W8TN's Ramblings

Good Day for a "Beverage Hike"

2011-11-06T19:44:00.005-05:00

After repairing the Monster-L a few days ago, I decided it was time to inspect/repair the Beverage antennas. Tim, K8RRT, strongly suggested I wait until a Sunday to avoid any confrontations with deer hunters so we decided to make our trek today. We loaded up with a 10-foot aluminum tube (two 5-foot pieces) with a wire hook on the top to lift the wire up over branches, small saw, pruning sheers, chain saw, tape, dacron line, split wire nuts, hand tools and fluids for us. As we hiked along the 60° / 240° Beverage (Reversible), we found some small branches over the Beverage and a couple of forearm size trees that we were able to lift by ourselves. At the beginning the Beverage wire was as tight as a Banjo string and would actually "sing" if you tapped it.

After about 650 feet we found the wire on the ground because 3 or 4 LARGE trees had fallen on it. Some of those were bigger around than me! No sense trying to cut those, so Tim went to the far end of this 900-foot long antenna and removed the wire which I then pulled from under the trees. We re-strung the wire over the dead-fall and now had the Beverage back to its original condition. It was amazing that the 2-conductor wire (WD-1A Military wire) had not broken, as tightly has it had been stretched.

On the way back down the ridge, we heard others in the woods! Tim and I stopped and listened and determined it was just some teenagers playing "Paint Ball." We were within 50 yards of them but I do not think they even knew we were there. Tim was armed with a small, pistol-sized shotgun and we wondered what the kids would do if we fired off a round but we decided to just silently drift away. On the way back to the Beverage Hub, we came back the route of the un-terminated North/South 500-foot antenna and found one or two arm-sized trees on it which we removed.

We completed this inspection/repair mission in less than 3 hours. One more Reversible Beverage remains to be inspected but because Tim had to go to work and I needed some "sit-down time", we elected to stop for today. After sundown, I did a quick "check" of the 60° Beverage to see if it was back being the "Killer" receive antenna it was last year. I've posted two small MP3 files below to show how it plays. Click on the callsign and the file will download or be played in your Browser or by using Windows Media Player or other MP3 player on your computer.

EA8DO - He sends "CQ EA8DO EA8DO" then a station starts to answer him. I was listening to him on the Beverage until he sent "EA" the second time and that's when I switched to the Transmit antenna. You hear him send "CQ EA8DO EA" and then he all but disappears in the noise as I switch to the transmit antenna.

S5ØA is in a QSO with N4NN and you can hear him sending "N N4NN TKS 73" and in the middle of the "3" I changed to the transmit antenna, then back to the Beverage then back and forth once more. It is pretty apparent when he is being received on the Beverage wouldn't you say?

I think our little project today was extremely beneficial. Tonight I can hear TU2T weakly, not strong enough to call, but strong enough to copy reports and portions of the stations he is working. Hopefully he will be on Top-Band near his sunrise as with a little enhancement, I think I can work him.

WVU's Ms. Mountaineer for 2011

2011-11-05T19:29:00.007-04:00

May I present West Virginia University's Ms. Mountaineer for 2011, Ms. Katlin Stinespring! Click on any photo to see a larger image.

Katlin is the eldest daughter of Tim Stinespring, K8RRT, and is a senior at West Virginia University. She was chosen today from five finalists all of whom are seniors at WVU.

Below is a description of this award:

The award recognizes students’ exemplary academic achievement and extracurricular involvement. All applicants must be eligible for graduation by May 2011 to be considered.

Here is Katlin's bio:

Katlin Stinespring, a public relations major, is a Hurricane native and is sponsored by the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Stinespring is the assistant clarinet section leader and woodwind rank leader of the Mountaineer Marching Band and the vice president of public relations and membership of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars among other activities at WVU. She is the daughter of Tim and Pam Stinespring.

The entire West Virginia DX Association is over-joyed that Tim's daughter has achieved such success. As many have said, it is obviously a credit to her abilities and to the parenting she has received. Congratulations, Katlin, you really deserve this!

K8RRT's Dual-Flag Receive Antenna

2011-11-03T21:07:00.005-04:00

The photo at the left shows Tim, K8RRT, standing behind his new Dual-Flag receive antenna. The antenna is made up of two rectangles 30-feet long by 20-feet tall. The telephone pole is set up to accommodate a total of 3 or 4 Flags aimed in different directions. The feedpoint is at the bottom corner next to the far support. That support is made up of military surplus telescoping fiberglass tubes available on eBay. You can see a close-up of the feedpoint in the small photo on the right. Click on any photo to enlarge it then Close the open photo window or use your BACK button to return to this page. The photo of the antenna was adjusted so that the wires showed up a little better against the bright sky.

Below is a Posting by Charlie, N8RR, who has been leading the use of this type of antenna here locally. He gives a fuller description of the antenna.

Yesterday in about 4 or 5 hours W8TN, K8RRT and I built a dual flag receive antenna for the low bands in Tim's field. We continue to refine the process of building these. The next one will have a couple of minor changes to the construction method. It occupies about the same length as a 40-M dipole.

These are pretty effective RX antennas on 160, 80 and even 40 meters. For those without space for a significant beverage, they might be a solution. My 60-degree dual flag held it's own with a 450' NE beverage, and was a bit less noisy most of the time. These antennas can be built to a lot smaller dimensions than this one used, and will still have great directivity. The smaller the antenna, the less output signal it has, and the more pre-amplification that is needed in the receive chain. I would not hesitate to build a small version of this for limited space, as rx pre-amplification is not expensive or difficult to obtain.

The flag antenna has been around a while. Some have even built rotatable flags, which by necessity are a lot smaller than this one. This current design is from the work of others, and I deserve and take no credit for it.

Tim's antenna models to have maximum gain response at 25 degrees elevation, with a f/b ratio of nearly 30 dB. The beam width at -3 dB points is 107.3 degrees. What this means is that Tim's antenna, which is centered on 60 degrees azimuth, will cover from 6.35 degrees azimuth around to 113.65 degrees azimuth before the gain response falls off 3 dB from maximum.

Although the antenna max gain is at 25 degrees above the horizon, it has significant response at lower angles. The local power lines are behind this antenna. At 2 degrees Azimuth, the model shows over 34 dB front to back ratio, so the antenna should really do a good job of rejecting noise from the powerline.

Now for the real world testing. I am anxious to see how this antenna performs for Tim in the real world of DXing!

The horizontal wires are 30', the vertical wires are 20'. VI in the drawing is the matching transformer. The antenna is fed with RG6 TV cable coax.
The terminating resistor is 1222 ohms. The antenna is directional toward the terminating resistor, away from the feedpoint.

If someone wants to build one of these in less space, it can be done at reduced dimensions.

One can also build a single flag version of this. The beam width is broader, the signal output is higher, but the front to back ratio is poorer. I built one of these single flags last year and at times it was useful.

73 Charlie N8RR

W8TN's Monster-L is Repaired!

2011-10-30T17:09:00.009-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that I could no longer load my 160-M Inverted-L (nicknamed the Monster-L by Tim, K8RRT) on 160-M or ANY band. Received signals were drastically down from what the 80-M Wire Vertical heard. So, I knew I had a problem. First I thought the vertical portion of the "L" had broken off. But, a trip over the hill revealed that the antenna was intact, just a bit of slack which I removed by tightening the support rope.

That meant I had a more serious problem. So, I put the N8LP LP-100 Digital Vector RF Wattmeter to good use and ran an SWR Plot of the antenna. The resulting plot is shown at the right. (You can click on any image to view it larger, then either "Close" the opened image or use your BACK button to return to this page.) This plot basically says the SWR for this 160-M Inverted-L is almost totally flat across the range of 1.8 to 2.0 MHz at an SWR of about 5:1. That's not good! I then surmised the feedline must be the problem and felt it had to be either Open or Shorted (DUH, now that's intelligent!) A quick resistance check at the shack end of the feedline yielded 0.7 ohms. The feedline was a Dead Short!

Now, how could I figure out where the short was located? I knew I had read somewhere that you could use an MFJ 259-B Antenna Analyzer as a Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR.) If that worked, it would tell me how many feet it was from the shack end of the feedline to the Short. I have never tried this but decided it was worth a shot to see if I could find where the problem was located. So, I hooked up the MFJ-259B to use it as a TDR (after a short Google search to find out how to do it!) First I swept the cable with the 259-B to find the frequency where there was a sharp dip in the Resistance (pretty near zero ohms) and found a big dip at 2.51 MHz. I then applied the following formula:

492 / f (in MHz) X velocity factor of the coax X 1 (or times 1/2 if it is an Open)

492 / 2.51 X .66 X 1 = 129.37 feet.

As I recall, the distance from my shack to the base of the tower is just about 130-feet. So, I now needed to go over the hill and look at the coax at that point. I did that today and about 8-feet short of the tower I found the following:

I guess it's not safe to let me work with power tools!

Over the last few weeks I've been clearing brush around the base of the tower in preparation for taking down the SteppIR for repair. I guess I got just a "little" too close to the 160-M feedline with either a weedeater or a chain saw. It was clear that the center conductor was touching the shield - SHORT!

So, I trekked back to the house, acquired the necessary tools, and returned to cut out the bad spot, install PL-259's on each end, and connect them with a double-female connector. Back at the shack, I ran another SWR plot which you can see at the left, and it looks like I'm back in business with the Monster-L! Actually the antenna is resonant about 1.812 and needs to be just a little shorter to move the dip a little further up the band but this is certainly good enough for me.

This little "error" on my part cost me at least TWO New Ones on Top Band and maybe as many as five! LOSER! However, it now looks like I'm ready to work some DX. The antenna is 1.11:1 at 1.810, 1.14:1 at 1.820 and 1.21:1 at 1.830. Plus, I'm back in business for using the 160-M Inverted-L on all the other bands until I can get the SteppIR repaired.

Next I need to walk all the Beverages with my chain saw to remove any trees that surely have fallen across them. NOTE to self: Take plenty of split-nuts for when (not IF) I cut the Beverage wire with the chain saw. Also, take a First Aid kit and cell phone with 911 on Speed Dial!

A New Ham in the Making

2011-10-25T00:22:00.009-04:00

Today my 7-1/2 year old grandson, Grant Kimberling, was home sick from school. After he felt better, he asked me if he could "type" on my keyer paddle. He had done this before and enjoyed sending CW and watching the letters print out on the microHAM microKEYER display. Today he started asking me how to send certain letters instead of just sending stuff at random. What he was asking for was how to send the letters of his own name. After he mastered that, he asked how to send the letters of his brother's name. I soon started the "CW Get" program so that he could see the letters in a more static position instead of while they scrolled across the microKEYER display.

In about 20 minutes he had learned 9 letters and one punctuation mark (he randomly sent "period" and saw it on the screen and kept repeating that until he had it memorized.) Soon I decided to record this event but the battery of the camcorder was dead. I put it on charge and we left to run some errands. More than 2 hours elapsed and when we came back I told him I wanted to record him sending his name and he sat right down and sent it without any questions or help from me. Click on the link below to view the short recording. At the beginning you can see the letters print out on the screen on the bottommost line. You can also click the "4 arrows" icon on the bottom right of the video to expand it to full screen. Then use your BACK button to return here.

Maybe we have a Young Ham in the Making here?

UPDATE: Five days later, Grant came back by the shack and asked if he could show his Daddy what he could do. I hooked up the keyer and he sat right down and sent his name with no hesitation, no mistakes and without any questions, failed attempts or any prompting from me! I guess the "lesson" has "stuck" with him!

10-Band DXCC Achieved - Whooo, Hooo!

2011-09-19T11:40:00.006-04:00

My last DXCC Endorsement Application has now been processed by ARRL Headquarters and my 12-M DXCC has been issued. That now completes a 10-Band DXCC SWEEP for W8TN!

You can click on the image at the left to see a larger view. Then, click on the BACK button in your Browser to return to this page. OR, if you see the image on top of a greyed out image of this Blog, just click anywhere on the Blog page.

The individual "DXCC Awards" are shown in the left-most column. As you can see from the bottom of this image, an asterisk "*" after the award name means that award has been issued. The only one without an asterisk is 2-M.

I managed to reach this 10-Band DXCC after 46 years and 10 months as a ham! I'm sure I could have done that a LOT quicker if I had spent more time sending QSL's for contacts I had made in years past. However, the expense of sending cards was high and I was initially only concerned with the basic DXCC. So, once I got a country confirmed, I never sent any more QSL's for contacts made on other bands (or modes!)

It looks like I now need to get busy trying to accumulate another 99 QSL's on 2-M in order to reach that elusive 11-Band status! But, in the meantime, I'm working toward that 2,000 Medallion for the Challenge (thus adding more numbers to my individual DXCC awards) and looking for that P5 to put me at the Top of the Honor Roll. No time to slack off now!

My First JT-65 QSO

2011-09-01T03:22:00.008-04:00

After watching Eric, K8OHZ's Digital Demonstration at the last WVDXA meeting, I was getting enthused about trying some new Modes. Then, at the WV State ARRL Convention, Steve Ford, WB8IMY, gave a presentation on JT-65 and I was hooked. Tonight became the time for me to give it a try. I have made many QSO's using other WSJT modes in the past on 6-M, Meteor Scatter and Whisper. But, JT-65 was a new one for me.

I thought it would be simple but I ran into a few roadblocks along the way. Getting the radio to STOP keying was the big problem. That turned out to be a simple click of the mouse in the microKEYER II Router Software. It seems that I could have save myself a LOT of headaches if I had just Read the Fine Manual (RTFM) first!

After that hurdle was cleared, I had to spend some time getting used to the software. Maybe it was because it was 2 o'clock in the morning but I seemed to be a little slow to pick up things tonight. Anyway, I answered a couple of stations (SP and G) on 20-M but they did not hear me. Do you think running 5-watts into the 160-M Inverted-L could have been the problem?

Well, as it got later and later, the stations got fewer and even though I upped my power to 20 and then 40-watts, I could not work anyone. Finally I moved to 30-M and saw a good signal from ON5UN. I clicked on his "CQ" (5th line down in the screen capture on the right at 0712) and gave it one more try - (I had upped the power to 60-watts just in case!) You can click on the screen capture to make it larger, then use your BACK button to return to this page.

As you can see on the screen, ON5UN answered me and we had a FB QSO. The software automatically generates the signal report (no 599 on every QSO) and I gave him -10 dB which is 10 dB below the noise. He gave me -18 dB so I was MUCH weaker to him. However, he copied everything on just one transmission so it was all good. You can see the software marks CQ's in Green, QSO's in progress are in Gray and when the other station has received my call, it is in Red. The Red lines show what I received back from ON5UN.

This mode is not going to break any speed laws as it takes about 5 minutes to complete a QSO. But, it's a hoot to do it! Each transmission period is a minute. You can see that ON5UN was transmitting on all EVEN minutes and I was transmitting on the ODD ones.

There were many more stations on the air on JT-65 tonight than I expected. I'll probably have to give it another try (after I get some sleep - it's 3:50 a.m. now!)

Elecraft K-3 - Saving SPLIT State on Band Change

2011-08-12T16:52:00.003-04:00

Since acquiring the Elecraft K-3 a couple of years ago, I have learned that I simply can NOT remember to put the K-3 back into SPLIT mode after I change bands. For example, I'll be trying to work a DX station on 17-M CW and he is listening UP. I see a spot for another DX station on 20-M so I take a break from calling the first station and go to 20-M. When I return to 17-M, the transceiver is correctly on the DX station's frequency, and I can see (and hear) that my "B" VFO is on the SPLIT frequency so I proceed to send my call only to hear "LID LID", "UP UP UP" or other not so pleasant things. It seems that the K-3 "forgot" that I had the SPLIT MODE turned on when I was previously on 17-M and it was now transceiving on the DX station's frequency.

A couple of days ago I was helping Jimmy, W8JA, set up his K-3 for RTTY operation and I noticed that HIS K-3 did NOT forget that his radio was in SPLIT MODE when it came back to the band where he was operating split. How could that be? Well, it turns out there is a setting in the K-3's CONFIG menu that controls whether or not the K-3 remembers the SPLIT MODE. It is the CONFIG menu entry called "SPLT SV". If that menu entry is set to "YES" (as it is in the image on the right) then the K-3 remembers the SPLIT, RIT and XIT on/off states for each band it is on. Here is the description from the K-3 manual:

SPLT SV - If set to YES, SPLIT, RIT , and XIT on/off states are saved per-band.

In my K-3 (and my manual) that setting is defaulted to "NO" so all I had to do was to access the CONFIG menu and find the SPLT SV entry, then change it to "YES." Hopefully I will no longer answer to the call of "LID" anymore!

N8WC's First QSO

2011-03-31T10:42:00.002-04:00

Last night a long-time friend of mine, Mike Comer, came for a visit. Mike used to be N8DGV and had a MONSTER 10-M station in Ravenswood. Simply stated, he OWNED the band. I had a Hy-Gain TH6-DXX at 90-feet about 1 mile away from Mike's QTH and that was a really good 10-M antenna. But I would sit and listen to Mike "run" JA's and out of every 3 JA's he worked, I knew I could work one easily, one I figured I could work with difficulty and the third I could not even hear! Mike would open and close the band with his Alpha 86 and his 40-foot boomed antenna.

