W6YX Technical Page
W6YX Station Engineer: John Fore, W6LD
Main HF Rig Status:
Over the November 4, 2006, weekend one of our main hf transceivers -- the Yaesu FT-1000MP MkV
-- went "deaf" (damaged front-end). It was returned to Yaesu for repairs and is now back and in operation.
The second main hf transceiver -- the Yaesu FT-1000MP -- has lost some
its receive sensitivity on certain bands and will need to be
repaired as well, but this repair is less critical.
The third main hf transceiver -- the ICOM IC-761 -- seems to be working
fine.
The damage to the Yaesu receivers is almost certainly due to running two
high power stations in close proximity without band filters to protect
their front ends. In the past, the club has relied on band pass filters
that were on loan from club members but these are no longer available to
us. We have now obtained two for the club to permit multiple high power stations to
operate concurrently.
Wind Damage To West Tower
The storms of the 2006 winter quarter took their toll on the W6YX facilities. The mast on the West Tower was bent and other parts of the antenna farm and feedline system needed maintenance. John W6LD arranged work parties to address these issues before the winter. The 15 and 20 meter yagis have now been reinstalled on a new mast on the West tower and are now operational.
VHF/UHF Tower Up and Running
Construction has finished on an initial implementation of the new VHF/UHF tower (approximately 30 feet tall) located at the northeast corner of the station. The tower currently carries horizontally polarized beam antennas for 6 meters (50 MHz), 2 meters (144 MHz), and 23 cm (1296 MHz) topped off by a multi-band discone. A 70 cm (432 MHz) yagi will be added to the tower when the 6 meter (50 MHz) yagi is moved to a new location later this summer.
Low Voltage Power Supply Upgrade
On Sunday, March 20, 2005, John Fore and John Shalamskas replaced the multiple 12 volt power supplies at the HF operating positions with a single 13.8V @ 25A supply that plugs into a fuse-protected PowerPole distribution panel. All equipment (excluding the transceivers) that was formerly using separate supplies now connect to the distribution panel using PowerPole connectors on them. (Nota bene: red goes to red and black goes to black.)
Clutter is noticeably decreased and we have noticed performance improvements from better power regulation, common grounding, and more reliable connections.
Additional Projects and Fixes
On the HF side, the Icom 761 has returned from the manufacturer's repair depot, its display fixed and replacement parts installed.
Gary AD6FP is working on a new rotor control system for the east and west towers for our HF facilities.
John W6LD is planning to hold a work party to install the Cushcraft 402CD antenna and replace the feedline to the 20 meter yagi.
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