Coaxial Cable

I purchase my coaxial cable from Ham Radio Outlet. I am getting to know the guys here at our local store and they are very helpful with choosing the right cable for my application. 

As I progress in my knowledge, I will revisit this page and populate it with my findings. Until then, I will go by the formulas that my friends suggest.

Arrow 2m / 440cm Open Stub J-Pole Antenna

For my quiver of portable radios, I selected a Arrow Antenna 2m/440cm Open Stub J-Pole. I like the performance of Arrow Antenna products and after several months of using their 2m/440cm 1/4 Wave Ground Plane, I decided to purchase the two piece version of their J-Pole and mount it to a tripod. 

My initial observations in actual usage are good so far. I only have my 1/4 wave on a fifteen foot mast to compare it to and in the future, I will do a direct comparison as both feed lines are easily accessible for a radio check (relax, I'm kidding) with a distant contact.

I am able to put it together in a couple of minutes and break it down just as easy. On the tripod, it is stable enough in a breeze however, I will configure a kit to stake it down for windier conditions and or to prevent it from being knocked over while I am camping or mobile.

The antenna is meant for my Kenwood TM-D710GA which is a 50w max mobile that I run off of a Bioenno Lithium Iron Phosphate 12V 20Ah 240 Watt-Hours battery.

Kenwood TM-D710GA

Kenwood TM-D710GA powered by a Astron power supply

Super excited to have my D710GA. I promised myself two years of HT's but that didn't happen. I feel like this radio is the next best step beyond a HT. However, I will not be using it in my car, I'll be powering it by a battery, keeping it in a Pelican case when not in use. I see this radio sitting on a small table, me sitting at a camp chair with my left hand on a Arrow II antenna mounted on a tripod!

My point is not to review this radio, there are plenty of great reviews of it online and most of the people that I know have a version of this radio. 

My point in this page is to show how I use it. 

Right now, it's on my kitchen table on top of a borrowed power supply. My Enno battery is currently in production. I've been tuning in various nets this weekend to make sure I have it programmed correctly. I'm using RT Systems software and loaded it up with stations off the AZ net calendar, all the satellite frequencies, and a good pull from RepeaterBook.

I'm about to put it up until my battery gets here. Soon as it arrives, I'll start trimming wires, adding in Anderson Power Pole connections and figuring out which cable and length I need, connectors, then what size case I need.

Till then, I'm finishing up my place on RimLink 442.850 here on Shaw Butte.

by Martin Davidoff, K2UBC

ISBN: 0-87259-658-3

Year 2000

The Radio Amateur's Satellite Handbook

Contents

1. Introduction to the Radio Amateur Satellite Program

1. History: ->1980

2. History: 1980 -> Future

2. Introduction to Satellite Communications

3. Getting Started

4. Satellite Analog Communications Plus (SSB/FM/PARROT/CW/ROBOT)

5. Satellite Digital Communications

6. Operating Notes

Technical Reference

7. Tracking Basics

8. Satellite Radio Links

9. Antennas for Space Communication: Basics

10. Antennas for Space Communication: Practical

11. Receiving and Transmitting

12. Satellite Orbits

13. Tracking Topics

14. OSCAR: Onboard Systems

15. So You Want to Build a Satellite

Apendix A Radio Amateur Satellite History: Dates and Frequencies

Apendix B Radio Amateurs Operating in Space: Summary

Apendix C Profiles of Current Amateur Satellites

Apendix D BASIC Programs

Apendix E Internet Sites of Interest

Apendix F Conversion Factors, Constants and Derived Quantites

Apendix G FCC Rules and Regulations Governing the Amateur-Satellite Service

Apendix H Satellite Tracking: Graphic Aids

Field Day

Just North of Phoenix making the drive to Flagstaff

ARRL Field Day

June 26,2021

I'm so glad I attended!

Besides my videos, I am alone. My neighbor is a ham but he just retired and he hasn't had a shack in a while. I hate bugging him for questions... My mentor, K7TEJ is excellent but again, the problem is me.

Well the problem isn't me any longer. After meeting a bunch of experts and watching them, I am doing it right. 

My kit is comprised of HT's or hand held radios. I have different antennas for them and I really enjoy them however, they are low power and a little difficult to use with the antenna inside of the car. My radios are nice, basically 2m and 440. One of my Kenwood's will transmit on a third band but most of my activity is on 2m and 70cm. My activities must be focused to those bands and by no means am I bored.

But today?

I saw quite a few other types of radios and antennas. Although it is very interesting to me, my focus today was making new friends face to face and watching them communicate on their radios.

