May 26, 2014
Summertime Memories: 2013
Our summer holidays usually start at visiting European largest HAMRADIO fair at Friedrichshafen (DL). In 2013 things were no different; we hired 3 rooms for two nights in a nearby small village and enjoyed 2.5 days visiting the HAM-fair, eating &enjoying the view at lake Constance and as a highlight, visiting the saturday-night Bavarian Contest Club dinner.
As this was our umpteenth visit at the fair, only few items were bought. One tends to get overloaded with stuff back at home, so our priorities have shifted. Meeting many old but also new friends, has become a major fun part.
A first meeting was planned for some time with Romeo S59M(ex-S52RU) who was organizing the successful IG9Y MM operation for CQWW-SSB. From left to right: Romeo(S59M), Aurelio(PC5A), Me (PA5MW), Rens(PA3FGA) and his YL Claudia (PD5AX). Note the carton box behind them, which contains our new Flexa field-day 144MHz antenna.
Our car already carried some HF equipment and transverters for 6m and 2m, we just needed an antenna to go with that.
Special aluminium polish on the radiator and 1st director add some valubale extra dB's...
On sunday afternoon we left for Malbun/Liechtenstein.
Antenna setup near cabin in Malbun (HB0)
There was no ham-radio activity planned that year. None at all as below picture verifies.
But just for dealing with known RF addiction, we did put up a multi-band 10-15-20m cats-whisker dipole @8m and a HB9CV for 6m at the top at 10m AGL/ 1670m ASL.
The dipole of a 10m yagi also carried the wires for 15 and 20m. Some ex-mil fiberglass poles on the right held the 2m/70cm vertical, used for local chat and to track our SOTA trips via APRS. At 2m height it carried the new bling Flexa Yagi.
Traditionally at the first evening, the main diner table in our cabin was transformed into a shack for 3 operators. Both my Elecraft XV50 and XV144 transverters were installed and connected to a K2. The power supply was my Diamond DMV330, but the one without Earth wiring. So after switching on and playing with some coax pigtails, the preamp of the 6m transverter was defect. And the K2 cabinet felt tingling. What a rookie-error, quickly established some proper earth connections
During the evening I had a CW contact with a G4 on 144Mhz! But he disappeared in the noise. As this was not some kind of guess-calculate-noise-intervals-mode but a 'pure humanoid operation', there was no completed QSO this time;). Nonetheless it did offer pure excitement. But Murphy decided to play along; after another half an hour the transverter started showing a life on its own. It would start to clatter indefinitely after any >10sec transmit period. Whatever we tried, it would not go away. Surely this never occurred at home. Next to that, all units had been intensively tested before departure. No TX on 2m anymore and no 6m at all. Time to go..
Into the mountains
On a Saturday we visited the not-so-easy-to arrive top of the "Gorfion" to activate a SOTA FIRST (OE/VB-241). After the available Geocache was also found we went down along the trail of the Augstenberg. There we spotted a nice possible location to setup our new bling 144 yagi.
Next morning we returned to that spot, setting up the 7el/144 and connected a TR751 to a pack of LiFePo4 power-batteries (2x2500mA=330g). The Kenwood was also taken from the Hamradio flea market and in mint & 'working' condition.
Setup-crew arranging deep-fringe HD antenna.
Armstrong rotor.
IARU VHF July contest
The almost flat terrain at 2300m ASL, was already nicely warmed up by the afternoon sun.
What a crowded 2m band, not a single free spot to find!
I started CQ'ing around noon on 144.198 and quickly enjoyed a nice pileup.
After some 30 minutes, during a DL QSO, I noticed someone was calling me in CW from The Netherlands ! How cool is that? Quickly I gave PA3CWN an RST report and consecutive QSO number. Now that's a nice troposcatter QSO. And copiable by ear ;)
My band openings, besides QRO stations within 200km, were relatively short and produced serious QSB from my side, so I was told. Turning the antenna into other directions delivered new ones from those areas every time.
But a rainstorm was slowly arriving, restricting our mountain visit to few hours only. My voice welcomed the departure as I had to talk loud and articulate heavily in order to get a few lousy Watts out of this Vintage Kenwood :)
In the end I made 44 QSO's to HB0/HB9/F/DL/PA/I/OE/OK/OL, not bad at all!
Into Holland I also worked PA0PVW, PA3PCV, PA1AT and PA2CHR (ODX 764km).
Many thanks to my crew for carrying some of my stuff and 'setting up the VHF site'.
What a superb way to enjoy a few hours in a VHF contest !
p.s. I just got reminded I was served a fresh cappuccino during the contest. Probably being to focused on the contest itself, I really cannot remember that at all....? Anyway thanks for that!
