Now that my OHW WM-2 is assembled, it is time to align it. The manual has detailed step by step instructions on this as well and the alignment procedure is relatively straight forward. On the other hand, adjusting the potentiometers can be a little difficult, partly because some of them are hidden below the wires and partly because R6 has to be adjusted with a precision of 1 mV while it has a full scale of several volts. It would have been very nice with a multi-turn potentiometer instead.
OHR WM-2 Progress Report 3
I’m continuing with the connectors switches and the instruments. I don’t quite understand why the assembly manual wants me to use the bottom row on the power switch instead of the top row. The switch is already mounted on the cabinet and thus the bottom row is much more difficult to access than the top row. I just ignore this step and use the top row.
OHR WM-2 Progress Report 2
I made further progress with the wattmeter tonight. It was time to prepare the wires, which consisted of cutting them to various lengths and removing the isolation at the ends. Here I faced the first difficulty in trying to follow the instructions of the manual.
OHR WM-2 Progress Report 1
I have now received the three 1N34A diodes that were missing from the OHR wattmeter kit and tonight I resumed the assembly.
Response on the Hamlib Debug Handler
Today I received a reply from Stephane concerning my problems with the new hamlib debug handler api.
IC-765 in Digital Modes
The Christmas Holidays are just over for me and I have had a chance to work some radio. Unfortunately, I had to work between Christmas and New Years Eve, nevertheless, I managed to do a few QSOs. My main goal was to work on the WARC bands and try some PSK31 with the IC-765.
New Debug Handler in Hamlib
I have now tried to use the new debug handler API in hamlib but without any success. Some time ago, Stephane added some code to hamlib, which allows frontend programs to register their own debug handler, which then will be called every time a debug message is sent. The API uses the same parameter structure as the old hamlib API meaning that the handler will receive the comlete variable argument list that was originally sent to the rig_debug function.
Bad Luck with the WM-2
I just finished mounting all the resistors when I noticed that the three 1N34 diodes are missing from the component bag. Well, I guess I won’t finish the OHR WM-2 this weekend 😛
OHR WM-2
Today I’ll start to assemble the OHR WM-2 QRP wattmeter from Oak Hills Research. I bought the wattmeter via the German QRP Project few weeks ago but I didn’t really have time to build it yet.
DX-88 Overview
The DX-88 is a very good vertical antenna by Hy-Gain, which covers the 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meter bands. With an optional kit the DX-88 can also work on 160 meters. The antenna is self supporting and comes with stainless steel hardware making it quite robust in windy conditions. Like any other vertical antenna, the DX-88 performs best with a ground radial system.