Category: What’s New

What’s New

These web pages describe my station’s construction and operation. They also include some personal reviews, recommendations, and links to relevant information. I try to offer some insight into the research and planning stages of the station build.

Check back for updates to what’s going on here in the shack. I’m always building or improving something related to Amateur Radio, and I’ll post my findings here, in the event others may be interested.

Flex 6700 Frequency Drifting!

The Last Thing I Expected!

Last night I started setting up WSJT-X to get FT8 up and running. After some time spent sorting out the missing “DAX Audio TX” device, it looked like the software was configured correctly. I’ve setup WSJT-X before and the installation has always been straightforward. Rig control and audio both connected OK. However, it could not decode a single bit. This is odd, since I’ve never had any problems with WSJT before, and this was a routine install of the current version. I installed the Meinberg NTP suite to make sure it was not a time problem. After zooming in on the panadapter I noticed the Flex 6700 frequency drifting!

I submitted a Help Desk ticket and was immediately contacted by Eric at Flex. Hopefully this can be taken care of quickly. It may not be typical Flex response time, but the last radio I sent to Flex for service was completed in one day!

From what I’ve read in the FRS Community postings, the radio will likely have to be sent to Flex for a hardware repair.

A Lapse in Ethical Transparency…

I suspect the previous owner knew about this drifting problem. Since it was still under warranty, he chose to remain silent about it. Of course, I transferred the warranty as soon as my payment for the radio cleared, so I’m covered until the middle of next year. The fact that it was still under warranty (which I verified ahead of time) was the ONLY reason I bought this radio privately. I was prepared to purchase a Certified Pre-Owned unit from Flex, before I saw this one for more than $1,000 less with warranty remaining. It was an easy decision.

I’m considering the purchase of a 10 Mhz reference oscillator, and I’m in the research process ‘as we speak’. I’m not sure yet how necessary it is that I have one, but I could have all three of my Flex radios 5000/6500/6700 GPSDO locked. A GPSDO reference would probably be overkill at K6HR.

Low Cost GPSDO from China — This modified Trimble GPS features 3 10Mhz Sinusoidal Outputs

We’ll see how this turns out. I have complete confidence in Flex based on all my prior dealings with them.

UPDATE: The 6700 needs to go back to Flex for oscillator replacement. I’ll ship it back on Monday 11/5 once I return from vacation.

Back To The Front…

Final Ferrite Blitz

My Final Step in RFI Elimination

During the CQWW SSB Contest last week, I discovered two USB related RFI issues. Stray RF was getting into the USB serial adapter used for the Kantronics KPC-3 “Packet Communicator” TNC. I could see the USB device disconnecting/reconnecting over each TX. Stray RF was also getting into one of my APC UPS Back Up batteries, (also connected via USB) causing it to ‘bounce’ as well. The plan was to have all the cable choking done before the contest, but there was a delay. Once I had the problems sorted, I embarked on the final ferrite blitz to choke off ALL remaining unprotected cable ends.

I suppose I could just reduce power and the RFI issues would subside. But what’s the point when top output is 1.2 kw. Of course, I must have the FULL GALLON with ZERO RFI!

I heard about it on the radio!

I heard a QSO on 80m where the topic was the best prices for snap on ferrite chokes. This caught my attention quickly, as I still had a need for dozens more. In short, I learned I had overpaid for the first batch I purchased from one of the major U.S. ham dealers. For the price of 20 pieces there, I was able to buy 30 pieces at the same cost from proaudioeng.com

FAIR-RITE Mix 31 0.4" I.D. Snap On Ferrite Chokes — FAIR-RITE Mix 31 0.4″ I.D. Snap On Ferrite Chokes

I saved a few bucks and purchased 30 more pieces, enough to completely finish all the remaining cabling. Every cable in the rack is fully protected from RFI. By using the 0.4″ I.D. ferrites, I was able to get two turns on most of them. At this point the only cables without ferrites are the ground straps! A true ferrite blitz!

