I added some sections to the flag pole to reach 37 feet, and I increased elements on the home-made yagi from 2 elements to 4 elements. Upon adding elements, I needed to stretch the driven element a couple millimeters longer to tune it. In testing, I’m seeing about -100 RSSI listening to W3GMS on a Quansheng. It was about -105 RSSI when mounted lower and only 2 elements.

My Week in Radio

• I received a couple images from ISS, but it ended quicker than I realized.
• JARTS RTTY contest coming this weekend
• I did a little CW for POTA.
• Trying to reach a little further over a hill and to the East
  • building a yagi on a flag pole from a calculator using ARRL spacing
  • 50W TYT radio
• This Week in Ham Radio Podcast Ham Radio History:
  • 1916, amateurs exploring propagation
  • 1917 first, faster trans-continental relays with ARRL

Others

• K3EA
  • Upcoming ARRL Sweepstakes for CW
  • Munsters had a Ham Radio episode
• KA3TKW
  • W3UU Harrisburg Ham Fest this Saturday
  • ARRIS mission on 24 Oct, 11:15AM, 145.800MHz
  • Tri-repeater is up: 224.210 PL 123.0, 449.925, 53.21
• KK4KKW
  • Sudden SWR reading on 40M antenna

I went camping and activating Pine Grove Furnace, US-1398, and Michaux Forest, US-5471. I stretched the EFHW over the parking lot, because I thought it wouldn’t be busy. I got 21 FT8 contacts and 2 CW contacts to other parks.

Tilt-up Flag Pole

I figured out to do a tilt-up flag pole against the house reaching 25 feet into the air. It sits on a stake in the garden, and is secured to the house with paracord in an eyelet and hook screwed into the side of the roof.

2-Element Yagi

I built a new 2-element yagi using an online calculator It tuned OK with the banana-clip adapter directly connected to the driven element. I first tuned the dipole, and then added the reflector element. As predicted, it shifted the tuning slightly, so I trimmed the driven element to retune. The nice thing is that the spacings and sizes of the original elements don’t change as you add more director elements, so I calculated it with 2 or 3 directors, but put none in for the first iteration. I can add more elements later.

I gave it a try to reach 985 with the TYT TH-9800 running 50W. It was scratchy, but copy-able. I have more flag pole sections ordered to make it a little higher.

My week in Radio

• I saw aurora for the first time, and I got some nice photos.
• I visited K3IR tower sight in Mount Joy during PA QSO party
  • I listened to people contesting, but didn’t participate.
• TYT TH-9800: 50W into the tape measure yagi, tried it on the roundtable, still have work to do
• I threw my main 71-foot EFRW higher into another tree.
• I watched my flagpole and yagi in the wind
  • walked it down while I had a kid here to help
  • scoping a new location for it as a tilt-up attached to the house
  • collecting pieces for some experiments in engineering

Questions

• W8CRW, CR:
  • National Electronics Museum is hosting a class for general license.
  • How far from the mast should a vertical yagi antenna be installed?
  • Can it be installed 45-degrees to be used for both horizontal and vertical?
    • WA3VEE, Ron: some have had success at 45 degrees for satellites.
    • KC3SQI, Wayne: 45-degree will lose you 1.5dB
• WA3VEE, Ron: what is the ideal thickness for a bus-bar to which you’re mounting a lightning arrester.
  • KC3RFG, Jim:
    • 1/4-inch minimum. thicker won’t hurt anything.
    • mechanically strong (bolted) instead of soldered
    • woven ground strap is best, but 6AWG stranded is good.
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • avoid inductance, so use strap or bar, not wire
    • no right angles, no coils, no spirals
• KC3RFG, Jim: Hearing ignition noise on HF on battery or on truck power. How best can one eliminate that noise?
  • KC3SQI, Wayne: Remove the mast from the coax and see if you still have the noise. If it’s still there, then it’s coming from power cables. Try a better ground directly to the battery. On vehicles that rust, bolts don’t ground so well after a while, so then you get lots of grounds connecting back through the antenna.
  • KC3KZB, Aaron: go for a short ground, and keep ground wire away from ignition wires
• KC3SQI, Wayne: What’s the mechanical strength for 1.5-inch conduit?
  • WA3VEE, Ron: See Ugly’s Electrical Reference.
  • KC3RFG, Jim: that’s right.
• KC3WWC. John: I like that I can build my transformers and cut, measure, and test wire antennas, Is it practical to build, iterate, expand a homebrew yagi?
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • blatant plagarism: they’ve been around for a long time.
    • modeling programs, manuals, existing antennas.
    • different goals: gain, bandwidth, front-to-back ratio examples in the antenna book
    • software
    • moxon antenna: 2 element yagi with bent ends, massive front-to-back ratio
      • great for direction-finding: forward to get in the neighborhood, then reverse to find the null where it disappears
      • not much gain though
• W8CRW, CR: Is there a program for windows to map out a computer network?
  • W3DIB, Greg:
    • there are lots of tools to probe and fingerprint machines to try to disclose the host OS.
    • also ping, angryping, etc.

