AmateurRadio.com

On Tuesday and Thursday nights my daughter takes Tae kwon do at the local YMCA.  I typically run a few miles while she in class, but last night I decided to setup portable and play a little radio.  The SKCC sprints run from 7-9pm once a month local time, and her class starts at 7:00 pm.

Since I would like to participate in these sprints, I have been looking for a location in the parking lot I could do this while she was in class.

The parking lot at the YMCA is large and at one end there are zero cars parked.  There are small trees that I can attach my portable antenna to.

So last night I decided to test it out.  The antenna strapped easily to a small tree and the coax easily reached in my car where I operate.

I made one contact…

AC4FZ (4987T) – Wally was working another station on  10.120 and once the QSO was over, I gave him a call.  He was nice and loud here in Kansas.  Wally was in North Carolina and had a nice signal and fist – with just a slight bit of QSB.  He was a 559 here and he gave me a 549 – I am constantly amazed and just what 5 watts can accomplish!

That was it for the night, but I am glad I tested the setup for the SKCC sprint at the end of April – I will be active!

This post is a two-fer, I didn’t get a chance to write up #11 portable operations, so I just decided to combine them.

Do you ever have one of those QSO’s where everything seems to go wrong??  I did when I worked WB3GCK.  Right now I don’t have a true straight key, so I use one lever of the paddles on my KX3 set to HAND mode.  Sometimes the contacts don’t make great connection and they dits and dahs sound funny.  Well during this QSO this was happening a bunch!  On top of that my KX3 started complaining about the voltage level of the battery.  So mid QSO I had to attached my external battery which required me to change where the KX3 was sitting – it was just a mess!

But Craig WB3GCK seemed very gracious and we just carried on.

So who did I work??

3/29/13 – I just had about 30 minutes to play between meetings….so just two contacts…

KG7VTO (14714) – Bob had a great signal from Oregon on 20 meters, plus a great sounding fist.

KK6GLP – I have worked Mike before and his signal sounded great as usual from California.

3/30/13 – Had a ton of fun this day!  These were all from me calling CQ on 18.080…

N1WPU (1312) – Ted answered my CQ from Maine!  He was running 75 watts into a G5RV and had a really nice signal and fist.

WB3GCK (15052T) – Craig came back to my CQ and he was also QRP at 5 watts.  Craig is also a fellow blogger, and a blog I frequent!  He has just recently obtained Tribune status in the SKCC.  From reading his blog it looks like he was bitten by the same SKCC bug I have been bitten by!  You can read his blog here http://wb3gck.craiglabarge.com/.  This is actually the second time I have worked Craig.  The last time was back in 2013 when he was vacationing in North Carolina!

WB1AJX (12872T) – The last contact for the day was with Howard running his KX3 at 5 watts.  We had a nice exchange from Rhode Island to Kansas for another nice 2xQRP contact.

So for this day it looks like there was a pipeline from Kansas to the far Northeast of the USA.  I had never worked Maine or Rhode Island before – so that is awesome.  Plus to have two 2xQRP contacts was a real kick as well!

The main reason I moved to 17 meters was because there was at least one VERY LARGE pileup going on 20 meters – it ran from about 14.035 to 14.057 – completely spread out!  I never did figure out the DX everyone was trying to work – but the pileup was destroying the band.

This post is a two-fer, I didn’t get a chance to write up #11 portable operations, so I just decided to combine them.

Do you ever have one of those QSO’s where everything seems to go wrong??  I did when I worked WB3GCK.  Right now I don’t have a true straight key, so I use one lever of the paddles on my KX3 set to HAND mode.  Sometimes the contacts don’t make great connection and they dits and dahs sound funny.  Well during this QSO this was happening a bunch!  On top of that my KX3 started complaining about the voltage level of the battery.  So mid QSO I had to attached my external battery which required me to change where the KX was sitting – it was just a mess!

But Craig WB3GCK seemed very gracious and we just carried on.

