More to Salvage.

 I looked into more old stuf I have lying around.

Found some ancient analog satellite TV receivers, and as no one used those any more, and we are likely to be unable to use the 1240MHz band for analog FM TV, I have decided to discard them and salvage some components, such as tuner modules.

The same gors for some old digital satellite TV receivers, onlt capable of DVB-S(1), and not DVB-S2. 

The casings could be used for some small non-critical projects, so I will keep them, too.

One I could not open, because some of the screws are incompatible with my bit-set for screwdrivers. I might just drill them out if I can not find a suitable screwdriver bit.

Next in line are some stone age cable TV receivers covering 50-450MHz. The casing is plastic, but the screw heads I have never seen before. Then again, I am not planning to use the plastic casings for anything, so I will probably just have a go at them with my hacksaw, so I can get to the internal parts.

All in all, this winter I should get some of this done, so I can make enough space in the lab/workshop to make some new projects. That part is a bit tricky right now, but I will get there.

Tidy, Or Untidy? That Is the Question.

 My house has grown very intidy the past few years, after having had to do chemo therapy and an operation, then starting to recover, then the COVID-19 pandemic started, I have not had too much energy to do both, some radio activity and getting more tidy.

Well the radio activity is an ongoing thing, has been for 50 years now, so I am not planning to stop that.

But now I got started with a process that will take months, possibly years, or is it another ongoing process? Yes getting the house more tidy, and getting a few things working again, in the house.

Today I finally got two middle-age computers disassembled: An old Pentium 2 and another oldie, a Pentium 3. Those were "compact" Compaq's, so they took time and not so common tools (especially screwdrivers) to take apart.

I will only recycle very few things for my own recycling, everything else goes to the "official recycling".

- the top and bottom covers can be used as "chassis" for some projects, or as a support for a mag-mount antenna.

From the PC boards very little is useable. Some toroids can be used for EMC means, and there are some SMD inductors, too. Other parts, yes, maybe some power supply ICs and crystal oscillators, possibly a few of the connectors. That is all. The rest goes to "official" recycling.

There is more ancient computer stuff, and most of that will be treated the same way.

Then there is some stone age test equipment for my radio like:

- a 10-500MHz synthesized signal generator

- ancient Marconi signal generator, so old that it uses a classical free running oscillator.

- a signal generator for 1.7-4.4GHz. Real stone age, built with a klystron (tube/valve) oscillator.

For those heavy pieces there will be a bit to salvage. I suspect that I can easily salvage the step- and variable attenuators. Attenuators are always useful. Some cables, connectors, knobs etc, then decide what more useful material can be found in there.

Yes it will make for a busy time, but it will provide me with more space to do radio, and other activities.

Openings on 50MHz.

 Occasionally I have seen DX openings on 50MHx this year. 

As my monitor antenna is very low, and only a half wave vertical, it is limited what I see

Mostly in the autumn I have seen openings to Southern Africa, Like ZS. This could be F2, if it happened in the middle of the day. If it is late afternoon, or in the evening, in my opinion it must be trans equatorial propagation (TEP), extended by something else, like sporadic E from here to the Mediterranean Sea.

Very occasionally, with solar flux above the 170 mark, I have seen one or two stations in the Caribbean or Central America. Just one or two FT8 spots from my monitor receiver.

Today was different. I spotted Florida, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Bonaire, with the very poor antenna. I could see others in Northern Europe working far more stations than those. 

I think it is time to get my IC-7300 up and running with FT8 again.

New Toy. IC-9700.

I have been thinking of getting myself a VHF/UHF transceiver with a matching screen, like on the IC-7300 I already have for HF, 6m and 4m. 

I already have my older IC-910, running okay on 2m, 70cm and 23cm. It a good transceiver, especially after I replaced the standard reference oscillator with a high stability one, and installed a 1200MHz module. It's perfect for general operation. It does multimode, including SSB and CW, but I have missed the possibility from my newer HF rigs, for having a spectrum display. But the '910 is an ageing transceiver, and who knows when it might break down?

For 2m and 70cm, this can be achieved with the IC-705, a bery nice l0ow power transceiver with a neat spectrum display, like the one in the '7300. However, I have plans for trying 1296MHz again. I did that some decades ago, and found it good fun.

Enter the IC-9700. This transceiver This comes with all three bands included as standard, 144MHz, 430MHz and 1296MHz, and it does have the spectrum display, much like the one in the '7300.

I found a used one recently, with 6 months remaining warranty a few days ago, and decided to make the jump.

The box arrived yesterday, and after a bit of work installing it, it is now running on 144MHz with a Big Wheel antenna, and on 70cm FM using the 70cm part of my V-2000 antenna (via a triplexer) I still need to test it on 1296MHz, but my antenna for this band is still mounted very low, and it's difficult to make even local contacts. Yes, there is low activity on that band, but I hope to get more stations running, as a lot of fellow hams have '9700s with an unused 1296MHz band.

So next year I should try to make the update of my antenna system, for various reasons I did not get that done this year.

QCX Test and Ideas.

 I got the receiver checked. 

Sensitivity on 30m looks good. a signal from the generator at -130dBm is clearly audible. at -135dBm, it's barely audible. This looks quite good for the 10MHz band. 

The audio filter sounds good, with a bandwidth of about 400Hz. That works nicely for me.

I have not yet gone through the alignment process, but I should do that before mounting in a casing. It is probably well adjusted by the previous owner, but it does not hurt making a check. 

Now I need to add an AGC circuit (yes, it's necessary to protect my ears), and use a suitable box. I am likely to add an audio amplifier for use with a speaker.

I will need to move the display, the AF gain potentiometer, the rotary encoder, and the connectors.

I may build a power amplifier to get the level up to about 20W, making this a neat 10MHz CW transceiver.

I am likely to try using a dedicated 10MHz antenna, but initially I can use my 30m long wire antenna.

More Openings on 6m.

 Moments ago I saw two spots on my 6m FT8 One from South Africa and one from Botswana.

I am guessing that it's some kind of propagation to the Mediterranean sea, extended by F2, given the time of the day. If I remember correctly, it would be a bit early for Transequatorial propagation from the Mediterranean to Southern Africa.

All this with a very poor antenna on the receiver. 

If the solar activity increases to a solar flux of about 200 for more than a week, and without too much geomagnetic storms, within the next 4 months, we could get some really spectacular world wide propagation on 6m. 

But then again, prediction is difficult, especially about the future ;)

Rally, "Amatoertraef Fyn". QCX PCB.

 In the past week end I went to the annual HAM radio rally, "Amatoertraef Fyn".

There are a few presentations, and a license exam at the event, and of course a flea market.

I was close to get a MCRF SDR, but passed on that.

At some comissioned stand there was a neat little thing:

- An assembled QCX transceiver (CW single band, with the option for transmitting WSPR)

- An assembled filter switch board for 5 filters

- 6 assembled low pass filters for 6,10,15,20,30,40m

Not a bad catch for DKK 200 (about $30)

At the rally no one knew the band that the transceiver was built for. someone said 15m, but looking at the toroid phase transformer that looked like it had too many windings. My guess was 20 or 30m.

Time to look at the stuff:
As I brought it home, I found that the PCB still had some solder flux residue, but otherwise the soldering work looked good. A bit of cleaning with isopropylene alcohol and a toothbrush cleaned that up, and the test begins.

Switching on the transceiver starts up on 30m, as shown on the LCD display. A quick TX test shows about 2W output (a bit low for the 5W spec, but as there is no cooling of the PA transistors this should work nicely I will leave it at that. The TX test was easy, as there is a spring/microswitch on the PCB, so I could just key the TX.

The TX frequency was shown as 50Hz off on my TRX tester, so I went into the adjustment menu and fot the synthesizer reference oscillator frequency adjusted. The TX is now within +/- 10Hz of the nominal frequency. 

This will work perfectly for CW work. For WSPR work the reference oscillator should probably be replaced with a TCXO, so it remains stable enough to 1-2 Hz.

The only serious draw back of the original QCX is a lack of AGC function. However, there is an add-on for this, so I should order the kit PCB for that, and for the other two QCX+ kits I have already, and should start building (for 20m and 60m).

Surprise. 6m DX Opening With my Poor Monitor Antenna.

 For 6m FT8 monitoring I am using the 6m part of the R-6000 antenna. 

This antenna works fine on 20-17-15-12-10m. On 6m it's a poor performer.

The past few days I have had many European spots, and I suspected that it was F2 back scatter signals.

This morning a surprise spot appeared on PSK reporter. I decoded DU3LA (Phillippines) in the PK05 square. The first station in Oceania I have ever received on 6m.

The solar flux has not been particularly high the past few weeks (130s), but jumped up the last few days, to about 160.

Who knows, if the solar flux stays high, we might get some interesting DX on 6m.

A Bit of Antenna Maintenance.

 There was a solid wind blowing from the East this morning.

Looking out at my rather heavy (and high wind load) R6000 antenna, it was swaying quite a lot in the wind. The top moved 1/2 to 1 meter.

A quick check showed one guy wire to  slack. 

Yes, I got a small step ladder, as I could grab the lower end of the wire from there, and added some stronger guy wire from that point.

The antenna is now rather steady in the wind, as the other guy wires are now quite tight.

There will have to be more maintenance next year, but the antenna should be okay for the winter season.

The R6000 has also lost a bit of its "radials", but as it is a half wave vertical (10-12-15-17-20m), it will work okay-ish for the winter season. I will order spare parts so I should have them before the spring antenna work begins.

Next, I will have to add new guy wires to my 10m EFHW, as the old ones are gone by now It does stand steady at the moment, but I should take no chances, as it's mounted at the gable of the long shed.

A Bit of MIcrowave.

A while ago I went to a rally and got myself  power amp for 1296MHz.

The amp is built with 4 10-15W power modules and has a built-in linear power supply. It is quite heavy, so it is not suitable for portable use or outdoor mounting. The nominal output is about 50W.

