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PA2AGA > HDDIG 09.11.99 01:33l 156 Lines 6423 Bytes #-9691 (0) @ EU
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Subj: HamDigitalDigest 99/285B
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Date: Mon, 08 Nov 99 19:12:01 MET
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From: pa2aga
To: hd_broadcast@pa2aga
Subject: HamDigitalDigest 99/285B
X-BBS-Msg-Type: B
military, or the military tells them to dispose of it locally. Mostly this
stuff has obsolete calibration dates, as it takes years to close out a
government contract, and it sits in warehouses as the inventory takes
place. Contractor return stuff will have their stickers on it somewhere:
Boeing, Hughes, Northrop, etc.
Just some ideas...
I had a whole garage of stuff I didn't use anymore. One guy was talking
to me about something, and the next thing he knew, he inherited all
my old junk. No charge. I had some O-scopes, TTL chips galore, and
a bunch of prototype stuff. Boxes and boxes of junk. That's how a lot
of people get stuff. They are the recipient of someone else's junk, which
is gold to them. "Are you SURE you want to get rid of this S-100 computer!"
Yes, I'm positive... Anyone need a 68020 with 2 Meg RAM, SASI Bus,
20 Meg HD with Auto Park heads? Weighs a ton, runs UniFLEX. I'll throw
in a 68030 chip and MMU... :-)
I would say you need a Spectrum Analyzer to measure power, and to
ensure the design is clean spectrally. A good regulated power supply
that is adjustable, and an O-Scope good to measure whatever you are
going to modulate the carrier with. I've collected a lot of stuff for the
10 GHz band, which is easier to find. Also the weather radars from the
80's use the same waveguide. I have several good weather radar
antennas for $15 at Hamfests, and I even acquired an old 1978 speed
radar from a Virginia State Police liquidator. Great antenna, and has
a 100 mW Gunn diode that works great. Had to replace the detector
diode was all. We used this at an OU microwave class to align and
measure. Beat the hell out of the damn klystron they had. Really made
their power meter jump up, and had to use an attenuator to keep from
burning everyone's eyes out :-)
That's another idea. Check out your Vo-Tech and Universities. Take
a night course, or go see the faculty. They love experimenters, and
may even want to help. Some Universities like OU here in Oklahoma
have worse test equipment than you. Only a few graduate students
get access to secret labs off the beaten path. The undergraduates
get the 70's surplus. Not the same at the Vo-Tech. All modern
stuff available.
Cathryn Mataga wrote in message ...
>I'm trying to figure out myself, approximately, what kind of
>test equipment I'd need to play around with this stuff -- and not
>be totally frustrated. Right now, I have kind of your, low
>end hobbiest type stuff. 20mhz scope, and power supplies and
>one of those handheld frequency counters. Voltmeters and
>things.
>.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 20:08:02 -0700
From: John Miles <jmiles@pop.removethistomailme.net>
Subject: Help with RFC
Cathryn Mataga wrote:
>
> Steve Sampson t ote in message ...
> >By not using 5 GHz you are guilty of neglect. Every microwave
> >band you are neglecting is one more vote that Hams don't need
> >it, and capitalists take note of such things. Governments tend
> >to favor corporations over individuals anyway. Especially so,
> >when said individuals have a welfare tendency.
>
> I'm trying to figure out myself, approximately, what kind of
> test equipment I'd need to play around with this stuff -- and not
> be totally frustrated. Right now, I have kind of your, low
> end hobbiest type stuff. 20mhz scope, and power supplies and
> one of those handheld frequency counters. Voltmeters and
> things.
>
> My brother picked up an old signal generator. And
> that seems to work. But, that's the extent of our microwave
> equipment right now. So, we've started a bit of a collection
> here -- though obviously this is kind of a long term project.
> New test equipment for this kind of stuff looks really expensive
> everywhere I look -- and I don't quite have the confidence to
> buy up the used stuff, not knowing what is what. And, even
> the used stuff is a pretty good hunk of change.
>
> Is there any like common wisdom, on what to look for, on the
> used market, and what to pay for it? Where do you start
> with the 'test equpment' issue?
Steve has posted some great advice. Given what you already have on
hand, by far the most useful thing you could add to your shack would be
a wideband spectrum analyzer. No single instrument, except maybe an
oscilloscope, is as versatile, powerful, and just plain fun to fool
around with. I see nice HP141T/HP8552B/HP8555A outfits selling on EBay
all the time for around $1K or less, that are useful from a few MHz all
the way to 18 GHz. If you have a decent SA, you can get by without a
separate frequency counter, RF power meter, VHF/UHF receiver, and even
in some cases an oscilloscope.
Even an old HP8551B boat anchor (100 pounds of nifty-looking tubes and
microwave plumbing) will give you 10 MHz-to-12 GHz coverage, and they
are practically free for the taking when you run across them. I have
one of these in my closet that I've been meaning to give away for the
longest time now... it was replaced by an HP141T and eventually a Tek
492, but even though it has its quirks it's still a fine instrument for
basic, educational VHF/UHF/microwave work.
And don't be afraid to buy broken stuff, as long as it's cheap!
-- jm
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx
Note: My E-mail address has been altered to avoid spam
------------------------------------------------------
>.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 18:33:16 GMT
From: flanders@groupz.net (Jerry Flanders)
Subject: HF email
Search on "winlink" for details.
I think most is done with pactor and pactor-2, so you may need a tnc
that can do pactor like the pk-232 or whatever.
I do HF email from my camper with an old tandy TRS-102 (pre-dos), a
pk-232, and an HF transceiver.
Jerry W4UK
On Sun, 07 Nov 1999 03:29:46 GMT, Dale Gillilan
<positivechanges.hypnosis@gte.net> wrote:
>I'm wanting to send/receive HF email. I have an HP 200LX palmtop (DOS
To be continued in digest: hd_99_285C
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