Moving shacks

 I don't really have a 'shack' of sorts as most hams do.  I operate from my yard close to where my antennas are.  During the inclement months I would go into my small barn and operate from a small table and chair.  I have a small space heater to take the edge off when it's -30C and that has served me well.  The problem with my barn is that I share it with raccoons and squirrels.  It is an unwinnable battle with the current state of the barn and access points the critters have to its interior.  I'm not terribly upset that they are there.  They don't cause me any other grief...they do not get into my garbage or anything like that.

I also had an old decrepit large shed/building which raccoons lived under and I could store some things in but the doors wouldn't shut properly and the roof was rotting.  It needed to come down.  I tackled the task which ended up being much more work than I had anticipated.  It took two 20 yard dumpsters and two 40 yard dumpsters to take care of it all.  It took me months to deal with this very well built shed.  Now that it's gone I am having a new, but significantly smaller, pre-made 10' x 14' shed delivered from Pine Grove Sheds in Alexandria, Ontario, just 20 minutes away.  This shed will be located on the opposite side of the yard from the barn and I wondered if I could use this new shed as a new operating position or shack.  It will be protected from the elements and the raccoons and I am excited at the prospect.  I was thinking of putting a vertical antenna up as I had originally thought I would also keep the old operating position in the barn until I went in the other day and saw raccoon poop on my table.  I'm done with the barn.  I will move my antennas to new trees and have a new permanent shack.  This will allow me to leave things there without fear of rodent destruction.  I am getting excited at the prospect of this new locale.  I will post pictures once it arrives in a few weeks.

When I was thinking of putting up a random wire vertical I did a lot of youtubing and reading and I learned a lot about the differences between the EFHW and the random wire antenna.  I learned more about 9:1 ununs and their proper application as compared to the 49:1 auto transformer used in EFHW antennas.  I really enjoy when these concepts that I didn't quite fully understand become more clear to me.  I had been trying to use a 9:1 unun for my 80M antenna at 1/2 wavelength.  I had purchased a EFHW 80M mini tuner that plays the role of tuner and matching transformer but a part was incorrect in the bag and had been waiting for its replacement.  I didn't understand why the unun was giving me an "ok" match but not a great one.  I made some contacts but the SWR on the FT-817 was still fairly high.  Now I understand the difference between the 2 antenna types better and the need for the 49:1 transformer and that the 9:1 just wasn't going to cut it.  Once the proper toroid arrives and I finish the 80M EFHW tuner the 9:1 can be put away until the next time I decide to put up a vertical or random wire antenna....with a proper counterpoise.

Cheers for now,

Scott ve3vvf

Antenna Launch Success

I lowered my random wire antenna this week so that I could make the length a little less random.  I added 8' to it to help avoid half wavelengths on multiple bands by using a chart I found on this website.  The chart at the bottom shows you the wire lengths to avoid depending on which bands you plan to use.  You can visit the page for an explanation of the chart but basically you want to choose a length where the fewest amount of colour bars are present.  I chose somewhere just above 135'.

I lowered the antenna and added the length of wire to it and I was hoping to get it anchored higher in the tree with the newly purchased fishing reel and slingshot from Canadian Tire (Curbside pickup, of course) so I let the support rope come all the way down.  Bad Idea.  I was quite disappointed at the lack of punch this slingshot gave me.  The wind was also working against me.  I tried a few times and from a few different angles but it just wasn't working.  What I ended up doing was using the fishing reel attached to a screwdriver stuck in the ground (thanks Michael, ve3wmb) aimed at the tree top and I created a sling with a piece of broken brick and 6' of para cord.  I tied the fishing line to the brick also and then I rapidly started spinning the rock in an overhand fashion (think David and Goliath) and let the rope go at just the right time for it to sail towards the top of the tree taking the end of the fishing line with it.  This really did the trick.  It took a few tries before I was happy with the placement and height but once it was there I let the weight of the brick bring it to ground level where I detached the brick from the fishing line and tied a new rope to the fishing line and pulled it back up the tree and over the branch and down to me.  I wrapped some tape around it to help keep it from getting snagged in a notch or branch. I could then attach the antenna to it.  I pulled it up using the antenna rope and it was perfect.  I was very happy.  I seemingly bought a slingshot for nothing but you just never know.



Once my Random wire was back up it was time to get the rope in place for the doublet I plan to put up on Saturday.  Now that I had the method down pat it only took 2 tries to get the fishing line over the top of the tree my doublet support rope will be draped over.  Now on Saturday (tomorrow) I will lower the random wire because the doublet will pass over top of the low end of the random wire.  I'll attach the other support end of the doublet to my TV tower at 40' and once up I can raise the random wire again and I will have 2 antennas up...an all band doublet that I will use from 10-40M and an 80M end fed once I get the final toroid from QRPGuys in the mail, whenever that is.

