On 04/10/2018 23:27, wrote:
In rec.radio.amateur.antenna Gareth's Downstairs Computer wrote:
On 04/10/2018 20:53, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

With the whole tool only $ 20 to $ 25 it hardly seems worth the effort
to even spend the time to make a set of jaws.


The argument of a CBer and not a real radio ham?




No, I try not to waste my time on the mechanical things. I have 3 or 4
of the crimp type tools. They are almost as inexpensive to buy the
whole tool as one tool and several sets of jaws.

Keeping up 2 ham repeaters, learning how the Arduino works, putting
together uBITX and latest is a boat anchor station takes up lots of
time. I am not that good at the mechanical things so for inexpensive
tools it is easier for me to buy them.


The cheapest thing that you can go out and buy is far more
expensive than the costliest thing in your junkbox. I have a
small stock of metal and a small machine shop, although I have
just given away the 3D printer that was lying idle for the past
3 years; its rationale having disappeared with the lifting of
the 16mm O gauge garden railway.

Rude comments apart, the essence of amateur radio in my book is
always doing for yourself the maximum that you can.

Did you make your metal stock from ore that you mined?


+1

On 05/10/18 16:04, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article , says...

Just build it. The uBitX took me about 3 hours.

It is a cracking little beast.

What really will take the time is all the mods I have lined up

Andy




Just putting one together is very simple. Finding a box , cutting holes
and such takes a while. I made several mods to mine. Such as changing
the final transistors to another kind, several components were changed.
One major change for me was to change out the 4 or 5 capacitors in the
filter to widen the filter from about 1.7 to 2.3 KHz so the ssb sounds
better. Then the software changes. Some from others and a minor one or
two of mine.

Mr.Farhan did a very good service to the ham comunity with that unit.
Not very expensive, and works ok as is. Then others jumped in and have
some really nice software and mods to make it really work well for not
too much unless you use the fancy display that costs about what the
origional unit does. Even new cases cost almost half the unit. I just
hapened to have a minibox that only had a few extra holes in it that th
e uBITX just fits in.

=======
Perhaps they will not be the most pretty ones ,but enclosures for the
ubitx and bitx40 or any piece of equipment can be easily made, at the
size one prefers , from low cost PCB sheets often available at flea
markets. I happily have a healthy stock.

Frank , EI7KS

wicklowham wrote:
On 04/10/18 18:04, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

I have a crimping tool for PowerPole connectors, and,
looking at adverts for other crimping tools, it seems
that they are all similar with the jaws being removable.

With that in mind, what are the dimensions of the crimping
holes for jaws that will do BNC connectors?

I have the technology (At least a chunk of carbon steel) and
could fashion them myself.




With the whole tool only $ 20 to $ 25 it hardly seems worth the effort
to even spend the time to make a set of jaws.

=================
Bought low cost crimping jaws for various applications incl the actual
tool from banggood.com

I would expect to find different products at banggood.com, tbh.

--
STC / M0TEY /
http://twitter.com/ukradioamateur

Stephen Thomas Cole wrote:

wicklowham wrote:
On 04/10/18 18:04, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

I have a crimping tool for PowerPole connectors, and,
looking at adverts for other crimping tools, it seems
that they are all similar with the jaws being removable.

With that in mind, what are the dimensions of the crimping
holes for jaws that will do BNC connectors?

I have the technology (At least a chunk of carbon steel) and
could fashion them myself.




With the whole tool only $ 20 to $ 25 it hardly seems worth the effort
to even spend the time to make a set of jaws.

=================
Bought low cost crimping jaws for various applications incl the actual
tool from banggood.com

I would expect to find different products at banggood.com, tbh.

ISWYM, but I think we have too much imagination.

--

Roger Hayter

In article ,
says...
Perhaps they will not be the most pretty ones ,but enclosures for the
ubitx and bitx40 or any piece of equipment can be easily made, at the
size one prefers , from low cost PCB sheets often available at flea
markets. I happily have a healthy stock.

