Electronic Info

8/12/2019 Electronic Info

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A microprocessor f CC'1M..u P' . .... ',.,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1\00 \00 ........Dig ita l veree Recorder Opt io n. AlloWs message upto 20 sec: to be remolely receoee olf the all Playback at us er re ques t by DTMF command , or as apeooocer voce id , or both . Gr eat for mak ing cluban nouncements only $t OOREP ZOOC Ec on omy Repeater. Real-VOiCe 10. nodtmf or aulopatch .. Kil on ly S795, w &t 51195REPZOON Repeater. W ,lhout controller 0 you canuse your own , K it on ly $695, w& t $995

A .en.itlve and selectiveprolelllanel . .d. receiver tomonitor erltif;ll NOAA _atherbro.dellts;. Good recephoneven at distances 01 70 miles ormore u ~ a b antenna Nocompanson willi ordinary consumer radios'Automat>e mode provides slom watch. alerting you byunmuling receive' and providing an outPllt to trip ,emoteequipmenl wflen an alert lOne is broadcast. Cryslllicontrolled for .ceuracy: i111l 7 ehillnn. l. (162 40 to 162 55 )Buy ju \h e , .. ... .e. pc b modu.. on u ....... 0< . . . . . . . . . . k.an a ll f lof;t.... melal ca _ . AC _ .. _ .. -.. 'ood 'Y ,_ . . . . .tlutll- in Spe lk , A_ .IIWX ~ k1l; P C8 ont1 ' AC 1Ib9t SRWX Rev< kt . . - i I 1 I ~ e t . speJleB up Ie ~

FM EXCITERS:Rated tor continuous duty, 2W continuous duty outpvtn01 Synthesized VHF Ex-c lter: for various bands139174MHz , 216-226 MHz. Dip switch freq setting Krt .... .. S109 (TCXO option S40) Wlfedl1es led , inel TCXO..,S189

T 3 0 ~ Synthesized UHF El citer: B - f t 1:. Avaoco s bands 40 70 MHz . I ~ Kil lu o.so bond..,1yJ incl TCXO .. $149 weectestec.., lS9CRYSTAL CONTROLLED: lA S1: lor6M , 2M. 220M Hz kit 99, wlt 169 TA451 : for 42Q-475 MHz, Il.lt 99, wit 169 TA9C1 : lor 902-928 MHz . (0 5Wout) w/tS169

Access all your favoriteclosed repeaters Encod .. all slandard CTCSSlones crystal accuracy andconveoienl DIP switch seledion Decod.r can be usO 'd 10 mute receive audio and i.oplomized lo r inslallalion in repeater. 10 provide dose d.cees. HigIl pas.s filler ~ s t od of llIV'O)'Wlg revr buu ,

TO5 CTCSS Encoder Decoder Kil ........_.._now only 539 T[)-.5 CTCSS Encoder/Oecoder 'o'VndnestO 'd .. ......S5'

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FM RECEIVERS :Veq sensitive - 0 2p v.Superb selectivit y. >1 dB down al :l: 12 kHz. bestavailable anywhere. flutter.proof squelchR301 Synthesized VHF Rece iver : various bands139-174MHz , 216226 MHz. o n I \ o ..,on ly $ 139 (TCXO opt ion $40) Wlredttes ted ., $209(includes TCXO)RJ 04 Synthesiled UHF RK elver : t JJ .e.,vancus bands 400-470MHl , ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Kit (. .0.4\00 ......._ ) g . t iod TCXO .. $179 (- t] f ,t . \rViredllested ,..$209CRYSTAL CONTROLLED: R100 RCVR. For 46-54. 7Z-76, 140-175 . or 216-225MHz kit $129 , 1t $189 R144 RCVR . l ike R100. for 2M. Wiltl helicalresceatcr in fron t en d kit $159 , It $219 R451 RCVR , for 4Z0 '75 MHz . Similar 10 R100above. _____ kil $129, 1t $189 R901 RCVR, 9OZ-9Z6MHz __ ki t 159 t 2 19

No need to spend thousand' onnew tran.c.ivers fo r each band


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: ~ l l P u ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ l ~ ~ k ~ ~ o ~ a ~ ~ - C O dcourse ...Takes you beyond xtra lass Cs tomzedPratice...Plain Englislt QSOs.ord Recognition Mode: . . . Interactive .lIoden , No memorization . . . Never run ali t ofpractice.

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without the distraction of harsh keyclicks. l,;Soearphones for private practice or buill-in speakfor groups. Adjustable volume. Loud powerfuaudio amplifier. Va riable pitch 300 -1000 Hz.True Pod el sizeFits in your shirt pocket with room to sparsmaller th an a pack of cigarettes. Tiny 2'/.x3',in., weighs less than 5'/z ounces. Uses 9 volt Itery (not included).Tapes can t r mnparrFCC character sets (bas only let- MFJ-41 8 Tapes play the same old boring stuff overtcrs, numbers and prostgns 9 over again. Un like tapes, you' lI never mcmoron FCC tests). random the MFJ-41R random code sessions. You'11call words. more for a few sets of code tapes. The MFJ-4or combination sets for practice - plus s h is less money, more fun and far more effective- J Ou 'lI never run out of s tudy material You can Pocket Tutor Accessorieseven make up and save your own words and char- .\IFJ-26. SI2 ,95. Soft leatheacter sets for practice. protective pouch for MFJ-t 18. C .t1FJ plastic overlay for display.i nterectivest ade . lets you decide when to knob/push button openings. strorcopy the n e x ~ or pr;\ 'Ious group and how many .- pocket/belt dip secures your lutegreat for begmn.ers. . .\ IFJ-281. SI2 .95. Speaker for group pracror f (lrn .\ 'flrth. Loud. powerful audio Y I.x3.l.2'/.Select normal or Farnsworth spacmg. ~ l r J - 2 9 1 1 . S4.95. Comfortable foam earbrFarnsw orth makes it easier 10 learn entire earphone for private listening.characters. Slop counting individual dots and .\IFJ-3400. SI9.95. Morse Code: Breakingdashes that slows learn ing Fams- worth character Barrier How to learn by the Koch Method b~ is adjustah,le 10 to 60 Words-Per-Minute for More pocket size MFJ Mo'ne Tuteh l g h - s ~ practice . _ :'\ IFJ-tI7. 59.95. Similar to MFJ-118, but Fixed or Random Lellgt , rrDtlp\ LCD. Most software features.

Use fixed length or more realistic random :\lFJ-tI3. $39.95. Similar to .\1. FJ-417, leslength groups (up to 8 characters ). random words. QSOs, Scn inggavert'' .. ChullKe . ted 11/1 the r . . Other Morse Code Tutor Product. can h a n g ~ sp:cd ( ) n - ~ h e - J l Y while playing MFJ-SS2. $79.95. On-IIa session 3 to 60 words-per-minute. I A' CW fun usi lITS('lIill1:S(/1 ( 'r' .Ir un usmg.your .Settings arc automat ically saved, ready to use J,mH.d 'H'TdyTAdPlugs mto.y?ur d. $ @ an an converts It mto :next time -- no more # % resets Turn It on. hit od lt d CW t . . t I . kreplay. Go back to prac ic e m u a e ran sc'I'r' J , -; J uS ,p , ' C I .ey

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THETEAMSupremo & Founderyne Green W2NSDf1

i l te Publ isherI. Manonoc ll te Techn ical Edi tory Antonuk WB9RRT

tty Gri tty StuffClayton Burnettcilla Gauvinyce Sawtelle

DECEMBER 1999ISSUE 1470

m te u r adioTodayTABLE OF CONTENTS

DEPARTMENTS

1999 A n n u al l n d n .page 5

ntributing Culpr itsBrown WB SELKBryce WBBVGEE. CaITK41PV

el Geier KBtUMGray W1XUf7Hel ler KB7NO

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e Miller NZ9EMoell KOOVNowak KE8YN/5le Perry WB2MGPsing SalesHyvarinenr Smith

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llmtwr on your FfHIdbllclr a rd

N U R Y IWayne Green W [email protected]

Continued on p g 18

start in business that gavethem all the edge,

The lesson to be learnedfrom this is that col lege is forsuckers, My own wasted fouryears in the institution taughtme one thing: that almostnone of the courses I sweatedthrough have been of theslightest benefit to me in themany businesses I've been in- radio, television, publishing, manufacturing, and retailing in the communications,electronics, computer, andmusic fields .Indeed, a college degree isalmost invariably a guaranteethat a youngster is never going to make a lot of money,Yet, despite all experiences tothe contrary, you'll be hardput to find anyone who hasn'tbeen convinced of the enormous value of a college degree. And ll be surprised ifanything I can write willchange your deeply embedded belief in college. Theregoes Wayne again.Education is important. butit's self-education that counts,not the number of examsyou 'v e crammed for in orderto get a degree (and then forgotten), When I final ly wisedup and s tar ted my first bus iness, one of the first th ings Idid was take a course in advertising put on by the Advertising Club of New York, I'mquite sure that no collegeteaches the invaluable thingsI learned there. And that go tme to reading books on advertising because I wanted tolearn all I could,

Our chi ld labor and minimum wage laws, which thelabor unions have bribedCongress to pass to preventcompet ition from kids, havedone incalculable harm toyoungsters,Yes, of course collegescould be made relevant to the2Ist century, but that's goingto be over the dead bodies ofthe college faculties. In myeditorials, which I reprintedin my Declare War book, andcited again in my ImprovingState Government book ($5,book #30), I explained asimple way college educations could be made relevant.

