QRZ! Ham Radio 3/QRZ Ham Radio Callsign Database - Volume 3.iso/digests/infoham/931369.txt

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Date: Sun, 21 Nov 93 02:29:11 PST
From: Info-Hams Mailing List and Newsgroup <[e-mail]>
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Subject: Info-Hams Digest V93 #1369
To: Info-Hams


Info-Hams Digest            Sun, 21 Nov 93       Volume 93 : Issue 1369

Today's Topics:
                          Abbreviating Dates
                   Cross-band 2m/220mhz repeaters?
                  Elmers are dead, god help us HAMS!
                           FT727 Schematic
                          HAM ftp mod sites?
             How useful are DSP units in noisy locations?
                           MAKE.MONEY.FAST
                    Manual Needed: Alinco ALR-22T
                       Manual Needed: Tek 502A
                Miss Manners in the Novice Sub-bands?
                    Need Ideas on FSK demodulation
                        Poor audio fix for HTs
                        Pye Westminster Synth
                      Telescoping antenna on HT
               Using modified HT in emergency (2 msgs)
                             zero-beating

Send Replies or notes for publication to: <[e-mail]>
Send subscription requests to: <[e-mail]>
Problems you can't solve otherwise to [e-mail].

Archives of past issues of the Info-Hams Digest are available
(by FTP only) from UCSD.Edu in directory "mailarchives/info-hams".

We trust that readers are intelligent enough to realize that all text
herein consists of personal comments and does not represent the official
policies or positions of any party.  Your mileage may vary.  So there.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1993 17:29:41 GMT
From: nntp.ucsb.edu!library.ucla.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!col.hp.com!news.dtc.hp.com!hplextra!hpfcso![e-mail]
Subject: Abbreviating Dates
To: [e-mail]

For what it's worth...  For over a decade I've used what has to be the
most efficient and least ambiguous way of representing "timestamps" as
text:

 CCYYMMDD.HHMMSS

You can leave off any parts that are not needed due to context.  For
example:

 931117  (today)
 931117.1027 (now)
 19931117 (for more clarity; seldom required)
 1117.23  (about 11pm today)
 121523  (a time today; seldom used, must be clear in context)

I find that YYMMDD is generally recognized because of it starting with
the year.  If necessary I can "key" a document with "YYMMDD" or
"YYMMDD.HHMMSS" to explain the date notation used.

------------------------------

Date: 18 Nov 1993 17:43:52 GMT
From: munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!bradley.bradley.edu!augustana.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Cross-band 2m/220mhz repeaters?
To: [e-mail]

As a Novice I get access to 1.25m.  I understand in
some cities there are repeaters linked between 2m and
1.25m.

How many cities and where?  I'm curious.....

Thanks.   Kevin Anderson, KB9IUA
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Kevin L. Anderson,     Geography Dept.,     Augustana College
Rock Island, Illinois   61201   USA     phone: [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail]  or [e-mail]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 17 Nov 93 20:06:36 EST
From: noc.near.net!news.delphi.com![e-mail]
Subject: Elmers are dead, god help us HAMS!
To: [e-mail]

It seems some areas of the country are vastly different from others. I never
will forget the day my license arrived in the mail. I rushed in the house,
grabbed the HT and said, "KE4DPX monitoring." Within moments so many people
were on the air congratulating me and giving good advice that I had a hard
time keeping track. Thank goodness I had been monitoring for several months
and followed the best advice I've yet heard -- KEEP A LOG! :-) While I realize
that logs aren't officially required these days, they really do help keep
track of who's who -- especially when more than three or four people are in
a roundtable. It's also more than just records of names and calls scratched
on paper -- it's a piece of your life. Even in the short time I've been on
the air, I get a lump in my throat when reviewing the log. . . stirring
memories of memorable conversations with old friends and old timers. There's
not a day that goes by that I don't learn something new from the friendly
voices "out there somewhere" and so many invitations to go visit shacks that
I'll never get the time to visit them all. But with so many willing to lend
a helping hand, a quick course on amateur gear and theory, and recommendations
for equipment I'll never be able to repay them all.

 -- Greg KE4DPX

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1993 20:34:32 GMT
From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!wupost!waikato!comp.vuw.ac.nz!frc![e-mail]
Subject: FT727 Schematic
To: [e-mail]

If anyone is desperate, I have a photo-copied service manual of the
FT727, as well as the small user booklet. Drop me an E-mail if you
can't get hold of it in your country.

Just dug into mine last night in an attempt to speed up the PLL
switching to tx.  Am using it on packet (2400 bps), the PLL takes
about 250 ms to lock on the tx freq, and the modulation takes even
longer to trickle through. Running it with a txdelay of 600 ms (!) on
the local data repeater.

Also, the Squelch is very slow to come off, and I keep losing the
first part of the first frame received. Conclusion: a nice dual band
radio, but no good for packet...

