Hello and welcome to the HX Files 027.

In this issue I would like to talk about a small work station that was made from a computer bench and some other bits of wood and metal that where lying around.

 As mentioned in previous issues of Echo Ireland, I have no actual workshop and the projects would be made and assembled in and around my house, and in most cases there would be a lot of time lost gathering the parts and tools needed for the job and then putting them away so I can use the room again (normally my bedroom or kitchen). With this bench, the job (the mess) can be left as it is on the bench and pushed into the spare room, out of the way until the next time, and the project can be easily be restarted with the minimum of a delay. As with every job you have to know when to stop adding thing to the project as the bench would become awkward to move around. Having used it a few times I would bring most of the parts and tools needed for the job from their various locations and l would have them to hand on the bench

The project started with a bench bought out of Argus some time ago, but when I went from a tower type PC to a laptop the bench was in the way, as is the way in my home any flat surface can and will have piles of clothes or something on it and the stuff will always fall off it, but with its metal frame and wheels I was reluctant to throw it out, so it was dissembled and put into the shed as it might come in handy sometime.

Many moons later

When the bench was rediscovered in the back of the shed (over a year later), I decided to reassemble it and make a small work table/bench out of it, The first thing done to the bench was to cut a piece of wood to cover  the original top, this piece would not have to be perfect, as when it was screwed to the top of the bench it would act as a sacrificial worktop surface that could be marked and drilled into, and be replaced when it got to rough for use.

The storage bins added

 The sliding shelf under the bench top 

(seen in photo 1 on the left) was originally for the keyboard and as a result is close to the bench top, and its mounting brackets are part of the metal framework and could not be moved. I decided to use it to hold a parts tray and some tools being used at the time for a project, but as the trays being used would not fit on the shelf, the only thing was to fit the trays into the shelf, (as there was plenty of room under it). So with having a sick jig saw the only choice I had was to drill a series of large holes using a hole cutter to remove as much of the timber first, and then with a small saw and some files, squared of the edges so the trays fitted. One of them has a lip on it so it would hold it’s self in place, the other one was held in with the addition of a couple of angle brackets screwed to the shelf and box. On the bottom of the trolley some wood was added to all the sides to increase the capacity of it and to stop anything falling off. There is also a large gap between the sliding tray and base shelf so another fixed shelf can be made to hold some more tools and parts for the project being worked on (but not at the moment) also added was a rail on each side that some cables and leads could be draped over them and always be to hand.

A 2 watt transmitter under test

With all the metalwork done, a back board was made (photo 2 above) and also fitted to the top of the backboard was another shelf; this shelf had some edging fitted to it to stop items falling off it.

Not wanting to use one of the large and heavy power supplies I had, a PSU was used that came from one of a few tower computers, and then it was attached to the back of the bench, along with a double mains socket.

 I got the computers from a friend who recycles them, the computers where from a local college that were replacing their stock and I was given some of them, (5) after their hard drives and some other parts had been removed by him. The power supply from the pc has outputs of 3, 5, and 12 volts and it will be used to power the project being worked on and even using some of the 12 volt led’s lights to illuminate the work area from above and from the side, as well as having the use of a mains flexi lamp. 

The dismantled cases from the computers can be seen on the bottom of photo 3 on the left, that metal will be ready when I borrow the guillotine from a friend to cut the metal down to more manageable sizes once I first flatten the folds in the panels, also seen in the photo 3 with the metal are some cereal boxes that will be used to make some templates with. 

In photo 3 on the left, you can see on the left and right sides of the back board I mounted some dc sockets on a couple of blanking plates, these sockets are attached to the various outputs of the power supply 

The frequency counter in use

  In photo 4 on the right, and photo 2 above,

 you can see a project having its frequency being measured.

 The frequency measuring unit is the one I won in the famous Cork Rally raffle, (you would be, a Langer, not to buy a ticket for the raffle).

That’s it for this issue folks, May all your signals be P5.

73 Pat.

The unit with the top panel to be wired 

The HX Files 026

 

Hello and welcome the HX Files.

In this issue of Echo Ireland I would like to talk about a couple of small masts made for the car, the car has not got a tow bar fitted at the moment, but it does have a couple of towing eyes. These towing eyes are hidden behind a couple of panels on the cars front and rear bumpers, and when these panels are removed it will expose a treaded hole that the towing eye can be screwed into,  also some cars have an eye(s) wielded to its chassis, bot more of that type later.

