New licence
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Β What can I tell about this season. It started reasonable well. Then things happened, or did not happen. Only 4 new DXCC on 6m and 3 new ones on 4m this season is a lot worse compared to previous years. I also didn't spend a lot of time on the radio compared to previous years.
The season started on the 14th of May for me with a QSO to Chile on 6m. CE4WJK was worked in very strong propagation to South America. QSO confirmed on LoTW.
2 June: I worked Italy IZ0TTG on 4m as expected. Not shure if Italy had legal access to 4m at that time. I worked IZ0TTG on SSB. QSO confirmed on eQSL.
9 June: propagation went to the west. St. Vincent J88IH was worked on 6m. QSO confirmed on LoTW.
So far this was the end of the ES season for me on 6m and 4m. Due to private circumstances I was not able to be on the radio monitoring much. So, there might be DX I missed. But what I heard from others is that propagation was very bad in the last 2 months. Something that has been occured before at the sunspot maximum. However, winter could have F2 surprises for us...
Anyway, a well known 11m yagi was the ZX-5ITB, a kind of short 5 elementΒ yagi. I found one on the internet for sale about 22 years ago.Β At that time I had big plans for towers and big antennas. I could get it for a nice price and aquired the antenna which was way too big for my tower at that moment. The guy that sold it to me told me it was a 5ITB converted to 10m. Well, I never had this antenna into the tower, it was stored in my garage while other antennas got into the tower. I now thought it was finally time to see if the antenna was still complete and take a measure with an analyzer to see what part of the 10m band it was tuned for.
At first I found a construction manual for the 5ITB but unfortunately it was incomplete. I decided to just put everything together since everything was color coded and pre-drilled. It went well and SWR measurement followed.
I now know everything is in working order. Had to store it in the garage again of course so had to dismantle everything. The antenna is for sale. Not shipping it. β¬150. If interested write me an e-mail. You can find the e-mail address via QRZ.com.
If anyone knows the correct measures for the ZX-5ITB ? Please let me know...
Β Here I am again with the results ;-)
If possible I try to decode some morse on the radio. A beacon I heard was very low signal on 10m. Had to listen a couple of times before I could get the complete text.
YM7TEN/B KN91RB KN91RB PWR1W YM7TEN/B as heard with signal RST 313 on 28.225 at 29 August. Stations that call or make QSOs have been heard but it is all gibberish to me, sending way to fast and to me it is like they don't have any pause between the letters. I really wonder how someone is able to decode???
I lived in a very small house and some of the work has to be done just in my living room. Living alone at that time I didn't care. Outside was also small, all work had to be done on a few square meters.Β
According to the building guide the antenna was fed by a balun. Detailed drawings and descriptions were found.Β
This antenna was mounted first on a short pole to test and tune it.Β
I didn't really care what people in the neighbourhood would think of it :-). I can tell that in this (low) position I made a QSO with a station from Indonesia, my report was 59+. I was happy with the result. But of course it should be in the tower. For that I got some help from a friend and his wife. Otherwise I couldn't get the tower up, it was too heavy.
Β Just ended our vacation (holiday) in Denmark. We have been on North Sealand, about 60km north of Copenhagen. Of course we visited Copenhagen, the little mermaid and Amalienborg. Well, we are not used to city live and it was all too crowded for us, but at least we can tell we have been there. We rented some bikes so we went outside the tourist zone as well. Found this very nice wall painting near a school. Of course we visited a lot of other places as well. Denmark is a beautiful country.Β
Β Upon request from my XYL I didn't bring a radiostation with me. But you know me, I have to bring some kind of radio. This time the Tecsun PL-365 shortwave receiver. I't tiny and even fits in your pocket.
