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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.
Good evening. Welcome to the 985 workbench. I'm Greg. My call is W3DIB, tonight's host for the workbench. I'm located in Kennett Square. We meet every Friday, every Monday, not every Friday, every Monday at 8 p.m. on the W3GMS Parksburg repeater at a frequency of 146, 985 megahertz.
The PL tone to access the repeater is 100 hertz. For those who use tone squelch on receive, the repeater transmates a squelch tone of 94.8 hertz. 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 lots of information including technical articles, pictures of 985 users in action, and repeater etiquette and history.
Be aware that on occasions the repeater experiences intermod interference. Please run maximum power or be prepared to check in digitally through Echolink or AllStar. We want to hear you. To be able to use Echolink or AllStar on 985, you need to register with us. Directions for doing so can be found on the website at www.w3gmsrepeater.com.
Also, when the intermod is present, before starting a transmission, give a short call. Am I getting in okay? Once I confirm that you are getting in, then you can share your longer comments.
Here on the workbench, we focus on answering general questions of radio theory and operation. Additionally, we invite stations to briefly comment on your amateur radio activity in the past week.
When checking in, please indicate if you have a question for the workbench. If you don't have a question, still check in. After all stations have checked in, we will first share what we've done this past week using a roundtable format.
Please write down the call sign of the station that checks in right after you.
I would figure it would be the one right before you. But I believe it's the one right after you.
Once you have finished your comments, turn the mic over to that station.
Yes, so, yeah, write down the station that checks in right after you. And once you've finished your comments, turn it over to that station.
Once we've all made our comments, we will start the question and answer portion of the workbench operating as a directed net.
I will call on a station that indicated having a question and then for stations who wish to respond to that question.
Wait to be recognized by me, net control, before beginning a transmission. This helps us handle the questions efficiently and keep the net running smoothly.
At times, it helps for two stations to pass the mic back and forth to help clarify the situation and pass the information.
Feel free to do that as needed and then pass it back to net control.
First things to remember. Don't be too quick to talk. Pause a couple of seconds before hitting the press-to-talk switch.
It's good repeater etiquette and it also allows those on the digital modes to get in as there is a delay.
When you do click the push-to-talk button, wait a second before starting to talk.
We don't want to miss what you have to say and it does take a moment for the repeater to process your PL tone.
So, very simple, just...
One, one thousand.
And then speak.
Also, the repeater has a three-minute timer.
If you talk for more than three minutes without letting up on your mic button, the repeater completely shuts down.
Until you release your PTT switch.
So, every two to three minutes, release the mic button just for a moment.
Just like this.
And then pick it up where you left it off.
Before we begin, I want to say thanks to all of the Workbench hosts.
They are the ones who make this happen.
If you may be interested in hosting the Workbench, please contact Jim AF3Z or any of us and we'll help you get started.
Lastly, please join Joe W3GMS, the good music station, this Thursday at 8 p.m. for the 985 Roundtable.
At this time, we're going to start the check-in process.
Please remember to indicate whether you have a question for the group.
Just simply by saying question after you give your call.
Digital stations using Echo Link at All Star.
I'll definitely leave extra long pauses here.
So, at this point, we're going to take digital check-ins.
Echo Link and All Star.
Please call now.
This is W1RC on All Star from Marblehead, Massachusetts.
Good evening.
I have no questions and maybe I might have an answer, so I'll stick around for a little while.
Back to net.
Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey, CR.
Back to net.
Okay.
Okay.
So far, I have Whiskey 1, Romeo Charlie, Mr. Mike and Marblehead Mess.
No question.
And then I have CR.
W8CRW.
No question.
Are there any other digital stations that would like to check in?
Please call now.
Okay.
Nothing heard.
Now we will move over to RF stations.
All RF stations and any other digital stragglers that would like to check in, please call now.
W8CRW.
Alpha 3, Victor Echo Echo.
WA3.
VEE.
No question.
WA3.
King.
Fox.
Tango.
WA3.
KFT.
John.
No questions.
AB3AP.
Mike.
No questions.
NA3CW.
No questions.
AB3EE.
John.
No questions.
KB3.
ILS.
No questions.
The station right before KB3.
ILS.
After Chuck.
Please give your call again.
I think you might have slightly doubled with Chuck.
I missed the beginning of the call.
I doubled with Chuck.
Because I didn't hear him at all.
This is KB3.
John.
Was that KB3.
Tango.
Charlie?
Kilo Delta 3.
Echo Echo.
Got it that time.
Kilo Delta 3.
Echo Echo.
John.
And I'm assuming no question, right?
Alright, any other stations that would like to check in please call now.
Alpha Foxtrot 3 Zulu. AC300K. I've got a little trouble hearing that last station, a little scratchy for me. Could you come back one more time?
Sir, this is Kilo Delta 3 Alpha Papa Rubin, KD3 ACR. Thanks. Thanks, buddy.
Did you get that, Greg?
I got that. I was actually just typing the call sign into QRZ to get the name. Give away all my secrets.
Let me run from the top and we'll just check to see if there's anybody at the end. So, so far I have W1RC, Mr. Mike in Marblehead, Mass. Then over to CR, W8CRW. Then over to Ron, WA3VEE. Then over to John, WA3, Kentucky Fried Turkey, KFT.
Then, and I feel honored. We have Mike, AB3AP on the workbench. Then over to Chuck, NA3CW. Then I have KD3EE. Then over to KV3ILS. The real ILS, I believe.
As he would say. Let's see. Then over to Jim, AF3Z. Then to KC3, OOK Bill. And then finally, our tail gunner currently will be Paxton. Kilo Delta 3 Alpha Papa Romeo.
Are there any other stations that would like to check in? Please call now.
Kilo Delta 3 Alpha India Sierra. Tim, no questions.
No questions.
Okay. We have a new tail gunner, Tim. Kilo Delta 3 Alpha India Sierra. And no question. So, is there anybody that had a question? I don't have any questions here from anybody. But during this first round where we kind of just say what we were doing in ham radio last week. If somebody could think of a question, feel free to say I have a question or throw it in.
Alright, we'll turn it over to Mr. Mike in Marblehead, Massachusetts. W1RC. This is W3DIB on the Monday Night Workbench.
W3DIB on the workbench. This is W1RC. Good evening. Thank you for taking the net tonight. I appreciate it. And listening and just going to hang out. What did I do in ham radio this week?
Well, I got a new radio. New to me. And I got the manual here. And I'm trying to figure it out. How do you turn it on and all that stuff? One of these new radios with menus and everything. And I can say the KWM2 never had a menu. You didn't need to look at the book. You could figure out how to operate it. But new radios. They have multiple books.
Several books. Several books. Anyways, that's what I did this week is try to figure out the radio. How to turn it on. So, turn it over to CR and see what he's got to say for himself. W1RC.
Thanks, Mr. Mike and Greg. Thanks for taking the chair tonight. Let's see, this week in ham radio, normal 985 and other local nets, today did something unusual. I broke out the drone and I was over at Joe's and we hung some ropes in a couple of trees so he could put up a new dipole antenna.
So that's what I did today. Ron, pick it up. WA3VE, WHCRW.
WHCRW and a group, WA3VE over here in Westchester, all very good. This week in ham radio, make it real quick. Antique radio show up in Kutztown. If anybody is interested in vintage broadcast equipment primarily and also vintage audio.
That's the place to be. And I sent the link to the photographs to Joe and you probably saw those. Incidentally, if you're not on Joe's email list, you want to contact him because you should be seeing these links out there to these photographs.
I get to a breakfast and I find out, hey, did you see the pictures? No, I didn't see the pictures. So if you're interested, take a look and make sure you're on a distribution list for these things. So not only that, but other stuff much more important than any photographs I take.
I missed the breakfast because I was up at the antique radio show. But I want to thank CR and I want to thank Martha for providing pictures, which I should get to folks tomorrow or Wednesday to get those processed and get the link over to Joe.
So with that, I'll turn it over to John.
John, WA3 KFT and the group to transmit WA3 VEE.
WA3 VEE and the net WA3 KFT.
Okey-doke.
Well, we've done the typical bit of running a net on six meters
and running another net on two meters.
And also the Antique Wireless Association, 12 noon on Sundays, 72-37.
All are welcome to join in.
So that and many nets.
Over 700 CUSOs this year so far.
So we're expanding the log.
Over to you, Mike.
AB3AP, WA3KFT.
WA3KFT and the group, AB3AP.
Thanks, John.
Wow.
I can guarantee I am nowhere close to the number of QSOs you've had this year.
That's incredible.
And I enjoyed attending the breakfast this past Friday and seeing those who were there.
And Joe was telling me that I will be at winter field day.
There didn't seem to be an option.
And we were talking about speed.
And he mentioned that mostly it's 20 to 25 words per minute, which actually is kind of where I live.
And this isn't really a question for the night.
But I am curious if that's more or less what others feel comfortable at as well.
No need to address it if you don't want.
But anyways, over to you, Chuck.
NA3CW, AB3AP.
Thank you, Mike.
AB3AP.
This is NA3CW.
Well, 20 to 25 is not where I live, but that's a whole different subject.
Yeah, I've been crazy busy lately.
This week is sister week, all five days of the week, Monday through Friday.
But doing 985 operations on the way home this afternoon, I made my presence known, I think, four different times between here and Westchester.
But to no avail.
But I did try.
I worked the PMAM net on Sunday night.
And conditions were pretty good.
And, yeah, just the usual 985 activities.
I have a transceiver on my bench for James, our newcomer, putting a new memory battery in it.
I'm putting it as a solder-in battery, but I'm putting in a battery holder.
So it doesn't have to be re-soldered again next time.
So I just got those yesterday, but haven't put it in yet.
So that's, let's see.
And, of course, I think we've mentioned Saturday, Bill and I basically finished the tower at Joe's.
There are odds and ends on it, but as far as its structure, bolts, rollability, and up-and-down cable,
we've got everything as far as we can take it before D-Day.
Joe has some things he's working on, such as an antenna on the top and the rotator and cable, that sort of thing.
But we're looking good for October 4.
So we're hoping for the best, for a good day on that Saturday.
But, as always, we shall see.
So, over to John, WD3EE, NA3CW.
NA3CW, this is KD3EE, John in Landisville.
I've had a pretty good week.
I replaced the RG58 cable I had out to my Yagi that points in your general direction with some KMR400, which is some cheap LMR.
It was $90 for 100 feet, terminated off Amazon.
It tested nicely.
I did learn, I got the advice from Wayne to use the nano VNA for a through measurement.
So I got to measure all my cables together and separately.
And I found that I had about a 6.5 dB loss in my old setup.
And now I've got 3, about 3 dB.