Caution

Please be careful when you operate portable and are setting up a mast of any height , when you get on site just don’t  look straight ahead and see were your  horizon is but also look up, to see if there are any cables above your  aerials.

Shopping

 The idea for this project came to mind in a local Aldi store, I was looking at their usual weekly bargains and noticed they some clothes line risers, and they were only €3.50 each and extend to 8 ft, so 2 were put into the trolley. As yet I had no idea what to do with them ( certainly nothing like what they were designed for)but as they were made of metal  they would come in handy, and as I have often found out that after they have all been sold I have found a need for them and now they cannot be got. While waiting my turn in the queue, a germ of an idea started to form about using them as a couple of small mast while out portable and attaching them somehow to the car,( so I left my stuff at the conveyor belt and got 2 more, as you just never know……). First thing to do was to see what sort of towing eye bolt was in the car or to see if it was still in the boot, and to see if a length of threaded bar with the same tread as the towing eye could be got. A visit to one of the local hardware stores was made and the threaded bar bought along with some nuts, washers and a couple of eye nuts (see photo 1 below of some the parts used).

Some of the parts used

The first thing done on the car was to see how much of the bar would be used to screw up tight to the end of the nut on the car, and noticing that a longer length would be needed for the back of the car as the tail gate would hit the mast if it was left the factory length. With the sizes now sorted out the bar was cut, the ends were cleaned up with a file so they would tread onto the nuts after cutting, the middle and bottom eyes in photo 2 below, show the finished towing eyes .

The finished eyes

With that job done the next to do was to connect the mast to the eye nut , I wanted to make the union of the mast and brackets in the least amount of parts, as with the more parts you have the chances of a part being left behind  could be an issue. The diameter of the pole was greater than the threaded bar, but a piece of metal tube was found that was slightly smaller than the pole, and it itself was just larger than the threaded bar. All this would fit inside the tube and so they were drilled through and riveted together, (photo 3 below).









 The Next job was to drill a hole in a small piece of metal and wield a nut to it, and they in turn were wielded to the towing eye. The wielding was done for me by Kevin EI5JG who suggested that I could use one of the earlier mast made if I could get a towing ball that was finished like a bolt and not the usual one that ends in a plate, and yes I knew there was one in a storage bin somewhere and after a search it was found, a couple of washers s were used as spacers and put either side of the cars original towing eye and the lot bolted together (see top of photo 2).  The eye nuts used for the project had to have a couple spacers made, if I wanted to use the towing ball on them, as the nut part of the eye was wider than the rest of the circle so a piece had to be cut out of them for a better fit, (see photo below).

Previously

 As mentioned earlier, the cars that came with the other type of towing eye could have that type wielded or bolted horizontal or vertical to the car. For that job the use of a couple of pieces of angle iron would be used, as there would be more strength in the angle iron than from a piece of flat iron. The last car I had had a the towing eye vertical on the front and horizontal at the rear, and by carefully removing a piece from the H or V of the angle iron, you could use that piece for the other side of the eye. Drilling the angle and the piece of metal removed from it you would have the holes needed to bolt the bracket to the car. As for the other end of the bracket, you could remove the metal from the other plane, and that would leave you with a single bracket that could be used on the front or rear of the car. Depending on the type of mast being used the same bolt hole could be used for attaching it, if not another piece could be bolted or wielded to suit what is needed. At the end of the day I would have two new brackets to attach some small masts to the car and not having to put a number plate buster (a tow bar) on the car just for the masts. For a bigger mast the option of having a mast support that would involve the car being driven onto the bottom plate of it, and the larger mast being bolted to the upright. Depending on the weather at the site you may need to stay the mast, either way with the car being used as an anchor for the mast you will not be able to move your location as easily as if the car and mast were as one, but if you are familiar with the location you are going to use you will know what you need to bring with you.

And finally

 That’s it for this issue, may your signals be P5.

73, Pat

The HX Files 025

Hello and welcome to Xtract 025 of the HX files.

In this Xtract I would like to talk about a couple additions made to one of the 10 GHz dishes used when out portable.

