N1GY- The Simple Approach to Ham Radio

About my "Blog" (see below): As I think of some subject that I want to make a short comment about, whether it be something new on the site, or something of import elsewhere, I will make an "UPDATE" to this home page. The latest "UPDATE" will appear at the top of the "LATEST UPDATES" text below. As older "Updates" become dated or no longer of importance, I will remove them from the site.

LATEST UPDATES FROM N1GY'S RADIO ROOM

UPDATED 02/01/12

In the course of my continuing research on the DTMF project, I came across a company that appears to have all three of the major components for the project. Jameco.com (www.jameco.com) lists a suitable DTMF encoder IC, a 16 key keypad and the 3.579545 MHz crystal and all are available for immediate delivery at a cost between $11.39 and $15.39 depending on which keypad you choose. That pricing does not include taxes or shipping. The rest of the parts are available at Radio Shack.

On another note I have added a post from the NI4CE group about upcoming improvements and additions to the NI4CE system.

UPDATED 01/31/12

I have added photos of the prototype DTMF keypad to the DTMF page. I am still researching sources for the IC and the crystal before I submit the article to QST. If I cannot find a source where a reader can buy just one or two of the required IC and crystal, I may resort to purchasing a larger quantity of the chips and reselling them myself. All this is very preliminary at the moment. I am waiting for call-backs from several possible vendors and no decision will be made until I hear from them. After I see what is available at the Orlando Hamcation in February I probably will rebuild the unit to a more professional standard with a 4 x 4 keypad and side tone so I can hear the keys being activated.

UPDATED 01/29/12

February is almost here so I just finished my column (Blog) for the Bradenton Patch. The Patch is an electronic newspaper with editions in many towns and cities across the country. Each edition is named for it's host town, hence ours is the Bradenton Patch. Each local "Patch" encourages and accepts blogs from it's readers. These blogs are read by the local editor first and if appropriate they are published in the next available Patch web page. My column/blog is only seen in the Bradenton edition. If you have a Patch for your community and you want to inform the community about amateur radio, write your thoughts down and send them to your local editor. They are very accomodating and will work with you to make your efforts the best that they can be. I don't know if my efforts have led to anyone getting their license and becoming an amateur operator, but I know they are being read by some in the region and that is good enough for me.

UPDATED 01/26/12

Today, I added a new page to the web site devoted to the latest project to come off the work bench. The details on the DTMF encoder add-on I mentioned below will be found on the new "TDMF Keypad" page. For many Icom IC-706 users, adding a TDMF pad requires spending far too much money on an Icom DTMF mic. Plus the latest version of that mic has a less than stellar reputation among some amateurs. With this project, one gets to keep the HM-103 mic with it's excellent audio and add a stand alone DTMF Keypad to access those functions of the repeater that require the tones to be activated.

UPDATED 01/24/12

I am happy to report that the DTMF project has been successfully completed. After the problems mentioned on 1/20 I decided that the best thing to do would be to build a whole new board and just transfer the chip into it and see what happened. Amazingly, it worked perfectly first time out. Not that the project redo was not without problems. Since I am using a 3 x 4 Keypad and trying to access all 16 DTMF tones, I installed a switch that selects either the normal column 3 or makes the column 3 buttons on the keypad activate the column 4 tones. Naturally, just as I finished packaging up the project in its enclosure, the switch chose that moment to go belly up. I wound up replacing it with another switch so all ended well.

I have no idea why the other board gave me so many problems. I checked and double checked the soldering and the wiring. I used the same IC chip and the same crystal. It is a mystery to me, and maybe it will remain so. Over the next few weeks I will write the project up and add a few pictures.

UPDATED 01/20/12

The DTMF project has hit a bit of a snag. I completed the unit yeaterday without the addition of sidetone but in testing only the first and second columns of the keypad would creat tones. The tones were very clean and crisp but the keys 3, 6, 9, and # refuse to utter a peep. I have checked all the wiring and solder joints and at this point I am assuming that the keypad itself is defective. It was removed from the same mic that donated its DTMF chip to the cause. I am actively looking for a 4 x 4 keypad so that I can replace the current one. The project marches on....

