Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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 and my call is W3DIB. Tonight's host for the Monday night workbench. I'm located in Kennet Square. We meet every Monday at 8pm on the W3GMS Parksburg repeater at a frequency of 146.985 MHz. The VL tone to access the repeater is 100Hz. For those who use tone squelch on receive, the repeater transmits a squelch tone of 94.8Hz. 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, of 985 users in action, and repeater etiquette and history. Please be aware that on occasion the repeater experiences intermod interference. Please run maximum power or be prepared to check in digitally through EchoLink or All-Star. We want to be able to hear you. To be able to use EchoLink and All-Star on 985, you'll need to register with us. Directions for doing so can be found on the website, w3gmsrepeater.com. Also, when the intermod is present, before starting a transmission, give a short call. Say something like, I getting in OK? Once the coast confirms, then you can share your longer comments. Here on the workbench, we focus on answering general questions of radio theory and operations. Additionally, invite each station to briefly comment on your amateur radioactivity in the past week. checking in, please indicate if you have a question for the workbench. Just simply say question. 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 of the station that checks in right after you. When you have finished your comments, turn the mic over to that station. Once we have made all 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 information. Feel free to do that as needed, then pass it back to me in that control. Now don't be too quick to talk. Pause a couple of seconds before hitting press to talk, the press to talk switch. This is good repeater etiquette and pauses are especially helpful for those on All-Star and Echo Link. 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. It takes a moment for the repeater to process your PL tone. If you speak too quickly, it'll cut off the first syllable of whatever you Key up, one one thousand, and then begin speaking. 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 push to talk switch. So every two to three minutes, release the mic button just for a moment, and then you can continue. Before we begin, I want to say thank you to all of our 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 Mike, W3MFB, this Thursday at 8 p.m. for the 985 roundtable. At this time, we are going to start the check-in process. Remember to indicate if you have a question for the group by simply saying question after your call. Digital stations using EchoLink are all-star. I will leave long pauses to make it easier for you to check in. Digital stations, anybody on digital stations, so Echo Link and All Star, wishing to check in, please call now. Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey. This is W1RC. Good evening. WC3, WWC. We've got W8CRWCR, W1RC Michael, KC3 WWC John. At this time we will take RF and all other stations. Wishing to check in, please call now. RVN short timer. NA3CW, no question. Three ALS, still. KC3YSM. P3-0-0-K. KC3SQR So far I've got W8CRW and CR I didn't hear whether you had a question. Did you have a question? anything that time. CR, I didn't hear anything. was just calling to see if you had a question. No question. here. Then we were over to W1RC, Michael, I didn't hear whether you had a question as well. Sorry to have to run through this again. Michael, did you have a question? And no, I do not, I'm standing by maybe to help answer one, but no, I do not have a specific question for the workbench tonight, over. Greg, are you still in the air, NA-3CW? Can you hear me? That was strange. can hear my... me go back to the top. So what I'm gonna do in the interest of time is just go through the list and indicate who I heard had a question and I'll have anybody clarify if there's anybody that has a question that didn't indicate one. So at the top we have W8CRW, no question. W1RC, no question. KC3WWC, no question, but I didn't hear. N3RBN, short time with a question. NA3CW, no question. KB3ILS, no question. KC3YSM, no question. WA3KFT, no question. AF3Z, with a question. KC3OOK, no question. KC3SQI, no question. Is there anybody that I missed that had a question that didn't indicate that there was? Please call now. Uh, Ron, I gotcha. I'm gonna go ahead and put it out again. We'll put W-A-3-V-E-E at the end of the list there, right after Wayne, and I just called out to see if anybody else had a question that didn't indicate. P3FHA, no questions. 3Z with a correction. for it, Jim. I clicked the button and talked too soon, I actually said no question. Sorry about that, Greg. AF3 is at... Okay, so then I guess I only have one question. I think it was N3RBN and just to make sure, is that correct? of them, I think there was another. Okay, if anybody else has a question, please call now. Three FHA, no question. 