Come join the fun with the friendliest group of hams this side of The Zed! We host 2 weekly shows, Thursday at 7PM CDT/0100Z and Saturday morning at 0900CDT/1400Z. We cover topics on every aspect of Ham Radio and Ham Radio Accessories, as well as ham adjacent!
Join TO, Chuck, TheSmokinApe, and FEPLabs Radio as we discuss and dissect hammy goodness!
I used to buy commercial chokes, until I made my 1st 240-31 core and wrapped it with rg58 jumper. OMG what a world of difference it made! Much better than I could buy for $80 to $90 ! Hmmm, my ground mounted portable 20m vertical has an swr no higher than 1.2 on the edges of the band. no coils no chokes except where it comes in the house on 50ft of coax
Very good show ! Being in Broadcast working on transmitters MW/SW/FM/ ATSC TV all this stuff still applies. We use chokes. UNUN. Balun all the time. They just much bigger in some cases like a AM transmitter 50 KW . I get a lot of same questions hear and you guys gave great answers. Sometimes adds on eBay not totally correct. Balun and UNUN get confused all the time. I worked with Ziggy to correct one. This was nothing the maker did wrong. In fact is a great build and great quality. The only issue was a 9:1 Balun VS 9: UNUN . You can both with the same winding. it is how you connect them . That the only difference. Ziggy did follow up and got it right. I would have made same mistake. That's why I look things up. I was working today as well and watched re play . I am not a 9 to 5 Electrician nor is my girlfriend a 9 to 5 health care worker at a nursing home. 73
@@TheSmokinApe That a tri feeler winding 9:1 Balun. For random wire ,need UNUN. Just move connection point and done. Just like the Bi feeler winding 4:1 UNUN and balun. move around connection point. The wrapping of Toroide is the same. I found a 9:1 Bi feller wind and I need to try. made like 49:1 but 3 turn primary and 9 turn secondary. Math works but never wound it yet. I only did tri feller wind for 9:1
So I have a EFHW. I have a section of coax that goes to a lightning arrestor. The coax shield is grounded there. Then I go into the shack. I currently don't have a choke. Where should the choke go?
If a counterpoise that choke at UNUN side of coax. If not . still works the coax becomes the counterpoise. then you choke the coax that goes from lightning arrestor to the radio . anywhere along the coax will be fine. Use a few beads type 31 or a coax choke . Hope this helps .
They did . The LDG ones opening them up the Balun looks so bad a child could do better. That is a Ugly Balun in my book. I have seen them. some of the MFJ ones like that as well. and they work. Makes me question the laws of physics'. LOL
@The Smoking Ape. The first thing that you must understand is that Covid is a made up term for a bioweapon that was originally built in 2001 to identify and kill terrorist cells in the Middle East and at that time, it was called MERS. It only killed like 22 people in the Middle East. It was too weak of a bioweapon to be effective in its use against terrorist cells after its deployment in 2003-2004. Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV), the virus that causes MERS and deployed but the US Military and built by Dr.Anthony Fauci and then in 2001-2003, Dr.Anthony Fauci weaponized it with his “Gain of Function” research to make more of a contagious virus and went as far as publishing a medical journal in 2013 that with a person’s DNA sample, the newer version could be designed to kill just one man and at that time, the news was about Putin and his attack on Ukraine and the taking of Crimea. After that journal was published, that was very disturbing to the entire medical research community, our US Congress order that this research to be stopped and everything related to it to be destroyed including samples from the three U.S. universities that were involved in this bioweapon research but in 2001, Dr.Fauci had applied and was granted a U.S. patent for his bioweapons, the research and all related testing three months later. However, even with the Gain of Function research, this is still a very weak bioweapon when it comes to bioweapons in general. This one in particular could be defended out in the field by American soldiers just by taking vitamins to build up the immune system and HCQ tablets once a week until they can be transported to the rear in more reactive cases to receive the antidote. So to this day, all of us in the NBC Warfare field of training, mostly US Marine Corps and U.S. Navy has been wondering why wasn’t the antidote produced in mass since we know 110% that an antidote exists since we couldn’t deploy it in the Middle East without US Military personnel receiving the antidote like I got while working in that field in 2004. To this very day, I have not received any of the death shots and instead strived for the “herd immunity” so that my body would fight off the entire bioweapon cell and not just the broccoli looking cornels that surround the outside of the cells that clump together to form clotting. So starting in 2002, I have been donating my blood samples to be used for a new antidote through the Million Veteran Program at my VA Hospital. I came down with the worse variant, the Delta variant on July 5-12th 2020. I only used vitamins and the HCQ tablets that were provided to me by the VA, which I was suppose to take every Friday until the entire case was finished, which I kept and/or gave away to family members. Today, I take a tablet a week before getting on a plane to travel and one a week while on vacation. I still load up my pill schedulers with vitamins along with my prescription meds still today because some of our big pharmaceutical companies have been active building their own variants and I’m still waiting for a new “Election variant” to be deployed any day now, which some within our community thinks this new bird flu could be a variant but since no one in this big money field of pharmaceuticals is honest anymore, that they are willing to kill a bunch of people in order to make billions of dollars and this is why I don’t trust any form of any kind of shots now. I don’t care if it’s a new shot for the “Turkey Flu”, I will not get one. Besides, I’m at the age now that I’d rather stick to my vitamins vs all these death shots. I also feel that millions of people are taking vitamins that never took vitamins before and that people are eating and exercising better today too but we also have people that got the death shots, don’t believe that need to take vitamins and are the most dangerous people to come in contact with today…😢
No notice of the live stream this morning and I’ve been awake since 4:44am because I’m getting text messages like crazy on my birthday today. I’m watching it now and love hearing you talk about testing the G90, which I own two. I just bought the PMR 171 and I’ve yet to turn it on yet, lol. 😂
If I were building a Power Cart, and wanted to install an insulated power buss, how well would a pair of 1/2 copper pipes do for the buss assuming that it will be installed in a manner that nothing other than the connections will be able to come into contact with it? For Rat deterrent, go to your favorite hunting/outdoors man store and find the fox urine lure, every week or so use an eyedropper and drop several drops around the engine bay.
