Home Made Tripod Test With Miracle Antenna & FT-817 - Video

Despite freezing those parts that don't like freezing off, I managed to try out the latest metal work project. Due to the cold I was in Test mode which was short and sweet as seen in the video.

Miracle/Wonder Ally Tripod

Since I got the FT-817 and Miracle antenna I have been pondering over a few ideas that I would like to try whilst out and about in the great outdoors.
One of the ideas was to make a light weight tripod type of mount, that would allow the Miracle antenna to be used with feeder rather than a direct chassis mount. I wanted something that I could mount inside my rucksack that would stick out of the top just enough to mount the antenna clear of my head and body. I also wanted something that could be placed on a wall, rock or flat spot quick and easy.

With this in mind I set about the task and came up with this.

I made the tripod with the intention of standing it on Trig Points that are located nearby on the Moor top at high spots and summits. The tripod also sits well on my shack desk where earlier I heard the ARRL DX News coming in 5/7 on 14.275MHz with the little Miracle antenna, set up as seen here.

Close Up of the aluminium cradle and tripod which has been riveted together using 4.8mm long reach rivets.

The new tripod mount is very light and easy to use, I made it from 2mm aluminium which I folded into shape. The three legs and cradle are joined together using rivets.
Total build time was less than 30 minutes.

I hope to get out over the coming weekend and work some QRP contacts using the new kit, with a bit of luck there may be a video showing the results.

NOAA 17 Weather Watching

Once again we awake to a fresh covering of Snow up here on the Yorkshire Moor top.
I thought It would be a good idea to take at look at the Weather(WX) for myself with the help of Earth Orbiting NOAA-17.

The NOAA-17 Satellite is in continuous orbit with an altitude at around 500 miles and produces excellent real time images of the Earth that can be received around 137.620 MHz APT (Automatic Picture Transmission) or 1707.00MHz HRPT (High Resolution Picture Transmission).

Earlier This Morning
Once the Satellite came into range (from the North) I was able to receive the signal using the FT-847 and IO-10EL Sat Antenna. The received signal was decoded with the computer using Radiocom 5.2(RC50) which can be seen in the image below.


Close Up Of The UK Covered With Snow Clouds
I've been decoding the NOAA Weather Satellites for over 5 years using the RC50 software with excellent results which can be found in my archive posts. The images allow you to make up your own mind up regarding what the WX will be doing, as data can be collected during each of the many NOAA Satellite passes.
Looking at his one, I think I will be wrapping up warm and reaching for my boots before stepping out. Stay warm!

New DXCC Tajikistan in the log

Whilst listening around 40M tonight, I managed to stumble across a nice pile up down on 7.157.6MHz. I was pleasantly surprised to hear EY8MM coming in 5/9 loud and clear. As expected EY8MM had lots of stations calling him in the pile up and with his excellent operating skills listening for specific regions one at a time, lots of Stations were worked.

I called into the pile up when appropriate, giving only the last three letters(Suffix) of my call sign - HTS. After about 10 minutes EY8MM pulled out "Tango Sierra" from the crowd and I was in like a flash working him with a 5/9 exchange both ways.

Tajikistan is an all time new one for me which inspired me to share the news. At present I'm up to 149 DXCC so far, out of a possible 338 DXCC. Its always nice to catch a rare opportunity and add a new one like EY8MM - Tajikistan.

The equipment that I was running was: Heil Gold Line GM-5, Yaesu FT-767GX (50W), into a Vertical (Hustler 6BTV).

Top Performance from the Home Brew 80M Delta Loop

Since I erected my latest home made wire antenna which was the full wave 80m Delta Loop, I have spent quite a lot of time down on 40M & 80M experimenting with the new loops performance. The loop tunes up well from 160M through to 15M with the MFJ-969 ATU and is resonant for 80M at around 3.5 MHz. It is slightly on the long side for the band as I will be operating mainly on the phone portion higher up the band with some occasional psk31 down on 3.583 MHz.

The immediately obvious improvement that I noticed first, was the clean receive and clear sounding signals that I am now receiving across all of the HF bands. The Loop also provides minimal noise levels compared with the previous Dipole and G5RV antennas. Since the installation I have had a good couple weeks to give it some stick and the tests have been interesting as well as rewarding as I worked some DX Call signs whilst using the new Delta Loop.

