Antenna Day - check my YAGI !!!

All day in Queensland’s humidity sucks but the outcome was worth it. First 11M vertical was disassembled, tuning coil replaced, connector replaced, and some of the PVC tubing replaced. I think I have the right length but will have to wait to see when I tune it.

Next was making a UHF CB yagi (477 MHz) from scratch. I had the dimensions for a 4 element yagi and just added some extra directors. I’m not sure how this will work but keen to see once I get it up in the air.

New radio for QRP on 10m

I'm missing my Alinco DX-70 and needed something to replace it for HF. Enter the Anytone AT-6666. Tuned up for 5 watts PEP on 10m although I should be 10W PEP on SSB and still be QRP. I'll see what I can do with 5 watts first. Fingers crossed.

Been a while.....but got my first DXpedition in the log

Nearly a whole month since my last update and unfortunately work has kept me off the radio for a while. I have however managed to add in some additional countries with India, Indonesia, South Korea, Finland and now the DXpedition to Norfolk Island in the log.

VK9NT are running a DXpedition to Norfolk Island at the moment and I managed to get a solid contact on 40 metres. The VK9NT expedition page is http://vk9nt.odxg.org/index.html

Re-housing a Motorola XTS3000

My new high-viz housing for the Motorola XTS3000 arrived today and I was straight into it.

Not a complicated task by any means but maybe a few tricks.....

You don't really need the special Motorola tool to get the housing off unless you are truly hamfisted. I used 2 flat blade precision screwdrivers and a circlips pliers with an angled attachment.

Just pop the two screwdrivers in between the radios metal body and the housing and gently angle them outwards till the tabs are visbile and free.

Using the circlips pliers in the other hand I gently prised the radio from the housing. Just be gentle and your case should not crack. Disconnect the radio from the controls connector that is inside the housing - just pulls off (but not by the ribbon cable).

Get the other housing ready, make sure the rubber gasket running around the radio is properly in place, you have reconnected the ribbon cable from the new housing to the radio, the keypad is in?

I forgot this one and had to pull it apart again. You can see the ribbon cable in the old housing above. Angle the radio in at the top and ensure it is seated up as far as it goes and then gently push the rest of the radio into the base. Watch out for the little switch board on the side of the radio foulding the radio chassis and also make sure the gasket doesn't sneak off as it goes in.

Check everything works.

....and this is the final product with the newer UHF/GPS antenna on board.

....and with the rest of the family to give a sense of scale (Alinco DJ-G5, Moto XTS3000, Moto Saber II)

There's a bit more detail on the disassembly from "Snarlingrabiddog5150" on Youtube who goes chasing an encryption board inside his XTS3000. Some of his other videos are also very informative if you check out his youtube channel.

EFHWV

Thinking about the next antenna and I'm liking this end fed half wave vertical in the video below. I already have the squid pole (need to check the length) and just need the 9:1 transformer dooby and some wire...and some coax. Looks great for portable work or on the side of the car when stationary.

Paying it forward

Thanks to Peter VK4BT I now have a Kenwood TS120V 10 watt HF rig to work on. It is in need of a tune and has an issue with no audio or power on transmit but looking forward to getting it going again and on the air. Cheers Peter!

Dragon 10m HF portable is finished

A final bit of motivation and I finished my 10M portable radio. Here we are on Sunday finalising the wiring:

It has a Dragon SS-485H HF rig along with a Z11 ATU and runs a 7Ah SLA, All housed in a bench instrument enclosure from Jaycar. Some space constraints within the enclosure so the ATU is on the outside. I have a section to attach some counterpoise wires but haven't made any up yet.

And out in the back garden running a 2.4 metre ex-mil HF whip - ANT-129 22-30Mhz....

A local operator Darren - VK4HDO, came back to my call on 28.480 reporting my audio as good but the signal was low and according to his radio I was about 3Khz off frequency.

