OH3GGQ

Hint: Using waterfall in CW pileups

2012-02-25T18:13:00.000+02:00

A hint especially for hams who feel uncomfortable in CW pileups:

For a while now I have been utilizing the digimode waterfall in CW pileups, where the DX station is sending on one frequency and listening on others, i.e. he is working split. I don't have a high-cost rig with double receivers, so my split working is done by listening alternately to VFO A and VFO B.
Here is how I do it:

1. I select VFO A with a 500Hz filter.

2. I adjust the DX station so that it has about the same tone as my own CW tone. I see the DX station on the waterfall at around 700Hz, which is my rig pitch.

3. I set up the VFO B with a little bit broader filter. I personally like 1,8kHz, since it makes you hear and see a broader bandwith. Broader filters make it more difficult to distinguish stations in the crowd.

4. When the DX is listening to calls I skim through the pileup band, just a few seconds at a time, trying to figure out how the pileup crowd works and, more importantly: how the DX station listens. This is where the waterfall is powerful: even though a trained ear can hear the tone differences, the waterfall frequency scale tells in numbers how many hertz up and down there are between the QSOs . Very useful!
5. I try to hit my call to the frequency that I think is most appropriate, according to what I have heard (=seen!).

Note: If the DX appears to listen more or less on random frequencies, I use to listen to the crowd first and then briefly adjust my frequency in a free slot between others... Trained operators can do it by listening, but the waterfall screen makes it easy for anybody! I have found this way to be especially fruitful when working rare DX stations in big pileups.

I have worked many nice stations in big pileups with this method. Yes, this method is the same as in RTTY pileups...as matter of fact, I got the idea from there.

Internet does not kill this hobby!

2012-02-22T17:57:00.000+02:00

I now and then here arguing about internet killing this hobby. I have always seen it the other way around: internet adds new dimensions to the radio amateur hobby. Many of my blog texts explain my view already, but here is once again an example:

I just I inspected PskReporter.info after a JT65 session with JT65-HF on 21.076MHz. I found that these station in the States heard my signals:

Well...that was interesting info to me, in many respects:

Good propagation to US! All those are potential QSO friends, giving me an opportunity to work new states for my WAS award. After checking the PskReporter info many days in a row, I can now conclude that there are often quite good propagation conditions from my QTH to US on 15m in the late afternoon, even when the general conditions are quite poor. Also the west coast, just before the band closes for the day.
My 5/8 vertical and 50W is enough for DX working
Last but not least: it feels good to know that my signal (with the power of a light bulb) propagates so easily so far! :)

How this works: JT65-HF and other digimode software upload decoded stations automatically to PskReporter. The same works e.g. with HRD DigitalMaster-780 (when using its SuperBrowser you can let your computer upload decoded stations to the pskreporter database; for you and fellow hams to analyse).

Pile-up abbreviations explained ;)

2012-02-14T07:27:00.001+02:00

Here are the common abbreviations used in pile-ups on the radio amateur bands:

99 (or NN): A shorter way of sending the RST report. The R (Readability) is not sent, since it is obvious anyway. Try this by sending a long beep; fellow hams (or pigs, see below) will eagerly send the report to you, if you have a strong signal. This is ham spirit.
Pig: A very eager and active radio amateur, compared to Ham, which is a dead pig waiting to be eaten. Wikipedia explains this more in detail here.
Idiot: A novel by Dostoyevsky.
UP UP: this means nothing particular. If you hear this, you can give it a 99 report, se above.

Please comment on these, and others. I'm not an expert on those yet, I am still practising ;)

New touch screen info panel

2012-02-06T19:23:00.002+02:00

I found a spare industrial touch screen PC in our company lab. It's quite small; the resolution is only 800x600, hopefully enough for e.g. info panel stuff. Today I "installed" it in my shack:

As you may see, SFI is only 103...that's why I did this shack project instead of QSOing tonight.

Behind the screen there is a quite slow AMD 1GHz PC, so I decided to install Ubuntu Linux instead of Windows. Thus I also get access to the nice Linux tools developed for hams. Initially I use this pc as propagation info panel and later also as beacon monitor (connected to my AOR AR7030 via HamLib)...and...maybe something else.

The touch screen is a little bit clumsy compared to those iPhones and Androids, but simple user interfaces with big buttons work ok. Of course an external mouse and keypad can also be plugged in. Cool?! Later I will build it into the wall...making it even cooler :)

My TS-850 digimode stuff :)

2012-02-05T15:38:00.003+02:00

This mess looks almost fun: This is is what I need in order to work digital modes with my TS-850:

Wires, USB-serial interface, rig control, PTT, audio cables, audio transformator...messy? :)

In more modern rigs there is just one USB cable and that's it. But my setup looks more nerdish, doesn't it?

Comparing an internal soundcard with Roland UA-1EX

2012-01-19T23:20:00.002+02:00

I got the opportunity the borrow a "hi-fi" USB soundcard from my local club OH2AAB. I made a brief comparison with my internal laptop soundcard, using DigitalMaster 780 and my rig TS-850S on 7035kHz at about 9PM GMT.

The PSK screen using the internal soundcard of a HP Pavilion dv7; strongish laptop

The PSK screen using the Roland UA-1EX soundcard

I was a little bit surprised: I don't see very much difference. Or am I blind? A more thorough test would maybe reveal the differences...I don't know. Let's see if I have time to do that. Also on the transmit side. Also I could test an ancient PC...to get some baseline for comparison. My current laptop is quite an efficient multimedia laptop.

US west coast open on 21MHz in the afternoons

2012-01-19T22:21:00.001+02:00

There are nowadays good conditions to the States on 21 MHz almost every late afternoon.

Map from pskreporter.info at about 4pm GMT 19.2.2012

Good opportunity to work US states...especially the west coast is coming strong. The west coast is normally a lot bigger challenge than the east coast.

I nowadays work US also on 7MHz in the early mornings. The same 10m vertical antenna is used for both 21MHz and 7MHz. It is up 12m and with three 10m radials. For 21MHz the antenna works as a 5/8 wave gp, which has a low lobe; good for dx working.

My 2011 in a map

2011-12-30T20:48:00.001+02:00

The hrdlog.net map shows some of my QSOs made during 2011 in a map:

I had a very active ham year...after having had a 20-year pause from this hobby: The log shows over 6700 contacts, of which about 2000 contest contacts. The band-specific country statistics are in the table below:

Final statistics of the year 2011 of OH3GGQ

I used 30-100 watt and wire antennas to achieve this. To be honest, I have some handicaps to admit: my QTH has some advantages compared to many others: it's on the silent countryside (making listening easy), and I have plenty of space for full-size wire antennas.

TS-850S Frequency calibration

2011-12-21T22:38:00.000+02:00

The frequency display of my Kenwood TS-850 seemed to show a little bit too low frequencies, so I decided to calibrate it. Of course I made a search in Google: TS-850 frequency calibration. I found this link.

OK, good instructions...but how to do it in practice? The rig is new to me and I don't know how to open it in the first place! A search in Youtube provided me with...yes, really hands-on instructions:

Now my rig is calibrated. In total it was a 10 minute project, including the instruction searching and screwdriving.

Preparing shack grounding

2011-12-18T17:31:00.002+02:00

I miss a good grounding to my shack, and have for long been thinking about the best solution. One day I had the final idea: thick electrical cable with stranded wires. The grounding end is peeled about 4 meters and will be buried down in the soft dirt near the creek at the west side of our lot. The distance from the house wall to the creek is about 30 meters...that is why I chose thick wires. I was worried about galvanic contacts, and this lead me to this solution; the only joint will be at the house wall, secured from rain. The pictures below show my initial preparation work.

