JOHNSON COUNTY RADIO

AMATEURS CLUB, INC.P.O. Box 93

Shawnee Mission, KS 66201FEEDBACK

MAY 2016

JCRAC Learns About Remote OperationsMARCH MEETINGS

May 13 -- 2m Fox Hunt -- Meet at the Church parking lot at 6:30 to form teams

May 27 – High altitude ballooning - Keith Kaiser, WAØTJT

The Johnson County Radio Amateurs Clubnormally meets on the 2nd and 4th Fridaysof each month at 7:30 PM at the OverlandPark Christian Church (north entrance),7600 West 75th Street (75th and Conser),west of the Fire Station.

Much of the membership travels to thePizza Shoppe at 8915 Santa Fe Drive forpizza buffet and an informal continua-tion/criticism/clarification of the topicsraised at the meeting ... or anything else.

Leave the church, turn right (west) on75th. Turn left (south) on Antioch. Turnright (west) on Santa Fe. Pizza Shoppe isjust past the Sonic on your left.

Three club members shared their experience with remote ham radiooperations at the April 8 club meeting.

Herb Fiddick, NZØF, led off with an explanation of RemoteRig, amostly-hardware solution. RemoteRig is commonly used on rigs withdetachable control panels. In the normal case, a ham would use a cableto connect the control panel to the main rig. With RemoteRig, theoperator connects the control panel to a RemoteRig device and then,through the Internet, connects to a second Remote Rig device that isattached to his main rig. An operator may, instead, use a suitablyequipped PC in place of the detachable control panel. Herb reported thatthis system had been used successfully to handle phone operation frominside the National World War I Museum at the Liberty Memorial.

Charlie Van Way, NØCVW, followed with what he called the simplestremote operation mode. He used Team Viewer software (free forpersonal use) on a local laptop to view a remote PC desktop. The remotePC, running Ham Radio Deluxe (or other software, such as fldigi) wasattached to and controlling a transceiver. Charlie recommended thiscombination as being the easiest way to set up remote digital operations.

John Raydo, KØIZ has his station in Colorado, but--because he may bein Kansas City for extended period--has designed his station forunattended operation. This, he notes, adds complexity.

John uses a PC or laptop to run TRX Manager, LPRemote and Skype.TRX Manager displays the front end of his Elecraft K3 and allowscomplete operation of station--frequency, bands, volume, a secondary

see REMOTE on page 8

IN THIS ISSUE

1 - Remote Operations

1- First Timers

2 - President's Corner

3 - April Meeting Minutes

4 - JCRAC Radio Clinic at the Hambash - Tom Wheeler, NØGSG

6 - That Can't Work - A Hambone Adventure - Jaimie Charlton, ADØAB

9 - All Mode Remote Operations - Lynn Kuluva, KØIMI

The Amateur: More HT Adventures - Chip Buckner, ACØYF

First TimersPlease be sure to greet

John Cassiday,KEØHWD (left) and

Caylin Hartshorn(right) who firstattended JCRACmeetings in April.

- 1 -

-> FEEDBACK <-

A publication of theJohnson County Radio Amateur Club, Inc.

Bill Gery, KA2FNK, President

Aaron Boots, AAØRN, Vice President

Ted Knapp, NØTEK, Secretary

Cal Lewandowski, KCØCL,Treasurer / FEEDBACK distribution

* * *

Chip Buckner, ACØYF, Editor

Charlie Van Way, NØCVW, Photography

Deb Buckner, KDØRYE, Contributing EditorAll email addresses are available at w0erh.org

------------------------

Do You Tap?Although I had been working on code for some time, myanswer to the question "Do You Tap?" was an emphatic “no”. Iknew that the questioner, a choreographer for one of thesummer musicals out at Shawnee Mission Theatre in the Park,was interested in my feet, rather than in my fist.

The auditions, not that you asked, went very well. I landed afun role in the delightful musical comedy “The DrowsyChaperone”. (Appropriate for all ages, though some of thegags work better if you’re old enough to have had experiencewith a record player.)

Although many Broadway musicals featurefoot-tappers, to my knowledge, only one showhas featured a fist-tapper, in which a performersings of the joy that radio operation hasbrought to his life. I’ve got two DrowsyChaperone tickets (cast members get two

complimentary tickets) for the first FEEDBACK reader (otherthan my wife) who can name the show before I publish theanswer in the next issue of the FEEDBACK.

