I made my first trip to US-1426, Swatara State Park for a quick activation. I stretched the 41-foot EFRW to a tree right from the car window, and made 13 FT8 contacts on 40m.

I had a bit of bad coax on the most recent POTA, so I set out to test and repair it. I saw no damage to the cable or connectors, but there wasn’t continuity across the middle wire.

Which end is likely bad? I connected each end to the nanovna with a Smith Chart. I found on one end, the smith chart traced a spiral around the outside of the circle. The other side did not react at all, like I hadn’t connected anything. For comparison, I tried another cable I figured was good. That other cable had continuity to each end, and both ends each traced a spiral on the smith chart. The length of the spiral seemed to be related directly to the length of the coax: shorter traced shorter and longer traced longer.

So with that, I replaced the one end that didn’t react, and now the cable looks good.

I was using the 71-foot (21.64m) EFRW antenna at home, and I noticed SWR was surprisingly low as measured by the X6100 with the tuner disabled. I suspected loss on the feed line, but I also found this video of another person not using a tuner with the same antenna.

I disconnected my feed line at different places to find SWR jumps way high, so the measurement is working:

• inside window
• outside window
• at the antenna

Does a very long wire have low SWR for everything? Is the 9:1 giving low SWR? The antenna’s working fine, and FT8 shows far-flung signals like always. Disconnecting antenna wire raised SWR above 1.5:1, but not much. Even with wires disconnected from the balun, it’s receiving a very few FT8 signals on 10m, and I can still transmit, but it’s folding back power with SWR just below 2. The tuner is definitely needed for 6m.

My Week in Radio

• ISS on scan, so I caught part of an image
  • passes are a bit early right now, and low
• Nice weather
  • local POTA including a couple solid CW
  • some maintenance of the VHF antennas
• Noticed today I can disable the tuner on my random wire antenna and still get OK SWR
  • sounds like loss to me
  • but putting 5W into the wire is still getting identifiable weak signals to Europe, Alaska, etc.
• Reading the AllStar manuals
• Adding 4:1 balun to my list of things to build
  • delta loop
  • Rybakov vertical

Others

• KC3SCY, Luke:
  • crystal receiver
• W8CRW, CR:
  • working on a 10m antenna
• W1RC, Mike:
  • likes SWR tools, since antennas are the final frontier
• AF3Z, Jim:
  • took the Kenwood mobile out of the car to replace the memory battery
  • how’s my audio?
• NA3CW, Chuck:
  • Jim is low
  • arcing in a band switch, so disconnected 10m taps to avoid problems
    • added some feed line and changed antennas, so maybe time to try fixing it to do 10 again.
    • works now
  • finding some bad solder joints in some coax.
  • been in repair mode
• KC3OOK, Bill:
  • working on Joe’s tower again soon
• WA3VEE, Ron:
  • presenting in Pottstown on Friday on antenna analyzers
  • May be visiting the field day site
• KC3YIG, Dave:
  • picked up Alaska
• W3QP, Tim:
  • 2 SOTAs in Western PA
  • new Retevis 25W radio
• KV3JGB, Matt:
  • fixing some lines to get an antenna up in some trees
    • it’s working
    • first contact on 10M
    • also 15M for a rag chew
  • starting CWOps on Friday
• KB3ZIM, Bob:
  • published in latest QST, page 20
• KC3NZT,
  • testing coax with NanoVNA

Questions

• KC3SWC, Charles:
  • How do 12V batteries apply to Winter Field Day? li-ion, lead acid, deep cycle lead acid, AGM, gold cart batteries, lifepo4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each.
    • WA3VEE, Ron:
      • at field day, we won’t be charging any batteries inside
      • uses AGM and lifepo4 for radios, no trouble in cold weather
      • AGM vents, so ensure it has ventilation
    • W3QP, Tim:
      • lifepo4 is a good choice for amateur radio
        • lighter
        • output amperage is usually only 2x capacity
    • W3MFB, Mike:
      • used marine cells lots
• W3FES, Fred:
  • Troubleshooting a switching power supply.
  • Rated for 15 amps.
  • Running a radio, 15W output
  • Voltage drops to 8V.
  • What can he do to diagnose the problem in the power supply?
  • WA3VEE, Ron:
    • need to look at the manual to see ratings
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • switching power supplies are usually working or dead