So who did I work??

3/29/13 – I just had about 30 minutes to play between meetings….so just two contacts…

KG7VTO (14714) – Bob had a great signal from Oregon on 20 meters, plus a great sounding fist.

KK6GLP – I have worked Mike before and his signal sounded great as usual from California.

3/30/13 – Had a ton of fun this day!  These were all from me calling CQ on 18.080…

N1WPU (1312) – Ted answered my CQ from Maine!  He was running 75 watts into a G5RV and had a really nice signal and fist.

WB3GCK (15052T) – Craig came back to my CQ and he was also QRP at 5 watts.  Craig is also a fellow blogger, and a blog I frequent!  He has just recently obtained Tribune status in the SKCC.  From reading his blog it looks like he was bitten by the same SKCC bug I have been bitten by!  You can read his blog here http://wb3gck.craiglabarge.com/.  This is actually the second time I have worked Craig.  The last time was back in 2013 when he was vacationing in North Carolina!

WB1AJX (12872T) – The last contact for the day was with Howard running his KX3 at 5 watts.  We had a nice exchange from Rhode Island to Kansas for another nice 2xQRP contact.

So for this day it looks like there was a pipeline from Kansas to the far Northeast of the USA.  I had never worked Maine or Rhode Island before – so that is awesome.  Plus to have two 2xQRP contacts was a real kick as well!

The main reason I moved to 17 meters was because there was at least one VERY LARGE pileup going on 20 meters – it ran from about 14.035 to 14.057 – completely spread out!  I never did figure out the DX everyone was trying to work – but the pileup was destroying the band.

Stories you’ll find in our April, 2016 issue:

Let Portable Antennas give you a Noise-Free Vacation
By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF

An increasing cacophony of mostly man-made RF noise on our HF bands makes it ever more difficult to hear particularly weak incoming stations, sometimes to the point of making reception of favorite shortwave or ham DX stations all but impossible at home. Keith shows us how you can take a break from noise using portable antennas that really work.

What You Should Know before Investing in an Antenna
By Richard Fisher KI6SN

Whether you are a relative newcomer to amateur radio, SWLing, TV DXing or VHF-UHF scanning, or are a seasoned card-carrying veteran, only you will know the antenna parameters best suited for your amateur station or listening post. Your own passions, needs, capabilities, real estate, budget and a jillion other factors inform your antenna choices. Richard helps sort out the options and explains how to get the most S-units per dollar spent in pursuit of DX.

Wi-Fi Radio Primer Part 1
By Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL

Always a hard-core shortwave radio listener, Thomas likes the tactile experience of turning the knobs of the shortwave, tuning in stations across the globe. So, when online listening became popular, it never occurred to him to give it a try. Then, at the 2012 Winter SWL Fest, an excellent presentation on the merits and technologies behind Wi-Fi radio intrigued him. After downloading and installing the Pro version of the TuneIn radio app, he had to admit, it was a pretty powerful listening experience…one he could easily get used to.

Piggy-Bank Ham Radio Part 1
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV

After hearing someone bemoan the “high cost” of amateur radio and how such a “prohibitive expense” was preventing many from becoming hams, his knee jerk reaction was, “Really?” Sure, if you’re referring to a super-mega-über contest station, then he might agree, but just to get started, you don’t need deep pockets—just some preparation and some well-placed effort. Cory outlines a “cheap and dirty” way to start enjoying HF—with the basic Technician class license. Just as ham radio itself has no barriers as to age, the ideas he shares can work for anyone, whether you’re a student, retiree or somewhere in between.

Multiple FTA Satellite Reception Techniques Revisited
By Mike Kohl

The most cost effective way to get into Free-to-Air satellite reception is with 75 to 90-cm antennas for most Ku-band reception because they’re cheaper and shipping costs are less. But needing to monitor multiple FTA satellites forces a decision about whether to use multiple Ku-band antennas linked together with a DiSEqC switch, or to motorize one or more antennas. Which Ku-band satellites do we actually watch on a regular basis? After the busy Galaxy 19 satellite at 97 degrees West, what satellites do we need continuous access from on a 24 hour basis? Mike shows us how to properly set up a motorized Ku-band dish or use a DiSEqC switch.