Well, as I often say, "life got in the way" and Mike became inactive while raising a family and maintaining his career. He recently retired from his main job and although he took other employment, he decided to get back into ham radio. He upgraded to Extra Class and acquired the callsign, N8WC. But, because of not having a station anymore, he has not had a chance to use his new privileges or his new call. So, when he came to visit last night, he asked to get on the air and put N8WC out into the ether for the first time. Below is a video of his first QSO.

It is obvious that an 18 year layoff from ham radio has not diminished his CW skills in the least! And, it was also obvious that the "bug" has bitten him again and it won't be long until he has his own station operational again.

After the above QSO with Spain on 15-M, Mike had a desire to get back on his favorite band - 10-M. So, we moved to 10 and Mike easily worked a Canary Island station with just 100-watts into the 160-M Inverted-L. More grins ensued there so I'm guessing he was making some QSO's in his sleep last night!

Beverage Maintenance

2011-03-02T17:47:00.005-05:00

Two days ago we got slammed with a serious wind storm. Various reports indicated winds from 66 to 70 mph. I'm certain what we received up here on the top of the hill was at least 60 mph. It launched the neighbor's trampoline up into the trees (see photo at right.) - Click on any photo to see it larger then use your BACK button to return to this page.

I felt certain that my wire antennas must have suffered from limbs and trees falling on them so today the weather was good and I decided to go check it out. The first thing I found was a tree had taken out one of the two radials on the 80-M wire vertical. I brought the wire back up to the house so I can put another ring lug on it and I'll replace it tomorrow. I then noticed that one of the radials on the 160-M Inverted-L (the original radial) was not looking right. The tree that took out the 80-M radial had pulled down a small tree which was supporting the 160-M radial about 30-feet from the feedpoint. After I removed that I walked out to the end of it and removed another branch there. The loss of the one support tree now had the radial touching the tree which I nearly caught on fire (see the last Post to this Blog) so I had to find another support for the end of that radial.

I then decided to walk the NW/SE Reversible Beverage since it was over easier terrain than the NE/SW one. I found five or six branches on top of the Beverage which I removed (I had taken pruning shears with me) and was feeling like I was not going to find any serious trouble. Just as I got to where I could almost see the end of the Beverage, I found a good sized tree straight across the Beverage pulling it to the ground. You can see the Beverage wire near the bottom corner of the glove in the photo at the left and continuing just beyond the point of the index finger.

It turned out that this tree was 192-feet from the end of the Beverage. I could not budge the tree and did not want to walk all the way back to the house for the chain saw. So, I walked to the end of the Beverage, untied it and removed the wire from the transformer. I then pulled the wire back to the fallen tree, pulled it all underneath the tree and then re-strung it to the end. That's how I know it was 192-feet - I measured the wire (roughly) while pulling it through. It turns out that the Beverage has apparently stretched a bit as it is now a good deal closer to the end point. After securing the Beverage I walked its length back and estimated (by counting my steps) that the length of that Beverage is approximately 820-feet.

Back at the Beverage Hub I looked at the beginning of the NE/SW Beverage and just a matter of a few feet from the Hub, that Beverage and the N/S one were both pulled to the ground by another fallen tree. I managed to cut off some smaller limbs and freed up both of those antennas but did not attempt to walk the two of them as I feel sure that there are more and larger trees on top of them. I'll leave that job for another day.

Improvements to the 160-M Antenna Farm

2011-02-27T19:39:00.012-05:00

Today the weather was great and I decided it was time to get back on a couple of antenna projects that had been waiting patiently for a long time. After having breakfast at Shoney's with Charlie, N8RR, I decided that I needed to upgrade the 160-M Inverted-L with the addition of a 2nd elevated radial. At the same time I planned to take care of an issue that I first noticed when the grandsons helped me string the reversible Beverage toward Japan.

The "issue" was that I noticed the elevated radial had come in contact with a tree and the RF had found a path to ground through the tree and burned a patch on it about the size of my open hand! In fact, the tree is about 5 inches in diameter and the radial had actually burned itself into the tree to a depth of about 3/4 inches. You can see in the photo at the left that the insulation had burned off the wire and actually a couple of strands of the wire had burned apart or broke from friction once the insulation was gone. It's a wonder I've been able to work anyone with this going on. The location of this damage is about 25 feet from the far end of the radial. It appears that when you push 1,500 watts into a piece of wire, it had better be well insulated or that power is going to go somewhere besides out into the ether!

I manufactured an insulator out of a piece of 1-inch PVC (see photo at right) and installed that at the place where the damage was located. I then wrapped the insulator and wire with Scotch 88 electrical tape. It turns out I really did not have to do this because as I moved on to the end of the radial I saw where some limbs had fallen against the radial and they had pushed the wire over against the tree. Once I removed the limbs, the wire moved away from the tree on it's own.

I then proceeded to add an additional radial to the Inverted-L. On my first trip away from the feedpoint I pulled out some new wire and measured the new radial so that it would be the same length as the first. I had attached the new radial to the original radial by using a split-nut. Back at the feedpoint I tried to make my way through some heavy brush to pull the radial on a Southerly path. However, I soon found that I did not have enough Real Estate in that direction so I had to come back and take the radial off in another direction. I only went a few feet in the new direction before I realized the angle between the old and new radials would be fairly small and I felt I needed something nearly opposite the original one. So, I reversed direction and headed off to the NW. I had also pulled a second wire because I had planned to put three radials on this antenna but I was short about 33 feet on the balance of that spool and did not have enough room to put it up anyway so if I was going to end up with just 2 radials, I wanted them as far apart as possible.

Once back in the shack I ran a plot on the antenna and was REALLY pleased to see I had actually improved the antenna! SWR at 1.800 is just over 1.1:1, at 1.820 it is 1.2:1, at 1.840 it is 1.5:1 and hits 2.0:1 at 1.870. You can see the plot on the right. Click on any photo to see it larger then use your BACK button to return to this page.

After the antenna was taken care of it was time to finish the installation of the reversible Beverage that the grandsons helped me string up THREE months ago. DUH! I'm not the speediest guy around that's for sure. Anyway, the new 2-direction Beverage joins the other single wire (North) Beverage and the original 900-foot reversible Beverage (NE/SW) so that I now have 5 directions I can listen with Beverage antennas. I will be up tomorrow morning to see if the new Beverage improves signals toward the NW.

This operation took a total of four hours and I'm pretty sore now. And, as I write this just 3 hours after completing the project, I can hear thunder and the rain has already begun. However, I got it all done, didn't break anything, and it looks like the effort may be worthwhile. Only time and pileups will tell!

Update Logger32 for VP8ORK

2011-01-27T10:50:00.010-05:00

The current DX'pedition to South Orkney Islands is using the callsign VP8ORK. I checked to see if my Logger32 program would recognize that call as being an operation from South Orkney and it did not. Therefore, I needed to add that callsign to my country database so that when I enter QSO's with VP8ORK, Logger32 will log it as the correct country and I will not have to manually change the log entry on every QSO.

The first thing to do is to open Logger32 and pull down Tools | Database maintenance | Country/Prefix maintenance. That will pop up a window like you see on the left. Scroll down through the list of countries until you come to VP8/O, South Orkney Islands. Click one time on that listing and another window will open called "dbEdit : South Orkney Islands" just like you see in the picture on the right.

Now you will see an empty yellow box about the middle of that window. In that box you need to type a "less than" symbol, then VP8ORK, then a "greater than" symbol - just like you see in the photo on the right.

The "less than" and "greater than" symbols tell Logger32 that it is to look for the callsign that is between those two symbols and identify it as South Orkney. Now click on the "Add" button. You can now click on the close box of both these windows.

Back in Logger32 you can type in the callsign, VP8ORK, in the "Call" field of the Logbook Entry window and as soon as you finish typing it, Logger32 should now identify the call as being in the South Orkneys. Also, spots you receive will now show up as "VP8/O" instead of "VP8/F" which were previously being identified as the Falkland Islands. That's all there is to "mapping" a callsign to a particular country. Now, go work VP8ORK.

Second Reversible Beverage Installed

2010-11-23T01:48:00.009-05:00

Today we had un-seasonably fine weather so I felt I had to take advantage of it and run out the wire for the second Reversible Beverage. I had purchased 1,000 feet of the WD-1A two-conductor wire and planned to pretty much duplicate the very successful first installation of a 60°/240° Beverage pair. Since my grandsons were out of school, I enlisted their help. After a trip to Subway for lunch, we trekked over the hill and attached the wire to the Beverage "Hub" tree. We then started off on a heading of 160° (the Reverse direction will be 340°) and began stringing out the Beverage wire. Using the same "extension" handle for a paint roller that was used before, we lifted the wire over any available branches to keep it high enough that the deer could pass under it.

The boys were a great help. One carried the ground rod and the ax (used to drive in the ground rod) and the other the spool of wire letting it run over his shoulder as he walked so I could place it above the branches. After awhile the boys would swap jobs and we would have a "water break." We had taken both my cell phone and a FRS radio that allowed them to keep in communication with "Nana" back at the house.

As we were nearing the end of the spool, Owen, who was on point at the time, said "Grandpa, there's a cliff here!" Well, that decided where we ended the Beverage. I'm guessing we were 850 to 900 feet from the Beverage Hub. The ground slopped very steeply down at that point and we chose to install the transformer and ground rod at the brink of the "cliff." In the photo you can see Grant (6 years old) on the Left and Owen (8 years old) on the right and the transformer in a plastic Zip-Loc bag hanging from the tree.

As we started back we ran into one of our neighbors and his 6-year old daughter out walking their dog in the woods and we decided to walk back to their house and then up the street to where we started. In doing that I did not have time to hook up the transformer at the feed end so I'll not be able to test the Beverage yet.

The boys were a great help to me and a good "safety" feature. Grandpa tripped over a branch at one point and sprawled on the ground (no injuries) but it was good to know that they were there in case I really did run into a problem.

New Feature of Logger32 - Show LoTW User

2010-11-03T00:29:00.008-04:00

The current version of Logger32 (3.29.1) has a great New Feature. This feature will add a colored highlight to spots in the BandMap and the DX Spots Window to indicate stations who are known to be LoTW Users. As you can see in the photo of my 160-M BandMap at the left, spots from LZ2ZG, YL2SM, RA4LW, DL6ZXG, and UYØZG all are proceeded by a Green Highlight square. That tells you quickly that these stations are LoTW Users. WOW! Previously if you connected to certain Telnet servers, LoTW Users were indicated by a small "+" sign in the comment field. This was sometimes difficult to see and did not stand out in any way.

Here is the description of this feature from the Logger32 Help file:

Show LotW User

Logger32 has the capability of recognising a DX spot station who is known to use LotW (See also the section entitled Dx Spot Window). A colored highlight to the left of the DX callsign in the BandMap windows indicates a station that uses LotW. This menu item enables that option. Note that each bandmap carries this option separately.

Information for setting the highlight color and the uploading of the necessary LotW user data is given in the section entitled DX Spot WIndow

All you need to do is to download the LoTW Users file to your computer and then enable the display of the "Highlight" in the various windows (BandMap, DX Spots Window, and Monitor Windows.) Here are the Logger32 Help instructions for downloading the file:

To download the latest list of LoTW users, Right click on the DX Spot Window, Left Click SETUP | LOAD LOTW USERS FILE. Click on the “Download from the Internet” button to collect the txt file and follow this with the “Save data” button. This will create a new database LotWUser32 in the default Logger32 directory.

Once you have that file on your computer, you only need to enable the display of the Highlight in the various windows. The Help file tells you how to do it:

To enable/disable LoTW User highlights on the DX Spot Window, right click on the DX Spot Window, then left click SETUP | APPEARANCE | SHOW LOTW USER

To enable/disable LoTW highlights on the Band Map Windows, Click CONFIG | SHOW LOTW USER

I have been hoping the Logger32 crew would implement a feature like this and now that I have it, I can't believe I could ever get by without it!

Update Logger32 for the New PJ Countries

2010-10-19T00:16:00.003-04:00

Logger32 has come out with a new Country / Prefix database that is updated to include the four new PJ Entities. You can download the new ZIP'd file from HERE. Click on the last file in the list called "Latest Country Files for Logger32 Version 3.28" and save the file. You will need to extract the 15 files from this ZIP archive to your Logger32 directory. There is also a "ReadMe" file that gives specific instructions on how to install the files. If you do not have Logger32 Version 3.28, now is the time to upgrade to it before you install the new Country / Prefix database. If your version is earlier than 3.27 and you don't want to Export then Import your entire log, you can go HERE and download each individual version upgrade and do them one at a time to bring your version current. Make sure you backup your log first! In addition to the two buttons on the Menu Bar called "Zip Databases and Logbook" and "Zip User Files", I also pull down File | Export Logs and choose ADIF. This lets me save the entire logbook as an ADIF file in case something happens to the one I'm working on.

Once you have Logger32 Version 3.28 with the latest Country / Prefix database files installed, you will need to CHANGE any contacts you made with any of the PJ entities. They will be shown as DELETED countries and you need to follow these steps to change those QSO's:

1. Right-Click on the QSO
2. Choose "Edit Country Information"
3. Choose the proper New Entity
4. Click on "Apply"

The first time you do this, you will get the "Change Country" pop-up window shown at the right. Click on the heading "Prefix" to put the Entities in Prefix order and that will make it very easy to change all subsequent QSO's. As you can see in this graphic, I am changing the country for a QSO with PJ2T. It is currently logged as "Netherlands Antilles (deleted 10-Oct-2010 0400Z" as highlighted in yellow. All I need to do is to left-click on the PJ2 listing for Curacao and then click on Apply. Simple.

Also, once you click on Apply, the country name may NOT update on the logbook screen. Simply click on the NEXT QSO you want to change and the last one will immediately be updated.

Don't forget to pull down Tools | Database Maintenance and choose "Recalculate statistics" to bring all the stats in your logbook current. Any subsequent QSO's with any of the new PJ's should show up in the logbook correctly. If you track IOTA you will probably need to change those to the correct IOTA numbers which I think only applies to PJ2 contacts with Curacao which is now IOTA #SA-099.

The result of this is that your Worked and Confirmed totals will have been reduced by two (if you had previously worked both PJ entities) and your totals will increase by up to four depending on how many of the New PJ's you have worked.

Beverage Improvements

2010-10-05T13:45:00.014-04:00

Yesterday I got up early (for me) and showed up at Tim's (KC8UHE) QTH to help him get ready to install his KD9SV Reversible Beverage. I had purchase the same system for myself at Dayton and Tim wanted to also install one as his QTH does not allow him to put up many long antennas. Using a "Reversible Beverage" means you can cover two directions with one run of wire.

It took us about 2 hours to measure out 330-feet of the WD-1A Military Wire (two conductor) and drill through the foundation of his house to run a new RG-6 coax. I had purchased 1,000 feet of flooded RG-6 cable from DX Engineering at Dayton so we had plenty. (Flooded style cables have the distinct advantage of automatically sealing small accidental cuts or lacerations of the jacket. Flooding also prevents shield contamination and can be direct-buried.) When we left Tim's house, the new Beverage feedline had been run from the shack to the support post in his front yard, connectors installed, and the 330-feet of wire was ready to be strung up after his yard gets mowed for the last time.

After we "fueled up" at Bob Evan's restaurant, we tackled my Beverage project. First we ran FOUR cables through the PVC pipes under the back yard and up into the shack. These were: a control cable for a tower mounted antenna switch (future use), the control wire for the Ameritron RCS-8V remote antenna switch for my new Beverage Farm ($149.95 from R&L), the flooded RG-6 feedline for the Beverage Farm and a 12/2 w/ground AC wire. The AC wire we ran up into the main electrical panel in the garage and I'll connect it to a GFCI circuit breaker and then install an outlet box at the tower. This will allow me to use power equipment at (and on) the tower without running 150-feet of extension cords over the hill.

Then came the hard part, running all those wires down over the hill. Tim (thankfully!) did all the hard work there. Soon we had the cables in place and it was time to start hooking things up. In the photo at the right you can see that I mounted the Ameritron remote coax switch to the tree which will serve as the "HUB" for the Beverage Farm. All the Beverages will radiate from this point. This tree is about 200-feet from the shack and something like 80 or 90-feet from the tower.

Above the Ameritron switch you can see where two Beverages are tied to the tree with Dacron line. The upper one is the starting point for the new Reversible Beverage and the lower one is my existing single wire one. The single wire one runs off at about 45° and I plan to move it to about 20°. The new Reversible Beverage will run at 60° and the reverse direction will be 240° which should be good for eastern Australia, New Zealand and southern pacific islands like Pitcairn and Ducie.

