Even I can't think of an
answer for that one.
Bruce, DRS2
We just had another high level meeting of top carrier current officials, and we are temporarily putting the CC project docked with no immediate travel plan.
My electric system is not behaving as expected and there are complexities, so we are staying up all night until someone gets an idea.
Radio might be jealous of me. After all, I have many transmitters, and maybe radio expects monogamy. It might not approve of polygamy. Maybe I need a few divorces.
Well, as long as nothing happens to you,
that's the main thing.
I'm glad you guys made the decision to
stop for now.
As RFB said, every CC installation is
different from every other. And every
CC set-up can have it's own special set of
unexpected problems.
RF can do funny things. I had a touch lamp
in the living room. When I was on 80 meter
cw, the lamp would go on and off. It was
keyed by my RF carrier. Then one day it
just didn't work anymore. And it wasn't
from a dead light bulb, either.
At one point, my Part 15 100 mW, 3 meter
operation got into the telephone. And that's
not much power, either.
Carl, in your next Low Power Hour, you might
want to report your findings on this so far.
Then again, you may not want to do that yet.
I see that this thread has been read over
2000 times. There must be a lot of interest
out there.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, DOGRADIO STUDIO 2
Thanks again, MICRO1700.
Even as the CC project gets side-lined I am already building LPH#26, and do intend doing some kind of report on the CC Project. If you have any suggestions how it might best be done, I am still wondering how to say it without being too dull.
The 2,000 hits to this thread probably have something to do with the new "keywords" method of surveilling social websites. Suspect key words include "man-animal (DOG RADIO) and electric current (carrier current), to name a few.
Imagine "terrorists" with their 1/10th of a Watt. The author Gore Vidal tried to explain that "Terrorist is just a metaphor," but since so much of the attack on civil cultured society is based on inane word interpretation: "missing fingers, 7-days worth of food, Ron Paul stickers, attitudes about "Constitution," it is not so much a culture war, as some have said, but a prohibition of culture.
To ward off suspicion just be stupid.
Carl, you are so much smarter than I am.
Maybe I'm just tired, but I didn't understand
any of your last few sentences. You know
what they say, "If the wind is blowing from
the west, it's warmer in the city than it is
in the winter.
I'll be back in a little while.
Bruce, DRS2
Dear MICRO1700 Dog Radio Studio 2:
You cannot fool the Part 15 Board. You are super clever, ultra smart, and have it going high style! You, sir, are a university employee for heaven sake.
My "last few sentences" are not secret. They simply refer to recent things in the news. If you have not been briefed on these recent news stories, you will be. Everything comes to him who wonders.
I am not smarter than anyone. We all know different things. What we must do is pool our knowledge.
Our enemies want to divide us so we distrust each other.
But they only do that because it is their job, whereas what we do is a hobby.
Do they know how to solder a
PL-259 on the end of a coax
cable???????
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
That's Where We Have Them Beat!!!!!!!!
Come to think of it... every time
I try to solder a PL-259 on the
end of a coax cable... the next
day.... it always falls apart...
Well, obviously the PL-259 becomes DIVIDED from the coax.
It only makes my point.
They may not be able to do do a PL-259, all they need to do is divide yours.
The plot is thick and we are thin.
OK. My LPB RC-6A is working GREAT
into a 50 Ohm dummy load on 860 kHz.
As mentioned, this is not a good
channel. Especially at night. During
darkness, 860 is swamped by a Canadian.
I would have to look it up, but I
believe the station is in Toronto.
On my Grundig S-350, the LCD "meter"
is at max indication or close to it.
If I run the transmitter into a dummy
load, the signal goes about 5 feet regardless
of what is on the channel.
Then, I wrapped a bunch of extension cord
around the coax cable feeding the dummy
load. Then the signal went about 20
feet. Keep in mind, there is a Canadian
blasting in over the channel.
Then I opened up the dummy load, and took
the cover and resistor shield off. I
wrapped the extension cord right around
the resistor, and the signal went farther,
probably about through the whole first floor
of the house. It's a small house, though,
and there were peaks and nulls. If the
Canadian station wasn't blasting the channel,
I probably could have heard the signal all
over the house - even though it would be
weak 30 or 40 feet away. By the way, the
transmitter is very "on channel." It's only
about 3 to 5 Hz off.
Then I became concerned about one thing. The
resistor in the dummy load is taking all of
the RF power. With the extension cord wrapped
right around it, that could be a problem.
I started thinking that the resistor would
probably be hot, and I did not want to melt
the extension cord.
So - I decided to touch the resistor with my
finger to check it's external temperature.
It was hot.
But - and this is the interesting part - when
I touched the resistor with my finger - the
860 kHz signal became much much stronger
on the radio in the next room.
