The Ham Shack Equipment
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Items I am looking for
I am looking for a Heatkit SB-10 SSB adaptor for a project I have in mind.
Modern equipment in the shack
- Kenwood TS-50S - 100 Watt all mode HF transceiver with SignaLink USB digital interface and DigiMaster USB CAT interface.
- LDG AT-200Pro Automatic Antenna Tuner.
- Yaesu FT-7800 - nice dual band transceiver for 2M and 70cM.
- Yaesu FT-2200 2M Transceiver. Bought this one to use with a BYONICS TinyTrack4 APRS setup.
- Yaesu VX-8R - A modern tri band hand held, amazing technology. I bought the remote microphone/speaker complete with the GPS module but have not had much success in setting up APRS yet. HELP required.
- N3ZI DDS2 as a source for any BoatAnchor equipment I convert for Ham Band use. Does not make sense to use crystals when a pair of crystals cost about the same as one of these.
Photos of the shack
Other items for the shack, including BoatAnchors
- Yaesu FT-101B Transceiver, YO-100 Monitor Scope and FTV-650B 6 Metre Transverter - A classic old valve rig that will make me eligible to operate on the AM and SSB boatanchor nets.
- Yaesu FT-625R - From a deceased estate complete with a Dick Smith 100 Watt Linear Amplifier. The power wiring had been altered and a RF Pre Amp fitted so I put this all back to original and it works fine. I would like to find the digital display option as this is the R version not the RD. If someone has a junker that still has the digital display and / or the memory module I would like to negociate a deal. Tried advertising on VKHam but the only response I got was some fellow in Africa wishing to rip me off. The photo of the rig he sent me was off my web site and the money was to be deposited in a Western Union account, a sure sign of fraud.
- Tokyo HiPower HL-1K Linear Amplifier (not in use as my antenna tuner could not handle the power)
- Kenwood TS-520S HF SSB Transeiver - Good old BoatAnchor rig in good condition with the matching DG-5 Digital Display
- Tenko Jacky 2XA 2M Transceiver - A modern "boatanchor rig" for the local 2M repeater rag chews and broadcasts. If anyone has more crystals for this I would like to hear from you. I use this on two local repeaters as my regular chat net radio.
- Kenwood TH-26A 2M hand held - Given to me from a deceased estate with a dead battery and no charger. Works fine now thanks to Battery Specialists here in South Australia.
- Yaesu FT709R 70cM hand held - Found at a trash a treasure by a friend who thought I needed to give it a good home. Exploded Tant Cap and dead battery. Refitted the battery case with new batteries, now works fine.
- Yaesu FT703R 2M version of the 709 hand held - From a deceased estate. Battery was history and it had a broken squelch control. Works fine after I replaced the squelch pot with one from an old CB radio.
I have built J Pole antenna for 6M, 2M and 70cM and have bought a G5RV from the USA for the HF bands. Very nice kit of parts, not worth me rummaging round for the various cables and fittings for the price. I also have a TET-Emtron TEV-4 four band HF vertical up in the air now.
Having all this equiment to play with and experimenting with Antennas, I needed something to test them. The VK5JST Aerial Analyser is fine for HF but I needed something that would work on 6M and 2M. With this in mind I now have an nRS miniVNA and what an amazing little device that is.
miniRadioSolutions - HF VHF Antenna analyzer
I have a number of old SWR and power meters but most were built from kits or have been repaired when someone put too much power into them in the past. AS a result, I do not believe what they are telling me. I have two vintage Philips vintage RF voltmeters (GM6058 and GM7635) both using an EA50 diode in an RF probe and two HP 411A RF voltmeters with some external. Three of these meters do not read RF voltages above 30 Volt RMS, only the Philips GMGM6058 reads to 300 Volt RF and is quite accurate.
I have used this to confirm my working rigs are performing as intended but I still thought it would be nice to have a modern meter to keep an eye on the RF oiutput of the transmitters. About the middle of January 2012 I did an ebay search looking for "Digital SWR/Power Meter" and found an item that had only been released in Hong Kong a week or two before. The REDOT model 1050A digital meter from Bejing SW-Tech Development Co Ltd (www.SW-tech.com).
This is a VHF/UHF meter Covering 100 to 150MHz and 420 to 460MHz and can handle 120 Watt. Do an Ebay search for REDOT SWR and you will find several merchants offering them for sale at about US$50.00. I purchased one of these but I was still looking for an HF version and sure enough about a week later I found the 2016A version from another Ebay merchant and this covers from 1.6 to 60 MHz and can handle 200 Watt. The VHF/UHF version displays in rotation forward power, reverse power and SWR and the HF version shows forward power, peak power and then SWR.
Heathkit DX-60B 90 Watt AM/CW transmitter
While thinking about sitting for my Amateur Radio Licence some years ago after thinking about it for fourty five years, I decided I need a ready to run Boat Anchor transmitter to go with my collection of Boat Anchor communications receivers. I bought a DX-60B up on Ebay in the USA, it did not reach its reserve and I got a second chance offer.
