Date: Sat, 30 Oct 93 18:30:56 PDT
From: Info-Hams Mailing List and Newsgroup <info-hams@ucsd.edu>
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Subject: Info-Hams Digest V93 #1291
To: Info-Hams
Info-Hams Digest Sat, 30 Oct 93 Volume 93 : Issue 1291
Today's Topics:
A strange dream
Best way to learn code?
Club call signs on hold (was Re: `Vanity` Call Signs
LARC ad content in QST
Mirage Amplifiers in Repeater Service
Need info on RS HTX-202
Old 2M Handheld for sale
PLEASE stay on r.r.a.m. topic (Re: Homonauseated_
Q codes
SAREX Keps/Update 10/30
Ten Tec PTO mechanics
WANTED: Shuttle Audio Freqs / Ham Radio Rebroadcasts in San Diego
Yaesu FT-990 Comments...
Send Replies or notes for publication to: <Info-Hams@UCSD.Edu>
Send subscription requests to: <Info-Hams-REQUEST@UCSD.Edu>
Problems you can't solve otherwise to brian@ucsd.edu.
Archives of past issues of the Info-Hams Digest are available
(by FTP only) from UCSD.Edu in directory "mailarchives/info-hams".
We trust that readers are intelligent enough to realize that all text
herein consists of personal comments and does not represent the official
policies or positions of any party. Your mileage may vary. So there.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 30 Oct 93 22:41:11 GMT
From: ogicse!emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary@network.ucsd.edu
Subject: A strange dream
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
I just had an unusual dream on this Hallow's eve and I'd like to
share it with you. Like most dreams, it's fragmentary and somewhat
disconnected, but I think it may have a point buried in it somewhere.
A bit of background may be in order. I'm a barbeque fanatic. I'll stop
at the most unlikely out of the way places to try out their barbeque.
I've had some real life adventures that way.
I'm driving down a road as dusk deepens. I'm on my way to Dayton
to the Hamvention. I see a faded sign up ahead that says, "Andrew's
Barbeque" so I pull off the road and stop in front of the place. It's
an old rundown looking building with a front window so dusty that I
can't see inside. Undeterred, I go in.
I find myself in a long low dimly lit room filled with trestle tables
and benches, like many other barbeque joints I've entered. There's
a crowd here ahead of me, but they're a most unusual crowd. They're
mostly old tired looking men. Their skins are greyish, their eyes
dull, and they're dressed in faded flannel and worn denim. If you've
ever seen the old B&W documentaries from the 30s dust bowl, that's
the look of this crowd. There's a dull monotone of conversation.
As I enter, a few dull eyes turn briefly in my direction, then
they return to staring at the table, or talking with little animation
with their neighbors.
I find myself seated at a table with several of the tired old men.
"What's good here?" I ask brightly. Several of the men turn their
dull eyes in my direction. Finally the one to my right says "The
grey gruel is passable." and looks away again. I'm beginning to get
the creeps, but I'm the loud and boisterous type and just have to
get a conversation going. I say to the table in general "I'm going
to the Dayton Hamvention, I'm a ham operator." Suddenly all the
oldsters start tapping their spoons against their coffee cups in
an odd rhythm. The din rises to a crescendo then stops abruptly.
The talkative oldster to my right informs me that this is the
monthly meeting of the local ham club.
Just then the waiter shambles over and slaps a cup of coffee and
a bowl of grey gruel in front of me. "Hey," I say "I'd like a
side of ribs and some hot sauce." "Sorry," he says, "we haven't
had that dish here since 1968." I feel like I've dropped in on
Hotel California. Maybe I've checked in, but can never leave.
The gruel is passable, but very bland. I start talking again.
I talk about spread spectrum, packet networking, satellites,
and trunked repeater systems. A very few eyes begin to light,
but most of the oldsters start banging their spoons on their
cups again. Then I start talking about Dayton, the acres of
fleamarket goodies, the halls full of vendors, hams from
around the world. I talk about the thrill of finding an old
radio just like the one I started out on. I talk about finding
odd microwave thingies that I've bought and never figured out
what they were for. I talk about the little booths with one
earnest ham pitching his new wonder invention. A few more eyes
light up as some inner memory comes to life.
The next thing I know, I'm on an old Trailways bus with a bunch
of these guys back on the road to Dayton. As we drone through
the night, the excitement of the crowd slowly builds.
I'm wandering down a fleamarket aisle at Dayton looking at all
the fine junque. Across the way I spot my companion from the
previous night. The color has returned to his skin. He's peering
through a newly bought magnifier at an assortment of SMD parts
on a table run by a SHF club member. He looks up, spots me across
the way, smiles and waves.
