A Loud Silence

As Tim’s wife, I find myself having difficulty sleeping…again. I was looking something up on Amazon and noticed the heading Dave put on this tablet with Tim’s blog. It’s time to read his posts. I haven’t heard my husband’s voice in almost a year. Stem cell transplant did not go well and Tim passed away August 6th, 2019, which was 16 days before my birthday and 20 before our daughter’s birthday.

What an amazing man my husband was and I am so thankful that he journaled his thoughts on this blog. I got to hear his voice again tonight in his posts, his fun sense of humor,and his “commercials” with the wildlife in our yard & camping (and our house, with the goofy cats) interspersed among his entries.

Thank you for reading his posts, commenting and enjoying his passions with him.
Tim sincerely pursued a great many hobbies and he was generous and gracious in his sharing them with others. He lives on in these posts, which are a delight to read. I happened across the pictures he took of the “Squirrel Process Flow”,as he labeled it, complete with pictures and arrows. That is so Tim and utterly hilarious. Playing Pictionary was a hoot with his engineer mind. Tim lives on not only in his posts, but in the presence of our Savior. In Tim’s last moments of this earthly life we were gifted with confirmation of Tim’s profession of faith. Tim had entered a comatose state the last 2 days of his life. Our children Danielle and Ben, our mothers and I were at his bedside. His breathing was changing so we knew he wouldn’t be with us much longer. Tim opened his eyes, looked right at Ben, he smiled, pointed up, said look and was ushered into our Lord’s presence right before us. I miss this incredible man immensely. I’m so thankul that the Bible says I don’t have to say goodbye forever. Thank you Jesus for making the way clear so I can confidently say instead, “I will see you later sweetheart.” We have eternity together yet before us. If Tim has touched your life in any way, please honor his memory by considering the testimony of his life and his last moments. God bless. Dawn Boppre

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Home again

After just short of eight weeks at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN my wife I returned home this past Saturday. I was there for a stem cell transplant as the next step in treatment for my lymphoma. It was a very long process with a number of phases. There were elements of it that were very rough but I made it through and am on the road to recovery. I had a major reset on Monday involving the rescue squad and another hospital stay but am slowly inching back. I’m as exhausted as one can be but see small incremental improvements every day. It will be many many months of recovery. I’ve been keeping up on the world of Amateur Radio (and some photography) through John, AE5X’s blog and links. I’ve been off the air for quite some time now but as my stamina returns I’ll reconnect some antennas and get back on the air.

73,

Tim

KA9EAK

A bit more on the M6

For any number of reasons there aren’t a lot of camera stores anymore so getting to see a camera before you buy it is a challenge. During my senior year in high school and for a couple years of college I worked in a little camera store called Brown Photo (later Black Photo.) We sold a lot of 35mm film cameras (Nikon, Canon, Minolta) as well as all the film-based point-and-shoots of the day. It was a lot of fun, probably the most fun job that I’ve ever had. This was well before the Internet. If you wanted a camera you went to a camera store and there were a fair number of them in those days. Not so much anymore.

One day my wife and I were driving home from a doctor appointment in a suburb of Milwaukee and on a whim we pulled into a Best Buy to see if there was a chance that they might carry some of these mirrorless cameras. To my astonishment they had quite a few, including the Canon M6. The first two things that surprised me when I held it was its size, it was a lot smaller than I expected, and second its weight\build quality. I expected a relatively light and plastic feel and that is not at all the case. This thing is well-built and has a very solid feel to it. I was impressed. The next thing that was immediately noticeable was the nice grip as compared to the M100. I was sorely tempted to walk out of the store with a camera that day but some vestigial remnant of self-control was enough to get me out of there empty handed. Plus, I had pretty much talked myself into the M100 and holding the M6 really got me re-thinking that decision. After a bit more thought and research I started to watch the used market and eventually found an M6 in mint condition for a bit less than I would have paid for a new M100.

I found these reviews helpful as I did my research:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-m6

https://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-eos-m6/canon-eos-m6A.HTM

https://www.cameralabs.com/canon-eos-m6-review/

I’ve added the following pictures in the event that they are helpful to anyone considering one of these cameras. I wasn’t prepared for the size of the camera and having some items to compare it against might be helpful.

