17m on a stick

In what will become a regular feature of this blog now, I had an hour or so down at the beach this afternoon, under what were rather leaden, autumnal skies.

It's the monotonous flatness and proximity to the sea that makes it great for radio!

Whilst a TV crew filmed a piece about the origins of the Landrover, which was an idea born not only on Anglesey, but at this very beach I was on, I enjoyed very good success out to the Far East on just an Ampro 17m stick and 15W out.  I even had a decent SSB QSO with VO1VK on ~25W, even though the band wasn't really strong enough for that mode (Dean was 5/7 against my 5/1).

Amazing outcome, considering conditions were pretty poor.

Very pleasing results.

Update: The following day, things were even better!

And even better the day after that!

Back on air - sort of.

After about three weeks of not having a radio at home, I've now got a passable station up and running from the new QTH!

I had not at all expected to be able to run radio here, partly due to space constraints, and partly due to the expectation of high noise levels, especially due to ADSL internet provision.

An experiment with a magnetic loop, and then a mobile whip system, showed the noise levels were actually quite low.  I decided to string-up a thin wire last evening, into the biggest, shallow-sloping delta loop I could manage.   It's roughly about a 40m loop according to length.

A rush-job in the garage, to test the new sloping loop antenna.

 

As usual, I fed it with 300-Ohm twin, which I reused from a line that had been out in the weather for about 10 years.  For reasons that evade me for the moment, one side of the line was moderately oxidised, whereas the other side was almost as clean as new.  Because the line was connected to a 6:1 balun, which presents a short-circuit at DC, the oxidation of one line can't have been due to an electrical effect - even though it very much looks like one.

Anyhow, I cleaned the contact wire with some steel wool, and made the connections, this time via a 4:1 balun.  Success!  Internal 'tuner' gave all bands down to 60m, and the external match box also produces good matches - just about reaching 80m with some careful tweaking.  Adding a disconnectable wire to the loop will probably make 80m matching easier.

Noise levels with the loop are now very low - no bar indication on the meter at all, and it sounds pretty clean as well.  Conditions were terrible past day or so, but the performance of the loop is pretty much as can be expected for a low sloping loop - could be better, but it will do. 

Saving money

I've been looking into how to get a decent 6m Yagi up at about 5m whilst operating /P this week.

The simple, click-to-buy option is to opt for a Spiderbeam telescopic pole, fixed to a drive-on plate.  The price for the drive-on-plate is about £80, and the pole, well, that's an astronomical £359 for the standard, 10m version.  Altogether, that's £439, just for a simple antenna mounting system!

Well, that's all a bit too much!  I did a little searching around metal suppliers.  I eventually came across Aluminium Online, which offers exactly the type of telescoping tubes we operators are looking for.  The standard tolerance might seem to require some direct contact with the company before ordering, as the tubes could - it's difficult to tell from a distance - be a little too loose inside one another.  The company does seem to offer tighter tolerances, so I'll give them a call tomorrow.

Update: the company says it supplies companies for antenna support purposes, and so these are suitable, having a 0.5mm gap all around between tubes. This should be fine for slot cuts and clamping.

A good starting point, via Aluminium Online.

 

The price for the lower section (50mm, 2m long) is around £25 or so.  I only really need about four sections at most, so that's roughly £100, allowing for the lower price of the smaller diameter tubes, and delivery.

The clamps for the poles, pretty much identical to the Spiderbeam ones, and in full A4 stainless steel, are only about £3-4 each.  I will need three of those.  

The drive-on plate is easily made with basic welding skills out of some L-section steel and a tube.

So, altogether, I estimate a homebrew support system like this will price-up like this:

4 x aluminium sections, delivered: £100

3 x A4 stainless clamps: £15, delivered

Steel length and tube for drive-on plate: £15 (I can probably reduce this to much less, with offcuts)

Metal paint (if thought necessary for the drive-on plate): £10

That gives a total homebrew price of about £140, compared to the £439 for the commercial version.  A full two-thirds saving on price!

Falling off the A55.

The great thing about /P or static /M operating is that you can take advantage of any spare moment.

Last evening, after delivering my daughter to the cinema, I came off the A55 coastal road in North Wales to enjoy some warm sunshine and great 14MHz QSOs from a seaside car park. 

Beautiful weather at IO83!

 

I was again almost alone from Britain in reaching KL7L on 1W WSPR. I keep my old, battered Ford alongside a much better car because, being well maintained, it runs as smoothly as any new car, is ideal for taking onto the beach, and has so far cost me just £250 per year in real terms!  I got this attitude to cars after I started flying.  Most common light aircraft are decades old but, again, very highly maintained.  Things can last, when looked after.

 

Better views than from home!

The results from a few minutes' 14MHz WSPR at 1W were, as usual, very successful (plot is TX and RX, but mostly TX):

A few minutes from the car park.

