I had created a channel on my Meshtastic node for SPARC and at the Elmer night, we signed people up to use it.

Name: SPARC
PSK: WVaaYi2B/GJWGJwgbyXH7+na142aLwend1+UA2W2CPo=

I encountered a bug using the ATU on R1CBU 0.29.2. I had lots of tunings very near each other, so it switched a lot. It queries and uses the nearest tuning to current frequency, so lots of close tunings will cause thrashing as you move. I cleared the atu table in params.db to alleviate the problem for a bit.

I had followed the these nice directions to build my 4:1 unun to use with a Rybakov and Tactical Delta Loop, but I made a mistake:

• the wires that come from the shield continue in opposite directions around the toroid
• on my bad build, they originally both went the same way side by side.
• the diagram is clear, if you look closely, but the picture is even clearer.

I tested the 4:1 with the tactical delta loop. It consists of:

• the 4:1 unun.
• 2 17-ft telescoping whips up diagonally 90 degrees from each other.
• 25-ft wire connecting the ends of the whips with alligator clips.
• 3d-printed plastic mount to hold it all at the bottom.
• screwdriver stuck through the mount into the ground to hold it up.
• alligator clips to connect the unun to each side of the loop.
• ground spike (screwdriver) wired to the ground side of the loop/unun.
• tuner is required to work 40M-6M. 80M and 160M didn’t want to tune.

My Week in Radio

• launched the newly-tuned slim-jim antenna
  • tuned the antenna, soldered in a bit more wire at the top
  • hung right below my quarter-wave
  • compared both antennas simultaneously with the 2 quansheng HTs with dBm measurements
  • lower antenna is for the Btech radio running APRS
  • upper antenna for general scanning and local
• learned about 900MHz radio at the SPARC meeting
• learned about satellite work at 21 lunch in Harrisburg
• had the thru-window cable flake out during check-in

Questions

• W3JAM, Jeff:
  • Has anyone used delving or divining rods for finding water or power lines?
  • KC3WWC, John:
    • Tried it as a kid with copper wire rods to find water and wires around the house.
    • Seemed much like the Ouija board with wires. Probably just recognized it.
  • KC3OOK, Bill: Had some well drillers do it, but seemed like part of the show.
  • WA3VEE, Ron:
    • Can’t see how it would work, especially a wooden stick.
    • Would need quite the field to cause movements in the wire
    • Probably easier to attribute it to minute recognitions of the douser.
  • KC3SQI, Wayne:
    • Has known dousers for water to use Green Willow Stick.
  • N3OGF, John:
    • His Dad doused for water lots of times.
  • W1RC, Mike:
    • There’s a Dousers Convention in Vermont.
  • KC3OOK, Bill:
    • His well is 300 ft down.
    • Water doesn’t really “flow” underground.
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • Knew a custom home builder who was a douser.
    • If you drilled somewhere else, would there still have been water?
    • Stick would rotate up and back toward him near the water line.
    • Sister tried it and felt it, even though she may have tried to fight the movement.
  • W3JAM, Jeff:
    • Read an article, and he’s trying to find a conductor.
    • Doesn’t think it’ll work.
• KC3MAI, Joe:
  • QRM, HF Noise on low bands.
    • S5 noise on 40m
    • S3 on 80M and 160M
  • Is a certain amount of noise to be expected? Can it be remediated?
  • WA3VEE, Ron:
    • QRM vs QRN: man-made vs natural
    • Static from lightning
    • Static from wind
    • Solar panel noise
    • Man-made noise can be fixed if it’s in your house
      • Try running off battery
      • Eliminate electrical things to see if anything fixes it
      • Cut the whole breaker
      • A dead short across the antenna may still see noise: thermal noise
        • noise floor
    • Neighborhood noise might be hard to remediate.
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • Has nearby PECO, appliances, Amtrak
    • Searched and found bad wall wart power supplies
    • Neighborhood plasma TV that growls on 75M
    • Has tracked down bad power line hardware
  • KC3MAI, Joe:
    • Has several Rokus that might have unclean power supplies.
  • KC3KFT, John:
    • Pole insulators on power lines can arc depending on weather, humidity, contamination.
    • 6M AM is a good band/mode for searching for noise also 2M AM.
    • Hit the pole with a sledge hammer to see if the noise changes
  • WA3VEE, Ron:
    • Crackling on hot humid nights near high voltage lines.
    • Wide-band spark
    • Every wire is an antenna, so could be an emitter.
    • CFL or LED lights
  • KD3ZIM, Bob:
    • Had a noise problem several years ago.
    • Called PECO, suspecting power line noise.
    • PECO traced the noise and fixed it.
      • cool receivers and spectrum analyzers
      • checked his scope in his shack and got started.
      • found the line 100-150yds from the house
      • heard the buzzing like welding.
      • cracked insulator on the pole
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • AM transistor radio is a good sensor for the noise
    • W3GMS, Joe, has some experience working with PECO
  • KB3ZIM, Bob:
    • Call PECO or Bob or Joe to get Dennis from PECO to do the search.
    • Power lines can carry the “transmission” miles
  • KC3WWC, John:
    • I’ve seen videos on Youtube of people searching
    • Electric company is responsible for cleaning up those emissions
    • You can build a tape-measure yagi for searching
    • POTA can be low noise area
    • Hear and see the crackles of very distant lightning.
    • Check the radio power supply

