Back From Holidays. 1296MHz

I am just back from a retreat.

Yes, I went to a retreat. No radio, no news, just going quiet, let's call it meditation.

Coming back 1296MHz has been variable.

With the vertical the band has been relatively quiet, with sporadic signals from the Polish beacon SR1KOL.

Last night it was very strong early in the evening, then got a little weaker.

A check about 0100 showed it very strong again, with very strong radar signals, too, and in addition the two SK6 beacons near Gothenburg cale through quite well readable, along with the Norwegian one in JO59, and the North Jutland beacon in JO57.

No other signals heard, though, but there was definitely trop propagation.

Another Morning Tropo on 1296MHz.

This morning around 0500 (0300UTC).

SR1KOL , again. It has been there until now, with some QSB.

LA1UHG, it was gpone when I checked later.

Morning tropo is definitely a thing.

Early Morning Beacons on 1296.

This morning around 5AM local time, I woke up and made a check of the beacons on 23cm. 

The Polsh one was there again (no surprise), and also the two Swedish ones near Gothenburg were just audible, along with OZ1UHF in Northern Jutland.

The best signal was LA1UHG in JO59.

Yes, morning tropo is a thing on 23cm, for sure.

This afternoon the Polish beacon has been up and down, at some time stronger than the local OZ7IGY, only 26km from here.

More Beacon reports on 1296MHz

 The other day I heard the German beacon DM0UB in JO62KK at 360km. This was at a nightly check at 4 AM. The signal was easily readable and quite visible on the spectrum display of the 9700. This is still with the vertical antenna, so the signal must have been very strong. Distance: 360km.

Last night between midnight and 1 AM, LA1UHG in JO59FB came through, also with a visible trace on the spectrum display, at a distance of 394km.

Yes, the Polish beacon SR1KOL has been coming through several times during these hot days, and I am not surprised any more. I wonder how often I can hear it with horizontal polarization. 

Impressive signals with the vertical, I am guessing they would have been near S9 with a small horizontal yagi.

1296MHz. Beacons, Beacons, Beacons.

 This morning at around 7 - 7:30 (5:00 - 5:30) I heard a plethora of beacons up to about 400km away:

Two beacons near Gothenburg, the one on 1296.800 I heard, cut could not catch. The other one, 

SK6UHI in JO57TX was up to 559

LA1UHG in JO59FB was fading in and out, up to 539

OZ1UHF in JO57FJ was quite weak, but audible.

SR1KOL in JO74TE was as strong as the local OZ7IGY.

All this with a monoband vertical. Yes, I do have a preamplifier at the antenna, that helps a lot.

I am impressed, and looking forward to getting a horizontal yagi up.

Solid Improvement on 1296MHz.

A little while ago I found a power amplifier for my 1296MHz setup.

This is essentially a W6PQL design with improvements and control/safety circuits by OZ2ELA.

A group had built this as a project, and one of the participants lost interest and sold the unit.

A test showed a solid output of 80 - 90W, enough for my purpose.

Controlling the mast preamplifier through the coax was not available, so I got myself 2 high power bias-tees for 1296MHz, capable of handling 600W.

Now I can bypass the DC control voltage from the radio to the preamplifier, and still use the PA as TX amplifier. This works well, and I am now running 50W on 1296 most of the time, with a drive of 3W from the transceiver.

I do have some cable loss, so often I could hear people who did not use mast preamplifiers at the antenna, but they could not hear me. With the amplifier, now there is a better balance between the local (FM) stations and my station.

There is still a lot to optimize here, mostly with respect to antennas and cable loss, and now the spring is coming, I can get started with that.

At the moment I am using a vertical monoband 1296MHz antenna. 

Some yagi or other directional antenna is in the planning for use with DX (SSB/CW/DIGI modes, or even FM), and I do have some decent cable available for this purpose.

Update Linton LT9100 Handheld.

Some of the others have received the LT9100 and have similar results.

One measured about 50uW (yes fifty microwatts), -13dBm.

It's not that difficult to amplify to a reasonable level, with modules I have. The trouble is that I have to modify the transceiver internally to access the PTT function. it will not be a handheld radio any more, but it will fall into my definition of (partly) home made, as a major operation is required.

