My Home Made Link Coupled Tuner

I recently built a link coupled tuner and have had great success with it on 75 and 40 meters. I liked the idea of it being a more efficient transfer of power than using a balun. I use 300 ohm twin lead for my feedline so a balanced tuner is just what I needed. My Heathkit SA-2060 tuner did fine, but I worried about the balun heating up after long transmissions. If you are interested in building one, do a Google search for link coupled tuners, and you'll find an abundance of information. I intend to dress it up a bit with matching knobs and maybe house it to prohibit people from the temptation of touching anything while I'm transmitting. 73 for now, Jim WØHRF

Pulsing Amplifier Tuner

I made a trip to my local Radio Shack and was able to find all the parts I needed for this project. I have to admit that the circuit board I ended up with doesn't look as nice as the schematic, but the circuit works very nicely. Richard Measures was kind enough to publish the above seen schematic and notes. I increased the resistor value of R1 to increase the speed or frequency of the dits for more stable meter readings.

The idea behind the pulser is to use a rapid series of cw dits that are fast enough to keep the meter levels stable. I plug this into the electric-key jack on my 746pro, and while in cw mode, tune for max output. This circuit will save your tubes, and power supply, because it only uses 1/3 the grid current to tune your amp up.

73
Jim / KBØQYB

Current Station

I've been away for a while, but now that the weather is getting cooler, I'll be adding entries as often as I can.

Since upgrading to General Class, I've made some upgrades to my equipment. I'm still loving my Icom 746 Pro, and have added a Heathkit SA-2060 tuner and an Ameritron AL-811 amplifier. I was fortunate enough to find the antenna tuner on Ebay at a real reasonable price. It's an oldie but a goodie and is built like a tank. Below is my main HF antenna, the all band doublet.

All Band Doublet

This is my latest antenna. It's commonly referred to as a Doublet.

The K3IWK 10-Element Yagi

The K3IWK 10-Element Yagi
This is my latest 2 meter yagi. It was designed by Charles Byers K3IWK. According to the Central States VHF Society gain measuring results, this yagi packs a 12.7 dbd punch, which for it's size is excellent. Charles does an excellent job machining the parts and making sure that it all fits together nicely. It's solid construction will outlast me. I am currently feeding this antenna with 70 feet of LMR-400 coax, and for the time being, it is mounted on my roof. There is a beacon located 210 miles SW of me that I can hear fairly regularly with this new antenna and my longest confirmed contact was with WØGHZ in Maplewood, MN which is 173 miles S of me. Thanks to this new antenna, I am really looking forward to many years of contesting.

73's

Jim

7 Element HB 

m2 6 Meter Loop



I've begun using the 6 meter band, and it is a blast. As you can see I'm using a M2 6 HO loop for DXing. I've made contacts all over the country with the loop so far.

Homebrew 2 Meter Loop


This is a loop that I built recently for 2 meter SSB work. Of course it doesn't have the gain of a yagi, but it's a great little omni-directional antenna. It's small enough to bring with me on camping trips.

6 Element OWA Yagi

Click the picture

This is my latest adventure. It's a optimizied wideband yagi made from 3/4 inch PVC. The elements are 3/8 inch aluminum rod and the driving element is 1/2 aluminum tubing. In testing, the SWR was flat across the whole band. I will let you know how well it performs in future posts.

73

KBØQYB