Frank , EI7KS



When I go to hamfests I often look for boxes that have been used for
other things at an inexpensive price. Some of the boxes that are made
to switch several of the rs232 devices are often found for only a dollar
or two. I put together a nice looking Arduino VFO in a recycled switch
box. A coat of paint and some of the lables made from one of the lable
making machines makes it look not too bad. I like the dark green paint
and white on clear lables as it looks like the old Heathkit SSB line of
gear.

On Thu, 4 Oct 2018, Gareth's Downstairs Computer wrote:

On 04/10/2018 20:53, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

With the whole tool only $ 20 to $ 25 it hardly seems worth the effort
to even spend the time to make a set of jaws.


The argument of a CBer and not a real radio ham?




No, I try not to waste my time on the mechanical things. I have 3 or 4
of the crimp type tools. They are almost as inexpensive to buy the
whole tool as one tool and several sets of jaws.

Keeping up 2 ham repeaters, learning how the Arduino works, putting
together uBITX and latest is a boat anchor station takes up lots of
time. I am not that good at the mechanical things so for inexpensive
tools it is easier for me to buy them.


The cheapest thing that you can go out and buy is far more
expensive than the costliest thing in your junkbox. I have a
small stock of metal and a small machine shop, although I have
just given away the 3D printer that was lying idle for the past
3 years; its rationale having disappeared with the lifting of
the 16mm O gauge garden railway.

Rude comments apart, the essence of amateur radio in my book is
always doing for yourself the maximum that you can.

And that allows for a variable definition.

I had to tell you this, but in 1972 when someone needed to put some
holesin a chassis for tube sockets, the ham who ran the local code &
theory class, an "oldtimer", didn't have the right size punch, so he
provided money and we went to the store downtown and got one, the other
guy punched his holes and then the "oldtimer" had that size punch.

I guess one should be making their own hole punches, even though they
don't directly have anything to do with ham radio.

Those Greenlee punches were expensive in 1972, at least when you were a
kid with limited funds. But boy, I've seen people quote prices in recent
years, and what a great deal they were in 1972.

We don't roll our own capacitors, though decades ago I did read a magazine
article about how to do it, actually rolling paper and foil to make
capacitors. It was dated then, since there were better capacitors than
those made with paper. But trying something is fine, though I got the
idea just from reading it, no need to actually make them.

If you insist on "making everything" then you'll never get anywhere, since
you'll always be needing to make some lower level part or tool to make a
higher level part or tool that you'll never get to putting those hand
crafted components into circuits.

Yes, building is an important part of amateur radio and there's been too
much of a shift away from it, so in the US entry level is 2M FM, when
decades ago it would be HF and a home made simple transmitter, usually
with some low end junk receiver. But it was at least an entry, something
taht no longer happens. Here in Canada, since 1990, the entry level
licesne does not allow the use of home made transmitters. so it's really
simple to get the license, but then the entry point has to be different
from decades ago.

That sort of thing is far more damaging to ham radio than whether someone
buys a tool or makes it from scratch.

Michael

On Thu, 4 Oct 2018, wrote:

In rec.radio.amateur.antenna Gareth's Downstairs Computer wrote:
On 04/10/2018 20:53, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

With the whole tool only $ 20 to $ 25 it hardly seems worth the effort
to even spend the time to make a set of jaws.


The argument of a CBer and not a real radio ham?




No, I try not to waste my time on the mechanical things. I have 3 or 4
of the crimp type tools. They are almost as inexpensive to buy the
whole tool as one tool and several sets of jaws.

Keeping up 2 ham repeaters, learning how the Arduino works, putting
together uBITX and latest is a boat anchor station takes up lots of
time. I am not that good at the mechanical things so for inexpensive
tools it is easier for me to buy them.


The cheapest thing that you can go out and buy is far more
expensive than the costliest thing in your junkbox. I have a
small stock of metal and a small machine shop, although I have
just given away the 3D printer that was lying idle for the past
3 years; its rationale having disappeared with the lifting of
the 16mm O gauge garden railway.

Rude comments apart, the essence of amateur radio in my book is
always doing for yourself the maximum that you can.

