After our first Wednesday evening net on 7296 KHz, USB, Mark e-mailed
me with comments, and a great photo of his station.
Our first Wednesday evening net was quite successful, with 11 stations
arriving
on the frequency, including Rolynn, and two stations from Colorado.
Perhaps more stations from the mid-west will be able to check in!!
Here are Marks comments:
" Since this is the 21st century, we don't have brag
tapes, we have brag PIX. :)
Attached is a pic of the setup here, with the numbers corresponding to those in
the description below.
Feel free to forward it on to others in the group you have email addresses
for.
The net was enjoyable, and Cam gave me VERY useful info on the 1099.
--Mark
1) Technical Materiel Corp (TMC) cross needle power/VSWR
meter.
2) TMC PAL-350 linear amplifier. 6CL6 drives a 6146, which
drives the two 4CX250Bs to produce a conservative 350 watts PEP.
100mw of drive will produce the rated output. Unit has MUCH
better specs than typical ham gear, and will match loads anywhere
from 30 to 1000 ohms purely resistive, or 50 to 700 ohms at +/-
45 degree angle. Frequency range 2-32mc continuous.
3) TMC SBE-3 exciter. Produces drive for PAL-350 from 2-32mc
continuous. Modes are USB, LSB, ISB (independent sideband),
or AM. Any level of carrier may be injected.
4) Racal RA-6790/GM HF receiver. Covers .5 to 29.999999mc in
1cps steps. Filters are .4kc, 1.2kc, 3kc, 9kc, and 16kc.
Modes are USB, LSB, CW, FM, AM. BFO is synthesized from -8kc
to +8kc in 10cps steps. Entire receiver runs off a single
hi precision 5mc standard (direct synthesis). Unit is controllable
via RS-232 serial interface, which I use to implement passband
tuning.
5) Home-built speech processor, built from a design created by
an electronics genius friend of mine in Indianapolis. This is
serial number 2. Baseband audio is mixed with a 250kc L.O. signal
in the first balanced modulator. The resulting 250kc SSB signal
goes through the first 250kc Collins mechanical filter to shave
off the unwanted mixing products. The signal is then clipped
(20db!) by a pair of diodes biased in a clipper arrangement. The
result then goes through a second mechanical filter to cut off the
out-of-band distortion products. The signal is then mixed back down
to baseband in a second balanced modulator, and amplified sightly
to recover the energy lost in all the conversion processes. Note:
the two mechanical filters were cobbed out of an old ARC-38A module.
6) Plug bay. The ONLY way to reconfigure stuff when it's
racked and stacked. Among the signals made available: audio, RS-232,
and keying.
7) TMC exciter power supply. Provides voltages for SBE-3.
8) Fluke 645A frequency synthesizer. Big, clunky, late 60s
vintage unit that also happens to be an amazingly nice
direct synthesis source for the 2 to 4mc local oscillator
(LO) signal needed by the SBE-3. The 5mc standard in the Racal
provides standard for the Fluke.
9) KAM-Plus tnc for occasional digital work. (I like to program it
for 2425/1575 mark/space for 850 shift work on RTTY -- you can bet
THAT keeps 'em guessing! :D
10) TMC PSP-350. Power supply for the PAL-350 linear, provides
2000V 400ma, and numerous other voltages.
11) Tandy 102 laptop computer. A golden oldy, but great for
use as a dumb terminal.
12) Coaxial antenna switch. I currently run a 10-40m vertical,
an 80m inverted vee, and a TCI wideband fan-delta tactical NVIS
antenna.
13) 400mc rackmount PC I built up -- amazing how much radio
equipment is talking to computers nowadays.
