Author: n1spw

Portable ADS-B Kiosk

OK , I admit it,  I am a total aviation fanatic. I am an active member of the Experimental Aircraft Association. These are the same folks that host the world’s largest airshow every year in Oshkosh, WI.

One of the many great EAA programs is their Young Eagle’s program. The program provides free airplane rides to kids (ages 11-17) to get them interested in aviation. I am a Young Eagles coordinator in EAA Chapter 92.

I thought it would be really cool if the parents of a young eagle could follow their youngsters flight progress from the ground. As you probably know, aircraft in the US are required to broadcast their location data using an ADS-B transmitter.

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Open Field Antenna Mast Mount

In two previous blog posts (Drive-on,  Trailer-Hitch), I shared my heavy duty drive-on, and trailer-hitch antenna mast mount creations. In this post, I want to share a third option, my “Open-Field” mast mount.

There are times when you need to put up a tall antenna mast away from a vehicle. This may be in a park for a POTA activation, or in a remote field as an EMCOMM operator.

Many Hams will stand up a tall antenna mast using long guy wires, connected about 1/2 way up the mast. This setup usually requires two people to put in place. Deploying high/long guy wires is cumbersome, and takes up a lot of space. In most cases, it is not necessary.

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Trailer Hitch Antenna Mast Mount

My heavy duty, “Drive-On”, mast mount is universal. It can be used with any type of vehicle. Those of you that own a vehicle with a trailer hitch, maybe interested in my hack of a trailer hitch flag-pole mount.

I ordered a trailer hitch flag-pole mount from Amazon. These devices are designed to hold a flag-pole. This particular unit has a 2.3″ diameter. I had  a requirement that the size of the pipe had to be larger that 2.25″, due to the large rubber caps on my TN07 telescoping mast.

Without an insert, the flag-pole mount pipe is too large for both my TN07 and DX Commander masts. I discovered a 2″ PVC pipe fits into the flag-pole mount perfectly. The outside diameter of the pipe is 2.3″ (@60 mm). The inside diameter is 2″ (@50 mm).

I cut a length of the 2″ PVC pipe to 36″.  I painted it with Rustoleum paint from a rattle can.

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Custom Built Drive-On Mast Support

I am a big fan of vertical antennas – especially for POTA activations. Recently, I decided to deploy “Tennessee Walt’s” world-famous EFHW TennTenna (Search Ebay for ‘TennTenna’) on 20M.

The antenna driven element for 20M is about 33′, trimmed to the lowest SWR. This requires a 10M mast to get the wire fully extended.

I own two 10M fiberglass telescoping antenna masts. One from TN07 , and the other from DX Commander in the UK. The TN07 is super heavy-duty and virtually indestructable. The DX Commander is lighter, thinner, but also quite rugged.

One drawback of the TN07 is its use of large rubber caps on each end. The diameter of the caps are 5.5cm (2.2″). This means when the bottom cap is in place, the mast will not fit into a 2″ pipe. The DX Commander uses a threaded cap on the bottom, which does not increase the overall diameter of the mast. It fits into a 2″ pipe.

When I went looking for a “drive-on” flagpole mount to hold my masts, I was surprised at how flimsy most of them are. They were also too short (length-wise), most being about 15″.  This puts the mast dangerously close to the vehicle, which can cause problems in high-wind conditions.

So, I set out to build my own.

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RigExpert Stick Hard Case

One of my favorite activities is repurposing a gadget for a purpose it was not designed for. In high-tech, we call this ‘Hacking.’

Jason (KM4ACK) of YouTube fame, suggested a great hack in an Email a while back.

Someone figured out an electric toothbrush travel case is an ideal case for a RigExpert Stick antenna analyzer.

The Stick Pro analyzer I own did not come with a case. I purchased this toothbrush case from Amazon for $10.95 USD.

You would never know this case was not designed for the Stick.

Thanks Jason for a great hack!

N1SPW

Introducing the XT-60

In my previous Post – I went on a rant about PowerPoles (PP). It’s true, I do not use them anymore. What am I using instead? The connector that is used in the radio controlled aircraft universe – the XT60.

Electric RC aircraft gobble up huge amounts of current. Andthe con-nection between the motors and the power source must be reliable.

Similar to the universal use of Power Poles in Ham radio, XT60’s are THE connector used in RC models.

There are 3 reasons for this:

    1.  They can handle huge amounts of current
      Although they are rated for 30 amps. These connectors can easily handle twice that amount. In fact, I have seen YouTube videos that show these connectors can handle well over 100 amps for 10 seconds or more.
    2. They are highly resistant to vibration
      This may not be an important requirement for Hams, but it is good to know these connectors are not going to come loose.
    3.  They are more resistant to weather.
       Nobody is going to claim the XT60’s are waterproof. But they have more protection against the elements than a fully exposed PP.

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I Ditched PowerPole Connectors

A “Golden Rule” of Ham radio operations is the premise that all electrical connections are made with PowerPole (PP) connectors. This makes all our equipment so-called “interoperable”.

It is considered blaphemous to question their use in the Ham culture. Well, I gotta tell ya’ll, I have ditched the use of PP’s.

Just to be clear. I have no beef with PowerWerx, the leading retailer in the PP universe. I have ordered lots of stuff from them over the years. Their customer service, packaging, shipping, and product quality is first class. They are a great company.

There are 6 reasons I no longer use them:

    1. You must be properly trained on how to wire them up.
    2. Getting consistent, and robust connections is challenging.
    3. They are not weather-resistant.
    4. They get loose/sloppy after lots of use.
    5.  The market is overrun with cheap Chinese knock-offs that are horrible.
    6.  They are way too expensive.

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Digirig – VARA – Winlink “How-To”

I have completed the testing of my HT’s on 2M with Winlink/VARA/Digirig. They are all capable of sending Emails over the air.

I wrote a detailed document on how to get all the pieces working together.
How-To_Winlink_VARA_Digirig

I hope this saves other Ham’s some time and reduces the frustration level for non-tech’s.

N1SPW

Digirig How-To’s

Over the last several weeks, I have been trying to get Winlink and VARA HF/FM working with a Digirig on Windows.

Little did I know what a nightmare it would be.

Rigs involved in this experiment include:

    1. Yaesu FT-991A (HF)
    2. Yaesu 891 (HF)
    3. Yaesu FTM-300D (FM)
    4. Yaesu VX-6R  HT (FM)
    5. Yaesu FT-60 HT (FM)
    6.  Anytone DV878 HT (FM)
    7. Baofeng BF-F8HP HT (FM)

To get everything to work – these things must happen:

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Welcome

I created this blog to share my adventures in Ham radio. 

In particular, I plan on writing an extensive collection of Ham radio “How-To” documents to help ease the pain radio and computer technology causes so many of us.

YouTube videos are great. I deeply appreciate the dedicated Hams who spend so much time and money creating interesting content. Alas – so many Hams try to get their rigs working based on YouTube content, and they fail.

There is simply not enough technical details in YouTube videos to ensure success for new Hams or the ‘non-techies’ among us.

“Everything in life should be consumed in moderation – except technical documentation”

N1SPW