Budget station in a hurry.

[Watergate]

I was raised by my aunt and uncle, so my cousins have always been like brothers to me.

My cousin, who shares my name, was involved in a huge wreck on May 28th. It left him with some spinal cord injuries bad enough that the doctors strapped him down and put him in a coma to keep the spinal cord from being damaged any further. Destroyed his truck, and the HR-2510 I had given to him "to test out for me". I bought it to give to him and get him bit by the radio bug.

He woke up on the 14th of this month, and when his senses returned, he started confusing his poor wife with a request to "ask Rogerbird if he still has my president." She's a real trooper, and a sweetheart, but has zero interest or knowledge about radios. She calls them ham CBs. I guess she dug through his old emails and figured out what he wanted. He had bought a 2510 for himself and shipped it to Rogerbird before the accident.

So she has asked me to set up a station for her husband. He will be in a wheelchair for several months at least, and she wants to give him something to keep his mind occupied.

Here is what he has so far.

Radios, the 2510, and a Cobra 148GTL that I'm giving him.

Antenna, some time back he planted a 30 foot length of 6 inch channel iron in the ground and guyed it down. About 25 feet of it sticks straight up in the air. I got an A99 off my neighbors roof. I'm also going to build a inverted v wire dipole for him.

Coax, I have a bunch of rat shack rg8 for now, but if the budget allows, I want to get something else. Its a 48 foot run from the radio to antenna.

I need suggestions on a meter, power supply, and coax. The budget is very tight. I am looking for used or new if the price is right. I need the best bang for the buck here.

Any suggestions would be very helpful.

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[Se7en]

I was raised by my aunt and uncle, so my cousins have always been like brothers to me.

My cousin, who shares my name, was involved in a huge wreck on May 28th. It left him with some spinal cord injuries bad enough that the doctors strapped him down and put him in a coma to keep the spinal cord from being damaged any further. Destroyed his truck, and the HR-2510 I had given to him "to test out for me". I bought it to give to him and get him bit by the radio bug.

He woke up on the 14th of this month, and when his senses returned, he started confusing his poor wife with a request to "ask Rogerbird if he still has my president." She's a real trooper, and a sweetheart, but has zero interest or knowledge about radios. She calls them ham CBs. I guess she dug through his old emails and figured out what he wanted. He had bought a 2510 for himself and shipped it to Rogerbird before the accident.

So she has asked me to set up a station for her husband. He will be in a wheelchair for several months at least, and she wants to give him something to keep his mind occupied.

Here is what he has so far.

Radios, the 2510, and a Cobra 148GTL that I'm giving him.

Antenna, some time back he planted a 30 foot length of 6 inch channel iron in the ground and guyed it down. About 25 feet of it sticks straight up in the air. I got an A99 off my neighbors roof. I'm also going to build a inverted v wire dipole for him.

Coax, I have a bunch of rat shack rg8 for now, but if the budget allows, I want to get something else. Its a 48 foot run from the radio to antenna.

I need suggestions on a meter, power supply, and coax. The budget is very tight. I am looking for used or new if the price is right. I need the best bang for the buck here.

Any suggestions would be very helpful.

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A99 is a bleed stick, see id you can find a deal on a imax 2000, astron or pyramid is fine for power supplys 20amp is enough for most all cb radios, as for coax rg8 if its .405 diameter is fine stay away from rg8x if he plans on running a linear again anstron 99 will bleed pretty bad. Sorry about your cousin getting in a bad wreck ! My prayers to him for a great recovery and you for being such a big hearted person.

 

[Robb]

IMO - I would re-think the RS coax decision. That stuff isn't worth the time it takes to hook it up nor the material it is made of. I wouldn't even use it for a short run. It will just suck the life out of that station. Been there; done that. I'm sure you don't want that. Budget for some mini 8X coax. Relatively cheap, fairly low loss, and not too hard to get or find.

Everything else sounds fine to me. Power supply? How many amps needed; 20? The Radio Shack SWR meter is cheap; but you can probably do better on eBay for a used one.

Does the A99 have a ground plane kit with it? If not; then make one. Add a choke coil/'ugly balun' below the feedpoint. They can get a few bands on those antennas. Employing the ground plane and a choke coil will greatly reduce the coax radiating and remove a lot of the common-mode current.

The radios are both

EDIT:
If you make an inverted 'V' dipole out of 1/2" EMT tubing and place it just below the feedpoint of the A99; then it should act as a ground plane for the A99 antenna. That EMT tubing is dirt cheap; about $3-4 for a 10 ft piece so you will need two. Kill two birds with one just stone. With two antennas, you are going to need an antenna switch and a second piece of coax too . . .

