Ed,

You bet and that will be fun.  I have decided to give away a free 8 and a
half by 11 QSL certificate to everyone with whom I make contact for a
donation of 9.95 each.  You know, sort of like the ten ten guy did many
years ago and made a million dollars.  Who said you can't make money using
ham radio, haw.

Phil.
K0NX



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed Malmgren" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 10:02 PM
Subject: Re: Close to calling CQ


> Phil, nice going and maybe we will hook up for C W Q S O.  Good luck.
> Ed  K7UC
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 9:16 PM
> Subject: Close to calling CQ
>
>
> > Well, I am almost on the air.  Over the nice weather this weekend,
> > my son, who builds draperies and blinds, and installs them for a
> > living, in other words, he is a crackerjack man when it comes to
> > making exact measurements, put my R7 vertical back together.  It
> > was over at a friends house but to save several hundreds of
> > dollars for a new R8 vertical, I bought my old R7 back from my
> > friend who gave up on HF operations.  Plus, I'll be hanging an 80
> > meter inverted V from 50 feet and putting up a 40 meter rotatable
> > dipole and a 3 element 6 meter beam at 55 feet so the vertical is
> > sort of an extra backup antenna.  Anyhow, as I was saying, my son
> > followed the measurements and assembly instructions to the letter
> > and got it back up on a three foot tripod on the roof that I
> > hadn't removed.  Based upon SWR readings I remember from having it
> > in the same spot before, everything is about right.  40 Meters is
> > generally a little higher for SWR even when you set it for the CW
> > band but the auto tuner LDG AT1000pro will have no problem tuning
> > all the readings I took down to 1 to one.  It snowed here in
> > Denver over the last couple of days, about 6 inches, so when the
> > weather warms up, we are going to try and lengthen the vertical a
> > little to get, perhaps, a little better, or lower, reading at the
> > bottom of 40 meters but as I said, the auto tuner won't have any
> > problems tuning it just about any place on the bands as it stands
> > now.  I used it in the AM mode to put a 30 watt carrier on the air
> > so I could get SWR and power readings because I don't have the
> > line made up yet from the MFJ CW keyboard to the Icom 7000 input
> > for CW operations.  Plus, if you want to raise and lower your
> > power output, you switch into what they refer to as a "Quick Set"
> > mode and then by tuning the VFO knob, you can adjust the power
> > output to what ever you desire.  This same method, using the VFO
> > knob and the Quick Set mode, along with the function keys at the
> > bottom of the front panel, is used to adjust microphone gain, vox
> > delay, CW delay, and a number of other settings.  The absolute two
> > most important pieces of equipment I have ever purchased are the
> > TW1 and TW2 W4RT HF and VHF watt meters and the Millennium keypad
> > from John Hansen.  Well, I guess that makes three and not two.
> > The watt meters work perfectly and for those who aren't familiar
> > with them, you only have a volume control knob on the front to
> > adjust the voice volume and three quick press buttons to read
> > power output, reflected power, and SWR and all with a human
> > quality voice.  The only thing I wish would be different about the
> > watt meters is that they would have used a naked female voice, at
> > least I think she is naked, she sounds like it to me, like the
> > Icom and Kenwoods do, haw.  Very cool, to say the least,
> > regardless.  So far, I have been spending all my spare time
> > learning the radio, which has been no easy task, but once you get
> > the basic functionality down, it begins to make sense
> > collectively.  I keep notes of entry functions, however, because
> > although many settings are the same, at my age it is easy to
> > forget.  I'm not suggesting that this is the case when you change
> > modes, which is not a difficult thing to do with the radio nor
> > with the Millennium keypad, because you can easily, and quickly,
> > drop into whatever mode you have dialed up with the buttons by
> > pressing and holding the key for a second until you hear a second
> > beep, or often it is a double beep.  Nearly all buttons beep which
> > helps.  Functions key one or two often are used to move up and
> > down in a menu structure.  Function three, for example, when held
> > for a double beep, deletes a signal memorized channel you are
> > presently sitting on or listening to.  Function key four is used
> > for swapping channel frequencies to a VFO, or conversely,
> > transferring a VFO frequency into a memory channel.  Function key
> > 4 also is used for splitting frequencies in the VFO modes.  In
> > short, the function keys are standards, for the most part, for
> > each operating mode you may be in.  The speech compressor, if you
> > are into using such things, is set just as the microphone gain is,
> > and that is, by using the Quick Set mode and tuning the VFO knob.
