tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66448840545761603172024-03-13T04:13:10.273+01:00HAM-ing by PH0NOInfo on my radio amateur activities (like WWFF nature park activation), background to my station and general ham radio info (propagation, portable gear, etc.).PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.comBlogger160125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-71468806117170804942023-05-09T21:47:00.004+02:002023-07-01T14:28:04.351+02:00A 6m beam for portable operations<p>There is always a need for another antenna. If this does not sound like a self evident truth you are probably reading the wrong blog.</p><p>For a while I had been contemplating building a new 6m beam. I have the <a href="http://www.ph0no.net/2017/06/playing-with-6m-es-compact-beam-versus.html" target="_blank">DK7ZB multiband beam</a> for 2-4-6 meters. When I made it, I thought it would be a nice addition covering these three bands. In practice however I found I don't really use the 2m and 4m bands and therefore have an overly complex antenna with 7 elements while only using it as a 2 element 6m beam. To make it transportable I have to remove (parts of) the 4m and 6m elements. With the 2m elements the antenna is rather bulky to transport.</p><p>I was looking for an antenna for 6m with more gain but less complexity in assembly and one that would be easy to transport. One of the things I wanted to avoid was having to use bolts and (wing)nuts to attach the elements - as these small parts have a tendency to go lost when you drop them while out in the field.</p><p>My ideal "high gain but still transportable" option came down to a <a href="https://www.qsl.net/dk7zb/6m/412.htm" target="_blank">4 element antenna with a boom of 4m</a>. Split in two the boom is transportable. The same goes for the elements. Now all I needed was a way to attach the elements without using any loose parts.</p><p>I remembered an old 11m vertical that had radials you could screw into the base. What if I could make some construction to be able to screw the elements in position?</p><p>Keeping the antenna light (it is for portable operation) I chose 8mm diameter tubes for the elements. The inner diameter of this tube fits 6mm metric threaded rod. Glueing these in I had my threaded elements. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHduqwPSO7oA916Px8pv_82OfzbMGllUY5i0BxQWetsBPG-2aM1v_baaGYrai6rL0J2IqdsDCX9apFS6ARBakXNa2RAMclXI1lwxTtsyuoOjIscK1P3OL9pIpupBRK4bZCIEaoyRqSFy1ITwn7ZiM3P-E56z0Pn54CPOx7BQ6kH1xyka-_kieLZU3Y7g/s2892/elements.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2892" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHduqwPSO7oA916Px8pv_82OfzbMGllUY5i0BxQWetsBPG-2aM1v_baaGYrai6rL0J2IqdsDCX9apFS6ARBakXNa2RAMclXI1lwxTtsyuoOjIscK1P3OL9pIpupBRK4bZCIEaoyRqSFy1ITwn7ZiM3P-E56z0Pn54CPOx7BQ6kH1xyka-_kieLZU3Y7g/w400-h249/elements.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;">Now for the other side I looked at a threaded rod extension (coupler). There is a round version and with the 6mm threads it snugly fits in a 12mm diameter aluminum tube. </p>
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<img border="0" data-original-height="1893" data-original-width="1907" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaFuYB8UGDxn05hLz57_5P9AOhBuM4OPqVkQBHXymNa9QvqLU7vlmZQ1jbKqYgIm8P6WOg6U31FdRJfdBktNUxAgTp-6Wq21V7z_JmmyMoW_Twc2sDu_neWBT9Dm-S40xZSxpSfTxUcGgERU6xV45T2PgRH5eUybvpSYnOXHp7CqwfQwVoaayi59Ynfg/s320/inserts.jpg" width="320" /></td><td><img border="0" data-original-height="1495" data-original-width="1883" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNMv83vYFYmfnBhvmWwEushPtH5cUB70xSTJnS4XrFdeLIpSz9rgbrXT5s8E7mx_woxcDUkrhZkUylF4oW08ckKSceAiOX1E0UUZ0f3bojr5rgoPwXncDcI2vioI81RaNj7UASgBgPgutlmOkigpwicptNIIt2Vow9RuPMjrcoHvTU847p12sLFx2caw/s320/Inserts2.jpg" style="text-align: center;" width="320" />a</td></tr></tbody></table>
<br /><p>With this concept working I continued developing the antenna by spacing the elements along the boom (using plastic element holders to attach the elements to the top of the boom) and making them to size.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuOKAcsKGQc4UlYYI8xqdm7bdRNJ4XMw5xu-us27x5XRIREB4PVc85sa-gTrDaMDDKbH6QH0eDq3CrL2ZMKgKlEbrU532vJ67V1Ro6E_ERcbucdJ7HbKTRHGCROINYj1WaRVy244ygujAesChht5FMQR2FwMTIk4fIcvjFZJIE7G5R1FWWMFlmdAVURg/s3124/boom_inserts.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1765" data-original-width="3124" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuOKAcsKGQc4UlYYI8xqdm7bdRNJ4XMw5xu-us27x5XRIREB4PVc85sa-gTrDaMDDKbH6QH0eDq3CrL2ZMKgKlEbrU532vJ67V1Ro6E_ERcbucdJ7HbKTRHGCROINYj1WaRVy244ygujAesChht5FMQR2FwMTIk4fIcvjFZJIE7G5R1FWWMFlmdAVURg/w400-h226/boom_inserts.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For the dipole I used a plastic pipe to create a mechanical non conducting connection. I inserted the same threaded rod extensions I used for the other elements. In this case I soldered a piece of wire to the extensions - creating a connection point for the coax.</p>
<table align="center"><tbody><tr><td>.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5OGIBQPHAEZqRMDp1bvWGptFZ270kWCz5krOJHAZEufHWNi7hBnwynJox36bpLPbKvbwvEhDwDnMK7h1gBiVzABltVdSGa3bSPcUDL7OUnLuqT-ZefLP6ecpcINwrD0Z8zdxoIuPNBq66rr4wu8-DvFKd38_IL4QHoCegHyoXEyOGC3YJaVuPrkf5A/s2174/dipolecenter0.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1658" data-original-width="2174" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5OGIBQPHAEZqRMDp1bvWGptFZ270kWCz5krOJHAZEufHWNi7hBnwynJox36bpLPbKvbwvEhDwDnMK7h1gBiVzABltVdSGa3bSPcUDL7OUnLuqT-ZefLP6ecpcINwrD0Z8zdxoIuPNBq66rr4wu8-DvFKd38_IL4QHoCegHyoXEyOGC3YJaVuPrkf5A/s320/dipolecenter0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />..</td><td>.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpXSEdrAa-eWCxLfXTIPcIBCxIj6w5aP04lCeQRGkDCEYNHgUWRy1Y50AXmCxBh_HXSiazN_bPwO6HDmerJentYAgTJFxHVuOsTJ7hfZi1exqjsJZWoEXcsE8aUsERyzTPW4C7aFQdKZ_9n6gMNMjYBYDbFdTAve8hBEdcNs8_wmLEnuFiMdU_U-tFQ/s2027/dipolecenter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2027" data-original-width="1714" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpXSEdrAa-eWCxLfXTIPcIBCxIj6w5aP04lCeQRGkDCEYNHgUWRy1Y50AXmCxBh_HXSiazN_bPwO6HDmerJentYAgTJFxHVuOsTJ7hfZi1exqjsJZWoEXcsE8aUsERyzTPW4C7aFQdKZ_9n6gMNMjYBYDbFdTAve8hBEdcNs8_wmLEnuFiMdU_U-tFQ/s320/dipolecenter.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><br />..</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>I then created the quarter wave impedance transformer as specified by DK7ZB and put all the pieces in a small junction box. Note that I cut out an opening in the bottom of the junction box to be able to use an element holder for the dipole. That way I know all the elements are nicely in parallel.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhSPLugMbOSZHxLoJ1rRwNw0nrUQW_mqlFE2Np9_ermdVVyCnktok-7OgCLqeKKECWOGxCIq0TAAawYUnDZHohjkf2AhyfeedNzDq5LI4kVfNLfWuL34e1kvTZJsxK5nrBYBLaoCBG09g3v5fDePM214d2Y7GIXWNg3OP2oN4no197Bz_C6uy_tBI1g/s4032/20230507_114859.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1908" data-original-width="4032" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhSPLugMbOSZHxLoJ1rRwNw0nrUQW_mqlFE2Np9_ermdVVyCnktok-7OgCLqeKKECWOGxCIq0TAAawYUnDZHohjkf2AhyfeedNzDq5LI4kVfNLfWuL34e1kvTZJsxK5nrBYBLaoCBG09g3v5fDePM214d2Y7GIXWNg3OP2oN4no197Bz_C6uy_tBI1g/s320/20230507_114859.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPxWpl7z3Fd7ytuXBmIu7lpzjq8wwTBqvCCPJR0TkzPOi2VZ8gOA1ZepTfF7hegaxH9Kg9hyw5CLdm7z92RoJhb2dYXTVsnATnsauoXuwTwOsOg5-7_mAVbFuhqGGC5ix2tPm391fiXCWnJwbyowC-HI0_0F6Qh8aI1twsDCddhpY-USDTm5NVSKK4eA/s4032/20230507_115908.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1908" data-original-width="4032" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPxWpl7z3Fd7ytuXBmIu7lpzjq8wwTBqvCCPJR0TkzPOi2VZ8gOA1ZepTfF7hegaxH9Kg9hyw5CLdm7z92RoJhb2dYXTVsnATnsauoXuwTwOsOg5-7_mAVbFuhqGGC5ix2tPm391fiXCWnJwbyowC-HI0_0F6Qh8aI1twsDCddhpY-USDTm5NVSKK4eA/s320/20230507_115908.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>In the end there is one spot left where this antenna has bolts and wing nuts: at the point the two boom parts meet. Perhaps I can design some other solution there in the next version.</p><p>Time will tell if the threaded connection is an improvement or that it will drive me crazy when dirt gets on the threads (quite imaginable in the field). For now I like the compact package the antenna constitutes while disassembled and I like the way I can quickly put it together.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkPAIa0dJu4H-n1SZjTzVeMY6k37cYPXnStZdotyktQQ_K2-tX31kermIUxaOsDJlU6iy10_IpImG2-QzRiDVovK4AreWgNtS_OzCh5j1aq2Us94NvzNsRwDakGSF6vWwKgAKP2_kEd983M_9Tom0LhETJFvDjDrPHyBeJ6fg2zvRl7NeGh8wbYoh9Q/s4032/20230507_133247.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1908" data-original-width="4032" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkPAIa0dJu4H-n1SZjTzVeMY6k37cYPXnStZdotyktQQ_K2-tX31kermIUxaOsDJlU6iy10_IpImG2-QzRiDVovK4AreWgNtS_OzCh5j1aq2Us94NvzNsRwDakGSF6vWwKgAKP2_kEd983M_9Tom0LhETJFvDjDrPHyBeJ6fg2zvRl7NeGh8wbYoh9Q/w400-h189/20230507_133247.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>After completing construction work I took the antenna out for a test. The results were peculiar to say the least. The VNA showed readings that were off and over the air tests did not correspond to the theoretical performance of the antenna.</p><p>Reacting to my first post about these results, Enno PF5X pointed out that not all glues are created equally. I used metal glue but did not take notice of the conductivity. Testing it afterwards I found issues with the conductivity on several elements.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMasK4rv9I2TQOFKczIDT_HGDgXEUv9FY_baSNJ3vzTx-uad6zIa3oCJMAw5rGRVnhrxAX5hMnqwyhtCT5sRaxjQb0o8k1CFTxvDhTZ1VFBqT_wdML3VI7EkTX5UmR9GiO6wvZgRLQQgsIyQ-9WuoaObit5YBhS6DwKX-f-oQ6WTthMmMrBktW5ozWS5Jm/s2496/metaalschroef.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1420" data-original-width="2496" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMasK4rv9I2TQOFKczIDT_HGDgXEUv9FY_baSNJ3vzTx-uad6zIa3oCJMAw5rGRVnhrxAX5hMnqwyhtCT5sRaxjQb0o8k1CFTxvDhTZ1VFBqT_wdML3VI7EkTX5UmR9GiO6wvZgRLQQgsIyQ-9WuoaObit5YBhS6DwKX-f-oQ6WTthMmMrBktW5ozWS5Jm/w400-h228/metaalschroef.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Added metal screws to ensure a good conductivity</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>So I made a necessary change to the design: connecting the aluminium tubes and the inserts (the threaded rod and threaded rod extension) with metal screws.</p><p>You could argue that the whole gluing step can be skipped in this final design but I think it makes for a more robust construction - which is important for an antenna used portably.</p><p>With this new antenna I went out last Saturday as the IARU 50Mhz contest was on. I also took my 2 element beam (actually a triband beam with 2 elements on 6m) for comparison.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKJwIiqlvNnTsla518F3Y2l6hVkhDsuN8Wl2vuq-BwdF-NaWcHW2dkdVZbv_GvuFTjrcwGXRu2CwGMZX1awDJ1JBx6nCohyfS672fnwl1To9EEzxxFHTQ5rGA9RAHe4PyHjjL2gthLf7rt/s1600/1687259725814145-0.png" width="400" />
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</div><br /><p></p><p>PE5TT was available (again) for a simple test. At 25km distance with a comparable antenna we had the same signals both ways but s9+ this time (with design v1 it was only s7). Decreasing the power to 10w we could establish that the new beam has 2 s-points gain over the 2 element beam. We also found the F/B was at least 4 s-points. F/S was even more dramatic.</p><p>I subsequently entered the contest. There was some Es but most of it was too far south with weak skip to G. However I was able to check the beam's characteristics switching between the two antenna's. Confirming the 2 s-points difference. And even though signals vary strongly during Es conditions the practical F/B performance was apparent as even the strongest stations from S-Europe almost disappeared once I turned the beam to G.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcEnFO6qQbWFeXvT9q_ZqVKpH2md4jUpcTN3KGiE4Ak1bzsox3NSK2CPHV2uX2fmndVzuFVxtcCiI2C-5LL2IGjMMVjeXbDYR-5VNsfBgjhvxxThEkmHWioXkr2mIVwDYhr5cViL4Jhdom/s1600/1687259721825033-1.png" width="400" />
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</div><br /><p></p><p>. </p><p><br /></p>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-7737583622305858472023-01-06T20:54:00.001+01:002023-01-06T20:54:07.791+01:00Delta Loop vs End Fed Half Wave on 20m<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Recently I came across a post by a German OM DL3TU who was quite pleased with the results of a delta loop on 20m.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I have a delta loop for 40m but rarely use it as it is quite big. For 20m a delta loop becomes very manageable. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">As my best DX antenna - the portable hexbeam - is not always an option from a time, effort or space perspective, I am always curious if there is another design that could beat my default go to option: the vertical end fed half wave antenna.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So I read through the notes of DL4AAE (who designed the antenna DL3TU wrote about) and built the same antenna. The nice thing about the version he designed is that it has an impedance of around 50 ohm. The design I used for 40m has 75 ohm and therefore needs some matching solution (like a quarter wave piece of rg59).</span></p>
<table align="center"><tbody><tr><td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjNgnOjZUcIiU6EnXbccUeIjJejYPEDv880YD0eyiQL1f21zSTEIpaO38o2vN39gYW-o2Pgl826e1sP_ETVtHCMi76NYdNIwgKz__ZvrLw7hJg2VEONn8Fvm4y6SNanhb8WLv09A96S-H-qNYMAWebbvQkMKfBmwrYiHngK5W673PSm-OKvANNb6akiw/s4032/20230106_152845.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="1908" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjNgnOjZUcIiU6EnXbccUeIjJejYPEDv880YD0eyiQL1f21zSTEIpaO38o2vN39gYW-o2Pgl826e1sP_ETVtHCMi76NYdNIwgKz__ZvrLw7hJg2VEONn8Fvm4y6SNanhb8WLv09A96S-H-qNYMAWebbvQkMKfBmwrYiHngK5W673PSm-OKvANNb6akiw/w189-h400/20230106_152845.jpg" width="189" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The new delta loop</span></div></td><td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU0_F3eKZcqgO-symbATVF6A-1bzQfFgCJhbHwRsq7o0ROTtPj2dvTIcHtA4mfO6YnMUfrZ82pM3dW9ivHCkf9tw-h4vHFMns2tBDWTUBm9Mh-3A13WZkAT0fnVzhdtK0fozD9rGhaSBzn54wRryMT3AI5QRR4LWA-mvHYX4mL6U-GTfWOiw-Zv0rVnA/s4032/20230106_160016.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="1908" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU0_F3eKZcqgO-symbATVF6A-1bzQfFgCJhbHwRsq7o0ROTtPj2dvTIcHtA4mfO6YnMUfrZ82pM3dW9ivHCkf9tw-h4vHFMns2tBDWTUBm9Mh-3A13WZkAT0fnVzhdtK0fozD9rGhaSBzn54wRryMT3AI5QRR4LWA-mvHYX4mL6U-GTfWOiw-Zv0rVnA/w189-h400/20230106_160016.jpg" width="189" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Two antennas in the field</span></div></td><td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8IQ8BKG0PgOwJi6KjVfz6M8W0ZmQFR_OVrXmABzKRoJReLpWTt7iaUrpA9iceX5WfLUPRIFaFSGWMwa1_xIpi_nZvnmVPrDksFapm0vA6x86TT5z-aoYBuyXWBfWLLzSj__P6lTptUOEw6QGwosJVd4T2RDxiXG4ozB_s4SSvlsatwPR_rkmqgvMcvg/s4032/20230106_160308.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="1908" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8IQ8BKG0PgOwJi6KjVfz6M8W0ZmQFR_OVrXmABzKRoJReLpWTt7iaUrpA9iceX5WfLUPRIFaFSGWMwa1_xIpi_nZvnmVPrDksFapm0vA6x86TT5z-aoYBuyXWBfWLLzSj__P6lTptUOEw6QGwosJVd4T2RDxiXG4ozB_s4SSvlsatwPR_rkmqgvMcvg/w189-h400/20230106_160308.jpg" width="189" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">One of the beacons</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This afternoon I went out to test the effectiveness of the antenna as compared to the 20m EFHW vertical. As always I did this by running two identical WSPR beacons for a while. I didn't have a lot of time before sundown so the dataset was put together over 30 minutes in which both beacons transmitted 9 times.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">After examining the WSPR signal reports I found an interesting outcome.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfWagxFbr5m3-2Ir1scnwuWkxAwY2WL-PQZqiJsKHpFdvtozwPSi3pzyJjG7-cSKQK3aatfQ4UQvZaI_DNVy3ZbEZU0nujeGpD0Y5KVY_hWjm1FzdsMkvT3mBNrJzbT4HJs2jqgaZlcgA5sC4AXGhPLuEWXvFWv24o8SY6QOFD3FNWnST_YzCyct2iQ/s2274/DLvsEFHW.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1514" data-original-width="2274" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfWagxFbr5m3-2Ir1scnwuWkxAwY2WL-PQZqiJsKHpFdvtozwPSi3pzyJjG7-cSKQK3aatfQ4UQvZaI_DNVy3ZbEZU0nujeGpD0Y5KVY_hWjm1FzdsMkvT3mBNrJzbT4HJs2jqgaZlcgA5sC4AXGhPLuEWXvFWv24o8SY6QOFD3FNWnST_YzCyct2iQ/w640-h426/DLvsEFHW.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Blue points are the averaged differences between the signal reports of the same spotter for the Delta Loop over the EFHW. The spotters are plotted by their distance from me.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The plot shows that in EU to about 3000km the delta loop beats the EFHW at most spotters, although four spotters only heard the EFHW (orange cross) and the EFHW got more reports in total. So it would probably be hard to tell the difference between the two within EU during a field activity.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Outside of EU the story is a different one. There were three DX stations picking up the WSPR signals. W7, VE6 (6000km) and VK5 (15000km). The VE6 copied both beacons a couple of times but the EFHW was clearly stronger (by average 8dB). The W7 only copied the EFHW but only barely and once - so we will skip that one. The VK5 copied the EFHW 4 times without picking up the delta loop beacon. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The delta loop deserves a bit more testing but at first sight I would choose the EFHW for both its performance and practicality.</span></p><p><br /></p>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-77581880737079676012022-04-24T22:13:00.001+02:002022-04-24T22:13:59.426+02:00I did a thing today<p>So.. today I did a thing.</p><p>Today I went out portable - nothing new here - on my bicycle - OK that is slightly out of the ordinary - to activate PAFF-0085 in CW only - eh?</p><p>This was the first time I was out using CW copying by ears only. Up till now I have used CW on a few occasions but only in complete computer-mode. Then it is just another digital mode and very boring.</p><p>Inspired by the challenge Jakob OZ7AEI's set himself somewhere in August last year - to be able to use CW in WWFF activations in 2022, I decided the time had come to really force myself to learn CW to the level I could use it without any skimmers.</p><p>Four years ago I tried to learn <a href="http://www.ph0no.net/2018/08/to-cw-or-not-to-cw.html" target="_blank">CW over the summer holiday</a> - while I was in OZ. It was too hot to do anything else than sit in the shadow and move as little as possible. So three weeks with plenty of time to practice. </p><p>Going into that summer I had tried to learn CW with a game on my phone that learned you characters in a "visual way" - by tapping short and long. I found out that was not useful at higher speeds (you keep on counting dots and dashes). However, by the end of that summer I could copy individual characters up to 24 wpm. So some recognition of the sound of complete characters was there.