My wife let me mess up the living room for a while :)

Let's see if 5 times 4 meters is enough for grounding.

Next I will follow with the implementation. Spade work ahead! Hopefully I have time to do it before the ground frost.

It would be very nice if you can comment this idea, or just share your own experiences in shack grounding. Is this overdoing...or is the grounding wire too long!?

Later note 17.Jan.2012: Tested: Yes, the wire is too long, this is not good grounding. I have to either peel the cable or find another solution

Aeroplane flying over my WSPR screen :)

2011-12-16T14:38:00.001+02:00

Look at this: I was using WSPR and after a while I noticed something, that I have seen before in astronomical pictures: an aeroplane is flying over the waterfall screen!

CW pileup hint: RIT/XIT

2011-11-21T09:46:00.001+02:00

There are two types of CW pileups: simplex and split. Typically big dxpeditions work split, meaning that you should use one VFO for sending and one for listening. However, often dx QSOs work simplex, meaning that the listening and transmission is done on the same frequency.

When a DX station is popular, there are many callers that compete with you. In simplex CW pileups there is an interesting possibility: RIT/XIT

RIT=Receiver Incremental Tuning
XIT=Transmitter Incremental Tuning

All rigs don't have these features, and many have only RIT but not XIT. Anyway, here is the hint:

The DX station is able to distinguish CW signals, if they have different tones. Try to find a frequency that differs about 20-200 Hz from other callers. With RIT you may listen on slightly different frequency than you transmit. With XIT you may transmit on a slightly different frequency than you listen. I find XIT especially useful. You can also combine: both RIT and XIT...you find nice tricks when you start playing.

If your rig does not have RIT, you can make use of the idea anyway: turn the VFO a little bit aside of the DX station's frequency. It makes you hear the DX tone higher or lower, but a tone difference of a few tens of Hertz should not be a problem to handle.

Another thing: don't forget the manners: if there for example is another station trying to contact the DX, don't disturb him. If you call when he stops, he might soon get the idea: let's call the DX station in turns! Both win!

Inverted delta loop for 80m (and other bands!)

2011-11-20T12:20:00.001+02:00

Once again I climbed up my trees and installed an antenna. This time an inverted delta loop for 80m.

1:4 balun. As you see, all joints aren't weather sealed yet.

The antenna is not completely symmetrical, since I have to respect the positions of my trees :) The 'north' corner of the antenna is 30m up and the 'south' corner is at about 12 meters. The feeding point is low...at about 1,8 meters.

I started the project with a 82m cable. With pure luck, the initial SWR tests were good for 80m, so until I measure my antenna with a MiniVNA I let this be as it is.

The results then?
I hadn't checked the theory for delta loops, so I was surprised about the results: it shows SWR far less less than 2:1 for all HF bands, except 160m but including the WARC bands! After a few days of testing I have an antenna that can do QSOs on all those bands. Including some nice DX stuff: VE on 80m, KH6 and ST2 on 40m, JY on 30m, ZL on 20m, Z24 on 12m and LU on 10m. Yes, I am happy with this all-round antenna!

Later experiences (updated 26.Nov .2011):
This loop makes me hear a lot more on the bands than my band-specific dipoles and ground planes. The difference is like looking at the stars with or without binoculars!

Got a new rig: Kenwood TS-850S

2011-11-04T09:59:00.000+02:00

I got a nice opportunity to upgrade my ham shack with a Kenwood TS-850.

Mods and options:

Inrad roofing filter on the first 73M IF
1,8 k Kenwood 8,83 MHz
400 Hz @ 8,83 MHz IRC/Foxtango
Inrad 400 Hz @ 455kHz
Inrad 2.1k @ 455 kHz
Diodes and capacitors changed
Rx antenna plug
Kenwood IF-232C interface

The serial number of the rig is over 5 million, built. 1994.

I've already had a few CW QSOs with this old Mercedes of radios :) Wow! Something totally different than my simple IC-718. Now I know what it means: high dynamics and low noise level! Also 40m and 80m bands sound now very comfortable...they are really noisy on my IC-718. And the automatic antenna tuner works like a dream!

There are still things to do: apply my Icom microphone and get the computer control and digimodes working. What a hobby this is!

My shack

2011-11-01T10:12:00.002+02:00

This is how my shack looks like currently. A ham shack of today: All USB ports occupied :) An additional fan is shown there. My laptop needs it when I'm running digimodes.The handy second screen is not shown in this picture.

My company

2011-10-27T08:30:00.000+03:00

A short commercial, if you don't mind: My company, founded 2007, launched new products: http://movenium.com. We are also in Facebook, look here.

Here I am presenting one of our products...sorry, in Finnish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Ty5cfbc-w English version coming later.

Autumn 2011 antenna pictures

2011-10-25T13:05:00.002+03:00

Today 25.10.2011 was a celebration day, since I worked my 200th DXCC country. The country collecting project started in January this year. I could not imagine I really can achieve this with these simple antennas. But improving propagation conditions have helped a lot.All my antennas to date are simple home brew dipoles and verticals. I'll show you my simple antenna "park" as of October 2011:

10 meter dipole with 1:1 balun. Also tunable to the 12m band. Fastened on a PVC tube, which is tied to the TV antenna mast. All 6 continents were worked in 2 hours after the antenna installation . Luckily good propagation conditions that day :)

Autumn view to south-east from the 10m antenna

Autumn view to south-west from my 10 meter antenna

My first home brew antenna, the folded dipole for 17m and 20m has been hit many times by storms by now. The antenna is installed 20m up between two trees (shown in a picture below).

The 40m&15m copper pipe ground plane starts here, up 12 meters...

...and ends there...up 22 meters from ground.

View to north from the roof and 10m dipole. The 17m&20m dipole is shown somewhere there, and the 40m&15m ground plane is in the pine in the middle of the picture :)
My 80m/30m vertical dipole is hardly visible here (the feeding point is at the top of the fir to the right of the pine).

A simple 2 meter vertical dipole.

With these antennas I am able to work on HF bands 10-80m. The 160 meter antenna is still in planning stage.

My 2 meter rig and antenna

2011-10-25T12:10:00.000+03:00

I have an old Talco taxi radio, which works at 145,300 MHz, the local chat frequency in Lohja. The rig is modified by Harri OH2BGR.

MyTalco rig

The rig is connected with RG-213 to a simple antenna on my roof. The antenna is made of backyard trash :) and modeled with Eznec. Here it is: aluminium tubes, a pvc tube and duct tape.

Vertical dipole for 145,300MHz, the local chatting frequency.

The handy HRD Bandscope

2011-10-20T15:51:00.001+03:00

Scoping the 10m band 20.10.2011. Conditions, right?

Ham Radio Deluxe provides band scope also for rigs without it. It is accessed from the Tools menu. Very convenient for pileup finding and condition checking. The picture above shows excellent 10m conditions: lots of S9+ signals.

ARR PSK63 Contest results

2011-09-05T21:57:00.003+03:00

My first digimode contest resulted in a 10th place: http://www.ct1arr.org/pdf/Class_psk63.pdf

IC-718 mod: taking 7,1-7,2 MHz into use for TX

2011-09-04T23:12:00.005+03:00

The IC-718 has a limitation: it can't send on 7100-7200 kHz. There is an easy modification instruction on the net:

http://www.hampedia.net/icom/ic-718.php

Just one diode has to be taken off...I did it with a tweezer. It was a 20 minute project. When power was set on after the mod, all rig settings went back to factory defaults. It's not a big problem, but it's good to know. To me it was a suprise.

