Categories
Radio

KF7P Entrance Panel

Part of the fun of moving to a new QTH is getting to design and build a new station. My old entrance panel was very permanently attached to the old house so it was time to go buy a new one. The old panel was a DX Engineering DXE-UE-2P. It served the purpose at the […]

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Radio

Icom AH-4 Control Cable Length

How long can the control cable for the Icom AH4 be? I’m not sure but at least 170 feet (52 Meters). Icom includes a 16ish (5 meter) unshielded cable (OPC-136) with the tuner. That doesn’t get you very far except for mobile and portable operation. Lucky for you they also sell a 32.8 foot (10 […]

Categories
Radio

Icom AH-4 on DX Engineering MBVE-5AE

I ordered a pile of goodies from DX Engineering including their DXE-MBVE-5AE-BRT, their radial plate, a spool of their DXE-400MAX, and a goodie bag of assorted bits. Just doing some quick test fitting before putting everything in the ground. I wanted to see if the Icom AH-4 will fit with the stock hardware.

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Radio

Icom AH-4 Mounting

For whatever reason, Icom doesn’t include mounting diameter in their specs. The included u-bolt will fit up to a max of 2.5″ pole. The mounting bracket is slotted up to 4″ so you could probably use a larger u-bolt of at least 3.5″. I’m not sure about minimum mounting, but I had it mounted to […]

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Radio

OmniRig and Icom Data Modes

I use OmniRig as a middle man for radio control. It works great for what I need, but I find that it could use a couple of different data modes as it only has one mode for data, while many modern radios have separate modes for RTTY and AFSK SSB digital. The default Icom IC-756ProIII […]

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Radio

Anderson Powerpole Connectors

I’ve been using Anderson Powerpole 15/30/45Amp connectors for a while now, but recently I’ve really thrown them on everything. That left me with quite a few different kits and baggies of Powerpole parts laying around. The wife was getting rid of this organizer so I decided to put it to good use. I threw everything […]

Categories
Tools

Felo Workbench Screwdriver Holder

I found zeno4ever‘s Gamma screwdriver holder posted on Thingiverse and decided to give it a try. I don’t have a Gamma screwdriver set, I have a Felo Wood Handle Screwdriver Set that my amazing wife got me for my birthday this year. I’ve really grown to love this set, and they’re my go-to screwdrivers now, […]

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Radio

DIY Heil Hand Switch

HRO recently had a great deal on Heil headsets so I decided to pickup a Heil Pro Set IC. I’ve been looking at these for years, so I figured it was finally time and I’m glad I did. The headset is great, super comfy and sounds great coming and going. I didn’t much care for […]

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Tools

Inset Ruler in Workbench

I inset an 8′ ruler into my workbench for quick and easy measurements. It cant run away from the workbench if it’s a part of the workbench right? Anyways here’s how I did it. I looked at several rulers before I settled on the Starrett ASE-96. I liked that it had big easy to read […]

Categories
nix

Putty and vi

I do most of my text editing on *nix in vim. Sometimes you don’t have access to vim so you have to use vi. No big deal, but for some installs map the arrow keys to letters on the keyboard. Hitting up tends to type a capitol A. It’s usually easy to fix though. Start […]