Canon M6 and Nikon FE

Canon M6 and Nikon FE

Canon M6 and Nikon FE

And the lenses are smaller as well. Here’s a comparison of my old Nikkor 80-200mm F4 to the Canon 55-200mm F4.5-6.3:

Nikkor 80-200 and Canon EF-M 55-200

The M6 uses an APS-C size sensor so the 35mm full frame equivalent of the new lens is 88 – 320mm (Canon APS-C multiplier 1.6x.)

Finally, here’s a comparison to something reasonably well-known in the Amateur Radio world:

Canon M6 and ICOM ID-51

I realize that it’s not a pocket camera but when compared to a DSLR (0r even an old film SLR) the difference in size is quite noticeable. Combined with the size differences in the Canon EF-M lenses I can fit a comparable amount of equipment in about one-third the space with an appropriate weight savings as well.

In reading reviews of the camera the two biggest cons were the lack of 4K video and the lack of a viewfinder. Neither of these things mattered that much to me. I’m not a vlogger so 4K isn’t an issue. Though it’s nice that the M6 has provision for an external mic. I have a Zoom H1 that I’ve used for music that might be re-purposed if I get the urge to vlog but I’ll have to wait until my hair grows back. As for the viewfinder, thus far I’ve not been missing it. The touchscreen is more than capable but should I find the need for one Canon offers the EVF-DC2 which slides into the hot shoe albeit it is a bit pricey.

As I said in my previous post, this camera likely has more features than I’ll ever need. I especially like the connectivity with Bluetooth and WiFi. It connects to an app on my Samsung tablet and smartphone and allows control and transfer of pictures. There are a ton of exposure modes, the autofocus works very well, and the menus are well thought out and easy to navigate. Overall, I am very pleased with this camera and expect that it will serve my needs for quite some time.

 

Rekindling an old hobby

It’s partly John AE5X‘s fault. John has several digital photography sites linked from his blog and I’ve been reading them for a while with growing interest. It’s been a very long time since I delved into photography at that level. Many years ago it was my primary hobby, even before Amateur Radio. I had some nice 35mm equipment and even my own darkroom equipment (though the “darkroom” was the dark basement at night with my equipment by the washtubs.) I would process my own black and white film (Tri-X and Plus X as I recall) and make prints with a Beseler 23C enlarger. I also did some color prints from slides using Cibrchrome.

Old Nikons – FE and FM

From 1981 to about 1987 I spent a lot of time at Road America and an occasional trip to Mid-Ohio photographing things like this:

Porsche 935

And this:

Porsche 956

Lots and lots of rolls of Kodachrome went through those old Nikons. Through this time school, marriage, and later kids happened and other than photos of kids and some canoe and hiking trips, photography sort of fell to the wayside.

Cameras for quite some time have been mostly point-and-shoot or variants thereof. In 1998 I bought a Nikon Pronea S and two lenses. This was an APS film camera. While it took nice photographs it was too late, digital was coming fast. I bought my first digital camera, an Olympus C-3000 Zoom in 2000. It had a whopping 3.4 megapixels. Quite a step down from the approximately 140 megapixels of Kodachrome. I hemmed and hawed about a DSLR and about five years ago I bought a Nikon Coolpix P600. It’s seen a fair amount of use and I’ve been quite pleased with it. It’s not a DSLR but it has served my purposes well. Woven in there were a pair of Canon point-and-shoots. the Powershot A3000. We ended up with two in order to increase the chances that you could find one of them when needed. These were nice little cameras that could easily be stuffed in your pocket and probably carried the bulk of kid photography for a number of years. And of course there was the onset of cellphone cameras. While they are cameras in the technical sense, I don’t know that they are tools for actual photography.

Over the last several months there has been a lot of time for reading and not much radio station operation. I’m not real sure why other than cancer has a way of getting your attention and changing your focus. I’ve been spending a lot of time coming up to speed on the world of digital photography. I’ve been away for a very long time and it’s been fun to rekindle thoughts about an old hobby with so much new technology. So all this reading starts one to thinking…maybe it’s time to get back into this with something other than a point-and-shoot.

