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courtesy: https://www.google.ca/maps

Shortly before sunrise yesterday morning, VK4YB (Roger) and I were able to work each other on 630m ... 475.300 kHz to be exact!








This is the first-ever QSO between North America and Australia on the relatively new 630m MF band. As well, at 11,802km, it presently represents the furthest two-way contact on this band, worldwide ... but I don't expect this record will last very long once the U.S. gets the band as I believe Roger's fine station is very capable of reaching much further afield.

Our contact on JT9, the WSPR QSO mode, was made at 1319Z, about 30 minutes before my local sunrise with the sky surprisingly bright. Blog readers will know that Roger and I have been carefully watching the pre-dawn Trans-Pacific propagation path for the last week. I have been checking-in with him via the ON4KST LF/MF chat page every morning at around 0345 local time at which point a decision is made ... "get out of bed and head for the shack" or "go back to sleep". Each morning's (or in Roger's case, each evening's) propagation quality is assigned a code number by Roger, based upon what he has been hearing during the early evening hours ... a '6' or below is 'sleep-time', a '7' is a 'you decide' while an '8' or above is 'get your butt moving'.

Yesterday, Roger issued a 'code 7' but as I joked with him later, I think he tricked me as it seemed more like a '6.5' from this end! Trans-Pacific conditions were very good about 500 miles to my south but seemed to drop-off quickly much further to the north. I also need to get over a significant obstruction immediately to the SW of me and in line with Roger. That's me directly at the base of the hill on the right while the remaining peaks are on nearby Saltspring Island and then Vancouver Island before reaching the open Pacific.

courtesy: http://www.heywhatsthat.com/profiler.html

I believe this requires some enhancement of high-angle arrival (and departure) which often occurs around dawn due to a short period of ionospheric 'tilting'. This is often noted by topband operators near their local sunrise, who regularly observe stronger signals on low (cloud-warming) dipoles than they do on their normal large (low-angle) verticals or beverage antennas.

We enjoyed significantly stronger conditions a week ago, but unlike Thursday when I could run at full 5W EIRP, I was only able to generate a little less than 1W EIRP at the time. So far, this week, conditions have been improving steadily each day, from a 'code 3' to a 'code 7'. Hopefully they will continue to improve and we can do it all over again sometime soon.

With my new antenna / transverter / amplifier relay control box working nicely, it seems that Roger and I can now fully take advantage of TP propagation from 'mediocre' to 'excellent' but we have yet to see just how good it can get.

Roger's signal is at +1100Hz

As noted on the screen grabs, both of us were operating near the limits of JT9 detection and we have both seen each other's signal several db stronger on previous mornings. For a two-way CW QSO to take place (a possible new goal), we will need to see an improvement of at least 10db ... probably something that the propagation gods will eventually deliver. Hopefully we will be ready for that should it materialize, providing I can continue to crawl out of bed in the ever-lengthening fall darkness.

It is hoped that our contact will inspire new interest among amateurs worldwide and particularly in North America. If you are planning a station, it seems that the main mode of two-way communications will be CW or JT9 ... a simple transverter would allow both modes as well as the use of the WSPR beacon mode. More information may be found here as well as in earlier 630m blogs.

See also: http://www.arrl.org/news/a-record-breaker-on-630-meters
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Not one of the biggies, by any means, but the Burlington County Amateur Radio Club has been working their tails off to get the NJ QSO Party back in the mainstream.  For years, there was a lack of participation; but due to their diligence, it seems to be making a comeback.


For all the details, please visit: http://www.k2td-bcrc.org/k2td_index.html

I have a Middlesex County OEM work detail to attend in the morning.  I hope to get some operating time in sometime during the afternoon.  Maybe out on the patio table with the mag loop?

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Not one of the biggies, by any means, but the Burlington County Amateur Radio Club has been working their tails off to get the NJ QSO Party back in the mainstream.  For years, there was a lack of participation; but due to their diligence, it seems to be making a comeback.


For all the details, please visit: http://www.k2td-bcrc.org/k2td_index.html

I have a Middlesex County OEM work detail to attend in the morning.  I hope to get some operating time in sometime during the afternoon.  Maybe out on the patio table with the mag loop?

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Parks Service, the ARRL is sponsoring National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) during 2016. Joyce KØJJW and I happened to have a trip planned to visit several of the National Parks, so it was great opportunity to take along some radio gear and operate portable from the parks.

First stop was the Grand Teton National Park (NP23) in Wyoming. I operated from Signal Mountain, which is also a Summits On The Air (SOTA) peak. See my previous blog posting: SOTA plus NPOTA on Signal Mountain.

We continued on to Yellowstone NP (NP57), where we saw lots of wildlife: buffalo, elk, deer, bear and antelope. (Click on any of the photos to get a larger image.)

As described in the Signal Mountain post, my portable station was a Yaesu FT-991 driving an end-fed halfwave antenna on 20m. I used a SOTABEAMS pole to support the antenna, lashing the pole to whatever posts I found available. It was not too difficult to find a suitable parking spot close to mounting post. I was prepared to operate on other bands but 20m seemed to be the best choice based on current band conditions. I made 48 contacts on 20m ssb in about 30 minutes.

