Radio Station Rebuild

[PanBiker]

I have made a start on clearing one side of my attic which eventually will become the location for my rebuilt radio station. I have dissembled the double bed which has made quite a bit more room for manoeuvre. I have a single bed to take down next in the ongoing tidy and revamp. Losing the double bed has given me access to half of the cockloft at that side of the room and has allowed me to recover my soldering and de-soldering equipment, oscilloscope, bench digital volt meter and a couple of boxes with amateur radio books and other such stuff from when my station was last active.

As mentioned in the attention thread I have purchased a couple of items via Ebay which will become part of the building blocks of the the new station set up. The first is a Kenwood TS140S HF transceiver:



This transceiver dates from the late 1980's early 90's. I could have gone for a more modern transceiver with lots of bells and whistles but elected to go for something of this age as it pre-dates large scale integration and multiple microprocessor based circuits which have now become the norm for all current equipment and anything else really from the last 10 to 15 years. Another bonus of course is that equipment of this age is much cheaper than the later generation stuff. Ruling out the valved and hybrid kit led me to this generation which is fully solid state, it's essentially built like a tank from passive components and a mixture of semiconductors and IC's. All the service information for the radio is widely available on the internet as are all the major "stock" faults that may develop on the model. I have the knowledge and all the equipment to repair this transceiver should I need to. That cannot be said for the later generation stuff as it is so small that I would have at the very least, great difficulty seeing the components on the boards, all of which are now usually built using surface mount technology and large scale integration.

The TS140S will transmit on all amateur bands between 1.8MHz and 30MHz including the WARC bands. It has dual VFO's and a number of memories. The transmitter can operate in USB, LSB, CW, CWn, AM and FM. Output power is 100W and can be adjusted to any level down to 10W. It has IF shift, RIT and a couple of noise blanking circuits. It can handle full and semi-break in modes when using CW. It has a general coverage receiver 100Khz to 30MHz. The transceiver requires a 12v -18v (13.8v nominal) supply at a maximum of 20A when operating on full power.

This leads nicely to my second acquisition a power supply for the station. My last station used a linear power supply that I built from a huge high current transformer that I came across at a rally back when I was first licensed. The transformer weighed about 30lb's and was wound with copper ribbon on the secondary rather than wire. The finished supply gave about 22A at 12v as the transformer only had a 9v secondary winding (slightly lower that optimum). It did power all my VHF equipment though and was put together for about £20.00 at the time. I built it in a steel case and put two carrying handles on the top, it was painted in green Hammerite and served me well. I have not seen it for years and have no idea where it is now, it may well be in one of the other lofts but I have not found it yet if it is.

Switched mode power supply technology has come on leaps and bounds with the advent of computer equipment. Its cheap to produce and can be built to offer very high current supplies in quite compact packages. The second hand units on Ebay were still commanding quite high prices compared to the new equivalents so I decided to buy new and settled on this unit:



This is a MAAS SPS-330W MkII. It is a variable voltage power supply adjustable between 9v and 15v. It has a fixed voltage switch for 13.8v. it can deliver 25A continuous and 30A on peaks. Two large terminals on the back are for the high current supply, it has a cigarette lighter socket on the front that will give 10A and a set of clip terminals on the front for lower power equipment (up to 3A). It has a dual function meter that can be switched for voltage or current display. One of the disadvantages of using switched mode power supplies with radio communication equipment is that they can be quite "noisy" from an electrical point of view. They operate using oscillating circuitry that can produce spurious emissions that can manifest as "birdies" in the receive circuitry of the radio. To this end the unit has a noise cancelling circuit which allows you to adjust the main oscillating frequency which although it does not suppress the interference it does allow you to move it away from the frequency you are using. There are other methods of damping down the emissions from these units as well which will be pressed into service should I need them once I have my station layout sorted out.

[Tripps]

Nice post Pans - I look forward to further reports.
"they can be quite "noisy" from an electrical point of view. "
Reminds me of many phone conversations I have had with MoP's who could not understand that their TV etc could be suffering interference, and it was surely due to the Amateur next door. Tough job to explain that he might be operating within the terms of his licence, whilst their TV might not have sufficient immunity.
Actually "tough" doesn't even come close.