I launched the newly-tuned slim-jim antenna. With it hanging from the fan, it looked tuned. Hanging right next to the siding outside the window, it looked long.

I launched it into the tree to hang right below the quarter-wave. Hanging in the tree, it looks well-tuned. I compared both antennas simultaneously with the 2 Quanshengs, and the lower slim jim measures 10-20dBm lower than the higher quarter-wave when receiving.

W3IHM, Sam, presented the 900MHz band at the SPARC member meeting.

History

• 1926 - first regulation of amateur radio
  • before 1926, ban on anything belowe 200m
    • amateurs could do anything they want above 1.5MHz
• First regulations defined bands
  • harmonically related
• Amateurs imposed legislation for technical reasons
• 900MHz has been available to hams since 1926
• People wanted broadcast interference from ham radio gone in mid 1920s
• 1930s - allow anything above 110MHz
• 1935 - people were getting up to 3200MHz with magnetrons (spinning electron)
• Commercial broadcastsers pushed hams into bands and out of lower bands in 1920s when we started figuring out propagation in the ionosphere, and they wanted to broadcast around the world.
• war-1940 - we’re allowed above 300MHz
• 1941 - all ham radio is shutdown for war
• 1947 - military is reluctant to give back bands
  • bands shifted around a little
  • allowed up to 300GHz
• 1952 - added 15M
• 1979 - added WARC bands (12, 17, 30)
• 1986 - 33cm
• 2002 - 60M
• 2016 - 2200M, 630M
• Will we get 8M, 5M, and 4M like other parts of the world?

Characteristics

• 900MHz-928MHz
• Feed line loss is double that of 440MHz
• Antenna loss
• Atmospheric loss
• Simplex is pretty dismal
• Bounces well, like off airplanes
  • Once got Harrisburg to Philly bouncing off an airplane
  • Hit repeaters with Yagis and bounces
• It’s a shared band with some other services.

Possibilities

• Commercial radios with other software and surgery
• Harris radio - expensive software
• EF Johnson - free software, but needs surgery
• Alinco had something, but not available
• Kenwood TK981/481
• Retevis RT10 - 1W $80
• Listen with Quansheng, but filters won’t transmit.
• Baofeng with dirty harmonics might TX on 900MHz
• Baby monitors?
• SDR dongle
• Transverters

Shared Bands

• Power meters are everywhere in the middle of the band, and the noise causes the FM squelch to stay closed.
• Everyone’s trying to use the slivers on the end to avoid interference.
• Amplifiers can overcome the noisy power meters.
• Surplus amplifiers and antennas can be cheap.
• K3LV has a repeater in the area.
• Use it or lose it (already to the power meters).
• Power meters may go away after a while to move up to 2.4GHz
• Lots of competition for 900MHz - 2GHz - goes through the atmosphere easily.

