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What did you do in the shack today?
- Thread starter CatSnoutSoup
- Start date
ToddDubya
NES Member
Boom, I just made my first 33cm contact, almost exactly 7 miles apart with at least one hill in between. He has a proper yagi and 50w and I was using a PCB log periodic about 4" above tabletop level, in the house, running maybe 800mW from a 144 to 903 transverter.
CW was easy. He gave me 579, I gave him 599. On SSB I could hear him pretty well but he could only tell I was transmitting, not what I was saying.
It's safe to say his antenna was doing the bulk of the heavy lifting.
Next up I'd like to get up to a higher vantage point with a clear shot from farther away.
CW was easy. He gave me 579, I gave him 599. On SSB I could hear him pretty well but he could only tell I was transmitting, not what I was saying.
It's safe to say his antenna was doing the bulk of the heavy lifting.
Next up I'd like to get up to a higher vantage point with a clear shot from farther away.
ToddDubya
NES Member
Yeah, for sure. This had maybe 12" of coax to the transverter, then 6" of that low loss rigid coax to the antenna, which is why it was only 4" above table level. When my friend was using this transverter he was primarily/exclusively roving, so he must have been using something else from the transverter to the antenna, but I'm not sure what. There was a dish involved too, but I think that was for even higher frequency stuff.
We were talking last night about building something better (yagi) if this setup worked. He's been doing microwave stuff a long time so he'll steer me in the right direction.
n1oty
NES Member
This is a seasonal issue. Since we are in summer, absorption is higher for us and that hurts signal strength. Spring and fall always bring better HF conditions, which is why all of the major contests run when they do and not during the summer.
On the flip side, tropo and E-skip have been incredible, as long as you are alert to it. I'm looking at my Geochron screen right now as I type this and it is showing E-skip to Europe is open on 6 meters.
ToddDubya
NES Member
Yesterday I disconnected my 6m antenna for a 30m dipole in the hopes it would perform better than my DX Commander. I'm working the 13 Colonies event this coming week and Monday I signed up for 30m, so I thought I'd try and give myself a fighting chance. At times it does a little better than the vertical, but at a minimum it is less noisy. It would probably do better higher up, but I did the best I could with it.
Maybe I'll set the 6m hex beam up. I don't have much mast left, but the hex tends to do okay even at lower heights for some reason. I had been monitoring 6m with a halo most days and rarely heard much more than local guys. But I wasn't listening in the DX area, so maybe there was stuff I missed.
ToddDubya
NES Member
My buddy just dropped off a 10 element 903 MHz yagi he made this weekend. We're gonna do a side-by-side comparison with the PCB log periodic. The log periodic has the advantage of being a few inches from the transverter with quality low loss coax. The yagi has the advantage of 33" long, vs 5.5".
ToddDubya
NES Member
We tested it today and he claimed I was 559, and said my signal was about 4x louder than with the PCB antenna. He sent me an audio clip and I could barely make out the signal. So I'd say that was very generous. Granted I'm running less than a watt, and am breaking just about every rule: low antenna, hill and houses and trees between us, and the feed was about 6' of RG58. I'm interested to see what it sounds like from a higher vantage point.
On receive, his signal was 589 per the S-meter, but I'd have given him 10 over using my ear's S-meter. He was way above the noise and a very easy copy.
The antenna is a Cheap Yagi using brass brazing rods for the elements and a length of 1x for the beam.
On receive, his signal was 589 per the S-meter, but I'd have given him 10 over using my ear's S-meter. He was way above the noise and a very easy copy.
The antenna is a Cheap Yagi using brass brazing rods for the elements and a length of 1x for the beam.
ToddDubya
NES Member
I've been looking for a CW filter for my FT-818 and found an FT-817ND for sale that has one installed. It was way more than I wanted to spend, but it had the Windcamp battery installed, the original battery, a Windcamp stand, PowerPole mod, nice 3D printed protective rails (and an extra set), an LDG tuner, two of the Nifty books, and a faux Pelican case so I figured why not. Worst case I'll take out the filter and I can probably resell it or sell parts I don't need to soften the blow. But knowing myself, I won't.
This guy seemed much more legit than the scammer who tried to scam me. Hopefully it'll be here this week.