-- Chip Buckner -- ACØYF

PRESIDENT’S CORNERHow did May get here soquickly? Not only May, but FieldDay, too, is upon us. June 25 and

26 are the datesand as we didlast year we willset up Fridayafternoon andevening. Testingwill he held onSaturday.

Set up for thephone station antenna will be anew challenges. We will nothave the push-up mast we havehad in prior years. There will bea plan for that as well as thesolar station being setup thisyear. We are returning toShawnee Mission Park, so themeeting Friday evening will beat the observation tower. Jointhe group that will be campingovernight Friday. This is a goodopportunity to make contactsand check out the equipment.Field Day starts at 1:00 pm CDTSaturday and runs until 1:00 pmCDT Sunday. We will need helpwith break down Sunday.Dinner will be Saturday evening,more detail to come but plan onbring the family.

A reminder that nominationsand election of officers will takeplace during the second meetingof May.

– Bill Gery – WA2FNK

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Johnson County Radio Amateurs Club - April 8, 2016

Attendance: Self introduction with name and call sign. 37 signed the check in sheet. This was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Minutes from the March 11, 2016 were accepted with 1 opposed vote.

The Treasurer’s report, as follows, was read and accepted unanimously.

Cash on Hand $ 156.20 Repeater Operating Reserve $ 762.44

Checking Account $ 686.69 Memorial Fund $ 310.00

Savings Account $ 9,878.94Total $ 10,721.83 Active Members 152

Old Business:

Repeater Update – All Repeaters are working well. WW1USA – The Club is Sponsoring the May 7 – 8 Event at Liberty Memorial and Museum. This

event will take place outside. Field Day 2016 – June 25-26 at the Observation Tower in Shawnee Mission Park. Looking for

someone to coordinate the dinner on Saturday. Ensor Museum - Larry Woodworth WØHXS manager of the Ensor Park and Museum has asked the

Club if we would be available to volunteer at the Ensor Museum again this year. The Club would be responsible for covering the months of May and October. Because of our efforts last year the City of Olathe (who is the Caretaker of the Museum) gave the Club $720.00. Please go to the Club’s website to sing up.

Rod Rodriguez, K6TBJ has Ararat Shrine Hambash tickets for sale at a discounted price.

New Business:

None.

Reports:

6 m – NR. 10 m SSB Roundtable – 5 participated on April 7. 440 Wheat Shocker net – NR. 2m Wheat Shocker net – 20 participated on April 7 and 19 participated on March 31. HF Activity – Missouri QSO Party Rob Underwood, K0RU and John Morse, N0EI made 200 contacts.

Heard Island on 160m.

Announcements:

Welcome to all the 1st time visitors and those with new licenses. Ham 101 Class Saturday May 14 and 21 at Wyandotte EOC. Olathe Marathon April 19. We will have a Testing Session at the Field Day this year. Watch Larry’s List for upcoming events.

Business meeting adjourned at 7:55 PM

Program: The Program for this meeting was a presentation on Remote Operations by John Raydo K0IZ, Herb Fiddick NZ0F and Charlie VanWay N0CVW.

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JCRAC Members Operate a Radio Clinic at the Shrine HambashTom Wheeler - NØGSG

On April 16, 2016 we operated a "Radio Clinic" at theShrine Hambash. This is the first time we've tried thisas a club, and from the feedback I received at andduring the event, we were a hit.

The Radio Clinic provided an opportunity for hams tocheck the performance of radios on site; we usedlaboratory-grade equipment to provide measurementsof power output, transmit signal purity, receiversensitivity, and other related parameters, and providedeach participant with a printed summary of their unit'sperformance.

We served a total of eight hams. That doesn't soundlike many, but on average, it required about 20minutes to serve each individual, because our focuswas not just to measure their radios, but also to visitwith them and learn more about how they use theirequipment, and help them develop insight into whatwe were measuring (and why).

Many club members supported the operation,including Rod K6TBJ, Rich KCØVDH, BillWAØCBW, Jaimie ADØAB, and a few of the otherusual suspects!

We learned some very interesting things abouthams and their equipment:

Many hams are bewildered by the array offeatures and settings in newer radios. Many of thesesettings are buried a mile deep in menus that aredifficult to navigate. As an example, we had an ICOM706MKIIG that couldn't reproduce the 1 kHz test tonefrom the FM signal generator on 2 meters. It turnedout that the radio's DSP automatic notch filter (ANF)was turned on, and the DSP treated the 1 kHz test toneas an interfering signal, so it canceled it!