I was happy to see the problem devices were not protected. Why? Because if they were protected (and still bouncing) I would likely have to relocate them.

I’ll go through high power testing again to determine if either of the trouble devices need to be physically relocated. A few trips up and down the 20 meter band at full power will duplicate the contest conditions, and should be a good indicator of whether or not the problem has been resolved. After all I’ve learned about choking cables, I’m confident I’ll find both device issues have been resolved now that they are completely choked off.

There are just enough ferrites leftover to choke off all the cabling for the upcoming 6500 transceiver installation. I also have the cables set aside for the LP-500 all choked off and ready to go as well.

I’m getting close to the top of the LP-500 waiting list!

Back to the Front

Antenna Coax Grounding

After completing the snap on ferrite installation yesterday I began reading through a couple of new grounding documents I found online. The first to catch my attention was the article Grounding is key to good reception (by IW5EDI) This got me looking in the right direction toward antenna coax grounding and surge protection.

One of the benefits of installing all the ferrite chokes is an electrically quieter operation. Additionally, one of the biggest “wow’s” for me about the Flex 6700 is how quiet the receiver is. It’s incredibly quiet. So I’m very interested in any additional techniques that may enhance station grounding and/or improve receiver performance.

Antenna Surge Protectors

I’ll be adding several antenna surge protectors to my shopping list. I plan to have every antenna protected by a grounded surge protector and have included these in the current upgrade agenda/budget.

In the meantime there’s no reason to delay the grounding of the coax shields. I was looking for coax grounding kits or accessories and found the article The Simple Antenna Grounding System (by K3DAV) . Shown below: K3DAV’s clever solution using hose clamps and a solid copper ground wire connected to a ground rod below.

K3DAV Quick and Simple Ground Clamp Solution

When I rack mounted all the equipment I installed a breakout panel on the back to provide some strain relief and keep the antenna coax leads in an easy to service position.

I used bulkhead connectors and have a very similar physical arrangement to K3DAV’s on the rear of the panel.

K3DAV's Grounding Solution will be applied across these coax connectors — K3DAV’s Grounding Solution will be applied across these coax connectors

I already have enough of the right size hose clamps, so I’ll only need to purchase a piece of copper wire at Lowe’s and this will be ready to implement. I’ll clamp the copper wire to each connector and tie it directly to the stations single point ground.

This will remain in place until I can obtain the proper surge protectors.

Worth the effort

K3DAV Grounding tip as implemented at K6HR

I made a quick run over to Lowe’s and bought a piece of bare 8 gauge solid copper wire. I decided to install it on the outside of the panel for convenience sake. Once I get the surge protectors, I’ll probably flip it over to the inside since it’s already fitted.

It went in fairly easily. I used a pair of pliers to get all the bends right. It’s not visible in the photo, but the ground wire (exiting in the lower left corner) is tied directly to the Station’s single point ground system.

Non-Scientific Results

Before I attached the coax ground lead I took careful note of the S-Meter reading at a quiet (unused) frequency on 40 meters. Using a 2.7 khz passband, the S-Meter read a steady S4 with an occasional drop to S3. After connecting the ground wire, the meter readings indicate a steady S3 with an occasional bump up to S4. So maybe there is some very small improvement in the noise level. Hi!

Of course the noise level changes during the day etc. so this is admittedly nothing more than optimism! No measurements to back up my ‘claims’ whatsoever. But man, is this 6700 radio quiet or what! Sometimes I can’t even tell if it’s muted or not. Signals just come right up out of nowhere! It’s amazing! If I were to move this station out to a rural environment it would probably read an S1 noise level.

Another thing I notice is I no longer hear the PC speakers hum when the packet radio system transmits a packet. It could be annoying when a packet user would connect and a bunch of packets would start TX’ing resulting in a lot of short bursts of hum. This problem is no longer occurring.

The best $7.00 I’ve spent in a while.

Back To the Front

New Addition: Flex 6500

Going ‘All In’ with FlexRadio!

