What did you do in the shack today?

Well I looked up the build instructions. I could get this rigged up using a wire and the squid pole without having to invest in a 25’ whip, I already have a 49:1 transformer as well. Although… I have had the parts for the preformer laying around for weeks without having found the time to put it together.
 
I messed around with my TinySA this morning. I got some attenuators, so I can put up to about 10w into the TinySA without destroying it. Well, 10w before knocking it down with attenuators. I tried measuring my Yaesu HT and only got 2.8w instead of the expected 5w. I have no experience with the TinySA, so I suspect operator error. Meanwhile, I tried measuring the attenuator "gain" on the NanoVNA to make sure it's actually -40dB. I also have no experience with the NanoVNA, so that was also a fail. But I'll figure it out.

I got both of these devices back in October and really haven't messed with them yet. For the price, they do a lot.
 
I also played with my Xiegu X5105 some more today, and damn if that thing doesn't get good reports. I had a few people give me "59, excellent audio. You sound really good down here". Funny thing was I really wasn't hearing people too well today. I wait until my final to tell the other person I'm running 5w so they don't overcompensate.

I meant to inspect the wires, but the wind and snow were blasting pretty hard. I'm sure the SSB contest wasn't doing me any favors. I wish I could have remembered how to turn on the filtering.

It's too bad the audio is so bad on that radio. I wish it was just the speaker, but even with headphones or an external speaker it sounds equally bad. Otherwise I have been very pleasantly surprised with its performance.
 
Okay, I'm playing around with the TinySA a little more. I'm not sure this is really doing what I want. It doesn't seem to care what I put in for attenuation. But that aside, here's a shot of my Baofeng UV5R on the fundamental and first harmonic. You can see the first harmonic is about 47dB below the fundamental. FCC says second harmonic must be at least 40dB below the fundamental.

1740885848694.png

Switching to the other (higher frequency) port, you can see in the 70cm band there's a spike at the third harmonic about 25dB down from the fundamental. Not great, but FCC says 3rd harmonic and up must be 20dB or more below the fundamental.

1740886140356.png

For comparison, I got just about same thing with my Yaesu FT-70d, maybe a few dB better.

This isn't exactly scientific, but it's a decent indicator that my UV5R isn't exactly the spurious emission bandit some people claim them to be. I'll have to come back and correct this if I find out I botched up the measurements. I really can't make sense of the dBs. If I'm putting 5w into a 40dB attenuator, I should be getting -3dB. I measured the attenuator on the NanoVNA and it's close to 40dB.

Way to spend a Saturday night, Poindexter.
 
I’ve been looking at setting up a 100W POTA kit. Most likely going to use a Yaesu Ft891, trying to decide what to get for a battery, probably around a 20 Ah. I have plenty of antennas from my QRP kit that I take when I air travel for work.

Also finally ordered an arborist slingshot setup to hopefully get my dipole antenna up a lot higher at my QTH.
 
PistolShooter said:
I’ve been looking at setting up a 100W POTA kit. Most likely going to use a Yaesu Ft891, trying to decide what to get for a battery, probably around a 20 Ah. I have plenty of antennas from my QRP kit that I take when I air travel for work.

Also finally ordered an arborist slingshot setup to hopefully get my dipole antenna up a lot higher at my QTH.
Click to expand...
I've used a 12Ah Bioenno a lot in the field and it lasts a long time, 20 should be plenty. Beware the cheaper brands. A lot of them don't have all of the protections they claim to have. There are guys who do tear-down videos. There's a lot of energy in these batteries.

For sizing, check out this calculator. Click here to download the spreadsheet (Rev 1 updated Feb 1, 23).
 
ToddDubya said:
I've used a 12Ah Bioenno a lot in the field and it lasts a long time, 20 should be plenty. Beware the cheaper brands. A lot of them don't have all of the protections they claim to have. There are guys who do tear-down videos. There's a lot of energy in these batteries.

