THE SQUELCH BURST
a monthly publication of the
STAMFORD AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION
President ..........Jim Murdock ............ N1NNG ........ 322-4707
Vice Pres ..........Andy Laska .............. KA1SLG ....... 531-9493
Secretary ......... Mike Cordelli ........... N1FOA ......... 838-3661
Treasurer ......... Dick Finn ..................WA1VUU ..... 323-0982
Trustee ............ Spence Heath ........... W1BWK......... 322-7539
Editors ............ Marv Fleischman ...... N1AWJ ......... 438-7889
Mike Cordelli ........... N1FOA ......... 838-3661
Dick Finn ..................WA1VUU ..... 323-0982
Y.O.J.B. Ed...... Marv Fleischman .... N1AWJ ......... 438-7889
Circ/Pub. ......... Dick Finn ................ WA1VUU ...... 323-0982
Repeaters: W1EE/R........ 146.055 in; 146.655 out (PL. 1Z, 100Hz)
W1EE/R.... 442.125 in; 447.125 out (PL. 2A, 114.8Hz)
Internet Home Page at „ http://www.stamford911.com/sara‰
Yearly membership $15.00 ($ 10.00 for retirees, senior members over 62, full time students, members under 16 years of age and members living over 100 miles from Stamford; $20.00 for family memberships.) This includes a copy of the club bulletin and a copy of the club roster.
Send your dues, membership applications, etc. to the club Treasurer, Dick Finn, WA1VUU, 27 Ivy St., Stamford CT 06902.
Non-commercial ads are printed in the SQUELCH BURST on a no charge basis, club members only. Send your ads for Ye Olde Jonque Boxxx and articles for the SQUELCH BURST to Marv Fleischman, N1AWJ, P.O. Box 113, Ridgefield, CT 06877, or e-mail to n1awj@ att.net.
Meetings are held on the first Thursday of every month in the 4th floor cafeteria of the Stamford Government Center, Tresser and Washington B'lvds., Stamford, CT. Meetings start at 8:00 P.M.
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
I would like to thank our friend Joe Matrix, who is a professional writer of computer manuals for providing the following:
"Instructions for Getting to the SARA Meeting"
1. Turn left and go precisely 3.7 miles until you get to the corner with
the tree on it.
2. Take the second right.
3. The road curves to the left. Go straight.
4. When you get to the Stamford Wall-Mart, turn again.
5. If you took the wrong left at step 1 don't turn
6. When you pass the NY State line, you've missed it.
7. Park anywhere. Go to the 4th floor and turn left. Sit.
8. If you don't know how to drive ask for help at the next SARA meeting.
Not very many people in the club know Joe because he's never been to a meeting. We'd like to thank him for providing us with professionally prepared instructions.
Now that you know how to get there, let me invite you to our annual Holiday Party at the December meeting of SARA. We will gather at 8pm on Thursday, December 7 on the 4th floor at the Stamford Government Center.
This has been one of our most popular events in the past few years. We will have cookies and punch and snacks galore. Everyone who wishes is invited to bring a favorite goody. Sometimes Santa shows up with magazines or parts. Usually there are lots of spouses and members we haven't seen enough of lately. With good food and good friends we always enjoy a warm evening. Hope you can come out and play.
Bruce Balog, WA1FVZ, sent me some really interesting information on his 90 foot random wire. He tells me he gets a very good omnidirectional pattern on 160 to 40 meters. The best thing about his message was an excellent link. His antenna, along with several others, is analyzed at antennx.com/w4rnl/index.htm and well worth the stop while you're surfing.
Thanks, Bruce.
I've been piling up leaves and trying to get ready for winter. The next step is to get my antennas in shape for those long winter nights. I don't hold with some people who believe that a driving snowstorm is the best time for antenna work. Over Thanksgiving Day weekend I'll fold over my beam, polish up the electrical connections and tighten the mechanical connections.
I'll take down my wire and perform similar maintenance. It's no fun to miss the lively action on the bands on those long winter nights. Since I am on the callout list, I will also keep up with charges on my HT batteries. When there's a bad storm I like to listen on the machine to hear reports from members who need to be out in it. It's much more informative than the recording at Northeast Utilities.
I'll be ready for winter by the end of November. Then I'll look forward to seeing you at our Holiday Party.
73, Jim, N1NNG
ONCE UPON A TIME
By Al Goldberg AG1B
In 1933 when I was 14, I dropped a nickel in the turnstile and took the subway from my home in The Bronx to lower Manhattan for the ham exam. Subway riders were amused to hear the kid reading advertising signs in Morse code. The FCC had just replaced the Federal Radio Commission but I didn't know the difference. A general license required sending and receiving 10wpm plus a written test, which I handily passed. Shortly, I was the proud owner of W2HKU.