My Week in Radio

• I attended the breakfast and heard a little about the National Traffic System from Vic. I’ve added some nets to my calendar.
• I’m in the logs for N4T, the DXpedition to Dry Tortugas with some locals.
  • CW and on FT8
• My favorite radios have new 3rd-party software:
  • Quansheng HTs got F4WHN 4.0 which includes a code fix I contributed
  • X6100 got R1CBU 0.29.2 which has fixes for handful of bugs I reported
• I continue playing with some mobile Winlink and APRS
• EFRW was being flaky with high SWR.
  • Cleaned all the connections outside.
  • It’s an unprotected temporary build with alligator clips.

Others

• KC3SCY, Luke: listening to some CW
• NA3CW, Chuck:
  • Led the breakfast.
  • 75M PM/AM Net
  • A professor of chemistry in CT liked our answer on the workbench about ice on the antenna. We never know who’s listening, so make it good.
• KB3ILS, Keith:
  • Straight key work since field day
  • POTA, State QSO Parties
  • 15-minute ragchew QSOs
  • Slower with the straight key, so people don’t “recognize” him.
  • ARRL DX contest: used paddles, boring exchanges.
  • Heard his own QSO in a youtube video
• KC3RFG, Jim:
  • Working on mobile antenna to clean it up.
• AF3Z, Jim:
  • Jumped up from 35WPM to 40WPM in weekly practice sked, and it was OK.
  • Working on heathkit project
• KC3TYX, Vic:
  • 2M nets
  • Breakfast
  • Another ARRL DX contest coming up this weekend, giving it a try.
• AB3AP, Mike:
  • Breakfast
  • Learning about direction of arrival for signals to locate signals of interest.
  • Some CW, but slower than Jim.
• W3QP, Tim:
  • Planning trips
  • Presentation for Pottstown Club
• K3FHA, John:
  • Repairing a 65-year-old radio.
  • Implementing a service bulletin to fix AGC.
  • Some HF nets
• WA3KFT, John:
  • Digging up lost gear
    • Halicrafters S38
    • Heathkit VF1 VFO
  • 6M and 2M work
• KC3OOK, Bill:
  • All the 985 activities
  • Simplex Net: 39 check-ins
  • Spending every day in the ham shack
• AA3LH, Leon:
  • Worked West Coast on 10m.
• KB3AIS, Tim:
  • Purchased ICOM 2730a for portable radio.
• KC3YIG, Dave:
  • Breakfast
  • Simplex Net
  • Building some shelves for the radio desk.
  • Contacted N4T on SSB on 20M and 40M.
• W3MOW, Mike:
  • Good to hear everyone’s favorite interests and achievements in radio.

Questions

• AF3Z, Jim:
  • NV102 SSB CW transciever
    • CW is working
    • SSB isn’t going out
    • He has the oscilliscope for tracing, 10x probe for attennuation, AC coupled.
    • Looking at all the parts, what is the best way to couple with the circuit without interfering with the circuit?
  • WA3KFT, John:
    • 10X probe should have helped
    • There is a 100X probe with very high impedance
    • Make a 2-3 turn coil of solid wire around a pencil, attach it to a bit of coax, poke around with that.
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • Put a little capacitance (2-3pF) in series on the end of the probe.
  • KC3SQI, Wayne:
    • Another way to make a “sniffer probe”: small wire loop on a piece of circuit board.
  • K3FHA, John:
    • Since SSB isn’t working, check that audio is getting into the modulator.
• AA3LH, Leon:
  • He has a 45-ft vertical antenna, end-fed from the bottom. It’s recommended to add an automatic tuner close to the antenna. Is 7-8 feet too far away? 14 gauge, 25ft, red/black twin lead to provide power. Is that too long?
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • power delivery is OK.
    • 7-8 feet is fine. It becomes part of the antenna.
  • KC3SQI, Wayne:
    • 14 gauge is fine for auto tuner
    • Agree with Chuck
• KD3AIS, Tim:
  • ICOM 2730A can hear the repeater, but no one can hear him.
  • W3MOW, Mike:
    • Thinking it’s a hardware issue, or is it programming?
  • KD3AIS, Mike:
    • Thinks the hardware is good, and the programming is good.
    • Has programmed previous radios for the repeater
  • W3QP, Tim:
    • Has a couple ICOMs.
    • Do you see the frequency shift while TX-ing? (It should.)
    • Try turning off the receive tone.
  • KD3AIS, Tim:
    • No receive tone programmed
    • Sees the shift
  • KC3SQI, Wayne:
    • Do you have RTSystems or other software to program it?
    • He could not program the same radio without using the RT-Systems software.
  • KD3AIS, Tim:
    • Has not yet used programming cable or software.
  • KC3SQI, Wayne:
    • There should be lots of indicators on the display for every little feature that’s enabled.
  • KC3WWC, John:
    • Debug from simplex, then use other repeaters, then check configs for 985.
  • W3MOW, Mike:
    • From reading the manual, 985’s split tones could be a challenge.
  • W8CRW, CR:
    • On ICOMs, the correct tone setting is T-TSQL / 100.
  • KC3RFG, Jim:
    • Had that radio years ago, and programmed it the first time with RT-Systems.
• N3RT, Jay:
  • Meritron amplifier, trying to hit Christmas Island on 15M CW.
  • He flipped it on and it popped the fuse on the 240V line.
  • Can he remove tubes to isolate and test the power supply?
  • Are the ceramic fuses slow blow?
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • Do you have HV experience?
  • N3RT, Jay:
    • Has replaced some things, but always operated with the cover on.
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • No problem turning it on with tubes removed.
    • Check manual about the fuse
    • Could be a complex interaction causing the pop of the fuse, like start-up resistor being blown.
• About my outside connections:
  • WA3KFT, John:
    • There’s a conducting grease for head bolts of an engine that he uses for outside connections, plus black plastic tape
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • Don’t get any on the dialectric (short)

