First DX as VK4ER is in the log

Very happy to have the first DX as VK4ER in the logbook. I joined VK4BT as we had a QSO with EA3AR. A not so little clip of the QSO is on youtube.

10m Manpack is finished

After a bit of work the 10m manpack is finished. It's built on a Philips TP-92 portable chassis (originally for the Philips FM92 radio) and one of the benefits is that any compact/mobile radio can be added to the unit. I've currently got the Dragon SS485H in there but with a bit of rework my Alinco DX-70 could be used instead.

 

The radio is attached by removing the top cover and riveting it to the TP-92 door. I could have gone with a normal mounting bracket but wanted to maintain the lowest profile for the unit. This makes it a pain to open up the unit as the radio has to be unscrewed from it's top plate but not the end of the world.

 

 

I'm running a 5AH LiPo battery from Turnigy which replaces the original SLA batteries. The original charging circuit and speaker have also been removed. I've added a Power-Meter to monitor the battery......but have put it after the regulator so won't get too much useful info although the ammeter measuring instant and peak current is a good tool to have. With the LiPo in place and the potential to dump a lot of current quickly I have gone fuse crazy with 2 internal fuses and one chassis fuse on the outside.

 

Without the original internals it does lose some of it's weight and potentially some of it's stability although I have not seen this as being an issue so far. Current weight without an antenna is 4.4Kgs.The main antenna is the 2.7 metre ANT-129 military antenna I got in from Greece - great buy and recommended. Without a tuner I am still getting a sub 1.7 SWR on 10m. If you are looking for one for yourself I bought mine on eBay from a great seller (and their eBay photo below):

Military-Whip-Antenna-ANT129-22-30Mhz-New-Old-Stock-PRC-Army-Radio-Singcar-radio

 

I'm not running any counterpoise at the moment as when I tried 2 3m wires my receive went backwards so that area needs a little bit of work.

 

I'm thinking it's nearly time to join the SOTA ranks and start hiking........

Reached the DXpedition on Banaba Island (T33A)

Pleasantly surprised to make it into Banaba Island tonight. There was a pileup on 40m with a lot of activity on and around the split frequencies with the added bonus of some deliberate interferenceas - everyone tried to get T33A into the log. I had no joy getting through the pileup but just as I was to call it a night the op changed their listening frequency and I was first on the new one and picked up the contact. The new Alinco can at least make it the 4 thousand kilometers to Kiribati in the central Pacific.

www.t33a.com

Clip from the Oceania DX contest

I entered my first Amateur Radio contest last weekend. The Oceania DX contest was good opportunity to try out the contest side of amateur radio. I learned that I can still work the other side of the world with my foundation licence and gear. Most of the contacts were made on 40m but I also had a handful on 10m. I also learned that manually entering your contacts becomes a pain after a while as you have to try and manually screen out duplicates. Ham Radio Deluxe also gave me some grief when I entered them in there after the contest and I couldn't get the correct info in the log for submission to the contest owners. I was pointed in the right direction by the good folks on VKlogger and used VKCL to again manually enter the contacts and that gave me the correct log format for submission. Next time I'll cut to the chase and just use VKCL and then import the log into Ham Radio Deluxe so I still have one source of the truth for my log.

Good talking to Japan, Indonesia, Finland, Russia, various states in Australia, New Zealand and America. A mishmash of the QSOs is on my youtube channel including my overzealous use of "QSL" on nearly every over ;-)