It's possible to make a transceiver with low cost and low standby power, e.e. for use with the local repeater. For the price of the HT and the modules I already have, this is a reasonable project.

Handheld Transeiver Linton LT9100 on 23cm?

 A few weeks ago, in a weekly microwave video chat someone mentioned  getting the Linton LT9100 handheld transceiver. It claims to work up to 1300MHz with 5W (Chinese watts?)

A few of us ordered one, and I got mine today, and made a quick check.

When I use it in the house with the IC-9700, it actually does transmit and receive.

Here is the catch. When connected to an antenna normally used for running the local repeater with 1W, this happened:

In TX no signal through the repeater.

In RX, transmitting with the IC-9700, no reception whatsoever.

In other words, transmit power is certainly below 1W, and the receiver is deaf.

Given that the chip in this transceiver is not specified, and filters may be off, I am not so surprised.

Okay, let's try with a 30dB attenuator between radio and a spectrum analyzer, just to be safe.

Oops! Hardly any visible output on 1296. Let's just say that some amplification is needed. A lot of amplification, the output is in the uW (yes, microwatts) range. 

I still need to check receiver sensitivity, I do have a signal generator for the frequency, I need to check if I can modulate it with FM.

That is for another day.

The radio can be easily programmed for the repeater (and other 23cm) frequencies, so the question is, can it be used as a separate transceiver, with a bit of filtering and a good deal of amplification in both transmit and receive mode?

Possibly. There is no connector for external microphone (or speaker) so it will have to be dismantled and modified, so the PTT can be controlled externally.

I will also wait to see the results from other people in the group, and what they think about it.

So, first impressions, maybe not good for 1296. We shall see.

1296 Tropo.

 I am reorganising my station, so the activity level is not so high.

Yesterday, however, 1296MHz was open up to a few hundred km.

I didn't make QSOs, but with my omnidirectional vertical monoband antenna I could hear 9 beacons during the day and evening:

OZ7IGY (of course, it's local at 26km, and always audible) - Everyting else is over about 200km

SR1KOL at about 270km

OZ1UHF at 222km

DB0XY at 438km

SK6MHJ at 229km

SK6UHG at 261km

SK1UHG at 416km

LB2SHF at 369km

LA3SHF at 372km

I am pretty sure I would have heard more beacons with a horizontal antenna, but this tells me that propagation was very good.

Yes, a horizontal antenna system is in the planning, probably for spring next year.

NAC on 1296MHz.

Yesterday I was up at the local hill with the '905 to operate a bit in the Nordic Activity Contest.

This time I brought a bit more equipment, apart from the 23cm yagi antenna:

- a tiny 3 band FM handheld, the Standard C710

- a 2400MHz long yagi.

Among a few contacts with SSB on the '905 and the 12 element yagi, with the local OZ4HZ, after the 1296MHz QSO we tested the 2400MHz band.

On 2400.500 we worked a nice QSO on FM with S9 signals noth ways. Now, with the correct polarization and operating from the hilltop, that was a massive improvement from the first test.

The test with the handheld radio was actually quite a lot of fun.

The radio operates a maximum of about 300mW on 1296, and some of the strations in the Copenhagen area had excellent signals. This radio comes with a tiny 10cm long "rubber duck" antenna, so I was a bit in doubt about the range. The first QSO was with OZ1GIN, working with an indoor antenna 2 small yagis, and reported S9 signals from the radio at about 25km. Yes, he was running horizontal polarization, so it was simple to turn the hand(held) for that.

A bit later I tried with OZ4HZ, and again wee had S9 exchanges, and a less local station, SM7FMX, just over 40km away)  came in for another handheld QSO with good signals.

All worked well, and then I noticed that the radio was in low power mode, so all those FM QSOs were actually worked with a mere 100mW. Now, that is fun portable work on 1296MHz.

I will probably try going light-weight portable on the hill with the handheld and a somewhat larger antenna, so everything can be carried in the rucksack.

QSOs on a New Band. 2400MHz.

 A few days ago I got a mail, someone was planning to do activity from the island of Moen. A distance of about 77km from me.

The operation was planned for this afternoon, and they would acttivate both 1296 and 2400MHz.