Very slowly, I'm continuing to get back on the air, albeit in a very different way to the past ten years.

A week after moving in to our new home, I've managed to get a magnetic loop up and running on 200mW WSPR, which did very well, once I'd lilfted it 1.5m off the ground.  Plenty more work to do there to weather-proof everything. 

Other than that, it's a case of pulling-in with the car at various convenient points as I go about daily chores.  This afternoon, I simply stopped at a car park with a nice clear aspect in all directions.  Nothing special at all, other than being a few hundred metres from the sea, which wasn't visible.  Even though there were many houses within ~100m, the RF noise levels were extremely low.

I was pleasantly surprised to find my 1W WSPR from the 14MHz Ampro stick on the car was getting across to KL7L at a very competitive signal strength; at -22dB, I was second amongst the other few British stations making it across at the time.  

Not bad for a few minutes' 14MHz 1W WSPRing from a car park!

 

G6GN, using a Fuchs antenna, was beating me by a healthy 4dB.  G0IDE was way down at -29dB for a 1W equivalent.  Even the excellent station, G0CCL, was down at -28dB for a 1W equivalent.  G7JGB and MM0IYT, the remaining ones making it to KL7L from Britain, were down at -32dB and -27dB/1W equivalent, respectively.

For a run-of-the-mill operating position and the simplest antenna going, that was a very good outcome, and I hope it encourages those who can't, or don't want to operate from a home location, to have a go at /P and/M work.  It's a lot less hassle than keeping big wires and/or towers in the air, that's for sure!

Up and running again.

The settling-in after the house move earlier this week has now finished and radio is beginning to make a comeback.

I haven't planned to play radio from home, as I expected high noise levels.  In fact, they are quite low.  HF will certainly be possible, and 2m digital will also make a comeback here.

For the moment, whilst I attend to the truly monumental task of sorting through the past 13 years' worth of accumulated junk, I will be taking occasional moments to operate /P from the car, parked up at some beach or other locally.

MM0VIK, often /MM, with whom I had a lovely QSO recently.

 

Had I not changed my mode of operating recently, I probably would never have turned to 14Hz SSB voice the other evening, and had a nice long QSO with Euan, MM0VIK, who WSPR followers will know very well from his past year out from normal family and working life, as he went sailing the Atlantic.  Now safely anchored off his Shetland home, Euan told me of his latest antenna for the boat - a 40m delta loop.  No doubt he will do very well indeed with that, especially at sea!

So, stay tuned whilst I get internet connected in a house that was occupied by an elderly woman who never knew what the internet was.  Then I can reformat and re-image some Raspberry Pi SD cards for the /P operations, some of which have corrupted recently.  That will be a lot nicer than last evening's operation to unblock a drain whilst it rained heavily!

Strange one from AC1JS

A peculiar twin-decode on 7th August, where I received AC1JS, based on Swan's Island, Maine, twiceat 14MHz in the same, 11:42UT time slot.

Twin decodes do happen.  But this one had the hallmarks of two reception paths - a 3Hz difference in received frequency, a 0.1s delay between the first and second decode, and a 9dB difference in received signal:

Situation at 11:42, August 07, 2021.  Image: DX Atlas, with permission.

 

Proppy prediction at 12UT, same day.

Radio Remains, then and now.

Back in 2017, my family and I had a lovely outing during unseasonbaly warm weather, up on the hillside of the old Marconi transmitting station at Cefn Du, near Caernarfon.

It's lovely to see the old concrete bases for the tubular steel masts that held what was essentially a pair of inverted-L wires in the air.

One of the 400ft-tall antenna suppor towers, around the immediate post-WW1 period.

 

All that remained in 2017, just under 100 years later.

And so, in 2021, it became the moment for me to leave my own radio remains, also in the form of a concrete base and threaded rod.  At least I can now see where the water was coming from - an air void that didn't quite fill-in during concrete pouring, not that it made any difference to anything.

A couple of years ago.

My radio remains, 2021.

 

You can read an earlier post about the Cefn Du site here.  It includes a side 'A' and side 'B' recording of Marconi himself, talking about the first ever direct, non-relay Wales-Australia contact.

Moving on.

Well, every change is an opportunity!  With the old station now completely dismantled, I'm already thinking of how to not only keep things going, but to improve on at least a few aspects of what I had in the past.

In practice, I'm going to be a predominantly /P or, if you like, a /M operator from now on.  I'm planning on a van of some sort that will allow a permanent installation of a radio in the back, and a small generator for deployment when I get on site. 

I'm quite keen on expanding my 6m operation, in particular.  For this, I've already selected a 5-ele OP-DES Yagi from Innovantennas.  Good value at £199, and the perfect balance of size, gain and breadth of pattern; taking advantage of auroral reflections, rare though they are, is one of my most rewarding activities.

 

Over on 2m, I'm simply keeping my 8-ele, which will fit in, or on top of a van quite easily.