</p><p>However I still didn't acquire the skill to copy several characters after each other. I needed too much processing time per character. So there was no real practical use for the level I was at. Then after the holidays life happened and I left the whole idea for four years. Up till Jakob's challenge.</p><p>From October 2021 onwards I focused on learning to copy series of characters. RufzXP was a good tool helping me forward. When I got to the level I could copy series of characters quite accurately at 15wpm, I moved to MorseRunner. That application has a more game-like feel to it than RufzXP so I felt it was more motivating to use. It allows you to make things more complex - and more live-like - using variables like qsb, qrn and qrm. Practicing pileups I found quite challenging but I could slowly increase the activity level (increasing the chance and size of pileups). </p><p>In MorseRunner I am now at a level I can do 80 Q/h running at 25wpm and an activity level of 6 (with regular pileups of 4-7 callers). I thought this would be good enough to do some real life testing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVE9sRADE2FXix5UsxLTtuemQeNvyGfmJPb78bSkCBX0HKi3qw_u-TjGykEjZ8Xh61wMqDWq6Wu71FZD-BYAoMcpDGop8qXjikwhnsaAf--GEJ2pTsEoRyQZG4jxXCwRJVZRqTQgKUZ3-YOWECHtqeNmedtVcmSJ2TDkBm_0TN3gWy_OY8TAiIUNzoiQ/s4032/20220424_154024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVE9sRADE2FXix5UsxLTtuemQeNvyGfmJPb78bSkCBX0HKi3qw_u-TjGykEjZ8Xh61wMqDWq6Wu71FZD-BYAoMcpDGop8qXjikwhnsaAf--GEJ2pTsEoRyQZG4jxXCwRJVZRqTQgKUZ3-YOWECHtqeNmedtVcmSJ2TDkBm_0TN3gWy_OY8TAiIUNzoiQ/w640-h360/20220424_154024.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>So today I went out to a nearby reserve - PAFF-0085 Rosendael - by bike. I took my FT-857d, a LiPo, a laptop, the end fed impedance transformer and a couple of wires. I used my catapult to get the wires up in a tree.</p><p>My keying still needs a lot of practice but thanks to PE5TT I now own <a href="https://daverveld.eu/ArduinoNanoWinkeyer2/index.html" target="_blank">a tiny WinKeyer</a>. That works marvelously together with N1MM. That combination has the same look and feel as MorseRunner.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrr46xrIkbMbl1WzXJ1dx4eGeHv0ZmjNenIG8Vb3ysTK49CLvxkkI0J1MPlHBVJ1mYBKbhaUoyNU1P8cjqY64yiyHPBOkZR1fCnped3p1fwXkTWoNpth_iYEPj_BcpOBsBtcNvjee-UcNeEBO-q2Hf5Ay16c_RYL26g_FNGKJ4IjKU03Y9mCRT_nqCYA/s4032/20220424_161208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrr46xrIkbMbl1WzXJ1dx4eGeHv0ZmjNenIG8Vb3ysTK49CLvxkkI0J1MPlHBVJ1mYBKbhaUoyNU1P8cjqY64yiyHPBOkZR1fCnped3p1fwXkTWoNpth_iYEPj_BcpOBsBtcNvjee-UcNeEBO-q2Hf5Ay16c_RYL26g_FNGKJ4IjKU03Y9mCRT_nqCYA/s320/20220424_161208.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><p>I decided to call at 17 wpm. Starting on 17m I logged 11 QSOs in 30 minutes. It was nice and slow - a good way to start. Then I went over to 20m and logged 10 QSOs in 10 minutes. A bit more activity but after these 10 QSOs it was quiet for a long time. So I decided to try 30m. In just under an hour I logged 27 QSOs. Then it was time to go back home.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCBxZXkQX6gU-pcihQDxfp8nJlTafHq6wCsLMEQeyw5jiNWCVpTesS_03vrW5aEIQJWliR4H9aaPC1efoCs0xuLe4DA21AWww8Iyg9tMEH5TVupE35rqTV59S4uYI8Bw4PhrS-eyl0-CEuomvkGuf_e8nrkRSYdqTwrrqxyoMIpZsXor_aHBWTY4b5ew/s1773/paff0085.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="935" data-original-width="1773" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCBxZXkQX6gU-pcihQDxfp8nJlTafHq6wCsLMEQeyw5jiNWCVpTesS_03vrW5aEIQJWliR4H9aaPC1efoCs0xuLe4DA21AWww8Iyg9tMEH5TVupE35rqTV59S4uYI8Bw4PhrS-eyl0-CEuomvkGuf_e8nrkRSYdqTwrrqxyoMIpZsXor_aHBWTY4b5ew/w640-h338/paff0085.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>In total I logged 48 QSOs in two hours. Most probably the smallest and slowest activity in all my years of doing WWFF, but I was a happy activator. Checking my log at home I think I only made one error - a non-existing call.</p><p>Thanks to all the chasers - especially those that QRS-d.</p><p><br /></p>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-39452723875728863462022-01-15T00:13:00.006+01:002022-01-20T13:26:24.806+01:00Mobile whip versus end fed half wave vertical<p>Those who have read previous reports of my portable activities know that I usually put in quite a bit of effort to set up a DX worthy station in the field - when possible using my hexbeam and a bit of power.</p><p>On the other end of the scale I still have a mobile antenna laying around from when I re-started the hobby in 2010. The antenna is known as D-Original DX-UHV and had some glaring reviews at the time. I did work across the pond to W with up to 7500km in phone and to PY and LU on psk31 (11.000km).</p><p>Quite quickly however I moved on to using end fed half wave wires for my portable activities, trying to cover more distance. </p><p>Noticing that there are a number of castle (WCA) and nature reserve (<a href="https://wwff.co/" target="_blank">WWFF</a>) activators that use a mobile antenna, I was wondering how effective that antenna actually is. I have no doubt the end fed wire is superior to the mobile antenna, but how much better is it? Should I consider going back to using the mobile antenna?</p><p>So time to bring out the two WSPRLite beacons (two identical 200mW WSPR beacons that I can use simultaneously) again and head out to my test location north of Arnhem. My reference antenna is a half wave end fed set up vertically - or almost vertically in the case of the 40m version as the pole I use is 18m high. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7hfcJmdHuYJUBcPiQiuIfZV5fmxegjQkCnM8M_HqCpef_jv_H3GYLaW1SO9NhwMb_-U7W6_8fGB9EhsB9z1PIs7f4igfk1Au-R7d-6nopalXKK3MvLcW_pTDuoKNr6OcKSj9Iy9C6t67Ne_SZVr60ZFDx3hOc-IUAzlf-0mdsrZkWqpBk8l-sHYIK_A=s2015" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2015" data-original-width="1120" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7hfcJmdHuYJUBcPiQiuIfZV5fmxegjQkCnM8M_HqCpef_jv_H3GYLaW1SO9NhwMb_-U7W6_8fGB9EhsB9z1PIs7f4igfk1Au-R7d-6nopalXKK3MvLcW_pTDuoKNr6OcKSj9Iy9C6t67Ne_SZVr60ZFDx3hOc-IUAzlf-0mdsrZkWqpBk8l-sHYIK_A=w357-h640" width="357" /></a></div><br /><p>I started out with the 20m configuration of both antennas. The mobile antenna is in this configuration 147cm long. I chose to bring the feed point of the end fed wire about 2m off the ground as I have used this set up as a reference in other tests as well - and it is a set up that would only require a 12m pole so probably more relevant to the average activator.</p><p>For the second test of the 40m configurations, I fully extend the 18m pole and then sloped the last couple of meters of the end fed wire so that the feed point was about a meter of the ground. This is how I usually set the 40m end fed up in the field. On the mobile antenna I changed the element for 20m to the 40m version (the antenna is then 195cm long). The DX-UHV antenna can hold two different elements at the same time but for this test I decided to use one at the time.</p><p>As expected there is a clear winner on both bands - not surprisingly this is the vertical wire. The question I had was how much the two would differ. Here is a breakdown of the data I managed to collect in the time I had (1 hour on 20m and 1 hour on 40m), </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Results on 20m</h3><p>On 20m in 1 hour:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>DX-UHV - 16 transmission - 56 spots - 11 spotters</li><li>End fed half wave wire - 16 transmissions - 118 spots - 24 spotters</li></ul>
<table align="center"><tbody><tr><td><img border="0" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="976" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhzwdk_oQqGiODldFqYh4EiQ-1uEwXuBkQRukBZQlbajbFyLx8w6U7Emhkwz5uOLojoaLzLU5JaUd-u9C3HwmQTAN48cGtz7fPuh9j7GS_UjFCqWwAOrh7NcC_JKlqKznF-fYpUx4IW2xhMoakOA19Lg5FfNkEM_ynXm4oUl6d_HJzytLICsN-S8G-TqA=s320" width="320" />
</td><td><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="1192" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgqA2YjchX12tM_RmYWuGG7x-8Cs_eiyKn5VM8fb1f8EF0Oi8YO9DxOqXn7R84iCad4JUHTGJe7K62Toq5qpPxboTe4-FSirvcR4YTpqdkyNSBm4Fuu_Gsic9XM3gqRw9XCWWuuTveg24y0GAyqu8eIvpr9mp85fIuvmerwgxkdYD2vFriH7XXHUI1Zdg=s320" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center">DX-UHV did reach NA</td><td align="center">End fed wire copied by the same and more</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Odx for the mobile antenna was 6000km to W2. Odx for the end fed wire was 8000km to W7. </div><div>There were not a lot of stations that copied the signal from the mobile - less than half of the stations that copied the beacon on the end fed wire. There were 6 stations that copied both signals multiple times. Looking at the reports from these stations there is an average <b>9dB</b> difference in the signal strength reported. </div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Results on 40m</h3><div>On 40m in 1 hour:</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>DX-UHV - 15 transmissions - 119 spots - 27 spotters</li><li>End fed half wave wire - 12 transmissions - 317 spots - 56 spotters</li></ul></div><p></p>
<table align="center"><tbody><tr><td><img border="0" data-original-height="779" data-original-width="858" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhP7GcyLOKjKTggx2ZVq4qD9LKTAhCVXKgQsjPbJMtt14LhN6R1XbMJXZT7brAZ8Q9Vmd_MWwDQwkppypNXkSXO1ylybbLuHfXasi_t7WYYkdfIOGiPIC8biZoLOTj6MgO8qhuJJOtSmfJNswz2ozNrGJ2iJf8mEHthur2L_4l64BJ7iSsRHMCbnQmIcA=s320" width="320" />
</td><td><img border="0" data-original-height="815" data-original-width="937" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbmT1bWc9ssuFby7aEdtSmMy_p2e2AkkY6t2ieduiyIwi1oNYCw1irT4IDuZHOiuKR9uaufpCSFfZXmGHcuSsUG-9HfzFXECRgdWxWetoyHZlqVi_2UH8nPE4HlVO3PnsMl_aFHWYjIXi9alCsB_P1PJ_qFCfA9LLkZ5aJL8pjh3cLWMhWk2Y9p-tZ5g=s320" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center">DX-UHV</td><td align="center">End fed wire</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Odx for the mobile antenna was 2200km to SV8 (1 spot -29dB). Odx for the end fed wire was 3100km to EA8 (7 spots). Looking at the reports of stations that copied both signals multiple times, there is an average <b>10dB</b> difference in the signal strength reported. <div><br /></div><div>On 40m the difference is more pronounced looking at the amount of spots. With less transmission cycles of the beacon the end fed wire reaches more than twice the amount of stations. The reach is considerably longer with TF, TA, 5B4 and EA8 only copying the end fed wire.</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Conclusions</h3><div>So what have I learned.. well the outcome really matches my expectations. </div><div><br /></div><div>Looking at it from the practical side, the mobile antenna is easier to set up and does not take any more space than the car itself does at the activation location - can be a huge plus in some places. It also requires a lot less room in the car so it might open up a few more possibilities for /P operations.</div><div> </div><div>The consequences however are that I will reach less stations and especially less DX. I have also found that controlling a crowded frequency is more difficult if your own signal is relatively weak. On the other hand... it might not be so crowded if no one hears you (hihi) </div><div><br /></div><div>The difference is considerable but not overly dramatic though, when conditions are good and signals are around S9 on the end fed wire, you would still put in a good S7 with the mobile antenna. So I will give it a try in an activation when conditions are favourable and simplicity is important for whatever reason. tbc. </div><div><br /></div><div>This post is one of a series of antenna comparisons I have done. <a href="https://www.ph0no.net/p/ph0no-test-reviews.html" target="_blank">The index to the other tests is here,</a></div>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-38718193764068002672021-12-27T12:23:00.002+01:002021-12-27T12:30:36.974+01:00Enjoying better conditions as PG44FF<p>With Christmas approaching I had a bit of time available and I had already arranged a special call for the holiday season. Looking at the slowly awakening sun I was motivated to go out portable again on Dec 24. Normally I would go out somewhere in the afternoon and into the evening to get both some DX on the higher bands and lively conditions on the lower bands but Christmas Eve meant I had to be back home at 16h local time.</p><p></p>
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<table style="text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIE8ajPO9pluAN9iigfryfELkFNkGMx-SaoFbTLwXfqBvMdaVVc7YeWKxxFWQedYZcpzn0pb_ImVvkkaTrGy7ivFkVIQ8TEjwzCBPqLz_r-1CGUYIQI0zQKiZcGMcXmsBlqgPAapIbP-06lLIVmsySyj6nwmameLWFznu8DUXYwWuI1SJ58Tlfg0997Q=s320" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td>PAFF-0167</td></tr></tbody></table>
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<div><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="text-align: left;">Trying to find a PAFF nature reserve that I had not activated before and that looked like it would allow me to set up my hexbeam (so not in the middle of a forest) I found one at 1.5h driving distance. Even though this would mean I would spend more time travelling than on the air I settled for it.</span></div><div><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><center>
<table style="text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjK3NHC_f3XbIO8n68WiKs1F_pwLfEFhJJIoodhCYZGuyTo-uA7b00eQYcFRgmDRbqQyVIypPCaL0UzIgFS5v4lphm8Wa4jgmQUsIfGSIFP5wB3UUMAWk6PwNxsTjxdHwfEM5kQEMwG0R-xmRzrL59Vyed5zwBQez-wzSRnjrMWmweddNXO3gjdj5Wh1g=s320" width="320" /></td><td><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="935" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQzbBRj0SzaPnxePo5JEEx-IvUCWG_oLBAE-HW-9RL9giGZWPpiYJplxCDfrccotlcxIsV8QsUhWp0cyFFTr43MoMmCSAC3mPJtKzv9D8vogPPWJgvuKPNhis5dKQQ0xTXDwNV9J9NU27bTwg_QhD3N9V3YWMMsmlPfPFmfy0etCHNF4duW6cBBNojrA=s320" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td>Setting up in the mud</td><td>Hexbeam looking towards OC</td></tr></tbody></table></center><p>The weather forecast showed overcast but dry conditions. This turned out to be a but too optimistic. It was raining when I arrived at the nature reserve. The area I had selected to set up my station had turned into a big muddy pool. Still I managed to set up the hexbeam without getting everything covered in mud.</p><p>It was around 10.30 UTC so contacting the far east and perhaps even OC was theoretically still possible. So I started out on 20m with the hex pointing northeast. Skip within EU was a bit unstable but strong most of the time. After about 20 QSOs ZL3LF came through the pileup with a signal peaking at S8. A very nice surprise indeed. I called for more DX but got no reply however 6 minutes later VK2ON made it through the EU chasers with an S9. It shows that the band was wide open in that direction. I called OC a couple of times but it seemed everyone else was enjoying Christmas Eve away from the radio.</p><p>
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<table style="text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpfjAtirdgO0dvBuxZm7XEwmzfDh7TY4lGZEYTKtictPWZbeClMl5UNPi23dWrWwkuuYmPcKWljDDgIXzEudy_-nEc31ZIliGx2U0WMPCwykaoNm0Yh046J7nQt4sAzxxAqlk5L1qdMx9Ebm8c7p9CuSx_Wo5SpIj-GKAq02VWan9SH4tIKGQQllnbsQ=s1793" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="979" data-original-width="1793" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpfjAtirdgO0dvBuxZm7XEwmzfDh7TY4lGZEYTKtictPWZbeClMl5UNPi23dWrWwkuuYmPcKWljDDgIXzEudy_-nEc31ZIliGx2U0WMPCwykaoNm0Yh046J7nQt4sAzxxAqlk5L1qdMx9Ebm8c7p9CuSx_Wo5SpIj-GKAq02VWan9SH4tIKGQQllnbsQ=w640-h350" width="640" /></a></div></td></tr><tr><td>222 QSOs spanning the globe</td></tr></tbody></table></center>
<div><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div> <span style="text-align: left;">It was busy all the time. In 2h20m I logged 222 QSOs in phone with chasers from a whopping 43 DXCC, 8 different W states and 3 VE provinces. </span></div><p>I tried the higher bands but 10 and 12 were dead and even 15m did not result in more than a handful of QSOs. It would probably have served me better later in the afternoon. However the skip in EU was quite wide running all the way from 150km (still within PA) up till the edges of EU. So there was no real need to go down to 40m - which would have required changing antennas.</p>