So I'm getting twice the power out there, I figure.
Be right back.
So I am on RF tonight, so that's good.
I don't know if I'll survive Intermod.
I have a Rattel HT, a cheap Chinese radio.
It's 10 watts.
I just got a firmware upgrade.
APRs beacons are working much better now.
They're being interpreted by other radios just fine.
So that's kind of cool.
I might look into using that as a personal digipeter for APRs to get out of the house, put this on the bigger antenna and just kind of let it sit there.
So that might be a good news for that radio.
This weekend there's a 3D printing show coming up in Bel Air, Maryland, which is probably not too much of a run for a lot of you.
It should be fun if you're interested and if you want to see that sort of thing.
I'll be there.
And then also it looks like there's the worldwide RIDI contest coming up and I've had a lot of fun with that in previous years.
So I intend to do that when I'm not at the 3D printing thing.
Let's see.
Who's up next?
Looks like KB3ILS.
Keith, you're up next.
This is KB3EE.
The group KB3ILS, also known as the Real ILS.
So, Greg, if you're honored at AB3AP tonight, think how honored we'll all be when he joins us for Winter Field Day this January.
Mike has promised me he'll be there, so we'll make sure that as chairman of the Winter Field Day this year, I'll make sure Mike gets plenty of operating time when he joins us up there.
So good to hear you, Mike.
As for sweet spots, yeah, I think 20 to 25 is a sweet spot.
I always make sure any radio that I have that I'm working that I can quickly crank it down to 14 or 16 or up to 30 plus if it's a standard 599 response to do that.
And Chuck, sorry to hear that 25 is not your comfort zone.
Someday I'll aspire to be in your comfort zone of 35 to 40 words per minute.
Give me some time.
Maybe I'll catch up to you.
So this weekend, my big event was Joe hooked me up.
Joe, W3GMS, hooked me up with W3JDH, who had a pristine Elecraft K1 available for sale.
Very small QRP rig that came out about 20 years ago in the early 2000s.
Very sweet little rig.
Very small compared to some of the ones you see today.
So I picked it up Friday night, came home, made about 50 CWQSOs this weekend, variety of stations.
A lot of fun, just working five watts into an NFED wire all the way over to England for a RAF special event station.
Then back to the U.S.
West Coast Sunday evening was good for the salmon run and a few other events.
So if you have a chance, grab one of these.
It's a great rig.
This one is pristine, actually.
Okay, enough for my weekend.
I will turn it over to Jim AF3Z, who I'm hoping made it out for QRP afield.
Over to you, Jim.
All right.
Thank you, Keith.
And no, I did not.
I'm sorry to say.
AF3Z here.
And a couple of things.
Ron mentioned getting on Joe's email list.
Something else people may not realize.
The website.
You can register on the website.
And then you get reminder emails and stuff from the website.
So, like, if you're not aware of it, there's an email that goes out every week about the workbench.
And also one usually goes out, like, 7 p.m. the day before.
So last night at 7 p.m., the workbench email went out.
And then the roundtable email will go out on Wednesday.
So most of it's information you don't need, but it also says who is hosting this week for each of those.
By the way, I think this Thursday is Phil, KC3CIB.
Joe hosted last Thursday night.
So I think I've got that right.
But I have been wrong a few times in my life.
So anyway, if you want to register on the website, I don't think you get a ton of emails.
But anyway, if you go to the homepage and then scroll down and down and down, it's about a five-mile depth when you go down that homepage.
But down at the bottom, actually, there's two spots.
There's a black thing with the word register in the middle, and you can put in your email address and register at the website.
So if you're not aware of that, that'll get you.
And again, it's not tons of email, but you'll get some reminders and stuff that way, too.
Oh, that's my business stuff.
Ham Radio is some CW locally here for the most part.
But Saturday, speaking of this weekend, I had my sked with a guy up here, but then I tuned down on 10 meters.
It wasn't much activity, but some.
And I heard F6HKA, who is Birch.
He's a member of the Straight Key Century Club, so I've worked him many times.
But he was booming in here.
And he called somebody else, you know, and so I waited, and then he put out a CQ.
And he was booming in, and I called a number of times, but he never came back.
So it was one of those interesting things.
Seems like it's going to be an easy armchair cue, so, but I didn't get through anyway.
Bert's a good guy.
So that's my soul.
I've had too many other things going on.
I finally...
It wasn't ham radio, but it's related in that it kept me away from the radio.
Finally finished up my photographic stuff for the Longs Park Foundation and their summer concerts,
and then the art festival on Labor Day weekend.
So I sent them 140 pictures, I think, and finally finished them up this past weekend.
So anyway, there you go.
Bill, KC3OOK, AF3Z.
Thank you, Jim.
AF3Z, KC3OOK.
Thanks for taking the chair tonight, Greg.
It's good to hear everybody on here.
Well, I guess I've been all that active.
I had to show a lot of restraint this morning.
The 985 nets, I guess I did the Simplex net on Saturday night and the Welfare net on Sunday night.
A little bit of activity, but not much.
As Chuck said, I helped Chuck with the tower on Saturday, and that, I told Chuck,
the first time we put it all back together, it took many, many hours.
We slipped that whole thing together.
Less than an hour, maybe 40 minutes.
So I said, we're getting too good at this.
So I'm glad that part is done.
And that was over, I guess, on Thursday.
We made a template.
So, yeah, we are getting there.
And I will say, this morning on VHF DX View,
bands were open from Canada to Florida, red all the way up and down.
And I was here busy working on a machine,
and I kept thinking I want to carry my radio out to the ham shack and hook up to the beam.
I want to do that.
And I finally waited until about 11 o'clock, and I waited too long.
But anyhow, that's about it and enough for me.
So I'll turn over to Paxton KD3 APR.
KC3 OOK.
Paxton, I don't think you're quite making it into the repeater.
If you can increase your power or possibly use a digital mode.
If you want to give it another shot, come on back.
Okay.
I don't think Paxton's making it in.
I don't know whether that was him trying to transmit or if that was a slight bit of intermod.
I don't think it is.
We'll put Paxton at the back of the list.
And I'll turn it over to Tim, and then we'll try.
We'll give Paxton another try at the end there.
So over to KD3 AIS.
This is W3DIB.
Thank you, Greg.
W3DIB, which is KD3 AIS.
Tim in Malvern.
This week I made slight progress on getting a radio on my new truck.
And I was able to squeeze time in with my neighbor, KC3NZC Harvey, in between kids' activities,
only to find that the bracket, the mounting bracket that I ordered, didn't fit.
And so today I learned that I didn't misorder it.
It was misdelivered.
So I now have what I hope is the correct mounting bracket on its way.
And then we will squeeze time again in between kids' activities at our next opportunity
and make slow progress on getting this antenna on my truck.
With that, I will turn it back to Greg, W3DIB, and the next.
Excellent.
KD3 AIS, W3DIB.
Paxton, you want to give it another shot?
KD3 APR.
I'm able to hear a voice, but it's very scratchy.
I'm not able to make it out.
I don't know if anybody else can help me make out, but I did not hear it.
If you want to give it one more shot.
I don't know if you can move your antenna or turn up the power or whatever.
KD3 APR W3DIB.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it's just barely breaking the squelch that time.
So I'll keep you in the rotation right after Bill.
And I believe, Mike, you mentioned you had a question, and I didn't capture.
By the time I heard you said, if you want to answer, you can.
I didn't quite hear what the question was, so I'll turn it back over to you.
And I should say, Keith, it's an honor to host any net on 985.
I just don't get to hear from KD3 APR W3DIB that often.
As well as you.
It's actually good to have you on as well.
So I'm excited to see both of you at Winterfield Day this year.
This will be, that'll be awesome.
I'm excited.
So KD3 APR W3DIB on the Monday Night Workbench.
KD3DIB, AB3AB.
Thanks, Greg.
Yeah, and I'm actually sorry.
I'm practically a rare DX.
I'll try to cure that, especially since I do have more time on my hands after retiring.
Yeah, it was a semi-question.
That's why I sort of threw it in that at the breakfast on Friday,
Joe had mentioned that field day tends to run at around 20 to 25 words per minute.
And I said, for me, that's perfect because that's kind of where I live.
There are some contests where it often runs faster,
and I have to listen to a call several times before I can respond
because, you know, I get three letters, listen to it again,
get another two or three letters, and I'm ready to reply.
It doesn't register immediately.
And I was just curious where others live.
I know Jim AF3Z has been working very hard the past year, two or so, at high speed.
I suspect he's the exception, but I could be wrong.
Back to you, Greg.
W3DIB, AB3AP.
Excellent.
Actually, it's a really good question.
I can start it off.
Do we want to go around and just kind of everybody puts out what their comfort level CWI is?
Unfortunately, I'm at a big zero.
That's not something to be proud of, but I've got to work on studying for it, and I've got to find time.
I'm just going to make time for it and do it.
So I don't know.
I guess the easiest way, unless somebody objects, would be to just go through the list again, and everybody can kind of give their numbers if they want.
I'll leave it up for an editorial transmission if anybody wants to comment.
This is W3DIB.
AF3Z.
Go for it, Jim.
I recommend just deal with it like a normal question and throw it up and see who wants to comment on it.
And I will comment on it when you give me the opportunity.
AF3Z.
We'll go for it.
Start it off.
And I guess after Jim finishes, I'll listen for any other calls that want to comment.
So over to you.
AF3Z.
W3DIB.
Hey, thank you.
And good evening, Mike.
Good to hear you.
I'm not sure exactly what you said about me there, but my friend and I up here, we have our, I always say it this way, we have our keyers set at 35 words a minute.
And I say it that way, it's like stacking wood.
Get a cord of wood.
A cord of wood is measured so many feet high and so many feet wide, but you can stack it tightly or you can stack it loosely.
So just because it's a cord doesn't mean you get the exact same amount of wood.
And with spacing on CW, actual words per minute can vary depending on how much spacing you leave.
So anyway, I don't operate at 35 very often.
We do that in our local thing and we know each other and all of that.
But I am more comfortable down in the 20s, though I can do all right.
Like you say, some people in the contest, I do that same thing, like I have to listen to a call sign a bunch of times.
And when some of these guys, they're up at over 30, maybe 40 words a minute at times on these contests.
So I try to get all the information copied before I call them.
Because all it takes is a static burst or something, you've missed stuff.
So I try to get the information before I call and then it's not the way to make tons of contacts, obviously.
But it works for me.
So that's what I do.
So 20 to 25 sounds reasonable.
I don't doubt Joe's estimate there.
And what's funny to me on that is when, back in the days when I got my general, and 20 words a minute was the extra class.
That seems so fast.
Like, that's ridiculous.
It doesn't seem that way anymore.
