ZS5SAM's Homebrew Projects etc.

This page will change with each new project or event that comes along.I must admit that the current info is a bit dated, but at least it will give you an indication of future content. I will probably archive or link some of the older articles for future reference.

50Mhz DX in Div5.

My station consists of a Yaesu FT726 with 100W amps and preamps on 6m, 2m and 70cm's. I use a Cushcraft 4 element beam for 6, a 16 element ZL Special for 2 and a switchable cross polarised beam for 70cm. This constitutes my 6m DX and Satellite station. Currently the elevation control is lying in my shack as I have not had the opportunity to re-install it since my move to Durban.

One of my great pleasures is the "Magic Band" 50Mhz. Unfortunately Division 5 (ZS5 land - Kwa Zulu Natal)is not blessed with the same propagation as Division 6 (ZS6) and therefore making DX contacts is a far greater mission. This in itself is part of the attraction for me as each contact made becomes an achievement in itself.
Our serious 6m DX hams in Division 5 consist mainly of 5 or so people nl. Mike ZR5ADQ, Lee ZS5LEE, Dave ZS5DJ, Fred ZS5SAM and Rob ZS5LA. Occasionally there are a few other Div5 call out there and judging from the talk on the 2m repeaters there is a renewed interest in 6m's with talk of quite a few chaps building 6m beams. I hope to hear them out there soon.
Most of my contacts have been around the Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Europe. Countries worked include, Jordan, Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Italy, Lebanon, Spain, Ukraine, Falkland Islands, Uganda, Malta, Israel and Albania. I have heard many stations from England and Germany, but to date have not managed to break through the pile ups. At least that is something to look forward to.
Mike has managed contacts to places such as Hawaii and Japan this season, but to date I believe that most of us here are still waiting for Australia and the Americas. One gets quite used to listening to hours of static, but the pleasure derived from making a rare contact after hours or weeks of waiting makes it all worth while.
One thing that I have learned for shure is that if you are serious about working 6m DX you need lots of aluminium in the sky and a good dose of power.
You could make DXCC on QRP alone but I don't beleive that I would want to wait that long. Presently I have a 100Wamp with preamplifier into a 4 element beam, which has served me well for a number of years, but the contacts I have missed due to not having that extra bit of power has been all to many.
My ideal setup, for the urban environment I now find myself in, would be a 6 element beam with a 200-350W amplifier. This I beleive that this will give me the edge I currently lack to break through the serious pile up's caused when the rare stations appear. I am in the market for a 6m 200-350w amp so keep me in mind should you have such a creature you wish to dispose of.

PC2Phone to Transceiver Project.

Some of my current projects include interfacing of amateur transceiver to the Internet using voice over data. Yes I know that it has been /is being done already (see my links to those sites) but I enjoy learning about the current processes involved and trying new ones.
A simple variation that I have been quite successful with is using a PCtoPhone server to dial up a ham, long distance and then patching him into the local 2m net. All that is required is a simple duplex vox unit to do the switching for PTT on the phone side as well as prevent any activation of the PTT whilst the transceiver squelch is broken.
The latter is important. to prevent the "dialed up" party from inadvertently "keying" over an existing QSO.Anyway I will provide more details on the progress at a later stage.

432 MHz Transverter .

A while ago, after trying for more than a year to get my hands on a 70cm multi-mode with no success , I decided to build my own 70cm transverter . (since then I managed to get my FT726 ) I sourced a circuit and 3 pre-etched circuit boards ,supplied by Ivo Chladek ( xmit , receive and local oscillator ) and got to work . A few of the really scarce components were included with the boards ,but the rest I had to source myself Having done that I started making the coils needed for the project and populated the board .
As many of the components are surface mount and VERY small ,great care had to be taken in soldering . I sent one MAR-6 (a pricy minute monolithic I/C) to never-never land due to a soldering slip up . About a month down the line I packed the project away with all my other things in preparation for my big move to Eshowe and there it stayed for a year until earlier this month when we moved into the new house and got unpacked again. I then got down to familiarising myself with the circuit again and completed the project . The three boards were sandwiched on top of each other with spacers ,and the TX and RX boards were interfaced via 50 ohm coax to the LO board . Power leads were connected as well as Antenna output connections and the 28Mhz lead to my IC751A HF rig . From there I adjusted the varicap on the LO board to get the LO to oscillate ,and I was on the air . All that was left was to tweak for maximum power output ,mission complete .
This is not the end of it though as I still need to build it into a decent housing and mount the coax and power switching relays etc. But that is all cosmetics and finishing touches . My next project is a linear amplifier for my little transverter to get my power up to about 10W . presently it has an amazing 10mW output ,which is fine for very local QRP work it won't get me very far on that band .
The bottom line to my story is that it is a very rewarding project to take on and I could highly recommend it to anyone with a fair+ technical background. Unfortunately I do not have a picture available at present.

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