On the left you can see the control boxes in the shack. The lower box is the Ameritron control box that switches the different antennas at the Beverage Hub. I can select any one of 5 antennas from the shack by turning the switch. One modification had to be made to the switch and that was to allow the relays to automatically switch in a 75-ohm termination for the unused direction of the Reversible Beverage. Since I could not find 75-ohm resistors at Radio Shack, I had to parallel two 150-ohm ones. (The "Shack" did not even have 150-ohm resistors in stock so I had to buy a 100 piece "assortment" to get the 4 150-ohm resistors I needed!)

On the top you can see the KD9SV DXpedition receive antenna switch with pre-amp and front-end saver. The feedline coming from the Beverage Hub switch runs through a KD9SV Common Mode Choke to isolate common mode signals that may be picked up on the shield of the Beverage feedline and keep them from affecting the noise floor of the receiver. This receive antenna switch would, by itself, let me switch between 4 receive antennas but you would need to run a feedline for each antenna. The box also contains a receive pre-amp with adjustable gain. And, it has a "front-end saver" to prevent blowing out the receiver's front-end by picking up large signals from my transmitted signal (and other sources.)

Using RG-6 cable for the Beverage feedline was great! Compression fittings are quickly installed (much faster than UHF or RCA connectors.) All the KD9SV Products and the WD-1A Beverage wire were obtained from Radioware & Radio Bookstore. Click on any photos in this post to see them larger and click on any link to see the described product or web site. Use your BACK button to return to this page.

By the time we got all the above done it was after 4:30 p.m. and I knew my tired old body could not walk 880-feet out through the thick underbrush to help Tim string the Reversible Beverage wire. So, we made our way back to the house and called it quits. all that is left it to run the wire and put a ground rod in at the end. Everything else is done. Then, we can move the original single wire Beverage and later I can install any others pretty easy since the infra-structure of the remote antenna switch is now in place.

UPDATE:

On Tuesday morning, 19-Oct-2010, Tim, KC8UHE, came to my QTH and we ran the wire out for the Reversible Beverage. WOW, what a hike that was. We already had the wire connected at the Beverage Hub so we went down over the hill to that point and began running the wire on a heading of 60°. I would take a compass reading and pick out a landmark for Tim to walk toward. We would both then head in that direction placing the wire over tree limbs where possible or over branches. At the landmark we would take another heading and move on. The Beverage Hub is about 60-feet in elevation lower than the shack. As we walked out the Beverage line, the elevation was constantly moving down. In fact, after crossing over a small ravine, we reached a small "cliff" where I walked about 50 yards horizontally to get over the "cliff" but Tim went right down the slope.

We reached a 4-wheeler trail which I knew from the prior Beverage installation was about 500 feet from the Hub and we still had nearly half the wire left. My guess is that this road is over 250 feet below the level of my shack. We then crossed a dry creek and started uphill. At one point we reached a tree-fall where several trees were down and it was really slow-going to get through that jumble of tree limbs with the wire. We were now on the up-slope of the next ridge over from my ridge and came close to reaching the very top of it!

Finally, we ran out of wire and installed the Beverage Termination transformer (see photo at left, click to enlarge, use your BACK button to return.) You can see the transformer tied to the tree and the Beverage wire is at an insulator about 9 feet up. You can see the ground wire going down to a 4-foot ground rod at the base of the tree.

It was a beautiful day and very nice there in the woods. I would have stayed there a couple of hours as it was just so peaceful. But, we needed to get back to the house and that meant moving back down the last slope and then UPHILL all the way to the shack. It was quite an exercise for the old broken leg but we got it done in just over 2 hours.

I should have had about 950 feet of wire on the reel so it's definitely one "long" wire! I have only tested the Beverage on some AM stations and have found that on some it makes a HUGE difference. I'm waiting now for VQ9LA to come on the air and see if I can hear him! I'll also be up early tomorrow to listen for the South Pacific. This is going to be FUN!

"Monitor" Band Map for Logger32

2010-08-22T13:01:00.008-04:00

In reading through the manual for the Logger32 logging program I came across a rather neat feature. The "BandMap" which displays cluster spots for the particular band your radio is tuned to, has a "Monitor" feature. This allows you to pop-up 1 or 2 separate BandMap windows which you can configure to watch the spots on a particular band or ALL bands at once! The advantages I see for this is that you can have a BandMap window that constantly monitors 6-M for any activity even though your radio is tuned to another band. Then, if something is spotted on 6-M, you will see it instantly in the "Monitor" window. If you configure the Monitor BandMap to watch ALL frequencies, then you can spot the color coding for countries you may need on a particular band or mode that may appear while you are working on another band. I see this as a HUGE improvement to the normal BandMap which simply tracks the band your radio is tuned to.

On the left you can see a Monitor BandMap that has been set to display spots on 6-M. By the BLUE color code I can tell that there are FOUR stations spotted which I need on 6-M. If I "mouse-over" the spots I can see who made the spot and be able to tell if it's possible for me to work them. Of course, if I had my cluster set to one that only displayed NA spotters, then I could forgo that step. (Click on any photo to see it larger then use your BACK button to return to this page.)

The Monitor portion of the BandMap allows you to select up to two separate BandMaps to monitor other bands. If you add a "GEN" band to your ADIFBands.txt file and configure it under Tools | Setup Bands & Modes, then you can display a BandMap like the one shown at the right. This shows ALL the spots that come in from 0.003 to 30.0 MHz. Again, by looking at the BLUE color coded spots, I can see there are two New Ones available for me on 17-M. This feature prevents me from having to step my radio through all the bands just to locate those spots that are New Ones for me. Another great reason to use this feature.

The two Monitor BandMaps can be accessed from your normal BandMap window by pulling down the "Monitor" menu bar and selecting Monitor No. 1 or No. 2. Then in the Monitor window that pops-up you can pull down "Band" from the menu and choose the band you want to monitor. You can click on spots in the Monitor window just the same as in the normal BandMap window and your radio will QSY to that frequency and mode. Search for "The Band Map" in the Logger32 Help File to see all the features of the BandMaps including the Monitor BandMaps.

The Logger32 Help File gives instructions on how to set up the program for the "General" BandMap feature. Search the Help File for "Tips Tricks and Troubleshooting" and scroll down to item No. 2.2. I've copied that section below with one modification - you need to restart Logger32 after you make the changes in order for the program to recognize them.

2.1 How can I setup a Bandmap to show all HF spots? With the introduction of the monitor bandmaps you can set up one of the windows so as to watch all the HF bands at once.

1. Open up your ADIFBands.txt file in a text editor and edit in a new line at the bottom to read GEN (for General)

2. In your bandmode table make an entry to cover the full range of your radio (I set the lower freq to 0.003 and the upper freq to 30.0) and give the line a band name of GEN.

NOTE: Close out Logger32 now and restart it for it to recognize these changes.

3. Select the band GEN in the bandmap and it will show all the spots as they come in.

You can also use the ZOOM facility in this bandmap (see the help file) and just show (say) 40m to 15m if you so wish.

KC8UHE is Now a Big DAWG!

2010-08-09T21:12:00.009-04:00

Tim, KC8UHE, has detailed on the WVDXA Reflector his desire to replace his TA-33 (10, 15, & 20-M yagi which also did have a 17-M dipole conversion kit) with something bigger that would give him some decent gain on 17-M and 12-M. After weighing the pros and cons of many antennas, he decided upon a Mosley Pro-57B which has a 24-foot boom as compared to the 14-foot boom of his TA-33. It also adds coverage of 12-M and 17-M. In addition, I was able to re-acquire my old CushCraft 2-L 40-M beam and Charlie, N8RR, modified it into a full-size 2-L 30-M beam. It turned out to have a 15-foot boom and the reflector was just over 50-feet! WOOF! That's a BIG antenna. Charlie computer modeled the antenna both as to the dimensions and for the height it was going to be placed over Tim's terrain. The graphs look great - this puppy should really play.

What made the project really come together was an acquaintance of Tim's who has a bucket (boom) truck. He agreed to come and do the installation for Tim. This was going to be a snap! (Or so we thought!)

The truck showed up at 8 a.m. with Tim's friend, Joe, and his helper, Paul. Charlie, N8RR, Dwight, KC8WDT, Tim, KC8UHE, and I were there ready to go as well. I brought a couple of lawn chairs for Charlie and I as we really didn't expect to have to do much.

First the guys lifted up the 21-foot, Schedule 80 mast and dropped it down into the tower to rest on a board. Then they lifted up a tower section and placed it atop Tim's 37-foot tower making the top of the tower now 47-feet. We had already installed a Top Plate and Accessory Shelf (for the Rotor) on this section. Next they hooked up the winch from Tim's Hazer through a pulley at the top of the tower and used that to winch up the mast. That was a GREAT idea!

Next, the 2-L, 30-M beam was carried aloft on the bucket and quickly attached to the mast. Boy, it just doesn't get any better than this. Charlie and I in our lawn chairs watching the bucket truck effortlessly lift that monster antenna to the top of the tower - AWESOME! You can see in the photo above how things looked at this point. (Click on any photo to see it larger then use your BACK button to return to this page.)

Now we carried the 7-L Mosley (about 100 pounds) to the bucket and it was ready to be lifted and put in place. Once it was secured to the mast, the mast would be winched up until it was high enough to clear the Rotor and the Mosley would be secured. Everything was going GREAT! The weather all week had been bad but today the sky was clear, it was not too warm or too humid, everything was right with the world.

But, lurking just around the corner was Mr. Edsel Murphy! As the guys began to lift the Pro-57B with the bucket truck, suddenly a hydraulic hose let go and hydraulic fluid began to pour out of the boom. People scurried around to shut off the truck and to try and catch the fluid. Tim's friend, Joe, tried to exit the bucket which was about 10-feet in the air and got his pants caught on the Pro57-B and was hanging upside down for a minute. He got down OK but the bucket truck was dead in the water.

So, I jumped in the van and rushed to my house to pick up my gin pole, rope, climbing belt, etc. Tim ordered Pizza for everyone and when I got back they were ready to continue the project the old-fashioned way - rope, gin pole, and muscle power!

With no other visits from Mr. Murphy the rest of the installation went well. By 3 p.m. Tim had now upgraded his antenna farm from a Little Pistol to that of a Big DAWG! The bucket truck was not removed until Monday evening and Tim and I finished the guying Monday night (he used Phillystran a non-conductive guy cable.)

It is difficult to get Tim away from the radio now. He keeps telling me about the New Ones and even All-Time New Ones he has worked just today! Yep, 30-M is going to be owned by KC8UHE.

Oh, the 30-M beam (as predicted by Charlie, N8RR) was 1.0:1 and 50 ohms at the low end of the band and 1.1:1 and 51 ohms at the top end. Yep, it's a KILLER! Tim has already found he can load it on 40-M as he worked KHØ/K3TQ on 40-M CW on his second call Monday morning when he came in from work. The Mosley's SWR graphs all agree with the antenna for each band so that antenna is on-the-nose as well.

Here is a short (6 min.) video showing some of what happened during the Antenna Raising at KC8UHE's QTH. In the final shot you see Tim's QTH from a distance. The hill behind his place is to the South. But his take-off to the NE, N, NW, and W is fantastic.

That was certainly an amazing experience to watch an antenna (and tower section) being installed with a bucket truck. Also, doing it on flat ground without the need to avoid hundreds of tree limbs, made this a walk-in-the-park compared to what others of us have to contend with. GL with the DX, Tim. You have a great station now.

Water Proofing Coax Pigtails

2010-08-04T13:15:00.021-04:00

Recently I have been helping Tim, KC8UHE, with his "Big Antenna Project." This project entails removing his current HF Tri-bander and 6-L CushCraft 6-M yagi, removing his Hazer system, adding a 10-foot tower section (tower will now be 57-feet), replacing the 1/4-inch galvanized guy wire with Phillystran, replacing his mast with 21-feet of Schedule 80 and building/installing a Mosley Pro-57B at about 50-feet and a full-size 2-L 30-M beam at about 60-feet. Yes, Tim plans to move up a notch or two in his ability to work the elusive DX!

Below you can see a photo taken the day Dwight, KC8WDT, Tim and I completed the construction on the Mosley Pro-57B (with a timely assist from Rick, W8ZT.) Tim's old antennas are still on the tower in the background. In the center is a photo of Charlie, N8RR, holding the 2-L 30-M beam. Charlie took my old CushCraft 2-L 40-M beam and modified it into a full-size 30-M beam. The boom is 16-feet long and the reflector is just over 50-feet - YIKES!

Since Tim's "Big Antenna Project" adds length to his tower, he needed to replace his coax. He has installed a remote antenna switch just under the eave of his back-porch so only one coax needs to run to the radio. Then, individual runs will be made to each antenna. Also, RF Chokes needed to be made for both the Pro-57B and the 2-L 30-M yagi. That's what this post is about. I began constructing the 30-M choke first and wound 12 turns of Belden 8267 (RG-213) on a 6-inch diameter form. This was held in place with ty-raps and Scotch® 88 electrical tape. You can see the completed 30-M choke below on the right. Click on any photo to enlarge it and use your BACK button to return to this page. The RF Choke for the Pro-57B was only 5 turns on a 6-inch diameter form.

The "Big Enemy" of coax and antennas is WATER! You need to go to great lengths to keep any moisture from reaching the coax as it will corrode the wire and destroy the efficiency of the cable. Toward this end and with a view to the fact that I never want to hear "My RF Choke failed because W8TN did not properly keep out the water," I took great pains to see that no moisture could reach into the cable at the point where the braid and the center conductor are separated for attachment to the beams.

Below you can see the beginnings of the process. First you separate the braid from the center conductor. I chose to slide the braid back about an inch which causes it to bloom out. You can then "make a hole" in the braid by just pulling the fine wires aside and then you can fish the center conductor through the hole by bending it. Then smooth out the braid and slip some heat-shrink over it. Now I crimp a couple of ring terminals on both ends and then solder the lugs onto the center conductor and the braid. When soldering I make sure the solder fills up the center of the crimp connector so no moisture can invade at this point. Next I used some self-fusing water proof tape I purchased at Dayton called Rescue Tape®. You pull this tape to twice it's length as you wrap it and this begins the fusing process. I used this tape to wrap the joint where the braid separated from the center conductor.

Remember, the point of this is to keep ANY moisture from getting to the wire. After the Rescue Tape was applied, I tightly wrapped all the pigtail with Scotch® 88 electrical tape. This wrapping was done with some pressure on the tape so that it's width was reduced to about 3/4 of normal and each successive lap over-lapped the prior lap by 1/2. This stretching of the tape forms a very tight seal and in years past, I've had great success with nothing more than 1 or 2 layers of Scotch® 88 tape wrapped in this manner. Some folks would stop here and call it done. However, I wanted to make absolutely these connections literally last a lifetime so I continued.

On the 30-M RF Choke I then coated the entire pigtail with 3M™ Scotchkote™ Electrical Coating. I've used this many times in the past to make certain that the taped joint is completely water proof. I actually let the first coat dry over-night and applied a second coat the next day. While planning on how to do this water proofing properly I found several references by hams on the Internet to their use of Plasti Dip® or Liquid Electrical Tape. I was not able to find the Plasti Dip at Home Depot so I bought a bottle of Gardner Bender's Liquid Electrical Tape. That is what I used to cover the Pro-57B pigtail (see center photo below.)

Finally, as you can see in the far right photo, I again wrapped the entire pigtail with Scotch® 88 electrical tape. This is necessary as the Scotchkote™ can become brittle and flake off due to Ultra Violet light. The RF Chokes are now ready to be attached to their respective antennas. Using heat shrink, soldered ring lugs, self-fusing Rescue Tape®, liquid electrical tape (or Scotchkote™), and TWO layers of Scotch® 88 electrical tape might be considered a bit over-kill but I'm now willing to bet some serious coin that these pigtails will NEVER see any moisture. But considering that you are now paying more than $1 a foot for good coax, it makes sense to take some time and effort to protect your investment so that it lasts as long as possible.

Bring Me a Japan on 6-M

2010-06-24T18:38:00.011-04:00

OK, everyone else is having all the fun by working Japan on 6-M and I've been left out in the cold. Yesterday Charlie, N8RR, worked his first JA and I'm jealous! So today at about noon I cracked open the box containing a M2 6M7JHV antenna. I had to make a couple of trips over the hill to retrieve the short tower and the coax from my 80-M wire vertical so today has been a "heavy" work day on the leg. By 6 p.m. I had assembled it by myself and, with the help of my wife, Evelyn, I got it installed on a short portable tower in the front yard. She was not too pleased with that but I told her it would be temporary.
The antenna is fixed on Japan so I hope I can snag one of those fellows in the next day or two. If not, I'll move it to the back yard and try to work the C5 (Gambia) which is coming on soon. I have the Commander Amp warmed up and the K-3 is tuned up so now bring me a JA - please?

UPDATE: Well, no Japan was worked during the Short-Path Summer Solstice Propagation (SSSP) period with the new antenna. However, the antenna shown above in the front yard was moved around to the back patio and on July 4th, I managed to get in on some excellent multi-hop Es and worked THREE New Ones - SV1DH (Greece), T77C (San Marino) and EA6SX (Balearic Islands.) That brings me up to 105 Countries Worked on 6-M. WOOF! What a rush! Obviously the fast and temporary installation of the 6M7JHV was a huge success!

