December 2014
Contents
1. vii i ka i i PCARA Update Volume 15 Issue 12 Peekskill Cortlandt Amateur Radio Association Inc December 2014 Holiday winner This year s PCARA Annual Holiday Dinner is on December 7 2014 5 00 pm at the Cortlandt Colonial Restaurant The cost is 30 00 per person and soda alcoholic drinks are extra The menu can be found in this issue of the PCARA Update and we will be having selections from Dinner Package 3 Please con sider joining us and as always all are welcome Just a reminder the election of Officers will also take place that evening Venue for PCARA s Holiday Dinner on Sunday December 7 is the Cortlandt Colonial Restaurant in Cortlandt Manor The new Super Stationmaster for the 449 925 MHz repeater is on order and expected to arrive early in December We ll need a work party willing to brave the elements to get it in place Once installed the antenna should provide for many years of dependable service If you are interested in helping to install the antenna just let us know Once again a big thank you to all the members who made very gener ous contributions that helped to make it a reality The results for Field Day 2014 are in ARRLFD14 _ dune 28 29 AIYE EPLE U PCARA did admirably AME EAE Gre We were 1 out of 3 entries in Category 2A www arrl org in the ENY section and 11 out of the 34 entries in ENY Well done PCARA A full report courtesy of Mal colm NM9J c2. I could not find any modern Windows based software from RT Systems or anywhere else so I decided to forgo the computer con nection and program my favorite channels manually Fortunately programming did not take very long thanks to the design of the IC 2710 There is a com PCARA Update December 2014 page 7 plete set of controls for each of the two bands This includes separate tuning squelch and volume controls each of which also acts as a push button Combined with the left side and right side buttons for selecting VFO Memory and Memory write plus the shared buttons for duplex and tone setting there is a total of fifteen push buttons available on the small front panel They allow easy setting of a VFO frequency followed by repeater offset and PL tone then storing all these parameters in a memory channel Icom IC 2710H now fully illuminated Front panel has separate controls for VHF left side and UHF on right side Tone decoder As mentioned earlier the IC 2710 that I purchased did not include the optional UT 104 Tone Squelch Unit From past experience these accessories can be difficult or impossible to find once the radio has gone out of production So pur chase while you can Ever hopeful I carried out a quick Internet search and found that R amp L Elec tronics actually had the correct tone squelch unit available on close out so I ordered one It arrived a few days later and did not take very long t
3. with two HF stations operating simultane ously and the free VHF station working 6 meters PCARA s score in Class 2A was in line with provisional results published in the July issue of PCARA Update See the bold column in the table below Peekskill Cortlandt ARA W2NYW Class 2A 2002 2003 2004 2005 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 QSOs 718 733 968 853 I0I9 1109 694 879 968 Power 2 lt I50W Partcpts 15 Il 12 10 14 IO I0 14 I5 Tot scor 2096 2328 2996 2798 2906 3460 2746 2602 2920 Peekskill Cortlandt ARA W2NYW 2013 2014 2013 IA 2014 2A QSOs 768 722 Power 2 lt I 50W Partcpts 14 16 Tot score 2040 2460 PCARA President Greg KB2CQE observed at the time that PCARA s Field Day 2014 was a home run with excellent attendance The description was appro priate because we were sharing the dugout at Walter Panas High School with several Little League teams Karl N2KZ operates from the Field Day dugout with George WB9YRR logging Ken W1YJ is far right behind the Little League players C Publication of the final results by ARRL allows a comparison with other neighboring groups in the Eastern New York section and the Hudson Division In Field Day 2014 PCARA was e Joint first out of 3 entries in Category 2A ENY section e Joint eleventh out of 34 in all of ENY section e Joint sixth out of 11 in Category 2A Hudson Divi sion e Joint 31st out of 97 in the entire Hudson Division e Joint 152nd out of 392
4. Since it was just before the onset of wintry weather I needed to work quickly I ordered a Comet GP 1 which arrived a few days later neatly packed and padded The GP 1 is a ground plane antenna with a short vertical element housed inside a fiberglass tube Quoted gain figures from Comet s web site are 146MHz 3 0dBi 446MHz 6 0dBi See http www cometantenna com Overall length including the support pipe is only 4 2 According to the Comet catalog the GP 1 antenna has 146MHz 1 2 wave x 2 446MHz wave x 2 though I suspect there is only room in the fiberglass tube for a single half wave on 146 MHz The advantage of a relatively low gain antenna like the GP 1 is that the fiberglass tube arrives in a single section Longer antennas have two or more fiberglass sections with joints that can allow water in The short vertical element of the GP 1 will not flex in the wind prevent ing pattern tilt and the antenna has low visual impact As an initial check I assembled the antenna indoors This is much easier than standing on a sloping roof or tower where small parts have a tendency to fall off and get lost in the grass Comet GP 1 The ground plane consists of three radials 61 2 long which screw into the base of the antenna and are then secured with lock nuts Base of the Comet GP 1 antenna showing the SO 239 socket and the three radials ready to be screwed in After the coaxial cable has been
