💾 Archived View for alaskalinuxuser.ddns.net › 2021-07-23_9.gmi captured on 2024-12-17 at 10:01:04. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2024-09-29)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
">
024w, https://alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/tunerbw-
300x225.jpg 300w, https://alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/
tunerbw-768x576.jpg 768w, https://alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-content/uploads/
2021/04/tunerbw-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-
content/uploads/2021/04/tunerbw-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width:
1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
I recently purchased a few pieces of radio equipment to try to help my
fledgling setup. As it stands right now, I can’t reach anybody, and I was
starting to doubt my old equipment. I figured if I got some test, measuring,
and adjusting equipment, maybe I could see why I can’t talk to anyone. If you
read last weeks article, you’ll know that it was really handy to measure my
power output and see that I wasn’t even making any!
I am a little cheap. I have a hard time justifying spending money on my
hobbies, since they don’t make any money. I understand a few dollars here and
there, I just have a hard time making big purchases. But, I realized that if I
didn’t spend some money on my HAM radio hobby, I was about to give it up out of
frustration. So I spent $115 on this antenna auto-tuner. You can find them on
Amazon, which is where I got mine: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/
B08MTQK3LF?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details
(Not an affiliate link, I make no money if you click it or buy it.)
So, with my new TecMad ATU-100Ă‚Â EXT 1.8-55MHz Automatic Antenna Tuner, I was
hoping to fix my SWR woes and have better transmissions. Of course, I can
adjust the wire lengths for that too, but I was starting to wonder if I was
doing it right, since no one could ever hear me. Turns out my TS-520 final
tubes were fried, so no one could hear me because I was barely transmitting
(less than a watt).
That said I really like the tuner, since I can adjust it for different bands on
the fly. Only time will tell if it makes a difference in my communications. I
think the limiting factor for me right now is bands. As a Technician, I can
only transmit on the 10 meter band (SSB – voice, I can use other bands with CW
– Morse code) which is not working well right now due to the sun cycle. In
about 5 years it will be the best band for transmitting, but for now it’s not
doing so well. But it is still important to see if my equipment is working
right, which the tuner did settle that question for me right out of the box.
Linux – keep it simple.