Temporary 28MHz Beacon.

 Fun little story from today.

I was, as usual, listening to the International Beacon Project (IBP) beacons on 28.200MHz.

Suddenly a big signal was coming in. I reralized that it was a test beacon from an Italian station.

S9 signal drowning the usual 18 beacons on the frequency. 

I found the email address on QRZ.com, and wrote a mail to him explaining the situation, quietly.

After a short while the signal diasppeared, and I got a reply mail telling that he was not aware of the IBP project, and he would find a suitable frequency.

All in the good ham spirit, and I do understand that we don't know every aspect of the activities, and we are usually, like here, willing to correct a mistake.

No, I am not going to reveal the call, because all went absolutely well. Mistakes happen, we have all made them.

CB Radios From Long Ago.

Yes, I have started doing a bit more radio again, let's see how long this lasts, as I need to de-clutter a lot.

Some time ago I got a box with a few CB radios, totally for free.

4 radios in different states, and all FM rigs.

First one (40 channels) tested worked in TX and RX. Power on and 3.5W TX output.

Second one (40 ch) had no TX output (nominal 4W) I had found that before, so not such a surprise

Third one (40ch) had about 2.8W out, and needed an external speaker to receive.

The last one was a 23 channel FM rig with 700mW out (nominal 500mW), b

I could probably find a replacement for the blown final transistor in #2.

All sets had, to my ear, poor sensitivity of about 2uV (-100dBm) for a well readable tone.

All worked on receive. #4 had poor audio., probably a defective electrolytic capacitor.

I think all those radios could use an alignment

Are any of those radios useful for anything ham related? In my view, yes.

- one or more could be used as a monitor receiver on 27MHz, for propagation monitoring (maybe a good use for the one with the blown final.)

- one could be modified and used for monitoring or transceive on 29MHz FM. I already have such a rig, so not so likely.

- I could use the casing of those radios, and build some home construction transceiver or receiver. The channel switch could be replaced with an optical encoder, and the squelch/volume pots for volume (duh!) and RIT control.

I have been thinking of some simple low power transceiver projects.

Anyone with other ideas?

23cm DX With the Vertical.

 This evening I had a bit of fun.

Listening on 23cm, well, I was simply having the IC9700 stand by on 1297.5 FM, and nothing.

Looking at the spectrum display (waterfall) I noticed a line around 1296.912. I had not heard any signals on that frequency before, so I checked, and out of the speaker I heard the DB0XY beacon in JO51EU. The signal was easily readable at the other end of the room, so actually quite strong at times.

I was a bit surprised, as this was with my vertical 23cm antenna, and most beacons work with horizontal antennas.

Distance 438km. Not bad with such a simple setup.

I need to get a horizontal antenna up again, and also getting a power amplifier up and running.

What a Mess. Projects.

 Yes, a literal mess.

The whole house has gradually become so messy that I have trouble finding space for a guest. Yes, that kind of mess.

So now the huge project is getting it pushed out. This may take some time, but in between there are a few radio related projects I want to get started, so I started making space in the electronics' lab.

While everything else in that small room is a total (well, not total, but still..., the workbench surface is now mainly visible, and I can access some test equipment and tools. It's still a long way to order, but slightly less chaos.

Now for some projects:

Antennas.

In freezing temperatures and snow outside? No, not for me. When the weather gets warmer and better again, there is still several antenna projects, as my antenna system has been deteriorating for a while.

I am glad I got my 23cm vertical up and running in a decent way, with a preamp at the antenna. It's working well in most directions, there are still some poor directions. 

A rotatable horizontal directional antenna is in the plan for better weather conditions. Some preparations are needed, so I will get there, probably in the spring.

23cm.

I can hear more stations than can hear me. I think this is due to my use of the preamp near the antenna, almost no one else around here does that with their verticals, just using an existing cable and possibly a triplexer. A quite lossy system to work with. So what do I do? Build a PA.

23cm Power Amplifier.

I got a linear amplifier built with 4 power modules. It is supposed to deliver about 50W, although I would not try that with a mode like FT8 (or other digital modes). I will need to build a coax relay system and more importantly, a sequencer, so I can avoid blowing up the preamp.

When that system is up and running, I will focus on another amplifier, running 40-50W, but for FM only.

I found a module in China, that has been used for sweeper jammers, a power amplifier covering 1200-1300MHz, with a nominal 50W output with about 10mW drive, quite some gain there. The module has no cooling, so some external cooling is mandatory.

This module requires a more elaborate sequencing procedure, as the output needs to be connected to a correct load before even applying supply voltage (28V). Initially all this will be indoors, but it could be mast mounted at a later stage. Ughh! Weather proofing needed, so maybe not ;)

QO-100 Uplink Power Amplifier.

My uplink system for the QO-100 satellite broke a while ago, the power amplifier blew at some experiments, so I need two things:

- repair the amplifier I had, if I can find the IC or transistor.

Before that I will be testing a 13cm PA module from SG Lab in Bulgaria.

This is my test setup. The mechanical part will come later.

This PA should deliver 15-20W (enough for the narrow band uplink) with a max drive of 40mW.

I intend to use my IC-905 directly on 2400MHz As this transceiver has a 2W output maximum, I will mount a 10dB attenuator, followed by a 6db attenuator at the inout of the PA, and then run the TRX at 80% output power. I don't want a power spike from the TRX to ruin the PA.

