: from ucsd.edu by uunet.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-primary-gateway) id AA18611; Sat, 13 Apr 91 10:09:03 -0400 Received: by ucsd.edu; id AA15157 sendmail 5.64/UCSD-2.1-sun Sat, 13 Apr 91 04:30:23 -0700 for nixbur!schroeder.pad Received: by ucsd.edu; id AA15153 sendmail 5.64/UCSD-2.1-sun Sat, 13 Apr 91 04:30:20 -0700 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oc -odb -oQ/var/spool/lqueue -oi -finfo-hams-relay info-hams-list Message-Id: <9104131130.AA15153@ucsd.edu> Date: Sat, 13 Apr 91 04:30:19 PDT From: Info-Hams Mailing List and Newsgroup Reply-To: Info-Hams@ucsd.edu Subject: Info-Hams Digest V91 #293 To: Info-Hams@ucsd.edu Info-Hams Digest Sat, 13 Apr 91 Volume 91 : Issue 293 Today's Topics: "Stray Voltage" on 60 Minutes 10M glass mount antennas 50 to 75 ohm transformer? 50 to 75 ohm transformer??? Austin TriBander Query Explanation of Shuttle Packet Problems Icom charge currents? International Listening Guide / Bernd Friedewald License & VEC (2 msgs) Lisp source for Morse code tutor program wanted Refurbishing a BC779 front panel Tracking objects (Was Re: Explanation of Shuttle Packet Problems) TV/FM antenna as Ham antenna Undocumented Features of the Icom R1 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: 12 Apr 91 12:46:50 GMT From: agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!abvax!iccgcc!gibbonsj@ucbvax.berkeley.edu Subject: "Stray Voltage" on 60 Minutes To: info-hams@ucsd.edu In article <21943@shlump.nac.dec.com>, pierson@ggone.enet.dec.com (Dave Pierson) writes: > In article <202@malta.sbi.com>, kevinr@malta.sbi.com (Kevin Redden) writes... >>In article <9104081906.AA22031@ucsd.edu>, wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil (Will > Martin) writes: >>> There was a 60 Minutes segment the night of Sunday, 7 April, that dealt >>> with the problems caused to several dairy farmers by a power-company- >>> caused condition called "stray voltage". >>> ..... They used the "stray voltage" term roughly >>> equivalently to saying "evil vapors" or some other archaic phrase to >>> describe the cause of sickness. >> Has anyone considered it might be something as simple as dirty insulators (they get that way over time) on the high voltage wires on the poles? Think about it - you now have another path for the electricity to flow between poles (another 'ground current'). If the milking parlor sits between the 2 poles, you now have a problem. Solution: get your rifle out and shoot out the insulators, forcing the power company to replace them. 8-} (just kidding!!!) -- John Gibbons Cleveland, Ohio "Welcome My Son, Welcome To The Machine" - Pink Floyd Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most... ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 23:13:00 GMT From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu Subject: 10M glass mount antennas To: info-hams@ucsd.edu I happened to be talking to a local one time who is a radio tech for the FBI. When I mentioned glass mount antennas (I was looking into mobile antennas at the time), he said "No way." The FBI uses 110W or 170W rigs in their cars. He said he's seen the heat generated by the dielectric losses actually shatter the winshield, and won't install glass mounts. If you use a glass mount, run low power, or be *very* careful. /Chris, AA6SQ ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 16:29:12 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!hp-pcd!hplsla!tomb@ucsd.edu Subject: 50 to 75 ohm transformer? To: info-hams@ucsd.edu MROWEN%STLAWU.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu (Michael Owen) writes: > In a recent posting, Joe Skoler asked about 50-75 ohm > transformes so he could use CATV line. Here's an answer: > > You don't need them, even at UHF. All you need to do > ... > > The basic principle is that the impedance of the load end of any > feedline is repeated at 1/2 wavelength intervals along the feedline > no matter what impedance the feedline is. So you just trim the > feedline until its input end falls at a 1/2 wave multiple and it will > look exactly like the antenna's impedance. In addition, at UHF, > the feedline's loss will further improve the picture. > > In my opinion, this procedure is far less lossy, and certainly > simpler, than installing 50-75 ohm 1/4wave transformers at each > end of the hardline. I have done it and it works. > W9IP > ---------- This should be fine at a single frequency, though certainly not "far less lossy" than using good transformers, but note that the SWR will change very rapidly with frequency: with, say, a 50 meter nominal line length and unity propagation velocity factor, that's about 70 wavelengths at 440MHz. That means you will see a line length change of 1/2 wavelength in