What did you do in the shack today?

Alright, I was on the air with my friend and I asked him about the 222 activity night. It's every Tuesday at 7:00 PM. They coordinate contacts on a website. You need to make an account, but then you just go into the 144/432 IARU Region 2 chat and you can setup contacts or see where people are.

The low band, VHF, UHF and microwave chats (by ON4KST)

The ON4KST low band, 50 MHz, 144 MHz and microwave chats.
www.on4kst.com
 
ToddDubya said:
Alright, I was on the air with my friend and I asked him about the 222 activity night. It's every Tuesday at 7:00 PM. They coordinate contacts on a website. You need to make an account, but then you just go into the 144/432 IARU Region 2 chat and you can setup contacts or see where people are.

The low band, VHF, UHF and microwave chats (by ON4KST)

The ON4KST low band, 50 MHz, 144 MHz and microwave chats.
www.on4kst.com
Click to expand...
Cool! Willcheck it out...

CatSnoutSoup said:
15 meters open to Japan now and a good number of strong workable stations on for ARRL DX CW.

Edit: get on if you are reading this 22:03 UTC worked 10 JA in a row search and pounce.

🐯
Click to expand...
I worked so many Asians on 10m (and all bands) it was wildly good condx! SFI > 180


UJay
 
UJay said:
I worked so many Asians on 10m (and all bands) it was wildly good condx! SFI > 180


UJay
Click to expand...
Wicked. I went and looked when I heard they were good, but after about a minute of scrolling I concluded they were too fast for this guy. Scrolling across, it was nothing but "<gibberish> TEST". Unbelievable.

In case anyone was thinking CW is dead, here are a couple screen shots of the bands this weekend. To the uninitiated, every one of those vertical green lines is an individual signal.

40m
1708268744836.png

10m
1708268824116.png

Yesterday I braved the cold and wind and tried out the new single lever paddle. I did my usual hike into the AT shelter, setup on 17m (no way I was touching 20/40) and got about 15 contacts. Not great, but they ranged from across town to the west coast. My brain did okay with switching to the single paddle, with just the occasional attempt to squeeze. Being made of plastic it was much nicer on the hands in the cold, and it was very glove friendly.

I got a little nervous at the end when suddenly I couldn't send my own call sign anymore. I had sent it at least 100 times, then all of a sudden I couldn't do it. I hope it was the cold and not a stroke. Nothing else seemed off, but it was not happening. I was a little cold, but I wouldn't expect hypothermic.

On the hike out I stopped to investigate a track in the snow that appeared to be something sliding. The track was pretty much a slide for 20', then a footprint or two, then sliding... I am guessing beaver, which could have been headed to a little stream below, but I don't know where it would be coming from. There are definitely beavers in the area, so it could be.

Hiking pole for scale.

1708271231113.png
 
Today was Bone Head Day.

1. I brought the FT-818 to test my Teensy DSP project. I forget what I settled on for the pass band, maybe 300 Hz. It's a mess of dangly wires but I brought it out into the field anyway. It wasn't until I gave up on CW and switched to SSB that I realized I may have had it programmed with a wider SSB filter, maybe 2500Hz. D'oh. It does sound pretty nice on SSB though. A contest weekend would have been the perfect time to see how well it rejected nearby signals.

2. Back to CW because I wasn't getting through to anyone with 6w. I focused on 12 and 17m to avoid the contest, but nobody could hear me. Even stations I could hear well weren't hearing me. I don't know how long this went on before I realized break-in was turned off, so this whole time I wasn't even transmitting. Probably why the radio didn't care when I changed bands and forgot to tune. C'mon bro. C'mon.

3. By the time I finally got my act together I ran out of propane. My clothes were a little sweaty from shoveling and once my bones got cold it was time to go.

My plan for this Teensy is to have it programmed for both CW and SSB and just have a push button or toggle to switch between the two. I think I'll use a similar LiPo battery setup for power that I have for my other project.

Teensy: Teensy® 4.0
Audio Board: PJRC Store
 
UJay said:
Fantastic weekend..... Incredible conditions...
I was DXing more than contesting.
DXCC on 10m- close on 15m and 20m

View attachment 852251
Click to expand...

It was fun. I was on for maybe 5-6 hours total in between work I had in the garage and mandatory weekend naps. Recorded 265 QSO.