As we headed back home to Colorado, we visited Rocky Mountain National Park (NP48). We entered the park from the west side and crossed over to the east entrance via Trail Ridge Road. Love that drive! But first we stopped on the west side to do another NPOTA activation. Again, 20m phone was the operating mode and I made 33 contacts with stations across the US and Canada.

We took our time leaving the park around dusk so that we could spot some elk. The strategy paid off as we saw more than 20 elk in various locations.

 

 

Our top priority was enjoying the parks and viewing wildlife so we did not spend a huge amount of time doing NPOTA activations. Still, we activated three of our favorite National Parks, making 121 QSOs. We also worked in two SOTA activations on the trip as a bonus. All in all, it was a great trip with some fun ham radio activity included.

The SOTA and NPOTA logs have all been submitted (SOTA database and Logbook of The World, respectively.)

73, Bob K0NR

The post NPOTA: Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

As mentioned in my last blog, using a transverter to drive a separate amplifier requires some method of switching system in order to automatically handle the antenna, transverter and amplifier input / output ports. To run a relay switching system in the WSPR or JT-9 modes requires that the switching be controlled by the transceiver's PTT line which in turn is controlled by the WSPR software. Using VOX keying is out of the question as it causes the relays to be 'hot-switched' and with higher power will eventually lead to their demise.

For many years I managed PTT line control via my laptop's comm port but these are now things of the past, requiring switching to be done via the USB port. There are many commercial products available that will do this nicely as well as handle the audio feed from radio to computer and vice-versa, but I found that my homebrew version worked just fine. Making it work via the USB port however required a serial-to-usb converter. This was described here, in an earlier blog and for the few dollars invested has proven to be a very reliable interface.

The schematic of the switching control unit is shown below. It uses two inexpensive OMRON G2RL-1-E DC12 relays purchased from Digikey. Although not coaxial, the $3.09 (U.S.) relay will easily handle a kilowatt as decribed by W6PQL. These relays have large contacts, rated at 16A. I added a few extra components that absorb any relay switching transients as well as remove any RF on the control lines.

Relay Control Unit

Keying Line Damper: courtesy: KK5DR

The relays are shown in the 'receive' (none keyed) mode. In this position, the antenna is routed directly into the transverter's output connector. In 'transmit' mode, the transceiver's PTT line is grounded, switching the relays. The antenna moves over to the amplifier's output and the transverter's output gets connected to the amplifier's input.

I must say a few words about Digikey's service. I really am amazed at what a superb job they do in supplying hobbyists with small orders. So many companies nowadays cannot be bothered with such things or demand a large minimum order for the privilege of handling your purchase! From what I can tell, Digikey bends over backwards to help out the little guy, with no minimums as well as dirt-cheap, fast shipping. Living in Canada, I'm used to U.S. dealers making me jump hoops to place an order, only to find out that the cost of shipping is often prohibitively high or they ship only via UPS which I will not accept.

I placed a small two-page order with Digikey via their excellent web site on a Tuesday afternoon. On Friday morning, there was a knock at my door at 0800 hours ... it was a courier service delivering my parts! To put this in context, I live on a small island in the middle of Georgia Strait, accessible only by air or by ferry. To me this service is incredible and the cost of postage was only $6.00 (U.S.). I really have no idea how they do this but they obviously have put into operation a very efficient system ... hats off to them and their skilled management that has figured this all out. A few years ago I sent in orders to both Digikey and to Mouser, each within an hour of each other. Like my recent order, the Digikey parts arrived in just a few days while the Mouser parts took over three weeks ... perhaps things have changed since then but this is the reason I use and recommend Digikey whenever I can.

Once I had the needed parts, I quickly built a PCB for the switcher and put it together in a day so that I might begin 630m skeds with VK4YB as soon as possible.


If you would like a full-size layout suitable for the iron-on toner PCB construction method, I'll be happy to send you one via email.





The first test run with VK4YB at 0300 local time proved problematic. When I fired up at full ERP, I immediately saw some output instability on the scopematch screen. Before I could shutdown however, I had blown a FET in the amplifier, shutting me down and sending me back to bed to worry about the situation.

Having had time to think about the problem made me suspect something in the new relay changeover unit since that was the only new variable in the system. I suspected that perhaps the relays were not fully seated before being hit with full RF output and the possible hot-switching had caused enough short-lived SWR to take out the very reactance-sensitive FET final. In many years of operation with the amplifier, this was the first blown FET I have had. When I built it, I made sure that the FETS would be easily accessible (see below) should such an occasion arise ... unlike my initial transmitter, where replacing a FET was a nightmare.



Fortunately, when FETs go south on a push-pull amplifier, only one FET will blow ... whichever one was conducting at the time, thus preserving the remaining FET. I flipped a coin and unsoldered the source lead of the left hand FET and measured it. Sure enough it had a drain-to-source short. My day was off to a better start. Once replaced, I set out to determine what had caused it to blow in the middle of the night.