5. can also act as a complete weather alert receiver Receiver cov Yaesu MH 48 microphone erage runs from 136 through 174 MHz including mari time mobile frequencies The icing on the cake It also features a powerful CW trainer for those who are learn ing or honing their Morse Code skills Bravo Some unusual features can also be found You can configure the rig to emit the sound of a bell when a specific analog PL or DCS digital coded squelch tone is received There are endless ways to customize how you scan channels for activity I like the Programmable Memory Scan feature where you can configure your scanning to specific frequency ranges I built one PMS to cover marine channels from 156 050 through 157 425 MHz so I can hear boat traffic along Long Island Sound With Smart Search you can pick a center frequency and the radio will automatically remember the first 15 frequencies above and below center scanning frequency until they are all filled You ll appreciate this the next time you visit a new city Yaesu owners can also enjoy ARTS Automatic Range Transponder System This is a sophisticated program that will automatically send out digital PL signals to alert friends of your presence on the air and receive ARTS prompts as well You ll always know when a friend is on the air and available to talk and they will know when you are around too It runs in the background making connections without effort ARTS also
6. fiber optic terminals switch mode power sup plies and other sources of electrical noise that show up on the same frequency You may have noticed this kind of interference on the output of our PCARA 146 670 MHz repeater it will open a mobile radio s noise squelch while driving around various parts of Peekskill and Cortlandt The Icom tone squelch unit mutes the IC 2710H radio until the correct sub audible tone is received I have two adjacent memory channels programmed in my radio one without and one with tone squelch so it is easy to select this feature when needed The UT 104 unit also allows the radio to scan for any sub audible tone frequency encoded on the incom ing signal this can be useful if you do not know the tone of a new repeater or other transmission The pocket beep function which is also available with the UT 104 indicates by beeping after a signal has been received with the desired tone Clean up Despite initial problems with smelly cables burnt out bulbs and lack of a tone decoder my IC 2710 is now glowing brightly and smells almost like new Pm glad I picked it up NM9J PCARA Update December 2014 page 8 Field Day Results Full results from Field Day 2014 have been pub lished in December s QST and on the ARRL web site See http www arrl org results database event_id 58360 For 2014 PCARA was back to full strength and our Field Day entry returned from Category 1A to Cate gory 2A
7. long line I also marked a point 25 PCARA Update December 2014 page 10 feet from the end of the cable with brightly col ored tape to indicate how much should protrude outside the house to reach the antenna The next job was to pull cable from the radio room through the attic and out via a vent onto the roof Fol lowing years of safety training at my old works QTH I wore a hard hat and dust mask while up in the attic as there are low beams and new insulation in the areas I was entering I kept the hard hat on for the subsequent work as well One tool that I found very useful was an old wire coat hanger straightened out with a hook on the end to catch hold of the cable when it was out of reach Up on the roof there was a vertical mount previ ously used for DirecTV Construction of Belden 9913 semi air spaced cable A spiral of polyethylene filament separates the solid inner conductor from the polyethylene tube This tube is wrapped in polyester aluminum foil with tinned copper braid as the outer conductor and already grounded en y Of The satellite dish had a a a a been removed so the pipe ee a s i a i made a perfect place to install a new GP 1 antenna I took all the antenna parts up to the roof along with a tool bag containing other items I would need for installa tion The first task was to loosely attach the Comet support pipe to the satel lite mount I then dressed th
8. moisture sealing tape and Scotch Super 88 vinyl tape for protection Once the coaxial cable was in place and water proofed the base of the antenna could be slipped into the aluminum support pipe and secured with the sup plied lock bolt and spring washer I took the opportu nity to spray all fastener hardware with aerosol lithium grease The two aluminum mounting brackets were then repositioned on the support pipe and firmly clamped to the roof mount Before final tightening of the nuts and U bolts I adjusted the antenna position so it was properly vertical The mounting bracket hard ware should not be over tightened otherwise the alu minum tubing might deform I like to apply enough torque to flatten the spring washers but not much more beyond that The final task was to secure the new coaxial cable to the vertical antenna mount and to the existing antenna cables that cross the roof on their way into the radio room This was accomplished using yet more PCARA Update December 2014 page 11 Scotch Super 88 vinyl tape which is rated for use from 221 F to 0 4 F Plug in and turn on The high point of any antenna installation comes when the mechanical work is complete and the feeder can plugged into a radio for the first time Will the SWR be satisfac tory Can signals be heard Will you be able to work them without diffi culty In the case of the Comet GP 1 the answer to all three questions was Yes for both
