Indigo Foxtrot…

I like to confirm as many of my amateur radio contacts as possible by traditional paper QSL cards. It’s always good to receive them back direct from another amateur radio operator but the card that arrived today (seen below) from Andy, KB1KYN on Nantucket Island, was a particularly nice surprise.

KB1KYN QSL card

reverse of KB1KYN QSL card

This QSL card confirms a contact mentioned earlier in this blog back in September 2009 when operating portable from Barr Beacon. The location is seen in this picture taken on the day of the contact in question. Running about 80w SSB on 17m into a vertical dipole antenna from a battery powered Yaesu FT-857. This is the view to the south overlooking Oldbury and West Bromwich. These picnic tables make for ideal operating positions and there is lots of space for erecting antennas. While I tend to operate HF from this location other operators enjoy working VHF, UHF and microwave bands from this lofty position. On a nice sunny summers day this is a very enjoyable way of getting on the bands with a modest radio and a simple wire antenna and seeing what DX can be worked while you enjoy the view. I’d like to thank Andy for the card and for the contact back in September last year.

G0RIF/p setup

Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures antenna, dipole, KB1KYN, portable, QSL, vertical

I arrived home from work this evening to find a QSL card arrived from Des, ZS1ZY, in the Cape Province, South Africa.

This is for a SSB contact back in late September when operating portable from Barr Beacon, just north west of the city of Birmingham (which I wrote about at the time in this blog entry). I sent my QSL card direct to Des at his home address, about a week or two after the contact, enclosing a return addressed envelope and an international reply coupon (IRC). Receiving a return card so quickly deserves a big thank you so “thanks Des!” and 73 until the next time. You can see this and other cards from Africa here.

the colourful ZS1ZY QSL card

Dean Amateur Radio, Blog, Pictures IRC, portable, QSL

Recent receipt of a few nice QSL cards got me to looking back through my amateur radio station logbook. It shows that September 2009 was a mostly inactive month so far as amateur radio was concerned. ‘QRT’ is amateur radio terminology for ’shutting down’ or ’station off air’ - hence the title of this post.

My logbook shows that between the 29th of August and the 26th of September I didn’t log a single station! I seem to recall that I was a little bit deflated by what I described ‘CQ fatigue’ prior to that period. Maybe I just needed a bit of a break from amateur radio!

My portable operations from Barr Beacon and a brief foray in the CQWW RTTY contest at the end of September certainly made up for that lack of activity with some good contacts and signs of improved conditions on the shortwave bands.

The results of all of that are that I have a number of outbound QSL cards to complete and send to either the RSGB bureau or to the respective stations direct. I can then look forward to the return cards arriving sometime next year with a bit of luck!

In other news, this little update also represents a minor landmark in my blog - the 100th post.

Dean Amateur Radio, Blog portable, Q-codes, QRT, QSL, RTTY

Another sunny Saturday afternoon found me (G0RIF), Richard (M0SNR) and Luke (M3VVB) at Barr Beacon for what might have been our last portable operation from there this year. I was working a bit of HF (20m and 17m) while Richard and Luke worked VHF (2m) and UHF (70cm) with a SOTA beam on an 8m pole.

I set-up on 20m with my FT-857 (80w SSB) and one of the Par Electronics EndFedz in a vertical configuration. I found 20m to be quite busy and the band seemed to be in decent shape. Unfortunately the Scandinavian activity contest started at 13:00 local time after which the band was very busy. In a little over an hour on 20m I worked stations in Ukraine (EM0WFF), Switzerland (HB9VELO), Hungary (HA6NW), Belarus (EV6DX), Finland (several including Greg, OH2FFY/m with a full size 20m vertical), Sweden (several) and Japan (JA7NVF). Greg has posted a video he made during our 20m QSO which you can see here.

Eventually, due to the number of contest stations, 20m got a bit too wall-to-wall with big signals so I switched to 17m, again with an end fed vertical dipole (another of the Par EndFedz). Conditions on 17m were pretty good and I worked stations in Cyprus (5B8AP), USA (long chats with Andy, KB1KYN on Nantucket Island and Frank, K0FPL in Kansas City), Madeira Island (CT9/SP9CTT) and the Canary Islands (EC8AVA) before the DX catch of the day. Calling CQ at about 13:40 UTC I heard a good solid 58/59 signal come back to me in the form of Des (ZS1ZY) over 6000 miles away near Cape Town! We had a nice chat before QRM at his end overwhelmed my reported 33 signal. I think this demonstrates what can be achieved with a modest portable station and I was very pleased to work down into South Africa with my simple vertical dipole antenna and 80 watts of single sideband transmitted signal.

All in all we had a good afternoon in the sun. My little bit of HF DX was supplemented with some nice continental catches for Richard and Luke on 2m (Germany and The Netherlands). We’re all now waiting and wondering when we might next get out…and wondering whether or not conditions will be as favourable next time. I sure hope they are.