The Loop antenna seems to put out a good signal which has been noted to have improved significantly on the previous dipole according to G3OFA, whom I have worked a few times recently on the #TWNET (Twitter Radio Net). So far on 40M, I have worked DX such as, N2QQF, W4NP as well as 6W/GM4FDM and on 80M, I also got across the pond with the loop working W3JK and K1NIU both on 3.795 MHz.

I have been working plenty of G-Stations as well as into Europe with good reports from 80M to 17M and also managed a local net on 160M, which was a first for me as I have never managed to tune up any antennas for top band before. I shall be continuing to experiment with the 80M Delta Loop and comparing it with the smaller 20M Delta loop and Hustler 6BTV. In the meantime have a great Weekend and many DX!

Home Brew 80m Delta Loop

click to enlarge image of Delta Loop

I have been so pleased with the 20M Delta loop I decided to scrap the dipole and have a go at home brewing an 80m Delta loop instead.

The result was well worth it as I found that the new loop antenna receives and transmits very well on 80M (resonant band), it also tunes up very easily on 160M & 40M, giving impressive results with very low noise levels.

The Delta loop is installed as seen in the above image with all of the dimensions included. I shall be posting more once I have had chance to test it further, I am really pleased so far and excited as usual, I'm looking forward to telling you more!

Trans Match System For Loop Antenna's

I have been using my home made Delta Loop vertically polarized for the past couple of years with very good results. The Delta loop was made by myself with the intention of using it on 20M, I originally blogged about it here and since then, It has moved from the horizontal to like I said already a vertical configuration.

The horizontal testing of the loop brought slight noise levels where as the vertical triangle or pyramid configuration, is very quiet for noise and excellent on performance both RX and TX. The only issue I have had with the Delta loop was with my original calculations which proved to be slightly long, making it resonant on 13MHz instead of the desired 14.200 frequency. I cut the loop around two years ago and unfortunately made it too short as it was now resonant at 14.800 which was slightly higher than the intended frequency.

Subsequently I have been managing fine with the help of the ATU, but the burning feeling inside has been growing and niggling away as I have wanted the antenna to be perfectly resonant across 20M without any tuning. I had been chewing over various ideas that I have had and rather than replace the complete length I decided I had had enough guessing and needed to come up with some way of an easy adjustable matching system.

I thought about complicated tuning systems but in the end settled for some 3.2mm TIG welding wire, which I formed into a neat loop type hook on one end which connects to the dipole centre replacing the wire.I then slid the original wire up and down the 3.2mm TIG wire and secured the end with a terminal block as seen in the image.
Once I adjusted the overall length I got the SWR down to 1:1 /1:5 across the 20M band. I then fired up my plumbing blow torch and soldered the original delta loop wire to the added 3.2mm tig wire ensuring a excellent connection which would be permanent and WX proof.

The next image shows the feed point of the loop (dipole centre) with 3mm electrical wire (70ft long on Right hand side) and 3.2mm TIG wire (2ft long coming out of the Left hand side).
This image shows the movable trans matching system which once adjusted was soldered up outside to finish off the modification.
Hope this idea will be of use to some of you that are struggling tuning up any loop antennas. Now its time to try it out ATU free and see who is on the band.

Tweaks and Tweets

The first Twitter Net was a lot of fun despite the 80M band being a little difficult for into G at the times that we have been running the net. However the Thursday Net still had plenty of us trying to get our signals back to each other with some nice QSOing had by all that made it in.
Unfortunately my first NET QSO was shorter than I anticipated as at the time there was around 3FT of snow covering my dipole ladder line, which after around 5Mins of TXing shorted out the feeder and caused a very high SWR reading back in the shack. I was forced to continue monitoring the Twitter Net in SWL mode but could still pass reports as “Tweets” to the #TWNET that were monitoring Twitter at the same time. Before the Snow shorted the feeder, Tomas OK4BX Tweeted that he could hear me in Czech Republic along side the other Stations that were also operating on the Twitter Net.
Tomas OK4BX kindly interfaced his Icom powered Shack with his web cam and streamed his side of the Net live over the internet which he shared with us all by linking the live video stream to the #TWNET Twitter page. This allowed all to see and hear how we were coming through on 80M in Czech Republic. Nice idea Tomas – Thanks!

Once the Net ended on 80M we decided to QSY to echolink where we all connected to a Repeater and managed to work a few more Stations that didn’t quite make it on 80M, it was fantastic to see so many Stations were keen to make it into the Twitter Net by any means necessary. Thanks goes to all who joined in!

