HAM TO HAM - #1

Conducted by Dave Miller, NZ9E

Beginning this month, 73 Amateur Radio Today is inaugurating a totally new column, Ham To Ham. Ham To Ham - or HTH for short - will be your column. We're looking for interesting ideas, tips, suggestions, simple equipment modifications, work shop techniques...whatever you think might be of interest or helpful to other hams, both those who are just starting out and us Old Timers alike.

Ham To Ham will be just that, a column of interesting ideas passed on from one ham to another. We'll need your help in designing both the actual format and the month-to-month contents of the column. I'll start if off, but whether or not it continues is up to all of you. Send in your favorite ideas, the things that perhaps you wish someone had told you before you were forced to find out the hard way, and we'll include them in this column.

To motivate and somewhat compensate you for your efforts, Uncle Wayne's unlimited budget for this effort will pay you $10 for every tip or suggestion that's published. No, you won't get rich, but it will help to defray your postage and writing costs, plus you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you've helped a fellow ham and you'll get to see your name in print...famous maybe, but rich, not likely!

What kind of things are we looking for? You be the judge. Basically anything that seems like it might be helpful to others with the same rig or station accessory that you have. It might be an operational tip, a nifty modification (one that you know actually works well and is duplicatable), a novel way of doing something or a circuit that you've found to be of benefit around your station. There are many new and exciting rigs and accessories out there today, and we're interested in your experiences and in the ways you found to improve some of them. 73 Amateur Radio Today is for Today.

Just about any item ever designed has little bugs or inconveniences built into it. What have you discovered to make a particular piece of gear more "user friendly"? Send it to me and I'll try to include it in this column.

Anything around the ham shack is fair game here...transceivers, amplifiers, microphones, monitoring equipment, antennas, computers, computer peripherals, test equipment, clever shop tools or new techniques on using tools...just about anything in the way of information that the rest of us will also find helpful. Try to keep it within the ham radio field, but even some ideas that may have universal appeal in our non-ham electronic lives will be considered. After all, we have to keep the XYL and harmonics happy, and they to may be potential hams in the rough.

When you send in your ideas, try to include as much detail as you possibly can. The more you can tell a person on exactly how to implement your idea, the better chance of success that individual will have in duplicating your discovery. If a photo would help, include a clear, well-exposed one along with your idea - color or B&W. If a schematic or partial schematic would be invaluable, be sure to send a copy of one. If a mechanical drawing is called for, then a clearly marked, reasonably easy-to-read drawing would be very much appreciated by everyone who'll be using your idea...even a sketch is better than nothing, if drawing isn't your strong suit.

By the way, we're definitely not looking for unsubstantiated complaints or libelous accusations about any particular manufacturer's product. Try to be fair when writing about a particular brand of equipment, all electronic devices have faults or room for improvement. Even at that, what one person may think is a problem, another may see as an asset. Also, manufacturers often have to juggle the end price tag figure with compromises in the design of a particular unit, but with that in mind, we can still suggest improvements for those who want to make the extra effort and investment. I suppose that the bottom line is...err on the side of understanding rather than on the side of unjust criticism. We're a whole lot better off today than we were in the days when hams had to build just about everything they used around the shack, even if some of today's mass-produced products have one or two rough edges. It's usually a lot easier to smooth out a couple of rough spots than to have to start out from scratch on the accessories that we need.

So that's the basic game plan. Send your ideas, suggestions, tips and techniques to me at:

73 Magazine's Ham To Ham column

c/o Dave Miller, NZ9E

7462 Lawler Avenue

Niles, IL 60714-3108

Please include a self-addressed, stamped return envelope if you would like to have any of your materials returned to you, I won't be able to return them otherwise. Actually, I'd prefer that you send copies that you can spare, keeping the originals for your own files in case of questions or if further information is needed. Also, send only your original, unpublished ideas. If you're sending in an idea that a friend or club group originated, make sure that they have no objection to the idea being published and then use at least part of the ten bucks to buy them all coffee & rolls. Remember, it's $10 per idea, not per person!

So show us the direction that you'd like to see this column take by sending me your best brain-storms. Uncle Wayne has given the go-ahead to give this idea a try, but we all have to work at it to make it work for us. Think of this column as a kind of "clearing house" for tips that all of us can use at some point or another. Uncle Wayne is providing us with the medium of the magazine to do that effectively. Above all, think of this as your column, a place where you can see your efforts in print so they'll be available to others in the hobby.