But, it seems there is always a high and then a low. On the evening of July 20th we had quite a storm blow through. I felt the antenna on the temporary tower would be safe since it was now located behind the house and as such, out of the wind. NOT! As you can see from the photo at right (click on photo to enlarge) the wind whipped around and toppled the tower and antenna. I'm just lucky that when the 2-inch fiberglass mast smashed into the bedroom door glass, it did not break. Now I need to order some replacement elements from M2 before I can install the antenna on the big tower. One element is completely broken off and two are bent too far to try to straighten. But, it DID get me THREE New Ones, so I'm still a happy camper!

UPDATE to EME Experiment

2010-05-02T11:35:00.003-04:00

Two weeks ago when we listened to EME signals from Arecibo, Puerto Rico, I said I had no photos of Hal, W8HC, because he shot most of the pictures. As it turned out, Rick, W8ZT, sent me a couple of photos he had taken and one clearly shows the Halster sitting at the rig! This was the first time either Hal or Rick had heard signals reflected from the moon!

On the day after Rick and Hal were here, I set the equipment back up by myself and had very good copy on KP4AO for quite some time. They ran CW a lot longer that day and I spent quite a bit of time calling them. Unfortunately, no QSO resulted. But, it certainly was great fun. I'm sure they will do this again and maybe I'll have better luck at that time.

On this second day of listening to KP4AO via EME, I shot a little video so everyone could hear the quality of the EME signals on this day. You can view the 2 minute video by clicking on this link to YouTube. This was not the best I heard them but it is representative of the average quality of the signal.

What a Day of Therapy!

2010-04-30T20:43:00.007-04:00

Today has been probably the greatest single day of working out since I began therapy for my broken leg. It started easy enough with a visit to the eye doctor. He dilated my eyes so I when I left his office I was wearing sunglasses and squinting. But, I felt good and the day promised to be a real summer-type day so I started on a project. Last week I had picked up a pallet at Home Depot (for FREE!) that I planned to use as a platform at the base of my tower. I needed something there that would let me sit down and lay out my tools while I installed coax connectors and the like.

The pallet I got was a very heavy duty one that measured 4-ft. by 4-ft. So today I went back to Home Depot and picked up two 2-ft. x 4-ft. pieces of 3/8-inch plywood, some screws, paint, four concrete blocks and other sundries. Back home I screwed the plywood to the top of the pallet then mixed some sand (for traction) into the paint and painted all that I could with up to 3 coats of paint. I used the entire quart of paint.

After the 87° temperature, strong sun and the wind had dried the pallet, I proceeded to carry the concrete blocks over the hill to the tower. Those of you who have made that trip can relate to the difficulty of that operation. It took FOUR trips as I had to BACK down the hill and lift the blocks a couple of feet at a time. I was just not stable enough on my feet on that hill to try carrying them. (Actually, I had two full size and 2 half-size blocks and I did carry the smaller ones for part of the trip.) Then came the fun part. The pallet probably weighs in the neighborhood of 50 pounds and carrying it was possible only for short distances on level ground. I ended up "rolling" it end over end down the hill. Evelyn stood at the top of the hill and watched as I rolled the pallet to make sure I didn't get into any trouble.

At the tower I used a garden trowel and hammer to notch out a place for the blocks with the smaller ones on the uphill side and the larger ones on the downhill because of the slope. I wanted to make the pallet fairly level and, as it turned out, my first attempt had the slope 1.5° downhill and 1.3° away from the tower. That's a done deal! I still need to shim up one of the downhill blocks about 2 inches to make the pallet stable but it's in place and ready to use now. The sand in the paint (an idea from Rick, W8ZT) gives very good traction.

Bottom line - I now have a very nice, stable, and level place to work on everything at the base of the tower. And, I made a total of SIX trips down and up the hill (in addition to all the stuff at Home Depot, in the garage, painting the pallet, etc.) So, I truly gave the leg a workout today. I may not be able to roll out of bed in the morning, but right now I feel really good about what I got done. You can click on either photo to see a larger image then use your BACK button to return to this page.

EME Experiment to Hear KP4AO from Arecibo

2010-04-17T23:46:00.012-04:00

This weekend a group of hams were operating EME (Moonbounce) using the 1,000 foot diameter radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. They used the call KP4AO. I decided to try and see if we could hear and maybe work them using a single yagi. So, we set up the antenna in a make-shift manner on the patio and proceeded to point it at the moon and listen during the time KP4AO was on the air. We were able to monitor a real-time computer link of the operation and compare it with what we heard. KP4AO made 103 QSO's in about 2-1/2 hours of operation. We copied their SSB signal quite well at times but usually it was pretty much in the noise. When they finally shifted to CW, we were able to hear them very well. We were not able to make a QSO with our kludged together station but we gave it a good try.

Below you can see the K1FO 25-element yagi we used for the Arecibo, Puerto Rico, EME experiment today. The yagi is supported by a mostly fiberglass stepladder and secured to it by a rubber strap and dacron line at the base. The rear of the antenna is supported and raised above the concrete patio by a cardboard box. In the second photo you can see the "manual" method of antenna positioning. As long as we could see the moon, it worked well. But, with the moon so close to the sun today, only a very tiny sliver of a crescent was visible and that could not always be seen. In the photo on the right, you can see our "Target" in the upper right-hand portion of the image. You need to look really close to see it. In this photo the moon had moved away from where we were pointed and a re-positioning needed to be done. (You can click on any photo for a larger image then use your browser's BACK button to return to this page.)

Below are a couple of photos of myself, W8TN, and Rick, W8ZT, operating the station. Rick brought an Icom IC-706 and a 150-watt amplifier. You can see the Bird wattmeter on the chair between us in the first photo. Feedlines were REALLY short so we had essentially no loss to consider.

Hal, W8HC, was the photographer so we have no shots of him but he also spent a good deal of time on the mike and on the key trying for a contact. What a hoot it would have been to hear his call come back from the moon! Maybe next time.

A NEW 160-M Antenna for W8TN

2010-03-09T15:50:00.007-05:00

After I discovered last Friday that the vertical portion of the 160-M Inverted-L was broken off at the feed point, The Archer, Charlie, N8RR, volunteered to bring his trusty bow and weighted arrow to my QTH and fire a line over one of my trees to erect a NEW Top Band antenna. I then gathered up all the materials last night and this morning Charlie showed up followed by the DX Hunter, Tim, KC8UHE. The three of us managed to make it down the hill without incident and in less than 80 minutes, we were done! Charlie fired his arrow perfectly over the nearest tall tree at such an angle that it not only cleared that tree but one further along and the arrow then fell all the way to the ground. That meant the vertical portion of the Inverted-L would rise almost straight up and then be horizontal at the top - a near textbook installation.

Charlie had fishing line attached to the arrow which he removed and attached to some light line. The fishing line was reeled in and the end of the light line was attached to a piece of Dacron antenna support rope. That was pulled up and over the trees and then it was used to pull up the end of the Inverted-L. Tim and I had cut a 135-foot length of No. 14 stranded copper cable for the antenna. I decided to cut it for 135-feet even though I thought it would end up at 130-feet after trimming the antenna to resonance. I just wanted to make sure I had enough wire in the air before tuning it. Charlie said he thought the antenna should be 130-feet (just what I thought!) and he suggested we go ahead and shorten it by wrapping the last 5-feet back on the end of the antenna. We did that.

I then attached the MFJ-259 antenna analyzer to the feed point and WOOF! - it was resonant at 1.809 MHz. Good enough for government work. Tim then used my chain saw to remove a couple of trees, one of which had fallen on the North set of guy wires. We then gathered up our tools and came topside to check out the antenna with the N8LP Digital Vector RF Wattmeter. You can see the result of that sweep on the Left (click on the photo for a larger image.) The antenna (as measured in the shack) is 1.34:1 at 1.800 MHz, 1.28:1 at 1.820 MHz, 1.57:1 at 1.840 MHz. and 2.0:1 at 1.862 MHz. If I recall correctly, this is even better than the previous Inverted-L.

As we were pulling up the wire, when the insulator on the end of the wire transitioned from vertical to horizontal at the top of the first tree, Tim and I estimated that we only had about 30-feet of wire left. That should mean that close to 100-feet of the antenna is vertical. Boy, oh boy! I can hardly wait for SV5 to show up tonight! He's MINE!

Thanks again to The Archer and the DX Hunter for their fabulous help. I'm really excited about being back on Top Band, if only for the very end of the season.

My First Trip "Over the Hill"

2010-03-05T12:30:00.011-05:00

With the weather finally beginning to look like something less than you would find in the Arctic, I felt it was time to give the old broken leg a test and see how it could deal with the "Hill" behind my house. I have not been down to the tower since sometime in June of 2009 (maybe 9 months!) With the 160-M Inverted-L being out of commission, I felt I needed to go and check things out to see what I could do to fix that. And I wanted to see if I could find out what is wrong with the SteppIR. I had noticed a couple of weeks ago that the SteppIR was not functioning properly. Testing from the shack showed that there was no continuity to one of the motors that drives the Reflector. I had thought it might be a broken wire in the control cable and surmised that a deer might have stepped on that cable or a tree fallen on it.

Unfortunately, in checking the exposed cable all the way from the underground PVC pipe at the top of the hill to where it goes up the tower, nothing was found that could cause that problem. Rats! This will not be an easy fix.

But, I did find several other things that were not right. There were 7 or 8 trees or large limbs that have fallen either due to wind or snow this winter. One tree is across the NE guy wires so it needs to be removed SOON! I also found that the 2 elevated radials for the 80-M Vertical that Charlie, N8RR, and Tim, KC8UHE, installed had fallen down. I managed to force my way through the briers and brambles to find a place to tie off those radials. When I got back top-side, I ran a check on the SWR for the 80-M Vertical and it looks very good. See the graph at Right - click on the image for a larger view. The SWR is under 1.5:1 from 3.500 MHz to 3.600 MHz with the best SWR being 1.13:1 at 3.550 MHz. Nice!

I then noticed that one leg of the 80-M Inverted-V was hanging straight down the side of the tower. It seems the tree that fell on the NE guy wires may have pulled the wire for the 80-M Inverted-V out of the end insulator. Thank goodness I had not soldered or otherwise strongly secured that wire or it would have pulled down the entire antenna. I found the rope and end insulator, retrieved them from the fallen tree, re-connected the insulator to the end of the Inverted-V and pulled it up and attached the rope to another tree. Back in the shack I ran a test on the 80-M Inverted-V. See the graph at the Left - click on the image for a larger view. This antenna is under 2.0:1 from 3.765 MHz to 3.950 MHz. Also fine!

One of my main reasons for going over the hill today (in addition to checking the SteppIR control cable, was to see if I could get the 160-M Inverted-L back in operation. That did not happen. What I found was that the vertical portion of that antenna had broken off right at the feed-point. The wire was still secured at the top of the tower but the horizontal top-hat had obviously either come loose at the far end or broken because it was draped in the tree-tops. So, in order to repair that antenna, I need to somehow get another wire either up the tower and out to a tree or just up and over a tree. Maybe Tim or Charlie can bring their bow and arrow and shoot a line over a tree enough to let me at least get back on Top Band before the season is completely over.

All-in-all it was a very good trip. I found that my re-hab of the broken leg has improved to the point where I can get down over the hill and back up. I even climbed up the tower about 3 rungs just to see how that went and it was fine. But, the bad news is that the SteppIR fix is going to be a little more involved. After a long conversation with Tech Support at SteppIR the consensus is that either the control cable has "rubbed" against something on the tower and broken one wire OR a wire has broken at the connection point where the cable attaches to the barrier strip on the boom of the antenna. In any event, it can't be fixed from the ground.

Mr. Snow Plow

2010-02-06T15:03:00.006-05:00

This has been an especially snowy winter for us. In December I think I spent about 4 HOURS shoveling snow or blowing the powdery snow off the driveway (and doing that with my broken leg and cane was a challenge to say the least!) The leaf blower worked rather well up to about a 3-inch snow fall as long as it was very cold and the snow was dry. However, we did get one snow of a little over 12-inches and that was just too much to shovel. Thankfully my neighbor (the contractor who built our house) came over and plowed the driveway with his 4-wheeler.

Right after that, Tim, KC8UHE, was by the house and mentioned that he had a 4-wheeler that he only used for hunting and now that hunting season was over, I was welcome to borrow it. Tim made that offer on a Wednesday afternoon and we were aware that another big storm was due the next day. So, on Thursday morning I drove to Charleston and bought a snow blade to fit Tim's 4-wheeler. I then picked up our utility trailer and went to Tim's and loaded the 4-wheeler. Back at our house, our son, Darren, KC8QGV, came and installed the blade. It began snowing while he was doing that and by the time the blade was installed we had over an inch and Darren gave it a test drive.

At this point I've used the snow blade 4 times including the 2+ inches of heavy wet snow we had today (see photo - click on photo for larger image.) Twice I've also plowed the driveway for the neighbor on the other side of our house. This tool is totally the "berries." I'm going to have to buy one before Tim needs his back for hunting!

Twisted SteppIR

2009-12-11T17:40:00.012-05:00

On Wednesday we had some high winds. Various places close to me measured 62 MPH and as much as a 74 MPH gust. I was gone all day and when I got home, it was too dark to tell any more than the tower was still standing. In the light of day I was able to see that the SteppIR got twisted a bit by the wind. Below you can see two views of the antenna that is canted at about a 30-degree angle from horizontal.

Using the telephoto lens of my camera I was able to see that the truss wire on the driven element side of the antenna has come loose. It can be seen hanging down below the antenna. (Click on any photo to enlarge it and use your Back button to return to this page.) Below you can see the reason the truss wire is no longer connected. The turnbuckle came unscrewed. Apparently there was no safety wire put through it during installation. In the first two photos below you can see the turnbuckle body hanging from the boom and it is missing the end that attaches to the mast. On the second photo you can see the missing "eye" that is still attached to the mast.

On the third photo I have put an arrow that shows the EZeye eyebolt. This is used during installation to quickly and easily secure the SteppIR to the mounting plate before attaching the U-bolts. I can't tell for certain but it looks like the SteppIR boom has rotated in the U-bolts and has been stopped from further rotation by the bolt hitting the mounting plate.

Repair should be simple. just loosen the U-bolts and return the antenna to horizontal, then reach out and retrieve the truss cable and re-connect it to the mast. This time, a safety wire WILL be put through both turnbuckles so this does not happen again.

This minor damage to the SteppIR installation is not the extent of the wind damage here. The 160-M Monster-L was working great on Thursday morning when I checked out the antennas. However, this morning the SWR was nearly 7:1. Possibly something failed last night as we continued to have high wind on Thursday. Also, the 80-M Inverted-V is no longer functional. I suspect either one leg has come loose or broken on it. So, some of the wire antennas need a little work in addition to repairing the truss wire on the SteppIR. Then, we will again be back in business.

W8TN is BACK on Top Band!

2009-11-21T20:40:00.006-05:00

Today, Mike Null, NU8LL, and Eric Mynes, K8OHZ, came to the Hill and pulled up the 160-M Inverted-L. That antenna had not been replaced on the tower when we did the antenna installation of the SteppIR. But today, Mike climbed the tower with Eric as Ground Crew and re-installed the Inverted-L. Mike also removed the gin pole and rope and brought them back up the hill with the roll of Phillystran.

As you can see by the SWR plot of the 160-M Inverted-L on the right, I'm now "back in business" for Top Band. The SWR ranges from 1.45:1 at 1.800 MHz to 2.0:1 at 1.869 MHz. At 1.850 MHz it is 1.72:1 and the lowest SWR is at 1.819 MHz where it is 1.19:1. I would say that is just darn near perfect since I have no series capacitor or other tuning network to do any matching at the base of the antenna.

I guess tomorrow I'll have an early wake-up to try for TX3A on Top Band. I was up at 3:00 a.m. this morning for 2-1/2 hours trying to work them on 30-M when they were S-9 here but nothing! So, hopefully tomorrow morning will bring good luck for me. But, just to see if the antenna was functioning, I took a look at the band and found OE3I operating in the Austrian 160-M Contest. I do NOT have Austria confirmed after sending a Direct QSL 2 years ago. So, I called and worked OE3I with very little trouble. And here's the good news, HE's ON LoTW! YIPPEE! I'm BACK!

W8TN is WALKING Again!

2009-11-05T14:31:00.005-05:00

Today I visited the Orthopedic Surgeon who had repaired my broken leg. He took another X-Ray (see the photo at right - click on it for a larger image), looked over the leg, felt it, moved it, and said I was now cleared to do whatever I want! YIPPEE! It's been 4 months and 2 days since I broke the leg.

Actually he did schedule me for 6 more weeks of Physical Therapy (3 times a week) which will be pretty intensive. Strength Training, Gait Training, more Flexing, etc. I'm sure the people in P.T. will turn the screws tightly now as before I was limited to NO weight bearing on the broken leg.