Older equipment can still be top-notchperformers. Al Gallo, WØERE, brought in a pristineGonset G-50 six-meter AM transceiver (1950svintage) that not only worked perfectly, but hadtransmit signal purity that easily met current FCCrequirements.

No matter how good they look, Yaesumicrophones will not work on Icom equipment!

Many of the Chinese Baofeng radios are not compliantwith FCC rules for signal purity. None of the BaofengUV5R units we tested met Part 97 FCC standards.

Spectral Purity of the Baofeng UV5R

We tested a total of four UV5Rs, none of which metPart 97 requirements. All of the units had significantspurious signal emissions in excess of FCC rules,which specify that the total of unwanted emissionsmust be at least 60 dB below (a million times weaker)the fundamental carrier signal. We only tested fourunits, which is not a large enough sample to generalize

see CLINIC on page 5

Al Gallow, WØERE and his Gonset G-50 Communicator

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Spectral Display of a Baofeng UV5R transmitting on 146 MHz

from CLINIC on page 4to a population, but these four werespectrally quite dirty! One of theoffenders is shown above.This is a picture of the spectrumanalyzer display reading out thesignal from the UV5R. Thehorizontal axis is frequency (40MHz per grid square left to right),and the vertical axis is signalstrength (10 dB per vertical square -- each 10 dB represents a 10:1 ratioof signal strength). The horizontalcenter of the screen is 200 MHz, theleft is 0 Hz (DC), and the right is400 MHz. The very top line of thescreen represents a power of 10watts (+40 dBm).A properly operating transmitternomrally displays just one vertical

spike on the display, which is thecarrier frequency energy. Every-where else, the energy should be 60dB or more (six vertical divisions)down (for VHF transmitters).

This particular UV5R was puttingout spurious signals everywhere, at60 MHz (that's between TVchannels 2 and 3), 100 MHz (rightin the middle of the FM broadcastband), 180 MHz, 220 MHz (in ornear the ham 220 MHz band), and ahealthy dose of 2nd harmonicenergy at 292 MHz (probably closeenough to the Part 15 band at 315MHz to interfere with garage dooropeners, car key fob remotes, andso forth).

On top of that, this UV5R was onlyproducing around 2 watts of RF.

output (+33 dBm on thedisplay)...which was quite a bit lessthan what it was rated at (4 watts),so this particular example might begood for an alternate use(paperweight, emergency flashlight,campfire starter, etc...).

Summary

Our event was a success. We'vealready received a request toperform this service at anotherhamfest, and I've got some ideasregarding how we can streamlinesome of the process to allow us tomore efficiently operate the clinicand serve more hams. Thank you toeveryone that supported thisconcept; we'll be doing this again!

>> JCRAC FEEDBACK <<

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A Hambone Adventure - Jaimie Charlton, ADØAB

That Can't Work or Why Dude Was Wrong“Hammy, why are you still messingaround with that dumb antenna? Youknow it won’t work. You’re doingeverything wrong!”

“Be still and learn,”responded Hambone,smiling condescendingly ashe continued to cut twopieces of black antennawire to 138 feet each.

“Look here,” countered hisyounger brother, Dude, opening up alarge, well-worn book. “TheAntenna Book says that dipoleantennas should be a quarterwavelength high or higher. That’smore than 130 feet up for yourantenna. It also shows the arms ofthe dipole extending straight out inboth directions and a current chokeup at the feed point to keep commonmode current from running down thecoax into the shack and zapping yourdumb ass.”

“Dude, you know nothing aboutantennas. You’re not even a ham!”

“I know Uncle Elmer’s gonna to bemad at you for wasting his antennawire. I saw you take it out of hisgarage and I’m telling.”

“Go ahead. He said I could use it,sort of. Besides, hams are supposedto experiment. That’s part of ourtradition and you know Unck is verybig on tradition.

And, I’m not wasting wire. I’mfollowing this HamAntCal app on myphone. It tells me how long to makeeach part of the antenna. So there,this is going to be a great 160 meterantenna. I’m going to use it in that160 meter contest. You’ll see.”

With that, Hambone continuedcutting and splicing his big dipole.He proceeded to string the wire fromhis feed point located on the raingutter on the back of his parents’house, up through

two trees, one for each leg of theantenna, and down to the six-footbackyard fence. He ran the rest of

the antenna wirealong the top ofthe fence. UncleElmer’s garage didnot yield anystand-off insulatorsso Hambonesimply laid hisplastic-covered

wire along the edge of the fence.