After working with the 6700 for a few weeks I decided it was time to replace my 6300 back-up radio, with a 6500. The 6300 served me well during my introduction to the 6000 series hardware and SmartSDR. It sold quickly (thanks Leo) and the repaired 6700 and CPO 6500 will be here as soon as the repair is complete. After working my way through all the used listings online, I couldn’t find an available unit for much less than the cost of a Certified Pre-Owned 6500 with a 1 year warranty. It made the most sense to buy the CPO from Flex. And in light of my experience with the drifting CPO 6700, I decided not to take any chances. The new addition Flex 6500 should complete my radio hardware requirements for the foreseeable future.

Dedicated to Digital

The plan is to purchase a Comet CHA-250B vertical antenna for use with the 6500, and dedicate the radio to digital modes. I’ll experiment with some new (for me) modes like FT8 and PSK and decide at some point which modes to settle on. And of course, I will continue with SSTV and EasyPal.

The purchase of the Flex Maestro freed up this little Gigabyte Brix PC that I used to run SmartSDR in another area of the house.

I’m going to pair up the Gigabyte Brix PC with the 6500 and see how it keeps up. The Brix ran SSDR ok, but the wireless connection was not the greatest. In the new setup, the Brix will be located next to the router. The question is whether or not several programs will run alongside SSDR. We’ll see…

Back To The Front…

Gigabit Switch

10/100: Too Slow to Rock N Roll

My files are getting bigger, disk image back-ups are accumulating, and big file transfers between machines take forever. It’s time for a gigabit switch.

Gigabit Switch

I’m researching a couple of simple unmanaged devices. The Netgear GS108 and the TP-LINK TL-SG108PE both look like inexpensive solutions. The little 10/100 router I have now was never qualified to handle the data requirements of the entire shack, it was intended for temporary use only.

In addition to moving disk images around, I also have a couple of Flex radios running, an Apache Web Server, JNOS BBS, and whatever family hardware that might be running. The gigabit switch is a necessity even more so now that I will be adding a Flex 6500.

Managed or Unmanaged…

I’ve just started looking at these devices, and have not yet ruled out a managed switch. The family devices will move over to the little router, and all the shack hardware will talk over the gigabit switch. I also plan to look at a couple of 16 port managed switches. If the numbers are in line, I may get the 16 port and have some gigabit breathing room.

And the winner is…

A price driven decision aka ‘an offer I couldn’t refuse’ popped up on eBay last night:

Purchased for peanuts!

GS108 Arrived Today! Gigabit Holiday Lights!

A BIG Improvement! There will be far less thumb twiddling in the shack going forward…

Back To The Front

Flex 6700, 6500, LP-500, Arriving Soon!

I’m now #2 on the LP-500 waiting list, so it should be arriving soon. It looks like they fulfill about 10 units per week, so I’m pretty confident I should have mine next week . I joined the waiting list in May 2018. This is one of the nice finishing touches being installed for 2018.

Flex Sales and Service Dept.

I was contacted by Flex Service to let me know they expected to get to my 6700 repair one day this week. As soon as it is ready, it will be shipped back along with the Certified Pre-Owned 6500 that I just purchased. Both these units will be arriving soon and it looks like delivery should coincide nicely with the LP-500

These three units more or less complete the shack. No more improvements for a while. It’s time to get all the shack furniture put back together and get back on the air and get to work!

Back To The Front

Migrating the WordPress Website

Moving from the AMPRNET

As a licensed Amateur Radio Operator, my AMPRNET Gateway has been on the internet for decades with domain services provided by servers at UCSD. The AMPRNET or AMateur Packet Radio NETwork has it’s own dedicated internet address space [44/8] used by amateurs worldwide for experimentation etc.

I am privileged to have my own little subnet allocation of “amprnet” addresses (assigned by authorities) that I use for experimentation, hobby use, and anything else that is FCC legal and not for profit.

