Hello and welcome to the HX Files 028, and to 2014.

As there was no newsletter before Christmas, I hope you had a happy Christmas and have a happy and prosperous new year.

What to do next.
 Over Christmas, I was looking at some of the bits and bobs, (well its better than looking at Bobs bits) in the projects pending department (the sheds).  The items that were bought over the last few rallies, and indeed some stuff that was given to me for parts, needed to be sorted out. Space was becoming a problem and finding the part or parts needed with nothing falling on me, and getting out alive was getting harder. Those of you with space can decide on whether to dismantle the donor item as some of the parts needed are often safer to store in their original housing rather than taken apart. With the parts removed a trip was made to the recycling center with the unwanted and unusable items, and with the hope I did NOT see anything I could use.
Protection
The HX stores normally wait until a good coat of protection (dust) has appeared on a particular item that has been in the shed  for a while, and that it will no longer be used for what the manufacture intended it to be, and then the parts removed. It was on this particular rummage that the monitor featured was unearthed; it is an old security monitor measuring around 15 inches cubed. This cube was bought at a rally years ago, and was used for a while and then retired. With the parts bin in mind, it was noticed that the housing of the monitor was made from panels that were screwed and riveted to a frame, the plan was to remove them and add the sheets to the metal pile.

View inside of the monitor

 On removing  the back of the monitor I saw that there was some space in it, see photo 1 on the left, and then an idea came to mind, (and no it did not hurt much) it was decided to see if firstly it still worked, it did, (it would not have been my first project that had to be modified or scrapped when the main part had gone faulty during storage) so it was left on overnight with a DVD playing some film to see if the picture and sound stayed working, all was good the next day and so I started on the project.



Parts and fitting
 There was not enough space in the one area to accommodate the TX/RX in a single unit, so a separate transmitter and receiver boards would be used instead in the monitor, see photo 2 below left.

The ATV units installed in the monitor

The individual TX/RX boards were enclosed in separate metal boxes (used from other projects) some patch leads, switches and a relay were  added to the mix, also a small amp was fitted to the transmitter, the metal box would act as a heat sink. I wanted to keep everything inside the cube, fitting the parts to the inside of the cube involved the drilling of its case, but I did not want screw or bolt heads sticking out of the unit as they could snag and mark other equipment around it. The metal on the case was thick enough to allow the use of some tapered screws for a flush fitting, with all the screws, nuts and bolts in stock I had none of the flush fitting type in stock, so a trip to the local hardware store was on the cards and the items needed purchased. After some moving around to see what would fit best in the space available some marking out was done and then the drilling carried out. The drilling was a bit awkward, as the case of the monitor was not only bolted to the chassis but it was also pop riveted and it would have been difficult to take everything apart without damaging other parts of the unit, the monitor was turned upside down for some of the drilling to keep the waste from dropping onto the other parts and some sticky tape to mop up the waste. The back panel was easy to remove by removing a few screws, it is a sturdy piece of metal and I would be mounting an “N” type socket into it. Power for the ATV equipment would be from either a 12v power supply or car battery, the monitor would be powered by mains if at home or an invertor if it is being used portable.
 A word of caution
I would have to take care, as in use at home it would mean there would be mains power in use and it could be fatal if any adjustments were to be made whilst the unit was in use. Fitting of the parts was not too bad having done a dry fit first, but once you start adding the various cables and leads you would start running out of space all to quickly. The first plan was to place as many of the controls on the back, but the thoughts of hands reaching around the back of the unit that would be ran off 240v made me decide to have a remote switching box, (see photo 3 below),

The control box

 that would lay on top of the unit and then a removable cable used to connect the unit to the switching box.

View of the control box before the wiring  is fitted

 Photo 4 on the left shows the control box without the wiring, the bar in the center holds a fuse holder and a connection strip, it should be noted that this bar is shown up side down just for the picture, the decision to use two microphone sockets instead of a six pin one was taken due to the fact that the dc cable was nearly as thick as the audio/video leads and I wanted to give myself a bit of room to work with. Using the 2 pin dc connector was not without some trouble, as those old experimenters out there (author included) may remember the old 2 pin Yaesu dc leads, and the fact that there were 3 types that had different distances between the pins and the grief to get ones to pair up to make a spare dc lead. RF output of the unit is just under 10 watts and it will certainly be more than enough for what is needed.

With the fittings on the back panel,see photo 5 on the left, the leads were longer than they needed to be, as they would have to be long enough to allow the back panel to be removed and to be out of the way to carry out any adjustments.
In use
 I have used the unit several times and having great fun with it. But nearly dropping it on more than one occasion out portable, a couple of sturdy handles will be fitted to it in the near future when I get ones sturdy enough.
That is it for this issue,
 I hope to see you at the Society’s AGM in Galway.
May your signals be P 5.
73 Pat.

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