The amplifier has no T/R switch relays built-in, so I will have to make myself an external relay system. As I am using a preamplifier I will have to use a sequencer as well, as I would not like to destroy the preamp.

Yes, I have already destroyed one preamp for 1296, not by transmitting reverse into it, but likely for one of 2 reasons. Either a lightning strike nearby, or (more likely) transmitting up to 100W on 2m from an antenna a few meters away. The antenna for 1296 was a 3 band antenna for 144/432/1296MHs, with no 1296MHz filter. 

I noticed it one day, when the preamplifier was switched in, the noise increased, but the signal from the local beacon went down into the noise. Bypassing the preamp reception had a much better signal to noise ratio. I can replace the preamp for a next try, and I intend to mount a triplexer (144/432/1296), so the 2m and 70cm signals into the 1296MHz preamp will be attenuated considerrably. More to do, once again, and I will need to call for assistance to get the system up and down.

I am still thinking of a portable system for 1296MHz, so I can operate from hilltops or other suitable places. That is a bit further into the future.

Now for some 10GHz news.

I found an old transverter, built with much assistance from a friend. It has been dormant for several years, and I have retrieved it from my storage. A mounting plate for a tripod is included, so the system is made for portable use.

This is a quite old construction built with modified modules from Qualcomm, and should privide about 500mW of power. 

The system was "born" with a home made waveguide transition and a 48cm dish. During transport the dish has been bent out of shape, so it will need some repair.

I intend to use a smaller horn antenna (15dBi gain) with WR90/WG16 waveguide  for the first experiments.

The wavequide was using a non standard flange, so I deeded to use a modified waveguide extension, modifying the flange used at the transverter end, and standard at the horn antenna. That modification is done.

I also got myself an old FT290R (1) transceiver that should be suitable for controlling the transverter. The T/R switching uses a DC (bias) voltage (>5V) for switching into TX mode, and the FT290 should provide that voltage to the transverter through the antenna cable. Unfortunately the voltage drops below that threshold when the transverter is connected (only 2V). Not good, so a modification or repair of the FT290 is needed, or maybe a modification of the sensing circuit in the transverter.

The receive side appears to function properly, there is a sufficient increase of noise in the FT290 RX when the transverter is switched on.

When the TX part is activated, however, there appears to be a quite low output from the transverter, the needle of the built-in power meter hardly moves, but it does move. More to investigate.

There is a possibility that the negative gate voltage for the PA stage has dropped out ... Oops, new PA module needed. It's not a disaster if this is the case, I do have another PA module.

We shall see when I get more tests done, and when I can get it up and running. Hopefully before winter.

10m F2 Going Well.

 I have not had too much radio activity lately, mostly just monitoring 10m.

Most of the day I have a receiver running on 28.200, monitoring the International Beacon Project.

In the past few weeks I have heard the beacons from VK, (ZL, I think), JA, VR, 4S7, 4X (every day I have listened), CS3, LU, CE, OA, YV and 4U1UN.

Today I made 2 CW contacts, to the North-Eastern US, with just 5W. Not too bad.

Now we can hope that the solar activity continues rising, so we might get openings on the 50MHz band.

More Solar Power for the Shack.

July and the beginning of August has been low on the radio activities. Mostly because of traveling (and the preparations). Now I should be getting back to some radio.

But first, solar power:

Today I made a small improvement of my solar power system in the shack.

The old system had just 2x130W panels (designed for 12V systems).

Those are now replaced with 4x100W panels in series. How will this work with the 20A MPPT charge controller I am using? We shall see. The absolute peak voltage of the panels is less than the 100V open circuit the controller can handle, so having 4 panels in series, providing less than this is quite acceptable.

The current/total power handling is another matter. The peak power of the panels is 400W. This is only achieved with the panels fully illuminated with direct sunlight, at right angles to. While this happens sometimes I am hoping the controller will be able to handle it.

The controller spec says that it will limit the charge current to 20A, so I hope it will work nicely.

The lower light charge current with the 2x130W panels was quite low, down to about 300mA which cannot get the batteries fully charged every day. With the 4x100W in series, this looks more promising, but as I have just made the modification, I will need to check this in the coming days, so after some more tests I will write another post on this.

I do have another of the MPPT controllers,  and I have the idea to mount some other solar panels connected to this controller, for boosting the possible charge power.

For this I want to use two or three sets of 4x50W panels, mounted for "seeing the sun in different directions:

- One set on the South wall of the out-house, for winter/low angle sunlight.

- one at the West wall of the main house, for catching some late afternoon and evening light.

- maybe one at the other end of the garden, for catching some morning light.

While this adds up to a total of 600W peak power, I think that this will never be reached from this system, as the optimum angles for the 3 panel systems are too different. I suspect that it will end up providing max 300W for charging the shack battery.

Even in the winter this system should be able to power a minimum set of radios for some monitoring, but I do suspect that in midwinter it will probably need some assistance from mains power charging, if I want to operate more radios. We shall see.

FT8 Monitor Now On 6m. And IC-X02 update.

The receiver in the portable (handheld) CB radio, a multimode from Albrecht, I was using for 10m FT8 monitoring looks like a very poor choice. I have used it for 10m FT8 monitoring for a while, and while it does work, it is not very good.

If I will venture a guess, it is due to a poor performance of the PLL circuit. The FT8 signals look very wide, so I suspect excessive sideband noise.

The advantage was a relatively low power consumption, less than 120mA @ 12V. Good enough when using solar power.

The other reason to change is simply the season. It is the season for sporadic E (Es) propagation on the lower VHF bands, and occasionally on 2m.

So, for now I picked one of my FT817s to set up for FT8 monitoring. It does have a higher power consumption, 300-400mA @ 12V, but especially in the summer time it is working perfectly for 24/7 monitoring. The two inputs of the FT817 mean that I can also connect an HF or VHF/UHF antenna to the RX, and use it for FT8 monitoring for everything from 160m (630m?, 2200m?) to 70cm. One band at a time.

The 6m receive input is connected to the 6m part of my R6000 multiband HF/6m vertical, via a HF/6m diplexer.

This is the least efficient antenna I have for 6m, so if I can get signals on that one, it shows that 6m may be sufficiently open to make contacts with my station.

Small update on the IC-X02 transceivers:

As I decided to use those mostly for monitoring SSB/CW on 6m/2m/70cm, I decided to leave the two IC202s as they are, only making the modification of the power plug.

The 6m one got a cable through the hole for the power supply plug/cable, so an external power supply only is used. I removed the battery connection inside the battery compartment, so it can be used for experiments like adding a CW filter and other niceties. For the 6m band monitoring I still need to build an amplifier/power splitter, so I can use the monitoring on at least 3 receivers: 50313USB for FT8, 50100USB for SSB/CW and 515xx (or so) for FM monitoring.

The IC202 #2 has a modified connection to the power plug, so I can use my standard cables/plugs for this one.

The IC202 #2 (heavily modified) and the IC402 still need power plug connections modified. The IC202 #1 also still needs some detective work to see what the modifications are doing. One is a switchable audio CW filter, so that is a start.

A Bit More on the IC X02s and Propagation Monitoring.

 I have made some tests of the two IC202s, the IC402 and the IC502.

These are the preliminary results, essentially my notes after testing:

1) Ancient (my first) IC 202 #1 (2m):

Some modifications were made:

- Antenna connector changed to BNC and moved. PL connector disconnected.

- Telescopic antenna removed.

- Audio CW filter added with switch at the top. In working order.

- unknown veroboard with ??? circuitry connected to main board main connector.. Detective work needed.

- Some relay circuitry and ???. Detective work needed.

Most of the mods are in the original battery compartment, replaced with a copper clad PCB

- This one looks like it has a connector for an external VFO. Could be useful making a more stable LO. Need to find the appropriate info if I want to build/connect one.

- TX out CW: 30mW Detective work needed.

Use as back end for transverter ot down converter?, or just 2m monitor (144.300)?

2) Also a quite ancient IC 202 #2 (2m):

- PL connector replaced with N connector (good move).

- Some Veroboard modification at the mainboard main (long) connector. Detective work needed. Looks like RF output power control circuit. 

- This one also looks like it has a connector for an external VFO. Could be useful making a more stable LO. Need to find the appropriate info if I want to build/connect one.

- Zero out put in CW. Detective work needed.

- Still needs a check.

Use as back end for transverter?

3) IC 402 (70cm):

- quick check, and seems to be in working order.

- Need to change power connector (I do not have any "male" 3-pin-plus ground connectors for power cables, so will likely let a filtered cable out through the power connector opening.

- TX out CW: just under 3W @ 12.5V Looks OK.

Build external VFO? (e.g. in the battery compartment)

4) IC 502:

- Checked the IC502. VFO looks rather unstable. Contact spray helped with RIT and a bit with the fine tuning. Still not quite good, but could be used for "fixed" frequency monitoring, e.g. +/-50.100.

Should probably (long term) be replaced by a Si5351 synthesizer w/Arduino control (e.g. in the battery compartment) 

- Need to change power connector (I do not have any "male" 3-pin-plus ground connectors for power cables, so will likely let a filtered cable out through the power connector opening.

- TX out CW: 2W @ 12.5V Looks OK

Final result: 

All radios seem to work fine in receive mode (a bit more testing, and maybe alignment, will be in order.

The '402 and the '502 appear to work nicely overall.

The two '202s need some work to get TX working properly again. Those could still be used as monitor receivers without problems.

Epilogue:

I do have some FT817s. One with a blown PA, the three others okay. Here is the thing:

I want to do as much general monitoring as possible on solar power. This means minimizing power consumption.

The IC-X02s use about 100mA @ 12.5VDC

The FT817s use 3-400mA. 

So for monitoring, I could power 3 or 4 IC-X02s for the power that the FT817 draws. Yes, I want those up and running.

The IC-X02s will not be suitable if I want to monitor digital modes like FT8. for that I need to use the FT-817, maybe later build some simple crystal or PLL controlled receivers.

Yes, still far too many things to try out.

Ancient Icom Radios: IC202 etc.

