The Heathkit HA-14, the compact kilowatt linear amp, is the lessor known of Heath’s linear amplifiers.

But, if one is looking for simplicity, then is the linear for  you.

Check out the video as Dave Larson, KK4WW  shows you the linear and explains the schematic diagram

Here is the full schematic – http://frrl.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/heathkit_1kw_linear_ha-14.gif

Materials for the iPad, which went on sale on April 3, include a touch-screen display that costs $95 and a $26.80 processor designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co., according to El Segundo, California-based ISuppli.

Analysis by ISuppli indicates that components of the lowest-priced, 16-gigabyte iPad amounts to 52 percent of its retail price of $499. That leaves the iPad on par with other Apple products, including the iPhone 3GS. A high-end 64-gigabyte version of the iPad, which retails for $699, contains components that cost $348.10, according to ISuppli.

Much of the iPad’s component costs went toward making…

Read the full story – http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a6fOHHpcJv7w

Now see what’s inside – http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad-Teardown/2183/1#s11066

And inside the inside – http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple-A4-Teardown/2204/1

More teardowns of popular products – http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown

Wow.  Try to explain this to a kid with an IPhone

Burt Fisher, K1OIK,  makes a contact from his 50 year old station, the Heathkit DX-40 and Hallicrafters S-76 receiver.

Problem/Challenge:

You have remote computers in you house, you don’t need to have them running all the time, but when you do need them you don’t want to have to go over to the remote location to turn them on.

How do you remotely turn-on a computer from power off state?

You can read a previous article on this site on how to turn a PC “Clunker” into a usable part of your home computer assets.

For example, using FreeNas and a clunker PC (a PC headed for the trash) with only a Hard drive and a CD-ROM drive (no keyset or monitor needed) you can turn this Clunker into a useful member of society.

For example, a home network can benefit, at least, from centralized NAS (Network Attached Storage).  Beyond this FreeNas can server up a Torrent service as well as FTP, iSCSCI, and a bunch of other useful network services that you can use on you home network.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I was listening to a couple of guys try to wrap their minds around SWR.  Very interesting.

New hams are seemingly after “the perfect match”.  An antenna tuner will make your radio happy but it provides no improvement to the natural resonance of the antenna nor the line losses of the transmission line.

And really, is a 2:1 or 3:1 match really that bad?  At a 3:1 match (depending on line loss) with a 100W transmitter you may only lose 20 watts in reflected power.  What is the difference between 100 Watts and 80 Watts at the receiving station?

On a modern radio, 1 S-Unit is 6DB.  A doubling of power is 3 DB.  So, to move an S-Meter at a receiving station 1 S-Unit one would need to quadruple the power.  So, given this, your 3:1 SWR taking your 100 W down to 80 W is not going to make any detectable difference – as long as your tuner keeps your solid-state rig happy by fooling it into thinking SWR is 1:1

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The Challenge: Remember anything – make is searchable and available from just about any network connected device.

There are applications that come and go.  You download an interesting application, try it out a few times, and then, there it sits, idle on your computer, unused, just taking up space.

These unused applications will stay on your computer until you refresh the operating system.  They won’t be back.  You didn’t use it and you won’t install it again with the new operating system.

Many apps have not make it past these refresh points on my computers or Apple iPod Touch – except a few.

And one in particular that you should know about

EVERNOTE

Welcome to your notable world. Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer or device you use. For free.

The compelling feature of Evernote is that there is an Evernote application for just about any operating system and any networked device AND every thing you saved is on the network.  What this means is that Evernote can synchronize all your notes (ideas, things you see, things you like) in a central repository – over there on the Evernote servers – for free.

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Emergency Preparedness: 30 ft fiberglass mast and base for $40

Need an emergency 30ft fiberglass mast, base, and stakes for $40?  Read on.

The Antenna Mast Guy

If you travel to hamfests in the Midwest maybe you have seen the “mast guy” or the “pole guy”.  This guy has been traveling around to hamfests (according to him) for the past five years selling this stuff.

He always has good sales.  He has the right product at the right price in the right market with customers lined up to buy.

I am not sure what the original use of these were, or where he got these from – but he always seems to have a trailer load full of them.  He will mix and match whatever you want.

