Category: Amateur Radio

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Radio installation – finished!

Well, it’s all in, and I’m very happy with the result.  It looks good, it works as it should.  Right down to the delayed shutoff — I can park and shut off the engine, the rig stays powered until I open a door (or some delay times out).  I mounted the control head with Command foam tape mounting tabs for easy removal if needed.  Also, my old roll of 3M foam tape finally got too old and these were all Wally World had.  🙂  You can click a picture for larger views.

The only thing I’m not sure about is the foam tape mounting for the control head.  If that doesn’t hold over the long term, I’ll probably switch to a ProClip.  It’s working for now, but it’s amazing how much you can see in a high-resolution picture that you don’t see when your eyeballs start aging.  The transceiver isn’t hard mounted; I’ll stick the hook side of some industrial strength Velcro to the top surface (it’s upside down) to keep it secure but it’s not shifting around even under hard braking.

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Radio installation

I’ve spent the past couple of days working on getting the dual-band VHF/UHF ham radio (a Kenwood TM-G707A) installed in the new F-150. As of today it’s mostly done. All that’s left to do now is to mount the control head on the dash, and finish the antenna mount. I took it apart last night and re-painted it, since the original black paint had mostly flaked off of part of it.

The new truck is more installation-friendly than the Sport Trac, that’s for sure. Dashboard panels pop out with a simple tug, door sill plates pop up without breaking parts, and of course there is a lot more room for working under the dash. There’s a convenient pocket in the dash for the microphone, and plenty of room behind the rear seats for the transceiver. Much to my surprise, I found out the rear seats will flip down with no hassle to gain access to the area behind them.

F150forum.com has been a huge help in getting this done, from the tip about the rear seat latches to wiring ideas to someone mentioning ProClip mounts. When I’m finally finished with this project I’ll have a very nice looking and functional installation. On the off chance I ever decide to upgrade to a different radio, I’ll be able to keep most of the stuff in place and re-use the mounts. Given how little I use the mobile rig, though, I give that a pretty low probability.

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First road trip in the new truck

Lisa and I took the new F150 to Des Moines and back this past weekend.  It’s every bit as smooth and quiet as we had hoped; I would say it probably comes close to most luxury cars.  Gas mileage was not spectacular, but I’ll reserve judgment on that issue.  We’re still in the break-in phase; in fact, there was under 100 miles on the odometer when we left.  Temperatures hovered at or below freezing for most of the weekend, and we had a stiff cross wind both ways.  I also have not put a bed cover on yet, and I know that will make a difference.

The EcoBoost engine pulls smooth and strong from idle to highway speeds; you really have no indication you have a V6 under the hood.  Horsepower and torque are higher than the new 5 liter V8.   In fact, it outperforms last year’s 5.4 liter by a good margin (320 HP/390 ft-lb for the 5.4, 365 HP/420 ft-lb for the little 3.5 EcoBoost).  This engine is amazing.  No turbo lag or whine, just quiet power from an engine that pulls like a mule.

I’m looking at what to do to get the ham rig installed.  There really isn’t a hidden spot in the cavernous F150 cab for the transceiver; I may be able to wedge it in under the seat, but I’m not sure yet.  I think there’s plenty of room under the dash, but I’m not inclined to drill anywhere.  I’ll have to do some looking.  The antenna might be a challenge as well; I believe that’s a fiberglass hood.

 

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Pics of the new office/shack


Finally got the new office / ham shack pretty much finished, cleaned up and took a few pics..

Ham station at right, work setup center/left with dual monitors.
Ham station on the right, work computer setup on the left with dual monitors.
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I need a vacation… from me.

