Letting the Smoke Out

I recently broke the 1st rule of electronics - "Never Let the Smoke Out". This picture shows my MFJ-705 Low Pass Filter, which decided to misbehave during a recent PSK31 transmission. The odor was intense, not just a smoky smell but a seriously awful chemical olfactory offense which somehow managed to infiltrate the entire house.

I have not figured out why this happened as the 705 is rated for high power (2500 watts) and I was only running about 50 watts. Sure, the PSK signal is continuous duty, but it doesn't seem like that should cause it to melt.

So I guess I will be testing out the famous MFJ "No Matter What" warranty. Meanwhile I'll just be grateful that the whole shack didn't burn down!

Fixing Up the Traps

This afternoon I finally finished repairing the traps on the Cushcraft A3-S. The repair job hasn't really taken a lot of time, but other responsibilities have made it a long process. Basically I removed the trap, removed the old cracked caps, blew out the traps to clean out any debris, checked the set screw, replaced the caps with new ones, checked the DC continuity, scrubbed the ends with emery cloth, applied conductive paste, and returned them to their proper position. One of the hardest parts was tightening the hose clamps enough, and I did have to repace a few.

So hopefully I will be able to get the beam back up soon.

El Tour de Tucson

I've ridden in the El Tour de Tucson a few times, but this year I volunteered as a radio operator. Ted AA7HX assigned me to the role of Sector #1 Chief, which turned out to be a very good job for me.

The race has somewhere around 9,000 to 11,000 riders, depending on who you listen to. My Sector covered the first ~30 miles of the 110-mile route. There were 4 aid stations in the Sector, and my job was basically to cruise around helping the radio operators stationed at each aid station. Net Control provided us with directions. We didn't see a lot of action, since the race had just started; later Sectors had more accidents, bike repairs, and food and water problems to deal with.

I started up about 5:30 a.m., and was finished by 11:00. It was especially interesting to work El Tour since I'm currently in the midst of the ARRL Emcomm Level 2 course, which is designed to train operators for proper net control procedures.

The picture shows my truck at aid station #3. The net was on the W7SA 2 meter repeater, and I also ran APRS from the truck along with numerous other hams.

D-Star at RST

Last night was the RST meeting, and we set a new record for the largest attendance ever with 56 people squeezed in to the room at Cox Media. The topic was D-Star, and it was an excellent presentation.

After the presentation, the club made the commitment to set up a new D-Star system in Tucson. The excitement level has been high and as of this afternoon it looks like enough funds have been raised to go for a "Full Stack" - which means that we should be seeing 2 meters, 70 cm, and 23 cm repeaters in service before too long.

A couple of guys in the club already have Icom 2820H rigs, here is one of them set up on the table for a demo, with a 1.2 gHz repeater module in the background. The audio is certainly cleaner but the real power of D-Star seems to be in the networking capabilities. It will be interesting to watch as the D-Star system evolves.

That's what makes ham radio so fun, there is always something new to play with!