For sizing, check out this calculator. Click here to download the spreadsheet (Rev 1 updated Feb 1, 23).
Click to expand...
I have a 4.5 Bioenno I used with my Icom 705, agree on buy quality. I’ve done lots of custom battery development for the day job, not worth the risk of cheap batteries. Need to head up to HRO in Salem and grab one this week. I think I’m going to do a custom build out in a Pelican case, no penetrations to the case but easy to deploy and connect once you open it up.
 
Today in the shack I uploaded my log for this past weekends ARRL DX contest before I forgot to do it.

Years ago you had something like a month to get the log in (remember folks were sending logs by snail mail), but that has changed and they give you just a week.

Category was Single op, high power, assisted.

Not bad considering I did a lot of weekend napping between operating stints.


QSOs in Log: 345
179 Multipliers :D
Raw Score: 1035 Qpts x 179 Mults = 185,265


🐯
 
I just spent the last day or so looking at our family spend (just my wife and I - kids are out) for 2024. The radio/computer/electronics spend was … excessive.

Whatever I do in the shack today, tomorrow, next week, etc.,will have to be done with the stuff I bought in 2024.
 
I got my QMX back from repair and decided to throw it on a dummy load and play with it. I got one beep maybe, then just clicks. No side tone. Hmmmm. Cycle power, same thing. I turn up the current limit on my power supply, same thing. Then I realize it's going into protection mode, which it does when it has low power (or high power) or bad SWR. It can't possibly be bad SWR, right? Well, I put the antenna analyzer on the dummy load and it's almost 3:1.

I took the dummy load apart and it's not obvious what exactly the current path is, but it seems to return through the metal chassis. But the connectivity between the end of the resistor and the shield side of the connector is poor. I chase it down to the connection TO the chassis, and give the bolt a little tiny turn backwards and forwards. I measure again and I get 52 ohms. Bazinga.

I bought this dummy load at a swap meet last summer. The sticker said "New" and it looks new, but I wonder if the guy had problems with it and just never used it.

I guess the lesson here is to check your dummy load from time to time and make sure it's actually 50 ohms.

It's hard to see in this picture, but the bolt/nut in question is at the bottom of that clip holding the far end of the resistor. I think the aluminum has a coating on it that the star washer had to scratch through a little better. Or something. Either way, it's better now.

As for the QMX, I'm not super stoked with the power output it says I'm getting. I know it's power meter is not super accurate, but it looks like I'm getting maybe 2 watts on some bands. I don't have a watt meter to get a real measurement. I guess that's next.

1741046150248.png
 
Did my first POTA today at Hopkinton State Park, brought my oldest who is 8 and eager to get his license.

Used a Chameleon MPAS-Lite with the 17’ vertical and a counterpoise wire for an antenna, was pleased to get a couple DX contacts. Used 100W from a Yaesu FT-891 that I just bought as a dedicated POTA radio.


IMG_0046.jpeg
 
I'm glad to hear it wasn't just me. I managed to bust some pileups with my 5w Xiegu, but for the most part I wasn't getting very far west. I did get CA on 15m SSB which seemed pretty decent. I only tried a few stations that couldn't hear me, or that I gave up due to pileup size, so that's pretty good.

I was glad I wasn't carrying a bigger radio with me when I fell down a short hill. The snow at my super secret squirrel location is now a hard crust you can mostly walk on, except when it's icy, or you break through to unknown depths (will you stop mid calf? up to your knee? balls deep?). I started to slide down the hill, then my foot broke through, which sent me into a clumsy run, ending in both feet breaking through and me going ass over teakettle. Fortunately my pistol cushioned the impact.

I've been thinking about terracing that particular spot so it's more like steps than a hill, but right now the snow has pretty much leveled out the entire forest so that spot would still be a hill. I may do it anyway.

P.S. I'm done with winter. Probably three more weeks to go.
 
