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This blog is on my adventures in amateur radio. It covers contesting, dxing, and station construction. My hope for this blog is to give back a little to the hobby by including what I have learned.

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Refurbishing SteppIR Fiberglass Protection Tubes

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I had been eyeing a three element SteppIR for some time. Purchasing one was part of my long term station improvement plans. In August 2019, I noticed a unit being offered by a fellow MRRC member. He was helping another ham dismantle his station in preparation for moving into a condo. The price was right and I purchased the unit. The system was a 2007 vintage unit. It had given the previous owner years of performance and was still working when it was brought down. The trip to Ohio was nice and the timing worked out that I could attend DX Engineering's hamfest. The wife (KC0RBV) and kids came with me. My son and daughter were okay with the ham radio stuff, but loved seeing the cars in Summit Racing. We also did a quick visit to Cuyahoga Valley National Park . I highly recommend it if you are in the area. SteppIR offers a free service where you can send your older unit in for them to evaluate it and make recommendations on needed repairs and upgrades. You pay for shipping and par...
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Connecting a K3S, P3, and SteppIR Controller

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Last August, I purchased a used three element SteppIR with a passive 6m element. It included a 2005 vintage Fluid Motion controller. Over the winter, I sent it to SteppIR to be checked out for recommended repairs and any upgrades that made sense. The controller is very old and will eventually need replacing (See Figure 1). Figure 1 FluidMotion Controller SteppIR assembled and tested the entire antenna at their facility to verify it worked. The found it in good condition overall and suggested several replacements and a couple upgrades that I went with. They told me to buy the cable for the K3S since I didn't have one when I bought the antenna. As part of my process, I reassembled most of the antenna in the basement and verified the controller moved the elements like they are supposed to. Everything checked out. I then proceeded to connect the controller with the S26 cable to the K3S and just the controller. The antenna was still in the basement. The idea was to verify radio to contr...
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Personalized Equalizer Settings for K3S and Modern Radios

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Modern transceivers frequently allow you to set your receive and transmit equalizer settings. Setting the receive is fairly easy since you just have to listen to your own speakers. On the transmit levels, I'm sure other hams have had the same problem I have. How do you pick? Initially, I set them according to the settings recommended by Heil Sound , the makers of my microphones.Now, that seemed better than my K3S's default of no modification. All seemed well, but I still had problems. Frequently, I had to repeat the Yankee portion of my call. My wife, KC0RBV, also had problems with the same portion of the call. Watching the SWR meeting while my daughter talked on Kid's Day really gave me a shock. Her voice was able to keep the meter pegged at 80 watts almost the entire time. Her voice appears to be made for SSB. Then, I wanted to improve my setup and maybe use the equalizer (EQ) settings to improve my transmitted power and ineligibility. So I read up on cardoid micro...
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