After hearing many hams discussing the use of Anderson Power Poles for their DC hookups, I took the plunge and followed suit. The idea behind Power Poles is that it makes it easy to connect devices, whether power sources or consumers, and if properly and consistently installed, there is no concern about polarity, and you should end up with a repeatably reliable connection. In the shack, I needed a way to connect all of my…
"Power Distribution Box"Category: Projects
While this isn’t a terribly technical project, it is one I had been hoping to complete for some time. I had a number of pieces of coax passing through a hole in the foundation, and onto the radio room. Each was individually grounded. However, they were kind of hanging in the breeze. So I purchased an aluminum box, some SO239 bulkhead connectors, and got started. I laid out the plan on paper and then used…
"Coax Entry Box"I have been enjoying my AnyTone 5888-III in the car. It comes with programming software, but it leaves much to be desired. Unfortunately, there is no support for this radio in CHIRP. When work slowed recently, I started looking at writing my own software to program the radio. I used to write software professionally for automation and data acquisition. The first thing I did was to installed an IDE and compiler, since I hadn’t written…
"Anytone Tri-band Programming Software"I bought this from Amazon for less than $20 and it included a case that required some assembly. I’ve seen this same board and similar on eBay for less than $10. It is quite handy for identifying random components and for checking their values. It runs on a single 9V battery. You place the leads of the part under test into the ZIF socket, or using a set of clips leads. Press the single button,…
"Component Tester"I acquired my TYT TH-9000 220 MHz Mobile at JARSfest 2018. I was using it as a base station along with a J-Pole. It had belonged to a local ham that I had purchased an HF Hybrid rig from (Dick, N1VGY, SK). After a Factory Reset and and bit of Googling, I got it set up to my local repeaters. The output power was well below spec, but otherwise it works find and I get…
"TYT TH-9000 Programming"The BITX40 is a low cost, single band (40m), low power, SSB transceiver kit. Now ‘kit’ isn’t really what you might make of the word. It is a fully assembled (and supposedly tested) circuit board, along with a collection of external parts, wires, all house in a plastic box. The ‘kit’ part comes into play when it comes to final assembly and enhancements. The BITX40 uses an Arduino controlled VFO called the Raduino which includes…
"BITX40"