Broadcast - 4 August 2024
Club Technical Night happenings, considering the thermometer had dropped drastically we had an excellent turn-out to soak up the club room warmth from Luke Sky Warmer, our trusty wood heater, last Wednesday.
Ross VK7ALH brought us up to speed on his progress with the Ten-Tec Jupiter that he has been working on for a few months when he can find the time. hihi. With this visit it was obvious that it now had its Power Amplifier stage fitted and everything else looked back together.
Ross did come up trumps in that he found an original manufacturing oversight. The incoming 12 Volt DC socket with its potential for high currents was mounted on the underside of a printed circuit board with the main power rails being distributed by the copper on the top side of the board. The small plate-throughs, while electrically conductive, just don’t cut it under this level of high current. Ross installed a couple of aglets through the board to elegantly augment the plate-throughs. This had the effect of drastically reducing voltage fluctuations when in use. Ross also replaced the incoming power socket’s pins with new gold-plated ones. This was the icing on the cake. A couple of little paint touch ups on the case and it will be good to go.
As a memory jogger from previous broadcasts, the Jupiter Ten-Tec was the first commercially released Software Defined Radio with local front panel controls, that we are familiar with, as well as external computer access. It is probably the first rig ushering in a new age of amateur transceivers.
Just for information, the aglets used by Ross might be more commonly known to you by the name “bootlace ferrules”.
To compliment the Jupiter, Ross also brought in a Ten-Tec manual antenna matcher & SWR meter. It was in matching black and in excellent condition. In Ten-Tec tradition it was well-constructed both external and internally. It would have been interesting to try this unit live as none of the manually adjustable front panel controls were of a reduction or geared type to assist in tuning. However, all were very smooth to the feel when being operated. At least this matcher isn’t in for repair.
Now good things come in threes, even if the third item was somewhat a little bit left field. Just for interest, Ross brought in a retail sales box containing a pair of matched EL34 pentode valves. These are individually rated at 25 Watt dissipation and not intended for RF transmission. It is quite common as push-pull finals in audio amplifiers. This matched pair was sold under the brand name of Messa/Boogie, an American company famous for its range of guitar amplifiers since 1969. As this box of matched valve pairs stated, they were “Hand tested in amplifiers, computer analysed & matched”. At only $400 dollars the pair these must be the cheap ones that do not use oxygen-free conductors, or does being in a vacuum count? Either way thanks Ross for something completely different and interesting.
Now just for interest - tomorrow, Monday the 5th August is the 75th anniversary of the first use of two-way radios in a taxi fleet for vehicle communications in Australia…… and guess what, it happened in Tasmania. This superseded the “Radio-Taxi” testing of one vehicle in London England by four months, as it didn’t commence until December 1949. Yet another first for Tasmania!
The link to the full article can be found in the text version of this broadcast: NTARC_Blogs_for_the_24th_December_2023
Club General Meeting – next Saturday the 10th. August at 2.00pm. Held at the NTARC Club Room, Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer Street, Rocherlea. If you have items you would like added to the agenda please email the secretary at: secretary@ntarc.net no later than Friday the 9th August.
As always, pictures will be available on the NTARC Web site under “Blogs” for this broadcast. NTARC Blogs
UPCOMING EVENTS
TestNet and TechNet session - Every Wednesday, TestNet/CW course on 3.580MHz from 7 pm till 7.30 pm, then a TechNet on 3.567MHz from 7.30 pm till about 8.30 pm. Your host for the evening will be Nic VK7WW.
Special Club Room presentation - An interactive streaming of the REAST presentation on “My Life in the Lighthouse Service” with Mike VK7FB on Wednesday 7th of August. Doors open by 7:00 pm for a 7:30 live presentation. So rather than sit at home watching, feel free to come along and watch it on a large screen TV, in a distraction and stress free environment. See you there.
Coffee Morning - held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Time is from 10 am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all there. So why not pop in check the QSL cards and join us for a cuppa, there is endless tea and coffee along with biscuits available for a donation.
Club Room Technical night session - The next session will be on Wednesday the 14th August and will commence at the usual time of 6.30 pm at the Club Room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
Finally - A reminder to all members that if you have any items of news you would like added to our weekly roundup, no matter how trivial, then please email them to the Secretary at the following address news@ntarc.net all items to be received no later than 5 pm on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
That’s all folks,
73, Stefan VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC Inc.
