NO1ZE

My Radio Story

Started in radio as a kid DXing AM stations. One favorite was 800kHz CKLW Windsor, Ont. which put a potent signal into the mid-west every night with Top 40, back when music was heard on the AM broadcast band. A good weak catch during the day WNOP 740kHz, the Jazz Ark, from Newport, KY. Yes, really, a jazz station on AM, really fun! WSM 650kHz was a Saturday night favorite and WBZ Boston 1030kHzwas a favorite for overnight talk with local hosts. Also started playing with multiband receivers. Had a GE Monitor "10" model 7-2971 multiband radio with a really long telescoping whip. I could tune in shortwave broadcast stations (The Happy Station from The Netherlands, Deutsche Welle, Voice of Turkey and many others) from around the world and listen to local police, fire and 2m hams on VHF/UHF all on one radio. I spent untold number of hours listening to that radio.

The beeps and time ticks were fascinating coming from WWV and CHU Canada. How could these sounds be coming from such far distances? They were other-worldly and mysterious sounding and deserved further investigation. 

A friend had a Teaberry CB and we would talk on Ch. 11 & 14 to 27 Mhz walkie-talkies, lots of fun playing with CB when there were lots of clubs, nets, and local activity. His father was a ham and had a Drake station. I would watch him work CW and was fascinated that a human could comprehend the long and shorts tones and discern a message out of them.

Been ham since 1993. Enjoying experimenting, kit building, antennas, digital modes, computers and morse code.

Radio Activities

Participate in the Kentucky Winlink Net under NCS station AF4Y, Roland Brown in Blackey, KY. 

Started activating parks for Park On The Air

Having fun decoding the weekly Radiogram from WRMI. It's a half hour digital broadcast on AM SWBC stations. Radiogram is in MFSK and other modes that contains text stories and embedded SSTV pics. See RadioReference Shortwave Radiogram Gateway on how to get started in decoding the radiogram.

Radio Kit Building

QRP Labs QDX Digital Transceiver kit. This was a fun kit to build, mostly winding toroids, very inexpensive with good performance.

This heat sink supplied with the kit is a hardware washer. I found a CPU heat sink in my junk box and added it with thermal paste. The RF finals are four BS170 transistors that create a great deal of heat. The enhanced heat sink helps dissipate the heat.

This transceiver does not have direct power output control. It is a full 5 watts at 12 Vdc. The only way to reduce power is to reduce the supply voltage. I added two 'buck converters' (step-down IC-based) for 9 Vdc and 6 Vdc. At 9 Vdc the power output is 3 watts and at 6 Vdc the power output is 1.8 watts.

Useful Links

 Winlink 

PSK Reporter

Four State QRP Group 

MULTIPSK

QRP Labs 

JS8Call