What a great link! You just have to check out this site All ABout Circuits Thanks for submitting this Reid.

Jim - KE3NK, has found a source for replacing the bayonet type bulbs with LED types. Pretty nice. Thanks Jim.

Take a look here.

Amateur Radio operators licensed by the Federal Communications Commission of the United States of America are required to do a "routine evaluation" of the strength of the RF fields around their stations, subject to certain exemptions. These rules can be found in the FCC's ET Docket No. 93-62. More information can be found at the ARRLWeb's RF Safety page.

Find out how to do it here.

Dave K4WDG submitted an excellent dBm to Watt Conversion Quick Chart shown below. View and download the PDF file (requires Adobe Reader). Thanks for the input Dave!

Note: Every time you double power it is a 3 dB increase, when you cut power by half it’s a 3 dB decrease. It is widely accepted that an S unit is 6 dB. The S meter measures everything above S9 in dBs and everything below S9 in S units. For example if someone receives you at S7 at 100 watts you would have to increase power to 400 watts for the S meter to indicate S8. However, if you are received at S9 at 100 watts and increase your power to 400 watts it would indicate S9+6 or as more commonalty stated 6 over S9 or just 6 over.

There was a discussion during or after the 3938 Technical Net about using formulas to do dBm to Watt conversion. So for those wishing to do the math Green Satellite Systems provides the sample chart below and the formulas for doing the conversions. Have fun. -- N2EII

This is an excellent article by DU1ANV on Shack Grounding. Get the Adobe PDF here.

Tom KB4ONZ submitted a link to an article about Improper Loading of an Amplifier. A good read, plus there are many other topics on W8JI's website worth reading. Thanks for the input Tom!

An Ohms Law Wheel that is certainly useful in the Shack. Right click on the image and select 'SavePicture As...' to download and save the image to your computer.

If I have a 100 watt radio, how come it does not show 100 watts when I talk on it?

The short answer is, it won't.

It is only showing average voice peaks. Even a peak reading watt meter will not show 100 watts all the time. It might, if you overdrive your audio and use lots of compression, but at that point you would be extremely difficult to understand. You would also require a frequency bandwidth of about 10kc wide.

More to come..

Roger W3DWD submitted a Resistor Color Code Chart that would be handy in any shack. You can download it here, then print it out. Thanks for the input Roger!

Those of us using rigs with multiple inputs, might take a look at the following posting from W4HBN. RF from a transmitting antenna can do much damage to a modern solid state radio from an unused attached antenna for another band.

The products listed from I.C.E. and others look to be very good in preventing this sort of problem.

The ICE site also has a good bit of equipment for other radio related issues-take a look! I have also included the sites below for an easy link. -- W2HU

"There are two different kinds of good protection for multi-antenna, multi-receive, multi-amplifier type stations.

One, the primary device is an I.C.E. protector on every lead-in wire, whether it be coaxial cable, parallel line or single wire, Jay Terleski WX0B has them on his website, but Industrial Communications Engineers (I.C.E.) has a whole website devoted to these devices. For instance, the model 309H is for parallel lines (6KW), the 308H is for single wires (3KW) etc.

They make stuff for every type of connector including BNC, RCA, HN, UHF, N etc. Just tell them what you want.

The secret of I.C.E. stuff is there multiple attack on Transients. The devices provide a D.C. ground to the antenna line, and that swamps all sorts of noise. Since transients are taking out the front ends of the radios, reducing their magnitude is a good first step.

The second device is a KD9SV Front End Saver. Cheap to buy at Gary's low cost. get them at the RadioBooks link below.

These beauties hook up to 12 volts, to the Tx/Rx1, to Rx2 and to the amp if you use one. The beauty is these units govern the PTT action and swamp the Rx2 line.

I run more than one radio and more than one antenna. The last thing I need is for any of my front ends to get fried by RF glitches with all this junk running. The FES's, and the ICE's all run me less than three hundred bucks, and that's for all the antennas and all the radios. After they go in line they are forgotten as they are simply transparent.

Lastly, the Front End Saver box fits really nice into the back of a Yaesu SP-5. There are holes in the rear apron to bring cables through, but if you don't mind a little butchery, the Saver boxes can be permanently mounted in the SP-5 chassis. What I did was to install UHF connectors instead of RCA's when chopping my stuff up because I think RCA's really suck for RF."

I.C.E. Radio Products - Coaxial Impulse Suppressor/Arrestor

RadioBooks Front End Saver

Here is a solution for removing the wax from the PLL cans of the TS-940 Transceiver or most any radio for that matter. There are other tips there also. Thanks for the link to the tips Buddy.

Check out the link here:

Inquiring minds want to know...

If I use a high velocity antenna cable will my signal reach the DX station before Big D's (W4MDM) signal?

Find out here.

W2HU Comments:
A great mod and it is laid out perfectly with high quality pictures! It took me about 5 hours, but I was doing a lot of other stuff to the amp as well: Cleaning contacts on the T/R Relay, Bandswitch, and Meter Switch; also cleaning tubes and chimneys, oiling the fan, making the interlock operative, etc. I would assume that anyone with all the parts at hand could do the mod in about 2 hours or so. I just try to make any mods I do as professional as possible and that takes additional time-especially when the end product is an amp that looks "brandy new"!!

I would advise anyone doing this mod to acquire one of the 5-lug connection strips, as shown, but do most of the assembly of the components on the 5-lug strip before it is mounted. It can get “pretty close” when soldering all those components after the strip is screwed to the chassis.

Also, if you do the countersunk screw hole option (see instructions), I advise using a vacuum cleaner with a crevice tool to suck up any filings that might get down into the screw hole. Vacuum worked great!

Amp now has only 6 or 7 volts to the ON/OFF switch at about 10 mils of current! Better than an inrush of many amps and moderate voltages surging through the switch at your fingertip each time your L-4B is turned on!

73, Reid

Drake L-4B Amplifier Solid State Relay Modification

To perform the updates, two cables are required:
1. -- RS-232C, DB9F to DB9F straight cable
2. -- CT-119 cable (available from HRO or other Ham Radio suppliers)

Note: DB9F = 9 pin female, DB9M = 9 pin male, DB25F = 25 pin female.

If your computer or laptop does not have a 9 pin RS-232 serial port, you will need to purchase a USB to Serial port convertor cable. Available from Radio Shack or most computer stores.

If your computer only has a 25 pin RS-232 serial port, then you will need to purchase a DB9M to DB25F adapter. Available from Radio Shack or most computer stores.

The update instructions and firmware code is located on the Yaesu website. Once you get to the web page click on the 'FILES' tab.

For the FT-2000/D

For the FTDX-9000

For the FTDX-9000 Contest

For the FTDX-9000D

For the FTDX-9000MP

For the FT-950 note: only one cable is used, an RS-232C, DB9F to DB9F straight cable.

For the FT-450 note: only one cable is used, an RS-232C, DB9F to DB9F straight cable.