Hello John,
That is a very intreesting page, and I have looked at it before.
However, you don't mention how you got over the usual lack of IRQ's for this
extra soundcard.
Having just set up my "new" PC, I had the joy of trying to find IRQ's for
the two extra COM ports that I installed (on one board), and now don't have
anything spare for an additional soundcard.
Did you have spare IRQ's? I see to think you have extra COM ports, but using
USB? Is this the answer to the lack of IRQ's?
I keep toying with the idea of installing a second soundcard, as I have a
couple of programs that need some extra volume to drive the waterfall, which
I then have to change when I go back to MMTTY/Writelog.
I am sure I won't get into SO2R though, but I do now have an extra antenna
for use, so it would be possible!
I have built a rather odd vertical, and despite everything, it actually
seems to work. It is made from enamelled copper wire.
The vertical bit is 16', and is taped to the fishing rod that supports my
G5RV. It also has a counterpoise of 12', and both go itno a chock-block
connector.
The whole is fed with about 25' of 300Ohm slotted ribbon, which goes into
the balanced input of the ATU.
Curiously, it tunes up nicely on 20, 17, 15 and 12, but won't go beyond
that. I was hoping it would get a bit more DX than the G5RV, and yesterday
came the opportunity to see!
I saw a spot for 5W0DL on 15m RTTY, and couldn't hear a thing on the G5RV.
After tuning the vertical (on the ATU), I could actually hear a signal, and
also got some sporadic print from 5W0DL! Sadly, it wasn't quite enough to be
able to work them, and there was quite a bit of QSB as well.
However, it did make a difference, so I am hoping to be able to do better in
the contests with this new "secret weapon".
At the same time, I also managed to get the G5RV up a few extra feet, and
now I know it works, I may be able to get it a bit higher yet.
I managed to use a 6' section of scaffold pole (thick walled), and found
that the fishing rod butt fits into that just nice. It is a good fit, and
doesn't wobble around, so I now need to find a longer section of scrap pole
somewhere.
73 to all
Phil GU0SUP
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