This would involve somehow attaching a block of metal to the back of one of the dishes. The metal would be shaped to the same profile as the dish and it would have a telescopic sight and a laser fitted to it.

These attachments would (I hope) help me line up with the other station in the qsl  The telescopic sight to help line up the other station, and the laser would hit the spot of their location or at least very close to it.

New toy

Before talking about the project in this issue of Echo Ireland, I was wondering what project was going to finish first as I was moving from one project to another as the stock pile was missing a few parts for some of them, and not wanting to remove parts from other projects made in earlier issues what was one to do, then just what I needed, a new project came to the top of the list that pushed the others to the back burner; I decided to change my car. I had a friend looking out for a car for me and in the last couple of days of February he found what I was looking for and a new toy was bought. One job was to take the radios out of the other car and into the new car, (new to me that is) the ATV gear had to be removed and installed also, although not fully installed into the car yet, some of the ATV equipment is in place and just waiting to be connected, as with some cars there are not too many hiding places to place the parts, and it is getting harder to get cables from the car battery to your equipment. For now only one hole was drilled in the roof for the 2m/70cms aerial and now it is a waiting game to see if a tow bar or a roof rack is purchased to attach anything else. Play time was brought to an abrupt end when our editor let it be known that the deadline was only a couple of days away as I had not noticed the time, so words like gosh and darn were uttered and something had to be finished for Echo Ireland.  

The sight

The telescopic sight (photo 1 above) was bought at a rally in the UK, the trader who I know for many years said that I had the wrong accent to be buying this sort of thing over hear, he did not know what to think when I asked him if he had anything to go under the sight ( a rifle).

Some details

The sight is to be mounted above the centre of the dish, and the laser is mounted below the sight.

Lining up the sight and laser would not require any high tech equipment, the high-tech thing done in a friends yard was to fire the laser (switch it on) at the wall, mark that spot on the wall with a felt pen, and then using a spirit level I marked a spot on the wall the same distance as the sight is mounted above the dish centre, so in theory the spot on the wall would show were the rf is heading for.

Anyway back to the start of the construction, using a piece of wood a template was cut out to match the metal, firstly using a fret saw and then finishing it off with some files and sandpaper to get it right. With that job done it was time to get the shape marked out onto a piece of metal fit enough for the job.

After a bit of a search the block of aluminium (photo 2 below  ) was found in the parts bin, and the wooden template traced onto the metal block.

 Using a small angle grinder, fitted with a cutting disk, a lot of the unwanted metal was removed and the cutting disk replaced with a grinding disk, this would remove most of the metal and leave a small amount to be filed to the final shape.

Ooops

It was while grinding the last of the metal that some of the aluminium dust was sucked into the grinder through the cooling ducts and in an instant the dust ignited and there was a flash and the mains power tripped.

When the power was turned back on I found out two things, one that the grinder no longer worked as the aluminium dust had gotten into the workings of the grinder and wielded to them, and two, new underwear needed.

 It was while grinding the metal that the dust was hitting the guard behind the vice and unknown to me, some of it was bouncing back towards the grinder and being sucked into its cooling ducts.

With the curve finally right some grooves were cut into both sides of the top of the block so that the sight would slide onto the block of metal for fitting. The laser was to be clamped to the block using some fittings from another project until some were made for it, but the drill bit jammed, snapped and followed by the drill with me holding it and the metal fitting broke. So some changes had to be made for this issue, and not having  similar brackets in stock yet, I am just using the smaller laser, or as the trader said, it is an astronomy aide,  When the bracket was finished it had to be attached to the dish but how, not wanting to drill any holes into the dish or the wave guide  after a chat in one of my local hardware stores with members of the staff some adhesive was used and that adhesive is so strong that you would bend the dish rather than break its hold on the parts.

 As you can see in photo 3 above, there is a difference in the sizes of the lasers;

 the larger of the two is from an old laser printer/copier.

 Photo 4 above shows the sight in position and the laser just placed on top of the wave guide,

  it or the larger one will be attached to the plate when the parts are got.

  That’s it for this issue; may your signals be P5.

 73 de Pat.

The HX Files Xtract 024

Hello and welcome to Xtract 024 of the HX Files.

In this issue I would like to write about some of the templates that were made, and used, to help me in the layout of the parts in some of the projects constructed over the last few years.

