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In addition to the fall that my 88′ EDZ took, there now seem to be other problems. While connecting it to the KX3 this afternoon, I noticed that depending on how I handled the coax, the antenna would either “hear” or not. I immediately suspected a fault at the PL-259, so I replaced it. Unfortunately, it didn’t make a difference. That means there is most likely a fault in the coax a bit further back.

As the old joke goes …….

First, a little background.  We have put up a baby gate in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room since Harold, our Beagle, came to live with us.  Even though he has passed the one year mark, he still has a lot of puppy in him.  By that, I mean to say that he chews ….. a lot!  He has the run of the back yard, the family room and the kitchen.  The living room and the rest of the house will become available to him as he grows older and becomes less of a chewer.  In Jesse’s case, that came around about his second birthday, so I am expecting that Harold will become calmer as October 2014 approaches.

Anyway, earlier this week, I was taking dinner plates from the kitchen to the dining room, and I snagged my right leg on the baby gate.  I mildly twisted it, but really didn’t feel anything at the time.  The next day it was fine. Two days later? Whoa, Baby!  My knee was sore, then that got better, then my hamstring was sore and that got better, and now my calf is the sore spot.  I sure don’t heal like I used to when I was younger! I gave in and bought a heating pad on Thursday on my way home from work.  That has helped a lot and today has been the first day since Christmas Eve that I have been walking without a noticeable limp.

I had planned to spend today on my fanny and not do much of anything – just rest the muscles in my right leg and apply some heat on and off throughout the day.  Then this afternoon, my little eye spied out the rec room window and I saw the wire from my 88 foot EDZ was all kinds of droopy.  What the hey?!?

I went outside to discover that the Dacron antenna rope holding up the center insulator had broken.  The antenna was still in the tree, but had dropped about 10 feet.  Not a good thing, especially as I am scheduled for 40 Meter QRP Fox duty this coming Tuesday night – New Year’s Eve. It seems you can always expect trouble when you least expect it.

The weather was nice here today – sunny and in the low 50’s (about 11C), so I began looking for my antenna stuff.  I found the pneumatic launcher, and the mason’s twine that I use to pull up rope – but where’s my Dacron antenna rope?  I searched the shack high and low for almost a half hour and couldn’t locate it.  I know it’s hiding somewhere here in plain sight – but I still can’t find it.  All I was able to locate was some Nylon rope that I use for tying various things.  This rope is not ideal for antennas as it stretches over time, but with daylight starting to wane, it’s any port in a storm.

After one or two failed attempts, I got my line through the tree.  The pneumatic launcher worked like a charm.  One time I forgot to open the bale on the fishing reel, so the projectile launched just fine, but the fishing line broke and stayed put, while the little projectile soared like an eagle.  Once I remembered all the steps, I got the line up and through how I wanted it.

At this point, I have to give big kudos to my son, Joey.  He gave me a hand with this project today, and if it weren’t for him, this repair job would definitely have taken longer, and perhaps have not been accomplished at all.  Thanks, Joey – I owe you a big one!

So my 88′ EDZ is now back in the air, with temporary rope support, a few feet higher than it was.  I will have to purchase some bonafide Dacron antenna rope (if I can’t find what I thought I had) and re-do this some weekend in the near future. Of course, all the weekends from here on out until April with probably be sub-freezing and snowy!

I did get on the air tonight to hand out points to the Stew Perry contesters on 160 Meters. The W3EDP loads just fine on 160 Meters and with 5 Watts, I have been working up and down the East Coast and out towards Ohio and Michigan.  Not bad for 5 Watts and about what I expected from last year’s contest.

But I think I’ll head upstairs now and apply some more heat to this old, aching calf muscle. And to think how I used to chuckle when my Mom used to tell me, “Don’t get old!”

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

A surprise package dropped through the door yesterday afternoon. (I do like surprises!)  It was a SOTA Beams desk stand for the Elecraft KX3, customised with my callsign.

SOTA Beams desk stand for Elecraft KX3

In the absence of instructions and with the aid of a couple of the photos on the SOTA Beams website it took my poor brain a couple of minutes to work out how it went together. Actually there are a couple of self adhesive rubber feet and a length of edge trim the purpose of which are still not entirely clear to me.

