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Every Monday Evening at 8pm Eastern Time, the W3GMS/R Crew get together on the repeater at 146.985Mhz and discuss technical questions and sometimes do lessons related to Ham Radio for newer Operators to learn from experienced Elmers. The Workbench was set up to be a safe place for any technical questions to get asked and good answers to be given.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good evening and welcome to the 985 W3 GMS Repeater Workbench.
My name is Wayne and my call sign is KC3SQI.
I'm located in the village of Kimblesville.
The workbench meets every Monday at 8 p.m. on the W3 GMS Parksburg Repeater.
The offset is minus 600 kHz.
The PL tone for transmit is 100 Hz.
And for those that you tone squelch on receive, the repeater uses a tone squelch of 94.8 Hz.
Newcomers are very welcome.
We encourage all stations to check in.
Take a look at the repeater website located at www.w3gmsrepeater.com.
It has a lot of information, including technical articles, pictures of 985 users in action, and repeater etiquette and history.
Here on the workbench, we focus on answering general amateur radio questions and discussing topics of radio theory and operation.
Additionally, we will be asking each station to make some general comments about what you did in amateur radio in the past week.
When you check in, please indicate if you have a question.
But even if you don't have a question, please check in.
After all stations have checked in, we will go into our general comments using a roundtable-like format.
After each station gives their comments, we ask that you pass the discussion to the next station that checked in behind you.
After all comments, we ask that we...
After all comments, we ask that you pass the discussion to the next station.
After all stations have finished discussing their week in ham radio,
please pass the control back to the host, and we will move on to the stations with questions.
After the question is heard, I will call out to the workbench for a station to answer the question.
Once the question is answered satisfactorily, we will move on to the next question and person.
Remember, the workbench is the time and place to ask those in-depth technical and operational questions.
Please don't hesitate to ask.
Please don't hesitate to ask.
Also, don't think that a question is too trivial or that it will make you sound bad.
Some of those simple questions create some of the best answers.
Keep in mind, the question portion of the workbench is a directed net.
It will be recognized by net control before beginning a transmission.
This will help us handle the question sufficiently and keep the net running smoothly.
However, there may be times when two stations need to directly communicate for additional information or statements.
Please do so if necessary and pass it back to net control after you have finished.
A few quick things to remember.
Click, wait a second, and then talk.
This is to ensure that we don't miss the first syllables of your transmission or call sign.
The repeater needs some time to identify your PLL and start transmitting.
Also, repeater has a three minute FCC required time out.
Please let up on your PTT button from time to time, something like this, to reset the timer.
You don't have to let the carrier drop to reset the timer.
If you go past the three minute timer, it will lock up the repeater and no one can talk or interrupt
or do anything on the repeater until you let your PTT up.
And finally, at the end of your transmission, turn it back over to net control.
Before we begin, I'd like to thank all of the Workbench hosts for volunteering as hosts of the Workbench.
If you'd like to host a Workbench, please reach out to Jim, AF3Z, or any of the hosts, and we'll get you on the schedule.
Lastly, please join Luke, KC3SCY, this Thursday at 8:00 p.m. as he is hosting this week's session of the 985 Thursday Night Roundtable.
Also, the repeater experiences intermod interference at times.
So please be aware of that and use maximum power so that you get over the interference.
or be prepared to use digital, either Echolink or AllStar, to get into the repeater.
And with...
So at this time, we're going to begin the check-in process.
Remember to indicate if you have a question for the group. Also, if you're using RF, please check in and make a short call to the net host to see if you're getting over the intermod, if the intermod is available.
So at this time, we're going to start with the digital check-ins. So anyone using Echolink or Allstar, please call KC3SQI.
Good evening, all. I'm in and out tonight, and I just want to check in for the count.
Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey. CR, no questions.
Kilo Delta 3, Echo Echo, with a new call sign. This is John, no questions.
Let me see if I have it.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Murray.
We have W1RC. He's in and out. We have CR, WHCRW, and KD3CE. Are there any other digital stations that would like to check in for the 985 workbench? Please call KC3SQI.