WOW, I can't tell you how good it feels to not be just marking time (or so I thought) waiting for everything to heal. The surgeon was very pleased with how the incisions had healed and he liked the look of the X-Ray. He said he had been pretty worried about an infection and with my diabetes how well the healing would go. However, Evelyn has kept me on the straight and narrow with my diet and for the month of October my fasting blood sugar readings averaged 116 with a high of 139 and a low of 92. This is great as I'm still healing somewhat so the readings may even go lower once I'm past that stage and start getting more exercise.

Actually, as soon as we got home I put on my shoes and have been walking all over the house using the walker but now I'm not "hopping." I'm bearing weight on the broken leg and actually WALKING! WOW! (It didn't take too many walks to get tired though - I really need to build up my strength!)

You never really appreciate the simple things in life until they are taken away. I have so much empathy for those people who are stuck in a wheelchair without the possibility of ever getting out of it. It's definitely a hard road.

Looks like if I ever fly somewhere, I'll set off the metal detectors for miles around!

W8TN's Antenna Project - Phase IV

2009-11-02T19:30:00.013-05:00

The last work on the W8TN antenna project was just over 3 weeks ago. A HUGE amount of work was done but we came up a bit short on time to finish the project. Since then the coax feedlines and the control cables have been entering the ham shack through the window. See the photo below for how it looked (click on any photo to view it larger.) This worked OK for awhile but with the nights getting colder, it was starting to become a problem. Also, the need to lift up the coax to allow the wheelchair to roll underneath it led to me not keeping the antenna connected all the time.

So today, Tim, KC8UHE, Mike, KE8V, and Apollo (the Archer), N8RR, came to remedy that problem. In addition to running the cables underneath the house, they were kind enough to erect a KILLER 80-M Vertical down over the hill. The "Archer" brought his trusty bow and amazed Tim with his ability to loft an arrow with great finesse over the exact limb of the tree which was chosen to support the vertical wire. Below (L-R) you see KE8V, The "Archer", and KC8UHE.

I look at these "projects" as my way of helping the hams become "Heart Healthy." The climb up the hill is a great workout!

I cut the vertical portion of the wire for the vertical as well as the two radials to Apollo's specifications of 66-feet. I then crimped and soldered ring lugs onto the wire to make connection to the center insulator easy. Apollo shot his arrow over the chosen branch and pulled up the wire. He says about 5 inches of the vertical and radial wires were used to attach to the insulators. The MFJ-259B meter was put on the antenna and it was deemed DONE. To the right you see the SWR plot of the finished antenna done from the shack with my N8LP LP-100 Digital Vector Wattmeter. The best SWR is 1.03:1 at 3.535 MHz. It is 1.35:1 at 3.500 MHz. and doesn't pass 2.0:1 until you reach 3.656 MHz. I'd say that's going to be one heck of an antenna.

Again I want to express my sincere appreciation to the members of the WVDXA who have taken so much of their time to help get my station operational again. Once the 160-M antenna is pulled back up the tower, I'll be SET. Look out DX, here I come!

SteppIR Tuning Relay

2009-10-17T23:40:00.007-04:00

Since my 4-element SteppIR antenna was graciously erected by the WVDXA members last weekend, it was now time to build up the SteppIR Tuning Relay I had purchased long ago. The SteppIR Tuning Relay is a device that connects between the PTT line of the transceiver and the PTT input of the amplifier. SteppIR specifies no more than 200 watts be applied to the antenna while it is being tuned from one frequency to another. Doing so could damage the antenna and result in an expensive and time-consuming repair.

So, Larry Phipps, N8LP, has designed a device to detect when the SteppIR is moving and break the PTT line to the amplifier during that time. You can see all of Larry's fine products on his WEB SITE. In addition to this SteppIR Tuning Relay I also own his LP-100 Digital Vector Wattmeter which I dearly love!

After unpacking and checking all the parts I began placing them on the circuit board. This consisted of sticking the leads through the plated holes, soldering them in place and cutting off the leads. I took my time attempting to do a fine job. You can see both the underside and top side of the completed board below (click on any photo to see it larger):

The assembly went easily and took about 2 hours. Once I had all the parts mounted I double checked the placement of the diodes, relay, transistor, and I.C.'s to make sure I had made no mistake. I cleaned the excess rosin off the bottom of the board and then made the simple resistance and voltage checks. Everything checked out OK. At that point I placed the circuit board in the case and buttoned it up.

During normal operation of the SteppIR antenna, an "asterisk" blinks on and off on the SteppIR control box indicating that the antenna is tuning. That is just not enough of a warning to keep you from engaging the PTT and calling the DX especially after you have clicked on a spot which caused your rig to change bands and the SteppIR is moving to the new frequency. With the SteppIR Tuning Relay in place, I now do not worry about accidentally engaging the Alpha while the antenna is moving!

Below you can see a photo of the Tuning Relay to the right of the SteppIR control box. Note that the Asterisk is blinking on the SteppIR control box and the Red LED is lit on the Tuning Relay indicating that it has interrupted the PTT line to the linear.

In tests with the amplifier all works perfectly. Now I can comfortably interface the SteppIR controller to the computer so that the antenna will automatically change to the appropriate band when I click on a spot. That is one more step to both automating the station and assuring that the operator does not forget to change the antenna when he changes bands (like I did when I was chasing K4M!)

W8TN's Antenna Project - SteppIR Installation

2009-10-14T17:06:00.025-04:00

OK, we set the official date for the installation of the SteppIR 4-L yagi with the 30/40-M option for Sunday, 11 October 2009. I put out the call on the WVDXA Reflector for persons who would be willing to come and help with the operation. Several people responded that they would be there. However, I was more than a little surprised to see that TWELVE hams showed up to help. What a fantastic turnout! I did not get any photos of all 12 at the same time but here is a single shot with 9 of the guys (click on any photo to view it larger.) All photos except this first one were taken by Hal, W8HC.

There was a lot of discussion about what had to be done and then folks just started DOING stuff. I am still stuck in this wheelchair so all I could do was supervise from my hamshack door. I had stayed up until 2:30 a.m. the night before getting all the "parts" ready. Tim, KC8UHE, had taken me "shopping" on two days in the prior week to acquire all the bits and pieces we would need. We had communication over 2-M H.T.'s between those outside and myself in the shack so everyone knew what was happening.

Mike, NU8LL, aka the "Tower Man", arrived and hit the ground running. He began instructing the ground crew in how he wanted them to do everything while he was up on the tower. Safety was stressed all around and I'm proud to say no one received any sort of injury during this operation. Here some of the Ground Crew are shown pulling on the rope (well away from the base of the tower) to raise the antenna (L-R, KC8UHE, KE8V, WA8VPN, & N8RR):

In the following photos you can see the antenna as it reached the top of the tower and then after Mike, NU8LL, flipped it over and attached it to the mounting plate. The antenna is now UP. It sits atop a Rohn 45 tower at about 86-feet above ground. The hillside behind the house slops very steeply so that the base of the tower is 30-feet below the top of the hill.

The group was here for as long as TEN hours but when they left, the antenna was atop the tower and fully functional. All the fine details were attended to and the only job left is to run the coax through the PVC tubes up to the top of the hill and then through more PVC underneath the back yard and up into the shack. In the interim they thoughtfully brought the cables up to the hamshack window so that I could go ahead and put the station on the air (and I have!) Come Spring a 6-M beam will be installed above the SteppIR but in the meantime, I'm back on the air!

I should also mention that my wife, Evelyn, cooked up a large pot of homemade chili, and made a couple of pans of Brownies! That made for a wonderful meal break before the guys began pulling up the antenna.

Here is an 8-minute video that shows several scenes of the operation. The video was shot by Garry, W8OI. On the bottom row of the YouTube video below, you can click on the next to the last icon (a small rectangle inside a larger one) and it will switch to Full Screen mode. Press your ESC key to return to normal mode.

As an extra added benefit to the day, the DX'er Emeritus of the WVDXA, Bob Hall, W8QHG, was celebrating his 93rd birthday the very next day. So, unknown to Bob, the WVDXA surprised him with a Birthday Cake and a Card signed by all the club members present. He was truly surprised and I was amazed that he stayed here for 6 hours watching the installation. Here is a short video of the presentation of Bob's Card and Birthday Cake:

Below you see the beneficiary of all this work, W8TN, peering longingly out of the hamshack door. I so wished I could have been out there in the middle of all this activity.

I want to especially thank all those who were here that day:

Bob, W8QHG - Charlie, N8RR - Pete, K4OM - David, W8IW - Lonny, WA8ZDL - Dwight, KC8WDT - Garry, W8OI - Mike, KE8V - Hal, W8HC - Bob, WA8VPN - Tim, KC8UHE - And, our Tower Man, Mike, NU8LL.

I also want to thank those other members of the WVDXA who helped previously both in person and on the email reflector. It is my privilege and honor to belong to such a wonderful group of hams. It just doesn't get any better than this!

Now, Bring On the DX - I'm READY!

W8TN's Antenna Project - Phase III

2009-10-02T22:28:00.006-04:00

A funny thing happened today. I had a mis-communication this week with Mike Null, NU8LL, about when he was going to come and do some work on the tower project. So, about 1:30 p.m. Mike called to say he was on his way to the house and was apologizing for taking so long to find all his equipment. WOAH! The last communication I had with him was me asking him how many folks he needed to help him. Somehow, I never received the email he sent me on Thursday night so I thought the work was called off due to the chance of rain today. Mike thinks he was in a bad coverage area all day yesterday and his iPhone failed to properly send the email to me due to lack of network coverage.

THANK GOODNESS Tim, KC8UHE, was off work and agreed to drop everything and come up here to help. I sure hope Tim did not miss a chance to work FT5GA because of his unselfishness!

Above you see the entire crew for today's work. Mike on the left and Tim on the right. That meant Mike was the "tower guy" and Tim was "ground crew." It also meant that Mike stood on the tower for a few hours while Tim ran up and down the hill - again, and again and again! Poor Tim, his legs must be killing him tonight.

Below you can see a close up shot of Mike in his climbing gear. Also, another shot of him on the top of the tower. I had one little "clearing" in the trees where I could see him from the hamshack. So, I shot this photo through the window in the shack. He is right at the top of the tower.

You can click on any photo to see a larger image.

Anyway, in about four hours this two-man crew accomplished the following: removed the TailTwister rotor from the tower, removed the current rotor cable, installed a new thrust bearing on the top accessory shelf, installed the M2 Orion 2800AC rotor (that puppy weighs 45 pounds!) - the installation of the bigger rotor meant the mounting holes had to be slightly enlarged so Mike had to mount and remove the rotor in order to get the holes right. They then pulled up and connected the new rotor cable, dropped the mast onto the new rotor, secured the thrust bearing and did several other small jobs associated with this rotor installation.

In addition, Tim sprayed more Roundup and cleared the brush from the guy anchor positions. I think there is one small tree that still needs to be removed and that may require Papa November's brush cutter.

On Thursday I had prepared the pigtail on the rotor with a quick disconnect connector and ran the rotor through its check out and calibration routine. While the first part of the work was being done today, I installed the mating connector on the rotor cable which was just delivered by UPS yesterday.

The good news now is once we acquire a couple of missing flat washers and some stainless steel spacers, 200-feet of PVC and a "pull box" to connect the PVC together, and some other miscellaneous items - we are READY to pull up the SteppIR! Tom, AB8RL, came by on Tuesday and went over the hill with the SteppIR controller and an MFJ-259B and confirmed that the antenna functions properly after its two-year hibernation standing beside the tower.

Pizza Hut kindly delivered a pizza for the crew at the end of their work so everyone got some calories to make up for all that were expended today. The completion of this project is getting so close that I can almost smell the finish line!

W8TN's Antenna Project - Phase II

2009-09-09T16:52:00.013-04:00

I have not reported on "Phase I" of my antenna project before but suffice it to say that Tim, KC8UHE, came and cleared a lot of brush around the base of the tower and around the SteppIR antenna. He also sprayed a few gallons of Roundup to kill off the brush so there will be space to work when erecting the antenna. Also, Pete, K4OM, came one day and we attempted to install an "N" connector on the hardline for the 6-M beam - but we failed. Apparently there is some coating on the center conductor that prevented it from making sufficient contact with the center pin. Now that we know about that problem, we are ready to do it again.

Today, 4 willing souls arrived beginning at 9 a.m. to work on Phase II of the project. This involved digging a trench to bury three 2-inch PVC pipes (which will eventually carry the coaxes and control lines) and install a No. 4 solid copper ground wire and 2 ground rods. Below you see Pete, K4OM, Steve, KC8FVE, and Tim, KC8UHE hard at work on the trench (click on any photo to enlarge it):

As the work progressed, we moved Pete, K4OM, into more of a management position. Here you see him directing the work from the shade of the steps to the ham shack:

Below you see my step-son, Darren, KC8QGV, coming up the hill from doing some chain saw work to cut a clear path to the tower. Also, Pete, K4OM, is installing the ground rod just outside the shack. Because of the rocky soil, we had to angle this rod a bit but were able to sink about 7 feet of in in the ground. In the third photo below, you can see Steve, KC8FVE, just about to reach the point where we stopped pounding in the ground rod.

A 200-foot roll of No. 4 solid copper was purchased (ouch!) and it was run under the house and up into the ham shack. It exits the house where the PVC pipes do and will later be bonded to the ground rods just outside the shack and where the ground begins sloping down to the tower. I will also put ground rods about every 16-feet down to the tower and this No. 4 will be bonded to all of them and to the three rods that will surround the tower.

All that remains of this portion of the project is to acquire about 200-feet of 2-inch PVC and run it to the base of the tower, install a junction box at the top of the hill and another at the tower and then begin running the feedlines up to the shack. This is a HUGE step forward in getting to the point where we can put the antenna up and hook it all together. My hat is off to all the guys who have helped up to this point! I sincerely appreciate all the excellent help and am now getting really anxious to see the antenna finally at the top of the tower.

P.S. I also need to thank my wife, Evelyn, for providing a great lunch for everyone. The guys partook of hotdogs with homemade chili and slaw, homemade Bar-B-Que, chips and dip, veggies and dip, and they even tried some Humus. I did a little fetching and carrying in my wheel chair and after Tim, Steve, and Pete tried to open the PVC glue, they had to turn to the old guy in the wheel chair to open the can with his bare hands! What can I say?

A-1 Operator Club

2009-06-17T14:01:00.005-04:00

Looking on the ARRL web site, you will find the following description of the A-1 Operator Club.

Only the best operators can qualify for the A-1 Operator Club, amateurs who have met the highest operating standards. But you can't apply; you must be recommended independently by two amateurs who already belong to the A-1 Operator Club. Who knows? Fine-tune your operating skills, and one of these days you may be pleasantly surprised when the mailman delivers an A-1 Operator Club certificate.

The A-1 Operator Club was first organized in May 1933. By 1934 there were 400 members and in 1938 the club hit the 1,000 mark. That number had only reached 3,000 by 1995 because, as the A-1 Operator Club newsletter states:

Then, as now, nominations were not made lightly; through the years, recognition as an A-1 Operator has represented an unsolicited acknowledgment of one's high standing among one's peers.

In 2008, just 207 amateurs were appointed to the Club. As of June 15, 2009, there are a total of 5,354 on the roster.

On Monday, June 15, 2009, I was more than "pleasantly surprised" to receive a certificate stating that "Clark Stewart, W8TN, is a member of the ARRL A-1 Operator Club." What a surprise! I have no way to tell who nominated me for membership in this august group but in looking over the roster, I see many well-known calls including at least 14 members of the WVDXA! So, whoever felt that I was worthy of nomination into the A-1 Operator Club, I sincerely thank you for your nomination and will strive to live up to the ideals of this group.

Building a 40-M 1/4-wave Vertical for KC8UHE

2009-02-26T18:40:00.012-05:00

Today KC8UHE and I undertook to build and install a 1/4-wave, 40-Meter vertical at his QTH. Tim had a 21-foot telephone pole already installed (left-over from a prior antenna project) so we decided to use that as the support for the antenna. We had previously ordered 6 telescoping pieces of aluminum tubing from DX Engineering. The smallest was 1/2" in diameter and the largest was 1-1/8 inches. We planned to slip the pieces into each successively larger piece to build up a 33-foot long radiator. We also purchased two Resin Support Block Clamps from DX Engineering (see one HERE) and planned to screw these to the telephone pole to support the vertical.

Last night I cut off a short piece of perforated metal strap, used a chassis punch and drill to make the mounting holes for a chassis-mount SO-239 connector, and bent it into an L-shape to attach to the telephone pole. A short jumper from the center pin of that connector would connect to the vertical radiator.

Tim drilled some pilot holes and then I lifted up the 33-foot piece of tubing and he secured the Upper Mounting Clamp to the vertical at about 20-feet above ground. This meant Tim was on one ladder near the top of the pole and I was on a shorter one to the side where I could hold the bottom of the vertical about 10-feet above ground. Then Tim moved down and installed the second Mounting Clamp. At this point, the vertical was UP!