So that's...
I mean, that's my answer to the question.
Back to you there, Greg.
And thanks for hosting tonight.
AF3Z.
W3Z, W3DIB.
Excellent.
That was actually a really good way of describing it.
It's funny.
You said that we're in a contest.
You guys hear the call sign multiple times.
And the one person that I've just sat and watched in awe is Bob in 2HM.
He's using a Collins transmitter the one winter field day.
I think it was last year.
And I have to laugh because then I was looking up that, I guess, Collins eventually became Rockwell.
And the parent company behind Rockwell also was one of the companies that invented modems.
And I like to think, I was like, Bob must have gotten a chip implanted in his brain somewhere that just decodes CW and just dumps it out of his words.
Like, he just, he could just hear it.
Be holding a conversation and hear the tones.
And he still picks up the call sign.
It's amazing.
Any other stations wanting to comment?
And I'll stop rambling.
Please call now.
KV3, ILS.
Okay.
All right.
Let's send it over to Keith.
KV3, the real ILS.
ILS.
I think I heard Kentucky Fried Turkey behind me there as well.
We overlapped a little bit.
So don't worry about speed on field day, honestly.
That's the day to learn, experiment, especially if you're new at this.
People are always happy to help you learn to copy and see what you can send 20, 25.
Most of the 20 is where I'd say we'll be able to land.
Don't worry about it.
Some people go 14.
Just turn the knob down a little bit and enjoy a 14.
We're permitted contact.
There are some people that show up 35 to 40.
You hear that.
You don't like it.
Just turn the knob past them and go work with someone else.
There's no need to do that.
There was a guy working at one of the QSO parties this weekend, probably in excess of 35 words per minute.
And he wasn't getting many contacts.
I turned it up and said a 599 Papa Alpha and I was done.
But he wasn't getting a lot of contacts.
The people who were actually working closer to 20 or 18 were getting a lot more.
So come out and have a good time.
And don't worry about the speed people are working at field day.
It's actually supposed to be a learning event for people.
So come out.
We'll sit with you.
We'll help you copy.
We'll help you out.
And last year I actually sent my first straight key contact.
Trust me.
I was probably about six words per minute.
I still made plenty of contacts.
Back to you, Greg.
Excellent.
Over to WA3KFT.
WA3KFT.
Well, I got licensed so long ago I had to do the co-test.
I had an advanced class license.
And the only way you could do that was 13 words a minute.
So at one time I was there.
But not now.
I am a long way away from practice.
The other thing was that I taught amateur radio classes.
And I taught the code.
And just because of that, not only did I learn it.
Well, I learned it when I was in Boy Scouts.
Come on.
I was 10, 11 years old when I learned the Morse code.
But when I was teaching amateur radio classes at the time, code was part of the test.
So I had no problem teaching the code.
And in fact, at one point, I even did code practice for a half an hour one night a week on six meters.
And that was with a straight key.
Not with a bug.
And I'm trying to think.
I think I do have an electronic keyer here.
But I've never really used it.
But no, I have my SpeedX straight key from when I was in Boy Scouts.
And let's see.
That was only about 70 years ago.
This is WA3 KFT.
Excellent.
WA3 KFT.
W3 DIB.
Wow.
Everybody offered a lot of really good advice.
And I specifically remember when watching Bob, is he would intentionally slow down.
And the one thing that I thought was really cool and very friendly and accommodating is
if there was a station going real fast, he would go real fast with them.
If there was another station that he heard was only going about 13 or so words per minute or slower,
he would go over and turn the knob on the keyer down so that he would match whatever speed they were transmitting at.
He would kind of meet them where they were transmitting at, which I thought was really cool.
And my guess is I think a lot of stations on field day hopefully would be that way
because what the whole spirit of the event is to get people involved in the hobby as well as tests for emergency preparedness communications.
Are there any other stations that would like to offer comment?
Please call now.
PW.
All right.
Over to Chuck.
And now on the other end of the spectrum, I'm one of the ones that Bob would have to slow down for.
I enjoyed the 13-word-per-minute test under the tutelage of Joe Welsh at the FCC office way back when.
I enjoyed it so much I took it twice.
Bob was my coach.
And after failing the first one, he couldn't come back for a month.
So during that month, he drilled me and drilled me and drilled me.
So when I took it the second time, I cruised right through it.
And I realized that I had been had because he was saying,
Yeah, you might make it.
You might make it.
Well, and then it found out later.
After I cruised through it, I called him up.
I said, How fast was I going?
He says, You were going 18.
So that was probably the pinnacle of my code career.
I'm in the 15 to 18 range.
And what little I do it.
And yes, Bob is very, very careful to do the right thing about matching speed.
You send him whatever you want coming back, and he will match it down to as slow as you want to go.
But I've also seen him go fast, and he can go pretty fast.
But he's like a machine with CW.
My model did not come with that machinery.
So just to clear the air a little bit on the other end of the scale.
N-8-3-CW.
Bob got the 56K chip.
The rest of us got 300 bond, right?
No, just kidding.
Are there any other stations that would like to comment?
Please call now.
K-D-3-E-E.
Take it away, John.
K-D-3-E-E.
My ears set to 20 words per minute, but I often go a little bit slower.
There's space between them.
But I still try to hear it and key it at 20.
I have this game, Morsel.fun.
It's a website.
It's like Wordle, where you're trying to guess the word, and you're just listening to it.
And it starts at 40 or 45 words per minute.
Given enough time hearing it over and over, I can usually get it, and I'm still in the 25 to 30.
But I have to hear it a bunch of times to get there.
So I like that offer to help copy at field day.
So I might take Keith up on that and let him help, you know, let him copy, and I'll key, and maybe some of it will sink in while we do it.
Thanks.
K-D-3-E-E.
Excellent.
I just did a quick Google.
And, John, is that website Morsel, M-O-R, Sierra Lima Echo, dot, Foxtrot Uniform November, Morsel.fun?
Is that the correct website?
Yes.
And it should give you a keyboard that says play 40 words per minute.
Is that what you see?
That's the one.
Excellent.
So for anybody else, Morsel dot fun.
Isn't like a tasty morsel of Morse code.
It's fun.
Are there any other stations that would like to comment?
Please call now.
Three is that again.
Take it away, Jim.
Yeah, I just want to add a little comment on speed and Bob and all that stuff.
I am at the point now that I can sit and listen.
I'm not copying it.
You know, I'm not writing anything down generally.
I might take some notes.
But I've gotten to the point that I can just sort of listen.
The letters or the words form in my mind sort of.
But the thing I want to comment is that I started out like John KFT.
I started out with Morse code and Boy Scouts and using a signal flag to send it, not sound at all.
And I got my novice in 67.
That's at least 30 years ago.
So anyway, my point is I made it up to 13 words a minute back then to get my general.
And then I sort of passed the test.
That's a long story.
But anyway, I squeaked by on the code test in 79, 1979 at the 20 words per minute for the extra.
But then I dropped back down into the teens.
And it was only two, three years ago.
I was still operating mainly in the teens and the straight key century club and stuff.
And then this other guy and I, we started getting on on a regular basis together.
And my comment is that I know it seems impossible if you're not there.
And I wouldn't have believed I would be going at 35 words a minute.
When we started, this other guy and I, it was like, well, 25 is a little bit fast for me.
But that's fine.
It's good for context.
I never, well, neither of us were trying to get fast.
But we did so much code together, we gradually picked up speed.
So the main thing is using it.
And until I retired, I didn't have that much time to use it.
Different brains are different.
Sounds like Bob in 2HM has a real CW brain.
But anyway, the point is, don't think you can't do it.
The main thing is to use it.
And gradually, depending on how much you can use it and other factors,
you can pick up a lot more speed than you ever would have thought possible.
So that's my comment.
And back to you, Greg.
W3DIB AF3Z.
Excellent advice from everybody.
You're inspiring me to get my act together and finally start being able to at least listen and decode.
And I guess I should probably practice sending too.
But I do like morsel.fun.
The other one that I was playing with was learnCW or LCW, something like that.
Learn CW.
Yeah, LCWO.
Lima, Charlie, Whiskey, Oscar, .net.
That was the other one.
And it kind of just starts you off with like one or two letters and then they add a few more.
But it'll just randomly give you some of those letters and you have to type them out as you hear them.
And, yeah, same kind of idea where you start to hear words.
Or, I'm sorry, you start to hear patterns that are letters.
And then slowly, like you said, Jim, you kind of build them into words to where you don't listen for individual da-da's or da-da-ya's.
You just hear, oh, that was a da.
That was an A.
That was a hello.
That was a, you know, whatever word you're looking for.
So, sorry.
I am really in a mood to chat tonight.
So, I apologize to the whole net.
Are there any other stations who would like to comment?
Please call now.
3ILS.
Over to Keith.
Comment, Greg.
I think the online sources are great.
I've used them.
I've used the computer program when I was learning.
But don't discount just listening to 40 meters early in the morning or the evening.
You get a different rhythm when you're listening to someone chat.
Plus, there's no pressure.
You're not trying to make a contact.
You're not missing.
You miss a letter.
No one cares.
Just listen to 40 meters down around 7030, 7040.
A little slower if you go up to 7060 or even up to 7.110, 1.112.
Great ops up there.
They have great spacing.
And you hear some great conversations.
And so, I would encourage a mix.
Do the computer learning.
Do the online learning.
But just click over to 40 meters.
Listen to them with a coffee in the morning.
Or listen to them at night.
It will actually make a difference because it's a conversation.
And you'll really pick up the rhythm of the thing.
And there's some amazing ops, amazing stories out there.
So, give it a try.
Back to you.
All right.
All right.
Little pause for the cause there.
That's actually a good idea as well because you're actually hearing humans send them.
And you're hearing kind of how, I guess, because there's kind of like shorthand that people will send back to each other for different things.
I know there's a lot of people.
I know there's a lot of people.
I know there's a lot of people.
But there's also some certain letters that people use to represent certain things.
Because I've seen that during the field day operations at times.
And I remember Bob explaining one or two of those to me.
But excellent.
I've got to set up a rain gutter wire setup.
And I've got to get a radio capable of receiving 40 meters.
But I have, actually, you know what, I have a little portable battery operated shortwave radio that can receive that, I believe.
And Roger on 70, 7030, 7040.
And I think you said the slow areas at the 7060 kilohertz.
And there was one other 70 or 70100 or 7011 something in there.
But are there any other stations that would like to offer a comment?
Please call now.
K3VE.
Take it away, Ron.
You don't need a radio.
Web SDR.
I'm on K3FEF right now.
And there's W1VL.
So, do it right after the net.
No pressure.
You don't need a radio.
Web SDR.
Go ahead.