Did you make your metal stock from ore that you mined?

I have a big piece of quarts that one of these days I'll carve up and make
crsytals out of.

Michael

On Fri, 5 Oct 2018, wicklowham wrote:

On 05/10/18 16:04, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article , says...

Just build it. The uBitX took me about 3 hours.

It is a cracking little beast.

What really will take the time is all the mods I have lined up

Andy




Just putting one together is very simple. Finding a box , cutting holes
and such takes a while. I made several mods to mine. Such as changing
the final transistors to another kind, several components were changed.
One major change for me was to change out the 4 or 5 capacitors in the
filter to widen the filter from about 1.7 to 2.3 KHz so the ssb sounds
better. Then the software changes. Some from others and a minor one or
two of mine.

Mr.Farhan did a very good service to the ham comunity with that unit.
Not very expensive, and works ok as is. Then others jumped in and have
some really nice software and mods to make it really work well for not
too much unless you use the fancy display that costs about what the
origional unit does. Even new cases cost almost half the unit. I just
hapened to have a minibox that only had a few extra holes in it that th
e uBITX just fits in.

=======
Perhaps they will not be the most pretty ones ,but enclosures for the ubitx
and bitx40 or any piece of equipment can be easily made, at the size one
prefers , from low cost PCB sheets often available at flea markets. I
happily have a healthy stock.

Frank , EI7KS

In 1972, QST ran an article on a 80 meter SSB transceiver, solid state,
and the case was mostly copper circuit board. But he used some wood to
make a frame, which perhaps is more solid for a larger box than just
relying on solder to hold it together.

But as someone else said, there are lots of boxes out there, even computer
power supply boxes, that can be reused with a bit of patching. Slap a
piece of circuit board over one side to provide a "front panel", covering
up what was before it. Circuit board is certainly easy to drill and cut
holes in, easier than aluminum and way easier than steel. Though, the
move for consumer electronics is away from metal, so the days of satellite
boxes and other things that are metal are often in the post. I know years
ago someone here was thinking (or maybe had) built a power amplifier in a
metal "IBM compatible" computer case, which has potential, though I
haven't seen a really sturdy computer case in some time.

Michael

On Sat, 6 Oct 2018 00:09:52 -0400, Michael Black
wrote:

I guess one should be making their own hole punches, even though they
don't directly have anything to do with ham radio.

Those Greenlee punches were expensive in 1972, at least when you were a
kid with limited funds. But boy, I've seen people quote prices in recent
years, and what a great deal they were in 1972.

For round holes, using chassis punches is painful. I have a heavy box
full of them, and rarely use them. Much better is a Rotex punch:
https://www.google.com/search?q=rotex+punch&tbm=isch
I have access to several when I need one.

Another approach for round holes is an annual cutter or Rotabroach:
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=annular+cutter
These are much better than drills, especially on big holes, because
they only remove a "ring" of metal and not convert the entire hold
area into chips. The holes are clean, there's very little deburring,
they don't wander, and they're fast.

When recycling use miniboxes, rack plates, and aluminum boxes, I
sometimes have to deal with plugging extra holes. I use a metal plate
(or coin) on the inside, and fill the hole with Bondo. I sand it flat
before it hardens. Then paint and labels. As long as you don't care
about the messy look on the inside, it works nicely.

We don't roll our own capacitors,

I've made some. Finding high voltage variable caps for magnetic loop
antennas isn't easy or cheap. I've only made one so far, so I'm far
from an expert on making these tuning caps. There are plenty of
magnetic loop antenna construction articles that use home made caps.
For example:
https://qrpbuilder.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/loop-antenna-110310.pdf


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On 06/10/18 17:34, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
I've made some. Finding high voltage variable caps for magnetic loop
antennas isn't easy or cheap. I've only made one so far, so I'm far
from an expert on making these tuning caps. There are plenty of
magnetic loop antenna construction articles that use home made caps.
For example:
https://qrpbuilder.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/loop-antenna-110310.pdf

That 10 to 30 MHz Magloop in a true beauty ........have filed the info.

Frank , EI7KS