I would strongly recommend using a fused distro block, you're not gaining anything but the ability to accidently set your cart on fire having large exposed "terminals" just look up fused distro box
Question for Ziggy. You used a hook that you mentioned you used for wrapping toroids. I use heavier wire and struggle getting it tight. It looks like you have a system for doing that. Would love to see a video on how you use your setup to wire tolroids tight.
@@75ohmHAM people are going to be offended by ape's accepting review samples and follow his advice to go watch a cat video and end up in an infinite loop XD
There's a reason fuses (break on over current) are super common and crowbar circuits aren't. Current burns down buildings. Voltage just fries sensitive hardware.
Sometimes knowing how to ask the question is the key.. here friend.. For a 3-foot wire carrying 12V at 1 amp, you can use a fairly small gauge wire since the current is relatively low and the distance is short. Here's a brief calculation: 1. **Current Capacity**: According to the American Wire Gauge (AWG) standards, a 24 AWG wire can handle up to 2 amps, which is sufficient for your 1 amp requirement. 2. **Voltage Drop**: The voltage drop over a short distance of 3 feet is minimal. For 24 AWG wire, the resistance is approximately 0.02567 ohms per foot. For 3 feet, the total resistance is: \[ R = 0.02567 \, \Omega/\text{ft} \times 3 \, \text{ft} = 0.07701 \, \Omega \] The voltage drop \( V \) is given by Ohm's law \( V = I \times R \): \[ V = 1 \, \text{A} \times 0.07701 \, \Omega = 0.07701 \, \text{V} \] This voltage drop is negligible for a 12V system. Given these considerations, a 24 AWG wire should be adequate for your application. If you want to ensure even lower voltage drop and better mechanical strength, you could opt for a slightly thicker wire, like 22 AWG or 20 AWG.
Great show with Ziggy again ! AWG is American Wire Gauge. Some great wire on the show. I use the DX commander DX 50 wire for good dipoles, has Kevlar core. does not stretch much at all if any. I made my one power cord for IC 7300. you can buy that 4 pin plug. I made with all 10 AWG OFC wire. I did the parralo splice near plug like the icom one. but all 10 wire. then close to that plug ,I tool a FT 240-31 ferrite core . 31 mix and wrapp 10 turns threw it. that a common mode choke. then a short run into 2- 10 AWG fuse holders. They came in red so I put place heat shrink on one. Then the 45 AMP power poles. I get less voltage drop on the display then the icom cable . At my radio station we had a direct strike from lightning. at one of the 4 towers, Blue out the second down tower light. had to notify FAA on that. The end of the feed line where it cupples to tower blew a burned hole an end of copper feedline. That soloed copper. and Nitrogen filled line. The transmitter had no damage . but station off the air due to feed line. had to switch to back up transmitter and feed line . Lots of paperwork . FCC and FAA. and this during winter Blizzard in NY. 4 ft of snow ,60 Mph winds. All bets are off with Lightning . and all Lightning not the same. different power levels and can change polarly. NOAA taught me about positive lightning. 73
The ham radio solutions USB paddle interface (for v-band) presents as a keyboard where paddle operations show up as left and right ctrl keys. You could plug in a foot pedal (1/4" mono to 3.5mm stereo, leave ring disconnected) if you can map ctrl to PTT.
Mason jar - more hammy hambones folklore came from CBer urban myth. Grounding safety seldom saves a direct strike . Lightning be bad ass !! It jumps miles across the sky. It surely will evil knevil across a static discharge unit. Just unplug and disconnect everything. Including computers. Throw the coax outside. ARRL or similar insurance works once.
Great show. Tom is Awesome ! I got Email from him about that new board. I have the IC 7300 and use Headset and foot pedal. I do it from mic jack with adapter from heil sound. all the stuff is heil . Bob Heil would love that board Tom made. I love that Crowbar board that Tom has. It is cheaper than anything I can make. I fix power supply stuff very often. Some do not have Crowbar protection. and Tom sells the bare board. A customer wanted me to add that circuit after a repair of a supply. So I just got the bare board and just 2 wires and done. The supply had a fuse , so that blows. I tested that. Nice SCR tom has. I got something like that 1100 amps at 1600 volts. and a bigger one . 2200 amps 1600V . I took a bank of 450V large can caps . into SCR threw a coil back to cap. charge up caps , put washer on coil and trigger SRC , Made a strong EMP that sent washer 100 ft up into the air. I got idea from youtube video. My old PC XT still works. 5 1/4 floppy and full Height Mini scribe MFM HDD that is only 5 MB . I got 10 and 20 MB ones. only a few still work. 73
The majority of my connectors come from AmericanRadioSupply.com . I spec silver plated brass SO / PL-259's. They conduct even when they corrode. I also use COAX TAPE. That's a brand name. It stays flexible unlike the knockoffs. I've only been COAX TAPING the balun / unun connection. I change up the patch panel too often to tape that connection. (still building and experimenting.) Thanks to Smokin' Ape, I build my own baluns / ununs now, in addition to the antenna.
