Mouse/Keyboard Placement

 Sometimes, a simple fix manages to evade me :-) I was in Studio A, keyboard and mouse too far to the left to suit me, and thought: "Why is this?"... The light bulb in my head illuminated dimly, and I wondered if I could extend the cables. Well darn, both devices are USB, so I ran out to the shop and sifted through my USB cable inventory. Sure enough, I had some 18" USB  extensions. I popped a couple of them in line, and all is well. Now I have everything in a comfortable location. 

Yaesu FT-101ZD Restoration

 This is a Yaesu FT-101ZD a friend wanted me to restore for him. It was an eBay purchase, I'm wondering how well it might have been described... Poorly packed for shipping, the case was bent, bottom feet broken and shoved up into it, broken switches, and a bent vfo shaft. To top it off, it looks to have been wet... a WHILE. People with toss a 50lb radio in a box with a few peanuts and call it "ready to ship". What a mess... I guess I'll start on the cosmetics, first...

WB4IUY 10 Meter Repeater

 While working on some repeater stuff, I pulled all of the old repeater construction notes together and put them in a book, before they were lost in the scramble of 50+ years of ham radio. 

Much of this split-site repeater was built from bits and pieces of what I had, and I scratch built the rest. This was probably the most fun of any repeater I've ever worked with, working hams from the middle east in the morning hours, and out into the south pacific late in the day. 

I plan to detail this a lot more in the coming days, as this 30+ year old system gets a face-lift. 

Hy-Gain HDR-300A Conversion, pt4

 The Hy-Gain HDR-300A Conversion from 180° satellite elevation control to 360° antenna azimuth controller is finished. I added a few final touches... new 3-wire power cord, new cabinet feet, and reinstalled the refinished cover with black Tapered finishing washers. I got it installed in the shack and calibrated. I'm loving this thing already! 

Debbie AC4QD Azimuth Chart Mousepad

 Debbie AC4QD has been crafting for many years. Recently, she started working with Sublimation. This is a process where permanent inks are transferred into material, making a durable custom printed item. This is infused into a non-slip neoprene substrate with a durable polyester top layer. These soft, flexible pads that can be washed if they get dirty.

I find that I'm often referencing an Azimuth chart, when my logging program, QRZ, DXcluster, etc displays a heading in degrees. That helps me wrap my head around the direction of an HF contact from my QTH. Debbie made this for Studio A. Call signs, etc can easily be added. Email wb4iuy@gmail.com if you want one. These are a great gift item for the radio folks in your home. Here's a couple of videos and pics...

Hy-Gain HDR-300A Conversion, pt3

I made a little more headway on the rotator controller conversion... The rear panel conne lions are finished, I painted the front panel to cover the 0-180° dish markings, installed a run capacitor across the CW and CCW winding connections, and finished the repairs and paint on the cover. I was finally able to test the motor control, and get the position display calibrated a bit closer. Here's a few pics and a video...

Hy-Gain HDR-300A Conversion, pt2

 The previous blog demonstrated the ability of this satellite dish elevation controller to be converted to a 360° azimuth rotator controller. 

I mapped the HDR-300A wiring to the rear receptacle, changed the receptacle to screw-type terminal strips, installed a pot for "zero" calibration, and tested this setup on another HD-73 rotator motor. So far, so good! Here's a few pics and video...

First, I mapped the various terminals and their function...

Here, I made a chart of the internal wiring colors to the output connector, and their function.

I installed a 300 ohm pot for "zero" position calibration...

Down below is the output connector location, when it was removed.

I installed to terminal blocks...a small block for feedback pot connections, and a larger block for the higher current motor and brake connections.

I mapped the original Alliance rotor controller connections and their motor functions.

More mapping the old vs. new controller cross reference...

Feedback pot not yet connected, while sorting the motor control functions.

The gearmotor and feedback pot assy from the Alliance HD-73 antenna rotator.

The motor run capacitor that must be used, the HyGain controller originally connected to a basic ac motor that required no capacitor.

Hy-Gain HDR-300A Conversion, pt1

This was is an old Hy-Gain HDR-300A 180° satellite elevation positioner I got from a friend. It was kinda cool looking, and I wondered if I could mod it to use as a conventional 360° azimuth controller for my tower mounted antenna stack and HD-73 antenna rotator. It was kinda beat up, the bottom was damaged from being dropped (it has a large transformer and is kinda heavy), the case was scraped and scratched, and it was pretty dirty.

The most important step was to see if it could be modded for 360 operation, and be interfaced with the 75 ohm feedback pot in my HD-73 rotator assembly. 

Here's a few  pics and video...

I used external pots to simulate my 75 ohm rotator feedback pot. This unit places 5vdc across the rotator feedback pot, and looks for a 0-5vdc return signal to translate to 0-180° of movement. Calibration would allow for a negative position of -90ish degrees, instead of displaying a positive declining value of 359° or less, when rotated below North via West. However, I could change range on the digital converter, and display to over 600° positive. I decided to set the controller up to rotate North to North to manage this issue, as opposed to South to South as in most typical rotator controllers. 

Once I settled on the rotator stop point as being North (0 degrees), I calibrated the digital display to range from 0 to 360 degrees (0 to 5 volts in). I did, however, need a variable 0-300 ohm pot to tweak the 0° reading when the rotator was at North via East (full ccw). Once that was done, it displayed properly and was amazingly linear! Above is my chicken scratch drawing of the electrical mods to the display circuit...

More on the conversion in the next post...

Johnson 323A Messenger Repairs

 This is a Johnson Messenger 323A. A friend had this stored away, then wanted it repaired after a long break from use. It was unbelievably clean, in the original box, was in the original plastic bag with no scratches, etc. The mic head had been removed for some reason, and there was no rf output. 

I repaired the mic, troubleshot and replaced the RF final, reconnected the modulation limiter, and gave it a full alignment. This is like a new radio, a time capsule back to about 1976 :-)