AmateurRadio.com

The antenna this morning

Back in 2011 my brother won a Innovantennas 4-element LFA at the National Hamfest, he couldn't make us of it back then so I adopted it. I have used it for reception but until now not for transmission.

I should say my brother has took his foundation exam and has the callsign M6GTD, so am expecting him to ask for his antenna back at some stage! ;-)

This evening is this months 144MHz UKAC contest and I spent yesterday evening getting the antenna set up properly so I could take part. Unfortunately the antenna was damaged just before Christmas and I have now replaced the boom insulators and straightened the bent director element.

It took a while to get the antenna VSWR down to a satisfactory level, not due to any fault but simply I had the adjustable sections of the active element loop too far out. They are now almost fully in, but at 144MHz the VSWR is a little over 1:1 and across the entire 144-146MHz the maximum is around 1.3:1 so I am hoping it preforms reasonably well, even with 10m of RG-58.

As suggested I have a 'ugly' rf-choke inline, which you can see on the photo. The antenna is clamped just under the vertical collinear, and hopefully this won't affect its performance.

I can put the pole up to around 5m, but the top section isn't that substantial and has a reasonable loading with the yagi and the collinear on it, but the pole it is securely guyed so for temporary use should be okay. Well that is what I thought till I saw the weather forecast


The wind speed and gusts look a little worrying, peaking at around 40mph between 21:00 - 00:00!

The only saving grace is that I will be manually rotating the antenna I will be out checking on it regularly during the contest!

Best of luck everyone taking part...
Andrew Garratt, MØNRD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from East Midlands, England. Contact him at [email protected].

I’m a great fan of Hans Summers (G0UPL) and his effort in launching kits for various slow speed modes. In fact I have all three generations of the Ultimate QRSS kits up and running. That includes the original single-band kit (30 m in my case, bottom in picture), as well as number 2 and 3, the multi-band kits.

The latest version, in the middle of the picture, has a nicer two line display, and it can also be fitted with a relay board. It makes it possible to jump between up to 6 different bands.

I have used them exclusively in the WSPR mode so far. For time synchronization with the first and last version I have used an EM-406 GPS module which also provides the required pulse-per-second output. My Ultimate 2 has a too early software revision to work with the GPS, so it is on my list for a firmware upgrade.

I have a lot more experimentation to do before I know these kits and their capabilities, but I have at least gotten some experience with how far 150 mW of WSPR can take you, and that was to Australia on 30 m in my case. This is really amazing.

I would recommend the latest kit to anyone who is interested in experimentation with digital modes and who wants to compare e.g. antennas or just observe how propagation varies. The price is reasonable also, starting at GBP £17.50.

The challenge for me has been to find suitable enclosures for the two last kits. I hope to be able to make something from plexiglass for the last one. But I am still looking for that great idea for how to do that.

The last 24 hours on 10 m with a horizontal loop antenna, 80 m long, has caused my tiny signal to be decoded in the US several times as shown below.

See also “My first 24 hours on WSPR” and the G0UPL pages.

Sverre Holm, LA3ZA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Norway. Contact him at [email protected].

I wondered why there had been so many hits on an old WSJT-X post over the last week. I guess you were all looking for a new version.

The good news is that it is available on K1JT’s WSJT-X page now.

I’ve downloaded it this evening and had a quick 7MHz JT65A QSO with CT3IB and everything seems well. I can’t see any huge differences so far, so guess it is a maintenance release, fixing any issues that the team have become aware of.

I’m looking forward to when some of the other WSJT modes are included in the new WSJT-X interface, as hinted at on Joe’s site.

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

I posted a few weeks ago about issues I and others were having decoding the telemetry from FUNCube-1. Initially this seemed to be related to a dashboard software update, but even downgrading to an earlier version has been giving variable results.

What seems to have been the issue is a reduced quality of received signal. Operators with higher gain, optimised antennas appear not to have seen problems. Why there has been such a fall off isn't clear, the power output of FUNCube-1 hasn't altered and appears not to be tumbling.