As many of you are aware there is well more than a plethora of digital cameras on offer. Even though cellphones have put a significant dent in digital camera sales there are an enormous set of options for the person wanting more than a cellphone can offer. One of the newest things that caught my interest were mirrorless cameras. These were all new to me. I read a lot about the pros and cons of mirrorless versus DSLR. One of the things that appealed to me was their size. I wasn’t all that interested in a big DSLR. The P600 is nice but you can’t really put it in your pocket. Even a large pocket.

So after a bunch of thought and no small amount of research I narrowed my choices down to the Canon EOS mirrorless offerings and was mostly set to get an M100 but then found a very nice used M6. What tipped the balance? A bit more ability to control the camera combined with a very nice grip.

Canon M6 and EF-M lenses

In addition to the “kit” lens, the 15-45mm, I have since added the 11-22mm and the 55-200mm. All Canon EF-M lenses. B&H Photo have become my new friends. They have everything you need, good prices, and ship as fast as lightning.

Thus far I am exceedingly pleased with this new camera. My first new camera with this level of control in a very long time. The size is wonderful. Much smaller and lighter than a DSLR and while it won’t fit in a pants pocket it will fit in a jacket pocket. It is packed with more features than I’ll likely ever need and it all fits nicely in a Tenba DNA 8:

Tenba DNA 8

Tenba DNA 8

All in all much less size and weight than the old Tenba bag I used to carry around:

Old Tenba P795 bag

And a lot more functionality.

I’m glad that I waited to jump into the digital photography world. Perhaps I was waiting for mirrorless cameras before I knew that they even existed. Thanks John!

As for my health, I finished the sixth round of chemotherapy four weeks ago with some side effects but nothing overly debilitating. On our recent trip back to Mayo another PET scan was even better than the one back in December so the disease is headed in the right direction. Next step is a stem cell transplant in a few weeks. After that our hope and prayer is that I can start to string together days, weeks, months, and years without cancer. I can’t wait until summer when treatments will be over and I’ll be on the way to recovery. I’ve got a new camera to use!

New Oscilloscope – Siglent SDS 1202X-E

Since I’m going to be here a bit longer I decided to get a new oscilloscope. I pushed the “Buy It Now” button while receiving my third chemotherapy treatment this past week so some of this might have been drug induced.

I’d actually been hemming and hawing for a bit over a year about getting a new oscilloscope. It’s a Siglent SDS 1202X-E. Prior to reading the posts by John, AE5X I had been considering a Rigol DS1054Z but John’s posts persuaded me to choose the Siglent. It just arrived yesterday and thus far I’m pleased with it.

What’s in the box?

The scope comes well packed and is much smaller than I anticipated.

Siglent SDS 1202X-E

Included with the scope are the power cord, a USB cable, two 1X\10X probes, and a quick start manual.

Probe accessories

Each probe includes colored ID rings, a BNC adapter, tip shrouds and a compensation adjustment tool.

Siglent SDS 1202X-E

For years I’ve used a Tektronix 2215 and it has served me well. For whatever reason, on occasion I’ve wanted to capture a waveform but the only way to do it was to photograph the display. It reminded me of the days of using a Polaroid camera on the old Tektronix scopes that we had in the R&D lab in which I worked summers when I was going to school. Then we obtained some Nicolet Instruments storage scopes. Suddenly no one wanted to use the old Tektronix Polaroid option.

NIC storage scope

Now you could save a whole waveform on a 5.25 inch floppy. (And if I recall correctly it was one capture per disk.)

Things have progressed quite a bit since those days. This Siglent has an amazing amount of features for the price. I expect that it will serve me well for a number of years. Now off to capture some waveforms.

 

The second best Christmas present

My wife and I were at the Mayo Clinic this past week for some doctor appointments and the third round of chemotherapy. The first appointment of the week was a PET scan. The external indicators plus lab work indicated that things were progressing in the right direction but the doctors (and my wife and I) wanted the internal view.

