It's about timing
Ham radio is alive and well in V4 land, moving forward, but maybe slower than some of us would like. All hams are not unemployed like I am. Don't for a moment assume that this means that I can sit in front of the radio 24/7, because I wish, but that never happens. The XYL has been around for the last 36 years so she know the Ham schedules and I can't use that excuse to escape any chores. Besides that she enjoys the hobby just as much as I do, and now that the license is 'no code' I expect that she will go after that ham ticket soon. Then, after all these years, I may finally be able to get a rig in the bedroom.
The between blogs activity was fast and furious. I installed a 20-meter top and bottom loaded vertical dipole antenna, but have not tested it on any DX as yet. Someone left me a nine [9] foot piece of air conditioning copper tubing in my garbage bin. I hope that the person has more copper tubing to throw away and remembers the address of my garbage bin again. Maybe I should just hang a 'dump your copper pipe here' sign on my fence.
The calculations for the 20-meter top and bottom loaded vertical dipole are [a] 8.66 feet, for the 1/8th wavelength vertical section. 984/8 = 123/14.2 = 8.66197 feet, and [b] 24.29 feet, for the top and bottom loading wires. 468/14.2 = 32.95-8.66 = 24.29 feet. The whole antenna from tip to tip is a half wave long, only 32.95 feet. Pretty simple to compute, and even easier to build. 5/8-inch copper tubing is not self supporting like aluminum, but that is no challenge that a 15-foot length of 2x3 lumber and bungee cords can't fix.
After a quick frequency run and the loading wires shortened the resonant frequency was near 14.210 mHz with a 6 foot piece of coax cable across the feed point. The solenoid balun is standard on all my vertical dipole antennas. I don't play around with RF on the outsde of the feedline. I found a 45-foot long piece of coax cable, wound 17 turns starting from one end around a 4.5-inch PVC pipe, and passed the other end of the cable through a window to the rig, and I was good to go, on the air. Some time ago I found out that the arbitrary length of coax cable feed line between the transmitter and the antenna that is recommended by some "writers" does not work for me. So I am using even multiples of a half wavelength at the operating frequency for all my feed lines, and that works great for me. No RF anywhere else but in the antenna.
I am developing two eight spokes loading devices using a regular parasol umbrella frame as the wire support. This will allow me to use regular electric wire, 1.5mm or #18 or #26, or whatever is available. This should also make the vertical dipole antenna portable. Now that I think about it, using a good umbrella with fabric should work even better, as the wires can rest on top of the fabric and improve stealth to 101%. The large 9-foot umbrellas would be even better for a beach type stealthy operation.
After that great start in March, I was in the hospital for a week. I got cut accidentally, not from ham radio, and went to Emergency. After the treatment I was detained because my blood pressure was high. They released me after a week. So I am home recuperating and taking my medication to normalize the hypertension. I also have to spend quality time resting, so my 80 meter night time DXing activity is suspended. However, I plan to consult with my kids to learn how to be "up all night and sleep all day". That is the way of the youths today.
My faithful TS940SAT gave me a scare yesterday morning. In the middle of a 40-meter QSO the speaker went dead, the display flashed and went to all dots. Resetting the power switch a few times did not bring back the display or sound, so I just left it at that. Some seven [7] hours later I was passing through the shack and switched on the rig just to see what would happen. The display came on [no dots] but no sound from the speak. After a few hard taps with a screwdriver handle I got audio, and it has been working ever since. I believe that I can do without this drama, to quote the young people, and will begin to prepare for the next TS940SAT hiccup, by placing another rig on the operating table beside it. The thousand dollar question is now which rig is capable of making it onto my operating table?
For my answer I will consult the latest Sherwood engineering receiver data table, peruse the data and arrive at a conclusion. I am not going to take any time out to see what personal and subjective views or reviews may exist on other websites. After I create my short list of no more than five [5] rigs, I will create a dossier for each rig with all the modification data that Google searches can reveal. No rig comes off the production line bug free, and one should know a bit more about the product than what the 'non technical' operators have to say. Even before I go to check with Bob Sherwood, I know that Elecraft K3 and Ten-Tec Orion 1, Orion 2 and Omni 7, were in the top ten [10] from 2008. Over the last few years I have developed a bias for the US made rigs, and it has nothing to do with Clinton, Bush or Obama.