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<table style="text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRuUHdu4m5oYwYEVSQLIsCNq-zQbidQ87dWVLupdxEhH9VCQ9v8d0FHDVFoonu1eKaY0uythX2MOFkDnJ20JXpiMlOiMGrDnvSD8f5hwEvpX0-YrFWqv5l8f9NxNM3_foYmw__-YeotR77x8XCcr0Ao0bSKMNIgtOM2cXVU7aNNPRx2dEzZzrwj9SjeA=s1053" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="673" data-original-width="1053" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRuUHdu4m5oYwYEVSQLIsCNq-zQbidQ87dWVLupdxEhH9VCQ9v8d0FHDVFoonu1eKaY0uythX2MOFkDnJ20JXpiMlOiMGrDnvSD8f5hwEvpX0-YrFWqv5l8f9NxNM3_foYmw__-YeotR77x8XCcr0Ao0bSKMNIgtOM2cXVU7aNNPRx2dEzZzrwj9SjeA=w640-h410" width="640" /></a></div></td></tr><tr><td>Nice wide skip in EU on 20m (orange = 20m, turquoise = 15m)</td></tr></tbody></table></center><p>All in all again a pleasant activity and worth the 4h travel and setup time. HNY to all!</p>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-43673856227579033232021-06-13T17:18:00.003+02:002021-06-22T10:52:05.496+02:00Time flies: 10 years as WWFF activator<p>It is hard to believe but it is <b>10 years</b> ago that I did my first WWFF PAFF activity on June 27, 2011. I had just upgraded my license after getting back into the hobby in 2010.</p><p>Actually sharing the experience of it is only<a href="http://www.ph0no.net/2011/06/" target="_blank"> the third post </a>I wrote on this blog.</p><p>As I was just back on the radio after 15 years of inactivity, I took equipment with me whenever I could, working /P and /M regularly. That day in June I was in the north of the country for work, staying in a hotel. At the end of the afternoon I was able to get out of the office and head over to national park Lauwersmeer (PAFF-0014). It was only the second day that I was using my new PH0NO callsign. </p><p>I had read about PAFF, probably on the blog of Hans PA3FYG or some other radio amateur website and was curious to see what it would bring to my /P operation.</p><p>In that period my FT897d was back to the dealer for repairs. So I only had an FT817nd that I bought as backup radio. With my whopping 5 watts, my end fed wire antennas and a rather thin Spieth 10m fiberglass pole (with extension rods to get the 20m wire off the ground) I was not expecting too much.</p><p>I was in for a surprise. It was the first time I had to deal with a pile-up. I logged more than 150 chasers and even one JA7 (mind you, SSB with 5W).</p><p>After this first experience I was sold. This started a hobby in a hobby doing many WWFF activities in various countries in Europe and VE, including memorable YNOMY team expeditions to LX, HB0 and GJ. </p><p>Being enthusiastic about the program I was keen to help grow it both in PA and worldwide. I ended up coordinating PAFF and working as part of the WWFF team a couple of months later and up till the present day.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZj9o51l7QqOkqo-cGIrY1JzB45pptUZ-0AjjVslnbGwIEtfJcuu_6r6302jeB5SBnq4h_PaBhd1xO8Eo2PwbnGIYXMTy_4dCQj75gJ2D3xURZ-PPYC38D7c3w8ULsTGJwLD4_2aMbx-bW/s1200/wwff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="785" data-original-width="1200" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZj9o51l7QqOkqo-cGIrY1JzB45pptUZ-0AjjVslnbGwIEtfJcuu_6r6302jeB5SBnq4h_PaBhd1xO8Eo2PwbnGIYXMTy_4dCQj75gJ2D3xURZ-PPYC38D7c3w8ULsTGJwLD4_2aMbx-bW/w640-h418/wwff.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Impressions from 10 years WWFF</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>In all these years I met a lot of people. There are thousands of WWFF chasers but there is a hardcore group in the hundreds that have become familiar voices. I was also lucky to meet a couple of WWFF-ers in real life both in PA and abroad.</p><p>As a sort of commemoration I will be returning to PAFF-0014 on June 27. This year that is on a Sunday which is rather convenient. I will be using the last - so far unused - of the series of P*44FF calls that I have used before: PH44FF.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBdY9keWE_dHblMeEX06HJi0K0Bwhbm5E_wQiqbKZmH3SiwEkUHsUDGlj5S9XWlVD_vKVhZb2m46yaS4ZlCpjd-eWZiZZPfR2VXvYks2rwqFKbAgE6sK_Q1F-I0vJ-5jNgYflJaUqv1Lkc/s800/qsl_pa44ff.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="800" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBdY9keWE_dHblMeEX06HJi0K0Bwhbm5E_wQiqbKZmH3SiwEkUHsUDGlj5S9XWlVD_vKVhZb2m46yaS4ZlCpjd-eWZiZZPfR2VXvYks2rwqFKbAgE6sK_Q1F-I0vJ-5jNgYflJaUqv1Lkc/w640-h406/qsl_pa44ff.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-19020366022067254682021-05-24T14:01:00.001+02:002021-05-24T14:24:30.205+02:00PAFF-0079 on the high bands<p>Acceptable weather for a change motivated me to go out to activate PAFF-0079. This reference had had some attention in the past (>500 QSOs) but most of it years ago. Expecting some Es conditions I brought my hexbeam and my 2-4-6m yagi.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJaO8l_fkrRfpR30yU-rPoPx3TqpUeJ4az2_UW7hXPZzDZA2rGoXBofFiCTlAEUIOeGSKPgYEk1aXebRoFGDoDVs_TiEAHgG-hOKHyLbtGZ9QQY4gmHmnMI8ytEPSjd0C4XRe-n1s4Mybb/s2048/20210523_153123.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJaO8l_fkrRfpR30yU-rPoPx3TqpUeJ4az2_UW7hXPZzDZA2rGoXBofFiCTlAEUIOeGSKPgYEk1aXebRoFGDoDVs_TiEAHgG-hOKHyLbtGZ9QQY4gmHmnMI8ytEPSjd0C4XRe-n1s4Mybb/w360-h640/20210523_153123.jpg" width="360" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hexbeam and 2-4-6m yagi</td></tr></tbody></table><br />It was rather busy in the area with people happy to be able to go out for a walk. It was difficult unfolding the hexbeam without getting in people's way. Ofcourse I got a lot of questions about this rotary clothesline..<div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKZMcHOVCwWTKKqF6968AM94R__uGuFiJ6kuOINtoJvQQGEUwfeo4RiRuWhjMYhhwS-PKOMXryCqQ25ZCuCqM-NVPU80X2B0Hy7tkzh6Wa592_pcEl-IzaZoe0-Vyw8NHiXhLURPTtef1n/s2048/20210523_211241_bw.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKZMcHOVCwWTKKqF6968AM94R__uGuFiJ6kuOINtoJvQQGEUwfeo4RiRuWhjMYhhwS-PKOMXryCqQ25ZCuCqM-NVPU80X2B0Hy7tkzh6Wa592_pcEl-IzaZoe0-Vyw8NHiXhLURPTtef1n/w400-h225/20210523_211241_bw.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The rotary clothesline</td></tr></tbody></table><div><p>I started out on 6m but that band was not really alive. I only worked one EI station. So much for the effort to bring and setup the yagi.</p><p>I went over to the hexbeam starting on 15m as that band sounded quite active.. and it was. I logged more than 70 contacts on that band. Most of those were in the UK - there seemed to be a nice cloud over the North Sea. I was also greeted by Len VE9MY and Linda VE9GLF (P2P) and 5 US stations including the usual suspects Tom KG8P and Robert KD1CT.</p><p>After about 1.5h I went down to 17m again logging mostly UK stations and VE5. 17m was not too busy so after 30 minutes I went down one more time to 20m. 20m was in an okay state. It was never very busy but I did log almost 150 contacts in 2h. At the start I had the beam pointing towards NA - logging KA8H and W1OW - but I noticed spots to the east so I turned the beam. That probably helped me log 3 JA stations.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG64uYcPGswTPFbUsqiXxoqYj7bNJ8Sm422wZ2yUDtiLO3sQtovxr0n94kwVB-wE4M1UdZj4lYgy-QuHySZPEFCtEYKT6bZzVpGK2_xqRKBeZi2lpM5lFY4S0IPi7k2xWTnsWTCQ250Wqa/s2048/20210523_205624.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG64uYcPGswTPFbUsqiXxoqYj7bNJ8Sm422wZ2yUDtiLO3sQtovxr0n94kwVB-wE4M1UdZj4lYgy-QuHySZPEFCtEYKT6bZzVpGK2_xqRKBeZi2lpM5lFY4S0IPi7k2xWTnsWTCQ250Wqa/w400-h225/20210523_205624.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A cloudy but dry day out in PAFF-0079</td></tr></tbody></table><p>I had skipped the 10m band earlier thinking the Es was not strong enough but I still saw spots on that band (past 20h local time) so I decided to go back up hoping for an opening to SA. With the beam in that direction I logged PU and some 20 more contacts in EU - mostly from south DL to I. </p><p>It was getting late but there was one band to my immediate disposal I had not visited yet: 12m. The first response came from Max IK1GPG, who I just spoke to on 10m. In these last few minutes I logged a few more EU stations and FY to my surprise. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE_fKB_iOzMvMkFnWrvcq999OvHdQqC7OVdUsMDPMaojJewciBMCVE0PH2cpIyY7_93l8lK_eY7o8PMN36McBttGj8R_qUQQleLb9HIwFUmapavMLRCfLubY6_XtaZb8Ok_v75tKTrlbKT/s1522/paff-0079_2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="777" data-original-width="1522" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE_fKB_iOzMvMkFnWrvcq999OvHdQqC7OVdUsMDPMaojJewciBMCVE0PH2cpIyY7_93l8lK_eY7o8PMN36McBttGj8R_qUQQleLb9HIwFUmapavMLRCfLubY6_XtaZb8Ok_v75tKTrlbKT/w640-h326/paff-0079_2.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It was so much fun on the higher bands that I never came around to breaking down the hex and going for the low bands. Normally I make most of my QSOs on those bands. However with a bit more time spent than usual (5h) I still managed to log 286 QSOs from 45 DXCC with 12 P2P.</div><div><br /></div></div>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com02811 NC Twaalfmorgen, Netherlands52.019444 4.757523.709210163821155 -30.39875 80.329677836178845 39.91375tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-88537996034245987992020-09-28T12:53:00.010+02:002021-05-28T10:12:28.922+02:00Building a new lithium battery<span style="font-family: helvetica;">For years I have been using lithium batteries to power my radio equipment when portable, both LiPo and LiFePO4.</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">If you want to know more about these different types read <a href="http://www.ph0no.net/2016/05/power-sources-for-portable-operation.html" target="_blank">this post I wrote a few years ago</a>.<br /></span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I started out buying batteries from HobbyKing in China. Then I decided to build a few myself with pouch cells I bought from AliExpress. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Recently I lost two LiPo pouch cells when I abused a battery - forgetting to attach the under voltage alarm. Another LiPo cell of a different pack turned out dead without a clear cause. I ordered a new cell but they are quite expensive. Losing three of those cells in a short period of time I suspect I might have to replace more in the future. So I started looking for other solutions with cheaper building blocks: smaller cells.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC1p3zv2OPpZX6OSD9TkSEnFYYIJuHDO6D3TZYL3UOd4xKbV8mZXIzW8Kwl-USLktKQ3zLeXtWfMeTmCH1-D0m0K5EUC7GBG59xA9dMItNZWH70kvklUNhfSphoR5hJ5B6hrKmi3zajqjT/s1280/IMG_20200926_213959_949.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC1p3zv2OPpZX6OSD9TkSEnFYYIJuHDO6D3TZYL3UOd4xKbV8mZXIzW8Kwl-USLktKQ3zLeXtWfMeTmCH1-D0m0K5EUC7GBG59xA9dMItNZWH70kvklUNhfSphoR5hJ5B6hrKmi3zajqjT/w400-h225/IMG_20200926_213959_949.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">LiPo cell after abuse</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Looking at smaller cells I first stumbled upon the 18650. A popular Li-Ion battery and quite small but you need a lot of them to get a useful capacity as they are around 2Ah a piece. However I found more practical LiFePO4 cells with a 7Ah capacity: 32700. I bought a set of those with strips of nickel attached to the ends for soldering as I do not have a spot welder (yet).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The voltage of four of these LiFePO4 cells is too low for my amp - that is why I opted for LiPo up till now - but as the amp is designed to handle up to 18V a battery of 5 cells would do the job. So I decided to go for a 5s3p design (5 cells in series and 3 in parallel).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvg0wU12G8XdXdulV1bB-B2uJbf3I72wH32_N_sDZAeDFDWvRNZ3GST-YKl0B44PGA2wo-fbWHt_SwFUDcA4INvduw-EMab3fyleiLnnePzsDzIWFf3rVK1PCX6UvpvZa-Ouu8IPTNg-kr/s2048/20200925_160108.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvg0wU12G8XdXdulV1bB-B2uJbf3I72wH32_N_sDZAeDFDWvRNZ3GST-YKl0B44PGA2wo-fbWHt_SwFUDcA4INvduw-EMab3fyleiLnnePzsDzIWFf3rVK1PCX6UvpvZa-Ouu8IPTNg-kr/w400-h225/20200925_160108.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Building a 5s3p battery<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I bought a BMS as well with the idea that it will protect the battery from under voltage. And it allows me to charge the battery even with a simple (non balancing) charger. I was hoping that a BMS is more effective in balancing than the chargers I have - that take quite some time to balance an unbalanced pack.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOMw_0mQVDXxSQhyphenhyphenxLKexjxPDRjQPdWWIdsLbDR8CR22wvuAzGZ8rWl1qgzPvu4KxC49R9VNk-PecdDe3p3V3pxCZZv0hzSqp3oeuJAaTu5JHNgMc7hMaugZ_2_GEzW8J7g2FNly6FbE57/s2048/20200926_211703.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOMw_0mQVDXxSQhyphenhyphenxLKexjxPDRjQPdWWIdsLbDR8CR22wvuAzGZ8rWl1qgzPvu4KxC49R9VNk-PecdDe3p3V3pxCZZv0hzSqp3oeuJAaTu5JHNgMc7hMaugZ_2_GEzW8J7g2FNly6FbE57/w400-h225/20200926_211703.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Completed battery with BMS</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />Testing the battery my first lesson was that you cannot charge a battery that has a BMS with a smart charger. The BMS starts kicking in when the first cell approaches its maximum. The charger notices the increasing resistance and shuts down with an error ("connection break"). </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5rBGDm0xnS6d_UH3q4UtG7VqqyTKytsVNs_HHyK7XMxwGu59R3CmTM_CfnQNOUBHm8lklyctwAg2HcyYevHgfeOJreMSmqo6LtbXeEx65x2055KqtbQPgjKsi3Rql3t4G3IMM3x9-r1Dk/s2048/20200926_211637%257E2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5rBGDm0xnS6d_UH3q4UtG7VqqyTKytsVNs_HHyK7XMxwGu59R3CmTM_CfnQNOUBHm8lklyctwAg2HcyYevHgfeOJreMSmqo6LtbXeEx65x2055KqtbQPgjKsi3Rql3t4G3IMM3x9-r1Dk/w400-h225/20200926_211637%257E2.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Charging through the BMS with a smart charger </span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Time for Plan B I used a 12V source and a step up converter to 18V to act as a "dumb" charger. Meanwhile I checked the charging current and the voltage of the individual cells to see what was happening. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This time the charger patiently waited for the BMS to allow for a current to run. The BMS would drain the cells for a bit and then allow a charge current until one of the cells hit around 3.5V and then the cycle repeated. However it did not seem to be able to bring the cells closer together. After an hour there was still a spread of 0.2V between the cells. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">After letting the pack sit for a while I found out that the BMS aims to keep the cells at around 3.4V (on my V-meter). So during charging - aiming for 3.6V - a cell might go higher but the BMS will continue to discharge it until it is back at 3.4V again.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I will have to see if this noticeably impacts the capacity of this battery pack. When I have some more time on my hands I will run some tests and see how it behaves under the stress of powering a 400w amp.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Update May 2021:</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">After using the battery pack for a while I decided to remove the BMS. In my situation - having balancing chargers - the BMS only adds complexity.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The second thing I noticed is that the pack was struggling delivering the high amperage the ALS-500m pulls. Testing the pack at home with a dummy load I saw the nickel tabs I used to solder the main + and - wires to became hot, red hot even. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXc9hH-4wtO1hA5GJ5RISDVnwRcJBPpiBIi78NqGLbB_Pqy2PkKrlNFXIQJGxWRjuHxMUbartmbGWL6D4t81o6Sd-8pdv4_2u4Qyac_X0Aclwz-Om0mBTxe0HQQZ2ljZ_plqMwU_0WnqV_/s2048/20210526_114847.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1348" data-original-width="2048" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXc9hH-4wtO1hA5GJ5RISDVnwRcJBPpiBIi78NqGLbB_Pqy2PkKrlNFXIQJGxWRjuHxMUbartmbGWL6D4t81o6Sd-8pdv4_2u4Qyac_X0Aclwz-Om0mBTxe0HQQZ2ljZ_plqMwU_0WnqV_/w400-h264/20210526_114847.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So I decided to solder wires to the first and last set of (three) parallel batteries to spread the current. Testing that thoroughly I found it to work perfectly. All cells now discharge evenly, even under high load.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7jLEpRGupmRQimo-RFV9X3uMP79ZSTUQLx2rThi5d35p1hMaWBLPya3VKChrkNvET4poCiXYJ7tGICnsgmnU8sL_n0yzTPFGovEacSZSSppHNErrziBmDdoiW_oclrDALPjywTITGUCxc/s2616/battery_vmeter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1202" data-original-width="2616" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7jLEpRGupmRQimo-RFV9X3uMP79ZSTUQLx2rThi5d35p1hMaWBLPya3VKChrkNvET4poCiXYJ7tGICnsgmnU8sL_n0yzTPFGovEacSZSSppHNErrziBmDdoiW_oclrDALPjywTITGUCxc/w640-h294/battery_vmeter.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shrink wrapped end result (with built-in Voltmeter)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-73513313855645789492020-08-07T15:27:00.002+02:002021-06-06T16:12:11.769+02:0040m wire antennas compared<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Before going on holiday I managed to get some life into my old C-Pole using a new home made choke. I re-tuned the antenna (<a href="https://www.ph0no.net/2020/04/c-pole-tuning-part-3.html" target="_blank">with some challenges</a>) but did not get a chance to use it. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the past I did use it quite a bit and was pleased with the results but as always - this does not tell you a lot. HF conditions vary too quickly and dramatically to base any evaluation on single antenna experiences. You really need simultaneous A/B testing.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A gap in my schedule allowed me to go out and do some testing of different wire antennas for 40m. I ended up testing a C-Pole versus an end fed halve wave more or less vertical and the same C-Pole versus an inverted V dipole.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZmlkZDnMGx5ipINfcfZB7Va8e8wTKkH90gyObUR5jljg3be2w1RwfoNGeL5Q_Q0z8mOJ7jh78U0wX3Cy2_F4QQODEHfjLDMDbP-0zaO-NCkZ-BNv35YFtcyB7joE3eLA6CzxYBBWJibh/s2048/20200806_161014.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZmlkZDnMGx5ipINfcfZB7Va8e8wTKkH90gyObUR5jljg3be2w1RwfoNGeL5Q_Q0z8mOJ7jh78U0wX3Cy2_F4QQODEHfjLDMDbP-0zaO-NCkZ-BNv35YFtcyB7joE3eLA6CzxYBBWJibh/w450-h800/20200806_161014.jpg" width="450" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Test setup</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I used two identical WSPRLite beacons that transmit with 200mW on the WSPR frequency. </span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">The C-Pole was set up so that the feedpoint was at approx 2m above ground (that would be your typical setup with a 12m pole, like the Spiderbeam I have - with the top of the antenna at 11m). </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">The EFHW was attached to my 18m pole and therefore almost vertical. The last 3-4m I set up sloping so that the feedpoint was at approx 1.5m above ground.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Inverted V was set up so that the feedpoint/apex was about 13m high. </span></li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The test period was the end of the afternoon. Not the best time for 40m and certainly not the best time to test DX performance. However it was the time I had available. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN3zaCMykLF7SYgBC5bzWczawc9uaWzQv4G87Cmr7xuw6OsIzW-u-2w1y91VmwltbI24mGmcocKp3QbQ-CzHxvMlKfCgSD_hqjfsE3_5aiisHI0s5LUpH6F69qV87SVwJkv34kw_t-pkCT/s2048/20200806_180456.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN3zaCMykLF7SYgBC5bzWczawc9uaWzQv4G87Cmr7xuw6OsIzW-u-2w1y91VmwltbI24mGmcocKp3QbQ-CzHxvMlKfCgSD_hqjfsE3_5aiisHI0s5LUpH6F69qV87SVwJkv34kw_t-pkCT/s640/20200806_180456.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">C-Pole meets EFHW vertical</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first run was the C Pole vs the EFHW vertical. I let the beacons run for about an hour. After that time I had:</span></p>
<table align="center" border="1" style="text-align: center;">
<tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Antenna</span></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Transmissions</span></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Spotters</span></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Spots</span></td></tr>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">C-Pole</span></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">15</span></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">60</span></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">328</span></td></tr>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">EFHW</span></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">15</span></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">60</span></td><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">392</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">On first glance the EFHW vertical seems to fare better. It has been heard more often. However both antennas reached the same amount of spotters. So nothing too dramatic here. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">There is not a lot of difference in the stations that received the signals - so most of the spotters returned data for both antennas.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now looking at the SNR reported by the spotters there is more to say about the difference.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> I averaged the reports per spotter to decrease the amount of data points. The graph below shows the signal strength reported </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">(SNR in dB on the Y axis)</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> at the spotters' distance. It looks like the EFHW (in orange) performs better.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji0Vxr23ARl2l9Q1eG5qyyArU4oQ2MIHoKNiVuo2dhFKUhHmOwshdS2qUAvtLlVHR6mA68-6qFZtKBGbGYbuvg6QAtWLTVxgxFBbOW13SOGVenR4RpSRawSSeR5sgWT2CCbL9j0fOeYc_a/s791/efhw_c_pole_40m_avg.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="791" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji0Vxr23ARl2l9Q1eG5qyyArU4oQ2MIHoKNiVuo2dhFKUhHmOwshdS2qUAvtLlVHR6mA68-6qFZtKBGbGYbuvg6QAtWLTVxgxFBbOW13SOGVenR4RpSRawSSeR5sgWT2CCbL9j0fOeYc_a/s640/efhw_c_pole_40m_avg.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I then calculated the average difference in signal strength per spotter of the EFHW over the C-Pole - so only for spotters that returned reports for both antennas. The graph shows the difference the EFHW scored in dB - above the line means the EFHW beat the C-Pole. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This clearly shows the EFHW beats the C-Pole on almost all distances and sometimes by a fair margin. The outlier is S51RS at 950km. That is the only spotter favoring the C-Pole significantly.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL8u8tvpRi1auWSUSWuTHgU2pR_jWbKeRmcQuTs0b5DntFrsUk7qKSxRx54K_uqPCbMExcH56vqE36d8B1JhzoagGyYHHICw3auTjUeHoMiGrJuv_NFvobJl-wm1vH2Yp3-H-Bnj7hsKUZ/s791/efhw_c_pole_40m_diff.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="791" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL8u8tvpRi1auWSUSWuTHgU2pR_jWbKeRmcQuTs0b5DntFrsUk7qKSxRx54K_uqPCbMExcH56vqE36d8B1JhzoagGyYHHICw3auTjUeHoMiGrJuv_NFvobJl-wm1vH2Yp3-H-Bnj7hsKUZ/s640/efhw_c_pole_40m_diff.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So if you have enough height available the EFHW is the one to choose out of the two at least for the ranges tested today. This is what I expected from the </span><a href="https://www.ph0no.net/2019/02/c-pole-antenna-for-40m-dx-profile-at.html" style="font-family: verdana;">theoretical analysis</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> I did some time ago.</span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">An interesting followup would be to see how the EFHW would perform with the same top height (sloping from the 12m pole or tree branch). With a slingshot one can easily get a vertical wire up 20m, so I would normally aim for that height with this antenna.</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">C Pole meets inverted V dipole</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now how about the inverted V? This one adds another element to the game as it is horizontally polarised (as opposed to the vertical EFHW and the C-Pole).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I chose a height around 13m (not fully extending the 18m pole). In retrospect I might as well have gone 2 meters lower to compare the antenna if set up on the same 12m pole as I used for the C Pole antenna. Here we have a slight advantage for the inverted V.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Running the beacons for just under an hour I had:</span></p><table align="center" border="1" style="text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">Antenna</span></td><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">Transmissions</span></td><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">Spotters</span></td><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">Spots</span></td></tr><tr><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">C-Pole</span></td><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">10</span></td><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">45</span></td><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">202</span></td></tr><tr><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">Inverted V</span></td><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">11</span></td><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">46</span></td><td><span style="font-family: verdana;">219</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The inverted V got one extra shot so it is hard to tell from this first glance which one performed better.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Looking at the average report per spotter shows that the Inverted V (in green) seems to beat the C-Pole on most occasions. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitwQT-I2dfS8H_AHwgNF_Omlae5P2S8O0ft9NNpLd6IKW9nW5dS9tViyA11bE3SJYUhaERW6w2AP5R5GXg5fuuZTY7qKHNlg_KIqD6N0o4EBE0nVVK1HFCjV2ZEfqcaKhjJNn6RdwKMeEv/s792/invv_c_pole_40m_avg.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="792" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitwQT-I2dfS8H_AHwgNF_Omlae5P2S8O0ft9NNpLd6IKW9nW5dS9tViyA11bE3SJYUhaERW6w2AP5R5GXg5fuuZTY7qKHNlg_KIqD6N0o4EBE0nVVK1HFCjV2ZEfqcaKhjJNn6RdwKMeEv/s640/invv_c_pole_40m_avg.png" width="640" /></span></a></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Moving one step further the indication is confirmed. The Inverted V wins (above the line) almost everywhere. The biggest outlier again is S51RS.</span></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqIAKjKGMx1hNUWPULIKzosVZlL03LexHwFvxhLk8NGKAZZWzSfTgde0jXJq5aNbS9Ay4CLHh3dYo6QrUSqlMoAZtMmbvhBYeWpMoUH__zf-H6rbEJ_tgE98ATae0b-KCHXkhAGcEyypi/s792/invv_c_pole_40m_diff.png" style="display: inline; padding: 1em 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="792" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqIAKjKGMx1hNUWPULIKzosVZlL03LexHwFvxhLk8NGKAZZWzSfTgde0jXJq5aNbS9Ay4CLHh3dYo6QrUSqlMoAZtMmbvhBYeWpMoUH__zf-H6rbEJ_tgE98ATae0b-KCHXkhAGcEyypi/s640/invv_c_pole_40m_diff.png" width="640" /></span></a></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Conclusions</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I did not test the inverted V against the EFHW vertical directly. However looking at the differences per test, using the C-Pole as "a reference antenna", there does not seem to be a lot of performance difference within EU. I would have expected the inverted V to do slightly better than the vertical on the shorter distances (with its higher radiation angle) but that might be only noticeable on even shorter distances.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">So, this time I learned that within EU the C-Pole loses against an inverted V at more or less the some top height and loses against a vertical EFHW with the feedpoint at more or less the same height. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">One question remains - as the antenna's have different radiation patterns - would any of these clearly beat the others on multi hop DX? <a href="https://www.ph0no.net/2019/02/c-pole-antenna-for-40m-dx-profile-at.html" target="_blank">The simulations I did previously</a> would suggest that the C-Pole would have an advantage over the inverted V because of more low angle radiation.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">If it turns out the C-Pole does not "deliver on promise" there, then I cannot see a lot of situations where I would choose it over one of the other designs. Only if the footprint needs to be minimal and height is restricted (*).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This last question requires a new test around gray line time - when I can't use my favourite test ground as it is only accessible in daylight. Something to put on the "to do list".</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>*) Another one: would the C-Pole beat a shortened 40m EFHW of equal height - so approx. 12m? I have such a wire with spool that I used in the past for my 10-20-40m EFHW.</i></span></p>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-71720750215214249302020-06-03T20:39:00.000+02:002020-06-03T20:39:08.210+02:00FREE month<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Last month I spent more time on the radio than the preceding twelve months combined. I was on the air as one of ten stations with a special call in the P*75FREE(DOM) range to commemorate the end of WW2 in The Netherlands in May 1945.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg60dfxsk_XP6uXF0bJcC8wZ_Wfu1DIg_3mC3s6QJjtdCwXnfo75E4pCkfsurCnf-UJyqiDqW9wOyRybOmEYzYcsvFC-Qx_1SeBCwTX2w0eUAYZQCfQjFSZOjI_4Y0_Fpu_0e9uxw-AuU9Z/s1600/75free_qsl_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="600" height="409" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg60dfxsk_XP6uXF0bJcC8wZ_Wfu1DIg_3mC3s6QJjtdCwXnfo75E4pCkfsurCnf-UJyqiDqW9wOyRybOmEYzYcsvFC-Qx_1SeBCwTX2w0eUAYZQCfQjFSZOjI_4Y0_Fpu_0e9uxw-AuU9Z/s640/75free_qsl_600.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Planning the event at the end of last year we had ideas to be active as a group or subgroup during the month with a large event from a war museum. They were happy to accommodate us a whole weekend. However COVID-19 changed all that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Initially I went out /P alone to a couple of PAFF nature reserves but as the month progressed we decided to do a smaller group activity with three operators from a nature reserve (PAFF-0168). We were able to set up two stations - one 40m and one 10 to 20m using the portable hexbeam. We changed the latter into a 60-80m station in the evening.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRKWqavP9wZA2Ufm7SfpcoCoets_7-5wL53B-puKnyV7nAFIGQOn6WYPFhOisTwh7Gnrlr-QkpIFiIFOWbnOQYRJnTqJQ1M1nmzu0wDmaBtiiGshDguN2PQgJhN9Hza6qn2tkTyDlIqN30/s1600/20200517_185107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="758" data-original-width="1600" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRKWqavP9wZA2Ufm7SfpcoCoets_7-5wL53B-puKnyV7nAFIGQOn6WYPFhOisTwh7Gnrlr-QkpIFiIFOWbnOQYRJnTqJQ1M1nmzu0wDmaBtiiGshDguN2PQgJhN9Hza6qn2tkTyDlIqN30/s640/20200517_185107.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hexbeam set up in a nature reserve with PD75FREE, PG75FREE and PH75FREE running two stations</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Through email and Telegram chat the FREE stations kept in touch on the progress, the conditions and notable experiences. It is nice to see how working as a team motivates one to be more involved and spend more time behind the radio. Each participant made different choices based on preferences (like more or less digi) and set-up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Another motivating factor were the most active chasers that tried to find us on each band and mode and even contacted us by email or Facebook to share their enthusiasm and look for opportunities to work us with OH2YV as the most striking example. His dedication was extraordinary. He finished first by a stretch only using phone and CW (so missing all possible digi points most other chasers did collect). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">All in all we made 25.000 QSOs with 13.000 stations. I was not the most active by a long stretch but still made a nice amount of contacts spread over the bands and modes (giving serious chasers a chance to accumulate points). There was a nice bit of sporadic E in the second half of the month, allowing for short skip on 20 and 40 but also openings on higher bands up to 2m.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In three pictures an idea of my activities (star = digi, dot = phone/cw):</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlBzbO42GI5wWcap7-0g4QGpzChgPWRp0sorkPipQhXy37Lg_8T2D9o1lWRNa41ID369Kl8xpR-7-QOl1_zN8ssX0PsIrRI83xqyU1_sZBLEHlZE1tDXTa2xPFFbtm3ihOzKhf8vQbq1qc/s1600/PH75_HF%252B_EU.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="871" data-original-width="1193" height="465" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlBzbO42GI5wWcap7-0g4QGpzChgPWRp0sorkPipQhXy37Lg_8T2D9o1lWRNa41ID369Kl8xpR-7-QOl1_zN8ssX0PsIrRI83xqyU1_sZBLEHlZE1tDXTa2xPFFbtm3ihOzKhf8vQbq1qc/s640/PH75_HF%252B_EU.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">VHF and high HF: 2/4/6/10/12/15m - sporadic E fun within EU</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1fxjg9VMk8CO-vc0KCyk9I1_tm4CbtwmiYQm_SuNtTyxmL-AWYnUffnL7NXN4mKAP0P6aw-kuRA8sUE9ilMGPydpN4TOUlwKBgR86nvUG4G_HrzcPT2hv5vfo4ksTy7PgfnYE2vaAMoG8/s1600/PH75_20_17.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="1351" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1fxjg9VMk8CO-vc0KCyk9I1_tm4CbtwmiYQm_SuNtTyxmL-AWYnUffnL7NXN4mKAP0P6aw-kuRA8sUE9ilMGPydpN4TOUlwKBgR86nvUG4G_HrzcPT2hv5vfo4ksTy7PgfnYE2vaAMoG8/s640/PH75_20_17.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">17/20m gave both Es and some F2 DX</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-20mJqUB733Bvd_zo8BOKMYQA3JuVc2cJFf7BNyGohfbh3V23q6Vle9y2BHT-lHaS17g-PSW9Ugi-Ye1-TA50E12QRAxvjzpIkaN_NONQbo3fsIwwnCLijIBnSC01C02p3G9IJ0cHjKpt/s1600/PH75_Low.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="908" data-original-width="1219" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-20mJqUB733Bvd_zo8BOKMYQA3JuVc2cJFf7BNyGohfbh3V23q6Vle9y2BHT-lHaS17g-PSW9Ugi-Ye1-TA50E12QRAxvjzpIkaN_NONQbo3fsIwwnCLijIBnSC01C02p3G9IJ0cHjKpt/s640/PH75_Low.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Low band (30/40/60/80/160m) throughout EU and one DX on 40m to PY</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To be able to work the chasers on low bands and further than the first hop (DX was challenging), I went out one last time in the last weekend of our activity to a piece of wasteland where I could set up an antenna for 160m. PD7YY joined me to see if we could work DX on 40m as well - and we did with PP7DX making it all the way. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzOm43f2ua7QBWLyqEJoidC8LEHG0fxNs778ZocLjKjwjVP0xieKbjJkeqfkXA53LY2kRXjnRbfeKx1sSBUQn-vtxZL9RAtCYAPOiU86MT_U2MHrc24Y3EDeCpGkccVu2O-huF-ltWCCRv/s1600/photo_2020-06-03_20-23-53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzOm43f2ua7QBWLyqEJoidC8LEHG0fxNs778ZocLjKjwjVP0xieKbjJkeqfkXA53LY2kRXjnRbfeKx1sSBUQn-vtxZL9RAtCYAPOiU86MT_U2MHrc24Y3EDeCpGkccVu2O-huF-ltWCCRv/s640/photo_2020-06-03_20-23-53.jpg" width="360" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">18m pole with low band wire antenna's and our YNOMY flag</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After finishing collecting all data and producing 400+ awards the following challenge is QSL-ing all our chasers. For now the radio will enjoy some rest - probably until I go on holiday. I hope to be able to go camping in France - like previous years. We'll see how things progress in this peculiar period.</span>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-69906312884167820262020-04-29T14:42:00.000+02:002020-04-29T14:42:31.649+02:00C-pole tuning part 3<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This weekend I went out to test my C-pole with a new 1:1 balun. As I <a href="https://www.ph0no.net/2020/04/cooking-on-choke.html">blogged before</a> I ran into trouble with this antenna and the common mode choke I constructed in W2DU style.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To rule out any balun influences I had decided to tune the C-pole last week using my VNA without any balun present. My idea at the time was that this would give me the most clean picture of the antenna and would rule out any failure of the balun ruining the tuning process. Smart move? No. (but I learned something).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While working on the "naked" antenna I was amazed how much off it was. To me at the time it seemed strange (I tuned it before didn't I?) but it did explain why it failed in operation. So I continued re-tuning the antenna - moving the feedpoint a considerable bit along the one leg of the folded dipole (basically the C-pole is a dipole with the ends folded in a square shape towards each other).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After 1,5-2h of pushing the antenna up and down again I had a perfect match in the 40m band. One happy camper.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At home I tested and optimised my 40m balun. Ready for the final assembly and testing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This weekend I had some time to go out to bring it all together and enjoy the fruits of my labour. However when I set up the antenna with balun I found.... it was way off. Go figure.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tuning the C-pole yet another time</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Discussing this with my YNOMY team members we came to the conclusion that the common mode current - considerable in this design - influences the measurements of the VNA. So tuning the "naked" antenna was a stupid idea and the time spent tuning was actually time spent detuning it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A frustrated ham is never going to be the best person to work on any project but I did decide there and then to re-tune the antenna one more time. I was almost finished when I too hastily bumped the VNA against the pole. The center conductor of the SMA plug attached to the VNA broke off and is now securely in place in my VNA port - making it neither a female nor male connector (gender neutral - a modern concept). That concluded the tuning process for the time being. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdvWTg-sFNOTyzDIveQ3894K-vAGQ9QuRlhNiL0aOi9Q4qnID2oed4OgZUBHBq86G8ODttmMcYrR22MVad6KR6Mpv6jKEHORZDXKYbWb-f8vqDvEow2PkR5SdvrOWcnzoCxxOCKsBVqgcN/s1600/20200429_143517_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1343" data-original-width="1600" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdvWTg-sFNOTyzDIveQ3894K-vAGQ9QuRlhNiL0aOi9Q4qnID2oed4OgZUBHBq86G8ODttmMcYrR22MVad6KR6Mpv6jKEHORZDXKYbWb-f8vqDvEow2PkR5SdvrOWcnzoCxxOCKsBVqgcN/s400/20200429_143517_001.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gender neutral SMA connector</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So now I have to replace the SMA connector on the VNA. That connector - I found - is soldered into place with lead free solder that I cannot remove with my soldering iron as it just does not heat up enough.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Luckily Marcel PG8M told me he both has the connectors and a proper soldering iron. So now I have to find the time to go over to his place and have him repair the damages (keeping a safe distance all the time of course).</span><br />
