User:TheAnarcat
I am anarcat and i hope i'm not screwing things up here too much. :)
I just passed my basic qualitification in Canada, with honors (so I can operate HF), yay! I am now AKA VA2ANK. -- TheAnarcat 21:50, 10 October 2010 (CDT)
My rig
- Transceiver:
- Yaesu FT-100D - 499$ on ebay - actual price: ~570$ (to be verified)
- Antennas and gizmos:
- MFJ-941E - antenna tuner and switch 155$ at radioworld
- MAP-G5RV 1/2 - G5RV 50' dipole antenna (10-40m) 85$ at radioworld
J146/440 - dual band VHF/UHF antenna (2m-70cm) 40$ at radioworld/!\ backorder- 100' of RG8 coax cabling 65$ at radioworld
MFJ-260C - 300W dummy load 0-150Mhz dry 50$ at radiowrodlbuilt into the tuner now- 3 PL259 connectors 4$ at radioworld
- Total, incl. shipping: 452.35$
- Ferrites: ~40$ + 24$ customs fees
- Total rig cost so far: 1046.70$
I uploaded a few photos in this album.
New quad antenna project
I am working on building a new antenna, pictured right. It is based on this design, which uses a mix of PVC pipes and fiberglass rods, except I adapt it to a 20m antenna.
Here's my parts list.
Parts on hand | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part | Amount | Where | Weight | Price | Notes |
tripod | 1 | addison | ? | 45.56$ | ~2' x 2' |
3m steel pole | 1 | downstairs | ? | 0$ | to connect the beam and tripod, 1-1¼" |
sandbags | 3 | home depot | 30kg ea. | 10.76$ | one per leg |
hose clamps | 8 | home depot | ~0 | ~15$ | unit price ~2$ |
8"x½" plastic tube | 1 | home depot | ~0 | ~2$ | for spreader/wire attachment |
Parts missing | |||||
Part | Amount | Where | Weight | Price | Notes |
15' 1" fiberglass | 8 | mgs4u.com (ordered) | 17.6lbs | ~160$ | 4.4lbs ea, unit price 17.10$ - |
U clamps and bolts | 4 | ~0 | 0$ | included in the beam/pole fitting | |
boom/pole plate | 1 | Rick Adams | ? | 54$ | need to drill holes, includes reinforcement pole |
plywood | 6'x5' | home depot | ? | 5$? | |
4m aluminium boom | 1 | this? | 2.5lbs | 12.45$ + shipping | |
welding wire aluminium | 270' spool | canadian tire? | ~0 | ? | example: Aluminium 5356 MIG alloy |
spider | 2 | Rick Adams | ? | 80$USD | 40$/ea, seems strong and sturdy, and Rick helped me through email, let's try! |
Discarded approaches | |||||
Part | Amount | Where | Price | Notes | |
1 | home depot | ? | according to Rick, this could create interference | ||
2 | creativeshelters.com | 3.08$ | couldn't order, they don't accept canadian zip codes, and shipping is 30$ anyways, and I don't trust PVC | ||
8 | home depot | ~5$ | we'll use tie-wraps instead for spreader/wire attachment | ||
4 | home depot | ? | PVC pipes are too flexible to hold properly, we need fiberglass | ||
44.4m | ??? | 29.32$ (addison?) 48.64$ pour 2x12 22m (dubo) |
Total price: ~360$
Notes
- Gauge: 10-16 AWG is okay (see AWG, that is 1.2-2.5mm or 1/10" - 1/20"), and can be insulated, according to this page
- Using welding wire is a good idea, as the lightning bolt quad uses
- I was suggested Dubo for electric supplies
Current blocker(s)
- shipping: waiting for the fiberglass to be shipped -
- spreaders: **oops!** got the wrong spreaders if i'm going with Rick's spreaders, as Rick's are 0.995"OD and 0.812"ID - the idea is that the spreader would fit *around* the spider's legs, so I need the Type 1 spreader instead of type 1L. anyways, the type 1 i stronger
spider: can't find 5-way connectors anywhere, and worried about the solidity of PVC, considering Rick Adam's spider hubs (40$ ea.) or custom-made, like thisgoing with rick if we can arrange on shipping- boom: would prefer aluminium, like this (7$ + shipping), anything local?
- attachment plate: plywood just won't cut it, maybe this? (~12$, need to drill holes) or any aluminium plate - rick has some, ~50$ including clamps
Références
Je collecte ici des bons sites au sujet du ham radio.
- Manuals, courses
- Good overview
- Emergencyradio.ca online course
- tech manual
- HAM Radio primer - un peu vieux (14 ans!) dit que son kit a coûté 1000$
- Hardware
- hardware guide - motorola
- Exams
- Clubs
- Montreal Amateur Radio Club - Dorval est. 1932, mostly english and west-island-ish
- Rive sud
- Radio Amateur Canada
- Other documentation
- IRLP - Internet Radio Linking Project - using the internet to link stations
- Call sign lookup
- Available call signs in Canada
- US Ham bands
- Wikipedia:Family_Radio_Service - intéressant pour commencer, comme le CB mais plus puissant et sans interférence, pas cher, j'ai acheté un cobra FRS
Software
This needs to be merged into Software
- the oracles
- http://packages.debian.org/gpredict
- http://packages.debian.org/minimuf - allows you to compute the WikiPedia:MUF depending on salar activity and so on, but has an unusuable interface (you need to enter a series of digits... how about a GUI?!)
- http://packages.debian.org/gcb - calculates the right angle for your antenna
- http://packages.debian.org/xplanet - can show azimuthal projections of the earth on your background, screensaver or window - I use this in myxsession:
xplanet -latitude 45.5 -longitude -73.66 -wait 60 -label -projection azimuthal -fork -radius 90
- testing tools
- http://packages.debian.org/ibp - very useful for training to receive distant comms: show you which beacon is active when, with a map
ibp FN35EM
- packet:
- http://packages.debian.org/gmfsk - for packet radio
- http://packages.debian.org/fldigi - also looks interesting and fairly complete, not tested
- http://packages.debian.org/gpsk31, DebianPackage:linpsk, DebianPackage:phaseshift - same?
- http://packages.debian.org/fbb - mailboxes?
- to be tested:
- dismissed:
- http://packages.debian.org/predict and http://packages.debian.org/predict-gsat - console only, doesn't bring much the gorgeous visuals of DebianPackage:gpredict
... others to follow, there's a whole hamradio section in debian.
Stuff to buy next
- Another HF radio?
- Call those guys?