Dx Disappointment

My original goals for the CQ WW SSB DX contest was to first and foremost have fun, also check how the new inverted "L" antenna would perform, try to have a good points showing and check accessory equipment. Well on the first point, I didn't have as much fun as hoped for. 15m was open until the contest and closed up for Me soon after! That was very disappointing because that band and 20m helps Me compete with the bigger stations. 20m also ended up being a dud and 40m was almost unuseable for My little 100w wires only station. Vertical on 40m sometimes does fair-this time it just wasn't cutting it!
Luckily on 160m and 80m until the crowd showed up was decent. DX during this contest was just not hearing Me. Thank goodness for Our Friends to the north-the VE's saved the day! I felt like it was the RAC winter contest at My station! Problem still being just not enough of them!
One good point was My inverted "L"- -on 160m I was hearing DX on this antenna I was not hearing on My big dipole (Doublet). I think the Dx was buried in the noise on the horizontal. Problem on the"L" was I could hear them but they could not hear Me! I think with it buried in the pines the transmit signal is being attenuated. Today I looked at the layout for this antenna and maybe before Winter I'll have a chance to change location slightly,which might help!
Last issue during this contest was unexpected-- My headset/mic combo was again picking up Rf and was now distorted. I tried several solutions before realizing this contest could only be a S&P operation withoout the handsfree headset/mic--bummer. What to do ? Pack it in is what I decided. I have a busy weekend anyway and need to rethink My station and contesting as a whole. I think I'll research a manufactured headset and forget My homemade one.
for now--73--Tim
oh--Happy Halloween!!

Electret Microphone for Yaesu Ft-950

I retrofitted an old IP Telephony headset/electret mic for use with My Kenwood TS-850. With the upcoming CQ WW SSb contest I needed to now use it with the Yaesu FT-950 which required a simple wiring change . Microphone impedences are the same so i thought no other change would be necessary or so I thought. Using headphones and setting the "moni" loud enough to hear I tried speaking using the antenna switched to a dummy load . Both with and without processor, audio was distorted and scratchy- sounded like RF almost getting in.
I had fashioned this headset adapter box based on simple diagrams from " Tomi Engdahl's" website and needed to change resistance and capacitor values to have it sounding quite good with My Kenwood radio. So now I did the same with the Yaesu interface finally arriving at a better,but not great sounding audio.
Next step was to actually talk to someone and another Ham in the area helped with this. Rf did seem to be distorting the audio, using different antennas and processor on or off. Turning down mic gain did help but still was not good. Eventually gave up for the night!
Today I tried adding a ground to the case ,which strangly enough caused some hum-- must be a ground loop somewhere! Next tried multiple ferrite beads- this did the trick nicely! Audio good enough for the non-discerning ear! OK- good enough for Me! If you look at the picture,beads are between adapter and radio. Now I'm ready for this weekend's contest. High winds forcast for tomorrow-hope their wrong! Don't want any downed antennas.
73---Tim

Update- 9/27/2011--  The Electret mike worked OK but I eventually upgraded to a Heil proset plus which works great!!

Wet Sunday,Apples and openings!

Started raining this morning and drizzled on and off all day. Its been dry so We do need the rain but it could have waited till Monday. Glad I did most of My planned outside work previous days. I had planned on running some control and power wiring to the inverted "L" but it will have to wait. Walking our dog in the rain was enough cold damp rain for Me,feels like snow in the air!
Spent a good part of the day reloading itouchs and iphone, talking with field support and generally doing PC support. It seems like an essential part of owning so many old PC's and apple products. This equipment changes-like life!!
Bands also had several minor openings on 10 and 15m, maybe others, but had some success mostly to South America. I was especially interested in signal reports and most were Ok. One actually gave Me 59 compared to His 57 I gave him. He seemed very truthful in His received signal reports, so maybe My additional radials attached between My HF6V and "L' are helping.
Next weekend might prove it one way or the other!
Have good week-- hear you on the bands!!
73----Tim

This and That

Latest picture of My basement ham shack. Notice paint on the floor is peeled from mini flood this summer.I hope to repaint sometime soon! There is also another computer in the cabinet to the right. I'm finding two PC's are very handy. PC on the rolling cart I recently put together from two non working ones. Love those spares!
My inverted "L" project is still ongoing, I'm adding some more ground radials and will be attaching them to existing Butternut vertical ground radial system. This should effectively increase the radial field for both antennas. I'm also going to run some control cable to the waterproof box in case I decide to add aremote auto tuner for the "L". I've been considering doing this.
I've also had some time to add some of the new DXCC entities from the split of the Netherland Antilles(sp?) - PJ7E,PJ4D and PJ6A. Two on 15m and one on 17m. All on SSB! One was first call but most seem to be big pileups!
Hope to hear you on the bands next weekend for CQ WW Dx contest- I'm planning on some contesting time. Depends on family,work and weather!!
73--Tim

Inverted "L" Saga- Part 3

I noticed My wire had many points touching the branches on lots of the trees it was passing thru and the wire also needed some better attachment at the ends. I spent part of a very nice afternoon trimming and readjusting the path thru the trees till I ended up with a satisfactory horizontal and vertical run- very few branches to interfere.

Checking resonance shows a slight change upwards but still not where I expected it to be...but wait, what was My original intention on resonance? I seem to remember wanting it about the Dx window of 1.830 mhz but that would mean a 1/4 wave length of about 128 ft. Hmm ... I have 130 ft! Plus several additional feet because of My attachment point to the box. That explains it!

