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.

Next kit project: OHR 100A 20m QRP CW XCVR

Although I really enjoy my NorCal 40A 40m CW QRP XCVR, I've been wanting to expand my operating horizons and be able to operate during more than night time hours. So I decided to build the Oak Hills Research 100A 20M QRP CW transceiver.

I opted for the the memory keyer as well as the 10-turn pot for finer tuning.

I had been considering the NorCal Sierra, and really liked its ability to accommodate multiple bands, but decided to go with the OHR 100A for a different kit building experience.

The rig operates in the 12-13.8V range which is perfect for the power sources I use.

Not sure if I will add the frequency counter, although it might be a good piece of gear to own since it serves as test gear too.

I'm hoping to receive the OHR 100A by June 25 and complete it by mid-July or so. Looking forward to operating 20M again, not to mention working with my S9 and trying other smaller antennas that I really can't erect at the house due to space restrictions.

S9 v31 vs. a dipole at 20 feet

I set up the S9 for a nighttime test comparison with one of my dipoles mounted about 20 feet up and touching my house. I was running my NorCal 40a on battery power. Skies were clear at about 65 degrees F. There was a fair amount of activity on 40 meters, conditions were good for a test.

The result? The vertical was, at least this time out, a superior performer. There was no comparison. The ground-mounted S9 v31 was significantly quieter and heard more signals as well. The other thing about the S9 is that signals are so strong I typically have to reduce my RF gain by 25-50% so my eardrums don't get blown out. It's amazing how much louder many signals are on the vertical vs. the dipole.

While comparing the two antennas,I worked Kevin, K7KHC, in Aberdeen, Washington using the vertical. Had a nice QSO but discovered that trying to use my key mounted on a clipboard was a bit awkward. Still need to optimize that set-up.

After that experiment I moved my NorCal 40, power supply and cables up to my second floor outside porch to enjoy the night sky and see if I could catch any DX. Right around 0500Z I chanced on ZL2AGY, Tony in New Zealand! He was in a QSO so I waited till they finished, but was unable to contact him. Not sure if my signal was not getting out strongly enough or whether he had gone QRT. Anyway it was great to hear propagation working so well into Moscow, Idaho for my S9.

I hope to receive my new radial plate this coming week and am interested to learn whether it will improve the strength of my transmissions. My current radial plate is nothing more than a plumbing fixture with some paint scraped off so the screws and wires all make good contact. Not optimal.

It was great sitting out under the stars, tuning around just by feel. The NorCal 40a has no display so I was able to sit in total darkness, watch up at the sky and tune quietly around the CW portion of 40m. Any time I needed to write, I just clicked on my Petzl headlamp with the red filter on to minimize getting blinded. Worked great.

Looking forward to many more evening sessions like this.

S9 v31 antenna report

Have used the S9 v31 for a few weeks now. Receive is excellent, seems much more quiet than my dipoles. But, although I have a good system of radials in place, still have trouble getting out. I believe it's caused by my radial plate. It's actually a piece of plumbing hardware using for sink for toilet mounting. My sense is that it's not all that conductive, plus its painted and I don't think I scraped off enough paint around the screw holes to make good contact with the screws connected to the ground wire from the unun and the ground wires themselves. Will replace it with a better plate shortly.

The antenna itself is quite easy to put together and get on the air. I painted numbers on the clips that hold the telescoping sections in place. Avoids the problem of putting them on in the wrong order. I swapped out the nuts that came with the unun for wing nuts, which minimizes the need for tools.

The only tool needed now is a hook to pull the wire out of the telescoping tube during assembly. The S9 came with a rug hook tool which has a dangerously sharp tip. I replaced it with a crochet hook which does a fine job, weighs less and has no sharp point.

The only other drawback to my current setup is the fact that the radials are in a 180 degree pattern because the antenna is just a few feet from the wide of the house. This distorts the signal pattern, but there is no room to spread radials a full 360 degrees.

Vertical Antenna Research

I have not been on the air much since my last post in February 2011. During that time I've been researching vertical antenna theory and practice and have decided to see how much better I might be able to do switching from my homebrew dipoles to a quarter-wave vertical. There is a lot of good material to read. I've spent time reading Jerry Sevick articles and his book on short vertical antennas. I've also been downloading articles from the QST archives, a fabulous source of theory and practice. Lastly, Rudy Severns, N6LF, has a great web site on antennas which has been a huge source of information.