9. nor any VHF bands such as 6 meters or above It has a speech compressor the optional noise blanker attenua tor S meter on receive and RF out metering on trans mit It also reads SWR on transmit There is adjustable RIT and AGC slow fast or off The display also shows voltage input It comes with a knock off microphone similar to the HM 151 supplied with the Icom IC 7000 though not all items function on this one There is a short power cord with two red and black wires On the back of the trans ceiver there is a ground binding post USB cable to PC connector speaker jack keyer jack auxiliary input jack and SO 239 On the front is the tuning knob which when pressed in changes the value of the five function keys The step rate of tuning is changed by keys next to the tuning knob The Xiegu X 1 08 HF transceiver is a tiny radio measuring only 4 3 4 x 13 4 x 7 og00oD Dooe Microphone supplied with the Xiegu X 108 TA b Back of the X 108 transceiver with connectors L to R for antenna aux speaker key USB DC power and ground There is an on off knob which is also the volume control and the microphone plugs into an RJ 45 con nector nearby The multi color display is like a smaller version of the ICOM IC 7000 though it has a narrower angle of visibility and becomes obscured by bright sun light PCARA Update December 2014 page 12 While the power is less than the typical
10. passed through the aluminum support pipe it is connected to the SO 239 socket in the antenna base The support pipe is then fastened to the base with a single lock bolt and spring washer Finally two aluminum mounting brack ets are clamped to the support pipe with stainless steel U bolts nuts and spring washers a Coaxial cable with PL 259 plug is passed through the aluminum support pipe then coupled to the base I applied a dab of lithium grease to the threads of the ground plane elements to keep moisture out and make future disassembly easier The nuts and bolts are all metric sized and would need 8mm and 10mm metric wrenches for the final assembly I carried out a check on performance with the antenna still indoors All was well though I found that for lowest SWR the vertical element needs to be at least 1 2 feet away from walls and other objects Installation day With a sunny morning forecast I prepared for installation on the roof I had a 100 foot roll of Coleman RG 8 U type low loss coaxial cable for use as antenna feeder This is similar to Belden 9913 with an attenuation of only 2 6 dB per 100 feet at 400 MHz The construction with its solid copper center con ductor and semi air spaced insulation covered by a layer of polyethylene makes it rather stiff and diffi cult to handle While waiting for the roof to dry out I let the cable warm up to room temperature then unspooled it into a
11. 100 watt transceiver 20 watts does pretty well Signal and audio reports have been good about 2 S units down from 100 watts at home or in the mobile using a K 40 antenna mainly on 10 Meters for mobile QSOs I have easily contacted Europe and around the United States The built in speaker is small and not too great in the mobile environment but an external loudspeaker can be added There is no mobile bracket included and no manual was enclosed Following an e mail inquiry Ed Griffin of Import Communications translated the Chinese manual and provided a PDF of the English translation to download and print which made things easier to follow It also explained how to use memories and work splits with the A and B VFOs Colorful front panel of the Xiegu X 108 The first problem I had was that transmissions were cutting out with the microphone provided I e mailed Ed Griffin and he said no one else so far had this problem But he quickly mailed me another micro phone and it has worked well since then Also Bob N2CBH and I noticed that AM reception on MW and shortwave was off frequency by over 2 kHz I sent an email to Ed Griffin He said there is a firmware fix for this problem but after receiving the file deleting the old firmware and installing the new firmware there was no change We are still in communication about this matter Additionally he said there was a fix for the noise blanker involving two diodes wired in backwar
12. 146 and 440 MHz I did not want to connect the rigid 9913 type cable directly to my radio so I used a short length of high quality RG 8X patch cable The SWR was less than 1 2 1 on both bands rising at the band edges This con firmed that the antenna was on frequency with a Comet GP 1 antenna in final position with coaxial feeder taped to the support performance that was far superior to the old 2 meter Ringo And so the job was completed before the weather turned nasty Time will tell how long my waterproofing and anti corrosion efforts will last NM9J Xiegu X 108 review wcu Last month I purchased a Chinese HF somewhat QRP transceiver with 20 watts maximum output the Xiegu X 108 It came from Wouxun US also known as Import Communications located in New London NC 40 miles northeast of Charlotte Caution your editor s Internet Security software suggested this company s web site might contain some malware Ed My X 108 cost 695 00 for the deluxe model 100 00 over the base model because of addition of the 5ppm TCXO the four step noise blanker and four curved handles two at each end The radio is about the size and price of a Yaesu FT 817ND but there the com parison ends The power output can be adjusted from 20 watts down to one watt modes are USB LSB AM and CW It has a 2 3 kHz filter for SSB 500 Hz for CW and 15 kHz for AM There is no FM mode for 10 meter repeaters
13. IC 2710H with back cover removed indicates the position of the three incandescent lamps DS1 DS2 and DS3 e r eaeh eT 1 DS3 i Circuit board layout for the Control Unit bottom view showing the three incandescent lamps DS1 DS2 DS3 DS1 D52 From the large solder blobs it looked as though the lamps in my own radio might have been replaced in the past I used a solder sucker and a small iron to remove excess solder then teased out the two burnt out bulbs It was only a few minutes work to solder in two new grain of wheat lamps replace the back cover then restore the front panel control unit to its position at the front of the radio Control unit after burnt out lamps DS1 and DS2 had been removed arrowed ready for the new lamps I switched the radio on and was rewarded with a bright amber light fully illuminating the display and the backlit push buttons on the front panel I adjusted the display dimmer setting from d 4 brightest to d 1 dimmest to prolong life of the bulbs Programming convenience Back when the IC 2710 was originally marketed Icom also sold an optional OPC 646 programming cable and CS 2710 programming software The soft ware is no longer available from Icom but it is listed for download from the Highfields ARC web site http highfields arc co uk constructors other icomdosclonesw htm This is DOS based software needing a special serial cable to connect to the radio
