AmateurRadio.com

What is going on?

Back in November 2017 I ordered and built the Funk Amateur FA-VA4 antenna analyzer kit. The kit was built and passed the smoke test without issue. I then went through the calibration process and it was successful (so I thought). I was not able to get the unit to work and I felt it was due to user error and tried to run the calibration again but without success. No matter what band I checked the SWR was off the scale. I even connected the device to a dummy load without success. I read and reread the manual and even checked out some YouTube videos and was just getting more frustrated so I was thinking of selling it to someone who knew how to operate the unit. As I watched more Youtube videos it seemed like a very straight forward unit to operate. Over the course of a year or more, I picked up the unit and tried to figure it out but just could not.

The issue

This past week I picked it up again and was looking it over but in so doing for some strange it occurred to me to open up the kit and look over my work. It's embarrassing to say but as I looked the board over I saw that the female BNC connector  I did not solder the BNC center pin to the PCB board!!! I soldered this pin, did a reset to the unit and then ran the calibration again BUT this time the calibration took a lot longer. Once it was done I connected it to my Endfed antenna and checked 15m this is a band that I know the SWR is decent. Low and behold the unit worked as it should way back in 2017!! I just can't believe that I overlooked the obvious to open the kit up and have a look around. I now get to discover this great unit that I built years ago.

All is well

As I watch the news and as a side note, I am getting very worn on hearing every detail they can pick at regarding COVID-19 anyway......Hamvention is not that far off considering all the advance planning that has to be done. As you know this is one of the largest gatherings of Amateur radio ops, SWL's and those just interested in radio communications. It is the grandstand for manufactures to release new and newly improved radio gear.  This gathering is the Meca within the radio world as we all at one time or another want to make our way to this event! On March 3rd a press release from the organizers of Hamvention was released.  Has COVID-19 changed your Hamvention plans? Now in the Hamvention press release, it said the following:
From my perspective, I am not to comforted to know that to date (as of March 3rd) there have been no confirmed COVID-19 cases. Hamvention is just not made of those from Ohio but worldwide. The demographics of our hobby are not spring chickens, COVID-19 and an elderly populous gathering do not mix well. I am guessing by now my readers understand my direction for attending Hamvention this year.....BUT does it have to be cancelled or can it be possibly rescheduled? It would be nice if Hamvention had a plan "B".

Not much action during the contest.

I found the State QSO party challenge to be a very good way to get on the radio often and get my CW skills a workout. So far I have taken part in the BC, VT and MN QSO parties and this weekend it is the North and south Carolina QSO parties. I have developed a habit of rolling out my contest software the evening before the contest just to make sure all is functioning. It was a good thing I went through the check as for some reason when I started my go-to contest program N1MM+ I was greeted with a message that the comport this software uses to connect to my Icom 7610 was in use! I shut N1MM+ down and tried JTDX and N3FJP logging software and I again was greeted with the same message. Just last evening all was working just fine and programs were chatting with each other without issue but that is how computers work. The only program that had no issues was WSJT-X why I am not sure. The game began that took close to 2 hours searching for the reason for this new anomaly. In the end, after I restarted my PC for the I would say for the 5th time all was good and the issue was gone. During those 2 hours, I reloaded programs, shut down virus protection, updated radio software, reassigned comports and the list goes on and on and on. Not sure that the issue was but after one of many restarts all is good again at VE9KK. I am sure I changed something but after a while, you lose track of what you did between this time and the last time. I am glad I do this the night before as it would be very frustrating the day of the contest. I ended up posting my software issue on the Win4Icom I.O group I received 2 spot on responses one from the author of the program and the other from a great blogging friend. In a nutshell, the consensus was my comport to the radio was still active with N1MM+ after it has shut down thus giving me issues when trying t start my Win4Icom program. One suggest was to pay attention to the shutdown order of my programs and if all else fails to just restart the Icom 7610 to clear the comport to the radio.
Well it's Saturday morning and I am on the air both on 20m and 40m and I am just not hearing much action for the South Carolina QSO party. The UBA CW contest is going strong with DX into VE9KK.  All was not lost I was able to make 4 contacts in the South Carolina contest on Saturday for a score of 4 QSO's for a score of 274. On Sunday there were either more North Carolina stations in the contest or conditions were just a little bit better as I was able to make 9 QSO's for a score of
316.

The retired W1SFR

For the past few days, our weather here on the East coast has been excellent nice warm weather (up to +10) with no rain and just great sunny skies. On the second day of this great weather, I decided it was time to put up my new Ultimax DXtreme EndFed antenna. The antenna I have at present is the W1SFR KX3 helper EndFed antenna.  As I have said past posts this is a fantastic antenna, very well built and works as advertised. So why am I replacing this antenna with yet another EndFed antenna, this is a very good question and was answered in this post.

