This is the Website of John W2XS

Check QRZ dot com for my current email address.

Here’s a recent picture of the shack:  W2XS-Shack.jpg

My station consists of the following equipment:

Elecraft K3 – What a wonderful rig.  I am really enjoying it.  See my review on eHam.net.

Elecraft K2 – The king of the QRP rigs with built-in tuner, battery, noise blanker, audio filter, 160m, and PC interface.

Ten Tec Triton IV – The first low-cost transceiver with full QSK (1976). Still a good rig but the PTO needs a rebuild every 8 years or so.

Elecraft KX1 – I had S/N 15 which was the one pictured in the QST review. 

SST40 – A fun QRP rig that covers 7.030 to 7.045 and sips 15mA from the battery in receive.

Drake R4-A Receiver – The AVC on this (and the 2B) cannot be beat.  Great QSK.  I replaced the bulbs with LEDs (www.superbrightleds.com) and also this one: (http://home.wi.rr.com/n9oo/products/4linelamps/4linelamp.html).

I also have the T4-X, MS-4, and MN-4 which had to come off the desk when I got the K3.

Cobra Ultralite (www.k1jek.com)  fed by a Johnson Matchbox – A great combination, even for the WARC bands. I wrote an article in QRP Quarterly on a modification entitled New Life for the Johnson Matchbox.

I took some measurements of the currents on each side of the ladder line with different matching systems – A Johnson Matchbox, the K3 tuner with a BL2 balun (1 to 1 and 4 to 1 settings), and direct from the tuner with no balun.  With the Elecraft balun, I had good balance but balun heating, indicating loss.  With the direct feed, the balance was generally poor and sometimes horrible. I recently tried the Balun Designs model 4124t  balun and, so far, I like the results.  Here’s the data:  Balun Balance Test.xls

I recently restored a Hallicrafters S53-A receiver and am impressed with the sensitivity. It’s a step above the S-38 series. It has 8 tubes but I saved 10W of power by replacing the 5Y3 with a solid-state rectifier. I also restored a WR-1500 which is the same as the S-118 but in a wooden cabinet.  It has 5 tubes but many are dual-function so its performance is equivalent to 8 tubes.

Hallicrafters S38 – How did I ever use this as a ham receiver?  It’s fun for the AM broadcast band and SWLing, though. 1946 vintage.

Hallicrafters S38C – A beginner’s radio in 1952 – still works well. Remarkably little drift. Gray hammertone finish.

Hallicrafters S38E – The same circuit only with miniature (hi hi) tubes. Nice clear sound. From the 1960 era.

Lafayette HE30 – My first “real” receiver.  1961 vintage. Bandspread on 80 and 40 is calibrated every 5 kHz.  (Most other GC receivers were every 10 kHz).

Brown Brothers Paddles – Models BTL-A and BTL.  BTL-A is better. There is no vertical movement of the paddle arms.

CMOS Super Keyers 1, 2 and 4 – From QST – with auto character spacing always enabled. There is no better keyer. The 1 is still the best.

 

Here are some of my favorite links:

 

QRP Related

QRP & Homebrewing Links

QRP-L Archive: By Thread

http://users.erols.com/tjmc/liqrp

KF8KL QRP Page

Ten-Tec Argonaut 509 Schematics

 

Antenna Related

W4RNL's Antenna Website (The Best Antenna Site)

http://www.arising.com.au/people/Holland/Ralph/CMBalun.htm (A Current Balun)

http://www.natworld.com/ars/pages/back_issues/2002_text/0302_text/launching.html (Launching an Antenna)

http://www.qsl.net/aa1ll/ (Info on the CF Zepp)

http://www.angelfire.com/md/k3ky/page38.html (Bobtail Curtains aka Half Squares)

http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp/notuner.htm (Using Balanced Line Lengths Without a Tuner)

http://home.attbi.com/~fuzzbeast/160MAN_D.htm (160 Marconi Antenna)

http://users.erols.com/k3mt/inv_u/u_160.htm (160m “U” Antenna)

http://autoinfo.smartlink.net/kq6rh/antenna/Ref_m.htm (A Reflected M Beam)

http://www.qsl.net/kq6xa/antenna/ (Interesting Backpacking Antenna Designs)

http://bfn.org/~bn589/antenna.html (An Antenna Calculator)

http://www.io.com/~n5fc/ant_frame.html (Home Made Antenna Frame)

http://www.ae4rv.com/tn/propflash.htm (A Propagation Primer)

http://www.iol.ie/~bravo/remote.htm#Automatic%20Band%20Decoders (Remote Antenna Switching)

http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/TelescopicMasts/ (Masts)

http://www.tmastco.com/ (More Masts)

http://www.buddipole.com/

http://www.g3tpw.ukgateway.net/ (The CobWebb Antenna from the UK)

http://www.qsl.net/wb3gck/tuner.htm (Simple Tuner)

http://ac6v.com/antprojects.htm (Many Antenna Projects)

http://fermi.la.asu.edu/w9cf/index.html (Transmission Line Applet - Deep Mathematics)

http://kyes.com/antenna/dipole.html (Antenna Fundamentals)

http://www.borg.com/~warrend/guru.html (How To Become An Antenna Guru)

http://www.hamuniverse.com/antennas.html (Antenna Designs)

 

Boat Anchor Related

Hallicrafters Website

Ten Tec List Archive

Adding a Magic Eye to the Hallicrafters S-20R

On-Line Manuals from BAMA

Vintage-electronics

 

Kenwood Related

http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/kenwood/2002-April/001057.html

http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/kenwood/

Piexx Company - TS930 Upgrade

 

Shortwave Listening Related

http://www.anarc.org/naswa/swlguide/

Modern Shortwave Receiver Survey - Table of Contents

Radio Netherlands Receiver Shopping List Ed. 18.3

 

Reference and Tutorial Related

Electronics software

Ham Radio Technical Reference

Howstuffworks "Electronics & Communication"

Electronic projects and electronics tutorials

SPICE Simulators

The Answer Sleuth’s Special Focus: Ham Radio

Amateur Radio World - Frames Content

Amateur Radio And DX Reference Guide

 

Other Interesting and Useful Links

eHam.net Home - Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) Community Site

Science Workshop

EE-EVALUATION ENGINEERING Magazine

Ham Radio Magazine Index: 1968 - 1990

Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Crystal radio set systems: Design, Measurement and Improvement.

The Theatre Organ Home Page -- All About Theatre Organs and Hammond Organs

Seven Billion Miles and Counting....