Wilbert, ZL2BSJ.



--
Wilbert Knol       MAFFISH Marine  Research,       Wellington,  New Zealand.
Usenet: [e-mail]  PACKET:[e-mail]  AMPR:[44.147.180.88]
AX25, NET/ROM, TCP/IP mailbox 146.625  MHz Wellington Data,  144.650 Simplex

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 01:42:41 GMT
From: utcsri!newsflash.concordia.ca!sifon!Atlas.EETECH.McGill.CA![e-mail]
Subject: HAM ftp mod sites?
To: [e-mail]

Steve Wolf <[e-mail]> wrote:
>Is there a site that has an archive of all the mods?  Although buffalo
>has the individual mods, I would like to update my older set of files.

Buffalo's set comprises, of probably 95% of what's out there in terms
of ftp sites and automated mailers.  I am the person one who
collected, and weeded out this collection in particular.  There are
over 250 at the present time.

I'm moving in the very near future, but once I've settled down again,
WIBNI we could come to some sort of agreement on having THE mod site
somewhere, so people don't have to go all over creation to find what
they need.

Bruno
--
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Bruno Hall | VE2HUM | old: [e-mail] | new: [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 18:14:33 GMT
From: amiserv!vpnet!tellab5![e-mail]
Subject: How useful are DSP units in noisy locations?
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dave Lloyd) writes:
>
>     There has been some discussion recently concerning add-on DSP
>units to process recieve audio, and some complimentary comments on
>their use, particularly for copying cw. I've never heard one of
>these devices in use, and wonder if they are effective at helping
>to cope with the high levels of electrical noise (tv sweep,
>electric motors etc) which I hear on hf in my downtown apartment
>location. Might there be benefits in adding one of these devices
>when my rig already has a 500Hz cw filter? The claims in some of
>the advertising for commercial DSP units sound pretty fanciful to
>me. Can anyone point me towards any good magazine articles or books
>which mention DSP in ham radio - a quick glance through the '93
>ARRL handbook didn't reveal anything very useful. Are there any
>good construction articles out there?
>


I'm working with an engineer on a DSP project called the Ham
Blaster.  It's a DSP board that plugs into a PC.  I was using
it to copy H.F. packet.  The program that I was running was
able to copy packet even when the computer that I was using
interfered with the radio.  The packets came through with
no noise.  It also hac a C.W. program that provides the same
filtering.




---
   Jack Albert                Fellow Radio Hacker
         Tele [phone]
   Tellabs Operations, Inc.     FAX  [phone]
   1000 Remington Blvd.         [e-mail]
   Bolingbrook, IL  60440
    "he,hehe,hehe,hehehe,hehe
     hey,heyhey,heyheyhey,hey"

         Bevis & Butthead

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 17:53:41 GMT
From: munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!emory!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!umn.edu![e-mail]
Subject: MAKE.MONEY.FAST
To: [e-mail]



------------------------------

Date: 17 Nov 1993 14:07:15 -0500
From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!babbage.ece.uc.edu!ucunix.san.uc.edu!ucunix.san.uc.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Manual Needed: Alinco ALR-22T
To: [e-mail]

A colleague, N4BRI, needs a manual for a newly-acquired used Alinco
ALR-22T 2M rig.  He'll gladly pay photocopy/postage; please e-mail me
and I'll pass info along to him.  Thanks.

Theodore Allan (Ted) Morris, University of Cincinnati Medical Center,
513-558-0177V, -2682F, [e-mail], [e-mail], WB8VNV
         Previous politically-incorrect tag-line removed.

------------------------------

Date: 17 Nov 1993 14:51:52 -0500
From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!babbage.ece.uc.edu!ucunix.san.uc.edu!ucunix.san.uc.edu!not-for-mail@@
Subject: Manual Needed: Tek 502A
To: [e-mail]

I picked up three Tektronix 502A oscilloscopes at our surplus auction
last weekend, from which I hope to get -one- working (-: ... need a
manual and schematic, and will gladly pay for photocopying and postage.

I figure, every shack ought to have an oscilloscope, if only to dazzle
the appliance operators and uninitiated...