So here I sit, 10:30 in the morning, still in a bathrobe and slippers.   I would be dressed, but in addition to work I’ve been getting two keyers ready to ship.   I have half a dozen orders that need to get packed and mailed, email to be answered, and still need ot make a complete run through of the new keyer firmware to make sure all the debugging and diagnostic stuff is pulled and all the features work. On top of that I have 50 boards that need to be prepped for assembly…   in less than 2 weeks the magazine ad will hit peoples’ mailboxes, which means I need to do some serious assembly work by then.   I’m still trying to get the basement de-junked so Lisa can use what should be her sewing area.   The new antenna still isn’t up, need to order the support line and insulators.   I’ve got a piece of desk that needs finishing.   Haven’t been to the gym in two weeks, again, and that’s not good.   The list goes on, and on, and on.

This has been a pattern for – well, as long as I can remember.   I must have a damn short attention span or something, seems like everything gets about half done.   On the bright side, I think I have every Friday off from now to the end of the year, courtesy of my new employer’s crappy PTO carryover policy.   Maybe I can get enough stuff finished to get to a more or less normal life again.

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The new phone book – I mean, Handbook’s here!

Navin R. Johnson said it best…

2010 ARRL Handbook
2010 ARRL Handbook

If you’re wondering why I care so much,I wrote a lot of Chapter 4, the new Digital Basics chapter.   Some came from the old Basic Electronics chapter, but I hope to have it completely rewritten for the 2011 edition.   I also have 3 projects in Chapter 24.   So, it’s pretty cool.   Besides,when you contribute to the Handbook you get your copy for free…   and every ham NEEDS at least one ARRL Handbook around.

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Hacking at code again.


After a few weeks off, I’ve returned to hacking at the new release of MasterKeyer firmware.   In the past couple of days I’ve managed to add a couple of halfway nice features and improvements, and am now working on adding the last couple of emulation mode commands.   I think I’m going to discover just how many times you can plug and unplug a USB drive before the connector wears out.

MasterKeyer, now running V1.20 Alpha 🙂
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Shack update

The new “shack” setup is in progress. The main radios are up in the office/shack room, and I’ve got a new PC built for ham use. I used mostly leftover parts from either older computers or projects that just didn’t work out, like the media center PC.  In the process I’ve gotten much further with MythTV and some other stuff than ever before, but that’s a different story.

I have the wire cut for the Loop Skywire antenna, but it’s not up yet.  I may need to beg or borrow a HyperHanger from a buddy to get the thing up in the trees.  Right now I have a random length of wire out the window, which hears a little and causes massive RFI in the house when I try to transmit even with low power, so I haven’t made any contacts yet.  I really need to get that loop up before winter!

I’ve been playing with some ham radio apps for Linux. The biggest problem so far has been the plethora of sound card mixers and management apps on the PC. OSS, ALSA, and half a dozen others sometimes appear to compete for control. I am going to try to remove some, but I suspect that dependencies will keep me from doing so. I think one of the biggest challenges Linux faces is a complete lack of agreement, discipline or even half-hearted effort by app developers to standardize on ANYTHING. If you want to run six different apps, chances are you’re going to have six completely different sets of dependencies that will cause problems with everything you try to do.

But that’s a rant. The station is coming along, slowly but surely. I figure by Thanksgiving I should be back on the air.

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Busy day!

Got up early this morning to make it out to the Ak-Sar-Ben Amateur Radio Club’s hamfest.   It was pretty much a bust as far as sales, and to be perfectly honest it was about as small and sparsely attended as any I have seen.   Still, it was nice to see some of the guys, and I did pick up a couple of cheap LED flashlights.

Got home and put a coat of clear polyurethane on the new desk.   I hope it’s the last coat, but I’m not too confident about that.   It’s looking pretty well, the 400 grit sanding between coats of clear satin are doing wonders for the finish.   I’m hoping to get it brought up and put together tonight.

Then I mowed the lawn, front & back, and trimmed some tree branches that were hanging too low to suit me.   Our grand-niece Natalie was over for a while, so I pulled the Vespa out & we went for a little putt around the neighborhood…   her first time on a scooter, I’m sure!   The Vespa ran surprisingly well, and started right up the second time after I fixed a bad fuel line.   I think I’m going to put historical plates on it so it stays registered.