February 12, 2009

I didn't go anywhere

You're still here, right?

Okay it has been awhile since my last entry, but life happens. I did get back on the air in the last few days, though, working Phil, FM5LD, and Jerry, AH6V, on 17 and 20 CW respectively.

I have been struggling playing with a new toy - the BetterRF screwdriver antenna controller for tuning the Hi-Q. It turns out they are totally serious about choking the RF on the motor leads (which are at the same RF potential as the antenna) with a big ferrite before trying to operate the controller. I originally put a token few chokes on the motor line, haphazardly wound, and struggled trying to get the box to tune.

Eventually I emailed Alan, K0BG, at BetterRF for help. He set me straight on the requirements for the motor lead choke, even sending one with proper windings, and what a difference that made.

So the Hi-Q gets a little more useful and I get to do more QSOs. Life is good.

My webhost upgraded MySQL to 5.0 which caused a hiccup in my phphamlog and the QSL displays, but I have tracked down the problem and all is again well.

Posted by WA5ICA at 08:54 AM