The mod works: Now I can send on all frequencies 1,8-30MHz! Obviously I have to be careful now...

My 40m/15m vertical base

2011-08-25T21:10:00.004+03:00

My simple antenna projects take time. I think and plan for ages, before I start working...planning is fun. I have for long wanted to put a vertical at a height of 20-25m. This summer I found russian 1,2m wormed copper rods (painted military-green...good!). Yesterday I found copper bowls for a few euros from a local flea market...I got an idea and started working:

Copper bowls. Nice living room decoration...until now!

One of the bowls prepared with a junction

As you see: good weather/water shield. Bonus: holes for 3 radials :)

Wow, am I this active?

2011-08-19T09:57:00.003+03:00

I admit I have been quite active with my radio lately. It surprised me that it got me listed in the ClubLog first page this morning:

I really recommend ClubLog by the way. It is free. Among the features there is something interesting for competition freaks: It shows you in different League lists and you can compare yourself with other hams.

Yes, almost forgot this: ClubLog enables log search like this: http://oh3ggq.blogspot.com/p/my-log.html

Little pistol goal: continent-shooting afternoon :)

2011-08-14T18:20:00.008+03:00

I had a few hours for my radio hobby (again). I found that there were good conditions on 15m, so I chose to set a personal goal: trying to get QSO with as many continents as possible this afternoon. The result: 5 continents in 3 hours. As the log shows, I tried for over an hour to get africa in the vanishing conditions...finally succeeded also there, yes!

Yes, the mode was PSK31. Normally the best chances to get many dx contacts is with PSK. I like CW also, but PSK is obviously more popular nowadays, so it made it my choice in this brave quest :) SSB is also fun, but considerably trickier to get DX QSOs with 50-100 watts and dipole antenna.

How to solve the "8020" connection problem with N1MM Logger

2011-07-31T15:25:00.002+03:00

Since I updated my laptop to Window 7 I'd had a very nasty problem with N1MM Logger: the rig connection is lost all the time. I figured out (thanks Go...oogle :) ) that the problem was in the USB-to-serial interface. Microsoft has documented this problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318784

The simple solution for this was to update the virtual com port driver. The steps:

Open Control Panel->Device Manager
Select Ports and double-clickc there at your virtual com port
Select the Driver tab
Click Update Driver
Hopefully the automatic update will solve the problem for you. Otherwise you have to download the driver from the device manufacturer's homepage, and select manual installation here.

Doubling digimode output power with a fan

2011-07-24T20:39:00.005+03:00

In CW and SSB transmitting a typical 100W transmitter deals easily with the power set to full, because there are always the pauses between the peaks in those transmitting modes. In contrary, most digimodes send for long times without pausing; full duty. The transmitters aren't built for handling full power for longer times: the heating becomes the big problem. The commonly used way to deal with it is to half the transmitter power to 30-50W. That is OK for normal e.g. PSK QSOs. In some big RTTY pileups I started to long for the full 100W, so I took a 12V computer fan, and installed it like this:

The fan is blowing towards the hot part of the transciever.

The 12V power is easily got from the transceiver DX source.

I tried this installation in a few long digimode sessions, using the full power. The transmitter remained cool, so this seems to work. I gained 3dB, a half S unit. Sometimes it may make a difference! Can you get a 3dB gain cheaper than this?

New digimode tested: Feld Hell

2011-07-05T18:01:00.002+03:00

Poor DX conditions made me try something new: found a Feld Hell CQ and answered.

My first Feld Hell QSO

Feld Hell is a Hellschreiber mode, which is in fact a much older communication mode than the PSK modes. As with morse/CW, the communication is meant to be interpreted by humans instead of computers. When CW (at least originally, and still best) relies on human ears, Hellscreiber relies on eyes! Read more e.g. here.

G5RV 30m up :-o

2011-06-29T20:03:00.001+03:00

A strong summer storm broke my previous OFC dipole installation.Instead of putting it up again, I decided to give my "WiMo" G5RV another chance. It has not worked very well for me, but what if I install it as sloper, the north end being at 30m?

I arranged a simple RF choke (no measurements done...) between the coax and the ladder of the G5RV.

To show the proportions: find me in this picture! (Solution below)

Here the previous picture is zoomed.

The south end of the G5RV is at about 10m. The ladder line at about 14m goes down almost perpendicular.

The performance of this G5RV installation:
There happened to be exceptionally good 10m conditions the day (28.6.2011) I tested the antenna. I could work the whole Europe without problems on that band. Also 12m was ok. Tested also 20m...people in south Europe sent "QRZ" sometimes, but heard me anyway. Also 17m was quite ok. It looks to me that this antenna is not at best to south directions...according to the dipole theory the lobes should be strongest to east and west. For me this G5RV does not tune at all on the 21 band. 30m band works perfectly, according to my initial tests. I did tunings test on the 40m and 80m bands, and they tuned quite well...did not test the antenna in QSOs on these bands yet, though.

So, this far it looks like my G5RV works ok on all bands, except 15m. I'm waiting for my first antenna analyzer, to get more detail about antennas...I think me new investment will be a MiniVNA...I saw my friend demonstrate it, and I was excited.

PSK operating guide needed!

2011-06-27T16:16:00.009+03:00

The last month I have been following the digimode world, mainly the PSK modes. It looks like there are no good guidelines for fluent operating in challenging conditions. Or do you know about a good operating guideline? Please tell me, so I can share it with my fellow radio amateurs.

Waterfall without water.

The most problematic are the pileups: an interesting station appears on the waterfall and people bomb the frequency, making QSOs difficult or impossible. This is an old story also with RTTY, and of course with whatever modes. However, the problem on the "PSK bands" is especially urgent because of the rising popularity of PSK31: there are many new hams without experience in good general operating practices.

In CW and SSB a good operator can distinguish calls from the beep zoo. In digimodes the interpretation of the sounds is done by the computer, which makes the situation extra difficult: the QRM tolerance is very limited. In CW operation there is a common practice, when the frequency is getting warm: the pileup master starts telling "UP"...all CW operators don't understand this English word (sigh), but anyway, it's quite a good practice: people are calling the target station above the stations frequency, and the pileup operator picks the signals from the spectrum...this is a fair deal also for QRP operators: they get a real chance.

What to do on the PSK bands? When I want to work an interesting station, which are in a QSO (or trying to find one, in the hopeless zoo) I often try to call him a little bit besides his frecuency. Only very seldom the operator at the other end gets my idea! Why? Isn't this a good practice: find the nearest free frequency for putting a call? The QSO then could continue on that new frequency...why not? Isn't it quite convenient to pick traces in the waterfall display, especially with a comfortable mouse?

Another thing: PSK stations who know they are pileup targets, could select the calling frequency at the higher end of the band and say "UP1" to others...this is a common practice with RTTY.

Ideas, suggestions?

Off-center dipole installed

2011-06-21T19:34:00.005+03:00

I have spare 10-80m off-center dipole which I now wanted to install, in order to

get easy access to HF bands (with a tuner if needed) which I don't have antenna to
get a reference antenna to compare band-optimized antennas to

Even though the expected technical performance is maybe not extreme, I wanted the antenna as high as possible. So, experienced in climbing (ref. my earlier antenna articles) I headed for the highest tree I have:

The dipole is not very visible here.

At 30 meters the views are stunning! The north part (longest leg) of the dipole is now installed to a height of 30m and the south comes towards my house is at about 10m. The feeding point is maybe at around 12 meters.

The antenna tunes easily to all HF bands, including WARC and excluding 160m. QSO tests are soon done on all bands...so far this off-center dipole is very promising.