My Week in Radio

• I saw some antennas at the Ham Fest, but I couldn’t bring myself to buy any. I’ll build.
• I passed extra at the Ham Fest
  • I guess enough workbench discussion sunk into my brain.
  • Found I can download and search a copy of the entire ULS database like some of those other helpful websites that show available callsigns.
• POTA along the Susquehanna River.
  • Normal FT8 to get to 10 contacts.
  • 1 CW contact, and it wasn’t painful.
  • I tested out my newest printed EFHW antenna winder.
• Running and comparing Meshtastic and APRS more
  • Why use it?

Other News

• WA3VEE, Ron, PA QSO Party this weekend.
• KC3SCY, Luke, switched his loose couple radio from diode to cat whisker.
• KC3ZSJ, Gary, is playing with new antennas.
• W3FES, Fred, has a new FT-60R
• AF3Z, Jim, is headed to Cornwall Ranger Station for PA QSO Party

Questions

• KC3SZO, Chris: How can I overcome some terrain in the way of my RF?
  • WA3VEE, Ron: Antenna in the attic
  • NA3CW, Chuck: VHF isn’t exactly line-of-sight, so there is hope.
  • KC3WWC, John: Lower YAGI inside had advantages over a higher outside ground plane quarter wave.
• AA3LH, Leon: Let’s confirm repeater settings for this old radio and new antenna going in the car.
• KC3WWC, John:
  • I could change my callsign now.
  • I’ve only used this one for a year, so not super-attached.
  • For contesting, I see the benefit of a shorter call, so I might ultimately consider phonetic and morse weight.
  • How did you choose your vanity call? What strategies should I consider?
  • NA3CW, Chuck: initials.
  • W8CRW, CR: initials.
  • AA3LH, Leon: initials, and wanted an “A” call.
  • AF3Z, Jim: assigned by FCC. Consider how it sounds in CW.
  • WA3VEE, Ron: assigned, and sounds cool.
    • He also has K3DTS for the campus location of his old club.
    • quick and simple for CW
    • 1-by-1 is for special events.
    • easy to understand, so stay clear of confusing letters; V, C, Z, etc.
    • sound in sideband: normal or phonetic.
  • KC3OOK, Bill: assigned.
    • catching phonetic for DX
    • NA3NA was catchy.
    • KC3QQD is funny: Quack Quack Duck
  • Callsign ideas:
    • KD3FN
    • KB3VI
    • KC3VI
    • AA3WW
    • AA3KK

W3RRR Ham Fest

I passed the test for Amateur Extra: 40/50 correct. I needed 37 correct.

US-4567, Captain John Smith Trail

• POTA with Matthew, KC3WRY, at the boat launch under train tracks south of Marietta.
• FT8 on 20M
• 1 CW P2P contact on 20M. I didn’t fumble so much.
• I used the newly-printed and rebuilt EFHW winder and throw line. The velcro strap remains a problem for snagging the line.

My Week in Radio

• I moved the tape-measure yagi to the top of a 25-foot flagpole in the backyard.
  • 10 W, but not quite doing it.
  • There’s still too much of a hill.
• I upgraded the X6100 baseband, stock firmware, and 3rd-party firmware.
• Some CW
  • barely got 2 CW contacts hunting POTA, but I got into their logs
  • heard AF3Z on 40m out on his trip
  • morsle app to practice copying CW words and call signs
• I redesigned and printed a new antenna winder.
• I heard some AM and some RTTY during contests.
• I cleaned up and organized all the radio stuff from the move instead of contesting.
• I’m going to try for my extra ticket at the next Ham Fest.

Others’ News

• KB3RFG, Jim: all the bands open today in lots of directions
• NA3CW, Chuck: lot’s of AM fun
• AF3Z, Jim
  • spectated some RTTY contesting
  • 10m CW conversations
• WA3VEE, Ron: LMR400 (KMR400) coax is lowest loss practical

Questions

• KN3I, John: How does one make an AM rig sound good? Carrier power, modulation, etc.

10 meter started opening today. With 5 watts, I got to Hawaii and Greenland.

Xiegu released another updated firmware for the X6100: APP 1.1.9 & BASE 1.1.8, dated 2024-09-23.

1. I downloaded it from Radioddity, and wrote it to an SD card:

$ sudo dd if=sdcard.img of=/dev/sda bs=1M status=progress

2. I booted the new card for the app upgrade to 1.1.9,
3. I applied baseband 1.1.8 from the menu in the UI.
4. I tried the CW key in the stock firmware, and it transmitted (unlike last time).
5. I booted back to R1CBU, and it looked good there as well.

I did a little FT8, decoded some CW, and listened to some SSB on 40m. I found I could to turn the RF Gain closer to 100 instead of below 63. It may be reading slightly lower power on the display before ALC kicks in: up to but not over the 5W, where it used to often push a little past.

It’ll stay.