CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century

[Blackened]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

It's a lot better now I've finished off my little radio interface, isolated the in/outs with some audio transformers and a salvaged opto-isolator (from an old broken CRT monitor) Means that the mouse/Keyboard now doesn't stop working due to the RF

That's a major pain. My monitor goes off as well when I key down. Comes back on again when I key up and down again.

[Kymmy]

The interface isolates the PC from the radio hence I don;t now have an issue.. If your monitor is going off then there's RF leakage somewhere.. What's your earth like? Have you got a ferrite on your rig power lead and also have you tried a metalic spray ( or a bit of well glued in aluminium foil) on the inside/outside casing of the monitor

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by Jon T

Have you had a PSK125 QSO yet?

Weird you should mention psk125 as I've just had my first QSO via that mode, an EA8 in Lanzerote...WOW does the info whizz by

[Blackened]

I'm not sure about the earth, Kymmy. I'll take a look tomorrow.

I have some fat ferrite rings in the garage, I'll give that a go. Cheers

[Kymmy]

Make sure you wind the ferrites properly if you use them

[Blackened]

Yeah, will do - cheers.

Just been to get them out the garage but Mrs Blackened's parked her car behind mine so I can't get to the bottom cupboards.

[Kymmy]

Nice little contact with St Helena last night again on RTTY but this time 20m

Conditions are definitely improving as we go further into 2012, even heard quite a few stations on 10m which is above the 11m freqs so for the CB fraternity the bands looks like they're going to be really good this summer.

[Kymmy]

Just had to strip down the antenna connector for my old 1/2 G5RV after the reflected power on the SWR kept popping up when transmitting.. Turned out to be a load of corrosion which I've now stripped, re-soldered, hot-glued, sealed and heat-shrinked

Result = 20 mins using PSK31 on 17m (18Mhz) got me denmark, Finland, 2 Ukraines, 4 EU Russians and JF3PNQ in Sanda, Japan Now that's a result

[Uncle Peter]

17 is a brilliant band when it's open. You can actually have a QSO on fone rather than the usual 59, 73 you get in Kilowatt alley.

There have been quite a few E alerts for 6m this week so that's worth checking out if you have a suitable antenna of any description. Going to put my 5ele back up at the weekend as it had disintegrated during the storms last winter so I've managed to drill out the element fittings and replace them with stainless.

[Kymmy]

HRD has finally released 5.21 with a few fixes after it's previous attempted release a few weeks ago..

[Jon T]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

HRD has finally released 5.21 with a few fixes after it's previous attempted release a few weeks ago..

and the effort to get to this stage has been huge. A necessarily step to continue development was to move to VS2010, this broke many things. 5.21 is still not perfect, but it's getting there. The testing team have been fed alpha/beta files almost daily to get to this stage.

[Kymmy]

Might go for the 5.21 support which means I'll get 6 free (will save me $20)

I currently only use the logging/Digital programs but even they're worth it..

[Kymmy]

Just remembered that my Jubilee NOV started today so no officially a GQ#*** for the next month

Time to create a new card

[Kymmy]

Picked up a nice little Icom 706 Mk2G today at Dunstable Downs Radio Carboot Sale.. Has a few filters in it with also the TCXO option fitted, came complete with the face off cable and bracket.. So that's me a happy little bunny

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[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Picked up a nice little Icom 706 Mk2G today at Dunstable Downs Radio Carboot Sale.. Has a few filters in it with also the TCXO option fitted, came complete with the face off cable and bracket.. So that's me a happy little bunny

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Looks nice