Ham Radio
Experiments & Fun With Simon M0YKS
Yorkshire UK
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Roof Mounted Mobile Antennas
I have always used fixed mounts on my vehicles for both HF and VHF antennas which are the boot mounted grub screw type to ensure a good ground is obtained. The only snag is the corrosion that an take place beneath the mount and not forgetting the wibble wobble whenever I opened or shut the back door.
I decided to fabricate my own mounts which would bolt to the roof bars giving an extra 5” (127mm) height above the existing mounts. To prevent any further corrosion problems I decided to use 3mm stainless steel as the material which took a bit of drilling but easy enough at a very low RPM using a radial drill. Once I removed any burs I bent the mounts into a right angle and mounted the stainless plates as far apart as possible on the roof bar. Each of the mounts is drilled in line to match holes in the roof bar (2 holes each mount) which I bolted up tight.
The antenna mounts went on to the stainless mounts nice and straight, I fixed a short grounding wire to the locking nut on the antenna mount which I fed to a close by bolt that was connected to the vehicles chassis. The SWR was 1:1 on 20M and whilst mobile earlier this morning I made QSO with Roy – VK6MV beaming long path. Roy was 5/9 at times from Cuballing, in Western Australia coming in very well to Yaesu’s original Field Commander more commonly known as the FT-100. I recieved a 5/5 report which was excellent as I was actually mobile. I also made QSO with Estonia and Italy whilst operating /mobile with the new antenna mounts. The final result looks a lot better than the commercial mounts you see, the new mounts are solid, well grounded, neat, as well as very strong.
The Antennas pictured are 145/433MHz and 14MHz, The Vehicle is a Toyota Rav-4 Mount Is Grounded To Chassis With Short Wire
Over the weekend I celebrated 4 years of romance with my lovely YL Louise M3TLL. I first met Louise at work during the 2005 CQ World Wide DX Contest when we were involved with the STAR Centre project. Louise and I hit it off during the contest and I have managed to continue to catch the yearly contest ever since. I look forward to the CQ WW Contest every year as Louise always supports me by encouraging me to take part in the contest; it reminds her of when and how we met. I guess I am the lucky one when it comes to how we celebrate our anniversary playing radio during the CQ WW DX contest. I sure did get lucky and picked a good one there! Thanks for putting up with me Lou!
This Years CQ WW results gave me, 48 DXCC and 15 Zones.
14MHz, 21MHz, & 28MHz were worked using the FT-847 and Hustler 6BTV Vertical. Both 3.5MHz & 7MHz were worked using the FT-767 and a 135 ft Dipole. I made just over 100 QSO and gave away lots of points. Thanks to all participants and for all of the effort you all put in every year, once again I thoroughly enjoyed my anniversary.
See you next year and for those that are interested, here are the 48 DXCC and 15 Zones I worked over the weekend.
V26B- 21 MHz- ZONE 08- Antigua & Barbuda LQ0F- 21 MHz- ZONE 13- Argentina P40A- 21 MHz- ZONE 09- Aruba OE5UAL- 28 MHz- ZONE 15- Austria CU5CQ- 21 MHz- ZONE 14- Azores 8P5A- 21 MHz- ZONE 08- Barbados OT5P- 3.5 MHz- ZONE 14- Belgium AA4V/VP9/P- 21 MHz- ZONE 05- Bermuda E73M- 28 MHz- ZONE 15- Bosnia Hercegovina ZV5E- 21 MHz- ZONE 11- Brazil LZ9W- 21 MHz- ZONE 20- Bulgaria VE2IM- 14 MHz- ZONE 02- Canada VY2ZM- 7 MHz- ZONE 05- Canada VC3O- 14 MHz- ZONE 04- Canada EA8MT- 21 MHz- ZONE 33- Canary Is EE9K- 28 MHz- ZONE 33- Ceuta & Melilla 9A7A- 28 MHz- ZONE 15- Croatia P33W- 21 MHz- ZONE 20- Cyprus OL7R- 3.5 MHz- ZONE 15- Czech Republic HI3K- 21 MHz- ZONE 08- Dominican Republic RM3Q- 21 MHz- ZONE 16- European Russia DF0HQ- 3.5 MHz- ZONE 14- Federal Republic of Germany OG5B- 3.5 MHz- ZONE 15- Finland F8AKC- 28 MHz- ZONE 14- France FY5KE- 21 MHz- ZONE 09- French Guiana 4LOA- 21 MHz- ZONE 21- Georgia OX2A- 21 MHz- ZONE 40- Greenland HG1S- 7 MHz- ZONE 15- Hungary IR4X- 21 MHz- ZONE 15- Italy UP6P- 21 MHz- ZONE 17- Kazakstan HB0/HB9AON- 7 MHz- ZONE 14- Liechtenstein LY8O- 21 MHz- ZONE 15- Lithuania CR3L- 7 MHz- ZONE 33- Madeira ER4DX- 21 MHz- ZONE 16- Moldova CN3A- 21 MHz- ZONE 33- Morocco PJ2T- 21 MHz- ZONE 09- Netherlands Antilles PI4DX- 3.5 MHz- ZONE 14- Netherlands SP3GEM- 3.5 MHz- ZONE 14- Poland YR1C- 21 MHz- ZONE 20- Romania GM6NX- 7 MHz- ZONE 14- Scotland YT7R- 28 MHz- ZONE 15- Serbia YT7R- 7 MHz- ZONE 15- Serbia OM8A- 3.5 MHz- ZONE 15- Slovakia S53S- 7 MHz- ZONE 15- Slovenia ED5T- 28 MHz- ZONE 14- Spain V48M- 21 MHz- ZONE 08- St. Kitts and Nevis FS/K1XM- 21 MHz- ZONE 08- St. Martin HB9AAP- 14 MHz- ZONE 14- Switzerland 9Y4D- 14 MHz- ZONE 09- Trinidad & Tobago W9RE- 21 MHz- ZONE 04- U.S.A. K1TTT- 3.5 MHz- ZONE 05- U.S.A.
I had a go at making a slightly different mini tower and yagi out of TIG welding wire and this is what I came up with. The tower is two sections with a six element yagi antenna that can be rotated 360º simply by hand. The model is made by myself from 3.2mm TIG welding wire which has been built using the MIG welding process. As usual it was fun making it and there is no doubt that I will be fettling up some other project soon. Hope you like it!
IO-10Ele Performance Test On AO-51 & VO-52 Satellites
Since I last blogged about the latest tweak with the modified IO-10Element 145/435 dual band Sat Yagi, I've been watching out for AO-51 and VO-52 in order to continue testing the latest antenna. The performance is proving to be excellent both the AO-51 & VO-52 down links have been coming in loud and clear, I have made plenty of QSOs this week after work in the evening. Its been a lot of fun, I am addicted again h.i.
List of Stations and which Satellite was worked to make the qso with latest IO-10 dual band Sat Antenna.
Being content with something is often easier said than done when it comes to Antennas, yes you guessed more messing with the Satellite beam. In the past, the FM Satellite signals that I have received have been very weak compared to the portable outdoor ARROW Antenna. The SSB SATs such as VO-52 & FO-29 have always been stronger and much easier to work compared with the FM Birds whilst using the IOIo Antenna. I have been using the FT-847 Noise Reduction and DIG Filter to assist in pulling out the voices from the FM hiss but still have had a struggle on my hands with most passes.
I had another look at my A430S10 Yagi and decided to fix it above the 145 IO Beam using 30mm wooden spacers at a fixed 30º elevation. I have tried 15º, 20º and 45º elevation fixed in the past and have found 30º to be the best compromise. The Compact IO 145 Loop out performed a 4Ele Yagi, I just need an edge on the IO 435 loop. The 10Ele was the answer! A more accurate aim is required which I have now mastered. The combined antenna is working better than expected, it seems like this time I got it right, I am now in the position to be able to hear the FM SATs – AO-51 & SO-50, loud and clear in the shack on the FT-847. Since Installation, I have made plenty of QSO on AO-51 including a first Satellite QSO for M0JMO – Josh, earlier this evening as well as lots of other successful contacts into EU and up and down the UK.
RESULT! The FM SATs can now be worked from inside a warm shack as well as out in the cold on the QRP ARROW set up.
The new IO-10 145/435 is now very effective on VO-52, my downlink signal is up at 5/9 on all passes between 2º - 60º, and I can get into VO-52 at a distance of 1700 miles with a good signal back to IO93CU.
The weather is once again lousy here in N.England so I decided to leave riding the Motor Cycle at home today and drive to work instead. On my return journey back home from work, I came across a nice 5/9+20 signal on 20M which belonged to K7ZSD - Brad, who is located 25 miles N.W of Portland, Oregon in the US. I listened to Brad - K7ZSD working Stations all over Europe as I drove home and decided to give him a call from my mobile Station which worked out great. Brad came straight back to me with a 5/5 report and very good sounding audio from my trusty FT-100. When I got back home I checked Brads call sign on QRZ.com and released why Brad sounded like he was sat with me in my vehicle! Here is Brads - K7ZSD ham station tower array which is so impressive I thought you guys would like to see it.
Check out the latest 2E0HTS Satellite video filmed by my YL Louise-M3TLL.
This video is aimed at newcomers to the SSB Satellites and shows me using a home made IOIo antenna and a Yaesu FT-847 making Contact with IK3VZS-Italy and LY3L-Lithuania. Both contacts are made on SSB via Earth Orbiting Amateur Satellite - VO-52 and are worked from my home location in N.England. VO-52 was launched on the 5th of May 2005 from Sirharkota (India) and is still performing very well.