What you can get for $20

Read the rest of this entry »

Watch the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOBfxbpxosA&feature=related

Then get the detailed instructions and templates

http://freeantennas.com/projects/template/index.html
http://freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html
http://freeantennas.com/projects/Ez-10/

Read our related posting first -

NAS for Clunkers: How to turn that old PC into a high tech Network Storage, Web Server, and Torrent Server

“iSCSI uses TCP/IP (typically TCP ports 860 and 3260). In essence, iSCSI simply allows two hosts to negotiate and then exchange SCSI commands using IP networks.

By doing this iSCSI takes a popular high-performance local storage bus and emulates it over wide-area networks, creating a storage area network (SAN). Unlike some SAN protocols, iSCSI requires no dedicated cabling; it can be run over existing switching and IP infrastructure.

As a result, iSCSI is often seen as a low-cost alternative to Fibre Channel, which requires dedicated infrastructure.”

The Further Adventures….

Further adventures with FreeNAS running on a PC Clunker tucked away in the basement…

I decided to try to get iSCSI to work in FreeNAS.  Both Windows Vista and Windows 7 has built-in support for iSCSI.

What is iSCSI?

What is iSCSI?  In a few words, iSCSI is the SCSI protocol over an IP network.

And what is SCSI?  SCSI is a protocol that a computer can use to talk to peripherals of all kinds.

The Apple Mac used SCSI a long time ago while PC people were fumbling with IRQ’s and DMA settings to get their peripherials to work.

SCSI is easy and Apple CEO Steve Jobs made a good choice to use SCSI attached peripherals for the Mac back in 1984.

What can iSCSI do for you?

So, enough of that.  What can iSCSI and FreeNAS do for you?  What it can do is make a chunk of storage on a network look like a local disk on your PC.  Why would you want to do this?  Keep reading.

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Life for your old PC

What to do with that old PC.  What to do – what to do – what to do?  How about using it for a NAS device?

NAS is “Network Attached Storage”.  Better to use that PC for NAS than throwing it in the trash.  NAS requires only the most minimal PC resources to serve up Terabytes of storage and provide a huge number of other services across a network.

And what could be better than “free”?

FreeNAS

The goal of this posting is simply to get you to look at some free software.  The software is called FreeNAS and it can do some amazing things – for Free, and on a PC headed for the trash.

Bottom line on NAS is that it’s storage on the network.  It’s storage on the network that can be made available in a multiplicity of ways to just about any operating system (Mac, Windows, UNIX)

What do you need to set this up?

Here is the great part, there is an option of FreeNAS that does not require you to install any software at all.  FreeNAS can boot off of a Live-CD.  Configuration can be stored on a USB stick.  No software to install at all.

Doesn’t need keyboard, mouse, or monitor

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There is no stopping K1OIK Burt Fisher
Check out his video on tuning up the Ameritron AL-811H Linear Amp

If you want to see the inside of the AL-811H check out our posting below

http://frrl.wordpress.com/2008/08/03/living-life-on-hf-the-age-of-power/

Small Transmitting Loop Tuners from MFJ

This is from the “I’m not paying attention department”.  When I wrote the article on the AES IsoLoop I didn’t know that MFJ Enterprises has a wide selection of small transmitting loop antenna tuners.

The biggest challenge in building the small transmitting loop is not the wire loop – it’s getting the tuning capacitor.  The images I posted in the AEA Isoloop article showing homebrew loops showed that most of the capacitors used in those homebrew loops were “ham fest specials” or from the junk box.

MFJ Enterprises solves the problem of getting the capacitor for your loop antenna.  They have an number of loop tuners from $160 to $260.

The $160 model covers 160m to 10m and handles 50 watts.  The $260 model which also covers 160m to 10m can handle 300 Watts and has a built-in SWR Meter as well as loop current meter. I don’t know what significant parts are inside the $160 model other than the tuning capacitor but $160 seems like a lot of money for a box with a capacitor and a few other parts and no tuning indicator (loop current meter).