Tuesday afternoon we got the results from the PET scan and it is all clear. The areas of concern from the scan prior to treatment are all gone. The doctors call it complete metabolic remission. (Dark areas except the brain and kidneys were areas of cancer.)

PET scan

Obviously we are overjoyed at this result. We had hoped and prayed to hear this after the sixth round of treatment. To hear it after only two rounds is the second best Christmas present of all.

Dawn and I

We need to finish up the rest of the chemotherapy to be sure that everything is gone in order to decrease the risk of it returning as there is a 40-50% chance of it doing so.

So what’s the best Christmas present of all? The Reason for the Season.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this [shall be] a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly therewas with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2: 8-14

We have much to be thankful for this Christmas. More than any Christmas past.

May your Christmas season be filled with joy in the Reason for the Season.

 

Diagnosis

Little did I know that this post:

https://outbackofbeyond.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/merry-christmas/

that I made just before Christmas last year in which I mentioned having a cold was the beginning of a heath roller coaster that has lasted all year. After countless doctor visits to all manner of specialists, tests on gallons of blood, multiple x-rays and various scans, multiple biopsies, and multiple hospitalizations, culminating in the last 12 days in the hospital at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN I now have a diagnosis. I have a rare form of lymphoma called T-cell Lymphoma. I started chemotherapy this past Wednesday at Mayo. My wife and I arrived home last night. (Mayo is thankfully only a 4.5 hour drive from our home.)

While it’s certainly not what we would have chosen it’s apparently part of the plan. We don’t believe anything happens by accident. There’s a purpose in this though we may not fully understand it. I don’t say this as a coping mechanism. It all is of a piece for me. If we’re floating about on this wonderful blue marble, unique in all the universe, and that wasn’t an accident then our existence and all that it entails isn’t an accident either. The Lord wasn’t surprised by the pathology report. He has something in this for me and we’ll walk in faith through it blessing others in a very difficult situation though I suspect there will be times ahead when he may have to carry me.

The care at Mayo was well beyond fantastic. Every single person there from top to bottom was wonderful. The medical personnel were clearly very good at what they do, had done their homework on the pile of information from the preceding months, intently listened to our responses to their questions as well as to our questions and concerns, and most of all showed a very genuine interest in caring for me and solving this problem. My wife and I cannot say enough good about the care that I received. Every day there were multiple visits from both individual doctors as well as the team of specialists assigned to me. Everyone was interacting and the teams all knew each other on a first name basis which made for the perfect method in which to solve a difficult case like mine which had thus far stumped all local doctors.

I have a long and likely difficult road ahead. The good news is that the doctors at Mayo have seen this cancer before in patients with circumstances similar to mine. They have a plan that they are running and will be monitoring along the way to determine if changes are required to achieve the desired goal of remission. Additionally and equally important, I have a most wonderful wife that has been my constant companion for over 35 years, three wonderful kids, and a host of family and friends that are helping with their hands and with their thoughts and prayers. I’m not going through this alone. Any thoughts and prayers you wish to add to the pile would be most appreciated.

As you can well imagine situations like this have a tendency to focus one’s thoughts. You start to consider more things in the light of eternity and frankly find some things wanting.

As I am able I intend to keep plugging along in this wonderful hobby. It certainly provides a nice distraction from thinking about all manner of negative things and will keep my mind sharp. If there are periods of quiet it’s most likely that I’m having a bit of a rough spot. I plan to keep writing as I am able. This is all new to me so I’m not sure what to expect. I made it to 55 years without ever being in the hospital a day of my life except the day of my birth.

Thanks for reading my posts over the years and for the comments and camaraderie that has developed. It’s all part of this wonderful hobby.

 

Current consumption for various HF rigs

In working out some additional battery power for portable operation I wanted to know the current consumption of some of the HF radios that I own. While I have a KX2 I didn’t include it as I’m not all that concerned about power consumption as it sips electrons.