Feb 7, 2013
WSA 160m (1)
Weak Signal Audio 160m, a new project
When searching for progression, sometimes there is a need to look at matters from a totally different perspective.Why discuss the use of headphones?
List of headphones under test
Comparison test conditions
The listening test
- Weak signal alone in the band noise
- Weak signal close to a loud signal
- How easy/difficult is it to pick and decode a weak CW signal?
- Which is offering you a better reading resolution while tuning the band?
- What other audible effects, good or bad are noticed?
Noise cancellation headphones
Test results
And some final remarks
Feb 29, 2012
Beverage On Ground (BOG)
The ability, to delete all directions but one, is put in two figures of merit; MDF and RDF(refer ON4UN’s book). In short, a kind of horsepower if you will, to distinguish the good from the better receiving antennas. And just because humanoids simply must quantify everything.
I refuse to go in detail about RDF and MDF, because they represent computer models from antenna modeling programs, which by principle, cannot handle close to ground antennas, or more specifically, cannot handle real ground at all. Until someone takes a helicopter and runs zillions of circles at different heights around a lowband receiving antenna, measuring its pattern, I rather use my ears instead.
And then again; what elevation angle is required at which moment? Too many parameters. Better have a few antennas more at your hand!
Setting up station @PI4TUE |
The lowband receiving antenna is a whole lot different from multi-element VHF yagis, where forward gain is simply the most important figure of merit.
But, there is also a common factor between them; the “better” the antenna, the smaller the forward lobe in degrees azimuth/elevation. Where “better” has a total different interpretation; the VHF yagi needs the small lobe to collect all tiny weak signal particles from the dx and to a lesser extent, avoid signals from the side and rear. Lowband receiving antennas mainly concentrate on deleting signals from all unwanted directions and to a lesser extent collect the weak signal from that direction which remains.
Antenna computer models?
I shit on virtual, calculated dB’s.
In the end it all boils down to achieve a S/N ratio where you can make the QSO yes or no.
There’s no free lunch.
A decent lowband receiving antenna (like multi phase staggered beverages) requires real estate and/or extensive hardware and trimming (6-9 Circle). A physical shortcut like Flag/Pennants/K9AY/EWE, or even the BOG is a choice mainly based on the will to put up any RX antenna to receive at least something. Some work better than others, depending on the environment. And then there is man made noise for which vertical polarized antennas seem more sensitive. Or is it not?
You need to experiment and find what works best for you.
On a site note; even a short vertical, suppresses high angle signals thanks to its theoretical doughnut shaped pattern And being less susceptible to local noise because of its short length, this IS a valid dx receiving antenna. The total opposite is a short backyard NVIS covering high angles only. Here you have it; two RX antennas which fit even the smallest gardens!
Need proof? Find my result in 2012 CQ160 CW Low Power
During last week’s ARRL DX CW contest weekend at our PI4TUE club-station, we (again) were in desperate need of a working RX antenna and had little time to install it in the usual public space.
The PI4TUE station is located in a building at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
It’s nice to have antennas at 70m above street level, but the local noise level is very high. Let me emphasize that again; for the lowbands extremely high!
Both on the roof and on ground level (up to a distance of 150m from the buildings), we have experimented for some 10 years with the following receiving antennas: K9AY, KAZ Delta RX(only on roof), magnetic loop (s), short tuned verticals ... etc. All including extensive common mode filtering.
Nothing ever offered any S/N advantage compared to the available TX antennas; full size 40m dipole and vertical @65m, full wave 80m loop @73m and two full size 160m 0.25 slopers @63m.
Because of limited available real estate, beverages have not been tried thus far. Also, there are some large rusted fences along the property perimeters.
But Topbanders never give up. So this year it was time to try a BOG.
On a piece of lawn, facing the USA, 8 plastic fence posts were put in the grass. A 70mtr (max available space) long 0.5mm dia insulated stranded copper wire was linked on the bottom of the posts. At both sides a copper pipe was hammered 1 m deep into the ground, hoping NOT to meet any local wiring. KFC! From our shack at the 13th floor, 150m 75Ohm SAT coax + another 50m RG58, across several roofs, cross-overs between buildings (which required informing security, asking them NOT to shoot us from the roof) was used to connect to our BOG through a 1:4 transformer on a BN73-202 binocular. There were no 50/75 transformers installed. This was never tried before, not permanent and we had about 3 hours available.
On average, the antenna wire was at a height of 3 to 12 cm across the lawn.
Why not directly on the ground? Well, according to theory, directly on the ground should have an electrical "lengthening" effect (which is wanted). But on higher bands (40m) such can introduce a direction reversing effect (not wanted). Also, flat on the ground the signal is supposed to drop several dozen of dB’s. Well, theory is one thing, and often ensures that we hopelessly remain staring at computer models.
