The HX Files 008

Hello and welcome to excerpt 008 of the Hx files.

I hope you had a good Christmas and Santa was good to you.
(I won the Lotto, so you can all go and……. ).

Firstly, I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Stocktaking
As it is a new year, I said that I would do an inventory of my

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ATV stock so I would have an idea of how much I have and try not to have too many of the same things. You would be surprised that you could forget just how many Tx or Rx or relays you have and as some of the gear is small, some could be lost in my stockroom. (filing cabinet and cardboard boxes). The first thing I did was to buy some good containers that would protect the stock and if the containers were transparent I

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could see at a glance what I had. The ones I used I bought from Maplin and they could be stacked. So over the Christmas holidays I did some stocktaking and I had to decide when is enough, enough?. It’s amazing when you have a stocktake just how much you can accumulate and how much you have spent on your stores department. Just look at the coaxial plugs you have,aerials, brackets ,the spare lengths of coax, to name but a few.(although I know a few radio amateurs that don’t even have a spare fuse) .I am all for having spares, as with the ATV end of my hobby if I need some parts it’s nice to go to the spare parts department and not have to go online, order the parts and wait for the postman to arrive with your goodies. By the time the parts arrive you probably have moved on to another project and more than likely used the parts from the first project.

It is nice to have a project or two on the go to keep you up to date, but the parts I have should keep me going to the end of the world, 2012 , I enjoyed that film the CGI (special effects) were great , anyway I digress .
Projects

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The first project of the New Year was to build some gear that was of multi use so that I could use it on a couple of different projects and as I had a few spares lying around I had all the parts I needed.I decided to make a drive unit that had could transmit on 3 bands, 1.2, 2.4 , and 10 GHz bands. I decided to make it receive also, then I could get as much as I could in the size of the unit and it would be a handy item for portable or mobile use. The metal I used was from an old tower PC and if I cut it right I would be left with a good finish from the coated pc metal case. As I mentioned in a previous file,

scrapped PC’s are a great source of small brackets and nut’s and bolt’s.
Photo 1, shows the hardboard template of the front panel fitted with the Tx/Rx units. When I was happy with that I used it to scribe a line on the metal and then I was able to

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cut it out using the various tools I mentioned in the last Echo Ireland.In photo 2 you can see prototype 002 (001 did not fare out too well,see photo 3).The metal was bent into a U shape and some of the entry and exit holes for the various leads and connections plus the shelves/brackets that hold the various Tx/Rx boards are in place.Photo 4 shows the finished project and you can also see that I have left some space for some add-ons, because you never know what’s around the corner.This little unit will serve as a test
Rx and Tx driver. In photo 5 you can see another little project I have almost finished. It
will be by the time you read this (I hope). The photo was taken without the wiring harness. It will be a 50mw Tx and Rx unit and as it is attached directly to the

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aerial and feed with a multi core cable made up for audio, video and 12v + /- power for the relay and the Tx/Rx unit. I used a good quality sealing compound to keep out water and to bond the box to the boom of the aerial. When I decide to upgrade the power I will need a bigger project box as I have a small 2 watt amp to install at a later date.

The 50mw Tx/Rx unit will do for sending a signal to a close contact like Tony EI4DIB who lives around 500 meters from me and Mark EI9FX who lives a few kilometres who would be my DX contact on the 50mw.

And finally…….
Many thanks yet again to Thos EI2JD for taking the photos for me. I hope to see you at the first rally of the year in Dublin on Feb 14th. What a day to bring your nearest and dearest to a rally and show her or him the other love of your life, as long as they
don’t see the prices.

73 and may all your signals be P5de Pat EI2HX.