[Update] Portable Ham Radio Setup

I recently added this piece to my portable setup.

It's a drive-on flag pole mount made by Boone Outdoor Hardware. Originally it's designed for mounting a flag pole and displaying your favorite sports team's flag while tailgating. It was $25 from the fine folks at etrailer.com. They also make a flag pole to go with it.

FYI etrailer.com has exceptional service, they carry lots of stuff that I've considered for another hobby of mine, boating.

Anyway, like any good radio ham, I found an alternative use for it.

My idea is that on a road trip or any other outing, there may not be an easy to access place to set up my painter's pole to for raising my Buddipole antenna.

With this piece I would just find a good spot to park the car, put the mount near the tire, run over it, pop the pole in the mount and assemble the antenna.

The pole seems to be held solidly in the mount. it has a set screw to hold it tight. I would keep a close eye on it in any kind of wind. However it is designed to hold a much taller mast than my painter's pole. Something to consider is using the foam bumper it comes with so it doesn't damage your car.

Another consideration is the Buddipole is documented as having a sensitivity to nearby metal objects ie. a vehicle. I haven't tested it in the field yet to see what effects if any this will have on the antenna.

I plan to test this setup soon and will report back what I find.

Youtube Link: Drive-On Antenna Mount

I also picked up this sweet folding hand cart for trucking all my crap around. It works well and folds up nice and compact.

It only cost me $25 bucks from Amazon.

C'mon Spring Time!

I've been thinking a lot about my motorcycle lately. Most likely because it's winter and I'm tired of being cooped up in the apartment. Here's a little ditty about my motorcycling history.

I grew up riding ATV's and dirt bikes in the country. I got my first ATV when I was about 15 years old it was a Suzuki 230 Quad Sport. Mine was similar to the one in the picture below.

I wore that thing out! I rode it so hard I ran through sets of tires, bearings, and chains like crazy and believe it or not 20 some years later it still runs. My folks still have it back home.

I had friends that had ATV's and dirt bikes. They lived nearby and we did lot's of trail riding.

Then life started and I didn't ride or own a bike for several years. Then around 2007 I bought this guy.

It's a 2007 Kawasaki Vulcan "Mean Streak". It was a great bike even though they discontinued it a year or two later. It was a 1600cc V-Twin (fuel injected). There were lots of after market options for it and a lot of people liked it because you could get some big horsepower increases with some simple mods or upgrades.

It had a ton of power, was reliable and somewhat comfortable to ride. I took it on several road trips and cruised many backroad miles. 

I started to realize I was wearing out tires more often that I probably should have. When I would take it in for service, the tech would ask if I was dragging my pegs a lot. I realized How hard I was riding and thought maybe it was time to get something a little sportier!

Then I got this beast in 2011!

Road Trip Mode

Old Bar End Mirrors (I have CRG Arrows now)

That my friend is a 2011 Kawasaki Z1000! So fast, so so fast and not to mention it's sexy as hell (at least to me). It has everything I want in a bike. It's not so sporty that I need to stop every 20 minutes to stretch but it's sporty enough to scare the bejesus out of you when you hammer the throttle.

If you're not careful the front end will come off the ground. It is twitchy, but not unmanageable. 

As far as modifications go, so far all I have done so far is install a fender eliminator and better bar end mirrors. The next thing on my list to install is an integrated taillight/blinker. I also want to upgrade the levers to make gear changes and braking more accurate.

I may do a few more cosmetic upgrades, but other than that, that's all I can see doing for now.

Anyway that's just a brief history of my bike ownership. I'll post more about my current bike when the weather warms up and I can get out on the road. 

[Update] Buddipole High SWR on 10 Meter Band

Update: Well I think I put together why my SWR was so high on 10.

The BNC not being cranked down was the first issue. The second issue was likely a result of a bad banana plug. I'll explain...

So last night I was screwin around with my antenna (no euphemism there). I saw there was a 6m opening and wanted to see if I could hear anything.  Whilst connecting it up the red side banana plug broke off in the binding post! I wasn't applying extreme pressure or anything, I think it's a manufacturer defect. A close inspection reveals scorch marks and what could be a cold solder joint.