Oh, Ron, I can't believe I didn't think of that.
I'm pretty much live in a digital world.
And I've known about that website.
And I've actually played with it a bunch.
And I didn't even think to use that.
Thank you.
Are there any other stations that would like to offer a comment?
Please call now.
KD3EE.
Over to John.
KD3EE W3DIB.
I'm reminded you don't even need a Web SDR.
If you look around for ARRL code practice files, they have all the speeds.
And I think it's usually like their bulletins that they usually transmit at 6 p.m. or whatever.
And if you check in your podcatcher, you can download it as a podcast.
So I have a couple of those laying around at the end of the queue as well.
Back to you.
KD3EE.
That's an excellent option as well.
Because then it's always on your phone and with you.
And when you're in the car, you can have the windows down and have CW coming through the radio.
Might get a few looks.
But actually, that's a pretty cool idea.
I like it.
Let's see.
Are there any other stations?
I'll offer some comments on everybody's first round.
Because I did take a bunch of notes.
I've got a VIM window open with a lot of text into it.
So, any other stations would like to offer a comment?
Please call now.
83 ZIM.
83 ZIM.
A new station to the log.
Take it away.
Hi, everyone.
Good evening all here on the workbench.
Bob here out of East Fallow Field.
And I kind of wanted to join earlier, but I've been on the HF rake.
And there have been signals from the South Pacific.
So I've been trying to work them.
Logged a New Zealander.
A VK from Australia.
And just jumping around.
And I'm thinking, well, these are here.
And I think two of them were on 10 meters, which blows me away to go down there, reach down there in the South Pacific on 10 meters.
But 10 meters has been open a bit in the last several days.
So that's been fun.
That's why I didn't jump in earlier.
And I'm hearing the code stuff.
Talk about CW.
Talk about CW.
I started studying for a license when I was 12 years old.
Still have the original study book my dad bought me.
Some of you may have heard me talk about this before.
If not, maybe not here in the air, but at breakfast.
And I learned code back then.
Had cassette tapes.
Never used it.
Never went for a license until I was 59 years of age.
Long story.
But anyway, I never forgot it.
And I always kind of kept practicing it in my head and also listening once in a while.
I don't need more than my two hands to count the number of CW QSOs I've had.
But always intended to use it.
As a matter of fact, truth be told, I bought a CW paddle before I ever bought a transceiver.
So I think that should speak to my intention to operate CW.
However, I don't do it.
And one of the reasons I don't, I don't use it enough.
And that's been on my bucket list.
Operate CW more and more and more.
So I've been listening to some of your comments.
And as a matter of fact, when I heard you talk about morsel.fun, I went right to it.
I'm sitting in front of here in the shack now with the page up there.
That is pretty cool.
I'm going to give that a try.
The thing that, I'll be totally honest and confess this, the thing that has me gun shy in terms of robbering CW is
I don't want to tick off anybody else.
So if I screw up or if I'm going too slow or whatever, I just don't want to tick people off.
So, you know, I listen.
And once in a while I might try to have a QSO.
I just get cold feet because I don't want to get anybody mad at me for screwing up and all that.
And the other thing is pro signs.
They baffle me.
And the thing is, yeah, I could put them up on the screen and look at them.
But, you know, I don't want to do it.
I don't want to do it by sight.
I want to do it by sound.
And a lot of the practice sites and everything don't seem to offer any audio with pro signs.
And that frustrates me because one of the worst things I ever did years and years ago as a kid at 12 years of age,
I think it's a kiss of death.
I saw printed dots and dashes.
Well, even I remember Joe saying many times, you know, it's sound.
It's sound.
You don't want to look at it visually and have to translate from visual to sound.
And so I avoid it.
I really do avoid that.
I try to do the right thing.
But I'll get back into it.
But thanks for that.
Whoever mentioned that morsel.fun.
Yeah, that's cool.
That's cool.
And I would like to practice more, but I'll find a way.
I'll find a way.
But it's on my bucket list to operate CW more.
This is KB3's that I am back tonight.
Well, thanks for jumping in, Bob.
It's good to hear you.
And, oh, that sounds like the Intermod just came on.
I hear the signature wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah of it in the background.
So it definitely increased power to full if you have it.
Are there any other stations that would like to offer any comment?
I believe it was KD3-DEE.
I believe it was KD3DEE, John, or KD3EE.
You're a little bit noisy, but I was able to make out your transmission.
Okay, thanks. Real quick, Chase heard a fight. They exchanged their short and well-defined and they're not looking for a conversation, so it's really easy to like just see a little bit, listen a little bit, and that's all I've been doing for CW practice. Back to you, KD3DEE.
Excellent. I didn't catch all of it, but I hope somebody did, because I didn't quite hear, but I had my headphones in on All Star to try and get the sound closer to my ears, but it still didn't work. Some of you guys have amazing hearing with being able to hear transmissions out of the noise. Any other stations would like to comment, please call now.
Back to Keith.
Yeah, I only picked up one word, but it was a critical word. He said POTA, Parks on the Air. So what he was recommending is a very great idea. So the Parks on the Air stations, it's a real simple exchange. So basically you send your signal report 5NN in Papa Alpha, if you're in Pennsylvania like I am. So it's real simple, low pressure. They're not looking for a conversation. So what he said, I heard that part too.
The best part is they're easy to find. So when you want to make your first contacts, the first bunch of them, just go to poda.app on the web, and it'll show you what stations and what parks, how far away they are, what state they are in.
It's a great way to make your first contacts. And honestly, the people are great. No one's going to get mad at you. They all have a good time. CW Ops, as noted in NA3CW's podcast, are the best in the world. So try POTA as KD3EE recommended. Great idea.
Thanks, Keith. Back over to Jim.
I worked, I forget what it was, but a thing up at the Cornwall Ranger Station with another guy. We were doing a straight key Century Club event from up there. And that's another group, and that's around 50 kilohertz up. 30, 50, 70, 50, etc.
It's a little different in some places, but not too much. But anyway, the straight key Century Club folks are sending, most of them are sending slower because they're using straight keys.
Some use bugs and side swipers and stuff. But anyway, but that guy I was working with, and he was doing quite well on the code, but he had only learned it a few years ago. But what he told me was that getting on the straight key Century Club events, and they have sprints, you know, little short contests and stuff. And again, it's a very simple scripted exchange. You don't need pro signs and all that good stuff.
But he said he started there, and he first got on doing the events, so he just had to send specific information, you know, like PA and a signal report and a number, and off he was going. And then gradually he started doing more and getting more of a vocabulary, so to speak. So yeah, those kinds of things are very good for getting started.
The contest exchanges in general, and so it gets you at least comfortable a little bit on the air, and then you can gradually go from there. It's a lot of fun. But if it's not fun for you and you don't want to do it, you don't have to. AF3 said.
Wow, lots of good suggestions. Cornwall Registration, you said mostly it's the straight key Century Club. And I think I heard 3050, 7050 kilohertz, those frequencies. And very similar to POTA that John mentioned, where it's a short kind of signal report. And I guess it's geographic location.
like EPA, all that good stuff from Field Day.
Yeah, you've given me a lot of good food for thought.
And Ron's giving me no excuse for not tuning in and listening because of WebSDR,
which I could probably do very easily and would think to do it.
And I have to even look into that podcast from the ARRL to get their bulletins in CW form.
So, wow, AB3AP, Mike, you asked a really good semi-question.
I've heard more answers to this semi-question than I've heard to some actual questions
from other workbenches, so kudos.
Are there any other stations that would like to offer comment?
Please call now.
Okay. Nothing heard.
I can offer a few comments, I guess, on what I heard from the first round.
So, first, I'll just say congrats to Chuck and Bill on getting Joe's Tower to almost completely ready to roll
for October 4th.
And, yes, we will all be hoping for excellent, nice, crisp, not too cold, not too hot, but wonderful fall weather.
And then, yeah, CR, I heard you broke out the drone, did some ropes for a new dipole antenna.
That's awesome as well.
Let's see here.
Going down through the list.
Yeah, everything else I'm getting here is mostly on the CW comments that I saw.
Paxton, we never heard from earlier, and it sounds like the Intermod has disappeared.
Paxton, I don't know if you're still out there.
did you want to come back? KD3APR, W3DIB.
W3DIB, KD3APR.
Excellent, you're solid into the repeater. Take it away.
Ah, thank you, great. I guess I'll start out with the
what I did in ham radio, which is honestly not too much.
Notice. Yeah, I think I got on the, I forget if I got on the 985 net last week, but glad to be at least partially on it this week.
This grabs my spare handheld, so I have the abomination of a 42-inch antenna up here.
This is Dean, I'm operating on, I mean, I never, I don't have a base station, but currently my house is without power, so getting to try out what do you know what is like in a situation without power.
So, not too much else different. I'm not exactly sure why I wasn't getting in very well, considering everything's the exact same as it was before. But, yeah, not too much else for me. So I'll pass it back to that control. This is KD3APR.
Excellent. KD3APR. Paxton, good to get you on the list and good to hear you. Let's see, I don't think I have anything else. Other than Bob, that's excellent. Here in the Southern Pacific on 10 meters. Trying to work New Zealand and Australia. That's awesome.
And, yeah, lots of inspiration to get involved in various forms of CW, whether just tuning in to a frequency and listening to actual people, sending conversation back and forth to morsel.fun, trying to pick up CW by the sound of it quickly.
Not trying to hear the individual, not trying to hear the individual da's and dit's, but trying to hear words. And then, of course, LCWO.net, which is fun to just try and learn letters.
Kind of in, like, I guess, the Farnsworth method, where the speed is quick, but the spacing between is, you know, maybe it's 20 characters, 20 words per minute actual speed, but, like, 10 words per minute with spacing.
Anyway, I digress. Are there any other stations that would like to ask a question on this Monday night edition of the 985 workbench? Please call now.
Okay, nothing heard. I did hear a carrier, Dr. Chunk, was there a station that had a comment?
This is Katie 3APR. You cut out at the end right there. Sorry, I'm not sure. What's going on here? I'm not sure. Were you calling for additional questions? I do have one if the workbench would like it.
Absolutely. Go for it, John. Give us your question.
All right, so my question is more of a, quite a general one, but I was looking at just kind of the repeater databases around Meyer. I'm in Hocassin, but I was seeing some of the repeaters with AutoPatch, which I know I've known somewhat about AutoPatch, how, you know, you can dial, like, GTMF tones and be able to call a phone number.
But I'm not sure exactly how that works. So I'm just looking for any information on, like, would you, like, how would the repeater, for example, like, would it just constantly transmit the received audio from a phone call?
Or would it, like, have a back and forth exchange? I'm not sure, like, how the technicalities of it would work.
