Electronics Info

I found some interesting Javascript for doing conversion calculations.

It has a nice Inductor and Capacitor feature for when you can't remember which way
to move the decimal point.  :-)

/content/conversion_calc.htm

I was looking from some info on Toroids and the number of windings.

/content/toroid_turns.htm

I liked the toroid info that I made a screen capture of the info from the website.
The credit to the original author is listed above the image. I have gotten burned
in the past were someone has great info and then their site goes dark. Making a screen
capture like this solves that problem.

K2 - Transverter module - Night 1

I assembled the module before dinner and then applied the changes to the RF board
after dinner. The unit powers up with no warnings so I think that it is going to work.
I will need to go thru the 40/60 alignment steps and then test the transverter power
out piece as well.

Frankly I am tired enough tonight that I don't feel like pulling out the stuff that
I need to do the final tune-up and testing tonight. (160m/Top band is sounding awesome
as I type this up.) I think that I am going to call it a night.

I will probably do the alignment and tune-up after I install the AF Out mod. Maybe
I can tackle this on Saturday or Sunday this weekend. That would officially finish
my K2 project. At which point I can try to operate the K2 on a semi-daily
basis and move onto the next project. (I have lots of projects that have been on hold
while I finish the K2 project.)



The 60m/transverter module probably took about 2.5 hours of bench time to
complete. 

K2 - Transverter module - Day 1

I think that I am going to open up the bag for the K60XV module and sort the parts.
That is the quickest way to get me focused on the project... jump into the deep end.

Picture from the flatbed scanner

K2 - 160m module - Night 2

I have partially resolved my problem.

It appears that my problem is within the 80m/160m bandpass filter.

For some reason L4 is extremely sensitive now. I can detune it with my hand or a plastic
screwdriver. After about 45 minutes of poking around with an RF probe I was able to
figure out that the problem is within the bandpass filter and eventually get
the circuit tuned up.



I am still not sure that 80m and 160m are 100% stable yet. I am getting 13-15w out which
is pretty good. I suspect that there is still a ghost in the circuit that I need to
chase down. Time will tell.

Top band sounds great on the K2.

I will probably move onto the transverter module and then home brew an "AF out" circuit.
I am really looking forward to being able to operate the radio and move on to a new
project/kit.

K2 - 160m module - Day 1

Since the other module went so smoothly I decided to start the 160m module as well.

This module started very nicely and was pretty quick construction. The toroids are
not a big deal any more since I have a solder pot to clean up the leads prior to attaching
them to the circuit traces.



Things were going all together too well... and then Murphy struck.

I am getting a "LO P" message on 80m and 160m. The relays work and I can hear signals
on 80m and 160m... but no RF. I am not exactly sure why at this point. I sent an email
to the reflector to see if one of the other K2 builders  has been thru this before.

I had about 60-70 minutes into this module when I got stuck and had to shift to troubleshooting
mode.

K2 Serial Module - Day 1 - Final

I was home sick today. After sleeping for about 6 hours I got bored and decide to
start working on the KIO2 serial module for the Elecraft K2. It was about a two hour
project.

It is nice to have the K2 hooked up to my computer and visible by my logging programs.

Ready to rumble

A couple of pictures of Ben and Joe wrestling in the Hutchinson open.

Interesting note about end-fed 1/2 wave tuners

I was doing some searches on Polyvaricons and ran into this article.

http://www.nt7s.com/index.php5?page=efhw

I thought that his schematic was interesting.

Something like this might be interesting for camping trips of Field Day. I will have
to model some wire antennas to see what the possibilities are.




Here is a link to a photo that shows the inside of his tuner:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nt7s/2455973702/sizes/m/

Memory Upgrade

I decided to spend $40 and add 4 GB more ram to my Linux server that acts as my VMWare
host on my home network. The machine now has 8gb of RAM and is running Ubuntu 8.10
64bit server.



Top stats before the upgrade with just 4gb:

Top stats after the upgrade with 8gb:

Here is what the Guests look like memory wise
about 20 minutes after the reboot:

It appears that Linux is really building up the cached memory after adding the extra
sticks to the motherboard. It will be interesting to watch this over time.

VMWare server 2 thinks that it is only consuming about 1gb of RAM but the stats from
TOP look misleading at the first glance. It looks like about 1gb of App
space + about 4gb of Cache for a total of 5gb in use.

XP, Windows, and Mac

My remaining reasons for maintaining some XP machines at home is diminishing very
quickly. Video Editing, Photo/Image Editing and a couple of HAM radio programs are
the last items that I have not been able to move/port over to Linux. My kids have
a couple of games that they like but I could move them to the Mac as those titles
are available there as well.

2009 might be the year that we phase out the last of the Windows world here at our
home.

I would like to move to the Mac but the price tag is frankly too much for me to make
the jump at this point given that it is really just commodity Intel hardware.




I like Linux but the Video and Photo/Image Editing software is not at the same level
as the Windows or Mac platforms.



I am so close...  but I need to bridge these last couple of gaps.