I'm sitting in McNasty's place with a platter of ribs before me.
The noise from the crowd is deafening. There's talk of packet,
satellites, and spread spectrum. There's animation in every
voice and a light in every eye. For a brief moment, all is right
with the world.
Then I woke up. It's an odd night, and an odd dream. Some of it
is even real.
Gary
--
Gary Coffman KE4ZV |"If 10% is good enough | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary
Destructive Testing Systems | for Jesus, it's good | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary
534 Shannon Way | enough for Uncle Sam."| emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary
Lawrenceville, GA 30244 | -Ray Stevens |
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 22:44:05 GMT
From: netcon!bongo!netcomsv!cds8604!NewsWatcher!user@locus.ucla.edu
Subject: Best way to learn code?
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
I have to admit, most ham radio QSO's I've had are boring. The excitement
was mostly in establishing contact. But then again, getting there's half
the fun of the game. That's what ham radio is all about.
CW is my favorite mode when I have the time to ham. But it took me a long
time to get to the point I could have a conversation. Up to then code was
a puzzling, demotivating activity. Unless you can find a way to make it
fun you're going to have a slow time learning it. Unless you can make it
enjoyable, you'll probably spend all your time griping about how it stands
in the way of your upgrade.
The way I made learning CW enjoyable was to find a way to make it a
non-threatening experience. And the best way for me to do that was to
realize most ham radio communication is essentially content-free fun.
Content-free. That means we're talking about inconsequential things: the
local outdoor temperature, what type of rig and antenna we're using, blah
blah blah.
Face it. If you don't copy what rig the guy is using, so what? If you
don't get his or her name, so what? You can find it in the callbook. If
you don't get his or her call, so what? So you go on living your life.
Spin the dial, try again. Keep trying. Eventually you WILL get her call
right, and his name right, and what type of rig he has, and what the
temperature is at her house, and on and on and on.
But if you spend your CW learning time listening to boring tapes or feeling
threatened the person at the other end is going to report you to the code
police for miscopying the number of elements in his log periodic array,
you're never going to get anywhere.
A casual QSO is not a contract. If you're not helping hurricane victims in
Barbados, or passing emergency traffic at an earthquake site, your QSO has
little value to humanity other than to bring you and your temporary partner
a moment of minor enjoyment.
Enjoyment. Remember that. There are plenty of people who have to be on
the radio because it's their job. They'd rather be bowling than talking on
HTs. We do it because we like to. If it becomes obvious to me the person
I'm having a QSO with hasn't copied a single letter of my transmission, so
what? I take another sip of coffee and spin the dial because I like to
beep to people on radios.
Radio should be fun. When we stop having fun, we should shut our radios
off.
Simple as that.
Joe
--
Joe Mastroianni A.R.S. AA6YD | "Up the airy mountain,
jdm@cadence.com | Down the rushy glen,
74107,310:cserve | We daren't go a-hunting,
JOE-M:Genie | For fear of little men."
| - Allendale
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The opinions expressed in this article do not reflect those of my employer
------------------------------
Date: 30 Oct 1993 00:23:13 GMT
From: drt@athena.mit.edu
Subject: Club call signs on hold (was Re: `Vanity` Call Signs
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
In article <jfhCFnxt2.7zt@netcom.com> jfh@netcom.com (Jack Hamilton) writes:
One program would have turned club signs over to one or more
administrators. That program is on hold.
What a bunch of idiots.
It's so abundantly clear that clubs have a corporate identity separate
from any of the members and that they should have separate callsigns.
I'm really displeased all the people involved can't get the job done.
Say! I have an idea! There's a US Government agency that is actually
responsible for *issuing callsigns*! Why don't we demand our government
provide us with that service??? It doesn't cost nearly as much as, say
health care reform - damn little, in fact!
-drt
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|David R. Tucker KG2S 8P9CL drt@mit.edu|
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|`Most political sermons teach the congregation nothing except |
|what newspapers are taken at the Rectory.' -C.S. Lewis |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 93 15:11:14 GMT
From: netcon!bongo!skyld!jangus@locus.ucla.edu
Subject: LARC ad content in QST
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
Assuming that Lambda/LARC gets to run an ad in QST finally, I for
one would prefer the terms regarding sexual orientation included in the ad.
Of course, certain members of the readership will have a stroke (no
pun intended) over the terms, but better that than getting material sent to
them through an information request since they didn't know what LARC and/or
Lambda was in the first place.
"LARC? Shouldn't that be Lark? Hummm, why is there a bird society in
the classifieds?" Or... "Lamda? Oh, I know, that's the symbol for wavelength,
perhaps they sell antenna kits."