UPDATED 01/18/12

I thought I would offer an update on my DTMF Keypad project. The circuit is almost complete and I just have to add the keypad and an enclosure. One problem I am mulling over right now is how to add a small speaker to the circuit so that as I am keying the DTMF tones into the radio, I will hear them as well. I have a small 1" diameter speaker and after my forays into Radio Shack, I have enough components to finish the job. I am awaiting the arrival of a keypad with an enclosure from a ham in Kankakee Illinois who is coming down here for a vacation in February. The circuitry is almost done. The whole project has been made slightly redundant by the arrival of a HM-118N DTMF mic from Hong Kong. It works great but I got so involved in the DIY approach, I decided to finish the project anyway. If any of you have an idea for the addition of the monitor speaker to the circuit, please do not hesitate to email me with your suggestions.

UPDATED 01/11/12

Happily, I received several gift cards over the holidays, all for Radio Shack. I know there are many who sneer at Radio Shack, sometimes I among them, but with their recent PR push about DIY electronics, they actually do have some interesting things in their stores besides cellphones and boom boxes. Over about a week, I was able to exhaust the gift cards and stock up on all kinds of small components for "homebrewing" whatever I find interesting next.

Right now I am researching a good circuit to build a full 4x4 DTMF keypad to add to my IC-706. I do have a DTMF mic on its way from Hong Kong but I still would like the experience of building one from parts. Chuck, W4CLL was kind enough to send me an old DTMF mic which does have the correct chip in it. Plus, wonder of wonders, the chip is mounted in a separate mount so I don't even have to de-solder it. The needed crystal is there too, with leads long enough to be re-used after I remove it from the circuit board. The DTMF pad is a 3x4 type so I will probably not be using that.

If you have an interesting and simple project you are or have worked on, share it. I will be happy to add others projects to these pages, giving full credit to the authors of such projects. Just send me an email (see the email page) and describe your project briefly. If I want to add it to these pages I will reply asking for full details. Don't worry about your writing talent, I am pretty sure I can make your copy sound professional. I have been writing for various professional venues during my career. Now that I am retired from that career, I am still writing, in these pages, in various amateur radio club publications, and QST. I even write a monthly column for an e-newspaper here in town, The Bradenton Patch. I am not trying to boast, just to reassure the reader that I can generally edit whatever comes down to my humble little web site.

UPDATED 01/04/12

I realized this afternoon that I have not been archiving my columns as I had promised I would. I have added the November and December columns to the 2009-2011 columns page and also added a new page for the 2012 columns. You can find them via the Navigation panel to the left of this and every page. If anyone considers any column of mine worthy of inclusion in their club newsletter, please email me (see the Nav Panel) and obtain my permission (easily given, I would just like to know where they are going to show up.)

UPDATED 12/31/11

As the year comes to an end I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year. The year for us has been slightly up and down so here's hoping 2012 will be much better.

On another note, I have added a note to the info on the Headset adaptor for Yaesu radios page. The Yaesu radios that use a 6 pin RJ-12 type connector or the RJ-45 8 pin connectornumber the pins backwards to the way Icom and others do. Thus what is pin 1 on an Icom 706 is pin 8 on an FT-817ND and vice-versa. Make sure you use the proper pin number system for your particular radio.

UPDATED 12/28/11

This web site is celebrating what, to me, is an astounding milestone. Today, sometime between 6 PM and 7 PM the hit counter on the site hit 20,000! When I first started this site, I had very limited goals.

The first was to build a web site that would have useful information for other hams, new or old.

The second was to gain experience in operating a web site.

I am not a hard core computer person. I have to call my son, who is a director of Information Technology for a major firm, any time I have a major foul-up with the beast. I must admit a little self-indulgent pleasure in that the site has grown as much as it has.

As my voyage through amateur radio continues, I will continue to try to add information and projects that I humbly think might be of some small interest to other amateur radio operators, whatever their experience level.

Having reached this milestone, I want to thank everyone who has visited the site, and particularly those who have signed the Guest Book Page and/or left a comment there.

UPDATED 12/25/11

Happy Holidays to everyone! May the New Year bring you joy and prosperity.

