AmateurRadio.com

Ready for inspection

The MFJ 1788 antenna has arrived I ended up ordering it from DX Engineering and cancelling the order at the local ham store. DX Engineering had the antenna in stock were as the local store was not able to tell me when the antenna would be in….it seemed to be a waiting game. Once ordering the antenna DX Engineering had it at my door in 3 days! I can't say enough about the great service that was provided by DX Engineering. Now having said that……..I have been doing a lot of online reading about 1788 loop and how over and

Capacitor

Control box test

over again they arrived damaged or just not working. Looking at the loop it seemed to be in great shape and externally survived the trip ok. As I looked at the control unit I found one of the  push buttons not working! The  range button that changes the meter from low to the high wattage scale . I opened the control box as I also heard some "rattling" noise from within the unit as well. I found the switch to be defective and in need of changing, the rattling noise was from the battery holder. It was only held in place with two-side tape and as you guess it….there was no holding left on the tape. At this point I had a choice to make:
1. Send the control box back to either MFJ or DX Engineering for repairs?
2. Ask MFJ if it's possible to make the repair myself if they were to send me the part?
I settled on option 2 as I could still use the control box until the switch arrived and not be put on hold until control box was repaired or replaced. (note: I purchased DX Engineering's last unit)

Stepper motor

The control box failed the QC check it was now time to open up the antenna (a must according to magnetic loop user group) The visual inspection looked very good now time to power up the antenna with the control box. With the cover still off the 1788 loop I wanted to make sure the internal capacitor moved freely and stopped when full rotation was reached in both directions.
All was going well until the capacitor was rotating counter clockwise and it just stopped! I then rotated the capacitor in the clockwise direction and back counter clockwise and it worked just fine. After many back and forth rotations the capacitor never acted up…..maybe this was a one off. I emailed MFJ regarding the switch and they are going to mail one to me so I can do the repair. Next is to mount the antenna and see how it performs stay tuned!

Setup in the car

Early in the week the weather was forecasting a warm (+8C) day for Saturday....rain but warm. Over the past week the temp's have been around -22 C without the windchill so a day of +8 that had to be a day to take advantage of outdoor radio!! Seeing that it was supposed to rain and it sure did I decided to go stationary mobile using my Elecraft KX3 and mobile mono band whips. Before going out I checked the propagation conditions and to my surprise 20m was not really the band of choice it seemed to be 15m. I did bring all my whip antennas but choose to put up the 15m whip to start. I setup in a small parking lot right on Lake Ontario. I was operating 5 watts QRP calling CQ as well going up and down the band for those calling CQ as well. I ran across HB9TNW in Switzerland calling CQ. I gave him a call and he came back to me. He gave me a 429 but that was fine with me for a QRP signal from the mobile. There was lots of fading in

A shot from the car of the lake

and out on both our parts so the QSO did not last all that long but we were able to swap QSO details. I then moved over to 20m and was able to contact N4LTS who came back to my CQ call. Ray was in Florida operating QRP at 3 watts and I was still 5 watts. It was nice to have a QRPxQRP QSO. We had a good QSO for about 10 minutes and conditions started to change so we gave each other 72 and went on our way. That was more or less it for the contacts for the day but I was very pleased with the contacts that I had. I was also impressed while having a QSO with N4LTS there were some op's that came onto the frequency but noticing there was a QSO in progress they stopped transmitting and moved on.

A shot of the loop with the "T" fitting

I have been looking for a way to place the Alexloop  in the horizontal position as from my playing with the loop it seems to work better for me on the balcony in the omnidirectional horizontal position. Yesterday I was able to pick up a 1 inch "T" fitting mainly used for piecing together plastic pipe. I was able to feed the loops center support through the "T" fitting and place it nicely on the tripod. With just a little electrical tape to hold it in place it worked great. 
I finally set things up to get  WSPR up and going, so yesterday during the day and then into the evening I was WSPRing to see how my signal was getting out from the condo. Up to this point I have only used the Reverse Beacon Network or RBN which involved CW at 5 watts. I was not thrilled with the results and was really wanting to give WSPR a go. During the day I tried 10m and 20m I started out with 1 watt and in terms of WSPR that is some pretty high power. The antenna once again was the Alexloop in the horizontal position, at first attempt on both bands the Alexloop was indoors. It was not surprise that there were no spots at all it was time to move the loop out onto the balcony. Once setup I went back to 10m and it was about 2pm local time with no results again. I then jumped over to 20m and it was just U.S stations and very few I might add that received my signal. It was time to pack it in for the afternoon and some chores had to be done and I would get back on in the evening hours.
At 7 pm local time I was up and WSPRing on 40m and with great hopes as the band sounded good and I was decoding some WSPR DX such as EA3NEI. I once again was only heard in the U.S and this time I used up to 5 watts!! Maybe it was that conditions were poor out this way as they have been over the past week. Over the weekend if I get time I am going to give WSPR a go once again and see how it works out.