Thank you.
Quick correction. It's Kilo Delta 3, Echo Echo.
Okay. Sorry about that. Kilo Delta 3, Echo Echo. Got it. Thank you.
Okay. Having heard no further digital stations, I will at this time ask for RF stations and or digital to call in. Please space them out a little bit. This is KC3SQI.
Please space them out a little bit. This is KC3SQI.
Whiskey Alpha 3, Victor Echo Echo, WA3VE, no questions.
NA3CW, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
W3FES, no questions.
3 ILS
Hello Victor 3 Juliet Golf Bravo
Hello Victor 3 Juliet Golf Bravo
Okay, let me run down the list from the top. W1RC, In and Out, W8CRW, KD3 Echo Echo, WA3VEE, NA3CW, W3FES, W3QP,
WA3KFT, W3ILS, KV3, GJB. Are there any corrections or additions? Please call KC3SQI.
Correction, KW3, India, Lima, Sierra.
Alpha 3, Lima Hotel
Alpha 3, Lima Hotel
Alpha 3, Lima Hotel
Alpha 3, Lima Hotel
Okay, Bill, got you.
Are there any other quick check-ins or anyone who has a question and forgot when they were checking in?
Please call KC3SQI.
Okay.
We will start off with WHCRW.
What did you do this week in amateur radio?
This is KC3SQI.
Thank you, Wayne, for taking the chair tonight.
This is CR.
Good evening, all.
This week in ham radio was pretty routine, just normal 985 and other nets around the band.
So, with that, let's go to John.
John, KD3 Echo Echo, WHCRW.
Thanks, CR.
This is KD3 Echo Echo.
John, in Landisville.
I was KC3 WWC, but a couple weeks ago I got it changed.
So far it's panning out pretty well.
I spent the entire day when I got the new call sign updating all the websites and the local software and my own radio gear.
And even today I was still finding places that had it wrong.
So, it's an undertaking.
Fortunately, it's been all code activations, I guess, recently.
I was traveling a little bit, so I was in New York and doing some local stuff.
Some FTA and FT4, but I did get to use my call sign for a little bit of sideband and for some CW.
And it keys pretty nicely.
I like it.
And if they understood me on the other side, it wasn't confusing with the Echo Echo on the end.
So, it just said, dit, dit.
You know, it's sort of, in POTA, that's like end of transmission.
But everybody understood it quickly.
And it feels like I'm done keying it before I get started.
So, that's pretty nice.
For all my activations, I tried different antennas and stuff.
I got to play with a magnetic loop that I recently acquired.
And otherwise, my NFET half wave, as usual.
Usually just running two watts, because it's FT8 and FT4.
And I like to kind of see how low I can go.
And I almost ruined one activation because I dripped sweat on the touchpad of the computer.
And it just completely flaked out.
It made it really hard to control anything or to click on any, you know, to click around or anything.
So, I kind of think I need to be more careful or maybe carry a mouse.
So, next up, I'll hand off to Ron, WA3VEE.
This is Kilo Delta 3, Echo Echo.
That call sign.
That's a good one.
Especially the ending.
Kilo Delta 3, Echo Echo.
This is Whiskey Alpha 3, Victor Echo Echo.
Yeah, that's a pretty cool CW ending there, no doubt about it.
Original issue here, 52 years and one month ago.
So, yeah, that's going to stay VEE for sure.
All very good.
Congrats on a new call sign.
Excellent.
Very good, then.
You sounded pretty good tonight, John.
Not much in ham radio here the past week.
I did do some troubleshooting today with Joe.
We stopped by very quickly here at the QTH.
And we swapped out our nodes to figure out why I drop every once in a while.
And I think CR is honing in on it and saying that it's a carrier.
I use AT&T.
However, I do go through some areas where the cell coverage is a little spotty.
So, I don't know what the handshake looks like between the hotspot and the mothership,
wherever the switching center is.
So, that could be the issue.
If it doesn't get a response, that might be why it drops.
Not sure.
