Tag: antenna

Lots of little stuff going on…

I went to the HAMBASH in Kansas City this morning. Pretty big venue, most all of the tables were filled – also some quality vendors around the periphery. Lots of old-time rigs that looked like they were in good shape. Only saw one table were there was a guy selling DVDs (that had nothing to do with ham radio). They had an XYL Lounge upstairs, with coffee and cookies. There were a few city/county EOC radio shelters setup outside but by the time I got out there, my daughter had hit the meltdown stage and so we headed back home for her nap.

Did I buy anything? Of course. I got some antenna wire for a horizontal loop antenna project that I want to complete soon. Also some black Dacron line to use to help raise the loop. There was also a mini-hamfest near the parking lot were I found an old dummy load for $15 and a bunch of old Motorola gear that included these plastic wedge radio/phone stands that I think would be perfect for placing a mobile radio on when you are using as a base to better allow you to see the front of the rig (I bought two for $1 each). HAMBASH was quite crowded, despite the rainy weather outside.

Yesterday, the weather was great and I got a chance to take my daughter out on a bicycle ride again. Wanting to improve the TX capability of my bike-mounted TH-D7A for APRS, I built an HT Tigertail. I did notice significant improvement on my ability to get out on APRS when using the Tigertail (still with the power set at 500mW).

Tomorrow I want to try to launch my horizontal sky loop. I’ve got plenty of antenna wire and support line. I have ladderline for the feedline. I should be set. I hope the weather cooperates.

A bit of fun

—–Original Message—–

From: AD7MI
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 10:34 AM
To: ag1yk
Subject: Pilot line question

Steve,
I enjoyed your contribution to Hints & Kinks and have tried to get it to work. Here is an additional idea that has worked for me – add a bit of peanut butter on the acorn. The first time I tried this without the peanut butter, the squirrels seemed to ignore the acorn with the line affixed to it. I tried the peanut butter and that got their attention – although I had some peanut butter on the zip tie and the squirrel, in his attempt to get the peanut butter, bit through the zip tie. My real question is what type of line did you use for the pilot line? The line I’ve tried seems to be to heavy for the squirrels here – they get the acorn and line up about half way and then drop it… it looks like the line is too heavy, causing the squirrel to drop it. A lighter line might work better? What kind did you use?
Thanks again for a great tip!

73 Scott AD7MI

—–Original Message—–

From: AG1YK
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 2:46 PM
To: ad7mi
Subject: RE: Pilot line question

Scott,
Glad to hear you enjoyed the article. As to your problem, I think it is more a matter of motivating the squirrel more. I have found, after years of experimentation, that squirrels go squirrelly for orange. I had one get so excited that he ran up the tree so fast he went right off the top and continued up into the air. Luckily the wind was blowing right and he drifted across the yard and landed on the far side of the other tree I wanted to put my antenna in. I was able to pull the support line through both trees in one operation.

Really, try orange.

73,
Steve Sant Andrea, AG1YK
Assistant Editor, H&K, QST
—–Original Message—–

From: AD7MI
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 8:34 PM
To: AG1YK
Subject: RE: Pilot line question

…and all this time I thought squirrels were color blind. I will give orange a try! 🙂

Mobile install

I have my HF mobile up and operational again. The setup I had last summer was with a stake pocket mount with my Tarheel Stubby 75 towards the rear of my Toyota Tundra’s bed. The problem with the stake pocket mount is that the Stubby 75 kept coming loose. I ordered the MT-1(S) mount from Tarheel. I had the MT-1(S) mounted on the inside of the bed of the truck towards the rear. The trick is getting the thing secured to the side. For this task I enlisted the help of the local body shop which did the job for under $40. The mount and antenna are now incredibly secure. I have to redo the PL-259 connector connector from the feedline to the base of the Stubby 75 – should have time to do it after school on Friday. Oh… and this picture is not actually of my install but thought it looked like some good intentions gone wrong. I will try to take some pics of my mobile install and post them this weekend.
In other news… EI9FVB emailed me confirming his receipt of his YI9MI QSL card. That’s great – hopefully the others will be receiving their cards soon (if not already).
… last but not least, it looks like the ARRL store has field day shwag for sale.

