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My 1/2 built K2 is up for sale

Many decisions have been made here at VE3WDM in the past few months. We decided to downsize to a condo in so doing we moved to a very nice condo on the lake in Toronto. Many things had to be sold including ham radio related items. The shack had to be downsized but not shut down! Over the weekend I took another look at items I have that I'm not using. So some small items went up for sale and one BIG item that I have been mulling over for some time.....my 1/2 built K2 went up on the market today. This was a hard decision as I really enjoy kit building but with the small space it was just not going to work out. This is my second K2 and I did have a blast putting the first one together as well as 1/2 of this one. It's up on the Elecraft user group site. There was a heart stopping moment when one email asked me what the serial number was of the kit. No problem I packed it in three boxes, once opening them the contents were just the casing and the boards that I had 1/2 built.....WHERE ARE THE PARTS!!!! Did I toss them with the "junk". A fast check of  some boxes in the locker cleared up the question and all were parts were found safe and sound.

The weather here has sure cooled down and had 20cm of snow on Saturday this will at least make the ground white. At the old place there is a pile of snow but here in the city not so much.....speaking of not so much that has been the progress with my antenna situation in the condo. I have not really had all that much time to try anymore idea out. My next plan of attack  will be to place the Alexloop on the balcony in the horizontal position (in the cover of darkness of coarse) and see how that does for both receiving and transmitting. I have now narrowed my antenna selection down to two antennas, the MFJ 1788 loop or the MFJ 1780 fan box loop. I contacted MFJ and asked their opinion and was told the 1788 was a better construction and the 1780 was more portable but both are good antennas! Well that really didn't  help much. I called the local ham dealer and they do not stock the fan box loop and the 1788 has been on back order since October!!
I am tending to lean towards the fan box loop as it looks nothing like an antenna as the last thing I want are the condo cops coming after me. This unit is not really made for rain and is "portable" meaning I will have to take it in and out when using it. As for the 1788 it sure is more money but it covers more bands and is built better and I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for! So my delema is which antenna to go for.......
The 1780 fan box
1. It is cheaper but that may not be a good thing
2. It looks nothing like an antenna.
3. Very portable so small footprint.
BUT
1. Only covers from 14-30 meters
2. Not good in bad weather due to housing construction.
3. Has to be taken in and out.

The 1788
1. Covers from 15-40 meters
2. Solid construction
3. Able to be left outdoors year around.
BUT
1. The cost is more.
2. It looks like an antenna
3. May be hard to hide and hiding it may affect it's preformance.

Some exciting news regarding my signal getting out in this concrete jungle!
I was able to get the loop out and in the horizontal position and it worked great! The receive was very good and I was able to finally get spotted on the RBN. This are only U.S spots but with 5 watts and up to this point batting ZERO in the spot dept I am thrilled to see that my signal is getting out. Now I just have to fine tune things. At this point I have not tried WSPR but now that the horizontal position seems to work that is my next step to see how I do using WSPR.
 

The loop horizontal and nothing.

In my last post I wrote about how my Alexloop was just not getting out in the condo, I was checking the Reverse Beacon Network as I called CQ at 5 watts from my condo and there was ZERO spots! Well from that post I received lots of great suggestions on how to get VE3WDM's signal from the antenna to the world. So here is what I tried........I mounted the Alexloop in the horizontal position in the condo and it netted no spots on the Reverse Beacon Network. I then put the Alexloop on the balcony seeing that we are 60 feet in the air I felt this was a sure thing. The last option for me was to place an antenna on the balcony as it was open season to the condo cops.  I placed (in the cover of darkness) the Alexloop on the balcony and called CQ on 20m and 40m and then check the Reverse Beacon Network. To my surprise there were no spots and now I am really stumped and frustrated. The Alexloop is out in the open 60 feet in the air and no spots what the heck is going on......do those dam condo cops have ham radio jammers!!!!!! Up to this point I have only use the RBN to check for spots but there is also WSPR and I have had some bloggers suggest I use this. At this point I am not able to get WSPR up and running as there seems to be some software issues. My goal now is to sort out the issues and give WSPR a go both with the Alexloop in the condo and out on the balcony. This coming weekend I hope to get on the air with WSPR and give that a go! Im really not frustrated I see this as a challenge, for me to get ham radio on the air from a condo will but only  help others in the same situation as me get on the air.

