Recent content by BC Coyote

LOL! The thing I don't get is there's so much empty space on 10 meters that hams aren't using....... So many times things will be absolutely hopping on 11 meters and you go up to 10 and it's nothing but crickets and maybe a lonely beacon or two. The whole "Hams Should Get 11 Meters Back"...

Not even the world's best engineers can change the laws of physics silly human......

It was supposed to be a joke! The FCC doesn't want the band and I'm fairly certain the hams that were advocating for it's return are all silent keys now too....... So nothing to worry about.

Klondike Mike, who is a member on this site, sells the cap kits for those radios and many others............maybe drop him a PM. If you are retired and have the time it would be a fun project as it's an easy radio to work on, and it'll be good for another 30 or 40 years after you recap it.

You will need to recap the entire radio. The newest 457's are from the early 1980's making them at least 40 years old (or older).........well past time for new caps. I have three 457's and all three have stopped working in the last few years. All three need to be recapped. Two of them have...

Conditions have been bouncing back and forth between excellent and non-existent out here. After the terrible conditions during the day on Sunday we ended up getting a fantastic late night opening to Australia & Hawaii that evening. I was chin wagging with 612 in New South Wales until well...

The SWR is way too high at 2.5 The radios SWR protection is probably kicking in. My Old Icom 735 would start to fold back output power at an SWR of 1.5 and would be down to only about 50% output at SWR of 2.0 and down to 25% output by the time SWR got up to 2.5 or so. Higher SWR than that...

LOL! Cobra 200 was absolutely the worst piece of crap ever...... Still amazes me that Cobra was willing to slap their nameplate on that turd.

In this case it's probably a good thing. Galaxy radios of that vintage with sideband drift like the lifeboats of the Titanic......... Your clarifier will get a good workout trying to track one LOL!

I use an HP 8761A switch. It is mounted to the wall behind my desk and I use a toggle to operate it that's attached to the side of my rig. Supposed to be good to 5Kw. I only run 150 watts so I should be OK.........

I just realized that ALL my contacts today were West of the Rockies and in Hawaii. Not getting any conditions to the East or Southeast from here......

I called at 10, 11 and 1 and 2 Pacific time.......no response. Hearing lots of spanish in AM mode just like yesterday, also a few english speaking truckers also in AM mode. Tons of contacts on 38 today, so conditions must just be very sporadic.

Yeah, phase cancellation type noise eliminators WILL NOT work in a mobile environment, for the simple reason that when you are in motion, so too are are the phases of a signal, so there's simply no way you can find a null point to cancel the noise.

You could hear a pin drop the band is so quiet this morning. Darn. Edit to add: Just heard voices in the back of the radio. Perhaps it will improve later in the morning like it did yesterday.......

Your friend was right. It has a somewhat higher radiation angle than some other antenna designs. Normally the lower the radiation angle the better, EXCEPT if you are in a deep valley, in which case the higher angle will help your signal get out of the valley instead of just radiating into the...