I’ve had Linux servers running in the shack since 1998. As the hobby advanced we were able to link our terrestrial packet radio systems to the internet, and we used the amprnet IP addresses to set everything up.

As time went on I setup an Apache webserver, and created a simple hobby website for displaying the Slow Scan Television (SSTV) images that I received each day. (The K6HR SSTV Server continues to run to this day)

WordPress Site Outgrows AMPRNET

Last December, for fun, I installed WordPress on my amprnet server at: gw.k6hr.ampr.org/blog. Once I realized how easy WP was to use, my WP site really started to grow. As the content increased, so did the search results, and the traffic to the site. Last month the site had over 10,000 visits for the first time. It’s a lot of bandwidth, so to continue using amprnet resources was not only impractical, it was becoming an impediment.

There were a few issues that could only be resolved by changing the domain. What I had was a DNS record that pointed requests for k6hr.com to 44.16.2.58 (gw.k6hr.ampr.org) This configuration worked, but posed several issues.

Google Search Verification Fails

One major drawback was the failure of Google Search Verification. Google requires that you verify your ownership of the domain before they will index your site. They provide several verification methods, and all are simple to use. The problem is that I don’t own or control the “.ampr.org” domain so every verification tool failed. The result was I had no Google search results. ZILCH.

The WordPress SEO has a Bing search verification tool. Lucky for me Bing does not require the level of verification that Google does, so at least I had good Bing search results. (once I got my SEO figured out).

Page Load Times

The page load times reported for the k6hr.com amprnet site were very slow. The speeds were usable hobby wise, but dreadfully slow. The necessity to traverse the amprnet servers was slowing things down as traffic was increasing. i.e. ‘hop check’ results indicated the delay in the amprnet was significant. And, after all, the amprnet is not really intended for this type of traffic load.

Long Ugly URL’s

Having the k6hr.com DNS record pointing to 44.16.2.58 worked, but was somewhat of a kluge. The user would type ‘k6hr.com’ in his/her browser and would be taken to the home page. However, once there, all internal links and URL’s would be prefaced with ‘gw.k6hr.ampr.org’. So if a visitor thought he was on ‘k6hr.com/page’ he might not notice that the bookmark he saved is ‘gw.k6hr.ampr.org/page’. This could cause confusion, as it shows the long complicated URL. And, after the move, these ‘saved’ amprnet URL’s would bring visitors to the wrong place.

AMPRNET Downtime

The amprnet does not go down very often, but it has from time to time over the years. Another type of downtime is when the router at UCSD drops your route as it detects you are not there, such as when you reboot or have to temporarily disconnect your machine. Every time the connection is interrupted, UCSD drops the routing for 20 minutes or so before checking again and reestablishing the route. They have valid reasons for this, and it is understood within the amprnet community.

I needed to move an ethernet cable to a different port and disconnected it for only seconds before my amprnet routing was interrupted. Of course, after the requisite 20 minutes, the routing returned.

Migrating the WordPress Website

It was time to straighten up and fly right. As part of the 2018 upgrades I built a new Intel i5 PC and installed Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS on it. The previous server ran on an old Pentium D with 1GB RAM so this would be a big improvement with 4GB RAM and a 500GB SSD.

I found this article with step by step instructions and read through it. It seemed to be a fairly straightforward process. I had nothing to lose on this new machine, so there was no pressure of making (or repeating) a mistake.

Once I had SAMBA working on the new PC, copying over the original WP files was easy. In the article it was suggested that using the “Search Replace DB” script found on github would make changing all the URL references in the database much easier, but after fiddling with it for a while I could not get it to work. I decided to try using the replace command in Midnight Commander instead.

First I made a backup copy of the current WP database

1 2	>mysqldump -u root -p mydatabase > mydatabase.sql Enter password: **********

Next, I opened the mydatabase.sql file in Midnight Commander and did a replace gw.k6hr.ampr.org with k6hr.com and crossed my fingers. It went on processing much longer than I expected, but in the end had made over 7,000 replacements.