14. William St Bergenfield NJ 7 00 am Sun Jan 4 2015 New York City Long Island Section Convention Ham Radio University 2015 Briarcliff Col lege 1055 Stewart Avenue Bethpage NY 7 30 a m VE Test Sessions Dec 6 Yonkers PAL Ham Radio Club 127 N Broadway Yonkers 2 00 p m Michael Rapp 914 907 6482 Dec 7 Yonkers ARC 1st Police Precinct E Grassy Sprain Rd Yonkers NY 8 30 am John Costa 914 969 6548 Dec 11 WECA Westchester Co Fire Trg Cen 4 Dana Rd Valhalla NY 7 00 pm S Rothman 914 831 3258 Dec 15 Columbia Univ VE Team ARC 531 Studebaker Bldg 622 W 132nd St New York 6 30 pm Alan Cross well 212 854 3754 N iy Peekskill Cortlandt Amateur Radio Association Inc yo PO Box 146 A Crompond NY 10517 PCARA Update December 2014 page 14
15. an be found in this month s Update Finally the event you ve all been waiting for the Annual PCARA Bring and Buy Auction to be held at the January 2015 meeting You have just over a month to go through all your treasures and decide which you ll bring with you to the meeting so somebody else can go home with them After the Holiday Dinner our next regularly sched uled meeting is on Sunday January 4 2015 at 3 00 pm at Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt Manor NY 73 de Greg KB2CQE PCARA Officers President Greg Appleyard KB2CQE kb2cqe at arrl net Vice President Joe Calabrese WA2MCR wa2mcr at arrl net Contents Special FM mobile edition Holiday winner KB2CQE 1 Adventures in DXing N2KZ 2 Baojie BJ UV55 W2CH 4 Imitation Game 5 New lamps for old Icom NM9J 6 Field Day results 9 Antenna season NM9J 10 Xiegu X 108 review W2CH 12 Holiday dinner 13 Net night Peekskill Cortlandt Amateur Radio Association holds a weekly net on the 146 67 MHz W2NYW repeater on Thursdays at 8 00 p m Join net control Karl N2KZ for news and neighborly information PCARA Update December 2014 page 1 Adventures in DXing N2KZ Remember the words of Polonius This above all to thine own self be true After all your holiday shop ping may there be some room for you If you are looking for a suggestion that will not break your bank account I may have just the thing for you Let me introduce you
16. and how to program the transceiver from the manual but I learned the technique from a video on YouTube The Baojie receives and transmits between 136 174 995 and 400 470 995 MHz One major problem I have experienced is that the UHF receiver cuts out after I have been transmitting on UHF or VHF and does not return until the transmitter has not been used for a while The UHF transmit also cuts out after a period of use I have not been able to diagnose these problems yet Normally the reception when working is good on VHF and UHF and transmis sion audio reports have been good So my recommendation is not to buy the Baojie BJ UV55 transceiver because of quality control issues Ray W2CH bes MODEL BJ UVSS FREQ 1 74 000 Me ear iM A A TN i40901BJ0184 uanzhou Raw pe Heroa wt de Label on the bottom of the transceiver indicates the frequency coverage Imitation Game A new movie about the life of Alan Turing was released in Britain on November 14 The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley shows how English mathematician and logi cian Alan Turing helped crack the Enigma code during World War II Your editor already received a positive recommendation from G3LWK in the UK saying this movie is well worth seeing The same period of history was covered in the article Broadsword calling Danny Boy October 2014 PCARA Update where the role of Voluntary Interc
17. antenna Less reflected power equates to a cooler rig I can t imagine a better buy than the Yaesu FT 1900R Owners take advantage of Yaesu s years of design development for the ham radios and land mobile radios They really have this unit figured out Even if you have no interest in purchasing one you should download the manual and have a look at all it can do Find it at http www yaesu com Here is a top quality rig at a bargain price It may be all you ever need in your car I really enjoy owning one W Karl N2KZ enjoys using his Yaesu FT 1900R mobile transceiver mounted over the Toyota Corolla cup holders Happy New Year Please don t forget the annual on air tribute to years of amateur radio past ARRL s Straight Key Night For 24 hours beginning on New Year s Eve at 7 pm Eastern hams will be getting on the air and operating CW with nothing more than their fists Many partici pants add to the experience by dusting off vintage gear and operating with tubes glowing in their shacks You ll hear a lot of very inter esting signals that night and New Year s Day This event also commemorates my 15th year as a ham I made my very first QSO on January 1 2000 using a Heathkit HW 16 Even if you don t usually operate CW his will enjoy hearing just what the bands x sounded like long ago Tune in See you on 80 meters My very best holiday wishes to one and all Thanks for another great year on the air 73 es dit di