I got out for a little radio in the sun this afternoon. It looks like I'm sitting in a parking lot, but I'm actually up above it. I paired the Venus SW-3B with the mag loop. Add the CW Morse single lever paddle, a powered speaker, and a small 12v LiPO battery, and I was in business. I didn't set any records, but I did alright and it got me out of the house. I didn't realize at first that I had the keyer set to 23 WPM, which is faster than my usual 20

1741990815294.png

That flyer over in Germany was a surprise. I didn't get any DX, but the Reverse Beacon says I was plenty strong over there. Maybe a plane was in just the right spot at just the right time.

1741991350248.png
 
On a whim I tuned into the 10m FM calling frequency today. Nobody could hear me with my puny 5w, but I was listening to a guy in SD talking to people. Some I could hear, some I couldn't, but the guy in SD was S9+60dB for me, running 65w into a 5/8 vertical on his house. There was another guy I heard a few times; I think he was from the Netherlands. I don't know why but I always find 10m FM so intriguing.
 
ToddDubya said:
On a whim I tuned into the 10m FM calling frequency today. Nobody could hear me with my puny 5w, but I was listening to a guy in SD talking to people. Some I could hear, some I couldn't, but the guy in SD was S9+60dB for me, running 65w into a 5/8 vertical on his house. There was another guy I heard a few times; I think he was from the Netherlands. I don't know why but I always find 10m FM so intriguing.
Click to expand...

I have not thought about 10m FM in a very long time. Just out of interest I will have to see if either of my current antennas can tune that high (29.600 MHz).

Makes me think of the late 1970's early 1980's and listening up nearly that high on 10m for the AMSAT OSCAR-7 and 8 downlink passbands. Just listening, never had VHF-UHF uplink capability.

🐯
 
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CatSnoutSoup said:
I have not thought about 10m FM in a very long time. Just out of interest I will have to see if either of my current antennas can tune that high (29.600 MHz).

Makes me think of the late 1970's early 1980's and listening up nearly that high on 10m for the AMSAT OSCAR-7 and 8 downlink passbands. Just listening, never had VHF-UHF uplink capability.

🐯
Click to expand...
The other interesting thing is repeaters. There are only a handful of frequencies so tones must be really necessary. I've never gotten into one myself. You almost have to pick one in CO or something.
 
Not really a thing I did, but this afternoon I traded a buddy of mine some hamsticks for a tape measure dipole he'd built. When he first made it, it seemed like it would be more trouble than it's worth, but he let me borrow it once and it worked really well. It's nice because being a tape measure the element lengths are right there to read. I just used a calculator to figure out how long they should be, stretched them out, and they were dead on. I'll probably make a cheat sheet so I don't have to do math every time. They're 50' long, so it'll work down to 60m.

If the wind lets up maybe I can get on the air with it this weekend.

In the meantime, I just listened for the ISS to pass by and didn't really get much of what people were saying. I couldn't pick up a complete call sign or anything. While I wait for the next pass I programmed in some Doppler shift frequencies so hopefully I can get a longer usable pass. I used these frequencies, but because my radio can listen on one band and transmit on another, I made separate Tx and Rx channels.

It took me a few minutes to wrap my head around having to listen at a higher frequency but transmit on a lower frequency and vice versa to compensate.

1742603870777.png

ARISS Repeater - Miklor

ARISS Repeater - Miklor
www.miklor.com www.miklor.com

ISS Tracker: International Space Station
 
Damn, I almost got a contact through the ISS. My buddy was recording the pass and I was clear at his house, so I know I was getting into the repeater. But the guy I tried to work got my call wrong like three times. I had a whole bunch of clear partials where I dropped because I didn't hear myself coming back, so I thought I wasn't getting in. Maybe it's just weak and I need to use headphones.

Another pass in about an hour, probably shorter this time.
 
ToddDubya said:
Not really a thing I did, but this afternoon I traded a buddy of mine some hamsticks for a tape measure dipole he'd built. When he first made it, it seemed like it would be more trouble than it's worth, but he let me borrow it once and it worked really well. It's nice because being a tape measure the element lengths are right there to read. I just used a calculator to figure out how long they should be, stretched them out, and they were dead on. I'll probably make a cheat sheet so I don't have to do math every time. They're 50' long, so it'll work down to 60m.