So yeah, if anyone would have some insight on that, it would be greatly appreciated.
Wow. AutoPatch, I haven't heard that in a long time.
I can give my two cents quickly on it, because I remember when the University of Delaware's repeater, the W3UD machine, the 310 machine, the unofficial rogue 310 machine in Newark, used to have an AutoPatch.
And my experience was generally in the past, you would have to get permission, or at least get what the code was to use or initiate the AutoPatch.
Back in the day, it was something like a star or a pound one or something, and then you would dial the phone number.
You'd dial, like, the whole area code and everything.
And it would basically place a phone call.
And my understanding, when we used it, the repeater left the output frequency up the whole time the phone was off the hook.
And then you would basically key up to respond to the AutoPatch.
So, I would be curious if anybody else knows how that works as far as, like, the three-minute rule.
So, any stations wishing to comment, please call now.
UA3 VEE.
Take it away, Ron.
I haven't heard about AutoPatches in years.
My goodness gracious.
I still have an original, in the museum section of my shack in the other room, I have an original AutoPatch I used in 1973 when I got licensed.
Pretty much, Paxton, it's good to hear you tonight.
I was going to suggest maybe your battery was running low, but evidently you got your RF situation fixed.
Pretty much what Greg said.
And, John, WA3KFT, I'm going to put you on the spot because I know you're familiar with this, having been in this as long as I have, longer than I have.
But, anyway, exactly what Greg mentioned.
You would access from your car, you'd key up to the repeater, you would access a particular code, a sequence, on your touchtone pad.
And that would bring up a dial tone, and you would make a phone call, like he said, and it would dial up.
And my understanding was it was one way.
So, what you had to do was it left the carrier up, but at the same time, the person on the other end had to know to say over or whatever.
So, it was a little clumsy, at least way back when.
I don't know if it's improved or not.
But, yes, I used it one time to call for help for a lady on I-95 between 141 and what is now the Route 1 exit.
Her car had died.
She was on the side of the road.
Mind you, no cell phones in those days.
This was in the 70s, and it was very effective, and she couldn't believe that I could make a phone call from my car and not be on the bell system.
That's the old name for the phone system we know now as Verizon or Verizon.
Anyway, that's my input.
Probably John has more stuff on this.
The legacy guys have been around for a while.
But, yep, used to have Auto Patch in my old 73 Toyota.
W3-DIB, WA3-VE.
Excellent.
Yeah, I remember my friend, Len, KV3-DEM.
He ended up doing something very similar in, like, the late 90s and used it.
And I remember he would key up.
I think they, actually, I know what it was.
It was over on one of the party streets in Newark.
And it was the end of the spring semester, and these kids decided to have a couch fire.
Good old-fashioned couch fire.
And the couch fire started to burn so high, it was getting up to the power lines.
And one of the guys in the amateur radio club ended up using the Auto Patch to, I believe he called 911 and got the police, the fire police there.
But I remember him saying, hey, my name, my call sign is this.
I'm calling you from an amateur radio Auto Patch.
I can only hear you when I'm not speaking.
So we each have to say over after we're finished.
So with that, I will turn it over to John, WA3-KFT, if you have any comments.
Take it away.
It is WA3-KFT.
I never played with Auto Patch.
It was, I understood how it worked.
And yes, you would have a touchstone pad that, and in fact, I actually have one for sale.
A touchstone pad out of a bell phone.
Anyway, some of the older ARRL publications show you how to mount a touchstone pad in a box and connect it up to your rig and so forth,
so that in lieu of the microphone you could actually transmit the tones and use it.
And yes, over was the word because otherwise nobody knew.
If you just dropped it, it didn't necessarily let the other person talk.
You had to say over, and that way the person on the receiving end of the conversation knew that it was his turn to talk.
But oftentimes it was a radio on one end and a bell system on the other.
So, oh, many, many years ago.
Like I said, I actually have a touchstone pad for sale.
This is WA3-KFT.
I wonder if anybody blue boxed over an Auto Patch.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Are there any other stations that have a comment?
Please call now.
3Z, talkative tonight.
Take it away, Jim.
One little fine point of the whole Auto Patch thing was letting the people on the other end know this is on radio and is being broadcast everywhere.
broadcast everywhere.
You had to be careful to let the person know that everything they say would be broadcast out over amateur radio.
So that was one of the fine points of it.
And, of course, you had to be careful, too.
You couldn't do business by way of it because that's forbidden on amateur radio.
AF3 is it.
Good point.
Good point.
Because, yeah, I guess you're right.
You're technically broadcasting.
And I did have my buddy in college.
He did embarrassingly order a pizza over the Auto Patch one time.
And I'm thinking now that was probably illegal because I didn't realize that you're right.
Doing business on amateur radio is not legal.
Any other stations that would like to comment?
Please call now.
I did some reading on that subject.
It's actually, it's not that you can't do business and it's not that you can't, like, you know, sell a piece of gear over the air.
It's you just can't do it for your boss.
You can't do it for your business.
For instance, way back when, a company that shall remain nameless made linear amplifiers and I worked for them.
And we needed to test, we always tested them on the air.
But we could not do that sort of under orders.
And so we would test the amplifiers on the air at lunchtime.
We had a little club station set up.
And, you know, we liked to test them on the air.
But we were very careful not to do it under orders.
And that's the deal.
It's just a matter of, it's more like running a business than doing, you know, a transaction.
And A3CW.
Cool.
So it's kind of like non-commercial FM where you can make a public service announcement but you can't call to action.
I guess in this sense your boss can't call you to action to do that.
But you can always have fun testing them out at lunchtime.
Very cool.
Any other stations that would like to offer comment, please call them out.
KB3ZIM with a question.
Over to KB3ZIM for a question.
W3DIB.
Yeah, thank you.
I was just curious, all you veterans who, including especially Ron, who used Auto Patch,
is it still used?
And are there any repeaters that still may offer it?
I mean, that may not be public knowledge.
I'm just curious.
I do remember decades and decades ago, when I say decades, I mean 50 years ago, maybe more,
I was at a wedding reception once and a ham radio operator had an HT with him.
And he placed an Auto Patch call from his HT, which he was like wowing all the people at the table that he could do that.
So I do remember that, but I'm just curious.
Does anybody know if it's used or is available or anything?
Just curious.
Go ahead.
Any stations with a comment?
WA3VE.
And over to Ron.
Good.
Bob, that's the essence of Paxton's question.
He's on repeater book, which I'm on right now, and I'm looking here to see.
There are a number of repeaters in the area that do have, oh boy, they got a nice interface now,
much better than it used to be.
There are repeaters here and there that still have it out there, but they're few and far between.
W3DIB, WA3VE.
Excellent.
I imagine with voice over IP now, it'd be very easy to implement an Auto Patch and cheap, especially with the way telephone calls are.
But it won't have the reliability of the old copper pair and the good old electromechanical stroger switches or panel or crossbar, number one, number five, all the fun ones.
I wasn't around in that era, but I have learned and studied about it.
And if anybody's ever bored and they want something to listen to, there's something out there called Phone Trips.
The guy that did the whole series, his name, his handle was Evan Doorbell, and he was one of the original phone freaks.
And the cool thing about him is he documented the electromechanical network and just did very verbose technical descriptions of all the clicks and clunks and sounds you were hearing as you hear the calls go through.
He wasn't doing it to steal toll or commit fraud.
He was just doing it to document the network.
So anyway, I keep having these side conversations and I apologize.
Are there any other stations that have a comment?
Please call now.
KD3EE.
Over to John.
KD3EE.
KD3EE.
I'm going to go to YouTube after this and watch people use autopatch today.
So that'll be a good example, I think.
Back to you.
Excellent.
Well, unless any other stations have a comment, I will turn it back over to Paxton and just say, did we answer the question?
Or actually, you know what?
It wasn't Paxton.
It was John.
Yes.
Sorry about that.
I put my note in the wrong spot.
Are there any other stations that have a comment?
Okay.
Nothing heard.
Unless anybody else has another question, I will begin the shutdown process for the workbench.
We're at 2122.
So are there any other stations that have a question?
Please call now.
Nothing heard.
And before we close down on the workbench for the evening, if there's anyone else that wants to check in and get in on the log, there's still time.
So please call now.
Kilo Charlie 3 Yankee Tango Delta
Kilo Charlie 3 Yankee Tango Delta added to the list. Take it away.
Okay, no comment. I was just checking in.
Excellent. Got you on there at the end of the list. You are a new tail gunner.
So, I guess at this point, I will say thanks to all stations for checking into the 985 workbench.
A big thank you to Joe W3GMS for making the 985 repeater available for the workbench.
You're invited to use the repeater often.
That's a great way to show that you appreciate the gift of 985 to the amateur radio community.
Finally, we hope to hear you again on Thursday evening at 8 p.m.
for the 985 roundtable with Phil KC3 CIB.
Thanks, Jim, for the tip. I totally goofed and read the wrong line.
So, this Thursday at 8 p.m., the 985 roundtable with Phil KC3 CIB.
This concludes the workbench for tonight. Feel free to stick around and continue the discussion on 985.
Have a great night and a great week. And this is W3DIB now returning the 985 repeater to regular amateur operation. This is W3DIB clear. 7-3.
Thanks, Greg. Well done. AF3 is that.
Thank you, Jim. Hopefully that wasn't too verbose. I just kept talking tonight. I don't know what was with me. Thank you.
I shared it tonight, too. One thing when you don't have a bunch of questions, it's easy to slip into that mode.
Yep. Thank you very much. And someday I'm going to ring your chimes when around Longwood. We'll see when that happens. AF3 says...
...call this...
I keep doubling with the station. Thank you Jim and I will catch you at Longwood anytime you want to. And I'm doubling with somebody right now. Please come back one more time.
I just caught the very...
Yeah, go ahead Bill. KC3OOK. Is there another repeater coming across?
Yeah, unfortunately on this radio I can't set the tone squelch for received. So yeah, it's booming in here. That band opening must be hanging around. It's booming in. So I just want to let you know that's what it was. And thanks Greg. Great job tonight.
And this is interesting how just kind of a question can turn out to be such a good question. So good night. KC3OOK.
Person does not have their PL on that other signal in there, Greg. And what he... You can hear a little blip between transmissions because there's a little bit of hang time or enable time on the PL on 985. So it doesn't drop. So he's actually riding in on somebody else's PL for about 100 milliseconds. Go ahead.
Person does not have a problem.
Person does not have their own problem.
Person does not have their own problem.
Person does not have their own problem. So he's like, "Oh, I'm going to have a problem."
Person does not have their own problem. So he's like, "Oh, I'm going to have a problem."
Person does not have a problem. So he's like, "Oh, I'm going to have a problem."
