one hf collinear vertical coming up
It is hard to believe that another month has zipped by so quickly, but this time I can see how and where it went. We must be in the end times, even though that is being said now for the last couple hundred years.
I recently stumbled upon this link while searching for the original story to make a point. I am flabbergasted, but not loosing any sleep over it. Follow the link and draw your own conclusion.
Hurricane Earl passed North of V4 land on 29/30 August 2010. Since it was not going to be a direct hit on the island I elected to leave my 40-meter vertical with 3 nylon guys up in the air, for that ultimate test. After a few hours into the wind I was beginning to feel sorry for the belly-dancing vertical. Some time during course of the next morning my neighbour called to inform that one of my antennas was down. A few hours later when it was safe to check I found that the nylon guy ropes were still intact, but the 31-foot vertical mounted on top of a 12 -foot length of 2x4 lumber seemed broken about the middle, and the 2x4 lumber hinge base broke off just where it came out of the ground. The antenna wreck is still there untouched and eventually I will get to it, some time before Christmas.
For now I am using the other top and bottom loaded 40-meter vertical, the one where the vertical section is only 1/8 wave long, some 18-feet or so. It works rather nicely but the 31-foot vertical was unquestionably better, and I suspect it is due to its lower take off angle.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
The paragraphs above were written on or about the 7th September, but this blog was not completed or published. In this action month of peak severe weather activity, coupled with our Independence anniversary celebrations, these things can happen, but no big thing, it helps us to better appreciate real world living, unless you prefer to be living in the matrix.
Today I retrieved the antenna knocked down by the storm windy Earl. The guys are all intact and I did not have to go searching for aluminum tubing. This 31-foot 1.25-inch diameter aluminum tubing vertical mounted on top a 12-foot long 2x4 only had 3-guys somewhere about 75% of the antenna + mast height. We were not yet into the 'season' so I was not catering for any stormy weather, and no center guying of the structure was considered necessary. Lesson learned ... install temporary and experimental antennas like they are permanent, because in the real world, most times they are.
The Kenwood TS-940SAT is back home and it sounds like a brand new rig. A couple months of using the Drake TR4CW and I can really appreciate the TS-940SAT like never before in the last 15 years. It is really all about frequency stability and not having to sit in front of the rig and 'touch up the dial' ever so often, just to keep up with an interesting QSO. I have come around to thinking that I should really forget this collector thing and just cart off the Drake collection to the landfill, but if I am around for the "launch of the EMP" I will need to be one of the hams with an obsolete but working radio station. So the Drake collection is spared for that reason alone ... but if someone want it more than me, I may be tempted.
So the 18-foot top and bottom loaded vertical dipole antenna is "S" units better than the dipole, but an "S" unit down from the 31-foot top and bottom loaded vertical dipole antenna. But even at 18-foot it provides armchair copy into the USA after sunrise, when others ham operators say they cannot hear or be heard. This is not a brag, just a fact. We are coming into the good months to prove/disprove this again, as we approach the North American winter. I plan to have a ball this winter, experimenting with a collinear 1/2 wave over a 1/2 wave top and bottom styled vertical dipoles, usually about 140-feet tall. I continually remind myself that my antenna experimenting and testing is not predicated on any sophisticated antenna software or hardware, both of which can be unavailable to hams in some countries on our planet. 99.9% of hams have an SWR meter of sorts and a ham radio handbook.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
I see that the Sherwood Receiver Test Data found here was recently updated. My favorite rigs are still at the top of the chart. I am through convincing myself that the FlexRadio systems found here are the way to go for me, and probably for most other forward looking hams on the planet, who practically live on their computers, for work and play. I am also close to resolving my issue of which rigs to get, since all three [3] models are still on my short list. In the worst ever case scenario the Flex-1500 found here is the way to go. This is the ultimate portable rig guaranteed to work with most if not every laptop, and may be the most convenient setup for hams, like me, not living in an MDC, retired, living on a budget, and in a country where a VAT tax is being implemented within the next 5 weeks. As bad as that may sound it could still be worse in some other places on our planet, so a Flex-1500 is possibly the only real solution for any ham who must have a rig today, irrespectively. See what people are saying about the Flex1500.
Since I am convinced that the FlexRadio is the rig for these time I am on a mission to get all the progressive V4 hams that I interact with, to give FlexRadio a look and a listen. I have given a few demos at my QTH, and maybe it is not fair in a sense, given my 24" Dell flat panel and harman/kardon audio system, which can be real impressive at times. What really makes the FlexRadio fly is the FREE PowerSDR download. I also have the wave files, but can't seem to find them on the Flex web site anymore. There is no other ham rig in the world you can demo for FREE [as far as I am aware]. The icing on the Flex cake would be a non refundable lay-away-plan, so I can pinch off 100 bucks every month from my pension, for the next 7 months [Flex-1500] or 17 months [Flex-3000], instead of having to 'fast' for half of the year before placing the order with payment.
But seriously, if you have not yet downloaded and installed the Flex PowerSDR you are really missing something. Read more about the flexibility of the PowerSDR software here. Download it now and treat yourself to a test drive. You have nothing to loose, only something significant to gain ... for FREE. And if you don't see it now, trust me, you will surely see it later. So much for FlexRadio for today.