Instead of debating, better start building the darn thing!
Since we really needed *any working* receiving antenna on 160/80/40 and there was no time for experimenting anyhow, the wire was deliberately hung 2 inches directly above the ground.
Termination at start was 390 ohms, and later changed to 195 until the analyzer measured a flat SWR curve up to 10 MHz.
At the TRX end a HD version common mode filter was connected: 17 turns of RG174 on a #77 ring core, followed by a galvanic separation using 2x2 turns on two BN73-202 binoculars, with the secondary separately routed in Teflon tubes. Over the top? Yes, maybe, but since all our previous effort only offered noise and I use this kind of filter successfully at home.
On Friday afternoon, around 17UTC a quick check at BCB frequencies well known to us (1584, 4015, 6995 etc) all clearly showed F/B and F/S performance, which was promising!
"You sure you don't hit anything ??" |
Blue wire near ground IS our BOG |
Those of you who participated, know this was a weekend with some of the worst lowband condx for years. Even more reason to have any decent RX antenna available.
In the contest, our antenna was a success!
None of the 20 worked USA mults on 160m, delivered by the BOG, could be heard on the full size TX sloper antenna. On 80m this was the best receiving antenna ever. From a quiet S1 background noise, stations appeared out of nowhere with S1 - S5. Again, most of them were no QSO or just not there on the TX full wave 80m horizontal loop @73mtr AGL. On 40m about 30% was better than the quarter wave TX vertical at 65m height. In most cases the S/N was better not only because of the lack of constant cracking noise from the TX vertical.
Why did we succeed this time? Because the BOG is only active in the horizontal plane, the local man made noise is perhaps largely ignored? That is supposed to be a myth. So I rather stick to the remaining fact that on a specific lawn on which several other types of RX antennas have been tried, this one did work FB.
We do have experience with different kinds of 200-300m phase staggered Beverage antennas on (large) outdoor terrain for many years. Any kind of BOG is a poor performer in comparison.
But this thing sure has potential at (small) residential areas.
No hallelujah yet. We will soon make some additional attempts out on the free field, before moving it along the property of our neighbors.
The internet offers very little data on the BOG.
73 Mark, PA5MW (PI4TUE)
Mar 11, 2011
ANY antenna beats NO antenna
After having moved, a couple of years ago, I wanted to launch my 160m activities at this new QTH. But the list of opportunities was quickly overtaken by the local challenges. The few attempts were marred either by public exposure (neighbors included), safety issues (see nov 1 2009)and lack of real estate. Next, work and other activities shifted priorities such that I kept stuck at the stage of computer aided antenna modeling.
I had to lower my ambitions as advancing plans to the next season again and again, did not get me anywhere and certainly not the pleasure of simply making QSO's on Topband.
The stealth Topband Antenna
An unobtrusive wire up in the air as high as possible, plus a few radials on the ground resembling some sort of basic Groundplane Antenna are my major goals.
I already tried getting different wires up a large tree, but the launching velocity power of my legal sling shot wasn't sufficient.
A friend offered help by supplying a special tinned copper wire having teflon isolation. At only 0.2mm diameter this stuff is both unobtrusive and extremely light.
With help of the slingshot it is quickly launched in a large tree using a 40g weight at the end.
It's the white wire, routed along branches of a small dead tree in the back garden. The horizontal wire is a short wideband horizontal antenna.
From here it goes upwards to a large tree some 15m away, ending at a height of >22m and then some length horizontal tangled up in the branches. In total I guess, about 26mtrs. Unimportant really, since there are plenty of opportunities to match it on 160m.
A copper ground rod and some 6 attached radials varying from 6 to 9mtr (20-30ft) in length are covering the west-to-northwest quadrant. Minor detail; since the vertical wire rises up in the southeast direction, none of these few radials cover the area under this sloped GP.
The white box is a True Balance type remote controlled ATU, which was not used for 7 years already. Together with some common mode supressor #31 FT240 ferrite core and already available coax from earlier experiments, I'm connected.
The final picture already shows the current situation where I have added another 10 radials in this small quadrant. The Yagi is my next priority for the summers Es season on 6m. And yes, that door in the upper right does need some maintenance attention.
So how does it play, QSO-wise?
Let's summarize this: a lossy 0.2mm dia wire, an even less-than-poor man's RF ground, a quick&dirty matching unit and 100W input power for that 'Sloped 160m GP'. Good points: it's at least 1/8 wave up and free in the air.
Within the hour I work stations on Topband within a 2000 km range including an UA2, but some later an Asian UA9.
