Gang:
Had a very successful weekend with the 38S. On Friday,
I asked Mike Gipe (K1MG) about some trouble I was having
with tuning into my tuner. I was getting 5w out, but the
SWR was very high and TC2 didn't have much effect in bringing
it down.
In my email to Mike, I mentioned that I'd left out the
ferrite bead from the 10 ohm resistor used for the IRF510's
gate bias. I had read a post earlier saying that this should
be left off. Mike said I should put it on, as the FET can
produce lots of VHF spurs.
I went home Friday, pulled up the resistor lead, popped on
the ferrite bead, and soldered the lead back. Tuning was now
100% better. SWR down to 1:1 on tuner meter.
Weekend results? Take a look --> Worked CA, OR, IN, FL, WI,
KY, AL, CO, GA, IL. All reports were "great sounding signal"
and RST ranged from 599 to 559. I'll take that any day.
PLEASE! Don't forget to include that ferrite bead when doing
your 5w mod. Your mileage may vary, but that bead meant the
difference between making 0 contacts in three day's effort vs.
10 good, solid QSO's in 2 day's casual effort. It was like
flicking on a switch.
My personal thanks to Mike Gipe for jogging my memory. I'll
thank him personally, as soon as I find his address :-)
73 de Dave NR3E
nr Dallas, TX
qrp-l #25, ARRL
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