Winter projects - keeping busy

[Gus Chiggins]

Well rain keeps falling. I need to pour some concrete but have to wait for a break in the weather (go ahead breaker)
In the mean time. Got the basement radio shack mostly squared away with RCI 2950CD fixed up with talk-back and an internal watergate board. Love the new display on the CD models. WAY better than those crappy 2950 LCD displays. Feeding the mic jack (limiter intact) with output from my Focusrite Scarlet Solo USB Sound Card and a nice (but cheap) XLR condenser mic on a boom for processed audio. Software wise using LiveProfessor with a reverb and a EQ and a o-scope plugin. My audio is real loud and clear. Love this modulation setup. I have compared through friends radio checks that it blows away the D104, Astatic road devil, Turner +3, and Extreame2018 audio. Many times louder sounding than all of those.

This radio is feeding a Texas Star DX500 modded with a power wire upgrade and a high/low drive switch (input padding). It seems to like the 2950CD driving it to a clean 125W dead key and ~500W peak on AM. The Amp has plenty of DC current with the Megawatt 100A supply but it never really draws more than 32 amps. I'm running that at 14.3 VDC. Amp feeds LMR400 to a Hygain Super Penetrator. No more RFI Problems thank God! 10-8 to modulate.

I also have a GAP Titan DX antenna I completely rebuilt over the last couple months and erected near the shack in a temporary location. It's ground mounted and does not quite get out like the super perpetrator but has a good match across all bands and works surprisingly well. Pretty impressive really. Standing that up by myself was fun but got it done. Now need to buy a new coax run and make a permanent mounting place in the woods for it. More concrete. Anybody ever try underground coax runs? Need to look into that.

Thinking about tapping the first IF on that 2950 to feed an SDR so I can watch the band on a waterfall display. That will be a fun project if I ever get around to it.

Been looking at remote radio operation options. Boy what a software/hardware can of worms. Lots of reading to do.

Just thought I'd share. What are you folks up to?
Merry Christmas CBRT
Gus, aka the Old Prospector

[Lost Ram]

I use direct bury LMR400 from Jefa Tech. Works just fine. Sounds like a great set-up.

[Gus Chiggins]

I use direct bury LMR400 from Jefa Tech. Works just fine. Sounds like a great set-up.

SWEET thanks for the tip! I'll definitely look into that.

[51]

I use direct bury LMR400 from Jefa Tech. Works just fine. Sounds like a great set-up.

yup, direct bury lmr400, cant go wrong. another tip: bury a run of like 1" pvc pipe then run your transmission line thru the pipe. that way you can always pull your line out with ease for replacement, maintenance etc. and it will prolong the life of the line even that much more due to having no contact with the soil, moisture etc.

[Gus Chiggins]

That's a good idea 51. I may need to run something else out there and having a sleeve with a pull string would make that easy. PVC is cheap. Good lookin out.

[Lost Ram]

be sure the PVC comes into and out of a junction above ground that is sealed otherwise it will get water in it. Also all buried coax/cable should not have unions to be on the safe side.

[MDYoungblood]

That's a good idea 51. I may need to run something else out there and having a sleeve with a pull string would make that easy. PVC is cheap. Good lookin out.

If you plan to do this I would suggest a larger diameter PVC pipe or run a second smaller one. Trying to pull another wire through an existing pipe can get tangled, been there,, done that.

3's

Greg

[BrownDogAudio]

Well rain keeps falling. I need to pour some concrete but have to wait for a break in the weather (go ahead breaker)
In the mean time. Got the basement radio shack mostly squared away with RCI 2950CD fixed up with talk-back and an internal watergate board. Love the new display on the CD models. WAY better than those crappy 2950 LCD displays. Feeding the mic jack (limiter intact) with output from my Focusrite Scarlet Solo USB Sound Card and a nice (but cheap) XLR condenser mic on a boom for processed audio. Software wise using LiveProfessor with a reverb and a EQ and a o-scope plugin. My audio is real loud and clear. Love this modulation setup. I have compared through friends radio checks that it blows away the D104, Astatic road devil, Turner +3, and Extreame2018 audio. Many times louder sounding than all of those.