The antenna is sloping from north to south, the feeding point being at the south part. What I'm wondering is the directivity on the higher bands...to be checked some day.

Folded vertical dipole, Eznec model

2011-06-13T23:59:00.003+03:00

My folded dipole for 20m and 17m is currently installed horizontally at a height of about 22 m. The higher elevation lobe is not that directive, so it works well all in Europe. But for DX this antenna works best towards Caribbean and South America, because at these heights directivity is starting to play a big role, at the same time as the lower elevation lobe is getting really low. However, Asia and Pacific are now really hard to work with this installation, check the Eznec diagrams in my earlier posting. What about installing the dipole vertically, hanging at 22m? Before changing the installation, let's check with Eznec:

The elevation diagram for the folded dipole installed vertically.
The lower lobe angle is 11 degrees, the higher is 35 degrees.

This was interesting: although I will loose directivity gain compared to the horizontal installation, I get lower elevation lobes, even though the feeding point to the antenna is about 10m lower. Theoretical earth loss is taken into account here...but what is the reality? Soon I'll check if it's possible to get an efficient all-round-antenna for 20m (and 17m with tuner) with this installation...

Using beacons in checking propagation conditions

2011-06-05T23:43:00.006+03:00

For propagation condition checking, I have already mentioned PSKReporter, WSPR, VOACAP and DX Cluster. There is another, a really interesting one: beacons: you get quite an exact report or your actual propagation status in a few minutes. There are a number of interoperating beacons on HF bands for checking the propagation conditions exactly on your site. The principle of the beacon system is explained at the IARU's beacon shedule site.

I tested a few simple beacon tools, and selected the BeaconMap by PA1ARE. A screenshot below:

BeaconMap 1.2 by PA1ARE.
The ZL6B beacon is blinking here...my receiver said just sssshhhh this time at this beacon :)

Not that your PC clock has to be in sync with the internet clock for this to work. The tool is really simple, since it does not integrate at all with the rig (as WSPR and PSKReporter does), but does just visualizes the beacons in a map. You have to listen to the beacons yourself in order to determine the conditions yourself :). The visualization makes really sense here: you see the location and you hear the conditions. Furthermore, this windows application is really 'light': The size of the executable is 814 kB.

Hint: Check the 10m band openings using the beacons.

Inverted V dipole for 40m

2011-06-03T21:42:00.004+03:00

I was not very satisfied with my vertical dipole for 40m in the end...according to the theory it was installed too low; too big earth losses. I made a modification: Ioved the feeding point, i.e. the balun to a height of about 23 meters in the same tree, spread the dipole wires to east and west: Inverted V installation! The final angle between the wires seems to be a little bit more than 90 degrees.

The feeding point is installed at this height...Yep, I climbed here :)

There you see the east "leg"...

...and here is the feeding point.

The results:
In theory, this simple dipole should work on the 40m and 15m bands. The first tests indicate good DX charasteristics for both bands.

CW...just love it!

2011-05-30T22:13:00.002+03:00

While waiting for DX contitions I parked on the silent 17m band on 18.083 Mhz for about half an hour and started throwing CQs. Just a couple of CQs were needed during the 30 minutes, and I had 5 QSOs with European radio amateurs. These fellows tail-ended nicely and actid politely in the little crowd that I happened to create :) These old men were really talented and experienced in CW chatting...I was impressed.

Wow, me, the lazy PSK31 operator, really got a kick there!

I repaired my folded dipole

2011-05-27T23:22:00.001+03:00

The coaxial cable detached from my folded dipole during a storm. Luckily I have a halyard construction, which enabled me to take down the antenna to the ground like a flag. After a simple soldering project the antenna was up and running again, at a height of almost 20 meters.

My folded dipole (14 and 18 MHz) brought down for reparation.

What happens to the performance when a HF dipole installation is raised?

2011-05-14T00:19:00.013+03:00

I was sort-of satisfied with my folded dipole for 17m and 20m bands, when it was up about 10 meters. Still I wanted to optimize it...I am a radio amateur, right? After a couple of hours of sweaty climbing and wire tinkering I found myself looking at a dipole that is horizontally at almost 20 meters up, the wires pointing roughly to north-west and south-east. I don't know, if that's a good direction...I don't need directivity gains especially, since I work all the world and at random times, but let's try the antenna now! Well, I need a shower first...

The folded dipole for 14MHz and 18MHz is now almost 20m up. (Click for bigger picture)

Zoomed picture of the dipole up in the sky. The spacing between the lines is 30cm (not cricital) and the RG-58 cable connects to a 4:1 balun.

The VOACAP propagation forecasting tool showed interesting changes in the antenna performance:

A sample VOACAP propagation forecast for 11.May 2011 16 UTC for a 14,1 MHz QSO where my the dipole at the other end is 10 m up and my dipole is 10m up.

...and here is how the forecast is affected by moving the dipole to a height of 20m.

And what is the real life?
It was late afternoon, when I swithed on the radio, eagerly waiting for the results. I know from theory, that this height is really good for 17m and 20m bands...my little concern was: do I get DX QSOs on east and west directions with this installation?

When I sat down in my shack I decided to start calling CQ with PSK125 on 14 MHz. BD1MWH from China responded at once...not bad! Soon I had PSK and RTTY QSOs with ham fellows in South Korea, Philippines, South Africa...and later in the evening also Brazil and Bolivia on CW. Three new DXCC countries in the same day!

How is this with Eznec?

Elevation diagram for my horizontal dipole.
The lower lobe is at an angle of 13 degrees and the higher is at 45 degrees

The azimuth diagram for the 13 degree lobe. Good DX possibilities in two directions.

The azimuth diagram for the 45 degree lobe. Directivity is not that much of an issue,
which together with the high elevation angle enables good QSOs in Europe.

Looking at Eznec models of my 7/21 MHz vertical dipole

2011-04-28T00:27:00.011+03:00

My vertical dipole for 7 MHz appears to work well for both 7Mhz and 21Mhz. (ref. My earlier posting). For 21MHz the dipole is a 1,5 wavelength dipole and that made me wonder how the elevation diagram looks like...at least in theory.

Eznec can be downloaded from http://www.eznec.com/. The free demo version suits well for this kind of simple antennas.

The Eznec model for the vertical dipole for the 7MHz band.

The picture above shows the Eznec model for the vertical dipole, using it on the, initially intended, 7MHz band. The elevation diagram is quite ok...If I could raise the antenna higher, the elevation angle would decrease, and the antenna would be better suited for DX working. As comparison I checked, how the antenna would perform, if it would be installed horisontally instead, keeping the feeding point at the same height:

Horizontal dipole for 7MHz, at a height of 10m above ground.

Well...not at all suitable for my DX intentions! What if I could raise the horizontal dipole to 20m?

Horizontal dipole for 7MHz, at a height of 20m above ground.

Well...better, and but the elevation angle is still higher than for the vertical dipole. And I'm interested in DX QSOs. Note that I don't consider directions (azimuth diagrams) here; vertical antennas radiate in all directions and horizontal antennas have direction-specific gains. My interest is to get antennas that radiate almost everywhere. North directions are not that interesting, which makes me think of slopers in my next experiments.

What about 21MHz?

This antenna tunes easily into 21MHz, because it's exactly 1,5 wavelengths on that band.

The Eznec model for the vertical dipole for the 21MHz band.