The next morning at 05:54 UTC I work Dave, W5UN. Wow! Was that perhaps a special moment of extraordinary propagation? Later that evening I meet and work another well known Magic Band operator UK9AA. Two more US stations from PA and TX are worked in the next few days. It's no magic, using only 100W this antenna exceeds my expectations.
In between I have added some 10 more radials in by tiny 8x7m backyard. It requires a different setting on the remote ATU.
Using my short RX vertical I can hear many of the active dx'ers and dx-peditions on 160m. Most have large pile ups and are gone before I can make the contact. That is fully acceptable; this must not be too easy right?
New continents are entered in my log soon; JA7NI and today FM5CD. Both take some time before they are able to dig out my puny Little Pistol signal. Slow speed and perseverance while riding the QSB waves proves successfully.
Now how cool is this ???
What's next?
In the next weeks I will try to arrange:
- Replace the ATU for a Low loss matching unit using a Heavy Duty Coil
- Detune the TX antenna to lower (induced noise) coupling to my RX antennas
- Add a PTT controlled RX antenna sequencing
- Make more QSO's, have fun operating Topband
Sep 19, 2010
Back to Analog Basics
This model has just a few basic functions like 20 memories, a red emergency number button, an LCD showing the dialed number (no call ID recognition) and 3 selectable true analog ring-tones.
Installation process takes 1 single non-dramatic step: connecting your RJ11 cable. No batteries to install and charge 24hrs, no firmware upgrade, no operating system settings, no help desk and no on-line manual.
That long greyish thing on the left is your handset(wired connection!). As soon as you pick it up from the hook-switch you hear the analog line buzz. Not that digital created artificial sound image from the past, just the real thing.
No answering machine, mailbox, Call ID and/or hide call ID. Just the basics needed for a phone conversation between earthlings.
Feb 24, 2010
Doing it right....
This is the University of Technology Eindhoven's contest call.
Class: M/S HP
Operators: ON9CC, PC5A, PE2HD, PA5MW
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 83 29
80: 261 42
40: 866 55
20: 999 59
15: 933 58
10:
-------------------
Total: 3142 243 Total Score = 2,290,518
Club affiliation: Bavarian Contest Club
Antennas: 160m sloper@220ft (RX: 5ft vertical@200ft), 80m full size horizontal
loop@220ft, 40m 1/4 GP @200ft, 20-10m 3el SteppIR
Rig: Ten-Tec ORION
Power: 400w from Acom 1000
Wow! This was big fun. Some of us love this contest even more than CQWW.
Finally we made some substantial progress compared to our past entries; at 1000 QSO's extra this year we have moved from the back end to the middle(ish). Watch out for us next year !
What went very well?
Preparation
This time I'm well prepared by taking a few days off before and after the contest. Being well rested and refraining from doing the *last minute job* I am fully motivated.
Looking fresh during the final hours...... :)))
Antennas
The new 3el SteppIR is a big improvement over the 15yrs old 3el compromise trapped(read: noisy) yagi. Next the 80m dipole at 220ft was replaced by a full size 80m horizontal loop at 200ft along the roof perimeter of the building (thanks to PA3DSC, PA0IB, PE2HD and PA3FGA).
But there is room for improvement for the RX antennas on 40-160m.
The HF2V mainly used for 40m
80m horizontal loop along the top perimeter. SteppIR 3el yagi. 160m sloper at the right end-corner
Rig
The ORION's user ergonomics offered its merits to all operators. Especially the setup for audio (main=both ears, sub RX =right only) and the volume knobs (toggle for audio on/off) was much appreciated for operating RUN/S&P between main and sub receiver with help of N1MM contesting software; Single Band SO2R in one box so to speak.
The station has no true SO2R capabilities. Another challenge for the future.
Second operator position....... not really.
Being focused
All operators were sharp from start till end. We strained for the best (band) strategy and our senior contest op successfully taught us additional tricks on the fly.
Operator Aurelio, PC5A looking sharp during sunday afternoon
Food, coffee, sleep, etc.
There was plenty of it all and the couches in the 'lounge' were comfortable for a quick nap.
What went not so well?
Pin 1 issues
We use some 5 pc's, various audio routing, external equipment and zillion connections for different set-ups in the shack. During the contest our headphones showed all kinds of strange varying noises, rattles and hum. The room houses another 30-40 pcs, several HF/VHF/UHF transceivers and other equipment. Definitely a challenge for the future.
Lockup/crashes
Very likely related to the above; WinKey locked up the N1MM program.
The ORION needed 4 power cycles (3 for no RX and 1 for no TX).
But
All in all a very memorable contest.
Thanks to Martin PA3DSC and Steef PA0IB for maintaining a great club station.
See you in the phone contest.
73 Mark, PA5MW