Force 12 From Santa Cruz

In an attempt to improve his antenna situation my dad, KD6EUG, was perusing Craigslist and found a seller in Santa Cruz that was looking to part with his Force 12 Sigma 5. I had just been reading about this antenna on one of NE1RD’s blog’s:The 100lbs DXpedition. Scott used his Sigma 5 on a few DXpeditions and reported good results. The Sigma 5 is a 5 band (20-17-15-12-10) vertical dipole. This should be easy for my dad to setup at the home QTH in San Jose, CA and also up at the cabin in the Sierras. I also have high hopes that this antenna will allow for an HF QSO between my dad and me. And a big thanks to Jack, WA6FYD who was the previous owner of the Sigma 5. I got to exchange emails with Jack – he’s retired military and a devoted CW aficionado.

Another antenna book?

I am really enjoying this book. I have many of the ARRL books on antennas (and there are many) but I have found this book to be indispensable in understanding how antennas work and why. It starts with basic, simple antennas and builds from there. I was especially pleased to read one of the sections by Tom Schiller, N6BT. Mr. Schiller works for Force 12 and is an antenna guru. But more importantly, he is the father of Traci Schiller, one of my good friends from high school. The Schiller’s backyard backed up to Foothill Expressway in Los Altos, CA and you could always see Mr. Schiller’s massive tower. I wish I had been involved in the hobby back then and gotten a tour of Mr. Schiller’s shack. His article in this book is about how every antenna will work, but some work better than others. He does a great job of differentiating between great antennas and antennas that get you on the air. He also shows the rate of diminishing returns you receive at a certain point. I am enjoying Simple and Fun Antennas for Hams and recommend it if you don’t have a firm understanding the basics of antennas and would like to experiment, build your own, and attempt to master the mysteries of the aerial.

YI9MI QSLing

I have devoted a significant amount of time to plow through QSL cards for my YI9MI operation in Iraq last year. The highlight was getting a few cards with actual valid CW contacts. The hard part was sending QSL cards back to folks who had contacts with the CW pirate station. I know this isn’t a news flash, but why does the Post Office never know what to do with an IRC? I handed over a stack and it took a few phone calls before the postman working the counter said I could get one 0.94 airmail stamp for each IRC. I know that is not the right answer, but at least I got the QSL cards in the mail. So now all the direct QSLs have been taken care of and I will get the QSL BURO cards finished by the end of the week. I have never used the ARRL’s outgoing QSL bureau before, so this will be a learning experience.
I have been reviewing the rules this year’s field day. It looks like my dad and I will be running a 2B field day site. Now we have to figure out what antennas we are going to use. I would like to try a wire vertical in addition to the flattop dipole we are putting up.

Station goals


I set a few goals back in July and thought I would take a look at my progress:

What I want to accomplish in the Kansas Shack:
– HF phone and CW operation; 80m-10m
– HF digital modes (PSK-31, RTTY, PACTOR III)
– Computer logging
– 2m FM base station
– APRS weather station, interfaced with a dedicated 2m transceiver
– Online weather page, showing current weather conditions
– Separate, organized workbench

HF phone and CW operation; 80m-10m – my HF activities are centered around my IC-7000. I would like to get the TS-930S up an operational, but I am afraid that is not in the budget at this point.

HF digital modes (PSK-31, RTTY, PACTOR III) – I am using my RIGblaster Plug & Play for digital modes… other than PACTOR III. I have not yet hooked up my SCS PTC-IIusb Modem.

Computer logging – I do have Ham Radio Deluxe loaded now, but I want to find a good linux version.

2m FM base station – currently the FT-2800M for the job. I do have some plans to move my IC-208H from the truck into the shack. That will give me a 70cm capability in addition to the 2M. The truck is getting a new rig… more on that soon.

