[ardf] Transmitters and Fox Boxes...

[Matthew Robbins]

    I want to say thanks to everyone who posted about Fox Boxes and 
Transmitters and Club Equipment.  Wow.  I'm still digesting most of it.

    At the risk of sounding ungrateful, is it possible to add photos to what 
you've already written?  Certainly the text is more important than the 
photos, but sometimes just seeing it really helps.

    I haven't looked at the two articles in 73 regarding Fox Box 
Construction, but I'm working on it.  (It looks like I need to send in a 
subscription...)

    I've got a few more questions, and they all seem trivial, but here they 
are anyway:

    1.  Do you use bulkhead connectors for piercing the ammo can, or just 
RTV the coax in a hole, or something else?

    2.  Do you use different connectors (e.g., BNC, SO-259) for the 2m and 
80m antennas?  Where do you have disconnects?  I was thinking soldered coax 
at the 80m TX, BNC at the HT, and then disconnects at the box bulkhead, 
inside and out, and then soldered joints the rest of the way.

    3.  For 80m do you use coax or twinlead from the box to the antenna 
(e.g., SO-259 or binder posts).

    4.  Do you have a way to measure and adjust SWR in the box, or do you do 
that at home and assume everything is the same at the transmitter site?

    5.  If you use HTs for control of an 80m transmitter, what kind of 
antenna do you use for the 2m link?  (Probably not a turnstile?)

    6.  Do you try to eliminate the ON7YD oscillator noise on 80m?  How?

    7.  Have you had any trouble with RF on feedlines or power cables?  Do 
you use Ferrite or loops of the cable/coax (common-mode chokes)?

   8.  Did you try to keep the CG underneath the handle?  It seems like you 
have to put the battery in the middle of the ammo can to make it balance 
right.

   9.  How do you select 80m or 2m or both?  Switches?  Solder?  Change 
plugs at the Controller?  (Can a Pic-Con do both at the same time?)  (For 
PicCon users with remote control: How do you switch off or otherwise 
disconnect the 80m TX when set up for 2m?)

   Today I went to three different stores looking for ammo cans.  (One place 
advertised 50cal boxes for $2.99.)  They were all out.  *sigh*  Well, 
Tomorrow is another day.

Matthew Robbins
AA9YH

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