I see where Bill Gates isnow wor th $ 100 billion. Notbad for a kid who read myeditorials in Byte and Micro-compuring magazines anddropped out of college to starta little software entrepreneurial business back in 1976.We've been so thoroughlytaught to equate an education with a co llege degreethat almost everyone believesit. Well, it 's a crock.Richard Sears didn' t go tocollege, and neither did AaronMontgomery Ward, Nor JamesCash Penney r , and theirstores have done fairly well.John Jacob Astor, who becamethe richest man in America, lefthome and started wo rking as ateenager, So did Wall Streetfinancier Jay Gould and steelmagnate Andrew Carnegie, oiltycoon John D, Rockefeller,Henry Ford, and David Sarnoff. A recent Inc magazinesurvey showed that vir tuallyevery successful entrepreneureither skipped college ordropped out.I suspect it was their early

With an estimated 80 oflicensees inactive, there's littleincentive to bother renewingthei r license when it comesup for renewal in ten years, we make it through Y2K andthe other potential disasterspredicted for the next fewyears, unle ss the ARRL di-rec tors wake up we couldwe ll be down to 250,000 licensees within ten years. Anddropping fast.Hel lo, Newington You 'r eup against the Internet nowAnd, after many years of almost total.obscurity and lackof promotion, few kids todayhave even heard of amateurradio, Is anybody awake there?An Education

more manufacturers. The attcndance at Dayton was waydown, with empty eXhi.bitorbooths everywhere. Ads n 73are way down, and they're alsodown in ST ll the industryslowly shrivels away.The Journal reporter wasway otTbase on one po int. Hesaid that learn ing to copy 20wpm can take years to learn.

Well , that' s probably right ifyou usc the ARRL system. Ifyou use mine, which takessneaky advantage of how thebrain is wired, you can startfrom scratch and copy 20 wpmin a few days. Some people doit in a weekend.This is supposed to e atechnical hobby, not a skillhobby, so let's kill the code testrequirement before it kills us,

The Latin ExamWell, by golly, amateur ra

dio hit the front page of TheWall Street Journal That'sthe good news, The bad newsis that the article made uslook like idiots and is unlikely to do anything but tumaway even more prospects.The article compared the valueof our code exam, for whichthe League seems willing tokill the hobby in order to preserve, to a Latin exam. It 'sabout as relevant.Sure, I agree, there are stilldozens of old-timers who enjoy the arcane art of CWoWehave lots of antique car buffs,too , but that's no reason tomake the test for a driver's license include being able tocrank a car to start it. ProgressWhen I first got on the ai r60 years ago, around 95% of I 'll bet some readers are oldall ham con tacts were via enough to remember when theCWoToday it's more like 5%, US amateurs were the innovaand definitely time to get out tors, The UK, which used to eof the 19 th century and rec- known as Great Britain, hasognize that the calendar is announced that they're goingturning over to the 21st. to lower the code speed re-If your ARRL director dares quiremenr for operation on allto show his face at a club the HF bands to 5 wpm. Furmeeting, please do your best ther, they say they expect theto give him a brain enema next ITU meeting in 2002 orabout this damned code crap 2003 to do away with theand stop the ARRL from Morse Code requirement enmaking us all look like jerks, tirely, which they will then alsoAgain, I have nothing do.against CW, which is just one Meanwhile the ARRL diof the many modes avai lable rectors you've elected, andto us. I just don' t like seeing then continued to re-elect,amateur radio being blown want to continue to maintainaway because the ARRL di the Morse Code barrier forrec tors want to force us to do HF operating _ thus keepingwhat they are convinced is over half of our licenseesgood for us. from being able to use the HFIn case you haven't no- bands (and perhaps thus guarticed, our hobby is dying, and anteeing that they'll quicklynot slowly, either, The monthly lose interest in the hobby andFCC figures on new licenses go away). Talking about veryand upgrades are dropping little or less over the local refast. peater doesn 't hold much in-

Ham dealers arc going out terest for any but those witho f business, as are mo re and low-double-digit IQs.4 73 mateur Radio oday December 1999


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t oo ireless oodiesWorld's Smallest TV Transmitters

we eal1hem Ihe 'Qtles..... PerIed ideo transrrissionfroflI a1Ja'lstMI8I' you can hide lXder a quarter and criIas Itick as a stadl 01 lour pet. oes . lhaI's a nick8I in eepiclureI Tansmits color or 6&W with fantastiC qualily.~ ~ _ _ ~ ~ ~ ~ almost a direct W;1e< comectil:J'l 10 111)' TV ~ tocable ct\amel59.Clyslal controlled of 00 frequency dr ill with perlorrr1ancll that eqllllls law enbrcementmodels lila' cost hundreds morel Basic 20 mWmooer eaosrrsts up to 300' while the high power 100 rn Wpoes up to 114mie.Ald io unts include sound using a se nsitive mike that will hear a whISper15 foot awayl Units run on 9 volts and h o o k ~ to most any CGD camera , Arry of our cameras hIl'>'e been10 mate w lh 001 cues and NOf1


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The Xlmas lc : F= : i1e=s-----57GREEN ST.BETHLEHEM PA11 :51 PMDEC24We re too late It s already been here, Mulder,I hope you know what youre doing.loo , Scully. just like the other homes: Dou

glas fir, truncated. mounted, transformed into ashrine; halls deck ed with boughs 01holly; stoc kings hung by the chimney. with care.

You rea lly think someone s been here ?Someone , or something .Mu lder, overhere - it s a fru itcake.Don 't louch itThose things can be lethal.ffs OK. There s a note attached: Goona find

out who s naughty andnice.Irs judging them, Scully. II's making a list.Who ? Wha t are you talking about?Ancient mythology tells 01an obese human

oid ent ity who could travel et great speed in acratt powered by antlered servants. Once eachyear,nea r thewinter sols tice , this crea ture is said10 descend from the heavens to reward its followers and punish disbelievers with jaggedchunks of anthracite.But thaI s legend, Mulder - a story told byparen ts to fn ghten children. Surely you don tbelieve it?Some thing was here tonight. Scully. Checkout the bile marks on this gingerbread man .Whatever tore through this plateof cookies wasmassive - and in ahurry.It left crumbs everywhere. And look, Mulder.this milk glass has been comp letelydrained.It gorged itself, Scully. It fedwithout remo rse .But why would they leave it milkand cookies?Appeasem ent. Tonight is the Eve, and nothingcan stop its Wi lding.But if this thing does exist, how did it get in?