Β I only tried it inside the summerhouse we rented. Some stations have been heard on 20m and 40m. I only listened to CW which is in line with my current CW learning curve. Most stations are sending way too fast and all I can pick up are random letters. I only logged one Italian station on 14010KHz CW at 12:49UTC he was callling CQ CQ DE IZ4EKI IZ4EKI K. I had to listen very carefully since I could hardly detect any spacing between te letters. Although I think he was sending about 12wpm. After the 4th time CQ I think I had his call. At least one little success.
Β The only HAMradio antenna I saw this vacation was in Frederiksvaerk, just a few kilometers from our summerhouse. Very nice setup on a large tower. Unable to find the call of this HAM, he's not on QRZ.com as far as I could find.
Β I obtained this cubical quad antenna late nineties of last century. It belonged to Erik PA7V long before he became a licensed radio amateur. Erik is still living near to me and active but we don't hear each other much.
I wrote about this antenna before in one of my first posts on this blogΒ in 2008. The Avanti PDL2 is a well known 11m antenna. After installation I worked some incredible DX with it. Recently I rediscovered some old photos which were long forgotten but for some unknown reason stored on my dads computer. Why and how this happened cannot be asked because he died little over a week ago. Anyway, I want to share them with you on this blog. Photos are taken in 2001, 23 years ago.
PDL2 before assembly |
Assembling the PDL2, notice my shack in the back |
Assembling the PDL2 |
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Heard a lot of complaints about the new superfox mode. Lots of trouble when there is QRM on the fox frequency. So far I did not hear K8R anywhere although I was very curious about this new superfox transmission. I got a tip from PB7Z today that K8R had a big signal on 15m. So I thought I give it a try. I quickly installed the newest WSJT-X beta version (rc6) and gave a couple of calls. You see, third time it was no problem at all. K8R indeed had a big signal here on the experimental squalo.
Β This 3 band "7 element" yagi has an important advantage. It has no coils or lineair loading. It is full size with a moxon as the 20m part.
This antenna would do quite good in my tower. However, I find it too big and too heavy (20kg). But I would like to see how things are constructed and do an overhaul because some parts seem to be damaged and/or worn. I started with cleaning everything today since the color of most of the parts were brown and green and that was no paint!
I quickly took this photo after the cleaning. It started to rain so no further progress was made. I found a heavily worn tube which I will replace. Like the previous EA VHF 3 band antenna I rebuilt there are parts made from POM which are getting brittle. Moxon isolators seems to be glasfiber which was not protected by tape, coating or paint, they seem to be usable but I wil certainly wrap them with tape. Hopefully the weather will improve a little this summer...
Β Reading this very useful and detailed post from fellow blogger KA7OEI.Β
https://ka7oei.blogspot.com/2024/06/reducing-qrm-interference-from-renogy.html
I extended my solar energy production with 5 extra solarpanels a while ago. It really was a bargain getting these as I bought the 260Wp panels at a cost of β¬50 (β¬10 per panel) from a colleague. The inverter was searched for on the dutch internet marketplace and I bought one for another β¬50. Most of the costs were the mounting rails, wiring and the #31 ferrite to make shure no RFI would reach my antennas. The last items were an additional β¬300.Β
The open line of the inverted-V doublet is just about 1,5 meter above the solarpanels. I even got a quarter wave CB antenna near the panels to listen to some chats on CB when in the garage. I really did take all precautions to make shure I would not have any RF coming from the inverter or the panels. On the pic at the right you see that I used big #31 FT240 ferrite rings in both AC and DC lines. The earth wire is fitted with a big #31 snap-on ferrite. DC wires are mostly fitted in earthed Alu tubes were possible. Everything is earthed to a central earth point, the tubes, the mounting frames and the inverter.
At the left a pic from the Alu tubing used. Yes, it is made of old antenna left overs. I always use what I have at hand. I seldom throw away scrap Alu tubing. Over the years I collected some ;-).For Dutch readers it could be interesting to read the Dutch Telecom recommendation:
https://www.rdi.nl/onderwerpen/tips/voorkom-storingen-door-zonnepanelen
Well, I don't have any RFI from my own solarsystems. I see QRM in the waterfall of my IC-7300 from my neighbours solarsystem on 50MHz. Just to be shure it isn't my own I checked when I switch my own systems off. Of course there was no change, the QRM stays there and is not from my property for shure. Luckily the QRM is only there when I turn my beam over their house.