This guy seemed much more legit than the scammer who tried to scam me. Hopefully it'll be here this week.
ToddDubya
NES Member
Well my new-to-me 817 showed up today. I tried it with my buddy on 432 SSB and it worked as expected. It has the WindCamp LiPo battery so you can run it the full 5w on the battery. That was plenty to make it the 7 miles over hill and dale to his house. He just got a new yagi that I think is 16' long, so somewhere on the order of 100 elements, probably 25' in the air. I've got 10 elements on my end about 8' in the air. I turned the power down to 500mw and aside from being a little light, it was a perfectly good copy on his end.
I've got it back on the charger and I'd like to get it out in the field a little bit later. I'm still feeling the effects of overdoing it in the yard this afternoon so we'll see.
I've got it back on the charger and I'd like to get it out in the field a little bit later. I'm still feeling the effects of overdoing it in the yard this afternoon so we'll see.
ToddDubya
NES Member
Well, portable attempt #1 was a fail. I got all setup and the CW filter wasn't working. I had tried it at home but just enough to see that it did something, but in reality it was just killing the signal altogether. Having screwed up when I installed one in another radio I hoped that that was the problem here.
Back at home I took the radio apart and the filter was indeed installed wrong. It looked right, but the pins weren't going into one of the connectors. With that sorted, it was working much better...
Then I noticed the VFO knob was loose. While I had a workspace and tools out, I set out to fix that if I could. I ended up pulling the encoder apart. I got it back together and it works, but I'm not super confident that the encoder shaft really has much holding it in. I don't think I made it worse; I think it might have been damaged when the aftermarket knob was installed.
While reassembling the thing for the fourth time, I managed to short the LiPo battery on something (I saw a spark). I think I just touched the contacts to a bit of metal, but after that I was more carefuller not to do that again. I also noticed that one of the screws that holds the case on kind of pressed into the battery some. I added a washer on the outside to prevent that from happening again.
I'll play with it some and see how it does. I like the idea of the LiPo battery because it has more capacity and lets you use full power vs half power that the NiCad battery gives you. If that doesn't last as long as I'd like I might consider yanking the CW filter out, installing it in my FT-818, and selling the 817. We'll see.
I'm just glad that the filter works. That would have been very disappointing since the only reason I bought the radio was for that.
Back at home I took the radio apart and the filter was indeed installed wrong. It looked right, but the pins weren't going into one of the connectors. With that sorted, it was working much better...
Then I noticed the VFO knob was loose. While I had a workspace and tools out, I set out to fix that if I could. I ended up pulling the encoder apart. I got it back together and it works, but I'm not super confident that the encoder shaft really has much holding it in. I don't think I made it worse; I think it might have been damaged when the aftermarket knob was installed.
While reassembling the thing for the fourth time, I managed to short the LiPo battery on something (I saw a spark). I think I just touched the contacts to a bit of metal, but after that I was more carefuller not to do that again. I also noticed that one of the screws that holds the case on kind of pressed into the battery some. I added a washer on the outside to prevent that from happening again.
I'll play with it some and see how it does. I like the idea of the LiPo battery because it has more capacity and lets you use full power vs half power that the NiCad battery gives you. If that doesn't last as long as I'd like I might consider yanking the CW filter out, installing it in my FT-818, and selling the 817. We'll see.
I'm just glad that the filter works. That would have been very disappointing since the only reason I bought the radio was for that.
ToddDubya
NES Member
I took the FT-817, a manual QRP tuner, and the "snake oil antenna" AKA Cobra Jr out to my Super Secret Squirrel Location today and gave it all a test run. I got the center up about 35-40' and could have gone higher. The ends were not super high, maybe 20'. I totally spaced on cordage, so I had to make do with what I had. It was favoring east/west, but being an inverted vee there was certainly some north/south radiation.
The first thing I did was tune it up on every band, and a few spots on the wider bands, and little tuner worked well. 80m gave me some trouble so it either doesn't need a tuner or it needs more than that one could do.
Performance wise, I did okay. 5w was enough to get me contacts on SSB and CW. Excluding big pileups I was able to work just about everyone I tried. Eventually the battery started to drop and the radio lowered the power to 2.5w. So the new challenge was to see what I could do with that. The best was on 17m I worked a guy in Barbados on SSB. He could hear me clearly, just light. That was 2,200 miles away. A couple minutes later I worked Louisiana, about 1,400 miles away. Not bad for 2.5 watts.
