THE SPARK GAP

A monthly publication of the Meridian Amateur Radio Club November 2013

 

 Bible Verse

Ephesians 6:10-11 / Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. (New International Version)

 

From the Editor

I was contacted by Steven Sullivan who is the chair person for “Leo Run to Remember”. This event takes place on November 16th at Northeast Park in Meridian. There is a 13 mile and a 26 mile run. The run is to help the youth Lions Club to raise funds for Alzheimer. Steven has asked if amateur radio operator could help in providing communications for the event NEXT weekend, Saturday, November 16th. Marathon Start Time is 7:00 am / Half Marathon Start Time: 7:00 am / 4-Person Relay Start Time: 7:00 am.

This event is too large for just the members of MARC. We will need the entire amateur radio community to come together to support the event properly. The next MARC business meeting is Saturday, November 9th. Please try to attend and show your support for this event. You do not need to be a member to participate. This is a great opportunity for a very worthy cause.More information can be found here: http://leoruntoremember.org/  

Have a good month. 73, Darrell, W5MAV

 

Next Business Meeting

The next business meeting will be held in the Checker Board Restaurant on Saturday, November 9, 2013 beginning at 10 A.M. Come join us for breakfast, coffee and fellowship.

 

Taking a dose of my own medicine

By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU

Last week, I wrote a blog post on preventive maintenance for one of my writing clients.

Afterwards, I decided to take a dose of my own medicine and do a little preventive maintenance around the shack. I started with the Astron RS-35M, which provides the DC power that runs HF transceiver and my VHF/UHF transceiver in my shack. I had started noticing a few little things, such as the voltage adjustment being a little fussy, that I wanted to correct before the supply failed on me.

After removing the cover, I vacuumed all the dust out of the supply. The RS-35M wasn't very dirty, but even so, getting the dirt out of a piece of equipment is probably the first thing you'll want to do when performing preventive maintenance. Dirt impedes air flow. That can lead to higher operating temperatures, and as the lab manager that I interviewed for my blog post said, "Heat kills."

Not only should you vacuum any dust out of a cabinet, you should also clean the fan filters, if your gear has them. Dusty filters prevent air from flowing smoothly through equipment, and that means the fans don't cool as well as they should.

Once that was done, I did a visual inspection. One thing that you want to look for are components that look like they're getting too hot. Another thing to look for is evidence of arcing. Whatever is causing the overheating or arcing will eventually cause a unit to fail. Fortunately, I found neither.

Next, I checked to see that the components mounted to the enclosure were securely screwed down. In the RS-35M, the transformer, the bridge rectifier, and an electrolytic are mounted to the enclosure. Oddly enough, the bridge rectifier was quite loose, so I tightened it down. Also loose were the output terminals. I tightened these down as well.

Finally, I squirted a little cleaner and lube into the voltage adjustment pot and worked it back and forth. That seemed to do the job. That pot now works smoothly and cleanly.

I put the cover back on, reconnected the power cable, and got back to making QSOs. It should be good for another couple of years.

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When he's not keeping the gear in his shack in tip-top shape, Dan, KB6NU enjoys working CW on the HF bands and teaching ham radio classes. For more information about his operating activities and his "No-Nonsense" series of amateur radio license study guides, go to KB6NU.Com or e-mail cwgeek@kb6nu.com.

 

 

Have a great month

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