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Building a Beverage receive antenna (Nov. 17, 2009) I have been working on improving the short Beverage antenna (260' long) so I can hear better on 160M and 80M. The initial antenna built in 2008 worked all right, but I have now updated it with a better transformer, using the BN-73-202 binocular core recommended by experts. The full story (with audio clips)
FT-920 hears again! (Nov. 11, 2009) My circa-2002 FT-920 went dead on receive back in September. Just white noise and the occasional birdie, no matter which antenna input is connected. Everything else worked as it should, including CAT, TX, tuner, DSP, etc. I'm told the problem was on the main board -- a PIN diode (D1009), the 2sc2714Y RF transistor (Q1084) that mutes RX on TX, and a 100nf capacitor. Good news: the rig is working again, with many thanks to Irek VA7RY for his expertise, time and the nice visits we had at his QTH. Likely culprit? RF, not just a static discharge, so I suspect an SO2R mistake with 40M and 20M antennas too close together while running high power on one band or another.
If you are a ham, you may have worked VA7ST or VE7ASK -- same person, two callsigns.
I like a lot of ham radio activities, but my real love is contesting -- CW and RTTY. In 2007, I began gathering the necessary gear to dabble in phone (single-sideband or SSB) contests. Though SSB is not my favorite mode and it's a lot of hard work with a limited antenna system, I do enjoy the high rate of a phone contest (you can talk to a lot of people in a hurry). My year-over-year contest totals continue to go up. In 2007, I participated in 66 contests -- more than one a weekend sometimes. If you are a contester, you already know the attraction. If you are not a contester, let me urge you to try it, even once. And please read some of my contesting stories. Just maybe some of my enthusiasm will rub off on you!
The latest contraption is a pair of 80M wire verticals, each 68' tall and fed by 84-degree lengths (42') of RG58 coax from a common relay box. Between the two antenna connectors on the box is a 71-degree (38' or so) length of RG58 coax. Works extremely well, providing great front-to-back on 80M with good gain in either the NW or SE directions, covering US/VE and Asian beam headings. Shorting the 71-degree line also provides a broadside EU-W6 pattern but the end-fire patterns are so wide that broadside doesn't really do much more than one or the other end-fire pattern. See the ARRL Antenna Handbook for details of this antenna phasing design. View the layout of my 80M vertical array. In April 2008, I took down a 40M rotatable dipole (instructions updated Feb. 2007) built from a pair of old fiberglass rods (actually, they're crappie fishing poles). I've nicknamed this the "crappie 40M dipole." While it worked well for its size, my 40M half-squares and 40M elevated vertical array cover the horizon nicely and made a rotatable dipole unnecessary. If I could have put that dipole up 70 feet or higher, I'd have kept it for sure.
I also use the eQSL service to confirm all contacts (although sometimes it takes a few weeks for me to upload my most recent contacts).
I'm not a top-level contester. I just don't have the antennas for that, but no one has more fun at it than I do -- even if I end up at the bottom of the score list. Once in a while, I do better than I expected and receive a certificate for my efforts. That's pretty cool. This site's main purpose is to share some of my experiences with anyone interested. Hope you find something of interest. There's
lots to see here.
If you have questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me. |