Theodore Allan (Ted) Morris, University of Cincinnati Medical Center,
513-558-0177V, -2682F, [e-mail], [e-mail], WB8VNV
         Previous politically-incorrect tag-line removed.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1993 19:36:33 GMT
From: olivea!sgigate.sgi.com!odin!chuck.dallas.sgi.com![e-mail]
Subject: Miss Manners in the Novice Sub-bands?
To: [e-mail]

In article  [e-mail] (Gary Coffman) writes:
|> In article [e-mail] (Douglas J Renze) writes:
|> >I've got a little question.  I was tuning across the 80-meter novice subband
|> >tonight, and right at 3700kHz I noticed a QSO taking place at 20+ WPM.
...stuff deleted...
|> On the other hand, if neither of the stations were Novice, or coded Tech,
|> licensees, then the behavior *was* somewhat rude.
|>
|> Gary Coffman KE4ZV          |   Life's a journey,  |gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary
|> Destructive Testing Systems |   not a destination. | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary
|> 534 Shannon Way             |   Live it.           | emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary
|> Lawrenceville, GA 30244

How can two stations having a QSO be rude?  It sounds like they were
carrying on a QSO without interferring with anyone else.  They were
within the rules and regs set down by the FCC.  I didn't hear anyone
mention League Affiliation, Names of Gary, or sexual preference or
whether the battery (if they had one) was on concrete with or without
the little red wagon.  :-)

I get in the novice bands and I slow down to 10 wpm.  Was I going too
fast?  I figured I was doing my part to help someone come up to speed
for the General AND higher classes of license.  Was I wrong?

Like others have mentioned.  There are some people who operated in
foreign wars and peace keeping efforts who were morse intercept
operators and capable of doing more than 50 wpm.  They become novices,
but they sure don't want to slow down to 5 wpm, if the other person
can keep up 20 or more wpm.  EOT    dit   dit

--
SIG
------cut here----------
Chuck Adams, K5FO - CP60
[e-mail]
QRP ARCI Awards Chairman

------------------------------

Date: 18 Nov 1993 17:55:49 GMT
From: munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!news.umbc.edu!haven.umd.edu!cs.umd.edu!mojo.eng.umd.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Need Ideas on FSK demodulation
To: [e-mail]

I have an interesting problem.  I want to demodulate a signal with
one of three different tones.  The requirements are:

     1)  I need to set the frequency of each tone under software control
     2)  The input is an audio signal consisting of one of three tones.
         There is no clock signal available.  I have to set the clock
         frequency under software control.  There is no encoding of the
         three tones to ensure a transition each clock period.
     3)  The solution needs to talk to a VME chassis.

I've thought about buying a general-purpose DSP VME board of some kind and
learning enough about digital signal processing to do a fourier transform
of the input audio signal.  This would be oversampled and averaged to
determine which tone was on.  Synchronizing to the unknown clock would be
done by software.

Is there a better way?  (I'm betting that there is. :-) )

Thanks for any assistance y'all can provide.


--
Mark Bailey     KD4D          Motto:  Life's too short to drink cheap beer.
[e-mail]             Disclaimer:  I didn't really say this.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 23:17:49 GMT
From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!sdd.hp.com!hpscit.sc.hp.com!hplextra!hpfcso!hplvec![e-mail]
Subject: Poor audio fix for HTs
To: [e-mail]

In rec.radio.amateur.misc, Greg Law <[e-mail]> writes:


>   I saw that thing in the Radio Shack catalog and I'm really curious to learn
>   how well it works. I'm afraid the blasted wire will get hung in the cassette
>   mechanism and ruin an otherwise perfectly good Kenwood car stereo. :-)

The case is designed so that the wire can be channeled out the side or
the back to accomodate both front and side-loading cassette players.
I've been using mine in a side-loading cassette player for about 5
months now to use my Alinco DJ580 while mobile.  Works like a champ.

Note, if I had it to do over again I'd still buy a decent mobile rig
rather than an HT, but with a speaker mike, the RS cassette adapter and
a Larsen antenna I've put together an acceptable mobile setup.


Scott Turner  N0VRF  [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 17 Nov 1993 13:41:08 GMT
From: munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uknet!yorkohm!minster![e-mail]
Subject: Pye Westminster Synth
To: [e-mail]

    Has onyone out there ever tried building a frequency synthesiser
for a Pye Westminster to cover the 2m band.

    Thanks,

    H

Paul Hatcher   PHONE    [phone]
Department of Computer Science JANET    [e-mail]
University of York  INTERNET [e-mail]
Heslington, York, Y01 5DD UUCP  {mcsun,uknet}!minster!paulh

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1993 17:24:15 GMT
From: nntp.ucsb.edu!library.ucla.edu!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!col.hp.com!news.dtc.hp.com!hplextra!hpfcso![e-mail]
Subject: Telescoping antenna on HT
To: [e-mail]

> The collapsed telescoping antenna won't be any worse than a duck.

Yes it will.  It has a much worse SWR.  It just doesn't work as well.
Try it side-by-side with a weak signal.  Whether or not the high SWR
will hurt your rig is a different issue.

> By the way, I'm extremely happy with my AEA Hotrod antenna on my HT.