I'm feeling good about progressing into Amateur Radio now after Field Day 2021. 

I know what I want to do, continue what I'm doing and I know what my next move is. A mobile/base station. I'm going to set up a Kenwood TM-710G, a radio from a brand that I already know that transmits on the frequencies that I use now. Basically a radio that will be a step up from what I'm doing now that will allow me to grow secure as I advance in my craft.

I'll set this radio up on a small desk with a battery so that I can take it with me if I go somewhere. I'll purchase a power converter so I can plug it into the electricity at home. My base antenna will work very well with it and in short, I will operate what I have now and save for the next step.

Now, on to the Field Day.

From the ARRL web site:

ARRL Field Day is the most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. On the fourth weekend of June, more than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations.

 My mentor, K7TEJ was my first contact through a surface repeater. He was also my first voice contact through a satellite while we were on vacation at the beach in California. After our satellite contact, he asked me if I would like to attend the Field Day. We were already away for a week and the Field Day was the next weekend. My wife knew it was important to me so she gave me the go. 

Saturday morning came and there was an ISS pass that was broadcasting SSTV at 4a so I got up and was able to receive one image. I played with my dog, took a shower and was on the road to Flagstaff. There are several forest fires across the state and most of our forests are closed. As the sun rose, it was orange and there was smoke in the Verde Valley. I had previously loaded up my radio with repeaters along the way so when I got to the Verde Valley, I checked in with the Mingus Mnt repeater and was promptly welcomed to their morning net!

I announced that I was on a HT inside my car headed North in the freeway across the valley. Knowing the lay of the land, they gave me priority and I told a little story of what I was doing. Several people wished me well and before I knew it, I was on the other side of the valley climbing up onto the rim at Munds Park. Pretty soon I came into range of the Mt. Elden repeater and I called out and was picked up by the guys from the NADXA or the Flagstaff club. I told them I was headed to Jack's place and they all knew what was up. They too wished me well and I told them I was going to visit.

I arrived at Jack's place and was introduced to the crew. Everyone was busy doing something getting their radio's or antenna ready to make contact. I hung out with Rick while he made a half dozen contacts through a satellite. 

I felt guilty for heading out again after being on vacation for a week so I headed over to the other group at the Home Depot parking lot. I was warmly greeted, we spoke of our previous contact through the Mt.Elden repeater and I told them my story.

I'm so impressed, this is my first contact with other people that are into Amateur Radio. Like everyone else, the pandemic has really put a damper on face to face meetings but as we emerge from the pandemic, and the clubs begin to meet again in person, I will begin to put call signs to faces.

Thank you so much to all involved.

I'm sorry I didn't get to spend more time at the Field Day but I will be attending club meetings and next year, I will make plans to stay the whole Field Day as I will have much much more experience and I will know more people.

On the South Side of the Verde Valley there was a lot of smoke

Jack Lunsford NT7MM designed and built his home, he hosted the Field Day

Rick Tejera K7TEJ and his ELK antenna and Yaesu mobile system for satellite work

K7TEJ working "the birds" He made contact with WD9EWK

An ARRL representative visits Jack's house

Charlie KG7KRN, Walt NJ86, Mike Boger W7IJ and Jack Lunsford NT7MM

55' tall, any band 20m up, this is the permanent antenna on Jack's property

The "old" NADXA trailer. I was intrigued by it, I'm sure it has stories...

Mike from Ham Radio Outlet in Phoenix, Arizona hamming it up

Gary WK7B was very kind, here is setting up for the Field Day.

The gun used at Jack's place to shoot a line to pull up an antenna

Northern Arizona DX Association

Another antenna gun

Kenwood TH-D72 Tune Up

In the past, I have taken radios apart and "modified" them so that they would transmit and receive on the bands that I was allowed to operate on by the hang gliding association. I studied and passed a brief test and even carried a shrunk down license that proved I could transmit on the particular bands that we were allowed to. Taking apart the radio was always a daunting task. It was like surgery, which I have worked in for many years. Prepare a place to work, have the particular set of tools you anticipate and follow the recipe for the modification.

That's what I did today, no modifying, just cleaning and replacing, tightening and making sure my radio was in good shape, it is.

I bought my Kenwood TH-D72 used. The guy who sold it to me said it wasn't used much. He did not tell the truth. Needless to say I asked him to return my money, he sent back a $100 which made the deal ok. The key pad was worn and the radio was just dirty. I cleaned and polished the window, ordered new parts for it and today I replaced the keypad. I followed the suggestions of others that worked on theirs and after 2 hours of trying to reassemble, I figured I would just take it to HRO, it would not go back together. Hours of trying, it was just bound and I didn't want to break the case.

