First fishing for January 2010

The ice left Buffalo lake last week and they removed the "NO FISHING FROM BRIDGE" sign. Les amd I were there at 8 this morning. The water was choppy.The wind was out of the north and was really cold. My northern friend in North Dakota calls it a "walleye chop." Fishing was slow but there were a few bites. I started off the year with a nice bass that just did not want to be pulled up from deep water but I got him. Les had several good bites and caught a "log" bass that I had to crawl down and unhook for him. A quick trip back to Wal-Mart on the way home for some black jig heads and larger dark squrimin grubs. The weather is supposed to turn bad with snow tonight and tomorrow. I think I will have to take some time off late this week and do some more fishing. Stay tuned! de Paul N0NBD

ATS III working and labeled KINDA!?

Well here is a picture of the clear top tin with a label on it. It is not too professional but it is labeled. Tomorrow or Sunday I am going fishing, the ice is off the lakes so I will give it a try. It will be good to go see if I can entice a fish de Paul N0NBD

UPDATE!!!! 2

I got the ATS III B installed in one of my 4SQRP clear top tins. I really messed up when trying to drill my finish tin from Terry. I drilled two other tins for practice but nothing would line up and look good. So with a new template and some tape, a sheetrock screw and determination I started in and now have an ATS in a clear tin. I will work on a cool label later. Sorry Terry I messed up the pretty label from you. I love this stuff. Now to operate some!!! I worked Edward WK6L in CA and Chris KC0GIO in MN today so it is working YIPPIEEEE!! de Paul N0NBD

UPDATE!!!!

I just made my first QSO with my ATS III B. Chris KC0GIO in Cambridge, MN. answered my CQ on 7040 and we had a few minutes chat and I got a 559 signal report. The little radio seems to be working fine. Now to get it in a proper tin de Paul N0NBD

Done enough to try for some QSOs

I have all of the filter boards built and tuned up except the 80 meter board. Terry is sending me some wire to wind the L3 torroid. I came up short on wire. But here is the rig all "haywired" together with jumpers to try to make a QSO. maybe later this evening I can snag one. de Paul N0NBD

Still no fishing but I am hopeful

The snow is melting rapidly and the weather is supposed to be warm next week so maybe some water will open up so I can go fish. Tonight I did build the 40 meter filter board for my ATS III. It worked first time and with a little adjusting of coils made 3 watts. . My solder flux arrived a couple days ago so I finished soldering the last of the resistors on. As Terry says "I LOVE THIS RADIO STUFF" de Paul N0NBD

You gotta look at this!

My ATS build is stalled a bit waiting for some new solder paste to arrive. The last I had got toward the end I could not push it from the syringe. I tried hand soldering the 103 resistor on the back of the 30 meter module but must have had too much heat and burned off the metal end. I could not get any ohms reading across the resistor. SOOOO more flux is ordered, and Steve KD1JV is sending me a new resistor. While waiting I have wound all of the toroids and prepped most of them. Today in the mail a package arrived from Terry and in it is a BEAUTIFUL yellow tin with my ATS label on it and says "built by N0NBD" I am about to bust. This is a thing of beauty. I am anxious to get things finished up and mount the rig in the tin. I have a couple tins that I will practice layout and drilling/ punching........ Thanks Terry de Paul N0NBD

First module complete

This afternoon I got the 30 meter module built and did the other tests in the instructions. I have a problem with the rig being on 80 meters with a 30 meter module in. I will do more reading and a post to the group. I will get this figured out. Although it did make 3/4 watt with the dds and module not agreeing. More later de Paul N0NBD

No fishing but much progress has been made

Well the high in SE Kansas was 14 degrees today so I stayed inside and worked some on my ATS IIIB. I got the last of the solder bridges cleaned up and powered it up. I hear the 8 and see most of it on the readout. I have one more leg to resolder a little and the whole 8 will light up. As Terry says... I LOVE this radio stuff de Paul N0NBD

Ready to test now!

Last night I finished installing the semi conductors and the thru hole parts. Everything went fine. I did have a few solder bridges on the chips that were taken care of with solder braid. Today I will build a couple modules and start the tune up and check out. I would rather go fishing but there is no open water anywhere, at 7 degrees it will not be open for a while. More later de Paul N0NBD