We enjoyed the previous challenge so much that we decided to try it all again but at a different time which was early on Sunday morning at 10.00 utc. This proved to be a lot more successful for into G-Land.
I had been busy outside they day before installing a new feeding system to my 80M Dipole. I had decided I would try something slightly different from the open ladder line feeder and ended up fitting a balan at the dipole centre, fed with RG58 heavy coax which should keep out any water as well as other possible shorting problems with any luck. The performance has remained good and the Dipole seems to tune up well on 80M right through to 10M, I can also get it to tune down on 160M which was previously not possible with the ladder line fed Dipole.

The Dipole worked well for me during the Net and has continued to perform well on 80M and 40M throughout the week, with some good reports from N.America being obtained. I also got into Cuba with the Dipole down on 40M which was another good report for the humble antenna. I may consider changing the flat top configuration for an inverted Vee set up just to see how the performance differs in the coming week if I get some spare time.

At present my HF antennas consist of an 80M Dipole, 20M Delta Loop and the Hustler 6BTV which I’m pleased to report are all still doing a good job for me as well as giving me a varied pattern of reflected and radiated signal patterns across the bands. This choice of switching between the antennas is proving to be a very advantageous luxury, as the difference in noise, signal quality and strength varies between them all dependent on the time of day and band/conditions. The change in the height of the Ionospheric layer are responsible for this and are noticeable with each of the antennas when the switching of horizontally and vertically polarized signals is carried out, often with massive differences taking place of up to 20db.Dependent on the time of day I have found that all three antenna’s out perform each other with no one antenna being the overall best.

I should be back on 80M with the Twitter Net Sunday mornings at 10.00 utc and again on Thursdays at 20.00 utc.
So far, we still haven’t managed to arrange anything for the other bands such as 20m and 40m.
I am interested to see if we can work some of our State-side and European friends that have been in touch already on Twitter confirming their interest in trying to make the QSO. I hope to it make soon Guys!

As well as all this twittering on, you can see I have been playing quite a bit of radio across the bands already this year and I aim to continue my radio antics more than ever.
Check out the graph by clicking on it to enlarge. The graph shows where on the bands I have been active this month so far.


Thanks for visiting 73.

80m Twitter Ham Net LESS Than 24HRs

Lots of interest has been shown so far on Twitter regarding the 1st ever 80m Twitter Ham Net, which will be held tomorrow (Wednesday 13th January) at 20.00 UTC.
Since the idea was suggested there has been a lot of Hams tweeting messages and leaving comments confirming that they will be by their Ham Radio Stations and at the same time be on Twitter tomorrow night. I can’t believe how well you have all responded from as far as The USA, to Czech Republic and the UK alike, there is a lot of enthusiastic Tweeting Hams out there!

The easiest way to join in is by getting on Twitter, create an account and either follow somebody or just search for other Hams to follow such as myself, example @2E0HTS. Once you find us all, you will easily see what were up to and which Hams are operating as well as any SWLs. All are welcome. :-)

Useful info for Twitter Ham Net Ops

- All updates can easily be searched for by using the trending topic #TWNET

- Tomorrow Nights NET - 80M. Actual Frequency will be posted at 19.55 UTC. This can be found by searching for #TWNET

Hopefully we shall have lots of fun and create some activity on 80M. If successful we could try different Bands at different Times, allowing Hams from all over the world a chance to mix Ham Radio and a bit of Internet Tweeting together to make some great QSOs.
It should be a good Net, I and many others are getting excited with less than 24 hours before the Twitter Ham Net takes to the Air for the very first time. We all Hope to hear you and be heard on the Twitter Ham 80m Net tomorrow at 20.00 UTC. It should be a great turnout, see you there!
Thank You to Everyone who is involved so far, keep up the great enthusiasm Tweeple! ;-)

Twitter Ham Radio NET On 80M

Over the last few months I have been slowly building up my list of interesting Twitter users to follow and be followed by. This has helped to take the mind off the WX (which of course is still snowing) by enjoying some Tweeting over the internet. Most of the Twitter Folks I follow are Either HAMs, SWLs or people involved in radio and they are all full of interesting Tweets which I have enjoyed a lot.