.....and with a more managable HF antenna

.....and on the radio bench running into the external 10M vertical

I'm hoping to get it ready for the WIA National field day on the 13th and 14th of April and see how it goes communicating from a hilltop.

I've got GAS....

Gear Acquisition Syndrome continues unabated.... I have removed the 40 channel UHF CB in the car and replaced it with a new Uniden UH7740NB 80 channel narrow band one.





Works well, very happy with it...although I don't care much for UHF CB. The Uniden UH012SX is now in the radio shack.....which led me to a need for a UHF CB antenna for that one....time for some DIY. Following the instructions on http://www.aurfscan.com.au/ I tailored it for 477Mhz. Had problems, split the T-junction, bracket was wrong, drilled mounting holes 10 degrees off vertical.





But it's all done, up in the air pointing North West and hitting Ch2 and Ch7 repeaters. At the same time I took down the Station Master antenna and put up the new version from Shockwave Antennas. A bit of messing about tuning it to 10m and I've now got a SWR of 1.2:1 on 28.480Mhz and now getting all of my meager 10 watts up the stick.



Next items on the list are to chase another HF radio, keen to get onto the 40 metre band. Also starting to plan for the next antenna mast (possible another vertical and a G5RV Jr. dipole). Have to balance this with getting the RGV250 on the road....and upgrading to the Standard licence.

Nearly...kindof....yes....absolutely!!!!

Oleg - RK9UN came through with his eQSL below so the QSO is confirmed. Excellent!!!!!!!!

Siberia? Nearly... nearly....kindof.

Barely made it into Siberia today - a lot of QSB on 28.480 but RK9UN - Oleg and I managed to swap callsigns all the same, and signal reports......I think. Let's see if he confirms the QSO in his QRZ log.......

Aus to Ukraine - 12,842 klms

Another long distance contact into Europe thanks to Alex UR4MSF in the Ukraine. It took a while to get the RSTs confirmed but a 5x5 recieved and a 3x3 provided. Thanks again Alex! Put him onto the VKLogger so hopefully some other aussie hams can pick up some contacts into Europe.

My RST is wrong

Made a contact with Doug KH6QR this morning - Brisbane to Hawaii. Doug was running 200W from a Kenwood TS480HX into a 6 element beam 40 foot off the ground. A lot of fading on the signal and he had a little chuckle at the 1x3 RST I gave him.......hmmmm....oh oh, I've been confusing my RST...woops! Seeing as messed up the RST I'll not log this one. Have also printed out the RST matrix so I can get my signal reports correct for the future.

Ham Radio RST Signal Reports
R-S-T Characteristics	Readability R	Strength S	Tone T (cw)
1	Unreadable	Faint signals, barely perceptible	Sixty cycle a.c or less, very rough and broad
2	Barely readable, occasional words distinguishable	Very weak signals	Very rough a.c., very harsh and broad
3	Readable with considerable difficulty	Weak signals	Rough a.c. tone, rectified but not filtered
4	Readable with practically no difficulty	Fair signals	Rough note, some trace of filtering
5	Perfectly readable	Fairly good signals	Filtered rectified a.c. but strongly ripple-modulated
6	N/A	Good signals	Filtered tone, definite trace of ripple modulation
7	N/A	Moderately strong signals	Near pure tone, trace of ripple modulation
8	N/A	Strong signals	Near perfect tone, slight trace of modulation
9	N/A	Extremely strong signals	Perfect tone, no trace of ripple or modulation of any kind

Aus to Bulgaria - 13,272 klms

Just leaving the shed after repairing a Kenwood mic for my 2m mobile rig and thought I'd have a quick scan of 10m and up pops Mike - LZ2DF running an FT-920 into a Yagi and looking for DX contacts in the pacific.

A lot of QSB on the signal but eventually we managed to swap signal reports completing a 13,272 kilometre contact from Australia to Bulgaria. Definately my farthest contact so far and still with the same vertical (new one hasn't gone up yet).