only about 1/140 of the operating frequency, or around 3 MHz. That, for example, is less than the standard repeater offset. (I can just see it...cut the line so that it's right for _both_ input and output of your favorite repeater...) In contrast, the 1/4 wave transformers should work fine over the whole 70cm band. (The most interesting of these I've helped build was one to drive a 10 ohm load--5 paralleled 50 ohm antennas-- from a 50 ohm line at around 100 MHz. It was in 6" line. Worked fine...) 73, K7ITM ------------------------------ Date: 11 Apr 91 19:26:01 GMT From: hpda!hpcupt1!holly@hplabs.hpl.hp.com Subject: 50 to 75 ohm transformer??? To: info-hams@ucsd.edu The 1989 (or is it the 1990) issue of the Handbook has such a beast. The reason stated was just for what you are thinking of. Build two, one at each end and 'There you are'. I am sure the ARRL book on RF transformer (by Maxwell?) also covers the topic. 73, Jim, WA6SDM holly@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com ------------------------------ Date: 5 Apr 91 19:42:21 GMT From: hpda!hpcuhb!hpcc05!hp-ptp!bmp@hplabs.hpl.hp.com Subject: Austin TriBander Query To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Does anyone have an address and or phone number for the company that makes the Austin Tri band VHF antennas? Any feedback from people who have on installed and operating? Brian Perkin N6RSW ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 23:33:02 GMT From: telesoft!garym@ucsd.edu Subject: Explanation of Shuttle Packet Problems To: info-hams@ucsd.edu In "Explanation of Shuttle Packet Problems", Gerry, N5JXS, writes: > Also: Keep those BBS files. I don't intend to send the stuff out again, and > Gary Morris ain't here no more! > I moved to San Diego (changing my N5QWC to KK6YB) just before the launch and so couldn't update the information I had put out earlier nor provide inflight updates. It sure is hard to get realtime info when you're not at JSC. I should have timed the move better but I never expected them to launch on time :-) I also heard Ken (KB5AWP) on Saturday talking to school kids but never heard Ken or Jay on any other passes I was able to listen to. --GaryM -- Gary Morris Internet: garym@telesoft.com KK6YB (was N5QWC) UUCP: ucsd!telesoft!garym TeleSoft, San Diego, CA, USA Phone: +1 619-457-2700 ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 21:42:09 GMT From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!news.miami.edu!mthvax!wb8foz@ucsd.edu Subject: Icom charge currents? To: info-hams@ucsd.edu I'm building my own version of the ICOM rapid/slow charger for my 02 batteries, such as BP-7's,-8's and others. Does anyone know the charge currents that a BC-35 supplies for various batteries? (The sooner the better - I want to get this critter done for Dayton.) -- A host is a host from coast to coast.....wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu & no one will talk to a host that's close............(305) 255-RTFM Unless the host (that isn't close)......................pob 570-335 is busy, hung or dead....................................33257-0335 ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 18:59:44 GMT From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu Subject: International Listening Guide / Bernd Friedewald To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Anyone else out there subscribe to the International Listening Guide, published by Bernd Friedewald in Germany (but written in English)? The company name is "Peacewood Publications". This is a guide to shortwave broadcast stations that used to come out pretty regularly, but which has been published more and more infrequently in recent years. There was a comment about it in Radio Nederland's Media Network program yesterday (11 April): due to Friedewald's failure to publish and to give refunds to subscribers who had given up on him and asked for the unfulfilled portion of their subscription payments back, they were asking for consumer feedback about dropping the reference to this publication from their radio-related booklist pamphlet. However, they had just heard that some other shortwave broadcast stations had received copies of a "Summer '91" issue of the ILG. (Due to the adverse publicity RN gave the ILG they wouldn't send any copies there! :-) I have a subscription to this but haven't asked for a refund; I did have some correspondence with Friedewald a couple years or so back about late delivery, and I still believe that incident was caused not by him but by the failure of the Deutsches Bundespost to send the publications by air, as they should have been -- they went by surface instead so were months late. Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone out there has gotten a copy of this fabled new issue; if so, please drop me a line. (I don't have access currently to the SWL mailing list (due to a mail-delivery problem) or rec.radio.shortwave, so if someone out there will put this query on that group too, I'd appreciate it!) Regards, Will wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 18:57:00 GMT From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu Subject: License & VEC To: info-hams@ucsd.edu > What's the big hurry? > > K3TX W5YI contact VE > Obviously a man or woman who doesn't recall his/her own wait for that first licence... I know I was at the mailbox waiting every day for two months until my first ticket showed up. /Chris, AA6SQ (GLARG VE) ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 21:06:08 GMT From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!relay.nswc.navy.mil!relay.nswc.navy.mil!wcollin@ucsd.edu Subject: License & VEC To: info-hams@ucsd.edu I'm just getting back into ham radio and have a question that has been bugging me. What/Who is W5YI? I was an ARRL member previously. Sent in my 610 to get reassigned as a novice, 12 days later got confirmation that the FCC was working on it. Thanks in advance for any replies! David ============================================================================== Wm David Collins BSEE, EMT-Cardiac, ACLS, expired KA4ZHQ Naval Surface Warfare Center Code E-41, Networks Branch Dahlgren, VA 22448 W(703) 663-7744, H(703) 775-3292 DDN mail: wcollin@relay.nswc.navy.mil ============================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 19:34:28 GMT From: swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!milano.sw.mcc.com!cactus.org!cheselka@ucsd.edu Subject: Lisp source for Morse code tutor program wanted To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Awhile back, when I was searching for source code to a Morse code tutor I could hack, someone offered me a Morse code trainer writen in Lisp. I turned him down, but now I have recieved a Lisp machine, and am using it as my home computer. Does anyone know where I can get that program? Thanks in advance! cheselka@cactus.org ------------------------------ Date: 11 Apr 91 11:50:55 GMT From: deccrl!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!ukc!tcdcs!swift.cs.tcd.ie!ul.ie!tocherd@decwrl.dec.com Subject: Refurbishing a BC779 front panel To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Hi, I'm trying to repaint the front panel of B779 WWII receiver. The markings are stamped into the steel. How do I repaint the marking in white? I've tried respraying but thr indentations get filled too much. When I cut them deeper the edges became too rough. E-Mail me and I'll post any useful answers if I get enbough reponses. David Tocher EI2AMB Dept of Maths University of Limerick Ireland ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 16:44:47 GMT From: swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!grian!puffin!pete@ucsd.edu Subject: Tracking objects (Was Re: Explanation of Shuttle Packet Problems) To: info-hams@ucsd.edu In article <1037@wshb.csms.com> michaelb@wshb.csms.com ( WSHB Operations Eng) writes: >In article <671309490.0.COLE@babette.isi.edu> COLE@babette.ISi.EDU (Randy Cole) writes: >>tracking programs running on his 386 PC and his Sun and he got >>no less than 5 different answers. It reminds me of the old > >And his Sun! What software runs on unix. I have toyed with the idea >Michael Well, I'm using the following (which showed up in (I think) comp.sources.misc early last year) (extract from doc file): --------------------------begin extract----------------------------- THE N3EMO ORBIT SIMULATOR VERSION 3.7 Robert W. Berger, N3EMO March 7, 1990 1 Introduction The N3EMO orbit program simulates the motions of earth satellites. The program was written for use by amateur radio operators, but is useful to others, such as astronomers interested in observing artificial satellites, space enthusiasts tracking shuttle missions, and meteorologists using weather satellites. The program is distributed in source form in the C language, and has been used on a wide variety of computers, from micros to mainframes. ----------------------------end extract------------------------------------ I have modified it somewhat, since the original satellite menu system can't handle the current glut of birds in the nasa data distributed by Mr. Kelso, to use a multi-column display and no selection letter. I had also simplified some of the math (not changed it, but split some statements) since the C compiler that I had couldn't handle nested function calls correctly. Since I acquired gnu C that problem has gone away. It appears to be at least fairly correct. I have used it for some visual spotting and it seems to point to the right part of the sky. One MSDOS compile of it seemed to generate wrong answers. We didn't look too far for the problem. -- Pete (K6JRR) (pete@puffin.uucp) ...!{elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!grian | hacgate}!puffin!pete ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 22:16:44 GMT From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu Subject: TV/FM antenna as Ham antenna To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Something I have been curious about and am about to try is using a FM/TV outdoor antenna as a base 2M/70cm antenna.The 2M would fit in nicely around the VHF section of the antenna and the 70cm section would be the UHF part of it. The antenna is a Radio Shack Log Periodic. I am also concerned about using the 'funky' little 75 ohm to 300 ohm balun that usually goes into a TV setup. Do you suppose 5W would be a bit much for the little guy or possibly even 45 watts? If we can get a dry day here on the Gulf coast this weekend I may get a chance to try my idea. I suppose I may have to pare down some of the elements to get it to resonate a bit better on the ham bands. Whatever happens the plan is to replace my hardy little coat-hanger groundplane. I sure hope I don't piss off the Tron-god!! 73 de N5PWP __mike "MBeez.Houston"@Xerox.COM ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 22:19:21 GMT From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu Subject: Undocumented Features of the Icom R1 To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Several folks have asked me to share any information I received as a result of my post asking for undocumented key sequences for the (Fantastic) Icom R1 scanner. So far we have found the following: (Function)+1 keys held while powering on the scanner results in a strange form of clock mode where the keyboard is disabled. (Function)+2 keys held while powering on results in a test whereby each character of the LCD display is sequentially displayed. The scanner then resturns to normal memory scan mode. Since (Function)+CL held while powering on is documented to perform a CPU reset, it would seem that Function+X, power on (where X is any of the other keys) would do other things... We have not been able to determine what they do as of yet. It is rumored that the AGC can be disabled as well as a few other useful tricks. Has anyone else found any undocumented features of the R1? If so, please post your findings here. -Wayne namerow@pokvmcr3.vnet.ibm.com ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 91 18:27:52 GMT From: pa.dec.com!hollie.rdg.dec.com!ryn.mro4.dec.com!ultnix.enet.dec.com!taber@decwrl.dec.com To: info-hams@ucsd.edu References <46720@ut-emx.uucp>, <51229@apple.Apple.COM>, <49833@rphroy.UUCP> Reply-To : taber@ultnix.enet.dec.com (Patrick St. Joseph Teahan Taber) Subject : Re: iambic keyers In article <49833@rphroy.UUCP>, vbreault@rinhp825.gmr.com (Val Breault) writes: |>and bought enough stuff to get started. Among the goodies was a swell |>Vibroplex iambic key and a nifty keyer. I went home to set things up |>but noticed that the documentation didn't offer any suggestions about |>how to wire it up (left paddle dit or right paddle dit) or which hand |>is normally preferred (key with left or right hand). I guess anyone |>that has been doing it for more than a few months knows this kind of |>painfully simple stuff already. I'm just beginning and I'd really hate |>to develop a clumsy style or learn something that I'd have to un-learn |>later. What's the consensus gang? Ooops.. someone must have messed up, my Vibroplex key came with a little tip sheet that covered most of the basic basics. As many have probably said by now, dits with the thumb, dahs with the fingers. Wiring up the plug for your keyer is less standard, but most of them seem to use a stereo plug with dah at the tip and dit on the first barrel. After you synch up with your local hams, try out a few keys. Most of the people I know like the Bencher paddles best with the exception of myself. I like the Vibroplex single lever paddle (I don't operate iambic.) Basically, I don't like spreading my fingers on the key, and I can operate the single lever paddle by just holding on to the thumbpiece. An interesting item -- I notice most right handed people use their right hand to operate the key. Most left handed people (like myself) also use their right hand to operate the key and use their left hand to write at the same time. Just one of life's little oddities.... -- >>>==>PStJTT Patrick St. Joseph Teahan Taber, KC1TD If I was authorized to speak for my employer, I'd be too important to waste my time on this crap.... ------------------------------ End of Info-Hams Digest ******************************