I really should have hooked up to the main antenna up there for an A/B comparison, but I didn't. Another time.
The new-to-me rig worked well too. No complaints.
The first thing I did was tune it up on every band, and a few spots on the wider bands, and little tuner worked well. 80m gave me some trouble so it either doesn't need a tuner or it needs more than that one could do.
Performance wise, I did okay. 5w was enough to get me contacts on SSB and CW. Excluding big pileups I was able to work just about everyone I tried. Eventually the battery started to drop and the radio lowered the power to 2.5w. So the new challenge was to see what I could do with that. The best was on 17m I worked a guy in Barbados on SSB. He could hear me clearly, just light. That was 2,200 miles away. A couple minutes later I worked Louisiana, about 1,400 miles away. Not bad for 2.5 watts.
I really should have hooked up to the main antenna up there for an A/B comparison, but I didn't. Another time.
The new-to-me rig worked well too. No complaints.
ToddDubya
NES Member
Where the heck is everybody?
I got in my head I wanted to mess around with an off center fed dipole. Idealistic Me wants to build it for 80m, but Realistic Me says just stick with 40m. I have a 4:1 current (Guanella) balun I build a year or two ago for a Carolina Windom antenna that never really worked out, so that's a good place to start. It's somewhere back in this thread. I believe it's two FT140-43 cores in a 4x4" Carlon box. It looks an awful lot like the one Palomar sells for $125, although they likely use FT240-43 cores.
I remember reading somewhere that the traditional 1/3, 2/3 design is not really the best. So I hunted around and I like the looks of this one from Palomar.
This doesn't look too bad.
palomar-engineers.com
Edit, this guy kind of opens it up. It looks like one FT-240, so I'm not sure what they did. And then maybe a binocular choke?
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smGtZAxoEfw
I got in my head I wanted to mess around with an off center fed dipole. Idealistic Me wants to build it for 80m, but Realistic Me says just stick with 40m. I have a 4:1 current (Guanella) balun I build a year or two ago for a Carolina Windom antenna that never really worked out, so that's a good place to start. It's somewhere back in this thread. I believe it's two FT140-43 cores in a 4x4" Carlon box. It looks an awful lot like the one Palomar sells for $125, although they likely use FT240-43 cores.
I remember reading somewhere that the traditional 1/3, 2/3 design is not really the best. So I hunted around and I like the looks of this one from Palomar.
This doesn't look too bad.
Off Center Fed Dipole Notes - Palomar Engineers®
Here are some typical OCF dipoles that are successful designs 160-6 meter Double Off Center Fed antenna layout (using a double tuned stub for better 20/40 meter performance) Here is the 160-6 meter SWR graph using 200 feet of RG213 feed line and an average height above ground of 35 feet...
palomar-engineers.com
Edit, this guy kind of opens it up. It looks like one FT-240, so I'm not sure what they did. And then maybe a binocular choke?
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smGtZAxoEfw
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n1oty
NES Member
Where the heck is everybody?
I got in my head I wanted to mess around with an off center fed dipole. Idealistic Me wants to build it for 80m, but Realistic Me says just stick with 40m. I have a 4:1 current (Guanella) balun I build a year or two ago for a Carolina Windom antenna that never really worked out, so that's a good place to start. It's somewhere back in this thread. I believe it's two FT140-43 cores in a 4x4" Carlon box. It looks an awful lot like the one Palomar sells for $125, although they likely use FT240-43 cores.
I remember reading somewhere that the traditional 1/3, 2/3 design is not really the best. So I hunted around and I like the looks of this one from Palomar.
View attachment 903507
This doesn't look too bad.
View attachment 903510
Off Center Fed Dipole Notes - Palomar Engineers®
Here are some typical OCF dipoles that are successful designs 160-6 meter Double Off Center Fed antenna layout (using a double tuned stub for better 20/40 meter performance) Here is the 160-6 meter SWR graph using 200 feet of RG213 feed line and an average height above ground of 35 feet...
