wire through pulley

I have a small mast with a 2m/70cm antenna on top of it. On top of the mast a pulley is mounted. It is used to keep a wire antenna in the air. This wire antenna was connected to a non conducting wire. Unfortunately the isolated wire broke so my antenna came down.

I already mounted the wire to the top of my chimney. However I want to use the pulley for a different antenna. So I had to find a way to get a wire through the pulley again.

Last night I succeeded. I took a 2 meter long tube. I pushed home electricity wire through that tube and through the pulley. When enhough wire was pushed through I connected isolated wire to the electricity cable. Then I pulled back the tube with the wire. This pulled the isolated wire through the pulley.

ic730 rx preamplifier relay problem

One of the know problems with the good old IC-730 is a non working preamplifier relay. The relay does switch but no difference in signal level is heard. The problem is dirty contacts in the relay. I found some solutions on the internet. I suppose they work but I did something more simple.
-remove transparent plastic hat of relay. Do it gently it looks like it can break easily
-turn on radio
-turn of preamp
-put some wodka/alcohol on a piece of paper. between the contacts
-turn on preamp
-gently move paper around.
-turn off preamp
-remove paper
-mount plastic hat

I have cleaned it this way 1.5 years ago, the preamp works without problems since.By the way, when using a 2x13 meter dipole antenna the preamp is not needed at all. Not even on 10 meter. When the antenna is connected the noise increases significantly.

500 KHz and 137 KHz

Hopefully we get an allocation around 500 KHz. It seems to be an interesting band. At the moment a few hams are permitted to use 500 KHz on a temporary base. I was too late to apply for a license.

Nevertheless I start building an synthesizer for 500 KHz and 137 KHz. When it is ready I can use it for a 137 KHz transmitter. And hopefully for a 500 KHz TX too.
What I have here is a PLL synthesizer that works from 5 MHz to 5.5 MHz. It has TTL output. It was intended for a HF transceiver project. It works but it produces to much phase noise for a receiver. For a transmitter it is good enough though. Especially when when frequency is divided.

For 500 KHz Dividing is done in 2 steps. First divide by 5 then by 2. The divide by 2produces a signal with 50% duty cycle. That is important for the power amplifier.

For 137 KHz the divided by 5 signal is divided by 8.

I made a small print for the dividers. It works, the signals sound good on a HF receiver. A picture will follow soon.