The FUNCube team have now released a new version of the Dashboard Software. Version 820 can be downloaded from http://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard/ The major change in Version v820 centres on improved decoding routines which give better results, especially with weak signals at low elevations and simpler antennas.

I have been running this now for several days and can confirm it is much better, as promised low elevation passes now get successful decodes and night time passes when the telemetry is on low power get successful decodes something I wasn't getting before.

Now I have the shack sorted I have set up a dedicated receiver using the original FUNCube Dongle using the X-30 white stick collinear and this has been pulling in decodes nicely.

This morning I had surpassed the 2000 telemetry decodes milestone, as can be seen on the rankings page.

Another nice result over the weekend was seeing my callsign in one of the FITTER messages

Rx'd my callsign in the 'Thank You' Fitter messages from FUNCube-1 over the weekend, nice touch! pic.twitter.com/MvJt8p6tVU
— Andrew Garratt M6GTG (@nerdsville) February 3, 2014

It is a nice touch that the FUNCube-1 have started acknowledging the receivers, hopefully with the improved software there will be more participants.

The next stage for me? Well must sort out trying to have a QSO via FUNCube-1 and the other satellites..

Andrew Garratt, MØNRD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from East Midlands, England. Contact him at [email protected].

It’s a constant theme on this blog – the frequent updates of my QRP go Pack. Well I’ve reached a point where I think I’m happy with the current configuration. My pack differs to many I’ve seen on YouTube. I include more than just the radio equipment. I also include some basic tools and items that make for a comfortable set up when I’m out portable.  The ability to make a wind break, or even a shelter and also to be able to have a warm drink means that in actual fact I can stay out portable for quite some considerable time.

Have a look at my latest configuration of my pack. This I have decided is the autumn winter configuration. I have already started thinking about what I would remove and add for a summertime set up.

Dan Trudgian, MØTGN, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Wiltshire, England. He's a radio nut, IT guru, general good guy and an all round good egg. Contact him him here.

I had some spare time today to put the MFJ 1788 loop to the balcony test once again. Up to this point I have not been able to make any CW contacts with the antenna. I was able to pull in some State side WSPR spots but that was it. I was coming to the conclusion that my DX was going to be Canada to U.S contacts. Today I set the Loop antenna for 15m and the SWR was great at 1.1:1. and up and down the band I went. I heard KP2/AG2J calling CQ at 21.025 and he was booming in here. I called out to him and low and behold he came back to me with a fast report! Fast report or not my 5 watts signal from the balcony just made it to the Virgin islands!! I then heard KH6LC from Hawaii..........but I was not able to make contact BUT for the first time I was hearing some DX stations. I then was able to contact PJ4LS with some repeats on my part but I still had my 1788 loop signal down to the Antilles off the coast of Venezuela!! The other station I heard but was not able to contact was ZZ80MT in Brazil. This was a good afternoon on the radio of me I was able to hear and make some DX contacts.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

In the course of my reading around about DMR yesterday, I came across some interesting DSTAR developments that I had missed.

ON8JL has an interesting range of standalone gateways, the Dadystar and the Babystar. The Babystar, in particular, looks like an alternative to the DVAP/Raspberry Pi gateway. It retails around EUR280 and comprises of a standalone unit with a 430MHz 10mW transmitter, receiver and Ethernet interface.

You can plug the Babystar into your internet router and use your 70cms DSTAR handheld to access the DSTAR network. It looks like you can program the necessary settings into the Babystar by means of a web interface hosted on the device.

See ON8JL’s webpage about the Babystar device

See MM0DUN’s page on using the Babystar

Meanwhile here, it was a more pleasant February morning, so I was able to get out into the garden for some chores this morning, taking the IC-E92 handheld. I’d just completed cleaning out the henhouse when Joe HL5KY put a call out on REF001C

I gave Joe a call and we had a very pleasant chat, and the chickens made their voices heard in South Korea!

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].