[PanBiker]

Thanks Tripp's I had nearly forgotten that you worked in that area. Can you remind me of exactly what you did or who you work(ed) for? With the plethora of computer equipment surrounding most amateur stations it's a wonder the receivers are not totally swamped with RFI. I have just rejoined the RSGB and I know they have sections for dealing with interference suffered by amateurs as well as help sections for amateurs who may be causing it. There is a lot of electrical pollution out there but as you say it may well be the guy with the biggest antenna that gets the blame.

When my station was last active the Radio Investigation Department was administered by the post office. I had to resort to calling them in myself when I was accused by a neighbour of wiping out her TV. I was a fully qualified TV engineer at the time and I had already been round to her house and diagnosed an intermittent aerial fault as the cause of the problem. I had already fitted filters to the aerial downlead and traps on the mains leads to the TV and the rest of her audio equipment. She would not have it from me though so I had no option but to call in the cavalry. I was exonerated of course, (it was the aerial) but not after a couple of months of her bashing on my door every time she saw any activity at all (she could see the light on in the gable) and took no notice of the fact that I was not transmitting at the time the intermittent manifested itself. I backed this up with my mandatory log entries but it was like she was looking at me through the "red mist". When she was eventually proven wrong and correcting the aerial fault had cured her problem she did not speak to me for about six months. Now't as queer as folk as they say!

[Stanley]

This is Chinese to me but very interesting......

[PanBiker]

I had my first radio contact in 24 years last night. As I am raising funds for my new station I was testing a 2 Meter FM Mobile transceiver that I tend to sell on eBay. I got the radio shortly after I was first licensed and used it in a number of different vehicles, the last being my Ford Escort estate that I had from work. I have dusted it off and cleaned the switches and potentiometers. I dug out my previously gutter mounted 7/8ths mobile antenna and propped this up on the radiator in the front window. The radio has two output power levels so I restricted my activity to the lower level of about 1-2W. The antenna installation was less than ideal lacking a proper ground plane for the signal so it would appear as a mismatch to the transmitter. As the antenna is perfectly resonant otherwise this condition was OK for the short term. Surprisingly I could hear the Keighley repeater GB3TP, from memory this was usually very patchy around Barlick as the repeater is sited on the TV transmitter towards the Keighley end of the Steeton bypass, quite a way round the corner and down the Aire valley from Barlicks point of view. Anyway I called on 145.500MHz (calling frequency) and got an instant reply from G7WAW (David). Not a DX contact by any means, Dave is down on Dam Head Road, near enough to chuck rocks at or even shout at one another if we had to! The contact served a purpose though and proved the operation of the transceiver. We exchanged pleasantries for 5 or 10 minutes and I will no doubt be talking to him again in the future. So the radio is now good to go. I have the description already written for Ebay so I will put it on today. I have another 2M multimode transceiver for working that band if I want to and I doubt I will ever work mobile again so this old friend is better turned into cash for more suitable kit for my new station.

[Stanley]

It's another world Ian!

[PanBiker]

It's been on eBay less that a day of a 10 day listing. Good news, I have one bid (my minimum selling price) and 4 watchers.

[melteaser]

Popped in for the first time in a while. Happy to see you are active again Pan. I showed imindoors this topic, he raised a smile at the Kenwood at the top of the page..."His era". His comments to your post I dug out my previously gutter mounted 7/8ths mobile antenna (imindoors says his is in the loft) and propped this up on the radiator in the front window (propped up on a biscuit tin).

He's curious as to what sort of price you paid for the MAAS. He wants one apparently. Something else on the wishlist! He's been quite active himself in recent months. Nice to see him doing something other than work when he is in the toyroom.

[PanBiker]

Hi Mel nice to hear from you. I was watching various PSU's on Ebay and they all seemed to command quite high prices, virtually as much as a new unit. I bought mine from one of the power sellers on Ebay for £69.00 with free delivery.

