A DIY Programming Cable for Baofeng Radios

One problem which has plagued many owners of Baofeng radios has been getting the programming cable, or more specifically the drivers, working properly under Windows. This may be a viable solution:

http://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_ProgrCable.php

I mostly use a Mac to program my radio so it hasn't been much of a problem for me, but I have had to deal with troubleshooting this on a friend's PC, and it was a major PITA. Miklor's page on troubleshooting the drivers has been the best that I've found.

E-Book: Practical Antenna Design 140-150 MHz VHF Transceivers

Thanks to Fo Time on Facebook, I ran across this e-book on antenna construction, Practical Antenna Design 140-150 MHz VHF Transceivers, by Elipidio Latorilla. Included are a couple variations on the familiar VHF ground plane, but the details look like these would be easier to construct than most such designs.

This book is worth adding to your library.

Plans for an Arrow Antenna

Over on Bushcraft USA, another member linked to this PDF version of an article from the April 1992 issue of 73 Amateur Radio Today by KA0VFF and N0IMW on how to build a 2M Yagi antenna using aluminum tubing and aluminum arrow shafts for the elements. In the thread discussing it, the poster mentioned being able to check into a repeater on Greens Peak in AZ, from Flagstaff, a distance of about 150 miles using 50 watts. Pretty damn good, IMO. (The thread is here, but I think you need to be registered with BCUSA to view it.)

As a 4-element design, it should have a little more gain than my 3-element Yagi from Arrow Antennas. This will manifest itself only under extreme conditions, however.

With suitable weather sealing, it looks like this design would be a good choice for a permanent mount.

Finally, N5DUX's site has a good collection of ham-related PDFs. It's worth checking out.

Testing the Arrow 146-3BP 2M Yagi Antenna

I tested out the Arrow 2M Yagi antenna that I got a couple weeks ago, by hitting the Pottstown repeater on 2.5 watts from my yard. The repeater is about 25 to 20 miles away. I spoke to another ham who said I had some background noise but was intelligible.

To attach the antenna to the camera tripod, I made an adapter from a piece of 5/8" aluminum rod. I turned one end down to fit into the antenna boom, and then drilled and tapped a 1/4"x20 hole in the other end.

There's about 2" of rod in the antenna boom, while there's about 1/2" of engagement with the mounting screw on the tripod head. This is a temporary, light duty setup, but it's easily portable.

Edit 6/22/15: Also see this post for details on the other end of my 2M FM simplex test.

Hellcat ALICE Pack

Back in 2011 Rod Teague of the Liberty Tree blog posted his tutorial on how to build what he calls the “Hellcat” ALICE pack. The Hellcat ALICE combines parts from recent MOLLE II rucksacks with the old standby ALICE pack. It’s an excellent blend of modern and older technology and has proven to be popular among bushcrafters and survivalists.

One of my goals for 2015 is to do a bushcrafty camping trip where I hike into a campsite and carry all I need on my back. To do so I need rucksack larger than what I had, so last weekend I picked up a large ALICE in very nice shape, and then ordered parts to build my own Hellcat.

The parts all arrived this week and I put it together today.  Here is it shown with my USGI Military Sleep System inside to provide some shape to it.

The MOLLE II waist belt and shoulder straps came from eBay vendors. I also wanted to replace the antiquated metal sliders on the compression and pocket straps with Fastex buckles. For these, I ordered a repair kit from Amazon.

The buckles arrived first so that was the first mod that I tackled. The original metal sliders need to be removed from the ruck first, without damaging the existing straps. I used a set of Wiss aviation snips to clip them off. You can also use a Dremel with a cutoff wheel. With the old sliders removed you can install the repair buckles. You’ll need five of the 1” wide on a large ALICE; the kit comes with four. For the last one I used a buckle that I had in my junk pile and used the snips to cut a slot like the one found on the repair buckles. It’s the black one on the middle pouch, below.

For additional security I put a cable tie around each short strap where it snaps to the pocket.

The Fastex buckles make opening and closing the pockets a lot easier, and allows you to move the lid out of the way much better than the original sliders. Even if you don’t do the full Hellcat mod the Fastex buckle mod is very worthwhile.

The MOLLE II shoulder strap kit that I got is a bit different from the one shown in the original tutorial. The design probably evolved over time. The frame attachment straps are different so I had to come up with a slightly different way to attach the shoulder strap yoke to the frame. The load lifter straps are just threaded under the top frame bar, through the loops on the frame, then secured in place with the Fastex buckles.

The web straps had a couple areas that were folded over and stitched so that the webbing was three times the thickness of the unfolded webbing. I carefully removed this stitching so I could thread it through the buckles and give me a little more length. To make threading the webbing easier, I cut each end on an angle then fused the ends with a lighter. The short connector straps that come with the shoulder strap assembly were discarded after removing the buckles, which were used as shown above.

The shoulder strap assembly that I got has a different long middle strap from the one described by Teague. Instead of a Fastex buckle it has an ALICE-type metal slider, and I believe the webbing is shorter.  After removing the slider I had to come up with a way to attach it to the middle of the frame. I settled on using a couple cable ties:

I may replace these cable ties with some 550 cord or beefier ties.