One dipole leg ran south for aboutforty feet and made an abrupt turn tothe west at the end of his backyard.The other leg ran north along theedge of the fence for nearly sixty feetuntil the fence veered west taking thewire with it. This was more than hislittle brother could stand.

“Hammy, you gotta be crazy, nobodystrings an antenna along a six-foothigh wood fence. That will neverwork.”

“Dude,” replied Hambone. “This is agreat design that I got from Jerry, agreat ham and a lot smarter than you.He ran his antenna along his fenceand got awesome results. I’m callingthis antenna the Jerry Rig in honor ofhis ground-breaking work in 160meter antenna design.”

“I’m calling it Hambone’s Folly,”sneered Dude.

Undaunted, Hambone went on. “Theoriginal Jerry Rig antenna was astealth antenna. By running the wirealong his fence Jerry was able to hideit from his neighbor’s prying eyes.Jerry’s coax ran under ground and heeven buried a grounding strip underthe antenna and drove it all with abalun. Now, I’m making somemodifications and improvements.”

“I’ve seen your improvements, you’dbetter stick with the original design.”

“You’re wrong, again, Dude. I don’thave to hide the feed point so I put itup here on the rain gutter. I could’veput it up in the tree, but Unck, er, I,didn’t have enough coax to reach thatfar.”

“You mean you stole Unck’s coax,too?” Hollered Dude.

“I borrowed it. If Unck wants it backhe can have it. It’s still in one piece.Anyway, I’m sure Unck would haveagreed it’s for a good cause.”

“Since the feed point was alreadygutter high, I ran one side of thedipole up into this tree and backdown to the fence. The other side isgoing up into that tree over there anddown to the fence at the far end ofthe yard. It’ll work great.”

“No it wont! The two sides of yourso-called dipole aren’t even the sameheight and they slope up to twodifferent trees at two different angles.Eew, you don’t even have a propercenter connection. You just wrappedyour coax around a plain old ceramicinsulator and tied it with a tie-wrap.I’ll bet the original Jerry Rig doesn’tlook like this mess. Oh, and youdon’t even have a balun. Or, couldn’tyou find one in Uncle’s garage?”Countered Dude in disgust.

“Shut it Dude, and watch your masterantenna builder work.”

With that, Hambone ran the lasthundred feet of wire on each side ofthe dipole along the top rail of thesix-foot high wooden fence thatenclosed his back yard.

“Notice that I put ten feet of extralength on each side of the dipole totune it. Right now I am just folding itback along itself. That way I canmake the sides longer or shorterwithout having to cut or splice extrawire. Now it's time to tune," said

see HAMBONE on page 7

- 6 -

from HAMBONE on page 6

Hambone getting out his antennaanalyzer and, with a short piece ofcoax, connected it to the antenna’sfeed point.

“First, let’s find the antenna’sresonant frequency. That will tell uswhether we need to lengthen orshorten it and by how much,” saidHambone as he turned the knobs onhis antenna analyzer.

“You see, Dude, I adjust thefrequency until the reactive part ofthe antenna’s impedance is zero or asclose as it’s going to get to zero. Theanalyzer shows the impedance as twonumbers, the real part of theimpedance is the number on the leftand the reactive part is the number onthe right.”

“You see, Dude, I adjust thefrequency until the reactive part ofthe antenna’s impedance is zero or asclose as it’s going to get to zero. Theanalyzer shows the impedance as twonumbers, the real part of theimpedance is the number on the leftand the reactive part is the number onthe right.”

“But I thought impedance was just anumber of ohms, like fifty-ohm coax.Why does this thing show twonumbers?” asked Dude warming upto the project.

“That single number is really acombination of these two numbers –sort of a short hand way of writingthem. This little meter here on theside shows that number.”

“Okay, I guess,” replied Dude.“Then, why don’t you just tune forthe lowest possible reading on thismeter and skip that part with ‘real’and ‘reactive’ numbers?

“Watch,” continued Hambone. “As Ichange the frequency, both numbersgo up and down and so does theircombination. The meter doesn’tnecessarily show its lowest readingwhen the reactive part is zero or close

to it. That’s because the real part hasgone up.”

“I think you’re just trying to screwme up with those numbers going upand down and then adding up insome funny way.”

“No, no,” countered Hambone. “Itseems screwy, but if you want tounderstand antennas and feed lines,you’ve got to learn it. Just remem-ber, it’s not the combination of thenumbers, or total impedance, we areinterested in. We want to know thefrequency that causes the reactivenumber to be zero regardless of whatthe other number is. That’s theresonant frequency of the antenna.”