As explained in the article, the .htaccess file in the WP root directory must be edited to reflect the new domain, and the wp-config.php file also requires an edit. In my case I used the same db name, and user name, so all I had to edit was the password, as I had not used the same PW again for this install.

Next, I imported the modified mydatabase.sql file into the new database I just created using the same dbname.

1 2	>mysql -u root -p mydatabase < mydatabase.sql Enter password: **********

To test the WP installation I opened the site on the localhost and to my delight everything appeared to be working!

I did encounter one problem, but it was easily resolved after following the suggestion in this Google search result.

Updating the DNS records

I logged in to my web hosting service and changed my DNS record to point to the IP address of my Frontier FIOS router. Next I logged into my Frontier router and deleted the ‘http’ port forwarding rule to the amprnet server and replaced it with a forwarding rule to the new machine.

Sounds good! I should be all set!

It works, but…

The new server is up and running and I am no longer pointing my DNS or router forwarding rules to the old machine. The new site working great! I’m enjoying the major improvement in page load speed!

But as I test further I find that the old amprnet machine is still serving webpages! How can this be possible?

After some head scratching I realized the amprnet machine is in my routers DMZ. (that ‘http’ port forwarding rule meant nothing!) This means folks could connect to the amprnet machine and land on an out of date version of the site.

You’re thinking why not just stop the Apache server on the old machine?

Webalizer Stats

Before I turn off the old Apache server I need to migrate Webalizer and all of its stats. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. The traffic is still registering as the old site and nothing’s updating on the new machine yet.

I’m sure this is because the traffic is visiting the old URL directly.

I decided to try my hand at ‘redirection’. I think if I redirect the traffic to the new machine then I will keep the traffic flowing from those direct connections to the old URL. Now that I’ve hit 10,000 visits per month I don’t want to screw it up.

Redirection

The redirection was simple following the instructions in this article. I just added that simple bit of code to the top of the index.php file in the old WP root directory, and Voila! It works like a charm! Now all traffic ends up on the new website. Now I’m in no hurry to turn off anything on the old server.

Google Search Verification Success!

Now that I have eliminated the use of the amprnet, and pointed my DNS directly to my home router IP, the verification steps were all completed in a matter of seconds. I have finally, successfully, verified my domain ownership (via multiple verification methods) on Google!

I was immediately able to find search results. Prior to these changes there were absolutely no search results on Google whatsoever!

Now that Google is indexing my WP site it won’t be long before detailed search results begin to appear, and traffic really starts to pick up!

This WP site will be one year old on 12/10/18 and ready for action with all these great improvements and breakthroughs.

Back To The Front

Migrating Apache2 Log Files

I got my second wind after successfully migrating the WordPress website and got to thinking about moving all the log files. I plan to keep all the stats I accumulated under the old domain and continue forward.

After several failed attempts at migrating Webalizer I gave up and decided to look for a more up to date log analyzer. I quickly found out my first choice, the “GoAccess” log analyzer, would not work for my purposes, so I started looking for something else and came across “AWStats”.

Moving On From Webalizer

Webalizer is like a trusted old friend. Webalizer has been running here for so long, I wondered how I’d ever get along without it. One look at AWStats and I was ready to switch. It makes Webalizer look like something from the Flintstones!

AWStats

I was successful in transferring the log files from the old domain to the new domain. I was able to work it out after reading this article and combining it with ideas presented in a second article.

Steps taken:

Delete all existing files in the AWStats DataDir ‘/var/lib/awstats’
Combine all my log files using the utility “logresolvemerge.pl” into one ‘masterlog’ file.
Temporarily modify awstats.conf to update from the ‘masterlog’ file.
Run the update.

Voila! The previous years logs were successfully imported into AWStats!

Next, I went back to the ‘awstats.conf’ file and set it to back to read the daily Apache2 access.log file

Log File / Domain Overlap

The Apache server is still running on the old domain. I can see there are still some connections to it, so I put a redirect on the entry page, and another redirect on my other high traffic page.