APRS weather station, interfaced with a dedicated 2m transceiver – I am using a FT-1500 for the job, connected to UI-View32 and receiving data from the Davis VantagePro2. The problem here is that I only have the one antenna up so this limits my ability to hop on the local repeaters from the shack. I need to either get a coax switch to be able to switch between the two rigs or put another antenna up.

Online weather page, showing current weather conditions – yes indeed… I think this is working pretty nice.

Separate, organized workbench – also a success… although it seems to be too crowded with stuff. The best part is the pegboard for tools – I no longer have the problem of quickly locating the tools I need.

Overall, I am happy with the progress I have made getting the shack in shape. What I want to work on now:
– New antenna for HF
– Fix up the ARSIB
– Get the SB-200 amp working
– Transition all shack computers to Ubuntu linux

Back in the saddle

I -finally- got my HF rig working here at the Kansas QTH.

Since arriving here back in July, I’ve been super busy. School (the Army’s Command & General Staff College (CGSC)) kicked in at the beginning of August. The last formal schooling I had was eight years ago – so I was a bit rusty at getting into the swing of things (i.e. reading, reading… and more reading). I’m also taking a complementarity master’s degree program in International Relations through Webster University (two nights a week). The good news is I was able to talk the XYL into taking the master’s courses with me. The bad news is that sometimes the master’s stuff chews up more time than my school work for CGSC.

CGSC can be intense. September was packed with wall-to-wall learning, usually from 0830 to at least 1530. The schedule is starting to lighten up a bit.

Today I was able catch my breath a bit… out of class at 1130. The sun was shining, a beautiful day. I had some antenna maintenance to do. A little bit of time on the roof and the majority of my HF problems were fixed. I’m now up on HF, except for 80M. I think a little work on my counterpoise will fix that.

Back in the basement (aka The Scud Bunker) I hooked up my Icom IC-7000 to the new and improved HF antenna – bingo… all the problems I was experiencing in the past were gone. A QSO with KC2PBX, Pierre on Long Island, NY on 20M and then TI8II from Costa Rica on 17M, later with Ray, W1RAA from Tampa, FL. It felt good having some HF QSOs. I did a little more work with my station setup; hooking up the RIGtalk and RIGblaster Plug&Play. There’s more work to do and I should have time later in the week.

Other news:
– I’m switching from Windows to Ubuntu Linux. I WILL NOT UPGRADE FROM XP TO VISTA. Vista is a tool of the devil and I will have no part of it. My Toshiba laptop has been dual boot between XP and Ubuntu for a while, but had rarely been using the Ubuntu. I ordered a Dell Mini 9 (very tiny netbook) to help with school (writing papers in the library rather than goofing off in the Scud Bunker). The Dell Mini is coming with Ubuntu pre-loaded. Sweet. The next step will be setting up one of my towers as an Ubuntu server. Goodbye Microsoft.
– I’ve gone Kindle. Both the XYL and myself have the Amazon Kindle. I like it a lot better than my Sony eBook. Getting the Washington Post first thing every morning is great. The battery life is a little to be desired. The best part is that I can read KE9V’s blog right on my Kindle.

Ok – back to the books. I will get better at making frequent updates here.

A New Beginning – Goals For The Kansas Radio Shack

One advantage of the move to Kansas will be the opportunity to redesign and implement a new shack layout. I don’t have a clear picture of what I want it to look like, so I am going to start with making a list of what I want to be able to accomplish in the shack. This will be a basement shack… a big basement. I’ve never lived in a house that had a basement and I’m looking forward to the possibilities.

What I want to accomplish in the Kansas Shack:
– HF phone and CW operation; 80m-10m
– HF digital modes (PSK-31, RTTY, PACTOR III)
– Computer logging
– 2m FM base station
– APRS weather station, interfaced with a dedicated 2m transceiver
– Online weather page, showing current weather conditions
– Separate, organized workbench

There are a number of tall trees to the north of the house that will support some different wire antenna options. My plan is to start out with a RadioWavz 246′ End Fed Zep. We’ll see how that works. Maybe try a loop before winter comes. Another challenge will be getting the feedline into the basement.