I have laid in a 180 degree network of 20, 25-foot radials buried about an inch or so in the soil on the back side of my house. I've ordered an S9v31 vertical. Although I have learned from my reading and study that there is likely to be signal loss using a 180 degree radial pattern (vs. a 360 degree radial pattern) there is not much I can do about that since I have almost no yard and there are restrictions on what I can put up in terms of antennas. My plan is to only put the antenna up at night when it cannot be seen. As it is, the antenna will be mounted on the back side of the house and will likely be all but invisible from the front of the house since the roof peak should hide just about all its length.

There has been a delay in receiving the S9 antenna because S9 was recently sold to LDG Electronics. S9 is selling the antenna through Cheap Ham who appears to be having difficulty shipping S9 orders.

I'm very excited to see what kind of improvement I may get using the vertical over my current dipoles which are literally wrapped around my house about 20 feet up, a height which greatly reduces their effectiveness and radiation angle. I hope that with the S9 vertical, I will get good low angle radiation and a reduction in losses in radiation since the antenna is not touching the house as the dipoles are. Plus, the vertical will be facing northwest primarily, which, combined with its low angle radiation, should theoretically skip signals over northern latitudes in a way my dipoles cannot currently.

I hope to report back in the next week or so.

200 Meters & Down - the importance of spectrum defense

I just finished reading Clinton DeSoto's 200 Meters & Down. This is a fabulous early history of amateur radio from its very earliest days to the mid-1930s.

What struck me most about the book was the number of times amateur radio was saved from being elbowed off the bands often through the considerable efforts of the ARRL and its precursors. In some ways, the title says it all. By "limiting" operations of early amateur radio enthusiasts to 200 meters and down the US government hoped to so discourage them that they would simply give up and go away. At the time it was believed radio propagation in the range of 200 meters and down was about non-existent, so enamored was everyone of the much longer wavelengths. In the end, hams proved everyone wrong (of course).

Even so, amateurs rights to operate were and continue to be under siege. In the 1920s and 30s non-US governments feared the freedom amateur radio operators had to communicate at will worldwide. They sought to all but box radio amateurs out of the radio spectrum. We're not talking about communist regimes here. The governments of Great Britain, France and other european nations were the main instigators! Fortunately for amateur radio, influences from the US carried the day.

Wondering what all the fuss is about regarding spectrum defense? This book makes it clear that almost from day one, amateur radio has had to continually contend with both domestic and overseas governments to maintain access to the airwaves, despite the positive impact amateur radio operators have had since the earliest days whether in the military, emergencies, education or advancing the art and craft of radio.

If you really want to understand the early evolution of amateur radio, read 200 Meters & Down. It's a great read, full of fascinating insights and surprising stories.

Highly recommended.

2010 CQ WW CW contest update

More DX success this morning during the 2010 CQ WW contest. I worked ZL8X (New Zealand), my farthest DX to-date (over 7200 miles by Great Circle. Also worked several Hawaii contesters.

My 2010 CQ WW CW contest station

Although I only notched two contacts I consider this a great result
for two reasons. First: it was the first real- world test of my just-
completed Elecraft T1 antenna tuner. It worked great! I can say that
because, second, I worked JA1DLE (Japan)! By Great Circle that's 4786
miles. Not bad for 3 watts into a humble dipole wrapped around my
house roofline.

I began the contest at 0000Z at my operating position in the garage.
It's been quite cold this past week, -10 on Wednesday, and in the 20s
on Saturday. After several hours it became a bit too cold to operate
in the garage, so I shifted upstairs into the house.

There, with assistance from my XYL, I quickly rigged up an indoor
dipole and set up my station in the spare bedroom.

Indoor antennas rarely outperform those outside and this was no
exception (either that or 40m condx had deteriorated in the late
evening to where I was hearing almost no signals).

I went QRT till Saturday AM when I returned to my original operating
position using my bent dipole at about 20 feet.

At 0200Z Saturday I fired up my trusty NorCal 40a and immediately
heard plenty of activity on 40m.

Plenty of action from the Pacific including China, Australia, New
Zealand, Hawaii and Japan.

I hailed each station calling but received no responses. Maybe I
hadn't done as good a job as I thought building the T1.

Then, at around 0330Z I heard JA1DLE calling CQ Test. I
responded...nothing. He responded to many callers. I called
again...nothing. I called again. JA1DLE sent .._ _..

I quickly sent my call. Nothing.

I called again. Again JA1DLE sent an uncertain .._ _..

I responded again with my call, but a bit slower.

JA1DLE responded: N7RCS 5NN 25

Contact! 5NN 3

Wow, the magic of Amateur radio. A faint, 3w signal shoots skyward
from my Idaho roof edge, along the way it gets stripped down to a
microwatt or two, then skips twice off the ionosphere and briefly
connects two radio stations 4786 miles apart.