A view of Lake Ontario from the balcony

It's not news to anyone in North America that the temperatures sure have taken a dip whether you are in Canada or the south U.S. I was reading today that down in Myrtle Beach it was -4C, on the weekend the Green Bay Packers fans were freezing with the very low temps! This evening out this way with the wind chill it is suppose to hit close to -40C. By way of ham radio I am in the process of trying to Macgyver (referencing a TV show called Macgyver}something for the Alexloop to sit in the horizontal position on the tripod. This is only until the MFJ 1788 loop arrives. On Sunday I did manage to get the Alexloop on the balcony in the horizontal position.......for some reason that just does not sound right.......anyway I was able to get out on 40m but nothing on 20m. It was late in the evening and I was happy with getting some spots on 40m. It was a very short effort as the antenna was in a make shift setup for horizontal polarization...now that sounds better. For all you in North America stay warm and as for Europe I have been speaking with some of my blog bud's over there and the temps in some areas are balmy so enjoy those temps.
 

Keeping it simple

I'm only 54 years old but over the past few years it's either my age or the growing of the hobby both technically and gadget wise that has given me some senior moments!! I really can't blame just the hobby as I have had times when heading to the car to only stop and wondering where is was I was heading too and for what! I'm comforted from online reading that says this is from having lots on the go and nothing to do with loosing your memory.  How does this relate to ham radio you say...........The rigs I have are the Elecraft K3 and KX3 both are menu driven as are many other rigs on the market are. I find myself going to the user manual or as I call it sometimes the "useless manual" to relearn a function that was just used the week before. I have had my ego get the best of me at times and refused to hit the books as I "knew" how to do this silly function command!! After going through several unknown menu's and not knowing how I got there, what I have done to the rig and better yet how to get the hell out! Oh and don't get me started on passwords that a whole other blog post!

3x5 life savers

For those of you who have the same memory melt downs at times as I do here are some helps that I use. In high school and University the good old 3x5 cards helped me learn (notice I said learn and not memorize very big difference) and pass many a test. The 3x5 helped me in the past and is doing so today, I write down step by step instructions for anything ham related items so I can refer to the card and not the Advil bottle. I cover over the card with clear tape so it will last for some time and the only thing I have to do is keep the cards in a place I can remember.....but maybe there is a card for that...:)). Just today I wanted to charge an external battery for my KX3 as I was going to do some hamming this weekend. I pulled out the battery and for the life of me I could not remember the setup to charge this darn battery. Thanks to a fellow blogger Larry W2LJ who has the same battery set me on the right path with an email. Now the instructions (simple as they may be) are taped on the side of the battery. 

The MFJ 1788 is now on order.........well back order for now and was told it could be up to 4-6 weeks before the supplier see's it. I did go online and see if any U.S radio outlets have the antenna. They do but the shipping is close to 200.00 then you add taxes and custom fees it puts the price out of reach. I chose this antenna over the MFJ 1786 as it has 40m  but not 10m. Seeing the solar cycle is on it's way down 10m is not going to be a go to band for me. Having 40m seemed the way to go and thus the MFJ 1788 was chosen. To go along with the antenna Comet has a great way to bring your coax indoors without leaving a door open to the cold. The CTC-50M is a ribbon type coax cable that is supposed to allow you to run it threw a door or window.....now having said that I have read online that some have damaged the cable by slamming a

MFJ 1718

window or sliding glass door on it. I don't plan on putting it to the test in that fashion any time soon. Also I ordered the MFJ 1918 tri pod stand for the antenna. I'm not going to play around with cheap tri pods or ones that are just meant for cameras, don't want to come home to the antenna on it's side and possibly damaged. From what I have read about the MFJ 1918 online it seems to do a great job in supporting the antenna. The last thing I have to pick up from the local hardware store is a BBQ cover for the antenna to make it look like.........yes you guessed it....a BBQ! At this point in time it looks like the ham radio bug is going to have to be satisfied with the KX3 and portable operations. It's a bit cold out these days for op's from the car (-30 with wind chill today) so for the time being I will be putting the Alexloop on the balcony and see how the fishing is.

Six days ago here in Toronto we had the largest ice storm in our history at one point there were close to 400,000 people without hydro. The storm took down a record amount of trees thus taking down hydro poles, substations, subways and at the height of the storm most traffic lights.  Seeing I work for the hydro we were put on 12 hour rotating shifts. I have been on the night shift for 7 days now with no end in sight. We just finished moving into downtown Toronto and I am about 5 minutes from work and this has become very convenient with getting to and from work. During the first few days after the storm

Making the best of things