It was good to get out but the WX spoilt the chance of activating 3 summits.
Things that were good:
Walking in the mature Scots Pine forest on top of Dumcroy Hill.
Getting up early without problem after watching a late film on TV.
Not breaking into a sweat to get up either hill.
Things that were bad:
The SMA end of a cable went intermittent on Crock the other week. Repaired and some extra shock/strain relief added. Cable checked OK on completion. Now doesn’t work at all.
My 20/17/15 antenna is a strange beast, it likes to see “enough” feeder or it’s difficult to match. With a shorter feed due to the above problem, matching was a problem and everything was RF hot, especially the keyer.
The FT817 Up band button now offers topband, 80, 60, 40, 30, 14, 18, 21, 21, 21, 21, 21… Down band works. I think it has early onset senility (much like its owner!)
My new boots (Goretex XCR lined) leak.
The rain due after 4pm (local) turned up early. It wasn’t a shower but a deluge. Hence discovering item 4 walking back.
All the bad items are fixable apart from the WX. I can recommend Dumcroy Hill CS-107. The mature wood at the top complete with many deer is a true delight to walk in. It’s a delight when the heavens open never mind on a good day!
I had a good activation about a year ago from Drumcroy Hill managed my first DX on 17m band. Bit of a shock when you clear the tree line and stumble over the wall opens up into a nice clearing on the summit with a few trees. Short walk to the top with plenty of room for a dipole to be strung of the trees, a nice 2 pointer summit that is well worth the visit and escape from the regular summit tops.
Yes Allan, propagation was very short for 20m yesterday, I worked you, G3RMD, G4SSH, G3XQE, M1EYP/P, G4OBK and a few others. Roy G4SSH was about 300miles away and was 599++ so very strong for such a short distance.
I fixed my 817. I did the gentlest of the 3 resets in the manual, HOME + power ON. That restored the band Up function. It zaps the memories but leaves other settings untouched. Then I had to reload the memories, FT817 Commander (once part of HRD) works on Win7 64 and as my PC has a real serial port, connection was a doddle. I say that because I have 2 USB serial adaptors and neither would work with Win7 64, they both work on my Linux laptops.
I saw no short skip on 20 yesterday, maybe because I’m in the middle of the country!
Talking of the 817, can anyone remember the procedure for getting the antenna relays to self-clean? I have a note of them somewhere but cannot find it! I was getting a high SWR on the rear socket and cleared it by rapid manual changes of front/rear on menu 7, but it would be simpler to get the rig to do it itself!
I can;t find anything about this on them IntarWebz but you can try the poor man’s antenna rattler.
Select VFO A, tune to 80m, then select rear antenna for 80m.
Select VFO B, tune to 10m, then select front antenna for 10m.
Press VFO A/B many times till you get bored.
You should use the front connector as the signal passes direct not through a relay. This means there would be fractions of a dB less loss which, of course, would be better!
You should use the front connector as the signal passes direct not
through a relay.
Err… surely it has to pass through the relay whichever socket is selected? Otherwise how can it switch it?
I’ve heard that selecting one socket rather than the other reduces current consumption since in one position the relay isn’t energised. Unfortunately I’ve also heard that the de-energised selection is the front socket which routes the signal closer to the microprocessor and it’s associated noise.
Thanks for looking, Andy. I can’t find it myself, I can’t remember where I found it before, its not on mods.dk. It was just a couple of keystrokes that made the relay rattle for a while to clean the contacts.
I use the front connector for V/UHF and the rear for the rest as a plug in the front connector makes it awkward to use the Select knob. Mind you, I probably lose the fraction of a dB again, as for lightweight activations I use a 2m halfwave mobile whip via a BNC to SO239 adapter - don’t wince, it works!
Well I’m sure I can remember mention of the relay rattler somewhere. It’s probably something hidden on the hidden engineering menu and best left alone.
Now to find an SMA that will stay attached to RG58. The one on the cable I lost was FB, this one will not stay attached. The wide entry SMA plugs were bought at the same time so it’s the same plug as before. I’m thinking this particular piece RG58 may be unsuitable, I’m quite confident I’ll find the sheild has broken. Again. My (now less-reliable) memory is suggesting I used a piece of RG-223 before which is double shielded.
Makes me think of you and your BNC problems in the past.
Now to find an SMA that will stay attached to RG58.
It still is. A check showed no shorts or opens. Both cables onto the MFJ259 and a 50Ohm load showed 50Ohms. Waggling the cables showed no jumps or changes in reading. The cable is still fine. But disconnecting it improved the match on the hill. So the fault must be elsewhere. A further check on the actual antenna components showed the vertical section to have continuity and no short in the connector to the elavated radial. But what’s this… the radial was open circuit where it attaches. Not visible as the joint to the Lucar connector is covered with heat shrink. Classic stress failure and a gentle tug caused the wire to pull out of the heat shrink.