Using redirects, we can ensure all clients using outdated bookmarks will be taken to the same page on the new server.

After this, the only connections I should see should be direct connections to old domain URL’s from stale bookmarks.

I plan to let the Apache servers overlap in operation for the remainder of the month of December (2018 for that matter). On January 1, 2019 I will take the old Apache server offline for good. By that time all the search engines should have my entire site indexed, and I hope to have AWStats completely tweaked out by then.

Back To The Front

The New k6hr.com Server Is Up!

As part of the 2018 station upgrade I assembled an Intel i5 based PC for use as the new k6hr.com server. I finally found the time to load and configure the O/S and associated software onto this machine. All went well through the installation and migration process and the new k6hr.com server is up and running!

WordPress was installed here one year ago next week (Dec 10) and the site has quickly outgrown the old server.

The new machine is an Intel Core i5-4460 CPU at 3.20Ghz (x4), 4GB RAM and a 500GB SSD running Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS. This new hardware is a vast improvement over the old Pentium D. It had only 1GB RAM and a 32GB SSD that was almost full. The Pentium D will live out its days as the JNOS BBS packet radio station.

At this point I consider the server configuration complete. The machine is online and the traffic is flowing!

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Updated Packages

As with every new release, packages–applications and software of all kinds–are being updated at a rapid pace. Many of these packages came from an automatic sync from Debian‘s unstable branch; others have been explicitly pulled in for Ubuntu 16.04.

For a list of all packages being accepted for Ubuntu 16.04, please subscribe to xenial-changes.

Linux kernel 4.4

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is based on the long-term supported Linux release series 4.4.

Python 3

Python2 is not installed anymore by default on the server, cloud and the touch images, long live Python3! Python3 itself has been upgraded to the 3.5 series.

If you have your own programs based on Python 2, fear not! Python 2 will continue to be available (as the python package) for the foreseeable future. However, to best support future versions of Ubuntu you should consider porting your code to Python 3. Python/3 has some advice and resources on this.

VIM defaults to python3

The default VIM package has been built against python3 instead of python2. This means plugins that require a python2 interpreter support from VIM will not work anymore. For this case alternative VIM packages are available that still use python2, for example vim-gnome-py2. They can be made the default via the alternatives mechanism:

sudo update-alternatives –set vim /usr/bin/vim.gnome-py2

Golang 1.6

The golang toolchain was upgraded to the 1.6 series, and gccgo was upgraded to the GCC 6.1 release candidate 1. Thus the same level of standard library and compiler features are provided by both compilers on all fully supported architectures.

OpenSSH 7.2p2

Recent OpenSSH releases disable several pieces of weak, legacy, and/or unsafe cryptography. If you are upgrading a system remotely over SSH, you should check that you are not relying on these to ensure that you will retain access after the upgrade.

Support for the legacy SSH version 1 protocol is disabled by default at compile time. Note that this also means that the Cipher keyword in ssh_config(5) is effectively no longer usable; use Ciphers instead for protocol 2. The openssh-client-ssh1 package includes “ssh1”, “scp1”, and “ssh-keygen1” binaries which you can use if you have no alternative way to connect to an outdated SSH1-only server; please contact the server administrator or system vendor in such cases and ask them to upgrade.
Support for the 1024-bit diffie-hellman-group1-sha1 key exchange is disabled by default at run-time. It may be re-enabled using the upstream instructions.
Support for ssh-dss, ssh-dss-cert-* host and user keys is disabled by default at run-time. These may be re-enabled using the upstream instructions.
Support for the legacy v00 cert format has been removed.
Several ciphers are disabled by default in ssh: blowfish-cbc, cast128-cbc, all arcfour variants and the rijndael-cbc aliases for AES.
MD5-based and truncated HMAC algorithms are disabled by default in ssh.

GNU toolchain

glibc was updated to the 2.23 release, binutils to the 2.26 release, and GCC to a recent snapshot from the GCC 5 branch (post GCC 5.3.0).