This radio is feeding a Texas Star DX500 modded with a power wire upgrade and a high/low drive switch (input padding). It seems to like the 2950CD driving it to a clean 125W dead key and ~500W peak on AM. The Amp has plenty of DC current with the Megawatt 100A supply but it never really draws more than 32 amps. I'm running that at 14.3 VDC. Amp feeds LMR400 to a Hygain Super Penetrator. No more RFI Problems thank God! 10-8 to modulate.

I also have a GAP Titan DX antenna I completely rebuilt over the last couple months and erected near the shack in a temporary location. It's ground mounted and does not quite get out like the super perpetrator but has a good match across all bands and works surprisingly well. Pretty impressive really. Standing that up by myself was fun but got it done. Now need to buy a new coax run and make a permanent mounting place in the woods for it. More concrete. Anybody ever try underground coax runs? Need to look into that.

Thinking about tapping the first IF on that 2950 to feed an SDR so I can watch the band on a waterfall display. That will be a fun project if I ever get around to it.

Been looking at remote radio operation options. Boy what a software/hardware can of worms. Lots of reading to do.

Just thought I'd share. What are you folks up to?
Merry Christmas CBRT
Gus, aka the Old Prospector

Got a couple of questions:
You have peaked my interest with a couple things.....
I am looking to do audio through software and then back to the radio. I have seen a couple accessories that you can get that make this easier, one being a box from MFJ i think that allows a direct patch from the sound card to a cobra 4 pin, and the other I think was from w2aew (the audio compression guru for HF). Just wondered if you were using any thing like this to feed the audio back to the 2950. I would be feeding it to either a cobra 2000, or a galaxy 959, maybe both with a switch box??..

My other question would be the IF tap you were looking to install for the SDR. This whole SDR thing sounds awesome to me. I am an avid SWL and also a computer nerd lol. So mixing the two is a no brainer. Just wanted to pick your brain on that to see if you could expound on that a little. Thanks!!!

Cheers!!

[Gus Chiggins]

I have (had) a direct patch from the Focusrite Scarlet soundcard output to the 2950's microphone input. If you can wire a mic you can do it. Just rig up an external keyer from an old mic or any momentary contact switch.
Mine happened to be close enough on the impedance for the 2950s input.
If you want to get REALLY slick. Try the EQPlus from W2IHY instead. Kind of pricey but... The downward expander is just what I needed. My mic is WAY too sensitive and this little box from W2IHY nails it. Also takes all the guesswork out of it with cables made for your radio. You can use almost any mic for input and modulate any way you want. I've tried D104, Turner +2, +3, +3b, Extreme 2018, and none of them even come close to the $20 amazon.com chinese condenser mic with the EQPlus. Live Professor worked great but the background noise (fans and what not) I could never overcome until I tried the EQPlus.

As far as the IF TAP. I used a different radio but have a SDRPlay RSP1A connected to the first IF before the first filter. I'm controlling that rig with Ham Radio Deluxe and HDSDR for waterfall on a dual screen computer. Read about the TAP boards from hupRF. Works VERY well. Never did it on the 2950 but should be similar. Search youtube for something like "HDSDR Panadpter' and you should find plenty of info.

[Verified]

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Sounds fun

[Pappabass]

You sound busy! I was just happy to survive the holidays! My work wears me down, I do IT work at a hospital. Never closes! Home life has been busy too. I built another house. Me & my son was the contractor. Still moving in!

[KP68]

Well, I am inundated with projects to keep me busy during the winter but this falls into the keeping busy fun projects.

[Gus Chiggins]

Holy Moses. I can't believe you were drawing PCB layouts on MS Paint!!
You've got grit that's for sure.

[KP68]

Ha, ya quite the tedious process but in a crazy way very fun!