Turning back to his analyzer,Hambone continued, “It looks likethe resonant frequency is 1.79 MHz.That’s close to the 1.82MHz I want.The fact that it’s lower than 1.82MHz means the antenna is too long.”

“So, you have to shorten it. Howmuch?”

I’m sure even you remember that thelength of a dipole antenna isproportional to its resonantwavelength. And, wavelength isinversely proportional to frequency.

So, we simply take the ratio of theactual and desired frequencies:

1.79/1.82 = 0.9835 or 98.35%”

“There you go again, gettingcomplicated”

“It’s easy. This tells us that theantenna should be only 98.35% aslong as it actually is. When I put itup, I made each leg to be 138 feetlong. So, now I need to shorten eachone to be only 98.35% of that or:

0.9835 x 138 = 135.72 feet long.

Hand me that tape measure. I’mgonna fold two feet and three inchesmore wire back on itself on eachend.”

“Why don’t you just fold it all backon one end, that would shorten just asmuch?”

“Can’t do that,” responded Hambone.“A dipole is a balanced antenna andthat means both sides should be thesame. If I make one side shorter thanthe other it would cause differentamounts of current to flow in eachhalf.

But the total amount of RF currentleaving the transmitter through thecenter coax conductor must equal theamount coming back to thetransmitter through the inside of theshield. Since an ‘unbalanced’antenna will force the currents to beunequal, the difference must be madeup somewhere.”

“Isn’t that extra current just sent offinto the air?” asked Dude.

“No, no, no! In any antenna, thecurrent causes the radio waves to becreated, the current itself stays in thewires.”

“Then where does it go?”

“It comes back to the transmitter onthe outside of the shield. It’s stillunderneath the plastic insulation, butit’s on the outside of the coppershield braid. Since it is coming backto the transmitter on the outside ofthe braid, it eventually ends up on theoutside of the transmitter’s metalcabinet. That’s why you get a shockwhen you touch the metal knobs. It’scalled common-mode current.”

“Are you shittin’ me? Are yousaying there’s one electrical currentgoing one way on the inside of thecoax shield--not the centerconductor--and a different currentgoing the other way on the outsideof that same shield?”“Yes,” continued Hambone in hisbest professorial tone. It’s called skineffect. It’s too complicated for you tounderstand, but suffice it to say thatRF doesn’t travel inside conductorslike DC does. Instead, it travels onthe surface, or skin.

see HAMBONE on page 8

- 7 -

from HAMBONE on page 7

That way one current can travel onthe inside skin of the shield and adifferent current can go over theoutside skin and they never meet.”

“It’s not too complicated, you justdon’t know how it works,” counteredDude.

“Do too. I know I can minimize it bymaking both sides of the antenna thesame length and putting a choke inthe coax.

Stop bothering me. Either bring methat ladder or get out of here. I’vegot work to do.”

“Yeah, after all that, your SWR isstill over 2:1! So much for trimming!

Hambone’s folly, Hambone’s folly,Hambone’s folly,” chanted Dude asran off.

The Next Week

“So, Hammy, are you taking downHambone’s folly before anybody seesyour big screw-up?”

“Dude, you couldn’t be more wrong.The Jerry Rig antenna worked great!Using only a hundred watts, I madeover sixty contacts as far north asSouth Dakota, as far south as Texas,as far east as Pennsylvania and as farwest as Nevada. So, don’t tell me theJerry Rig 160 meter antenna doesn’t

work,” boasted Hambone.

“I think you’re wrong, that crappyantenna couldn’t reach that far nomatter what.”

“Well it did, look at the contest logs.”

“Hey boys, what’s the big argumentabout?” asked their Uncle Elmer ashe arrived on the scene with hisubiquitous cup of coffee.

“Hi Unck, Hammy says his crummy160 meter antenna has workedstations all over the place. I say noway!"

“Why do you say that?” asked Elmer,trying to defuse the situation.

"Easy, just look at it. According tothe Antenna Book it's too low, it's not

symmetrical, and it’s hanging on awooden fence. Hammy’s justmaking up his contacts because thisantenna can’t work.”

“Take it easy, Dude. In the firstplace, I’m pretty sure Hammy madeall those contacts. Otherwise, whywould he submit them to the contestonly to have all of them rejected?

In the second place, ham radio is allabout experimentation.

In the early days of ham radio, nearlyall equipment was home made andlots of hams figured out great circuitsfor receivers, transmitters, antennasand all sorts of other stuff.”

“That’s nice.” scoffed Dude, “Buthow did they know what wouldwork?”

“Most ideas didn’t work. Andsometimes the hams themselvesdidn’t really understand theprinciples behind the ones that did.But they got an idea and tried it.

Nowadays, hams mostly buy theirrigs. From the ads, you might thinkthat every antenna, tuner, transceiveror whatever is a must-have if youwant to make contacts. But theyaren’t.

Beginners like you and especiallynew hams are led to think that the

magic of radio is a delicate thing thatwon’t happen unless everything isletter perfect. They agonize overminute details and don’t seem to everget on the air. That is a big mistake.

You should try experimenting.Antennas are a very easy and cheapplace to start. Just string up somewire, hook it to your transmitter andsee what happens. If it works a littlebit, figure out how to make it better.If it doesn’t work at all – which is apretty common result – try to figureout why. In any case, you’ll learn alot. I think experimenting is how thefirst Jerry Rig came to be.”

“Well, Hammy’s antenna was reallycheap. He took the wire and coax outof your garage,” countered Dude.

“You rat!”

“You did!”

“Knock it off, you two. I’ve told youbefore, it’s okay to borrow stuff, butask me first.

Since we’re on the subject, howabout you two experimenting withways to clean the garage? Be sure tosweep out all the dead leaves andthen wash the floor. It’s springcleaning time, you know.”

>> JCRAC FEEDBACK <<

from REMOTE on page 1

receiver, filters, etc.--remotely. TheLPRemote software controls anLPRemote board in Colorado. Theboard has sixteen relays to turnthings on and off and to selectantennas. The board has digital andanalog inputs for monitoring stationstatus and operation. John hasconnected a vintage 1500 wattamplifer, tuned to 20 meters.

Skype makes the audio connectionto a PC next to the K3. Sometimeshe uses Teamviewer software tolook at a panadapter display.

John uses a PC headset and VOX totransmit. He reports that operatinghis system remotely works as if hewere sitting in front of the K3. Hereports that during the FebruaryWW1USA event, his station mademore than 2000 contacts at a rate ofmore than 100 per hour.

>> JCRAC FEEDBACK <<

Club member Lynn Kuluva, KØIMIoffers additional thoughts onremove operations on the next

page.

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All Mode Remote Operations -- Lynn Kuluva, KØIMII found the program at the recentmeeting on remote operation veryinteresting. I have been interested inremote operation for a number ofyears and always like to see howothers are doing it. The threepresenters gave us three great waysto go about it and presented themvery well. Some questions came upabout how to add additional modesto your remote operation. I havebeen operating digital, SSB and CWremotely and found it not as hard asyou might think to add more modes.

I started out some time back withthe configuration that Charlie VanWay, NØCVW so well describedfor PSK and other digital modes. Ifyou have digital capability con-figured with your rig, simply add“remote desktop” software on yourhome and remote computers andyou are ready to go as Charlieexplained.

So, how hard is it to make the jumpto SSB? You are already 90% of the

way there. I’ll share a trick that JayBurgherr, NØFB told me. If youhave digital modes running, youalready have audio flowing bothdirections between your transceiverand your home computer. The audiois flowing through your digitalinterface such as SignaLink USB.

All you need now is a way to getthe audio to and from your remotecomputer. To do that, install Skypeon both computers if you don’t haveit. Just make two changes to thesettings in Skype on your homecomputer: 1) Direct Skype to usethe same sound card you use fordigital modes and 2) Set Skype toanswer incoming calls automat-ically (this is optional, but makesthings easier). Now you are ready togo remote on SSB or even AM orFM as you like. How easy is that?

Okay, so now you want to add CWto your remote operation. If you cancopy SSB with Skype as describedabove, you can copy CW using

Skype. Sending CW adds just alittle more complexity. I don’t use akey for a couple of reasons –latency being one. I cheat a littleand send from my remote keyboardusing DM780 just like I do withPSK. This takes one little piece ofhardware. You can see theschematic at www.n3fjp.com/cwschematic.html. If you don’twant to build one you can buy onefor about $30 from the same website. Plug one end into a serial porton your computer and the other leadinto the key jack on yourtransceiver. Then make theappropriate settings in DM780 tokey the CW through the serial port.Select CW as your mode in DM780and you are on the air with CW.

That’s it. Enjoy operating remote onany mode and from anywhere thissummer.