3RFG, late check in. Greg, you got it piled up. This is W3KZG, no question. Yeah, I missed a few calls as well because I tried to transmit the same. If I got any questions, I've just got one with N3RBN. I'm gonna go through the entire list again, because it's getting a little jumbled here. K3FHA and then the call sign ending in RFG, I stepped on your transmission by accident, could you come back? and Greg Kilo Charlie 3 KC 3 RFG Jim and Melvin. No question. W3KZG, late check in. Okay, sorry, forgive me for a little pause there. I was getting all the names, querying the calls I don't have memorized yet. Gotcha there, Scott. W3KZG at the end of the list there. So I think we got everybody. I'm gonna run through one more time. W8CRWW1RC KC3WWZ N3RBN NA3CW KB3ILS KC3YSM WA3KFT AF3Z KC3OOK KC3SQI K3FHA KC3RFG W3KZG Are there any other stations that would like to check in? and indicate whether you have a question. Please call now. Well we will start the quick round table portion of the net so we will turn it over to CR to check in with how their week in ham radio is going. W8CRW this is W3DIB on the Monday night work. Very good, Greg. Thank you very much for chairing tonight. And you got a long list, so I'm going to keep it short. Normal 985 activities, but the highlight of the week was Chuck's great presentation up at the Field Day site on the connectors. Mr. Mike, pick it up. W1RC, WHCRW. You know, thanks very much, CR. This is W1RC. I really haven't done much this week in ham radio. Still fiddling around a little bit with All-Star trying to get it to do a few more things, but it works well in this mode. I understand I can set it up to be able to select notes from the touch tone pad on it. Now I just go on my... my phone and connect and connect to the node and that's it but there's got to be a better way to do this and I'll figure it out. Back to Nat from W1RC. over to KC3WWC. Thanks, Greg. This is KC3WWC, John in Landisville. Mike, for All-Star stuff, I recently added a macro to connect so I could just star five one and it connects me right up to nine eight five. So I've been enjoying that as long as DTMF keeps working. Otherwise my radio week, my 80 meter and fit halfway was giving me some trouble, some high SWR and I went out and checked it out and that had some corrosion. It's out in the elements, so it's not in a protective box. But that affords me the opportunity to go take it apart and remove the counterpoise and see if that was the problem and remove the little capacitor and see what that does to the tuning and put it back and watch it shift everything down just a little bit. So learning experiences are fun. Otherwise, I participate in APRS Thursday last week where I... I the message to subscribe to the net and I got 174 messages through the 12 hours that I was automatically subscribed. had messages across the world and across the United States. that was kind of neat to see. I will hand off to, oh, last thing, I'm headed to Los Angeles for like 12 days. I'm gonna go find some parks. I'll be back for like the last day of field day and I'll probably just participate from home. Head off to N3RBN, this is KC3WWC. This is N3RBN with a pause for digital traffic. Let's see, I spent the week getting my pass through for my antennas installed back in the window. So now I've got my radio back on the air. I should be able to get my HF rig also, but I got a lot of wires to tend to. Anyway, over to Chuck, ME-3CW, and we'll be standing by for the question. Very good, Paul. Glad you're back on. Entry R.B. and A3CW. Well, it's been a busy week in ham radio and it's all been around one word and that is coax. As many of you know, we inherited a pile of coax from the silent key in Westchester. And so I grabbed the most likely looking candidates out of the pile. Some of it was It's not in great shape and there's a lot of RG-11 in there which is 75 ohm coax which we're not going to be using. So I came home with a trunk load of cable and in various states of rolled up or disarray or tangled or twisted or whatever. it took, we had a few nice days, so I took them all out to the backyard and untangled them and rolled them all out straight and tied them to a post and untwisted everything. and then did a big, like two foot or so diameter roll up of each cable with tie wraps and tie wrapped them all up. so Friday, Saturday, we'll them all up to the site and we're able to demonstrate some of the newer connectors. Joe demonstrated some of the older connectors and how to put them on. We tested some of the coax that already had connectors. We did reveal one that was kind of hinky, so I cut the connectors off it, one of the old ones. It was kind of wobbly on the end and causing intermittent impedance that Bill picked up with his analyzer. And so we whacked off the connectors and that's going to get fresh connectors. So after the breakfast on Friday, several of us are going to go back up there. and continue on putting connectors on cable. And I think we'll probably have enough. I'm also bringing up a 90 foot roll of Belden foam RG8 equivalent, whatever their serial number is, as connectors on it. I know it's a known good. I've used it and rung it out several times. I think some others are gonna bring up some just in case. I think we're gonna be in good shape for coax. So, I'm glad. I was able to demonstrate the newer connector that it's easier and requires less equipment to put on. It's real solid and I like them. So that's what I... And the fact that it's absolutely much better if you're using any kind of foam dielectric coax, which is pretty much all the modern ones. So that's that and that over to Keith, KB3ILS. Good to hear you back on here. This is NA3CW. NA3CW in the group, KB3ILS. Yes, I've not been around very much recently. Both work life and personal life have kept me busy. But with field day nearing, nearing, getting very, very close, you feel yourself being drawn back to the radio by some powerful force, maybe the power of CW on field day, I'm not sure. Speaking of CW, I did try and get on the air this weekend with some low power stuff outside. The bands were rough. I couldn't hear hardly anything on 20 meters. I like one guy calling, it's pretty rough, I made like one contact and that was it. I've been spending a bunch of time learning the details of bandpass filters. I've always known how they work and how they're shaped and what they're for, but been going deep into how they're designed, how they block certain frequencies, how the inductance and capacitance work together, how the calculations work. I started using a nano VNA and oscilloscope to watch the performance of the bandpass filter, understand that. And now I find myself winding toroids to try and get ready to make one on Manhattan