No relays are needed, as the PA has a built-in RF-VOX circuit with delay, not for the test. There is a PTT output from the IC-905, so that can be used in a permanent setup.

Surprise on 6m.

The solar activity has been low the past few days, and is slowly picking up again. 

Still, the past 2 days there have been a bit of DX spotted with my modest setup.

Stations from Vietnam, Indonesia spotted with FT8, and today I spotted VE1PZ in Nova Scotia. No, I didn't work any of them, but just receiving them is good.

With a solar flux as low as 163 that was a bit of a surprise for me.

I know. FT8 has made weaker signal detection much easier, we are in for interesting times.

New DXCC on 6m.

There have been DX signals on 6m every day for about 2 weeks.

I have received signals from 6 continents, and had QSOs with 4:

North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Last one was TR8CA today, Gabon, Africa using FT8.

All this with a small station, using a V-2000 antenna and 75W from my IC-7300.

I should try building a better antenna for 6m, capable of running more power. I do have a linear, and it would be nice to be able to run 3-400W with a bit of a directional antenna.

6m F2. 1979 - 2024. Update. F2 to North America.

Today I made my first two-way QSO on 6m by F2- propagation ... from my station in Denmark.

Why not before? You may ask.

My very first experience on 6m was in November 1979. At that time 6m operation was not permitted in Denmark, as there were still TV stations operating in that band in many places of the world.

Yes, it would be listening only. I had been chatting with a local ham about building a converter, and he had done that.

One Saturday afternoon he re-transmitted a ton of strong 6m signals on the local 2m FM frequency. I thought, now is the time, so I found a crystal in my drawer. Normally I would have used a 22MHz crystal to convert to 28MHz, the closest I had was one on 21.4MHz. 

That would work, so I found the components from the junk box and that Saturday evening and Sunday morning I finished the converter, built according to the ARRL Handbook.

Sunday afternoon came, and the US and Canadian stations were booming in, but all I could do was listen and make RX log entries.

That was OK for the first day. I contacted a friend who had borrowed my HF receiver and asked him to return it. He did, and now the crossband fun could begin.

The next days I was working many QSOs, transmitting on or near 28.885MHz, listening on 50MHz, and I followed that up for the rest of (solar) Cycle 21, and had a lot of fun with that. Later the UK and Irish stations started getting permits and I could continue the crossband fun with them.

Then, in 1989 I moved to the Netherlands for 25 years, and did not have the opportunity to work much ham radio in Denmark. At that time there were still no 50MHz permits in Denmark (or the Netherlands for that matter) In those 25 years we had 2 pretty good solar cycles with 50MHz openings, and I worked a bit from apartments in the Netherlands. when it was finally allowed there.

I can say a bit more about this, and maybe I will do that later.

Moving back to Denmark in 2015, it was at the decline of the weakest solar maximum in memory, with no 50MHz F2 propagation, so this year, with the prospect of a much better cycle 25, I could hope for some F2 propagation. 

Come November 1st. the wait payed off.

Yesterday, October 31st, I did hear some transatlantic propagation, after having some indications of openings into Australia and Asia. All with a very poor antenna located between lots of trees, and just monitoring.

Yesterday I got my 6m radio connected to a V-2000 antenna (6m-2m-70cm vertical) and got it working with WSJT-X. Still no QSOs, and I got it working a bit too late.

Today I got up at about 8 local time, and there were signals coming in from several areas of Kazakhstan UN..., and some EX, and more in that area.

I managed to work two stations with this setup: UN3G and UN7GW. It was not that easy to get through the European callers, and I received reports about 20B worse S/N than I sent. I am guessing it's because of Eu-QRM and maybe a high noise level at the UN stations. yes, OK, I worked "only" 75W to protect the transceiver and the antenna and I am guessing that a minimum of 10dB difference in transmit power is not unreasonable.

Finally I made it! F2 propagation on 6m from my modes station at OZ9QV.

I do hope that the solar activity will continue high in November and over the winter. It could give some excellent QSOs on 6m, even with such a small station.

Update Saturday afternoon, 2nd November, in the afternoon:

After trying in the morning with stations in UN, EX etc, Finally some success in the afternoon.

I worked Two stations in North America: N1BUG with CW, and VO1SIX with SSB.

I tried a lot with FT8 on 50.313, but no luck. I guess my signal was mostly drowning in European QRM from stations much bigger and much more well situated than mine.

If we get another opening like this, I might try to use the secondary frequency, 50.323 with FT8, and possibly trying out with FT4. I need to look up the frequencies used for FT4, though.

I did see a lot of reports of my signals being received, in the East Coast, from VO1 in the North to Southern Mexican stations.

I will regard this as a very successful day with my modest station. Excellent propagation.

6m DX openings.

We have F2 openings.

The past week I have received Australia 3 times, Vietnam once and Kazakhstan several times. The 6m F2 season has started. 

This morning 4 stations from Kazakhstan are reported  with my monitor station using the 6m part of my HF (half wave) vertical, which is a very poor antenna.

I suspect that the many European spots are F2-back scatter, with distances above 2500km are probably F2.

