Amateur Radio - Free and Open Source Software

Number 19 on your Feedb. ck card
KAMBox
Packet and WEFAX for the lazy.
by Joe Davidson N4AQG
I
recently bought a
Kantronics KAM
for the shack . I had
owned a Kantron ics
UTU and liked their
p roduc t , so whe n
the " pac ket- bug"
munched on my hamming
spi rit I went fo r
the KAM. With the
KAM I have been able
to keep all my favorite
modes, plus enter into
the new worlds o f
packet and WEFAX .
Most of my projects
around the shack are
driven by the desire to
reduce excess monon
or effort. This project
is no exception. If necessity
is the mother of
invention, then laz i­
ness is its father. I
have a good share of the latter.
Attcranons for the Lazy
,
:
=
=
~-
HfADSH
To copy WEFAX, I had to unplug the
UF audio from the HF pon and plug it into
the VHF port. Then I decided I 'd like to work
the local VHF RTTY repeater. Kant ronics
routes the RTTY AFSK through the HF port.
Hmmmmm. Icould swap the audio pons. but
what about the AFSK and PTT? Little
idea-gremlins began 10 scurry around the back
ofmy mind.
I' ve built several switch boxes in the past so
I knew that there was a way around this problem.
Out came the paper and pencil. and the
drawing began. Figure I shows the result.
A s I drew. a few ideas bobbed to the surface.
I use the phone patch input on my FT­
767 GX to input the KAM HF pon transmit
audio. At a recent hamfest, I bought a used
Telex boom mike headset. Why not find a
way 10 use it? Thus, the four-pin mike connector,
the remote PTT jack, and the x M ITt
RF.C switch on the front panel.
This box allows me to switch the HF audio
alone to the KAM VHF port fo r WEFAX. It
will also reverse the HF and VHF audio,
AFSK and PIT to output RTTY on VHF.
With a flip of a switch I can use the Telex
headset on HF for contesting, OXing, or just
plain old gabbing.
32 73AmaleurRadio . Oetober, 1989
."".
NO