FYBO and the Android keyer

Well, FYBO was a total bust for me. I setup in the backyard with a 40m EFHW, HB1B, J38 and the Android keyer. The temperature was about 20 degrees and breezy. I found that I was getting much colder than I expected. Initially I had a hard time finding an open frequency to call CQ since there were so many other contests going this weekend. The contest ops were sending way faster than I could copy, so I had no chance of working any of them. I managed to work 1 FYBO station - Nick WA5BDU. (I recognized the callsign from the QRP-L)

Anyway, I gave up after about 45 minutes because I started picking terrible EMI from somewhere and could hardly pick out anyone. I normally have an S7 noise floor in my house, but outside is mostly quiet... Of course not this time.

The Android keyer worked well, but I realized that it might have been best to use a 10 turn pot instead of a fixed value resistor, because as the circuit got cold, the frequency shifted some. As a result, I had to adjust the sidetone on the Android app to find the LM567's frequency. Also, I should consider some RFI mitigation because unless I kept the keyer away from the feedline, the circuit was a bit sporatic.

Oh well. Maybe someday I'll move somewhere with more property and ZERO neighbors to cause EMI.

Homebrew Android based keyer

Every year the QRP group Arizona ScQRPions host a field day contest called FYBO (Freeze Your Butt Off). The premise is like any other radio contest except it takes place out doors in the cold, and your score multiplier is based on the lowest temperature at your operating position.
This will be my first CW contest that I'll participate in. I only use a straight key, and for sure don't want to send CQ FYBO DE AB9LM for the duration of the contest.

Rather than programming a micro controller with my message, I decided to use an already existing device that can hold any number of messages, has a thermometer, browser, and clock: My Android device.

From the App store, I downloaded Androidomatic Keyer to handle the generation of code. To actually key my radio, I built an LM567 tone decoder circuit "hard coded" for 1khz. I've been sitting on a package of 10 of these things and haven't yet come up with a use for them. This seemed like a great application.

I followed the schematic from http://www.m0tgn.com/2015/07/cw-decoder-electronics.html
to get me in the general ball park. Getting the frequency set was a real pain using a trimmer, so I opted to use a 4.7k resistor instead. Using the formula 1/(4.7k X .22uF) put me pretty close to 1khz.

There is a bit of a sweet spot for setting the frequency and the volume level, but once found, it doesn't miss a beat.
I even plugged the input to the audio out of my TS-830 and it kept up fine with the speed demons on 14.015

The video below is a demonstration of the interface at work.
Using this circuit, I may see if I can make a CW decoder for the pizero.

Hopefully the propagation Gods smile on me tomorrow, or at least hope my CW isn't too rusty.

TS-830s -- Fixed!

The new capacitors arrived today. Of course I forgot to take a picture of the caps or of the installation... But I'm very pleased to say that this is exactly what the issue was.

After soldering in the new capacitors, bypass cap, and bleeder resistor, the output peaks 100 watts and HV is back up to 800v like it should be.

Wow... I finally fixed something.

TS-830s low power output

Last summer I acquired a Kenwood TS-830s from the estate sale of William Morris - WA9HSK. The radio was in excellent condition and worked perfectly from the moment I powered it up. I've had a couple hundred contacts in the short time I've owned it. With the help of my wife Julie, handling the logging and the extra set of ears, I participated in the 2016 Illinois QSO party where I made almost 200 contacts.


The other day while tuning up, I found that I couldn't load up for more than 40 watts. I checked all my connections and SWR, but just couldn't get much power out. The plate's were loading only about half the normal current and the HV meter indicated only about 400 volts. A few minutes of research and I found that the HV capacitors are the likely culprit.


I bled off the voltage from the capacitors, clipped the wires, and tested with my DMM. Ah hah! One immediately shows infinite resistance, while the other jumped high and very slowly decreased. Based on this test method, I don't actually know which one is bad, but at least I know that one of them is... which would explain why I'm only getting about half of the expected voltage. Normally when these capacitors go bad, there is some visible sign, puffing, leakage, etc... but not in this case.

Fortunately for me, K4EAA runs a webstore that caters to TS-830 owners that wish to keep these great radios in working order. For $30 shipped, I'm getting the 2 HV caps, 2 bypass caps, and 2 bleeding resistors. http://k4eaa.com/hv-150b.html

Once they arrive and I get them installed, I'll post a followup.