I have used a TS940SAT since 1995 and it has served me well. Luckily for me I can have the rig serviced inside a week, right here on the island by a ham operator who has all the tools, test instruments and replacement parts to keep the gear in spec. After 24 years TS940 circuit boards are still available on eBay at reasonable prices. Not so for many other rigs. So the TS940SAT is a great performer, but it is 100% unportable. If you move it from point A to point B, it may not function properly, or not at all, when you get it to point B. So it is best left alone on the operating table where it will sit majestically, and in my case work year in and year out, putting 150 watts into my coax cable.
Operating from home is great but more ham radio fun can be derived from operating around and about the island. It should be a lot of fun working low band DX from the beaches on the North, East and West side of the island at sunrise and sunset. The setup is pretty simple, since the top and bottom loaded vertical dipole is the ideal antenna for this type of 40-meter or 80-meter DX operation. The antennas can be made for this portable operation from aluminum tubing. The vertical section for the 40-meter antenna is only 17.5-feet long and the vertical section for the 80-meter antenna is only 32-feet long. You can stand the vertical antenna tubing off the ground on a plastic or beer bottle, or get a 5-foot long piece of PVC pipe or lumber, or whatever can insulate the antenna, and keep it up in the air from 5 to 15-feet above the ground. All my fixed sation antennas here sit above the 6-foot chain link fence, on pvc, plastic and rubber insulated 2x4 lumber. So the portable antenna is no problem.
For the portable operation a 12 volt rig is to be preferred. It can run from the car battery or any other 12 volt DC power source, with or without an emergency standby plant. This rules out the TS940 and all non 12 volt powered rigs. There are many 12 volt rigs on the market, with some preowned ones ones going quite cheap. I believe that DX stations like ours need to have the best receiver possible for obvious reasons. I have created a Google map showing the hams in V4 land. Search google maps for "v44kf", then click on "my saved places" and zoom in to view. Be advised that this is a work in progress and I am not responsible if it does not work right. My closest ham neighbour is about 100 yards away. When these hams are operating on the same band on SSB, you need a receiver with better than average selectivity and specs to hear the DX. I believe that the receivers that make it into the top 10 on the Sherwood test data table will adequately fill my DX needs.
Selectivity is not all though. We live in a hurricane zone and ham radio operators form part of the National Security system of our country, to wit, emergency communications. In a worst case scenario I could be called upon to establish and maintain communications links with foreign and overseas agencies, on land, sea or air. The communications equipment the agencies use are not amateur ham radio grade equipment, but commercial grade equipment that comply with the NTIA standard. No amateur HF equipment out of the box, except the Kachina KC-103 and KC-105CTX meets this NTIA standard. The Yaesu FT-817 can be compliant with an option. There are also many brands of HF radio equipment on the market today that can fill the needs of the radio amateur operator. For example, many marine radios also cover the ham radio frequencies. Most, if not all, marine radios HF and VHF are NTIA compliant, because they are used for serious commercial communications, not amateur chit chat. An increasing number of hams are using commercial HF radio equipment for their ham radio hobby. I believe this is the way to go, given the direction of global economy, politics, etc. Most top-of-the-line ham rig makers also provide a TCXO option for NTIA compliance. I notice that even with the TCXO option some Icom and Yaesu rigs don't make NTIA compliance. Bottom line, I need a frequency stable rig that can also meet the NTIA standard to esure that I can communicate effectively with any other internal or external agency, in the event of a national emergency or disater in V4 land.