Person does not have a problem. So he's like, "Oh, I'm going to have a problem."
Person does not have a problem."
Person does not have a problem. So he's like, "Oh, I'm going to have a problem."
stay quiet for a while, like it wouldn't open up.
But I should have just looked at my signal meter
on my front of my radio because I think it would tell me that.
And I can hear the typical two FM's competing
underneath my signals because I'm listening back to myself.
Excellent.
Over to, thank you Bill as well for the kind words.
I appreciate it.
It was a, it did turn out to be quite a discussion.
So it was awesome.
Back over to W3GMS, W3DME.
Thank you.
Very good.
W3GMS.
Ursulton, PA.
Yeah, I was listening here while I was doing a bunch of work.
And good job on the workbench tonight, Greg.
And it was good to hear all the comments,
especially about CW, something near and dear to my heart.
And I want to operate more of it.
So I'm redoing the family room station.
I will be redoing it.
And within the next couple of weeks,
we'll have the polyurethane down on room two of the museum.
So the old stuff will be moved down there.
I bought a brand new desk for up here in the family room for the modern station.
And that'll give me a nice place to operate CW from.
So I'll have the TS-590SG Kenwood.
I'll have the 1500-watt solid-state amplifier.
Not that I will need it on CW.
And it's going to be a real simple station.
It'll have a transceiver, an amplifier, a microphone, and a key.
Quite a bit different from what we have now.
And you've seen it many times.
So there you go.
How's everything down on Fenwick?
You guys have been down there.
I know Kim loves it probably.
Any place away and close to the water is number one with her.
Jim, I'm not sure if you're in here, but let me turn it over to you.
AF3Z, W3GMS.
Evening, Joe.
I'm still sitting here listening.
And I've got a question for you on another subject, probably a simple one,
for a minute or so from now.
Alan, by the way, I don't know if it was Bill or Chuck talking about October 4th,
I think it is, for your tower party.
I won't be there.
That's the third annual Ginger Galley Memorial 5K run at the school she taught at.
So I'll be doing that.
Also, I think it's the weekend of the Red Rose Ham Fest up in New Holland.
So anyway, I won't get down there.
I was thinking, oh, I want to be there for that.
But then I realized, nope, that's not going to work for me that day.
Over to you, Greg.
AF3Z.
Excellent.
No, we haven't been down to Fenwick.
I was down in...
Oh, I've forgotten where it is.
All you have to do is Google Circle D Farm.
I was doing a wedding down there this past weekend.
And it was a good two hours from here.
I had to drive across the Canewingo Dam.
And I was just leery, towing the trailer with my older vehicle.
And yeah, Kim and I are hoping to get down there again.
Maybe this weekend or coming soon.
And you're right.
She does love it down by the water.
But yeah.
And I'm excited to see your new station.
It'll be crazy to see it, like, downsized so much and not as much stuff.
That'll be weird.
I have not known the living room to be any different than it is right now.
So it'll be a total change for me.
So, excellent.
I don't want to tie you up.
If Jim wants to ask you a question, I just figured I'd get back in here.
And if Bill wanted to say anything, I will turn it over to Bill.
And then, if not, back over to W3GMS.
So, KC-300K, W3DIV.
Now, saying 73 and listening.
W3DIV, KC-300K.
Greg, 73, have a great night.
And I do hope you make it to half the time, McIlellan.
It is beautiful.
And, Joe, I'll turn it over to you and just let you and Jim go ahead and talk.
I'm here working on a machine.
And I'll just have something for you when you guys are done.
So, KC-300K, listening on the side.
W3GMS, over to you.
W3GMS, very, very good.
Yeah, I realize it falls on top of it.
But it was just one of those things that we couldn't do much about that.
There's not a lot of options between everybody's time and Scott's time.
W3G is very critical in this process.
So, yeah, I'll miss the ham fest.
And some other people will, too, I assume.
But it's just the way it worked out this year.
We've got AWA conference shortly thereafter.
And then Scott's going to be gone away for a couple weekends in October.
So that would take us all the way to the bottom of October, maybe even into November.
And we don't want to wait that long.
We're ready.
We're ready to go, go, go.
Jim, I'm sorry you're not going to make it, but understand.
So we'll have a small group of people.
We really won't take anybody more than us to get that thing up.
But making good progress.
So there you go.
And I've been very busy doing my part of it, which is coming along very nicely.
So let's see.
Jim, you had a question.
AF3Z and the group W3GMS.
Yeah, very good.
Yeah.
I know what it's like picking dates.
Yeah, on the Astron power supply, I think you had spoken up when I asked a question about it a week or three ago or something.
And looking online, they were not verbose in their manuals and information on these things.
So this is a 50-amp peak or whatever, VS-50M supply.
And it's variable voltage, of course.
But there's also a knob under the ammeter and max and min.
And I assume that's for setting, like, if you don't want it to allow anything over, like, 10 amps, you could set it for that.
But my question is, I don't understand how that, how, practically speaking, you adjust that knob.
And I think there's something wrong there because it hardly ever reads over a couple amps.
And I'm drawing about 18 out of it or something.
But anyway, when it's working right, how do you adjust that knob and know what you're setting it for?
Does that make sense?
Yeah, W3 GMS.
Okay, well, I don't have any with the variable voltage.
The variable voltage, of course, you can use it on anything, 13.68 or whatever.
But it's also kind of a lab supply where maybe you want to turn it down to 5 volts and things like that.
Usually, they derate it, Jim, as you lower the voltage because your V out is so low and your V in is so high prior to the regulator that the differential voltage across the pass transistors and everything will cook based on the current you're pulling.
So generally, they have a D rating curve.
And they will show you when you're at 5 volts or 4 volts or 3 volts.
This is usually a chart because, you know, you can't pull the same amount of current because you have the voltage as 2 or 3 or 4 times as mount.
And what that is, you just cook the 2N3771s.
How people use it.
I know on HP, you can actually short the output.
You can set it to 5 volts with no load.
And you can actually short the output and turn the current to its, say, 5 amps.
But I'm not sure on the Astron if that will work on that.
So I think what would be a practical way of doing it is you turn it up all the way so it can deliver max current at the voltage that you've set for.
You put your load on it.
And then you start turning the current limit back.
And then you'll see where the voltage starts to drop.
Well, that's too far.
So you just bump it up a little bit more than that.
And then you're protecting the system.
If something should go bad or wrong in your load where it suddenly wants to pull a lot of current, the power supply won't let it.
And it'll go into a foldback type of current situation.
Go ahead.
All right.
That makes sense.
Because, yeah, the knob just says min and max.
It doesn't tell you, you know, what you're setting it for.
But that makes sense.
If you get the load on it that you want and then turn it back until it starts to, the voltage drop.
So, yeah, thank you.
That helps.
Yeah, I think there's something.
The other day when I mentioned it, I had said that you turn it on and it sits there for maybe a second.
And then the voltage goes up.
And if I have a load on, if I have the rig on, when I turn the power supply on, it just stays down.
It won't even come up to speed.
But when I use it, and I'm drawing probably 18 amps or something with the Triton 4.
But the meter, the amp meter on the thing only reads maybe 2 or 4 amps or something.
So there's something wrong in there.
And maybe those two issues are related.
But it keeps working.
And I just have it set at like 13.8 volts or something.
I'll leave it sit there.
It was given to me for 25 bucks, which isn't bad.
I told the guy I'm going to pay more because I thought that was too low a price.
So, anyway, thanks, Joe.
I was just curious because there was no indication of how you should set that current limiting stuff.
But now I have an idea of how it works.
Today I turned it all the way down and it shut the supply down.
So I found that it does do something.
AF3 is that.
Back to you.
One other thing that I'll mention to you is I forgot the 723.
You've got to remind me before the breakfasts because that was a long time ago.
We talked about it.
And the 723 wasn't in any part of my cerebral.
That's how you say the brain.
So I wanted to give you a new 723 because I found out, especially with a lot of early ones,
when they switched from ceramic packaging to plastic packaging,
it appears that they had some hermetic sealing problems in going to the plastic packages
because I've seen many, many, many, many 723s in the plastic package go bad from that era.
And I've replaced it with newer ones, but I've never had a failure since.
So I think there's some type of substrate contamination or something that starts to happen
because of the package contamination.
That's just a theory.
I don't have any proof of that.
But prior to that, they had a lot of 723s that were in ceramic packaging.
And I've never, ever seen any of those fail.
And I've gone through the design equations and everything.
And, you know, they're not abusing that chip in any way, shape, or form.
So there's no reason for it to go bad.
So that's my take on that.
And, you know, maybe I should just put a 723 in the mail to you.
Well, it's working for you.
So you don't have any big deal.
But next breakfast, I'll bring you a fresh 723.
So anyway, yeah, I'm designing a new power supply.
Well, I was designing a new power supply for the repeater.
But Rich WA2ZPX gave me a Motorola switching supply that are used in communication systems with repeaters and other things.
So, and it's interesting to read the notes on it because I've never had a switching power supply that didn't interfere with the repeater up on the hill.
No matter what ones I've tried, it's just every one of them.
Because you've got this antenna directly above the building and with a receiver with 0.14 microvolt sensitivity.
And there's enough broadband and noise coming from the switcher that it would pick it up.
And I actually desensed the receiver a little bit.
Like the noise floor on the receiver came up, would come up another maybe two-tenths of a microvolt, which meant weaker signals just weren't getting in.
So I'm going to try the Motorola since it was kind of designed for communications.
But in the manual, and he gave me the book for it, or I got the book online, I forget.
It said in some situations you may notice interference caused by this supply.
My rule up until he gave me these is analog-only supplies at the repeater.
And I was designing an 80-amp supply for 985, kind of my own design.
But, you know, there's nothing.
The design is pretty straightforward.
It's certainly not an astronaut design, but it's similar in some ways.
It uses a 723, and then there's a pass transistor, because you've got to get the current gain up in the Darlington pair and everything to supply enough base drive for all the pass transistors.
And I like a lot of pass transistors in parallel.
You have to get through the Darlington stage, because that distributes the heat among many devices.
So rather than trying to dissipate the heat between one and two transistors on the heat sink, it becomes a distributed heat distribution point.
And that helps quite a bit with the safe operating areas and the conservative aspects of the power supply.
And I was going to design it so that the power transformer was on a separate shelf.
And it was, with connectorization, it was connected to the regulator deck.
And the regulator deck would be all the regulator stuff, like the 723 and all its associated circuit,
and a big, big, big heat sink, horizontal heat sink with the fins pointing up,
and, you know, the many pass transistors on it in parallel.
So in the end of the day, you might have 5 amps per pass transistor.
And they'll do a lot more than that, but it distributes the heat.