Apt 1.2

Apt 1.2 includes the new privilege separation features introduced in Apt 1.1. Importantly, the unprivileged “_apt” user is now used when making outgoing network connections and parsing the results for the various apt transport methods (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP).

Back To The Front

Hardware in Transit!

Some great news this weekend! The LP-500 is bought and paid for, as is the Flex 6500 and the Comet CHA-250B. I was also notified by the Flex Service Dept. that my 6700 is ready. The FlexRadio units will arrive together on Friday, and hopefully the LP-500 arrives around the same time. All hardware in transit!

These are the last few items to complete the station. Once installed, the radio rack will be moved back into the operating position, and the shack furniture will be put back into place.

I’m a week away from wrapping up all the new hardware! Hardware in transit is a good thing!

Back To The Front

Flex 6500/6700 Install

FlexRadio 6500 and 6700 On the Air

The Flex 6700 is back from repair, and the frequency drift problem has been taken care of. The radio is now stable and able to decode FT8 and other digital signals. There’s no sign of drift on WWV. The Flex 6500/6700 were installed today, and are now in service on the air!

The new Flex 6500 will be dedicated to decoding the various HF digital modes. I plan to move the Live SSTV Cam over to the 6500 once I have the Comet CHA-250B installed.

Flex 6700 6500 installed — Just enough space left for the TelePost LP-500

The station monitor should arrive this week. I have just enough rack space left to fit the LP-500 between the 6700 and the SPE 1K-FA amplifier. I will install the LP-500 utilizing 4 couplers to enable viewing of amplifier linearity with a trapezoidal display on both channels of the amplifier.

The illustration above shows the configuration for a single amplifier. Since the SPE 1K-FA has two inputs (one for each of the 6700’s SCU’s) I will duplicate this configuration for the second input/channel.

Back To The Front

Comet CHA-250BX Wideband Vertical

The Comet CHA-250BX was delivered a few days ago. Today I assembled it and mounted it on a ‘test stand’ in the back yard, next to the W6LVP Loop. Tomorrow I will run some LMR-400 coax down there and we’ll see how the 6500 plays on this antenna. Right now the 6500 is connected to a non-resonant dipole antenna, so here’s to hoping the vertical does a much better job.

Before I can run the coax I have to replace the cover on the window in the shack. The current window covering is a piece of heavy duty art board of some kind. This art board material was never intended for use that would expose it to the elements. It is weathered and it’s shape is distorted, so it must be replaced. I plan to install a piece of Optix Acrylic to cover the open space above the air conditioner. I have a L-R sliding window so I’ve had to cover this open space ever since getting the air conditioner. Once this is complete I’ll have a better pass-through for all the cables. I also hope to pull in some of the rotor cable slack off the roof, into the shack, so I can reconnect the satellite rotors.

I’ll add a couple of sand bags for good measure

My ‘test stand’ is the bottom part of an old umbrella stand. It seems to hold up OK but I’ll probably add a couple of sand bags.

Everything they said about it is true!

The CHA-250BX performs exactly as claimed. I replaced the window and ran the coax today [SAT 12/22] and the 6500’s internal tuner tunes this antenna fairly flat on all bands! 1.3:1 was the highest reading I observed today. I’ll post more exact results later on.

This antenna will be used primarily as an RX antenna for SSTV/Digital modes. Low power, 100 watts max TX, “bare foot” no amplifier. I managed to tune through a few bands this afternoon and so far it looks like a winner.

Just what I needed in a wideband antenna!

Santa Claus will be a day late with the LP-500 (it’s arriving WED). The LP-500 is the final component of the 2018 hardware upgrade. I joined the LP-500 waiting list in May 2018 at number 200 something, these days, the list is much shorter as they catch up to demand.

Once the installation of the LP-500 is complete, I’ll be looking forward to “buttoning everything up” with the radio gear and reinstalling the shack furniture.

