Hardware

2m-40m PORTABLE ANTENNA FOR FT 817

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This antenna is made by 3 parts: 1mt long telescopic whip,  50cm long coil for 10-40m, 50cm long common part  fitted by a PL259 connector; when fully telescoped it is 1.95mt long approx
The common part works like 1/4 lambda antenna for 144 MHz.
The common part + the telescopic whip work like 1/4 lambda for 50 MHz.
The common part + coil + telescopic whip work on 10-12-15-17-20-40 m, band changing is achieved by putting the plug into the appropriate socket on the coil and fine tuning adjustments are made using the telescopic whip.
You can fit the antenna on a magnet mount and put it on a car or another metal surface or fit it directly on the antenna jack of the transceivers using three or four 4m-long wire as ground plane

construction details of the antenna (PDF)

construction detail of the coil (PDF)

SOME DETAILS OF MY ELEVATION SYSTEM

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A  TX/RX SEQUENCER FOR PA & PRE SWITCHING

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download schematic diagram 

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The advantage of sequencing is to protect equipment from damage.  If RF power is applied before TR relay is not fully closed it can arc contacts on relays and RF can leak into the preamplifier and destroy it.  The sequencer described above allows going into trasmit and going back to receive from trasmit with a delay of 0,20 seconds, eliminating the problems just described. With one side of the circuit you can drive antenna relays and preamplifier, with the second side you can drive PTT control of your PA. Jumper allows to set the outputs to ground or 12v. 

UNIVERSAL INTERFACE BETWEEN PC SOUNDCARD  &  COM PORT AND TRANSCEIVER

I use this interface to run 9a4gl Meteor Scatter, WinPSK, AGW packet and all  other applications with transceiver and Sound Blaster. At the moment I run with an ICOM IC821h and an ICOM IC706mk 1 and so I use the rear accessories socket of these transceivers to/from PC sound card. I've  used the transformers to  eliminate noise and ground-loop between PC and RTX. On my circuit I put SMLP5001 SMD transformer but any 1:1 600 ohm transformer is ok.

Because some programs use DTR and others  use RTS, i've used  both to make a general pourpose PTT interface. To achive a high voltage isolation  between COM ports and external world I've deciced to use Toshiba MosFet photocoupler TLP595G (you know, to repair a PC motherboard is very expensive !!!). 

Here are the pins on the com port:    
DB25 DB9 Name Description In/Out
1 - - Chassis Ground -
2 3 TX Transmit Data Out
3

2

RX Receive Data In
4 7 RTS Request to Send Out
5 8 CTS Clear to Send In
6 6 DSR Data Set Ready In
7 5 SG Signal Ground -
8 1 DCD Data Carrier Detect In
20 4 DTR Data Terminal Ready Out
22 9 RI Ring Indicator In