I can’t remember exactly how much I paid for the AES Isoloop.  It was about $329.  So. for another $70 or so what I got in addition to the (expensive) tuning capacitor is the stepper motor which allows remote tuning.  Why remote tuning?  Watch out for the RF!

RF Exposure in Loop Tuning

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Satellite’s anyone?  We always like to see Gen-X’ers get excited about Amateur Radio.  Check out the video from KC2UOO on his first satellite contact on A0-51.  Totally awesome, dude.

First time trying my hand at the birds! Was nervous.. sorry for going in over another qso in progress.. KB0RZD- call sign near begining W7JPI Leo, Thanks very much for the first contact! WA4…

Watch the video here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXCNqvim2MU
(We are pertty sure the red tie is required.  KU2UOO sets a new standard for Amateur Radio operating attire.  Good for Gen-X!)

Then watch Randy K7AGE pull it off - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HfvmU_utI8&NR=1

The free satellite tracking software is here – http://www.stoff.pl

The full bio and more links on AMSAT OSCAR 51 -
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=1&retURL=/satellites/status.php

During World War II GI’s in foxholes in Europe and POW’s would build radios out of whatever was available. No matter how bad your situation you might be able to get a hold of some wire, a razor blade, and a pin or pencil.  If you had all these things you could build a simple receiver to hear local broadcasts.
These simple radios made by GI’sand POWs  during WWII were generically known as Fox Hole Radios.  Check out our collection of videos, other assets and build your own fox hole radio.  A good family project with your kid.

How to make a FoxHole Radio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skKmwT0EccE
Fox Hole radio by a 10 year old kid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj7yk4qZKOg&feature=related
Another kid tells his story – ( obviously a budding video producer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tlziPvw6hg.

The Technical Stuff

Cat’s Whisker Detector
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat’s-whisker_detector
Some History (read the disclaimer)
http://bizarrelabs.com/foxhole.htm

See our related articles:
Going Virtual-How to Virtualize your Linux/PC Environment
Let the Republic of China Backup your Linux and Windows PC

It’s the great chain of related content.  First we suggested that you use Clonezilla to do disaster recovery on your Linux System.  Then we suggested  that you don’t need that – that you should go Virtual instead.  Would you ever trust us or are we just giving you the run around on what do to about your pesky Linux system?

Regarding Linux disaster recovery what problem are we trying to solve?  We are trying to solve a problem that, really, needs to be solved because we may have made an error in judgement.  Or, simply, that we don’t understand things clearly.  What have we not understood – what is the essence of the question that will inform our judgement?

Lets think about this.  We have confused value with hardware.  You need to ask yourself a critical question.  Is Linux about Linux or is Linux about creating value? 

If you answer that Linux is about value – then the hardware and the operating system is a nuisance – you need to make it go away.  Really, you need to transfer the nuisance and the problem to someone else.

Computing in the Cloud

So, now the ultimate solution to your disaster recovery backups and the pesky physical hardware that sits there running Linux – contemplating in-itself when it will surprise you with a disk or other hardware failure – is to think in a new way about why you would want to own any hardware at all. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Bare Metal

There is a term/concept you might hear related to PC’s and operating system.  The term you might hear is “bare metal”.  Bare metal as in installing an operating system on ‘bare metal”.  What does this mean?

This term, bare metal, is only possible because of another term – virtualization.  You might hear the term  “guest operating system”.  A guest operating system runs on a platform that supports virtualization.

So what is virtualization?  In simple terms it means that you have some software that is capable of emulating the hardware of a PC to the point that you can install on operating system on it and have it run as if it was on bare metal. 

So, if you put this all together, bare metal is the real hardware.  Virtualization is the capability to emulate PC hardware in software to the point that you can install an operating system and have it work as if it was bare metal.  The installed operating system in the virtualized environment becomes the guest operating system.  The guest operating system run’s in a virtual machine in the virtualized environment

The really cool thing, is that if you have a nice big server with lots of CPU, memory, disk, and other hardware resources plus reliable software that can create the virtualized environment you can run a lot of guest operating systems on a single server.

Here is a more concise definition of virtualization:

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If you find yourself, for whatever reason, using a Linux system at home you will be faced with an issue – How do I back this thing up?  Not just how do I backup my files – that’s easy – how to I backup this whole system?