Since new friendships are beginning to form via Twitter, We have all decided to try out, a planned radio sched on 80M this coming Wednesday evening at 20.00 UTC. We will use twitter to relay the frequency on the night at 20.00 UTC as well as any reports from SWLs and anyone struggling to get back to NET.

So far there has been 7 Stations that have confirmed that they will be on the Air at 20.00 UTC (Wednesday 13th) and as we only decided two hours ago we are off to a fine start. There will be regular updates on Twitter regarding which Stations will be active and on the night as well as displaying the frequency used. If you want to know more about the kind of stuff we Hams get up to in an informal way, check us out on Twitter. Hope to hear you on the 80M Net Wednesday Night.

The New Year Continues To Test Us All

The New Year is proving to be a challenging one so far for many of us across the Globe. Here at Baildon Moor, Yorkshire we have been suffering now for almost 3 weeks with no sign of improvement. At present the temperature has dropped down to -2.5°C which isn't helping much regarding the frozen pipework that is preventing the use of the kitchen sink and shower.
We have been visiting the Family on a regular basis where hot food and the use of the shower is available, but to be honest it has been really hard going.

The upside was a chance to play on my new Yaesu FT-817 at a different location using the Miracle Whip and 5 Humble Watts. It wasn't long before I got my first long distant QRP contact on 20m, which was Andy - EW6GF from Belarus.
The QRP rig worked very well for me and back at the QTH, I decided to try the little FT-817 with the Hustler 6BTV.
The mighty Hustler Vertical and 5Watts began to impress me as I continued having QRP fun working as far as The US thanks to K3C, K3LP and W1AW, all worked and logged.

I also got lucky on the Amateur Satellites as I made it into Canada - VO1ONE, via AO-51 using the Yaesu FT-847 and the home made IO-TEN EL Sat antenna.
The Satellite DX didn't stop there, as I managed to get into the new Chinese SAT XW-1 which is now known as HO-68.
The new SAT has a fantastic footprint which allowed me to make it across the Atlantic into FN34JK, where Daniel - KB1RVT came back to my Call via the new SAT.
I have had plenty of other excellent QSO's via SO-50, AO-51, VO-52 and the new HO68 into Europe over the past couple of weeks, thoroughly enjoying the whole affair.
I'm looking forward to meeting some more of you soon via the Sats in 2010.

Back to the WX. With the snow coming down thick and fast I battled into work yesterday in the excellent snow munching Toyota RAV-4, (full time 4 X 4) only to find that the College where I work was closed due to the bad WX.
This was a another great opportunity to forget about the WX for a while and get on the bands during my usual working time.

I made some nice QSO up and down G-Land on 40M working some interesting Stations such as M0CNU - Tom, from Falmouth and Ivan - G4WIA, who was near by to Helston. Both Stations were very strong on my FT-767GX which is fed into a 130ft Dipole pointing North/South.
I enjoyed some lengthy conversation from the County of Cornwall from both Stations which was very nice, as we had visited their region only last Summer when we went to the Marconi Centre.
So you could say every cloud has in this case a Snowy lining, but at least I got the day off work and played some radio.
I was back in work today with a slightly earlier finish and as you can see from the pictures of my 20M Delta Loop and Hustler 6BTV any more Snow could cause a bit more fuss and trouble!

If we all think warm thoughts hopefully the pipework will thaw and we can get back to normality, but in the meantime its slow safe driving and plenty of thermals. Not forgetting as much RF as I can possibly generate, Micro waves preferably! 73 Stay warm and safe.

The Perfect Present

I was very lucky this year as far as receiving presents. Louise (M3TLL) my lovely YL got me something that she new would be well received and appreciated more than most things, which was of course some Ham Radio equipment. Thanks Lou!

Louise managed to get a good deal from our local Ham Buddy – Adam 2E0LXA, who had a great little Yaesu FT-817, QRP multi banded/mode portable transceiver that he was selling. The little rig came with a “Miracle Antenna” and a “Wonder Wand” tunable counterpoise which I have already tried successfully on 5Watts making QSO into Estonia as well as across the Atlantic into the US. I must admit I was surprised with the performance of the Miracle Antenna and I am looking forward to getting out with the portable QRP station and finding out what the possibilities are with a simple QRP set up, as well as using the rig outside on the Satellite’s.
I have already been trying the standard rubber Whip (YHA-63) connected to the BNC located on the front panel, I worked my local buddies M0DIT, M1PAC and M3RIZ who are all around 6 miles away over in Keighley. This was done whilst walking the Dog Dudley, the FT-817 was working well whilst running off the battery pack with 5/9 reports exchanged on 2M FM. I am very pleased with this years Christmas present and should get many years of use out of it, money well spent!

I was also lucky enough to receive some cash from the family which I put too and invested in a backup 30Amp Power Supply Unit (PSU), which I had been considering for some time. So we headed into the City (Bradford) for a visit to Maplin Electronics where I picked up an Identical model to the original PSU in the shack. The new PSU can be seen in the background of the picture as well as via the link. Hope you all had a good Christmas and are ready for the New Year.

Santa's Helper

Christmas is upon us once again and it the time of year when Santa has a lot of presents to deliver, so as usual Dudley our four legged friend will be busy lending Santa a Paw.

The picture was taken earlier today when Dudley suddenly flew off in the direction of Lap Land where Santa is awaiting the annual return of all his helpers.

So if you leave out any mince pies for Santa tonight don't forget to leave a couple of gravy bones for Dudley, Rudolph and the rest of Santa's helpers.

I hope you all get some nice presents and have a Merry Christmas!

XW-1 / Hope OSCAR 68

Click on Image to enlarge

Despite the snow continuously falling up here on the Moor top and both Louise and I feeling full of cold, the water supply being frozen solid - BAH Humbug! I have still kept up with my usual radio antics whilst trying my best to keep us both warm and comfortable.

I have been playing around with the Radio Com software that I have had installed on my machine for the last 4 years which is proving to be unbeatable for decoding the NOOA WX SATs. This time I have been using the software to monitor the new Chinese Satellite - XW-1(HO-68). The Sat is still mainly beacon only, which transmits around 435.790MHz in CW mode. I use the Ft-847 and IO-10El antenna to receive the "bird" feeding the incoming AF from the rig to the computers sound card where the Radio Com software picks up the audio to be decoded. The software works similar to any other radio decoding software having lots of nice and useful features. The Spectrum Analyser is one of the many useful tools, in this case used to visually observe the new "birds" signal whilst decoding the received beacon's CW transmission.

The HO-68 Satellites beacon is reported to be strong world wide from the various reports from other Hams and relevant sources that I've come across on the net. As you can see from the above image I am also receiving the Hope Oscar 68(HO-68) beacon very well and I am looking forward to hearing some real activity via the new "bird" soon.
The CW TX from the HO-68 Satellites beacon was decoded by the Radio Com CW decoder which reads.

T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T X W X W

If you haven't yet heard the XW-1(HO-68) Satellite yet, or are new to Satellites and don't know how to track them. Have a look at downloading Satscape to help you locate them. The rest off you G L, & have a Merry Christmas.

XW-1 In Orbit

As an avid Satellite Operator Santa has come early for me, I am referring to the exciting news from AMSAT China regarding the recent successful launch of their very first Amateur Satellite XW-1.

XW-1 payload was deployed by the CZ-4C rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center earlier this month and is currently commissioning in a sun-synchronous orbit at about 1200KM, ASL.

The XW-1 communications payload includes a beacon and three cross
band transponders operating in FM, linear, and digital modes.

Mode V/U (J) FM Voice Repeater (30 dbm (1 w)):
Uplink: 145.8250 MHz FM, PL 67.0 Hz.
Downlink: 435.6750 MHz FM

Mode V/U (J) Linear Transponder (Inverting) (30 dbm (1 w)):
Uplink:145.9250 - 145.9750 MHz SSB/CW
Downlink:435.7650 - 435.7150 MHz SSB/CW

Mode V/U (J) PacSat BBS (30 dbm (1 w)):
Uplink:145.8250 MHz AFSK 1200 BPS
Downlink: 435.6750 MHz AFSK 1200 BPS

Mode Beacon (23 dbm (200mw)):
Downlink:435.7900 MHz CW

I am looking forward to hearing XW-1 on my FT-847 and IO-Ten El Sat antenna and with 1Watt of output PWR it should be nice and loud once the AMSAT Teams finish their preliminary settings and testing.

In the meantime I will be keeping an eye on twitter for further updates and developments that are regularly tweeted from AMSAT.

Another excellent source of all the latest AMSAT and General Satellite Information is observations which constantly gets updated by AL – GM1SXX and many of the other experienced Satellite Ham Operators.