Don’t forget the Geochron 4K!

When the shack furniture is back in place, I can finally install the other LG 32UD59-B 4K UHD monitor and Ergotron Arm! This monitor will display the Geochron, and I can tell you right now, it looks killer!

I’ll use the Geochron to learn how to work, and better understand, the “Grey Line“. I hope to develop some new DX’ing skills in the process. Working Grey Line DX will be a new thing for me to look forward to.

On another note…

I was unable to pull in any significant amount of the slack in the satellite rotor cables. It will require a roof climb. My HF rotor also needs it’s control cable replaced (after 14 years in the SoCal sun) So these will be done at the same time, but no time soon. It’s time to get operating.

Back To The Front

TelePost LP-500 Installed

The TelePost LP-500 installed today without a hitch, using 4 couplers to enable the trapezoidal linearity display.

The LP-500 was the last piece of the 2018 Hardware Upgrade to be installed. The station hardware is now complete, and fully tested. Now that I no longer need to get behind it, I can finally push the rack (very carefully) back into the corner and return to full ‘mega-enhanced’ operation.

SPE Expert 1K-FA should play nice with the LP-500!

Once the LP-500 was in circuit I ran some tests using my current radio and amplifier settings. Boy was I in for a surprise! The station monitor quickly revealed that my signal was in need of some serious adjustment.

My Signal was Non-Linear

My signal was non-linear. Prior to the LP-500 I adjusted the exciter drive level according to the output displayed on the amplifier (eyeball method). I’d always received good reports and so I assumed all was well. I was running the amp to maximum output with minimum SWR, and no amplifier faults and thought I was making the best use of the amplifier.

My entire gain structure needed to change, starting with the microphone level and working through finding the ideal drive levels for each band. I quickly found out the LP-500 would make this work both easy and verifiable. I worked the RAC contest a bit today and made adjustments in the process. I’ll spend the next week or so creating and editing profiles until I have all my operating conditions defined exactly as I need them.

Every inch of rack space utilized

K6HR Station Rack — Carefully planned and executed. It all works! Now I can re-arrange the furniture!

Improving my view!

The rack is complete and back into its corner. One of my aging 22″ monitors has gone dark (above). Rather than repair it again (I installed a capacitor kit the last time it went out) I have decided to replace it and add two more 22’s to balance out the right side display. I chose LG 22M38D-B 22″ 16:9 LCD Monitors. They arrive next week.

Each side display will consist of one 32″ 4K and two 22″ LCD panels. This will provide simultaneous heads up display for 6700 SmartSDR, DXLab, GeoChron 4K, Pi-Star D-STAR Dashboard, JNOS BBS console, 6500 SmartSDR, MMSSTV and EasyPal Live SSTV Cam, SatPC32/FlexSatPC, and WSJT-X v2.

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Apache Server Shutdown

Let the record show that my original webserver, running through the amprnet, has been officially shutdown. The legacy Apache server shutdown on Monday December 31, 2018 23:59 Local Time.

The new Intel i5 based server for k6hr.com has been running problem free “in parallel” since December 7. The Ubuntu 16.04 installation appears stable. Onward to 2019!

LG Multi Monitor Setup

LG Multi Monitor setup

The LG displays arrived last week. I was finally able to set some time aside to complete the LG multi monitor setup. The only hitch was the Ergotron Arm. I ordered the same model has my existing Ergotron Arm only to find out they replaced the metal pivot point with a plastic one, and, the maximum height adjustment is about two inches lower. So my monitor setup may not be perfectly symmetrical. Grrrrr. I’ll probably insert a spacer between the base of the Ergotron and the desktop to give me the extra height.

Spacer Solution

I put two 1.5″ wood blocks under the Ergotron base in order to regain the difference in height. It’s not pretty, but it is out of sight behind the panels so I’m not too bothered. Now that I can match the panel heights on both sides of the rack, the arrangement is finalized.

After some clean up I’ll take the “Official Portrait” for the main page.

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