As seen in the elevation diagram in the picture above, there are two lobes, at angles of 11 grades and 42 grades. The 11 grade lobe is not bad (and might explain my DX QSOs on that band), but it's 7db weaker than the 42 grade lobe. What if I put up a real half-wave dipole for 21MHz, so that the top is at around 22 meters? Here is it according to the Eznec theory:

For comparison, the elevation diagram for a real half-wave dipole for 21MHz, where the top is at a height of 22 meters

Wow, a nice 9 grade lobe! At least in theory. Yes, why not, since at these heights we are quite many wavelenghts above the ground. I'll certainly climb up in the three and try that some day! Why not install similar antennas for each band? Do they interfere badly with each other? Hopefully not. I have other tall trees in that case :-)

My QSL card is finally ready

2011-04-26T20:57:00.000+03:00

Finally I got my paper QSL cards from UX5UO Print. I'm currently filling looots of them (875 QSOs made since December 2010) :-)

My son as operator

2011-04-26T16:08:00.003+03:00

My son Miikka (13 years) operated my station under my supervision. These QSOs were made by him:

The effects of a narrow IF filter

2011-04-15T18:50:00.009+03:00

I installed a 500Hz filter into my IC-718. It was nice little screwing and soldering project:

The filter, FL-52A, ordered from RadioWorld Ltd.
I got it 3 days after ordering...not bad.

The IC-718, opened according to the instructions in the handbook.

The opening of the board was a little bit tricky.

The filter is in place...

...and soldered at the other side of the board.

Ready! Hopefully things went right.

There were very clear installation instructions in the user manual....the installation took about half an hour. Now to the shack for testing!

The result:
After the first hour of testing I had this QSO log:

What an hour! With 50-100 watts and a dipole. Obviously the DX conditions were quite OK that night, but I haven't experienced this kind of QSO efficiency before. One would think that a razor sharp IF filter is for filtering out disturbing stations. Well, yes...but that's not all. Interfering stations per se isn't that a big deal for experienced CW operators, but this is:

The noise level decreases dramatically with a 500hz filter compared to the default 2,1kHz in IC-718. Stations that I could not hear with the wide filter, sound, although weak, chrystal clear!
Related to that, the well-known AGC(Automatic Gain Control)- problem is not as big issue anymore, since it's now easier to block out strong stations, and thus keep the receiver sensitivite. This, together with the lowered noise floor became an asset in also PSK operation: some of the QSOs in the log above were impossible to work with the wide filter: they were not heard&seen at all!
Pile-up accuracy! With the narrow filter I can pin-point previous QSOs in order to plan my next shot. Three of the CW QSOs in the log above were worked rather easily in pile-ups.

I'm still a little pistol, with my home made dipoles and stuff. An excited little pistol. Do I dream of 1,5kW linears and yagi towers? Maybe some day, but now, honestly: no!

DXCC 100

2011-04-12T22:21:00.009+03:00

Got my DXCC country number 100 (Sri Lanka) today, when showing my station to my daughter, who is interested in in the morse code :-) I started my country collecting project in January 2011.

This was a good evening all in all:

Immediately after number 100 I got also 101on the 15m band and , which was 5M2TT, a DX expedition in Liberia. Nota bene: with my new antenna, which i described in my previous posting.
DXCC country number 102 was St.Kitts & Nevis, worked in the 20m band.

So far all my QSOs as OH3GGQ have been made in CW and digimodes.

(I try to remember: as SM4SWF around 20 years ago I worked around 130 countries in 2-3 years)

A vertical dipole for 7MHz (and 21MHz)

2011-04-12T00:04:00.007+03:00

For a while I have been planning on my next simple antenna project. I have the high trees, that I can utilize, as I did with the folded dipole. About 40 meters from my house there is a high fir tree, maybe around 30 meters high. I'm not afraid of climbing, so I decided to make a vertical dipole for the 7MHz (40 meter) band. Also I hoped that could help me getting a good antenna also for 21MHz (15 meter band), since according to the theory, a half-wave dipole for 7MHz is a 5/8 wave dipole for 21MHz. 5/8 wavelength tune well to 50 ohm impedance, ant at least when it comes to ground plane antennas, 5/8 means a low elevation angle for the radio waves. And this means DX.

Here is the starting point.

I prefer factory baluns, since they are robust and durable. The antenna wire is plain old phone wire.

A half wave dipole is very simple to construct. IAround 10,5 meters of wire in each leg.

Temporary location at a height of 2 meters.

I hang up the dipole horizontally at the height of 2 meters, in order to get an initial measure of the SWR, which was 3:1. After cutting, it was around 2:1, so I decided to stop cutting (after the lesson learned with the folded-dipole project). Yes, I had to try a QSO with this temporary antenna installation, the dipole legs hanging indefinitely at 1,5-2 meters. No problems: Europe hears me and I hear Europe. But...what about the DX, which I have never been able to catch on 7 MHz? Up in the tree!

Up in the tree, at around 25 meters. I took a camera with me, in order to document the views from the fir. There...far down, is my excellent folded dipole.

Nort-west view from the tree. Yes, still some snow everywhere, and the leaf trees seem dead...we are in Finland, right?

North-east view from the tree. In the summer the views aren't this open because of the leaves. Let's see how it affects the performance of the antenna.

When I got the wire in place, the balun was hanging at about 12 meters and the 10 meter legs up and down from there, I was warm and sweaty.

The results:
After the shower I started my radio. The SWR was little less than 2:1. Not much, but anyway I decided to use my antenna tuner. The 40m band sounded crystal clear: almost no noise, only strong and clear CW beeps. And the digimode waterfalls looked brilliant...I compared these to the windom antenna, which is installed at about 8 meters...the difference is remarkable. Boy, I was excited!

There was the Japan International DX contest going on...let's check. I heard many Japanese stations right away. When I swithed back to the windom, the stations went weak again. Well, my antenna looks promising. I answered a CQ from JH4UYB (Japan) and he heard me immediately! He didn't get my call 100% at the first try, but after a couple of repetitions we could finalize the QSO. Obviously this guy is a big gun, with strong power, giant listening and sending antennas, but anyway: my wire vertical dipole works can perform DX. the propagation conditions were not superb at all, so there is still lot to explore with this installation. (Later I might arrange the antenna as a sloper, or even horizontal dipole...let's see.)

Also the Europeans are now delight to work...my fellow hams report strong and clear signals and I hear them clearly. And the waterfall display on the digimodes does not look "noisy" anymore: When switching between the new antenna and the windom, there is a remarkable difference in the noise floor in the specrum view. No windom again on 7MHz, that's for sure!

What about 21MHz?
Guinea-Bissau and the States were worked almost immediately. Just a few QSOs made, but this looks promising. Also, I'd like to check this 5/8 wave stuff with Eznec simulation: what were the theoretical elevation angles with a vertical dipole like this?

Morse code joy

2011-04-07T00:08:00.003+03:00

Checked the bands briefly tonight. The conditions seemed to be quite poor, but suddenly I got a Brazilian calling CQ with S9 strength on the 20m band. I responded directly and we had a nice QSO for a couple of minutes. The nice thing here was that he was calling with 25 words-per-minute speed and I could read and respond at the same speed without any problems. Few months ago I realized that the morse code from 20 years ago is in the backbone, but the reading speed was not at all the same as before. Now after some practising I'm at the same level as before...this crazy hobby gives nice kicks!

Obviously many hams have switched to computer sending and perhaps also CW Skimmer for interpreting morse code. According to my early experiences, these tools are not good enough for normal working. Also CW is in a strange way fun as it was intended to be, with key/paddle and listening with ears. Contests are exceptions; there I use software for sending the routine messages, tracking the bands etc....still listening has to be done the "old-fashioned way.

Computer communication is also very interesting, the digimodes and so on (as seen in my earlier postings), but CW is still unbeatable in DX efficiency, at least for me.