I went out about 2km from home and set up the IC905 with small antennas for the 2 bands.

I think they stopped activity about the ime I got set up, so I called some of the locals who had 2400MHz capability.I was not on the hilltop as the earlier tests, so it's always interestingt to see how a new band works. I called OZ4HZ, who had a station with antenna on a balcony. Signals on 1296 were booming in, so we decided to test 2400. Signals from Hans were weak, but readable, and we made a marginal QSO in SSB, exchanging callsigns and reports both ways, 52-53 reports. Not bad for a first test on the band.

I had texted OZ1GIN and told him about the activity, and h came on after a while. Also with booming signals on 23cm. The test on 2300MHz had weak, but easily readable signals in CW. We exchanged 559 reports at 25km distance. This is a special case as Allan was running with a completely indoor system, including the antennas.

After the experiments I started listening for beacons on 1296, and heard 2 in SM6, at least one in LA, and also OZ5SHF at Yding, one of the highest points in OZ, and the whole time, most of the time booning in, and audibl with the antenna in all directions. There was most certainly tropo today. It's now about 2200 local time, and with my vertical at home it's still coming in with  solid copy, even at the other end of th4e house.

There is still a lot to optimize in the portable microwave system, so maybe better results next time.

Right now I am not complaining.

New Repeater on 1297MHz in the Copenhagen Area.

 A while ago I wrote about signs of a possible new repeater not too far from me.

Then it was gone for a while, and in the past week it reappeared, fully functional.

It is located on a tall building on the island of Amager (not terribly far from the airport for Copenhagen.

I don't have any technical information but I can say that it works very well.

Ii is located between 20 and 25km from me, and I made a test with the IC9700 connected to a reasonably well placed antenna with the feed point about 7m above ground.

I called in with the normal power (10W), and the signal was completely noise free. Not surprising, as the repeater antenna is high up.

Then I tried reducing power, to 5W, 2W, 1W. Still completely noise free.

0.5W, no change, 0.2W hardly any change.

I tried to go to 1% power output of the '9700, yes, a little bit of noise. 

Finally I tried to reduce the power to the absolute minimum od the radio. Still a readable signal.

The sensitivity of the receive system is simply excellent.

Now it's time to find an alternative setup to operate via the repeater, the '9700 is so much overkill.

I have an old Kenwood TM741 that is in need of a repair and possibly alignment. I found the settings for operation with this repeater (needed the "odd split" memory to set it up, byt when testing no transmission (at least at the wanted frequency), and reception wasn't good either. Initially I could use my IC.905 for repeater operation (even if it's even more overkill), with a much lower (and smaller) antenna, until I can make a dedicated set up.

I may come up with a post with some crazy ideas that might never be used, for getting to operate such a local repeater on 23cm.

Here is what I know about the new repeater:
Output frequency: 1297.000MHz

Input frequency: 1257MHz (yes, 40MHz spacing)

Activation: CTCSS 82.5Hz

NAC, Tuesday 17th June.

 After last month's adventure I made the trip to the local hill to do some more 1296MHz activity.

The hill is 80m (250ft)high and has an unobstructed view for a few 10s of km.

As before, I was running 10W SSB/FM/CW and a 12 element Yagi antenna. Not a big setup, 

Everything was transported from the parking place to the top, distance to walk, about 400-500m, and steep uphill, bit I can do it alone if necessary.

If the weather behaves well, I might also go up there on a Friday evening where we have a weekly FM-simplex net on 433, 50, 70, 145MHz and 1296MHz was recently added. 10W with a good view should be quite good, especially on 1296. 

I was a bit late in getting ready, so I arrived and was ready to operate about 20 minutes after the test started, and immediately there was a QSO with extremely strong signals from another hill about 25km away. Both hills about 8m ASL, so line-of sight.

I worked the highest number of stations in this test, that I have ever done on 23cm. 

The best distance was SM6UTZ at 307km distance, and a few others were above 100km, so I have no complaints.

My antenna was, as usual, mounted horizontally, and I also worked a Copenhagen station OZ13JK, working with a 3-band vertical, I think about 2-3m above ground. That was an improvement over the test last year, when he was trying, and just making a QSO with a handheld 23cm radio and a small handheld yagi antenna.

I tested the sewtup, listening to beacons, 2 of the LA beacons were heard at about 400km, two Swedish beacons not far from Gothenburg, and the Polish SR1KOL at 370km was heard all evening.

I think there was a bit of a tropo lift, as some signals got stronger later in the evening.This was a good outing, and I expect to try it again when the weather allows.

Some Tropo on 1296MHz.

This is interesting.

The last few days we have had some good tropo over the Baltic.

Yesterday the SR1KOL in JO74TE came through a good deal of the afternoon and evening. It did fade in the late evening, and it may have been there through the night.

Distance from JO65CP is close to 270km. Given that I am using a vertical omnidirectional antenna, I am impressed of the signal coming through.

Today, I started listening in the early afternoon, and it was already there. Through the whole afternoon until writing this about 2230 (2030UTC), the signal has been there consistently. Many times with S5.

I am still impressed. Others around me with horizontal antennas hear it S9 a lot of the time, not surprising.

I checked on the map. It turns out that I have an excellent path from my antenna, sloping down to Koege Bugt, then more than 250km across the Baltic Sea. It may not be so surprising that I have heard this beacon quite often. Only a tiny low lying piece of Sweden (Falsterbo) is "in the way. When I get a horizontal antenna up again, I will monitor this path on a more regular basis.

In another direction I have the DB0VC beacon in JO54IF, I have heard it once or twice with the vertical with a more obstructed path. When I had a small horizontal yagi up about 7m, I heard it regularly at just over 180km.

Portable Work on 1296MHz, Tuesday NAC.

 With a bit of preparation, we went to JO65FH on the Peninsula of Stevns to operate a bit in the 1296MHz Nordic Activity Contest.(NAC).

I had arranged with Jorgen, OZ7TA to go there with our equipment and test out the suitability of the site.

This is the site for an old cold war radar station with a magnificent view over parts of the Baltic, so we had antennas about 42-45m above sea level with good flat land for over distances up to 20km.

I had brought my IC-905 and Jorgen his Langstone project transceiver with a 1296MHz "front end" , i.e. TX power amplifier, RX preamplifier and filter. The Langstone is based on a Pluto SDR and Raspbeery Pi 4 with the appropriate software, and will work from 70MHz to 6GHz - with different "front ends"

I brought the 10GHz transverter for the '905 and a 22dBi horn antenna to make a test of the system. unfortunately the SMA connector broke after setting up the system, so the 10GHz testing was cancelled.

On 23cm we both had extremely strong radar signals. So strong that we suspected breakthrough from a nearby radar. Later we found that many other stations had the same problem, so this was very strong propagation.

We made a few contacts, mostly with very strong stations, the weaker signals were drowning in the radar signals.

One drawback that I had not expected was the connection with the ON4KST chat. Because we had a view over the water to Sweden, the 5G connection switched between OZ and SM, so the connection was broken, almost every time I checked it.

That is how it goes. Every time we go out in the field, there is something new to learn, so let's see if we can do better next time.

Local FM "Net" on 1297.5MHz.

 A while ago a group of local hams near Copenhagen initiated the FM.Simplex Ring. in order to create some activity outside repeater traffic only.

Excellemt initiative!.

We met every Friday evening at 1900 local time.

Starting (at the moment on 433.225 (this may change because of interference from ISM devices) for 20 minutes.

Then 1920 on 51.510

1940 on 70.425

Finally ( until yesterday) 145.225 from 2000 onwards.

For a while there has been sporadic activity at 2100 on 1297.500

From now on it's an "official" part of the "ring" to operate at 2100 on 1297.500. At the first official one on this frequency we were 10 atations participating.

I could hear 9 of them and make 2-way with 8 of them. That is an excellent start.

Most of the day when I am at home, I have a radio receiving on 1297.5, so if you are less than a few hundred km from Copenhagen, and detect enhanced propagation, try a call. Someone in he area might hear you and respond.

Signs of a Local 1296MHz Repeater.

Some time ago I noticed a signal appearing on 1297.000MHz, coming and going.

When I caught it, it had an ID, like a repeater, coming up now and then.

A few of the local amateurs looked into it, and it turns out to be an experimental repeater, but not yet operational.

