Recent content by BC Coyote

Looks like I called this one correctly. Yuck :rolleyes:. And it's not even a base station.....

I had a 2950 years ago that had that exact problem. I would go out and turn it on 10 minutes before I needed to use it because it took 4 or 5 minutes to power up. It turned out to be a cold solder joint that was causing the problem. Weird.

I keep my DC voltage to 14.2 Volts max for everything. 14.8 is a little high but not likely to be a big problem.........

Something's not right there. Those cans usually peak around 60 to 80% of the way up. If the slug comes flush with the top of the can it usually indicates one of the tiny caps inside the can has failed, or possibly a bad solder joint to the can or a related component has failed. The one in the...

$915.67 Canadian ! Don't think I'll be spending a grand for a mic ! More than double what my Q5N2 cost.........and it sounds good on it's stock mic.

Nothing doing out here..... and my prediction site says.. "Radio blackouts reaching the R3 level are expected". I'm not expecting anything much in the way of radio conditions for the next week or ten days at least. Another CME is due to hit tomorrow and this one could be even stronger...

It won't make any significant difference adjusting trimmers. The problem is down to the design of the circuit that Ranger used in that radio, and the reason that circuit was used is likely because it was the cheapest option to build. That's the way Ranger rolls, make it as cheap as possible...

I had two local QSO's and heard two brief fade-ups of warbly audio from California on 38 and that was it ! Nothin' but static otherwise.......... Sure glad I have other fun hobbies to fall back on when the radios not happening !

Another Flare early this morning. X5.8, making it the second biggest of this cycle and larger than any of the flares that are causing the current storm and auroras. This one due to reach Earth on the 13 or 14 of May. Looks like we'll be getting a lot of aurora's and not much long distance...

No. There are no EMP's associated with a CME, which is what this is. EMP's large enough to be a problem are caused by nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, not by solar storms.

Absolutely weird conditions on the radio last night with the huge solar storm going on. Stations from all across the upper central U.S. and Canada sounding like they were underwater. Stations further south coming through clearly. Expected a complete radio blackout but instead the band was...

Hi Larry ! Heard you on aurora skip last night sounding very underwater-like. You were in a QSO with someone in Cali that I couldn't hear at all.......... Tried to get back to you but no luck. Congrats on Libya and Benin !

You don't even need a freq counter ! Just use a portable shortwave radio to figure out where each channel is transmitting as you go through them.....

It was something related to non-original equipment installed. It was back in the 1980's so I don't remember the exact law I ran afoul of. I wasn't using it at the time, the cop saw it mounted on the roof of my pickup and pulled me over. Canada has all kinds of weird driving / vehicle laws and...

You may run afoul of the law putting an air horn on anything smaller than a big rig. Years ago I put an air horn from an old dump truck on my 1967 International pickup, with a 12 volt powered air compressor under the hood to run it. Fun times until a cop in Vancouver saw it on my truck while I...