Since I didn't want to blow another FET, I could only 'key-up' in very short bursts and see if the instability was still present. I put the amplifier on a dummy load and everything seemed normal but when put onto the antenna, it reappeared. Suspecting an arc in the loading coil, I checked it carefully. I indeed did find a charred blackened section near the top high-voltage end of the coil but that could have been a short-lived event from the past as I'm sure small crawly things often meet their demise between the windings without causing any problems other than a quick puff of smoke or a short-lived arc to the PVC coil form.

After cleaning the coil and removing any carbon paths as well as giving it a few coats of varnish, I was hopeful that the problem would be gone ... but no, the scopematch indicated it was still misbehaving. As well, I could hear a weak but audible high-pitched oscillation coming from somewhere in the amplifier's circuitry. I suspected that it came from one of the output transformers but with the fan noise it was impossible to accurately locate the source of the rogue 'squeal' when briefly keying-up.

Fast forward several hours of pulling out what was left of my hair and I was no further ahead. The amp continued to work fine at high power, via the new relay system, into my dummy load but into the perfectly matched antenna, the problem remained. It was at this point that I decided to look at the input signal from the doubler, a nice squarewave at 950kHz for the amp's divide-by-two input chip. The scope instantly indicated a dual squarewave with more than one frequency present!

Recently built W1VD 'Frequency Doubler'

I control the input to the doubler by setting the transverter's output to 1W but at 0300 that morning had set it to 1/2 watt, noting that the amplifier seemed to be happy at that level. I then increased the drive from 1/2 watt to 1 watt while watching the 950kHz signal and immediately saw it morph into a wonderfully clean squarewave once again! Sure enough, the amplifier returned to complete stability into the antenna.

It looked like the doubler was not getting enough 475kHz input to actually double properly and its output was a mixture of 950 and (mostly) 475kHz. The amp's divide-by-two input would then try and turn this into a mixture of 475 and (mostly) 237 kHz which the highly-tuned antenna system would balk at, producing the unwanted FET-killing reactance. Being passive and none-reactive, the dummy load was quite happy to take the signal all day long if I let it.

With the mystery solved, full ERP beaconing and scheduling with VK4YB has begun once again, but the TransPacific path has been stingy for the past few mornings ... hopefully this will change now that I'm ready again, barring any further complications.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Signal Mountain (W7Y/TT-161) is now my favorite spot in the Grand Teton National Park. The summit is well-marked on the Grand Teton NP map, on the east side of Jackson Lake. It has a paved road to the top and it provides excellent views of Jackson Hole and the surrounding mountains. Oh, and it’s a great location for ham radio.

On this summit, I did a combination Summits On The Air (SOTA) and National Parks On the Air (NPOTA) activation. Well, sort of. It turns out that when I packed for the trip, I included my usual SOTA gear, which is all VHF. For NPOTA, I loaded up my HF DXpedition gear that needs a pretty hefty power source. These means that the HF stuff uses my car battery, so it is not SOTA-compliant. Oh well.

For the SOTA activation, I used the Yaesu FT-1DR and my 3-element Arrow yagi antenna to work a handful of stations on 146.52 MHz. I was a little concerned about finding enough stations listening on 52, but once again a little bit of patience payed off and I made my four QSOs.

Then I set up the NPOTA station to activate Grand Teton National Park (NP23). My equipment was a Yaesu FT-991 driving an end-fed half-wave for 20m from LNR Precision. I’ve tried a number of different portable antennas over the years but have found that a half-wave radiator up in the air is a pretty effective antenna. This could be a center-fed dipole antenna but that can be a challenge to support, depending on the physical location.

The end-fed half-waves (EFHW) from LNR Precision are easily supported using a non-conductive pole such as the 10m SOTABEAMS pole. The top two sections of the pole are too thin to support much of antenna, so I have removed them. This makes my pole about 9 meters in length which is still long enough to support a 20m halfwave.  (The antenna angles out a bit as shown in the photo but its pretty much vertical.) I attached the pole to a fence post using some hook/loop straps. I don’t fiddle with the length of the antenna, I just let the antenna tuner in the FT-991 trim up the match. This is the same configuration I used in Antigua (V29RW), where it worked great.

The FT-991 is a great little radio for this kind of operation. The SUV we were driving is not set up for HF operation so I just located the radio in the back of the vehicle and plopped down on a folding camp chair. For power, I clipped directly onto the vehicle battery with fused 10 gauge wires.

I started by making a few calls on 20m ssb. As soon as I was “spotted” on the usual web sites, I had a good pileup going. I worked 40 stations in about 40 minutes, so averaged one QSO per minute overall. Thanks to everyone that worked me; all contacts have been uploaded to Logbook of The World.

Oh, and it was a lot of fun.

73, Bob K0NR

The post SOTA plus NPOTA on Signal Mountain (W7Y/TT-161) appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].