Like in any construction project you would layout the various parts to be used in the project to find out not only what goes were but were to drill, file and shape.

When it comes to drilling out the holes and filing them to shape for the final fitting, you would be placing the parts in and out of their positions many times before their final placement, and as a result the parts can get marked, damaged and even broken, and as a result of this, over some time various templates have being made to help me out, see photo 1 below for a few of them beside the actual parts to be used.

Project parts and templates

The easiest to make was the template made for the various amplifiers that have been used, as they are most often mounted on to some heat sink by the manufacturer in its enclosure and this would entail removing one of its lids, and this was a ready made template that could be used for marking out its location.

But when it came to space being a part of the construction a piece of wood was cut to the size of the amp and the lids bonded to the wood, and some small screws and/or panel pins are used to act as their coaxial sockets and DC connections, later on some of the templates had N type sockets and others had the SMA type fitted to them as well as a screw or two, and these screws would act as the DC connections.

The 1.2/2.5 GHZ transmitters are the same size as each other, and like wise, their receiver boards, so only one of each would have to be made.

After sourcing some scrap wood, some marking out and rough cutting of the wood was done first and by using some dowel rod to mimic the phono, aerial and DC sockets. 

Smaller parts like the coaxial relays fuse boards, aerial sockets, and such like would not require a template, but I found parts like the SMA terminated coaxial relay would be on most projects featured in Echo Ireland be fixed internally in the project  and mounted onto, or sandwiched between a couple of suitable heat sinks. The larger N type coaxial relays mostly being used often come with a mounting bracket that can be used as a template for marking out the locations of the aerial sockets, seen on top right in photo 1.

For an item like the TV/monitor it would not be practical to make a template unless you could be guaranteed to be able to get the same size of TV/monitor  every time, as a foot note  a couple of 4 inch (100 mm) monitors are in-stock , but their mounting plates are both completely different from one another. At a recent rally four 6 inch (150 mm) monitors were purchased and these are identical to one another so it will be worth making a template for them. These monitors were used for an ice system (in car entertainment system) and would be originally wrapped around the headrest of the vehicle by their own Velcro straps, but as they could be mounted onto the projects by either fixing some small pieces of angle aluminium to their back, or to make a frame, and for it to be attached to the project first and then to the monitor. Some of the projects made did not have many connecting power or coaxial cables, but of those that require a lot of cabling, a wiring loom would be made. When a wiring loom is needed for a project t a layout of the parts are naturally done first on some paper and then a line drawn from the various part to its switch, LED, power or coaxial point, and then when the case or box to house the project has been found, it is also decided what parts are going were. A piece of wood is cut to the size of the chassis and the various project parts would then be screwed or stuck to the wood. With that completed some screws or nails were added that would act as formers or guides for the various cables to be used in the loom, by simply using some string (in stock, as it is cheaper than the finished cable) to act as the cables, the string would be tied onto the screws on the templates and then the string ran along the board to the other points on its line and then tied off. (This would be repeated until all parts were catered for)  Once you were happy you would transfer each length of string to the appropriate length and rating of cable, and with all the cables now replacing the string they could be bound together with some tape or cable ties. 

As you can see in photo 2 above and on the right, the template of the chassis and front panel have a few holes and screws about their surfaces, these are for the various switches and any other parts that would be attached to the panels.  You maybe able to see the string and the screws making up some of the loom, the piece of string tied to the screw representing the switch and routed along the screws to the fuse point and then to the DC supply, and this you would do until you have everything wired up, there are a few holes in the chassis boards and the ones not in use are covered with a piece of sticky tape or label when starting to wire up the parts to be used.

Bird Watt meter parts   

For some project you may have no other choice but to use the actual parts,(those of you who have a Bird meter need not worry as one was not scraped,I bought the parts of a fellow ham who had bought them off a dealer, so rest assured dear readers a meter did NOT die for this up coming project) as you can see in photo 3 above these parts are being used in a forthcoming  project, the parts are from a Bird Watt meter  and the only part seen other than the meter is the cavity that its slug is located, but that is another story……..

Close up of some of the templates

And finally, I would like to wish you and your family a prosperous New Year,

 and may your signals continue to be P5.

73, Pat.