Reference Station Page Now Active

I’ve put up a page that takes you to the Reference Station list of equipment. It’s at www.dcasler.com/reference. Check it out. Comments should go to the video that introduces the reference station component.

Posted in Ask Dave | 7 Comments

Ideal Stripmaster Wire Stripping Tool

In today’s livestream, I promised to put up a link to my wire stripper. They’re a bit expensive, but I don’t know how I ever lived without it! Note: if you purchase through this link, you’re helping to support my channel.


Posted in Ask Dave, Ham Radio blog entries | 5 Comments

Samlex SEC-1235 Power Supply Manufacturer’s Markings and Certifications

A YouTube viewer asked what the manufacturer’s assertions are regarding certifications. Here’s a photo of the label on the bottom of my unit.

Posted in Ask Dave, Ham Radio blog entries | 2 Comments

Phoenix Area Source for Used High Wattage Resistors

Oggie Dirk van Dijk notes that he’s found a variety of high-wattage resistors good for dummy loads at Apache Reclamation and Electronics in Phoenix. Their phone number is (602) 254-0613.

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NanoVNA “Getting Started Manual” link

Oggie Lee Johnson, N4WYE, sent this link to a manual for how to use the NanoVNA. You can use the NanoVNA as an antenna analyzer.

Click here for Part 1. Click here for Part 2. (Links updated 1 July 2020.) Note that this will take you away from this website. Use your browser’s back button to return here.

Posted in Ham Radio blog entries | 5 Comments

How to get the latest Brandmeister DMR database for your Anytone D878UV

Oggie Roger Shults, KE4BFG, provides two helpful links. The first is a tool to download the latest DMR database from Brandmeister, and the second is a video that describes how to use it. If you use this tool frequently, you’ll always have the latest database.

Tool: https://github.com/BM-Database/database-tools/wiki/Anytone-AdresTool-v2.00

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDSQBw86XHs

Posted in Ask Dave, Ham Radio blog entries | Tagged | 1 Comment

Story from John Cliff, GØWXU

I have just visited your QRZ page and noticed you used to be WB6GBT. I wonder if you knew an old acquaintance of mine from 1968. A guy named Wes Louden. He was a WB6. I do not remember the rest of his call. I use to speak to Wes on 20m from the Garrison club station 9M2RH at Malacca in Malaysia. He had heard me in QSO with Tom – HS3TM, who he could not call due to security at that period. I was able to speak to Toms father who was in the same predicament due to Vietnam. Well one day Tom announced that he and his wife were coming over to see us all at the club. Like yea we all just hop on a plane and fly a few thousand miles to go and see some friends. We took it with a pinch of salt I suppose. A few days later I got the urgent call from the Battalion Signals officer telling me that Major Salisbury requested my presence down at the Ham club like ASAP, Wes Louden was on his way. No one with any sense would argue with Bob. He was the Garrison housing officer. All club members were called down to the shack to prepare for Wes and his lady arriving. Wes had persuaded the aircraft pilot who was controlling the plane to let him speak to the tower controller at Terendak air strip, who was one of our club, to let him know that they would be landing at Malacca airport shortly. It was a brilliant time for all. Wes was able to talk to Tom. Both he and his wife and all of us were taken on a Garrison tour of the Officers Messes. They met the Brigadier and his lady, all due to Bob. I was invited to call on Wes any time that I wanted to go over but never got round to it. Unfortunately I lost contact with moving about in the army .73 de John – G0WXU.

Posted in Ham Radio blog entries | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

BigIR Parts List from SteppIR

Per a request from today’s live stream, here is the list of items shipped along with their list prices. Sorry that it’s a bit fuzzy—I had to downsize it to fit it on the page.

Posted in Ham Radio blog entries | 2 Comments

AD 195 Charts—APRS with the Anytone D878UV

Per request, I’m uploading a PDF version of the charts I created for the video. Click here.

Here’s the video for handy reference:

Posted in Ask Dave, Ham Radio blog entries, Product Reviews | 4 Comments

TenTec Jupiter CW/keyboard Keyer Prosigns

Per request of Dale Mason, here are the prosigns I found available to you when you plug a keyboard into the back of the updated TenTec Jupiter for CW mode. The overline (e.g., BT), means the characters are run together with no space in between.

Prosigns:

Name of punctuation CW Keyboard key to use
Break, em-dash, or thought separator BT  • • •  + (on numeric keypad)
End of message AR •  •  • + (on main keyboard)
Wait AS •  • • •  * (asterisk)
Short dash, en-dash  • • • •  – (hyphen)
Forward slash; virgule  • • —  / (forward slash on main keyboard or keypad)
Question Mark IMI • •   • • ? (shift-slash on main keyboard)
Comma   • •    , (comma)
@ symbol (as used in email) •   •  • ~ (tilde)
Separation Sign, as between numbers and fractions •  • •  [ (opening bracket)
Semicolon  •  •  • : (colon, shift-semicolon)

I never found entries for the common prosigns KN (go-only), SK (end of contact), or EEEEEEEE (error).

Posted in Ham Radio blog entries | Tagged | 1 Comment