The doors and windows were locked. Theres nosign of forced entry.Unless I miss my guess, it came th rough the

firep lace.Wa it a minute, Mu lder. If you re saying somehuge creature landedontheroofandcame down

th is chimney, youre crazy. The flue is barely sixinches wide. Noth ing couldget down there.But wha t if it could alter its shape ,move in alldirections at once?You mean. like a bowlfull of jelly?Exactly,Scu lly I've never toldanyone this, but

when I was a child my home was visited . I sawthe creature. It had long white shanks of fur su rrounding its ruddy misshapen head . Its bloa tedtorso was redand Yotlrte. never forget the horror.I turned away.and when I looked back. ithad s m -how taken on the facial features ofmy father.Impossible.6 73 Amateur Radio t sv December 1999

RI know what I saw. And that night it read my

mind . It brough t meaMr. Potato Head , Scully. Itknew thatI wanted a Mr. Potato Head 'I'm sorry, Mulder. butyoure askingme rcoe

regard the Jaws of physics. You want me to ce-lieve some supernatural being whO soarsacross the skies and bn ngs gifts to good littlegirls and boys. Listen to whatyoure saying.Doyou understand the repe rcussion If th is getsout, they ll close the X-Files .Scully, listen to me: It knows when you'resleeping. It knows when you 're awake .But we have noproof.Last year, on this exact date, SETI radio tetescopesdetected bogeys in the airspace over 27sta tes. The Wh ite House ordered a ConditionRed .Butthatwas ameteor shower.Officially.Twodays ago . eighl prized Scand inavian reindeervanished from the Nalional Zoo in Wash ingtonDC. Nobody - not even the zookeepe r - wastoldabout it.Thegovemmenl cIoesn wanl peopleto know about Project Kringle. They lear that ifthis thing is proved to ex ist , the public will stopspending half its annual income in a Chrislmasshopping frenzy. Re lail mark ets Wll collapse.Scully. they cannot let the worid believe thiscreature lives. There 's toomu ch at stake . They'll dowhateve r it takes to ensu re another silent nightMulder 1-Shh h. Do you hear what I hear?On the roo f. It soun ds like ... a clatter.The Iruth is up there. Let's see what's thematter ...Found at The Laffatorium {www.laffnow.com]by the PlanoAmateufRadio Klub , and publishedin their December 1998 Parking TIcket.

BondsThe US Treasu ry has just announced that itwill se ll three new types of bonds : The AI Gore bond, wh ich has no interst The Mon ica Lewinsky bond, which has no

ma turity; and The Bin Cfinton bond. which hasno principal.Itis not true that theywill be issuing anARRLbond , wh ich has no recempto n dale.

eHAM.net is HereThey call it e ham dol net . and it cou ldbe thebeginning of a newway forhams tointeract withone anome r and the worid around them .E ham dot net made ils debut in cyberspaceon Septem be r 2nd. Itscrea tor, Bill FisherW4AN .says that the site can best be described as a

communily ofhams fromaround thewortd interacting as a community.Fisher says that e ham dot net amed at giving

hams a place to share ideas . Thi s is accomplished on many levels , rang ing from simple salesads to propagation and OX information to a chatarea where anyth ing can be discussed .Butthars not al l E ham dot net includes newsitems from News lineand othersou rces , a ca l signserver, free ads 10 swap on-nne with listingsautomatica lly exportedand reposted to the rec dotradio dot swap newsgroup, and much, muchmore . Access to e hamdol net is free.To take alook go to (www .eHAM.net].

Thanks toW4AN , viaNewsnne. Bill PasternakWA6ITF, editor.

The Shorter, the BetterIf you are planningon putting on a hamfest orconven tion, think sma ll. At least if you live any

where in the south eastern Uni tedSta tes . that iswhere smalle r seems 10 equate with be tter.The rea lization that sma ll hamfests dedicatedprima rily to fleamarketingandhamradio testingare themost popular comesas a result of a su rvey conducted by the South Eastem RepeaterAssociation . The results. which are available inIhe fa llissue of its Repeater Journal, shows thai60 of ltlose su rveyedaremorelikely to attenda one-day ham fest than any other kind 01 show.60 also sa id that allooe-oay shows should beheld only on Saturday with 72 saying tha i thestarting lime should be an early8 a m local time.Lea st popula r are furl-fledged conven tions withmanufacturers' representatives and mega displays. Only 39 said that they cared for thesetypes of shows.Also, an overwhelming64saidthat no ma iler what kind 01show it is they usually head home be tween 1 and 2 p.m . in theafternoon .In Ihe area of forums, radio clinics , and othersuchac tivit ies , 54of those responding said thatthese are not important to them . Only 33 attend these activilies on a regular basis, with another 36 dropping by once in a wh ile. On theother hand, 79 say that having ham radio exam inations available at a hamfest or conventionisoneof the most important services thatashowcan render. 62 saythat exams shou ld be heldinthemorning .The SERAsurvey covers just about every aspect of namtest activity and containsmany revelations that even industry leade rs were probablyunaware of. Irs reasonable to assume that hamradio manufacturers and publishers wi ll be taking a very close look at the facts that the SERAsurvey delivers as they begin plann ing their attendance at shows fortheyear2000 and bayonetThanks to the Repea ter Journal, as reportedin Newsl ine, Bill Pasternak WA6ITF, editor.

Changes at y ~ . . .Some ma jor changes are coming to the wayforum spea kers are reimbursed at the Dayton

Hamvention. Un tilnow , forum leaders and speakers were given sixty dollars a day for upto two

ontinued on p ge


9/68

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10/68

MFJ 18 170 z na Reads complex impedance . . . Super easy-lo-useNe ll .IIFJ-259B reads antenna SWR . . . Complex RF Impedance: Resistancetlt) andReactance/X} or Magllitllde(Z) and Phasetdegrees) . . . Coax cable 10ss(dB) . . . Coax cablelength and Distance to fault . . . Return Loss . . . Reflection Coefficient . . . Inductance . . .Capacitance . . . Battery Voltage. LCD digital readout . . . covers 1.8 / 70 114Hz . . . built-illrequency counter side-by-side meters, . . Ni-Cad charger circuit . . . battery saver . . .loll battery warning smooth reduction drive tuning , . . and much moreThe Id I S II 'R -A I ~ t F J . 2 U 9 $139.95. Like MFJ249B butI, . wor most (WPU ar reads SWR only on meter and has no LCD oranalyzer JI/Sf go t incredibly better frequency counter.and gives yo more value than evert :\l fJ21 9R . $99 .95. uur SWR _ . . . AnaJy:e, Tl covers 420-450 JackJ IFJ-1J9B Kt ) )im a complete for external frequency counter, 7'1y,2 'hIl I r f' (Ifyo u r an tellna . i p r o rmance. )011 x2'1 inches Use two 9 volt batteries orCUl l read antenna SWR and Comple x 110 VAC \\:ith 5 12.95. FreeImp edance from 1.8 ItJ 1iO .11H z. N 10 50 -239 adapter.HII can f ad Complex Impedan ce. SWR A1talyzer Accesso esas sa les and reactance (RJ > J Dip Adap te rIJr as l l l l (Zj (degrees): ~ f F J SI9.95. Plug a diplOll call ~ r l l l l l l velocityfactor; meter coup ling coil into yourCI a.'( cab le toss dB, 1 ' I I g t ~ 1 o f coax and MFJ SWR Anuly=cr'Mand tum itdi tan ce to a sho r t or '/I.}Jel l f ee t. into a sensitive and accurateHm call read S W . re tu m 10\ \ and bandswitched dip meter. Savere flection coetticient tit ally frequency time take the guesswork. o,ut T at u . ; nx 1e g lance. of winding coils and determnin gJim C( atm . / (aJ. inductance in 1I.J1 freq ue.ney


11/68

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12/68

ig Time ench SupplyThis highly regulated SCR design might be overkill. but it s stillfun to build.

Craig Kendrick SellenMallard Meadows RHC476 Belmont s t. Room 405Waymart PA 18472

A nyone who works with the latest electronic circuits. whetherhe or she is a professional oran amateur, will even tually require aclosely regulated variable voltage powersupply Wh ile most power supplies areregulated directly from the basic rectified and fi ltered DC input. tighterregulation can he obtained by using apreregulatcd approach in design.

The preregulated power supply described here can he built for j ust slightlymore than you would have to pay for aconventionally regulated low-currentpower supply It employs two inexpensive723 power supply voltage regulator Iechips in a circuit that can deliver from 3to over 5volts DC at load currents up to3 amperes. The design eliminates the needfor massive heat sinks and coo ling fans.