If the wind lets up maybe I can get on the air with it this weekend.

In the meantime, I just listened for the ISS to pass by and didn't really get much of what people were saying. I couldn't pick up a complete call sign or anything. While I wait for the next pass I programmed in some Doppler shift frequencies so hopefully I can get a longer usable pass. I used these frequencies, but because my radio can listen on one band and transmit on another, I made separate Tx and Rx channels.

It took me a few minutes to wrap my head around having to listen at a higher frequency but transmit on a lower frequency and vice versa to compensate.

View attachment 976954

ARISS Repeater - Miklor

ARISS Repeater - Miklor
www.miklor.com www.miklor.com

ISS Tracker: International Space Station
Click to expand...
I’ve been wanting to try this, need to setup a VHF/UHF radio at home. Curious what radio you’re using?
 
I've got a few ideas of how I can put together a satellite station. The one I've been using is good because it's 50w and full duplex, but it's my shack radio and I hate disconnecting stuff to take it in the field. And the vertical on the house is so-so for this application.

Next up I could use a pair of 818/817 (I happen to have one of each), which are only 5w TX. I have an FM amplifier for 2m/70cm that would get me 30w on 2m and 20w on 70cm. That might be enough.

Lastly, I have an old Alinco 50w 2m radio I could use, but it's only good for things with a 2m uplink. It's pretty small, which is good.

I think I'll get one of the Arrow dual band yagis. Kind of a shame that I already have their 2m version.
 
PistolShooter said:
I’ve been wanting to try this, need to setup a VHF/UHF radio at home. Curious what radio you’re using?
Click to expand...
It's a Yaesu FT-8900R quad band (70c/2m/6m/10m) FM radio. They don't make it anymore, but there is a knockoff made by TYT that looks to be identical. I program it with Chirp.

I forgot it does cross band repeat, too. It's kind of neat, but I don't have any practical use for that.

Edit, the last pass was hard to hear but I got a contact with a guy in MI. Headphones helped.

Edit 2: R&L has that 9800 even cheaper. I'm not endorsing it, it's just similar to one I have. TYT TH9800 [TH9800] - $179.95 : R&L Electronics, Amateur radio store
 
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ToddDubya said:
It's a Yaesu FT-8900R quad band (70c/2m/6m/10m) FM radio. They don't make it anymore, but there is a knockoff made by TYT that looks to be identical. I program it with Chirp.

I forgot it does cross band repeat, too. It's kind of neat, but I don't have any practical use for that.

Edit, the last pass was hard to hear but I got a contact with a guy in MI. Headphones helped.

Edit 2: R&L has that 9800 even cheaper. I'm not endorsing it, it's just similar to one I have. TYT TH9800 [TH9800] - $179.95 : R&L Electronics, Amateur radio store
Click to expand...
What type of scrambler does the TYT TH9800 have? Is it the typical voice inversion type?
 
Uzi2 said:
What type of scrambler does the TYT TH9800 have? Is it the typical voice inversion type?
Click to expand...
I didn't know it did. The Yaesu doesn't.

Honestly I don't know that I would buy it again. It's cool having four FM bands, and I like that it's really two separate radios (i.e. full duplex/cross band repeat), but like a lot of older radios, it's clunky to setup and use.

Why the hell don't radio manufacturers go back to the drawing board? For example, why don't they put a button on the faceplate to "Add a repeater" and then walk you through the couple settings you need to setup a repeater instead of making you have to know what you need to set and then hunt through the menus? They just keep "improving" the menu structure instead.
 
There, I ordered the dual band Arrow from HRO. I should have it Tuesday or Wednesday to start playing with. This should be very simple now, I just need:
  • One hand to work the antenna
  • One hand to work the mic
  • One hand to tune each radio
  • One hand to log
I have a camera tripod that should help with the antenna, and I'll just have to rig up a system to hold the radios. Portable Zero makes a nice one, albeit pricey and a bit fussy to setup if it's not going to be a dedicated station. An inline audio recorder seems to be what people use to capture the audio for logging later.

One step at a time...
 


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