Radiozing

My biggest problem at the moment with the station is working out how to get cables in. The station will be in our vacated loft bedroom as we are changing this into our hobby room. When we had the conversion done, the upstairs ceilings were lowered to create headroom in the loft and the new loft room was fully under drawn and insulated. The cock lofts at either side are all boarded out on both the joists at the bottom and the rafters above. The cock lofts are about 4ft deep so it's this distance at least to an outside wall at either side of the house. Both sides have Velux windows, my side of the room has the smaller emergency escape window at the back which we have to have for fire regulations. I have downloaded the installation instructions for Velux's with all the exploded diagrams of the fixing method but cant see any way to the outside world without compromising the sealing regime around the frame.
Best thinking at the moment is I may be able to get a PVC pipe under the cock loft floor and out to the back wall exiting under the troughing. This would make a nice entry exit for any cables and it could be sealed with expanding foam and silicone sealant once everything was in place. That's the theory anyway, some serious measuring from the floor below might shed a light on whether this is feasible. I didn't actually see the main construction stages as we gave my mate Paul (who did the conversion for us) the keys and we shoved off camping to France for a fortnight. The stairs were in and all the new floors and ceilings and most of the under drawing done by the time we got back. I will sound out Paul as he should know how he built it! It is almost 20 years ago now though. I think we threw the plans away a couple of years ago, Doh!

[Stanley]

You've touched on something I understand here and you flag up a good tip whenever your building something or making alterations. I learned this lesson early on and when I did Ellenroad I put 4" plastic pipe ducts under the concrete floor in the boiler house with nylon rope threaded through. I don't know if they have ever been used but they are for any future cabling. I laid string under the new floor at Janet's house when I put that in for the same reason. The focus when you are doing the construction is always on the job in hand but a bit of time spent thinking about future needs is never wasted.

[PanBiker]

While its fine I think I will take advantage and do my measuring up. Fortunately I can access the back upstairs wall quite easily from outside from our flat kitchen roof. I had this re-roofed from the original felt, bitumen and chippings in fibreglass and resin so it is a nice platform to work from. Our bedroom window at the back is the second floor egress point in the house in case of fire, the window gives full access to the roof. I will measure using the bedroom window frame as reference outside and then compare this with the ceiling level inside. I should be able to determine near enough where the lowered ceiling joists are. It would be a lot easier if I could drill outwards from within the loft but that is not going to be possible. The old adage, measure twice cut (or drill) once will come in useful here I think.

[PanBiker]

I'm glad I did my measuring the other day. The idea for the cable entry looks feasible, I will probably use 32 or 40mm pipe and put a 120 degree downward facing bend on the outside. That will act as a rain stop in conjunction with a loop in the cables. I will seal the pipe with silicone when all the cables are in place. I don't want to create a ready made ingress for flying insects such as bees! Done that once, don't want a repeat.

I posted my Transmatch Antenna Tuning Unit in the Amateur Homebrew thread where I also mentioned some of the pitfalls of using any of the designs of manual tuners. Since I built that unit back in the 1980's technology has moved on at quite a pace and there are now fully automatic devices that can be obtained to do the same job. The Auto ATU's have a number of advantages over their manual counterparts which are still in regular use with the classic designs still being built and many manual commercial offerings still on sale.

An Automatic Antenna Tuning Unit (or matching device) does exactly the same as a manual tuner but at the press of a button. The latest devices are considerably smaller than their manual equivalents. They do not use large variable capacitors or inductors but switch solid state components via multiple relays under microprocessor control until the sensors in the device detect a match at the frequency you are using. A first time tuning cycle is normally completed in 6 - 8 seconds. Where the auto units really score is that once a match is found all the setting are stored in non volatile memory within the device. The unit will store the capacitance and inductance settings along with the frequency being used at the time. The next time you tune to the same frequency the settings will be recalled from memory and the match made in less than a second when you press the button. The latest devices can store literally thousands of settings, even the entry level models are capable of storing 2000 different setting with other models offering 10,000 or more memory slots. The settings are stored indefinitely until cleared by the user. A considerable advantage over the manual units.This is the next device on my wish list for the station.

