Workbench

My Week in Radio

• Mobile APRS is proving to be really short-range
  • Couldn’t even spot myself outside at Sam Lewis up on the hill
  • Cycled with it, but no traffic
  • Needs a real antenna
• Some POTA
  • Sam Lewis, US-1418
    • found the leading park activator, kn3a, in my spot. :)
    • storms rolling in, so called it quits
    • watched 20m slam shut: decoding 30 signals to 4
  • Susquehanna River, US-4567
    • Columbia Riverfront Park that’s open after sunset
    • spanned into the next day…again, so had an incomplete and a complete activation.
• Got an FT8 contact to Israel with 5W from home: first Asia for me.
• Weekly RTTY Test and FT4 sprint
• Ham radio software may not be the most efficient
  • fldigi left running but disconnected from radio ran CPU at 95C doing nothing.
  • GridTracker likes to burn cpu too when left running.
• AB3AP, Mike, on EZ-Hang slingshot: I’ve given up the slingshot and just swing my throw line by hand.
• KB3ILS, Keith: there are scripts online for 3d-modeling any size knob you need.

Questions

• W3JAM, Jeff:
  • Does anyone have experience using Drake TR4CW on AM?
  • Can you add a noise blanker to this radio?
    • Noise blanker would alleviate pulsing noise from electric fence.
    • Jeff will be getting the entire manual library on CD, which will have information.
• KC3OOK, Bill:
  • How do you connect a NanoVNA to an open wire feed line?
  • WA3VEE: Would you need a balun to start getting close to impedance to match the expected 50 ohm?
  • W3JAM: Doesn’t matter so much where it’s tuned, since you use it with a tuner anyway.
  • NA3CW:
    • You don’t want it to be resonant anyway, because being resonant will give you the largest extremes to tune when trying to move to other bands.
    • NanoVNA may be limited on the impedance it can read.
    • Dipole should be at least as long as half wave + a little
    • He extended a wire to get it to tune where it wouldn’t.
• WA3VEE, Ron:
  • SOCO connectors carry 208V. When rewiring those connectors, what’s a good caulk-like sealant that could be used for “potting” the inside of the plugs?
    • Plain bathroom caulk can be conductive.
    • Silicon may breakdown at lower voltage than needed too.

My Week in Radio

• During last workbench, I used the TYT HT in crossband for the whole net. It gets hot but works.
• I found a bug in the Aubs firmware on my Quansheng radios. It skipped lots of my repeaters for a day.
• Trying the TIDRadio TD-H8 tonight on M/5W power with the good old tape measure Yagi. It’s sounding really nice here.
• On linux, I found cwcp for CW training. I run it at 20wpm with a very slow 20-dot gap.
• I’ve been trying APRS with QRZ-1, an 8-year-old Nexus phone, and a btech APRS cable.
• POTA in York:
  • I had a terrible time throwing into trees that were too high.
  • Resorted to an inverted-V EFHW, 2ft-10ft off the ground with telescoping fishing pole.

Questions

• KB3ILS, Keith
  • How does a hack learn to read basic schematics: conventional or electron current flow?
  • Tips for reading schematics?
  • Chuck, NA3CW
    • Except when dealing with tubes, work in conventional current.
    • Diode and transistor arrows show positive to negative (conventional) flow.
    • Inside tubes the electron flow is shown negative to positive.
    • Reading schematics:
      • Look up different circuit functions
        • Amplifier
        • Audio oscillator
        • etc
      • recognize those groupings as a “block diagram”.
      • learn to read like a block of functions
      • trace with your finger
  • WA3VEE, Ron
    • Think of circuit groups as mechanical operations.
• KC3YIG, Dave
  • Recommendations for distributing power to multiple radios?
  • Astron powering 2 kenwoods: 25w and 65w, 2m and HF base stations.
  • W3QP, Tim
    • Ham Radio Workbench has a nice power distribution block as a kit:
      • 1 anderson power polse for input
      • 5 anderson power poles for output
  • WA3VEE, Ron
    • PowerWorx gear for power poles
  • KC3NZT, Harvey:
    • Anderson power pole has become standard in ham radio.
• KC3NZT, Harvey
  • Operating internationally, in Canada, do we just add “/ve3” to call?
  • W3QP, Tim
    • That’s right for Canada, as long as you’re there temporarily, up to 180 days or so.

Upcoming Hamfest

Reading Radio Club will host their hamfest in Sinking Springs.

