N8YEL's Amateur Radio Pages

Hallicrafter TW-2000 restoration/repair project

I acquired, via a Yard sale, a Hallicrafters TW-2000 this past summer. I was in Northeren Michigan doing some fly-fishing and it's always been a bit of fun to stop at the local Yard Sales in search of treasure. The rig was sitting on a table obscured by other clutter when I spied it and decided to purchase it for the bargin basement price of $10.00!

It was in pretty rough shape. At some point in time is had gotten wet, or, at the very least very damp. I brought it home an proceeded to get to work on it. After taking the guts out of the case I cleaned the chassis which was covered in white cadneium dust (I think). Once that was clean I cleaned out the cabinet and then gently cleaned the leatherett-like outer covering. The fabric covering needed some minor repairs here and there. I took care of most of what I would call the major repairs but left several of the smaller scuffs as they were because I though they gave the rig some character.

The next step was to completely re-cap the rig with fresh capacitors. This also included rebuilding the multisection "can" capacitor that sits atop the chassis. The 1L6 tube that came with the rig was shot. Seeing that a 1L6 is pretty expensive these days I opted to replace it with the solid state 1L6 version, mounted in a glass tube, that is readily available. The purist may scoff at that...oh-well....

After all the caps were replaced, the wiring checked out, and the tuning dial all restrung, I did a complete re-alignment of the radio. I then re-assembled the chassis into the carry case and I am happy to say that it once again lives and recieves quite well! Below is a photo essay for your viewing pleasure:

Front View  

3/4 View  

Rear View  

Front View Chassis out of carry case  

Rear View Chassis out of carry case  

Rebuilt multisection cap that is "stuffed" inside black cover that sits atop the chassis  

Underside of completely re-capped chassis

Front view with cover closed  

Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave your comments!

Radio Shack-TinyTrak-Hack

What does one do when he want to add an APRS tracker to his car and NOT have that mess of cables going from the radio to the tracker, from the tracker to the GPS receiver, another to the cigarette lighter for power, from the tracker to the mic connector not to mention another to the antenna? You do the Radio Shack Tiny Track Hack.

What this project entailed was installing the Tiny-Tracker, from Byonics, into the radio itself...tapping into one of the radios voltage regulators to supply power to the tracker and the GPS (which gets it's power from the trackers own 5 volt regulator) , tapping into the radios internal microphone pins for transmit and microphone and also tapping in to the audio out for the carrier detect and installing the DB9 connector for the GPS RXCVR. For operational status I installed 3 LED's into the radio cover...Red for TX/data transmit, Green for power/GPS lock and yellow for carrier detect/ RX busy status.

To install the tracker into the old trusty bought it at a pawn-shop $25.00 HTX-212 special I had to carefully cut a portion of the die cast radio chassis away for the DB9. One cut with a hacksaw down each side did it and the piece snapped out neatly with a little pressure and help from my trusty linesman pliers. (Take special care to blow out and remove any aluminum residue from cutting least you short something out) I drilled 2 holes into the chassis also to hold the DB9 in place. All that was left was hookup of the essential wires for Mic, TX, RX, power, audio and of course the leds. Three hookups...Power, Antenna and GPS. No other cables required and I have a tracker that is easy to use, no muss, no fuss, and portable to boot. (Not to mention giving new life to the Radio Shack HTX-212)

Photos of the completed project:

HTX-212 Tracker Cover On showing LED's and DB9

HTX-212 Cover off showing Tiny-Track installed in the chassis

10 Meter Beacon Project

A few years ago a friend of mine made a 10 meter beacon and put it up on the air for a few months. Intrigued by this I decided that this would be something i would like to attempt as well.

My first 10 meter transmitter was home built and based upon the popular 'OXO' transmitter designed by GM3OXX and is pictured below. It put out roughly 800mw to 1 watt. Installing the trimmer cap allowed me a little more latitude in frequency selection. The crystal is 28.258 mhz and with the trimmer I could go down to 28.250mhz. The final PA had a tendency to get quite warm after continuous operation so that transmitter is currently retired til I beef up the final from a 2N3866 to a 2N3553. It is fed into a 10 pole low pass filter and a 10 volt power supply and keyed with a PK-4 keyer.

Needing and wanting something a little more industrial I found information on converting an old 23 channeled crystal controlled CB into a CW beacon transmitter. I will not rehash the details of the conversion here as it is well covered by it's author Bill, WJ5O. My setup follows his conversion instructions and Bill kindly offered much advice and assistance via e-mail for which I am very grateful. My beacon is transmitting on a frequency of 28255.5 24/7 and I hope to move it to a more permanent location soon.

The rig is pictured below. Nothing fancy but it works. The PK-4 keyer sits on top which is powered from a voltage tap inside the rig. It is all powered by a small 3 amp Tripp-Lite power supply. I am considering adding a UPS computer battery backup to run it. If you have any questions about the setup feel free to ask.

UPDATE!!!: Installation is complete! A friend who lives nearby has offered me use of his farm for the transmitter installation. It's not your typical farm. He raises Cadillacs! Well, collects them any-ways, sells some for parts, sells some as complete cars. He has over 50 vintage Caddys from the 40's, 50's and 60's. Any-way, one of the old chicken coops now serves as storage and a shop. The transmitter is installed in the shop. I have upgraded from a 1/4 wave vertical to a Cushcraft Ringo AR-10 5/8 wave vertical which is mounted 12 feet above ground on the NW corner of the shop/old chicken coop. A very satisfactory arrangement indeed. I can monitor the beacon from my QTH quite handily! Here's a pic of the antenna installation:

Home Brew Weather Satellite Imagery

This is a home-brew Quadra-filar helix Wx-Sat receive antenna. It's mounted on my deck railing about 10 feet off the ground and constructed of hand bent copper tubing and is great performer! I put a 10db pre amp in line, with power fed up the coax, for enhanced reception that allows me to receive, with my Yaesu FT-50r HT, in wide FM mode, the polar orbiting NOAA Wx-Sats.

Using a software package by Christian Bock called WXSAT (available free via the internet) I am able to decode the received audio using my computer sound card to capture great quality weather images. On a typical pass from my QTH in Zeeland, Michigan I can start receiving imagry from just south of Cuba to just north of Hudsons Bay in Canada.

Here is a snippet from one received satellite image that shows my home State of Michigan and the surrounding great lakes very clearly: