AmateurRadio.com

30″ Magnetic Loop Under Construction

As the list of major projects at our new home is starting to get shorter, I have been pondering an antenna installation that is more permanent than my Portable QRP Antenna that I strap to the deck railing when I want to operate.

The portable vertical I use, which is nice and quiet at the park, is VERY noisy at the home QTH which is full of all sorts of man made electrical noise.

First thought was to put a 66′ doublet in the attic and feed it with ladder line.  I have no doubt this would work, but I have to invest in ladder line to make it happen.

I have a 30″ square magnetic loop that I have built from 1″ copper pipe before we found out we were moving.  It is all soldered up, just sitting in my garage waiting for a tuning capacitor and feed loop to be installed.  I am leaning towards this being my first antenna install here at the QTH.

Why a magnetic loop?

You can read all about the good and bad of loops online, but one of the biggest drivers is that they are supposed to be very quiet.  Many hams that report S5+ noise on their dipoles are reporting S1-S2 noise on the loop.

The other reason is that it is almost done – probably a couple hours of work max and I could have it on the air.  Additionally I can hang this in my garage, or put it in the attic, so that I can keep in good graces with the ever watchful HOA observers!

So that is what I am going to do.  At first the tuning capacitor will be done with a coax stub tuned to a fixed frequency.  I will do this centered around 14.060.  This will give me a narrow little spot to play.

Then I am going to build a home brew butterfly capacitor – which I will document here.

Propagation numbers baffle me sometimes. Yesterday, when the numbers looked so good, I thought I was going to end up getting skunked. I did end up working Oleg UR3IFD, in the Ukraine, and I also had a very brief, QSB busted QSO with Paul WA9PWP. But other than those two very brief contacts, it was pretty grim. There wasn’t else much to be heard and my CQs on several bands went unanswered. Advance the clock 24 hours, to find the SSN is down to 35 and the SFI is only at 110. Not great numbers. But despite the numbers, I had a great outing.

I started out on 17 Meters with a brief QSO with Ted LZ1ND, who was calling CQ. Ted was a good 599+ here in New Jersey, and I got a 549 in return. Not a bad report, and Ted got all my basic information, so I was definitely copy-able in Bulgaria. And it looks like Ted is quite comfortable behind the dial of a QRP rig himself. Here’s an old photo I dug up of him on the Web, taken while he was participating in Bulgaria’s HF QRP Field Day.

After Ted, I switched on over to 20 Meters and called CQ. I was answered by Ron W5VYN, from Whitesboro, TX. Ron had a magnificent signal into New Jersey. The fact that he was using home brewed gear made it all the sweeter. Ron had asked me if he was generating any key clicks, and I was happy to be able to tell him that he had a perfect, solid and stable 9 in the “T” portion of RST. His home brew rig sounded just as good as any commercial rig out there. That was a nice QSO.

That was followed up by a “quickie” QSO with Greg N4KGL. Greg, who’s down in Florida, was using one of those new PAR ENDFEDZ Trail Friendly antennas, which was generating a nice 579 signal for him. It’s always nice chatting with Greg, and I wish I could have stayed on longer. But as always, time flies when you’re having fun, and it was time to break down and head on back to work.

So it just goes to show …. you can have a great QRP day, even when the solar conditions say, “Maybe not”.

Even so, I had to laugh on the way home from work.  As I was driving, I was listening to two Hams on a local 2 Meter repeater bemoan the current sunspot cycle.  One was complaining about “How you just can’t work any decent DX without at least a 500 Watt amplifier!”.  I almost lost it right there, I started chuckling so hard.

Lots of QRPers, including N8ZYA, K3WWP, W2LJ and many, many others have log books that attest to the direct opposite!

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

What an evening! Nearly 80 degrees and humid. Judy and I walked to Knox Mountain. I worked Spain, California, Cuba, Morocco, and Texas.

The hike in was fast in order to keep ahead of the mosquitoes. It was well rewarded by the view of the pond after the 1.5 mile hike.