style. So that's keeping me a little bit busy. And finally, I'm in a mad dash to catch up on the zoom calls for field day have not made a single one yet this spring, but I watched one last night, one tonight, and I've got the last one I missed watched before the Friday meetings. I hope to see everybody out there. I will now turn it over to KC3YFM. Thank you, Keith. KB3ILS. This is KC3. Why at them? And Chuck, I will say again, thank you, thank you, thank you. Not only was it nice to learn how to put the connectors on. more Joe old connectors at the house than I do new Chuck connectors. But you know, it was interesting not only learning to put the connectors on the coax, but OK, what do you look for? have a piece of coax. Has water been infiltrated into the coax? Is it old? Is it good? It was just good info, really good info. days with at least me for quite a while and very, very good. So certainly appreciate it. I think you keep doing these. We're going to have enough technicians around. We'll be able to go from house to house and do whatever we ever need, whatever we need to do. And we'll need a little help, I guess. But some regular nets and a little bit on mobile. I am up to my eyeballs in big granddad and grandmom. babysitter week this week the kids are away they're in Iceland having a good time so we're on duty with the granddaughter and the dog so with that John I'm going to turn it over to you KC3YSM over you WA3KFT is whiskey alpha three, King Fox Tango. Oh, kadoke. Well, we had a nice party yesterday, Father's Day. My daughter's in-laws and her family. So. It was three to four, three guys, four gals. I have two granddaughters and a daughter and a son. The sun is down in Maryland, so he didn't come up. Anyway, we've been, I'll say, putting some final touches on the shack, replacing some of the coax, shortening some of the coax, and that kind of stuff. And I have a set of tools from DX Engineering that makes putting connectors. L-259s on RG ain't very, very easy. One of the tools strips it to the... And the other tool puts the PL-259 on the coax. So between those two tools, I have been adding connectors to coax. I have some cables that are pretty shoddy on the connector end. So I think I'm going to whack them off. And I do have a very nice of cutting pliers for coax specifically. The cutting blade is curved and it doesn't smash the cable. the special pliers to cut it and a couple of tools to strip it. And I have a very old antique soldering iron transformer operated that gets to about a thousand degrees on the tip. And it makes short order soldering the PL-259. A-F-3Z, WA-3KFT. Alright, very good John. Thank you, good evening everybody. This is AF3Z and per our discussion on the roundtable I have popcorn and iced coffee here though the popcorn's gone now. So anyway, were questioning the night included food and stuff you eat and drink while operating the radio. Yeah, I haven't been terribly active. I guess last week I hosted both the workbench and the roundtable the way it worked out. So that was good. And I've done my normal local CW skids. And that's a lot of fun. But I haven't done much besides that lately. Steve, the gift I got from my daughter for Father's Day was her dog for a week. So I've got my grand dog here with me for a week. I'll be going home on Saturday. And Keith, I admire you for watching all those videos. I find it hard to do. One of the greatest motivations for getting to the Zoom meeting is not having to watch it later. Oh yes, I'm terrible. So anyway, that's my comment here. Bill, over down to you. KC3OOK, AF3Z. 3Z KC hot tea and a little container. KC30K, still hearing. taken. me wasn't on that radio ad. Me five naps, I guess. Peter. you analyze the... I said Yes. Thank you, Bill. KC-3-O-OK. Now I am very... On... what I'm going to be doing on field day, especially on Saturday. yeah, if you can send me an email with that or a link to let me go out and look at that. I don't know whether I will be here. It kind of depends on how bad I'm feeling after. the surgery on Friday. So, for me, radioactively, I've got the base for the new tilt-over mast all concreted in, it's ready to go. I got the tilt base section of the conduit onto the tilt. And now I've got to figure out where I put the NOA locks, EDD-C's for coax so that I can get it on the threads. for the other two 10 foot sections of the mast so that I can take a little part in the future if necessary. So with that, I will turn it over to John, K3FHA, this is KC3SQI. No, thank you Wayne. KC3SQI, K3FHA. I thought I heard Ron was in there. Ron, were you on the list next? going to wait till the end there but nonetheless yep I'll pick it up here real quick John. Not much else going on here helped George and Tom this WA3VEE of George and Tom restring the 40 meter dipole last week up at the field day site and ran a quick scan on it found out it was resonant Keith you'd like this by the way Keith great to hear you man that's great hope you make it up to field day yeah we desperately need you out there. But nonetheless, was resonant right at 7 megahertz. So the guys went up there, of course, a lot of you were there to see this. they were, they cut each leg evenly and then took about six or seven inches off. And that raised the resonant frequency of the dipole up to about 150, 7.150, which is perfect. So we're all very good. Hope to be up there on, Friday after the breakfast. My apologies for not making it on Saturday. That was an early Father's Day breakfast with my younger son out in Lidditz. That was great. And then in the evening, a steak dinner with my older son. So it was definitely a Father's Day day, early, one day early. So that's where I was. Okay, not much else going on. Looking forward to a great field day. I'll tell you if anybody is still on the fence about whether to participate, contact Joe and get on the list. And at least come