18. box the radio and carry out an initial check The first thing I noticed was an over powering smell of pine oil Perhaps that s why the radio had been displayed on an outdoor table I found the offending article was the 12 volt power lead which consisted of the usual red and black cables inline fuses and a two pin polarized connector to fit the radio pig tail I tried all ways I could to remove the smell from the power cable including clean ing with Fantastik spraying with Febreze and leaving in a sealed container with sodium bicarbonate None of these methods brought about any improvement the smell was as bad as ever I substituted an identical power cable from one of my other radios and sealed the original item inside two Ziploc freezer bags There is still a slight odor of pine oil lingering around the radio I have no idea how the original cable became so smelly perhaps the previous owner was trying to prevent rodents from gnawing on it If so I would not recommend use of pine oil for this particular applica tion Smelly cable from the Icom IC 2710H Initial tests After connecting the radio to a 12 volt power supply I discovered that it did not have the optional UT 104 tone squelch unit installed This was a bit dis appointing as I had asked the vendor whether tone decode was included More on this later The radio seemed to be working satisfactorily I made a note of the existing memory channels t
19. ds which I have not received yet It may involve replacing a board I have noticed that switching in the noise blanker at any of its four levels makes no difference in perceived sound So my verdict is still out on the Xiegu X 108 In some ways it has performed well but in other areas there are still some problems to be resolved Ray W2CH Holiday Dinner The 2014 PCARA Holiday Dinner will take place on Sunday December 7th at the same location as last year the Cortlandt Colonial Restaurant in Cortlandt Manor Start time is 5 00 p m The Cortlandt Colonial Restaurant is located at 714 Old Albany Post Road Cortlandt Manor NY Direc tions to the restaurant are available at their web site http www cortlandtcolonial com pages directions html PCARA s Holiday Dinner will be held at the Cortlandt Colonial Restaurant in Cortlandt Manor near the rock cut which is just visible top right From the Peekskill Cortlandt area join the Bear Mountain Parkway then exit at Highland Avenue heading north Make a right turn from the exit ramp and proceed down the hill Cross the bridge and the Cortlandt Colonial Restaurant is immediately on the left just before the rock cut The chosen menu is the same Dinner Package Number Three that proved popular in 2013 along with the Custom Cake This package includes Open Soup and Salad Bar Coffee Tea DA choice of Prime Ribs of Beef Grilled New York Sirloin St
20. e coaxial cable along the roof line up along the DirecTV mount passing through the antenna s Support pipe A silver plated PL 259 plug was already soldered to the end of the new cable I treated the mating surfaces of both connectors with DeoxIT contact cleaner to prevent future corrosion After fay i ee I ee a a A i i a Coaxial cable is passed through the antenna support pipe The orange tape protected the PL 259 plug screwing the PL 259 onto the antenna s SO 239 socket by hand I used pliers to tighten the coupling ring Fin ger tight is not good enough for outdoor work I now had to make the junction water tight This is especially important for 9913 type cable as the con struction employs air spacing between inner and outer conductors separated only by a spiral of polyethylene filament If any water enters this type of cable it will cause RF losses and corrosion in no time at all I took my own advice PCARA Update Sept 2014 and wound Scotch 2228 moisture sealing tape under tension around both connectors with 50 overlap between successive turns Scotch 2228 is a self amal gamating tape that fuses into one continuous layer shortly after application Following recommendations from 3M I then wound a second layer of Scotch Super 88 vinyl tape over the connectors for mechanical pro tection over a wide temperature range Coaxial cable was connected to the antenna base then wrapped with Scotch 2228
21. e offset direc tion the CTCSS encode decode tones or DCS code and then to select the memory of which there are Baojie microphone has a built in loudspeaker PCARA Update December 2014 page 4 128 You must first memorize the receive frequency with appropriate settings to the desired channel number then set the transmit frequency and store that to memory in the same channel number Rear view of Baojie BJ UV55 showing L to R the antenna connector heat sink power cord and external speaker connector As a result above the left frequency display there will be a and a to indicate the repeater offset is stored in memory The S meter reading for either display is always above the right frequency digits The same applies to the transmit power meter which indi cates high or low power 45 watts high VHF 35 watts high UHF and about 10 watts low for both bands The display color is by default set to pink on standby receive red on transmit and blue when a signal is received though it can be varied among all three through menu choices Enu ETa MHz FM c Close up of the Baojie BJ UV55 display W2CH pic The transceiver has a menu item to set the scan ning modes but I have not found out any information in the manual as to how to make the transceiver scan automatically from receive standby The manual is not always clear in its English translation as to how each function works I could not underst