If it drops here at the house, I said earlier in a conversation with Mr. Mike before the workbench,
if it drops here at the house, then I know there's a real issue somewhere.
Because I've got pretty much full bars here and can even have an app on my smartphone.
It can actually tell which tower the signals are coming from and how far the tower is away.
So, what I'm looking at here is over on, there's two of them.
There's one on, over at Paleway Pike, over by West Ocean Shopping Center, big tower over there.
And also, there's one up, over on Downingtown Pike.
So, either one of those, too.
So, that's the big thing here, trying to troubleshoot exactly what's going on.
And also, outfitting my van and say goodbye to the old Porcupine today, the old 2005 Sienna.
And that had 315,539 miles on it.
And just way too expensive to get any repairs done to probably keep it on the road for another probably 25,000, 50,000 miles.
But, anyway, someone will get a car that will at least give them a few more months of operation for sure.
With that, Chuck, it's your turn.
NA3CW, WA3VEE.
We'll pause for the cause.
WA3VEE, NA3CW.
All these EE calls, I feel left out.
So, congratulations, John, on KD3EE and WA3VEE.
Wow.
Anyway, kind of the same story.
Not a whole lot of ham radio.
Did nets and did the usual pre-net for the PMAM net.
And that went reasonably well.
Not a whole lot of guys, but had good QSOs and a good time all around.
And mostly today I've been working on my trailer project.
And made some progress on that as well.
So, over to Fred, W3FES, NA3CW.
NA3CW, W3FES.
Thank you, Chuck.
Not much to report this week in ham radio.
Just building small antennas for scanner listening.
That's about it.
That's about it.
Nothing else.
Much going on.
Just sitting here enjoying the net there.
I'll pass it over to K3QP.
Take it away.
W3FES.
This is W3QP.
I am back from a week down in Virginia.
I was doing summits on the air activations.
I had a lot of fun.
Got bit by a whole lot of bugs.
Found myself in the nest of, what the devil are those called?
Chiggers.
My legs are all polka dotted at this point.
So, it's been a lot of fun.
Two stories that I'll relate that some of you might find amusing.
One of the summits, I got up and I got my radio all set up on the summit.
And I hear this noise back behind me.
And I turn to look.
And there was a mother bear staring at me.
And her three cubs are up a tree.
And they're, I don't know, maybe 100 feet away from me.
And I look at the mom and she looks at me.
And I pull out my phone and take a picture.
And ask her if her cubs want to get on the air.
And she declined and they went off the mountain.
So, you know, it all ended well.
But it was a tense moment there for a second.
The other story I have is I was on Reddish Knob.
Which, if you know the geography down there, is one of the high points on the western side of Harrisonburg.
And it sits up above Sugar Grove, West Virginia, which is an NSA facility.
And when I was up there, my radio was acting funny.
It was acting like it was getting decent.
I had one guy telling me that I was like 50 kilohertz off.
And he thought I needed to adjust my radio.
And that was on Saturday a week ago.
And I had no problems the summit before that or any of the summits after that.
So I have to wonder if there were some transmissions coming out of Sugar Grove that were goofing with my radio or something.
Don't know.
But I thought that was amusing.
That is all for me.
So I will throw it over to WA3KFT.
This is WA3QP.
WA3QP.
This is WA3KFT.
All right.
Well, we've been surfing the nets.
40 meters, 10 meters, 2 meters, and 440.
So we've spent a good deal of time being net control on 6 and 2.
And the rest of the time checking into the various nets that propagate around and what have you.
Paying attention to the garden.
I have a bumper crop of yellow crookneck squash this year.
I think I'm going to have to wind up freezing a lot of it.
I just can't eat it fast enough.
Over to you, Travis.
November 3, India, Lima, Sierra.
From WA3, King, Fox, Tango.
The call tonight is kilowatt, Bravo 3, India, Lima, Sierra.
Keith, on the real ILS, Travis got the call with the ILS after I did.
I didn't hear him, and I'm next and older here.
So speaking of TV3 ILS, definitely not an EE call.
It is interesting on CW.