Broken banana plug on the right

I corresponded with Chris from Buddipole about my issue. He responded quickly and said that this is a rare situation and he is sending me a fix. Very good support at Buddipole.

I think that mystery is solved.

I poked around the Buddipole User Group and found that people are able to work 10m without a tuner. So this must be the issue.

I'm replaced the banana plugs with ring connectors and nuts on the binding posts. I'm sure the folks at Buddipole will cringe if they ever see this. It just seems to me the banana plugs they use are way too small and fragile to last, especially when hanging coax from them. Even with strain relief they feel like they are too stressed to be reliable. So even if they sent me a new cable, I would fear the same thing would just happen again. Soldered ring connectors will never brake and the connection is way more solid than banana plugs. I've read other  people have done the same thing. It's easy and I already have all the parts.

Lock-nuts and ring terminals

I'll give it a go and report back what I find.

Axial SCX10 Dingo Kit

I built this kit back in July 2012, so I've had a lot of time to play with it and form some opinions. This kit has been reviewed to death, but here's my two cents.

The kit was a pleasure to build and aside of a couple small issues, It went together quickly. Axial provides good instructions for assembly. I'm an intermediate level kit builder and I put the whole thing together in an evening.

 My stock configuration (parts that didn't come with the kit):

• 27 turn Axial motor
• HiTec HS645-MG
• Spectrum DX3E Radio and Receiver
• Novak Super Duty XR
• Venom Power 3600mah NIMH battery
• Traxxas EZ Peak Plus 6 amp charger

The steering servo and ESC came from a Clodbuster tube chassis truck I built a long time ago. It had dual motors and was run off a 12V 7 amp UPS battery. That thing screamed. The servo is way under powered for this truck. You need at least a 200oz servo for the SCX10.

My list of Pros:

• Lot's of upgrade options
• Fun kit to build
• Extremely capable right out of the box

My list of cons:

• Long steering radius
• Sloppy drive train
• High center of gravity

Modifications:

• Hot Racing high clearance steering knuckles
• Robotronics servo arm
• Axial AX10 axles
• Relocated battery tray to the front and ESC to the rear

Once I made the steering enhancements, the truck became even more capable. The only issue I have now is while relocating the battery tray I had to put spacers under it to raise it so the front suspension would have full travel. Well that raised the CG enough cause problems in high angle situations. A battery solution that lowers the CG might be worth a try. I could also see getting a set of upgrade shocks, the stock plastic body shocks work, but leave something to be desired on the trail.

It's a great truck for the money, I would definitely suggest it to someone wanting to build a very capable off-road truck that should keep you tinkering for a while.

It has loads of adjustments and plenty of upgrade options that won't break your bank account.

Now go outside and rip up the trail!

Portable Ham Radio Setup

Here is a description of my current portable ham radio setup.

Living in a city has it's conveniences, sometimes that means making sacrifices. One sacrifice I am making is not having a permanent antenna setup. Going portable gets me out of the apartment and adds a little challenge to the hobby.

I have a ways to go in making it more portable and easier to pack up. Like every good setup it is evolving into something more efficient.

My setup includes the following gear:

Yaesu FT-450AT 100 watt Transceiver

Buddipole Mini Portable HF Antenna

6ft - 12ft Painter's Pole Antenna Mast

Deep Cycle Marine Battery (106ah)

Paper Logbook

Various Accessories (bungie cords, guy lines, cables etc...)

Here is a YouTube video I made of the portable setup:
Youtube: Portable Ham Radio Setup

My results with this setup were decent. I took it a nearby park to give it a test. The park I went to isn't my first choice for radio work just because of it's low elevation. It's basically a low creek bed surrounded by hills and trees. However it's close to my place and served it's purpose.

I found a parking spot with a picnic table nearby, this was perfect so I wouldn't have to lug my giant battery far. I bungied the painter's pole to the table leg and assembled the antenna. I followed the instructions that it came with setting it up for the 10 meter band as a center fed dipole. It was a little chilly and windy so I ran the coax back to the car and operated out of the front seat of the car.