>> JCRAC FEEDBACK <<

The "Amateur" in "Amateur Radio" - Chip Buckner, ACØYF

More HT AdventuresOn a ridiculously pleasant Februaryday, Deb and I pulled out reciprocalChristmas presents—a pair ofbicycles—and made for a nearbychurch parking lot. It had beenmany decades since either ofus had attempted to ride. Wethought our first attemptshould involve maximizingspace between obstacles andminimizing the number ofspectators. Fortunately, wediscovered, that there is a reasonpeople refer to easily-relearned skillsas being “like riding a bike". In notime, we were off to the Indian Creekbicycle trail.

Our riding single file made us easy-

to-pass, but inhibited conversation.Occasionally the person in front hadto stop and look around to see whythe other had fallen behind. Other

times, the person in backwanted to propose a routechange or rest break. Whatwe needed were small,instantaneous, hands-free,personal communicationdevices. Cell phones were

not practical, but a headset attachedto an HT with a PTT button mountedon a handle bar might be.

Behind the Scenes at THEFEEDBACK

Awhile back, Tom Wheeler,NØGSG, submitted the first draft of

his article discussing how to interfacemicrophones to transceivers.

Jaimie Charlton offered Tom a bunchof suggestions.

I responded:

One (or two) of the stupid littleprojects I want to do is/are toconnect (a) a simple computerheadset and (b) a code practiceoscillator to an HT. The formerwill let Deb and me talk as we rideour Christmas bicycles on theIndian Creek Trail. The latter willlet me send Morse over an HT.

see AMATEUR on page 10

- 9 -

from AMATEUR on page 9

(Yes, I could buy the officialICOM headset, but one does notlearn anything by plugging theofficial ICOM headset into anICOM HT.)

Tom responded to Jaimie's sug-gestions and offered some encour-aging words about my projects.

But then:

Hi Chip,

You are right, one doesn't learnanything by just plugging in acommercially made mic. Whatyou can look forward to learningby doing it as you suggest is whypeople generally just plug in acommercially made mic.

LOL! -- Jaimie

Jaimie: That was a somewhat-less-than-encouraging observation. -- CHIP

Jaimie continued with comments about Tom's article observing that

I still think this is a great subjectand when Chip tries his DIYproject you will even have somematerial for comic relief. (Sorry,Chip).

Actually, Chip, I don't mindadmitting I had a hell of a timetrying to figure out how to hook amic and earphone to my YaesuFT60 HT. It is way simpler thanthe mic Tom is hooking up. Thesethings are not as easy to do asthey might first appear.

Jaimie

Undaunted, I reply:

Jaimie/Tom:

PROJECT LOG – DAY ONE:

I need to do three things.

(1) Earphones need to work.(2) Microphone needs to work.(3) Need to wire a switch for PTT.

First, stick 3.5 mm connected toearphones into 3.5mm jack. Turnon radio. Hear sound in ears.Well, one ear, actually, but ifyou're going to be using this on abicycle, you only want sound inone ear. So hearing in one ear isa “feature” rather than a “bug”.

I'm one-third of the way there.

Pfft. There's nothing to thisengineering stuff.

CHIP

What Really Happened

Well, I told Tom and Jaimie that itwas “Day One”, but "Day One"wasn't really the first day.

PROJECT LOG – DAY MINUSTHIRTY:

I always begin with the assumptionthat my first experiment willdestroy something. I went on-lineand purchased a couple of ridi-culously inexpensive UHF-onlyBao Feng 888s HTs. Because I canbuy a dozen of the Bao Fengs forless than I paid for the Icom, I thinkit wise do my initial experiments onthe Bao Fengs.

PROJECT LOG – DAY ZERO:

The Bao Fengs arrive. I get thecomputer headset. I open the pack-age and … there’s no place to plugin an external headset!

Hmm. Perhaps “wise” was not thebest possible word to use todescribe my decision to do myinitial experiments the Bao Feng888s.

But Tom and Jaimie don’t need toknow that, now do they?

Back to my experiments …

PROJECT LOG – DAY TWO

I can’t find anything in my Icomdocumentation or on-line materialsabout wiring a mic and PTT for theT70A, but there are lots of diagrams

that suggest that many Icom unitsuse the same scheme for mic andPTT. I need to use a capacitor and aresistor to connect a couple of wiresin the mic circuit to give myselfPTT capability. How hard can thisbe?

I have a cheap computer head setwith two 3.5mm plugs on my left. Ihave an ICOM T70A HT with a3.5mm jack and a 2.5mm jack onmy right. Let’s use a breadboard tobuild an interface unit in themiddle.

