Hello VHFers
Activity has been spiking in the midwest but is a bit down in the
northeast. A few of the regulars were missing the last few weeks. Now
that summer is winding down and cool weather is the norm, there is less
opportunity for those typical summertime activities. Catfish noodling
is difficult. Cow tipping gets tougher. Hot dog eating contests are
hard to find, and The monsoon season is winding down in the mountains of
Nepal. So there is no good reason not to get on the air with your 222
MHz gear and make noise on 222.100 on Tuesday evening.
I did a little bit of work on my last 222 MHz amplifier. Yesterday I
painted the front and back panels a nice grey and then baked them in a
drying oven. It looked pretty well, so I installed them on the amp and
added the LEDs and RF and power connectors. Really, all that is left
is to wire it up. This is a special amp in that it has RF driver
circuitry that allows a full 500 watt output with only 50 milliwatt (+17
dBm) input.
A 50 milliwatt input got me to thinking that I could add a simple W1GHZ
transverter in the unit along with a GPS reference LO and have a state
of the art (almost) 222 MHz receive and transmit station that only needs
a 10 meter rig and a 50 volt 25 amp power supply. So I am going to
build up a transverter over the winter months. The transverter will
cost me about $300 including a Bodnar GPS LO. The 500 watt amp has about
$300 in added components besides the actual solid state amplifier
pallet, (2 X MRF-151G FETs), that includes sequencers, Fan heat
protection, high VSWR shutdown protection, and other features. With the
fan control, you can run digital modes at full power to your heart's
content while having the heat sink temperature hover around 38 or 39
degrees C.
I am looking for a suitable candidate for this amp. That person needs to
live in a less active part of the country where activity is sparse.
So put your collective heads together and maybe we can all find a new
home for the amp. The price is low at $750 to cover my expenses. It is
basically a 500 watt transverter.
So remember tonight and get on 222. I will hopefully be there starting
a bit before 23:00 UT, right after dinner. I will start on 222.100 and
move off when people show up. Use the ON4KST Chat page for skeds if you
are far off the beaten path. It is a good meeting place for
coordination. Pick the 144/432 Region 2 chat. I hope to hear you there.
73
Dave K1WHS
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