If you have read any of my previous amateur radio related posts you may by now be well aware that I don’t have the best of antennas.
To be perfectly honest it’s a bit difficult to gauge just how much of that is mere perception due to relatively poor conditions these past 12 months but, compared to more efficient resonant wire antennas or exotic beams, my end fed wire is at best what they call a ‘compromise’ design.
This antenna is known variously as the ‘no counterpoise antenna’ or an ‘end fed Zepp’ - it is physically a long wire radiating element fed with a balanced feed line. It is usually constructed from either a 50ft or 25ft length of twin feed line (bell wire or speaker wire can also be used) where one of the wires is cut at the mid point and removed. The longer wire forms the radiating element and the remaining twin lead is the balanced feed line. My current installation employs a raditor of some 40ft with a 20ft feed line (having been sized to fit into the limited space available).
In this configuration it is an unbalanced antenna fed with a balanced feedline which results in the feedline also radiating. The most interesting property of this design however is the radiation pattern: For all frequencies that the antenna will load up on, the distributed current maximum stays at or near the center of the antenna where the twin lead stops and the single conductor (radiator) continues. This gives the antenna a radiation pattern very similar to that of a resonant half wave dipole, except that unlike a half wave dipole antenna being used as multi band antenna, the radiation pattern and current distribution remains intact over the full range of frequencies tunable for the antenna! This means nice low angle radiation with decent gain over a broad range of frequencies (using a tuner) without having to adjust the antenna length. Well so says the theory at least!
As you can see - on the face of it, according to the theory, this should be a good multiband, compromise antenna. It has the additional benefit of being end fed which for my setup is the only option when it comes to feeding an antenna. However, I will be reserving judgement for now because I am still not entirely convinced that it is working as well as the theory suggests it should.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, SEM TranZmatch, z-match
Despite saying I wouldn’t mention it again I feel that today’s victory at The Oval where England wrapped up a 197 run win over the Aussies to regain The Ashes with a 2-1 series win is worthy of mention. Well done to the England cricket team!
Dean Totally random Australia, cricket, England, the ashes, The Oval
I’ve seen it written somewhere that many receivers don’t make for a busy band. What this means is that if everyone is listening, scanning the bands for stations, no contacts will result. Someone somewhere has to call CQ to initiate a contact (for non amateur radio types a ‘CQ call’ is a ‘hello…is there anybody out there’ invitation to other stations to reply and establish a contact, or QSO).
With that in mind I have over the past week made many CQ calls (different bands, different modes) in attempts to make some contacts on otherwise quiet bands. My results were a bit disappointing to say the least. I managed to work a clutch of close-in European stations (from Germany and Spain) but apart from that I was calling in vain - hence my title for this post - ‘CQ fatigue’.
Now I know my antenna isn’t great (but I am resigned to living with it until I can think of some ingenious alternative) and I know conditions aren’t at their best (although they have been a bit variable over the week), but is it really THAT bad, that in hours of callling CQ I get so few replies? It’s been that bad I have even dared venture onto 50MHz yesterday (2 contacts) and 144MHz this afternoon (no contacts)! I hope things improve soon.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, CQ, propagation, QSO
I’m not a serious contester but I do enjoy taking advantage of high levels of activity on the bands during contests to check conditions, see how well my antenna is performing, work a few stations and hopefully log a few new ones. To those ends I spent a few hours at the radio over this past weekend during the Worked All Europe (WAE) CW contest. For those who don’t know, this is a contest where Europe works the world and the world works Europe - this means that as a European station I could only work stations outside Europe.
My operating was split over both Saturday and Sunday and my first thoughts on Saturday were that conditions were really not very good. Few stations were heard outside Europe in countries other than USA, Canada and Asiatic Russia, three countries with a high number of high power stations with good antennas. It was much the same on Sunday although it did seem to me that conditions were slightly better than Saturday.
Over the two days of the contest more than two thirds of stations I worked were from either the USA or Canada, several were from Asiatic Russia and I worked 2 stations from each of Cyprus and Uruguay. I also worked a single station in each of Georgia and Kazakhstan.
Stations heard but not worked were from Japan (several), China (2), Brazil (4), Argentina and Cuba (1 each) - of these China would have been a new one for me but despite calling one particularly loud station on Saturday for several minutes he just wasn’t hearing me. This was probably due to the fact I could only hear him because he was running high power into a decent antenna and my antenna wasn’t radiating my 80 watts of CW very well. Oh…and of course the conditions weren’t great!
All in all it was quite a disappointing event due to the lack of variety in DX stations heard and worked. Conditions weren’t great and it was hard work getting through to many stations with my modest power output and compromise antenna. Sun spot cycle 24 - where are you?
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, CW, propagation, Solar Cycle 24, sun spot, WAE
After today’s woeful 82 for 5 effort by the England cricket team I have decided that this shall be my last word on the 2009 Ashes series. Who’d bet against the Aussies retaining the Ashes now?
Dean Totally random inept, pathetic, useless, woeful
If only we could start again! England had a terrible first session on day 1 of the 4th Ashes test at Headingly - 72 for 6 at lunch and 102 all out not long after lunch, England’s lowest total for 100 years in Ashes Tests on this ground.
It’s looking very unlikely England can now win this test match and a draw could be a big ask given our inability to bat for long periods when the pressure’s on. It’s looking very much like advantage Australia in this match and the series - remember Australia only need to draw the series to retain the Ashes - England needed to win either here or in the 5th test at The Oval. If I were a betting man I would be keeping my money in my pocket right about now!
Dean Totally random Australia, cricket, England, Headingley, the ashes
Unfortunately England weren’t able to convert a strong position going into the final day into a 2-0 series lead. Australia put in a gutsy batting performance to see out the last day of the Edgbaston test which means that England now take a 1-0 lead into the 4th test at Headingley in Leeds.
As Australia are the current holders of the Ashes they only need a series draw to retain them - England need the series win. Basically England need to win one of the last two tests or to draw them both to regain the Ashes - it’s certainly still all to play for so come on England!
Dean Totally random Australia, cricket, Edgbaston, England, Headingley, the ashes