From a quick look at the sherwood test data table it seems that the US rig makers are still at the top of the charts with the Elecraft and Ten-Tec products that can both fill my need and fit my budget. It looks like a difficult choice, but given the prevailing global economic situation I may go for the most cost effective rig. In the final analysis it may not be about cost but quality and reliability, as a good preowned marine and commercial HF radio may be actually more cost effective than a brand new amateur radio transceiver. The jury is going to be out on this one for a while.
The between blogs activity was fast and furious. I installed a 20-meter top and bottom loaded vertical dipole antenna, but have not tested it on any DX as yet. Someone left me a nine [9] foot piece of air conditioning copper tubing in my garbage bin. I hope that the person has more copper tubing to throw away and remembers the address of my garbage bin again. Maybe I should just hang a 'dump your copper pipe here' sign on my fence.
The calculations for the 20-meter top and bottom loaded vertical dipole are [a] 8.66 feet, for the 1/8th wavelength vertical section. 984/8 = 123/14.2 = 8.66197 feet, and [b] 24.29 feet, for the top and bottom loading wires. 468/14.2 = 32.95-8.66 = 24.29 feet. The whole antenna from tip to tip is a half wave long, only 32.95 feet. Pretty simple to compute, and even easier to build. 5/8-inch copper tubing is not self supporting like aluminum, but that is no challenge that a 15-foot length of 2x3 lumber and bungee cords can't fix.
After a quick frequency run and the loading wires shortened the resonant frequency was near 14.210 mHz with a 6 foot piece of coax cable across the feed point. The solenoid balun is standard on all my vertical dipole antennas. I don't play around with RF on the outsde of the feedline. I found a 45-foot long piece of coax cable, wound 17 turns starting from one end around a 4.5-inch PVC pipe, and passed the other end of the cable through a window to the rig, and I was good to go, on the air. Some time ago I found out that the arbitrary length of coax cable feed line between the transmitter and the antenna that is recommended by some "writers" does not work for me. So I am using even multiples of a half wavelength at the operating frequency for all my feed lines, and that works great for me. No RF anywhere else but in the antenna.
I am developing two eight spokes loading devices using a regular parasol umbrella frame as the wire support. This will allow me to use regular electric wire, 1.5mm or #18 or #26, or whatever is available. This should also make the vertical dipole antenna portable. Now that I think about it, using a good umbrella with fabric should work even better, as the wires can rest on top of the fabric and improve stealth to 101%. The large 9-foot umbrellas would be even better for a beach type stealthy operation.
After that great start in March, I was in the hospital for a week. I got cut accidentally, not from ham radio, and went to Emergency. After the treatment I was detained because my blood pressure was high. They released me after a week. So I am home recuperating and taking my medication to normalize the hypertension. I also have to spend quality time resting, so my 80 meter night time DXing activity is suspended. However, I plan to consult with my kids to learn how to be "up all night and sleep all day". That is the way of the youths today.
My faithful TS940SAT gave me a scare yesterday morning. In the middle of a 40-meter QSO the speaker went dead, the display flashed and went to all dots. Resetting the power switch a few times did not bring back the display or sound, so I just left it at that. Some seven [7] hours later I was passing through the shack and switched on the rig just to see what would happen. The display came on [no dots] but no sound from the speak. After a few hard taps with a screwdriver handle I got audio, and it has been working ever since. I believe that I can do without this drama, to quote the young people, and will begin to prepare for the next TS940SAT hiccup, by placing another rig on the operating table beside it. The thousand dollar question is now which rig is capable of making it onto my operating table?
For my answer I will consult the latest Sherwood engineering receiver data table, peruse the data and arrive at a conclusion. I am not going to take any time out to see what personal and subjective views or reviews may exist on other websites. After I create my short list of no more than five [5] rigs, I will create a dossier for each rig with all the modification data that Google searches can reveal. No rig comes off the production line bug free, and one should know a bit more about the product than what the 'non technical' operators have to say. Even before I go to check with Bob Sherwood, I know that Elecraft K3 and Ten-Tec Orion 1, Orion 2 and Omni 7, were in the top ten [10] from 2008. Over the last few years I have developed a bias for the US made rigs, and it has nothing to do with Clinton, Bush or Obama.