Its basically working as advertised!!Maybe trim several feet to bring it up to 1.8mhz!

Why 130 ft?? Ahh.. half of My dipole dimension of 260-- but thats basically at 1.8 mhz-- and fed with 450 open wire, true multiband doublet with tuner in the shack. The inverted "L" concept I was looking at, was a while back and 130 ft stuck in My brain.

Lately I've read about a 3/8 wave "L"-- 160/80 m resonant-- better matching,whole ball of wax! For now, i'm still going to try reducing reactance and maybe even adding a trap for 80m.

Partial success so far-- next contest or QSO will prove it one way or the other!

73---Tim

Inverted "L" Saga- Part 2

First photo shows My entry point to My basement Hamshack. I added another coax to the already full conduit stubs and ran the coax across the back lawn to the woods and the box where I'll transition from coax to wire. The photo on the right is an old waterproof box I salvaged from work and to the left of the white pole is a plate where all My grounds and radial connections are tied together.

I have a pulley at the top end of the vertical section attached to the pine tree with a rope and also have a similiar setup at the end point. I don't want to climb any more than necessary! I spent some time trying to trim branches and get the horizontal portion as high as possible. The vertical is only half as high as I would like but maybe later I'll get it higher.

After all the connections were finished it was time to check with the antenna analyzer. I don't have any matching network at the coax to wire transition so I have a tuner in the shack match it to My radio. The analyzer shows resonance at 1.766 mhz! Hmmm ,little lower than expected-- was hoping for about 1.830-- Dx window! I did try using the tuner for matching across 160m and even most of 75m. Radio seemed to match and transmit for a quick test with no Rf in the shack.

I still need to increase the resonance on this antenna. Outside box would also accommedate a remote tuner or maybe even a simple matching network--- more to come!

73---Tim

PS-- on a 160m net several stations louder on "L" than dipole-- good sign?

Inverted "L" Saga- Part 1.5

OK- 1.5 is just a funny, but I have continued with this project. Darkness is keeping Me from lots of progress but I'm chugging along! I have a metal plate with a ground rod thru it as My connection for ground radials and sank a post at the base of the tree where I mounted a weatherproof box. This will be for antenna connections and any added components needed to make this antenna work.
I also decided to leave My spare coax to the pole building since its way longer than I need for this project. I have a smaller piece I'll run from my shack. I maybe have a solution to the vertical height-- slingshot attempt again but this time up at the apex of the wire and pulley. Maybe it would clear the heavy canopy to fall to the ground and give Me that extra height.
I'll try to take and post some pictures. Vacation tomorrow so hopefully have some time to play with antennas!
73--Tim

Inverted "L" Saga- Part 1

Have You ever noticed how a simple idea can take a life of its own? Yes, well this antenna project is fast becoming this type of a project. I believed foolishly this wire antenna would progress nicely towards a timely conclusion. Maybe even ready for CQ WW Dx end of October.
The first hurdle was getting the vertical wire over the top of 50-60 foot pine trees. My solution was the so called EZ launcher- a slingshot with fishing reel attached. Sounds easy ? Right! A little hint- Your kids old fishing reels ain't going to cut it! I tried-I failed! The line that comes with them is small"test" line. I attached one of My girls old reels to a walmart special wrist-rocket and attached a good sized sinker to it. The first trial sent that sinker a long ways!! Too bad it broke the line with the sudden acceleration!Its also a small capacity reel-see next paragraph!
Next attempt involved a classic Zebco 33 and 20 pound test-- I tried bigger line but its impossible to get enough line on the reel to go over the trees. Speaking of trees- big canopies at the top tend to cushion even a fairly heavy sinker and keep it from falling to the ground! I think a Maple or oak would have suited My purpose better-- also NOT having so many pine trees in rows might have made it easier too.
Many attempts and several close calls finally convinced Me to try another solution! Sometimes the simplest approach is the best-- I climbed up as high as possible and attached a rope and pulley. This will be the apex of My inverted"L"- not as high as i would have liked but now its up there! Thirty feet instead of sixty!
Its dark too early-- saga will continue!
73--Tim
PS-fishing line at accelerated speeds can cut kind of deep! :(

Antenna Decision

The day before out walking our dog in the front yard I started looking at the pine trees next to my tower.Wow- their are as high or higher than the tower. Planted years before We bought the place, in straight rows several deep in places. I use the biggest as a tie point for the center of My big 260 ft dipole but maybe if I could somehow get a wire over the top of one farther away, I'd have a good start for an "inverted L" for 160m.
With this in mind I''ve been scouring the internet and several antenna books I have. So far several ideas have popped out at Me. A bazooka type using coax as the radiator and of course the old standby wire type- insulated,fencing type,etc. I also see mostly coax fed antennas which at first I wanted to avoid but under the circumstances it would make feeding this antenna alot easier. It would be tough for open wire feed- too many guys and wires already in the way. Besides I have a long piece of RG-8 already outside as a spare. Just need to swing it towards the chosen pine tree base.
Yes, appears like the choice has been made- really want DX capibility on 160/80m and this might be better than other types I've contemplated. Besides- My tri-band project is on hold for now! Running out of time but maybe not for a wire antenna project!
73---Tim