out and visit us and hopefully operate. We need operators and the more the merrier, no question about it. Okay, John, it is your turn. W3, K3, K3 FHA, WA3, VEE with the group. W-A-3-V-E-E-K-3-F-H-A. Thanks, Ron. Not much happening. I've been really, really busy with other things this past week. Doing a little bit of a, I checked in a few naps, but I've been working on a little bit of test equipment here then in my very limited free time. But it's just been busy with other things in life, but I have gotten a little bit done. That's about it. So over to Jim, KC3RFG, K3FHA. This is KC3RFG. Thank you, John. This is Jim here in Malvern, PA. Thanks to Greg for hosting the workbench this evening. Not a whole lot going on here. The usual nets and stuff during the week and some 985 activity. Although the 985 radio in the work truck was getting intermittent, so something was wrong there. We put the nano VNA on the coax. There's a magnetic dual bander on the roof, an older diamond mount. Actually, it's a recycle from Barry. And it got to where was that the SWR was really high. So I had that going on the Nano VNA while I grabbed it on the roof. And lo and behold, it jumped back to normal and then went high and then normal and then high. So I had an intermittent up there someplace. Well, the good thing about the old stuff is it can be all taken apart down to the connector where the coax connects to the center pin on the connector. It was a solid wire center coax. And at the factory, they had put the solid wire near to the center pin and then just connected it with a big blob of solder. So over the years, the solder cracked. That was the intermittent. So that was an easy fix. Just desolder it, put the wires actually together and resolder it, and then everything came back nicely. So I was glad to get that repaired. Other than that, just my first couple of ever six meter contacts this past week. I kept forgetting, well I now have an antenna that can tune 6. One of my multiples can tune it. And I forgot that during all this solar activity where nothing else is going to look up there on 6. And lo and behold, there was a lot of FTE and above that were some voice stations. And I made contacts with several of those up in Newfoundland. on. first ever time on six, so that was neat. That's about it from here, with that I will send it over to Scott. W3KZG, this is KC3RFG. KC3RFG, this is W3KZG. Good evening everybody. Hope everybody's night's going well. Thanks, Greg. You got a heck of a work. I don't know if it's necessarily related. A and close. working to get for a while. every spare moment refurbishing it, put a new floor in it, tore the walls out, put insulation in the ceiling and the walls, gonna put the new walls in. I still need to the walls up yet, but the wall boards are painted. on bringing it to field day and whatever. the walls are up and the floor is down. The rest of it can come later, but I'm pretty much turning it into kind of like a camper. for hauling my ATV to riding parks and camping in it. Primitive camping, it's nothing. gathering parts and pieces. catch who it goes to after me. Listen out. This is W3KZG. Have a good night. Take it away, Greg. W3KZGW3DIV. Yeah, I believe you were the tail gunner and big apologies to Ron because I think I might have missed you in that last run through in the list. I got you one time but then I came back through again and I missed you so sorry about that. I'll throw some comments and then we'll get started but before I do that, is there anybody else who would like to check in? Please call now. KC30K with one additional comment. bill. Greg, there was one thing I forgot to mention. I woke up early, I was looking at... comment. W A three V E. Take it away, right? Go for it. Good bill. How could I? How could I ever forget that one? Uh, just FYI, I'm hoping Joe sent the link out to that is the my Chesco Chesco times. Uh, actually it's a great article. Not because I wrote it, but what it does is it's right in a prominent place. Chesco times is a pretty popular, uh, news organ. here in Chester County. was one thing I did last week. I forgot all about that stuff. There's a whole lot of other things behind the scenes I'll report on in the Zoom meeting on Friday night, a very brief one we're going to have. But nonetheless, that was one major one there. And it shows an operator operating the go-to station. happened to be my son, because I didn't have to ask for permission to put the picture in there. I put it in there then Saturday night at dinner, I told him. So that was the release. Eminent domain, Eminent Family Domain, there you go. So that got some attention and I don't know if MSN, Microsoft News Network actually scours the local news organs and news feeds and things, but that's probably how they got it. If anybody needs to see that, I'm not sure if Joe distributed that or not yet, but if anybody needs to see that. Send me an email and I'll be delighted. It really does get us out there in front of people. Thanks, Greg. Back to you. W3DIB in a group, WA3VE. Excellent and I'll just put it out there to get that article all you've got to search for a Google is my Chesco space a RRL and it's the first link that'll pop up you could even click the I feel lucky button Just as a RRL amateur field day amateur radio field day and there it is talks right about Up in Chester Springs and has the picture of your son awesome and Ron made it in that picture too because I could see the old QSL card from the last year before is the one that I was on, so I'm in the photo too. But before I go to comments, are there any other stations that would like to check in, please call now. 3MFD Mike, you are the new tail gunner. If you want to give us a quick short synopsis of your week and then we'll get on with the question. Too much activity really, just kind of had a quiet weekend. And yeah, back to you