ARRL CW

with the addition of the OP-DES 14mhz yagi installed, I would put an entry in the ARRL DX CW 2017 contest. Single band entry 20mtr's Un-assisted as per the rules and high power.

I started on Saturday at 1100z.
the first hour went slow, but as expected. 1200z and the sun was shining on NA east coast and signals were getting stronger.
things started to pick up and so did the pace. from 1300z the rate meter never dropped below 60 Q's/Hr and for two hours it was over 100 Q's/Hr. I stopped at 1900z as the band was dropping out and signals becoming weaker.
I closed Saturday with 673 Qso's.

Sunday started slow and remained slow. very few Qso's being made. but it appeared that 15mtr's was busy. the A was up to 20 and the K was at 4 for most of the weekend.

I have done some RBN analysis for the 18/02/2017 using K1TTT.

you can see both peaks in the morning and the evening.

the shot below is from RBN sunday the 19th. really low at the start and peaked just after 1200z, but reasonable signal all the way through until I finished sunday afternoon.

some notes. i should have done longer in the chair on the Saturday.

after the weekend I was really happy with the innovantennas OP-DES 14mhz yagi.


73 simon.

 

 



14Mhz OP-DES Yagi Cont'd

Built and in the air, time to test the antenna with my MFJ259 antenna analyser.

Innov states 1.5:1 or better, well it is better, 1.1:1 across the whole of the 14Mhz band. cant get better than that.

for comparison I still have my cushcraft A3S antenna on another tower.
for the OP-DES yagi I ran 90meters of Messi & Paloni coax Ultraflex 10.  at 14mhz they state a loss of 1.4db per 100meters. if I had used RG213 then the loss would have been more than double of the messi and paloni coax. money does buy a db or two.

the tests I have done are not scientific but switching antennas and seeing what the S-meter says on my transceiver, K3S.
the OP-DES yagi out performs the A3S and the further away the station is the better it gets.
up to an S point or two better at times.
the front to back is amazing, upto 30db 5 S-points and the side rejection is also excellent.

one thing I have noticed from the A3S is, how quiet the OP-DES yagi is on Receive, upto an S point better. on a couple of occasions I cannot hear the station on the A3S but I could hear it on the OP-DES yagi.

Innov Antennas OP-DES

i recently brought an Innov Antennas OP-DES 14MHZ four element yagi with an 8.2Mtr boom.
OP-DES YAGI

fairly straight forward to put together, but i had to email Innov for a build sheet for element lenghts.

all tubing is aluminum, boom is aluminum square box, stainless tube clamps and nuts and bolts.
element placings along the boom are predrilled, but i did check to make sure i had them correct.

there is some theory behind the OP-DES design, ends of the driven element are bent 90degres towards the reflector. ill let justin tell you what its all about OP-DES THEORY

once i had the parts iddentified and placed on the floor it was just a matter of putting it together.

below, boom with start of elements

some more photos from my antenna build. As you can see it comes very well packaged.

All parts seperated and laid out on the floor.

First tubing added.

close up of the boom to element mounting detail.

driven element

boom jointing detail.

close up of the element clamping

end of the bent driven element. its insulated from the reflector. The insulator also adds support to the end of the driven element.

 

 

picture below shows a nearly finished yagi on a saw horse.

 

 

Finally built and on the tower.

 

more to follow.

 

 

 

 

 

Towermate

Towermate is a new design for your mast. it is a tilt plate that when you luff over your tower or mast the ariel stays parralel to the ground. this is good for easy maintanance, adjustment of yagis. more so when in high wind, just luff over and your antenna is about 6ft over ground.

it's locking device is automatic once up and in the vertical postion. once you start to luff over, the pendulem moves and unlocks itself.

take a look
Towermate

73 si.

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..