Messages

16

North American Shortwave Pirate / Two Dog Radio 6955 USB 1614 UTC 4 Apr 2021

« on: April 04, 2021, 1616 UTC »

S5 signal level.
I hear Nirvana. Interference from some radar.  Its nice to hears some pirate at 9am on Easter on the West coast! Thanks stranger. 
1619 ish I heard the operator say its not an unidentified station. And he mentioned something radio.  Heavy metal music.
1629 very clear "Two Dog Radio" ID
1638 morse code inteference

17

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6935usb 0003utc 4 April 2021

« on: April 04, 2021, 0103 UTC »

Hearing you with S3 level with minimal fading, good to hear you again Wolverine!

18

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Ballsmacker Radio 6960 AM 0058 UTC 3 Apr 2021

« on: April 03, 2021, 0246 UTC »

This is barely coming in. Music fading in and out. I can't tell what the operator said. 
SIN
155

Lovefool song by the Cardigans right before an SSTV.

I just set up a loop on ground antenna and it has a good signal to noise ratio. 

19

Huh? / Re: Led Zeppelin Wins ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Copyright Battle

« on: December 01, 2020, 0304 UTC »

Zeppelin SO stole that tune. 

20

The RF Workbench / Re: Stretchyman “40W TX” Failure Investigation and Remediation

« on: June 21, 2020, 1653 UTC »

Charlie Don't Surf, have you read my post back in October?  My TX went pop with the powersupply. I proposed a solution for the powersupply too: 
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,58324.0.html

On one hand I like the fact that Stretchy is making cool transmitters that are small, efficient and powerful. But I don't like when he does things like bring your friend The Lurker into the light.  That's not very discrete. Some people use these things for pirate transmissions, unlike myself, and they could get unwanted attention from the govt.s that are no doubt reading these pages too.

FYI, I just checked my fuse, its a 15A and I managed to blow it with my last attempted repair. 

21

For Sale / Wanted / Barter / Re: $75 Used / not working 40w GaN transmitter

« on: February 29, 2020, 1959 UTC »

Its still not doing anything. Its making a good conversion piece as a door stop.

22

General Radio Discussion / HF Global Weekend in October?

« on: October 18, 2019, 1550 UTC »

Hello, can anybody verify when the Global HF Weekend is going to be? 

When the weekend goes on, what are some good places to listen? 

23

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6950 USB 0010 UTC 13 October 2019

« on: October 13, 2019, 0154 UTC »

S8-S9 into California just before sunset, thanks Wolverine! 

24

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Skippy 6930 usb, 0015 utc, 13 Oct 19

« on: October 13, 2019, 0153 UTC »

I had this just above the noise floor, just before sunset into Californigh-yay

25

The RF Workbench / Re: Stretchyman 40w GaN TX is sick

« on: October 07, 2019, 0315 UTC »

I have a cheap-o PS I got from amazon. Its really stable and has its own variable fan. Says it can do up to 15A.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CS5G8J6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've got an inverted L that is about a 1/4 wave on upper 80m where the AM guys are.  There's a ground rod at the feedpoint and thats where I put the tuner. 

26

The RF Workbench / Re: Stretchyman 40w GaN TX is sick

« on: October 06, 2019, 1948 UTC »

Its not over 'cause the OP's in da house, woot woot!

To prevent AC with my 24V AC to DC power supply, if I were to have a second go at it, I would wire in 2 x 12v lightbulbs so they make a 24v load to the power supply.
So my sequence would go like this:

Turn on PS and make sure my 24 volts worth of lights are powered on
Make sure xmtr is off
Then plug PS into transmitter
Then turn on xmtr and start calling CQ

That way I figure the PS would be producing DC before it goes into the transmitter. 

27

The RF Workbench / Re: Stretchyman 40w GaN TX is sick

« on: October 05, 2019, 1600 UTC »

Well, for posterity's sake, my old one didn't pass the test and my new replacement did pass the test.  And you mentioned there are 2 devices in the FET, that would make sense because I heard multiple pops...before it stopped.  R.I.P.

28

The RF Workbench / Re: Stretchyman 40w GaN TX is sick

« on: October 04, 2019, 1646 UTC »

Dude, I ain't lyin' or tryin' to slander you, Stretchypants.    

I'm a member of a shortwave pirate forum and I've got my own conspiracy theories about you and your extraordinary repair policy, so there.   

Here's a nice video of the method I used to test the mosfet with my multimeter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL7bQuJaXKA

29

The RF Workbench / Re: Stretchyman 40w GaN TX is sick

« on: October 04, 2019, 0125 UTC »

I see. Thats why Stretchy had me check it with an oscilloscope.  It has a sinusoidal wave where there should be a square wave. 
Thanks for your input, I'm done with it for now. I'll use it as a decoration, kind of like a star wars model with battle damage. 

30

The RF Workbench / Re: Stretchyman 40w GaN TX is sick

« on: October 03, 2019, 1750 UTC »

Its not all "unicorns and fairy-free," it costs money to ship it there and time/work to pack it up to send it on an international journey as well as the time without a transmitter.

Messing about was fun.   

I think one of the integrated circuits  broke and that blew out my transistor. 

Does anybody else have problems with their stretchyman transmitters?