As I am trying to get more radios up monitoring different frequencies, here are a few things to consider:

First of all, building kits, and possibly modifying some of them are good for monitoring HF frequencies is a good idea.

Second, of all, for VHF monitoring, using the modern radios (with spectrum display etc) for all day monitoring, even when I am not close to the radios, seems to me like a waste of energy, as many of them use more than 1A, just in RX mode.

Enter the old IC-202. I have two of them, one heavily modified (I need to determine what I did with them), one that I got later, and it seems to be in order. Those are good for some SSB/CW monitoring, where the exact frequency is not all to critical. The great advantage when using them for all day monitoring, when in the house, but not near the radios, is the much lower power consumption. 

The IC202 is a 2m VXO controlled SSB/CW transceiver with max 3W out, and a stand-by RX current consumption of less than 100mA.

I have another old ICOM in the same family: The IC-402 for 70cm. About 100mA consumption on that one, too. Good for 70cm monitoring. When checking that one, I found that I had not removed the old Alkaline batteries, but the leak did not appear to have caused damage. 

The 402 could also be used as base receiver (or even transceiver) for down converters or transverters for microwave. 

The fourth transceiver found in the cupboard is the IC-502 for 6m. It covers 50-51MHz with a VFO, also with a current consumption of about 100mA. This one, I suspect will be a bit tricky to tune to the correct frequency, due to the larger coverage. For monitoring I may use one of the other transceivers to provide a "tuning aid".

I am trying to run more and more of my operation on solar power, so the power consumption will be critical, especially in the winter time when very little sunshine is available. Reducing the stand-by RX current to about 350mA for 6m, 2m, 70cm all-day monitoring is a big step forward, compared to several amps used by the "big" radios, just for general monitoring of 50/144/432MHz.

These radios will likely need to be checked and aligned, so here is another project for the late summer to winter activities.

Yes, the current solar power system still needs to be improved for winter use. Still, I expect to need to need topping up the battery storage in the months of December and January. That is okay, if I can use the station on (mainly) solar power most of the year.

Update: Did a check of the IC-502. 

The VFO frequency is rather unstable and very sensitive to very small movements in the casing.

Volume control and RIT/fine tuning (all with potentiometers)got some contact cleaning (without residue after cleaning), and so did the on/off/light switch.

The volume control and the RIT work perfectly now, as does the on/off/light switch.

I suspect that the fine tuning pot could get a better cleaning, as it still shows some roughness. This may require some disassembly of the set.

For now I will leave the set on for a while with low supply voltage (8V in place of 13.8V), to see if the electrolytic capacitors are in working order

I also have to remove the power connector, as I do not have a corresponding plug for the 3-pole connector mounted.

A modification for feeding power is needed. Probably using a cable soldered directly into the transceiver

For now, after a longer power-on test, I think that this set can be used as a monitor receiver for, say, 50.100MHz, the general CW/SSB calling frequency.

Current consumption with moderate AF out was about 90mA, as I expected.

For 50MHz general propagation monitoring I expect to use the 50MHz part of my R6000 for now. With a modest amplifier indoors, and a satellite/TV power splitter, I should be able to use that antenna for this, with at least two receivers connected:

- The IC-502 for SSB/CW

- The old Tokyo HyPower handheld for FT8 monitoring.

PA Transistors Found at the Rally.

 There was one more thing I found at the rally.

1.9GHz PA transistors capable of about 60W linear output, apparently LDMOS. 

I found a set of 14 pieces packed in an antistatic container.

The transistors come from CREE Microwaves and are marked LGA19060-171. Does this relate to 1.9GHz and 60W output? 

I do not know if they are internally matched. If they are not they could be interesting for a number of PA constructions for different frequency ranges.

My main interest will be to see if I can get those running on 1296MHz. Two of those should be capable of generating 100W. If they have internal matching an external impedance matching circuit should be made.

Since they came at a low price I can do some experimentation without being afraid of destroying a transistor, and with 14 of them I should be able to make a workable amplifier with them.

I was recommended contacting a local amateur, as he may have some tips for overcoming the possible internal matching, so I can use the transistors well outside the design frequency.

As there most likely will be a lot of experimentation, this will be a future project, as there are already so many ones already to be made.

If anyone knows more about these transistors, please let me know.

Rally in a Local Club. Got Some Stuff.

Yesterday I went to a local rally/flea market.

I made one relatively large purchase, a microwave frequency counter, the Anritsu MF76A specified up to 18GHZ.

This is a very nice piece of equipment, and looks well calibrated. The 10MHz reference oscillator is about 0.7Hz off from my 10MHz GPS reference output, after a warm-up of 1/2 to 1 hour. 

There seems to be one fault. When I switch the 10MHz connector to reference input, the counter seems to simply stop. No lights at all. As I would like to use the counter with the best possible reference (GPF locked) This needs to be corrected.

As an intermediate solution (the counter is otherwise fully functional) I can attempt a fine calibration of the internal reference oscillator. If I can bring it within 100-200mHz on 10MHz (after warm up) that is a quite acceptable accuracy.

I will contact the seller to see if he has more information than I could find in an internet search. My searching for about an hour did not even yield a user manual. The seller (a local radio amateur) has already indicated that I should contact him in case of any trouble, and I will do that.

But as the counter stands I can measure 10GHz signals with an accuracy of less than 1kHz, which is quite acceptable for daily use.

The second thing I brought home was a swap. I had two Rubidium 10MHz standard modules, and the first thing I got out of this swap was an old 2m multimode transceiver, the FT-290R. I was particularly looking for the original (mk 1) model, as the Mk 2 model has a "feature" that would drive me crazy. When switching  from CW to SSB, or from SSB to CW the mode would rotate via the FM mode and jump from the original frequency to the nearest FM channel frequency - and STAY there. That is simply not workable for SSB/CW work.

This looked in good condition, the only thing needed is a microphone.

A quick test of the FT-290R showed a functional transceiver with a signal of -135dBm easily heard in the SSB/CW mode, and about 2.5W output, as specified.

This transceiver, as it is, will be usable for controlling some microwave transverters, such as the Kuhne/DB6NT ones, via the VHF control cable, as there is a 7V DC signal at the antenna port when in transmit mode.

In the swap there was also an old AM/SSB CB transceiver. It came without cover, but as I intend to convert it into a 10m SSB/AM (CW?) transceiver it does not matter too much, as it will likely be heavily modified and mounted in another casing. This is a project for much later, but it is good to have some decent raw material. Yes, I need to make a rough test of this radio, that is also for later.

All in all a good day, meeting a lot of old friends and some new hams. There was an exam at the event, and 10 people passed, among them a young man of 13 who passed the exam for the highest class license.

New (Old) Radio in the Shack.

 I just picked up a bit of a museum piece in the week end.

On the local ham radio site someone sold a Heathkit HW-9. Yes an oldie. 

This one had a WARC band expansion, so yes, 8 bands available. 

Running abpout 3W on 10m up to 4-5W on 80m it is a capable QRP radio.

The set does need a bit of maintenance. Switches are a bit unstable, although the volume potmeter sounds OK. A fresh alignment will also be a good idea, as the (analog, of course) frequency dial is a bit off.

For now I set up the HW-9 as a receiver (without connecting a key), with the audio output connected to a computer speaker. Using the radio for transmitting will come later, after the fresh alignment.

The only real drawback for me is that the tuning is a bit fiddly, I have got used to modern rigs with a nice slow tuning, but this one will do nicely.

Sensitivity is sufficient on all bands, as the noise clearly increases when the antenna is connected, even on 10m. Selectivity is sufficient for my use. Wide is about 1kHz at 6dB and narrow is about 250Hz. The narrow filter is audio based.

1296 Tests.

 With my latest antenna, the 5m long X-7000 vertical, and the improved cable (20m 1/2 inch plus a bit of LMR400 type), and an added preamplifier, I have, until now just been able to work locally up to about 6km.

Today a new station appeared on 1297.5MHz at a distance of about 15km. He had a good signal, and a call provided a nice QSO, al be it with some fading, most likely due to small antenna movements creating phasing phenomena.

He has a bit more output power than I do, so my signal was not too strong, but we could make a full QSO.

Tonight I made a test with another, well placed station in one of my good directions. He was about 50km away, and when we tried SSB I could hear his signal, but no reception the other way. 

As I have a preamplifier near the antenna, and he has not, I suspect we could have made a QSO if he used a  preamplifier at the antenna. We both use 10W. Not a bad result with just vertical omnidirectional antennas on 1296MHz. 

I really do need to get a rotating (horizontal) antenna up and running on 1296MHz. It will take some work, as I need to get the rotator up and running first, and I should add small antennas for 2m, 70cm and also microwave bands, such as 2.4 and 10GHz. 

The other microwave bands must wait a bit, as the (weather proofed) outdoor transverters need to be assembled.

CW Filter for FT817.

 Going through some of my stuff I found something very interesting in a box with crystal filters and ceramic filters: Two 455kHz Collins mechanical filters, bandwidth 500Hz for CW, for the FT817.

One is now mounted in one of my 817s, and is working fine. That one is likely to be used as back-end for the QO-100 receiver system. I think I will use another one for my uplink system. As that is TX only I will run that one without the filter.

I do have a third one with a defective PA. I will likely use that one as a base for transverters, for both home and portable. so I can run 4m and microwaves on that one. I will need to bypass the PA module and make some control circuitry for that one. The second CW filter will likely go into that one.

Mounting the filters is easy, it's a simple plug and play. I like to get those small transceivers running, as they draw much less power than the "big radios", like the IC7600 and others.

29MHz FM Repair again.

 The old modified CB radio for 29.310 - 29.700MHz that I had on the lab desk a few weeks ago, and just re-soldered the Audio output capacitor. This turned out to be insufficient, as the capacitor itself was going loose.

So I found a replacement and got it soldered in.

10 MF monitoring is a go, again.

23cm Vertical Antenna. New Cable.

 Yesterday I reacted to an ad from an amateur less than 100km away, for some 1/2" low loss coax cable.