The EA642ZB7, at the background my tower... |
Β I finished the EA642ZB7 for now. Not completely satisfied about the construction. But it is certainly a lot better compared to the build originally. This is a very small 3 band antenna. Ideal for someone that hasn't much room around the house. I think the 50MHz and 70MHz part will be working great. 145MHz will be less efficient compared to a monoband beam. But hey, when you haven't got the space it is good enough. You will not notice that 1 or 2dB less.
When I look at the picture at the right I realize now that it looks like I have a gigantic beam halfway my tower when you look at it from a distance. Imagine....
Originally I think the 50mm mast clamp is mounted right at the boom. I didn't like the idea of just one mast clamp, the manufacturer did of course because it is cost effective. I did make my own with 2x 50mm mast clamps. By the way, I've only used scrap aluminium from old antenna projects in this "upgrade". I'm not intending to keep this antenna for my own but sell it to someone that is really interested in it.
I mentioned the balun earlier. Personally I would use better coax on it. But since the PL chassis seems to be glued into the alu tube I can't replace it. The coax used is RG58 and there are 11 windings on the tube which has a diameter of about 20mm. And yes, it is mounted with ty-raps, that's the way also described in the manual.
SWR/resonance is good on all bands. Initially SWR on 70MHz was best at almost 72MHz. Bending the 70MHz open sleeve "dipole" ends towards the 50MHz dipole corrected this a lot. SWR on 145 is at best 1,5:1. Could get better when the antenna is mounted free and at height.
Some pics:
2m resonance point? |
Remote Ham Radio in the USA has opened their FT8/FT4 skimmer for all 31 locations to the public for free.
The picture on the left shows some mods on the boom. Radials are all cleaned. Ready to mount everything.
I called John with CW on the computer. John came back to me....then my computer/radio locked on TX. A moment of panic followed. The only thing I could do was switch off the radio since even the TX off button didn't do anything. Trying to shut down all software and switch back the radio on didn't do the trick, radio did still transmit. In the end I got it back on receive and John was still calling. I had to try with the paddle. Unfortunately I had the radio set on "full break in" which was not really what I wanted. But at the time John came back to me I was shaking to much and decided to make the best of it. I tried to send "TU JOHN" but the paddle didn't do what I wanted, or was it my brain? At least I could send him a standard 599 report and the 73 sign so it is a valid contact. I'm sorry for the inconvenience John, if you read this, it was not what I wanted for my first real CW QSO. But at least it is valid...
I guess the design is ok, but the mechanical strength of this antenna is not that good. It is obviously designed to fit in a small box with as few parts as possible. Costs might also be playing a role. First of all the isolation between te dipole halves is probably made of POM which is not really UV resistant. I personally prefer PTFE, it is UV resistant, heat resistant and water resistant. Disadvantage of PTFE is that it is not as hard as POM, at least the PTFE 10mm rod I have. Well you see what happened to the dipole of this antenna...it did get brittle and snapped. The challenge is to repair everything and make a stronger antenna that will last.
It was the first thing I wanted to repair. I thought it would be the most difficult part to remake. But in the end it was easy. I just drilled a 10mm hole through the old center part and pushed the new PTFE rod in. As you can see it looks pretty well.
The antenna was still assembled and I know why. The stainless steel bolts have been mounted without greasing them first. There was nothing on the antenna connections to protect it from nature elements either. Stainless steel and aluminium are not the best friends and so everything was heavily corroded and very difficult to remove. I had to apply brute force to remove everything and even had to drill out one bolt. Results in the photo, these are aluminium connecting pieces to connect the half 6m and 4m elements together inside the boom.