Some people, even the really good ops, struggle with the B and the 3, I guess because they're opposites, almost opposites in a row.
But I've been in there for 20 years.
I like it, so I think I'm going to stick with it.
I was on the workbench last Monday night, and I think that maybe it's good luck coming to the workbench for CW Context.
Later in the evening, I was getting ready to go to bed, and I decided to listen to the radio for a few minutes.
And for some reason, I stopped on 30 meters.
I don't know why.
I usually don't.
And I heard a call, and CQ, and listened to it, and it turned out to be a station in Denmark.
And we had a nice cue.
So I'm not sure if he was tired because it was 4 o'clock in the morning in Denmark, but a lot of characters run together.
Maybe he was sending in his native tongue, but we did get a nice cue.
So I found out where he was and things like that.
The next morning, I got up, and the radio was still sitting on 30 meters.
I said to listen a few minutes before my first meeting, and I heard a ZF station.
It's kind of interesting, although the Cayman Islands or whatever it is, you hear all the time.
And I listened again.
It turned out to be a ZL station on 30 meters at 7 o'clock in the morning.
So New Zealand's definitely more interesting at 7 o'clock in the morning, and made the contact.
And the impressive part to me on both of these contacts was they were both on QRP, 5 watts, to an NVID wire, Denmark, and the station in Netherlands.
So I'm very excited about it.
I take a picture of the rig.
I send it to Mike, AP3AP.
Tell him what I got.
He comes back.
Oh, that's very cool.
So that's my wife and kids.
And I get back the same answer I've gotten for 20 years.
Is 5 watts a lot, Dad?
They don't know.
So anyway, good time doing that.
The next day, I was outside on my rig.
And after a long day at work, I put a wire in a tree and just work some stations.
I ended up working a gentleman in western Pennsylvania, 75 years old.
We went back and forth for 30 minutes, which is a long QSO for me.
Very nice guy named Art, 75.
He was working a bug on a CW, and he had the best smooth CW I've heard on a bug in a long, long time.
So we had a great conversation about his grandkids, my vacation.
I don't do a lot of rag chewing, but I'm so glad we met up on 40-meter CW.
So I'm hoping after the next night that I have the same kind of luck on the CW bands.
I'm hoping this net brings me good luck.
So I will turn it over.
It's KV3, Juliet, Germany, Bravo.
Thank you, Keith.
Thank you, Keith.
KV3, JGB here.
Not a lot here for me on the radio.
I'm mostly here for my questions, so I will just keep it moving.
I believe Leon, A3LH, I think you're next.
KV3, JGB.
Now, thank you.
This is A3LH.
I got a front tire.
Hang on a second.
KC3H, QZ.
Just wanted to say hi to everybody.
I'm sitting and listening tonight.
But I wanted to let you know I'm in here.
And good evening, everybody.
KC3H, QZ.
Fastest flat tire I ever changed in my life.
But you'll be under the bus.
You know, everything looks good.
The U-joints are good.
The brakes are adjusted.
Tires have 110 pounds of air in it.
We are good to go there.
Wayne, you're good to go.
The muffler bracket is secure.
Nothing.
All the rattles are taken care of.
And you guys just sit back and have a nice, smooth ride.
Well, I didn't do a whole lot in ham radio this week.
I admit that.
I went to a sale.
And I got an old stove.
This old kerosene stove that we had at home.
I got it for a dollar bill.
And I was playing with that, getting that thing going.
So we got that thing going.
So if the electric goes off this winter, we can cook on it.
Yeah, we got one of those.
A new perfection stove.
We got the thing running.
And I kind of, you know, that ain't a couple days.
Because it probably wasn't fired up in 50 years.
And got that thing cleaned up.
It got it working pretty decent.
And I go back to ham radio again this week.
All right.
That goes over to Mr. Bill, Mr. KC3OOK.
It's okay.
Did you have a tailgarner tonight, Bill?
AA3LH.
Thanks, Leon.
I'm AA3LH.
KC3OOK.
And, Wayne, thanks for taking the chair tonight.