I got two pieces of close to 20m length. The loss is considerably lower than the previous cable, somewhere around 1.6dB. One of the cables has a set of M/F N-connectors and was ready for use.

Today I got a visit from Kent, OZ2KC, and we got a new experimental vertical antenna setup done. Yes, this is a temporary setup, but good for testing the improvement, and I still need to make the rotatable horizontal antenna. But for some local tests with other vertical/mostly FM stations this is more or less the best I can do right now.

The improvements are as follows:

- The cable los has been improved considerably, a difference of more than 6dB.

- The height of the feed point has been raised a bit.

- The antenna is now essentially free of the branches of the tree next to it.

A test with a local station showed a solid improvement, but more tests are needed with mpore distant stations. The top of the antenna is now close to 11m above ground, and the view from the antenna is relatively free in several directions, like SW to E, less so in other directions. SOme of the neighbour's houses will shade part of the antenna, but very little will shade all of it. This is the best I can do at this location.

The second cable has no connectors yet, and I need to find some, so I can get to mount the horizontal antenna, too.

A different option could be a different antenna setup with the vertical and the horizontal antennas switched. I will have to think a bit more about this, as I would like to use both antennas simultaneously, at least for receiving.

More on the results as the tests continue, and more on the planning for other antennas as I do more thinking.

Small Improvement of the 23cm Antenna System.

The past few days I got all the parts located for my X7000 antenna. This is a 5m long 2m/70cm/23cm vertical, so it should have a decent performance when used for 23cm alone. Today I got the X5000 (1.8m long) antenna replaced with the X7000. The feed point is a bit lower for this one, but due to its length the top of the antenna is about 2m higher than that of the X5000 was.

I also got a preamplifier mounted close to the antenna, but due to the high cable loss (maybe less than 10dB) the effective TX power is not much more than 1W, and the feed point is rather low, about 4m.

The signal strength of the "local" beacon is a bit higher on average, but not significantly, probably mostly due to the cross polarization loss.

The first experiment was with the usual local stations, and the received signals were not surprisingly well improved. The transmitted signal was improved, too. Progress.

A test with a station a bit further away was a part success. I could hear the station intermittently (sounded like a mobile station with flutter/fading), but no reception of my signal.

More tests are needed when other stations become active and available for experiments.

A Bit of Solar and Battery Activity, Restarted.

 Days are getting longer and that means more sunlight to convert into electric activities.

So, after the winter doldrums I restarted battery activities. Weather is too cold for outdoor activities, so indoor it is.

I restarted getting the Gel batteries up and running.

I have a set of 18-20Ah batteries that have been brought up nicely to about 14V with a total of 150mA current draw at 14.2V. Those should provide about 20Ah/240Wh of energy storage, and work nicely with a total panel peak power of about 100W, easily being charged, even on a non-sunny day at this time of the year In the winter season that will be a bit more tricky. For those I have been using a small switch mor´de power supply.

The next battery connected to the solar power system i the lab. The battery of the lab power system has a capacity of about 60Ah max. effectively and running with 2x 100W panels. I am using a current limit of about 500mA, and this should easily run the recharge of the 8Ah (or so) battery, without  heating the battery up too much.

I have one more battery with about 6-8Ah, that one seems to have a decent voltage, so it will have to wait.

The smallest of the batteries (4Ah) is currently running off a linear power supply with about 200mA current limit.

The smaller (4 - 10Ah) batteries are intended to run from small solar panels and charge controllers for smaller projects, such as monitor systems and maybe a small outdoor mounted (in the summer half of the year) small thest transmitter, used for e.g. range tests on the microwave bands, maybe even a very low powered QRSS or WSPR transmitter. Maybe also for some portable  operation, until I get some small LiFePO4 batteries up and running.

Then there are the LiFePO4 batteries:

For the shack solar power system I have been using 2x 12V, 100Ah batteries in parallel, and a charge controller for 20A (MPPT), connected to 2x 130W solar panels. This system could only power the IC705 during the deep of winter, especially Dec/Jan, so it needs improvements.

From the 100Ah LiFePO4 cells I have built a 12V/200AH system, and the intention is adding this to the shack power battery, giving me a total of 400Ah capacity. When full, the charge of this should last several days even with extremely low charging current. For the deep winter months this is still insufficient when longer periods of very low solar powermay only provide maybe 2Ah of charge. So the solar panel system needs to be considerably improved.

The current panel system is simply insufficient, so here is the general idea:

- Mounting a set of panels with 200W on the South facing side of the wall. This should provide maximum power in the deep of winter when the sun is down to a maximum of 12-13 deg above the horizon. This system should use its own charge controller.

- Getting two sets of 300W (total) panels mounted at an angle suitable for summer conditions. Even when there is very limited (or long duration cloudy weather) sunlight this should provide some additional charge, 

However, even with this system I expect to need the use of mains power at the lowest point, to keep the battery charge at a decent level. This can be done when the electricity price is really low.

Some of the LiFePO4 cells can be made into a better battery (effectively 100Ah for the upstairs lab solar power system, so I can retire (or re-purpose) the old Gel batteries.

The LiFePO4 battery, 12V - 50Ah could be added to the lab power system, or be used when going out in the field with the car. As that is an EV, the 12V battery has very limited capacity, so a "real" battery is needed for portable/mobile operation. There is no reason to use the much heavier Pb (Gel) batteries in the field, especially if they need to be carried around - up to a hilltop.

Finally, I still have 16 LiFePO4 cells left.

I am thinking of making myself a 24V - 200Ah (5kWh) battery which can be used with a 230V (pure) sine inverter, and a sufficiently large solar panel/charge controller system. This could likely be used in the summer season (when I drive more than in the winter) to charge the EV, especially when the sun is shining, a´with the battery as a buffer.  This is further into the future, the first priority is getting the shack system improved, and there is a lot of radio/antenna building in the planning this year. In any case, this can be a neat experiment, and if it is not useful for EV charging it can be used for the house, like the entertainment system.

10m FM Monitor. Quick Repair.

 My 10m FM monitor (modified old CB transceiver) lost its audio out a few days ago.

I waited starting the repair until I had some of the 23cm equipment better tested. As that has now happened I took the rig up to the lab and made a quick test.

Most of the receiver looked like it was working, as the S-meter acted normally, so the fault seemed to be in the audio output system.

Sure enough, when I had the rig open and rocked the output electrolytic capacitor the audio speaker went on and off. 

Looking at the bottom of the TRX it looked like there was a dry solder point. I re-soldered the capacitor and the wire going to the speaker/jack, and all sounds normal.

It is possible that the electrolytic capacitor has gone bad. If that turns out to be the case, the fault is a known one, and I may change all the electrolytic capacitors in the TRX.

The TRX is a nice addition to the 10m monitoring, as signals will sometimes come through when nothing else is heard by casual monitoring, or even systematic monitoring on fixed frequencies.

More Tests of 23cm Equipment. Update.

 I got the spectrum analyzer started today and got 2 things tested.

The spectrum analyzer also has a frequency counter (with external reference input in it, so I did a frequency test of the TS790. It  looks good, the 1296MHz was less than 200Hz after some warm-up. Another test will be after several hours. This looks excellent! The spectrum also looks good, and the maximum outputis just over 10W.

The old SSB Electronics LT23 transverter got tested, too.

The frequency looks like 3kHz too low. If the stability is good enough that is acceptable if there is not too much drift.

The output looks like 5W at 1dB compression.

The spectrum is not really pretty. I see 5MHz sidebands about 50dB down. A quick test of the base transceiver, my Standard C710 showed no extra sidebands, so it must come from the transverter.

As I used manual TX switching I might have destroyed the RX mixer, this needs to be tested, too. Yes, that happens sometimes, even if you are careful.

It looks like the transverter needs some work, but it could be used for some initial experiments if the RX part still works.

Update:

After several hours of warm-up the TS790 is about 1.5kHz above nominal. This is likely to be adjusted in place, but can provide an acceptable performance in any case.

23cm Experimental Antenna Setup. Success.

The past few days we had decent weather, so I have worked a bit on setting up an initial 1296MHz antenna.

I have a Diamond X5000 antenna that I decided to use for this. This one is a 1.8m (6ft) long vertical. I used some stackable (mil) mast pieces, so the antenna feed point is now around 4.5m up.

I used the cable I had already. 13m of RG213, connected to the antenna and with a PL259 (sic) connector at the other end. Then another 10m cable of the 400 type (very stiff, just over 10mm diameter).

A rough estimate of the cable loss would be 6-10dB.

Even with this rather poor setup I could hear the OZ7IGY beacon on 23cm, easily readable. The beacon is only 26km away, but uses a horizontal antenna, and is located behind some hills from my location.

The system works, for sure.

This evening OZ2KC and I made the first test with a decent antenna setup here, and even if the distance is only 6km, it is a good test. Signals were S6-S8, fully quieted with FM. Later there will be more tests with more distant stations, of course, but this is a good start.

The second test was reducing power from the IC910s (we both have one) to the minimum possible. We could still work two-way.

Test #3 was trying the hand held transceiver with about 300mW out. That provided a slightly better signal than the IC910 at minimum power. I estimate that the minimum power out on 23cm with the IC910 is 100-200mW. With 6-10dB cable loss the QSO was actually possible with about 20-30mW at the antenna. The system really works, and there are more improvements to make.

This was a good day.

There will be better antennas coming up this year when the weather gets better, and I can assemble the necessary material.

1) The vertical (or another one) could be placed higher for better coverage.

1a) If I can find the supporting pipe, I can set up the X7000 antenna. This one is 5m long and has even more gain than the onbe I used today.

2) As I need long cables to put the antennas in suitable positions I am planning on several improvements to the antenna system:

2a) Getting a good preamplifier mounted near the antenna

2b) Getting a power amplifier near the antenna, so the full 10W can be radiated. I do have a suitable 10W module for this.