I have heard (seen) many local stations working the DX

So yes, the F2 season has started. I will not be surprised if we start hearing North American stations within a week or two, if the solar flux stays high.

Today the solar flux is 256, and from what I learne decades ago, at this time of the year (late October, early November) this could easily result in Trans-Atlantic F2 propagation.

My best 6m antenna at the moment is my V-2000 tri-bander, and I am a bit worried about running continuous modes like FT8 with 100W, so I will probably stick to using 50-80W. 

If the openings get like back in 1979, that should not be a problem.

Exciting times.

New Vertical Omnidirectional Antenna for 23cm.

Finally, today I got my new mono-band vertical omni-antenna up for 23cm. I was using the 3-band antenna X-7000 from Diamond on 23cm, only and it had one serious drawback. The signal into the preamplifier from an adjacent antenna a few meters away was killing the GaAsFET in the preamp.

The second srawback of the X-7000, also connected to the 3-band configuration, is that the gain of the antenna on all bands, and 23cm in particular is not fully optimized, and it probably does not radiate so much from the top end.

The X-7000 is nabout 5m long, and the new F1-230A II is only 3.5m long.

The new antenna has been mounted about 1.5m higher, with the feed point about 7.5m, and the old X-7000 was at 6m. The tip of both antennas is approximately 11m, so I suspect that the radiation from the new antenna is located higher in altitude.

The new antenna was intended to be raised yesterday, but it got caught in branches of nearby trees. Those trees ahve now been trimmed, so today we could finish the work, and make a test of the new antenna system.

A fresh preamp has been mounted, so the receiver sensitivity is back to the optimum, and a transmit test revealed improved signals from stations in several directions. OZ1GIN who could only hear an extremely noisy signal before, can now read my signal with an Okay-ish signal.

I can still improve the transmitter capability with a power amplifier module, probably increasing the power at the antenna from about 5W to about 25W.

Given that many stations do not work with preamplifiers near the antenna, this should be a solid improvement of my station range.

This is the best I can do with an omnidirectional vertical, so the next 23cm antenna project will be getting a modest 23cm horizontal antenna up on a rotator as high as I can. As far as I can see, I can get a small yagi up about 11.5 - 12m, and with a good preamp and decent linear amplifier that will be what I can achieve. 

It should be a decent setup at my QTH, the best I can do. 

As the small yagi is "front mast" mounted, I might add another one, vertical, in the opposite direction, when I can repair one of the3 destroyed preamplifiers. Yes, I have ordered new GaAsFETs.

For now I have the vertical omni-system to work with, and I think I will have some fun with that.

Back on the Local FM Frequency on 23cm.

Today a local ham came here and assisted in getting the 23cm vertical up and running.

My X-7000 antenna is now mounted with the feed point 6m above the ground.

A quick test showed decent signals at a distance of about 40km, so the system is working well enough.

I can still hear the OZ7IGY beacon, even though it is horizontally polarized.

Now I need to get some more antenna work done before winter. 

Focus will be on 23cm, because it's a fun band and we need to use it or lose it.

Second band focus will be 6m, as we might get into an autumn season with very high solar activity in the comning winter half of the year

23cm Antenna Stuck.

 I need to check my 23cm antenna system again. 

I have a helical mounted on the mast with a small AR-500 rotator.

This has worked for a while, and now the antenna is stuck in (about) 180 deg. The rotator seems to turn, when I look at the antenna outside, nothing happens.

Oops!

As a temporary solution until I can get a rotator running, I am thinking of using my old vertical, the Diamond X-5000, so, at the least, I can work on out local net on 1297.500 FM. 

A local ham has offered to help with that, so in a few days I should have that up and running, at the least.

Now, if the rotator is ruined, that was a very short life span. We shall see what I can do. In the worst case, I will have to purchase a new (bigger) rotator.

NAC From the Hilltop Again.

Just back from the hilltop about 80m ASL again this month.

This time I picked up a local ham, OZ9GH, Jan, and we had some fun setting up and running a simple station with the 10W output and a 12 element Yagi about 3m above the hilltop. 

The hill is not far from Copenhagen in JO65CP (close to home, same grid), and contacts were made as far as SM6 and Northern Germany, around 200km. I estimate the conditions were average or a bit below.

A few local contacts were made on 1297.500 FM. 

One was using a handheld transceiver with 1W out, and a handheld home brew Yagi, I think it was a 5 element one. He was just readable, so congratulations to OZ13JK and thanks for a nice QSO.

I will do this again when the weather is good, it's fun doing hilltop operation , even if we have to carry everything up a steep hill.

I had the radio programmed for CW CQ call etc, and made a few CW calls and got response, the first time from a German station, and that was with the antenna in the wrong direction. My first German QSO since I restarted 1296MHz activity.

It's a fun band, and I am planning to improve my home station for better 1296 operation.

2m Sporadic E Today.

 This was a bit of a surprise.

I had the radio running on 1297.5 and the second receiver on 144.300.

Suddenly I noticed SSB signals coming on, and when I checked it was a French station. I managed to work a QSO with my horizontal omnidirectional antenna, my Big Wheel.

I did hear some Spanish stations, too, but not strong enough to make any QSOs.

This season has been a bit below normal to me, but I did manage to make Es on 2m, after all. 

I do need a better antenna bit higher up, probably a small 4 element yagi on a rotator.