 

[Watergate]

I'm not at all excited about the rat shack rg8, but I have it. Bought it with a scanner antenna. 100 feet of it.

I guess what I am asking here is, most of this stuff will have to be used. I sunk most of my radio money into building ramps at his place, and they wont have extra cash until a settlement comes through.

So what would you buy in a used meter? Power/swr. And if you could pick up a nice used power supply, is there a particular brand that you would avoid buying used?

The A99 is not my first choice, but the price was right. A few yellow jacket stings and a scraped knuckle. That's why I am thinking of the wire dipole. A decent antenna for DX that I can afford.

And no Robb, the A99 has no ground plane with it. It was strapped to a vent pipe on the neighbors roof.


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[Robb]

Line Type: Tandy RG-8X
Line Length: 100 Feet
Frequency: 27MHz
Load SWR: 1.3 : 1
Power In: 100 W

Results
Matched Loss: 1.707 dB
SWR Loss: 0.041 dB
Total Loss: 1.747 dB
Power Out: 66.876 W

Keep in mind, that the A99 has about 3 db gain. If you have ~1.8db's of coax loss of that 3db gain; is that worthwhile? The coax has also eaten up nearly half of the radio power by the time it gets to the antenna. But I can appreciate your predicament too. May God Bless you on this project.

Here's another thought. Can you get the antenna closer to the radio? if you could shorten the distance from the antenna to the radio it would reduce loss. The shortest, straightest path while keeping the antenna as high as possible (30 ft will work OK) will mean an improvement. Especially if you can get it 50ft from the radio to the antenna feedpoint. That means you can cut the cable in half and use the other half for the dipole and do it as you wanted in the first place w/o spending any more for coax. This will cut you coax losses in half - too.

 

[Watergate]

Here's another thought. Can you get the antenna closer to the radio? if you could shorten the distance from the antenna to the radio it would reduce loss. The shortest, straightest path while keeping the antenna as high as possible (30 ft will work OK) will mean an improvement. Especially if you can get it 50ft from the radio to the antenna feedpoint. That means you can cut the cable in half and use the other half for the dipole and do it as you wanted in the first place w/o spending any more for coax. This will cut you coax losses in half - too.

It's 48 feet radio to antenna. Out the house, straight to the pole, and up the pole.

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[Watergate]

Hey Robb, how do you like that Autek WM-1? I think I can swing one of those if I can get a good deal on a power supply.

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[Robb]

Hey Robb, how do you like that Autek WM-1? I think I can swing one of those if I can get a good deal on a power supply.

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The WM-1?
Fantastic meter.

What happened to your budget?
I'd worry about the coax quality/length, dipole construction, and an antenna switch if you are going to stick to plan.

I don't use that meter inline even 5-10% of the time; just for setting up radios. A meter isn't necessary unless you are running power. Otherwise, it is just another piece of gear that may mess with the signal chain . . .

 

[Watergate]

What happened to your budget?

I think I can pick up a used one for $80. The guy is wishy washy about selling it though.

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[Watergate]

Ok, things are starting to come together in a good way.

Dipole is up and SWRs are good on my cheap little meter.

Picked up an old computer desk at a yard sale for $5. Damn thing is heavy, real hardwood.

As far as the rest of the station set up. Today, I am finishing a custom motor install in '67 Mustang that I am doing for trade. I went to buy a 30 amp power supply from this guy and saw his two Mustangs. The '67 and a demolished '99. He wanted the motor from the '99 in the '67 fuel injection, electronics and all. This guy has a huge supply of radio equipment. Transceivers, test equipment, meters, you name it. He is trading me the motor swap for $700 worth of equipment.

Now, my cousins driving career is over, and he is talking about going back to school for a degree in electronics. So I want to get some test equipment from this guy and have it set up at in cousins shack. I have barely dipped into tinkering with radios so I haven't researched the equipment needed.

I know I will get an oscilloscope from him. What should I look for in the scope?

I am getting the 30 amp power supply.

I am getting an Autek WM-1. This is the guy that was wishy washy about selling it.

I can get a tone or signal generator, not sure the correct terminology for it. What should I look for in that?

I looked in the service manuals posted here and some of them call for a rf vtvm and an af vtvm for alignment procedures. I have figured out rf of course, and vtvm is vacuum tube volt meter. What is AF, and would a good multi meter do the same job as these two?

And with the money saved, or with trade value left, I am getting some good coax. I'll leave the rat shack stuff on the scanner.