All accomplished with gear made by my own hands: transceiver, antenna
tuner, antenna, feedline, and key.

Powerful.

Elecraft T1: Construction update

Had contacted Elecraft tech support about a problem with a resistor reading. Couldn't get the component to read the expected resistance. Elecraft said some DMMs have problems reading component values in circuits with semiconductors. They advised to press on with construction. Their advice proved correct.

I completed assembly this evening!

- Ran final tests on the unit at my "bench". (Had to move upstairs from the garage as outside temperatures were hovering around 0F.) T1 checked out fine.
- Moved down to the garage. Connected T1 to a dummy load and ran additional tests. All checked out fine.
- Connected T1 to my dipole and NorCal 40A.
- Ran tests. All checked out fine.
- Antenna tuned and was putting out 2-3 watts, as expected.

Unfortunately, 40m band conditions were not good this evening. So, I'll be on early Thanksgiving morning to see if conditions have improved to make my QSO with the new tuner.

My plan is to participate in this weekend's CQ WW CW contest which starts Friday at 0000Z.

Latest project: Elecraft T1 ATU

This small kit has proven to be a pretty good challenge. As always, it's all about technique.

I need an antenna tuner to make my 40m dipole useful. Since it's "mounted" as a loop wrapped around my house, and since I'm trying to maintain a low-profile with my amateur radio operating, I don't want to spend a lot of time climbing up and down ladders to make adjustments by physically trimming or bending the dipole to tune it.

The T1 is a great solution since its small, portable and automatic.

The kit only has a small number of parts, but they are tightly packed on two boards. Thankfully, Elecraft provides an excellent assembly manual with good photos of the PCBs. Still the control board is so tiny my Panavise can barely hold it.

The kit includes several toroids and although winding them is not too difficult, tinning and installing them was a challenge. My technique was to place the soldering iron, a 25w Weller, against the wire and apply solder. This technique seems to make the leads brittle. In some cases the leads would snap off as I bent them during installation.

Trying to fit them onto the board took some finesse as they are spaced pretty close together. One toroid had board space for a single toroid, but the assembly manual called for a double toroid (two glued together). I managed to fit in on, but just barely.

The first set of tests when fine, everything checked out fine. When I got to the second set of tests (near the end of assembly) I discovered what may be a bad capacitor (C19). So, at this point I'm at a standstill till Elecraft responds to my weekend email.

Elecraft tech support has been great. Very responsive.

I was hoping to complete the TR1 last Friday, but soon realized it would take longer. My goal was to finish in time to compete in a weekend contest. Ah well.

If all goes well, Elecraft will have a replacement part to me this week so I can get back on the air this coming weekend.

My first ARRL CW Sweepstakes

I had a blast! The last time I participated in a contest was the 1970's as a Novice! (Remember the old annual Novice Round-up contests?) This time around I was operating QRP on 40m and managed to notch 39 contacts. Not bad for my first effort and only operating for a few hours.

I really appreciate what a great little rig my NorCal 40A is. The keyer worked flawlessly and made it possible for me to keep up with the Big Dogs with speed if not with power. I worked 20 states, including Alaska, Florida and Maine.

My goal for the 2011 CW Sweepstakes is 100 contacts. I still plan to run QRP, but I'm hoping to be active on more than just 40 kHz of 40 meters.

A new project and a new distance record

I recently built an SWR meter but soon realized that without an antenna tuner to straighten out high SWR my signals were not going far. So, my next project is the Elecraft T1 QRP auto-tuner. I've been using a loaner MFJ 940 from N7CE which has made a huge difference in my signal.

Last evening I worked KH6MB in Hawaii on 7023 MHz at 0240Z, my longest distance QRP QSO to date: 2869 miles (Great Circle calculation). My previous best had been a QRP QSO with W5EIY in Enid, Oklahoma on 24 October 2010 on 7048 MHz at 0430Z.

I hope to receive the T1 in the next few days. It should only take a few days to build it. I downloaded the operator and assembly manuals last evening. So, I'll be ready to start on the kit arrives.

The other cool thing is that I'm beginning to receive QSL cards again! That got me thinking about my old QSL cards, so I got my old cards out from back in the 1970s which brought back a lot of fond memories of my Novice days as WN2MFW. Great times! Going through the cards made me decide to join the QCWA.

The impact of SWR on QRP

Although I've had my NorCal 40A on the air for several weeks now, I've only rarely made contacts and began to realize that I probably had to investigate the antenna side of the equation.