Ancient Tablet, Part 2.

I received the battery for the old tablet, and got it mounted. Easy, as it already had the mounting bracket.

At first it would not switch on. A look inside found the culprit. The connector to the on/off switch was not connected to the PCB. Easily fixed. Then the next:

For some obscure reason the tablet "thinks" I will be installing a custom software, and wants me to use the up/down buttons to choose yes or no. I tried pushing the "down" button to restart the tablet ... absolutely nothing happened. Were the up/down button switches damaged at the first disassembly? It's possible.

The connection to the up/down button is hidden, so even more disassembly is needed to check and (if possible) repair the possible damage. If the switches are damaged, I can find some replacement, but some more mechanical work is needed, as I probably cannot mount a replacement switch inside the existing casing. We shall see.

It is possible that happened when I first removed the back panel. The tablet repair is on hold now, as I have other priorities, such as getting my antenna system upgraded.

If I can't get it working properly, it's always possible to use the battery for another device.

Ancient Tablet. Battery Dead.

 I have an ancient (2012?)  Samsung tablet, 7 or 8", I think that I would like to set up for monitoring some radio related websites. I finally located the charging cable, one of the long connectors, and tried to charge.

Result: The screen blinks with the "on/off switch"symbol, and has done that for a long time. 

Looks like time for a battery replacement. I found a local (in the country) supplier and looked up the battery. The search on their website did show a battery that looks identical, so I ordered one.

The battery I ordered has the correct connector, so I don't expect any trouble. Should it not fit into the casing, I can live with that, and do a makeshift casing. The screen is supposed to be in a fixed position, so it doesn't need to be carried around. If the battery is a perfect fit, I will re-mount the back panel. It has been bent out of shape in places, bit I don't need it to look pretty. Just functional.

At least the tablet had a battery that can be replaced, fairly easily.

We shall see how the repair goes when the new battery arrives, if I need to do a makeshift casing. I hope there is no software fault popping up because it has lost power. We shall see, indeed.

Idea Box: Passive CW Filter

I have been playing around with some older simple direct conversion transceivers and receivers for CW.

Some examples are the Pixie kits and the Rockmite kits, and some Chinese kits, like the "Frog  Sound".

All these have one drawback, the receiver audio is rather wideband and has a good deal of high frequency hiss.

There are a ton of excellent CW filters both active (more complex) and passive. I wanted something really simple, and took a look at this simple CW filter from YO6DXE: https://dxexplorer.com/passive-cw-audio-filter/

Take a look at his article, and his demonstration of the filter on Youtube (linked in the article). With a total of 6 passive components a simple, yet pretty good CW filter can be made. Two different resonalt frequencies, and variable bandwidth. 

It is a simple series resonant circuit with two switched capacitors for the resonances, and a potentiometer partly bypassing the off resonance frequencies. 

I love the simplicity, and in the video the filter demonstrated a good sounding filter effect. It may take a while, as I am busy with improving my QO-100 setup, but I will get to it.

For the inductor in the filter I have some old multi tap inductors that were used in tone signalling equipment in the 60s, 70s and 80s. sound perfect for my purpose.

Now I need time to build this, and I intend to add a simple (PCB module) audio amplifier, LM386, or the like, so I have speaker sound out of it.

IC-905 for Home Use?

I have only used the IC-905 for portable use.

It is not practical to use it for both fixed and portable. There will be too much going to the top of the mast/rotator mounting and dismounting the outdoor unit (ODU), also the weather proofig would have to be done every time. However, I am beginning to look into uses where the ODU is used indoors. The first thing that came to my mind was using it as the base transmitter for QO-100 uplink.

Until now I have used a 70cm transceiver with an indoor up-converter, the Chinese BU500 and an outdoor PA (WiFi booster). This has worked nicely, even if it occupied an HF/VHF/UHF transceiver for that.

As I am not using the IC-905 for anything else at home (yet), I set it up as a 2400MHz transmitter. One great advantage is that the '905 has a built-in GPS lock for the system, so I do know the frequency I am transmitting on.

A small experiment. today I set up the '905 with the ODU indoors on a shelf in the shack, and use it in place of the old system. A quick test showed that it works nicely. with the transceiver running about 600mW (out of 2W possible) to the old outdoor system.. Everything works nicely, though the SWR seen from the transmitter is on the high side. I tried to use a 3dB attenuator to reduce that, as I do not want to destroy the PA in the unit. It looks like I destroyed the outdoor PA. I have a spare, and a larger one from SG-Lab that just needs a heat sink, and it could be put to good use here.

With my old feed antenna for the dish, the signal is perfectly readable, so I am happy with the results so far.

The signal is not so loud, but I can work through the transponder CW and SSB.

NAC 1296 May From a Hilltop.

Tuesday evening we had the 1296MHz segment of the Nordic Activity Contest.

I decided to go to a nearby hilltop at 80m ASL. It is in the same locator (JO65CP) as my home, so it's a short drive, and a walk of about 500m with a climb of about 40m at the steep part the slope is about 20 deg.

Due to the walk I only brought the basic gear fitting into a rucksack:

- the IC-905 control unit with the microphone and the RF unit, and of course interconnection cables

- a 12 element yagi with a few metres of cable

- 2 tripods, for the control unit and the antenna, fitting at the sides of the rucksack.

