Radio and rails...

I acquired a DTX1 DATV transmitter. Although this is rather dated now it is still a useful tx capable of transmitting between 350 and 1350MHz. As a test setup over my usual 6" or so transmission path here it is on 437MHz transmitting a test card (yes the test card is all wrong but at least has the callsign and it is unlikely to propagate beyond the garden). The test card is coming from a little device that reads an SD card (and other formats) and sends a selected image. I did try an old digital camera I have which has video output but which refused to do anything, not even when plugged into a TV. Anyway it proves the DTX1 works.

I seem to have a lot of stalled projects currently. And then I got a kit of parts to build another Minitiouner... so I did that, and still have the same number of stalled projects! Oh well... The build went as well as the first one I constructed, very easy to put together and test. When connected to the Windows PC the test software all runs fine. This will go into the box I had for the previous Minitiouner the board of which is now inside the (stalled!) Portsdown.

Recently our ageing HP 1022 printer has been misleading paper. There is a solenoid on the righthand side which controls the feed and the associated spring gets weak. I have stretched it three times so far, each time curing the issue for a while. A new spring is needed and, of course although I have a number of these they are all safely stored in the workshop never to be found! Coupled to the desire to print in colour and on reasonably thick paper - I'm thinking short ranges of 'special' QSL cards here - after a bit of research I chose a Xerox printer. Reasonable cost and - although as is typical with these things new toner costs more than the printer - aftermarket toner is affordable. The printer duly arrived and I set up the networking and it tried a test print. This failed to eject all the way and the printer announced it had a paper jam. Ok... try again. Nope. If I eased the sheet out as it was printing all was fine, but it never managed by itself. I did the usual things. Swearing at the printer failed to cure the issue as I had…

As I have a NOV that allows the use of Q as a regional secondary locator I actually had an SSB QSO on 40m today - first time using the Q and first time on SSB voice for some time now, for over a year it's all been FT8. Excellent signal reports both ways (I had wound the wick up to 50W). I really must start talking to people again!

What would a blog be without the obligatory 'about' page telling you stuff? Ok, so this blog is basically a place for my ramblings about things, be they radio, railway or electronics related. It's nothing special. I toyed for ages with a place to write things, first on my valve pages, then a blog elsewhere, then here, and finally I put all my radio 'about' information on my QRZ page which made sense at the time.