2011 RSGB IOTA CW contest

At around 1700 hours local time I set up my S9 31 foot vertical in the back yard with 16 radials. Had my station set up up outside on the patio about 50 feet from the antenna. My original plan was just to test out the OHR 100A on the vertical after having no success on the dipoles wrapped around my house.

Propagation was strong on 20 meters with lots of contest calls. Checked the contest calendars and discovered that this was the weekend of the RSGB 2011 IOTA! Decided to jump in to road test the new rig and keyer.

The OHR 100A was putting out about 3 watts. I spent the first few hours trying vainly to make a contact. Then finally made an IOTA contact with KU8E in Georgia! Followed that up with an IOTA contact with KL2AX in Alaska. Notched 12 other contest contacts including ZL1TM, EA8URL (Canary Ialands), W4S (Special Station in Florida) and W6UX on Anacapa Island off the coast of California.

By around 2300 local time, 20 meters had pretty closed down for me in Idaho.

Really enjoyed the contest and it was great to return to 20 meters after many years!

OHR 100A PK4 Keyer

Built and installed the PK4 keyer for the OHR 100A. Product works well. Many ways to customize and personalize it by programming it. The primary downside is that controls for the unit are located on the back side of the OHR 100A forcing the operator to grope around the back side of the xcvr to adjust the keyer speed and press the function button.

Fortunately, the unit works pretty well right out of the box. Looking forward to putting the keyer and xcvr to the test on the 2011 IOTA contest.

OHR 100A is completed

I completed the OHR 100A last week. The receive side of the rig worked fine right out of the gate, all I had to do was tweak the VFO (L114) to get it in range for the low end of 20m (14.020). Having no main station XCVR I used my trusty Hallicrafters SX-130 to find a station near the low end that I could also find on the OHR 100A.

On the transmit side, there appears to be a problem with either the wiring on my straight or with the straight key jack itself. May possibly have a cold solder joint on the key jack. I'll troubleshoot and resolve the issue this week.

I still need to build and install the OHR 100A keyer unit. Hope to get that done this week.

Can't wait to get active on 20m again. Propagation last night was very good. Heard stations from Russia, Estonia and Ukraine as well as Hawaii, Virginia and Cuba, all with just my simple dipole wrapped tightly around my house.

Also looking forward to seeing how my S9 tunes up on 20m.

OHR 100A progress update

Here's a look at my progress so far building the OHR 100A 20m xcvr.  Component placement has gone smoothly. 

Next phase is toroid winding, there are 9 toroids but most are simple. I don't anticipate any problems. 

My main concern is that the kit provides no interim testing along the way. So identifying issues after the entire board has been populated could be challenging. The kit simply instructs the builder to install all resistors first, then capacitors, then transistors, etc. 

There are two other build phases to this lit: 

   - component placement for the 20 meter band pack

   - the build for the electronic keyer option

The photo below shows progress to-date installing components. 

   OHR 100A PCB partially populated

OHR 100A kit build report

Started installing components on the circuit board. Unfortunately, the kitting provides no information as to placement of components. Other kits I've done indicate where, for example, R105 is located. Having to individually identify the location each component is quite time-consuming.

Except for that, the build has gone smoothly so far. All resistors are installed.

I'm really looking forward to getting this rig on the air.