I worked DU3T in the Philippines on 15 meters and I had to check to see that the last time I logged that entity was 2010. Now I was essentially off the air for a few years in the mid teens but that region Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, etc. has always been an infrequent opening to me. For instance I have heard Vietnam but have never got them to hear me and so it is not in my log. That being said I have worked 280 entities and confirmed 268 so I figure I am not doing too bad, and if I was motivated enough I could probably get a QSL for those unconfirmed twelve. But the remaining sixty available that is another story, perhaps after (if) I retire. [laugh]

🐯
 
I gotta hand it to you guys. When it's that crowded my brain gets tired real fast. Never mind trying to copy at that speed. Some of them I could get if I listened for a little bit, but others I couldn't identify a single letter or number other than "TEST" at the end.
 
Built 2x RasPi's to accommodate the new antenna switching system today.
Had breakfast with my station engineer and made loose plans on antenna deployment when the realization of an efficient antenna switch was necessary.
Steps taken and solution proven; Either one of the 2 radios can select any one, or multiple of 16 antenna outputs while interlocked from the other radio.
1708894026772.png

Planned on re-purposing one of the 15m monobanders to 20m.
Inventoried the V/UHF antennas. We have some good stuff for those bands.... :)

UJay
 
Today I was testing out a 71' random wire with 17' counterpoise at the Super Secret Squirrel Location. I used to use the coax as the counterpoise, but I don't really like that, so I added a wire and choked it right at the balun feed point. I got it up about 45' at the end, and it was under 3:1 on every band, most closer to 2:1.

That's where the fun stopped. I got tuned up and stations were hella weak. Nowhere was my S-meter showing anything but S-0, no matter how loud someone sounded. And the audio was awful. I figured that was just because I had to turn the volume up so much. But no, it was worse than that.

Eventually I connected up to my main antenna and same thing. I checked every connection, took the random wire coax completely off the tuner, nothing. I had to do a factory reset on the radio to get it back.

One or two QSOs later I'm getting burned by a screw on my paddle, and the S-meter drops to zero and audio goes to shit. Another reset, works for a few minutes, back at it again.

At this point this is my go to setup I've been using all fall/winter. I gave up, packed everything up and left. All I could think of is maybe the jumper between the radio and the tuner was bad, but I just measured it and it's 0 ohms where it should be and OL where it should be. I don't have a megger, but at least the DVM isn't showing a bad connection.

So I guess I'll try just the radio at home on my resonant antenna, see how that goes. Then add in the tuner, see how that goes. I hope some f***ing rodent didn't chew my coax that's been laying on the ground under the snow.

ETA: I do have a ground wire from a chassis screw on the 857D to the lug on the tuner.
 
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UJay said:
Built 2x RasPi's to accommodate the new antenna switching system today.
Had breakfast with my station engineer and made loose plans on antenna deployment when the realization of an efficient antenna switch was necessary.
Steps taken and solution proven; Either one of the 2 radios can select any one, or multiple of 16 antenna outputs while interlocked from the other radio.
View attachment 854741

Planned on re-purposing one of the 15m monobanders to 20m.
Inventoried the V/UHF antennas. We have some good stuff for those bands.... :)

UJay
Click to expand...
You have a station engineer?
 
UJay said:
lol! Yeah- kinda... A ham buddy of mine for decades - He likes the station building part but has no desire to operate or anything like that... He motivates me to actually do stuff, too.

UJay
Click to expand...
Ah, so a guy who helps spend your money. I always know how other people should spend their money.
 
I'm trying to recreate the problem at home and it's not burning me. But if I turn off the AGC so it doesn't swamp out when I use the DSP bandpass filter, the S-meter goes to 0 and the audio goes to shit. I could have sworn I was doing this before without it behaving that way. But I was definitely turning off the AGC after doing the resets, so maybe that was the problem there.

Now for the RF burns. It hurt, but maybe it was just cold? I'd think I'd know the difference, but maybe not.

As much as I like this radio, it is really not good for CW unless you have a lot of clear space around you. With the CW filters listing for north of $300, there's no way I'm buying one. For a while there was a way to buy a crystal filter, then buy a circuit board and assemble it yourself. But those crystals have dried up too.