22. eak Broiled Sea Scallops Fumbo Shrimp with Crabmeat Stuffing Chicken Marsala Penne la Vodka Cost will be 30 00 per head including service but not including any additional soda or alcoholic drinks that you choose to add See you there PCARA Update December 2014 page 13 Peekskill Cortlandt Amateur Radio Association Mail PCARA PO Box 146 Crompond NY 10517 E Mail mail at pcara org Web site http www pcara org PCARA Update Editor Malcolm Pritchard NM9J E mail NM9J at arrl net Newsletter contributions are always very welcome Archive http home computer net pcara newslett htm PCARA Information PCARA is a Non Profit Community Service Organization PCARA meetings take place the first Sunday of each month at 3 00 p m in Dining Room B of the Hudson Valley Hospital Center Route 202 Cort landt Manor NY 10567 Drive round behind the main hospital building and enter from the rear look for the oxygen tanks Talk in is available on the 146 67 repeater Apart from holidays and July August break PCARA Repeaters W2NYW 146 67 MHz 0 6 PL 156 7Hz KB2CQE 449 925MHz 5 0 PL 179 9Hz N2CBH 448 725MHz 5 0 PL 107 2Hz PCARA Calendar Sun Dec 7 PCARA Holiday Dinner Cortlandt Colonial Restaurant 5 00 p m Sun Jan 4 2015 PCARA Meeting with Bring and Buy Auction Hudson Valley Hospital Center 3 00 p m Hamfests Sat Dec 13 Boy Scout Troop 139 Hamfest Flea Market Conlon Hall 19 North
23. ep tors and the UK s Radio Security Service was cee In the fall of 2013 as work on the movie began the Radio Society of Great Britain put out a request for members who had vintage HRO and AR88 communication receivers The company making The Imitation Game wanted to borrow authen tic models which were widely used for radio intercep tion during World War II In the December 2014 issue of RadCom RSGB reported on a letter they received from the producers thanking all who had helped with the loan of equipment for the movie The Imitation Game went on limited release in the USA on November 28 Wider release is expected in late December The Imitation Game PCARA Update December 2014 page 5 New lamps for old Icom I like older VHF UHF radios that are rugged and easier to operate than modern sets I am also fond of the Icom brand as their transceivers seem to have a little more quality than their competitors A few weeks ago while browsing the outdoor tables at Mount Beacon ARA s Hamfest I noticed that one of the sellers had an Icom IC 2710H on offer The IC 2710H was a dual band FM transceiver from 1996 with separate controls for each band and a dual frequency display The radio is capable of simulta neous reception on VHF UHF bands as well as VHEF VHE or UHF UHF I decided to bring the IC 2710H home with me from Mount Beacon and install it in the radio room Pining for the fjords My first task was to un
24. for Category 2A nation wide e Joint 735th out of 2686 entries total Those joint honors were all shared with the Happy Hams group who were using the callsign of Jay K2DXU The Happy Hams are a group of operators who get together in Putnam County to participate in Field Day They scored exactly the same number of points as PCARA in the same Class and Section We must also congratulate QSY Society who came first out of 34 entries in the ENY section Well done Here is a list of top scorers in Eastern New York so you can review PCARA s position compared with our neighbors in the same Section Call Points Cat QSOs Club K2QS 7096 3A 1578 QSY Society 2 K2CT 7016 3A 2054 Albany 3 N2SF 6968 4A 1834 WECA 4W2MU 4822 2E 1364 Hudson Valley Sysops 5 W2HO 4152 5A 1055 Orange County 6 K2DLL 3808 3A 956 Saratoga Cty 7 NQ2W 3480 IBIB 323 Low power mult 8 W2YRC 3450 3A 766 Yonkers 9 WD2K 3396 3A 69l Rip Van Winkle 10 K2CK 2588 2E II1I19 II W2NYW 2460 2A 722 PCARA II K2DXU 2460 2A 726 Happy Hams 13 N2LL 2422 3A 729 Overlook 14 W2IR 2354 4A 467 Schenectady Museum 15 K2AE 2158 5A 409 Schenectady 16 W2WCR 2108 4F 43l Warren Cty I7 NY2U 1922 4A 383 Troy Compared with 2013 when we operated Category 1A with one HF station reaching 11th position in ENY PCARA made fewer contacts this year but scored more points The situation might have been better if the 6 meter antenna had been working properly and if opera tions had not bee
25. has a CW identifier to make your automatic polling signals legal every ten minutes Oh the things this rig can do Operation of the FT 1900R has been very impres sive The receiver is very sensitive and resists intermod and noise with grace I have driven this rig through some prohibitive RF environments with no sign of de sensing or bleed through A tall tower FM station is near my workplace and I never hear a peep out of it as I drive by while using my FT 1900R daily Although I do hear some noise once in awhile the source needs to be quite profound in strength to register with this rig Receiver audio is great big and clear I have never heard a bad word about my transmit audio It provides good times every day One thing you should be aware of If you operate at 55 watts for extended periods of time the FT 1900R is capable of getting very hot I chair a weekly net using my FT 1900R The net might last an hour or more with my rig transmitting at least half of that time In the summer I can actually feel the heat coming off the heat sink by the end of the net The tem perature Yaesu FT 1900R has a substantial heat sensor can rise sink and no built in fan to 150 degrees PCARA Update December 2014 page 3 or more There is no fan The heat sink rides alone This is a lot to ask of any rig My cure is to lower power or pour some air conditioning onto it Both methods work well Make sure you have a good match with your
26. hat had been programmed into memory they were mostly 146 and 440 MHz repeaters in Putnam Dutchess Rockland and Orange Counties I carried out a full reset to clear the memories then programmed my own selection of frequencies I checked the power output and compared sensi tivity with another radio the IC 2710 was behaving satisfactorily One word of caution as with most Icom radios don t turn the squelch control past 12 o clock or you will activate the RF attenuator weaken ing incoming signals Missing microphone The microphone included with the radio was an Icom HM 133 which is the same microphone supplied with current Icom mobile radios such as the ID 880H The correct microphone for an IC 2710H should have been the Icom HM 98 with a plastic cover over the DTMF keypad Unfortunately this microphone is now obsolete and from my own experi ence I know that HM 98s can have prob lems with their press to talk micro switch after heavy use Fortunately the HM 133 operates in a similar way to the HM 98 apart from the modified keypad layout and stronger microphone audio Correct Icom HM 98 microphone left with cover in place over the keypad and HM 133 microphone as supplied right Dim bulb The liquid crystal display for the IC 2710H is backlit with an amber colored light that can be dimmed During initial tests I noted that one of the three lamps was not working while a second lamp was f