Sometimes more than 10W may be necessary so taking a 100W radio for some portable operations is a nice option. I measured the current consumption in 5W increments for the following radios:

Yaesu FT-857D
Kenwood TS-590SG
Icom IC-7100
Kenwood TS-480SAT

While I would never use the TS-590SG for portable operation I included it just for comparison. The results are in the table below (current in Amps):

	857	590	7100	480
Power
5	3.77	6.43	5.66	5.08
10	4.93	7.47	6.77	6.34
15	5.42	8.23	7.46	7.08
20	6.02	9.02	8.07	7.88
25	6.62	9.77	8.67	8.67
30	7.18	10.09	9.35	9.22
35	7.76	10.51	9.93	9.85
40	8.34	11.18	10.53	10.40
45	8.90	11.81	11.19	11.02
50	9.47	12.50	11.80	11.64
55	9.75	12.90	12.21	12.13
60	10.08	13.23	12.58	12.63
65	10.49	13.61	12.94	13.12
70	10.82	13.94	13.40	13.62
75	11.17	14.30	13.79	14.03
80	11.58	14.67	14.16	14.26
85	11.93	14.99	14.53	14.36
90	12.27	15.32	14.92	14.37
95	12.70	15.59	15.31	14.45
100	13.07	15.75	15.72	14.49
Receive	0.68	1.39	0.65	1.00

Current consumption vs. Power level

The measurements were made using a Samlex SEC-1223 power supply and a Powerwerx Inline Power Meter.

Powerwerx meter

Measurements were made in CW mode on 20m into a Drake DL1000 dummy load.

Drake DL1000

Current consumption was a bit higher on lower frequency bands. For instance, on 40m most of the measurements were anywhere from 300-500mA higher.

 

Another antenna on the farm

With HF band conditions up, down, and sideways, though not as “closed” as some might have you believe, and some prompting from my friend and fellow operator Josh, KD9DZP, I put up a new antenna. It’s a Par Electronics OA-144 Omni.

Par Electronics OA-144

I’ve been very pleased with the other Par Electronics antennas that I have and have thought about putting up a dedicated antenna for 2m SSB\CW\Digital modes for quite sometime. At this time I didn’t want to bite off a big project so a directional antenna was off the list. I have an OA-50 Omni for 6m and have been pleased with it so the obvious choice was to get its little brother, the OA-144. Josh was interested as well so we ordered two 2m Omni’s from Dale. With his typical superb customer service the antennas were delivered within the week.

I elected to place the OA-144 on the same mast and just a bit below my OA-50. Probably sub-optimal but it’s the situation that I have for now so it will have to suffice. (On top of the mast is a Comet GP-3.)

Big Omni and Little Omni

Josh, KD9DZP, was a big help getting the antenna up and tuned. He’s been an immense blessing to my family and I, especially with my on-going health situation. We had the antenna up and tuned in less than an hour.

First contact was Greg, KA9VDU in McFarland, WI. This was my first 2m SSB contact since October 2007. At that time I was using an old Kenwood TR-9000 (10 watts) and an Elk 2M/440L5. This time I was using my FT-857D with 50 watts into my new OA-144. I heard some other stations fading in and out but Greg was the strongest.

FT-857D and 2m SSB

It’s nice to have an antenna dedicated to 2m SSB\CW\Digital. With HF mobile on hiatus for the foreseeable future, I will use my FT-857D for 2m SSB\CW\Digital operation when I’m downstairs and my IC-7100 when I’m upstairs.

I look forward to more 2m SSB\CW\Digital operation. It’s another interesting aspect of this multi-faceted hobby. I typically spend all my operating time on HF but it’s nice to have options. Unless we’re going to have another Carrington Event there’s always a band and mode open somewhere for something.

 

FT8 Blarp!

Today was very hot and miserable. A day that makes one very thankful for the invention of air conditioning. My wife was gone for the day so that made it an all day radio day. I started out by making another attempt to try and like a magnetic loop antenna that I bought a few years ago. It’s an Alpha Magnetic Loop Jr that I purchased used at a hamfest. The price was right and it was in great condition so the impulse to buy was triggered and I came home with a magnetic loop antenna that has largely sat in its bag since the day I bought it. I’ve read about them but never used one. Over the past few years I’ve purchased a length of LMR400 and a very nice vacuum variable capacitor with the intent to build one but the build\buy decision tree flipped to buy that day as it sat staring at me from the table at the hamfest. It’s supposed to cover 10-40M at 25 watts.