This posting addresses a specific scenario.  Backup up a Linux system as disaster recovery to get to a known system in case of hard drive failure, massive changes to the operating system that renders it unusable, or simply to have a reference copy of an operating system in a known state or configuration.  Sometimes you want to move an operating system off to another media so you can use the resources (PC, hard drive, etc)  for something else.  All these applications of backup is to backup a complete system – an image backup of a hard drive – not a file-level backup. 

There is a huge difference between a file level backup and an operating system backup.  A file level backup will generally be insufficient to restore a Linux system to usable state in the case of a file system corruption or other disaster.

If you have any doubt as to how complex L/Unix backup can get, please read this excellent article: Backing up Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.

The Collective

When I was in college I sat down at a public shared computing cluster and hit the enter key to begin my “user experience”.  Along with some messages that went running across the screen indicating that the machine was refreshing itself for the next user (me) I saw this message.

Please wait – You are being assimilated in to the collective.

Wow.  All I wanted to do was use the computer and here I was being presented with a deep political and ideological statement.  Was it 1984 – again?  You know, the 1984 of George Orwell in a parallel dystopic universe?  Now what was I at the public computer cluster to do – what work did I need to get done?  I forgot – being assimilated into the collective was just too fascinating.

Read the rest of this entry »

Read our related article: Hands-on Electronics – Signal tracing a simple transmitter

Hog Heaven at the Mailbox

The good times just keep on rolling. 

Going out to the mail box I found a white envelope from CBC International.  I expected more of a box – but an envelope is what I got.  “You go to war with what you got.”  OK, I get it.

There was my copy of  The ‘Screwdrivers experts’ Guide: Do it yourself CB repair and modifications by Lou Franklin ( K6NH )

Could it get better? Yes, it was personally signed by Lou.  “Best Wishes, Lou Franklin”.  I am in hog heaven.

Economic Stimulus

You might think this posting is from our “We wasted our money on this so you don’t have to department.  Well, yes it is.  In these tough economic times you have to “spread the wealth” for the good of the country.  So I made this discretionary purchase – it was my patriotic duty.

But really, I wanted to see what was in this book – I could not find it in my local public library system.  This book is a companion to another book by Lou Franking “Understanding & Repairing CB Radios for the Professional Technician”

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Read the rest of this entry »

Hands-on Electronics – Signal tracing a simple transmitter
Or, How not to be an appliance operator

Is ham radio still about electronics?  If you think so, then this posting is for you.

You may want to read our nearly related article on the Heathkit radios (Collecting Heathkit Models SB-101,102 & HW 100,101 ).  That posting contains a high level conceptual explanation of how  the transmit section of those radios work.  We think that the Heathkit folks missed an opportunity in the education market.

Heathkit had a great platform in the SB and HW series of transceivers to serve as a course in electronics – learn as you build.  But that was not to be.  Perhaps an objection is that there were high voltages in the Heathkits – 800 volts on the plates of the tubes. So, sticking fingers in the wrong place in a Heathkit is going to get you zapped.   So maybe that would undermine ones joy of learning.

A learning strategy

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The Pain of Analog Video Capture to Digital.
How to get your analog video to digital

Life is so complex.  If all you want to do is transfer video from a legacy analog camcorder to a DVD or an Mpeg file for distribution or editing - how complex could this be?  Answer: Depending on your strategy – Complex or simple.  Make the wrong choice and you will suffer.

The Computer is not the answer to everything

Check out our review of the Pinnacle PCTV HD Ultimate stick.  Supposedly this can digitize any video and audio input that comes through S-Video or Composite and stereo audio.  The question is, how much CPU power do you need to do this?  Well, the answer in 2008 is – for the typical user - a lot.

The primary use of the PCTV HD Ultimate Stick is to receive and provide PVR (Personal Video Recorder) for analog and digital TV including High Definition TV.  For this, it works well on a laptop with a dual core 2.0 Ghz CPU and 2 GB of RAM.

But to digitize video and audio from an analog camcorder, this laptop falls short.  It is fast enough to digitize the video imput, but it can not digitize the video and audio at the same time.  The problem is dropped frames.  Video only and no dropped frames.  Add the audio and this Laptop and Pinnacle PCTV HDUltimate stick combo fails with an avalanche of dropped frames.

