Hi. Welcome to VK3UA's Blog about Ham Radio. This site is mainly for me to record and remember my ham radio and electronics activities. I hope that you find something interesting and/or useful to you here. 73 de Cambo.
We talked about random wire end fed antennas and matching, as well as open wire feed line.
L-Match's were agreed to be a good tuning option for random wire end fed antennas and for half wave end fed it appeared to be a fixed wound toroid as the impedance match.
Open wire feed was a mix of commercial and home brew feeder. A few different methods of construction were used for the home brew feed. Spacing was variable depending on application.
I recently bought an SW-3B 3 band CW transceiver for quick and easy SOTA activation's.
I have an old laptop bag that I use to take my Yaesu ft-817 and associated gear portable, but it is too big for the sw-3b, so I decided to buy a smaller shoulder bag to carry it.
When I was in the Army we had some various canvas bags we used that would have been ideal, so I looked around for something similar.
In the end I found this one - Retro Vintage Military Canvas Bag - on eBay that looked OK and was only about $28.00, so I bought the khaki coloured one to see if it was suitable.
Honestly, at the price I wasn't expecting much, so I was quite surprised at the quality of it when I received it. The canvas is reasonable, and so far, the zips have held up well. It is just the right size for my SW-3B, mini atu, longwire antenna, cw paddle, and portable 9600mAh battery. Also a couple of pockets for bits and pieces. And I can still fit a couple of sandwiches and a can of drink in it.
Khaki canvas bag for SOTA portable with SW-3B CW Transceiver
There were 4 participants, including Net Control, and 2 call-ins.
NC introduced the net and proceeded with the topic for the night, which was: managing transceiver temperature in a hot operating environment.
This came about from the experience of a local ham whose transceiver suddenly stopped transmitting mid over during a contest on a hot day. He estimated the temp in the shack to be over 40℃. Testing the transmitter later found there was now no output power on transmit, so it doesn't look good for the finals.
VK3UFO was the first to respond.
Summary: Jim's recommendation was to make sure there is nothing on or around the radio that is blocking airflow. If the radio is still running hot, an external fan can be employed to blow air across the radio's heatsink to provide further cooling. Need to note that when running digital modes the radio's amplifier is working much harder than when running SSB.
Audio of VK3UFO - managing transceiver temperature in a hot operating environment
VK3ZPG then responded from the point of view of valve transmitters.
Summary: Steve said that the best practice with valve transmitters is to use a fan to suck heat out, rather than blow cooler air in as it tends to go to spots that can be damaged.
Audio of VK3ZPG - managing transceiver temperature in a hot operating environment
VK3DFL, Jim, mentioned it is possible to mount a computer muffin fan on the heatsink of your radio.
With no further input about the nights topic, NC then asked if there were any other questions, or information, that anyone would like to provide on any technical topic related to ham radio.
With no responses forthcoming, NC thanked the participants and closed the net.
Listen to complete VK Tech Net 1
From this small beginning, I hope that this net will continue to grow from here.