We then screwed the mounting bracket with SO-239 connector to the telephone pole and connected the center pin to the vertical tubing. Three elevated radials were then cut at 33-feet and a spade lug soldered to the end that would attach to the SO-239 bracket. We put a couple of lag bolts into the pole to take the strain of the radial wires off the spade lug ends and just wrapped the wire around the lag bolt in a simple over-hand knot. Below you can see the Lower Mounting Bracket, the coax connector & bracket and the radials attached to the lag screws. Click on the photo for a larger view.

The final step was to wind the end of the RG-213 feedline into an RF Choke to decouple the feedline from the antenna. We purchased a piece of PVC that was 4-1/2 inches in diameter and wound about 23-feet of feedline in 18 turns on the form and secured it with Ty-Raps. See THIS PAGE for similar chokes. Below is a photo of our RF Choke (click on the photo to see a larger image):

Checking the antenna with the MFJ-259 we found the antenna to be a bit too short. So, Tim climbed back up the ladder and loosened the clamps to let the pieces of tubing telescope back down for three sections. He then lengthened the amount of tubing that was above each section so that we raised the height of the antenna by about a foot. This brought the resonant point of the antenna down to 7.19 MHz. At that point the antenna had an SWR of 1.1:1 and exhibited a 50 ohm impedance. Down at 7.025 MHz, the SWR had climbed to 1.5:1 so that was still acceptable. We may lengthen the antenna some more after Tim has a chance to use it a bit but for now, it seems to be A-OK. And, total cost of this antenna (less the feedline) was under $100.

Below is a photo of the completed antenna. Click on the photo for a larger image. You can see more photos of our project on THIS PAGE.

At 4:45 p.m. we checked the radio and had excellant copy on 9K48NLD in KUWAIT on 40-M SSB!! This was more than 1-1/2 hours BEFORE our sunset! I just can't wait to see who Tim works with this Monster! (Now I need to get the splinters out of my hands!)

Beverage (Antenna, That is!)

2009-01-06T00:58:00.009-05:00

With Charlie, N8RR, having FOUR Inverted-L antennas for 160-M, he is hearing a good deal better than I. He has worked ZD8UW a couple of times and I can barely hear that station (and have no QSO's!) So, I decided to put up a Beverage antenna aimed at ZD8 and began to gather together the parts. Thankfully I had almost everything I needed. I had previously acquired the 9:1 transformer, pre-amp, and miscellaneous small parts from Lance Johnson Engineering. I had intended to put up a Beverage last fall but just had not gotten around to it.

You can see in the above photo (bottom row) ground rod clamp, insulators, split nuts (to connect the "Ground Drop" and "Feed Drop" wires, and a coax connector. I had to make a run to Radio Shack for a barrier strip, some spade lugs, and a couple of 1-K, 1-watt resistors (put in parallel they give 500 ohms.) That was a "guess" at the termination resistor. Later I'll fine-tune the antenna for the best Front-to-Back and put the exact value resistor there.

I had also previously purchased 500-feet of RG-6 coax and 500 feet of No. 14 solid copper insulated wire. I had a couple of 4-foot ground rods in the garage (one shown above) and only need to pick up a couple of ground rod clamps, some extra split nuts (in case I dropped one) and a new needle nose/wire cutter that would handle No. 10 wire. I had some No. 10 wire that I planned to use for the "Ground Drop" and "Feed Drop."

I then set about adding an additional 45-feet of No. 15 to the 500-foot spool as I was shooting for a 540-foot Beverage. Then I put spade lugs on the "Ground Drop" wire so I could easily connect it to the barrier strip where the termination resistor would be mounted. I soldered the two resistors together and to some spade lugs so they could be easily mounted. I installed a PL-259 on one end of the RG-6 and I put another PL-259 on the "Feed Drop" so I could easily connect it to the 9:1 transformer box.

After all this "prep" work, I put on my warm coat and loaded myself down with a canvas bag containing my tools, electrical tape, the prepared "Drops", the transformer, the pre-amp, spare gloves, compass, drinking water, etc. I then hung the 545-foot spool of No. 14 over the other shoulder. I stuck the two ground rods through my belt on one side and put the sledge hammer through my belt on the other. I then picked up the 500-foot spool of RG-6, several dowel rods I planned to use to support the wire (along with electric fence insulators that were in the tool bag.) And picked up my lightest step ladder and headed for the hill behind the house.

Some of you know how steep that hill is. Of course I was not able to make it down in one trip, loaded like a pack mule. I had to ferry some of the stuff down and come back for the rest. I should note that the "prep" work took a lot longer than I had planned and it was 4:30 p.m. as I descended the hill.

I quickly picked a sturdy tree to serve as the "hub" for my future "Beverage Farm" and, using the step-ladder, climbed up and secured one end of the Beverage. I then used the split nut to clamp the "Feed Drop" to that end of the Beverage and connected that to the 9:1 transformer box. Later I would connect the transformer to the pre-amp with a short length of RG-8X coax.

It was now after 5:00 p.m. and I was starting to lose the light. So I took a heading with my compass and took off into the woods. This was where the adventure began. I walked, and walked, and walked (ALL DOWNHILL) and played out the Beverage wire as I went. I utilized local supports (tree limbs, bushes, etc.) to support the wire, stopping every so often to take a new bearing. As I got within about 75-feet of the end of the wire, I ran across a place where three large trees had fallen. I had to climb over the fallen trunks and make my way through very think brush to reach the end of my trek.

At that point I had a nice tree for the end support but had to cut off about 10-feet of the wire. I had not been able to drag the step-ladder with me so I just tied it off as high up as I could reach. Here is a photo of the "front" end of the Beverage.

Yep, it's kinda dark out by now. In fact, I had to hold a flashlight in my mouth in order to do all the work at this end. I then connected the "Ground Drop" with another split nut (covering the connection with Scotch 88 electrical tape) and then used the sledge hammer to drive in the two ground rods about a foot apart. I connected the previously prepared ground wire with the spade lug to the ground rods and the spade lug end was connected to the barrier strip with the terminating resistor (the other end of the resistor was connected to the "Ground Drop.") Below you can barely see the tops of the ground rods and the ground rod clamps with the No. 10 wire connecting them.
Now I drank one of my bottles of water and took a breather before gathering up my tools and heading back. Here is where I began to think I might be out here for awhile. I could barely see the lights from my house and they looked like they were at a 45° angle from me!! Man that hill looked steep. But, I knew I had to trudge back up it and I was certainly thankful for both the flashlight and the fact that I had the Beverage wire to follow! Without that, I might STILL be wandering around down there.

It took me 25 minutes to cover that 500 feet back to the Beverage hub. I quickly connected the pre-amp and began laying out the RG-6 cable back toward the house. I had now made it back to the "haul road" behind my house, just 250 feet from my garage (but about 100 feet in elevation!) My wife, Evelyn, had called me on the cell phone 4 times by now, concerned for my safety. At this point I used the flashlight to blink at her so she could see where I was in the dark night.

I finally made it back to the top of the hill but it did take two trips to get the ladder and tools up and the RG-6. As you can see by the next photo, I did my best to insure that the antenna would play by shedding a little blood on it!

At the house (after I put away the ladder and tools) I connected the RG-6 to a PL-259 and put that into the "Power Signal" box that sends the DC voltage down to the pre-amp and returns the RF signal to the receiver.

Now comes the point in this treatise where I expected to be able to tell you that I could hear the ZD8 just like a local. However, that is not the case. The antenna seemed to not be working at all. I was crushed. I had been "over the hill" for more than 3 hours and it was nearly 8 p.m. I had spent all day on this project and had nothing to show for it.

After making what tests I could, I called Steve at Lance Johnson Engineering and he walked me through some tests that finally resulted in my replacing the cable that ran from the "Power Signal" box to the remote antenna jack on my transceiver. The first cable I had used was apparently faulty. The antenna now seemed to work but the ZD8 was not on 160-M. He was working SSB on 75-M. So, I tuned up there and worked him as I still need a confirmation for that band.

I guess I'll just have to wait for tomorrow evening for him to come back on 160-M to see if all my work will pay off. It's 2:15 a.m. now and I'm so tired and sore that I will probably sleep till noon. I'll post here again with the results of the antenna's performance once I determine what that is.

Google Releases their Browser - Chrome

2008-09-03T01:05:00.003-04:00

Google has entered the Internet Browser arena and has released their own browser called Google Chrome. I've downloaded and installed it. I had it import my Mozilla Firefox settings, bookmarks, etc. and all went flawlessly. When you first run it there is a tab with several of the new features shown and you can watch a You-Tube video of how each feature works. I spent about 5 minutes watching the various videos so that I would have some idea of how Chrome works. So far, it seems to be pretty fast. And, all my bookmarks imported in just the same order as they were in Mozilla.

If you like Tabs, here are some of the features of the Tabs in Chrome:

The tabs are at the very top of the screen - I like this.
There is a "+" sign to the right of the last tab. Click on this to open a new tab.
Click & Hold then drag to reposition any tab. You can change the order the tabs appear really fast!
Drag a tab away from the top of the screen and it opens in a new window - COOL!
Right-click in the blank area to the right of the tabs and choose "Task Manager" and you can see how much of your memory and CPU resources each tab is using.

I've opened several pages (some that I know are a bit slow) and I swear, it sure seems like it is working faster than Firefox. I'm listening to my "Beachboys" channel on Pandora radio in one tab while I'm doing all this.

BACK and FORWARD buttons. Smaller than Firefox but just "click & hold" on either to see the history. That's an improvement. Just one button to access. Overall the whole look is cleaner and leaner than Firefox. More "stuff" from the page I'm viewing is being displayed on my monitor.

I just signed onto my Blog and it did not even ask for my password (just like in Firefox) so that imported successfully. I made a modification to my last Blog post and the update was made and displayed in record speed. I can't get an actual number for the speed improvement but it seems to be 50% faster (at least) in some cases.

Now that I've visited a few web sites, when I open a new Tab, it shows thumbnails of my "favorite" web sites. At least on the four sites it is displaying, this does not see to be too useful (except it gives me a very fast way to click on a commonly accessed web site.

OK, the "One Box for Everything" concept is going to take a little bit of getting used to. However, I think it can be another vast speed improvement. You have just one "Box" to type text into. This is both an "Address" box AND a "Google Search" box AND a "History" search box combined. I typed in "WB2D" and after each letter I got pop-ups below the box where Chrome was trying to guess at what I wanted. When I had typed all of "WB2D" I hit Enter and it took me to the Google search engine with 10 results displayed.

At this point I'm extremely pleased with Google Chrome. You may want to download it and see what you thing but at this point, I'm Thumbs Up! CLICK HERE for the Google Chrome download page. And, if you just want to watch the You-Tube videos of the various features, CLICK HERE for that. Oh, it's only available for XP and VISTA at this point.

Software Defined Radio

2008-08-17T01:42:00.006-04:00

The WV DX Association has been asked to prepare the 2008 DX Forum for the 50th Annual WV ARRL Convention (and Roanoke Division Convention) and I have agreed to give a demonstration of the software program, CW Skimmer, at that Forum. In preparing for that, I realized in order to fully display all the power of CW Skimmer I needed to be able to input a broadband portion of the radio spectrum. CW Skimmer works well with just the 3 kHz passband of a regular transceiver but it works SO much better if it can see a larger slice of the band.
This can be done with a very simple, direct conversion type receiver which delivers I-Q audio signals to a computer's sound card. The receiver downconverts a 48 kHz section of RF and then quadrature samples that and produces two signals at audio frequencies which represent that RF but which have a 90° phase difference with each other. The computer then takes those signals and processes them in much the same way a regular radio does.
In searching for a simple way to do this, I came across the SoftRock series of "Software Defined Radios" (SDR for short.) These are sold as kits by Tony Parks, KB9YIG, of Springport, IN. I contacted Tony via email and he agreed to build a 40-M version of the SoftRock Lite version 6.2 receiver for me. THANKS TONY! Below you can see a photo of the completed receiver. It is just 1.5 inches square. (Click on the photos for a larger view.)

Connecting this radio could not be simpler. An antenna is connected to the antenna input, 9 VDC to the black/red wires, and the Stereo Audio Output cable is plugged into the Line (or Microphone) input of the computer. Now all you need is the "software" portion of the "Software Defined Radio." For that I downloaded THREE different programs which were all FREE! Click on the names of the programs to visit their respective web sites:

Rocky by VE3NEA who is also the author of CW Skimmer.
KGKSDR by MØKGK.
SDRadio by I2PHD.

I was able to use all three of those programs with the SoftRock 40 just fine. All have a different "look and feel" and have different features. You can also use PowerSDR which is the software used with the FLEX radios sold by Flex Radio Systems. They produce a very high-end SDR that you may have read about in a recent QST review.

But, since my purpose in acquiring the SoftRock 40 was to demonstrate CW Skimmer, I needed to download and get that program running. That turned out to be a simple task. HERE is the page that describes CW Skimmer. You can download a 30-day free trial from the "Download" link on the top right of that page.

Below you can see what I was able to copy on the SoftRock 40 using CW Skimmer for about 4 minutes on Saturday night. The list of stations copied by CW Skimmer totals 31 including: 9A2EU, F3NB, GM4FAM, HA9PP, I2AZ, LZ3FN, RA1AR, UT7NW and VE1DT among several others. Not too shabby for just a 1-1/2 inch square circuit board, a laptop computer and an 80-M Inverted-V antenna!!

I will demonstrate several other VERY interesting features of both the SDR radios and CW Skimmer at the 2008 DX Forum at Jackson's Mill on Sunday, August 24th, at 9:30 a.m. Oh, I should mention, as I stated above, the software part is FREE and the SoftRock 40 kit costs a whopping $10. WOOF! That's the best "bang for the buck" I've seen in a LONG time!

Japan on 6-M via E-skip

2008-07-11T07:44:00.003-04:00

My last post about a wire antenna for 6-M shows what you can do with very little antenna. But, sometimes you need more. So, I purchased a 4-L yagi from Directive Systems and installed it INSIDE my attic! The very next morning I was able to work TO5E for a New One (No. 102) on 6-M. Yippee!

But, a couple of days later, Tim, KC8UHE, pointed out a spot on 6-M where stations were working Japan. What? You can't do that I said. Too many Es hops. But, apparently it IS possible because on July 8th, both KC8UHE and I actually DID hear a JA station. I copied the full callsign of JE1BMJ on just that 4-L yagi in the attic. I did not have the amp wired into my station then so had no chance to call him but Tim did call and the JA came back but no QSO resulted.

Who wudda thunk it? Japan via E-skip. Un-real.

In fact, the station we heard, JE1BMJ, is pretty much considered to be the guy who discovered this mode of propagation. He has written an article on the subject called Short-path Summer Solstice Propagation (SSSP) and you can download a copy HERE:

The next night I was better prepared and was able to actually record a Japanese station as I heard him on the 4-L ATTIC antenna. HERE is an MP3 file of that. What is being transmitted is "de JHØRNN K" and you might have to listen to the file a couple of times to pull it all out but it is all there.

This is just amazing to me that I am able to hear Japan on 6-M in the summer. AND, using just a 4-L yagi in my attic to boot! This is the first time I have EVER even HEARD Japan on the Magic Band in 44 years of operating on 6-M! Outstanding!

6-Meters with a Wire Antenna

2008-06-15T20:13:00.003-04:00

Well, the June ARRL VHF Contest suddenly appeared on my radar and I "still" did not have a 6-M antenna in the air at the new QTH. And, since my friend Steve, KØCS, was mounting a rover expedition to Capulin Mountain (an extinct volcano) in New Mexico, I thought it would be really cool to be able to work him while he was there. So, on Friday afternoon I gathered some old RG-8X coax that had been in my last "flood" plus a couple of pieces of PVC pipe for a support and I proceeded to erect a 6-M Inverted-V just outside the shack. Below is a photo of the antenna:

Once I had the antenna up, I got on the air with the Kenwood TS-2000 and made my first 6-M QSO from the new QTH with Tim, KD4LEJ. I figured the new antenna was working quite well and I had probably hooked up with a Florida station. However, when I told KD4LEJ I was in Hurricane, WV, he replied, "I'm in Hurricane, WV!" DUH! Great DX, huh? But, later that night I did work a couple of FL stations so the antenna did seem to radiate.

Then on Saturday afternoon the contest started. My first QSO was W6OAL in Parker, CO. That appeared to be a good omen. As the contest went on, I was working a lot of 5-land stations and sometimes a station in FL. I had to quit after about 3 hours to attend my wife's high school reunion but when I got home, the band was still open. In fact, stations from Texas were STILL being copied my me at 1:50 a.m. when I finally pulled the plug.

Sunday morning yielded a nice opening to New England and I had one 10 minute run where I worked 13 stations. Not quite what I can do on HF but considering just a wire antenna, I was very happy.

Over the course of the contest I managed to work a couple of Canadians, one station in Mexico and a nice QSO with Oscar, CO2OJ, in Cuba Sunday evening. The contest still has almost an hour to run so I might still snag another QSO or another multiplier but right now I have 128 QSO's with 59 Multipliers for a total score of 7,552 Points. Not the best score I've ever turned in but considering I was only using a wire antenna, I'm one VERY happy camper!