3) For use with SSB/CW for DX work I need a horizontal antenna with some gain, and a rotator system. I am also considering using a 25W power amplifier near the antenna, along with a good preamplifier, and mounted as high as I can without it being too visible.

Along with that, there should be experiments with getting some 2400MHz and 10GHzup and running. First experiments should probably be portable from a higher altitude than I have. Initially I just want to have at least one QSO done on as many bands as possible.

A Bit of Progress on 23cm. TS790 Tested.

I had some trouble with the old TM741 (with 23cm module). After having had the transceiver lying around for some time, maybe more than 10 years I made a test of it. It looks like the microprocessor has a glitch, so the radio does not start up correctly. 

I have not yet found the reason for this, possibly some corrupted RAM, possibly some power supply trouble, maybe due to a defective electrolytic capacitor. The backup battery still has 3.2V, and I do not know if that may be too low for this radio.

So I put that radio asode and made a test of an even older radio I have: A Kenwood TS790 with a 23cm module. The TS790 is much like the newer Icom IC910, a 2 band 2m/70cm multimode radio with optional 23cm module, but with only 50W out on 2m. 

This one had also been standing unused for years, but started up nicely without any apparent problems. The 23cm output looks slightly low, and a quick test transmitting into a dummy load on 1/3 the frequency showed that the receiver is functional. Sensitivity not tested.

I also realized that the TS790 has a narrow band CW filter, so it can prove quite useful on 2 bands at a time, including using it for SSB/CW etc DX operation The only clear disadvantage of the TS790 is that it only supports 100Hz frequency steps, but it does have a RIT that can be used for fine tuning.

For now the radio can go as a loan to a local ham who wants to test 23cm operation. He can then use it for a while until he finds a more permanent solution.

A quick test with a low mounted antenna and a lossy cable was done today. No success, but improvements of antenna and cable are on the way. 

Home operation is essential to me.

Oops!

Small accident this afternoon.

In order to prepare for some antenna experiments I was cutting some brush near the ground.

Tonight when I came back into the shack, my reception on 30 was .... well, very weak.

A check, yes outside with a torch, showed that a RG58 cable used had been cut in the process. Fortunately nothing critical, as I was just using the antenna for monitoring 30m.

Yes, laugh away, I chuckle a bit, because it can be relatively easily mended, and it was just some old RG58 cable.

Update: A quick-and -dirty repair done. A better one will be done i better weather.

Assembling a Portable Station for 23cm FM.

As indicated earlier I am beginning to make my station operational on 23cm.

As it will take some better weather (and temperatures) to get the home station up and running, I am focusing on making an operational portable station.

Looking through the house I found the following equipment and antennas, all for 23cm in general:

- The Standard C701 hand held with 300mW out on 1296MHz FM

- The X5000 antenna (1.8m long) used at the first successful experiment in the garden last week end

- A 12 element yagi, mounted on the camera tripod

- The assembled 16 element yagi from Flexa is intended for home use

- I also located a smaller triband vertical antenna, mainly for fixed use

- There was one more antenna suitable for mobile use. A 3-band 1m long antenna and a magnetic mount

- I found an older TM741 FM transceiver with a 23cm module. It needs testing, and if it is in working order I can use that with a 12V (13.8V) battery out there, providing 10W if I operate (stationary) from the vehicle. Much better than just 300mW, but less practical on a hilltop where I have to carry all the stuff up there

- I do have a 12V 50Ah battery that can be brought in the vehicle. Not practical to carry to the hilltop.

- Somewhere I should have the X7000 antenna (5m long) If I can find it I should probably mount it at home with a short mast, just to get started from home. Mounted low it will likely just be suitable for very local contacts, but it can be a start

- I should have an old transverter that could possibly be used for portable use with a 2m transceiver. I need to find it and test it

Back to the portable station which (initially) has better chances of successful contacts.

I am assembling the following to bring out to check some places around here:

A. Very lightweight:

1) The handheld C701. It will be of limited use due to the low output power, but is very portable.

2) The 12 element yagi as a horizontal antenna on the camera tripod is very light and can be carried up a steep path to a hilltop.

3) I may bring the short vertical to the hilltop with a lightweight fiberglass mast.

4) If I can find or build a small lightweight power amplifier, maybe with a preamplifier that could complete a very lightweight 23cm FM portable station with a bit better range. This will require a relatively lightweight 12V battery. The 50Ah one is too heavy to carry.

B. Using the vehicle - not lightweight:

1) The TM741 FM transceiver (when checked)

2) The mobile 3-band whip with the magnetic mount for vertical polarization

3) The 12 element yagi for horizontal polarization, and with more gain than the magmount/veertical

4) The 12V 50Ah battery

With regard to option B I have a somewhat suitable location not too far away, with a good view in the direction of Copenhagen.

Now we wait for some decent weather and some willing and able participants to the tests. Timing is of essence ;)

Portable Antenna for 23cm.

 I located the old 12 element Yagi antenna I had lying around and made it ready for some portable operation on the band.

I found an old photo tripod that had lost the mounting plate and used the simplest possible method of attaching the antenna: Duct tape. Yes laugh away, but it is good enough for a few tests I want to do, but of course a better mounting is needed for more stability of the setup.

As thing are now, I can go out on a hilltop (or other place with a good view) and operate 23cm FM at horizontal polarization, but just 300mW from the handheld transceiver. This can be carried easily on to a hilltop, also with a few spare batteries, and a few experiments can be done.

I do have a mobile transceiver, the TM741 with a 23cm module. I need to test that and if it is still in good working order I will have 10W output.. This can be easily used from the car, with a 12V battery. The 12V battery of the EV is not suitable, so a better battery is needed. This I cannot carry around easily, so hilltops not accessible by vehicles are not in my thoughts unless there will be two people carrying the equipment.

The old transverter I have also needs to be tested, and if it is in good working order, 5-10W SSB/CW operation. As IF transceiver I can use my old IC202 or the FT817. Both need a modification to control the transverter.

For home operation there is much more work to do, as nI will need a good vertical setup and the 16 element yagi on a rotator, too. hat will take a bit longer.

My crystal ball shows a bit of 23cm activity in my future ;) .

High Solar Activity and 10m.

While the solar flux dipped below 200 again yesterday (189), due to the time of the year, 10m is open world wide. 

My FT8 monitor setup receives signals from 6 continents essentially every day.

Australia may skip an day sometimes, and New Zealand is rare with my modest vertical for 10m. The mid pacific, the most tricky propagation part is very rare, but it does happen. Japan often shows a plethora of spots from there on my setup.

Getting the receiver up and running again on 28.200, listening for the IBP (International Beacon Project) was quite rewarding. I got it up in the mid afternoon, and all the beacons in South America were heard.

The surprise was hearing North America hours after sunset. The 4U1UN beacon in New York was heard until 20:00 local time, about 3 hours after sunset. So were the New York repeater on 29.620 FM

If you have not already, it is a good idea to keep an eye on 10m, especially in the daytime and the early evening right now.

In the summer this F2 propagation is less common on 10m, but it does occur, and can often be assisted by sporadic E extension.

There have been reports of world world wide propagation on 8m. most activity has been with FT8 on 40.680. I am considering getting a monitor system up and running on that frequency.

Then there is 6m. "The Magic Band".

This band has had some F2 openings reported, and now that weak signal modes like FT8 are available I expect to see more reports, as the solar activity (already pretty high) seems to be growing still.

Especially in the spring and autumn 6m can exhibit Transequatorial Propagation (TEP). This happens at other times than F2. I will have to look it up again. so I can be there at the correct times. If I recall correctly there are two maxima for TEP, around 1800 and around 2300 local time.

In the summer months, the sporadic E season there are often openings to Europe and up to 2200km, and occasionally to 3-4000km. Every summer for the last several years, even in the solar minimum, there have been occasional openings across the Atlantic and to Japan, mostly available with FT8 and higher power stations, very rarely with my 100W into a vertical.

Solar Power Changes.

Spring is not so far away. The solar panel output has been quite good.

The batteries are almost full in the afternoon.

It is time to connect more radios to the system.

The following  radios are now connected to solar power:

- The IC705, mostly running 10m at the moment, but with antennas (switched) covering 10-12-15-17-20-40-80m The dipole can also run 50MHz

- The HB-1B running 20-30-40-80 with the 30m long wire antenna

- The 10m FM monitor (Old CB radio modified for 10 FM)

- The IC703 running 10m, monitoring the 28.200 (International Beacon Project)

- The IC7300, probably going to run 10-6-4m - not on constantly.

- The 10m SSB capable hand held for FT8 monitoring

When the system has been expanded I expect to have some computing power using the solar system, so something like FT8 or WSPR/QRSS monitoring can be included. At the same time, some of the monitoring receivers should be with reduced power consumption. There is a lot to do, but as you see from previous posts, it is not *all* solar power related.

Second Test on 23cm FM.

At yesterday's test it turned out that the antenna at the other end was not well connected. He got that tested and fixed today

Today's test was with a small improvement from my side, too.

I mounted the X5000 antenna on top of a 4m long mast, with 5m of cable, so today's test was still an outdoor expedition in the garden. On my end of the cable I again used the ancient Standard C710 transceiver. I was just holding the mast/antenna for this experiment, so the antenna moved a bit during the test.

The output power of the C710 is just 300mW on 23cm (1W on 2m/70cm). Distance is about 6km.

This time I heard the signal immediately, at best with a signal of about S5 with his 10W. When I replied I got a report with some fading (according to the antenna position), up to S3. Not bad with just 200-250mW at the antenna.

I hereby consider this a successful test.

I intend to make some more tests with the equipment portable. Find a relatively his spot, and repeat the experiment with just the built-in antenna of the transceiver. Line of sight should not be too difficult, even with 300mW. A test with a small external antenna out there should provide some QSOs

In any case I have made the first 23cm QSO as OZ9QV in more than 30 years.

Now comes the building of the home station and antenna. I do have something to work with.

The IC910 will likely be the main station with a horizontal antenna. The TM741 does FM only, and could be used with the vertical. I have an old transverter that should be tested, and possibly be used for portable work. Yes, I have collected a bit of stuff over the time.

