[K4RY] Progress Wednesday

[WB4LNM at aol.com]

I did not get a reply back about a meeting late afternoon Wednesday, so I  
went into the Club station early and spent a few hours picking and cleaning  
up.
 
Most of the cable is now sorted and in some form of organized stacks.   The 
equipment is moved into reasonable locations in the room.
 
While we will possibly get a couple of used PC's from the Department, I did 
 set up and try the existing machine for the iGate.  Worked ok until it got 
 to the keyboard test.  The keyboard PS2 plug had been broken off the cord  
at some time and thus it hung there.  I'll most likely bring in one of  my 
old ones to continue work.  The cleanup did find the power cord for the  
Alinco DR-110 2 meter transceiver for the iGate, but I'll need tools to connect 
 it to the power supply on the next trip.  
 
Byron and I powered on the Heathkit transmitter / receiver pair and all  
tubes lit.  While they look a little rough on the outside, the insides are  
pretty clean.  I later found a speaker that would plug into the receiver  and 
got a LOT of hum, indicating some bad power supply capacitors.  Not  
surprising given they are 40 or more years old.  I'll try to find or order  some 
new ones.  They will also need the 'widowmaker' 2 prong power cords  replaced 
with 3 wire grounded cords.  This will be a good and useable set  of HF gear 
if we get it back up and working.  
 
There is an old 440 MHz repeater in there that was most likely the 'first'  
K4RY 440 repeater.  It's an oldie, but might be useful to recrystal as a  
fixed frequency transceiver for communicating through the 440 repeater, or as 
 part of a cross link to tie the 440 and 2 meter repeaters together via 
Broun  Hall.  Another couple of old hulks are of dubious worth, and may get  
trashed after Club review and approval.  
 
A huge, homebrew beam is sitting in one corner wrapped up in plastic  wrap. 
 I have no idea who made it or what bands it covers.  It is  taking up a 
lot of room and we need to figure out what to do with it to get it  out of the 
room since we already have a very nice commercial antenna.   Perhaps we 
should donate it to one of the other local clubs that might need a  beam and 
has the location to install it.  
 
That's it for this week.  Again, if the Club would like a short demo  of 
the HRD software, I can do that, but I do need some advance notice and we  n
eed a room with a projector at the Union for all to see.
 
Please also remember that there is a VE testing session upcoming  soon.  So 
if you want that first license or want to upgrade, plan  ahead!  
 
73
 
John...
WB4LNM
 
Alumni advisor
 
 
 
 
 
 
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