Dean Amateur Radio antenna, dipole, DX, EndFedz, FT-857, Par Electronics, portable, propagation

A trip the Barr Beacon this past weekend allowed me to trial and test a simple end-fed antenna comprising a 65ft wire and a 9:1 unbalanced-to-unbalanced (unun) transmission line transformer. According to the manufacturer “the 9:1 unun is a transformer bringing high [impedance] values such as 450 Ohms to a…more manageable 36 to 90 Ohms, thus allowing a much better match to coax feeder”.

9:1 unun

There are many who will sniff at this kind of device suggesting “it couldn’t possibly work” or suggesting “you’d be better off with a simple doublet fed with ladder line”. Unfortunately I’m not able to deploy large centre fed antennas with unsightly feed lines. I need to keep my antenna discrete and low profile - this pretty much limits me to simple end fed wires. Furthermore, my policy is always to try this kind of thing and see if or how well it works before passing judgement, fully accepting that it is a compromise solution.

For the Barr Beacon test the antenna was arranged in an inverted-L configuration, fed at the bottom, with no ground, radial or counterpoise wires (the SRC 9:1 unun used has no ground lug anyway). The 65ft wire was suspended on two fibreglass poles with a 30ft vertical section and a 35ft top section.

In use the antenna tuned on all bands 80m thru 10m (30m was not tested) and received signals were good. Contacts were made on 15m, 17m, 20m and 80m with most activity on 20m where I received good reports across Europe peaking at 59 +5 from Rudy (HB9CCL) in the eastern Alps with whom I had a good long chat. I also got through a minor pile-up to work Hans (JW4EU) on Svalbard.

Whatever it’s limitations the antenna does radiate and on 20m it seems to work just fine. Contest stations worked on a pretty quiet 15m band heard me first call, so it also works ok there. A few stations worked on 17m were a bit more difficult but there were other stations calling. The single 80m contact with GB1SS was difficult copy for him so for now I’ll reserve judgement on both 40m (yet to make a contact) and 80m.

Overall, given the simplicity and convenience of the unun device, and the possibilities if offers for a simple multiband antenna with either a 65ft or a 23ft wire (the latter giving only 40-10m coverage), I’m satisfied that it works well enough to warrant further experimentation. Having tried it with the 65ft wire I’m very interested to see how it performs with the shorter 23ft wire.

Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures 9:1, antenna, G0RIF, portable, unun

simple setup with the Yaesu FT-857

Just a quick one following an enjoyable 5 hours out in the sun working mostly 20m SSB portable from Barr Beacon. Myself (G0RIF), Richard (M0SNR) and Luke (M3VVB) took the usual assortment of wires, cables and poles to see what we could throw up & see how it worked. As is often the case the Par End Fedz 20m dipole was pressed into service in a vertical orientation, suspended on a 10m pole - this also supported a quick & dirty 15m dipole hastily constructed from the remnants of the broadside doublet previously tested.

You may recall a previous post in which I’d had a less than fulfilling time with the doublet so for now it’s back to resonant antennas and coax feedlines. Todays results suggest that the 15m dipole works well, although the 15m band wasn’t particularly busy so only a few stations were worked.

On 20m the vertical performed as expected, which is to say, pretty well. Nothing particularly exotic but worked DX both east (RV9LM) and west (W1OP) with a good selection of European stations, many of which were participating in the Portugal Day contest. A contact of particular interest was with Geoff (G8BPN) working 20m mobile while on a driving holiday in France, logged as F/G8BPN/M.

Dean Amateur Radio antenna, dipole, doublet, FT-857, G0RIF, portable, SSB, vertical, weather

Just a few words on todays operation from Barr Beacon (IO92BN) when I setup on 20m with the Par End Fedz 20m dipole suspended vertically on a 10m fibreglass pole.

Band conditions weren’t great and there was fast deep fading. Not as bad as 17m at the weekend but still pretty dramatic. Best DX was VE1ZA/m (Tony) followed by OH0/DL9GTI (Ralf). It seems Ralf wasn’t the only German out and about as I also worked Peter in Croatia as 9A/DL4KM/p and Charlie in Italy as I/DL3KHK. In keeping with this ‘operating abroad’ theme I also worked Dave in Menorca as EA6/M0DLL.

All in all it was an enjoyable few hours on 20m when even the weather was pretty good…until the battery was run down and I’d packed everything away, after which it poured it down. I think I timed that perfectly!

You can see my location on Barr Beacon for this operation on the Portable Amateur Radio gallery page.

Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures antenna, battery, G0RIF, portable, propagation, vertical, weather

I think it was John Lennon who said that time you enjoyed wasting wasn’t wasted time. I subscribe to that view entirely but this past weekend was just time wasted and certainly wasn’t very enjoyable.

First of all the weather was terrible…then it was lovely…then it was terrible again…and so on and so on, all weekend. Alternating sunny spells and showers (of varying intensity), all to an almost meticulous hourly cycle. Very difficult to make any plans when trying to get out and operate some portable amateur radio.