As I have long cables, I expect to use receive preamplifiers as a first improvement, then later some power amplification near the antennas. I have no plans for making big antennas for day-to-day work and a bit of DX, but I stick to the saying that a small antenna is a lot better than no antenna at all.

SAQ Alexanderson Transmission Tomorrow Monday.

Time for another transmission on the very long waves form the Alexanderson alternator transmitter at Grimeton, Sweden.

The transmitter is only operational a few times a year on 17.2 kHz. Yes, you read right: kHz. 

Tomorrow the schedule looks as follows:

15:00 CET (14:00 UTC): The transmitter hall at World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station is opened for visitors.Transmission & YouTube Live stream
15:25 CET (14:25 UTC): Live stream on YouTube begins.
15:30 CET (14:30 UTC): Startup and tuning of the Alexanderson Alternator SAQ.
16:00 CET (15:00 UTC): Transmission of a peace message from SAQ.

I have once before listened to this kind of transmission. The mode is Morse code (CW) with a moderate speed.

For reception I used my old AR7030 receiver. Officially it covers down to 30kHz, but it is working nicely from about 15kHz. The receive antenna used was an E-probe (a.k.a Mini-Whip or PA0RDT) antenna in the garden. Signals were solid copy. A friend of mine uses an HF ground plane antenna, and that works nicely for him in a quiet radio location.

I think I need to try again tomorrow.

23cm Quick Test. No Success Yet.

Today I made a few simple experiments on 23cm with a local radio amateur, OZ2KC, Kent.

Just a simple transmit and receive test with a handheld radio, first in the house here. Nothing heard.

Then a walk in the park ... er ... garden, still nothing with the rubber antenna on the handheld.

Then finding the X-5000 antenna, a 1.8m vertical with something like 10dB gain, still with no success.

Suspecting the sensitivity of the handheld was poor I tried using the AR8200 handheld scanner, same result.

Admitted, the vertical antenna was only held as high as I could with the hand, so just above 2m at the feed point, so far from ideal. 

We also tried with my "local activity antenna" a 1m long vertical for 2m/70cm, maybe 23cm. The cable on this antenna is quite long and lossy, so nothing heard there, either. Not even with the (supposedly) more sensitive receiver in the IC910.

More tests are in order. Today's tests were quick, as the outdoor temperature is a bit too cold for extended outdoor tests. As soon as I can get away with it I might find space for another antenna system, mounted a bit higher, and wit lower loss cable, and also a receiver preamplifier. Now I want to be able to hear something on 23cm. There is also a local beacon 26km away, but "hidden" behind some hills. Yes the other factor is cross polarization loss, but a (rotatable) horizontal antenna is also in my thoughts.

At least I do have a local test partner for 23cm, so I will get it up and running, likely sometime in the spring.

X-class Solar Flare Today.

The 21cm solar flux is still above 200, even if it was reduced a bit.

Today, this afternoon around 16 UTC the sun shot another X-class flare with the magnitude X1.

It looks like some of the sunspot group from last month have survived the rotation, and are now rotating into the Earth faced side of the sun. Look for more solar activity, and possibly some geomagnetic activity.

Remember, with those powerful flares we can also expect some shorter or longer blackouts on the HF bands during daytime, and sometimes also strong radio bursts on the bands from 20-144MHz.

I recall such a solar noise storm from back in the late 1980s when I could monitor 2m, 6m and 2m simultaneously. Interesting that the peaks in the noise were not synchronized over all the bands. The noise bursts would peak, first on one band, then on another, then maybe on the third band, but thal was not guaranteed.

I should get some more (simple) monitor receivers up and running this solar cycle, possibly on a few more frequencies. It is quite possible to make some recording with a simple low powered computer. I would say that with some simple hardware even a Raspberry Pi Pico should be able to do that job. 

Yes, too many projects, so I must prioritize.

Return of the Sunspots.

The sun is rotating. 

The sunspots that disappeared from the visible side of the sun 2 weeks ago have returned in force.

An emerging sunspot group adds to the show.

3 weeks ago the solar flux was well above 200. When the big sunspot groups disappeared the flux went down to about 135, still well above the 100 mark. 10m has been excellent for several months now, and there have been some openings on 6m.

Today's solar flux is again above the 200 mark, as today's (Thursday) solar flux No. is 215, and it looks like this will continue for some days. Today (Thursday) has seen several M-class solar flares.

What does this mean for our propagation?

Most of the time pretty good HF propagation, especially on the high bands. At times of solar flares there can be some SIDs (Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance) with the lower bands in particular having fade-outs.

Filters for AR8600 and AR7030 Arrived.

Two new Collins Mechanical filters have arrived.

A 2.5kHz SSB filter for the AR8600. This will be mounted in the Mk 2 I have, and is intended for use as back-end for some microwave converters/transverters. Initially the main use will be for the QO100 reception system on 10.489GHz, down converted to 739MHz, and probably switchable to the 10.368GHz down converted to 618MHz.

The original SSB filter in the AR8600 is not very good, the main weakness is a poor selectivity, resulting on poor rejection of the unwanted sideband. The SSB filter should solve that problem.

A quick alignment of the AR8600, especially of the BFOs for SSB, and the D/A converter for the fine frequency steps.

Now I need to make space on the lab desk for doing this, so a bit of tidying is in order. 

The CW 500Hz filter will go into the AR7030 receiver for HF ... well, 15kHz - 32MHz. This is a very nice receiver, albeit with a relatively high current consumption.

The AR7030 also needs a replacement of the backup battery. Yes, with time the batteries go empty. I have a few other radios and other stuff that needs new backup batteries, but this one comes first.

This year, I suspect, will be a year for getting much more of the equipment I have up and running for my propagation monitoring system and some of the microwave activity. So maintenance, repair, and renewal is on my program, as well as some building projects.

Last year's challenge was operation, so I did not write so much about "working a QSO a day" or so. This year I will write more about my progress or completion of many projects, large and small.

Adding Load to Solar Power.

For the winter the old load on my shack solar power system has been just the IC705.

The nice thing about the IC705 is the band coverage. All bands between 160m and 70cm, with the exception of 4m. Then there is the spectrum scope. That is a great feature. Third, the power consumption is only 300mA at receive. I am considering getting one more, but as the more advanced HF stations draw much more power, just receiving:

FT817: 400mA

IC703: 600mA

IC7300: more than 1A

IC7600: even more power than the 7300.

IC7100: I think it is below 1A, maybe about 800mA

In winter time with the current solar power system those on the list above cannot be run on solar power.

Today I made the beginning of a small  low power system:

Using a pair of computer speakers I connected the speakers to my 4-band CW QRP transceiver, the HB-1B, drawing only about 80mA capable of running 20, 30, 40 and 80m. The HB-1B only has a headphone output jack, so more audio power is needed for speaker volume. The HB1B does have a variable bandwidth crystal filer, and can be used for both SSB and narrow bandwidth CW reception without additional filtering. The system works nicely. Later the computer speakers may be replaced by a separate audio amplifier box (with additional circuitry) built into a single box. 

I intend to expand the system with more transceivers, and later some switchable filtering:

Split the inputs, so that one SSB/CW receiver goes in one audio channel and one more in the other. A third one can be added with the output evenly split between both inputs, creating a "centre channel".  One of those receivers could be the old PM2B set up for 20,40 or 80m reception. A repair/modification will be necessary for the 80m preselector, but that should not be too tricky. The PM2B is also very convenient to add to the monitor system, as the power consumption is only 20mA, easily added to the current solar power system.

This means that 3 different signals can be distinguished. Since these signals have a noise floor, the idea is to add 3 FM receivers in parallel, making the signals from 6 receivers distinguishable/audible via the 2 channel audio system. This requires a simple mixer system that I can construct without too much difficulty, making the monitoring of 6 different frequencies possible, as the FM receivers will be squelched, and therefore distinct from the SSB/CW audio.

Later some audio filters, and maybe equalizers and input switches can be added to this system. 

AR8600 Filters and Add-on.

As mentioned earlier, the AR8600 receiver originally has a poor SSB filter. 

I do have an old Mk1 and a newer Mk2, and the filters are different. Also, the Mk1 stops at 2040MHz, and the Mk2 continues up to 3GHz, so it is useful for reception on 2400MHz, too. 

I suspect that a preamplifier will be needed for those high frequencies. I can find one, or use a module I have for that.

I made a search on Ebay after looking at a video on updating the receiver.

I did locate one SSB filter suitable filter, and ordered it from Japan. This is an 8-pole Collins SSB filter that should be much better that the original Murata filter in the receiver. The post mentions the AR8600, so I hope that the filter fits in the PCB. I am hoping to receive the filter some time in February.

The filter I ordered looks like a fit for the Mk2, and that suits me fine, as the Mk2 has the wider frequency range.

I suspect that I will have to find an alignment procedure for the AR8600s, as there seems to be some misalignment, at least in the Mk1 I have used until now.

I do have an AR7030, too, and I also ordered a 500Hz CW filter suitable for that one.

When I look into my crystal ball I see some upgrade activity in my future ;)

An added Idea Box entry:

The other part is the audio output of the AR8600. The built-in speaker is very small and not very loud. So I am thinking (ouch! ;) ) of building myself a new audio device with an external audio amplifier, possibly with an equalizer circuit (I have PCB a module for that), and an audio CW filter.

I do have a stereo amplifier suitable for use with at least two radios. With a little mixing trickery that could easily become 3 radios simultaneously, one in the left channel one in the right, and the last one in the middle. With an external switch box (that I already have) more radios could be added to the external audio system, albeit not all radios simultaneously.

QO100 Reception Using HF Transceiver?

 I have been using an old AOR AR8600 with a stabilized LNB (indoor reference oscillator on 25MHz). This is essentially a glorified scanner receiver with SSB capability.

This works OK, but is far from ideal.