Me too, although after three years of heavy use it shows some signs of
abuse...  Less than straight spots, and it was intermittent until I took
it apart and sort of tightened it up.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 15:55:25 GMT
From: munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!news.cs.indiana.edu!rsg1.er.usgs.gov!dgg.cr.usgs.gov![e-mail]
Subject: Using modified HT in emergency
To: [e-mail]

In article <2celrr$[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Sean J. McCarthy) writes:
|>
|>  I just wanted to point out one *little* detail you all
|>         seem to be missing:
|>
|>  Using any means available does not mean you can make the
|>  "means" available to you at all times!

Are you saying that he should have had an unmodified radio and then when the
emergency occured, he should have disassembled his radio and done the mod on
the spot?

|>
|>  The "radio friend" in this thread did exactally as I or
|>         anyone else would have under the circumstances, but
|>         it doesnt make it legal to have the modified radio in the
|>         first place.

You are implying that it is illegal to have a radio modified to transmit on
unauthorized frequencies.  Show me the law that says that.

|>
|>         If this were to go to court, the amateur would *probably*
|>         be found innocent of unlawful transmission, and get hung
|>         out to dry on the illegal radio.

What makes it an illegal radio?  It is like owning a licensed handgun.  If you
kill someone in self defense it is OK, but if you murder someone it is not -
owning the handgun is not illegal, nor is a modified radio (yet).

I am willing to bet that the FCC will soon ban the manufacture or import (or
even sale) of radios capable of being easily modified to transmit out of
band.  In some ways, I can understand how modified radios can cause problems
if in the wrong hands.  On the other hand, I hope that they don't start
telling us that we cannot own such a radio...

|>
|>         wx8l Sean.
|>
|>
|>

--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Tom Bodoh - Sr. systems software engineer, Hughes STX, N0YGT                +
+ USGS/EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD, USA 57198     [phone]      +
+ Internet; [e-mail] (152.61.192.66)         +
+ "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends!" EL&P       +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 02:17:47 GMT
From: spsgate!mogate!newsgate![e-mail]
Subject: Using modified HT in emergency
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> Craig Bosworth,
[e-mail] writes:
>My friend presented photographs and doctors' reports to the FCC and
>Sheriffs.  There were numerous witnesses when he was trying the amateur
>repeaters, although only two of them are hams.
>
>I hope this information is useful.  Does anyone have any comments?

Craig, for what its worth I would do the same thing as your friend did.
Keep biking!  And if the situation changes please keep us posted.

------------------------------

Date: 17 Nov 1993 19:07:50 -0600
From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!geraldo.cc.utexas.edu!emx.cc.utexas.edu![e-mail]
Subject: zero-beating
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] (Stephen C. Trier) asks:

>OK, two different threads have touched on this, so I guess I'll ask the
>question: How does one zero-beat a CW signal?

>The radio in this case is, I believe, a Kenwood TS-830.  I'm most
>interested, however, in the general procedure applicable to most rigs.

I thought I had answered this before, but perhaps nobody believed
me.   Tune to WWV, set your transceiver to the known WWV frequency
(10.000 or whatever) and note the pitch of the signal you hear.
Then when you hear a CW signal, tune the transceiver so that the
CW signal has this same pitch and you are on frequency.

On the TS-830S, and many other rigs, the sidetone is at this pitch.
If you are desperate and don't have perfect pitch or a sidetone, use
a tuning fork or a bell or something.

The other way is to call CQ a lot and average the pitch of all the
replies you get.  This assumes that other people know how to zero-
beat, or at least that they don't all call consistently high or low.
I don't recommend this approach.


Derek "boing!" Wills (AA5BT, G3NMX)
Department of Astronomy, University of Texas,
Austin TX 78712.  (512-471-1392)
[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 18 Nov 93 00:33:02 GMT
From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!agate!spool.mu.edu!olivea!gossip.pyramid.com!pyramid!infmx!infmx![e-mail]
To: [e-mail]

References <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
Subject : Re: Fun with Radio Shack

[e-mail] (Val Breault) writes:
>reality is that we have been paying for the catalogs all along.  The
>catalogs are expensive to produce and the cost of their production had been
>part of the cost of the products.  Not only did we pay for our own catalogs,
>but the tens or hundreds of thousands of catalogs that were taken from the
>stores by folks that took them just because they were free.  Junk mail and
>other "Free" advertising seems to have a very short persistance in most
>folks homes, often landing in the trash the same day it's received.

A catalog is a form of advertising. Its purpose is to make people
aware of your products and boost sales.  If you make people
pay for it, far fewer people will have one.  That defeats its
purpose.  Tandy might as well start making people pay for the monthly
sales flyers instead of asking us for our address, so they
can send it to us.

The environmental argument doesn't hold water.  If Tandy cared
about the environment, they wouldn't send the flyers or put flyers
in newspapers.  These really end up in the trash.   The catalog
was at least someting you had to ask for.  I still have several lying
around.


I refuse to pay for a catalog because I refuse to pay for
Tandy's (or anyone else's) advertising.

------------------------------

End of Info-Hams Digest V93 #1369
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