Edit, this guy kind of opens it up. It looks like one FT-240, so I'm not sure what they did. And then maybe a binocular choke?
View attachment 903539
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smGtZAxoEfw
I have a Palomar OCFD with their 5 kW balun and love it. I think Palomar's dimensions are much better than more traditional OCFD's. My 2 cents.
ToddDubya
NES Member
It took a few hours to get tuned up, but I got the 40m OCFD up and running today. I've got it good on 20, 15, and the bottom of 10m, and 40m is not terrible but needs a tuner. I could probably trim it some more but the location is less than ideal and I don't want to take too much. I must have walked two miles taking it up and down, adjusting the ends, and trying to route through the trees.
Conditions are pretty poor today so it wasn't a great day to test. Damn near blackout conditions at times. I got some contacts hunting POTA parks, and tried for a few others I heard calling but my 5w couldn't get through. I sure wish I'd remembered a CW paddle. Or a bigger radio. I just had enough stuff to carry and the 817 is a much more compact rig to lug around.
Anyway, I look forward to playing with this antenna some more. As with any dipole it's a bear to setup in the thick woods but it does seem to work. A cursory comparison with the ZS6BKW I'd say it's close but doesn't hear quite as well. The ZS6BKW also has more wire in the air.
Conditions are pretty poor today so it wasn't a great day to test. Damn near blackout conditions at times. I got some contacts hunting POTA parks, and tried for a few others I heard calling but my 5w couldn't get through. I sure wish I'd remembered a CW paddle. Or a bigger radio. I just had enough stuff to carry and the 817 is a much more compact rig to lug around.
Anyway, I look forward to playing with this antenna some more. As with any dipole it's a bear to setup in the thick woods but it does seem to work. A cursory comparison with the ZS6BKW I'd say it's close but doesn't hear quite as well. The ZS6BKW also has more wire in the air.
ToddDubya
NES Member
I went up to the NOBARC Hamfest today and did my best not to buy a bunch of crap. So I bought a bunch of crap. I picked up a nice MFJ 300w dummy load just like the one I already have, but the price was too good to pass up. I got a "portable" MFJ tuner that I didn't quite need, but it has a double needle meter on it, which is superior to the double LED tuner I have (more on this later). I got a few tools, some adapters/parts, and a bin of ring terminals.
Then it got close to quitting time and sellers were getting desperate. One guy I'd been chatting with was really taken with my J-38 themed shirt, and gave me a device I couldn't identify. He said I needed it for my desk (which I don't), but who am I to turn down something free? Another guy gave me a VHF base antenna I don't exactly need, but I know I'll put to good use, possible at the Super Secret Squirrel Location.
When I got home I set to work figuring out what that device was. It turned out to be a telegraph sounder; the thing that made the familiar clacking sound in a telegraph office. I'll have to clean it up just a little, without undoing any of the patina, and maybe put it into a little demo. It's got a little placard on it that says "Western Electric Company", and there's a serial number on the bottom, but no date or anything. It's a little different from ones I'm seeing in photos, so maybe it's somewhat unique.
Unfortunately the tuner isn't 100%. It tunes, which is good, but the forward power needle doesn't do anything. It's free to move because if I shake the tuner a little I can see it moving. This tuner can be re-configured for QRP using jumpers inside, but if you aren't careful you run the risk of putting 300W into a circuit designed for 6w, which I expect is what happened. So for now the best I can do is tune for minimum reflected power. If I can find a replacement meter, I'll fix it, assuming the meter doesn't cost more than I paid for the whole thing.
All in all a good haul, the weather was beautiful, and I met some nice people and had some nice conversations.
Demo of a telegraph sounder.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHgRGoVCRCM
Then it got close to quitting time and sellers were getting desperate. One guy I'd been chatting with was really taken with my J-38 themed shirt, and gave me a device I couldn't identify. He said I needed it for my desk (which I don't), but who am I to turn down something free? Another guy gave me a VHF base antenna I don't exactly need, but I know I'll put to good use, possible at the Super Secret Squirrel Location.
When I got home I set to work figuring out what that device was. It turned out to be a telegraph sounder; the thing that made the familiar clacking sound in a telegraph office. I'll have to clean it up just a little, without undoing any of the patina, and maybe put it into a little demo. It's got a little placard on it that says "Western Electric Company", and there's a serial number on the bottom, but no date or anything. It's a little different from ones I'm seeing in photos, so maybe it's somewhat unique.