Circuit description he prcrcgulated power supply s c ir

cuit schema tic is illustrated in Fig. 1. Itcan be diagrammed as an AC source.diode bridge rect ifi er. and two vo ltageregulators in series. he prcregulatcr,by means of silicon-contro lled rectifier

Contin ued on page 12

m

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13/68

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14/68

To compensate for component to lerances, V I has to he init ially aligned .To accomplish this task , you will ncedthe use of an osc illoscope , high imped ance DMM. and an improv ised load onthe output. Rotate RIO CCW, and settrimpot R18 maximum res istanceand trimpot R9 for maximum voltagegain at VI pin 4) before turning thepower supply on. Connect the osc illoscope between TP 1 and ground. Alsoco nnect a DMM between TP2 andground. Then app ly power to the sup-ply. NO\v a small voltage should appear at TP2. but the oscilloscopesho uld show that SCRI is not conducting. Keeping the voltage re ferencelevel as high as possible at pin 4 of UIadju st RI8 and R9 until SCR I triggersat a regular ra te and the DMM shows 9volts at TP2. When R IO is rotatedcomplete ly clockwise, the DMMshould show 40 volts at TP2. Place ajumper wire across R5. temporarilyshorting it out, and then momentarilyplace a 12 ohm 1 walt powe r resistoror some o ther parallel combinationequivalent across the supply outputconnec ted to BP I and BP2. If the TP2reading on the DMM decreases more

Testing and alignment

wirewound potentiometer is used hetween the two regulator sections. Thisis done so an identi cal vo ltage is always present across each sec tion of thepot. The wipe r voltages should be verynearly the same at any se tting. The poten tiometer R IOB section samples theoutp ut voltage and di rects U2 in theproper direction to maintain 3 vo lts between the wiper and ground. The R IOAsec tion samples the voltage across capa citor C I , controls the triggering ofSCR I , and a lso maintains 3 vo lts between the wiper and ground .Since the voltage at the CCW ends

of RlOA and RIGB have to be thesame. the vo ltage across capacitor C Iwill be 6 volts higher than the outputbecause of the effect o f D12. Anychange in the output voltage andlorcurrent will affect the triggering-pulsetiming at the gate of SCR I , maintain ing a constant voltage across transistorQI

.,

112 ACWAVEFORM

1

60 45 30 -15 -o r : = = ~ i : = ~

Bi9 Time Bench Supplycontinued/rom page 10SCR l continuously controls the voltage at C 1. so that the voltage across QIrema ins at a constant level. The outputregulator V 2 is a high-performancecirc uit that is capable of supp lyi ng0.1 percent regulation.Synchronized to the 12 Hz, rectified

AC input preregu lator U I is de signedas a time-delayed pu lse generator thatcon trols the gate of SCR I which trig gers conduction at the exact point intime required during each half cycle.The bias poten tial applied to the inverting pin 4) input of UI is controllable by trimpot R9. This potentiometerdetermines the fixed reference levelfor the supp lyThe zener-regulated source at pin 6

of U I also supplies curren t throughR14. R1 5. R IS. and C4 at pin 5 of U Inon-inverting input) .The current continues to llow until the re ference poten tial is exceeded. At this time. U I

conducts. The resu lting square-wavepu lse from pin 10 of the integrated circuit is limited to 9 volts by currentsensing resistors RI2 and R13, and issufficient to trigger the gate of SCR Iinto conduction.The RC lime constants in the ci rcuit

are controlled by the amount of currentflowing through transistor Q3, whichin turn depends on the voltage errorpresen t at the R IOA wiper. ResistorR 16 and diodes D7 through D 10 makeup a voltage divider that applies a constant 2.4 volts to the emitter of transistor Q3, so that when the base of Q3goes above 3 vol ts, that will present avo ltage drop across resistor R 14 and acorresponding change in the RC timeconstant C5 and C6 provide stabilityfor the proper operation of Q3 to prevent SCR I from triggering erratically.When the wiper of R IO is rotated CCW,R I7 and D I3 prevent damage to Q3and D l2.The method of sy nchronizing U I to

the rectified supp ly input is illustratedgraphica lly in Fig , 2. Triggered intoconduction by the positive-going voltage waveform. SCR I cuts out whenthe gate vo ltage sto ps and capac itor C4di scharges sufficiently to reduce to aminimum the holding current to theSCR. The diagram also re veal s whythe secondary voltage from T I must begreater than would be normal in a convent iona lly regulated power supp lyThe SCR cannot co nduct un til its anode is more positive than its cathode .Simultaneously. a m inimum latching

Fig, 2. Y-axis slum s SCR anode voltage, cu rrent must flow as we ll. Also, SCR ISCR ew l t sequence: I . SCR2 triggers as mu st remain conducting until the enC7 charges: C4 then discharges and UICIlfS out. 2 D I 5 limits potential C7; ergy drawn from capacitor CI by thethen SCR2 cuts aut and C4 begins to output load is replenished.charge. 3 Capacitor C4 has charged Since the vo ltage across capac itorabave ref erence level at pin 4 of UI. caus- Cl will he abou t 40 volts at ma ximuming the IC to conduct: a trigger pulse at output load . the IS-volt difference a lpill 10 films 011 SCR I through capacitor lows the tim e interval necessary forClI I . SCR I currellt decreases as capaci- maximum current. Th is also means thatfor CI potential increases; when the 1 0 SCRI triggers only near the peak oftential across SCRJ is insufficient to main- h ft e wave orm or on the negative-goingtain approximately mA, the current side of the waveform. The minimumthrough SCR I CIIlS out. Note: SCRI con-ducts 011 ant off at approximately 3 and holding current required by SCRI is4 on t he curve when the output load is supplied by bleeder resistors RI and R2.drawing 3 amperes at 35 volts. With 110 ex - The dua l po tentiometer R IOA andternal load, ePent.f 3 and 4 occur near RIOB establishes feedback to both ICthe end of the waveform, as indicated by voltage regulators . R IOA and R IOBthe unmarked dots 011 the curve. sho uld be evenly ma tched , so a12 73Amateur R dio Tod December 1999


15/68

Vdc 1 mpPower SUPPlns

o N T0 R lNew 12 vee. 1 ~ table-toppower w y BIaciI plasticcase wrth nooer teet .3.4' J( 2,8' J(2.3' high ..6' input powercord. 6' 18/2 outputpower cord v.ith stripped and tinneoends Output is 16 voc v.i lh no load, 12 VOCW h 1 Amp load. Supplies are new but haveno labels or marlungs. s5 50CAT DCTX1213 each

10 for 550.00 100 fo r $4.00 e ac h I

and voltage ranges. To achieve this,transistor Q3 must always be forwardbiased; if at any time Q3 does not drawthe proper current through R14, it haslost control.

Correct alignment will be accomplished when the voltages at the wipers of R IOA and 8 are the same atany output se tt ing. To te st thi s furuicr. connect the DMM across transistor QI and note the voltagechange when R IO is rotated c lockwise. Any difference should corrcspond with zcncr diode D l2 's voltagecharacteri stics at bias currents betweenI and 7 rnA. fill

an 0.2 vo lt, or if SCR I triggers inntly, then adjust R9 onlyto correct it. Then, with the

d resistor (12 ohm) removed fromoutput, rotate R I () CCW. TheMM read ing at TP2 should slowly

rease to 9 volts. If it does not, adst trimpot R9 for a higher voltage atn 4 ofUj until it does.Rotate R IO once again and applye load . compensati ng for the volte decrease by adjusting trimpot18. There will be some comb inationthe two adjustments that will al

w transistor Q3 to hold control overthroughout the specified current

Parts ListSemiconductors

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16/68

Secret eath ayOr is HAR a useful science tool?

Donald Koehler N7MGT48 19 E. 6th AveAnchorage AK 99508-2317

Photo A. Classic \;e of the HAARP antenna field. Transmitters are housed in the large hite vans. 4 73 Amateur Radio Today December 999

T he title of thi s an ide soundsscary. hut a quick search on theInt net will reveal sites withhead lines about the High-frequencyActive Auroral Research Project - orHAARP - that are almost as scary. Tothis long-time electronics technicianwith exten sive RF experience, some ofthe initial reporting about the system

seemed. well, just a bit sensational. Inthe past. this and other magazines havefeatured a rt icles on the sys tem ands ite th at a ll had a common thread:The autho r had never been t the site quesuon.Even the Alaskan author of the infamous book Angels DOi has never

been to the site. So. my wife and I did

something most writers about theHAARP sys tem have failed to do we drove up to the site and lookedthi ngs over.The government liaison to the site is

a ham himself. and we set up a timewhen we would both he open to visit.He has helped t get several listeningtests produced - more on this later.The HAARP site is located just over150 miles north of Anchorage. twas avery pleasant three hour dri ve on acold. sunny day in the winter of 98 toget to the site for a vis it. We had arranged to on site j ust be fore thestart of the fi rst listening test.The site was easy to find due to the

large - and empty - generator building found on site. The locati on hadoriginally hosted a R c locatable Overthe Horizon radar system for the US AirForce. but now it is used by scientists tostudy the upper atmo sphere .Given tha t the system has been

granted almo st cult status as . amongother things. an ultra-tap -secret CIAoperated mind control device . we weresurpr ised to lin d no discernib le physica l security. For example , the gate tothe site was open and deeply buried insnow. so even to close it would have


17/68

-

Photo C. Detail of the phasing elements on the antenna towers;the antennas and their feed are phased fo r directional control.

