AmateurRadio.com

For some time now I have been trouble shooting my MFJ 1788 loop off and on. I have had a problem with getting 20m to tune. The best I could do was an SWR in and around 12 to 1 and really that is not good at all. Even with that SWR the K3 tuner was able to drop it too a flat match but odd things were still happening....for example
1. Tuning the loop for max noise (as low SWR was not happening) did happen but as soon as the rig was tuned in any way the noise dropped to nil.
2. Once max noise was achieved and I transmitted the max noise was gone again.
3. There was no spots on the Reverse Beacon Network while giving the tuned match a go.
4. When transmitting power levels were all over the place from 1 watt to 5 watts.

I had posted my 20m tuning problem on 2 loop user groups and had some great advice but nothing seemed to even come close to solving the problem. I then emailed MFJ  who very promptly emailed me back and advised me to change the shape of a 12 gauge copper loop that was located inside the loop. Easier said than done this involved removing half the plastic cover on the loop and changing the shape of this loop then

Adjusting the loop

checking the SWR. The hard part was trying to figure out where the sweet spot for 20m was on the loop  was. The loop would read an SWR of 12 to 1 no matter what adjustment I gave the loop. I ended up tuning the loop for the highest noise level I could hear. I figured this was as close as I could get to the sweet spot for 20m. Adjusting this small loop did not really change anything and I was getting frustrated! The best thing I find when this happens is to put the project aside and do some thinking. I did just that over the past few weeks I enjoyed the bands the loop would tune and thought about my next move. The loop consists of a rotating capacitor that tunes the loop via a motor. I had been reading on the loop reflector sites and a reoccurring conversation was how quality control at MFJ was very low. For some reason I wanted to check the spacing of the capacitor plates on the loop antenna . It turned out the plates had a warp to them and at the low end spacing was good but in and around

Some plates to close

20m's  some of the plates were very close and maybe touching each other. After some time of tweaking the plate spacing I was able to have equal spacing for the full rotation of the capacitor. The SWR on 20m is now down to 1.4 to 1 and that was the problem as I put the loop back together I kept an eye on the SWR to see if it changed at all. The piece of  equipment that really helped me out with this process was the MFJ 259B analyzer. This unit made tracking my SWR very easy, bottom line is the antenna is now working great and now it's time to get on the air and see how 20m is preforming from the condo.

Pumping out 1/2 a watt

On Saturday I was very pleased to see that my MFJ 1788 loop antenna was getting out. On Sunday it was time to push my luck to the limits, here are VE3WDM I always like to see how little power it take to make a contact. It seemed yesterday 5 watts most if not all the time was getting through. Why stop at 5 watts it was time to drop the Elecraft K3 below the 5 watt maker.............wayyyyy below! The conditions once again were very nice Flux levels were up along with the Sun spot count but the K index was also in around 4. That did not seem to matter the bands were full of contest action. Once again I stayed on 15m and it was very busy with DX from the contest. Today I made only 20 contacts as there was chores to get done around the house.

Hard at work

Yesterday's post concentrated on the country count and locations today's post is all about power levels and miles per watt. From 5 watts I dropped down to 2 watts to see what would happen and DK3GI was in my cross hairs. I was able to make the contact first call which gave me 2020 miles per watt. From there on out of my 20 contacts 19 were all over 1,000 miles per watt. Here is a run down:
1 contact made at 3 watts
4 contacts were made at 2 watts
7 contacts were made at 1 watt
6 contacts were made at .5 of a watt
1 contact made at .1 of a watt
1 contact made at 5 watts ( this being the only contact not netting me 1000 miles per watt)
Some of the miles per watt numbers
II9P at .5 of a watts netted me 18,470 miles per watt
K5RT at .1 of a watt netted me 11,808 miles per watt
CN2AA at .5 of a watt netted me 7682 miles per watt
F8CIL at .5 of a watt netted me 7662 miles per watt
F5NBX at .5 of a watt netted me 7608 miles per watt
CS2C at .5 of a watt and netted me 7216 miles per watt
This contest I was just a point giver and not in the contest to submit a score. I wanted to test out the MFJ 1788 antenna to see how my location and antenna performed. Some things that still have to be done, I have to get the contesting software and radio control software up and running. Have the SWR problem on 10m and 20m figured out with the MFJ 1788 loop, for some reason the best SWR I can get is around 9! On a positive side this contest proved to me that the antenna will get out even with QRP or QRPp power!!