The 27th Anniversary of Independence came and went with no Club activity for the holidays, that is outdoor activity, like a simulated emergency exercise. We did have other activity that brought nearly a full house, and it shows what most interest our hams. A VAT tax is coming to V4 on November 1st, and the St Kitts based ham club saw it as 'necessary' to meet with a VAT presentation team, for the purpose of updating the ham membership, in relation to the impact of VAT on certain aspects of ham radio. I get the impression that the members present were reasonably satisfied with the information.
The bad weather is not all gone, but that will not delay the antenna construction and installation, for us, what is a little wind between friends ....
A screen snap of my Free PowerSDR with SSB_IQ
I just love this radio.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
The paragraphs above were written on or about the 7th September, but this blog was not completed or published. In this action month of peak severe weather activity, coupled with our Independence anniversary celebrations, these things can happen, but no big thing, it helps us to better appreciate real world living, unless you prefer to be living in the matrix.
Today I retrieved the antenna knocked down by the storm windy Earl. The guys are all intact and I did not have to go searching for aluminum tubing. This 31-foot 1.25-inch diameter aluminum tubing vertical mounted on top a 12-foot long 2x4 only had 3-guys somewhere about 75% of the antenna + mast height. We were not yet into the 'season' so I was not catering for any stormy weather, and no center guying of the structure was considered necessary. Lesson learned ... install temporary and experimental antennas like they are permanent, because in the real world, most times they are.
The Kenwood TS-940SAT is back home and it sounds like a brand new rig. A couple months of using the Drake TR4CW and I can really appreciate the TS-940SAT like never before in the last 15 years. It is really all about frequency stability and not having to sit in front of the rig and 'touch up the dial' ever so often, just to keep up with an interesting QSO. I have come around to thinking that I should really forget this collector thing and just cart off the Drake collection to the landfill, but if I am around for the "launch of the EMP" I will need to be one of the hams with an obsolete but working radio station. So the Drake collection is spared for that reason alone ... but if someone want it more than me, I may be tempted.
So the 18-foot top and bottom loaded vertical dipole antenna is "S" units better than the dipole, but an "S" unit down from the 31-foot top and bottom loaded vertical dipole antenna. But even at 18-foot it provides armchair copy into the USA after sunrise, when others ham operators say they cannot hear or be heard. This is not a brag, just a fact. We are coming into the good months to prove/disprove this again, as we approach the North American winter. I plan to have a ball this winter, experimenting with a collinear 1/2 wave over a 1/2 wave top and bottom styled vertical dipoles, usually about 140-feet tall. I continually remind myself that my antenna experimenting and testing is not predicated on any sophisticated antenna software or hardware, both of which can be unavailable to hams in some countries on our planet. 99.9% of hams have an SWR meter of sorts and a ham radio handbook.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
I see that the Sherwood Receiver Test Data found here was recently updated. My favorite rigs are still at the top of the chart. I am through convincing myself that the FlexRadio systems found here are the way to go for me, and probably for most other forward looking hams on the planet, who practically live on their computers, for work and play. I am also close to resolving my issue of which rigs to get, since all three [3] models are still on my short list. In the worst ever case scenario the Flex-1500 found here is the way to go. This is the ultimate portable rig guaranteed to work with most if not every laptop, and may be the most convenient setup for hams, like me, not living in an MDC, retired, living on a budget, and in a country where a VAT tax is being implemented within the next 5 weeks. As bad as that may sound it could still be worse in some other places on our planet, so a Flex-1500 is possibly the only real solution for any ham who must have a rig today, irrespectively. See what people are saying about the Flex1500.
Since I am convinced that the FlexRadio is the rig for these time I am on a mission to get all the progressive V4 hams that I interact with, to give FlexRadio a look and a listen. I have given a few demos at my QTH, and maybe it is not fair in a sense, given my 24" Dell flat panel and harman/kardon audio system, which can be real impressive at times. What really makes the FlexRadio fly is the FREE PowerSDR download. I also have the wave files, but can't seem to find them on the Flex web site anymore. There is no other ham rig in the world you can demo for FREE [as far as I am aware]. The icing on the Flex cake would be a non refundable lay-away-plan, so I can pinch off 100 bucks every month from my pension, for the next 7 months [Flex-1500] or 17 months [Flex-3000], instead of having to 'fast' for half of the year before placing the order with payment.
But seriously, if you have not yet downloaded and installed the Flex PowerSDR you are really missing something. Read more about the flexibility of the PowerSDR software here. Download it now and treat yourself to a test drive. You have nothing to loose, only something significant to gain ... for FREE. And if you don't see it now, trust me, you will surely see it later. So much for FlexRadio for today.
The 27th Anniversary of Independence came and went with no Club activity for the holidays, that is outdoor activity, like a simulated emergency exercise. We did have other activity that brought nearly a full house, and it shows what most interest our hams. A VAT tax is coming to V4 on November 1st, and the St Kitts based ham club saw it as 'necessary' to meet with a VAT presentation team, for the purpose of updating the ham membership, in relation to the impact of VAT on certain aspects of ham radio. I get the impression that the members present were reasonably satisfied with the information.
The bad weather is not all gone, but that will not delay the antenna construction and installation, for us, what is a little wind between friends ....
A screen snap of my Free PowerSDR with SSB_IQ
I just love this radio.
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