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This afternoon my wife Judy and I walked in some fields at the top of Shute Hill. I worked two stations in England and two U.S. stations.

We walked to the end of Rufus Colby Road, past Tommy Sheehan’s old house and up the range road through the woods.

After a ways we turned east toward Auger’s 20 acre field. There we turned right into a smaller field that had once been pasture. It was full of goldenrod, milkweed and blackeyed susans.

After walking across a few acres of land, we came to a break in a stone wall and walked into a second field.

It was at the edge of this field that I tossed a line into an oak tree. I pulled up a 10 meter wire and sat down on some moss.

There was a CW Ops sprint in progress and I quickly worked two stations in the mini contest: W6SX in California and K4VU in Alabama. Then I tuned down the band and heard my old friend Tom G3HGE finishing a QSO with another station. He was strong and answered my call right away. “It’s been a long time,” he sent and gave me a 579. Tom was a 599 as usual and we chatted for a few minutes. I’ve worked Tom many times while hiking, and I usually send him a picture or two. I promised him I would do so again and we said goodbye. I tuned down the band a bit and there was another English station, G4RFR. We exchanged quick 599s and signed. Romeo was operating a club station in Dorset.

What a thrill to take a quick afternoon walk in the countryside and work half way around the world. As G3HGE said when he signed, “It’s magical.”

And the winner of 500 free full-color QSL cards is…

Fabio IZ8FTW
Italy

Congratulations to Fabio and thank you to everyone who entered. Keep a lookout for more great giveaways! As always, thank you to KB3IFH QSL Cards for generously sponsoring this contest. Don’t forget to check out Randy’s website the next time you need new QSL cards! Past winners of the QSL card giveaways include Stuie VK8NSB, Mel MI0MSR, Jyoti VU3BGI and more!

73 Matt W1MST

Real World Measurements of a Multi-Band End Fed Antenna

using a 9:1 Un-Un

Excited as I was to get on the air with my new antenna, I didn’t take record any data regarding its SWR, radiation resistance (RR) and resonant point (X) with my antenna analyzer. Satisfied that the antenna worked by making QRP contacts in the WAE this weekend, I pulled out the analyzer and recorded some data for bands 40 through 10.

SWR should be 1.0      RR should be 50           X should be 0

This is the ideal but is not often the case in real life set ups especially in the field when operating portable!

I found one strange thing on 40 meters. The readings were markedly different if I held the analyzer in my hand or set it on a table by itself. The readings were better if I held the instrument in my hand. Holding the analyzer or setting it down made very little difference on the other bands with 17 Meters the exception, so I didn’t post those here.

MHz                            SWR                            RR                               X

7.030                           4.3                               104                              101   Not touching

7.030                           2.4                               66                                50     Touching

10.116                         2.0                               27                                10

14.062                         1.8                               30                                16

14.280                         1.7                               39                                25

18.085                         2.1                               35                                31        Not Touching

18.085                         1.7                               35                                19        Touching

21.058                         1.5                               45                                21

21.430                         2.3                               20                                3

24.905                         4.2                               41                                75

28.062                         2.2                               30                                30

28.560                         2.5                               38                                42

My antenna wire is 35 feet long and 30 feet above the ground and its orientation is horizontal, (perpendicular to the ground!)

Building the 9:1 UnUn was fun and I was eager to have a multi-band antenna!

This antenna got a lot of bad press among the ‘Antenna Guru’ crowd on E-Ham. They said their (facts) were from computer modeling programs, but there was a lot of opinion written their too and a lot of disparaging remarks toward anyone who would stupid enough to actually use one of these antennas. Their facts and data in no way came close to my real world measurements! 

I plan to take this antenna into the field and test it as a sloper, both with the analyzer and on the air. I’ll post the results here.

I hooked up a tuner and took readings on 20 meters. I was able to get the SWR down to 1:1 and the RR to 57 using the tuner  which is very close indeed to the ideal. The readings are sensitive to whether I held the analyzer in my hand when looking through a tuner. That bothers me. There seems to be some (not a lot) but some, RFI in the shack here too.

All antennas have trade off’s!

73

de AA1IK

Ernest Gregoire

It was a perfect afternoon for the NJ QRP Club Skeeter Hunt. I operated for an hour in Old Hill Village and made 13 contacts. Five QSOs were with fellow QRP operators. The rest were with DX stations from Finland, Germany, Romania, the Ukraine, Croatia and Italy.

This place has been abandoned since the 1940’s to make room for a flood control area. It was once a village. As I ride the bicycle along this road, I am transported back to the 1930’s. It has an old world feeling.