- a 12V 20Ah LiPO4 battery.

- a small log-periodic

- a paper logbook (computer is too bulky and adds weight)

This fills the rucksack up and is still fairly easy to carry on the back.

Additionally a very light weight support (without backrest), so I could sit a bit while operating.

The walk from the parking took me about 20-25 minutes, and the setting up another 10-15 minutes, so I was ready about 10 minutes before the test started. Time to test reception of the 2400MHz and 5760MHz. The test was done with the tiny log periodic PCB based antenna, and both beacons came in with good signals, even with the antenna less than half a meter above ground, and with some attenuation from trees.

This is a pretty good place to do some microwave activities, despite some bushes shading the signals in some directions.

Time to listen on 1296 before the test.

Beacons coming through: OZ7IGY (of course it is less than 25km away), OZ5SHF at another hill 155km away, OZ1UHF at 220km, SK6UHI at 261km, the DB0VC in Kiel at 185km, and finally LA1UHG at 394km. Not bad for a small 12 element yagi antenna and a non modified radio. The setup is working.

Tarting the test I was listening to OZ7TA at about 40km, also at about 80m ASL. Not surprising the signal was booming in, as there is line-of-sight. He had some trouble with his setup, so I missed the QSO.

A total of 9 QSOs were made, not too bad for a first outing. The best distances were OZ3Z at 157km and SM6CEN at 195km.

OZ1LXL at about 40km was shocked, my signal was the strongest he had heard on 1296, and we had a comfortable QSO using FM.

Lessons learned:

Lesson #1: I need to bring a CW key(er). Several stations were calling CQ in CW, and I missed them If I just wanted to call and make a standard QSO I could have done it with pre-programmed texts in the built-in keyer, but I had not done that. If I wanted to male fully random QSOs, calling CQ myself, I could do the CQs with the pre-programmed texts, but I still need the keyer to send the call of the caller. Good lesson: make some pre-programmed texts, and bring a simple key(er) for CW.

Lesson #2: I need to bring a handheld for 2m and 70cm. Some locals would like to coordinate, and know that I was on 1296 from a hilltop.

Lesson #3: I should switch the tripods. The antenna could only be raised to less than 1.5m above ground, and it should go a bit higher.

Lesson #4: I could use a smaller battery. the current battery is quite bulky, filling up a good part of the rucksack, and could go for many hours (more than I needed for this operation). This might give some space for the 10GHz module for another outing with the IC-905.

I did have a good day (evening) at the first operation from the local hilltop, and I think I will try it again, with improvements of the setup.

If you have any other ideas for improving the "real portable" outing, please feel free to suggest them in comments.

Edit:

I found that it is possible to use some of the microphone buttons as a keyer paddle. Good to know another time. I think I could have made a few more QSOs that way. Yes, learning is a good part of this.

Aurora Heard on 2m.

 Today the arrival of a double CME from the sun resulted in aurora on 2m.

I heard several solid signals, but due to my poor antenna, a "Big Wheel" (cloverleaf) antenna, I did not make any contacts.

And one of my favourite radio propagation sites SolarHam is back. I had solarham.net in my links, and it stopped working, so tried solarham.com today, and there it was.

K- index went high

First time in a long while I have heard such strong aurora on 2m in a long time.

The opening lasted about an hour, and the interplanetary magnetic field  (Bz component) went almost neutral, and then South again, so there may be an update later today.

Update 2100Z:

The K-index higher again, but I was not hearing more aurora with my small antenna.

1296 Antenna.

 A local ham sold two helical antennas for 23cm, and I went to get them. The price was good, and the antennas looked good, and ready to mount in the mast.

Now I am waiting for the opportunity to mount at least one of those antennas in place of the horizontal yagi. 

For this I need the combination of good weather and a ham friend or two to assist.

I suspect the results will be similar with stations using horizontal yagi antennas, and an improvement to local stations using vertical antennas, as the helical should have a slightly higher gain, offset by a 3dB loss in signal strength as is usual when using a circular polarized antenna with a linear polarized antenna.

The weather forecast looks decent, so I hope I can get it done within a week. We shall see.

More Sporadic E Monitoring.

8m had more sporadic E today. Openings to Slovenia, Greece and Spain, with plenty of spots from my 40.680MHz FT8 propagation monitor.

Lots of spots on 6m. Were some of them F2 backscatter.

Yesterday 6m had spots on 6m from Southern Africa. Is this TEP enhanced by sporadic E?

Update approx. 2000Z:

6m opened to South America (Brazil) this evening. Detected a few stations with my very poor monitoring antenna. I could see many "local" stations working into PY/PU.The opening lasted at least an hour.

Exciting times.

Beginning of the Sporadic E Season.

We are approaching the month of May, and I am seeing the first signs of the sporadic E season. 

For a few days the 6m FT8 monitor has shown more signals from across Europe than a few weeks ago, and a few days ago the first signals from Spain came on  8m. In Spain stations of (certain license type) can apply for 8m permits, and a few have been seen on 40.680MHz with my FT8 monitor.

This afternoon (and some days ago) a few Irish stations were through on the 8m FT8 monitor.

1296MHz etc. Portable. New Toy.