73 es GM from Jeff
Amateur: WA6FWI@WA6FWI.#SOCA.CA.USA.NA | "It is difficult to imagine our
Internet: jangus@skyld.tele.com | universe run by a single omni-
US Mail: PO Box 4425 Carson, CA 90749 | potent god. I see it more as a
Phone: 1 (310) 324-6080 | badly run corporation."
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 03:46:20 GMT
From: world!dts@uunet.uu.net
Subject: Mirage Amplifiers in Repeater Service
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
In article <2amph6$1n8@news.acns.nwu.edu> jweiss@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Jerry Weiss) writes:
>
>I'm interested in people who have used Mirage/KLM amplifiers on
>2 Meters, especially those models in the 120-160 watt output range
>and/or used for repeater or other high duty cycles.
>
>The unit on our club repeater occasionally generates spurious output
>and we are trying to understand the cause. This is the second unit
>we've had from Mirage that has done this. The unit is not spurious
>all the time. Some things we've able to piece together.
>
>1) More likely to generate spurs when not driven to full power
> (Ie: when used at around 90-100 watts instead of 120 watt rating.)
>
>2) More likely to generate spurs when antenna SWR is high (this at
> least I think I understand.)
>
>3) Unit will generate spurs even when using completely different types
> of exciters.
>
>4) Spurs drift anywhere from 5Khz to 100Khz in an hour.
>
>5) More likely to generate spurs when it most inconvenient (Murphy's Law).
>
>I'm going to haul a service monitor the site this weekend and try to figure
>out the problem. Anyone else with similiar experience or suggestions on
>how to deal with this sucker. I'm getting ready to chuck the thing into
>Lake Michigan. The repeater antenna will be replaced shortly anyway (High
>SWR when wet).
>
>Any comments or feedback appreciated.
>
>tnx, WB9MRI
>
>
>
>
>--
>Jerry S. Weiss
>j-weiss@nwu.edu
>Dept. Medicine, Northwestern Univ. Medical School, Chicago, Illinois
>%SYSTEM-S-PHALOKTARG, Phasers Locked on Target, Ready to Fire
We tried a mirage amp on a repeater. After it destructed, I took it apart. The
thing was VERY poorly designed. They really do not design these things for
continuous duty (or even heavy intermittent use) and then put stickers on the
sides that say "Warranty void if seal broken" so that people will not see
the poor construction inside.
As N1JIT said: From a distance it looked like a Mirage, when we got closer
it was just a pile of sand...
A repeater-rated amplifier is definitely worth the extra money, though the
best ones I've seen are homebrew FET designs. If you are looking for non-
repeater use amplifiers, look at the RF Concepts ones. Their designs are
much cleaner than Mirage, and they TELL you to open up the thing to make
certain adjustments (positive vs. negative keying, adding remote control).
TE Systems makes VERY nice amps, and they also have repeater versions
(rated for 100% duty cycle).
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Senie Internet: dts@world.std.com
Daniel Senie Consulting n1jeb@world.std.com
508-365-5352 Compuserve: 74176,1347
------------------------------
Date: 30 Oct 1993 17:59:29 -0700
From: news.cerf.net!nic.cerf.net!not-for-mail@network.ucsd.edu
Subject: Need info on RS HTX-202
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
Post for a friend. He would like opinions on the Radio Shack HTX-202.
Please email responses to 'carvalho@inri.com'
ThanX
--kris
.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 20:08:57 GMT
From: rd1.InterLan.COM!sun1.interlan.com!tavernin@uunet.uu.net
Subject: Old 2M Handheld for sale
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
I have an old Hy-Gain 2 Meter Handheld radio for sale ... you know the
kind ... the one that uses those dreaded crystals :-)
Anyway, it's a six channel unit ... but I only have one pair of crystals
for it (146.52 simplex). Uses 8 AA's but has a 12V in jack as well as an
earphone jack. Some enterprising amateur could easily get into
this box and make it into a cheap packet xcvr.
Works fine ... I just got back from our lab where a fellow coworker tested
it with his handheld.
Also can be used as a club in case of emergency :-) Dimensions are
8.5"x3"x1.75" (HWD).
Best offer takes it!
Victor Tavernini (formerly KA4DCI, soon to be something else :-)
Racal-Datacom, Inc.
tavernin@sun1.interlan.com
------------------------------
Date: 30 Oct 1993 00:12:52 GMT
From: drt@athena.mit.edu
Subject: PLEASE stay on r.r.a.m. topic (Re: Homonauseated_
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
rdewan@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Rajiv Dewan) wrote:
>Gosh! Am I going to add to this thread? ;(
Exactly.