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<br />PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-71024951705774338882020-04-18T12:58:00.001+02:002020-04-18T12:58:48.096+02:00Cooking on a choke<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Out portable with my (relatively) new C-pole antenna last week I ran into trouble. After about 30 minutes signal levels dropped dramatically indicating something was wrong. I saw the SWR skyrocket.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Walking over to my c-pole I felt the common mode choke was boiling hot. So I changed antennas and continued my operation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Back home I began my investigation in what went wrong. Immediately there were two suspects: the antenna (high swr for some reason) and the choke (too low choking impedance).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The antenna was fine when I used it the first time and I did not change anything in the mean time. So the choke seemed a more logical candidate. The purpose of the choke is to minimise the amount of common mode current that you will generate with an unbalanced antenna like the C-pole. If the choking impedance is too low however there will still be a considerable common mode current left that will generate heat in the choke.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">W2DU style choke with ferroxcubes beads</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On this latest homemade version of the c-pole I use a W2DU style choke that I constructed myself using a number of ferrite beads. The type and amount I used I based on the factsheet. On paper the choking impedance was OK but I can't remember if I really tested it. Checking it now I measured a whooping 400 Ohm of impedance - far too low to stop the CM current flow (I wonder if the heat impacted the ferrite?).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy8NmBDQw2GHfQkr1SSNeEKm_vaz7kyMq5nasIeFxdCsggkirZW2eRzzqI3uat03Nvc4p_ID9lbBhLUa0c94LD6FxcRDghVapRsJU1TDckf22Q46f_sGbmtWEuEjaUvX6xkdWIEcJnvEGN/s1600/balun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1574" data-original-width="1600" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy8NmBDQw2GHfQkr1SSNeEKm_vaz7kyMq5nasIeFxdCsggkirZW2eRzzqI3uat03Nvc4p_ID9lbBhLUa0c94LD6FxcRDghVapRsJU1TDckf22Q46f_sGbmtWEuEjaUvX6xkdWIEcJnvEGN/s400/balun.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Removing turns of RG58 from two stacked FT240 toroids</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On my first C-pole I used a different current choke, designed on the basis of the excellent information by the late <a href="http://www.karinya.net/g3txq/chokes/" target="_blank">G3TXQ</a>. I used two FT240-43 ferrite toroids stacked with a couple of turns of RG58. It is bulkier and heaver though than a W2DU choke, that is why I changed it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That toroid based choke also became very hot on my first c-pole but I later discovered the antenna itself had an issue - causing high swr - causing high voltages over the choke.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I returned to this old choke - abandoned but not scrapped. I measured it and it had an interesting profile. It was particularly useful in the 80m band range (5k Ohm) but certainly not bad in the 40m range (2.5k Ohm).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwDPufno599thVb4cABmK8eFuOCnnzVwqK97_bGScjbHCs1vX2S8saRKZLpmkLRvek-t8CVpXXzgYLHK608XIF0SHKQq7HNrDy6B7Bgb_Z8W5l14zKJS8L8VHzR_kAQ6adiDNra1Dlcjj7/s1600/80m_balun.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="1237" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwDPufno599thVb4cABmK8eFuOCnnzVwqK97_bGScjbHCs1vX2S8saRKZLpmkLRvek-t8CVpXXzgYLHK608XIF0SHKQq7HNrDy6B7Bgb_Z8W5l14zKJS8L8VHzR_kAQ6adiDNra1Dlcjj7/s640/80m_balun.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Measurement #1 of the choking impedance and transmission loss on my balun</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I decided to take it apart and remove one of the RG58 turns. As expected the choking maximum moved up. The profile now suited a 60m antenna perfectly while impedance was higher in the 40m band. After removing two more turns I got a maximum in the 40m band. The choking impedance is now more than 5k Ohm there. That should do the trick.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxN5D5P0hcteytlHkoTvZr3tuBmgovom0S0B_j0pI4L5Th1pIV_NPwgUQC7nja1TRssLZhpltxEnb6xqvYfyVu3mYHIgFpWgRzpGPI1F8rA_SAoIqmfyRlumYzuKmwwHC0w5zb0W5ws8bL/s1600/40m_balun.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="791" data-original-width="1206" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxN5D5P0hcteytlHkoTvZr3tuBmgovom0S0B_j0pI4L5Th1pIV_NPwgUQC7nja1TRssLZhpltxEnb6xqvYfyVu3mYHIgFpWgRzpGPI1F8rA_SAoIqmfyRlumYzuKmwwHC0w5zb0W5ws8bL/s640/40m_balun.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Measurement #2 after removing 3 turns of the coax</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I have the time I will go out /P with my C-pole to check it without a choke - just to be sure it still is resonant in the 40m band - and then add my old toroid based choke. </span>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-75578232012374216392020-04-14T18:56:00.001+02:002020-04-18T13:31:22.139+02:00Recent PAFF activities<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Covid-19 has motivated me to go out portable again after months of little to no activity. Apart from some field tests I went out for two PAFF activations. One to PAFF-0016 (Sallandse Heuvelrug) that I visited once before in 2012 and one to PAFF-0055 (Deelerwoud) that I had visited four times already as it is near to my QTH.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The PAFF-0016 activity was on the Saturday afternoon during WPX SSB. There was no choice in the matter as I was out with my family and there was only that particular afternoon available. I was doubtful about my chances to work a nice number of stations (my target is a minimum of 100), but it was even worse than I feared. In 2,5 hours I only logged 26 QSOs from 13 DXCC. That is by far the lowest number I have logged during a WWFF activity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It started out alright with K2VV (Missouri) as the first chaser coming back on 20m but then the contest QRM became stronger and stronger. The higher bands were closed (4 QSOs on 17m in 30 minutes), so I tried some (fake) CW on 20m. That gave me a few new chasers but that was slow with 10 chasers in 30 minutes. In the end I went down to 60m to add another 7 QSOs before calling it a day.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTuhdM2aRI0QzxY8p3h_go-KJPio6Vl48mW4LOQg_eY84nKfft_h_16yavU0MOx6uiTV9KJid0G9NFQXTvbLynW9m1K_NChzj06tompQdyhQ0RvlFYsOqHF7nU095VOO9iXLCHtUoXIUGh/s1600/paff0016.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="1600" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTuhdM2aRI0QzxY8p3h_go-KJPio6Vl48mW4LOQg_eY84nKfft_h_16yavU0MOx6uiTV9KJid0G9NFQXTvbLynW9m1K_NChzj06tompQdyhQ0RvlFYsOqHF7nU095VOO9iXLCHtUoXIUGh/s640/paff0016.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">QSOs from PAFF-0016 - nicely spread out but only a handful</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My visit to PAFF-0055 was the next Saturday and was completely the opposite. There was a contest that weekend but it would only start at 16h UTC. That gave me some time to use 20m and 40m before QRM started. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The 6th chaser to return my call was Norm N9MM from Texas. That was good propagation news as TX is not regularly in my /P logs. Two more DX surprises were a new JA chaser and Paul VK5PAS who I had not heard for 3 years. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Europe was well awake and the skip zones of 20m and 40m overlapped nicely. It was busy throughout. I logged 156 QSOs from 32 DXCC in just under 2 hours even though I had to change antennas for 40m as I seemed to have burnt the common mode choke of my C-pole...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMVpylG3PUOx-WQWV2fkQ1kR-rCIiOI9en4J5HSRygTrDvkgS2DtZ9aeWmfOmuWreC9PDHg8ZfPICDrLh2aQ8YwqdiCMOprIGSK5XiQfZSj2e_LtZ57c09bSSgIw9imSwAsK9-p2S8h0Gq/s1600/paff0055.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="1452" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMVpylG3PUOx-WQWV2fkQ1kR-rCIiOI9en4J5HSRygTrDvkgS2DtZ9aeWmfOmuWreC9PDHg8ZfPICDrLh2aQ8YwqdiCMOprIGSK5XiQfZSj2e_LtZ57c09bSSgIw9imSwAsK9-p2S8h0Gq/s640/paff0055.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">QSOs from PAFF-0055 - activity level that makes an activator smile</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">That last activity was motivating which is good because I have a busy month of May ahead. I will be active with a special call - <a href="https://www.qrz.com/db/PH75FREE" target="_blank">PH75FREE</a> - commemorating 75 years of freedom (after the end of WW2). I hope to do most of the activity /P.</span>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-52124683975606003672020-04-12T20:20:00.000+02:002020-04-18T13:29:56.895+02:00Up a tree - part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">After dusting off my EZ-hang slinghsot I replaced the old and in the meantime shortened fishing line with new fluorescent line (0.25mm). I started out with 120m but that was a little too much for the reel so I cut it back to 100m.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was wondering what the effect of the different sinker weights would be in practice - w</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">hich one would travel higher and how would they behave once up in a tree.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEmVTKyI-WJ3Zn5unnu7pB9aCYh2R-2Et3ErIhiz_FmdnChbz4gFYP7-KR2IO6EPVryYrsHczdQ9gwCW1l89v6SXcO4iN5A-yNh8E5pxfQOt2J4OvlR5Ljh7jNYDUg1RF6tF1beX8_cAd4/s320/20200411_145411.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Slingshot with 1.75oz sinker</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj367HVe9Kl0dOJImn9ICgjcobxXIBrqEoetEAjjcuNT0uN3Am6_yWEDXXa0vbklSb36AcCKdKiGuA0dChW2kvtwO6LOc0zGyGU6NNrAEMkpKW9XPTjFphToa9n22JhNfOvztnX7GOhf2Ar/s320/20200411_150407.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Slingshot with original sinker</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">First I did some sim</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">ple shots across a field. It turned out both weights ended up at around the same distance: 50m (170ft) with a maximum of 54m for the 1.75 oz weight and 58m for the original 1oz weight. I would say comparable.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2fRODuZgbJ0BJAANcR9iRRAUdKSWMY8snRtFyV6-dwlvsO0WLYoMBo-A_DGVUqWJ8wKAkmWzIw3YM0WbKyR05oWMB8EwaTVUkDYzrEQ4aZBHb9RULyagtTpA2Vy30_7bafcU4XSRCPku/s1600/20200411_153625.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2fRODuZgbJ0BJAANcR9iRRAUdKSWMY8snRtFyV6-dwlvsO0WLYoMBo-A_DGVUqWJ8wKAkmWzIw3YM0WbKyR05oWMB8EwaTVUkDYzrEQ4aZBHb9RULyagtTpA2Vy30_7bafcU4XSRCPku/s400/20200411_153625.jpg" width="225" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Lots of nice branches</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Then I selected a few nice trees to compare the two sinkers further. Again the difference in height reached was not really significant. Both ended up around 25m (80ft) with the 1oz weight reaching the highest branch at 28m (90ft). This corresponds to the highest mast I have (26m) so more than acceptable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Two differences were significant to me:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">1. the original (yellow) sinker was easier to find (higher visibility thanks to the paint)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">2. the heavier sinker came down smoothly every time while the original one had to be helped down more than once (tugging the line)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So I think it is a matter of painting the heavier sinkers and I am good to go.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Another thing I will optimise are the rubber bands of the slingshot. They can be stretched quite lightly even up to my maximum reach. As it turns out (as with everything you dive into) there is a whole unknown territory to explore when it comes to designing good slingshots. Another thing to put on the to-do-list. On top of that list is figuring out why my 40m c-pole antenna kills current chokes. More on that later...</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUSoVd95sT19HgK02dEINtibl7FC0ri7XGoNN29Hco_VM4VcoWR2IhiE6FL8bO0kA0q4SOGJuOb5mG5KYVzEdkDDkeKN4mVgmALHqRodk0YocLiwprVh8IWqp5MoeVvcHr_todV3WV1s3/s1600/20200411_164045.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUSoVd95sT19HgK02dEINtibl7FC0ri7XGoNN29Hco_VM4VcoWR2IhiE6FL8bO0kA0q4SOGJuOb5mG5KYVzEdkDDkeKN4mVgmALHqRodk0YocLiwprVh8IWqp5MoeVvcHr_todV3WV1s3/s400/20200411_164045.jpg" width="225" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The "chosen one" in action</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-46276213913980290722020-04-03T11:27:00.002+02:002020-04-12T20:24:31.994+02:00Up a tree<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Being confined to home during the whole week - working remote through video links - I was looking for an outdoor activity. I decided to do some testing on my various options of launching wire antennas in a tree. Being able to deploy an antenna at a decent height without a mast increases the options for effective activities /P. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In my little test this Sunday I used two different weights and my slingshot (by <a href="https://www.ezhang.com/" target="_blank">EZ Hang</a>).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When I started looking for ways to get a wire up a tree I tried various objects and lines. I found out quickly that it is important that the wire is smooth - so fishing line or decoration line (used in shop windows for example) is the way to go.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MnD1n7IIQ_3chYaNcG7OYFK9Hu-vrHX069VUaJn6t91e2AelXgNMAkYPbgs9YYnbLNV2WOnG3-QwP_YbZdZ_dHV_Kew7-gNqZBB-6FtBxmHl16sYtnmlbfZPBQR54W3YvlUlk8-r3OmV/s1600/20200402_175934%257E2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="1600" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MnD1n7IIQ_3chYaNcG7OYFK9Hu-vrHX069VUaJn6t91e2AelXgNMAkYPbgs9YYnbLNV2WOnG3-QwP_YbZdZ_dHV_Kew7-gNqZBB-6FtBxmHl16sYtnmlbfZPBQR54W3YvlUlk8-r3OmV/s400/20200402_175934%257E2.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Decoration and fishing line</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As to the object to throw you need something that is easy to handle, smooth / round (so it glides through the branches) and a convenient throwing weight. Regarding the weight you are looking for a sweet spot: heavier and it will get difficult to throw high, lighter and the object will not return your line back to earth but just keep on dangling somewhere high up in the tree. In that situation you are left with tugging the line hoping the object continues its descent but in my experience you might just as well cause the object to swing around the nearest branch - leaving it behind for eternity. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I started out with a ball as throwing object. Trying different types I settled on a field hockey ball. The reason being that it fits my hand perfectly and the weight is around the sweet spot (150gr)</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> - not too heavy but generally enough to bring the line back down. Just drill a hole through the middle and away you go.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The ball is kind of large though so not so practical to carry around. Later on I started using fishing sinkers, settling on the heaviest one I could find (90gr). </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0I4L1mpZfTmv9IiAUfj1HFdWpISMWy5RcKlNwTvnIBPnzy1IDGhpzzN2_S3ZYVUkxNwCqF8Fp9GJAg0x7eJsNfu6i8CMUL71y-Nl1RfiPHxhyphenhyphen1_E_aq1xkQcbe-R4OzCpQyv6sPeIyYc/s1600/20200322_192017%257E3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="966" data-original-width="1600" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0I4L1mpZfTmv9IiAUfj1HFdWpISMWy5RcKlNwTvnIBPnzy1IDGhpzzN2_S3ZYVUkxNwCqF8Fp9GJAg0x7eJsNfu6i8CMUL71y-Nl1RfiPHxhyphenhyphen1_E_aq1xkQcbe-R4OzCpQyv6sPeIyYc/s400/20200322_192017%257E3.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Throwing weights: hockey ball and fishing sinker</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I tried both and measured the height I could get a line up. Of course it is slightly unscientific as I used only one tree in this experiment - so not all heights were achievable only specific branch heights. It turns out I can throw the fishing weight just a bit higher than the ball. A few tries brought it up to 12 meters / 40 feet. A decent height for a wire antenna on the higher bands.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">EZ Hang slingshot</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Then I turned to my slingshot. I have been struggling with it in the past, getting the line stuck in the reel or not having the ball come down from the tree (losing a lot of line).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After a few tries I did manage to shoot the provided metal ball a nice way up and through the tree reaching a height of 25m. I think I can shoot it higher than that if I give it a bit more practice. That is a good height even for wire antennas on the lower bands.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The EZ hang standard weight - a 25gr canon ball</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />The main weakness to me is that the weight of the standard ball is too low to be sure it comes down from a tree with a lot of branches (let alone leaves). So the next thing I will do is test this out with a few different weights. I also have to replace the line as it has become too short after losing parts of it in the past (stuck in trees).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Will share more experiences in the future.</span>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-91365144510849000112020-03-18T16:04:00.001+01:002020-03-19T15:46:08.910+01:00Crazy things that happen when you are a portable ham<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Beware it has become a long post..</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When I am out working portable I look for places where I am not in anyone's face. That is easier with a wire up a tree and more challenging when using my portable hexbeam. It usually means I am in a desolate place. Either in a nature reserve (as WWFF activator) or some other park or abandoned space to test antennas or work specific DX.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Being out there as ham radio operator for some ten years now I have had a couple of memorable encounters. I thought it would be nice to share some.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Meeting police</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">More than once I have met police while being out working portable. Not surprisingly the officers generally want to know what I am doing. Most of the time they are curious but move on when they find out I am rather harmless. Once in a while the officer is old enough to remember the time a lot of people had (CB) radio's so chats a bit longer. Like any other passerby the comments on the hexbeam are usually along the lines of "hanging out the laundry?".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In my village I had a meeting with police one time when I was driving home after a low band activity in the early hours of Sunday morning. The patrol car stopped me as they probably had nothing else to do and I was the only one driving around at the time. The funny thing is that the first officer was somewhat suspicious of the amount of stuff in my car (radio gear, antennas, wires, Spiderbeam poles and my aluminum mast). She kept asking me questions to figure out what she was dealing with. But then her partner came up to the car and said "he is a radio amateur" (that it explains it all, right?).