The FT-450AT has a built-in auto tuner, I wasn't able to use this feature. I'm not sure what the problem was, but when I would try to engage the tuner it would error out presumably because of high SWR. When I would try to transmit even low power without the tuner engage, the SWR would go through the roof. I made some adjustments to the antenna, lengthening and shortening the whips slightly, and moving the coil clips, but nothing seemed to work. With the tuner engaged, but not running the auto tune function, the SWR was fairly low. I saw 1.1:1 - 1.3:1 using 100 watts. I dropped the radio down to  12 and 15 meter just to test the tuner. Putting the antenna back to the manual suggested configuration, I ran the auto tuner and it worked.

That tells me the antenna is capable of 10 meter, but it's not really the most efficient on that band. I still have some experimenting to do to get it to work on 10 meters efficiently. I need an analyzer to really set it up properly, but it's not 100% necessary. I would be curious to see someone use an antenna analyzer on the Buddipole in the 10 meter band.

The antenna seems to be very dependent on it's surroundings. Meaning antenna height, nearby objects, band conditions, and power output all need to be taken into consideration when setting it up. I think you can definitely get in the ball park by following the manual, but if you want to get all the "steam into the beam" you need to experiment a little.

The 10 meter band condition were favorable and I made my first HF contact with this set up. From Maryland to Colorado. Not too shabby for the first time out. I heard lots of Colorado stations coming in strong.

I'll continue posting updates to my set up and what results I get until as I learn more about the Buddipole and how to set it up more efficiently. So far I really like the antenna It's made well and allows me to be portable on several different bands with one antenna package.

Here are a couple of links to the equipment I'm using:

Yaesu FT-450 (mine is the 450AT which was replaced by the 450D)

Mini Buddipole

Android Digital Signage App

I posted this in another blog back in October of 2012. I've consolidated blogs an moved this post here.

Project Start

I'm starting a project to develop an Android App.

My experience:
I've never written software before. I've created utility scripts and and web sites, but nothing on the level of java programming. I feel like with all the examples to learn from and community help, I should be able to learn quickly what I need to write this app. However, If there is some out there with some programming experience that is interested in to turning this into a commercial app please contact me for more possibility of working together. Or just steal my idea and create it yourself, whatever works.

App Description:
The concept is an android based digital signage app that will run on any Android platform. My app will be developed to run on the MK802 mini-computer. The MK802 is the perfect platform for a distributed digital signage computer. It's small form factor, low cost, low power consumption, high resolution HDMI and USB ports, and built in wireless make it very flexible for something of this nature. These types of device seem to be gaining in popularity which is good for the future of the app.

The idea is to attach a MK802 to the back of any monitor with compatible input and configure the app to receive the desired RSS feeds and other signage data for public display.

Layouts:
The app will have several different screen layouts for displaying the desired information. For example, on layout might contain a image slideshow only. Other layouts will be combinations of slideshows, RSS feeds and weather data. Things like images and videos will be stored either on the device flash or a SD card or a central server where they can be updated and distributed to all the signage nodes.

Some configuration settings might include slide durations, video playback schedules, RSS crawl speeds, fonts and text color. All information windows within the layout will be configurable for data source.

I have a MK802 being delivered soon. I have all the development tools downloaded but not yet configured. Once I have everything set up, I'll start with a couple of beginner's tutorials.

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any helpful to say.

Initial Post

I started this blog because I came the realization I have a lot to say about a lot of subjects, but most of my friends are sick of hearing about my hobbies and big ideas.

So I thought "Why not pollute the Internet with these types of things?"

Hopefully you'll find something of interest here and make a comment or two to help fuel a good exchange of ideas.

My interests are wide ranging and I often have big plans for a project that may or may not come to fruition, but for me planning and solving problems is where I have the most fun.

Please chime in even if it's just to say boo to something I've written. Thanks and I hope to capture your attention with a subject you enjoy discussing.