> > Not very helpful in this case for a blind operator.  I have a
> > separate receiver, on the other hand, so will be able to hear my
> > own output signal when desired.  This same feature, for that
> > matter, may be built into the 7000 but I haven't found it
> > specifically in the manual as of yet.  I've found and read what I
> > think might be a reference to it and I'd be very surprised it that
> > feature is not built into the radio, listening, that is, to your
> > own output audio phone signal because it is a common feature in
> > lots of radios these days.  Selecting semi break in CW or full
> > Break in CW is chosen, for example, by entering the Quick Set
> > mode and pressing Function key one once or twice.  I should
> > purchase the software to see how speech friendly it is but
> > frankly, I have run ham rigs with computers before and although it
> > is pretty neat, I often grew tired of firing up the software just
> > to change bands and the like.  In my case, I'd have to come up
> > with a laptop because my ham gear is around the corner and in
> > another room from my main computer stations.  On the other hand,
> > if that software for the Icom 7000 is speech friendly, I can see
> > where it might be a lot easier to make changes and settings
> > because you wouldn't have to remember anything in particular.  The
> > last software program I had to run the Yaesu FT767G wasn't all
> > that speech friendly and was slow.  I have so many wires and
> > cables running around on my bookshelves to connect everything to
> > the power supplies and equipment, dragging a computer in there,
> > and I do have an extra one I could use specifically for ham radio,
> > might push me off the deep end.  I hate wires running all over the
> > place.  I have discovered over the years, I don't find the need to
> > move around the bands as much either.  This includes 2 meters,
> > where I work one repeater, and on 430 MHz I have one simplex
> > frequency I used to run remote base operations from a small 70 CM
> > 100 MW tiny handie talkie back to my Kenwood V7a when I'm on my
> > back deck watching my grandchildren, or dogs, which ever the case
> > may be at the time.  I sometimes get the two mixed up.  Even then,
> > I ain't what you call your most dedicated 2 meter ham any more.  I
> > used to work nothing but FM simplex years ago with big beams and
> > amplifiers and all and am tempted to go back to it except the
> > friends I do keep in touch with are mobile most of the time,
> > driving truck and the like, 95 percent of the time and a repeater
> > and echo link works great for that type of thing.  In the next day
> > or two, I will make my first CW contact on 40, 30, or probably 20
> > meters and I'll get to try out the full break in which I'm
> > guessing I won't like as well as the Ten Tec way of doing it.  Ten
> > Tec spoiled me over the years with their full break in system.  By
> > the way, the Icom 7000 is literally the size of a cigar box so if
> > you got um, smoke um.  It is one royal pain in the butt trying to
> > screw two separate coax leads into the back, external speaker,
> > quarter inch code key line, half inch ground braid, and if you
> > connected all the other externals in the back, the radio might
> > just fall over backwards.  I reached up today to do something with
> > the radio, heard a beep, and the radio went dead.  No sound; no
> > nothing.  It was on but I couldn't figure out what I did and I
> > tried everything for about 30 minutes.  I did a hard reset,
> > because I only had a few memory channels set and didn't care, but
> > I had forgotten already how to access the sub submenu, no, I
> > didn't stutter just then, to set the beep level and voice
> > synthesizer level to high volume.  I had to wait till my son came
> > home for lunch, he eats with us most days for lunch because his
> > kids are here and he brings his kindergartner home who stays the
> > afternoon with us, and without the manual, he showed me how to
> > make the needed changes for better ease of operation.  By the way,
> > it was a good thing this happened because during reset, and my son
> > pointing out how to access the menu I needed, I learned a couple
> > of new things about where I want things set.  I'd be crying, on
> > the other hand, if I had foolishly programmed all 500 memories with
> > frequencies and then had to do a hard reset.  Of course I wrote it
> > down this time, silly, but it isn't something you do every day,
> > unless you are green as apples like me, but this time I wrote down
> > all the individual steps because the voice synthesizer volume is
> > number 20 on the sub submenu list of 51 items you can choose from.
> > Nobody said it would be easy.  If you want easy, I'll give you my
> > DX20 and a single 40 meter crystal and we'll find you a sky buddy
> > to receive on.  Don't come crying to me, though, if you reach
> > behind the radio and touch the wrong spot on the dalkey relay.
> >
> > Phil.
> > K0NX
> > 
>
>
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