Hello, fellow radio amateurs!

I am unlicensed and do not transmit except I send guitar voice mail on
the phone and also I send the guitar through FRS for fun.

With twenty feet of twinax from IEC, I am now able to receive WHFS in
stereo from Annapolis, MD, here in Seven Corners, VA reliably. We'll
see if it works at night.

Both the antenna and 1/8 stereo phone plug terminations need work, but
are working.

Could any of you tell me where I can buy some pretinned 1/8 stereo
phone plugs with metal sheilded barrels? The ones I buy at Radio Shack
don't tin well with rosin flux and a fresh tip, using 60/40 solder. I
have to scrape them to bare metal and heat them so much the plastic
insulators soften a little. At these frequencies, that matters. Yes, I
replaced the polyethylene between the legs with hot melt. Of course I
did. But still, see below, there are refinements.

I don't know what engineer at Wizard decided to run their dipole
antenna in through a phone jack. Fer cryin' out loud, was it just
because the line output is a phone jack and they couldn't spare two
cents? What a hassle.

What a nice radio, now it's done. I will get the serial port version
soon and have a free slot for a second OEM IBM speakerphone modem. But
that's another story.

By using the VU meter on my Cool Edit, I was able to point the
antenna. I braced it off the ceiling with a cigarette pack and a strip
of double sided foam adhesive tape, then tapped it with a wooden
paddle to move it about a degree at a time. It's not an RF meter, but
it does get an optimal result. T and I will switch positions next
time, so I can interpret the varying audio levels during transmission
as indicators of reception quality. Variability was over 30 db. I'll
provide a better estimate when we swap positions. I was the one moving
the antenna this time.

The transmission line hangs straight from the ceiling to the floor,
tensioning the twin leads to form an air spaced graduated line. If you
stand too close to it, the signal fades, even though it is sheilded. I
guess I need a good ground. This is twin wire in this older apartment,
not properly grounded. I can go up then rightwards into the heat pump
box and terminate to a ground there. No, not the Freon pipe, there
will be a proper ground there and I will find it. I've got the long
bit already. Best would be to replace the hard corner on the plaster
wall, burying the ground leading up from the baseboard behind it, or
to groove the face of the wall and bury the ground there. Yes, I know
that isn't to code.

Anyway, if you know where to buy a good quality, readily tinned phone
jack, please let me know. Likewise, if my soldering technique sounds
off, please, reply. If you know already through experience that Radio
Shack is not the place to go, let me know that and I'll visit
Arlington Electronic Wholesalers for a quality product. They are only
a bike ride away.

I'll give the details of the terminations later, once, as they are,
then again, after I've optimized them. I've got five extra feet of
cable so there's room to play with terminations at both ends.

God, I love new, local music.


Yours,

Doug Goncz
Replikon Research
Seven Corners, VA