One last try...

Instead of placing the keys in the housing, I seated them on the radio insert and fit the housing back on and in less than 30 seconds, the housing was back in place, every button working, the radio shiny and ready for more.

Sometimes you just have to be patient and try things a little different.

First Satellite QSO

Wow! I did it. 

It was quite a journey filled with a pinch of frustration and a lack of understanding.

But I have made my first contact, with my mentor no less and I am well on my way.

Like most of what I do, I just charge forward on my own learning on the way. I studied for my license and got it with the intent of just talking to others on my radio. Problem for me was, I had to learn how to program my radio to be able to talk. I thought about it and decided not to purchase software to do that. I knew if I programmed manually, I would get to know all the menus and file architecture. I did that and I am glad I did but there are so many repeaters and settings. Once you understand how it works then you don't have enough time to manually enter all the settings, it's just much easier to use a computer wired into your radio and a program to import all the data into it.

I started out with a great little radio, the Yaesu FT3D and plugged in all the repeaters. I started watching videos on how radio networks and repeaters worked. I use social medial to good success for my interests and I have mentored many people myself in the things I do. I figured that social media would help and it did. I joined our local group and asked a few questions and got good responses.

Long story short, I programmed the radio and went outside and keyed it up calling for a response, no answer. 

"Did I get all the settings correctly?" I thought to myself.

I asked a question on a forum, "try this repeater now" it was on a hospital about 10 miles North and I was answered by K7TEJ, Rick and he welcomed me to Amateur Radio and my first QSO! Rick lives farther North of the hospital but our conversation was helpful to me. He suggested I join a club and continue to practice my communications.

It was a few weeks before I got back on my radio, I was busy reading and building my big antenna in the back yard. In the meantime, I joined the radio club and even spoke with K7TEJ again briefly. I continued to use social media (Facebook) groups to gather information on what to do with my new found pass time.

During this time, I began to use YouTube and the wonderful tutorial videos for my radios. I bought another radio that was the best example of a hand held that everyone who owned one said that it was the best, the Kenwood TH-D74. I watched videos of people using it for APRS through the International Space Station. I used my Yaesu to make my first contacts passing information through the ISS digipeater. I made many contacts and was having a blast tracking the ISS on visible passes setting up my iPhone on a tripod and getting time lapse photography as the ISS arced through the sky while I was passing messages through it.

This was not the reason why I got into it but it was becoming the driving force behind my interest.

Then the space station switched modes to crossband repeater mode and my fun ground to a halt.

Now, I had to configure my radio and speak through it instead of passing electronic messages. I had to use my voice and have command of what I was doing and be quick on my feet with this knowledge. Compared to studying, setting up the radio, waiting for the ISS to be above and then pushing a button, voice was going to be difficult and it was. There were so many people trying to get through the ISS and even though there were so many people talking, there was order in their communication. I tried many times to use the phonetic call signs, I just didn't know the order and it was hard to remember. A couple of times, I had my wife and son with me, helping me. Wife with a pen and paper, son holding the iPad tracking the ISS through the night sky.

I bought another radio that really seemed to be made for this type of communication, a Kenwood TH-D72. A full duplex radio, sort of like two radios in one, I could talk on one channel and actually hear my communication repeated by the satellite on the other channel in real time. I meet K7TEJ at a local library to get my first lesson in satellite communication. It was good to meet him. We are two very different people but he was so nice and helpful. I left with a full head of information and hope.

But again, I would try to call out, no answer, just a lot of hiss and super fast radio experts talking to each other in a crazy pile up of alpha beta charlie lingo...

No way was this going to beat me but it was beating me.

K7TEJ suggested I create a card that had the details of what I needed to do so that I didn't get frustrated by the speed and too busy with all the details of talking through a satellite.

I made the card and tried it again.

Nothing but hiss and ignorance.

I'm stubborn, no way was I going to let this beat me. I just had to practice.

I decided to take my radio and antenna with me on my vacation to Imperial Beach, California some 350 or so miles away to the West of Phoenix. At the beach house, all I do is lay around and surf the net, tye some flys, walk on the beach, drink and chill out. While surfing the net, I found a group, AMSAT which was a group dedicated to what I want to do. I applied and was accepted and I decided to ask my question again, "how do I do this?" K7TEJ was a member, imagine that, and he suggested that we try SO-50 to communicate.

"Ok, lets do it."