To this end I am continuing to sell various bits on Ebay. My current sales have nearly reached the level of funding that I will need for a basic model that will do all and more that I will ever need for the multiband wire antenna I am hoping to erect. I have been selling a few old 1950's /60's magazines that have come out of the loft. I can't even remember where we got them from. I have sold 3 x TV Picture Story Magazines, 2 x Fans Star Library Magazines, 3 x Emergency Ward 10 Story Magazines and a 1958 Health Magazine. Most of these had original cover prices of 10d or thereabouts so the original price for the lot was a little less than 10/- (50p for the young ones). These have sold for just short of £80.00. I also have the bound reprints of articles about the Napier Sabre Aero Engine which when it was produced had a cover price of 2/6d (12.5p), the articles were in the aero press in 1944, not sure when the reprints were published but bidding on that is currently at £29.35 with a little over a day to go.

[PanBiker]

The reprints sold for £37.45, along with the proceeds from other sales on Ebay I now have the funding to shop around for an Automatic ATU.

[PanBiker]

I dropped lucky with my purchase of an automatic ATU. I shopped around for the best price between three or four amateur radio dealers and settled on Martin Lynch & Sons. I was just about to place my order online and I bethought myself to check their used equipment list. third item down the list was the exact same LDG Z11ProII model I was about to purchase but 6 months old, still with original box with all leads and instructions, it was listed at £40.00 less than the new unit. Needless to say I bought the used one. It is absolutely pristine and you would be hard pressed to tell it from new so I am well pleased with the result. It's now in service on my bench learning my bits of wire.

My luck must be in at the moment as I have also been watching desk microphones on Ebay. Never had one before but very useful as they have a latching push to talk which leaves both hands free. New decent models range upwards from about £130.00. Some of the second user models (even the older ones) still command quite a good price (just sub £100.00) so bargains are few and far between. I checked the newly listed items last night and found a very nice Kenwood MC50 desk microphone on a "Buy it Now" for £27.00! Needless to say this is now mine. I think I just hit it lucky as it had only been listed for a couple of minutes when I checked the listings. The MC50 is contemporary with my Kenwood transceiver and will be a nice addition to the station.

eHam.net Review Kenwood MC50

[Stanley]

I understood the bit about the latching on button on the microphone......

[PanBiker]

The MC50 microphone arrived but is fitted with a 4 pin plug. My Kenwood transceiver has an 8 pin. You can buy adaptor leads to convert from the 4 to the 8 if I want to pay as much for the lead as I did for the microphone! I will change the plug directly on the lead. I have just received one I ordered online. It will mean I will have to get out my Weller soldering station as I will need the very fine iron tips to do the job, (and a bench magnifier). The plug looks an awful lot smaller than I remember them!

I have also purchased a Weller 100W instant heat gun for somewhat heavier jobs. I always used a soldering gun as opposed to a straight iron when out on field work when I was TV servicing. My original gun got lost somewhere when we moved house I think. I bought this one for £17.00 from Ebay. Used but has been rewound by Snap On Tools and came with a spare tip and a £10.00 roll of multicore solder, a bargain as a new one is over £50.00!

I now have a worktop fitted in one side of the loft. I have fitted a sliding shelf underneath and made cable entries at either end. I have mains sockets at each end underneath so I have installed an extension up on to the bench. I have fitted a simple wooden board down each side and along the back of the bench to support antenna switches and cable routing and anything else I might need to screw or fasten down. All of the equipment I have to date has been moved upstairs now and is temporarily hooked up so I can have a bit of fun as I plan what to do next. I think I will add another tier to the bench with maybe a 12" shelf for ancillary equipment. I have made a simple dipole antenna for the 20 and 15 meter bands (14 and 21MHz) which is lying directly on the tiles over the roof. I have made contacts all over Europe on this although It is picking up quite a bit of noise from the building infrastructures. It will be much better with an antenna in free space.