I'm tempted to buy a smallish "portable" rig with good filtering for when weight is less of an issue, and save the 857 for SSB. Icom 7100?

Edit: Here's what the manuals says about the AGC. Sounds familiar.

1708911892051.png
 
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UJay said:
lol! Yeah- kinda... A ham buddy of mine for decades - He likes the station building part but has no desire to operate or anything like that... He motivates me to actually do stuff, too.
UJay
Click to expand...
That sounds like it might make a nice retirement gig. Get some good tools, some different types of wire, all the connecticazoids, and different crimpers, adapters, terminal ends, etc. and help people have a clean installation.
 
Coyote33 said:
That sounds like it might make a nice retirement gig. Get some good tools, some different types of wire, all the connecticazoids, and different crimpers, adapters, terminal ends, etc. and help people have a clean installation.
Click to expand...
If you climb there is a plethora of work!

UJay
 
All this chatter in the 160m thread got me interested in ladder line fed antennas.

I found an MFJ-949E on QRZ for a reasonable price, so that's coming my way soon. I think I'll start off with the classic doublet and see where that takes me. I'll take another run at random wires, too. I'm smelling a Field Day project!

Before I put up the DX Commander I had a G5RV Jr at about 25'. It was okay, and my tuner would get me down to 40 and I think I even had one contact on 60m but I don't recall that being a great signal report. But the more I read about the pros of ladder line fed antennas, the more I don't understand why the G5RV converts to coax. Probably convenience.
 
I was looking at components on DX Engineering and suddenly their doublet kit popped up. The only gotcha I see is it uses 300 ohm vs 450 ohm, which is probably why it never showed up before. I can't for the life of me find anywhere that explains why you'd use one or the other. I assumed that since the "good stuff" is 600 ohms, the next best must be 450, then 300. But I have no idea. The only thing I can see is the mismatch at the antenna, but you won't know that until you have it up and are trying to use it. Anybody understand this? The new (to me) tuner has a 4:1 balun, but my QRP one does not, if that matters.

At this point I don't even know where I'd set this up. Not being able to just coil up excess coax is a real shift. For the house, 50' of feedline is probably(?) enough. But I may just play around with this at the Super Secret Squirrel Location, or bring it camping, Field Day, or for a longer day in a park where you have to get creative, and more feedline might be better. I don't see getting more than 40-45' up at most.

There's this from DX Engineering. 100' of 300 ohm feedline I could cut to whatever length, assembly required.

www.dxengineering.com

DX Engineering DXE-WA-070 DX Engineering Multi-Band Dipole Antennas | DX Engineering

Free Shipping - DX Engineering Multi-Band Dipole Antennas with qualifying orders of $99. Shop Wire Antennas at DX Engineering.
www.dxengineering.com www.dxengineering.com

Or just go all in on this from True Ladderline? XX' of feedline, all assembled and ready to go.

www.trueladderline.com

40-10 Meter W7FG True Ladder Line Open Wire Fed Dipole 65' Dipole 50' Feedline

The Most Efficient Multi Band Wire Antenna Since 1985
www.trueladderline.com www.trueladderline.com
 
ToddDubya said:
I was looking at components on DX Engineering and suddenly their doublet kit popped up. The only gotcha I see is it uses 300 ohm vs 450 ohm, which is probably why it never showed up before. I can't for the life of me find anywhere that explains why you'd use one or the other. I assumed that since the "good stuff" is 600 ohms, the next best must be 450, then 300. But I have no idea. The only thing I can see is the mismatch at the antenna, but you won't know that until you have it up and are trying to use it. Anybody understand this? The new (to me) tuner has a 4:1 balun, but my QRP one does not, if that matters.

At this point I don't even know where I'd set this up. Not being able to just coil up excess coax is a real shift. For the house, 50' of feedline is probably(?) enough. But I may just play around with this at the Super Secret Squirrel Location, or bring it camping, Field Day, or for a longer day in a park where you have to get creative, and more feedline might be better. I don't see getting more than 40-45' up at most.