I gave myself a couple of hours to study up on the procedure (radio frequency programming and operation) and sent back the recipe through the question thread.

The time came, my son tracking the satellite and we made contact!

My first contact by voice through a satellite and again to K7TEJ some 350 miles away back home in Phoenix.

I can do this.

I'm on my way.

Thank you so much K7TEJ.

SO-50 STOKED

Kenwood TH-D72A

I bought the Kenwood TH-D72A on the suggestion of a local mentor that is helping me to learn to work satellites and from Don Arnold who makes supportive videos for the TH-D72A and the newer model, TH-D74. The D72A is a full duplex radio whereas the D74 is not. Duplex meaning I can listen on one band and transmit on another simultainiously. The ISS changes protocols every couple of months and at this time, it is transmitting voice through its repeater with cross band operations. The uplink (from earth to ISS) is on 2m while the downlink (ISS to earth) is on 440. Working satellites takes a full duplex radio so it was an easy decision to get a full duplex radio.

I don’t usually buy used, I don’t want to have to deal with problems of wear and tear before I start to use it but these radios are expensive. I found one for less than $300 with all the accessories that I needed but it turns out that the person that sold it to me misrepresented the condition of the radio. Its fine the way it is but the buttons are worn through, the volume knob is loose and it was scratched as well as missing the speaker mic rubber cover. I found a place to replace the parts, ordered them and cleaned up the complete kit and polished the little window.

I’m all set.

I bought a Nifty manual for it as I find them satisfactory and they cut to the chase. I configured the full duplex cross band for ISS operations and my phone alerted me to a good ISS pass. I had four minutes to get ready and got the tripod/iphone/time-lapse going, the Arrow yagi connected and spotted the ISS. But I forgot to add the 440 elements on the yagi antenna! I was doing APRS through the ISS on 2m which does not need the 440 elements so I took them off to make the Arrow lighter and easier on the wrist.

I wasn’t ready!

So I pulled it off the BNC connector and put on the Diamond 77 and my first use of the TH-D72 was with the ISS. I could hear many people talking from all over. There was a Japan and USA conversation going on and I tried to make contact but it was so busy and I’m really slow with phonetics. My wife told me, “just listen.”

So that’s what I did.

My entry about the D72 is not about the radio itself, this is about my story and how I use it. There are plenty of resources including the manual which can be looked at for free from the Kenwood support site.

I really like the radio and I can see myself learning to work satellites with it.

Baofeng UV-5R Radio

 

I have purchased a total of 3 UV-5R and have given two away to friends for birthday presents. I want to get my friends into Amateur radio and there is nothing like getting into it with a radio to lure you further.

I have one myself that I use now and then to listen to FM radio broadcast.

I won’t write much about the UV-5R only to say that I have one, they are nice and cheap little radios but they are what they are, inexpensive but not to FCC standards.

Some people like them, I am one of them but, in no way is this a radio that I will use for Amateur radio.

I would not hesitate to give mine away as a gift to someone that needed it or was really interested in getting their license. I think that they are good calling cards, that’s about it.

Anyway, there you go…

Diamond SRH77CA 2m Antenna

 

Diamond SRH77CA 2m Antenna

I usually use this one with my Kenwood TH-D72

It's a nice antenna that I have used for 2m voice through the ISS.

Arrow Antenna "Yagi" Hand Held

Yeah, this is a really nice antenna. Within the first five minutes of using it, I had already received APRS transmissions through the ISS (International Space Station)

I had seen extensive use of this antenna in the many videos that I watched to prepare myself for using it.

Arrow Antenna

Diamond RH77CA HT/Scanner 2m/70cm + receive up to 900HZ Antenna

This is the BNC connector version of this popular hand held 2m radio antenna. I've choose this one quite a bit for general use for 2m, FM radio and I will try it sometime for APRS and APRS through the ISS.

Diamond RH77CA

Diamond RH519 HT Antenna

I purchased the Diamond RH519 HT as a replacement to the standard antenna that comes with the FT-3D. Again, it is the BNC version to facilitate the ease of connection and disconnect. It's an all around antenna due to the short length. It's also lightweight and petite. It seems to work well and it is the antenna that is usually found on my little Yaesu.

Diamond RH519 HT

Diamond RH3 Mini Antenna

I often will monitor a FRS channel at work and my FT-3D sits on my desk. I don't need to receive outside transmissions, just within a couple of hundred feet so I choose the RH3 as a compact alternative to the original antenna and is the BNC connector version to facilitate ease of connect and disconnect.

Diamond RH3 Mini Antenna