I have a laptop which I am using for logging via my account on the QRZ forum as well as internet access for propagation information and other related stuff. Ultimately, I will introduce a number of data modes using the PC but I will need to swap the laptop out for desktop model. A metal boxed small tower unit should help to reduce the interference I get fro the CPU. I could also position it further away from the radio equipment if needs be. The sliding shelf under the bench will serve as a keyboard platform. I will put a picture up of progress to date at some point so you can see the little niche I am establishing.

[Whyperion]

If you are in need of a Tower PC Box with working PSU I have one to give away , I am up in Barnoldswick this weekend and come Monday one should be viewable in the depths of the back shed. I was going to upgrade some of mine but dont have time at present so one can go. (One has internals but prob too ancient - or modern ? - for you )

[PanBiker]

Thanks very much for the offer but I already have one from my youngest son. Just a case of installing all my radio related stuff and deciding where to put it in my evolving layout. I have a TFT monitor that will also have to be accommodated within the layout, probably a good reason to introduce a second tier to the bench. I want to keep my servicing stuff out as well (soldering and meters) and this needs to be integrated within reach. The alcove I am working in has a sloping roof with not enough headroom at one end of the bench so it will make sense to put the stuff like power supplies, PC base units and maybe monitors down that end. None of these really need constant access unlike the transceivers which are the business end of the shack.

On the bench microphone plug. I did not need the magnifying glass to do the swap out. Under test and compared to the hand held microphone it is a little short on gain. I cannot get enough drive out of it even with the front panel microphone gain turned up to the top. Fortunately the transceiver has an internal gain control which sets the range of the front panel control so I will have a go at tweaking that. I have a PDF of the service manual and the control is easily accessible from the top with the cover off.

[PanBiker]

Well, the move to a tower computer has paid off, the two S points (signal points) of noise I was getting from the laptop have gone. I have installed the tower directly under the bench at my seating position, there does not seem to be any detriment in positioning it here. This lends itself now to where I will position the TFT monitor. It's a widescreen slimline 17" and it has standard VESA mounting points on the back. I have just found a flat wall mounting bracket on Ebay that will fit (£3.99) so I am going to fix it directly to the wall in front of me above the second shelf I am planning. The leads will then run straight down behind all the rest of the equipment. It will be out of the way and in a good position for logging and the data modes that I may introduce.

The PC is a Pentium 4 with Windows 7. It will run all the amateur applications I am interested in as well as supporting the desktop gadgets that I have found that are relevant to the hobby. I may chuck a bit more ram in but it seems capable as it is at the moment. I'm just waiting for a USB wireless interface to be delivered (it should come today) so that I can get it hooked up into the wireless router for internet access and file sharing around the home network. The alcove I am in is directly above where the router is downstairs so there is no problem with the signal up in the loft. The signal was OK on the laptop I had up there before so it should be OK on the dongle (802.11 b,g and n) I have ordered from Scan Computers for the princely sum of £4.99.

I worked the European Space Agency club station yesterday in Rome on 14Mhz (20M band).

[Stanley]

I like that word 'dongle'! Glad the tower got rid of your signal problem on the laptop. As you know, I'm a fan of properly cooled towers with space inside them, I always think that too many corners are cut to get everything into a laptop case. Downsizing isn't always a good thing...

[PanBiker]

The "dongle" arrived OK, delivered on time by the DPD driver Dave. I have to give credit to Scan Computers who I ordered off via Ebay. I put my order in on late Thursday afternoon and received an auto generated email to say they had received the order. 10 minutes later another to say the order was being processed followed by another to say it had been picked and packed. At 5pm another to say it had been despatched. Friday morning another mail to say it was in transit and that it would be delivered by DPD between 12.30 and 13.30. At 11.30 I got another mail to say it was held up in transit, not surprising I thought with the weather so I resigned myself to thinking that it would be Monday. Knock on the door at 13.10 - Dave with my parcel. Now that's what I call a properly tracked delivery!