As I approached the pond, a large gray heron swooped up in front of me and headed east to the other end of the pond. It was stunning. We walked around to the front of the cabin. Beautiful!

I tossed a line nearly 50 feet into the cherry tree at the edge of the pond and pulled up a 33 foot wire. I set up the KX3 and used the earchi.org 9 to 1 unun. At first I operated on 20 meters. I worked two Spanish stations in a row and lost them both at the very end to QSB.

After that things picked up a bit. California and Cuba on 20 meters, then I switched to 17 and worked Morocco and Texas. Here’s the log:

27 Aug-13 2134 14.008 EA5HFW CW 559 599 Spain
27 Aug-13 2140 14.013 EA8AGF CW 449 579 Spain
27 Aug-13 2145 14.022 N6QQ CW 559 599 CA
27 Aug-13 2146 14.011 CO6RD CW 599 599 Cuba
27 Aug-13 2155 18.086 CN8KD CW 599 599 Morocco
27 Aug-13 2156 18.075 WF5W CW 579 599 TX

Mid-way during the operating a hoot owl in the woods not far away let forth with several calls. It was remarkable. Down by the pond Judy was knitting some baby booties in the sunlight.

As I packed up the gear, a bunch of jays started squabbling down by the pond… a chorus of “Dee Dee… Dee Dee. As we headed down the path, I turned back for one more snapshot of the pond.

I’ve tried out a number of mapping apps on my iPhone but only recently found one that I really like for hiking. Most of these apps access maps on the network when needed so they are not stored on the smart phone. When you fall of the edge of the network in the backcountry they don’t work. This is a non starter for most of my backcountry hikes. Even if I am close to civilization, I’ll typically drop down into a valley at some point on the hike, losing my network connection.

The MotionX GPS app solves this problem by allowing you to download and storing maps on your iPhone. This requires you to do a bit of planning on what maps you need but it seems to work pretty well. The map quality is good and includes topographic information. (Click on the map image above to zoom in.) No, you probably don’t want to download maps to cover the entire US as you’ll consume all available storage!

Besides mapping, MotionX supports a ton of other features such as tracks, waypoints, compass headings, etc. It is quite flexible and I am still learning all of its tools.

Oh, did I mention this app only costs $1.99? Amazing!

- Bob K0NR

Ham Radio Deluxe has announced that the final free version of HRD will be removed from their servers September 1, 2013.  After the HRD freeware product was sold by its author, it was converted to a commercial software product.  The current owner, W4PC, has stated that the freeware 5.x version will continue to be free, however they will no longer host the files for download and there will be no further development on the 5.x version.  Others may host the files for download free of charge.

I hate to keep sounding like a broken record, but the situation with HRD, and in particular with the 5.x freeware version, illustrates just why freeware is a problematic software model and ultimately a technological dead end for a hobby like amateur radio.  Luckily with HRD, development is continuing with the commercial product.

Do you use other freeware amateur radio programs?  Ask your favorite program authors if they would consider open sourcing their software.  If they don’t, ask them why not and what do they have to lose.

The summary page of submitted scores is ready for viewing!  To check out the spreadsheet, click here.

The soapbox comments are going to take me a bit longer as there are so many!  Hope to have those up by the end of the week.

Here’s a summary of the top scores:

1st Place Overall – Sean KX9X – 17,024 points
2nd Place Overall – Gene N5GW – 17,000 points
3rd Place Overall – George KX0R – 11,700 points
4th Place Overall – Rick NK9G – 11,444 points
5th Place Overall – Mid-MO ARC N0SS – 10,276 points

Top Multi-Op Station – Mid-MO ARC N0SS – 10,276 points

Top Multi Multi Station – NAQCC N3AQC – 10,160 points

Top SSB Station – a tie between Joe KK4NWC and Lloyd KC5FM

Top Mixed Mode Station – Bill W9LR

In addition to these, the top scorer for each state will be receive a Certificate of Achievement.  You can see these stations are denoted in the comments column in the extreme right column of the spreadsheet.