\ - t_ ., . -\ J , .,, .i

oto B. Close-up view of the antenna field. Note the groundunterpoisefor the Qntennas to steeragainst

. \;

Soft. glove qualityleather pouches in a....ariety 01innovat ivestyles . keep yourmicro-radio safe andeasily accessible .

uired a lot of digging. Little matter,the snow was over the top of thence and you could walk in anytime..As we drove farther into the site . weund a couple of small buildings andcluster of older mobile homes. Afterquick look around. we found a smallntrance sign by a door and mader entrance. The door was unlocked.the way. We wandered around forral minutes ca lling loudly - andally made contact with Ed. the hamd government age nt) we had talkedin setting up the visit.He gave us a complete tour of the. opened every door we asked him, and allowed us to photograph anying we desi red. I worked in classi

d areas while in the mi litary. and In tell you that this HAARP site hadthat cou ld even remotely bedered classified . So much for the

ind control/doomsday box myth.What we did see was straightfor. high-power HF transmitters and

WORLDPACKPI NHMP$5 1.95 sil}1ed tosafe ly carryyour ICOM7 6 orothermob ile rad ios into thefield Of carry onto a plane,Separate compartme nt for optionalpower supp ly and antennae ,Complete . com fortable and compact .POWER PORT 9PI N PP259 184 .9 5

HanN _ >46 SANlAQU Z CA 9 8l t i l ; l l l n ... .. . . ........


18/68

h oto D A control panel: this unit controls the phse of thefeedto thea llten a set Phot o E Mary examines po er peruode and finds no m rk ings inKlingon jl t

PIWIo F Off the shelf P f are used to control the system nd te st equipmen t6 73Amateur Radio T ay December 999

the electronically stccrab le antennas- the sa me view. bv the way th at vou can find o n the HA A RP We b site .

My wife Mary has an abundance o fcomm o n sense . While not technicallyoriented. she can sme ll a rat a mi leaw ay. She gav e these g uy s a clean bill health. I ha ve a 30 ye a r b ackground

in electronics and a B Sci . degree. andhave spent a lot of years workin g onvery high -end military electronics .Wha t I saw here was a sit e devo ted toscience. funded in part by the Na vy.

The site d ocs contain s ev er al instrume nts o f value to hams. These arc th ecu rrent record ing riomete r a nd a

wa ter full t-ty pe spectru m anal yzer.both of which will allow you to keeptrack uf th e ion osphere from theInternet. It al so has a run ning s nap shot of the rec eived sig na l levels forWW V o n 15 MHz and 20 MHz aswe ll as the 4 9 meter SW broadcastband. All very useful. Find these at[ n rl. n a v y . m i I ro j e ct s / haa r p lindex .htmlhnp:/Iw3] and . speci ca lly.you can find more in fo rma ti on o n th eionosphere at [hnp:/Iw3 .nr l.navy.mi Uprojcctvhaarp/ ionindcx.html]. For fun.the y have a Webcam on site. You cansee th e cu rre nt dayti me wea the r inint erior Alaska.

T he site ha s a variety of other so-phi sticated RF les t eq uipment - all ofwh ich c an be accessed via the WorldWide Web. The sett ings of the eq uipmen t are co ntro lled via a com p uterbus. but the readings are available foryour use . ln addition to th e RF testequipment . a reco rd in g magnetometeris on site to track geomagnetic di sturbanc es that may impact the ion osphe re . wh ich has a d irect affect onpropagation . While not a comp lete to olfor hams in the COr-:US it is a soli d


19/68

VX-SR5 1144143 MHzHeavy Duty FMHandheld

FTlHFI6M12M1430MHzSuper CompactTransceiver

1e-748100 Wat t HFI6W MTransceiver

TSS70D GFull FeaturedHF Base

5 Model Inc ludes 6 meters

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FT 847Al l Mode HFISOII44/430 MHzUnequaled satellite Rig

TH-D7AFM Dual Bander APR and9600 Baud TNC Bu ilt-in

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I on tinued on page 7

Once and if the site gets the fun dingto increase thei r power. I may have torevise this obse rvation. The HAARPfolks pu blish the ir transmission schedule in advance. so yo u can check withthe ir Web page to discove r their transmit times and monitor on yo ur ow n before. during and after the test . AnHF beaco n station o r WWV wo uld bebest to listen to - I ca n t tell any d ifference but perhaps yo u can.

The bottom line after visiting the site.pcrfonning near- field RF level measuremen ts and talking to the ope rators and

Pholo 1. Another antenna used in the sciencepackage found on site

G. Some of the HP test equipmentd on site to monitor the signal producedHAARP

ce to ga the r data to compare toer informat io n so urces focused on

e CONUS.What impact docs the site have on

agation? 1be site has sponsoredlistening tests for hams - with

ty results. Hams in Alaska have beenle to hear the site and hams outside of

laska seem to have had limited luck ining it Eve n when the site is in op

- for a campaig n - I have noed no effect to recei ved signa ls heremy station. There is a g rea ter impactmy station operations from auroraltter than anyth in g the HAARP site

produced to dale.

Ie-ZtJ / HDual band. SOw135w,

Large, ColorLCD Screen

oto H Ante r Ul field used to support riome ter Th is instrument will gi ve a very goodfo r the state of the ionosphe re

- . - : J.- -

-- ---

Ameri tron ADJ Bencher Butternut MFJCushcra ft Diamond MAHA As tronKan tronics Larsen Mirage Lakeview

Route 272, Wabash Center1233N. Reading Road Stevens, PA 17578 Z Lancaster County located 2 miles south ettte PA U l l like em 21 onRt 272M.T,F9-6 TH 9-8 sa 9-3

73 Amateur Radio Today . December 1999 17


20/68

A toddler who got lost in the wilds o fnonhero New Hampshire was found bya woman who dowsed a topographicalmap . Her help was ignored b) ' the searchofficials, but the state Fish and Game officers were pe rsuaded to take her scri ously and the child was found within thesmall ci rcle she had drawn on the map.A ret ired j udge who has been dowsingfor 35 years has found over 4 ,000 we lls ,seven missing persons and 150 missingpe ts . Anothe r dowser has had 90% success in fi nd ing long-forgo tten grave

sites for descendants looking for theirancestors.But then . if you arc a skeptic, it' s be -cause you haven ' t read the books byOwen Lehto, Chris Bird. and Bevy Jaegers that I' ve reviewed in my Secret ide to Wisdom A good dowser canfind anything , whether you believe in itor not. Further , this is a skill that j ustabout anyone can develop .Frust ra tion

Lost Found

While it' s fun be ing a guest on the ArtBell (W60BB) radi o talk show, I feelsomething like Ponce de Leon wouldprobab ly have felt if he 'd ac tually foundthe Fountain of Youth he was look ing forall over Florida. Hey, I've found theFountain of Youth .. To which his audience wou ld say, Sure you have: ' as thewent back to whupping slaw s andpickin cotton, or whatever.Abo ut o ne out of every thousand Belllisteners gets in touch with me . Of those,about one in ten actually sends for mySec ret uide to HealthConsidering thatmost catalogs pull about a I% respon se,with 2% bei ng cons idered outstanding, Ishould rejoice at 10%. But I'm greedy- not for sales of my book, whi ch, for55 , is pretty much an at-cost item, butgreedy in that I want to help more peop leto live longer. healthier happier lives .Yes, l real ly have discovered the Fountain of Youth. It took several years of rcsearch, ma inly because our so-calledhealth ca re industry has done such amagnif icent job o f hiding the bri ll iantwork o f a few doctors. Plus, there s thepolitical might of rhc pharm aceutical industry, the insurance ind ustry, Big Tobacco, Big Food, B ig Sugar. Big Chemica l, and other Biggies to keep the t ru thfrom being known.The nice thing about reading books isthat they make it possible to learn fromthe world 's top experts, ins tead o f from

some pon t ificating pro fessor who is farmo re intere sted in research grams thanthose blank face s in his lecture hall . O rfrom some grad student teacher whodoesn ' t know squat. As I' ve mentioned,

Cap italismThe capi tal ist system seems to workpretty well. Well . it does as long as thereis competition . But when some outfit

manages to put its compe titors out ofbusiness so it has a monopoly, the pressure to keep prices low and service hightend to disappear. In egregious cases , thegovernment steps in and we have ananti-mo nopo ly court battle, such as we'veseen against Microsoft , and we've see nwith AT T and I M . Congress ended the post office 's

monopoly the )' leg islated o n handlingthe ma il, we 'd see prices dropp ing andservice escalating. Look at the computerfie ld, wh ere prices have been steadilydropping, whi le the product has beenimproving by leaps and hounds.The n there's the schoo l monopoly,where t he teacher ' s un ions are fightinghard, spending millions on lobbyists anddecep tive adverti sing to pre ven t competition from charter schoo ls or vouchers ,and doing their best to make homeschooling as difficult as they can .How about the med ical monopol y,with the AM and the pharmaceuticalcompanies in bed with the insurancecompanies and the FDA, providing uswith the most expensive med ical care inthe world (by a wide margin). and one ofthe least effective .And all of thi s is withthe connivance of Congress.Our governmen t is a typical example

of a monopoly. with the price of its services going ba llistic , and the qu ality ofservice into the pits- w ith the IRS pitbulls.

ca ncer, as we ll as tes ticular cancer.where officers res t the radar gu n in theirlap. Yes, kids arc getting leukemia frompower lines and transformers. Kid s areparticularly vulnerable because thei r cellsarc replica ti ng faster than in adults , sothe inf luence of magnetic fie lds on theircells is more evident.Yes , microwave and UHF energy willaffect your cells, and not for the good .It' s nor so much the microwave energyitse lf that's doi ng the damage, but themodulation.Sure, your ca r will ru n fine if youonly put a little suga r in the gas tank .At least fo r a whi le. but if you keepdoing it. eventually the engine is goi ngto stop. II'S the same when we are poi so ning our bodies, whethe r it 's withsugar or magnetic fields .