Alpha Magloop Jr.

(It got a formal picture today in the music room as it was so humid out my camera lens kept fogging over.) The antenna is well made and seems to work but it is extremely touchy. I get that narrow bandwidth is a feature of magloops but after a while of fiddling it gets kind of old having to constantly re-tune the antenna. I’m not sure that my experience today endeared me to this antenna. I’ll keep it as an option but honestly my Par End-Fed antennas will see much more portable usage than this thing. So it went back in its bag. Perhaps age will improve it like fine wine or I’ll grow some patience. We’ll see which happens first.

After that less than satisfying experience I moved on to looking at a friend’s (Josh, KD9DZP) Yaesu VX-3R. For some reason it had stopped functioning and would not power up. He figured that it was bricked but asked me to take a look at it. I’m not much for troubleshooting micro mini electronic devices. I think they are made that small with the intent that they are disposable. Anyways, I endeavored to take a look. Not far into the troubleshooting process “BLAM,” the dreaded magic smoke release occurred. It was quite an event for such a small device and not one I’ve caused in quite some time. Those electrons pack a wallop no matter how small they are. Well, if it wasn’t a brick before it was now. I felt bad for blowing the thing up so I found a nice used replacement and bought it for him. He doesn’t know that yet so don’t tell him.

After that inverse Midas Touch experience I went upstairs to eat some lunch. No flames were involved. After lunch I decided to relax on the sunporch and tune around the HF bands a bit with my IC-7100. The bands seemed rather slow so I hauled out my notebook to check FT8 activity. There was a reasonable amount of activity on 20M and 40M and I made a handful or two of contacts. Then I went up to 10M and found a fair amount of activity. I made some more contacts and as I was in the middle of finishing up a contact with KC3BVL I got a “BLARP” from some oddball stations.

QP32 anyone?

The calls aren’t real and the grid square is deep in Western Siberia. Maybe it’s someone with a KX2 that is taking this International Grid Chase a bit too serious. Or maybe it was just a spurious decode. In the tradition of Don Martin (MAD magazine) “BLARP” was the first word that came to mind. Don Martin always had the perfect word for the sound of his cartoons. I checked the official Don Martin Dictionary (http://www.madcoversite.com/dmd-alphabetical.html) and oddly, “BLARP” isn’t on it. It sure seems like a word that he would have needed at some point.

After making some more contacts on 10M I decided to check the activity on 17M. For no real reason I don’t operate on 17M all that often. There was a fair amount of activity on 17M and a fair amount of it was DX. I made some US contacts while I continued to watch the DX roll by, attempting to get a sense of which were the most constant signals as opposed to those that fade out as fast as they fade in. One station that I was consistently decoding was ZB2R in Gibraltar. After watching him make a handful of contacts I decided to respond to his CQ call. I responded to his call below his transmit frequency and after a few calls I was rewarded with:

ZB2R

Thankfully we were able to complete the contact in the usual crowded conditions.

ZB2R 73!

That makes ZB2R my first 17M DX contact with FT8. (Setting aside the fact that this was the first time I’ve operated FT8 on 17M.) What makes this contact even more interesting is that the antenna I used was 17M add-on that DX Engineering used to produce and sell. I bought it shortly after I bought the 4-BTV and figured it would give me some options. I’ve only used it a few times. It’s a horizontally oriented coil with some short wire radiators that clamps onto the 10M trap of the 4-BTV.

4-BTV with 17M add-on

17M add-on

Is it the finest 17M antenna known to man? Nope. Did it allow me to make a contact with a station in Gibraltar? Yup.

While I went on to make a few more contacts I savored the ZB2R contact for the rest of afternoon. I’ll likely even savor it for a bit this week. It’s fun to pull one out with less than the best setup and it sure beats the sound of the magic smoke release playing over and over in my head. For a day that started out marginal and then got worse, it ended on a very good note.