XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated, aus.radio.amateur.misc, rec.radio.amateur.equipment

VK2KFJ Blog

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covid lockdown update in NSW

Posted: 02 Sep 2021 06:56 PM PDT https://vk2kfj.blogspot.com/2021/09/covid-lockdown-update-in-nsw.html


since NSW been in lockdown since mid-June, I taken opportunity of having
the 4wd in the garage and in pieces, doing lots of upgrade and
modifications including, fixing 12v DC cabling for radios, doing
measurements of DC cable feed losses to radio with load and without load,
one thing I discovered was that I had added two big 60amp relays evenly feeding the radios in the car, these are switched via the Accessories
switching 12v direct from battery feed, via 300amp distribution box
(which feeds battery to radios, spotlights and radiator cooling fans, essentially additional high current devices not handled by main fusebox) to
the radios and split by the two relays to share the load between all the radios. Looking at volts at the battery and measuring at the radio, I only seeing a couple hundred mV losses end to end, at full TX power, most of
that loss is across the relay. The 4GA cable is doing its job. I did add
two new brass battery terminal connectors to replace the crappy terminal connectors supplied by Isuzu.
Realistically, I could have fed all the radios via one relay, as I not expecting to run multiple radios at once, even though two radios are for
VHF & HF APRS, but they are short term bursts of Tx, anyway, I played
safe by having two 60amp relays in case a relay failed, then I don't lose
all communications, which is very important if travelling in the outback. Having overkill on the relays means not pitting contacts from on-off keying
of relays every time I go in the car. The idea of the relays was ability
to isolate radios from power, i.e I don't want a radio to fail or have it keying up by itself when the car is parked, so if I not in the car, then
all radios are isolated, same applies to all other electronics in the car, isolated when switched off.
Also replaced some older antenna sockets, they manage to get moisture in
the SO-239 bases, the gold centre pin plating gets tarnished, replaced
them, now distant repeaters are much better in signal strength.
Did some more under body coating with Tar based paint, it 's to reduce the pitting of underbody frame and panels from driving on dirt roads, the paint inside the rear bumper looked like 20 years of sandblasting. I first
cleaned it all up with high pressure water cleaner, repainted with satin
black rust guard, then coated over with Tar paint. This should slow down
the damage to underbody paintwork from driving on dirt roads. I also custom made some smaller mud flaps to go underneath, minimize rocks flying up and hitting things, particularly to protect things like brake and fuel lines
and wiring near fuel tank.
Looking forward to lockdown ending one day, so I can take the 4wd out in
the country. The guys in my local radio club itching to go away somewhere
too. Hopefully, we can coincide a trip away with a radio contest.

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Pi-Star Version for MMDVM as of September 2021

Posted: 02 Sep 2021 06:04 PM PDT https://vk2kfj.blogspot.com/2021/09/pi-star-version-for-mmdvm-as-of.html


the only changes in last few months have been in the Pi-Star Dashboard, Pi-Star for Rpi is currently version 4.1.5
Dashboard is version 20120721 (21st July 2021)

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WIA Contests up to end of 2021

Posted: 02 Sep 2021 05:45 PM PDT https://vk2kfj.blogspot.com/2021/09/wia-contests-up-to-end-of-2021.html


There are two weekends of Oceania Contests, SSB weekend and CW weekend, first two weekends of October.
And then the Spring VHF-UHF Field Day Contest on 27th and 28th November, whether VK2 can go portable is another thing.




SJTHHB Family History blog – blog for my family ancestry (wordpress.com)

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