27. lickering and failed shortly afterward Icom IC 2710H VHF UHF transceiver I down had only one of its three display lamps loaded a copy of working the Service PCARA Update December 2014 page 6 Manual from http www radiomanual info There I found that the front panel backlight is provided by three incandescent lamps Icom part number HRS 77219A RE These are tiny grain of wheat bulbs rated at 12 volt 60 mA I had experience with changing similar bulbs on an old IC 3200A see PCARA Update March 2009 so I knew they were available from Radio Shack part number 272 1092 Fortunately I still had a few in stock There is an exploded diagram in the IC 2710H Service Manual which shows how to disassemble the front panel control unit The first job is to detach the control unit from the main body You push the release button on the side of the control unit then slide the unit to the left and pull it away from the chassis Grain of wheat lamp Aon T om ae ig E iii Exploded diagram shows how to disassemble the control unit With the control unit face down on the bench I could see two Phillips screws securing the back cover These screws were removed so the back cover could be lifted away revealing the control unit circuit board This must be the easiest disassembly for changing panel lamps that I can remember A color layout of the board is included in the Service Manual which Control unit for the
28. n disrupted by the coming and going of baseball teams and their supporters This activity also prevented adjustment of the antennas which were suspended from the lighting towers QST reported that although close to the peak of the sunspot cycle conditions were not optimal on 10 meters this year and total Field Day QSOs were down compared with 2013 despite an increase in the number of participants There was a decrease in the number of phone contacts but an increase in CW and digital contacts Let s look forward to PCARA s Field Day 2015 on June 27 28 NM9J PCARA Update December 2014 page 9 Antenna season When I installed my new dual band transceiver from the Mt Beacon hamfest it replaced a single band 2 meter FM radio That 2 meter radio had been connected to an elderly Cushcraft AR 2 Ringo antenna mounted high outside the house by its pre vious owner The single band Ringo showed high resistance and poor SWR on 2 meters while reception on 440 MHz was practically nil Knowing the con struction of Ringos I suspected that either the aluminum SO 239 antenna connector had corroded or the impedance matching base ring was no longer connected Condi tion of the coaxial cable was also in doubt I decided to install a new dual band antenna on the roof If you would like a few hints on outdoor antenna installation then read on Cable connection and base ring of the old AR 2 Ringo Timely preparation
29. o install All I had to do was switch off disconnect the power cord then remove the bottom cover from the radio This cover is held on with a single Phillips screw but it also needs a flat blade screwdriver to carefully pry off using the slots pro vided The UT 104 tone squelch unit then fits onto a tiny connector close to the front of the transceiver Once the radio was boxed up and reconnected I checked operation of the tone squelch unit which was quite satisfactory HAL eS oa Tro UT 104 Tone Squelch Unit for the IC 2710H Why decode You might be wondering why I was so enthusiastic about having a tone decoder in the radio Wasn t the Insertion of UT 104 Tone Squelch Unit into the miniature socket on the main circuit board of the IC 2710H built in tone encoder sufficient The usual reason for needing a sub audible tone encoder in an FM transceiver is for repeater access with a suitable tone applied to outgoing transmissions on the repeater s input frequency Only when the repeater detects the correct tone on its input is the transmitter keyed on the output frequency The reason I wanted the optional tone decoder was so I could monitor repeaters where PL tone encoding is also applied on the repeater s output frequency This allows the radio to reject transmissions from any other repeaters with a different PL tone or with no tone at all The radio will also reject interference from traffic signals
30. ouch them briefly for their basic functions like tuning shortcuts or hold down the buttons for more advanced functions like reaching deep menu options i TA i i i E hs me T nan at a BAS aie es i lee Yaesu FT 1900R front panel The supplied MH 48 microphone is just as easy to use putting many of these functions in the palm of your hand Along with many shortcuts the microphone provides customizable buttons direct frequency keypad entry and all the pushbutton features found on the front panel The mic can be backlit for nighttime oper ation and locked to prevent unwanted transmissions and changes The menu mode is deep and comprehen sive offering 59 useful options Here are a few that I particularly like Every memorized fre quency can have a name alpha identi fier You can call a memory whatever you like e g Boston or Bad Axe You don t have to memorize what each memory is pro grammed to do A DC voltmeter is provided to measure how your car battery or power supply is holding up You ll also find a thermometer to measure how hot the rig s heat sink is at the moment There are two types of squelching The classic squelch breaks in when a signal rises above a certain level of noise The RF squelch can be set to break at a preset level of signal from S1 to S9 Timers are avail able to time out a transmission or completely turn off the rig after a fixed idle time The FT 1900R