Greg, thanks. Excellent. I will keep it really short in the interest of getting right to the questions. It like we have to have a big thank you out to Chuck and Joe and everybody for showing us the COEX termination. I wish I had been able to go to that. I unfortunately had to take my mom down to Sussex County, Delaware and back dealing with stuff. April. yeah, lots of good activity around coax termination, sounds like, and coax in general, resurrecting old coax to checking connectors and everything. And Keith, excellent. It's great to hear you back. Yes, I know what you mean about field day. It does kind of pull you in. It's like that magnetic force. yeah, I'm curious, when you watch the Zoom meetings, do you watch them on 2x speed so that we're all talking very fast and we keep going like... I've done that with YouTube videos where I want to get to the point and the person's kind of rambling and I'll just hold that 2x speed button. Yeah, I hope all the fathers had an excellent Father's Day. And Jim, you had an excellent question last week with the what does everybody eat and drink during their transmissions on the amateur radio bands. And kudos, thank you again for hosting both nets. So, all right, I think I'll move. Well, let's see, I have one other question for Bill and you can maybe work it in later on. The container of Cheerios being treats for Scooter. I'm guessing that's the cat that we've seen in some of the videos, the Zoom recordings that's kind of walking around in your shop. Wayne, wishing you all the best with surgery on Friday. Hopefully everything's coming through and you're feeling great and we would love to see you at field day. Definitely hear from you and yeah, we have to get somebody to get you the recordings if you want to catch up on that. Let's see. I will, I think I will move on for now just to keep things moving since we've got such a long list. So I think so far we only have one question from N3RBN. So Paul has a question. We will turn it over to Paul if you're still there. I know he mentioned short time, but N3RBN, this is W3DIB on the Monday night workbench. And through you, RBN. First of all, thank you, Greg, for taking the net tonight. This is the first time I think I've joined in, although I've listened to many, many a host do the net and really enjoy both the workbench and the roundtable. So anyway, my question has to do with microphone connectors. In particular, there's RJ jobbers that everybody hates. Not so much the putting of the connector or replacing of it, but more I've lost the length of straight cord on my mic and I'm all the way up to the coiled portion. So is there a way to straighten that coiled portion? I tried heating it. but is there a method to straighten the microphone cable in order to put a new RJ connector on the end or some method of repairing that? Otherwise, I guess the answer is to just go buy a new mic. Go ahead, we're waiting for a good answer here. Alright, so I think I got the question there and I'm actually looking at my own mic and unfortunately mine is starting to unravel at the mic end, not the RJ11 end. But I think Paul's question is, the RJ11 style connectors and the coiled section, is there a way to straighten out the coiled section on that cable? Any stations that would like to contribute an answer, please call now. and we'll turn it over to Chuck and A3CW. I do not know how to uncoil those things. I don't know if they're molded that way or formed. What I've done in the past is I was able to just find a generic mic cord and rewire the mic and plug. The other thing is there are cheap junky mics that you can get online. labeling like Kenwood or Yeezy or whatever. sometimes that's an easy way, cheaper, easier way to get a new mic cord is buy one of those, throw the microphone away and install the cable on your microphone. So different other ways to skin the cat but I don't know how to answer your question directly because I've run into that myself. NA3CW. Are there any other stations that would like to contribute an answer? Please call now. I've done that exact thing that Chuck's talking It'll be like a Yezu clone. I think it was my A089. coming apart. over and I think it actually Didn't even have to solder anything. KZGM. too for getting a cheap knockoff mic and throwing away the mic. Are there any other stations that would like to offer a comment? Please call now. Okay, nothing heard unless that last kerchunk was somebody trying to come in. Was there a station trying to come in? Okay, nothing hurt. See you, Paul. answers. N3RBNW3DIB on the Monday night. appreciate those suggestions there and I'm going to try to look into that. like the adapter externally or possibly the whole coil cord internally. So we'll look into that and I appreciate the suggestions. Chuck, thanks for doing the connector program over the weekend. And Greg, again, thanks for taking the net tonight. I think there was another person that had a question. I think it was KST John, but I'm not sure. We'll turn it over to John. WAA-3KFT, was there a question? is WA3KFT? Not from my desk. I usually have the answers, but no questions from here. Over. Okay, excellent. I didn't have anybody else down as having any question, but that doesn't mean we have to cut the net short. If there's anybody out there that has a question, they've... few minutes, feel free to call now. So anybody with a question or anybody that would like to check in, please feel free to call now. Thank PC3 as a QI. Helo Delta 3, Echo Mike Sierra. We got another station to the list, Kelo Delta 3, Echo Mike Sierra. And did you have a question? just listening and learning. Excellent, well welcome and we will turn it over to Wayne. KC3SQI, this is W3DIB. Okay, thank you Greg. W3DME, this is KC3SQI. Part of the question is the connector number for the PL-259s from Chuck, can you get that for me or give it to me? I'll send you the link