Send me $3 for the reprint o f Ross 'Congressional testimony so you 'l l havethe facts (see page 63, item #34). It' spowerfu l stu ff, but it 's being lost in theblizzard of power and cell phone industryPR dollars .

No matter how much the mobilepho ne industry hates it and is in publicdenial. two new studies have shown aclear connection be tween mobile phoneuse and brain tumors. Dr. Hardell, inSweden. has shown that there is a 250%increased risk o f a brain tumor for mo-bile phone users. The situat ion is evenworse for children and young adults,where their cells are growing faster thanin older people and arc thus more susceptible to radio wave energy interferen cein their reproduction.Dr. Preece, of Bristol University. foundthat a 20-minute usc of a mobi le phonechanged peop le 's ability to makechoices that involve the visual co rtex ,the part of the brain which processessigh t.Dr. George Carlo, who worked for sixyea rs on a 25 mi ll ion cell phone industry study. we nt on an ABC Xews reportrecently saying that there were two typeso f risk from using ce ll phones near thehead . One is genetic cell damage and theother is tumor formation. To industrycla ims that scienti sts have fou nd no di rect evidence o f risk , Dr. Carlo sa id thatthat was actua lly quite shockingknowing what has hee n conveyed tothem .If you are still using a cell phone , keepit short. Better yet , use the bag type wit han ante nna on top of the car.If you have been convinced tha t you rHT or a cell phone held up nex t to you rhead can't do an)' harm. you're anothervic tim of a con job. Ditto if you believethc powe r company propaganda thatmagnetic fields from the ir power linesand distribution tran sform ers are safe.We arc fortunate that the leading researche r in the world in this fie ld is W.Ross Adey K6UI. Ross has been fightingthe power and ce ll phone industries, trying to let peop le know the facts . But themoney. and therefore the med ia attcn-tion. lies with the affect ed industries .

There is no constituency for safety. Somoney. as usual, rules, in the media andwith government agencies. you' re interested in reading Ross'tes timony be fore Congres s on the subject. I' ve repri nted it for you. His testimony is backed up by his years of re

search, plus that of dozens of other almostunknown researchers .Yes. cell phones arc ca usi ng brain cance r. Yes, po lice radar is causing brain18 mateur Radio od y December 1999

Tumors

NEUER SRY DIEcon rmuedjtom p e The head of the Rensselaer School o fManagement loved the idea and wantedto implement it. The next thing I knew,he 'd inexplicably Icft.


21/68

Continued on page 2073 Amateur Radio To y December 1999 19

CIRCLE 254 ON READER SERVICE CARD

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LOW PROALEHF ANrENNASTHAT R LI.) WORKWork the Wood Witbout WorlingUp the NrighborlJood

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22/68

CIRCLE 50 ON READER SERVICE CARD

SA Y YOU SAW IT IN 73 /insects to leave their crops alonc j ust bycommunicating with them.I told you how I ca lled Chris to findout wha t Cleve had been doi ng since the1976 plants book. Chris put me in touchwith Cleve, and he, in tum , steered me 10Brian O 'Leary, who had been workingwith him on human cells . Brian sen t meThe Secret ilfe of Your Cells.Wow Thisbook confirms that every cell in ourbody is in instant communication in someway with every other cell. And that' seven when they're separated by thou sands o f mi lcs Well, this sur e helps toexplain the many we ird reports frompeople with organ transplants, and evenwith blood trans fusions and all thosetwins-reared-apart weirdness.I've reported j ust recently on NeilS lade's book, Mental Magic, but Ihaven 't yet incl uded it in my SecretGuide to isdom. In it Neil explainshow you can get clouds to change theirshape , just by willing it. No, it doesn'twork every time, but it docs oftenenough to convince anyone who doesn' thave a totally closed mind. It' s a piece ofthe puzzle.In Secrets of the oil Chris discussesthe power of thought (prayer) to influence the growth of seeds as well . asplants . Prayer also is we ll known to helpsick people to get better.Then there's thc work ofCoue (18571926), who had m illions of people telling themselve s that every day in everyway I am ge tting be tter and better. Thetrouble with that was that it worked,much to the consternation of sc ientists,who in general don ' t want to have anything to do with the power of tho ught.Scientists in general also don 't wan t toknow about the wo rk of J.B . Rhine atDuke University, where he proved thatthought can influence matter. Th is wasrecently proven aga in by thc PEAR Labat Princeton, and further confirmed mathemat ically beyond question by DeanRadin in his he Conscious Universe.After Art Bell had Nc il Slade on hisshow, Art decided to test the power ofhis aud ience 's thoughts. At the timeTexas was dry as a bone, with wildfiresraging . He asked his liste ners to pray forrain for Texas. Almost immed iatelyTexas had a record downpour, which notonly put out the fires , but flooded wideareas.At1 tried the experiment agai n whenFlorida was suffering from hundreds offires. burn ing tens of thou sands of acres .The resulting rain damned near floatedFlorida out into the Gulf. Art has wiselystopped t he e xperiments.You see how the pieces of the puzzleare star ting to fit?

Next came a let ter with a tape from alistener who enjoyed hearing me on

NEUER SHY 0 IErontinuedfrom page 9explain why he bas done nothing to getthe ARRL to promot e the hobby.

When 1ga l involved with amateur ra dio the average harn age was 28 andthousands of schools had radio clubsthat were busy recruiting new blood andgetting them licensed. The League, under the secret leadership of Man KahnW2KR, almost totally destroyed theschool club infrastructure in 1964. andit's been downhill for us ever since.How bad is it? I gave a talk to a hamclub near Bos ton, and I was the youngestguy in the place.Crim inals

A recent Danish report (no, nOI thepastry) of a survey of 4 ,169 34-year-oldmales found a close correlation betweenlheir mother' s smoking during pregnancy and their later persistent criminalbehav ior. The more the mother smoked.the more later criminal behaviorUsing Your Head

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i s p I I I ~ IIIog andmapb t t l Sholot;CO.I:ru zone.andeontinenlHstOf) 1Ih_ each callsigl l l \ Ie 9


23/68


24/68

I t s the story. usome acn vuy, and you think, . Iwou ld like to get into that, butwhere do these guys hang out?The first thing is to gel hold of a pro

gram. Your ATV group may han d out

Photo A Author shomemade U22 73mateur Radio oday December 1999

TutorHow to get started in SSTV

copies of EZ SSTV, which is a goodstart. If you are on the Web, try enteringthis for a site (called URL):[http.z/www.ul tranet.com/c sstvI]One of the clickable buttons gives you

a list of programs for downloading.

Number 22 0 you r Feedback rd

Henry Falkner ZL18 Kapal RdDevonport Auckland 1309

New Zealand

Most of the se are shareware . They willwork, but your transm ission will showUNREGISTERED, or something similar, in the header. Registering is notexpensive, and you may get worthwhilesupport and updates.The programs need decompressingafter downloading, for wh ich you need

PKUnzip . There are different versionsof PKZip (containing PKUnzip) forDOS, Windows 3.11, and Windows 95198. Down load also the instructions foryou r choice, and read them . Each version install s and works di fferently. Ifyou canno t delete all the componentsof a PKZip installation that youstuffed, you ma y have to reins tallWindows. Been there, done that. Onthe Web , try:lhttp: //pkware .com/shareware/]You may need an interface. As a rule

of thumb, for a 486 computer or hetter ,hut without sound card , choose one ofthe DOS programs. Some programsneed a Hamcomm inter face.For reception. thi s uses an op amp to

boost the receiver audio to RS232compatible leve ls, which are typically12 volts. For transmission, there is alow-pass filter.The seria l portmust use a Universal Adapter for Reception andTransmission (UART), hccause it is


25/68

Universal Radio6830AmeriClna Pkwy.Reynoldsburg, OH 43068 Orc\efs: 800 431 3939 Info: 614866-4267+FAX : 614866-2339

Continued on page 37

h , . ... . ... .

o New 3n1 Ed..108 Chapters0472 Pages0840 Photoso Printed 03198 Co vers 1942to1997.