The only bigger gun over here is a HP desktop with an Athelon 64 X2 4600+ and 2 GB of RAM.  The two cores of 2.4 GHz each and 2 GB of RAM was still not enough power to capture video and audio from the Pinnacle PCTV HD Ultimate Stick and from a analog camcorder.

Use the appliance

Where there is a will there is a way.  So, pull out the appliance.  The appliance is a Panasonic DVD recorder with S-Video, Composite, and stereo inputs (also DV In and SD - but those are irrelevant for now).  Let the dedicated device do it.

So, with both the laptop and desktop left panting trying to digitize the input from the camcorder we left it up to the dedicated device.  Sure enough, works like a champ.

If that is all you want to do convert your legacy analog video tapes to DVD – you are done.  Stop here.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.

Read the rest of this entry »

Suppose you want a super safe web browsing environment.  Suppose you want a Linux “on demand” – that is, you want to boot Linux without using a CD or having Linux installed on your PC’s hard drive.  Is that possible?  Maybe you have a PC lying around with no hard drive and no CD-ROM drive.  Can you really run Linux on a PC with no drive of any kind?  Sure you can.

It’s an idea as old as the hills – at least for hills that have been around since the 1970′s.  The concept is that of a Diskless Workstation.  That is, a workstation running an operating system with no drives of any kind.  This idea was very popular in University and research environments as much as 40 years ago.

The basic prerequisites for this wonder of technology and network protocols are these:

1. A ubiquitous networked environment of at least 100 Mb/sec
2. A set of network protocols that allowed workstations to broadcast for network services and servers to answer for those services.
3. A server that could deliver an executable image over the network to another computer.
4. A workstation that has network capability to retrieve an executable image over the network and execute it.

and for extra credit we could add

1. A network based file system (NFS) – so you could store file in a persistent way,
2. A network based authentication and authorization system.  Popular was YP (yellow Pages) and NIS (Network Information Systems).  You need this to prove that you are who you say you are.

Of course none of this would happen without a bunch of really smart people who had the vision for this concept and a bunch of technical folks who could make it happen.  In many cases those two groups of people were the same.  In many cases, those folks were at Stanford University, MIT, and other major universtiy and research institutions.  Have you heard of SUN Microsystems?  Stanford University Networking – that is the roots of that corporation.

Yes, you can do it with KNOPPIX

If you are interested in seeing for yourself how this works “hands on” – then read our previous posting first - Learning about Linux – the KNOPPIX Live-CD.  That posting will get you started with the KNOPPIX Live-CD.  If you can boot a couple of computers with that Linux CD you are on your way.

“Pixie” (PXE)

You probably never noticed it, most modern PC and laptops have the ability to boot an operating system over the network – probably didn’t know that – did you?  Well, they can.

This feature on many PC’s is PXE (“pixie”) – Pre eXecution Environment

You can check you PC system BIOS on your laptop or desktop PC to see if you have this capability.  Here is how to do it.

Enter the appropriate key when you turn on your PC to enter the BIOS setup screen.

Look in the boot menu or boot order menu.

Find an entry that says “Network Adapter”

If you find this option, then you are in luck.

The Diskless Workstation Experiment

The best way to learn is “hands on”  So we’ll show you how to your can experiment with Network boot of diskless workstations using your own PC’s.  Hopefully, you have 2 PC’s that will work.

Here is our setup.  The PC on the left will be our boot server.  The PC on the right will be our diskless workstation and we’ll network boot that baby to show you how it works.  Unlike Cold Fusion, you should be able to replicate our experiment at your home with very little trouble and get the same results.

Read the rest of this entry »

Learning about Linux – the easy way

Linux is seen as an alternative to Windows.  So if you are one of those who does not want to be “assimilated into the collective” of Microsoft then maybe Linux is for you.  If you are using a Mac then you are already a UNIX/Linix user – but may not know it.

Or perhaps you just want to keep up with the conversation – when the conversation turns to Linux.