My Week in Radio

• Great to see everyone at the breakfast, especially Luke’s loose couplers.
• POTA after the breakfast at Marsh Creek with Vic, KC3TYX
  • 20m was the place to be, but 2 of us operating, so we had to take shifts with our own radios.
• Prime Day Shopping
  • microcord
  • TYT HT for 10w crossband repeater
    • I’m using it now as the repeater
    • Less tethered to the outside antenna
    • Top of the radio/sma is 50C after repeating for an hour on power
  • TinySA
  • Raspberry Pi Zero W kits
• APRSDroid: phone & radio
  • email gateway
  • POTA spotting

Notes from Others

• solarham.com
• Reading Ham Fest coming up
• VE session at Stateline Radio Club

Questions

• KC3WWC: What’s cool about APRS?
  • APRS weather station
  • PWS monitor app to find weather stations near me
  • Other gateway frequencies?
  • Check with CCAR/ARES/RACES nets for their uses.
• KC3WWC: In Galenium detector, how does one know when the cat whisker is right?
  • Joe, W3GMS
    • put on headphones
    • move spring arm with stiff wire (cat whisker)
    • touch it to the galenium
    • move around to find the hot spot where it’s louder
    • germanium diode conducts at very low voltages, so easy
    • loose couplers don’t work so well in a crystal set, since it’s lossy
    • spark era - 1913
    • before galenium, there was a tube with metal filings, a “coherer”.
      • activate a buzzer
      • tap that would fall and reset the coherer
    • after galenium, then audion tube
    • imperative to have a very big antenna to capture as much signal as possible.
    • drive diode into forward current
    • Heathkit made a collectible kit
      • tightly coupled
      • voltage increase in the second coil
      • higher Q, so could be made more selective
    • Luke, KC3SCY, counted 20 different stations one night
  • Chuck, NA3CW
    • fox-hole radio: rusty razor blade, lead pencil, coil, safety pin, oatmeal box, wire
    • galena: ore of lead sulfide
    • immerse the galena in base of lead solder
    • grope around quietly to find magic spot where it works best
    • same thing with foxhole radio
    • uses oxide for detecting, not stainless
    • galena has 0.4V drop, like germanium diode
  • Ron, WA3VEE
    • has a marconi cat whiskey receiver
    • 0.4V can be converted to dBm, and it’s a pretty large signal required
    • predates any amplification
• WA3VEE: What is the most important measure of solar activity we need to consider?
  • most profound affect on propagation?
  • KC3RFP: a-index (9 or lower) k-index (5 or lower)
  • Tamitha Skov website and youtube

My Week in Radio

• I saw Ron’s photos from Sussex County Ham Fest
  • I only go looking for connectors and gadgets, not real gear.
• Enjoyed Luke’s talk at breakfast
  • cat whisker and spark gap
  • reminds me of the books I read as an elementary student
    • crystal radios
    • want to build one again and see about tuning it for medium and shortwave
• POTA: Caledonia
  • used the 12.5M EFRW instead of EFHW
  • afternoon, 40m was dead
  • 20m and 15m was very busy with SSB contesters
  • 15, 17, 20: all EU, and very little local, via FT8 and SSB, but they couldn’t hear me.
    • atmospheric diode?
  • only made 4 contacts in the hour I tried
• Tape Measure YAGI is amazing for hearing the workbench
  • I didn’t want to need to pick a direction, but seems OK for these longer sessions
• Purchased an inexpensive variac
  • so now I need an old radio with some questionable capacitors. :)
• I’ll be at the breakfast, then finding a park to activate afterward.
• Writing a bit for the blog in down times

Others’ News

• Ron, WA3VEE
  • Sussex County Ham Fest
  • photos
• Luke, KC3SCY
  • spark gap and cat whisker
    • receiver working
  • GOJO cleaner without abrasive is good for cleaning wood
• Keith, KB3ILS
  • Lots of extended propagation on 2m
• Jack, K3YVQ
  • listening to longer-distance simplex on 2m calling frequency
• Jim, AF3Z
  • some CW
  • contests upcoming
    • IARU HF contest
    • SKCC Sprintathon
    • Flight of the Bumblebees QRP