Well, I'm not sure that I did too much in radio this week.
Because I did host the roundtable Thursday night.
I lose track of time.
And I think I hosted the welfare net on Sunday night.
Other than that, not much activity on the radio for me.
A little bit of work in the ham shack.
And we're going to be doing a little bit of work on Joe's tower tomorrow.
So looking forward to that.
But other than that, that's about it for me.
So I think I am the tailgarner.
So I turn it back to you, Wayne.
KC3SQI.
KC3OOK.
Okay.
Before we continue, are there any other stations that would like to check into the workbench?
Please call KC3SQI.
Good evening Wayne, good evening to the group W3JAM, Wesky 3 Juliet Alpha Mike, Jeff here in northern Chester County.
Okay, having heard no one else, go ahead Jeff, W3JAM, this is KC3SQI, what did you do in AM radio this week?
Good evening to you Wayne and all on station. Well this week was, I did actually make some steps towards reestablishing
Studio A, I think I mentioned I picked up a couple of desks to be operating positions where I can actually lay equipment out in a logical fashion and be able to work over and behind the equipment and maintain the station.
So those desks are in fact now here, I've got to put them together and get them set up. The trick of course is getting, making room in the locations so designated.
So that's a work in progress. Since I retired we've actively been trying to downsize and get rid of stuff and that work continues and that includes some of my ham radio holdings.
One of the things I did today was identifying my next project to fix up some rigs and probably sell them. My SB-102 is going to be sold or given away and I've got some work to do on it. So I was looking at that briefly today but I'm going to probably at some point this week get that out on the workbench, such as it is, and try to get that running fine business so that I can move it to a new year.
So I'm trying to clear the decks and just whittled down to the essential operating elements and call it good in Studio A. I did also have a conversation with local fabrication shops but they no bid a couple of my antenna related projects or antenna and tower projects.
So I continue to go in other directions on those things. So anyway, that's, oh yes, and I am working on a 16 element 222 megahertz Yagi. Well, actually a 220 megahertz Yagi. At the time the, was the 220 band. It was a directive systems antenna.
K1FO design, 16-element Yagi on about a 17, almost 18-foot boom.
It actually picked it up at the New Holland Hamfest a couple of years ago,
and I'm in the process of changing the driven element and T-match assembly over to the retrofitted version of it.
The original one was a driven element, was a brass rod with number 12 copper wire as the arms for the T-match,
and you literally soldered the shorting bar into position, and I want to retrofit that over to the current design,
which is more in line with what you might see on like M-squared antennas with shorting bars that have set screws,
rather than requiring one to solder the shorting bar.
But that's how they did it in the original design, but I'm going to change that over,
and I will probably install that as my 220 antenna, 222 antenna I should say nowadays,
that will be mounted on a 45.
Give me the best of both worlds, which generally won't be a problem.
16-element gives you plenty of gain, so I can sacrifice 3 dB by tilting it on a 45 to be able to work low-end sideband CW
or upper-end FM stuff.
And that will only become a problem if another station tilts theirs on a 45, but in the opposite sense,
in which case then I'll be orthogonal to them and basically, in theory, have infinite attenuation between the two polarizations.
Oh, well.
Anyway, back to you, Wayne.
Good evening to all.
I'm literally in and out here in Studio B.
I was just tending some things for the horses for the morning, and I've got to get back to A because I'm over to the house
because I've got a ton of dishes to do from dinner.
Hi, hi.
I will try to get up on All-Star if at all possible.
Back to you, Wayne.
W3JAM.
Thank you, Jeff.
Now, is there anyone else who would like to check in for the workbench?
Please call KC3SQI.
KC3NZT, late check-in, no comments for the evening.
Thanks, Wayne.
Okay.
Any other check-ins?
Okay.
Having heard nothing,
I'm still working on my new antenna mast.
I'm putting connectors on inside the terminal box at the base of the antenna
so that I can use the correct size plugs for...
the coax, the connectors don't go through those, so...
and they don't fit through the hole for the coax either.
So, that's about what I'm doing.