As for HF, well, the efficiency is such that I'll keep going with my 1/4 wave elevated verticals; they've never left me lacking in performance, especially from coastal locations, where I can easily outperform most inland antennas.

Now all I need do is find a good van.  Being half-Polish, buying a German VW camper is fundamentally out of the question, both out of respect for my predecessors and, frankly, price!

Innovantennas 24MHz LFA - disassembly.

Well, it took me only three hours to completely disassemble and remove my tower this morning; I was lucky the rain kept off in a very unstable atmosphere.

After this, it was time to disassemble the Innovantennas 24MHz LFA after seven years in the windy, salty sea air.  It might be useful for others considering an Innovantennas Yagi to learn of my experience in taking things apart.

History now - all dismantled this morning.

Firstly, the antenna has, as I've often documented, taken a complete and utter beating from the weather.  It had to stay permanently up for over four years to qualify for planning consent outside of the normal application process.  Even in the sting jet of Storm Doris, where winds topped 137km/h, the LFA kept flying confidently.

I had, as is recommended, smeared conductive grease on the element parts that slide inside others.  The securing is done with small stainless steel hose clamps.  All these, without exception, operated flawlessly on removal.  Of course, I used oil spray to ensure the best performance.

Used 12m LFA, anyone?  Look at those Stauff clamps - almost like new!

 

Each element came away from the others as though I had just installed them.  I colour coded everything for whomever eventually takes it away from me; I don't think I'll ever bother with a tower and Yagi again - they are rather unnecessary in today's digital modes environment.

What very much surprised me was the lack of any evident decay in the 'Stauff' clamps used to secure the elements to the boom.  Though clearly very heavy density plastic, the constant exposure to strong sunglight did worry me about needing replacements after a few years.  In fact, not only do they seem just as strong as when installed, but they haven't lost much of their green colour, either - despite the 7 years of UV. 

Not very happy with these.  Too narrow, and poor quality metal.

The weak metal allowed for significant deformation.

The only criticism I have was about the gripper components of the boom-to-mast clamp.  Absolutely everything else on the antenna is either aluminium or stainless steel.  But the clamp grippers are either plain steel or poorly galvanised steel.  Accordingly, they had not only rusted - although not critically - but also splayed outward.  To be honest, they are also a little bit too narrow; a wider gripper would make for a better grip and a better spread of the forces; the antenna did once slip as a hurricane-force wind approached, needing considerable tightening-up to avoid a repeat.

So, if you are wondering what I think of the Innovantennas Yagis, all I can say is that they are very good indeed!

 

 

Good time for Hawai'i

Making contact with Hawai'i from the UK is always very special.  Though not especially difficult or uncommon, it's still a very long haul DX that takes our imagination, if not our bodies, to the 'other side' of the world.

It appears that, over on 14MHz, now is a good time, as it often is as we move towards equinoxes.  This morning, the opening to Maui, indicated by my 1W WSPR (vertical delta loop) was two hours long, with the Proppy HF model predicting this to be entirely long path - a distance of 28,660km.

My 1W received at AI6VN/KH6 this morning (August 05, 2021).

Proppy HF model output for 06:00UT.

Using 20-50W on FT8, or a more sensitive mode such as JT65 or JT9, means two-way QSOs should be fairly easy.  From the seaside, it should be very easy, probably good enough for a SSB QSO on a few Watts.

Double disturbance

Two significant geomagnetic disturbance peaks overnight:

This led to the suppression of the 1W WSPR signal from me to TF4X, who was directly underneath the centre of a broad auroral oval at the time:

 

Liberating...

Now in advanced stages of dismantling the ten year-old station.  Only the HF 'rice box' left, and the tower ready for disassembly.  It's very liberating to reduce radio to its most basic elements: power supply of some sort, box, and a wire antenna. 

Even more liberating when you take it away from all the potential or actual RFI problems of a domestic situation, and out into the wild!

Old (dusty) faithful.  Just keeps going and going.

 

VK3QN, and the double peak.

Nice example of two peak signal periods as revealed by VK3QN's 5W WSPR signal, his antenna array beaming long path (130 degrees), on 02-03 August:

Terminator at first peak, 23:50UT.  Image courtesy DXAtlas, with permission.

Terminator at second peak, 07:00UT.

New NOAA ionospheric model

Interesting stuff here: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/wam-ipe

Still here...

A slowdown in posting, but still active, of course.  Activity will never end for me; best hobby available!

Had a go at 10m RX on WSPR yesterday.  I'm not best-equipped, having only a 14MHz vertical delta operating on its first harmonic, and thus a fairly high pattern.  I managed to get to number 13 worldwide.  The total unique spots was also only across about 18 hours, rather than a full 24hrs.  I'll see how the full 24 hours improves things tomorrow.

 

Not exactly a good day on 10m!  18 hours' worth of RX.

LA3JJ seemed to reveal some early morning Es: