VoIP

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

Why not a Ham Island VoIP contact list?

[NA4BH]

http://lagunaskincenter.com/images/wart%20finger.jpg

[NQ6U]

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz79/gyrogeerloose/WART-hog.png

[W3WN]

Hello.

Why not a Ham Island VoIP contact list?Because Why is playing left field. Who is on first.

[w3bny]

We need an echolink net and then send QSL cards out...on eQSL...and submit them for cash and prizes and steak knives

[X-Rated]

They used to have a real easy way on Skype to have large groups on at one time. Now it seems a bit of a pain to setup. Unless I am missing something.

[W3MIV]

They used to have a real easy way on Skype to have large groups on at one time. Now it seems a bit of a pain to setup. Unless I am missing something.

Not a pain to set up. It's a pain to pay for. Conferencing is only available on the play-for-pay Skype.

[W1GUH]

A bunch of us yelling at each other over the internet? Hah!!!! Count me out.

OTOH, a 20m net could be lots and lots of fun.....especially when the quirmers get started.

[X-Rated]

Until my massive line noise gets fixed, HF is out for me. I still have another 10 weeks before they work on it.

[W1GUH]

I feel your pain. But you're luckier than me. My HF environment has an average S/N of -20 to -30 dB, with no chance of ever improving. OTOH...that has the great upside of forcing me into mobiling. Something I like more than fixed operation. (Except in freezing weather or for entering the SS).

[n2ize]

I feel your pain. But you're luckier than me. My HF environment has an average S/N of -20 to -30 dB, with no chance of ever improving. OTOH...that has the great upside of forcing me into mobiling. Something I like more than fixed operation. (Except in freezing weather or for entering the SS).

fIRST, You've got to get out of the city. Get a nice place up in a rural/remote location in the Adirondacks, Maine, Vermonte, etc. Get some heavy iron up there, maybe a broadcast transmitter or two, build up a class E rig, get hold of an R390A or some serious boatanchor receiver, put up a tower and string up lots of wire... Then get on 160 or 75 in AM and STRAAAAP !!! You'll be one of the "tall ships" with the North East Coast AM sound...The sound of the AM radio when it's cold at night.

[X-Rated]

I feel your pain. But you're luckier than me. My HF environment has an average S/N of -20 to -30 dB, with no chance of ever improving. OTOH...that has the great upside of forcing me into mobiling. Something I like more than fixed operation. (Except in freezing weather or for entering the SS).

Mobiling is not a good option with gasoline over $4 a gallon and on the rise.

[W1GUH]

I hear that...but if it's the only option...

[w3bny]

Mobiling is not a good option with gasoline over $4 a gallon and on the rise.

Go to a nice park and work park portable. And get there on public x-portation or walk.

[W1GUH]

Yea, if ya wanna lug a storage battery and probably deal with curious people or worse. Even a small battery, suitable for QRP, is mighty heavy. A good option is to camp out at a campground...that makes GREAT hamming!

[X-Rated]

...deal with curious people or ...
The DHS. This is a friggin' police state anymore.

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

In the parks around here there is almost always a light pole or 2 with an electric outlet.
Not saying that they might say something, but.
And, the new public transit buses have Empower connections and free WiFi!

[W1GUH]

The DHS. This is a friggin' police state anymore.

Yea, I got hassled at a county park in NJ when I was playing radio in my car for 2-3 hours. Weather was cold so I didn't set up on a table. The ranger (LEO) drove by a few times but didn't say anything til I was packing up to leave, said there's "no loitering here." I squashed the impulse to tell her that I wasn't loitering and to explain what I was doing....but figured that'd get me a full body-cavity search, "Hard and Deep".

Guess I looked like a drug dealer?

[W1GUH]

Hello.

In the parks around here there is almost always a light pole or 2 with an electric outlet.
Not saying that they might say something, but.
And, the new public transit buses have Empower connections and free WiFi!