31. s to consider I also wanted to provide a little shock absorption from the bumps and swerves on the road I had to find another solution I invented a clever compromise I attached a scrap piece of wood 1 D x 7 w x 5 H cut beveled and donated free from Home Depot thanks guys to the provided FT 1900R mounting bracket The transceiver wood combo created a hefty and sturdy M285 a ey jal fo a air n TS Ts 8 a es a i FT 1900R fixed to wooden block in Karl s Toyota Corolla brick that required no permanent mounting and fit per fectly when placed atop the two cup holders built into the Corolla s center console The depth of the cup holders provided all the clearance I needed for the antenna and power cables and it was positioned per PCARA Update December 2014 page 2 fectly to receive direct air conditioning from the dash board My right hand could comfortably manipulate all the rigs controls Does it get any better than this Yaesu s ergonomic design is thoughtful and logi cal All the basic controls are where they should be Volume squelch and power appear left of the large backlit LCD display A nice big tuning knob is ready for use on the right All of the more complicated functions are behind the five soft pushbuttons underneath the display tucked away and ready when you need them It just makes sense Even these buttons have dual func tions T
32. t de N2KZ The Old Goat Baojie BJ UV55 W2CH I recently purchased the Baojie BJ UV55 dual band 144 440 MHz Chinese made mobile transceiver through AliExpress from Alibaba China The price was 170 00 US plus 31 63 shipping It arrived here after almost two weeks via the Chinese and US Postal Ser vices Other prices on the Internet vary from 200 00 to 298 00 at Amazon Baojie BJ UV55 dual band mobile transceiver programmed by W2CH for the PCARA repeaters The transceiver is unusual because it does not have a built in speaker which is instead located on the opposite side of the microphone from the keypad This loudspeaker still puts out a good volume and there is also a jack on the back of the transceiver for an exter nal speaker The keys on the front side of the microphone do not program the transceiver but only allow DTMF tones and a calling sequence to be sent The microphone is plugged in with an RJ 45 type con nector to the front of the transceiver and is moder ate in size The radio also comes with a mobile mounting bracket There is an adequate fused power cord several feet in length and an SO 239 plug at the back of the transceiver for the antenna input alongside the rear mounted heat sink I did see a programming cable and CD ROM mentioned in the advertising but I did not purchase it so I manually programmed the memories myself One has to go through the menu items to set the split th
33. to a friend that travels wherever I go a Yaesu FT 1900R transceiver Simple basic and power ful it might be all you need as a mobile transceiver for your car It would be a nice addition to your ham shack too Let me get you acquainted The FT 1900R is a single band FM trans ceiver for 2 meters It operates with up to 55 watts and has more features than you can imagine It comes with an 86 page manual Like any modern trans ceiver it requires a little preparation before use I began with programming a handful of local repeaters and some common simplex frequencies After over a year of use I have not used even half of the 221 memo ries available Unless you have a super human encyclopedic memory a reference copy of the manual is an essential companion to this rig Keep a copy with you at all times to provide answers to all of your questions A Nifty manual is also available at http niftyaccessories com Yaesu_cards htm providing another point of view in a concise coil bound little book Don t let the complexity ue Yaesu FT 1900R single band mobile transceiver Te Ae Ee el scare you A few minutes of se fy nn domes basic setup will produce a set and forget transceiver that you won t have to think about ever again All the options are just that Options Experiment or leave idle It s your choice Early on I discovered how much power is necessary to produce a full 55 watt signal I had previo
34. usly suf ficed using a cigarette lighter plug to attain power for my mobile rigs When I tried operating the FT 1900R simi larly wired I received some 5 Bes nes zi interesting signal reports remarking on my weird audio distortions and overall signal clarity When I backed off the power to 25 watts or less the signal appeared clean I constructed a direct con nection between the fused power wiring of the rig and my car battery Suddenly high power operation was sweet Operating at 55 watts is an amazing experi ence Using a Diamond M285 wavelength whip on my trunk lid I have enjoyed quite satis fying results Riding along the New York State Thruway northbound I have been able to com fortably hold some local repeaters almost for ever losing contact only when approaching the southern suburbs of Albany I can now hear W1AW code practice broadcasts on 147 555 MHz during my commutes home from Stamford and have access to more NOAA all hazards weather radio stations than ever before It s fun having big ears 3 Physically mounting the FT 1900R required 5 a little thought I wanted to install it into my Toyota Corolla without drilling marking or oth erwise altering the car s interior Although the unit physically fit snugly into the convenience compart ments below the car radio there was not enough air circulation to support it Transceivers don t usually have a flat back with power antenna cables and heat sink
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