KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Operating notes: Straight Key Night

Posted: 02 Jan 2021 07:46 AM PST
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Straight Key Night (SKN) has come and gone again. This years was kind of
fun. I managed to make six SKN contacts—three on Thursday evening on 80m
and three on Friday morning on 40m—before I decided to call it quits.



I used my KX-3 with a Bunnell Nr. 9 straight key (see above). The key has
an old-style, 1/4-in. phone plug on it, while the KX-3 has an 1/8-in. jack,
so I had to adapt somehow. I have an adapter, but the old-style phone plug
didnt really fit well, so I decided to just use a couple of clip leads.

When operated from an AC supply, the KX-3 is capable of 15 W output. I
thought perhaps that might be a problem, but band conditions were pretty
good, and I worked everyone I called (except for W1Aw; I just couldnt crack
that pileup). I even called CQ a couple of times and got replies.

I made a couple of interesting contacts. One of them was with K9TJL. He was
using a J-36 bug, and we had a nice discussion about that key and the J-37
with leg clamp (a key Ive used in previous SKNs).

Another interesting contact I had was with Howard, WB2UZE. Hes one of the
cofounders of the Long Island CW Club. He was using a 1940s-vintage
Vibroplex bug.

Finally, although I didnt work him, I heard Don, W2LID. I first worked Don
in 2005, when he was 82 years old. Hes had that call since the age of 15.
By my calculations, hes now 97 years old and has been a LID

The post Operating notes: Straight Key Night appeared first on KB6NUs Ham
Radio Blog.


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Flex on the fritz

Posted: 01 Jan 2021 04:27 PM PST
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu...m_medium=email


A couple of days ago, my Flex 6400 decided that it didnt want to work. I
usually leave the radio and computer on, so when I sit down to operate, I
hit the spacebar on the computers keyboard, and everything comes back to
life. I did so this time, and the radio came up on the 30m the band that I
last operated.

When I changed bands to 40m, though, the panadapter went blank, and the SDR
program said that the radio had been disconnected. I tried turning the
radio off and on, and I even turned the router off and on, but neither got
the radio to connect again. I thought, OK, Ill turn the power supply off
and on again. Well, that didnt coerce the radio to connect either.

When you first turn on a Flex, the light behind the power switch flashes
green until the radio boots up. Then it turns solid greenunless theres a
problem. Mine flashed red, with a single flash, indicating that there was a
fan failure.

One of the first things that I did was to search the FlexRadio Community.
In doing so, I found the post, Fan Failure 6600M. There was some good
information in this post, including where to get a replacement fan.
Apparently, these fans are used in gaming, and replacement fans only cost
$18 on Amazon.

At that point, I decided to take off the cover and have a look. This turned
out to be more involved than I thought, as you have to remove 14 Torx
screws to get the cover off. Fortunately, I had the correct Torx
screwdriver. Once I got the cover off, I spun the fan manually, and it spun
quite nicely.
Inside the Flex 6400. At the lower right is the fan. Circled is the SD card
referred to in the text.

Next, I kept reading the post. Further down, Ken, N7HQ, the FlexRadio
Community Manager, replied:

Please keep in mind a red-blinking power button (single red blink)
indicates the fan is not rotating when firmware expects it to be.Â* Yes,
this could be a fan failure, but it is far more likely to be another
problem.Â* In the past 6-months, Ive seen the service team deal with only a
single fan replacement for the 6600 and 6400 radios. And that replacement
was preventative, due to the radio being used in an exceptionally
dusty/dirty/smoky environment. Please open a helpdesk request. Where Tim
and Ken can assist in the diagnosis.

So, thats what I did. After swapping some emails, Ken, NM9P, asked me to do
a factory reset, which I hadnt done before. When this procedure yielded the
same results, he said, It is possible that there has been an SD card
failure and it needs to be replaced. He then made arrangements for a new
SD card to be sent to me at no charge. (The SD card is circled in white in
the photo above.

So, while its a bad thing that the SD card failed, I have to give kudos to
the tech support folks for their help in resolving the issue. Now, Im
hoping that the envelope containing the SD card doesnt take too long to
make it through the mess that is the U.S. Postal Service right now.

The post Flex on the fritz appeared first on KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.