My Week in Radio

• ISS on scan, so caught part of an image
  • passes are a bit early right now, and low
• POTA yesterday:
  • 2 CW + 28 FT4 contacts on 20m
  • pretty rusty on throwing the line into the trees
  • bad section of coax
• some antenna maintenance on a nice day

Others

• K3EA, Greg:
  • Special event station with local station:
    • W2T, Battle of Trenton
    • W2P, Battle of Princeton
  • Contests
    • Canadian Winter Contest
    • next weekend
      • ARRL kids
      • ARRL RTTY Round Up
    • NA QSO party
    • https://contestcalendar.com/
  • Propagation report and DX
    • Dominica
    • Fiji: 3D2GE, CW only
    • watch the DX clusters
  • after DXCC award, go for every country on every band.
• WB3LNY, George
  • built a new pc with chirp, and synced up all his HTs
• VE3HOH, Pete
  • cleanup, indoors.
• KA3TKW, Tom:
  • ISS on night shift: good passes aren’t during the day.
    • there’s a packet digipeater
    • SSTV is active
    • it was only doing telemetry over the weekend
  • good passes for SO-50
  • https://n2yo.com/
  • ham lunch had about 32 people
  • thanks Glen for talking about DXCC
  • zbitx
    • 5 watt QRP SDR TRX
    • will be buying one
    • shipping in February
    • 44 bit ADC
• K3DMM, Denny
  • caught SO-51 with a Baofeng 701
• KC3VZU, Bob:
  • setup a new TYT 9000D with a slim jim outside
• KK4KKW, Steve:
  • new end fed antenna strung into the trees, inverted L, trying it on 10M
• KC3ZBI, Ron:
  • new antenna that’s not on the car now,

Swap and Shop

• WB3LNY, George
  • dummy loads
• VE3HOH, Pete
  • paddles, bugs
    • vibroplex
    • brown brothers
  • oscilliscopes
  • a couple Drake TR7s
  • tower sections
  • a couple Kenwood 130s
  • email is good on http://qrz.com/
• KA3TKW, Tom:
  • 2 shortwave receivers: RadioShack DX440
    • 0-30MHz all mode
  • UHF motorola repeaters, 25W
  • Yaesu FT1XD, dual band, APRS
• K3MIJ, Troy
  • looking for a commercial propane generator

The 1/4-wave ground plane antenna in the tree dropped its feedline, so I brought it down to reattach it and resolder the radials.

I also walked down the yagi on the pole to straighten some elements, since it was a nice day. The yagi was spinning around in the wind, so I also changed the way it’s mounted to clamp it more securely.

I also added some reigns to the mast, so I can (try to) spin it from inside the window. It works well some times but not others. The pole can freeze to the ground.

I activated US-9719 Susquehanna Riverlands. The tempurature was decent, though a little bit of a mist. I got lots of practice throwing very high in the tree. I used all my throw line to hoist my EFHW into the air. Some people lingered to watch while I struggled to get just the right branch.