Most of the stuff written in this group of threads long
since lost any relevance to amateur radio. Let's all drop it, eh?
There are other groups for this stuff.
Please.
-drt
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|David R. Tucker KG2S 8P9CL drt@mit.edu|
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|`Most political sermons teach the congregation nothing except |
|what newspapers are taken at the Rectory.' -C.S. Lewis |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: 28 Oct 93 22:44:47 GMT
From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!yeshua.marcam.com!zip.eecs.umich.edu!caen!msuinfo!netnews.upenn.edu!netnews.noc.drexel.edu!coe.drexel.edu!jpw@ames.arpa
Subject: Q codes
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
Could someone please post (and mail to me :) all of the Ham q-codes?
Thanks,
Joe Wetstein
j.wetstein@ieee.org
--
Joseph Wetstein KA3VJY PPL-SEL
------------------------------
Date: 30 Oct 93 17:06:11 GMT
From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu
Subject: SAREX Keps/Update 10/30
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
SB SAREX @ AMSAT $STS-58.032
SAREX Keps/Update 10/30
Saturday 10/30/93 @ 17:00 UTC
We have recently learned that SAREX will remain active on the Space Shuttle
Columbia until 16:53 UTC on October 31. KC5ACR, (Bill McArthur) KC5AXA
(Marty Fettman) and KC5CKM (Rick Searfoss) will continue voice operations
today and tomorrow as time permits. Also, the packet robot system, using the
callsign W5RRR-1, should be operational when the STS-58 crew is busy doing
science investigations. Good luck!
Element set GSFC-031, generated by Ron Parise, WA4SIR, will continue to be
the official SAREX element set for today. On orbit 191 Gil Carman, WA5NOM,
of the Johnson Space Center compared the orbiter state vector to GSFC-031.
The state vector was 4 seconds later than this element set.
STS-58
1 22869U 93065A 93300.17699070 0.00133671 99048-5 24183-3 0 318
2 22869 39.0252 71.9896 0012817 34.2105 325.9529 16.00500857 1383
Satellite: STS-58
Catalog number: 22869
Epoch time: 93300.17699070 (27 OCT 93 04:14:51.** UTC)
Element set: GSFC-031
Inclination: 39.0252 deg
RA of node: 71.9896 deg Space Shuttle Flight STS-58
Eccentricity: 0.0012817 Keplerian Elements
Arg of perigee: 34.2105 deg
Mean anomaly: 325.9529 deg
Mean motion: 16.00500857 rev/day Semi-major Axis: 6651.1630 Km
Decay rate: 0.13E-02 rev/day*2 Apogee Alt: 281.30 Km
Epoch rev: 138 Perigee Alt: 264.25 Km
NOTE - This element set is based on NORAD element set # 031.
The spacecraft has been propagated to the next ascending
node, and the orbit number has been adjusted to bring it
into agreement with the NASA numbering convention.
Submitted by Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO for the SAREX Working Group
/EX
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 93 13:56:15 GMT
From: netcon!bongo!skyld!jangus@locus.ucla.edu
Subject: Ten Tec PTO mechanics
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
In article <9310261442.aa29603@paris.ics.uci.edu> turner@safety.ICS.UCI.EDU writes:
> Anyone out there have experience with the Ten Tec PTO assemblies? I
> have a Corsair (and an OMNI) using the PTO and one has a frequency
> "twitch" when I tune around, it seems mechanically induced in the PTO.
> It is slight, and the signals just seem to "warble" a bit as I tune.
Time to re-grease the tuning drive screw. It has gotten a tad gummy.
Amateur: WA6FWI@WA6FWI.#SOCA.CA.USA.NA | "It is difficult to imagine our
Internet: jangus@skyld.tele.com | universe run by a single omni-
US Mail: PO Box 4425 Carson, CA 90749 | potent god. I see it more as a
Phone: 1 (310) 324-6080 | badly run corporation."
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 93 18:07:32 PDT
From: news.sprintlink.net!crash!slic!mikey@uunet.uu.net
Subject: WANTED: Shuttle Audio Freqs / Ham Radio Rebroadcasts in San Diego
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
I'm looking for the ham channels that carry the shuttle audio in
the San Diego and/or Los Angeles areas. Any high level repeater
would be fine. A friend located in Santee has asked me for the
info. E-mail fine and follow-up directed to r.r.a.m. Thanks all
--
Mike Shirley San Diego, CA USA HAM:WB6WUI
mikey@slic.cts.com guaranteed: mikey@crash.cts.com
mikey-pkey@slic.cts.com will send you my PGP Public Key
pgp-info@slic.cts.com will send you info on PGP
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1993 03:51:50 GMT
From: world!dts@uunet.uu.net
Subject: Yaesu FT-990 Comments...