My QSO map

2011-04-05T20:37:00.004+03:00

Below is my QSO map as of today (click to open):

The map is generated by http://hrdlog.net, which collects my QSOs automatically through my HRD Logbook logger. The up-to-date map for me is found here: http://www.hrdlog.net/Map2.aspx?user=OH3GGQ. (I started collecting QSOs in hrdlog.net at the end of year 2011). By modifying the URL you can see the map for any hrdlog.net user.

New Caledonia!

2011-04-04T23:31:00.005+03:00

I had 5 minutes of free time this morning...opened the radio and found a a CQ on the 20m band from KF8DD. Responded directly. The immediate response was: "UP UP". OK, this is a pileup. I said sorry ("SRI") and set up the rig to split-frequency mode. I listened to a couple of QSOs and tuned my second VFO near those, and after a few trials he heard me. I had to send my call a few times before he got me correctly. This was DXCC country number 91 since January 2011. This evening I got the QSL above through eqsl.cc.

I had to check Wikipedia and Google Earth to remind me where on earth :) New Caledonia is: an exotic island somewhere between Australia and New Zealand.

Contest excitement!

2011-04-03T22:54:00.004+03:00

20 years ago, before my "ham pause" I was participating in many radio amateur contests. Really exciting and thrilling, but lots of boring paperwork.

For long I have wanted to check how contesting is done nowadays. I realized that there are many contest logging programs. I downloaded N1MM Logger and started evaluating. Well...at first I was not impressed: chaotic functionality jungle, messy windows and inconsistent user interface.

However, I managed to configure it to communicate with my IC-718. When I sent the first test CQ by clicking my newly configured button, and it went into the air automatically, I understood, again, why I love this hobby. I decided to get some practice. I looked at the SM3CER Contest Calendar and found the Polish contest: SP DX Contest.

I participated loosely in the CW contest and made 103 QSOs. Gosh, I was excited about the bells and whistles in the N1MM Logger. Click the picture below to see my contest setup.

The main window:
The QSO is executed here. The buttons can be preconfigured and the corresponding functions keys are really handy. When a QSO duplicate is found according to the contest rules, a big "Dupe" text is shown; handy.

The bandmap:
When connecting to a DX Cluster telnet port, the bandmap shows spotted stations in the selected band.

The "available" window:
This is really handy: in the SP DX contest it showed only Polish stations that I hadn't yet worked. When clicking a station, the transceiver switches to the frequency where the station is likely to be found. When a station is worked, it disappears from the available list. Room for tactics here; the contest is still far away from being totally automated! I have to mention this: All stations are not spotted in this list.

Interesting: N1MM Logger works in the same way in voice/SSB contests: you just need to arrange pre-recorded .wav files. There are still loads of unexplored functionalities in N1MM Logger; the user manual is almost 250 pages...am I ready for real contesting, or do I need more practising?

Digimodes versus CW in DX working

2011-03-26T00:49:00.006+02:00

I have found the HRD Logbook to be a real friend in CW DX working. Click to open this image, it should explain, what I mean:

HRD Logbook as CW worker's tool

When I hear a call, I type it in the Lookup field to check, If I have worked the ham on this band before (sometimes I might want to work him again). Immediately I get the qrz.com info of him. If I start a QSO I click the Logbook button above the Lookup field, which conveniently adds the call as default into the log form that pops up.

Also, the DX Cluster real-time band stuff is shown, which helps you find your wanted DX targets. Almost too easy, eh? However, don't rely too much on the information there...there are sometimes wrong information and, yes, by listening, you will certainly find nice stuff that is not visible in the DX Cluster information.

I've spent some time to get experience in DX working on both digital modes and the "old" CW, i.e. morse code, that is listened with human ear. So far it seems that (at least my :) ) human ear is better than my PC in DX digging: PSK is quite OK for DX contacts, if the conditions are very good. I'm not yet very experienced with the MFSK modes, but MFSK seems to stand out poor conditions better. They say that OLIVIA is even better. Anyway, in conditions, where PSK31 tends to fail, I still hear CW signals that I'm able to recognize clearly.

Another interesting thing is that the PSK frequencies tend to be quite crowded, while there is often plenty of space on the CW frequencies, especially on the WARC bands. CW is powerful...I'm happy I learned it when I was young.

I've just started to study WSJT, because people say it's just an outstanding communication mode. Interesting times ahead...

Digital Mode Samples

2011-03-21T22:42:00.008+02:00

I found an interesting YouTube clip from the blog of YV5MM, a Venezuelan radio amateur who I met on the 20 m band tonight:

, s
Some of the presented modes were familiar to me already, since I have tried them: All PSK modes, some MFSK modes, one Olivia QSO (will never forget the chat with an 85 year old English gentleman) and RTTY. As seen in my log, PSK is the most popular digimode...not only for me, but also in general. Soon I'll setup my rig for the legendary JT65 mode: the mode that enables communication well below the noise level. I have played with WSPR already, so I hope it won't be too difficult.

My rig

2011-03-21T20:04:00.005+02:00

By the way, here is my simple transceiver:

This Icom IC-718 has its limitations, broad IF (intermediate frequency) filters and non-adjustable AGC (Automatic Gain Control) etc. I think I'll survive with it, especially if/when I get narrower IF filters installed.

More station stuff in the My Station menu.

Is QSO logging too easy? :)

2011-03-21T19:31:00.008+02:00

What a world we are living in:

The PC controls all functions of my transceiver
My logging software is very convenient to use. Shows statistics etc.
My digimode software logs successful digimode QSOs automatically.
hrdlog.net follows my QSO logging in real time! You can access it through the My log menu in the toolbar of this page.

20 years ago there were computer logging programs (I wrote one myself just for fun). However, to be honest, I logged all QSOs (even contest!) in a paper log book.

The 20m band open to South America tonight

2011-03-17T23:02:00.006+02:00

The 20 band was fully open to South America this evening. I heard all the stations loud and clear, but despite lots of tries, they didn't hear me. PSK reporter shows the situation:

PSK stations that heard me (OH3GGQ) 17.March 2011 at 20-20.30 UTC

Obviously my folded dipole, which is hanging 12 meters up almost horisontally in the N-S direction, does not radiate well enough to South America, even though it's not that far from the optimum gain direction...in theory! Antenna theory and practices are far enough away from each other, to make the life interesting for radio amateurs. This has to be investigated, since I haven't worked any South American country yet in my newly restarted DXCC quest. (I cleared my statistics from my SM4SWF era 20 years ago :-) )

For comparison: all North American stations that I called, heard me just like that.

Comments, anyone?

Digimode contact to Australia

2011-03-15T22:59:00.012+02:00

The PSK31 digimode is obviously good enough for long-distance contacts. I found something peculiar going on in the 17 meter (18.1MHZ) band...the signal seemed to be coming from a long distance ("DX"), so I asked who is calling:
QRZ QRZ QRZ de OH3GGQ OH3GGQ OH3GGQ pse k
I got an answer, that looked very promising, since VK (Country prefixes explained) means Australia:
OH3GGQ OH3GenQ OhVK3XQ VK3XeTU sk

I could not get his call 100%, so I asked:
VK?? VK?? PSE K
He replied:
OH3GGQ OH3GGQ OH3Gpee de oQ VK3XQ VK3XQ BTU sk
Wow, I'm lucky! Now I know his call for sure and send him my station info macro:
VK3XQ de OH3GGQ
Hi DR OM
Report : 599 599
Name : Sauli Sauli
QTH : Lohja Lohja
Loc : KP2ØCG KP2ØCG
Info : qrz.com
How copy?
VK3XQ de OH3GGQ pse kn

He replied:
OH3GGQ de VK 3XQe,Q Ok uli UR RPT 569 569 569 Ta®my cPT 599 9
My Name is Rob Rob Rob My QTH Yea Victoria es e-lea Victoria Australia QF22qx [85.0° 15,217.0km] QF
dU How Copy ? Sauli OH3GGQ de VKt pse sk

Well, not fully clear message, but I got all important information. To finalize the connection, I sent this message:
VK3XQ de OH3GGQ
85% copy 85% copy OK OK
73 Rob and thanks for the QSO.
QSL sure via buro and/or eqsl.cc.
VK3XQ de OH3GGQ sk

For newcomers, 73 means "Best regards". (More ham abbreviations here). Some italian station came with an extremely strong signal and since I have no narrow filters, the non-adjustable AGC of my cheapish receiver made my Australian fellow fade away before I saw his continuation. But I'm happy, since I did my first digimode contact to Australia :)

Ham Radio Nation - find me there!