It swamped the Canadian signal, and all I
could hear was the music coming from my
transmitter - the RC-6A.
RFB - I have theories as to why this happened,
but I want to know what you think first.
I had to turn the set-up off, because I did
not want to have the resistor compromise the
insulation on the extension cord. Nobody
wants a fire.
So, what do you think?
Best Wishes,
Bruce, DOGGRADIO STUDIO 2
P.S. By the way, all I am interested in
doing right now is to listen to the RC-6A
in the house. I am not ready to try CC
right now.
After my last "experiment" with "CC,"
I put the RC-6A back on it's dummy
load. Then I plugged in some big band music,
and put a radio next to the dummy load. (I had
put the dummy load back together - the shield
and the case are back on.)
Even though the signal isn't going anywhere,
listening to the RC-6A's signal is a joy
to me. So I have been doing some late night
chores, (thanks to my weird work schedule)
and taking out some trash.
When I got back over to the radio, I heard
something different. There was a 300 or 400
Hz tone on the signal, a het - from the Canadian
860 signal and mine being on the same channel.
Almost. My frequency has now drifted a few hundred
Hz.
Neil, if you are out there - you are right. We need
crystal ovens. I am not up to building one right now,
but maybe someday.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, DRS2
It increased because your body became the antenna. Ever try that on a radio receiver antenna port or a ferrite rod antenna by lightly touching them and the sensitivity increases.
For the dummy load resistor, take some light grade sand paper and wrap it around the resistor, sand side towards the resistor, maybe two layers. Then wrap some #20 or #18 insulated hookup wire around the sand paper, single layer turns close wound. Wrap around the resistor/sand paper only, not the coax. Run the rest of the wire up and away, tack along the edge of the roof and wall, like running a leaky coax.
Depending on the dummy load wattage, the more the better so that the dummy load will safely absorb the RF energy from the RC-6A and the more wattage the dummy load, the less heat it will give off. Warm is ok, somewhat hot is ok, but piercing hot isn't so as long as it is not getting hot to fry eggs or roast a turkey, your fine. The sandpaper provides the insulation you need between the resistor and coil wire.
RFB
Well the thing about crystal ovens is this. If the unit needed one, there would be one in it already.
Crystals have an operating temperature curve with a stability range curve and if the crystal is not too aged, should remain within this range over the operating temperature range of the RC-6A. That is a tube unit, already producing heat. Your crystal is drifting off frequency the 300/400 cycles from operating for a time, which during that time heat is produced, as well as the crystal itself will get warm from operating.
In Neil's situation, his crystal was starting off cold and off frequency, thus the oven quickly brought the temp of the crystal up so that it's on frequency. Depending on where your frequency is at start up, that may also require the use of an oven. But if it's drifting this far after warm up time, then an oven is not going to solve anything. A fan to remove the heat will.
RFB
I'm getting ready to go to job number
two, which is the day job.
I wanted to thank you for your info.
I will get back to you on this.
Thanks again,
Bruce, DOGGRADIO STUDIO 2
Many Thanks to friend RFB, other
tech-friends, and my
other local and semi-local
friends who supplied parts and did
work on my LPB RC-6A carrier current
transmitter.
I have a signal covering my whole house,
and a little bit of my yard. Although
this transmitter is not being used for
CC service right now - it is of great note that
I have had it for 30 years - and this is
the first time I have really had it on
the air!
Hopefully, carrier current operation will
be a reality at some point. Right now,
I am just enjoying listening to it through
my radios in the house, and it sounds great!
It am very happy to have this old tube rig on the
air, even if it is not going too far. This
is very satisfying for me. RFB, I still have
some specific questions for you, but I'm really
busy, and they will have to wait a bit.
Thank you - thank you again!
Bruce, DRS2
The news from DRS2 is great, his LPB transmitter serving the house, very good.
The CC project here is pulled over to the side of the road during a few infra-structure changes.
At the good advice of RFB the 30Amp circuit breaker feeding the coupler circuit has been taken out of service. The LPB TCU-30 Coupler does not draw any current from the AC, so the circuit breaker exists for safety of the lines, and 30Amps is too much.
The helpful guy at Lowes called me and was sure he'd found a 5Amp circuit breaker (2-pole), available from another company. But when I called the other company they checked and did not have 5Amp 2-pole breakers. We'll have to settle for 15Amps. but of course there are fast-blow fuses on each leg of the coupler itself, therefore safety will be very good.
Also, both RFB and the LPB CC literature recommend getting the coupling equipment right at the electric panel, and our first test was done on a branch circuit about 100' on the other side of the building, so we are moving things around to get the transmitter right at the panel.
New testing should pick up this coming weekend.