Another contact with Japan and VK8 (NT)

A quick QSO with JA2DYI - Mike in Nagoya, Japan. A lot of fading on the 10m band today but we still managed the contact.



Also spoke with Peter - VK8HPB in Darwin a couple of days ago. Need to start collecting all the states and territories around Australia.

Another portable component

I'm still gathering the bits for my new 10m portable rig. Latest addition is the LDG Z11 Auto tuner. Should be here shortly.



Other items on the list:

• Stick with the 3x12V 7.5AH SLAs I already have? How many to use vs. weight?
• Transceiver - Have 10M rig
• Auto Tuner - On the way - needed to allow for different types of antenna
• Antenna - ex-military whip on the way from Greece, need mounts for new antenna
• Counterpoise?
• Enclosure - this is the problem, stick with what I have or go with a new enclosure like EC1CW?
• Wiring - looking to expand my first effort and some extra features especially on the charging and fuse side.

Japan is open for business

Propagation on 10m was pretty good this evening and after trying for a while I managed to generate a contact on 28.480 with Masa - JE1SDO in Japan.

Great to talk to another ham in a different country and he very kindly gave me a 53 to 55 signal report. Masa was running 200Watts into a Yagi so I didn't feel too bad making the 6,631 kilometre return trip on my 10 watts and the 1/4 wave vertical. WooHoo!!!!!

Success!!!!!!

A bit of trying and I have made my first contact with an overseas station as a licenced amateur. P29FR Renzo was a solid 5x7 on 28.490Mhz USB beaming in from Papua New Guinea. Spotted on VKlogger and tuning in I could hear Renzo fade in and out but with a solid signal in the main talking to some VK stations of which I could only make out VK4LOT. Unfortunately I could not hear any of the other stations speaking with P29FR so tried to time my call to minimize calling on top of other stations trying to work PNG. Luckily Renzo came back and in between some fade we managed to swap our signal reports and conclude the 2280 kilometre QSO. Not bad for 10watts up a relatively short vertical.

Very happy to have completed this one and hopefully will have a few more now that the first one is in the bag. I've setup my account on eQSL and also QRZ so hopefully Renzo can confirm the QSO on his side.

eQSL card below:

Youtube inspiration

I've been spending a bit of time youtubing and thought I'd share 2 of my current favourites. There is of course the well-known GoatHiker (along with the goats Peanut and Rooster). Always enjoy seeing WG0AT - Steve operating mountain tops with his poor beasts of burden in tow:
http://www.youtube.com/user/goathiker

Next one is EC1CW - Diego. I stumbled across Diego's channel over Christmas and I think I've worked my way through just about all of his videos so far. Another mountain top operator Diego regularly activates a number of peaks for the SOTA program.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ec1cw

But of special interest to me is how Diego has contructed his Yaesu FT-897 based manpack. Definately something I'm looking to try in the future.

10m is closed

Having no luck on 10m, CQ calls are going out but no replies and I've missed a couple of skeds with VK4WDM due to my own stupidity around zulu time. 11m is still open with more activity and my Ch.35 radio check request got into Melbourne which is not too bad from Brisbane - 1700kms in fact. I did however get onto the 2M Mount Cotton repeater on 147.075 and had a good QSO with VK4IB - Frank.

Quick shot of lunch in the shack as it stands at the moment. I have the portable apart with the 10m back onto the shelf. I'll set it up in a manpack later on and do a bit of a better job this time but in the absence of a proper rig it's the one that gets me onto the Amateur HF bands.

Gear Addiction

Amateur Radio (at the start anyway) is all about collecting gear and getting on the air. Luckily I've been stashing away radio gear for ages, although a recent thinning of the herd has cut a bit deeper than I would like.
Focus for me at the moment is improving my operations on VHF with my Yaesu 2800 2M rig and working HF on the Dragon SS-485H 10m transceiver.

Unfortunately my Kenwood 440SAT HF rig, Yaesu VX3, and some other choice HF units have moved on but this is always an opportunity to improve stock.........