[Lowfer] UWL station pics and measurements

Eric Smith esmithmail at gmail.com
Thu Feb 10 23:22:27 EST 2011


Ok.  I have the numbers, perhaps you can help me interpret them.  Most of
you know when it comes to analog what I don't know would fill volumes.  I do
have fine success building and programming digital projects since anyone
with a third grade education can do that.  But certain aspects of real
electronics have always escaped my understanding.  So please bear with me:

I took this picture of UWL today at noon:
http://www.nutstreet.net/images/lowfer/UWL-daytime.jpg

The final is covered by snow and located inside the void of that brick the
loading coil is on.  The solar panel is not resting on the ground, there is
actually a red brick under it but it is hidden by snow.  I didn't have time
to take measurements then but I wanted to get the picture at that time
knowing it would be dark by the time I could actually take the readings.

Here is a picture of the input voltage to the final during key down -- shows
12.37 VDC:  http://www.nutstreet.net/images/lowfer/UWL-voltage.jpg

Here is a picture of the final current during key down -- shows 0.038 A:
http://www.nutstreet.net/images/lowfer/UWL-current.jpg

The reason I have the meter on that scale is an open fuse on the uA/mA scale
:(

Inside the final enclosure and in-line with the DC feed is a non-inductive
0.1 ohm resistor of fair precision that I use to compute output power in
watts.  But it would be difficult and disruptive to open up right now to get
my probes on that.

So what do you think?  I'm interested in any and all feedback, good and bad
(Bill, please be nice :)

Eric  KD5UWL / WD2XFX
 -- UWL is on 185302 Hz, QRSS30, at EM15gp


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