The bottom of each shoulder strap is threaded through the round hole on either side of the ALICE frame at its base. This also shows a side view of how the waist belt is attached to the frame.

And here’s a top view of the waist belt attachment. You thread the attachment straps through the same loops on the frame that the ALICE kidney pad uses, and then secure them with the buckles on the pad.

The waistbelt is the most important part of the conversion for making the ALICE carry like a modern pack. Properly adjusted it allows you to transfer most of the weight you’re carrying from your shoulders to your hips.  There’s a little movement in the attachment but we’ll have to see if it’s a problem under load.

The final component of the Hellcat conversion is the MOLLE Sleep System Carrier. This is a bag that straps onto the bottom and which holds your sleeping bag. I haven’t yet obtained one but will be ordering one shortly. At first I thought I might be able to compress my MSS down and just carry it in the main compartment, but doing takes up pretty much the whole thing. So, I’ll get the carrier bag and strap it onto the bottom.

Were I to starting out all over with this project, I’d order a Hellcat conversion kit including the straps, waistbelt, and sleeping bag carrier. One place to get such a kit, an ALICE with conversion kit, or a complete Hellcat is The Old Grouch’s Military Surplus.

The Hellcat and Fastex buckle mods greatly improve the performance of the ALICE pack, making for a low cost alternative for recreational backpacking or your bugout bag.

Portable Vertical HF Antenna Proof of Concept

Yesterday was the first day of my Winter vacation, and I took a ride down to the Delaware Ham Radio Outlet. My goal was to get some parts needed to construct a portable vertical antenna for 20M to 6M, based on the “FXTenna” by KD5FX.

KD5FX’s design centers around the MFJ-1979 telescoping stainless steel whip, which extends to 16.9 feet. I also wanted to try a 20M Hamstick-type antenna, so I picked up an MFJ-1620T HF Stick. Both are commonly used for portable ops, and have a 3/8”x24 threaded male stud at the base end. This is the same thread as most CB antennas.

Along with the MFJ-1979 and –1620T, I bought three 3/8”x24-to-SO-239 studs, an Anderson Powerpole-to-alligator clip with a fused negative cable, and a package of Bongo Ties for cable organization. I also went to the Radio Shack a few doors down and picked up a couple crimp-on PL-259s.

After getting home and grabbing something for lunch, I fabricated a mount for the antenna elements, mostly using stuff I already had in my shop. The 3/8”-24-to-SO-239 stud was attached to a couple pieces of steel strap that I salvaged from the trash at work. These were held to a 19” long piece of 1/4” drill rod.

Since the radiating element of a vertical antenna needs something to work against, I made six 17’ long radials from 18 gauge speaker wire, which had ring terminal added to the ends. Some heat shrink tubing was then placed over the terminals and a couple inches down the wire, to reinforce the connection.

The radials attach to the steel strap with a machine screw and a couple nuts.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, take a look below.

Mount next to collapsed MFJ-1979 and a yardstick for scale.

As you can see, once the kinks (described below) are worked out, this will make a nice, portable antenna.

One thing I learned the hard way was that in order to prevent creation of a Gordian knot, it’s important to wind up each radial individually, hence the multiple Bongo Ties.

 

Detail of top of mount:

 

Detail of mount bottom:

 

It turned out that the steel straps weren’t rigid enough to support the weight of the MFJ-1979, so I swapped on the MFJ-1620T. The provided marginal support, and the wind today didn’t help:

The ends of the radials were secured in place with large nails driven into the ground.

Unfortunately, the mount wound up being too flimsy. It would probably work if I guyed the antenna, but I want something more rigid so that guys are not necessary. Also, the hose clamp connection between the straps and the drill rod stake are not very secure. I accidentally pulled the mount right off the stake at one point.

So, design defects aside, how’d it work as an antenna?

With my Yaesu FT-817ND powered by a 12V battery and pumping out a whopping 5 watts, my PSK-31 signal reached northern Indiana, Columbus, OH, and Lexington, KY, according to pskreporter.info. I only saw a few other signals on the waterfall, but the 20M band wasn’t doing very well, per comments I saw in PSKer.

Still, not bad. In fact, it’s a downright promising proof of concept.

Things to do:

• Make the base more robust by using a CB antenna mirror mount attached to the stake. I may replace the steel drill rod with a lighter weight aluminum rod.
• Grind a point on the end of the stake, to make it easier to drive into the Earth.
• Replace the nut securing the radials to the mount with a wingnut so they can be removed without tools. I didn’t have one of the correct size handy.

Incidentally, the ring terminals, shrink wrap, and hose clamps all came from Harbor Freight variety packs. These are cheap and handy to keep around for when you need a miscellaneous part.

Another experiment for the future is to get a second 20M hamstick and an MFJ-347 mount, then construct a hamstick dipole that can be hoisted from a tree in a vertical orientation, or raised on a painter’s pole for horizontal polarization. Yet another idea is to cut a length of wire, put an alligator clip on one end, then connect it to the top of the MFJ-1979 and run it horizontally as an inverted-L antenna. I might be able to get it to work on 30M and 40M this way.

This kind of experimentation is part of the fun of ham radio, and builds your knowledge base so that you can provide communications under less than optimal conditions, or using improvised equipment.