Man, what’s that they say about buyer beware? Maybe it should be SELLER beware! Yesterday I finally got around to putting together my Cushcraft A3S which I had bought a couple years ago from a ham on eHam. I was recently motivated to finally put this thing together since my Elmer (weird name given to the person who helps you become an amateur radio operator), Harry, KC2THV, got back on the air and he and I have been trying to suss-out a band and time when a California-to-New Jersey contact would be reliable.

Anyway, I was putting together the A3S and I first thought it was odd that I had a couple traps with the very visible original label of “TE” which I figured were just new traps Cushcraft had sent out to a previous owner. Things were going well until I realized I had two of the 1/2″ aluminum tubes (“EG”) which were quite a bit longer than the 36″ they were supposed to be. I thought maybe the previous owner had made some mods that would explain why.

I got up this morning thinking I would simply cut the extended parts and put it together and make final adjustments with my antenna analyzer with the yagi pointed at the sky.

But then I got to thinking, some of these parts are also what appear on the A4S tri-bander by Cushcraft. What if this were somehow mixed-up with an A4S or maybe by hook or by crook, the guy sold me something other than an A3S? Just to check my sanity, I carried the assembled boom back on to the patio this morning, and measured the diameter of the tubing. Hmmmm, 2″!!! I then measured the length, which should be 14 feet for the A3S. I started laughing when my 16′ measuring tape ran-out and there was still more boom left.

I was sold a Cushcraft A4S!!! At least most of one. I’m guessing I have the three main elements and not the smaller one. For now that’s fine. That will give me only two elements on 10m, but that’s OK since I believe there should be increased gain and perhaps increased front-to-back ratio with the extended boom length.

So now to print-up the Cushcraft A4S Manual and assemble the antenna accordingly.

Stay tuned!

Being a proud owner of a Yaesu FT-857D, I have most of the must-have accessories for the rig, but I had one dark secret: I hadn’t yet put in any sort of audio filter. Oh sure, I still think I have pretty good ears. And the Digital Signal Processing on the radio does a pretty good job of taking down the noise and interference. But during contests or pile-ups, or even a busy weeknight, it can be tough to pull out a signal, especially on SSB.Probably long before I even considered buying a Yaesu, I was aware of Collins filters. You can read all kinds of reviews and look at pretty bandwidth plots but until you sit down and actually listen to how much a difference one of these can make on your radio; you most likely think you can live without one.

I shopped around and found the Collins filters from W4RT.com were getting high praise. Earlier this year I purchased an LDG Z-11Pro Ultra Plus from them and I felt quite happy to give ’em my money again.

	The filters are individually wrapped for fresher taste and to keep rotten QRM and QRN from seeping into the package. 🙂
	Removal of the FT-857D top cover is a simple matter of taking off the seven Phillips screws, per the directions in your Yaesu FT-857D manual (page 120).
	Once the rig is open, you can see the empty filter slots in the upper-left corner.
	The top cover comes off easily once you disconnect the speaker from the rig chassis.
	“Gaze into the crystal . . . filter”
	The 500Hz filter installed. The 2300Hz filter fits right next to it. The filter boards can go in only one way. If you have difficulty, take a look at the pins in relation to the holes they go into on the Collins filter.

Since I installed the filters, I’ve been enjoying much better reduction in nearby QRM. The 500Hz filter is still wide enough to not ring. And it REALLY works beautifully with the DSP as well as the IF Shift.

The 2300Hz filter makes a slight difference, at first glimpse. But you’ll hear the difference when the conditions get crowded. Also, on transmit, you can select to have transmitted audio pass through the filter, giving your voice signal a bit more ‘punch.’ (update – 20080228):  The sideband filter really makes a HUGE difference!  Now that I’ve had time to use this filter in contests and pile-ups, I can certainly say that without the audio filter, I would not have made many of the contacts I did (including huge pile-ups for VP6DX).  The filters both make use of the DSP and IF shift MUCH more effective.  I’m also noticing that when I turn on the filter, the signal I’m trying to tune-in actually ‘pops out’ and makes copying a LOT easier.  My advice to new and old FT-857D owners: BUY IT!

All in all, I have found the W4RT filters to be a much-needed improvement to my FT-857D.

OK, I’m back from Pacificon 2007. Will have photos up in the Gallery soon. Also check here for the ‘MultiMedia Meditation‘ I gave on Saturday morning (you will need to view this in Internet Exploder, sorry).

Plenty of exciting things happening in ham radio and this weekend surely conveyed that to the better-than-last-year attendance. The vendor area in the hallway/entry seemed like there were less vendors, but certainly more people. Sunday morning the flea market had about half as many tables as last year. I didn’t find any treasures. Inside the vendor area there were plenty of great displays. I confess my favorite was the Northern California Contest Club.

The Elecraft K3 is now probably the most coveted new rig these days. I think I now know why. The specs are impressive alone, but the expandability of the design makes for some interesting choices for future mods. I heard mention of being able to take advantage of the DSP to handle phasing of the signal out to the two SO-239’s in the back for phasing verticals or arrays.

The QRP Forums were always great. I now know how to do SMT soldering in a much more efficient way.

Best of all was meeting up with friends old and new and hanging out letting our geek flag fly. I can only imagine what that wedding party thought of us sitting at the table drinking and doing Morse Code.

By the way, my main buy this year was the Porta Paddle kit by American Morse. I can’t wait to put it together!
I plan to use it for portable work, go figure.