The filters for SSB are cheap ceramic filters. Those are quite wide, and lacks some good suppression of the opposite sideband. This was noticed when I operated at a frequency with interfering stations . The wanted station were sometimes weak, and were swamped by the neighbouring stations.

So what to do to improve the situation? The AR8600 does have an output for the IF band, used for add-ons like a TV demodulator. Maybe that could be used together with an old fashioned HF receiver. I located a suitable cable for the experiment and set things up, with an easy-to-read frequency.

Oops! No.

The conversion in the AR8600 inverts the down converted IF band. Further, the IF output only works with the AR8600 in WFM (wideband FM) mode. The second part could be eliminated by a minor modification of the radio. The inverted band is annoying, however. I could live with using the other sideband, but the frequency readout goes "backwards" , so I have to recalculate the frequency.

What do I do now?

First option would be an up-converter, converting the band up to 19,29,39 etc MHz, using a local oscillator above both frequencies.

There may be another option. the HF radio is my IC7600. That model has a transverter input(/output). There is one drawback with that. There is no setting for ah"high LO" , i.e. I cannot invert the band frequency readout once more. More oops.

Update:

I used it today, and it does work, even if it is inconvenient.

This leaves a second converter with high LO.

Yet another project to add to the already long list. This is no longer a very simple solution, but neither is it a very large project.

This Year's Challenge. Small and Mini Projects. And Antennas.

This year, as opposed to last year, I have the intention to do some more building and construction activities. Last year was the year of 365 QSOs with 5W, later 365 with just 5W and solar power.

This year is more about getting some physical things done. This does not mean that I will not do much operation. Especially as propagation is among my great interests.

My antennas need an overhaul, and an update. At the moment I have:

For HF: R6000 for 10,12,15,17 and 20m (6m usable for some monitoring). Then a 5 band dipole, 10,15,20,40,80m, passable on 4 and 6m. Also a 30m long wire antenna with some limited counterpoise. This is passable for all HF bands and barely usable for 6 and 4m, and should be usable if I want to listen on 8m (40MHz). a 1/2 wave antenna for 10-11m is OK.

For VHF/UHF I have the V-2000 vertical from diamond running 50, 144 and 432MHz. A cable is running into the shack to a triplexer, running up to 3 different radios. A short (1m long) dual or triband antenna is used for monitoring 2m and 70cm, and a clover leaf ("Big Wheel")  for 2m. My 4m vertical is not standing upright at the moment, so it is not very useful.

This year I want to get up and running on a few more bands/modes. That requires new antennas and some kind of rotating functionality.

For 2m I want to do some more SSB/CW etc. (DX) activity. The 4 element yagi mentioned in an earlier post should do that.

For 70cm I also want to add DX activity. The 11 (really 8) element yagi is intended for that.

23cm: I have had some activity on that band a few decades ago, and because there is an activity group active now on this band I want to get some activity going again, this time with better equipment than I had back then. The 16 element yagi is intended for that.

I am (a bit) active on the QO100 geostationary satellite, transmitting on 13cm and receiving on 3cm.

I want to become active  with terrestrial on those bands, even if it will be with small antennas form home. Those are more directional than the VHF/UHF antennas, and need to be rotated as well.

I suspect that some portable operation from hilltops will be good for the microwave bands (above 1GHz), as I have obstructions in several directions, so range is a bit limited. This means that both a home station and some portable equipment is needed. I am building up my stock of equipment and antennas, and no, I do not expect to finish all of it this year.

In any case I want to be able to extend the number of bands where I have made at least one QSO. In this case we are talking about 2400MHz and 10GHz, and maybe later on the two bands in the other end of the spectrum, 630m and 2200m.

Then there are the small projects and mini projects, I have the goal of making at least one or two of those every month, as they are limited in scope.

One (two) of the somewhat larger projects are about assembling two QCX+ kits I have, one for 20m and one for 60m. Those are 5W CW transceivers, and should provide much fun in the future.

Mini #5: Test of low pass filters.

When I picked up the PM2B mentioned in #3, there were two 30MHz low pass filters included in the price.

Further, I had some older low pass filters, a 30MHz  and a 50MHz one, so I got them all tested today:

Out came the NanoVNA F (4" screen). The tests were made with a wideband calibration setting, so the absolute values are not perfect. 

All filters are in good working order.

This means that I now have three 30MHz low pass filters and a 50MHz filter, all fully functional:

The old one I have is a Yaesu filter with a 100W rating. I have had that for decades.

The second one is a Trio/Kenwood filter, 100W rating.

The third one was a bit of a surprise. An old Drake filter rated 1000W.

The fourth one is a BNOS low pass filter for 50MHz. No rating on the filter, but I suspect it is 10W or so. It is a much smaller filter than all the others.

I reckon that all those ratings will be reduced to about 50% of the stated rating if I want to operate 100% duty cycle modes, like digital modes, e.g. FT8.

I opened the 1kW filter, and all looks clean, a beautiful mechanical construction with silver plated coils and high power capacitors, likely silver mica types. Somewhere I have a PA for 10-11m that I suspect has poor harmonic suppression so the 1kW rated filter would likely fit nicely in a system with that one - if it has sufficient linearity for SSB. OK, as I mainly want to use it for CW that is not so much of a problem. FSK digital modes will also work nicely.

The other option would be using this filter with an old IC-M710 that can deliver 150W continuously.

I would hesitate to use this filter with my 1kW power amplifier, even if I use it extremely rarely.

Given that I paid <$100 for the two filters, including the 1kW one, as well as the not fully functional PM2B, I consider this trade as excellent.

I picked up more at that rally, more about that later, as it is a different story.

Mini project #4B: Small 70cm Flexa Yagi, and Some Thoughts on the Higher Frequencies.

When I purchased the small Flexa Yagi antennas some time ago it was the intention to make a compact, not too visible antenna system for 2m/70cm/23cm SSB/CW etc operation. At the time I had chemo therapy, so everything went too slowly, and the project almost died.

This project has now been resurrected, and I got the 3 antennas assembled. 

- 4 element yagi for 144MHz

- 11 element yagi for 432MHz (strictly speaking 8 elements, as there are 3 reflectors making a reflector plane).

- 16 element yagi for 1296MHz

The Flexa antennas have very thin steel elements (and a not too heavy boom), reducing the visual impact of the antennas, as I wanted

All these antennas are made for mounting in front of the mast, i.e. "behind" the reflector, so the mast will not interfere with the function of the antenna by blocking part of the elements, especially on the higher frequencies.

Having all antennas front mounted will create an imbalance of the load on the rotator, so I am thinking of making a compromise here: Mounting the largest antenna (the 4 el. for 2m) on one side of the mast, then mount the 70 and 23cm antenna in the opposite direction. This will make the operation a bit more cumbersome, but I think it can be done.

I may add a Moxon Rectangle for 4 and 6m to the system. This is a rather small antenna and will not add significantly to the visual impact.

Further, some small antennas for the 2400MHz and 10GHz band are expected to be added. No parabolic dish there, just some tiny yagi or patch antenna for 2400 and a small horn antenna with a transverter for 10GHz. This is for later, but initially a LNB (frequency stabilized), maybe with a small horn extension will be mounted for 10GHz monitoring purposes.

I will need to mount this on a rotator. No need for a heavy duty one, so I am looking into options.

I intend to mount the system on top of an old apple tree where I have some antennas already.

For SSB/CW (DX) work I have had a clover leaf ("Big Wheel") antenna mounted right on the top of the tree, essentially invisible, and it has provided some DX on 2m.

What kind of performance can I expect from this system.

On 2m, the stated gain of the 4 el. antenna is 7.6dBd. This may be exaggerated, but compared to the old clover leaf antenna I expect to mount the 4 el. 2-3m higher and less obstructed, so I would expect a performance improvement of approximately 10dB over the clover leaf antenna. With a good preamp at the antenna, and also an added PA in the shack I should have a solid performance boost, compared to the current system.

On 70cm, with a stated gain of 10.2dBd the system is a very modest, but some DX activity should be possible.

On 23cm, with a stated gain of 14.2dB (exaggerated?) I would expect some interesting occasional DX activity, especially if a preamp and a PA (25W?) is mounted near the antenna.

On 13cm this system will just be playing around , maybe with some interesting DX in the best directions I have, but I do not expect much there. 

On 3cm  the system is very modest. I may be fortunate enough to make some DX under excellent tropo conditions, and possibly some rain scatter QSOs. 

For the higher (microwave) bands some hilltop operation is probably a much better option, but the capability of some modest home operation is good to have.

Mini Project #4a: 16 element Flexa Yagi for 23cm.

A while ago I purchased a front-mast mounted yagi antenna for 23cm.

This is a 16 element yagi with a  stated gain of 14dBd. We shall see, but it is much better than no antenna at all ;)

Today I got that one assembled.

Next: a corresponding 70cm antenna for front mast mounting.

Mini Project #4. 4 El. Yagi For 2m.

 A while ago I purchased the Flexa Yagi 4 element antenna for 2m. 

At the time I purchased it I did not have sufficient strength in the fingers, and  the precision to do the job, due to having chemo therapy. That is now much less of a problem, though there are some side effects of that left over. Yes, I did not ask for assistance, as I like to do most of my stuff myself.

This one is designed for being mounted in front of the mast, so the mast would be behind the reflector. This allows the antenna to be mounted for horizontal or in the vertical polarization.

Another advantage is that this antenna has very thin steel elements, so only the boom is clearly visible from the ground. This is part of my low-visibility antenna system.

For my use I have mounted the mast clamp between the reflector and the feed element.

The FX 205V has a claimed gain of 7.6dBd. That may be a bit on the high side, but let us estimate the gain to be above 6dBd, and I will be satisfied.

I have used a "Big Wheel" or "Clover leaf" omnidirectional antenna for a while. It has been mounted right in the to of an apple tree, and I did make a bit of DX on 2m with that one. Ukraine was one of them.

In order to get the full benefit of this antenna I need to mount it on a rotator. That will not happen until the weather is much better, some time in the spring. When that happens, the small Yagi will likely be mounted 2-3m higher than the clover leaf antenna, and due to the height difference and the fact that the Yagi will be in the clear, I would expect signals to improve significantly on 2m, probably in the order of 10dB.