Scanning America
By Dan Veenaman
Growing Acceptance of TETRA

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
The 2016 Political Season

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Uncovering U-2s on HF

Digital HF: Intercept and Analyze
By Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU
US ALE Smorgasbord

HF Utility Logs
By Mike Chace-Ortiz and Hugh Stegman

Digitally Speaking
By Cory Sickles WA3UVV
Digital Destinations

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
The Meteor Shower Nobody Saw—Revisited—Again

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Home-Brewing and Kit Building Isn’t What It Used To Be—But It’s Almost What It Will Be!

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Last of the Standalone DRM Portable Radios?

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
Season of Lights (Aurora)

The World of Shortwave Listening
By Rob Wagner VK3BVW
Clandestine Stations Alive and Well

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
The Queen’s Birthday, KBC Cutback and VOA Tibet

Maritime Monitoring
By Ron Walsh VE3GO
Radio Action on the Great Lakes Returns

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
Spring Remedies

Adventures in Radio Restoration
By Rich Post KB8TAD
Sound and Light: The Mitchell Lumitone 1260

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
Multi-banding a Single Antenna: Several Routes Beckon

The Spectrum Monitor is available in PDF format which can be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad®, Kindle® Fire, or other device capable of opening a PDF file. Annual subscription is $24. Individual monthly issues are available for $3 each.

I’m fairly new to this amateur radio community and I’ve already learned a lot. What excites me about it, beyond making contacts, is the making of parts and equipment. Homemade or homebrew items are sprinkled liberally around the community. I appreciate what I have learned and I’m excited to learn more.

So, here’s my problem:

I went through a couple of radios, mainly mobile radios, until I found suitable base radio for starters. After my young son decided to play with my adjustable power supply, he fried my Yaesu 8900, beyond repair. I took it to a local operator, who, after careful investigation and minor repair, declared the radio dead. He offered his condolences and offered that he might be selling a radio, not that he was trying to force me to buy it. I inquired about this radio. It was a Kenwood TS-2000. Looks nice and has a lot of buttons. He told me he was going to take it to the local ham fest to sell and if it didn’t he’d make it a good deal for me.

As fate would have it, the radio didn’t sell. Indeed, he sold it to me for an undisclosed amount that was more than a good deal for me. He added an HP DPS-1200FB server power supply to avoid the incident to which my Yaesu had succumbed. I was happy and overwhelmed. This radio was more than I ever imagined, and I’m still learning about it after almost a year.

Eventually, I discovered that VOX is very useful for HF work. So, I added a cheap computer studio mic and went to work on HF. Then, there are the local nets on the local repeaters. While not forbidden to use VOX on the repeater, setting things was just a bit tricky. So, I opted to use the supplied Kenwood dynamic push-to-talk mic for repeater work.

Now, the two mics are in play. Any time I switched between the repeaters and HF, I also switched mics. I had to disconnect one and attach the other, which, besides being cumbersome, just made me worried I’d eventually mess up the connectors.

Behold! The idea for a microphone selector switch was born.

Read the rest of this post

The 1Watter 40m #551 -- Lives

The 1Watter 40m on it's inaugural QSO

Inside the enclosure

The 1Watter is a kit from kits and parts dot com 

The Build

SMT and through hole caps are supplied

using through hole capacitors rather than the SMTs

some of the bits and bobs

build is progressing

close up

XTAL filters give it good selectivity

Everything except the final transistor

AGC circuit

Debugging

The FIX for all those problems required an extra resistor connected across U5

On the air

Frequency control pot on the left

Volume control, output jack, cmd pot and paddle input

Ready to transmit

On the air... I was using my paddle out of the photo to the right of the Bug

First On Air QSO

I tuned around and found a strong station at the end of a QSO near 7030 kHz.  