As it turned out the driver setup file on the tiny CD that came with the device was corrupted and would not load. It was clear though from the very small instructions that the adaptor had a Realtek chipset. In effect there are only about 3 chipset manufacturers so regardless of what it says on the label and how much you pay for these small interfaces the gubbins are pretty much the same. In theory you should install the drivers before the hardware but needs musts so I inserted it in a spare USB and pointed it at the CD with the duff installer. It managed to load all the drivers it needed so I was home and dry. No idiot front end for managing it though which is no real problem as it was no great shakes to configure it to my wireless router manually. A good result for £4.99, I could have paid £30.00 for the same thing with a different name on.

[Big Kev]

The "dongle" arrived OK, delivered on time by the DPD driver Dave. I have to give credit to Scan Computers who I ordered off via Ebay. I put my order in on late Thursday afternoon and received an auto generated email to say they had received the order. 10 minutes later another to say the order was being processed followed by another to say it had been picked and packed. At 5pm another to say it had been despatched. Friday morning another mail to say it was in transit and that it would be delivered by DPD between 12.30 and 13.30. At 11.30 I got another mail to say it was held up in transit, not surprising I thought with the weather so I resigned myself to thinking that it would be Monday. Knock on the door at 13.10 - Dave with my parcel. Now that's what I call a properly tracked delivery!

As it turned out the driver setup file on the tiny CD that came with the device was corrupted and would not load. It was clear though from the very small instructions that the adaptor had a Realtek chipset. In effect there are only about 3 chipset manufacturers so regardless of what it says on the label and how much you pay for these small interfaces the gubbins are pretty much the same. In theory you should install the drivers before the hardware but needs musts so I inserted it in a spare USB and pointed it at the CD with the duff installer. It managed to load all the drivers it needed so I was home and dry. No idiot front end for managing it though which is no real problem as it was no great shakes to configure it to my wireless router manually. A good result for £4.99, I could have paid £30.00 for the same thing with a different name on.

Is this the same "Scan Computers" discussed on the "Agony and Ecstasy" thread?

[PanBiker]

Yes Kev, just put the order in through Ebay though as I have a balance with Paypal from my sales which I am using for the radio station bits and bobs.

Got confused about the price though it was £5.94, went for the cheapest as most come from the same factory. It's up and running and and gives me all the throughput that the router can handle. The machine will be used on the internet and also locally to interface to my transceiver for data modes such as RTTY, AMTOR and maybe PSK31.

[PanBiker]

Here are a few pictures of how the operating layout is developing. I hasten to add that it is still very much work in progress.

This is a general view of the alcove I am working with.



I intend to add a self supporting shelf to the bench to create a second tier. The TFT PC monitor will be mounted on the back wall directly in front of the operating position. The sliding keyboard shelf needs to be slightly repositioned and lowered a tad.

Because of the sloping roof, the left hand side of the bench is only suitable for infrequently used equipment such as soldering kit and meters. I will put the power supplies down this end as well.



A few cables exit temporarily at this end to gain access to the Velux. I have a simple dipole antenna laid directly on the slates for 15 and 20M bands. It's just a stop gap until I can get something better up in free space.

I could just get the thin coax out through the corner of the window.



I intend to make a better cable entry exit under the cock loft and out onto the outer wall when the weather improves. Don't want to be drilling holes in the house just at the moment!

As I had the camera out, I took one of my current log on QRZ.com



The licence no longer requires a log to be kept for all contacts as used to be the norm. You can be asked to do so by Ofcom if your station is being investigated. As I intend to be more active on the HF bands, I have decided to log all my activity anyway. QRZ.com offers an online log that can be completed by either party in a given contact. If I log the contact it will also appear in the other stations log and vice versa. All these contacts have been made on my temporary antenna chucked out onto the roof. Most are European, I can hear the USA though when the bands are good but nothing more exotic yet which is to be expected really with the antenna not working under optimum conditions.

I have not yet put out a CQ call myself (general call to all stations). I have mainly been listening round the bands (limited to 20, 17 and 15M) and calling a few that take my fancy or giving away points in one or two contests that I have heard. The antenna matching unit will find a match across all three of these bands but it's a bit much asking 32ft of wire to perform on 40, 80 and 160 meters as well!

[Stanley]

Very impressive......