The Hendricks DC30B Resurrection

Recently I found a partially completed Hendricks DC30B 30M transceiver kit on eBay. It is small - a bit larger than a pack of playing cards.  The transceiver is direct conversion, crystal-locked and CW only.  Below is the eBay posting image:

 

The partial kit was advertised as “incomplete, not working and/or for parts”. The image reveals some of the missing parts, Q1 (the final), a toroidal transformer, one capacitor, the case top, etc. For some reason the 78L05 voltage regulator had been removed and replaced but not soldered. I ordered about $5 worth of parts (including the suspect 78L05).

While waiting on the parts, I very carefully went over the construction and found one electrolytic installed backwards. Otherwise, I thought the build quality good.

I wonder why it was abandoned...

Once the missing parts arrived, I followed the extensive assembly instructions available on the web and – to my pleasant surprise, it fired right up. Here's the testing lash-up.

I found a fine resource in the Yahoo DC40Kits email group. I got good advice and welcome encouragement both on and off-list.

 

After testing, I completed the installation in the supplied clamshell chassis half. Unfortunately I could not locate the top – and have yet to find a suitable replacement.

Output was right at 1 Watt with a nice 12.6V supply. I called CQ a lot until I made my first QSO with NK8O in Kansas (image to the left). The antenna was a 30M sloper and Chas gave me a 579. I have since had better luck when 30M was in good shape, usually at night.  (Note:  The K3 was on - but not in use)

Some thoughts:

This was a lot of fun for the price of a couple of fancy coffees for the better half and me. My biggest mistake was to limit myself to the supplied case. I have since learned of several mods which I could have applied easily. My second mistake was to not mount a socket for the crystal. The supplied Xtal (10.120KHz) is nowhere near the usual QRP frequencies.  Personally, I consider the keyer IC WB5BKL-unfriendly.  I have also read of a few design deficiencies – which have not bothered me.

All in all, a fun project.

cln – Nick

WB5BKL

Importing N1MM ADIF export files into XLog

I like the N1MM Contest Logger program for Amateur Radio contesting.

N1MM is quite amazing for free software and is very well maintained. It is aimed just at contesting and covers most of the major contests worldwide. It is easy to install and – though there is a steep learning curve – once set up, solid.

It supports exports to Cabrillo (.log) for contest log submissions and to the ADIF (.adi) format for import into other logging programs.

I prefer to use Linux on my computers. My 'Amateur Radio computer' is a dual-boot machine just so that I have access to the N1MM Contest Logger and an antenna modeling program – both available only on Windows. To the best of my knowledge there is no Linux equal for N1MM.

My everyday logging program is XLog – a Linux program. After each contest, I move the results into XLog. Unfortunately a direct import of the N1MM .adi file into XLog leaves a lot to be desired for me.

N1MM exports only the start time – to 6 places (hhmmss). I like both the QSO start and end times to be entered and 4 places (hhmm) is more common. I note that QSO start and end times in a contest are almost always identical.

N1MM exports the frequency to the nearest 0.1KHz. XLog's default is to the nearest Khz.

N1MM exports both a sent and a received signal report. In the weekly CWT contests I enjoy, neither report is exchanged but N1MM defaults to reports of 599 for both. I prefer that those false reports not be entered into XLog.

N1MM does export the contest exchange, but I like to include the name of the contest following the exchange in XLog.  XLog has a different name for this field.

Here is an example of one record from the N1MM exported .adi file. Note that this is all one line:

<CALL:4>K5OT <QSO_DATE:8>20170802 <TIME_ON:6>190518 <BAND:3>15M <STATION_CALLSIGN:6>WB5BKL <FREQ:8>21.03258 <CONTEST_ID:6>CW-Ops <FREQ_RX:8>21.03258 <MODE:2>CW <NAME:5>LARRY <RST_RCVD:3>599 <RST_SENT:3>599 <TX_PWR:1>5 <OPERATOR:6>WB5BKL <CQZ:1>4 <STX:1>2 <APP_N1MM_EXCHANGE1:3>127 <APP_N1MM_POINTS:1>1 <APP_N1MM_RADIO_NR:1>1 <APP_N1MM_CONTINENT:2>NA <APP_N1MM_RUN1RUN2:1>1 <APP_N1MM_RADIOINTERFACED:1>1 <APP_N1MM_ISORIGINAL:4>True <APP_N1MM_NETBIOSNAME:11>OPTIPLEX755 <APP_N1MM_ISRUNQSO:1>0 <EOR>

And here is what I would like the same line to look like for import into XLog:

<CALL:4>K5OT <QSO_DATE:8>20170802 <TIME_ON:4>190518 <TIME_OFF:4>190518 <BAND:3>15M <STATION_CALLSIGN:6>WB5BKL <FREQ:6>21.03258 <CONTEST_ID:6>CW-Ops <FREQ_RX:8>21.03258 <MODE:2>CW <NAME:5>LARRY <TX_PWR:1>5 <OPERATOR:6>WB5BKL <CQZ:1>4 <STX:1>2 <COMMENT:15>127 CWT-1900 <APP_N1MM_POINTS:1>1 <APP_N1MM_RADIO_NR:1>1 <APP_N1MM_CONTINENT:2>NA <APP_N1MM_RUN1RUN2:1>1 <APP_N1MM_RADIOINTERFACED:1>1 <APP_N1MM_ISORIGINAL:4>True <APP_N1MM_NETBIOSNAME:11>OPTIPLEX755 <APP_N1MM_ISRUNQSO:1>0 <EOR>

I have highlighted the areas that have been modified.

I did this with a little Bash script and the sed (Streaming EDitor) command. Below is the operational part of the sed command for one of the little contests I enjoy, the CWT at 1900Z each Wednesday:

# CWT1900.sed

#

#

s/\(<TIME_ON:6>\)\([0-9]*\)/<TIME_ON:4>\2 <TIME_OFF:4>\2/

#

s/<FREQ:8>/<FREQ:6>/

#

s/<FREQ:7>/<FREQ:5>/

#

s/ <RST_RCVD:3>599 <RST_SENT:3>599 / /

#

s/\(<APP_N1MM_EXCHANGE1\)\(:[0-9]*\)>\([A-Z0-9]*\)/<COMMENT:15>\3 CWT-1900/

#

#

This sed file makes the four changes I listed above. Now I can run the .adi output files from N1MM through my little bash script and import them into XLog with no editing needed!

If you would like copies of my bash script for the three CWT contests, with the accompanying sed files and some informal notes, email me at my QRZ.com address.

cln - Nick
WB5BKL