I miss the Radio Shack Project Boxes...

Wow...sure miss the days when Radio Shacks were all around, and I could grab one of these cool cabinets to build things in. I've built a ton of stuff in these things...keyers, receive preamps, T/R Switches, Power Supplies, Amps, you name it! Lots of stuff, I wish these were still available.... 

 Later, before Radio Shack closed up, these cheapie plastic boxes came out. They're cool for stuff, but nothing like those nice metal cabinets with the wrinkle finish. I wonder if anyone still sells the metal cabinets above?? Here's a few pics of the plastic stuff I also built things in...

Oh well, I guess times change, but I still like to live in the past!! Email me if you know of a source fo rthe metal cabinets in the first picture group. Thanks!

Dave WB4IUY

http://www.WB4IUY.net

A Few Bits From JARSfest...

I headed up to a hamfest put on by the Johnston Amateur Radio Society (JARS) on Sunday 11/18/18. We had a chilly start for the tailgate area, but it warmed up quickly. BIG turnout! There was loads of stuff outdoors by the tailgating crowd, and all tables were sold out inside. Here's a few pics I took...

You can tell by the photos above, that I like the vintage stuff :-)  I picked up two bags full of components for various projects, only spent abt $30! Shrink tube for trap caps, piles of capacitors (HV, ceramics, electrolytics, etc), zener diodes, transistors, switches, project boxes, a huge RF plate choke, rubber feet, spacers, nicad battery packs, binding posts, etc.

 

 I saw lots of old friends I had not seen in years, met several new friends, got to look at tons of stuff, and had the most fun I've had at a hamfest in years. 

Dave WB4IUY

http://www.WB4IUY.net

"Sealed" Lighting Repairs...

OK, this isn't ham radio related, but it is electrical :-) On a recent fishing trip with our little JonBoat, Debbie spotted the rear driver's side tail lamp module on our boat trailer had failed. These are sealed incandescent units, without any possible access to replace the lamp. They're not very expensive, but being the tightwad that I am, I had to set about to attempt a repair. 

These have a dual filament 1157 lamp inside, with the wiring soldered to the bulb, the bulb mounted in a glob of silicon rubber adhesive, and the red lens literally glued in place. Using my Dremel tool and a carbide cutoff disc, I cut around the junction where the red lens was attached to the white plastic housing. 

With the red lens removed, I scraped off the melted plastic, pulled the lamp out, and peeled the old silicone adhesive out. A new 1157 lamp (costing about a buck!) was re-soldered to the wiring, a new glob of silicone adhesive (bathtub caulking) was squirted into the middle of the white plastic base, and the new lamp was nestled down into the adhesive. Once that cured, I applied a thick bead of silicone caulking around the perimeter of the lens, and the lens was pressed back into place onto the base. The excess caulking was wiped off, and the assembly was allowed to cure.

Once cured, the light assembly was reconnected to the trailer wiring harness, and the light assembly snapped back into the gasket of the trailer. A quick test showed all to be well. Gotta love a cheap repair!

Dave WB4IUY

http://www.WB4IUY.net

Converting More Switching Supplies...

Building a few more 20A DC 12 VDC bench power supplies from old computer supplies. Those things make great 12VDC power sources for projects, radios, to run R/C battery chargers, etc!

Dave WB4IUY
http://www.WB4IUY.net

2M SSB, a sad state of affairs...

I remember, in the not too distant past, when 2m SSB was a blast to operate. One could easily work 3+ states any night of the week, and very often it sounded like 75m SSB at night, what with so many stations operating up and down the band. Seriously, this was in the early-to-mid 90's. I could call CQ from my very modest station on 144.200, and have to move off of the calling frequency to work folks, to free up the calling frequency for others...

Now, in 2018, it's crickets. Static. No one EVER calls CQ in my area. I listen on my station with a 13 element antenna up at 111', nothing but static. Even when the contests are running, there's only a handful of the same players that pop on from time to time. I hear beacons 200+ miles out at night, but no live humans. Where did all the 2M SSB ops go??

I recently spent a lot of time and effort building and replacing my 2m SSB antennas that were damaged in a storm, but it seems to have been wasted time.  I recently asked a question about this on an internet forum, and other hams replied with the same experience. What a shame, 2M SSB can be such great fun, but not like this. Even the VHF contests yield such a pitiful response, it's just not worth the effort, I might as well be looking for microwave activity. Where is everyone??

Dave WB4IUY
http://www.WB4IUY.net