When he sent the final dit-dit I called and WD4AXJ answered my first call.  He was in TN near Knoxville, and I received a 559.  We chatted for about 10 minutes. Sorry about the blurry video.  I thought I'd focused.

After I recorded this video I found an open frequency and sent out my call.  Very shortly thereafter KD2FSH answered my call and reported me as 599! 

Whoo - hoo.  599 for my little 1Watter 40m.

I was transmitting using my 40m attic antenna.  So deed restricted HAMs take note.  You can build a one-watt radio and make contacts using your attic antenna. Haha.

You'll hear in the video there is some weirdness going on with the audio derived AGC.  It is clamping down sometimes and is worse when I don't have the volume turned up very loud.  When I began calling it clamped after every semi-break-in but didn't do it much after that.  I'll have to look into that.

The AGC clamping may be a side effect of the increased gain Diz added to the BFO oscillator.  I'll ask the forum.  

Other than the AGC issue I'm super pleased with the little board.  I touched the heat sync a couple of times after transmitting my side of the qso and it was warm but not really hot.  It seems as though as long as you have a reasonable match to the antenna the power transistor should be happy.

My next steps are to get it in an enclosure and get it out to the Excalibur antenna site to hook onto that nice 40m doublet we put up a couple weekends ago.  I plan to use my efficient little BLT tuner for that purpose.  I will do a further review of the feature set on the keyer and record some more qsos for a later review.

Summary

The band was fairly busy and the little 1Watter did a fine job with stations on nearby frequencies. You can hear some getting around the passband but it is not bad at all.  I'll do some tests to further define it's selectivity but at first glance it is far better than my old Ten-Tec Century/21.  

My calls were answered quickly and I received good signal reports. It didn't sound as though the transmitter was drifting at all during the QSO. That's one advantage of using VCXO in the design.  The disadvantage of using a crystal controlled oscillator for the frequency control is limited tuning range.  The transmitter only has about a 18 kHz tuning range around 7030 kHz and I don't find many of the SKCC folks around that frequency but it is the QRP watering hole for 40m.

It is possible to shift the frequency with some capacitance changes but I think I'll leave it as is for a time and see how many states I can work.

Just imagine.  This little $50 single band kit has good selectivity, a nice built-in keyer with a natural sounding sidetone, and lest we forget... You get a MIGHTY 1 WATT of OUTPUT.  What more could a QRP ham need.

That one-watt of output was sufficient for all the QSOs I attempted tonight.

So lower your power and raise your expectations

72/73

Richard, AA4OO

UPDATE: 04/01/2016

I am still having the AGC pumping issue and others on the list have reported similar issues but only on receive.  It happens to me when I key unless I turn up the volume very high.  I did get it installed in a case but I still need to wire up a real power connector rather than using alligator clips.

!Watter installed in a case

UPDATE: 04/05/2016

After doing quite a bit of reading I learned that the LM386 op-amp used in the 1watter is rather notorious for audio oscillations.  There are a number of suggested fixes.  I went with a 4.7uf cap connecting Pin 7 on U6 (the LM386) to ground.  That hasn't totally resolved the issue but it's much less pronounced now.  

cap fix for LM386 oscillations

I have it in the case with all the proper plugs now (see below) so I'm happy.  I've been making QSOs every day with it and it continues to amaze me and the stations that work me.  It is stable as a rock with regard to frequency and the large knob with the single turn 10k pot seems to work well for tuning.  I have enough control to vary the frequency slightly without having to turn it too much.  The tuning range is only about 20kHz so just 3 frequency markers are plenty to let me know what frequency I'm near.  The selectivity is just fantastic for such a simple little radio.  Diz has created an inexpensive winner.

1Watter in enclosure with all the proper connectors for the case