Monthly Archives: December 2015

K1: All But Final 2 Toroids

Posted on December 31, 2015 by robert

Two hours and 5 minutes later, and the final transmitter components, with the exception of T3 and T4 have been installed.  Total time is now  24.25 hours.  It’s going to take an hour to wind those two remaining toroidal transformers, … Continue reading →

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Quad Hands — Helpful Holding Device

Posted on December 31, 2015 by robert

I’ve used a rather inexpensive “Helping Hand” source from China to help hold parts while I solder them.  That tool is a pain to use and not very effective.  So I’ve been looking for a replacement.  I ran across something … Continue reading →

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RX Alignment Completed

Posted on December 28, 2015 by robert

I completed the VFO work and all the RX alignment steps (calibration, filter alignment) in 50 minutes.  All the tests and alignment steps went quite well. The only problem I hear is obviously internal (hear it with antenna disconnected and … Continue reading →

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K1 RX Assembly & Tests Completed

Posted on December 28, 2015 by robert

I spent 50 minutes installing mostly mechanical components to enable the initial K1 tests. In this final RX assembly part, a coax jumper was a major pain simply because it was short yet had to be lead formed to fit … Continue reading →

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K1 Assembly: Three Toroids Mounted

Posted on December 26, 2015 by robert

Winding the toroids takes a bit of time, not so much the simple inductors, as the transformers with multiple windings. Today I completed L2, T1 and T2 and mounted them.  It took 65 minutes to deal with the 8 parts … Continue reading →

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K1 Passes Voltage Tests

Posted on December 22, 2015 by robert

Assembly of the K1 RF Board continues.  Today, I added 49 more components in 115 minutes.  This means the RF Board assembly time so far is 7.5 hours after 193 components, and the total K1 assembly time now stands at 19.5 hours.  There are … Continue reading →

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XMT2XMT: WA1ABI<->WB4SON Success!

Posted on December 21, 2015 by robert

At 1903Z, Dec 21, 2015, I had a CW QSO with John, WA1ABI, on 7.020.00 MHz.  I had reconfigured the Christmas Tree Antenna so that the “hot” side of my feedline was tied to one side of the lights string, … Continue reading →

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Christmas Tree Antenna

Posted on December 21, 2015 by robert

WA1ABI, John, in Portsmouth invented a new mode a couple of years back — Christmas Tree to Christmas Tree QRP.  Today I had my outside tree wired up to a remote antenna tuner and gave the XMT2XMT mode a try. … Continue reading →

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K1 Assembly Burp #3

Posted on December 18, 2015 by robert

I spent 65 minutes fabricating three SMT replacement for a SA612AN chip that is no longer available in through-hole.  The process involved in stripping 24 1″ wires, somehow holding them in place while soldering them to an adapter that is … Continue reading →

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Another Surprise From the ARRL

Posted on December 17, 2015 by robert

I guess the January 2016 QST is hot off the press.  I received an express envelope with three pristine copies today as a courtesy for a brief piece in Technical Correspondence [pages 72 & 73]. My father was a journalist, … Continue reading →

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