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
In article <CFK6w7.2Fx@cbnewsm.cb.att.com> hellman@cbnewsm.cb.att.com (eric.s.hellman) writes:
>> If so, this is amazing. I use a TS850 with FSK and my 500Hz cw filter
>> for RTTY and can't imagine going back to LSB mode like I had to with
>> the older TS440.
>>
>I use the FSK (actually it's AFSK) Mode switch on my TS440 for rtty and
>that uses the 500 Hz filter.
>73 Shel WA2UBK dara@physics.att.com
Kenwood has this on the TS450 too. The "FSK" mode on the 440 and 450 does
center the passband and allow the use of the 500Hz filter, but on transmit
the RTTY device must generate AFSK tones, since the rig does NOT support
FSK (it does not handle the carrier shift itself).
So while these rigs have some of the advantages of FSK (the receive side)
but lacking true FSK on transmit allows for the possibility of overmodulation
and wider spacing than appropriate (PK232, for example does 200Hz shift rather
than 170Hz when in AFSK).
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Senie Internet: dts@world.std.com
Daniel Senie Consulting n1jeb@world.std.com
508-365-5352 Compuserve: 74176,1347
------------------------------
Date: 28 Oct 1993 23:04:09 +0200
From: pipex!sunic!news.funet.fi!butler.cc.tut.fi!lehtori.cc.tut.fi!not-for-mail@uunet.uu.net
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
References <931021222641.35c06e65@STDVAX.GSFC.NASA.GOV>, <2am32v$7g@male.EBay.Sun.COM>, <2amlop$c3c@altitude.HIP.CAM.ORG>i
Subject : Re: Spread Spectrum
Marc Lombart (ranfry@CAM.ORG) wrote :
> keithhar@eb5ts4.EBay.Sun.COM (Keith Hargrove) writes:
> >Is there a news group for spread spectrum
> >I would like to do some spread spectrum expermiting
> >but info on ss seems hard to come by
> >I see a blip once in a while in a HAM mag but never a working project
> >and is there a C program to genarate PN codes??
See Electronics World + Wireless World "Voice link over spread
spectrum radio" by James Vincent G1PVZ. This series began in Sep 93
issue describing a complete Direct Sequence system from microphone to
the antenna (435 MHz) and from the antenna to the loudspeaker.
> >thanks
> > -Keith N7QLR
> My knowledge of Spread Spectrum is quite limited, but my
> understanding is that it would probably not be viable as a HAM node,
> seeing as it takes many times the normal bandwidth for each "channel."
In the DS system by G1PVZ, the "channel" is the whole 70 cm band.
Several Spread Spectrum systems can coexist in this channel and of
course many traditional systems without hardly detecting the presence
of each other.
> The main use of Spread Spectrum is security, not communication.
SS has also interesting properties which can be used in to increase
the total throughput of a band or to eliminate multipath effects.
> At
> least, that is what I know from the little I have found on the subject.
The classical reference is "Spread Spectrum Systems" by Robert C Dixon,
ISBN 0-471-88309-3 (2nd edition 1984). This book is quite readable
compared to many other scientific books.
Paul OH3LWR
------------------------------
Date: 30 Oct 93 22:49:26 GMT
From: ogicse!emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary@network.ucsd.edu
To: info-hams@ucsd.edu
References <2ar432$gb8@dorsai.dorsai.org>, <jfhCFnxt2.7zt@netcom.com>, <DRT.93Oct29202313@cacciatore.mit.edu>
Reply-To : gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman)
Subject : Re: Club call signs on hold (was Re: `Vanity` Call Signs
In article <DRT.93Oct29202313@cacciatore.mit.edu> drt@athena.mit.edu (David R Tucker) writes:
>In article <jfhCFnxt2.7zt@netcom.com> jfh@netcom.com (Jack Hamilton) writes:
>
> One program would have turned club signs over to one or more
> administrators. That program is on hold.
>
>What a bunch of idiots.
>
>It's so abundantly clear that clubs have a corporate identity separate
>from any of the members and that they should have separate callsigns.
Uh, has the club's corporate identity passed a Morris exam?
Gary
--
Gary Coffman KE4ZV |"If 10% is good enough | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary
Destructive Testing Systems | for Jesus, it's good | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary
534 Shannon Way | enough for Uncle Sam."| emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary
Lawrenceville, GA 30244 | -Ray Stevens |
------------------------------
End of Info-Hams Digest V93 #1291
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