UPDATED 12/23/11

My wife and I went shopping yesterday, getting ready for Christmas and picking up a few last minute items like stocking stuffers and such. One of our stops was a Dollar Tree store. As I was trying to find a few little trinkets to put in the family stockings for Christmas Day, I came across a display of PC headsets. These are the ones that look like the wired cellular headsets I have written about elsewhere on this site, but instead of the one 2.5mm Stereo plug on the cellular units, these have two 3.5mm stereo plugs appropriate for a laptop or desktop PC. These are just as usable for adaptation to amateur radio and in some cases are even better because the mic and headphone circuitry is completely separated and thus easier to adapt to HT's and radios that require two grounds, one for the mic and one for the chassis.

You can imagine my surprise when I asked the clerk how much they were. She replied "Everything in the store is $1 or less. I immediately went back to the display and picked up five of the little beauties. I have not yet had a chance to construct an adaptor for them to test them out, but if the audio quality is acceptable, what a deal! I have no idea if all the Dollar Tree stores have these items, but it might be worth a look. ADDENDUM: I have had a chance this afternoon to test at least one of the new $1 headsets and signal reports are excellent. As I aquire new rigs I will be building headset adaptors for them with the new much cheaper headsets.

73 and Happy Holidays

UPDATED 12/07/11

About seven years ago, I built a trophy for our local amateur radio club. I felt there was not a specific amateur radio trophy available from the local trophy shops. Even on line, anything radio oriented was specific to Citizens Band radio. I had seen a trophy years ago, built by someone who's name is long forgotten, that a club up North had that consisted of a model tower and antenna. Using model railroading sources, I was able to find a suitable tower and a little soldering work created a passable model of a ham radio yagi antenna for the top of the tower. My wife created a glass enclosure to keep the somewhat fragile tower protected and a suitable base was constructed. The club liked the trophy very much and it has been displayed by its "Ham of the Year" awardees very proudly.

You can imagine my shocked and happy response then, at our club's annual Christmas Party this year, when it was announced that this year, the person named "Ham of the Year" was me! I am very humbled that my fellow club members bestowed this singular honor. At the same time, it was pleasing to see that all of the prior winners have taken such great care of the trophy. I will continue that tradition so that when I return it to the club next November, the next recipient will also have the profound pleasure of tending the trophy for another year.

UPDATED 12/03/11

I have returned from a day at the Tampa Bay Hamfest, which was also the site of the West Central Florida Section Convention. I spent most of the day with John Bee of Quicksilver Radio from Connecticut. John and I have been fellow club members of the Meriden ARC for many years and even though I live in Florida, I still maintain my membership in the Meriden club and visit them from time to time when I visit CT. I worked with John for most of the day at the Quicksilver booth and I was impressed with the number of people attending the hamfest. The booth was quite busy most of the day and I managed to tuck away some of my list of stuff to buy under the booth tables and will settle up with John tomorrow on the last day of the event. I do wish more hams from the Tampa area would attend the event, it really is only a few miles from the Skyway Bridge at the Manatee Civic Center. Hopefully, next year will see a resurgence.

UPDATED 08/27/11

I have posted a new page to the site about my latest project, a tilt-base and heavy-duty mast for portable uses like Field Day or deployment after a disaster. My wife and I tested it out today at a local park and it worked just as expected. With the VHF/UHF and HF antennas that we used erected and operational we had good signals from as far away as Oklahoma on HF and good signal reports locally on VHF/UHF. The mast is designed to be 23 feet tall but it can be extended to about 26 feet with no problems. Even with my much too heavy Carolina Windom antenna on it, the mast did not bend much at all. I plan on rebuilding the Windom with a lighter balun and isolator to ease the load on the gantry at the top of the mast. It was a fun project to work on and I am pleased that it works as designed. It will be featured in QST at some future date.

UPDATED 09/23/10

Welcome KJ4YMX to amateur radio. Having been on tenderhooks ever since Saturday morning's VE test session, we were informed today that Audrey's callsign, KJ4YMX has shown up on the FCC website. We both are excited about her entry into amateur radio, and I have been very busy creating new graphics to add her call to the radio room. Outstanding!