I'm excited to try this doublet fed with balanced window line and the QRPGuys MultiZ tuner.  I'm hoping for a better match than I was getting on the random wire.  I will know tomorrow and there is also the QRPTTF (To The Field) "contest" all day tomorrow.  I say "contest" with quotes because it's low pressure which is right up my alley.  The theme this year is OPERATE FROM HOME.  Do not go out to parks etc but just go out in the yard instead because of the COVID-19 isolation rules currently in place.

That's all for now,
Cheers es 72/73

NAQCC April Sprint

So I'm not a contester at all.  That requires operating skill, dedication and time to commit to the contests.  The NAQCC monthly sprints, on the other hand, are low stress, fun, short and did I say fun?

I have wanted to take part many times over the years but either didn't have the right band antenna or a good setup...or so I thought.  With the COVID-19 lock down of sorts I have had more time on the radio which has given me more confidence on the radio.  As well, I listened to the Ditdit.fm Podcast on the NAQCC and their contest sprints.  I've had a member number (1967) for years but just never used it.  It was time.  I looked on the NAQCC site this morning to see when the next sprint was and it was tonight!  I have a 130' random wire and my little tuner that will put me on 40 and 20...just not 80.  Those are the 3 bands the sprint runs on.

The toughest part, once it got going at 20:30 Eastern time, was dealing with the congestion.  It took a bit to learn to find a signal and focus on it alone and ignore all the others around you/it.  It makes me wish I had the narrow CW filter in my FT-817.  Anyway, 20M wasn't very good but 40 was full.  My plan was to stay for an hour and take what I got and be happy.  I didn't really feel the need to call CQ NA because I could just dial around and find others calling.  The sprint runs generally between 7.030 - 7.045.  All in all I made 6 QSOs and didn't stumble too much through them.  I was pleased with my effort and results.  The total points score was 144 after multipliers for using a Straight Key and the SPC multipliers.  I know many get dozens of Qs in the log but this was about me getting more airtime.  I used one of the popular loggers called the NAQCC Sprint Logger which was created by Ron Bower, AC2C.  It worked well when I went to enter my contacts after the fact and I was able to do a report that I cut and paste into the log submission page of the NAQCC.  It was painless.  This was a great experience and I hope to take part again next month.

Cheers es 72 de Scott ve3vvf,

Tuner Covers the Bands

I took some time yesterday afternoon on the Good Friday "day off" to try out the QRPGuys Multi Z tuner some more.  I started on 40M, where I didn't have any luck finding a match the other day, and had better luck today.  There's a hi/Lo Z switch and when I switched it to Hi I was able to match 40M quite well.  I even had a QSO with Ron, W3SSF, in Baltimore, MD.  It was turning into a ragchew but had to cut it short because of QRM.  30M tunes alright but I can obtain a better match without the tuner. 20M tuned up nicely and I may have had a brief exchange with 4A60O but he was quick and there were a lot of other callers in the pileup.  I didn't hear my exact call but very similar to mine.  He may have misheard my call because of the QRP.  He did not go in the log.  17, 12, 15 and 10 meters also tuned up will enough but those bands were pretty dead so there were no QSOs to be had.  It was a bit chilly but mostly it was a cool damp very strong wind so I operated from inside the barn.  Even with that my fingers were starting to get a little cold so I packed it in for the afternoon but not before proving to myself that this little tuner will work well for me on this random wire through a LDG 9:1 unun until I can get the doublet in the air.

Little Tuner Helpful

When I built the QRPGuys Multi Z tuner it was so I could use it with the Doublet I plan to put up (once I get a launching method) but then I thought I'd give it a try with my random wire since the Doublet isn't quite there yet.  The random wire is about 125' long, I believe,  and works very well on 30M but that's about it.  I hooked the little unit up via a short run of Co-ax to my LDG 9:1 Unun and I was able to tune it quite well on 20M and on 17M.  40M was not so agreeable and I didn't try 12 or 15 but if I were going to use this antenna and tuner together regularly some adjustments to the wire length would likely be required.  I tuned around 20 for a while and there was a lot of activity and I was getting a little over-zealous trying to reach a Brazilian station and also a few other DX stations but I really should have known better and stuck with something more domestic.  As it was, my battery was down to 10-11v and I knew my FT-817 wasn't even putting out close to 5 watts into a non resonant antenna...during poor conditions.   All that being said I was happy with the tuner and how easy it was to operate by tuning to dim the tuning LED.  As the LED gets dimmer your match is better.  It was super handy and I think I am going to enjoy using it.  Tonight I'll charge my battery and test it again on more bands on the next nice day.