The stand is robustly made from a laser cut  perspex type material and holds the KX3 at the perfect angle for desktop use.  (I’m not sure how that would be with the KXPD3 paddle. I didn’t try it as with my shaky hands I can only send dits at the moment. 🙂

This stand is exactly what I have been looking for to hold the KX3 when operating sitting on the ground with the rig beside you. The viewing angle is just right for that too – much better than standing your nice radio on the damp and dirty ground. The bright orange of the one SOTA Beams sent me  (they are also available in black or red apparently) makes the stand highly visible and so less likely to be accidentally left behind on the summit or other operating spot.

The perfect angle for desktop or portable operation

Thanks, Richard! This is definitely going in the case with the Alex Loop ready forwhen  my health improves enough for me to take a radio into the Great Outdoors again.

Even though I have a Butternut vertical in the antenna arsenal, this .pdf file from SteppIR, is one of THE best articles about radials that I have ever read.  It’s in “plain ol’ English” and doesn’t require you to have a Doctorate in RF Theory to understand it.  Just thought I would share!

http://www.steppir.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Radial-Systems-for-Verticals-Rev2.1.pdf

I currently have about 50 radials under my Butternut.  Looks like I could stand to add some more next Summer – although I’m currently close to the point of “no extra benefit”.  Looks like with about 25 more, I can get a bit closer to that 90% efficient point. And “next time” (if there ever is one), I will seriously consider NOT ground mounting my next vertical.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

is one where I can rack up at least 4 QSOs during lunchtime. Today was such a day.

PJ6/W4VAB – Hugh in Saba, St Eustatius on 15 Meters. DX contact
IK2SND – Danny in Italy on 17 Meters. DX contact – Danny was 599+ in NJ.
K9WIS – Brian in Waterford, WI on 20 Meters. Short ragchew.
N4KGL – Greg in Panama City, FL on 20 Meters. Very short ragchew.

The QSO with Greg N4KGL intrigued me. Greg also does the lunchtime QRP portable ops thing, and we have hooked up several times.  He uses a KX3 to an Alex Loop.  He was a good 579 / 589 into New Jersey and the Alex Loop was doing a superb job getting his 5 Watts up here in good shape.  I may have to look into magnetic loops as a serious option for QRP portable ops.

On another note, sometimes, when you collect a lot of Ham paraphernalia over the years, you forget some of the stuff you already have. I am a case in point.  The other day, I was in correspondence with a fellow Ham who was looking for a very small, miniature straight key. I e-mailed him that I had one and was willing to part with it. In turn, I received an e-mail back, asking for a photo. I was searching the shack for it last night, for picture taking purposes, only to suddenly remember that I sold that very key along with my K1. It was part of the package that I had put together, back when I was trying to raise funds for my KX3.  I sheepishly informed the inquiring Amateur that I no longer had it (losing your memory is a terrible thing!), and was feeling bad for having given him inaccurate information. I was relieved as everything turned out all right.  He informed me that a friend of his had actually given him exactly what he was looking for, and that it met his needs very well.

But during my search for the straight key, I came across a Viz Key that I had purchased about 7 years or so ago. I had totally forgotten that I had it

And that was a fortuitous discovery, as for a while now, I have been trying to settle on a key to stick in with my KX3 in my portable QRP ops bag.  I was originally using an American Morse “Dirt Cheap Paddle”.  It was very good and had an excellent feel, but was just a bit too light for my hand. When I’m doing these lunchtime ops, I like to hold the paddle in my left hand and squeeze the levers with my right hand. Call me crazy, call me weird but that’s what works best for me. When I would try to find the “sweet spot” for the DCP in my hand, I seemed to always accidentally squeeze the paddle levers at the wrong time and would send out a string of inadvertent dits. Next I tried a TE-NE-KEY, but I just couldn’t get used to the feel of that at all. I ended up making more mistakes with it than I do when I am on a bug!  So I had resorted to using a White Rook MK-33 single lever paddle that I had. That was actually too light also, but I overlooked that, as I absolutely love single lever paddles.  

The Viz Key is an iambic paddle, but it’s a bit heftier than what I have been using, without being too hefty (it weighs in at 8 oz. or just 1/2 pound).  It’s just the right weight for me, whether it is in my hand or on whatever table I happen to be sitting at. It is stable without being cumbersome. If I was hiking for a long period of time, I’d probably switch back to the White Rook, but the small amount of weight savings is not a concern for me right now.  I used the Viz Key for my QSOs today, and it took a few minutes of getting used to again.  But very quickly, my sending became less error prone and I was able to make the QSOs that I did make without sending the Hams on the opposite end into a messy Morse Code frenzy.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!