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manufacturers~ ~ 24.95 (+'2 strip)This huge 472 page Third Edition includesover 77 0 shortwave and amateu rcommunications receivers made from 1942to 1997. Here is everything you need toknow as a radio collecto r or informedreceiver buyer. Entry information includes:receiver type, dale sold, photograph, size &weight, features. reviews, specifications,new & used values. variants, value ratingand availability. Ninety eight worldwidemanufacturersare represented. 840 Photos.Become an instant receiver expert

use the c o mp u te r c l oc k instead . Withcomputers now in use their clockspeeds var y between 66 MH z an d 400MHz, so you r program needs to findthat cloc k spe ed in the first pl ac e.

Withou t synchronizing the program, you ma y be able to receive pictures with some programs but no t withothers . When transm itt ing, however.your picture may be so badly sl antedt ha t y ou r recipients ma y n ot ev en beable to tel l yo u what is wrong . Th emo uo then is, f nothing el se works,read the manual.

I don t use Window s programs myself, bu t I am tol d that all o f them needsynchr onizin g m an ua lly, by adjustingthe sla nt of pictures rece ived. I unde rs tand you need to pr ess an OK buttonw hen yo u a re s at is fi ed, so you donthave to do the jo b each time afterswitchin g on the co mpute r.

Anothe r problem area appears to bethe sound levels go in g to an d coming

Th e pictures arereceived and transmitted line by line,an d each line hasto start on t he l ef tof your screen.The program mightlook for the transmined sync pulseat he beginning ofeach line, Unfortunately,many noisesan d clicks on th eH F bands soundjust like synchronization pulses. Toge t around this,SSTV programs

7 Amateur Radio Today 0 December 1999 23

,,,

An increasingnumber of programs , both forweather satellitesand slow-scan television now usc thecomputer so undcard , p referablyS o u ndblas te r -co mpatible forco nversion be -tween analog an ddigital signals. Ata recent talk, Ia nAshley ZLIAOXsaid that most ofthese wor k. bu tsome do n t . Hesay s t ha t t h e m a inproblems occur

with lap to ps. f you a re b uy in g a ne wcomputer, try before y ou b uy.SSTV programs contain the infonna

tion necessary to ge t going, in the fonnof at least on e manual You can ge tsome thing on the screen after just loa ding the program. but you do need toknow ho w to connect the computer to f - - - - - - the radio. a nd how to ge t the pictures instep w i th y o ur particular computer.

There is one series o f p rograms withautomatic synchronization that useDO S an d th e Hamcomm interface.These ar e EZ S ST V a nd P as okon . EZSSTV is a free, stripped dow n versionof Pasokon. which has additional features wort h gettin g . A ll y ou h av e t o dois to receive a succe ssion of p icturesuntil the program tells yo u , it hassorted itself out.

I ht . .. , rL n O l t . . . L~ o . . . Q1,0 . . . , , ,, , I .. 7 0101 .. 11>1>0.. I1 Z4 1. ZZ4 , I .. 7 . . 101 1 11101>0. 1I l t v I IN 41 0 l t v I 0101 ,II . . . .. .. J. t ,II ho. . . , . t 7N h o k J . t cnY ,N h . o t cnYl ,c ._.... >1. J . t II >> . J. t C


26/68

Numtr 24 on your ~ Cllrd

y Not Renew On lineHere how to untangle the FCC Web.

Edward Oros AC3L2629 Sapling DriveAll ison Park PA 15101AC3L@Home Com][http://www qthcomlantenna]

fewmillutes on line andyou re eovered for another 10

years of excitillg hammillg.

it. the whole idea behind the Internet isfast co mmu nications . So instead o fdown loading a form and fil ing it bymail. why no t jus t do the whole pro-ces s a ll on -line. You sho uld not e tha tonce you r license ha s expired. youco uldn t use the Form 90 0, even ifyour grace period ha s no t y et e xp ired.Cu rrently. our grace tim e is a veryliberal two-year fi ling period .

If you re good at fo llowing links andhav e some time to k ill. you migh t jus t

I f it s getting d o se to the time foryou to reneev your ham license ,you ll lind tha t y u have morechoices available to you now tha n thelast time yo u filed . This time you ca nre new on-line . An d you can do thi swithin 120 da ys pr ior to the expirationof your licen se. As you ma y know , theFCC has heen do ing some co nsolidating of its ma ny forms. a nd the old fami liar 6 10 is go ing aw ay. Even thoughamateur rad io is not currently part ofthe new Universal Licen sing System ULS), the FCC does plan t impl ement the A ma teur Radio Service aspa n of the ULS . You can read moreabout th is at:

[htlP:/ /www.fcc.gov/ Bureaus/ Wire less/Ncws_Re lea sc s/ 1998/n rw18040 .html] and (http://www.fcc.gov/w tblulsf). want to start at [http://www.f ec.gOY ],

Meanwhile. the FCC docs ha ve a the FCC home page. From there yo une w form. the Fo rm FC C 605. t rc- can follow the various links to the helpplaces several exis ting forms, including forms. do wnload pages, and on-linethe 61 0. 610R,and6 10V.As o f this writ- fi ling. Bu t to save a little ti me. youing though . the old familiar 6 10 w as still might wa nt to follow thi s article toava ilab le on-line . You ca n download speed the process up a bit.the Fonn FCC 610 at [hup: 1 One o f the first pa ges you l l want towww.fcc.govlFonnsIFonn610161O .pdf]. stop at is : [hrtps.r/svartifoss.fcc .gow

If yo u usc this form . you should re- prodJefp a/forms/90 0/900 _H e lp .htm].nev no sooner than 90 days before ex - Here you ll find the instructions fo rpi ration o f your license. Bu t let s face filli ng ou t the For m FCC 90 0 ov er the24 73Amateur Radio Today December 1999

Inter net. Print th is out fi rs t and hav e aco py in fro nt of yo u when yo u areready to file on-line . Also , as yo u visitsome of the FC C pages you migh twant to download so me of their otherdocuments. Since the FC C ha s addedpd f as on e of the formats it supportsfor some doc ume nts po sted at theirWeb site . yo u sho uld re ad abou t thePortab le Docu m ent Forma t Lpdf tiles)at (http://www. fcc .gov/pdCreLhtm IJ .Th is page also has a link for you todownload a reader in case you do n ta lready have on e installed .

As for the ac tua l fi ling . the FCC haspr ovided links to thei r Fo rm FCC 900fo r electronic ti ling. To ti le on-linewith form FCC 900, j ust co nne c t to[hup: v ww.fcc .gov/c-filel]. From hereyo u ca n choo se from tw o modes.Th ere is bo th a nor mal mode and a secure mode in whi ch to file . Just fo llowthe links License Ren ewal (For m Normal Mode or /Sc cure Mode .

Choosing the no rma l mode link wi lltake you to [h up:// svartifoss.fcc .gov:8080I cg i-bi nl ws .exe/prod le fpa lfonn sl9UO/900_Fonn .hls1.

Th e Secure Mode links to lhttps://s var ti fo s s. fc c .g ov Ieg i bi n/w s .ex e/pr odJefpa/ for ms/900/900_Fonn . lus1


27/68

Continued on page

FT8100RCompact Dual Band

YAESUVX-5R50/144/430 MHzHeavy Duty HT=_ 4

' ;:Ht;;.