A few years before, I had discovered the city dumps in the East Bronx was a cornucopia of radio parts because the public was tossing out battery-operated receivers in favor of the mains-powered highboys with hi-fi sound. I would be rich now if I kept the 1920s sets these 60 years. Returning home after lugging them for miles, these were immediately disassembled because nuts and bolts were so easy to take apart. In the process, I collected many coffee cans filled with 6-32 fasteners. The junk boxes overflowed. My first short-wave sets were made with these parts powered with A and B eliminators.
I lived in 5 story, walk-up apartment houses and, during the depression, the flats had a high turnover rate. All broadcast receivers required an outdoor aerial that usually consisted of an insulated wire to the roof and a flat top of stranded copper wire between two insulators. Rooftops were loaded with these in the 1930s. Whenever an apartment was vacated, it was fair game to salvage the aerial wire and insulators. You can be sure that I had the longest and highest aerial on the roof. We now call these antennas!
With my new ticket in hand, I built a 40-meter, cw transmitter consisting of a 201A in a TNT oscillator. The good old A and B eliminators put out filament voltage and about 135 volts for the plate. I estimate my input ran fewer than 7 watts and the output about 2/3 less. Poor regulation caused my cw to chirp to the point where I would be immediately identified with my first key contact closure. Later I upped the power to 10 watts by using a 171A tube. A neon bulb indicated maximum rf activity to the long-wire antenna working against a steam-radiator pipe ground.
A few years later, a couple of my ham friends and I went foot-mobile by building a 5-meter am transceiver in a cigar box. It consisted of a dual triode, p-p unity coupled oscillator that also acted as a super-regenerative receiver. It required three of us to manage the rig; I held the cigar box, earphones, and the carbon mike. Another fellow held an 8-foot bamboo pole to support a wire antenna. The third kid had the most thankless job of lugging a knapsack with about 60 pounds of half-dead batteries. We attracted lots of attention marching through the city streets working ham radio. I've come a long way since but those were my salad years.
ASK ELMER
Dear Elmer,
I was playing with some ferrite cores today to suppress some unwanted RF noise getting out from things like computer cables and getting into my rig and stopping RF from my rig getting into my computers audio cables. I had moderate success but one thing I found is that the tubular shaped ferrite had a much better effect at stopping noise than the larger square 'o' shaped cores. Both styles were clamp on types I used one complete turn around the tubes and tried the "o" shaped core with 5-10 turns around them but the tube type still worked better. Why?
Ferretingout D' Noise
Dear Ferret,
I really couldn't give you a precise answer to your question as I don't know the characteristics of the Ferrite materials, the frequencies and waveform of the radiated signals nor any of the physical parameters of the cores. I can give you some educated guesses as to what is happening. I think we should break this discussion into two parts. The first part will deal with the Ferrite material itself, and the second part will deal with application of the cores. Ferrite material is a composed of Iron, Nickel and Cobalt oxides heated and fused into a solid form. Depending upon the composition of the material, the Ferrite takes on characteristics which favor specific frequency ranges and are lossy at others. These characteristics can be put to very good use in suppressing RF radiation. In the frequency range in which the Ferrite material is lossy, it will absorb some of the RF energy induced into it (converting it to heat). Fortunately we are talking of extremely low levels of power (picowatts), so the amount of heat is negligible. Any energy absorbed cannot radiate, so this is one mechanism used in suppressing RFI (Radio Frequency Interference). Not all Ferrite material is useable in suppressing all possible RFI. You have to be selective in the material you use, by knowing the frequency range of the signal you are trying to suppress. Using the wrong material will do more to frustrate you than reduce the radiated RFI. A second method of suppression is to use the Ferrite material to increase the inductance of the piece of wire, hoping that there are some bypass capacitors at either end of the wire to reduce conducted RFI. Increasing the number of turns increases the wires inductance (therefore its reactance), and may reduce the level of RF present on or picked up by the wire. This type of suppression is generally (but not exclusively) more effective on device experiencing the RFI and not on the device producing it. I would guess that the Ferrite tubes had a greater suppression effect because of the material itself. It is probably a lossy material at the fundamental frequencies of the RFI from the computer, thereby suppressing the fundamental and harmonic frequencies.
Computers are a complex „unintentional „ radiator (as classified by the FCC). Those made for use in the commercial world tend to radiate more energy than those made for the home. In determining which type of Ferrite material should be used to suppers RFI, manufacturers perform measurements using very specialized instruments, in RF screened rooms. Following these measurements they choose their suppression materials carefully based upon costs and meeting the FCC's requirements. I hope this gave you some insight into the world of RFI suppression using Ferrites.
73, Elmer
Send your questions to „ASK ELMER‰, C/O Marv Fleischman, N1AWJ, PO Box 113, Ridgefield, CT 06877-0113 or e-mail them to [email protected].