for it. They don't seem to have a specific number. They're made in China. I don't know of any U.S. vendors for them, but it seems like every third person in China sells them. They're on eBay, they're on Amazon. I'll send you the link for the Amazon seller that I got mine from, and those are the ones that we used over the weekend. So I'll send you the link. Okay, thank you Chuck. And the second part of that is now that I'm going to a new antenna mass that can support more than one antenna at a time. I'm kind of in a dilemma as to whether I pull a home run from the antenna clear back to the radio for the two meter antenna or whether I run it off of the... remote switch that is only rated to 6 meter. What would be the recommended suggestion? Pull two cables back to the shack or just go with the remote relay? Back to you, Greg, W3DIB. KSC-3, SQI, W3DIB. All right. I think everybody heard the question. So does he need to pull two cables or should he use that remote relay that's only rated to six meters? Are there any stations that would like to comment? Please call now. W-A-3-V-E-E. We'll turn it over to Ron, W-A-3-V-E-E-W-3-D-I-B. good W3DIB, WA3VE with the group. All very good and Greg if I didn't say it before thanks for doing that tonight. Wonderful. My approach has always been to try to do as few contacts, connectors and as few intervening connections as possible and especially if that relay is run to six meters. I'd be buying another relay or something, you if you want to do two meters and 70 centimeters. Absolutely. But nonetheless, as few, to keep it simple, as few interconnections as possible, each one, not HF, it makes almost no difference, but each one does introduce a little bit of insertion loss, obviously, as we all know. So the fewer the better. Back to you, Greg. W3DIB, WA3ZEE. Excellent. I was actually curious to hear that too. So are there any other stations that would like to offer a comment? Please call now. AC3RFG Over to Jim, KC-3RFG. W3DIB KC3RFGE. I just wanted to strongly second Ron W83VEE's sentiments. Always, always, always fewer, the least connections possible. And I know it's more work, but a home run is always going to be better than trying to share with something else, especially when you're mixing frequencies on a switch that's not really rated for it. I wouldn't want to transmit through that switch with two meter frequencies. You would just probably be bleeding some of the... the signal off into other coaxes even if they're unused. always if possible a home run. It's more work but it's better. And I have personally proven the less devices theory as well. I started off with too many things in the shack trying to suppress noise and whatnot. And everything I introduced just killed some more signal. So I've now gotten to the point where the least interconnections and add-ons as possible. I don't even have wattmeters anymore. I had a lot of trouble having those in line with the tuners. Didn't like them. So that's the best advice. Definitely agree with Ron. Less is better and home run if you can. KC3RFG, back to net. Thanks. Excellent. So that's two votes then for least contacts, connectors as possible and at least devices as possible, including the wattmeter. Because I guess, yeah, everything like Ronset, everything offers a nice insurgent loss, which is not good. Are there any other stations that would like to comment? Please call now. additional comment of I'll let all the stations go first but I do have an additional comment. don't think there's any other comments, so we'll turn it back over to Ron. W-A-3-V-E-E, W-3-D-I-V. DIBWA3VE. Another way to look at it, especially for the newer hams on frequency, and boy, you've got a nice list tonight. Wow, that's really tremendous. Congratulations. I I got 16 or 17 people. For the newer hams especially, what you want to do is you want to try to operate right in the middle of specification, and obviously, and well, it may be obvious to us who have been in this for a while and engineers and everything, but... may not be to newer folks who are not used to thinking like a geek like me. But nonetheless, if you have a switch, an RF switch that is rated for HF and only goes to six meters, well, by golly, there are a number of reasons why it's rated the way it is. So you don't want to push the envelope on that in the... Perhaps, and I don't know if this is the case or not, any interest of trying to save a couple nickels, because you've got isolation issues, you've got possibly, you've got, not necessarily in this case, but you've got capacitance issues on the switch maybe, and so on, that could very well really attenuate things or really screw things up, or may even introduce a lot of insertion loss, or maybe even SWR. at the higher frequency. if you need a switch to operate at 2 meters or 70 centimeters, buy one and be done with it. And that way you don't have to worry about it. operating right as the switch is designed. You're doing what the, you're using the switch as design operate, just like a prescription. Use according to directions. Okay, that's my input and that's my comment. Back to you Greg. W3DIBWA3VE. Excellent. Always give a good response, Ron. I love listening to your explanations because you always kind of break it down, at least for me, to where I'm going to... Any other stations that would like to offer a comment? And we'll turn it over to John. W3, WA3 Kentucky Fried Turkey. W-A-3-K-F-T. Okay. I know how to put a PL-259 on a cable so well that if you try to pull it off, you'll pull the cable apart, not the connector. Anyway, I chuckled with Ron's comment about switches. I have 14 coax cables coming into my radio shack. I also have 14 coax switches. For instance, I have three different radios for two meters. So I have a coax switch to pick which one of the three radios I'm going to use on two meters. I have three radios for 432 coax