And we're...
not much else going on here other than some fishing.
So, with that, I will ask one more time if there are any questions for the workbench.
please call KC3SQI.
Thank you.
Okay, I'm going to throw one out here.
I have a weatherized electrical box that I'm putting my stuff at the bottom of the antenna,
and I have a hole that was at the wrong place.
This is a fiberglass box.
What would be the best plug to put into a hole in a box to seal it up so that it doesn't get stuff inside the box?
Can anybody help me? This is KC3SQI.
Okay.
Okay. KFT, go ahead.
W-A-3-KFT. I'm thinking of essentially two flat plates and a bolt through the middle.
I'll say I'm guessing that the hole is about the size of a quarter, diameter of a quarter.
So if you were to cut a circle out of, I'll say, some sheet aluminum that's probably larger than a silver dollar,
cut two of them, and drill a hole, that's thinner, so you can put a bolt, a washer, and a nut,
and clamp it on the inside and outside. But on the outside, use some kind of sealer, caulking compound or something like that.
Put that around it so that when you tighten it up, it squeezes and gives you a waterproof connection.
Doesn't matter whether it's a fiberglass box or a metal box or whatever.
But that should do the trick. This is W-A-3-King-Fox-Tango.
Okay. Thank you, John. Anyone else have any suggestions? KC-3-SQI.
W-A-3-V-E-E.
Go ahead, Ron.
Yeah, very good. KC-3-SQI-WA-3-V-E-E here on the net.
Question for you, Wayne. What's the diameter of that hole?
It's a 3-8th hole.
Tiny. Okay. Then my solution may not work.
I was going to suggest one of the vendors we used to use at HP there, Hubble.
Hubble Weigman, they have hole plugs that do about the same thing that John is mentioning there.
But they are, they have a gasket, a no-ring.
It's not an o-ring. It's a flat rubber gasket that makes it relatively watertight.
So you may want to, you may want to see what they have.
The smallest one I'm seeing here is a half an inch.
So I'm not sure if they make something that is that small, 3-8ths.
But you may want to look at Hubble Weigman.
These are hole plugs.
That's basically what they are.
Very simply put.
To see, I'm going to look here also.
If I find one, I'll send it over to you on email.
That would be my suggestion.
Very similar approach, of course, have some kind of waterproofing there going on, obviously.
KC3SQI WA3VE.
KC3NZT.
Go ahead.
KC3NZT.
Hey Wayne, bulkhead blanking plugs are a common thing.
We've got a ton of them at work.
They cover all kinds of different holes, sizes.
I'm looking right now on Amazon.
You probably don't need this many.
But 270 of them of various sizes.
From one-fifth of an inch all the way up to two inch.
And everything in between is like $7 free shipping.
So they're very, very common.
They seal all kinds of sheet metal holes.
And it's just either plastic or rubber.
Depends what style you want to buy.
And it seals them up just fine.
They last a long time.
KC3NZT.
Back to net.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Anyone else have any suggestions?
Okay.
Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey.
Okay.
CR, go ahead.
Well, if it was me, I'd use a little epoxy with some fiberglass backer.
And that would seal it up and be done.
Okay.
Yeah, I was thinking about some, just some glue.
Shoe glue and put a piece of plastic over it.
But, you know, I was wondering if there was something commercially out there that might be a little better use than that.
But, okay.
Are there any other suggestions?
3-VEE again?
Go ahead, Ron.
All the suggestions so far are something that I would actually consider myself.
What Harvey said here.
I've got this link.
I'm going to send it over to you for these 30 pieces, black hole plugs, 3-8 inch cabinet and screw holes, plastic.
Couple that with a couple of things that CR mentioned and also what John mentioned with some watertight sealing and epoxy to keep it in place.
I think you'll be in good shape.
These are black.
I don't know if you're into Vera Bradley styling there.
But, nonetheless, these are black.
So, I don't know if that makes a difference.
But I'll certainly send you the link.
You might get 30 pieces and you only need one.
But for 30 pieces, it's less than five bucks on Slamazon.