Ultimax size difference

When I took the KX3 helper down I was pleasantly surprised how great the balun enclosure looked. It has been up for over 6 months exposed all kinds of weather and looked as new as the first day it went up. The first step to get the new antenna up was to install the counterpoise that I ordered with the Ultimax antenna. The configuration for my EndFed antenna is the Balun end is in a tree about 25 feet high with the wire extending down to my shed and is terminated about 8 feet above the ground. This is the same configuration I am going to use for the Ultimax antenna as well. The counterpoise from Ultimax antennas consists of a single wire for about 6 feet and then it splits into 2 separate wires. I used a staple gun to secure the counterpoise to the tree trunk.  The only choice I had was to place one counterpoise leg on one side of the tree trunk and the other one on the opposite side. The tree is only about 1.5 feet around so the counterpoise wires are not that far apart. At the bottom of the tree, each counterpoise goes along the ground in opposite directions for about 15 feet.
The Ultimax antenna is rated at 2KW SSB with 14 gauge wire along with a hefty insulator. Since my max output will be 100 watts CW and tops 80 watts DATA the insulator and wire on the Ultimax is a bit too heavy duty. Plus my support at the wire end is a wooden pole that is not meant for heavy-duty support.

Ultimax is up.

The idea was to use the wire from the W1SFR KX3 helper as so I thought at the time it was only 2 feet longer than the Ultimax antenna wire but very light. I folded over the wire to bring it down to 33 feet to match the Ultimax wire length and check the SWR on 80, 40, 30, 20 17 and 15m both with and without a counterpoise. The results show when using a counterpoise the SWR was not as good as without. I am guessing this is because of the position of the counterpoise, I was running out of time and not able to play too much with the counterpoise. We are expecting a very large snowstorm tomorrow so the antenna play is done for now. I am going to leave the antenna up without the counterpoise attached. BUT having said that the counterpoise is very easy to attach if need be.

Results without a counterpoise:
     Band              Freq           SWR

80.              4.000.        7.0
80.              3.500.        8.1
40.              7.001.        1.8
40.              7.070.        1.8
30.              10.100.     3.3
30.              10.150.     3.3
20.              14.001.     4.6
20.              14.070.     4.6
17.              18.068.     2.5
17.              18.168.     2.5
21.              21.001.     1.5
21.              21.070.     1.5

 
Results with a counterpoise:
         Band              Freq           SWR

80.              4.000.        6.5
80.              3.500.       9.1
40.              7.001.       5.2
40.              7.070.       5.2
30.              10.100.     2.2
30.              10.150.     2.2
20.              14.001.     4.9
20.              14.070.     4.9
17.              18.068.     2.7
17.              18.168.     2.6
21.              21.001.     1.6
21.              21.070.     1.5

Results from W1SFR EndFed:
         Band              Freq           SWR

40.              7.001.        1.9
40.              7.070.        2.5
30.              10.100.     4.4
30.              10.150.     4.5
20.              14.001.     4.5
20.              14.070.     4.3
17.              18.068.     1.5
17.              18.168.     1.5
21.              21.001.     1.8
21.              21.070.     1.8

   

In my quest to improve my CW I wanted to add Morse Runner to my PC I am not sure where it went as I am sure it was on my PC. It may not have been reloaded one time I reformated my hard drive in the past. I returned to Alex VE3NEA site to download his Morse Runner program to my surprise I noticed on the site a link there is now a way to run Morse Runner on a Mac PC. This is great for me as I have a Mac laptop and I can now use Morse Runner. KI4STU has created a WineSkin wrapper to allow this great program to also work on a Mac PC. The only issue I have found is that my antivirus program Bitdefender is not allowing the INI file to be saved. Because of this, I have to load my call sign and the program parameters each time I run Morse Runner. I am sure I will find the workaround for this BUT it's great a WinSkin has been provided for this program.

It was nice to see the bands very active with DX for me it was from 15m to 40m. The Endfed I have at the moment will not get me onto 80m BUT the new Endfed I purchased (going up in warmer weather) will give me 80m and maybe more. This year I spent a bit more time in the chair operating than I usually do. I was operating as a single operator, all band and low power (100 watts)
Score breakdown:
I was not able to snag any rare DX and in fact, I really only heard manly Europe, nothing from the middle east or Asia this year. During the late afternoon on 15m, I had Central and South America open up and I was able to get some contacts from there in the log. I only made 126 QSO's I was in and out of the chair and I really have to get to the point in my CW career to feel comfortable calling CW contest and stop the search and pounce only routine. The only Murphy moment I had was when my Bluetooth keyboard's rechargeable battery when dead. I had to hunt down my USB keyboard before continuing in the contest. The lesson learned here is to set the Bluetooth aside and use the USB keyboard for contesting.  The next contests in my schedule are the North and South Carolina QSO party contests the first weekend in March.

My blog is way overdue for a facelift, many a time I have thought about it and had good intentions of doing it but other things just got in the way. This is the first kick at the can with an update and I am open to ideas and input from the blogging community.