I spoke with Ron, N7CE, about it and he offered to let me use his tuner/SWR/watt meter. I had built a watt meter but had yet to use it. Ron stopped by at work and was good enough to loan me his MFJ-904 unit. Yesterday evening I hooked the 904 up to my NorCal 40A and immediately realized that the reason for my meager list of QSOs was extremely high SWR, on the order of 3+:1. I'm lucky I didn't damage the 40A considering how high the SWR has been.

With the antenna and transmitter now well tuned my SWR dropped to about 1.2:1 and I could see that my power out was now just above 3w. Nice. That's what it should be.

At about 0100Z I heard a CQ from NW6R (outside Sacramento, CA) and responded. Web and I had a 20-minute QSO! Great Circle distance from his QTH to mine is about 625 miles, that's about twice my previous record with the 40A during a brief QSO into Pocatello, ID a few weeks ago.

I like the display on the MFJ-904 because it's possible to know both power out and SWR. And the unit is well built. Other comparably built units feature only indicator lights so you know when you're tuned, but there is no indication of power out or true SWR.

First NAQCC Sprint

Now that I've got my NorCal 40A on the air, I decided to try my first contest: the NAQCC Sprint which ran 0030Z - 0230Z this evening. There was one change to the frequencies due to a PJ DXpedition expected to cause QRM near QRP freqs. Unfortunately the shift to 0710 and up, left me out in the cold since my 40A only covers 7023-7066. Undaunted, I left work early to get home in time to join the fun.

40M was in good shape until about 0100Z at which point QRN went through the roof. It appered to be some kind of environmental noise as it started with a distinct "click." Regardless, I pressed on. Mostly listening through the QRN and occasionally sending my CQ NA. 90 minutes later I called it quits - QRN was just too much.

Came out to talk with the XYL and told her I didn't make any contacts because QRN was too intense on 40M. Mentioned it was odd how QRN seemed to switch on very suddenly. She suggested that maybe it was the lights. (We had installed these IKEA track lights ourselves some weeks ago.) I decided to see if perhaps my QRN source might be the lights. Fired the 40A up again, heard the QRN as usual. Had the XYL shut off the track lights ... presto! QRN disappeared!!

So, even though I had no success on the NAQCC Sprint, I did learn that I need to make sure the track lights are off when I'm on the air. I guess it was all worth it.

40A is on the air!

Although I completed my NorCal 40A several weeks ago, I discovered that while the receive section worked great, I had no output on the transmit side. Took it to work for N7CE to look at on an o-scope and discovered that I appeared to have a cold solder joint on a JFET. Removed and reinstalled the JFET, but still no output.

Then, through pure serendipity I discovered the K9YA Telegraph newsletter. The sample issue I read from 2008 had a brief review from K9PL who had just built the 40A. Interestingly, upon completing his kit he had the same issue I did: great receive but out output. He rewound T1 and, voila! All was well. On the strength of that suggestion I uninstalled, rewound and reinstalled T1 in my 40A and...voila! I scored a QSO on my first call with W0WN in Pocatello, ID. A few minutes later I had a nice chat with KE7LKW in White Salmon, WA.

So, finally I'm off and running. I plan to participate in my first QRP contest on Tuesday: the NAQCC Sprint. Can't wait!

What makes Ham Radio such a great hobby

I recently finished building a QRP xcvr which worked great on the receive side but had no output. I did the best troubleshooting I could do with the simple tools and skills I had (I'm not an engineer), but still was unable to resolve the problem. I exchanged several emails with QRP Bob from Wilderness Radio. He was fabulous and got me thinking about how to identify the problem. My problem was that I lacked the proper tools and expertise.

After many days,  I realized I had hit a wall.

It was time to put a call out to the hams at the Palouse Hills Amateur Radio Club, where I'm a member. In less than 24 hours I had several offers for help. In the end Ron, N7CE, hooked my rig hooked up to an oscilloscope to diagnose the problem. It appeared to be a faulty JFET just after the xmit mixer section. I removed the JFET to confirm it was defective, but it seemed fine when tested outside the circuit. Ron reinserted the JEFT onto the circuit board and tested again. The JFET and rig worked fine! Apparently it was a cold solder joint. Problem solved.

This was a great experience, but not just because the problem was resolved. In the bargain I learned a bit more about how to troubleshoot these kinds of problems, discovered I had done a pretty good job building the kit (just had one bad solder!), realized I need a better multimeter on my bench, built an RF probe and QRP watt meter as part of my efforts to troubleshoot the problem.

Now I can't wait to log my first contact on my new rig. Not to mention that I can't wait to take on my next project.

And those are just some of things that make Ham Radio such a great hobby.