If so, this posting is for you.  This is a no-fuss, no-muss way to get your feet wet with Linux.  This is so easy that “no excuses” – we take no prisioners.

If you read our article 50 Megabytes of Penguin Power and gave the DSL version of Linux a try and liked it, maybe you are ready to move up and give another Linux distribution a try.

Linux at Zero Risk – to your PC

Again, as in our previous posting, the goal is to make it as simple as possible to play with Linux and not put your existing operating system in any jeopardy.  Here are the requirements:

1. Get Linux up and running in a matter of minutes without frustration.
2. No hard disk partitioning
3. No changes to the way your system boots
4. Get rid of Linux completely when you are done.

That seems a reasonable set of goals to achieve.

The Linux “Live CD” Concept

The solution is to get your hands on a Linux “Live CD”.  A live CD for Linux is bootable version of Linux that runs completely off a combination of the CD and the RAM in your personal computer.  You don’t need to install anything.  What could be easier than that?  Again, we are after the least frustrating way to play and learn about Linux.

KNOPPIX

A popular “fully loaded” (all the bells and whistles) distribution of Linux is Knoppix.  Once you get your hands on Knoppix you have an extremely powerful Linux.

Here are some of the things you can do

1. Use Open Office – an alternative to Microsoft Office.
2. Browse the internet in a super safe way.
3. Play DVD’s and CD’s
4. Software development
5. Access Windows Shares on your attached network
6. Run a file server (NFS, Windows, etc)
7. Run a Web Server – Apache – out of the box
8. Run a database – mySQL
9. Watch all the traffic on your network – WireShark

There is a ton more stuff you can do.  There are even some exotic things you can do like use this Linux as a boot server to boot other PC’s over the network – more about that later.

How Knoppix is Distributed

Knoppix is distributed as an .ISO.  An ISO is an image of a CD that exists as a file.  An ISO is something that most CD/DVD burning software distributed with PC’s or purchased separately (or free) understand.  Once downloaded, if you double-click on the .ISO file, your PC CD/DVD burning software should launch.

Getting Knoppix up and running

Step 1.

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Many people today spin the dials and twist the knobs on a radio without really knowing what is going on inside that black box.

You can be a person who likes to listen to radio and that is the real deal of why broadcast radio exists.

Growing in popularity are cable shows such as “How its made”,  ”Batteries not included” and other shows that tell you how things work and how things are made.

As a kid you may have been one of those folks who liked to take things apart to see how they worked.  Parents sometimes did not like this.  One of our friends who has a son of about 10 years old asked “What’s inside Diamond?”.  Diamond was the family dog.

But now we are all adults and can take apart anything we want – but maybe not Diamond.

So what is inside the black box of shortwave radio?

We stumbled across a free ebook written by a retired Broadcast Engineer.  This is an excellent book on what is inside a glowing tube shortwave radio from a detailed technical perspective.

We like this book for a couple of reasons. 

First, there is considerable technical explanation in this book.  It goes a long way to teach you about electronics - just what you need to know – to understand how all the component stages of a radio come together to get the RF off he “air” and into your ear. 

Second, the book uses a real example - the RCA model 8Q2 Shortwave Radio.  This radio represents the common technology of the “All American Five” design used in radios from 1930-1960.  So this book is not a book on “theory” without practical application.  In fact, the book is so detailed that just about every component in the radio is explained.

The tile of the book is The Vacuum Tube Shortwave Radio: Understanding and Troubleshooting. 
The author is Richard McWhorter. 

The book is 212 pages in length provided as a PDF.

The PDF of the book is password protected.
The password is “allamericanfiveradio”

The authors download web site is: http://www.vacuumtuberadio.com/vacuumtuberadio/

In case that site disappears we snagged a copy here.

The author has a ton (81+) of electronics education and vintage radio videos on YouTube.
Check out the authors videos on YouTube – “AllAmericanFiveRadio”

For those folks who have constraints that do not allow you to put up a big HF antenna then take a look at the MFJ-1796 6-band antenna.  This antenna covers 5 HF bands and the 2 meter band.  HF bands covered are 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m, and 6m.

We’ve been using this antenna for about 8 years on HF with good results.  To have one antenna cover all these bands is a convenience.