A few days ago it turned out to have an input at 28MHz spacing, with a CTCSS tone activation. A short transmission activated the ID, but there is no voice feed through (yet?)

I tested it myself and it opened nicely with my 10W output. Tested to see how low I could go. 5W, 2.5W, 1W, 0.5W ... still activating. Now try to go to the lowest setting of the 9700. 100mW? Still activating the ID. The receiver appears very sernsitive. Another local ham (much closer to the repeater site), could activate it with 25uW (yes microWatts).

This could become a very nice addition and create some local (or maybe not so local) activity on 23cm FM.

I may set up a low power transceiver with a small antenna, if (when) this repeater becomes active with voice.

1296MHz Tropo.

The past week end made for some surprising propagation on VHF/UHF into my area (Greater Copenhagen)

I did not work much o 144MHz, apart from what I call "local tropo) propagation. That is distances up to about 300km (200mi). We had some good contacts within that distance, running FM with a vertical.

The more interesting band for me this time was 1296MHz.

Both Saturday and Sunday provided beacon reception (by ear), from several countries.

Of course, the local OZ7IGY is always audible here., then 2 other OZ beacons, further away.

3 German beacons were there.

The Swedish SK1UHF, on the island of Gotland at quite a distance.

The Norwegian LA3SHF at 370km (230mi)

The Polish SR1KOL at 270km (170mi)

Finally, the Czech beacon OK0EKL at 580km (360mi)

The only antenna available at this moment is a monoband 23cm vertical with over 10dB gain. All beacons transmit with horizontal polarization, so the attenuation is considerable. With a good horizontal antenna (yagi etc) I estimate the signals would have been 10-15dB stronger, and I would likely have heard several more beacons.

Best 2-way DX was DC7QH in Berlin at 345km (216mi). This was unusual. I heard him call CQ in FM and called. When he heard "OZ" he pointed the antenna in my direction, and the signals disappeared.

Then, when he pionted the antenna about 180 deg. away from me, the signal went to S9+. Probably a reflection. He was working with 200W into a 1.5m (5') dish with horizontal polarisation. ( am running only 10W, at the antenna about 4W.

During all this there was a lot of noise from radars (at least 3 different ones), sometimes wiping out most signals. I had good use of the narrow CW filter (250Hz) when listening to the beacons. The radar peaked far above S9.

On Sunday afternoon I decided to get my radio running with WSJT-X, so I can run some DX tests. That took a few hours, but it finally worked.

Best distance "heard" with FT8 was UR5WCE at 1029km (about 600mi).

Come spring, I need to mount a (small) yagi on a tiny rotator I have available. It will be very interesting to see the improvements, including raising power to about 40W at the radio. Perhaps later a PA/preamp near the antenna, raising the power at the antenna to about 100W, also running digital modes like FT8.

This was a spectacular week end on 1296MHz, let's see what's in my future.

Nice Bargain at VHF Day.

 Yesterday, 11th January I went to the Winter VHF Day in the town of Ringsted.

As always great to meet other VHF-up people and exchange tall tales.

There is also a small flea matket, and I got two things home.

A programmable attenuator 0 - 120dB in 10 dB steps. specified up to 2 GHz. Another addition to the test equipment for the higher frequencies.

The second thing was a bit of a surprise. Someone had a Uniden scanner, the 3300 on the table, and when I asked the price he said DKK 20.- (about $3) so I took it home, thinking that if it's a brick, it doesn't matter.

I tried to switch on with the battery - of course it was dead. I found a suitable DC connector and connected 12V. Switch on, and the4 display showed something that looked like a functioning radio. Neat.

Now to find out how to program frequencies, so we can see if it really worked. Downloaded the manual and spent some time to get the right menu going. Finally I could enter a frequency. 

When I looked up the spec, the scanner should be able to run from 1240-1300MHz, so I entered 1297.500MHz, and restarted the radio, transmitting on that frequency. 

Bingo! Signal received. (Hearing audio feedback) The receiver works. 

I have not yet tested sensitivity, but even if it has poor sensitivity, I can use a preamp, and possibly a filter.

Now, a $3 radio that works on 1300MHz, that is what I call a bargain.

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.