I've seen street people in NYC take off the cover plate on the base of a streetlamp and hand wire in a socket so they can test that TV they just acquired in a sidewalk score!

[X-Rated]

Yea, I got hassled at a county park in NJ when I was playing radio in my car for 2-3 hours. Weather was cold so I didn't set up on a table. The ranger (LEO) drove by a few times but didn't say anything til I was packing up to leave, said there's "no loitering here." I squashed the impulse to tell her that I wasn't loitering and to explain what I was doing....but figured that'd get me a full body-cavity search, "Hard and Deep".

Guess I looked like a drug dealer?

I am sure you look like a drug dealer. Whatever that looks like.

[W1GUH]

Anybody sitting in a car in a parking lot it would seem.

[KA5PIU]

I've seen street people in NYC take off the cover plate on the base of a streetlamp and hand wire in a socket so they can test that TV they just acquired in a sidewalk score!

Hello.

I have an extension cord with alligator clips for just such a use.
In all major cities they have transformer vaults that have a telephone connection that is used for telemetry.
Light poles are always an option for power.
And, like the can wrench that is used for telephone access, a transformer key is universal nationwide.
You can make your own with a pipe nipple and a hacksaw, it is nothing but a thing with 4 points that goes into the hole and turns the one nut around the other.
You can also take a cheap thin wall socket of the right size and cut grooves along the sides to clear and use that.
I have connected temporary power and water for construction to the point that I am real good at it.
For a while I had a travel trailer that we would use for a guard shack and I could hook up water and power within 5 minutes, fill up the water tank and charge the batteries while at that spot, perhaps an hour while we move barricades, disconnect and be moved and reconnected again in 5 minutes at the new spot.
We might do that for 12 hours, a dozen moves a day.
Once the day was done I would find a sewer manhole and dump the waste and take it to the designated area, hook up power and hang until morning to start the process over again.
We did that for 6 months so I got plenty of practice.

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

Could not remember what it is called, a Penta Wrench.
http://www.jharlen.com/speedsphw1.html
You can see that in this case it is grooves, and only 2 are needed but most have 5 so that you need not concern yourself in the position of the wrench.

[NQ6U]

I've seen street people in NYC take off the cover plate on the base of a streetlamp and hand wire in a socket so they can test that TV they just acquired in a sidewalk score!

Dangerous work. Around here, a lot of those street lamps run on 480 three-phase.

[n2ize]

Dangerous work. Around here, a lot of those street lamps run on 480 three-phase.

Some of the old incandescent street lamps used to run on high voltage. They would wire them in series. If one lamp burned out the fixture was fitted with a cutoff that would bypass the fixture so that the remaining lamps stayed lit. The problem with this however was that the voltage of the remaining lamps in the string would increase and the life of the lamps would be shortened. On those system it was important to replace any burned out lamps as quickly as possible. Crews would often replace lamps on a regular basis before they burned out.

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

The lamps themselves do not use 3 phase but can use 440/480.
That is why you need to know what you are doing. ;)
Most larger generators and do 120/240 and 240/480, with 480 being quite common, so a 30 amp transformer is easy to find.
This is what you use if all you want is to power a radio.
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS275&q=480v+to+120&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=11595453722270125938&sa=X&ei=nwGVTamwO66y0QGXo6yCDA&ved=0CCAQ8wIwAg#ps-sellers
It is only a little extra to buy a transformer with two 120 volt windings and two 240 volt windings.
You can connect it with the primaries and secondaries in parallel, and you have a 240 to 120 transformer.
You can connect it it with the primaries in parallel and the secondary in series and connect it to 120, it is than an isolation transformer for 120.
And of course, 480 to 120.

[WØTKX]

The older lights on the highway on work on are wired in the old school series method, because they saved money in the short term. Not so on the long term maintenance, because the burnt ones would be left in, and now regular bulb replacement schedules are all whacked. We are changing it out to parallel. Silliness.