2011-03-14T22:07:00.002+02:00

You know what I'm talking about. The ham friends are often not the same as the other friends. In the social media (Facebook, Twitter and stuff) you are networked with friends and relatives that have no clue about the ham jargon you are posting. Your nice DX catches and shack pics go mostly unnoticed, and people just think you are a geek, neard or whatever.

Recently I found Ham Radio Nation, a new social medium for Radio Amateurs. Log in there and get appreciation for stuff that you create, achieve, write etc. You'll immediately get friends there. It's loaded of nice functionalities for people that like to communicate. I've found Ham Radio Nation to be especially fun for finding and networking with people I have been in contact with on the air.

Send me a friend request there!

Ham Radio Deluxe in contests

2011-03-13T22:22:00.003+02:00

Today I found HRD, i.e. Ham Radio Deluxe (What's this?) to be very convenient in PSK31 (Whats this?) contesting (Whats this?). I have been using HRD for a while, and when the Spanish PSK31 contest started I wanted to explore the possibilities of this software. This time I did not have time to focus on the contest seriously, though.

As seen in the picture, there is a possibility select the active macro set in HRD. Also I found a neat way to bypass the need for swithing over to the logging application: there is a >>button in the QSO window, which opens a simple logging utility. I participated in the contest working about 30 QSO:s, finetuned macros etc. Now my station is ready for digital mode contesting, and I'm waiting for the next contest to come.

An additional hint: start a new database before the contest; the Digital master shows you worked/unworked stations during the contest! Merge the database to your main database after the contest.

Created a simple QSL card

2011-03-09T00:48:00.008+02:00

I finally faced the challenge to create a QSL card in http://www.eqsl.cc/. My previous card is from 1988 and with the old SM4SWF id. Yes, the new paper card (some say it's the real one) is also coming soon.

Although I'm especially familiar with stuff regarding IT, I'm not an experienced graphical designer. So I did what I have done before: played with Irfanview and Powerpoint. In a few minutes I got this:

My first electronic QSL card

The antenna shown in the card is my folded dipole. It's the antenna mentioned before, that happened to be a little bit too short to be optimal for 14 MHz, so it works well enough for 18.1 MHz and 14 MHz bands (with a tuner). Thanks, Google image search, for nice product pictures, by the way...

PSK Reporter today

2011-03-05T11:38:00.007+02:00

PSK Reporter shows listeners to my PSK transmissions

The DX conditions areobviously getting better, and my dipole is not bad at all. Here is a map from pskreporter.info showing who heard my signals, when I had a few PSK31 QSOs on the 17m and 20m band to Europe this morning.

As you may see, PSK Reporter is an excellent antenna&condition test! The info is gathered automatically by the computer software running in the ham shacks around the world. With Ham Radio Deluxe it's Digital Master 780 and its SuperBrowser.

Looking at the conditions with the VOACAP propagation tool (http://www.voacap.com/coverage.html) on 17m, we see some similarities:

...and the VOACAP prediction for the same time.

WSPR test on the 20 meter band

2011-03-04T21:58:00.008+02:00

The Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network is a group of amateur radio operators using a digital mode developed byK1JT (Nobel price winner Joe Taylor) to probe radio frequency propagation conditions using very low power (QRP/QRPp) transmissions.

Occasionally I put my station "probing" the conditions during idle times. This afternoon I put it to work on 14,0956 MHz for a couple of hours. These ( at most a few watt, even milliwatts are used) WSPR nodes were found during that time.

Note the distances that milliwatts can achieve with a clever digital communication mode. The important assets in WSPR are a) very slow bit rates b) exact clock synchronizations.

DX afternoon

2011-03-03T22:04:00.006+02:00

Today afternoong I worked these DXCC countries almost in a row in the 17 and 20 meter bands:

Cuba
Barbados
Turks & Caicos Isl.
Balearic Isl.
Jordan
Crete

All were new countries for me as OH3GGQ. Not bad, expecially Barbados and Turks & Caicos, which I took surprisingly easily through the pile-ups. (I've forgotten the countries I got as SM4SWF over 20 years ago.) The Ham Radio Deluxe software and its integrated DX Cluster functionality helps a lot in DX hunting. The time has changed since my last active hobby period, obviously. Still, very much fun!

And yes, I was using the folded dipole mentioned earlier in this blog. Obiously this site is excellent for DX .

Big problems with my PC rig control - resolved!

2011-03-02T23:25:00.005+02:00

Since yesterday I have been trying to locate a sudden problem with the CI-V interface between my PC and my rig IC-718. (I have the SB-1000 interface there in between.). I tested with different software: MixW and HRD. After installing a port monitoring software on my PC I found out that the computer sends data to the rig but the rig does not answer anything. I started to suspect problems in the cable between the SB-1000 and the rig and took it out at both ends. Surprise: the (seemingly identical) "phone plug"s were a little bit different: the other end was not a typical phone plug! I swithed the cable ends and voila - Ham Radio Deluxe finally took control of my rig! My wife smiled empathically at my yelling.

Antenna pictures

2011-02-27T14:36:00.004+02:00

After a few months of active ham life :) I have now three antennas in my garden:

Windom for 80-10 meters. Nice DX contacts made on the 15 meter band.
G5RV for 80-10 meters (does not work really well yet...investigating)
Folded dipole for 20 meters. Installed 10 meters up. Works quite well also on the 17 meter band.

Here are some pictures of my little antenna park. Pictures taken in february 2011. The windom antenna is not very obvious in the pictures:

Kiinnostava yhteys windomilla.

2011-02-26T23:34:00.002+02:00

Parantelin päivällä windom-antennini sijoittelua. Tuntui paranevan huomattavasti, kun se siirrettiin vähän kauemmas talosta. Särinät ja surinat vähenivät. Sain illan päätteeksi 10 MHz:illä A4HXR:n, eli yhteyden Omaniin. Eka pile-up 20 vuoteen...no, ei siellä tuntunut ihan ruuhkaa olevan, mutta vastapuolella oli vaikeuksia kuulla signaaliani. Ei ihme...antennifarmini ei vielä(!) ole kovin optimaalinen.

Odotan kovasti sitä, että saisin laitteeseeni kunnon suodattimen...selviäisin paremmin 20- ja 40-metrin bandeilla ja ruuhkaisista pile-up-tilanteista. Ilman suodatinta WARC-bandit tuntuvat kivoilta, kun ne eivät ole niin ruuhkaisia.