There's this from DX Engineering. 100' of 300 ohm feedline I could cut to whatever length, assembly required.

www.dxengineering.com

DX Engineering DXE-WA-070 DX Engineering Multi-Band Dipole Antennas | DX Engineering

Free Shipping - DX Engineering Multi-Band Dipole Antennas with qualifying orders of $99. Shop Wire Antennas at DX Engineering.
www.dxengineering.com www.dxengineering.com

Or just go all in on this from True Ladderline? XX' of feedline, all assembled and ready to go.

www.trueladderline.com

40-10 Meter W7FG True Ladder Line Open Wire Fed Dipole 65' Dipole 50' Feedline

The Most Efficient Multi Band Wire Antenna Since 1985
www.trueladderline.com www.trueladderline.com
Click to expand...


UltraLite Senior: 160-10 Meters, 140 feet, $150.00 + Shipping
UltraLite Junior: 80-10 Meters, 73 feet, $140.00 + Shipping
UltraLite Kid: 40-6 Meters, 41 feet, $125.00 + Shipping

Cobra UltraLite Antennas - The Alternative Multi-Band Solution - Home Page (k1jek.com)


🐯
 
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ToddDubya said:
I saw their ad on QRZ. Are those legit. It seemed snake oily, pun intended.

Edit: Reviewers on eHam like them.
Click to expand...
I have the Cobra UltraLite Junior, unopened and available if anyone is interested. Priority Mail shipping is available.
 

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ToddDubya said:
I saw their ad on QRZ. Are those legit. It seemed snake oily, pun intended.

Edit: Reviewers on eHam like them.
Click to expand...

I have a Senior (140ft length) slopping off my tower from about 55ft down to 25ft and it has been a very effect antenna for me on 40m and 80m. If I needed to I could use it on any other band as well.

I had to add additional window line to make the distance to the shack entrance, but that is no issue as it is lossless. The window line terminates at ICE surge arrester which is then bridged to a DX Engineering Max Core 4:1 balun before entering the building on Davis RF Bury-flex coax into a Palstar Auto tuner.

I like this antenna enough to have bought this my second one, the original hung between to 75ft pines and was vaporized by a lightning strike some years ago.


🐯
 
Today I got the MFJ-949E I bought off a guy on QRZ. I've already taken it apart to look at the insides, which look pretty cool. I think as soon as it warms up, today is gonna be a "trow a wire inna tree" day.

I know MFJ gets a bad rap for whatever reason, but I've found their stuff to be plenty serviceable. Maybe their products aren't as slick as other companies, but they do the job.
 
I trew a wire inna tree and played around with the new tuner as best I could. I was in the yard and with the wire stretched out I was in the breeziest, shadiest spot so it didn't take long to be freezing. I was able to tune up 80-10m just fine. My settings were nowhere near what the manual suggests, so I may try again starting with their settings and see what I get. I'm not exactly sure how they even have suggested settings since they don't mention an antenna.

It was very noisy at my house, but I got maybe a dozen contacts with the lowest report being a 56 into Romania on 5w (forgot to turn the power back up).

Looking back at the manual, I had the capacitance backwards. I thought a higher number was more but it's less. This thing is gonna need a cheat sheet taped to it.

Anyway, it's a fun piece of gear to play with. I can see getting a bit tired of tuning if you're searching and pouncing, but if you're calling CQ and can set and forget it, it'll be a breeze.
 
Got some help last night over the phone on the TS440, so I understand some of the controls/knobs/settings better. Could hear OK, but still trouble with people hearing me. Might be a mic issue.

Got help with tuning antenna this morning, and now the TS440 is pulling in tons of stations on 10 meters, but still bad outgoing modulation. Switched to the Radio Shack HTX-10, and was able to communicate with at least 3 different stations: TM6M in Brest, France; N9GB in Stilwell, KS; and V31XX in Belize. So. that's something!

The squelch knob on the HTX-10 seems a little "fussy", but if I push it down a little, it seems to stay there for a while. I wonder if "tuner cleaner" would help here. The reception quality is a bit lower on the Radio Shack one, but that is not unexpected. Just something to work through. This radio has its usefulness, and I guess I can say it got me my first 10 meter "HF" contacts. This whole contest thing is a little annoying, and not totally my cup of tea, but it does have a use, which is to see that you can make 2 way communications between point X and point Y. To me, it would be much more useful to try to actually talk to people in other areas of the country or world. I'm sure that will come over time.

Oh, and I snipped off the plastic connectors on the Kenwood, so I can just wrap the wires onto the power supply posts.
 
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