In the picture, the connections justgo straight through. Before I con-nect anything to them, I need tofigure out which wire correspondsto what point on the plug and jack.Anyone who knows anything aboutplugs and jacks could follow a wireto a connection on a jack anddetermine that connection #1 is thetip, connection #2 is the ring, andconnection #3 is the sleeve. (Youwill note that I used the terms “tip”,“ring” and “sleeve” as if I knewwhat I was talking about. NOW, Ido. Thank you Wiki.) I, however,am not that person. Besides, I havea pretty new orange multi-meterI’m dying to try out.

see AMATEUR on page 11

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from AMATEUR on page 10

Continuity testing is pretty easy todo. I’ll spare you the blow by blowand just tell you that I plugged a3.5mm cable into a 3.5mm jack andtested each of the three jack pinsagainst the tip, the ring and thesleeve of the plug at the other endof the cable. When the resistancewas something other than infinite, Iknew that I had matched the pin tothe appropriate place on the plug.

I know (see PROJECT LOG – DAYONE, above) that the 3.5mm jackon the HT is audio. Audio works inone (I’m going to call it the “right”)ear when I plug the headset audioplug into the HT. I would expectthe same thing to happen when Iplug the headset and HT into myinterface unit. It does. [Whew.]

But why don’t I get sound out ofboth ears? In turn, I disconnecteach of the three wires from myinterface. Tip and sleeve carrier thecurrent. Disconnecting the ringdoes not affect the audio. Might theHT be supplying one channel ofaudio through the “tip” and theheadset be looking for left and rightaudio channels through the “tip”and “ring”, using the “sleeve” as acommon ground?This will be easy to test. I put alittle jumper on my interface so thataudio channel from the HT goesinto both the tip and ring wires intothe headset.

I turn on the HT and … there is nochange. Audio in the right, but notthe left, ear.

Oh well. Working in audio in oneear is all I really need. I decide thatworking on the mic and PTT aremore important to my project thangetting sound in the second ear.

OK. If the 3.5mm jack on the HT isaudio, the 2.5mm jack is extremelylikely to be mic and PTT. I plug a2.5mm end of a 2.5mm to 3.5mmcable into my HT and connect the3.5mm to my interface unit. I don’tadd the capacitor or resistor. This isa straight through connection. Iturn on the HT … and the meter onmy HT shows maximum output.Oops. I wonder what I wastransmitting. I add the capacitorand resistor to circuit, per thediagram. I disconnect one wire tosimulate the PTT button. I’ll touchthe wire to the terminal to completethe PTT circuit when I’m ready totalk. I turn on the HT and, before Iengage my touch-the-wires PTT,the HT meter shows maximumoutput.

At this point it occurs to me that Ishould probably be doing mytesting on something other than theinput frequency of the club 2mrepeater. (To anyone monitoringthe repeater that Saturday morning… uh, sorry.)

My HT has a setting for the NOAAweather radio channels. Idiscovered—you’ll just have tospeculate as to HOW I discovered—that if try to transmit on top ofone of the NOAA channels, the HTdisplays “OFF” and refuses totransmit. This looks like a goodidea: let the HT the block thetransmission of my mistakes.

My situation is that the mic isn’tworking the way I expect it towork. I look down at the headsetand notice there the wires havesome controls—a push button and

a knob—on them. Might that be aPTT button? I connect things in avariety of configurations and cannotsee that the button does anything.

I resolve to run a similar set ofexperiments with the knob indifferent positions. I wonderwhether the knob is full-on or full-off. I move the dial to the middleposition and turn on the HT. Itturns out that the knob had been inthe full-off position. Sound—whose volume varies with the knobposition—comes from thepreviously silent left earpiece.

At this point, readers have moreminutes—and I have more hours—invested in this project that wewould care to admit, so let’s windup today’s installment with a seriesof:

Lessons, Speculations andObservations

(1) As Hambone’s Elmer observeselsewhere in this issue, mostexperiments end in failure.

(2) I’m working with too manyunknowns. I don’t know what myheadset demands/supplies. I don’tknow what my HT demands/supplies. I could (and, in retro-spect, should) have attached thecomputer headset to a computersoundcard and tested voltages andcurrent on my computer headset.

(3) Another term for “working withtoo many unknowns” is “pervasiveignorance”.

(4) I have, although I would neverconfess this to Jaimie, learned whymost people “generally just plug ina commercially made mic”.

(5) I have not yet begun to fight.

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