 I have got myself a new transceiver. For the microwave band I am now testing a new IC-905 and the 10GHz module (transverter).

This rig runs 10W on 144,432 and 1296MHz, and 2W on 2.4GHz and 5.7GHz, and 500mW on 10GHz.

It has 2 mast mounted modules, one transceiver for 144,432,1296MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.7GHz, the other converts the 2400MHz band to 10GHz. Everything is controlled fro a control module that resembles the IC-705, and it feeds 40V up to the modules via PoE (Power over Ethernet), and the rig has a common N-connector for 144,432 and 1296MHz, and separate SMA connectors for each of the higher bands.

The system has a built-in GPS for controlling the reference frequencies.

Time to do some tests, I started a few days ago. First, get it up on a tripod in the living room, and the tests could begin.

The very first tests was checking that the GPS system worked, and even indoors it would lock. I should be right on the frequency in the display.

I have not yet tested the 144 and 432MHz parts, but I set up a small 12 elements yagi in my living room, just 0.5m (about 2 feet) above the floor. To my surprise the OZ7IGY beacon located behind some hills about 20m higher was clearly audible. First successful test done!

I tried setting up a 2400MHz yagi (16 elements), and I was not surprised that I heard nothing from OZ7IGY. I could hear noises that I suspect came from the local wireless network. 

Using a PCB log-periodic antenna, exactly the same happened on 5760MHz. 

On 10GHz I set up a synthesizer generator in the house, and got a strong signal, using a PCB patch antenna array (16 patches in a 4x4 array). The transmit side was tested using my QO-100 receive setup, and worked nicely.

Today it was time to get out in the field. Temperature in the 15-20C range and some sunshine, it was a beautiful day to get started. I drove the system a few km from my home, just a bit up a hill, but not to the top (no driving permitted there). It took about 1/2 hour to get it up, and the test could begin, using the exact same antennas as in the indoor test.

The 1296MHz antenna was about 2.5m above ground and turned towards OZ7IGY. Signal was booming in, above S9. RX Success!

The 2400MHz antenna was very low above ground, about 70cm. The signal from OZ7IGY was a solid copy, though not very strong. RX Success

On 5760MHz the beacon was all but inaudible. I thought I could hear a signal tuning around the frequency, but I was not 100% sure, so I say no reception.

On 10GHz no reception (not surprising).

On 5.7 and 10GHz the cables used were some surplus semi-rigid cables with angled SMA connectors, so I suspect high losses, but the test had to be made. I am sure I could have gone to a different location with no hills in the way, and get reception, but I stayed because there was one more test to do.

I called on the local FM frequency (1297.500), and as I had announced my activity locally, there was immediate calls from 2 stations in the Copenhagen area and one in Sweden, just across the water. The SM7 station was 43km away and a solid S9, with a fairly unobstructed path.

One of the locals alerted a station in the other direction where there are some obstructing hills. Call made and good signals at 43km in the more obstructed path.

This was "first light" for my IC-905, and I am satisfied with the results. I can see many possible improvements to the system, so I have quite some work to do with the mechanical part of the portable system. Mainly better antennas for 2.4, 5.7 and 10GHz, and a better way to fix those antennas to the tripod. 

At today's test the 1.3 and 2.4GHz yagi antennas were mounted using gaffer tape, so there is already some hardware that I will need to go get, some holes to be drilled, so I can mount those antennas to the mast in a more secure way. As a first test, it was good enough, though.

1296MHz Improvement. Antenna Height.

 For a while I had my 1296MHz yagi mounted at a height of just 4m above ground. I could detect the DB0VC beacon in Kiel, about 200km distant, not constantly but every day I made the attempt.

On Easter Sunday I had a local ham help erecting a telescopic mast of 6m. This means that witg a little help from a friend it is possible to make antenna experiments for the higher bands. The rotatyor used is a small AR-500TV antenna rotator, and it works nicely with the small 1296MHz yagi.

The antenna is now 7m above ground (30m ASL), and I could detect a considerable improvement compared to the lower position, in some directions. In other directions there are still obstacles.

At the first test with 7m height 4 local stations were immediately heard, within about 10 minutes of starting operation on 1297.5MHz FM. This is encouraging. The furthest station was near Malmoe, Sweden, at a distance of about 30km, and while my yagi was horizontally polarized, and he used a vertical, we could get some fading signals. I suspect the fading, which came with very regular intervals, was due to some wind turbines along the path.

The beacon DB0VC is now heard a bit more regularly, and today I noticed something that I did not hear with the antenna at 4m. Several aircraft reflections were clearly audible, with the characteristic Doppler shift frequency change.

Today I also got a new station, running at a distance of about 20km, just running 4W, with the ADALM Pluto SDR and a front end with 4W output, running from a balcony with a home made 7 element yagi. Good signals, as we were both working with horizontal antennas.

For all this I used the IC9700. I also have a IC910 with a 1296MHz module.

Future developments:

Two more things are now needed to improve my system on 1296MHz:

- A good vertical antenna as high as I can get it. I intend to use the IC910 with this antenna, and a preamplifier near the antenna, just like with the yagi. Most likely the X-5000 from Diamond, used with a triplexer for multiband operation on 2m/70cm/23cm, with preamplifiers for every band.