To show that my heart is in the right place, I'll give you a couple of my own ideas to get the ball rolling. These are just a couple of samples of what we're looking for in HTH, I hope that you or someone you know might find them useful. And don't be afraid to spread the word about HTH, the more ideas we have coming in, the more we can give back to the ham community.

A Source For Small Switch or Jack Boxes

Here's a tip I've used to obtain a small plastic box for mounting a miniature toggle switch or two, or perhaps a couple of miniature or sub-miniature phone jacks, etc. in a hurry. Best of all, it's basically free!

If you own - or know someone who owns - one of those ultra-small pocket dictation tape recorders, the kind that use the "micro" cassette tapes, don't throw away the small plastic boxes that the blank tapes come in. These boxes measure about 2-1/4" x 1-1/2" x 1/2" and can be used to house the small switches & jacks mentioned above, plus many other miniature electronic do-dads very nicely. The boxes are insulated, have a built-in hinged lid - and as mentioned before - are free with the microcassette tapes.

The box can be spruced up a bit with matching color of spray paint if desired, and the ends are easily drilled and reamed to accommodate the incoming/outgoing cables plus miniature switches and jacks - along with other small parts such as resistors and capacitors - to complete whatever circuit you might be duplicating. A strip of double-faced tape will hold the finished box wherever you wish, on the side of a piece of equipment or perhaps under the lip of a shelf. It can be tucked away in any unobtrusive corner on the operating table, while providing both protection and easy access when needed.

Perhaps you'd like to bring out a remote input or output from the back of your transceiver, or maybe mount a small switch to remotely control one thing or another at the location of your choice, to fit your operating style. One of these little boxes can easily be re-cycled to accommodate the idea.

And the XYL wonders why I never throw anything away!

Better Visibility Tuning Indicators

Both the AEA PK-232 and the MFJ 1278B digital multi-mode controllers use red LED bargraph tuning indicators to assist the operator with correct transceiver tuning when operating on the HF bands. These red bargraphs are fine in subdued lighting, but many times they tend to "wash-out" under direct or over-head lighting, making the "dancing bars" either difficult or impossible to see.

Fortunately, these bargraphs are made in convenient, 20-pin, plug-in, DIP packages, with 10 pins along each long edge and 5 LED vertical bars in each package. I've personally found that green bargraphs are much easier for me to see under high ambient lighting conditions, and being plug-in, it's an easy matter to change over to them if you've had the same experience. One source of these compatable green bargraphs is Digi-Key Corp., PO Box 677, Thief River Falls, MN 56701-0677 (Tel: 1-800-344-4539). They list the green arrays as their catalog part number LT1067-ND and also offer yellow ones as part number LT1068-ND.

Keep in mind that you'll also have to change the color of the "filter" plastic covering the rectangular cut-out in the front panel to match the color of the bargraph you've chosen. The "filter" material can simply be a small piece of colored plastic film available in many stationery or variety stores. The "filter" film isn't absolutely essential, but it does significantly improve the contrast ratio between the lighted LED and the background color-tone.

By the way, when you plug-in the new LED array, if it doesn't work the first time around, simply unplug it and rotate it 180 degrees. It was installed backwards, but no harm was done.

I'll be back with more Ham To Ham tips next month, and remember, send in your ideas to the address shown above and we'll publish the better ones in this column each month, plus send you ten bucks for your time and trouble!

73, DE Dave, NZ9E

Note: The ideas and suggestions contributed to this column by its readers have not necessarily been tested by the column's moderator nor by the staff of 73 Magazine, and thus no guarantee of operational success is implied. Always use your own best judgment before modifying any electronic item from the original equipment manufacturer's specifications. No responsibility is implied by the moderator or 73 Magazine for any equipment damage or malfunction

resulting from information supplied in this column.

Please send all correspondence relating to this column to 73 Magazine's Ham To Ham column, c/o Dave Miller, NZ9E, 7462 Lawler Avenue, Niles, IL 60714-3108, USA. All contributions used in this column will be reimbursed by a contributor's fee of $10, which includes its exclusive use by 73 Magazine. We will attempt to respond to all legitimate contributor's ideas in a timely manner, but be sure to send all specific questions on any particular tip to the originator of the idea, not to this column's moderator nor to 73 Magazine.