I found a large section of coax was bad, so had to scramble a little to get enough cable. I worked 20M to get 2 CW park-to-park contacts and 28 more FT4 contacts

My Week in Radio

• Walked down the 35-foot flagpole to do some antenna maintenance in the cold
• Hunting a handful of CW POTA contacts
• Waiting for a good snow day to curl up with the AllStar manual and ARRL antenna book
• Thinking about my path through ham radio and focus on digital modes and CW, not spending much time with SSB
• ISS will be transmitting SSTV on 145.800MHz, 25 December - 5 Januaary

Others

• KC3SCY, Luke:
  • On 10m, not so busy this past week
  • Working crystal set
• K3FHA, John:
  • Fixing up and using an antique radio
• KC3TYX, Vic:
  • Diagnosing/repairing a fan problem in a power supply
• NA3CW, Chuck:
  • 2M rig in car would shutoff during TX
    • PL259 connector was loose
• AF3Z, Jim:
  • Working 10m
  • Working a couple CW contacts: Europe, etc.
  • Organizing the shack: radio, photography, etc
• KV3JGB, Matt:
  • Fighting with a tree to get an antenna mounted
• KC3SQI, Wayne:
  • Talking to Los Angeles then Greenland
  • Propagation shifts
• W3DIB, Greg:
  • Reverse-engineering the serial protocol of a Yaesu radio

Questions

• W8CRW, CR: From the news, how would one use WSPR to find a downed airplane?
  • WA3VEE, Ron: they could be searching for the weak beacon on 121MHz
  • KC3SQI, Wayne: May have been looking at WSPR logs to look at reflected signals between stations. reddit
• AF3Z, Jim:
  • What is it about WSPR that makes people think they can use it to search for anomolies?
    • KC3WWC, John:
      • WSPR is used to test propagation and reach. you send signals for a few minutes, and others report back through a central database without needing to have a conversation or to be even able to get a signal back the other way.
      • There’s a huge volume of data that was collected centrally as the plane traveled.
• AF3Z, Jim:
  • Recounted his understanding of fuses and how they fail according to voltage rating.
  • NA3CW, Chuck: Failure means they can explode.
  • KC3SQI, Wayne:
    • Father saw huge 4-foot-long industrial fuses explode after lightning strike.

My Week in Radio

• ARRL 10m contest:
  • 13 CW contacts logged on paper
  • Iambic keyer set to 20 WPM somewhat confidently
  • Still relying on radio to decode for me
• Hunting some CW POTA activators through the week
• Practicing copying CW
• Latest beta of Meshtastic app on Android is reconnecting automatically
• ISS SSTV 25 Dec - 4 Jan

Others

• K3EA, Greg:
  • FT8 whack-a-mole
  • Saw some RTTY contests
  • Canadian contest next weekend
  • https://contestcalendar.com/
  • Jan 4-5 is RTTY Roundup
  • Kids day
  • Good space weather, peak of solar cycle
  • DX
    • Phillipines
    • French Guyana
• WB3LNY, George:
  • Diagnosing heating connections on large electrical panel
• NE3H, Joe:
  • Spoke at length with a bunch of old acquaintances from Taiwan
• KC3VZU, Bob:
  • Installing some coax and a 220MHz rig
• KD3AGU, Richard:
  • Licensed 3 weeks ago
  • Setting up DMR
  • Listening to a net in Ephrata
• K3DMM, Denny:
  • 16F outside, so no fun standing outside for satellite work
  • Tuned some mobile antennas
  • Worked a couple ISS passes
  • Good SO-50 pass
  • Looking forward to lunch on Thursday
• WA3WIJ, Ron:
  • Rebuilding Halicrafters radio with caps and tubes
  • Preparing for straight key night
• KC3ZBI, Ron:
  • Working on an outside antenna
  • Trying for 12 days of Christmas Event
• N7JMS, Jon:
  • Got some new countries on FT8/FT4
  • Building a 10M loop antenna
  • Is there any C4FM or Fusion available in the Harrisburg area?
    • K3DMM, Denny: 447.925

I watched a video about NVIS NVIS achieves 75-90 degree take-off, very vertical, and about a 400-mile range. It can get you over obstacles. It’s most effective on 40m and 80m.

To build it, mount a dipole 1/8 wavelength above ground, horizontal. Add a reflector almost on the ground, 5% longer, to keep the ground from absorbing the signal.