switch to do that job. On a 706, they use one connector for both 2 meters and 440. Well, I don't have, well, I do now. I have an antenna that's a dual bander, 2 meters and 440. But early on, I did not. So I had to put a coax switch in there to pick my 2-meter antenna system or a 440 system. Now, I have beams, 6-2, 220, and 432. I also have a vertical for each one of those bands. So that adds a few more coax switches in terms of one switch picks a radio and another switch picks whether it's a vertical or horizontal. But I have not had any problems. I do buy quality switches. My favorite is a Waters switch. And unfortunately that company is not in business anymore. So if you see a Waters Coag switch at a ham fest, buy it. It's one of the best quality switches. It has good isolation between the terminals. And typically it is, the one I'm looking at is actually six positions. You go from there. I have another one that's very special. It is used to bypass an amplifier. So one position, it includes the amplifier, and when you flip the switch, it excludes the amplifier. pay attention to the specifications, but don't be afraid to try something. WA-3KFT. Wow, that's excellent. Sounds like, Jon, sounds like almost like you have a number five crossbar implemented in coax, which is switching antennas and radios like a matrix. Very cool. Yeah, but guess the end result is don't be afraid to try something. Cool. Are there any other stations that have a question or comment? Otherwise, we'll turn it back over to Wayne. Okay, nothing hurt. So Wayne, we'll turn it back over to you. KC3SQIW3DIB. Okay, Greg, W3DIB. Thank you everyone for the input. I was pretty much onto the, you know, Poli, Poli one that I've got on it now because it is a home run cable to the antenna now, so. Yeah. It's just going to be hopefully I can get them all through the piece of conduit to get over to the base of the mast without having to cut the connector off the end of the cable. much for the input. Hope everybody has a good evening and turn it back over to you Greg W3DIB this is KC3SQI. QAIN, KC3SQI, W3DIV. Well, unless anyone has another question, I guess we'll get ready to close out the network. But before we do, I guess I'll offer, are there any other stations that would like to check in and get added to the log? There's still time. If so, please call now. Okay, nothing heard. I'll put it out there one more time. know we're at right after nine. I know we try to keep it short, try to keep it to nine, not try to keep it short, but I've also been told don't cut off anybody's question if somebody has one. So if there's anybody else that has a question they would like to offer to the group. And you're right, we do. We've got like 17 people tonight. So big round of applause for the entire group. It's easy to host when you have this kind of activity. So I lucked out. feel like I hit the lottery. Thank you to everybody on the net. Are there any other stations that have a question, please call now. Okay, nothing heard. Well, I will say before we close down... can't tell I'm reading off a script, can you? It's terrible. Thanks to all stations for checking into the 985 Workbench. And a big thank you to Joe, W3GMS, for making the 985 repeater available for the Workbench. You were invited to use the repeater often. That's a great way to show your appreciation for the gift of 985 to the amateur radio community. Finally, we hope to hear you again this Thursday evening at 8 p.m. with Mike, W3MFB, on the 985 Thursday Night Roundtable. This concludes the workbench for tonight. Feel free to stick around and continue the discussion on 985. I here now return the repeater to regular amateur service. Have a great night and a great week ahead. 73, this is W3DIB, now clear. W3KZG listening on 94. Any news about Dillon, Scott, any 3CW? He is in a, uh, ED. be very surprised if they didn't. It's good that he's in a room. That's a big step in that they're working. I knew they were going to... Hi, what's your name? We'll start you on fluids. So that's great. If they're talking about possible badness in his midsection, I would be very surprised if they don't keep him. point they just don't know what it I'm they are in... Just waiting to hear, see what's... that he's actually in a... That's the worst I've been. out of my misery. Okay, ready for... Yeah, was one time we were in there, my sister was just doubled over. in there, like four or five. And it was, I guess, the peak of COVID. There was full people and four or five hours and nobody was even thinking about talking to her yet. And so finally at 2 a.m. we bugged out of there and went over to Paley. And she was brought in very quickly into an ED room and they admitted her and she ended up staying there for close to a week. I'm very gratified to hear that they got him in and actually doing something. He's hoping that the minor, the fluid... given when you're that dehydrated, haven't eaten in four days or drank anything in four days. Yep, just playing the waiting game. This is W3KZG. Very good, I won't hold you, but just wanted to know how he was doing. yeah, that's got to, you not eating or drinking for four days, it's definitely got to do bad things to your chemistry. good at that is getting some relief. So I'm going to wander upstairs again if there's anything that can be done from my standpoint. Don't hesitate to call and hope you have a quiet and boring night. NHECW. Thanks again. keep you informed if I can. Have a good evening. KZG, I'm just sitting in the car listening, waiting on news. Tell him he can't crap out because he's my main Burkester Valley guy. Haha, Scott. 