Then the technology (or my understanding thereof) let me down. A new doublet antenna I had high hopes for didn’t seem to work very well at all (see ‘An inconclusive test’ below). Time will tell if the new z-match tuner (SEM TranZmatch) will prove to have been a worthwhile purchase.

Then on Sunday, when despite the weather I did get out portable with my 17m vertical dipole (one of the Par End-Fedz), I heard what would have been two all time new ones in the form of Madagascar and St Helena but both stations were buried beneath serious pile-ups with no hope of a QSO in the time I had available. Oh well - another time maybe.

Maybe on reflection I’ll consider it mostly wasted weekend. I did at least get a few contacts in the log and I did learn a little bit about doublet antennas and balanced feedlines. I’m sure I’ll have better luck as the weather improves through the summer and I’m able to spend more time out and about with the portable station and maybe, just maybe, that doublet will come good after all.

Dean Amateur Radio, Life... doublet, portable, propagation, SEM TranZmatch, vertical, weather, z-match

Not quite what I was expecting or hoping for. I’d read a lot about how well a 44ft doublet antenna worked when fed with a balanced line. Unfortunately my little test this afternoon left me a bit disappointed because I certainly didn’t see the kind of performance I expected. I’d taken the time to construct what I thought was a pretty well made antenna. I’d got the right kind of feed line and I’d found myself a good balanced tuner in the form of the SEM TranZmatch (pictured). I was hoping for great things. For one reason or another though the antenna was very difficult to tune on all but 17m.

SEM TranZmatch

I tried all the bands that the antenna is designed for with the exception of 40m. This includes all of 10m, 12m, 15m, 17m and 20m. I wasn’t able to try 40m due to time contraints and some pretty grotty weather (see yesterdays post).

Using a Yaesu FT-857, my transceiver of choice for portable work, I connected the radio to the TranZmatch with a separate SWR meter in line, connected the antenna to the TranZmatch with 20m of 300 ohm ladder line and set about 17m which wasn’t in great shape but did seem to have the usual early afternoon clutch of Asian stations (including VR2XMT, Charlie, coming in loud & clear as usual).

I tuned the TranZmatch for maximum noise on receive and then tweaked it with a bit of RF - quick & simple and a low SWR <1.2:1 across the band. I tried to reply to a few CQ calls but either wasn’t heard or just wasn’t getting out. I didn’t hang around trying to work stations though because this was primarily a test of the antenna/feedline/tuner combination so I moved on to see what 20m was like.

It was at this time that I got the first inkling that all wasn’t quite as I’d hoped. Getting a good match on 20m was really difficult and the lowest SWR possible was no better than 2:1. Now I know this isn’t terrible but I was hoping that the TranZmatch would do better. Maybe I was expecting too much because the same was then true on 15m, 12m and 10m. All of these bands had very sharp tuning and a minimum SWR no lower than 2:1.

I have a few questions in my own mind as to where the problem might lie. Is the feeder a ‘bad’ length - at twenty metres long it’s a full wave on 20m and might just present an extreme mismatch to the tuner. This doesn’t explain why other bands should be just as difficult to tune. The doublet wasn’t level - it was in an inverted-V configuration and the included angle was probably a bit small at around 100 degrees - 120 degrees is recommended. There was a lot of ’spare’ feedline just lying on the ground, loosely coiled - is it better to trim the feedline to prevent this?

For now the jury is out and I have more work to do before deciding one way or the other whether or not I’ll adopt the 44ft doublet as one of my regular portable antennas. And it’s just started raining again!

Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures antenna, doublet, FT-857, ladder line, portable, SEM TranZmatch, SWR, weather, z-match

I have recently been considering a number of antenna options for portable operating - something I seem to spend a lot of time doing since getting the ‘portable’ bug earlier this year.

From an article titled ‘My Top Five Backyard Multi-Band Wire HF Antennas’ by L. B. Cebik (W4RNL) I have selected the ‘broadside doublet’ as my next little project. Being a balanced antenna and requiring a balanced feed line I have also been exploring suitable antenna matching units and have decided that an old Z-match design should work well.

With that in mind I found an ad for an old SEM Transmatch unit and called the seller to do a deal. To my surprise he told me he’d send me the unit immediately and suggested I ‘pop a cheque in the post when it arrives’. Not at all what I was expecting from a commercial dealer and to be honest, a refreshing change from kind of sellers often found on eBay where nothing happens until your money is firmly in their hands (so to speak).

I am now looking forward to receiving the tuner and experimenting with a 44ft long doublet fed with 300 ohm ladder line. All I need now is a bit of decent weather…or is that too much to ask?

Dean Amateur Radio, Life..., Totally random antenna, Cebik, doublet, eBay, ladder line, portable, SEM TranZmatch, W4RNL, z-match