KC-3-S-Q-I-W-A-3-V-E.
Okay.
Thank you, Ron.
Anybody else have any suggestions?
Okay.
Does anyone else have any questions that we can help you with?
KC-3-S-Q-I.
I actually come up with one related to a mobile installation.
Unless anyone else has one, Wayne.
This is W-A-3-V-E-E.
Didn't Matt have a question?
Who did you say had a question, Chuck?
KV-3-JGB.
I think he said he had a question.
Do you have a question, Matt?
KV-3-JGB.
Yeah, I do.
Sorry.
Yeah, I do.
You want me to go ahead and ask it?
Good.
Yes.
So, kind of not entirely similar, but kind of a similar area of radio that you asked there, Wayne.
I have my antenna up in the tree.
Thank you to George and company for helping me put it up there.
And my feed line runs to a box like you have into my shed.
Now, the feed line is kind of on the ground from where it comes down from the tree and then to where it goes into the box.
It's just the way the setup kind of has to be.
And it's kind of on the ground and I kind of have to move it to mow.
So, I was looking for thoughts and suggestions on what I should do.
I guess I could run it a little bit high, high enough that I could duck under it to the shed and then kind of run it along the shed.
But I was just looking for suggestions of what other people have done with their feed line.
I mean, I guess I don't want to run it right to the shed because at the same time, because, you know, one end has a lightning protector on.
If it's attached to the shed, it might go right into the shed there.
So, it may not be the best solution there.
So, anyway, that's my question.
I hope I explained it well enough.
Please feel free to ask questions if you don't understand what I'm talking about.
Kilo Victor 3, Juliet Golf Bravo.
Okay.
Anyone have any suggestions on how to run the feed line to the shed?
Please call KC3SQI.
I've got a question.
W-A-3-V-E-E for Matt.
Okay.
Go ahead, Ron.
You're good, Matt.
Good to hear you tonight, by the way.
KV-3-J-G-B-W-A-3-V-E-E.
Matt, what kind of feed line is it?
Is it open wire line?
Is it coax?
Is it variable coax?
And also, another question.
Is there any way you can run a messenger wire to suspend that coax from the tree?
I think I remember the tree because I was there with George when we put that up there at your place.
Is there any way you can run a messenger wire from there maybe to the apex on the gable on the shed?
And that would get it up maybe.
That might give you the clearance.
So two questions.
Type of coax and also would you consider doing a messenger wire to suspend that coax?
This is WA-3-V-E-E.
Over to you, Matt.
Apply my way, Wayne.
Okay.
Go ahead, Matt.
That's a good question.
I guess I should have specified.
I was thinking about this.
I wanted to make sure I specified.
It's RG-8-U.
I think RG-8-U coax.
So, yes, I can probably run a messenger line up there to kind of get the height proper.
I didn't think about that.
But, yes, it's just regular RG-8-U coax.
That would be my vote is to do the messenger line.
Obviously, making sure you take into account the drop for your lightning arrestor at the tree.
Back to you, Wayne.
KC-3-S-Q-Y-W-A-3-V-E-E.
Okay.
Anyone else have any suggestions for Matt?
Please call KC-3-S-Q-Y.
W-3-Q-P?
W-3-Q-P?
Go ahead, Tim.
This is W-3-Q-P.
What I did for my coax is I buried some PVC piping.
I put it on a bit of a grade from point A to point B, whatever side makes the most sense for that.
I put a little gravel pit in on that end so that any moisture that gets in there, hopefully, will drain out.
It was a bit overkill, but it's running through my garden.
I'm not worried about, you know, chopping it with a spade or anything like that.
If I'm not mistaken, running the coax underground will also help soak up any RFI that comes back.
I could be wrong on that so somebody can fact check me, but I think that might be the case.
That is all for me.
Back to net control.
This is W-3-Q-P.
Any suggestions?
Any further suggestions?
Please call KC-3-SQI.
KC-3-NZT?
Go ahead.
Hey, Matt.
All I was going to say is that, in my experience, temporary becomes permanent.