Unfortunately the tuner isn't 100%. It tunes, which is good, but the forward power needle doesn't do anything. It's free to move because if I shake the tuner a little I can see it moving. This tuner can be re-configured for QRP using jumpers inside, but if you aren't careful you run the risk of putting 300W into a circuit designed for 6w, which I expect is what happened. So for now the best I can do is tune for minimum reflected power. If I can find a replacement meter, I'll fix it, assuming the meter doesn't cost more than I paid for the whole thing.
All in all a good haul, the weather was beautiful, and I met some nice people and had some nice conversations.
Demo of a telegraph sounder.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHgRGoVCRCM
ToddDubya
NES Member
It looks like this might be a Western Electric Company model 3B. It has 20 Ohms stamped on the top of the base, and 12519 stamped on the bottom. I'm really tempted to clean it up but I don't want to mess it up or damage the coils.
In this pic you can see one of the coil covers is broken. I'm not sure if it's wooden or something like Bakelite.
A friend found a J-38 in one of the buildings when he bought his farm and he said I can have it. I am thinking it might be a good project to combine with this, add a battery, and be able to make it clack again. To be of real use, I'd need two of each and a bunch of wire, and a railroad. But for demonstration purposes it'd be neat to have.
In this pic you can see one of the coil covers is broken. I'm not sure if it's wooden or something like Bakelite.
A friend found a J-38 in one of the buildings when he bought his farm and he said I can have it. I am thinking it might be a good project to combine with this, add a battery, and be able to make it clack again. To be of real use, I'd need two of each and a bunch of wire, and a railroad. But for demonstration purposes it'd be neat to have.
ToddDubya
NES Member
I picked up an MFJ 971 tuner at a recent ham fest and the cross needle meter looks to be wrecked. The meter can be configured for 6w or less on the 300w input, but if you accidentally put high power into it, you can damage it. I'm guessing that's what happened. It looks like I already kind of described this problem a couple posts up.
Anybody know of a source for replacement meters? The part number is MFJ 400-3083. I'm coming up empty when I search for it.
Are they somewhat universal? Meaning could I get a similar one with the same ranges and use that?
Anybody know of a source for replacement meters? The part number is MFJ 400-3083. I'm coming up empty when I search for it.
Are they somewhat universal? Meaning could I get a similar one with the same ranges and use that?
n1oty
NES Member
The CB band is channelized, yes, but each "channel" is a specific frequency. Most "MARS modded" HF rigs will tune to any frequency in the 11 meter band for transmit. You can easily google a CB channel chart that shows the appropriate frequency.
For that matter, most unmodded HF rigs will receive the CB frequencies.
n1oty
NES Member
I'm looking forward to a spectacular Fall propagation season. With a little luck, we may even see 10 meters open for most hours of the day. I still fondly recall 10M being routinely open to Australia at midnight in the very early, early 1990's.
ToddDubya
NES Member
I responded that way because the question was:
No, I don't believe a CB radio can talk to ham radios (assuming ham bands). Yes, ham radios can be modded to tune to CB frequencies, outside of amateur frequencies, and the two could talk. But I don't believe a CB radio can be tuned to 28.300 to talk to hams.
Edit: I'm not playing semantics, I assumed AFVet has a CB radio and wants to know if he can talk to more than just CBers.
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ToddDubya
NES Member
ToddDubya
NES Member
On somewhat of a whim I got a NanoVNA and a TinySA from R&L. I've been playing around with them a little bit and it's clear I have no idea what I'm doing. The menu system is a little funky and uses some weird terminology. I think I need to find some good documentation on them. I know they're both capable and useful tools, so I'm sure I'll put them to good use.
Many people use the NanoVNA as an SWR meter. I have an antenna analyzer that I like a lot, so that's probably not what I'll use it for.
I have a feeling I'll need some attenuators and cases to keep these things in.
Many people use the NanoVNA as an SWR meter. I have an antenna analyzer that I like a lot, so that's probably not what I'll use it for.
I have a feeling I'll need some attenuators and cases to keep these things in.
