Santas been

Christmas morning opening my presents, a box post marked, USPS. Hmmm looks interesting.
on opening the box it was a KPOD from elecraft, well from waters and stantons, hockley.
it was on my list.

Time to get it plugged in and see what all the fuss is about.
easy enough to get it working and powered up.
first job was to update the KPOD'S firmware as recommended by elecraft.
my K3S is running the latest firmware. two connections later and we have control over the VFO's and RIT.

downloaded the elecraft programmers manual, so time to programme some macros.

I have only programmed four macros at present.

after a short while of usage I really do think it has made a great radio even better.
cant wait to try it out in a contest.

73, SI.

PC Monitor QRM

purchased a new PC Monitor this week. after choosing carefully for a known manufacturer to hopefully eliminate any  QRM.

I purchased a Philips make. after setting it up at the shack it was time to check for any QRM.
the only place I cold find any was on 28MHZ. a sharp rasping buzz. out with the AM receiver, yes it is the PSU inline with the power cable. I added some clamp on ferrites, still no good.

I then added a ft240-43 toroid on the output lead and added some clamp on ferrites to the input lead.
hey, noise eliminated.

happy days..

73, si....

BOUVET ISLAND

Bouvet island is scheduled to be QRV early 2018.
no firm dates have been set.

web site BOUVET ISLAND

73 si..

STACK MATCH

I recently built a stack match.
A stack match is used so the user can have two antennas connected at the same time.
what good is that ? it allows you to have one antenna higher than an other. giving you two different arrival angles at the antenna. arrival angles change throughout the day and time of year.

So what good is a stack match ?
As already said, It allows the user to have two antennas at the same time or switch between the two to hear which antenna is hearing the wanted signal better.

My design was drawn on a peace of paper at work.

 

for the transformer I used a single FT240-31 toroid. I used #12 enamelled wire paired and six turns through the toroid. this was my start point.

 

 

I then laid out components to see which way would best fit the aluminium boxes I had.

 

 

Then I started to make the switch to select both or either antenna. this was a simple rotary switch with 12vdc. connections were made with CAT5 cable with ferrites either end.

 

 

LED's to show UPPER, LOWER or BOTH antenna selection.

 

 

All boxed and ready for testing.

 

I first connected an antenna and a dummy load to the outputs. I then checked to make sure the switching was working.

 

then using my antenna analyser, switching both or either antenna in and out. across 21MHZ VSWR was no worse than 1:5.1

I have tested with same set up but with radio and amplifier. analyser doesn't lie. 

 

 

designed by me, loosely, built by me and tested.

 

 

73, si.

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Baluns

Here a few 1:1 baluns made by me. fairly straight forward.
BALUN. balanced to unbalanced. ie, coax - unbalanced, dipole antenna- balanced.
BALUN WIKI
the number of turns on the torroid to the material type vary slightly. 8 to 10 turns on the torroid for upper HF and 12 turns for lower HF bands.
for 7 to 30MHZ you can use 43 material and for 7 to 1.8MHZ  you can use 31 material.

I have made the following using FT240-31 torroids purchased from ebay.

BELOW. this I made using a FT240-31 core and wound #14 enamelled wire and terminated with 2 x 6mm stainless bolts to attach to the feed point of a beam antenna.

 

BELOW. above balun under test. 50ohm resistor across the terminals and the other end attached the output of the MFJ 259 analyzer, 1:1.1 from 14mhz to 29.5mhz.

 

 

 



 BELOW.  this one I made from a FT240-31 core and wound Aircell5 coax direct on the core, 10 turns. this was boxed to use on a 80mtr elevated 1/4 wave vertical with elevated radials. so-239 is the input and the top of the box is where the antenna connects.

BELOW. this is a FT240-31 core with Aircell5 coax (40 meters) wound directly onto the core at the feed point end. easy to attach different dipoles etc.

 

These are all made by me, for use by me. they all worked as described.

 

 

73, si vky.



RX Antenna Isolator

i am now using my Receive antenna for 160. although my Rig (K3S) does ground the RX IN port on TX I decided to add a little extra protection.

after a bit of looking around on the internet I came across don's, G3BJ's page. he has a schematic for such a device on his web page G3BJ RX antenna protector along with some other designs for various other radio related stuff.

I did some shopping online for parts from here Bitsbox and now time to put it together.
I used parts as described in dons schematic.

I first layed out the parts in the box to decide where the various parts would go. Relay is a RTE20412. 12V.

 

 

 

once I had the layout I was happy with, i soldered everything in. below, all electrical soldered.  

 

 

Below, with RF lines connected, testing with 12v applied and the green phono is supplying 5V's, as if it was being keyed, PTT. I used a multimeter in continuity mode (BNC's)  to check the relay was switching when 5v's is applied (green phono).

 

 

All was good under testing, so finished boxing it up.

 

 

 

 

 

thanks don  G3BJ 

 

 

73.......



 

 



 

 



Contest Club

The UKEICC is a british based Amateur Radio Contest Club.

There are plenty of DX clubs around in the UK, but not one for Contesting.
Its a free to join club at the present.

UKEICC runs a twice monthly 80 meter sprint, one hour in lenght and have SSB and CW each month.

UKEICC have just held their NEW DX Contes,t CW and SSB legs.
PDF certificates and winners plaques available for leading entrants in various categories.

heres the link UKEICC

73...

A25UK

A group of five operators from"G" are QRV from Botswana, Africa as A25UK.

G4FAL, G4LDL, G0VJG, GM0WED and M0TGV.

Starting on 13th April 2016 for seven days.

 WEBSITE HERE

73....

Lord Howe Island

Michael G7VJR will be on lord Howe Island from 15th to 20th April 2016.

Michael will be signing VK9L/G7VJR on CW only and using wire verticals with 100W's.

IOTA OC-004

http://g7vjr.org/2016/02/vk9lg7vjr-lord-howe-island-15-20-april-2016/

73.....

160mtr coax RX antenna

This 160mtr RX antenna is intended for a small lot or space.
gives reasonable performance for what it is.

I have used one of these for a few years now and results are pleasing.

there are one or two designs around on the internet.

COAX LOOP 
K3ZXL LOOP
COAX LOOP

try one, you might be surprised..

73..

Hello World

just a blog about my adventures in amateur radio.

73, si VKY.