Taittodipoli 20 metrille

2011-02-22T22:16:00.002+02:00

Tein taittodipolin 14 MHz:ille killusta ja suojaputken palasista. Johtojen väliksi valitsin 30 cm. 4:1-baluni ja syöttöjohtona RG58. Pätkin antennia yläkerran testipaikalla hieman liian lyhyeksi...huomasin sen, kun SWR nousi kahteen, kun vedin antennin männyn ja telkkariantennitelineen väliin. Joudun siis käyttämään sitä virittimen kanssa, vaikka yritin sitä välttää. Jälkeenpäin kaverit sanoivat, että niin kuuluukin käydä...

Antennin toinen pää on noin 12 metrissä ja toinen noin 10 metrissä, vedetty pohjois-eteläsuuntaan, eli parhaiten antennin pitäisi toimia itä-länsisuunnassa. Käytännössä siis aamulla itään ja illalla länteen. Tonttini on loivalla mäellä, joten en saanut siitä täydellistä eznec-mallia, mutta opettelinpa siinä sivussa tuon antenninmallinnusohjelmankin käyttöä. Eznecin kertomat SWR-lukemat eri bandeilla:

80m: SWR > 100
40m: SWR > 100
30m: SWR > 47
20m: SWR > 1,5
17m: SWR > 15,5
15m: SWR > 22,6
12m: SWR > 33,2
10m: SWR > 44,8

20 metrin bandilla workin saman tien eurooppalaisia, 5 watin tehollakin. Kanadaankin tuli jo eka päivänä yhteys sadalla watilla, ja japsinkin kanssa sain, mutta italialainen sotki yhteyden häiriöillään: ei kuullut minua eikä japsia. Muutaman päivän kokeilun jälkeen huomaan, että DX-yhteydet eivät kovin helposti synny, ellei toisella osapuolella ole vähintään 3-elementtistä beamia: dipolinkäyttäjät eivät tunnu kuulevan minua. Paitsi siis euroopassa. Eurooppalaiset saan siis näillä antennikorkeuksilla myös dipolin pituus-suunnassa, mikä ei ole mikään yllätys: workin italiaa yhtä helposti kuin brittein saaria.

Hauska huomio oli se, että matalahkoon windomiini verrattuna tuo uusi taittodipolini toimii 20 metrillä huikean hyvin...kuulemani signaalit ovat lähes poikkeuksetta 1-monta S-yksikköä vahvemmat kuin windomillani. Kun jenkit kuuluvat selvästi dipolilla, ne hukkuvat kohinaan windomiilla. Riemastuttavaa: elämäni ensimmäinen itse tehty antenni toimii!

Antennivirittimeni mahdollistaa virittämisen kaikilla 30m+ taajuuksilla, ovathan SWR:t eznecinkin mukaan kohtuulliset. Tosin, eipä ole yhteyksiä tullut. Ymmärsin jostain teoriadokumentaatiosta, että tuo antenni ei juurikaan säteile 10 metrillä...sitä ei eznec kyllä paljastanut...mallini ei näköjään ole täydellinen?

Radioamatööri virkosi henkiin

2010-12-30T00:54:00.002+02:00

Noniin, aktivoiuduinpa minäkin radioamatöörinä lähes 20 vuoden tauon jälkeen.

Yläasteella 1980-luvun puolivälissä olin vannoutunut ja pitkälle ehtinyt DX-kuuntelija...ainakin seinällä oli viirejä ja maailman radioasemilta olin saanut nipullisen QSL-kortteja. Sitten löysin kirjastosta kirjan, jossa esiteltiin radioamatööritoimintaa. Hurjan kiinnostavalta tuntui, ja pian olin itseopiskellut radioamatööri. Koska asuin Ruotsissa, tunnukseni oli SM4SWF. Asemaa ei ollut, mutta Borlängen teknisen lukion (kyllä, Ruotsissa lukiot jakautuvat tällä tavalla) katolla oli kerhohuoneisto, jonne menin aamutunneilla ja iltapäivisin harjoittelemaan yhteydenpitoa ympäri maailman.

Kohta oli rahat hankittu ensimmäiseen laitteeseen, taisi olla Sommerkampin FTDX-500 tai jotain. Ainakin tämä näyttää tosi samanlaiselta: http://www.rigpix.com/sommerkamp/ftdx505.htm. Samassa myin DX-kuuntelussa käyttämäni liikennevastaanottimen, joka oli jokin 60-luvun putkivehje, jossa oli sellainen uuni, johon vaihdettiin joka bandille oma kide-setti. En muista sen laitteen nimeä, muistaakohan erkkikään?

Olin kuitenkin liian innokas, sillä käräytyin tuosta Sommerkampista putken yrittäessäni lähettää radiaalittomaan vertikaali-antenniini parisataa wattia ilman antennituneria. Olipas raskas takaisku. Ymmärsin impedanssinsovituksen näköjään vain teoriassa, eikä vertikaaliantennin radiaalit tuntuneet mitenkään oleellisilta, kun mulla oli 8 metrin 5-bandin antenni autotallin katolla. Ostin uuden putken, hankin vähän radiaalijohtoa, ja antennitunerin, ja pääsin vihdoin ottamaan yhteyttä maailman radioamatööreihin. Huh, miten hienoa! Auringonpilkkumaksimi lähestyi, ja yhteydenpito Japaniin ja Australiaan oli lastenleikkiä. Siihen aikaanhan ei ollut internettiä, joten oli kova juttu päästä kommunikoimaan ulkomaailmaan ilman kalliita puhelinmaksuja, joten harrastukseni herätti jonkin verran kiinnostusta kaveripiirissäni. Enimmäkseen kai minut silti luokiteltiin oudoksi nörtiksi.

Sähkötystaitoni kehittyi kovasti, ja kun pääsin laivastoon sähköttäjäksi, opin kokeissa ottamaan vastaan 130 merkkiä minuutissa, joka on ymmärtääkseni jokseenkin hyvä saavutus. Sain sitten "A"-luokan (näin se luokitus meni Ruotsissa) sertifikaatin, sain luvan käyttää myös mikrofonia yhteydenpitoon. Kohta naapuri soitti ovikelloa, ja selitti hymyillen, että kuulevat ääntäni sähköuruissaan :) Ongelma ratkesi alipäästösuodattimella , joten tuo häirintätapaus jäi kai meille molemmille lähinnä positiivisena muistoihin.

Kohta sain kaverilta käyttööni Icomin IC-735:n, ja hommahan alkoi luistamaan tosissaan...aloin kilpailla, ja taisin vähän pärjätäkin välillä. Mieleeni jäi kuitenkin erityisesti yhteys MIR-avaruusasemaan.

Kun sitten muutin Suomeen vuonna 1991, myin radiolaitteeni, ja radioamatööritoiminta jäi, melkein 20 vuodeksi siis.

Uusi herätys tuli syksyllä 2007. Ostin ensin kuuntelulaitteen, ja heti aika hyvän sellaisen: AOR AR 7030+. Liityin Suomen Radioamatööriliittoon, hankin luvat Ficoralta...aloin tutustumaan aiheeseen. Jossain vaiheessa sain halvalla huuto.netistä IC-718:n. Hankin lisäksi windom-antennin, G5RV-antennin, ja tutustuin asioihin enimmäkseen kuuntelemalla...tarkoitukseni oli kyllä herätä henkiin tosissaan jossain vaiheessa. Tutustuin uusiin tuuliin, kaikenlaista uutta oli tullut netin myötä: digimodet, WSPR jne. Molemmat lajit opettelin, kytkin tietokoneen rigiin, mutta vain kuuntelumoodissa toistaiseksi.

Vuodenvaihteessa 2011 aloin pitämään sähkötys-yhteyksiä...osallistuin SRAL:n joulukisaan. Ranskalaisten REF-kisaan osallistuin tammikuussa hyvin kevyellä otteella, muutaman tunnin panoksella.