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The crazy thing of course is... how did he know? Clearly one of the earlier encounters had lead to a note in the police database. I am now formally known as the odd ham radio guy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There was one police officer in PA that was more than annoyed with my activity. It was during an activity close to the coast. She did not understand what I was doing and kept on repeating the she found the whole thing fishy. However she also concluded (implicitly) that there were no grounds to stop me, so in the end she moved on - but visibly reluctantly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The most depressing encounter was a meeting with the honorary police in GJ. They were ignorant of ham radio but did not let that fact keep them from acting tough. They drove up to our lovely desolate place where we had just set up the hexbeam (see below) and a low band inverted V. Unfamiliar with what we were doing - as foreigners, at dusk - they were determined to put an end to all of it. However, they had no real arguments that we could no counter (like: "you will be influencing the air traffic communications"). It was late Saturday evening and dispatch was not going to give them any guidance. In the end they settled on the need for an air traffic supervisor to give us permission. Of course that person would only be available the next morning. So we lost one park activity that day. (the air traffic supervisor laughed the whole thing off by the way)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQdXTjL5YwzpAvmGJSiOQVlP-Z8R5zEEHG83lE170IGsco9qo5o_UsAzvdfTeXSFTpSVds7F846wqfhm8XgcDMnetAEICm4Px47LrY-4oulTsAA-hevrBNVN88rhkQCLo7TS6QCUw2ckvv/s1600/gjhex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQdXTjL5YwzpAvmGJSiOQVlP-Z8R5zEEHG83lE170IGsco9qo5o_UsAzvdfTeXSFTpSVds7F846wqfhm8XgcDMnetAEICm4Px47LrY-4oulTsAA-hevrBNVN88rhkQCLo7TS6QCUw2ckvv/s640/gjhex.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Hexbeam ready to push up in GJ - just before the honorary police turned up</span></td></tr>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Meeting park management</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So far my experiences with park management - that you are likely to meet when you are a WWFF activator - are nothing but positive. In fact most of the time they ignore me. Of course I take care not to damage anything or be in anyone's way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Once a ranger approached me and asked if I was working for the national broadcasting service. That was a first for me. It turned out he was actually having a meeting that day with a reporter on some nature topic. Seeing me with my antennas, he was convinced I was a broadcast guy.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Meeting fellow hams</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When fellow hams catch me with my antennas they will come over to identify themselves and exchange experiences. Most are stay-at-home-hams that find it hard to see the fun in going through all the work to play radio for a few hours. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In PA I have met a dozen amateurs this way. Of course there are also fellow hams I organise to meet /P. Like Jakob OZ7AEI/P and Finn OZ3FI/P (sk) in OZ, Andrew M0YMA/P in PA and Auguste HB9TZA/P in HB0. On expedition in GJ I had the pleasure of meeting Nigel GJ7LJJ as well as Keith G8IXN who just happened to pass by. Incidentally we ran into Keith twice (small island..). Portable in DL one time DL1EBR came by to say hello.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is always nice to get faces to the voices you have heard (many times) before.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And then there is the ham who works as a police officer, as I found out when a police van pulled over when I was activating a nature reserve in PA. The police officer started to ask some specific questions about what I was doing - which I found rather curious - only to "come out" and explain that he was a local ham radio operator. Not long afterwards I actually met him on the radio.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sometimes there is only a link to the hobby: once a lady approached me to ask if I was a radio amateur to add that her late husband had been one.. and she really hated it (I did not have a witty return on that one). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Twice I managed to sneak up to another ham radio operator working portable in my area. Once it was Swa ON5SWA working from PAFF-0019 (and SOTA) and the other was PD0RWL working from PAFF-0085 (and COTA-PA).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgymITAmoj0Q3AcZYY_SbNhM0elSEMpj_WwHNJVWksPAQLLB98itCqZlzwOg90jhbdhZRQAz31p-p0aTQ6pLxzZDfFArAmQPQgmtqblI879RJjtvRlT3cLLDQAS7zrf9ftoMXfjpeuHocuH/s1600/pd0rwl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="533" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgymITAmoj0Q3AcZYY_SbNhM0elSEMpj_WwHNJVWksPAQLLB98itCqZlzwOg90jhbdhZRQAz31p-p0aTQ6pLxzZDfFArAmQPQgmtqblI879RJjtvRlT3cLLDQAS7zrf9ftoMXfjpeuHocuH/s400/pd0rwl.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sneaking up to PD0RWL with my loop - receiving an S9++++ report</span></td></tr>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Meeting other fellow humans</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You meet all sorts of people out in the field. You recognise the different types over time. Some are curious but reluctant to approach you and others want to know all about it even when you are in the middle of a pile-up. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Most are curious about what the fun is and sometimes I am able to transfer a bit of the magic of making radio contacts when I explain it to them enthusiastically (mostly they look wearily though). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Once in a while you meet people that make a lasting memory. A few of the highlights:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Alienating</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Quite early in my "portable career" I was in a nature park when a group of bird spotters came over. I can't really understand the fun in what they were doing but they were serious about it - their whole outfit including massive binoculars screemed "serious spotter!". I tried to explain what I was doing but saw it did not click with them at all. I tried some other angles and then I mentally zoomed out and saw the absurdity of the setting with two species looking at each other as aliens.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Other alienating meetings are the ones with people that have their own reasons to be at the secluded places I usually end up at. There are the guys looking for guys. Slightly akward. So far I have not been approached (only scanned) so I think the elaborate setup of wires sort of gives away I am there for a different reason.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Another category is the "second love" pair - a man and woman arrive each in their own car. For a while they share one car and then drive off again (to unsuspecting "first loves" I guess).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sometimes you get the feeling you have ended up in a play or a movie.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Scary</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It happens that you scare people. Like the one time we were testing a lowband setup with the YNOMY team. We were working with high masts (including my 26m Spiderbeam pole) and lots and lots of wire in a small park when a local turned up in his Range Rover. Quite agitated (as in: nervous not aggressive) he asked us what we were doing. It is only afterwards that we understood that he was afraid something permanent would be installed. We missed the opportunity of pretending to be working for a telephone company installing a new tower (the poor man..). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Then there is the odd encounter that actually <u>is</u> scary. So far I have had only one: I was in France in a nature park quite far from the civilised world. There was a small road through the park and looking at the map I had seen one tiny track just off that road to an open space next to a river (see photo below). I found the track and parked my car on it to find the open spot that clearly was visited more often judging by rubbish laying around and remnants of an open fire. I thought youths must be using that area. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Remote place in France for a memorable FFF activity</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Just when I had set everything up a car stopped behind mine on that narrow track. Out came a scruffy guy that looked completely bewildered. He asked me how I had found this spot - as if it was some sort of hidden place. It seemed he came there more often and was not particularly amused to find me there. He was uneasy, and when he learned I am from PA he started to refer to drugs - which I am not interested in so that line of conversation was rather short. I tried to ignore him and started playing radio. The notebook I was using for logging had (and still has) a broken screen. Not a problem for me as it is still usable but it attracted his attention. He walked to his car and came back with a notebook asking me if I was interested (so picture this: scruffy guy, hidden place, drugs, spare notebooks to share... not the best pal to share a remote spot with).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The next thing he did was even more cinematic: being slightly bored he started to fiddle with his notebook using his pocket knife. Okay.. so here we have the scruffy guy a few meters away with a large enough knife. Interesting.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This is the only time I was aware of and made sure that my hammer was within short reach.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My new friend did leave in the end but it was the least enjoyable radio-activity I have done so far.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-48097582853625811202019-09-28T15:37:00.001+02:002021-05-26T10:16:45.789+02:00Wet but still great activity from Ameland<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the afternoon of Friday Sept 27 I arrived on Ameland Island (part of EU-038) for a weekend with my in-laws, celebrating their 50y honeymoon anniversary. Knowing I would be on an island that also contains PAFF-0073 - the last unactivated PAFF - I was keen to take my radio with me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We would travel to the island without a car so I prepared my bicycle so it could transport a lot of stuff.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKvxIIG0rCvuQd0e9rJA5mLcb-JeJhQUQYRw6R7dXXk5lZQZhUc1L_WJBPYl4uZnTzKNsMRjkO0gdcW8msAPcNgnFUrnzPx_1JEVoK7PD_D5Gg9ksB48PpJxAyAl4q0e2M5dlv4MpczbwM/s640/20190927_152926.jpg" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Mountain bike customized into trekking bike with a lot of extra weight</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Getting nearer to the weekend two forecasts were worrying - a geomagnetic storm with Kp up to 6 and rain with strong winds were both on the agenda for the weekend.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I chose to take a smaller pole (12m) than I usually deploy and decided I would take my mobile amp and a stack of LiPo's as they would give me just a bit more chance if conditions would be poor even though it meant my bags would be heavy. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj5LfNw7UnbFYjAfkFJzLi7QRy1edcdaG-39V66ZzAhNaBVe0YNyKwU84B_MJM-0bKRI4V8vzQCfx9pyaXfr0sB-aWhnQbZcjblvCRdqIoOnEE_4Q3gLS7F_SLDq9_DN2D7yC9UgBpRe3M/s640/20190928_121957.jpg" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Strong wind on the island</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When I was on the island checking the rain radar I knew I would not stay dry however I would plan my activity. So I took my rain clothes and a lot of plastic to cover my gear and went out.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZRxQKS_CgnSZHEAVuqoCTDTARBGp82tk0U9tkErnC9g5XogF1dWmffCLfTSCYtYxJn4GT7dmEBkekifSPQ80J-P7hc8ZL1f99CctRVh2efvTmkY39R7fI9Aty8zRLzMCizibSsDCoBXAu/s640/naturepark.jpg" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Ominous clouds over the dunes at Ameland</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I found a nice place in the dunes overlooking the sea. It started out nicely with some sun. There was an almost immediate pile-up on 20m that seemed to continue forever. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhss93w4U2Dzavq4yNLQtXLaMZFdhgmlI23pW0jXBHbWQ0cb1EqBqH53Q-yOp-EZ9ndN7WXBOvqMRVwjlIJfwMXT7n_AdI3SrCNThp_sQu_5vDvY0Hoz6_j6FG4MU7u-1Zo-u_5xMjJiy7w/s640/20190928_140945.jpg" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">12m Spiderbeam pole in the dunes fighting the wind</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Conditions seemed good enough with some particular strong skips - with the benefit of sea water nearby surely. Quite a few NA stations came by some with signals up to s9 like Tom KG8P from MI and Norman N9MM from TX (a rare KFF p2p for me).</span><br />
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<img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiJh46w-0NGPu2rowC3s7UoQxToGYs-Obl-BDtyymHEwSEZyn0pnZpw8pPJ9Jwjy_n0cmLwPNSxTqdKM5wWh_XovGv4EUIVS43dQqxhHnbmq2Aabr5GfyZex3B7ZTdYF6rt-zciVh3JRqv/s640/20190927_165406%257E2.jpg" width="640" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately the rain came as expected and two times I had to "sit it out" for half an hour by just covering all the gear and myself (quite a challenge for an impatient guy like me to just sit there for 30 minutes waiting). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was out in the dunes for some 3 hours with 2 hours of effective radio time on 20m and 40m. By the time the third rain shower appeared I'd had enough and went back to the cottage to get dry and warm.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1049" data-original-width="856" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6m4abt6TuRpIxpzHFL0aV0ZL6Zi-N6ZZbXSaZfLsHD7fQIl20X2OAeGo8po3wt6GI8y1HSFjNAggAwu8qULfR2-HU0XXcu8jZF8K0nkB03laZvr-DVsAswBGyOJTEGLdmw5JSaQpsKPhL/s320/weather.jpg" width="261" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Later that evening - I was at the yellow circle</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the 2 hours it was busy enough. Being just before or at the start of a solar storm seems to be a lucky timing after all. I logged 238 QSOs (34 DX) from 38 DXCC, including 13 W states and 3 VE provinces. Odx was 9700km to PY1.</span><br />
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<img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="1600" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1ACmSt2-PUY2CUdTAGOigWKbNO9XFov9Cz5OmzUAUxXJZ5WlheVCiB9BJTirXAxdEO1OVdGBQlK_05BX39Ta8oy9rDiPaoz9pVyiRmuPPhXR2sZ-ziTnoTdaJXnINPtEpB0eoMKeOjd6S/s640/20190928_120310.jpg" width="640" /></div>
<br />PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-6813184613343837602019-09-23T08:57:00.002+02:002019-09-26T15:08:35.526+02:00To activate or not to activate<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Next weekend I will be on the island of Ameland (EU-038). As a radio amateur there is one central concept that concerns the mind with such a prospect: sea water!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK4ZJHg8jVL5CBYtpZ7g3kl6ImsLFkHKtK_At0gPxBWHpkn3jdVj8sJHg28ATzfsCncMuPEZh1JY6GR_GaxBVHMdWU6qWGAKPJ6bnSkkH1K8HKTdkRlcKaMXuVqz_h2WVjCYIGzCWJwVbM/s1600/ameland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK4ZJHg8jVL5CBYtpZ7g3kl6ImsLFkHKtK_At0gPxBWHpkn3jdVj8sJHg28ATzfsCncMuPEZh1JY6GR_GaxBVHMdWU6qWGAKPJ6bnSkkH1K8HKTdkRlcKaMXuVqz_h2WVjCYIGzCWJwVbM/s640/ameland.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As an IOTA reference Ameland and the neighboring islands have been activated a zillion times but there is a nature reserve on the island that has not been activated before. Another good reason to be radio-active there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So, no discussion then: pack the radio gear and have radio fun!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Not so fast.. </span><br />
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<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I will be on the island invited by my in-laws to celebrate their 50th honeymoon anniversary - they will have put together a 24h program for the weekend with a full-time role for me.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I will be on the island without my car but need to move around with my gear to be able to activate the nature reserve.</span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Okay, so I could probably squeeze in a few hours at the start of this social event. Any disappointment about that can be smoothed out during the rest of the weekend.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Regarding transport: I can take a bicycle with me on the island. So I am currently refurbishing my mountain bike so that it can carry all my radio gear (with bike rack and proper transport bags).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">That is that sorted then?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Well, recently two other obstacles raised their ugly heads:</span></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">NOAA expects we will have a geomagnetic storm this weekend with Kp values up to 6.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The weather forecast shows rain throughout the weekend.</span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">At Kp=6 there is not much radio fun to expect and being at the sea side in the dunes with wind and rain is not an option either. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So I will be closely monitoring both forecasts to see how they will play out. I need 2-3 hours of dry spells before the geomagnetic storm starts raging. Fingers crossed.</span></div>
