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