I turn east into a field that used to be the old elementary school grounds. One can almost hear the sounds of children playing from those years… or is it the crickets?

Up the slope several hundred yards is an ancient maple tree. This old tree certainly holds many secrets.

I throw my line over a high branch and pull up 33 feet of wire. I sit in the grass below with the KX3 and a notebook for logging. At first I go to 20 meters and work AB9CA and N0SS. But I don’t hear the QRP gang, and I start working the European stations in the WAE contest. I work both 15 and 20 meters. I stop by 40 meters and work K3RLL in the QRP sprint. Then I go back to 20 meters and log NK9G and WB4MNK. But I don’t hear many of the skeeter stations so I go back to the WAE.
Here is my log:

11 Aug-13 1822 14.060 AB9CA CW 559 559 AL 125
11 Aug-13 1825 14.060 N0SS CW 559 559 MO 20
11 Aug-13 1832 21.046 9A1AA CW 599 599 Croatia
11 Aug-13 1837 21.034 IR2C CW 599 599 Italy
11 Aug-13 1840 21.012 UU7J CW 599 599 Ukraine
11 Aug-13 1842 10.120 W3LN CW 549 579 PA ABE
11 Aug-13 1855 7.040 K3RLL CW 559 579 PA 25
11 Aug-13 1858 14.061 NK9G CW 559 559 WI 18
11 Aug-13 1900 14.060 WB4MNK CW 559 559 FL 95
11 Aug-13 1902 14.041 OH2XX CW 599 599 Finland
11 Aug-13 1903 14.042 DD2ML CW 599 599 Germany
11 Aug-13 1908 21.050 DJ8EW CW 599 599 Germany
11 Aug-13 1909 21.038 YP9W CW 599 599 Romania

After less than one hour, I pack up and head back down to the road for a bike ride.

I ride along the Pemigewasset River surrounded by the greenest green imaginable. The stillness of the afternoon is punctuated only by the sound of birds and crickets. Is there a nicer place in all the world?

This afternoon my wife and I took a quick bike ride along the old Northern Rail route in East Andover. I worked Spain, Paraguay, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg in 20 minutes of operating.

A mile or so down the trail is an old picnic table under a couple of pine trees… it’s a perfect spot for some quick operating. I heaved a line up about 40 feet and pulled up a wire. I set up the KX3 and opened the notebook. I started on 17 meters.

There were lots of strong stations and I logged three in a row. Then I switched to 20 meters where the WAE contest was going on. I worked three more and packed up to continue the ride. Here’s the log.

10 Aug-13 2053 18.070 EA8/DL7VOA CW 599 599 Spain
10 Aug-13 2058 18.075 ZP6CW CW 579 579 Paraguay
10 Aug-13 2105 18.079 I0JX CW 549 599 Italy
10 Aug-13 2111 14.019 SP9MZH CW 599 599 Poland
10 Aug-13 2114 14.010 PG2AA CW 599 599 Netherlands
10 Aug-13 2115 14.012 LX7I CW 599 599 Luxembourg

It was such a beautiful afternoon with warm sunshine filtering through the trees as we rode along. These glorious summer days are growing precious as August advances toward September. May this weather last…

My latest antenna uses a 9:1 Un Un. That’s a funny word isn’t it. It means Unbalanced to Unbalanced. It matches an unbalanced coax feed to an unbalanced antenna. The bonus here is that I can operate on 7 different bands using the same 35 foot wire antenna!

I had to change antennas every time I changed bands the old way. I guess this means I’ll have 7 single band antennas for sale soon!

Un Un Mounted on my porch rail

Note the bungee cord in the back. It allows for strain relief when this antenna is mounted over a tree limb.

Torroid on the left and PL 259 on the bottom.

Reinforcing block at the wire end of the Un Un. Note the hot glue holding the block.

 Strain Relief for the wire lug.

I’ll use this antenna in the park, portable. Strain relief keeps the wire lug from separating from the antenna wire.

http://www.earchi.org/92011endfedfiles/Endfed6_40.pdf

I got the diagram and physical layout here. I added the bungee for strain relief and the reinforced ends. The Reinforced ends allow me to mount this antenna horizonatally, from my condo porch to the nearby Live Oak Tree.

Jim Cluett, W1PID mentioned this un un kit in a recent post. Thanks Jim. Thank you to the ‘Emergency Amateur Club in Honolulu for the PDF for this project.

73 de AA1IK

Ernest Gregoire