So, as it was with the Monster-L, you just never know what you can do until you give it a try.

W8TN Installs Filters in W8QHG's FT-1000MP MkV

2008-05-29T13:11:00.005-04:00

At the 2008 Dayton Hamvention, Bob, W8QHG, had me pick up two crystal filters and a roofing filter for his Yaesu FT-1000MP MkV. It was cheaper to have them shipped than to pay Ohio Sales Tax so that's what I did (but I still got the 10% Dayton discount!) Once the filters arrived I needed to go down to Bob's and install them. I had already done this on my FT-1000MP so I was somewhat experienced. Below is a shot of me doing the install snapped by Bob. I tell you, that Optivisor is the berries when it comes to seeing small items!

Things went really well until we hooked the radio back into the station and heard ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! RATS! What had I screwed up? The radio seemed to work in all regards but as Bob commented, "It sounds like there is no antenna connected." Well, we tripled checked that the antenna wire was plugged into the correct jack and that antenna jack was selected in the radio and the antenna switch was turned on and in the proper position - but still - NOTHING! So, a break for lunch was in order.

After being refreshed at Bob Evans we returned to Bob's QTH, removed the radio from the station, removed the 15 case screws and pulled the case apart to check and see what might have been messed up. Just as I got the case apart I heard Bob exclaim "OH, NO!" That was when he realized we had failed to connect the antenna wire from the station to the outside antenna cable where he removes it for lightning protection. DUH! You would think two guys with all our combined experience would have thought of that already. NOT!

So, another "lesson learned." Don't overlook the obvious. Bob hit the nail on the head when he said it sounded like there was no antenna connected - because there WASN'T! Once we checked out everything, re-assembled the radio and re-installed it in his station, it performed flawlessly! The filters helped out quite a bit and Bob was pleased with his purchase.

Now, I seem to have heard that KC8UHE bought a roofing filter for his FT-1000MP MkV at Dayton and I think W8UV has one on his shelf as well. Maybe I should just set up a small assembly line and get all those rigs done at once, hummm . . .

W8TN Now WSPR'ing on HF

2008-04-29T18:08:00.008-04:00

Have you ever wondered just how much power it takes to communicate on Ham Radio? Or, if a particular band is really open for communication? Well, Ham Radio's Nobel laureate, Joe Taylor, K1JT, has recently written a new piece of digital soundcard software for HF Propagation. It is called WSPR (pronounced "whisper") and stands for "Weak Signal Propagation Reporter." You can see a screen shot of the program running HERE.

Basically this software runs on your computer and transmits and receives over your HF (or VHF) radio. Running very low power (on the order of 1/2 to 5 watts) the program allows reception of signals at distances and times of the day that most DX'ers might think impossible for that power level.

To give it a try I downloaded the software from Joe's web site HERE, installed in on my computer and configured it by typing in my callsign, my grid, the power level I was running in dBm and the soundcard numbers for input and output. Within a few minutes I had it operational and was transmitting on 30-M at a power level of 32 dBm (less than 1.6 watts!) This was between 4 and 6 p.m. today so I was not really able to utilize any nighttime propagation. Over a period of 40-minutes here is a list of the stations I was able to copy (click on the box below to enlarge it):
Note that I was able to copy SV8CS at a distance of 5242 miles while he was running 5 watts. This took place 3 hours BEFORE my sunset. Also, here is a list of stations that were able to copy me while I was running just under 1.6 watts output power:

Best DX of stations that heard me was IV3GTH at a distance of 4612 miles. Oh, did I forget to mention that I do not have a 30-M antenna! Yep, I was using my 80-M Inverted-V as an antenna with the FT-1000MP MkV's internal tuner. Without the tuner the SWR was 4.92 : 1.

If you wonder how I was able to determine who heard me, there is a web site that allows stations to upload their logs so everyone can see who has heard them (and who else is being heard.) It even has a map that shows the paths that are open on any particular band. That web site (which has a Chat/Sked Page, Forums and other useful information) is available HERE. BTW, I was the 344th distinct callsign reported using this mode.

Tonight I plan to fire up my WSPR signal on the Monster-L and see who can hear me on Top Band with such low power. I'll add a note to this post after tonight's session.

160-M Addendum: Well, my evening on 160-M was not quite as exciting as on 30-M this afternoon but still VERY interesting. I copied F6IRF at 10-watts and he copied me at 10-W. He is in JN35au so that is 4,312 miles on Top Band with just 10-watts at each end. Later I was copied by F1US when I was transmitting at 3-watts! He is in JN04fv so that is 4,099 miles at just THREE watts! On 160-M no less! Pretty awesome if you ask me. Also, my 3-watt signal was heard by GI3HXY at 3,580 miles.

An interesting footnote is that I checked over 1,000 spots from 0245 to 0500 GMT and my 10-W contact with F6IRF was the LONGEST one reported! That is, except for one report where K4CML copied CM8RF who was running 126 watts. Not quite in the same league I'd say. Thank you Monster-L!

Serious DX on Top Band

2008-03-20T16:42:00.014-04:00

On Tuesday night 160-M sounded very quiet. The night before I had worked 5T5DC but conditions were lousy. But, Tuesday they sounded so much better I set the alarm for 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning to try and work something out in the Pacific. When I struggled awake to the blaring of the radio I almost turned over and went back to sleep. I had only been in bed about 3-1/2 hours and was rather bleary-eyed. But, I turned on the radio instead to see what was afoot.

I heard W8JI and AA1K calling CQ but not a trace of any DX signals. Then, I heard W8JI working someone and it turned out to be VK6HD! I had never heard a VK6 so I listened and was just barely able to copy him. So, I started warming up the amp, just in case.

There was nothing being spotted on the PacketCluster so things did not look too good. I tuned around a bit more and then heard K1JO a bit above W8JI and he was working VK6HD! I still did not have great copy on VK6HD but thought I'd set up shop a couple of kc. above K1JO and see what happened if I called "CQ DX."

Lo and behold, after my very first CQ (my first CQ DX in quite a long time - years maybe) I was answered by VK6HD !! WOW! His signal was now MUCH better than before. (As it turned out, it was just exactly my sunrise and one day before the spring equinox.) The QSO we had was not pretty as I was so nervous I could barely work the paddles. But I completed the QSO with Mike (VK6HD) successfully. This was the longest DX I have EVER worked on 160-M.

As you can see by the above map (Click on it for a larger view), VK6HD is just 1,128 miles away from the point that is the exact opposite side of the world from me. And, there is nothing very near that point (except water) so I expect that this will stand as my longest QSO (on the Earth) EVER! The distance from my QTH to VK6HD's QTH is 11,313.4 miles. WOOF! That's a haul, AND I did it on Top Band with the Monster-L!

Oh, and when I turned to the computer to log the QSO, I saw the following on the PacketCluster:

W8TN 1829.1 19 Mar 11:41 VK6HD tnx

VK6HD had spotted ME as if I was rare DX! Amazing!

By the way, it was 7:41 a.m. here in Hurricane, WV, when I made this QSO but it was 8:41 P.M., TOMORROW, for VK6HD! I worked him on Wednesday MORNING my time but it was Thursday EVENING, his time! Aren't you glad we use GMT for our logs and QSL's?

I'm now up to 110 Countries Worked and 72 Confirmed on 160-M. VK6HD gives me a new Zone so I now have 27 Zones Worked and 19 Confirmed. The last 12 weeks have just been a hellava good time for me on 160-M.

VP6DX - A Clean Sweep

2008-02-26T11:56:00.004-05:00

With the VP6DX DX'pedition to Ducie Island drawing to a close, it has now broken the record for the most QSO's worked by any previous DX'pedition. Many people have managed to work Ducie for a new one or for new Bands or Modes that they were not able to do in previous DX'peditions. Personally, I only had three Bands and two Modes confirmed from previous operations.

But, now that I have moved to the New QTH on the Top of the Hill, and have installed the Monster-L for 160-M, I decided to see if I could fill in some of those needed Bands and Modes. As you can see from the VP6DX "Leader Board" below, I managed to do that - in style!

I do not believe I have ever swept a DX'pedition on ALL Bands and Modes they were operating on before. And, this is especially pleasing since I only have two antennas - an 80-M Inverted-L and the Monster-L for 160-M. All other bands were worked by loading one or the other of those two antennas with a Drake MN-2000 tuner. Working 20 Band/Mode "slots" is the MOST that ANY operator has accomplished with this DX'pedition! But, I'd trade a lot of those "slots" for a single 6-M QSO - Hi!

The most difficult contact by far was the 30-M RTTY QSO - and it was the last one I made. I probably spent 5 hours on the air calling them on that Band/Mode. Being restricted to 200-watts on 30-M and not having a 30-M antenna was really a challenge. But, as the DX'pedition was drawing to a close, lots of folks had already made their QSO's and that left room for the "little pistols" to make it into the log.

Now that I have all the "Greenies" showing in the VP6DX log, I'll send for my QSL's using their on-line QSL request service. And, I'll include an extra contribution for the huge expenses incurred by this operation to take all their equipment to such a remote location and, at the bottom of the sunspot cycle, pull off one of (if not THE) best DX'peditions of all time! Thanks VP6DX!

Antennas Work Best if You Bleed on Them

2008-01-25T23:43:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I was feeling a little "under the weather." I had a sinus headache for most of the day but it did not stop me from working CT3/OM3GI in Madeira Islands for Country No. 99 on 160-M. However, I did go to bed a bit early to try and shake the headache and general bad feeling.

About 11:00 a.m. today, Tim, KC8UHE, called and said he was not working and was coming over to help me find why the Famous W8TN 160-M Inverted-L antenna was not performing as well as it had at first. Tim knew the CQ 160-M CW Contest started tonight and he wanted to help me get up to speed with the antenna. I tried to beg off, telling him I'd just work on it later, but he would have nothing of that. When I told him it was just too cold to work on the antenna he said the cold didn't bother him and I could just stay inside and he would go over the hill and see what had happened to the antenna. Since I was not able to dissuade him from coming over, I agreed and struggled out of bed to take some more Tylenol.

By the time he showed up I had most of my gear together. Tim brought his spin-casting rod and some new 20 pound test line. He strung the new line on the Zebco reel and we were ready to go. Down over the hill we slid (lots of snow still there) but no one fell. At the antenna I could see that the top-hat portion of the antenna had pulled back out of the trees and the antenna was "drooping" in the vertical section as well. I had known something was wrong since the SWR had creeped up to where it was 1.43 : 1 at resonance and that resonant point had crept up to 1.850 MHz. At 1.830 and below it was well over 2 : 1 which is bad for working DX!

The tree I needed to put the line over was about 90 feet tall and we did not think we could cast the line from the ground. So, up the tower I went (boy that steel was cold!) At about the 65-foot level I belted on and got ready to cast. However, the line was fouled in the reel! So, for about 40 minutes I hung off the side of the tower, disassembled the Zebco spinning reel, and removed the tangled line. I had to cut off the tangled part then re-string the pole and re-tie the lead weight.

Finally, I was ready to make the cast. The line sang out and the yellow lead weight sailed right over the spot I wanted. Then, it suddenly stopped! I had run out of line! Rats! So, I thought I would just cut off the line and tie it to the end of the support line for the top-hat portion of the antenna and hope the weight would pull the line down to the ground (about 85 feet worth!) But, I could not pull the top of the antenna out of the trees. It had gotten fouled in there and no matter how hard I pulled, the tree just bent and the line stayed tight.

Now I had to think quick and formulate a Plan B. I decided that since the line was tight in the tree, I would just climb further up the tower and tie off the vertical portion of the Inverted-L a little higher up. That's what I did and it worked! The vertical portion was now about 15 feet higher and there was a little more of an angle for the top-hat but the antenna was firm. When we finally made it back to the house (only 1 fall - me!), the SWR was now 1.25 : 1 at resonance and the resonant point was at 1.838 MHz. much nicer! The Alpha was very happy and would put out 1,500 watts with only about 20 watts reflected.

I'm sure most seasoned DX'ers are familiar with the old saw that an antenna does not work well unless you leave some blood or skin on them. Well, that's what I did. In cutting the excess line I managed to cut myself twice! Once on my thumb and once on my ring finger.

I can now attest that the old saw about bleeding on your antenna is TRUE! With the new antenna I managed to work SIX New Ones on 160-M in just my first 1-1/2 hours of the contest. Yee, Haw! And, those were worked with an A-Index of 11 and a K-Index of 2 which is not all that great.

I worked EI-Ireland, V3-Belize, YU-Serbia, UA2-Kalingrad, VP9-Bermuda and CT-Portugal. This brings me to 105 Countries Worked on Top Band. That's about 83 New Ones in the last 9 weeks since I put up the Famous W8TN 160-M Inverted-L. I think I'll hit the sack now and see if I can snag a ZL or a VK6 early Saturday morning.

Received EME Signals on 7 MHz.

2008-01-20T03:54:00.000-05:00

The High Frequency Auroral Research Program (HAARP) ran some tests on the 40-M band this weekend. They transmitted a 2 second carrier from their station in Gakona, Alaska, then were silent for three seconds. Hams and SWL's were asked to see if they could hear the resultant echoes from the moon. It takes 2.7 seconds for a signal to reach the moon and return to the Earth. So, a little over 1/2 second after the HAARP transmitter went silent (if you could hear it directly), the echo from the moon would appear.

I did not try to hear the test on Friday night since I felt I had no chance with only an 80-M Inverted-V and the Famous 160-M Inverted-L for antennas. But based on the fact that many hams did hear the signal (see this YouTube video), I decided to give it a try on Saturday night. Last night Garie, K8KFJ, heard it on his Icom 706-MkIIG with a vertical and Don, W8DL, heard it using an Icom IC-746 and a 270-ft. longwire.

The first hour of the test was on 6.7925 MHz and I heard NOTHING. I was drowsy and about gave it up but decided to at least spend a few minutes on the second hour of the test on 7.4075 MHz just to see if it was any different. I peaked up the Yaesu FT-1000MP MkV for the weakest signal I could detect. The AGC was OFF, no attenuation, RF Gain at maximum, the VRF was ON and peaked and the 125 Hz crystal filter was switched in to give the maximum signal to noise ratio.

About 9 minutes into the test I began to hear a signal. So, I began recording the audio out of the radio on my computer. I noticed I was only hearing one signal. Was it the HAARP transmitter directly via the ionosphere or was it the signal reflected from the moon? I didn't know. However, I had very carefully adjusted my station clock to WWV just before the test. My digital seconds would click over to the next second exactly as WWV "clicked." Also, I began the audio recording as close to 0839 and 00 seconds GMT as possible.

After about 13 minutes of recording the signal was getting fairly strong. I carefully watched the digital clock and the signal began at 2-1/2 seconds, 7-1/2 seconds, 12-1/2 seconds, 17-1/2 seconds and so on. I was receiving the signal from the MOON!

Of course, this conclusion was based on the assumption that the HAARP signal was begun exactly on the minute and every 5 seconds thereafter. Later on in the test, after a period when I could hear no signal, I began to hear a signal again and this time I noticed that it began exactly at 00, 05, 10, 15 seconds. So, I was now hearing the HAARP transmitter. (There was a short period where I "think" I could hear both signals but the EME signal was so weak I could not be sure. I'll check the audio file later to see if both signals can be pulled out.)

Here is a spectrogram that was recorded in real-time as I was receiving the signal. The width of the graph is just about 15 seconds and you can see three of the 2-second long transmissions.

When I played back that portion of the audio I had recorded on the computer, I found that section 13 minutes and 17 seconds into the file. If you look closely at the timeline from the audio program below, you can see that each signal starts at 17-1/2 seconds, 22-1/2 seconds and 27-1/2 seconds. This shows it is the signal reflected from the moon!

You can listen to the 14-second MP3 file of this signal HERE. The file size is 227 K. The audio tone is at about 580 Hz.

This signal is a good deal stronger than a lot of EME signals I had QSO's with on 432 MHz. from Ravenswood. It was definitely good enough to make a contact, IF the HAARP station could have heard my 1,500 watts (unlikely since they were transmitting in the range of 3.2 MEGA WATTS!)

All in all, I had hoped to do a little better. But, conditions tonight may not have been as good as last night. The A-Index was 9 and the K-Index was 3. But, it was still a hoot to have heard an EME signal on 40-M. Not something you run across just any day.

New W8TN QSLs Going Out

2008-01-18T15:24:00.001-05:00

I recently received my QSL's from the printer and I am starting to send them out. It has been a long time since I had nice QSL's and these are FINE. I had them printed by UX5UO in the Ukraine and they were delivered to my door just TWENTY-TWO DAYS after I approved the proof he emailed me. That's just astounding! It normally takes three times that long for me to get them from a U.S. printer. And, the cost was just $65 per thousand - DELIVERED - for 4-color PHOTO cards! Un-real!

You can see my new QSL on QRZ.com CLICK HERE.

The cards I've started sending out are already yielding a result! I have now received a QSL from a Top of the Honor Roll DX'er for an 80-M QSO I had with him earlier this week.