The K3 doing it's work

I was able to get in a few hours in the ARRL CW contest this afternoon and  operated only on 15m. My output power was QRP 5 watts into my balcony mounted MFJ 1788 iso-loop. I was pleasantly surprised with the results I was able to make 40 DX contacts in 23 different countries. I was not able to make any 1,000 mile per watt contacts but I did come close at 4500 miles (using 5 watts). I found the noise floor to be just great and the EU stations were just booming in. There were some stations that did have trouble with my signal but over all exchanges were made first time.
My SWR was in around 1.4 to 1 and it was very simple to adjust the SWR as I went up and down the band. You just have to get the hang of tuning the loop and it is a simple push of the fine adjustment button and your all set to go. This evening I tried 40m and there was lots of EU stations but for some reason I was not able to make any contacts so after a short time I shut things down for the evening.
Tomorrow I am going to try to make some contacts with less than 5 watts and hopefully get some 1,000 miles per watt contacts.
Some of the highlights were:
Tunisia
Balearic Island
Finland
Alaska
Nicaragua

There has been a big change here since our move with regards to ham radio.   Antenna challenges, finding a spot for the radio, having the setup "eye friendly" to non hams who visit.  The antenna challenge seems to be solved with the MFJ 1788 loop antenna. There are still some hick ups with it, for example not being able to tune 20m below a 9.1 to 1 SWR. I have spoken with MFJ and they have given me some great ideas to try with the loop. (more on that as I venture into the loop's insides) The setup was solved with a great roll top desk all is hidden away and protected with a very fashionable piece of furniture. Now it's time to look at expanding my radio operations beyond CW but still very much not forgetting about CW it will still be a large part of my operating. CW is perfect for low power and simple antenna operating. BUT also with my new antenna it has a narrow bandwidth and needs to be returned as you move up or down the band. With practice the loop can be retuned very fast. I was wanting now to add a mode that would favour the loops narrow band width. The digital world came to mind.
The last time I was in digi land PSK31 was the ground breaking mode and I have come to understand by many of the blogs I read there are some new modes in town!! PSK is still around but it too has changed. There is also now SIM31 and 63,  JT65, Olivia and the list goes on, I have been out of digital for some time now and am not sure what all is out there. What I am looking for is something that uses a narrow bandwidth, (most digi modes do) only requiring low power, would be great to have a "conversation mode" and not signal reports and goodbye and not a mode that takes forever for exchanges as I have heard about some digi modes. Having said all that one thing I can remember about the digi modes is they can be lot of "fun" to setup with your rig and PC! BUT that is all part of the fun I guess. So you digi fans out there help me out with some suggestions as to an HF low power narrow bandwidth digi mode I can scramble my brains with. Oh and if it helps the bands I have available are 10-40m and the rigs I have are the Elecraft K3  and KX3.

I had some spare time today to put the MFJ 1788 loop to the balcony test once again. Up to this point I have not been able to make any CW contacts with the antenna. I was able to pull in some State side WSPR spots but that was it. I was coming to the conclusion that my DX was going to be Canada to U.S contacts. Today I set the Loop antenna for 15m and the SWR was great at 1.1:1. and up and down the band I went. I heard KP2/AG2J calling CQ at 21.025 and he was booming in here. I called out to him and low and behold he came back to me with a fast report! Fast report or not my 5 watts signal from the balcony just made it to the Virgin islands!! I then heard KH6LC from Hawaii..........but I was not able to make contact BUT for the first time I was hearing some DX stations. I then was able to contact PJ4LS with some repeats on my part but I still had my 1788 loop signal down to the Antilles off the coast of Venezuela!! The other station I heard but was not able to contact was ZZ80MT in Brazil. This was a good afternoon on the radio of me I was able to hear and make some DX contacts.

Iphone meets truck

To begin this is a post that has NOTHING to do with ham radio!  Getting that out of the way here we go……. It was a normal day at work and things seemed to be going just fine. We had our job given to use and it was not an outside job. That was great considering it was -20C and with the windchill -30C or more. So being indoors was a bonus, the idea was to pickup some coffee and head to our location. Once at our work site and in a nice warm building I noticed my Iphone was not clipped to my inside pocket! The first thing that came to mind was I left it at the coffee shop where I had it out checking email. Going back out to our truck my partner greeted me with an apology and showed me my Iphone…….it had been run over by our truck!!! It seems my 650.00 Iphone fell out of my pocket lined itself up perfectly with the trucks real

Otterbox defender case

tandem wheels and was run over! The phone was in a carry case called the  Otterbox Defender (don't work for the place or do they throw any money my way) When buying the case I was told it protects the phone in almost all situations.  This sure was a test and when I was given the phone it sure did look like it failed BUT I am thrilled to say the phone once removed from the Otterbox was in perfect shape and I mean not even a scratch. For those of you out there who have a smart phone ( not just Iphone) it sure is worth investing in a case (like the Otterbox) to save your investment from a potential disaster.

Out with the old

In the past I have posted my frustration with the captcha and how it was so mind bending and hard to read. Well someone in captcha world has just figured out that numbers can be captcha's as well and not the CRAZY letters we had to wrap our heads around. I would say for the last month I have been thrilled to post on blogs to find captcha's that are all numbers!! The captcha gods have heard and listened.

In with the new and may it stay!