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PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-21945562780384163222019-09-19T17:03:00.001+02:002019-09-21T21:23:21.125+02:00Stylish inverted V multiband antenna<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Spending most of my radio time /P, I have over the years built and used many different antennas. The inverted V dipole was always one of them but mainly for 40 and 80m as I used end fed verticals for the higher bands (due to the length you quickly end up with an inverted V configuration on lower bands).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I started out with four individual dipoles - one for each band 160, 80, 60 and 40. During my activities I mainly use 80 and 40 of the four so I decided to combine them into one dipole for 40m and 80m - using bullet connectors to change bands. The benefit being that you don't have to change antennas - only lower the mast somewhat to reach the connectors.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgokOEEJJuDMjb4vHiqVdKTTXQBFavlzPyj-n-RQyG0lPTbJnDyF1YOcnpJ1a4qyadyjI99DbZbosEGQUJk9JDXFc98GnIIyurXM8k8QmMyq69lsfpvJrYLb590s-RB_iEvJFDRglhJ0d95/s1600/FB_IMG_1568904803423_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="527" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgokOEEJJuDMjb4vHiqVdKTTXQBFavlzPyj-n-RQyG0lPTbJnDyF1YOcnpJ1a4qyadyjI99DbZbosEGQUJk9JDXFc98GnIIyurXM8k8QmMyq69lsfpvJrYLb590s-RB_iEvJFDRglhJ0d95/s400/FB_IMG_1568904803423_crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Bullet connectors to switch bands</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Lately I have been using the inverted V for 20m as well - adding that to the multiband version - as I have found it works well within EU and for DX and again it saves me changing antennas. </span><br />
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<div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Looking at the radiation diagrams on 20m you can see that the inverted V (blue) radiates better on the higher angles compared to a half wave vertical (red). Note that this is a broad side view. From the ends the inverted V loses significantly more versus the vertical (10dB at a 15 degrees take-off angle on 20m) - so for DX the orientation counts.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0y65LXw3tmvPKGo1P5ktX-4WyW_KAiE1Yh7tja1OysCdp-XixlDDIz-lKr-gpkXQ1x6TWvrspQqHmVB5DpLjzZU92avrVjSgpeGfOHMyuMKtGXL-dphJaGnoYRz9uEuRaD3XOMU1SjDNb/s1600/pattern.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="658" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0y65LXw3tmvPKGo1P5ktX-4WyW_KAiE1Yh7tja1OysCdp-XixlDDIz-lKr-gpkXQ1x6TWvrspQqHmVB5DpLjzZU92avrVjSgpeGfOHMyuMKtGXL-dphJaGnoYRz9uEuRaD3XOMU1SjDNb/s320/pattern.png" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EFHW vs Inverted V - 14Mhz - 18m pole</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Planning for a future trip where I would have to travel relatively light, I decided to tweak the dipole even further adding all HF bands from 6m down to 80m (160m I would hardly use and would make the antenna rather bulky). </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It took two field tests to get it right. I started cannibalizing the existing 20-80m version. After a few hours out in the field I had cut all elements and established that I needed to change the existing 30m and 40m elements. Then time ran out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the second run I found a few peculiar mistakes with 15m being quite a bit off (measuring error the first time?). So a few more cuts and tweaks were needed but 2 hours later my antenna was ready.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One thing to keep in mind is that the impedance of an inverted V changes when the angle between the two legs changes - which it always will between deployments. If you increase the angle, the frequency at which the impendance dips goes down. There is a "sweet spot" of element length vs angle that gives you a dip around 50 Ohm. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One eye catching feature of my antenna is the way I have attached the elements (for when they are not connected). I started out with simple rope to hold the pieces together but as I unroll the antenna in a different way (rolling it off a cylinder) than I roll it up (adding turns by hand), the elements are twisted each time. The copper wire can cope with that but the connecting rope transforms into a small knot after a while.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So I had the idea to enable the various pieces of wire to twist independently and - having two daughters in the house - came up with a design featuring pink and purple beads. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXsrs6QAvBnTGnZGdAAQEwAITkssaJiG3XLfKBhNcvdOJVYnLrib4F7qqblip_WwYHWkGXHCE_gqFU6AuV7uGT38Xd8gP8s-RiwM82gr0vT7G-KaX4I6X6qEZuB1TUx0LGsA46Pr0lKCFw/s1600/20190913_175536_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="688" data-original-width="1280" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXsrs6QAvBnTGnZGdAAQEwAITkssaJiG3XLfKBhNcvdOJVYnLrib4F7qqblip_WwYHWkGXHCE_gqFU6AuV7uGT38Xd8gP8s-RiwM82gr0vT7G-KaX4I6X6qEZuB1TUx0LGsA46Pr0lKCFw/s400/20190913_175536_crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I am quite sure this makes it a unique dipole as far as dipole go.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I tested it out during a 3 hour activity from nature reserve PAFF-0067 on 17, 20 and 40m. I worked more than 200 chasers with great reports so it seems to work well.</span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQnCka-mTjR3Bu8bEaWZFQDvCUfeFdP4klA5nQm5ug3jOUgQRjpVZU71crZWge_BhbZtaB25dQaPN8RTrwfkGoHy08DWwXC5bNLek5JRDeT8tKZLyANxQnS5ABWqPUJe9ewqYOHQ22spXH/s1600/20190914_142720_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="1280" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQnCka-mTjR3Bu8bEaWZFQDvCUfeFdP4klA5nQm5ug3jOUgQRjpVZU71crZWge_BhbZtaB25dQaPN8RTrwfkGoHy08DWwXC5bNLek5JRDeT8tKZLyANxQnS5ABWqPUJe9ewqYOHQ22spXH/s400/20190914_142720_crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-86059830303552697472019-08-05T12:04:00.002+02:002019-08-05T18:14:18.879+02:00FFFs during my summer holiday<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">During my summer holiday in France I was radio-active from various FFF locations - six in total. I usually visit four parks in two /P days out but conveniently this year both campsites we stayed on were inside nature reserves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have not made that many QSOs from the campsites as (1) it was by times too hot to do anything, (2) I was in a tent where my favorite mode phone gets annoying for the surrounding quickly and (3) my family expects me to socialise with them in stead of other hams.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We stayed a bit longer in the Dordogne region so I was on the air from that campsite a few times.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In total I logged 805 QSOs from 43 DXCC on 20 and 40 meter:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">FFF-0031 Park National La Brenne (campsite) - 85 QSO FT8/CW/SSB</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">FFF-1167 Natura 2000 La Brenne - 144 QSO SSB</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">FFF-0057 Vallee de l'Anglin - 126 QSO SSB</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">FFF-2352 Basin de la Dordogne (campsite) - 194 QSO FT8/CW/SSB</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">FFF-2568 Vallée de la Vézère - 121 QSO CW/SSB</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">FFF-2570 Vallées des Beunes - 135 QSO CW/SSB</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Eight OMs made it to all the locations: EA3EVL, EA7YT, OM1AX, ON4ON, PD7YY, S58AL, SP8LEP, YL2TQ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">DX was hard to find. Dov 4Z4DX made it a couple of times but from the other end only KD1CT made it across once and only barely so. I tried to get Chuck KO4SB in the log but there was no way - not even a CW whisper heard on both ends. Summer season in a solar minimum is not my favorite time as ham (as holiday maker though..). Luckily there was some sporadic E to create a bit of local fun with signals popping up and strong skips to specific areas.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1onl70f8V4yi5YeXgbQNe8IDZV1gxM55JbyNltzQ_77lfFM3e-2ieDFIvWwnSWUlqbqeoNRvQ0ZF8MWl1DWH3CT-1UnysfRjaeLDZt_ehAHgVVzj1uLg_98-Q2HaCmPY_7ElCZUGVKnRw/s1600/20190719_204721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1onl70f8V4yi5YeXgbQNe8IDZV1gxM55JbyNltzQ_77lfFM3e-2ieDFIvWwnSWUlqbqeoNRvQ0ZF8MWl1DWH3CT-1UnysfRjaeLDZt_ehAHgVVzj1uLg_98-Q2HaCmPY_7ElCZUGVKnRw/s400/20190719_204721.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Convenient picknick table in FFF-0057</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1OIu3IoyEykku_3iUFdU0M2WlUS0PzHtDscLWRhNm6JmugFWmp91nxBLtb2-6hTI-WzKwQnjrYUP75EHnXgup0_fEjge6saB3er2_c4vVwB3U03pthBh3I4E6Sh0fMBsmZpsu9hQ38y9w/s1600/20190719_151017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1OIu3IoyEykku_3iUFdU0M2WlUS0PzHtDscLWRhNm6JmugFWmp91nxBLtb2-6hTI-WzKwQnjrYUP75EHnXgup0_fEjge6saB3er2_c4vVwB3U03pthBh3I4E6Sh0fMBsmZpsu9hQ38y9w/s400/20190719_151017.jpg" width="225" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the shadow at a lake in FFF-1167 </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipzWkwIn2GfVX1m8NRefQEEdEZBSV19sM7rN9U_KOXX7YeY28CHCeSqtydCy7SdFrjl5EAIHzAadrw9jM3o2ojsSHMpkRuLvwqCqrszboeG2X4ZHx6VAh_XJd4YzQGiELnWIYd6dZxSJjx/s400/20190728_175309.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Bit of walking required to get into the woods at FFF-2568</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipzWkwIn2GfVX1m8NRefQEEdEZBSV19sM7rN9U_KOXX7YeY28CHCeSqtydCy7SdFrjl5EAIHzAadrw9jM3o2ojsSHMpkRuLvwqCqrszboeG2X4ZHx6VAh_XJd4YzQGiELnWIYd6dZxSJjx/s1600/20190728_175309.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-Z7Kx3idxjkjLCXhzW0eskNtSnQq8JhV7lCK_htyv5M4K241xBoiIky3cS0MkLYTTKKr9ug6Au8e1zw5afSZo_el7tbg3hyphenhyphenUU1Nzg-JYaEetnvGfWeuEm3m4uV0uyx97KzUJ7zTl3TVD/s1600/20190728_183541.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-Z7Kx3idxjkjLCXhzW0eskNtSnQq8JhV7lCK_htyv5M4K241xBoiIky3cS0MkLYTTKKr9ug6Au8e1zw5afSZo_el7tbg3hyphenhyphenUU1Nzg-JYaEetnvGfWeuEm3m4uV0uyx97KzUJ7zTl3TVD/s400/20190728_183541.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">FFF-2570 was easy to activate once I found this parking area </span></td></tr>
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PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-28986120827643002982019-07-18T17:33:00.004+02:002019-07-18T17:42:41.471+02:00Chilling in France<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">May and June have been rather busy. Apart from the normal daily routines there was an expedition weekend to GJ with my team in May and a special castle event I organised for the whole of June. Both brought a lot of radio fun and of course a lot of organizing and administration (logs, awards, QSLs, PR).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For a few days now I have been chilling on a campsite in France. The first stop is in the center of France and as it turns out (I did not plan this) the camping is inside the frequently activated nature reserve NP La Brenne (FFF-0031). I have put up a wire for 20m and did some data and CW yesterday. Conditions were not good judging from the activity level on CW. There was more activity on FT8 but that mode cannot capture my attention for too long.</span></div>
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<img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1khCYBmhar5VlloYELQcx5YwAiVulQfKie6rSLIYVijXWCQjj0nTupfs775ZGVHyIhSkjOkF-mpZ7IyT7TngHb7DkxPzOl4VgOAGsEMP5GXWb8yuXGxtAxWdYU3T03d9WfWPsPWRuY3Xs/s640/20190714_172234-03.jpeg" width="640" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Tomorrow I will go out portable to activate two nature reserves in the vicinity that have seen little activity: Natura 2000 area of Brenne (FFF-1167) and Vallée de l'Anglin et affluents (FFF-0057).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This weekend we will be moving further south to the Dordogne for 2 more weeks of camping. I will again be inside a nature reserve (again a nice surprise) and this time it is a new one: Bassin de Dordogne (FFF-2352).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I expect I will go out /P from there at least once, depending on how the weather develops. The first days look like it will be above 40C. This means sitting very still in the shadow and / or laying in the swimming pool the whole day.</span></div>
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PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-54474935230975721782019-06-10T22:42:00.002+02:002020-09-28T18:05:20.038+02:00QRO portable<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Most of my QSOs I have made while out portable. At home I only have a simple antenna: a wire running from the attic window into the garden. Quite early on I found that to work interesting DX stations I had to have a better setup. At around the same time I discovered the WWFF and COTA/WCA programs. A portable journey had begun.</span><br />
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Why bother about the setup?</span></b><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">My radio time is rather limited. This is one of the reasons I want to make the most out of the trips I undertake. The other reason is that I like to give chasers all over the world a chance to collect references in the (worldwide) award programs I participate in as activator. </span><br />
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Antennas</span></b><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Trying many antennas and setups I moved from simple wire antennas via a home made <a href="http://www.ph0no.net/2017/04/project-cobwebb-or-cobweb-antenna.html" target="_blank">cobweb</a> to the <a href="http://www.ph0no.net/2012/10/finishing-and-testing-portable-hexbeam.html" target="_blank">folding hexbeam</a>. That one still is my favourite DX antenna. I use that one if I have the time and know there is enough room to set it up. For low bands I use verticals, a <a href="http://www.ph0no.net/2019/02/c-pole-antenna-for-40m-dx-profile-at.html" target="_blank">c-pole</a> (40m), <a href="http://www.ph0no.net/2017/03/a-new-addition-to-my-portable-antennas.html" target="_blank">delta loop</a> (40m) and dipoles (center and end fed). </span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For ease of deployment I have lately started using a linked dipole in inverted V configuration for 20-80m. I am quite pleased with the performance and the ease of changing bands.</span><br />
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Masts</span></b><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With antennas you are faced with the next challenge: height. I started out with an extended Spieth mast (14m but very thin top) and Spiderbeam 12m mast. Fine for end fed's (vertical / sloping) or high band dipoles but once you get to 40m and below you want more height. So I moved to 18m and later even 26m Spiderbeam masts. The <a href="http://www.ph0no.net/2017/05/projects-18m-pole-set-up-improvements.html" target="_blank">18m version</a> is the one I take out by default. I added some features to make it easy to deploy on your own in the field.</span><br />
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Power - applied and transmitted </span></b><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Last but not least there is the question of power. I moved to <a href="http://www.ph0no.net/2016/05/power-sources-for-portable-operation.html" target="_blank">LiPo and LiFePO4 batteries</a> for my radio's years ago. The capacity / weight ratio is unbeatable. With LiPo's you can run 100w for hours with little added weight.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Moving towards the solar minimum I was looking for a bit more TX power. I started with a cheap RM Italy amp and then moved to the Ameritron ALS500m. It provides a max output of 400w - which is exactly what you are allowed in PA.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I purchased a lead acid battery of 145Ah to power that amp - with the idea that this would allow full day operations (like when I am on expedition with my team YNOMY). However this has two downsides: the battery is *very* heavy and it only supplies 12v or even less under load. At that voltage the amp - designed for 14Vdc - is putting out probably something like 250w.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For a while I looked into voltage booster solutions but I did not manage to build something that was practical and reliable at the same time.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">By the end of 2018 LiPo's had become far less expensive than when I started buying them and I had collected a few already (sunk costs). So I decided to see if I could power the amp with LiPo's. The big advantages being that the amp would run at the designed 14v with far less battery weight.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In preparation of the YNOMY GJFF expedition I built three extra batteries from individual LiPo cells I bought in China. During the expedition we have run the amp for two days on LiPo's and the radios on LiFePO4's, using the 145Ah lead acid battery as recharging unit. This worked brilliantly.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-68OW9yRNixvF7vVq9cNvzUX7VFlB71kK152_h59z_iUryb8H9ZjAM6h4xRwQpkrLS96S6drRNCyu3t23axgcgfwutSyGAlRaI3yqiiisnyIjXbiERI3Bp_KNKSfraYwRVxdQP-b0Aat/s1600/batteries.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1024" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-68OW9yRNixvF7vVq9cNvzUX7VFlB71kK152_h59z_iUryb8H9ZjAM6h4xRwQpkrLS96S6drRNCyu3t23axgcgfwutSyGAlRaI3yqiiisnyIjXbiERI3Bp_KNKSfraYwRVxdQP-b0Aat/s400/batteries.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HobbyKing 16Ah LiPo, DIY 20Ah LiPo and DIY 20Ah LiFePO4</span></td></tr>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The capacity required to run the amp for a given period of time depends on a number of variables, like the mode used and how much you transmit during that time. A couple of portable activities have learnt me that I need one LiPo battery (16/20Ah) per 90 minutes of SSB activity. </span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In GJ we had four 16/20Ah LiPo's and when we drained one, we recharged it from the Lead acid battery (using a balanced charger). In the end we never drained all batteries as we had a recharged battery ready when we drained the next.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Note that with the Ameritron amp you can choose two approaches. The standard power leads consist of 4 wires (2+ and 2-). This means you can attach two LiPo's and run them in parallel. This is a way to extend your operation without needing to switch batteries in between. I chose a different approach. I left the original (longer) leads and added a short extra power lead (fused). The wires are just long enough to rest the battery on top of the amp.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /><i>[update 2020: I built a <a href="https://www.ph0no.net/2020/09/building-new-lithium-battery.html" target="_blank">5 cell in serial LiFePO4 battery</a> for the amp]</i><br /><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>Beware of low voltage</b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is important to keep an eye on the voltage level of your batteries if you intend to use them more than once. You can buy battery alarms that monitor each cell in the battery. They will give off an alarm you cannot miss (think of fire alarms in your house) once a cell reaches a set minimum. I recommend you always have an alarm attached while using a LiPo / LiFePO4 battery.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For LiPo's in general 3.2v is used as a safe lower limit per cell. I think it is conservative and in this particular case too conservative as the current drain is high. This means that the cells will show a voltage dip from which they will bounce back a bit once you disconnect the battery. I therefore use 3v as the cell minimum for the LiPo's.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The LiFePO4 cells can go a lot lower. I set the alarm for 2.5v per cell - still quite conservative.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This setup is effective. Apart from direct experience (hardly scientific) I do once in a while get a chance to compare my results with other stations out in the field on the same day. As PAFF and COTA-PA coordinator I receive a lot of /P activity reports and logs. 99% of the time I was not out myself but the times I was, there was bound to be someone else out as well. In those cases the difference shows both in QSO rates as well as in distance covered.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This setup is also bulky. Last time I had to walk quite a distance in the sun with the radio, the 18m mast, the amp, batteries, antennas, chair, food and drink, and it was killing. Transport-wise there are still a few improvements I can and plan to make.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWZoU-RXHVjyzITS0ecYCWz6Ku6S3gwecIonT9oPVLXwC0ita6YpDfORcZGxkUmcPwQwQcFqiM4hzzDB3hMtzKmzWjWIud15z_34x81H0uGYgs7ocej9MYvu2vZcFnHGFjWYGQPkrR6tQ5/s1600/stuff.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="869" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWZoU-RXHVjyzITS0ecYCWz6Ku6S3gwecIonT9oPVLXwC0ita6YpDfORcZGxkUmcPwQwQcFqiM4hzzDB3hMtzKmzWjWIud15z_34x81H0uGYgs7ocej9MYvu2vZcFnHGFjWYGQPkrR6tQ5/s400/stuff.jpg" width="338" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of heavy stuff!</td></tr>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-42190030690346577382019-02-15T23:46:00.001+01:002020-09-01T13:16:56.818+02:00C-pole antenna for 40m - a dx profile at low heights<span face="">Yesterday I went out to test my newly built c-pole antenna. I have used one in the past but found out it had some construction errors - the effect of which was somehow hidden by the balun I added ( a couple of coax turns on an FT240 core). The balun did get extremely hot even with 100w - a sign something was wrong - and once I replaced it, the SWR went through the roof. </span><br />