I think you get what I'm saying.
And it becomes very, very, very reliable that way.
But that got put on the back burner when Rich gave me a pair of these Motorola switching supplies designed for communication systems.
Okay, let's see.
I'm going to get it over to Greg.
I think Bill said he was just going to be listening, and then it came in maybe a little bit later.
But, Greg, over to you if you're still in there.
W3DIB and the crew, W3GMS.
I think he said he was maybe listening, but he had sort of signed out, I think.
Very good.
Well, I think Bill said he was just going to listen while we had the conversation.
So pick it up.
I went through on the All-Star if you guys can hear me.
I sound pretty terrible.
I am still listening.
But, yeah, just listening along if you guys are still listening.
Jim, he'll probably break in when he gets the audio problem fixed.
Very good.
Well, I think I'm going to hang it up here.
I got my early morning tomorrow for washing dishes and stuff.
And I think Bill was going to come back in.
He had something to talk about after we got done talking.
That might have been what you just said.
So I will turn it back to you, and then you can see who you can get a hold of here.
But thanks, Joe.
Good to talk to you.
And, yeah, that makes a lot of sense, having a number of pass transistors to share the load there.
So very good.
You can't do everything, but I do envy your knowledge of this kind of stuff.
All right.
Good night.
Thanks.
Good night to everybody.
Back to you, Joe.
Very good.
And if you use FETS rather than bipolar devices, you don't even need the Darlington pass transistor.
Because once you get over the charge of the gate on a FETS, you know, you have virtually no current.
So you could actually simplify it.
But I think in my repeater design, it's just because I had a bunch of 2N3771s.
I was using them.
The other nice thing about FETS, the RDS, the resistance from drain to source across the FETS is so low that you don't need as much differential voltage to keep the FETS operating as you do with a bipolar.
So since you can reduce V in, you know, very close to V out based on the RDS of the device, they run, you can make them run a lot cooler.
On power supplies, they're variable voltage.
The best way to do it is you have like two regulation loops.
You have a pre-regulator.
And then you have a secondary regulator.
And this way you can minimize the voltage across your pass transistors and not cause the dissipation problem by having, you know, really high input voltage and very low output voltage.
Because you may be set down to 5 volts or 4 volts or 3 volts.
So you can have a pre-regulator.
And there's various systems to do that.
One way is with SCRs.
And you can actually, because you don't need real tight regulation or anything.
You're just lowering the bulk voltage.
And, well, we can get into all that stuff a little later.
But that's a way that you can keep the pass transistors from cooking.
But you've got to be careful of the pre-regulator circuit, too, so you don't move the problem from one area to another.
There's ways to do that.
So, fun stuff.
Yeah, I really like that stuff.
And, oh, the other thing, don't worry about the current being in the meter off.
I haven't seen an astronaut supply yet that the current read accurately on.
It's a really, really flaky circuit that they use for the current measuring.
You can bring it back.
It may change again.
There's a little pot potentiometer, the cheapest pot that you'd ever want to see.
And it's right on the back of the ammeter is where it used to be.
And a little tiny screwdriver adjust, and you can calibrate it once you know what the load is.
And I've got a bunch of, well, I have electronic load here, so I can dial up with my electronic load.
And that's just a bunch of FETs going from the V out to ground.
And you control where the FET is on its curve.
And that makes a great shunt.
And the other way to do it is a bunch of 1-ohm resistors.
You know, put one 1-ohm on and set it, and then you put two 1-ohms on and parallel, and that's a half an ohm.
And through ohms law, you can calculate what the current is with that.
And that's a real easy and quick way to do it.
And if you ever want to borrow a bunch of 1-ohm resistors, 50 watts or whatever, I have them here if you ever want to get it calibrated or bring it down sometime.
Take us about five minutes.
Okay.
Take care, 7-3.
Have fun, and look forward to the next QSO.
AF3Z, W3GMS.
Yeah, very good.
Thanks for the word on the ammeter.
Good night, Joe.
AF3Z.
3OOK.
Are you okay?
W3GMS.
I'm not sure about me.
W3GMS.
KC3.
OOK.
And I am OOK.
And I'm sure about you.
You are not right.
I've told you that before.
Hi, hi.
Yeah, I'm good, Joe.
I wanted to send you an email or talk to you after Saturday, but I have been, I don't know, single focused here.
My joiner went down Saturday afternoon.
I figured out the motor itself.
I'm just getting the last bolt in now.
You need to be a contortionist to do it.
But I just wanted to say, I don't know, have you, I wanted to tell you, if you haven't done it, to go out to your tower and take the top section and pull it out.
And watch the other section slide out.
It works really nice.
Pull it out a few feet.
When you push it back, the cable may hang up because it's laying on its side.
But it came out really great.
And I am good for the fourth.
I'm making a list of all the little miscellaneous things that have to be done yet.
We should be good to get that done.
I know I heard Chuck say that he's tied up this whole week.
But we'll have all next week to get staged and ready for it.
The one thing I wanted to mention is talking to Chuck.
He also feels, if we could, it would probably be nice to straighten that mast.
So I was wondering if sometime I could come pick that up and take it down to the Amish shop and just see what they say.
Back to you, Joe.
W-3-G-M-S-K-C-3-O-O-K.
If my schedule wasn't so full, although I do have to look at the calendar.
There are a couple days I have this week.
If you don't want to come up, and I hate you to come up and spend your gas, I could always drop it off at your place.
But if you think that's a good thing to do, go ahead.
I have no issues with that.
See what they think.
It's not bent very badly.
I mean, it just has a slight twitch in it.
But as somebody said, I forget whether it was you or Chuck, at 2 o'clock in the morning, when I shine a flashlight up the tower,
if I see a bent mast, I won't be able to go back to sleep.
I don't think my eye would ever detect it.
But if you want to see about having it straightened, that's fine.
That is fine.
No issue at all.
So, no, I didn't pull it out.
I didn't want to touch it.
You know, it's like this sacred tower.
I do not want to touch that tower.
So let me ask you.
So I guess the next step, and what my plan is, on the 4th, when we get ready to put it up, I'm going to take on the 3rd, I'm going to drop the current tower.
You know, I'll have it down, telescope down, telescoped over.
It's just, I don't know whether you were out there, but I have a new cable on it.
And it'll be down.
And the only thing we'll have to do is just with the jack, with that plate, just after the nuts are taken off, just jack it off the plate.
And then we're going to need some manpower to move it.
But I plan to have that done before the day that it goes up.
And it should only, by that, if I can get all that done, it should only take us maybe a half an hour to get the tower off the base and get it off there.
And I'm hoping that Scott's device, and I don't even know what he's bringing, he can move the existing tower because it'll be all telescope down.
And he can move it over by the, what was a clothesline with those two 4x4 poles over near the fence.
Go ahead.
Yeah, I think he can definitely pick it up.
And he might be able to move it.
But I've sat down.
I'm making actually a kind of a CPM schedule sequence because it lets me think of all the things we need to have for each step.
And that may be a possibility.
I thought about that, too.
But I will say this, Joe.
If you've ever tried to hang on to something that weighs 500 pounds that's swinging from a hook on the back of a truck and trails it's moving, it's really swinging around quite a bit.
So it'll be dependent on how much, you know, how we can secure it.
The other option is, which we talked about before, was Chuck's trailer.
And we could always load it with Scott's rig on the truck's trailer, back it in there, and basically pick it off from there.
So there's a couple ways.
I'm not saying that's how to do it.
I'm just saying I've been, as you can imagine, it's been turning through my mind thinking about the actual sequence.
Back to you, Joe.
W3GMS, KC3O.
Okay.
Well, it was me and one other person that put it up.
And I don't remember any issues, but that was putting it up.
The other thing I thought about, and I have it here.
I don't know whether it mechanically would fit in.
I have an engine hoist.
But so we could have the engine hoist maybe.
And tell me if I'm off base, because you're the expert on this.
But I could have the engine hoist, like, pulling it up while the jack on the bottom is lifting off the bolts.
And we could keep tightening it with the engine hoist.
And that may keep it stable.
Go ahead.
W3GMS, KC3O.
Okay.
Sorry, Joe.
My mind.
I switched gears.
I was thinking about setting the base for the Heights Tower, not taking the other one down.
Yeah, I agree.
I think we can take a trip jack and just jack it up with a bar on one side, because we'll have a little differential pressure.
With a bar on the opposite side of the trip jack, it'll just go up and flop over.
And I can bring my wagon.
That doesn't weigh that much.
We can put it on the wagon and wheel it out of the way.
So that's kind of the list of all the things I've been thinking about to bring it gathered together.
And I also have a list of miscellaneous things we still have to do.
We've still got a colex bracket to put on.
A couple bolts for the cables.
And just little stuff like that.
Just trying to get everything out of the way.
Back to you, Joe.
Excuse me.
W3GMSKC3.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
I misunderstood what you were saying.
I was, I was, I, well, you figured out what I was talking about.
So, yeah, we were on a different page.
Same book, but different page.
And I think the connectors, I'll have to check the track, the tracking history.
But I think the connectors for the rotator and everything, I ordered all new stuff.
I think that will be in Wednesday.
So I'll get on that.
And I just, you know, I know we could have one continuous piece, but for servicing and stuff,
because I'm going to rent a ditch witch and put all underground conduit over, you know,
where the, all the wires come out of the ground from that big piece of conduit from inside.
I'm going to put a piece of conduit.
I'm going to continue, I'm going to dig that up and continue the conduit over with a big sweep.
Because, you know, hard line and stuff coming from inside the house.
Now they found out for hard line, especially you want big sweeps.
And get that over to the back of the building and then in.
But that doesn't have to be done at the time the tower is done, you know.
I can do that any time.
But I was going to dig it.
And I said, you know, I'm just going to, because we want to put a lot of electrical lines in anywhere.
I want to, not a heavy duty line, but just maybe a 15 amp line going to the parts building.
The only thing I'll have out there is lighting.
That's all LED.
And I want to get lights into the Christmas building.
And I'm going to have a heavy current feed into the old GMS ham shack.
Because we're going to be putting a lot of fire in the wire from that building.
So I've used ditches plenty and they're no big deal.
Martha loves them.
And she's laughing.
The first time I got it, I didn't realize you're supposed to use it backwards.
But we've used it a lot since then.
So, oh, the other thing, I'm not sure where your thoughts are now on any prep work to the base with extra bolts or any of that kind of stuff.
So, and I'm sure you have developed a methodology at this point to know what you want to do there.
Go ahead.
Yes, I think we've got that all covered.
And I've got the rotor hammer and the bits are on the list and the pinch bars.
And as far as the additional bolts we put in, they can be done afterwards.