- a power amplifier for each antenna/radio system. For the vertical/IC910 I intend to get a relay/sequencer up and running, so I can get about 25W at the antenna. For the yagi, I intend to get a maximum of about 75W at the antenna. I don't have the amplifier for that yet, but I will get one when I can.

Fault in the 23cm Antenna System.

There seems to be a fault in my temporary 23cm antenna system.

The signal disappears intermittently, and I suspect a fault in the connector for the cable bypassing the rotator. I have ordered better cables and N-connectors, so as soon as possible that cable should be replaced. Another option could be intermittent voltage to the preamplifier from the radio (IC9700), but the cable/connector fault is the most likely.

I will need to get some assistance from some local ham(s), as the antenna should be mounted about 2m higher, still in a temporary position. I cannot do that alone. The risk of damaging the antenna is too high.As the antenna is standing in my backyard and surrounded by houses and trees, every meter in height will help, so it will be interesting to see how much the signals will improve.

At a later stage I epxect to mount the antenna in 8-9m height. That is what I can do here. There will still be trees in the way in some directions, but it should be above houses in most directions.

Intermistic 1296MHz Yagi Setup.

The past few days I have worked getting a bit of activity going on 1296MHz.

The antenna is a Flexa Yagi model with 16 elements, for mounting behind the reflector.

The mast at the moment os just some military stackable pipes, and I could not handle more than 4m length alone, so that is the height of the antenna right now.

Results are varying. A station about 20km away could not hear my 5W at the antenna. He is in a poor direction, as the signal has to pass through my house, so maybe not too surprising.

We have had a bit of tropo propagation, so the beacon in Kiel, about 200-250km away is quite strong. In that direction the antenna points over free fields, and at the moment the signal from DB0VC is S9. During the day it was audible at all times. 

I do have a preamplifier near the antenna, so reception is quite decent.

At a later stage the antenna can be mounted at about 8m height, but the results are encouraging.

I did try to send a few CQs on 1296.200, but no replies. 

In the SE direction I can hear very strong radar signals, S-meter shows up to s9+30 in the peaks.

Next step will be getting the antenna higher up and see what happens. I will need assistance from some local hams, so it may take a little while.

A Bit of HF Activity.

 Today I put my first HF QSO of the year in the log. I didn't do much last year either, due to other commitments.

Today I made one of my forst QRP SSB QSOs in years. Some local stations had goe to Greenland and they have been quite active.

When they were reported on 18MHz I tried with just 5W SSB form my IC-705, even though the signal was not very strong. Much to my surprise OX7AKT came back to my call after one or two times, and we made the QSO. It is extra fun to do that with just 5W SSB and a half wave vertical.

More 8m Activity.

 Since last entry the solar activity dipped a bit and came back up. 

There were a few days without signals decoded, but a few came through.

PJ4MM Several days

ZS6OB and ZS3/V51PJ one day

The setup is still the IC703 and the 10m half wave vertical.

I am still running my 6m monitor, and I get European signals every day.

I need to expand the setup to 10m, and to more VHF (and UHF) bands.

Let the monitoring continue.

Update: ZF1EJ also came through today.

PJ4MM on 40MHz Again Today.

 Another good day for the 40MHz band.

One more time PJ4MM was coming through with up to 0dB S/N. 

It will be interesting to see how the 8m band monitoring will turn out this spring.

Monitor on 8m (40.680MHz)?

 I made my first test, listening on 40MHz. There is some experimental work going on on  40.680MHz with weak signal modes.

A local station with indoor antenna reported decoding PJ4MM, so I started testing

So I had my IC-703 connected to the 10m half wave antenna, and set the frequency. Pulse noise up to around S7. The noise blanker (NB) of the 703 seemed to make little difference. I tried to get the NB setting, and set it to the highest level. That reduced the noise, even if it is still not good. No S-meter reading.

Then PJ4MM came up on screen, starting with a S/N of -20dB, and for about 20minutes of the signal was there. Best S/N has been -7dB until now.

Not a bad beginning, given the severe pulse noise. DX heard on 8m.

Right now I am not going noise hunting, it is still winter time, and I have a cold, or the flu. In the spring I may try, and along with that, maybe try to make some phasing out of that noise. After all, it's only a single "channel" I need to cover. 

10GHz Transverter, Continued.

 In the autumn/fall last year I was out making a receive test of a 10GHz transverter briefly described a few days ago in the previous post. 

When I should have had a signal from the OZ7IGY beacon about 25km away, there was ... nothing.

I started the fault finding with a measurement of the LO module, and it did look pretty good. So Now the down converter should be tested.

I located a signal generator (low cost Chinese circuit with the ADF 5351 synthesizer. As the signal generator has a fixed output, I made a small loop for 10GHz, soldered to a low cost (chassis) SMA connector. Measure on the spectrum analyzer (with built-in frequency counter the signal generator seemed to stay within a few 100 Hz, with a fixed offset of about 10kHz. Good enough for a first test.

Power up the transverter with 12.5V, the IF connected to a Malahit DSP2 SDR set to 144MHz, and let the system warm up a bit. The 12.5V was about what the battery delivered at the test. 
It sounded absolutely dirty, with some irregular jumps in frequency.

Where was the instability? I tried connecting the FT-290 and it was the same. Apparently I could eliminat the possibilty of the Malahit going faulty. Now remains the LO of the transverter or the signal generator.