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<span face="">I used an online calculator (http://svrc.org/cpole/) that turns out to give the wrong dimensions - at least for 40m. I did not notice it before but when using it again for my new version I found that adding all the various dimensions resulted in significantly less wire than the calculator specified as "total wire needed for antenna". So considerable tweaking in the field was necessary to get the antenna resonant (think of adding more than 1 meter of wire to one end).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwIYL9fHyjHQSPyrW88BnFNynxTLlnLnoFVTnUYaGQQ_hAHeHu-nr7zRQ_IcDau-LX99PVNrcX3mypmBFoFTVdapOM3M-JXfDDACNngKAYx5vrxs4Bq1hFrJ2sVh50j9zAIcfW-T4-lde/s1600/c-pole.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span face=""><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwIYL9fHyjHQSPyrW88BnFNynxTLlnLnoFVTnUYaGQQ_hAHeHu-nr7zRQ_IcDau-LX99PVNrcX3mypmBFoFTVdapOM3M-JXfDDACNngKAYx5vrxs4Bq1hFrJ2sVh50j9zAIcfW-T4-lde/s1600/c-pole.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="">New c-pole antenna in action</span></td></tr>
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<span face=""><b>Construction</b></span><br />
<span face="">This time I used two short cheap and light fiberglass fishing poles for the horizontal spreaders. I cut them to the right length and ran the antenna wire through them. I used the caps on both ends to position the wire - making a hole in each cap and a knot in the antenna wire at each cap. Apart from their low weight and high stiffness an extra advantage over the PVC pipe I used before is the fact that the fishing pole can be (partly) retracted - decreasing the size of the collapsed antenna.</span><br />
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<span face="">To complete the antenna I constructed a W2DU style balun. It is light and simple and still provides more than 20dB common mode suppression at 7Mhz (if you use the right beads). </span><br />
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<span face="">The first time I brought it out I used all my time to get the dimensions right. In the end I got the antenna to dip around 7.1 Mhz with an impedance of something like 49 Ohm - perfect.</span><br />
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<span face="">The next opportunity to go out was yesterday. I tried the antenna from a nature reserve, to see if I could get a decent amount of contacts on 40m. It was too early to get any serious DX but I did log 150 contacts up to 2500km. So it did seem to tx and rx.</span><br />
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<span face=""><b>Comparing C-pole to EFHW, Inverted V and Delta Loop</b></span><br />
<span face="">The c-pole is an addition to a range of antennas I have for /P operation on 40m. I mostly use either an (almost) vertical end fed half wave or an inverted V - depending on how much space I have to set up the antenna and what kind of radiation pattern I am looking for (more NVIS or more dx). The final option I have is a delta loop (more or less corner fed - so vertically polarised). The loop is more complex to set up than the others though.</span><br />
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<span face="">All these antennas can be used when I have my 18m Spiderbeam pole with me. They are all omni-directional but have a different radiation pattern in the vertical plane - with the vertical, c-pole and delta loop in one category and the inverted V dipole in another. </span><br />
<span face="">Using my 18m Spiderbeam pole the antenna patterns (over local ground conditions) look like this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0b9s6FwnIePV6EzKNXWSOMYTL5mi5E1Hqu7iWASvP7utAhfLNBbZ9eXLTEmq9LZdUSJlwkMKLxwr4u4VZVmDokC7u7-cBxbGv4Szg2Xnjsl9AyuHtPwujbCmIMB7HNdq3wQVJBrvY7Yec/s1600/40m+18m+comparison.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span face=""><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="1032" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0b9s6FwnIePV6EzKNXWSOMYTL5mi5E1Hqu7iWASvP7utAhfLNBbZ9eXLTEmq9LZdUSJlwkMKLxwr4u4VZVmDokC7u7-cBxbGv4Szg2Xnjsl9AyuHtPwujbCmIMB7HNdq3wQVJBrvY7Yec/s640/40m+18m+comparison.png" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<ul>
<li><span face="">Pink is the inverted V. It has nice NVIS qualities with a lot of gain on high angles of radiation (5.4 dBi straight up) but at a takeoff angle of 15 degrees only -5dBi.</span></li>
<li><span face="">Blue is the delta loop. It is almost the opposite of the inverted V dipole. It has most gain at a takeoff angle of 20 degrees (3.3 dBi, 3.1 at 15 degrees)</span></li>
<li><span face="">Green is the (almost) vertical end fed half wave. A bit less pronounced than the delta loop. It has a max gain of 1.6 dBI at 15 degrees.</span></li>
<li><span face="">Red is the new C-pole. It has a max gain of 2.1 dBi at 15 degrees. </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span face="">Looking at the three antennas with a "dx profile", the delta loop is the clear winner. It has more gain on low angles but also significantly more gain than the other two at higher angles. It is a bit more work to set up though and needs space.</span><br />
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<span face="">The reason I started looking at my c-pole again is that there are situations in which my 18m pole is not available (I could not take it, or - in a team expedition - it is in use with another antenna). The next option I have then is my 12m Spiderbeam pole.</span><br />
<span face="">Now things are a bit different. For one, the delta loop is not an option anymore. The half wave vertical is also out of the question. That one becomes a sloping end fed half wave with quite a different behaviour.</span><br />
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<span face="">Using my 12m Spiderbeam pole the antenna patterns (over local ground conditions) look like this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvBku6XbeF21HO40FaIl7Osp9dBHAJq6e8CFxHTgwoQv1v_trnzvdgWlGyeZCg1dLnrf9VFyAIMkj1QRdCFGLafbS9E5QOwqpTMtaWzplYlW_YsWPGfneRiKjctvI6VEAdvh2-RM7ey5xX/s1600/40m+12m+comparison.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span face=""><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="1032" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvBku6XbeF21HO40FaIl7Osp9dBHAJq6e8CFxHTgwoQv1v_trnzvdgWlGyeZCg1dLnrf9VFyAIMkj1QRdCFGLafbS9E5QOwqpTMtaWzplYlW_YsWPGfneRiKjctvI6VEAdvh2-RM7ey5xX/s640/40m+12m+comparison.png" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<ul>
<li><span face="">Blue is the inverted V. It is still radiating most of its energy up at high angles but the max gain is now down to 1.8 dBi. Gain at 15 degrees is down to -9dB.</span></li>
<li><span face="">Green is the end fed half wave sloping. It is now also radiating more at high angles with a max gain of 3.8 dBi straight up. Gain at 15 degrees is -1.4dBi</span></li>
<li><span face="">Red is the c-pole. Max gain is now 1.7 dBi at 20 degrees and 1.4 dBi at 15 degrees. </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span face="">The C-pole does not seem to suffer that much from the change in height. It actually performs a bit better on the higher angles without losing much on the lower angles. </span><br />
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<span face="">Comparing the C-pole at 2 meters off the ground and 7 meters off the ground shows that this antenna is better off on my 12m Spiderbeam pole:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi8v0J2KjDj-u2JsW9ZccjVbpjg3txovqpe8D7x7pfM1j9LCbXQ3WXLwpRuF-I1g_aESvIasUq5YQCfmmLwJ_u-GfbXqdUwyBgnjXYozOo2-qXWDTnAp-Ny1jgcbXlvv6TULljhF6UXjnQ/s1600/c-pole+comparison+height.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="1014" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi8v0J2KjDj-u2JsW9ZccjVbpjg3txovqpe8D7x7pfM1j9LCbXQ3WXLwpRuF-I1g_aESvIasUq5YQCfmmLwJ_u-GfbXqdUwyBgnjXYozOo2-qXWDTnAp-Ny1jgcbXlvv6TULljhF6UXjnQ/s640/c-pole+comparison+height.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span face="">Red is the C-Pole with the top at about 11.5m and Blue is the same antenna with the top at about 16.5m. At low angles almost no difference but at 45 degrees the lower C-pole has 7 dB more gain (at 60 degrees the difference adds up to 13 dB).</span><br />
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<span face="">Looking at the radiation shape of the higher C-pole (in blue) you can see a central lobe that you can expect to grow when you put the antenna even higher - and it will. However height is not a variable I can influence that much. It will be somewhere between these two extremes.</span><br />
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<span face=""><b>Conclusion</b></span><br />
<span face="">The practical test showed that the antenna works - I logged a lot of contacts with good reports and the SWR is now perfect - and the model shows it is a decent addition to my set of antennas, especially when I am constrained in height.</span><div><span face=""><br /></span></div><div><span face="">Note: I have done some more in depth testing: </span><a href="https://www.ph0no.net/2020/08/40m-wire-antennas-compared.html">https://www.ph0no.net/2020/08/40m-wire-antennas-compared.html</a></div>PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-86953959278562480222018-12-14T17:51:00.000+01:002018-12-14T17:51:04.958+01:00Looking ahead at 2019<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Discussing plans for next year with my YNOMY team brought me to ponder what radio-activities I would be going to undertake. I have rarely been in the vicinity of my radio this year and I think next year will be the same. Conditions are such that I can hardly make any interesting contacts with the setup I have at home. At the same time my work commitments limit the /P opportunities. I hope to be able to go out some more to activate some nature reserves or castles than I did this year. Perhaps I will re-use some of the special calls I used in 2017 (P*44FF). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As I look ahead, I can see three highlights on the horizon: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. YNOMY expedition</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">LX and HB0 were so much fun that we have decided to spend another weekend in May together in some relatively remote place activating nature reserves. We have some ideas where to go to but more details will follow once we finalise our plans. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. COTA-PA special event</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The world castle award program turns 10 years in June. The COTA-PA program - the local castle award program for PA - will participate in the festivities. I am currently organising a group of operators to use a number of special callsigns in June for the celebration.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. Summer holiday</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The summer holiday always gives me time and opportunity to go out /P. I will be in France this summer and expect to activate some nature reserves there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>No PACC</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Not on this list is the PACC - our national contest. I have been participating with my YNOMY team for the last 5 years and we won the last 3 times. Looking ahead at 2019 we found that we lacked motivation to go for a fourth win. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We did not make any changes to our field day setup - so there is nothing to test and learn. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As it is a field day setup and as we enter the contest to win, it is a considerable effort. Repeating last year is just not enough fun for us to put that much effort in.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We might return to the contest in a couple of years if conditions improve - as that will change the contest dynamics and gives us an opportunity to improve on our own highscore (in points).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Perhaps the end of the year will give me an opportunity to go /P for a change. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">At the moment planning the May expedition is the major source of radio fun. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644884054576160317.post-44415985316503051572018-11-29T18:01:00.002+01:002018-11-30T22:37:28.817+01:00SWL-ing the DX cluster<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Our radio hobby has many different sub cultures each with their own challenges and rewards. You can climb mountains carrying your radio equipment, collect lighthouses from your armchair, participate in contests until you lose your voice, provide emergency communication (or just endlessly prepare to provide it), design and build equipment, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Some of these I find more interesting than others, but I can relate to the enthusiasm people have for all these activities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There is however one activity that really puzzles me: <i>SWL-ing the DX cluster</i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What could be the fun in that?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I think I have an extra hard time in relating to this activity because I consider an accomplishment something personal - something you do to please / prove something to yourself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I mean, I can imagine it is great fun to use a remote super station in another country to chase DX. Nothing wrong with that. But when you use this setup to boost your own score inside the context of the DXCC program (or any other program for that matter), you lose me completely. Without a split personality I cannot phantom how you are going to fool yourself - I mean, you were there...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In this example - using a remote station while trying to fool yourself - you at least have the fun of making radio contacts. So, there is some fun in the doing. Now imagine you try to fool yourself but you choose an activity that is as boring as can be: <i>SWL-ing the DX cluster.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">How does it work?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Well, imagine you are an SWL and you like to get some credits for one award or the other. Instead of turning on the radio though, you open a DX cluster page on the internet. Now you either wait for the right station to be spotted (depending on the award you are looking for) or you search for it in the recent spot history. As soon as you find a candidate, you write a QSL card to that station claiming to have heard a QSO between him and the spotter.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Quite straightforward really.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If you keep up the good work you will end up with all sorts of awards.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">That is really cool - knowing that you did not qualify for the award and that you spent your time copying text from the internet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Eh?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">PS:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">How do I know this activity actually exists? I have an old account on a cluster node that I started when I had my novice license. The user name on this node still is my old call. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Once in a while I use this cluster node in the field (it is listed in an app on my phone) when spotting for a special event. In case I am the operator, I get the QSL cards.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So.. if the cluster-copying SWL forgets to check QRZ carefully, I will get an SWL card claiming my previous (now inactive) call worked me, while I was operating a special event.... go figure. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And yes, t</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">here is actually an SWL - DH5FA - that has managed to send me such a card. Even more peculiar than that, he has sent me more than one (for different special calls) - even though I warned him after the first one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My fellow earth dwellers never cease to amaze me..</span><br />
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<br />PH0NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564791035054752878noreply@blogger.com3