75m QSO - Success!!

[AF9J]

Wahoo!!! 

I just finished a QSO with Brian, W8KHZ, on 3705.  He was using his Collins 32V-1, and Collins 75A-3. Me - because my Swan is giving me problems, my Cheyenne isn't ready yet, and I haven't gotten my SX-96 (it'll arrive at work tomorrow [I'm having it shipped there, and I checked th racking number - it's in Chicago]), I was forced to use the Yaesu FT-897D (at about 20W of carrier). I was able to cancel out most of the powerline noise I have, with my noise cancelling antenna.  But in spite of that, both Brian and I had to contend with a high atmospheric noise levels and QSB on each end.  The noise ran S8-S9 on my end.  Both of us would occasionally hit S9, and then drop back down to the noise floor.  In spite of that, we were able carry on the thread of the QSO, until the noise grew progessively worse, forcing us to end it.  I'll try again later on tonight.  Hopefully condx will improve.  Right now, the sun is still pretty high in the sky.  Once again Brian, many thanks for helping me break my AM QSO jinx.  I  appreciate your hanging in there to copy my wimpy signal, under the rough condx. we have at the present time.  That was fun!  I've gotta do it again!

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[W1RKW]

You're hooked now!

[W8KHZ]

My pleasure Ellen!  I'm just sorry that conditions weren't better.  I'll keep listening for you and hopefully we will have a chance to chat under better conditions.  Welcome to AM.... you're in for a lot of fun!

73,
Brian - W8KHZ

[AF9J]

Yuppers!  I don't have much room for another transmitter, but if it's an OK AM rig (like the CE rigs are), I'd like to get my hands on one of the Lakeshore Phasemasters. The rigs were made in my hometown of Manitowoc, WI in the late 40s or early 50s.  When I belonged to MANCORAD (Manitowoc County Radio Amateurs, est. 1946, club callsign W9DK), we had a Phasemaster 2B on the storage racks in the anteroom to the club shack.  I actually briefly chatted with the guy who had owned Lakeshore Industries, and designed the rigs, while I was looking at the Phasemaster 2B, before one of the club meetings, back in the mid 90s (the rig was sold off a year after that conversation).  It'd be cool to have a slice of ham radio history, that was made in my hometown.  Thanks again Brian, for the QSO.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[K1MVP]

Yuppers!  I don't have much room for another transmitter, but if it's an OK AM rig (like the CE rigs are), I'd like to get my hands on one of the Lakeshore Phasemasters. The rigs were made in my hometown of Manitowoc, WI in the late 40s or early 50s.  When I belonged to MANCORAD (Manitowoc County Radio Amateurs, est. 1946, club callsign W9DK), we had a Phasemaster 2B on the storage racks in the anteroom to the club shack.  I actually briefly chatted with the guy who had owned Lakeshore Industries, and designed the rigs, while I was looking at the Phasemaster 2B, before one of the club meetings, back in the mid 90s (the rig was sold off a year after that conversation).  It'd be cool to have a slice of ham radio history, that was made in my hometown.  Thanks again Brian, for the QSO.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Ellen,
I glad to hear that the SX-96 made it from my QTH to yours in Wisconsin  "intact".
A real nice matching transmitter to go with that "96" might be a Johnson Ranger, if you could
find one at a reasonable price.
In any case, "happy am`ing" es hope to work you sometime soon on 40am or cw.

                                                       73, Rene, K1MVP


P.S, was wondering if you received my last e-mail showing the NC-109 with my homebrew 6146 rig?   

[AF9J]

Hi Rene,

Yes, I got your photo with the Homebrew rig, and NC-109 receiver.  It's a cool looking, compact setup.  I fired up the SX-96 last night.  Using a combination of it's ANL,and my noise antenna, I was actually able to copy Tim, VE6PG & company, on a portion of the band, I've had too much line noise on the hear much of anything - 3720.  Yeah, I know, some people say the ANL causes audio distortion, but from what I've heard, it mainly seems to cause clipping either in the high freqs, or attenuates low freqs.  If you set the operating profile switch to the "Treble Cut" position, the base is rasied to what I consider acceptable levels, and the treble clipping disappears.  And actually, through my nice expensive set of $100 Sony, can style headhphones (which are the 'phones I use for almost all of my radio stuff), it sounds pretty good. 

The Cheyenne isn't ready to go yet, so I don't have any T/R relay switching available (the Cheyenne has a built-in relay).  But (since my Swan is acting up), I am able to transmit, in the really old school way, of switching over from my FT-897D, to the SX-96 on the antenna, and manually switching the SX-96 to standby.  I tried breaking into Tim's QSO, but had no luck.  Either my timing was off, with all of the monkey movements I have to do, or else my small signal just wasn't getting through in the noise tonight (I many have dealt with the powerline noise, but there still was a ton of atmospheric noise).   

I may have to reaclibrate the tuning on the SX-96.   The Bandspread tuning
(with the Main tuning dial possibly being off the set mark by a hair) indicated 3690.  When I zero beated the SX-96 with my FT-897D (another pokey, really old school way - switch over to the dummy load, don't mute the receiver, turn the receiver gain down significantly, switch over to the FT-897D [make sure it's power is as low as it will go, and it's on AM], start speaking, and tune the 897D VFO for strongest & best signal quality on the SX-96), my FT-897D read 3720.   That's no big deal, especially since I can hear things I couldn't hear before.

Well, I'd better get going.  I'm heading out to Swapfest in Cedarburg (about 30 miles north of here), that starts in 15 minutes (that's what I get for goofing around, LOL), to see if I can get my hands on a D-104 for my Cheyenne.

73,
Ellen - AF9J