33GMS. ate dinner Thursday night, went to bed, woke up sicker than a dog and hasn't been able to eat or drink since. Everything he puts in just comes right back out. And first we just thought he had a... four and a half days. still not getting any better. I'm my eyes out here. He's a tough kid and to bring him to his knees like that, it's... Yeah, yeah, absolutely. W3GMS. Well, he's in the right place. It's one of my favorite hospitals. It is my favorite hospital. stroke and I was taking superb care. They just took great care of me and they ran every test under the sun. Sadly, since Brandywine Hospital closed down, there's not enough hospitals in the area so their ER is very good but they just can't take the influx of people. So because of Brandywine being shut down, so I don't know what's being done with area hospitals. fix that problem but anyway be that as it may. I'm getting sleepy here, so I'm not going to hang in. listening earlier when you were telling Chuck about it, I'm pretty much up to speed on everything. Yeah, food poisoning generally doesn't last that long. So he may have some type of bacterial infection, possibly a viral infection, I don't know. But I guarantee they will find out what the problem is. So I don't know when you're that dehydrated. if that itself can cause all kinds of problems when you're that dehydrated. So maybe it's the fact that he's so dehydrated, maybe some of these other problems are so prevalent. I don't know. Not a doctor. So give him best wishes from Arth and I and keep us posted on how he's doing. W3KZG, W3GMS, chat with you later. for sure. yeah, he was out. He missed work Friday. Like this morning he thought he worse again. to Westchester. Yeah, dehydration can... and Westchester and all three of them are like Eeny Meeny Miny Moe, which one do you want? Yeah, it's a real big problem with the ER getting people there fast. today. Christiana bought... Chester County Hospital would remain to that and I know they're working on that but I'm not sure how much capability they're going to have there. They might have ER and all that kind of stuff there, I just don't know. But Don works for Chester, for Christiana now. KC3, FMU, good friend of Daniel's. I know if you remember Don. But he got his degree finally. And he was working there. And now that he has his degree, he has a really good position there. And he really likes the hospital. So next time I'll talk to him. I know that they bought some. guess the battery went dead. Scott, my battery went dead. something that tells you when the battery gets dead but you can't see the display when you're talking into it. So my last part was just Christiana bought Southern Chester County and that may offer some relief but I don't know what they're planning on doing with that facility. 738, take care, W3GMS. W3GMS, KD3EMF. How you doing? Good evening. I can't stay in here, but I always answer a call. Sounding good. How you doing today? Good sir, this is Chris. Yes, my wife just got hired down at the Christian, there's an actual new name for it. It's still in the Christian care. As you're saying the old Jenningsville hospital. So it'll be 10 ER beds with 10 inpatient beds just to start. Obviously that'll grow. But as of right now, they're just trying to establish a place for EMS from Oxford, Cochranville, West Grove to. have somewhere to go. They'll some capabilities, EKGs, stuff like that, determine heart attack. Now, of course, they'll be having a stroke. Having a heart attack would probably be transferred to either Chester County or Christiana. But it'll be, they call it a micro, they call it a micro hospital, is what's going to be to start off. The only other encouraging thing is talking to one of the township supervisors for West Salisbury Township. Penn Medicine is looking at the land across from Citadel on Route 30. So that's all they know. That's just something that they know and that came from one of supervisors there. So obviously that would be waiting down the road, apparently Penn Medicine has an interest right there around Citadel. Yeah, very good. Yeah, I know Penn Medicine was looking at the Brandywine facility, but just, the facility just wasn't big enough for them. And that facility has been sitting dormant for a long time. And you know what happens when buildings sit dormant. So it just didn't meet their requirements. But I know they were looking into property out in... Kind of in this neck of the woods, so that's really good news. That is very, very good news. yeah, I'm good on Christiana with Southern Chester County. Well, that'll offer at least some help for a lot of things. So that's all good. Okay, Chris, thanks for that information. I'll let you go. I'm on a skiddle, but good hearing you on 985 as always. KD3EMS. W3GMS. W3KZG Scott W3DIB here Greg I just I heard the tail end of what you were talking with Chuck and I was in the process of moving from downstairs to upstairs from RF to the dark side to digital side and I just wanted to say I'll be thinking about you and everything hope everything works out and You can get to the bottom of everything So just wanted to let you know was thinking about you W3DIB much appreciated. able to hear. And then... Fluids going in him now and they're trying to determine what's wrong. Just awaiting. Absolutely. Yeah, it's never fun being sick and yeah, I'm hoping like like Joe said everything I guess it couldn't be in a better hospital system. And yeah, I hear you about not being able to go anywhere. That's a that's a crazy situation and everything being an hour in each direction. But hopefully they're working to fix that. know I think Christiana cares also looking at reviving part of the Crozier Chester facility that just closed a little while ago. So we'll be thinking about you. I'll be here. Listen, I'm going to get back on to eating some dinner but definitely we'll be listening to help you hear hear good stuff coming from the future. All right this is sorry W3 KZG this is W3 DIB now clear 7-3. Yeah, losing... Enjoy your dinner there. It's a little late for dinner, but I guess you got to do what you got to do. 3K0G, I'll be listening.