a header at h3

I reconditioned my HF antenna. The SWR was being wonky and variable on the 107ft EFRW: jumping to 3:1 with tuner. I cleaned up the wire ends and alligator clips with sandpaper, reconnected them, and repositioned the counterpoise. Now I’m seeing 1.5:1 SWR with the tuner.

My Week in Radio

• I like radios with open software
  • F4HWN 4.0 alternate firmware released for Quansheng
    • includes fixes for the spectrum analyzer that I contributed
  • R1CBU 0.29.2 just released for Xiegu X6100
    • includes fixes for bugs I found and submitted
• I tried some APRS to the ISS from the Btech UV-PRO
• Did a little RTTY for NAQP
• Contacted N4T DXpedition on 20M yesterday
  • My CW was pretty rough
  • I could hear them with the EFHW for 40M in a park,
    • but not the upgraded 107ft EFRW at home
    • probably orientation

Others

• K3EA, Greg:
  • contests, space weather, DX
• WB3LNY, George:
  • debugging power problems: tighten your lugs in your panel
  • “Pale Blue” is a company in Utah making rechargeable Li-Ion batteries with USB charging port.
• VE3HOH, Pete:
  • designing an NVIS for 40m, fan dipole
  • maybe also a 10m vertical in it.
  • nice presentation from KA3TKW, Tom, on working satellites
• KA3TKW, Tom:
  • new FM bird: Hades R, SO-124, no telemetry yet.
  • ISS repeater and upcoming passes
  • AO-123 is new, FM repeater: 435.400 FM.
  • Ham Lunch this Thursday, noon.
    • presentation: Beginners Guide to FM Satellites
• KK4KKW, Steve:
  • some HF, but repeater started dropping
• W3MW, Don:
  • trying to purchase a spectrum analyzer, but UPS isn’t delivering it.
  • starting up attic/roof work for antennas.
  • testing 10GHz setup soon
• KC3ZBI, Ron:
  • working on antennas for some upcoming contests

I visited Gifford Pinchot State Part, US-1356, and strung up the EFHW from a picnic table to a tree. I managed it in 1 throw to a nice spot. I made 20 contacts:

• 18 FT8
• 2 CW, including N4T, the Dry Tortugas DXpedition

Using R1CBU 0.29.1, I knew to pay special attention to undo the AM bug from SWR Scan by switching through modes after an SWR Scan. In this firmware, though, WSJTX would set digital mode (USB-D) and it would bounce back to USB, which doesn’t take sound from the connection to the computer. I had to work around it by disabling WSJTX’s ability to set the mode. Then I could set USB-D and it would stay there.