Thanks to all who participated!  In addition to the 68 Skeeters who submitted log summaries, I also received 3 log summaries from Non-Skeeters who chose to operate.  In fact, Non-Skeeter George K4EOR ended up being Top Score for Georgia!

Participation was up from last year, log summary submissions were up from last year – this all bodes well for the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt for 2014!  Hope to hear your Bzzzzzzzz next year!

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

I saw this posted on QRP-L today and decided to share it here, for those of you who might not be subscribers.  This was a post by Grayson Evans, KJ7UM/TA2ZGE.  It describes his recent encounter with QRP.  You can almost feel his excitement and joy from his post!

Sorry, I have to admit that I’m not much of a QRPer.  Not because I don’t like it or not interested, it is just that I haven’t had much luck at it.  I have a hard enough time trying to make a contact with 100W out of my Kenwood something-or-other.  Part of the problem (well, probably all of the problem) is my QTH.  Very urban in the middle of Ankara, the capital city of 6 – 8 million.  S7 background noise on 20 on a good nite.  And my apartment is on the bottom floor of a 6 story concrete building surrounding on all sides by equally tall solid concrete buildings.  I have tried all sorts of antennas out the window and in the small garden, but they all seem to work equally poorly.  I currently have an end-fed “zepp” sort of thing strung between two street lights.  It seems to work the best until a big truck takes it out.

Anyway, I have two MFJ QRP rigs I bought second hand a few years ago.  One is 20M CW and SSB, 5W, the other is 40M CW only, 5W.  I did make a few contacts with them when I lived in the U.S., so at one time I know they worked.

My family (wife and 11 year old son) have started doing some camping around Turkey (not a popular activity here).  So I thought it would be a good idea to try some portable QRP operating in the forests. Never done it before. The first time a tried, I had all sorts of problems, nothing seemed to work.  Back to drawing board.

Last weekend I tried again, took more parts, two antennas (a new 20M dipole), two batteries, etc.  tuner with SWR, dummy load, and a good supply of 807’s (youngsters probably not familiar with “807s”).

This time everything seemed to work, but I could only get 1 watt out of the MFJ 20M rig (SSB and CW). OK, 1.2 watts.  Also the key input didn’t work.  I figured a no-go again.

Also it was a contest weekend. No surprise, there is some sort of contest every weekend here.  _____ “QSO party” (fill in the blank with any european or eastern european country…they are not QSO’s, and not a party).  I am not a contester but I have to admit they are good for testing antennas/rigs.

BUT, I got a big shock (emotional kind)! 

First of course, zero background noise.  Those little rigs have a nice receiver.  I could even hear myself think with headphones on.

Second (and this is the SHOCK), if the calling station was S5+, I could work em.  EVERY TIME.
I have no idea what contest I was working (the usual call sign, phony 5/9, and a sequence number), but I worked over 80 stations in a 2000 km radius over a 2-3 hr time.  I haven’t had time to look up all the screwy prefixes (“DX” to you is the norm here of course), but I recognized Romania, Central Russia, Slovenia, Poland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Slovakia, Slodowneya, etc. etc.

AND, when I mentioned I was actually running 1 Watt, I got a few stations to give me a real signal report. and they were never less than S4.  I got a few S8 and S9’s.  how could this be?

I am impressed.  This RF stuff is amazing.
I gotta try this again!

Photo is here:http://s838.photobucket.com/user/WA4GVM/media/Misc/qrpin_zpsb02e80f4.jpg.html

73, Grayson TA2ZGE/KJ7UM
(sorry this rambled)

Follow my hollow-state blog at hollowstatedesign.tumblr.com

Thanks, Grayson, for sharing.  You’ll find out that most QRPers are happier for their fellow QRP’ers success, rather than their own!  I hope you’ll be doing this again, and often!  (Hint! I still need Turkey via QRP!)

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