At the outset we should say that this review of the MFJ-1796 is for a very special circumstance.  We have made a slight modification to the antenna and we use it in a slightly different position than recommended.

Look at the picture to the left. That is the antenna that MFJ will deliver.  But we have changed it a bit – read on.

The word from MFJ

The quote below is directly from the MFJ-1796 assembly manual and briefly describes the antenna structurally and electrically.

INTRODUCTION
The basic 40 meter quarter wave vertical antenna is 33′ tall and requires a reasonably good ground or counterpoise system to function properly. The usual way to eliminate the requirement for a complicated and space consuming ground system is to center feed a 1/2 wave (in this example a 66′ tall) antenna.

The six and two meter amateur bands are covered with the addition of four quarter wave decoupling stubs. The power rating of the antenna is 750 watts on six meters and 300 watts on two meters.

MFJ solved these problems by combining efficient end loading with a balanced center feedpoint design. The result is a physically small vertical antenna that gives good performance and does not require any type of RF ground system.

The reduction in size is accomplished by adding separate loading coils and capacitance hats at each end of the antenna for the HF bands. The efficient end loading coils are wound on fiberglass forms. The high quality materials and construction of the HF loading system allows a maximum power rating of 1500 watts on 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. The continuous CW power ratings are 500 watts on 40 meters, 750 watts on 20 or 10 meters and 1000 watts on 15 meters.

Translation

So lets get to the bottom line on this antenna – its a balanced dipole with loading coils (not traps) and capacity hats at each end.  The length of the antenna is 12 feet as delivered from MFJ.  Its as simple as that.

The MFJ-1796 as delivered by MFJ is expected to be used as a vertical and mounted on the ground, on a tripod on a roof, or attached to a chimney.  Its a center-fed vertical dipole that is ground independent – that is, it does not require a counterpoise or grounding system.

Hatching the plan – going Horizontal

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So there you are in front of your HF rig.  You could spin the VFO knob and randomly search for active frequencies – that’s one way to do it.  Or, you could leverage enabling technology of computer software, the Internet, and the community of HF operators on the air right now to find interesting QSO’s.

We came across a really great suite of software.  It’s called DX Lab.  At the time of this writing DX Lab contains seven integrated components.  Components can be combined based on your need.  Combine all the components and you have an extremely powerful tool to facilitate your HF activities.

For the purposes of this posting we’ll take a look at two of these seven components that work together.  We’ll use SpotCollector and DXView.   You use DXLab Launcher to manage the installation of any and all the components.

DX Clusters

Spot Collector is based on the concept of a DX Cluster.  DX Clusters have been around a long time – before the internet was public.  Before the public Internet, DX Clusters (or Packet Clusters back then) were available via Packet Radio using a protocol (AX.25) over standard VHF/UHF frequencies.  Sometimes these clusters were on the Internet available to government, research, and Universities.  Some folks linked AX.25 over packet radio on VHF to the Internet via Gateways.  All that is ancient history.

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DSL – Damn Small Linux

By now you have probably heard about Linux. Maybe you wanted to try it out and see what it was all about. Then you found out that to install Linux you had to create a new partition on your hard disk, or buy a new hard disk, make a dual boot system, or otherwise disturb your beautiful MS Windows operating system. Then, if you got it installed how would you get if off your system when you were done playing with it? How would you get rid of the dual boot software – grub or lilo – and get the Microsoft boot blocks back on your hard disk?

Well heck, where there is a will there is a way.

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Now that the FCC has dropped the code requirement a few people may find themselves with HF privileges that they otherwise would not have. So maybe they will venture on to HF. HF – “here lives dragons” – written on medieval maps of unexplored territory; what will you find on HF?

Living life on HF you might get the idea that you need more power – a common theme. When finesse and skill fails – when 100 watts is just not enough – you just need to get more power. Or, at least, that is what “they” want you to think. More power – “that’s the ticket”.

More POWER – How to get it

In this day and age if you want more power you can just go out and buy it. You can buy RF Power from a commercial retailer like AES – we suggest that route over eBay.

The basics of what you need.

It’s not that complex.  Here are the basic things that you will need

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