Because with epoxy, I'll be able to drill right through the existing holes and then drop the bolts and the epoxy down in them.
That's the beautiful thing about it is there's no alignment.
And the great thing is your concrete's been in there forever.
Because with new installations, you've got to let the concrete sit at least a month before you can put any epoxy anchors in.
So, yours is good and cured and dry.
So, yeah, we'll have all that lined up.
But the bolts can go in later as long as we get it in and leveled up.
And I have that on the list, too.
I have a couple big levels and straight edges.
So, I say, I made going through a sequence of the process because that lets me identify what tools and equipment we need for each step.
And just have it all together well ahead of time.
Can't help it.
Just in my DNA.
Back to you, Joe.
W-3 GMS.
KC-3 O-K.
Very methodical and person.
And that's good.
You know, and you've got to think ahead.
Otherwise, you get yourself boxed into a corner.
Now, let me ask you this.
It just escaped me.
Yeah, it makes sense.
You can put the other bolts in afterwards.
Oh, leveling.
You know, we know that when I checked it with a level, the concrete pad is very, very close to being level.
But it's a little bit out.
And as you so well know, that gets amplified as you go up.
So, what's your thought process now?
Because I don't think we're going to have a gap.
I'm not even sure we have enough bolt threads.
But it seems to me like maybe the most practical solution, quote unquote, would be some type of shim if we need it.
Shims if we need it.
Go ahead.
Joe, you're reading my mind.
And that was exactly what I was going to do.
And for purposes of what we're doing that day, I have a couple different thicknesses of bar stock.
And I was going to get them.
And I wish I, you know, you don't want to ever use any wood.
But I wish I had some pieces of slate around.
Because slate is, it actually makes a very good shim.
It doesn't crush.
And we really need them just kind of temporarily.
So, that's my thought.
But I think what we're going to do first is we're going to bolt it down.
And we can really check the level with the triangle folded over.
But we don't really want to do that.
So, my thought is get the thing bolted down as long as it's, and get it close to level based on the base plate.
And then put the tower on and measure the first section of tower.
Because there's going to be some differences, you know, between that base and between the tower.
And it's really the first section of tower being plumbed is what we're really going to be plumbing up.
And then what happens in that whole assembly between there and the ground, you know, maybe a plate isn't exactly square.
Like Chuck said, maybe a leg is not spreading quite as far as another.
So, once we have the two assembled together, look at how plumb that base section of tower is.
That's how we'll actually do our final leveling.
Back to you, Joe.
W3GMS KC3OOK.
It's total sense.
And because you're absolutely right, there's a lot of tolerance built up from the base plate to where the tower bolts on.
And I know for a fact that each one of the tower legs on the base are not in the exact same distance.
And we got those things in as good as we could.
But there's probably, you know, some differences between each leg.
And you can probably even see that if you look at the gap, any gaps between the legs and the base plate where they screw in.
So, anyway, but we gooped it up good.
There's a lot of never-sees in there.
So, yeah, that's a great idea.
That is a great idea because that's what really matters.
It's not what the base is.
It's what the first section of the tower looks like.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And I am almost certain that the last section on the base of the tower that has that connector with the big one-inch threaded bolt sticking down,
that goes through the triangle in the base, I'm almost certain they're double-nutted.
So that was on my list.
Clean those threads up.
Get the nuts.
Make sure we have all that.
And that's where we can level it up very easily.
You know, we get the base down pretty secure.
And it's not going to be out a lot, you know, so it only kind of affected a little as it tilted over.
So, yeah, that's the thought there.
So we're on the same page.
But we have to look around.
Anything you've got of pieces of steel, that'll at least let us get them done temporarily.
And then once we know what that gap is, if we have enough gap, we'll grab it.
Back to you, Joe.
W3GMS, KC3OOK.
Let me ask you this.
If we put a temporary shim in, and I assume the shims are around the perimeter of the base plate,
how will we get the shims out to put the proper shim in?
We don't really have to put him in all that far.
We really don't.
I don't think.
We'll be able to get him out.
You're not going to drive him way in.
Back to you, Joe.
Very good.
And it'll be interesting because I think as level as that base is, very, very close,
I think your idea with checking that first tower section.
And also, we have latitude on those bolts where they bolt to the base unit from the tower itself.
I mean, we could always, I guess, and maybe that's something I should order.
Some, what are they, one inch?
I forget.
Are they seven-eighths?
Would it help to have some stainless steel washers in case we need them to put on maybe a leg where it bolts to the lower section,
from the tower to the first section of the tower to the lower section?
Go ahead.
It surely wouldn't hurt.
It surely wouldn't hurt.
One thing that I would say, maybe talk to Chuck about this too and get his thought.
Stainless nuts do gall.
I guess if we use one inch, and I have to say, I don't know what the actually bolt size is on the tower to the triangle.
I know your bolts, your J bolts are one inch, but I'm not sure if they were three-quarter, seven-eighths, or one.
So we have to figure that out.
But, yeah, I think there's enough room for washers and lock washers on that,
because I'm pretty sure it just goes through the, like, three-eighths angle on a flat face.
So you've got at least three inches of thread on that bolt, I believe.
But we use stainless, but definitely want to put a lot of anti-seize on it.
Or we could use a galvanized, you know, a good hot dip galvanized nut as well.
Back to you, Joe.
W-3-GMS, KC-3-0-OK.
Use a galvanized on that for a lot of different reasons.
So, and that's no problem.
And I can paint it up good, and it has, you know, the galvanizing is good.
That's not a problem.
Yeah, I'll just figure out what size it is, and then I'll order some galvanized nuts for that.
Yeah, as you said, we've got plenty of distance there.
So lock washer and flat washers.
And that way just if we want to shim one side up or something, you know,
maybe just what the doctor ordered.
So that's good.
I get that order.
Okay, man, I think we're getting there.
So I want to finish the rotor stuff when the connectors come in on Wednesday.
I did that bracket that goes on the rotor.
You know, it was all rusty.
I don't know whether you saw it, but I did give it one coat of paint.
But I think they shipped me the wrong color galvanized paint.
And I still have the other stuff downstairs because it looks considerably darker.
And the other stuff was more of a silvery match to the tower.
So I'm a little bit annoyed at that.
It almost has like a brownish tinge to it.
So I want to get that resolved.
And I didn't want to do any painting while you guys were working on it because it would be my luck.
I'd put paint and then you'd put your hand in it.
So that's why I purposely didn't paint or didn't touch up anything on the tower.
I don't think there's that much to really touch up.
So very good.
So get the connectors on the rotor cable because I got 500 feet of rotor cable.
And that way we can feed it up through the, you know, the hoopty-hoos that you have offset from the tower where the coax will go.
And so we got the coax.
We got the, I was almost going to put up the six-meter beam.
It's so small.
But if I have a chance, I may do that.
If I don't, I won't.
So anyway, there you go.
Let's see.
I can't think of anything else.
It sounds like, it sounds like everything is pretty much in order.
KC-3-O-O-K-W3-GMS.
W3-GMS.
I heard you twice.
Once.
C-W-K-3-O-K.
Yeah, Joe.
I think we're getting there.
In my mind, I just have to make a list so that I'd like to have all the tools and everything lined up you're going to need.
And think about, okay, what goes, something goes wrong.
What do we need to correct that?
Yeah, it sounds good.
And as far as that mast, if you've got the time and want to bring it down, that's fine.
If not, I can drive up there.
It's not a big deal at all.
So say, if you do have time to drive down the shop, it's only two blocks from here so we can run over.
And you can see the shop, and they might do it while we wait.
Back to you, Joe.
W3-GMS.
KC-3-O-O-K.
Let me go out in the kitchen where we have the wall calendar, and let me see what's going on on Wednesday.
Stand by.
He is wide open, Bill.
How about I bring it down Wednesday morning?
Say 9 o'clock or so.
Is that okay?
I just looked here.
This happens to be I have nothing this week.
So, yeah, Wednesday at 9 works great, Joe.
You can hop in the Jeep, and we can take it over there.
I'm sure I can get it on the luggage rack.
There shouldn't be any problem.
It's not that heavy.
And zip ties work really well for keeping things on luggage racks.
You just throw them away.
You can cut them when you're done, but you can really, you know, the heavier-duty zip ties really work well.
On the Grand Cherokee, the roof rack, it's amazing.
They could have done so much better.
I would have rather had them further apart, but it'll be fine.
And then we'll have to do that.
rid of some more scrap, so good.
Good.
So, I'll see you Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Okay, Joe.
Okay, Joe.
That sounds great.
I got it on the calendar here.
That sounds great.
That sounds great.
Yeah, I think we got everything lined up.
We got all our ducks in a row.
And I know, as I said, I think Chuck, his social calendar got filled up for the rest of the week.
So, we'll have to see what he's got for next week.
But I think we're in pretty good shape.
So, I'll let you go.
I'm a bachelor tonight.
I can sit down here and talk as long as I want.
But it is 10 after 10.
So, I would say 7-3.
Have a great night.
And, as always, good parts of my regard.
W3GMS and KC3O.
Okay.
Very good.
I'll let you go.
And that'll be good.
Tomorrow, we'll be down at N2HM's sailing with Bob.
I would normally make it a two-day trip.
But we just have too much going on.
So, we're going down in the morning, sail in the afternoon, and then come back after dinner on Tuesday.
So, that'll work out well.
So, it'll be good to get out and bob around in the water a little bit.
It's so nice.
It's so peaceful.
Will you talk about relaxation?
That's the place to relax.
Okay.
Very good.
Thank you for all your effort and what you're doing.
I can't express to you how much I appreciate it.
And, uh, I'm just super thrilled after having this tower sit idle for 20 years that the doggone thing is finally going to get up in the air.
7-3-W3-GMS.
3.
Have a great day decompressing tomorrow.
Out there in the silence.
Just the sound of the wind.
J-C-3.
Okay.
I'm clear.
Nothing more relaxing when you're out in the boat and you hear the water slapping against the hull of the boat.
Um, a friend of mine, when I had my business, he also worked at Unisys and he was like my mechanical designer and PC board layout guy and all that.
His father built a place on Reed's beach.
And, um, on the bay side, right across from, uh, Cape May courthouse.
And, uh, it was like, uh, a real blue collar working neighborhood.
They had one main street.
It was right along the, uh, the bay there and they had houses.
And he built a house, uh, not my friend, but his father built the house when he got out of World War II.
And, uh, we would be invited down, uh, with my friend and his wife, uh, when we went sometimes during the summer.
And, uh, it was up on pilings and at high tide.
There was nothing greater to go to sleep.
But when you hear that water slap on those pilings, it was, it was just perfect.
Take care.
Talk to you later.
W3-GMS.
W3-GMS.
Thank you.