And when I had to do a run not too long, probably like 60 feet, I didn't want to bury it because it's a lot of work.
But I knew that I'd like the way it looked better.
And honestly, it wasn't that much work.
I did it very shallowly, just waited until, like, I had a good rain, went out a couple hours afterwards,
and I just was sticking a shovel in the ground and just peeling it forward and just made a little trench.
And it disappeared in about a week.
And looking back, I'm glad I did it, even though it was a little bit more work than another option.
So I don't know if that's an option for you, burying it.
But, you know, I tend to think about what I'm going to think about it three months from now.
I probably won't remember the work I did to do it, and I'll probably like it better.
So that's what I did, and it worked out well for me.
Back to Ned, this is KC3NZT.
Okay, thank you, Harvey.
Anyone else with any suggestions for Matt?
CW.
Go ahead, Chuck.
Yeah.
Yeah, N-A3CW.
If you do bury it, I have a buried conduit from my receiving loop antenna sitting at about a five-foot post.
And that goes down underground to where my main mast is, and then I go up and over with a messenger into the house
because I have other things from the mast going in.
All that to say, one of the things that's done as far as dealing with moisture in an underground conduit is to put rope in the conduit
and bringing it out to the surface where it can evaporate.
And that supposedly will, through capillary attraction, kind of work the moisture out of the pipe that's going to be inevitably in there.
And just have to make sure the conduit's big enough.
And the usual rule of thumb is the conduit isn't big enough.
So you need to make it bigger.
Whatever you put in, you need to make it bigger.
N-A3CW.
observation. Here, check. Yeah, anyone else have any suggestions?
Okay, Matt, I also did the burying for mine, and it's been out there
for, you know, a little over six years. Let me see, I don't forget how long, but it's, I've had no problems with it, and the other thing about pulling in a rope with the conduit, in the conduit, is if you need to pull in another
coax
you've got a tracer to pull it with
and then you can kind of wrap the rope around
and pull it back into the
conduit with the next pull
pull rope that you pull it
through with. That does two things for you.
Anyone else with any
suggestions?
Are there any other questions
that we can help you
figure out? Before I do that
Matt, did that answer your question?
These were some great suggestions. I had thought about both.
About running in the air somehow and then burying it somehow. I appreciate the different suggestions about how to actually do either of those. I'll go out and look at it and sit and ponder a little bit and figure out what I want to do exactly. Then I'll do it and I'll let everybody know what I ended up doing. I appreciate all the suggestions. Really great. Thank you. Kilo Victor 3. Julia Goff. Bravo.
Juliet Goff, Brownville.
Any other questions that we can answer other than who's got a million dollars tax-free that they're going to give to me?
KC3SQI.
...
Okay.
I want to thank everyone for joining us for the workbench.
Are there any other persons that have been hanging out there in the bushes that would like to check into the round table before we close?
This is KC3SQI.
Hey, excuse me, AF3Z finally made it in here Wayne.
Got out of my meeting and didn't hear the repeater at all, and then I heard one little blip,
and then I remembered I had to take the whip off of the antenna to get in a parking deck.
With the antenna, it works a lot better.
Good evening, everybody, AF3Z.
Okay, do you have any questions, Jim?
No, but I've got a mouthful. I'm eating supper late, too. AF3Z.
Okay, with that, any other check-ins for the Monday night workbench, please call KC3SQI.
Thank you.
I want to thank all stations for checking into the 985 workbench.
A big thank you to Joe, W3GMS, for allowing us to use the repeater for the workbench.
Please remember to join us this Thursday at 8 p.m. for the 985 roundtable.
This concludes the workbench. We will return the repeater to normal amateur use at this time.
Remember to use the repeater as much as possible to run up Joe's electric bill.
He likes larger electric bills.
Also keep in mind the 985 repeater is one of the most active ones in the area.
It is also the only repeater to have a workbench style net as well as the roundtable.
Have a very good evening and a great week ahead.
7-3.
Good night.
This is KC-3SQI turning the repeater back over to normal amateur radio use.
Thank you.