Thanks, Bob. I'll be putting this QSL in a place of honor in my shack.

Learning to Use the FT-1000MP MkV

2008-01-12T01:51:00.000-05:00

Click HERE to listen to a brief MP3 audio file I recorded tonight. It will give you some idea of what my radio is able to hear. I picked a weak signal on 160-M to better demonstrate the dramatic ability to improve on what might be considered a very difficult signal to copy.

I have recorded a CQ being sent by SM5EDX at about 0550 GMT. This is 1 hour and 45 minutes before his sunrise.

The first 7 seconds of the CQ are with my 400 Hz filter in line. Then, I switch in the 125 Hz filter. I think you will hear a marked decrease in the QRN and a resultant improvement in the signal-to-noise of the received signal. Then, at 12 seconds into the file I switch on the VRF (Variable RF Front-end Filter). This is a narrow band-pass "preselector" filter in the RF circuit path. As you can see, it turns the signal into nearly arm-chair copy when it would have been very difficult (if not impossible) to copy it otherwise.

Below is a graphic showing the resultant waveform of this audio file. The improvement in noise reduction added by the 125 Hz. filter is obvious. And, you can see a further noise reduction when the VRF is engaged.

I am still learning about all the controls on this radio but the more I use it, the better I like it. I expect the receiver (and the filters) are part of why I am able to hear so much on the Inverted-L, don't you think?

KC8UHE's Inverted "L" for Top Band

2008-01-09T22:09:00.000-05:00

Today, Steve, KC8FVE, and I helped Tim, KC8UHE, erect a clone of my 160-M Inverted "L" antenna. Shortly after I left he worked a station on SSB in Iowa and later he was in the pile-up for NP4A but was beaten out by Phil, W8UV, with his new "Killer" antenna. Of course, we don't know how much power Phil was running (Tim was running 200 watts.) And, after Phil completed his QSO, Tim broke the pileup next. Not bad I'd say.

Here are a couple of photos of the antenna. The first shows the feedpoint. The unmarked lines are just support ropes. The second photo shows the elevated radial being supported by 5-foot lengths of PVC.

Tim used a 30-year old Zebco Model 33 spinning reel (with rotten line!) to cast a lead weight over two of his neighbor's trees. (The neighbor is very friendly in letting Tim use her trees as antenna supports.) A support rope over the first tree held a pulley that the center of the Inverted-L was threaded through and pulled horizontal by a rope that was cast over the other tree. The first iteration had the antenna about 6-feet too long. So, we let down the end of the center conductor, cut off 6-feet and pulled it back up. The process could not have been simpler. The new length had the SWR 1.0:1 at 1.840 MHz. The photo below shows the tree which supports the end of the "hot" side of the antenna after it transitions from vertical through the pulley on a similar tree.

Now that Tim has joined the ranks of those using the infamous "W8TN - Inverted-L" 160-M antenna. We will both be in competition with Phil in the pileups. It will be interesting to see which antenna wins out.

2008-01-05T16:07:00.000-05:00

I Posted these two photos without commenting on them so here is what you are seeing. This is the back and then the front of a sweatshirt I saw at the Charleston Department Store. This, of course, relates to the win by the WVU football team over Oklahoma in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl. Since WVU's coach bolted and went to Michigan, WVU was given "No Chance" to win this game. Oklahoma even petitioned the BCS committee for a "more worthy" opponent. I guess WVU pushed those words right down their throats!

Recording My Own QSO's on the Computer

2007-12-27T12:06:00.000-05:00

I'm improving the ham station capabilities and now find that I am able to record QSO's on my computer. So, as a "first attempt", I recorded my QSO with CE1/K7CA on 160-M tonight. Quite a pile-up on him and he was very "wordy" with his QSO's so the pile sometimes got a bit unruly. I noticed I copied him sending "DN" after he had worked several stations "UP." So, I listened to him make three or four QSO's about a kc BELOW his frequency including a VERY long winded one with a buddy where they talked about a lot of things. But, stations were continuing to call him ON his frequency and a big pile were still calling UP 1 kc. Can I really hear that much better than a lot of other folks?

Anyway, I was pretty shocked when he came right back to me (on about my fourth or fifth try at calling him.) I quickly hit the button to record the QSO on the computer. Then, I edited out the extra stuff and you are left with his last exchange to me. Here is a link to an MP3 file of that audio:

http://www.wvinter.net/~w8tn/CE1-K7CA.mp3

He did seem to have quite a strong signal from Chile on Top Band. At times the S-meter at times was hitting over S-9.

This QSO was country number 77 for me on Top Band. And, it was a NEW Zone as well. I now have 77 countries worked on 160-M (39 confirmed) and 23 Zones worked.

Anyway, this is my first try at recording a QSO. I'll be looking into doing this more in the future. That way I'll be able to capture those exciting radio moments and share them with others along with reliving the excitement myself!

160-M Worked All Continents Completed!

2007-12-02T20:43:00.000-05:00

By staying up all night on Saturday night, I managed to snag an Asia contact to complete my 160-M W.A.C. in just NINE days on the band. Outstanding!

Just after sunrise here I started hearing RWØCWA rather well. At 15 minutes AFTER my sunrise I managed to complete a QSO with him for my last continent for W.A.C., plus my first contact with Asiatic Russia and Zone 19. WOW!

I added 9A - Croatia, KP4 - Puerto Rico, GM - Scotland and KL7 - Alaska to bring my countries worked to 66 and my Zones worked to 20. Not too bad for a piece of wire, huh?

The 160-M Inverted "L" Continues to WORK!

2007-11-30T09:54:00.000-05:00

The 160-M Inverted "L" antenna has now been up for almost a week and it continues to PLAY! In the six days since the CQWWDX CW Contest where I added 30 NEW Countries to my 160-M totals, I have worked another ELEVEN (11) NEW Countries! WOOF! My 160-M guru, KØCS tells me I have NOT seen a good band opening yet so this is nothing short of phenomenal to me.

This week I have added the following 11 NEW Countries to my 160-M totals: E51NNN - So. Cook Islands, HKØ/NØAT - San Andres Island, PA3GCV - Netherlands, OH2BO - Finland, URØMC - Ukraine, OZ1CTK - Denmark, RA4LW - European Russia, OE3GCU - Austria, DF2PY - Fed. Rep. of Germany, S59A - Slovenia, and I4EWH - Italy.

Plus the URØMC contact in the Ukraine was Zone 16 and that was a NEW Zone. I now have 61 Countries and 18 Zones worked on 160-M. The new antenna has added FORTY (40) NEW Countries in just one week. OUTSTANDING!

And, this weekend is the ARRL 160-M Contest so there might be even more new ones added then.

The Further Antenna Adventures of W8TN

2007-11-30T09:36:00.003-05:00

The week of November 19th, 2007, I busted my tail to try and get up a 160-M Inverted "L" antenna for the CQ Contest on the coming weekend. I spent the CQWWDX Phone contest on 80-M but with only the 80-M antenna currently up, I thought I'd like to give 160-M a try during the CW weekend.

Pictures describing the antenna construction can be found HERE on the W8TN "New Tower" Photo Gallery. If the photos have been moved to the Archives, check there. The 160-M photos begin with the photo which has the text "19 November I gathered the materials . . ."

IMPORTANT!!! The length of the antenna as described in the ARRL Antenna Book DID NOT WORK for me. Please READ the text to see that I had to MODIFY the dimensions from the ARRL Antenna Book. The dimensions shown in this diagram DID NOT work!

What is NOT shown there is the PAIN I suffered. It took three trips up the tower, staying on the tower one night till 45 minutes after sundown, and an uncounted number of trips through the woods behind my house. Working by myself caused me to have to come up with some inventive ways to do the project. All this resulted in many bruises, scrapes, abrasions, and a pulled muscle in my side which has caused me the biggest problem. Why is it that little projects like this cause so much trouble when you are nearly 60 years old?

First I had to gather the materials. This involved a trip to Home Depot and then the Water Company. I needed to construct an RF choke (several turns of coax) and I found a description in the ARRL Antenna Book of one using 30 turns of RG-213 on an 8-inch diameter piece of PVC. Turns out Home Depot doesn't have anything that large but the Water Company graciously gave me a 6-foot piece. So if anyone needs some 8-inch PVC, I have almost 5-feet left.

To get the antenna to come off the tower horizontally at 60-feet above ground requires putting a line over a tall tree or two to support the antenna wire. The EZ Hang slingshot with spinning reel which I have used several times in the past, failed me. I had installed a new set of elastic tubing bands and a new roll of fishing line but, for some reason, I could not keep from snagging the line in the elastic bands when trying to launch it from the ground. So, after 6 or 7 failures to launch the line, I had to climb the tower and hang off the side to launch the line over a couple of trees. This time it worked! So, I climbed down, trekked through the woods and tied the fishing line to some Dacron antenna support line (note the Boy Scout method I used to let the line unroll freely in one of the pictures linked above.) Back at the tower I reeled in the line and attached it to the antenna. Then, off through the woods to pull the antenna up and check the SWR with an MFJ-259B Antenna Analyzer.

Imagine my disappointment when the antenna showed an infinite SWR! I was crushed. Three days of difficult work seemed lost. So, I checked everything I could then I called W8DL. Don was shocked that it did not work as my dimensions were nearly the same as his. However, his antenna played against a conventional ground radial system and I was trying the "quick and dirty" single elevated radial for my installation. He suggested either removing the RF Choke or modifying the radial system. But, I was short on time and did not feel I could get a good enough ground installed before the contest.

I then called my 160-M guru, KØCS, and he was stumped as well. However, he did comment that the dimensions I was using (straight out of the ARRL Antenna Book) seemed a bit too long for him. He suggested that I cut 30-feet off the radial and see what happened. Then, I could lower the vertical radiator and cut some off it until a match was found..

So, on Friday (the day the contest started) I braved the 30-degree temperatures and climbed down the hill with my tools. As I was going over the hill Evelyn yelled down that KØCS had called and said to try moving the antenna further away from the tower. So, I tried that and found a bit of an improvement but only a negligible amount. Then I hiked out to the end of the radial and cut off 30-feet. Back at the tower the MFJ-259 Analyzer said I had made a nice change in the resonant frequency but not enough by far. So, back through the woods to attach the roll of Dacron to the end of the vertical radiator. NOTE: Here is where I made a crucial mistake! It was cold, snowing, and windy and my brain failed to realize that when I pulled the antenna back up, the end I was tying the line to now would be up in the air. I mistakenly thought I would only need a temporary knot on the Dacron. WRONG!

Then, back to the tower and up I went. At the 60-foot level I carefully pulled in the 110-feet of the radiator tophat and, while hanging on the tower in the wind, measured and cut off 30-feet. I then carefully arraigned the wire so it would not snag and went down the tower and out through the woods. I then proceeded to pull up the antenna. When I thought I almost had it to the end, it seemed to snag and I gave a little more pressure to the Dacron line and suddenly it went slack. Yep, the "temporary" knot had untied and the end of the antenna support line was 20-feet in the air! RATS! All this work and now the antenna was at the mercy of the wind and roosting birds. The slightest thing would cause it to fall. And, I had snagged the fishing line and could not use the slingshot (if it would even work again!) Needless to say, I was bummed out!

But, I carefully wound the Dacron back on the reel and trudged dejectedly back to the tower. I put the MFJ on the antenna and VOILA! It was now resonant at 1.75 MHz. Close enough to 160-M that it just might work.

To try and salvage some of this work I climbed back up to the house and quickly installed a vacuum variable capacitor in a plastic can and took it back over the hill. Tuning the capacitor to the end stop resulted in an SWR of 1.7:1 from 1.800 to 1.820 MHz, 1.8:1 at 1.825 MHz and 2.0:1 at 1.835 MHz. Maybe, just maybe, this could work.

So, I wearily pulled my aching body back up the hill and fired up the amp. Yep, it would put out 1,000 watts up to 1.835 Mhz. with no difficulty. So, I fired up the laptop computer for logging and got ready to start the contest in just 45 minutes! That's cutting it close.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding (or the QSO's.) In my 43 years of ham radio, I had dabbled at 160-M a time or two but never had a decent antenna. My country total for that entire 43 years stood at just 20 countries confirmed (plus one deleted country, Y - German Democratic Republic.) However, this weekend, I added (30) THIRTY (30) NEW Countries and 7 NEW Zones to my totals! WOW! Am I excited now? Yep!

Here is my contest score:

Band QSOs Pts Cty ZN
1.8 71 162 38 15

Final Score: 8,586

Bear in mind I was not trying for a contest "score" but only seeing if I could work some new countries. Well, I sure did. I even stayed up that first night until 7:30 a.m. and tried for over 1/2 hour to work a JA. I heard him really quite well but he never got a peep from me. I did manage 5 continents and only missed Asia for a WAC my first night on the band from the new QTH. And, that was with no receiving antennas and not very good conditions.

New countries worked (that I had never worked before on 160-M were: CN, CM, PJ5, VE (Yep, never worked Canada before), HR, J3, KV4, EA, SV (Zone 20 !), FJ/FS, 3X, G, SM, OM, ZF, SP, OK, XE, V4, HC8, YN, GW, FM, OA, 6Y, YS, VP2M, EA6, V2, and, LX. NEW Zones were: 33, 20, 02, 35, 15, 06, and 10.

If the birds and the wind will just leave the wire alone for a few months I'll have some more fun on the band. If not, it looks like more work to get the antenna tuned better and then back up over the trees. But, at least I proved the concept.

Directions to W8TN's QTH

2007-10-14T11:45:00.000-04:00

W8TN's new QTH is located at 8007 Southridge Way in Hurricane, WV. To get there from the East, take I-64 West to the Winfield-Scott Depot-Teays Valley exit (No. 39) then turn LEFT onto Route 34-S toward Hurricane. Go about 3 miles and turn RIGHT onto "Cow Creek/Springdale Road."

Coming from the West take I-64 East to the Hurricane exit (No. 34) then turn RIGHT onto Hurricane Creek Road for 1/4 mile to the first light, then turn LEFT on Route 34 toward Winfield/Scott Depot, go about 2 miles, and then turn LEFT onto "Cow Creek/Springdale Road."

Once on Cow Creek, go 1 mile until you pass under I-64 then make the first RIGHT into Woodridge Estates. Follow the "crack" in the center of the concrete street (making no turns away from the "crack") to the 4-way stop. Turn RIGHT onto Southridge Way and W8TN's QTH will be the 4th house on the Left - 8007. Park either on the street or up at the top of the driveway.

Here are two maps. You can click on either map and it will open in another window. Then, you can see it better and print it if you like.

Finally, here is a photo of the front of the house to help you recognize it easier:

If you need any help finding the location, call 304-562-5913 for the house or 304-610-2941 for W8TN's cell phone. We will also have a radio on 146.52 MHz. for Talk-In.

Google News Feed on This Site

2007-09-26T10:43:00.000-04:00

I just looked at my blog this morning and the first item on the Google News Feed in the sidebar was of local interest. Here is what it looked like:That's pretty interesting. I put the Newsfeed in the blog just to see if it worked and it has now proved it is useful as well.

CADWELD Ground Connections

2007-09-23T17:09:00.001-04:00

This Blog has already turned out to be useful. After reading my Post below on the Ground Rod Tool, K4OM advised that the method of attaching the 2-inch copper strap to the ground rod by a hose clamp is not a good thing to do. Pete said that all mechanical connections loosen over time and the actual path to ground is from several to many ohms. Pete recommended CADWELD One-Shot connections. This is an exothermic welding process that leaves the connection current carrying (fusing) capacity equal to that of the conductor itself. So, I'm on the search now to determine which CADWELD product is the one I should use. I'll post my results here later.

Ground Rod Tool

2007-09-22T00:33:00.001-04:00

Got an email Friday night from my good friend Rick, W8ZT. A couple of weeks ago I had asked him for his advice regarding a tool to help with the installation of ground rods which I had read about in QST. Rick jumped right on the project and his email to me tonight told me he had completed the fabrication of the tool. I'll pick it up this weekend and post a photo of it here. But, first, here is a photo of Rick in case you don't know who he is:I plan to put in three 8' rods around my new tower and join them with 2" copper strap. I think if I wrap the strap about 3/4 of the way around the rod and put a couple of slits in the strap, then I can tighten the strap to the rod with a hose clamp. Then, I'll put a ground rod clamp above that and run a No.4 wire to each tower leg. That should provide a pretty descent ground for the new tower.
Of course, if anyone locally wants to borrow this tool, just ask.

A New Beginning

2007-09-21T17:35:00.000-04:00

So, this is a Blog?

I have long wondered about the usefulness of this piece of technology known as a Blog. I'm sometimes slow to adopt new technologies, preferring to let someone else work out the bugs before I jump into the fray. But, it seems like this "web log" or "blog" idea is beginning to take a firm hold on the Internet. In the last 13 years it has grown to over 106 MILLION blogs so it's about time I started one of my own.

I'll add some content to these ramblings before I make it known that I have such a thing. Then, it will appear to be a little more useful to people when they first see it. Please feel free to leave any comments or to email me about anything you see here.