YE OLDE JONQUE BOXXX
ANTENNAS FOR SALE! KLM 2M-14C and KLM 435-18C, 2 meter/440 circular pol. satellite antennas with remote polarity switch, $300 for the pair, exc. cond.
Call Greg, K1IT, (203) 637-4156
Dentron GLA-1000B Linear, good cond., $350. Dentron 1KW Super Tuner, $ 90.
Call Geoff, N1CAT (203) 966-7444 evenings
HALLICRAFTER SX-28A RECEIVER, recapped, $275. Works good.
Call Joe, N1GWO, (203) 322-4061 Evenings
ESTATE SALE: ICOM IC-734 HF w/Mike, VS-20 P.S., $ 805; MFJ-16010 Antenna Tuner, $ 30.
Call Jim, N1NNG, (203) 322-4707
COMPUTER: 586-120MHz w/ New 2 GB & 100 MB HDD, 24 Meg RAM, 3.5‰ & 5.25‰ FDD, 6X CD ROM, 14‰ SVGA Mon., Key Bd, Mouse, Sound Card & Spkrs, Lots of Disks, $ Best Offer; 10-40M Vert. Ant., $25; Heathkit Station Monitor Mod. 614, $75. Machine Tools & Machinist's Tools for Sale, 2 South Bend 7.5 HP Go-Cart Engins. Call for Info.
Call Irv, N1ATS, 348-3425
AOR 1000 XLT, 1000 Channel HH Scanner, 5KHz to 1.3 GHz continueous coverage. Exc. cond. $ 275.
Call Rick, N1LYK, (203) 531-1756
ICOM IC-211 2M All Mode XCVR w/ 80W Amplifier... $ 400.
Call Greg, KA1NGF, Work (203) 847-6166, Home (203) 849-9070
COMPLETE HF STATION, will sell all or part: Kenwood TS-820S, Remote VFO, MC-50 Mic, Dentron Linear Amp., Mosley TA-33, Ham-M Rotor, Roof Tower, MFJ Antenna Tuner, SWR Bridge, Phone Patch, etc. For details please
Call Fred, K2RUR, (203) 325-2201
KENWOOD TS850S/AT HF XCVR, w/1.8kHz ssb filter & 2- 500 Hz CW filters, MC 43S Hand Mic., Mint Cond. $950; Kenwood TH 75A 2M/440 HT w/extra Batt. pack, Charger, Spkr. Mic., $150
Call Bruce, WA1FVZ, (203) 357-9779
CUSHCRAFT R5 VERT. ANTENNA: Wind Damaged and attached to my garage. Help me take it down IT'S YOURS, FREE!!!
Call Frank, KA1NTG, (203) 655-7378
PARTS GALORE- Xerox 3000 Word Processor (antique) w/transformer,
p/s, etc., connection to Diablo printer. FOR FREE!!! Take it away!
Call Mike, KA1VWP, (203) 838-8089
YAESU FT-757 GXII, HF Rig, FP 757 HD Power Supply, FC 757 AT Tuner
and MD 1B8 Desk Mike.
Call George, N1HIX, (203) 357-1879
ICOM IC-25A 25W , 2M mobile Xcvr. w/PL, good for packet $75 obo.
ICOM IC-02AT with BP-5 and BC-30 charger, Exc. Cond. $120 obo.
Mac Imagewriter & Laserwriter printers, best offer.
Call Jeanine, KY1Q, (203) 324-6865
ICOM IC-02AT 2M HT w BP-3, BP-5 & BP-8 Batty Packs, BC30 Charger, Spkr-Mic, Manual, $125 obo. JERROLD 900A SWEEP RF SIGNAL GENERATOR, 1MHz to 1 GHz, with detector and manual. Fully operational.. Old vacuum tube technology, 60 Lbs in table top rack cabinet. $25, obo. FatMac Computer w/ 1Meg Ram, best offer. FOR PARTS..Olevetti Accounting Machine. FREE!!!!! Take it away!!!
Call Marv, N1AWJ, (203) 438-7889
7T. E. SYSTEMS 6 METER „BRICK‰, 10-15 w in, 150-175 w out. $200 obo.
Call Andy, KA1SLG, (203) 531-9493
Send all your ad's for YE OLDE JONQUE BOXXX to Marv Fleischman, N1AWJ, PO Box 113, Ridgefield, CT 06877. E-mail to [email protected]. Ad's must be in by the meeting night of the month prior to the publication. (December meeting for January publication)
EASTERN SLOW SPEED NET
Join the Eastern Slow Speed CW Net every evening on 3590 KHz at 6PM local time. CW speed is between 6 and 8 wpm. A great way to improve your CW proficiency and learn net operation. Joe, W1LUH is one of the rotating Net Control stations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|