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I’ve always wanted to operate my radio on Solar Power. This was a fun to do project. I can’t wait to bring it to a Field Day Event.

I bought the aluminum from Metals Depot in Kentucky. (link attached)  They have lots of aluminum shapes and parts to choose from. The parts arrived via UPS. It nice to have a good source like this for ham radio projects.http://www.metalsdepot.com/

HQRP is a good company to buy solar panel parts and controlers from. The QRP part of their name is just coincidental to this being a QRP project.  http://hqrp.com/

de AA1IK

Ernest Gregoire

72

Elecraft KX3

Elecraft said they hope to start shipping at the end of February or the beginning of March when I talked to them on the phone today.

I’m at the tail end of the line too, I just ordered on today!

While we’re waiting for that big day when the Kx3 arrives, I was wondering how many ordered the Kx3 assembled by the factory or in Kit form?

Just curious! I ordered mine ‘Factory Fresh’!

de AA1IK

Ernest Gregoire

73

My latest antenna project turned out very well. I took it to the beach for an on the air test this afternoon. This magnetic loop antenna tunes from 40 meters through 15 meters. In my haste to get to the beach, I forgot my antenna analyzer. After setting up the Mag Loop, I turned on the radio, turned the volume up full blast, and tuned the antenna for the loudest noise. Bingo!!

I was on the air. It couldn’t have been simpler.

The antenna is made from 3/8 inch copper tubing, 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe and a few odds and ends from Radio Shack. The heart of the antenna is an air variable tuning capacitor, 11 to 300 Pfd. The large loop, (the main loop) is fed with a half Faraday feed loop. All the information for building this antenna is readily available on line and partially from the ARRL antenna hand book.

Good links for Magnetic Loop builders: http://aa5tb.com/index.html,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CW-QRP-HOMEBREWERS/,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MagneticLoopAntenna/messages

http://www.alexloop.com/

My next Mag Loop will be 5.5 feet in diameter and made from 5/8 inch copper tubing. More on this as it develops!! There was an unexpected bonus in the speed and ease of setting up an antenna for portable use. I was on the air in minutes after getting out of the truck.

Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in building one of this fantastic antennas. The antenna has a very high Q so it has a steep tuning notch.

If you use a Faraday loop to feed it, it will be very directional. You can also use a Gama match instead of the feed loop, to feed the antenna. How did it work? I made a very nice contact on 15 meter CW with a ham in Milwaukee this afternoon. Not bad for 5 watts, an small antenna for a contact from Florida. The QSO ended with air boat QRN! The air boat passed by close to shore and I was on the water’s edge about 100 feet away. Next time I’ll bring the Bose noise cancelling headphones!!

De AA1IK

Ernest Gregoire

Geezer in the park

Never Quite Good Enough, Yet!

A few days ago I had a CW chat with a guy in Illinois; nothing note worthy about this, yet! W9XS, Ron is a VFB CW operator as evidenced by his perfect code even though he was mobile at the time of our QSO. I complimented him on his fist and he replied that he has been doing code ever since his novice days, so fast code was no problem for him. I said I was not that good a code operator to be able to drive a car and do CW at the same time, to which he replied, “I’m on a bicycle, not in a car”!

My mouth literally dropped open. /M on a bicycle and churning out perfect code. He uses an Icom 706M2G for his bicycle/m work and there is a photo of him on his bike at his QRZ web site. Look him up. I greatly admire this man! We ended our chat just as he pulled into his drive way, he said over the air.

I have been trying to become a good code operator ever since I became a ham. I’m better than I was, but no at good as I want to be. My problem is that I get distracted with other things, modes, ham radio building projects and CW takes a back seat. Once again, I determine to reach my goal of becoming a good code operator. I’ve done this before, only to become distracted yet again.

This time for sure!

de AA1IK

Geezer on the porch in Steinhatchee, Florida

Testing out a new project or piece of gear on the air is fun, sometimes!

I get on the air to test a new gizmo and get a reply. Ah, this is great!

The other station sends my call back to me, then QSB strikes and bamo! Down in the dumps it goes. I hear only a dit here and there. Growl!

AGN AGN PSE QSB BK,

Now this is where it gets frustrating. The other guy send me my own call back 3, 4, maybe even 5 times. Like I don’t already know what my own call sign is, right!

I hear that clear as a bell, then, as if from a distant galaxy, I hear his call W~~~~~ , boomba— down in the mud again! OK, OK, I send back to him now; UR CALL ONLY UR CALL ONLY QSB QSB BK

Once more he send my call back to me again only this time 7 times in a row, using up all the possible propagation between us! Oy vey!

I send SRI QSB 73, de AA1IK SK

Does this happen to you too?

If anyone reads this and is just getting into QRP. Please, please Please, DON’T SEND ME MY OWN CALL BACK A BUNCH OF TIMES, I ALREADY KNOW WHAT IT IS, ITS YOUR CALL SIGN THAT I WANT!!!!

73 all,

de AA1IK

Ernest Gregoire

Geezer on the porch

 

Exposed PCB

 http://www.cwtouchkeyer.com/

Model P6 CWtouchkeyer

Model P6 CWtouchkeyer http://www.cwtouchkeyer.com/P6.htm

“The PC card is exposed to reduce assembly cost and material cost to provide a low cost touch paddle. The model P1PAD would be the next option.  It’s twice the size and offers a weight in it. The P6 is designed to be low cost, light weight yet hold the touch standard as with all my products.” Summer, from CWtouchkeyer.com says, “I’ve had a few comments about the exposed PC card but less than 1%.”

I wanted to protect the PCB from potential short circuits that might damage the Touch Paddles.  I ordered the P6 because every radio I have already has a keyer onboard. A quick scan of the CWtouchkeyer.com web site will show you various models with better and better features.

I like to tinker and one of my favorite things to do is to use something for ham radio for which it was not intended. The Old Bay spice can was just the right size for this job. The can was almost empty anyway. I was going to mount the entire keyer inside the Old Bay box but eventually decided that was overkill. Modifying the cover was pretty easy. I used a Dremel tool to rout out the cover lip so it would fit better on the PCB. I used ‘Whiteout’ to drip a mark onto the Old Bay Cover through the screw holes of the PCB for its rubber feet and main cover screws.

The hardest part of this job was getting all the wire back in the box, and whole thing put back together without pinching the wire. It took longer to write this blog and get the photos properly displayed than doing the actual work.

Using these paddles is not exactly the same as using mechanical paddles. You cannot ‘rest’ your fingers on the metal tabs. Touching the metal strips sends a stream of code out. I learned to keep my wrist steady to avoid sending extra dits. The learning curve is not as steep as I first suspected it would be. My fist improved after using the touch paddled for just a short time. Using them if fun. I plan to try various CW speeds on my radio keyer just to test myself and make sure I don’t embarrass myself when I go on the air.

I tested the paddles with very low power into a dummy load. So far so good. Now I’m looking forward to using them on the air.

The P6 is a very light weight model and can be held in your hand to steady it. I like these paddles so much that I am thinking about getting a second set and boxing them up in a different kind of enclosure and weighing it down to keep it from moving around. That will be fun to play with indoors with my 100 watt radio.

73

de AA1IK

Ernest Gregoire

Geezer on the porch