What next?

Maybe the 23cm Flexa Yagi I have had lying in the box for quite a while Then it will be ready, even if I cannot mount it yet.

PM2B and Documentation, Mini Project #3 Goes on Hold.

Having seen the receiver working, if not very sensitive, and the transmitter part with no output at all,

I am putting the mini project on hold.

First of all because I have no proper documentation, no service manual, no circuit diagram and not even a user manual. If the set would have been in proper working order I would have found out how to use it, no problem.

Second, the transceiver is so old and primitive that I find the operation too cumbersome to my kind of CW operation:

1) The receiver preselector has to be readjusted when tuning through the band, and especially if changing band.

2) The transmitter needs 2 extra adjustments after tuning over the band, or at band switching.

3) The VFO tuning ranges are too large for my use. For CW I use about 100kHz at the bottom of each band. This model covers 3.5-4.0 MHz, 7.0-7.4 MHz and 14.0-14.8MHz. On 20m the useful tuning range of 100kHz takes up very little space on the dial.

4) I have not found any way of making an offset between receive and transmit frequencies, meaning that tuning to a proper receive tone offsets the transmitter frequency. Not practical on crowded bands. Modification necessary for this alone.

5) The audio output can only drive high impedance headphones (>1kOhm). Not very practical, as I do not have those any more, though I could use a piezoelectric earphone for tests, but I would not use it regularly. In order to use the set with ordinary modern headphones or earphones, or a speaker an additional audio amplifier is necessary. This already means that  another modification is needed in any case.

For these reasons I do not find the time to restore this radio to its original state a good use of my time.

So what to do now?

Modifications are needed in any case, if I should want to use the transceiver

The casing, with some shielding at the sides will still be useful. I can build my (partly) own construction in there, and make myself a multiband CW transceiver. This is no longer a mini project, but a much larger one.

I may try to find a replacement for the PA transistor, maybe the driver if necessary, so the transmitter can be shown as operational, but that is all. Apart from that, the PM2B mini project is on hold.

I do not have any lack of mini- or smaller projects, so life goes on.

Mini(?) Project #3. Ten-Tec PM2B.

After finishing the IC910 mod, here is the next mini project. This may be more than just a small one.

For a very low price I purchased two low pass filters (30MHz) and a non-tested Ten-Tec PM2B, so I do expect to have some activity before it is fully functional.

This is an old CW only QRP transceiver, officially with 1 or 2W out, and with a direct conversion receiver. The rig covers the 80, 40 and 20m bands

After cleaning the AF potentiometer and some slide switches I got it to draw about 30mA from a 14V power supply. The headphone output showed some noise, variable with the pot. It looks like the headphone output is high impedance. It does use banana plugs, not even a mini jack connector. Yes, this is very old.

With an external SSB receiver I found that the local oscillator is working and can be tuned correctly.

No external signal received yet.

No transmit output detected.

Also I have no documentation, not even a circuit diagram

It does indeed look like there is more work to do with this one

Looking into the casing I was not impressed with the build quality, with long flimsy wires running around, and it looks like it has been messed up somewhat.

This might end up being a larger project, essentially building a modernized version of a direct conversion CW transceiver with a digital VFO, and maybe with additional bands. We shall see what I do with this one.

If I do a total make-over I may add some shielding to the sides of the transceiver, as they are totally non-shielded.

Mini Project #2 (IC910) finished.

 The addition of the 23cm band to the IC910 is now complete.

After disassembling, checking the (flat) cables etc the fault was still there.

A complete reset of the CPU, losing all memory channels, cured the problem. The radio has been running all evening without trouble.

This concludes mini project #2.

I still need to set up an antenna or two for 23cm, but that is for later.

Quick Update. Mini Project #2a. IC910

Messing around inside the IC910 did get me improvements, but it developed a fault.

When setting a frequency, after a short while the dial moves the frequency without any action.

Initially I suspected that the switches in the microphone had got faulty, but this happens even with the microphone disconnected.

Then there are two more obvious possibilities:

a) Dust has entered into the the rotary encoder, or

b) A flat cable has a poor connection.

So tomorrow the radio goes on the lab desk again, let us see if we can get rid of that annoying fault.

Yes, beware when you mess around inside an older radio.

MIni-project #2: 23cm etc on the IC910.

 The second mini-project of the year is almost complete.

Two things had to happen with the IC-910: 

1) The original reference oscillator needed to be replaced with a high-stability oscillator. This was necessary, because temperature drift cannot keep the IC910 on frequency, especially when operating at high power levels.

I got the new oscillator mounted on the PLL board, and then the adjustment started. Initially I adjusted the output signal while transmitting low power FM on 70cm. Yes using lots of attenuation. I was using my microwave capable spectrum analyzer with a 10MHz GPSDO as reference. The trimmer in the oscillator was a bit fiddly to work with, but I got the initial 70cm frequency adjusted within 150Hz of the set frequency. After some warm up it looked a bit better.

Time to mount the shield for the PLL and the 23cm module. This is a rather easy add-on.

Set the main band to 23cm and test on 1296.000MHz. The frequency was less than 250Hz, and after warm-up it was within about 150Hz.

Now the radio is re-assembled with all the covers, and tomorrow I will make another test of frequencies with the radio fully assembled, and after a good warm-up period.

I do not expect any significant change, but I do need to check, so I know the offset.

Small Update on Solar Power.

My modest system has not had a lot of juice in the deep of winter.

Right now the only radio connected to solar is the IC705, and it is running a few hours every day.

While the days are clearly getting longer here at this time of the year it is still very short days with the sun very low over the horizon. On top of that we have had a lot of cloudy time.

If the day is clouded right now, with the panels available the system is just generating a tiny bit less than the IC705 uses. With full sunshine, and we had a bit of it today, I can run the IC705 for many hours a day. The battery voltage, as I use the radio, keeps the voltage of the LiFePo4 battery at around 12.8 - 13.3V. I consider that acceptable. 

This year I will need to mount more panels when the weather permits, and also get a bigger battery up and running.

With this setup I should be able to run full station activity for about 8 months of the year - except for high power amplifiers. The remaining part of the year I estimate that I will still have to run parts of the activities on mains power. 

One more thing: Before next winter I should make a "backup plan", so I can charge batteries when the price of mains power is lowest. This may be semi-manual, or I may find a way to automate the process using data downloaded from the internet.

Then there is the use of low power monitoring receivers. Yes, I need to build some of them, and we shall see how much I will build before next winter. There are still possibilities with some older receivers that I can put into service for parts of this. I do not have to build everything.

Higher and Higher. Solar Flux.

The solar flux rose again, this time to 228 SFI. This is almost as high as the highest SFI of the previous cycle. That happened on January 7th, 2014, and it reached 237 SFI.

It looks like the trend is still upwards for this cycle, so will we see a higher peak than in cycle 24?

I like to think so, but we shall see.

Solar Flux.

 The sun keeps on giving.

Today's SFI (21cm solar flux) is 212. I think this is the first time in this cycle the SFI has been above 200.

With a few more days of this high flux I would not be surprised to see 6m opening with F2 propagation.

Exciting times!

Mini Project #1.

Before the NanoVNAs became widely available it was tricky to find low cost test equipment for testing SWR or return loss in the low GHz range. 

At the time I did find one possibility: The transverter-store in Ukraine sold some low cost impedance bridge PCBs, so I got myself one.

The PCB bridge circuitry looks like this:

Looking at a Youtube video I found that the PCB has a fault. The bridge has 2 50Ohm resistances, made up by two 50Ohm resistors that should be connected in parallel. On the PCB he tested, and on mine, this is not the case. No connection between 2x two islands on one side of each pair.

Now, this is not difficult to correct. A short piece of wire  mounted at the junctions between the resistor pairs solve this.

A quick test using my NanoVNA 2 showed a shortcoming of the NanoVNA output level (too low), but also gave an indication of the functioning of the bridge.

With a 6dB attenuator as the DUT (Device Under Test) the return loss showed close to 12dB, as it should.

Testing a 10dB attenuator the same way showed that the return loss went down into the noise of the NanoVNA. Close enough to 20dB, so I accept the reading as correct, and that the bridge is working properly.

That is the end of mini project #1 of this year.

Will I use this bridge a lot? Not really, but I did want it to be in working order. It is now going into the test PCB pile as a working unit.

The NanoVNAs that came out after this are much easier yo use, and much more versatile. The cost is not prohibitive, so in the lab I will be using a NanoVNA F (I think is the designation) for frequencies up to 1GHz, and a NanoVNA v2 for up to 4GHz.

The Sun Is at it Again. X2 Flare.

 Some "new" (actually old, but recurring) sunspot groups just rotated into view of Earth.

3 days ago one of them fired a flare of magnitude X1, and minutes ago the sun fired again. This time X2 - well strictly speaking X1.98, but I made the rounding-up. This is bound to create a sudden Ionospheric Disturbance (short wave fade-out) on the day side of Earth, and it will likely las a little less than an hour.

Also the 21cm solar flux is at 184 today. If this continues for several days more I suspect that there is a good possibility of F2 openings on 6m. 

I will be aware and monitor the situation.

Mini Projects for This Year.

I have an idea for an addition to the challenge/wish list for 2023.

In my shack, and in the lab there are a ton of small projects that will improve the ability to make larger projects. 

This could be an extremely simple repair or modification of some existing equipment or a PCB module.

The intention is to make a small blog entry for each of mini projects.

There should be one mini project per month as an average, so 12 of them this year.

Why?

Sometimes I get the impression that I do not doo anything, even when I do. So this is to show me that I do, in actual fact do some stuff, even if not as much as I want to do.

This is, of course in addition to doing a few larger projects.

Last year's large project was making a minimum of 365 QSOs with 5W output, so I suspect this year I will make fewer QSOs, as I have some practical building projects I want to get done.

Let us see how that goes.