Doublet length

So I had decided to install the 40m (and higher) doublet to save on weight even though I had the space for the 80M doublet.  My original thinking was that some day it might be neat to compare the EFHW 80M antenna with the 80M doublet since my QRP Guys tuner that I plan to use with the doublet does not support 80M.  Then I read that a doublet will actually provide better performance on a given band if the antenna were resonant on odd harmonics for that band so I thought that since the doublet length is not critical I could play with the length to give a boost to a favourite band.  I knew there are websites out there that will calculate this for you so I went searching.

I looked at a couple and then found this page on Spookmate.com.  I was able to put in the frequency for 80M in the calculator and see what my options were.

As you can see where the harmonics are listed that 10.5 is the 3rd harmonic.  This is very close to 10.110 where I like to operate on 30M.  I then adjusted the frequency at the top until the 3rd harmonic was where I wanted it to be.  3.37 MHz does the job and the legs of the doublet would be 72.9' long.  The key with the doublet is that the antenna is not resonant on 80M if I want to use 80M.  It is not (although it may be too close) but I am not using the antenna on 80M so I'm not concerned about that.  Really I'm taking advantage of the 3rd harmonic which I would not have if I were to put up the 40M doublet.

The harmonic frequencies gave me no joy for the 17M band which I also enjoy so I will go with the 73' length.  This is what I plan to experiment with when I put this doublet up, hopefully this weekend, weather permitting.  I'm not sure how much luck nor do I have a way to get tangible results but my random wire is currently working well on 30M only so I can compare the two.

Now you may remember I was going to avoid the 80M doublet because of weight concerns but I have come up with a plan for a guyed wooden support pole.  It'll be a little "interesting" looking but I think it should do the trick.  I'm fine tuning my idea in my head daily and am almost there.

Cheers for now,

72/73 de Scott

Doublet Dilemmas

When it comes to installing my, yet-to-be-built, Doublet antenna my biggest concern is weight and whether it will need a center support.  If it does need a center support what will I use and how strong will it be?  My original intention was to install an 80M doublet just because I have the space but that antenna will be significantly heavier than one for 40M.  The QRP Guys Multi Z Tuner that I just completed only tunes 10-40 so an 80M doublet is definitely overkill so it only makes sense to only put up what I will need in the immediate future.  As well, I have my random wire that will be modified to be my 80M antenna with the addition of the QRP Guys EFHW mini-tuner kit for 80M.  Once these projects are ready to test I will do so using my FT-817.

Here is the image from the QRP Guys website:

If I still need support for the doublet I have a couple of options I've been contemplating.  I could use a guyed wooden support made from pressure treated 2" x 2" or I could use a guyed PVC water pipe mast with about the same 2" diameter.  I live in a windy location but the center of the doublet will be somewhat shielded from the wind by my small barn but I still worry about it.  The wind on the antenna wire is not my concern as much as the window feedline is.  It is both heavy and easily caught by the wind.  Only putting it up will tell how these factors play out in real life.  The height this antenna will be remains unclear but I am hoping around 40' up.  One end support is the 40 foot TV tower attached to my house and the other end is a tree over which the para cord will be tossed so the actual height of that end support remains to be seen.

The center of the antenna, since I am unable to 3D print at the library is going to be something I have used before for dipoles, although this one is a bit larger.  It is a PVC water line "T".  It's durable and lightweight and I can easily drill or melt holes for the wires to pass through :

Cheers for now,
72/73 de Scott

QRP Guys Multi Z Tuner completed

Carrying over from yesterday the last thing I had to do with the tuner construction was to wind and install the transformer.  There are 3 windings on this transformer: a primary with a center tap and 2 secondary windings of different sizes.  I wound it all up once but it was too sloppy so I removed all the windings and made it a lot tidier and tighter.  Below are the 3 stages of installing the first, second and third windings.

 Once that was wound I had to ensure all the enamel was off the leads and tin them.  I then fed them through the appropriate holes.  When I did this the first time I saw that there was some enamel still not scraped off so I pulled it back off the board and did a better job of stripping the enamel with the Xacto knife.  I then reinstalled it in the holes and soldered them in place.

Now the final touch was to install the PCB washer to hold the transformer in place and put the rubber feet on the back.

I have also included the circuit design which is also available in the assembly instructions on the Multi Z Tuner page on the QRP Guys' website.  

My next step now is to build my doublet and get it up in the air.  That will be happening in the next week or 2 weather permitting.

Cheers for now,

72/73 de Scott