Modifications to the DX-60B
Rummaging on the internet I found many articles on what is wrong with these Transmitters and how to improve them. The two most serious problems were poor audio quality and inadequate modulation due to the use of a crude Carrier Control Modulation scheme.
Remember they were very cheap, about the half the price of most other similar transmitters of the day and this was made possible by not using High Level Modulation and its expensive modulation transformer and output tubes.
On a web site by Bob (K4TAX) I found a circuit for a rebuilt modulation stages that fixed both problems. This circuit was a refinement of one by another Ham in the USA, Ed (KS3K). These fellows improved the frequency response, increasing the value of the coupling caps and adding negative feed back. The biggest advance was to supply the cathode of the modulation tube from the Negative Bias supply. This allows greater depth of modulation to be achieved.
Other articles talked about adding Press To Talk provision and Antenna change over relays. The Mode switch would not last long if it was used to change from transmit to receive all the time. As with all the simple devices made in the USA in the 60's and 70's the mains wiring was far from safe, being on the mode switch with all the other switching circuits.
I added a small 12 Volt transformer and regulator that is on all the time, and three relays:
- A power on/off relay to turn the main transformer on and off
- A stand-by relay to turn the HT supplies on and off (this will save that section of the mode switch).
- A Press-to-talk relay that removes the negative bias that inhibits the transmitter and provides contacts for controlling receivers and external antenna relays.
While I was at it I rebuilt the negative bias supply with a full wave bridge instead of half wave rectifier and I replaced the ancient rectifier diodes and filter caps. I found it was easier to remove all the parts from the audio and power supply sections and start again, with more modern components. I have produced a circuit diagram of my modifications with Kicad.
- Heathkit DX-60B AM "Boat Anchor" transmitter
- Heathkit SB-300 HF Ham Band Receiver
- Heathkit SB-610 Station Monitor Scope
- Heathkit SB-620 Scanalyzer/Panadaptor
- Heathkit SB-630 Station Console
- Heathkit HR-10B Basic Ham Bands Receiver
- Heathkit HG-10B HF VFO
- Heathkit SB-600 Communications Speaker
- Heathkit HM-102 SWR and Power Meter and HM-11 SWR Meter
Comms receivers in the shack (photos of these on the Communications Receivers page)
- ICOM IC-R71E - Modern general coverage receiver, nice to use and is tuned to the BBC most of the time.
- Drake SSR-1 - This as developed a serious problem. I have found information on the web that indicates this problem is a failure in one or more of the FET devices used in the front end. I have obtained some from the USA and now just have to find time to look at it again.
- Trio 9R-59DS - Old valve communications receiver that was aimed at Ham Band use as it has band spread tuning on these bands.
- Trio JR-200 - A true boatanchor but works quite well as a general coverage receiver.
- Realistic GR-78 - A very early solid state general coverage receiver. More information on my Communications Receivers page.
- Realistic AX-190 - This receiver is a bit of a surprise. Came to me from a deceased estate and is in very good condition. Performs very well and is easy to read SSB signals thanks to crystal locked VFO. Many years ago I nearly bought the DX-190 version.
- Realistic DX-160 - From the same deceased estate. Just a simple general coverage short wave receiver but is a lot more stable that the boatanchor valve receivers I have. In very good condition.
- Realistic DX-150B - From the same deceased estate. This was in very poor condition, read about what I found inside on the Communications Receiver pages
Recent test gear additions
Over the years I have collected a number of working Signal Generators some of which are displayed on my test equipment pages. During December 2011 I was fortunate to be given some more modern and not so modern additions to my test equipment.
The Philips GM2883 has an excellent attenuator and covers from 100KHz to 30MHz, ideal for AM radio equipment. The Marconi TF2011 is intended for 2 Metre radio servicing covering from 130 to 180MHz and it also has an excellent attenuator. I have been experimenting with antenna, plotting the sensitivity patterns unsing this generator as the transmitter with a simple vertical quarter wave antenna attached. The next photos shows the TF2011 teamed with a Marconi TF2300A AM/FM Modulation Monitor. The last photo shows two valve era RF volt meters I have, both in very good condition.
Rubbish found in the junk box
Found a low pass filter and thought I may use it in the HF Antenna circuits until I drilled the rivets out and had a look inside. Looks home made but it was Archer, the double sided tape used to make the capacitors is very crude. Make sure any second hand item you want to use is actually working. I was caught by another low pass filter, I was testing the TS-50 on my antenna switching circuit and found the TX was operating into a short circuit. I worked my way back to the dummy load from the TX and found the other filter, also out of my junk box, was shorted. Took it apart and found three ceramic capacitors blowen apart and shorted. It was about then I remembered the fellow I got this one from has a 1000 Watt linear.
Some Antenna projects I am working on
The Heathkit Ham Radio Collection
Old and not so old Transmitters, Transceivers and Accessories
The Collection of BoatAnchor Receivers
The Collection of Outback HF BoatAnchor Transceivers
The Collection of Marine HF BoatAnchor Transceivers
The Collection of BoatAnchor VHF Receivers
The Collection of Two Way Radios
Not so old Communications Receivers
Written by and Copyright, Phil. Storr © Last updated 17th May 2012