I have used a TS940SAT since 1995 and it has served me well. Luckily for me I can have the rig serviced inside a week, right here on the island by a ham operator who has all the tools, test instruments and replacement parts to keep the gear in spec. After 24 years TS940 circuit boards are still available on eBay at reasonable prices. Not so for many other rigs. So the TS940SAT is a great performer, but it is 100% unportable. If you move it from point A to point B, it may not function properly, or not at all, when you get it to point B. So it is best left alone on the operating table where it will sit majestically, and in my case work year in and year out, putting 150 watts into my coax cable.
Operating from home is great but more ham radio fun can be derived from operating around and about the island. It should be a lot of fun working low band DX from the beaches on the North, East and West side of the island at sunrise and sunset. The setup is pretty simple, since the top and bottom loaded vertical dipole is the ideal antenna for this type of 40-meter or 80-meter DX operation. The antennas can be made for this portable operation from aluminum tubing. The vertical section for the 40-meter antenna is only 17.5-feet long and the vertical section for the 80-meter antenna is only 32-feet long. You can stand the vertical antenna tubing off the ground on a plastic or beer bottle, or get a 5-foot long piece of PVC pipe or lumber, or whatever can insulate the antenna, and keep it up in the air from 5 to 15-feet above the ground. All my fixed sation antennas here sit above the 6-foot chain link fence, on pvc, plastic and rubber insulated 2x4 lumber. So the portable antenna is no problem.
For the portable operation a 12 volt rig is to be preferred. It can run from the car battery or any other 12 volt DC power source, with or without an emergency standby plant. This rules out the TS940 and all non 12 volt powered rigs. There are many 12 volt rigs on the market, with some preowned ones ones going quite cheap. I believe that DX stations like ours need to have the best receiver possible for obvious reasons. I have created a Google map showing the hams in V4 land. Search google maps for "v44kf", then click on "my saved places" and zoom in to view. Be advised that this is a work in progress and I am not responsible if it does not work right. My closest ham neighbour is about 100 yards away. When these hams are operating on the same band on SSB, you need a receiver with better than average selectivity and specs to hear the DX. I believe that the receivers that make it into the top 10 on the Sherwood test data table will adequately fill my DX needs.
Selectivity is not all though. We live in a hurricane zone and ham radio operators form part of the National Security system of our country, to wit, emergency communications. In a worst case scenario I could be called upon to establish and maintain communications links with foreign and overseas agencies, on land, sea or air. The communications equipment the agencies use are not amateur ham radio grade equipment, but commercial grade equipment that comply with the NTIA standard. No amateur HF equipment out of the box, except the Kachina KC-103 and KC-105CTX meets this NTIA standard. The Yaesu FT-817 can be compliant with an option. There are also many brands of HF radio equipment on the market today that can fill the needs of the radio amateur operator. For example, many marine radios also cover the ham radio frequencies. Most, if not all, marine radios HF and VHF are NTIA compliant, because they are used for serious commercial communications, not amateur chit chat. An increasing number of hams are using commercial HF radio equipment for their ham radio hobby. I believe this is the way to go, given the direction of global economy, politics, etc. Most top-of-the-line ham rig makers also provide a TCXO option for NTIA compliance. I notice that even with the TCXO option some Icom and Yaesu rigs don't make NTIA compliance. Bottom line, I need a frequency stable rig that can also meet the NTIA standard to esure that I can communicate effectively with any other internal or external agency, in the event of a national emergency or disater in V4 land.
From a quick look at the sherwood test data table it seems that the US rig makers are still at the top of the charts with the Elecraft and Ten-Tec products that can both fill my need and fit my budget. It looks like a difficult choice, but given the prevailing global economic situation I may go for the most cost effective rig. In the final analysis it may not be about cost but quality and reliability, as a good preowned marine and commercial HF radio may be actually more cost effective than a brand new amateur radio transceiver. The jury is going to be out on this one for a while.
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