Things are coming along

The boxes are slowly getting unpacked and things put away, the roll top ham radio shack is taking shape as well. I found I had a lot more gear than there was room for in the condo and may have to shed more gear! At this point there has been some bumps in the radio setup but all seems to be slowly coming together. I can't believe all the cables that are involved in having the radio talk to various hardware components. There has been one major mystery I am not as of yet to solve.....I have setup the Alexloop and added the K3 to the mix. I was able to get a great SWR and surprisingly a low to moderate noise level...BUT.....I was calling CQ on different bands with 5 watts but was not once spotted on the Reverse Beacon network. Hmmmm I then went "simple" I hooked up the KX3 to the Alexloop and again calling CQ at 5 watts was not spotted at all on the Reverse Beacon network????? I have tried to move the Alexloop closer to the window and the balcony door, the only thing that happened was the SWR was very hard to adjust on the Alexloop. I then move the loop about 4 feet from the balcony door and the SWR was great but no spots?
My setup is a stealth operation and really can't put the Alexloop on the balcony but I am 6 stories up and back in the townhouse I did have the Alexloop inside and it did very well so at this point I am stumped.

The new station slowly being setup

Friday was moving day and I sure did find out I am not as young as I used to be! While at the old place we made a huge effort (so we thought) to reduce what we had as we were moving into a condo and one that was very much smaller than our home. Once moved in it was a SEA of boxes, again we had more "stuff" than room. Up to this point Julie has been working very hard to settle the Kitchen into place. Last night she completed that job! Im sorting boxes, getting the ham gear somewhat placed in the desk (setting it up will be a job for next week). We are on the 6th floor here with south and east

Boxes slowly being dealt with

exposure. I am just itching to get on the radio and either WSPR my signal out or use the KX3 and call CQ and see how the Reverse Beacon spots me. At this point my antenna will be the Alexloop placed in front of our bay window and I will be maxing out at 5 watts or less.

excuse the quality camera has been packed

Above is a picture of the shack after all has been packed away and ready to be moved.
I have been very busy packing, selling items and taking deep breaths as the shack is taken apart! I have
not had time to either post or read others blogs these days I can't believe my last post was on the 7th of November! When I have managed to find some down time I have spend it thinking about the new setup and how I was going to fit into a simple roll top desk. I am very much looking forward to the new setup and the challenges it will bring. One of my first "to do's" once the setup is complete is to get on WSPR and see how the new setup is getting out.  We are more or less all packed and ready to go it's now just a  waiting game. Stay tuned for update from new QTH!!

What turning the loop can do

As times goes on and I use the Alexloop more and more I am coming to realize that this antenna may not be a bad choice for my condo antenna. The loop is small and I thought may not preform that well, stacked up against my Alpha Delta DX-EE dipole antenna yes it does not far very well. BUT for limited space, fast to assemble and take down and stealth the Alexloop is a great contender. Recently I have been only using the Alexloop indoors and either on the main floor or my second floor shack. The power has been set to 5 watts and as was said in my previous posts I was able to get into Europe with some decent reports. This weekend using the loop antenna along side my K3 (Up to this point I have only been using my KX3) they seem to get along very well. The tuning of the antenna has been made easier because of the P3 and external monitor. I am able to tune to peak noise using the band scope or otherwise known as the Elecraft P3. Peaking the noise level this way has almost netted me a perfect SWR on all bands. There was only a very minor self tune I had to do in order to get the SWR flat.

Man made noise on the band

I did notice on 30m today there was lots of man made interference and by simply rotating the loop most if not all the interference was eliminated. As well after rotating the loop the signals I was listening to were still there. That to me can be a great bonus once in the city of Toronto and the interference problem may increase and by turning the loop I may be able to rid myself of some of it. I also wanted to know what the loops receive bandwidth would look like on the P3 and I am please to say that's it's great. As for transmitting I have found the loop has to be re tuned anywhere from 10 to 25 Khz depending on the band. This was a good learning weekend for me regarding the Alexloop. I have been toying with the idea of the MFJ magnetic loop as you can tune it from your desk. I have tried to add some extra length to the Alexloops coax and have had some good and bad results with tuning the loop for best SWR. I have noticed as well that when tuning the loop your body has an affect on the SWR as well. You may see a great SWR but once you have moved back to  your radio the SWR goes from your tuned 1.2 to 1 to 2.2 to 1. This is not the case all the time but has happened now and then.

A nice bandwidth with the loop

One other element I wanted to try this weekend was Skimmer, there was a contest on and I wanted to see how well it did. The results were very pleasing and I was able to see how Skimmer can help me. I have played with Skimmer in the past and just could not get it working but I stuck with it this time and am pleased with the results.

Skimmer showing the picture