Amateur Radio Services (except vanitycallsigns) .: I've reported the problem,and hopefully these messages will only

:3:300 82nd St. E, l ubbock. TX 7942:3 1 8 588 2426 llrl .....806792 :3669 FAX 806 785 :3699 [VISA ' :www r d comm co m Overeeae Order6 Welcome

IC -746 HF/6M/2M FT-847HF+50/144430MHz All ModeCT8A6M 2M 440MHz

?COM

THE POWER ST IONThe POWER STATION is a 12v 7AmplHr gel-cellbattery, It comes complete with a built in voltmeter,a wall charger and a cord for charging viaautomobiles. It powers most hand held radios at 5watts for 2-4 weeks (depending upon how longwinded one is). It will also run a VHF, UHF.QRP or L ;::c::: := =;:::;:;: :: ::::::;::::;c; ;;::; 1HF mobile radio, such as the Icom 706 at 100 walts. There are no hidden costs. All thatis required is a mobile power cord or a HT cigarette lighter adapter.The POWER STATION provides 12V from a cigarette l ighter outlet and has two recessedterminals for hardwiring. A mini-phone jack with 3V, 6V, or 9V output can be used

separately for CD player. Walkman, etc. The POWER STATION can be charged in anautomobile in only 3 hours, or in the home in 8 hours. The charger will automaticallyshut off when the battery is completely charged. Therefore, The POWER STATION maybe charged even when it has only been slightly discharged (unlike Nl-Cads that havememory). The charging circuit uses voltage sensing circuitry, Other brands are timedchargers, which always charge a battery a full cycle . If all that is needed is a partialcharge, this damages a bat tery and shortens the life. The POWER STATION has avoltmeter that indicates the state of charge of the battery, not worthless idiot lights thatdeclare YOUR BATTERY IS NOW DEAD . The voltmeter can even be used tomeasure voltages of other sources.Dealer Inquiries InvitedSend Check or MOfor Model 752for 49.95 10.50 s/h. Include UPS-able address and tel. no. to:

THE HAM CONTACT, P.O. BOX 4025, DEPT. 73 15Westminster, CA 92684

WWW.HAMCONTACT.COM CA residents Add 7 314% Sales Tax. Canadian Residents Please Send U.S. Money Order & 26.00 Shipping, If youwish 10 mo e information please send a SASE with 3 s tamps to the above address , E-mail: 73@hamcontactcomINFO LINE: (714) 901-0573 FAX : (714) 901-0583, ORDERS ONLY (800 933-HAM4.

your license. The various fee requiremen ts can be reviewed at lhttp://www.fcc .gov/fees/98wtbguide .txt]. Asstated on this FCC page, ''The regulatory fees do no t currently apply to

Should you find these links to bedown by the millions of peopleg this article, you can also ge t

the FCC 900 form via this FCC link :[http://www.fcc_gov/w tb/electcom.

.Here, under the heading of Elec- 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ic Forms, the following two sites

ite 1 and Site 2) also point to the. The first is actually a repeat ofe path I j ust mentioned above, and

seem to be secure connections toe form:[https :/Isvartifoss.fcc.gov /cgi -binls. e x el prod l c fpal fa rm s/9 0 01_Fonn.hts] and

[https:/ gullfoss .fcc .gov/c gi-bin /s. e x e l p rod Ie fp al for m 5/9 0010_Fonn,hts]If you 'r e not sure when your license

res, you can st ill use thi s site tothat information , too . Simp lyyou r callsign and click the Con hutton. You'll receive a messagear to this one if it is too early:

Callsign AC3L expires on Jun 8II :59:00 :000PM, it is too early

renew.If you are within the renewal period,

'l l be shown the Fonn FCC 900 onscreen. You should follow the in

you've printed out and aner the appropriate questions. Withe instructions in hand, you shouldve no prohlem filling out the fonn .e only area I had a problem with

as block 14. It asks for a signature,t all you need to do there is type inur namc. It 's really a very easy pross to renew. You should also note

you're allowed to use this form foranging your mailing address at thee time. Just enter your new address

item #4 and check the radio bu ttonthe Purpose of Filing bo x. (The inuctions said Box 11 hut my fonn

it listed as 12.)After submitting your form, youay receive messages such as can' td remittance ID .: or A notice thatfcc is required for each submission

or even a message stating A fccy be required and that you

... please continue to the fee159.: I received all of theseen I recently filed. These notices

n be ignored if you 'r e just renewing7 Amateur Radio day December 1999 25


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26 o your Ff fi bll k i lrO

e d llbou t tPart I o TechnoTriviafrom The Hertzian Herald.

Dan Metzger K8JWR696 SteamviewLambertville MI 4844

than 0.3 J 1H. Still, you should neverusc a wirewound resistor as a dummyload . Even 0.3 J 1H has ov r 50 ohms at28

Ha ve you not iced that 1/2 Wand1/4 W resistors have changed shape inthe last decade or so? They used to beperfect cylinders, but now they r e dogbone- shaped . with littl e bulges at (heends. The cy linders are carbon composition types . They have a central coreof carbon mixed with clay, Best tolerance with these rascals was about 51it.The dog bones are ca rbon-fi lm types.They have a thin film of carbon deposited on the surface of a ceram ic cylinder, and easily hold a tolerance of 2 .You may sec some of them with a redfourth hand, indicating a 2 tolerance.

Getting hack to color codes, thecompanies had a fit about 15 yearsago, putting out res istors with a fifthcolor hand, almost a lways ye llow Thi swas ju st hype, crowing that the resistors pass a mi litary-speci fied te st withfewe r than 0.001 failures per HXlOhours . And speaking of mili tary, youmay see resistors with values stampedon them - for example, 24R9. The Ris the uni versal decimal point in resistance , so it 's a 24.9 ohm resistor.

We all know how to read the resistorcolor code - but do you know what itmeans when the first co lor band is

The lowly resistor

Wh ll is a resistor not aresistor? Wllell it s a capacitor

The Aussies have a few tech terms oftheir own. My favorite is Jack andJi llfor our J ack and Plug Others,which you shou ld able to recognizefrom the above discussion , are: bucket,spout, hill hoist. deck, and fencingwire.

double width ? That indicates that theresistor is not carbon, it' s wircwound.

Sometime s wire windings can produce enough inductance to cause rea ltrouble at high frequencies. I recent lymeasured a 5 ohm, 37 W wirewound thathad 141lH of inductance. At frequenciesabove 57 kHz, that resistor has moreinductive reactance than resistance.

Reprinted with permiss ion from Th e Some manufacturers reverse theHendon Herold newsletter of the winding direction halfway through toMonroe County (MI) Radio Communi- cancel the inductance, A 10 ohm , 20 Wcations Association (MCRCA). square wircwound I checked had less26 73mateur Radio Tod December 999

A nyonc who has ever QSO d Gland knows that our Britishcousins ca ll a vacuum tube avalve, but did you know that they ca ll afilter capacitor a reservoir capacitor?And they don t put up an antenna, theyput up an aerial - the mast s for whichare held in place not by guy wires, hutby stays . Also, they don' t ground theantenna: They e arth it.

A Brit doe sn ' t plug in his rig to theAC line with a line cord. He connectsit to the mains with a mains flex. If heneeds lots of outlets, he doesn ' t use acube tap or an outlet strip - he uses atrailing socket. And, of course, thema ins are 50 Hz, 220 V. The standard 11 position for a sw itch in England isdown not up as in the USA.

On thc bench. Tommy (the equ ivalen t of our Jo e ) uses not a protohoard. but a mat rix hoard. And ourjumper wires are his wander plugsor flying leads: ' He spe lls solderthe same, but pronounces it SOUL-de r,not SAH-der,


29/68


30/68

negat ive particles. and that (i n a copperwire, at least) they flowed the oppositeway from Franklin's convention. Before 1920, it was clear to everyone thatexplanations of the vacuum tube madeno sense at all using conventional flow,and many hooks began teaching thatcurrent consisted of electrons goingfrom negative to positive .Still, the electrical engineering community stuck with the conventional(positive-to-negative) flow that hadserved them so well in the past. Patience paid off. because when the transistor appeared on the scene it had tobe explained partly in tenus of holeflow from positive to negative .. . justlike conventional current. (fa visualizehole flow, think of a bubble floating upin a glass of beer. Gravity pulls thebee r down, which makes the bubble goup.)Today, we have such powerfulgroups as the US Navy teaching electron flow, and the lEe (InternationalElectrotechnical Commission) teaching conventional flow. Some of themost popular Community Collegeelectronics books are actually available in two versions, so they can sc ll toinstructors with ei ther prejudice . So,which way do I teach? I always answerthat question with a little story:Th ree applicants were waiting or a

job interview. One was a businessgraduate, and when he went in. theboss asked, How much is 2 + 2? 1bebusiness grad said, You have to conside r the increased marginal tax ratewhen combining assets, so it is likelythat . . . The boss interrupted and said.'That 's very astute. We 'l l ca ll you.The second applicant was a math

major, and on being asked the samequestion , he relied, If you mean 2.000plus 2.000. then th

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