Tom Arnold K6AET's Musings

California realestate just got too expensive for me and I needed a change of scenery anyway.

Got a TargeTuner box from West Mountain Radio. They have since updated the Firmware to support the Kenwood TS480 and send me an interface box to test, which I can confirm works perfectly. I need to test it with the TS2000 and then return it to them as its a factory sample. Anyhow, if you need a Screwdriver Controller for Icom, Yaesu, and very soon Kenwood and you don't want to have questions about how they sourced their IP and the like ( see my Feb 2014 post ) now you have an option.

As a side note, I'd love to hear that the TurboTuner2 was handed off from N2VZ and not just a clone that was similarly named and shaped. If it was a From Scratch device thats cool too, but from the look I have to assume that its intentionally a very close clone that is intended to be confusingly similar to the original. I'm sure it works and feel free to buy it, I just have issues.

So, time for another pet peeve of mine. Everyone has equipment they love. Sometimes it was purchased at full retail and sometimes not. When you go to sell a piece of gear, keep in mind that what its worth probably has no relation to what you paid for it.

So, I've decided the net needs more info about the Lampkin 109 Communications service monitor and whatever other Lampkin gear I can find details for. I haven't scanned the full manual yet. I really don't want to see it show up for sale on Ebay... If you happen to be in need of the manual, email me and see if I've gotten around to it.

Lampkin 107C Flier and 1976 Pricelist
Lampkin 109 Flier and 1976 Pricelists
Lampkin 109 Operating Pamphlet
Lampkin 109 Installing Frequency Options
Lampkin 205D Flier
Lampkin 303 Flier
Lampkin 701 Flier

Yeah, been slacking.

Gear is finally all mounted in the truck. TS480HX and TM-D710. Dual band VHF antenna ( 2M/440 ), 6M FM antenna, Screwdriver for HF. I still need a Kenwood Screwdriver Controller. I'd buy the one from N2VZ but he seems to be out of business. The only other viable option is the Turbo Tuner 2 from TennaTronix but it looks like a straight clone of the N2VZ design with no credit given so they won't be getting my money. The solution for the moment is using an Ameritron SDC-102 while I build my own automatic tuner which will be open-source open-hardware. Yee-Haw.

I'd love to find out that the TennaTronix box was either licensed or a fresh design but seriously its the same box and everything so I can't help but think at least they wanted it to be mistaken for the original? If its legit why not just say so? Email responses were vague or non-existent. Sad.

Next up for fun is hacking on my TS2000. Going to replace the ceramic filters with Murata ones ( you can buy them from Mouser, don't get the generics from Taiwan that you can buy from that UK outfit on Ebay. I don't get why companies get all furtive when you want to know where a part is from. Anyway, the proper Murata ones are standard parts from Mouser for a few bucks each. I also ordered some PIN diodes to do a minor upgrade and a Z10000B buffer amp to add a first IF output to use to feed a bandscope. Looks fully possible to use RTL-SDR as a cheap Panadapter which would be kinda sexy...

Last week or two I've been rebuilding some HP8640B's I bought. Well, rebuilding one as I bought one in working condition. I now have two working and lots of spare parts.

I also have started assembling my Trimble Thunderbolt into a workable 10mhz source for keeping my test equipment on frequency.

I suppose at some point I need to actually get back to work on my Yaesu FRG-7. It definitely has something weird going on with it... I mean, that was why I wanted a signal generator in the first place.