Next test was, let us see what happens if the supply voltage is increased.

Bingo. at 13.5V the LO apparently jumped to the correct frequency (well, about 3kHz low) and stayed there, the tone sounds good, all the dirt gone from the audio, and the sensitivity looked much better. You may laugh, I don't mind, because I foind the fault.

Connecting back to the Malahit SDR, and it looked good.

The Chinese signal generator, though has a rather noise output. Good enough to test the system, but the phase noise is atrocious, only about 10-20dB below the carrier. I heard that a ham not too far away has made some modifications, and I will look into that.

So what to do when I do go out into the field? I need 13.5V and the battery delivers only 12.5V. Too low for a good function.

I think I will try first with a different battery and a DC/DC converter. I know that the DC needs extra filtering, but it should be usable for the first field tests. Next step: check the TX function.

Fault Finding in an Old 10GHz Transverter.

In the autumn I made a first test of a home-made 10GHz transverter I got my hands on, and started testing.

The initial test was a simple connection to an older FT-290 transceiver, and going out to spme place a bit higher than where my house is located.

I was listening for the beacon OZ7IGY at a distance of about 25km. Nothing in the garden. If I placed an satellite TV LNB about 4m above ground I could hear the beacon, very weak, because it is behind some hills about 30m higher than where I am.

I tried to go to a place somewhat higher with the FT-290/transverter setup on a tripod, and tested. Absolutely nothing heard. tuning about 30kHz to either side of the beacon frequency.

So now I got started fault finding.

The first suspicion after talking to a local ham was the 2556MHz local oscillator module. Testing on a spectrum analyzer showed a nice signal with an offset of less than 600Hz. Not bad, this would give an offset of less than 3kHz. The output (to the Qualcomm up/down conversion module) is close to 5dBm, so that looks quite good. I can safely say that the LO module works nicely.

Now more tests are necessary.

 I do need a small 10GHz signal source, and I have thought of using one of the following:

- a low power (0.5W) 70cm FM transceiver with an attenuator and a single diode as multiplier

- a synthesizer PCB with a AD 4350 or 4351 chip, just using the 3rd harmonic. 

At least I can test those with the spectrum analyzer, so I know if there is a strong enough 10GHz signal.

I think the simplest of the two is the attenuator/diode multiplier, so I think I should start there.

A Bit of New Stuff, Arrived From China in December and January.

 I have ordered a few things from Ali Express recently, Some of this arrived in December last year, and this year until now.

Some of it still needs to be tested, but here are a few things that may be of interest.

Some time ago I got a collection of used 18650 Lithium Ion cells, so now I got myself a capacity tester. This needs to be tested.

I am slowly starting doing some experiments on the microwave bands, so I got myself a log-periodic antenna covering 800MHz - 6GHz, covering the amateur bands 1296, 2400,3400 and 5760MHz. Intended use is mainly for antenna testing, but it can also be used to feed a parabolic dish.

I am beginning to dismantle some older electronic equipment for (some) parts, so I got myself a desolder station.

A couple of LNAs claimed to cover 10MHz to 6GHz. Should be tested.

A Malahit SDR receiver, self contained with LCD screen and built-in speaker. A quick test shows an OK receiver. Nothing spectacular, officially covering 10kHz - 380MHz and 404 - 2000MHz, with spectrum display (max. 192kHz wide) Nice little receiver, can be useful for many tests, especially with portable equipment, but also converters and transverters (receive part only).

There is more, but those are the more interesting things for me.

Monitoring on 10m. Updated.

I got  a bit of space on the lab desk by now. Still much more tidying needed.

For now, part of my monitoring system for 10m consists of a half wave antenna, connected to my modified IC-703 with a loop-back for the receiver signal.

The receive signal is running through a power splitter, so part og the signal goes back to the receiver section of the '703 and two outputs go to other receivers. Two is not quite enough, as I want to monitor several frequencies around the 10m band. Some amplified power splitter is needed.

The frequencies I want to monitor on 10m are, at least:

- 28.200 (International Beacon Project) (with audio)

- 28.074 (FT8 frequency)

- 29.600 (FM calling frequency)

- 27.555 (Used by CBers as a calling frequency. Excellent propagation indicator for 10m)

- 28.126??? (WSPR and QRSS frequencies)

I have a couple of "transistor radio" portable receivers with a jack connector as external antenna connectors, so I made two cables with F-connector to jack plug. They should be used for the 27.555 receiver (up and running), and FT8 monitor receiver. I still need to set up a computer with sound card input for that purpose. 

I have a monitor system like that running on 50MHz, and I would like to continue using that. Possibly a Raspberry Pi set-up.

Last year was a bit low on radio activities. I should have had a better antenna system up, but other, more urgent activities came in the way. The solar power system also needs an update. This should be a busy year. 4m and 6m antennas have priority, as the bands are good due to high solar activity. Some activity on microwave bands should be made, too, and I should finally get up a rotator, so I can rotate a small VHF/UHF/SHF antenna system. We shall see how much gets done this year.

Update:

It looks like the Sangean receiver is not suitable for FT8. (noisy local oscillator?), or not sufficiently sensitive so I will have to use another radio for that purpose, or build one myself. Still looking around.