Question

• Perseids meteor storm coming this month, What’s involved in working meteor scatter?
  • Widen topic to: Any special propagation modes?
  • Jim: e-skip?
  • Row, WA3VEE:
    • Tropospheric ducting
      • temperature inversion
      • listen to FM broadcast in the morning
        • difficult to hear local
        • hearing much longer distances
        • it’s a mess of overlap
        • means there’s an opening in 2m
      • dxinfocentre.com for tropo forecasts
    • Meteor showers
      • listen to 6m.
  • Chuck, NA3CW
    • Signal around the world
      • 1-2 second delay to hear your own “hello”
      • Japan at 10w
      • 1-way propagation
        • atmosphere is turbulent
        • photons strike into ionized air molecules and electrons
        • the wave jiggles the electrons in the air, and they retransmit
          • this “reflection”
        • signals going the other direction may hit different conditions along the way.
  • KC3WWC: antenna orientation?
  • W1RC, Mike:
    • Digital modes for studying propagation, since it can be monitored
  • WA3VEE, Ron
    • EM energy is released when an electron drops into a lower orbital
    • RBN and pskreporter

My Week in Radio

• I had time off, so lots of Parks on the Air
  • The entire Susquehanna River is considered US-4567 as the Captain John Smith Chesapeake Trail
  • I scouted some spots along the river.
  • I’ve been trying SSB P2P contacts first, then digital modes.
• I found Ron, WA3VEE, and other familiar faces at Harrisburg Hamfest.
• I got 9 of the 13 colonies on SSB and FT8, usually at parks.
• That adjacent net on W3HZU was still a problem on my Quansheng HTs.
  • I’m trying the similarly cheap QRZ-1 Explorer tonight. It’s almost as bad.
  • I’m also trying the tape-measure yagi right now for some gain toward 985 and rejection toward 970.

Questions of the Night

• CR, W8CRW: What would an air compressor from UK (230V, 50Hz) do on 240V/60Hz?
  • Induction motor may run 20% faster, out of spec, wear out more quickly
  • Starting capacitor for the motor may not be compatible
  • May be able to introduce a phase change transformer
• Bill, KC3OOK: NVIS experiences for close contacts?
  • Jack, K3YVQ: good experience with “trapezoid-shaped” antenna wire: horizontal with ends dropped at an angle.
  • Harvey, KC3NZT:
    • half-wave above ground for better DX.
    • a second low antenna may not be worth the trouble of installing.
    • wait for a quiet time and get through to your target contact.
  • Jim, KC3RFG: Got 12mi to Philadelphia. Maybe that was ground-wave.
  • Jim, AF3Z: 10ft off the ground, a couple hundred miles
  • Chuck, NA3CW: “intentional NVIS” = 6ft off ground the whole way with counterpoise directly below, parallel to radiator.
  • Harvey, KC3NZT:
    • model verticals in EZNEC software
    • see lobes in radiation pattern
    • can be quite NVIS at some lengths
• Jack, K3YVQ: Mounting and grounding an antenna on a kayak.
  • Harvey, KC3NZT: tape on the underside as a ground plane
  • Leon, AA3LH: glue a plate to the bottom
  • John, KC3WWC: float a wire on something floaty to keep it on the surface, see Coastal Waves and Wires on Youtube.
  • Wayne, KC3SQI: install foil tape like transducer for a fish finder

My Week in Radio

• I’ll miss field day.
• POTA around Harrisburg, York, and Lancaster.
  • Mostly FT8/FT4
  • Also have been chase some phone park-to-park, and have been getting good reports with my little QRP radio
  • Exclusively testing the 20m-long EFHW I built.
• Upgrading firmware from a 3rd party for my x6100, and my own patch to show me band boundaries by privilege
• Moved the 1/4 wave ground-plane antenna higher in the tree.
• Always get perplexing interference at start of this net, otherwise clear all day. It’s a net on the big repeater over in York that’s 15khz lower. Maybe I need to build a yagi next, so I can get more directional.

Other Discussion

• Vic (KC3TYX) was making contacts with VARAC, not for winlink. The software let’s you beacon on 14.105MHz, and has 15 slots (channels) near the calling frequencies for conversation. Fire a beacon or 2, and check pskreporter to see if anyone’s listening.
• Lots of digital modes have conventional calling frequencies.
• WB8NUT website has sounds of digital modes. http://wb8nut.com/digital/
• Jim (AF3Z) suggests a 5khz shift to help alleviate interference from W3HZU’s net on 145.970, so I redefined 985 as 146.990MHz with a -605MHz offset. That works in a test after the net.
• Trying to move things around in the radio blew away the offset and PL when I saved the new 990 frequency. The computer works better or that programming.

My Week in radio

The Vertical EFHW

I Tested my 20m EFHW wire and unun on 2 different POTA outings In an inverted v with a counterpoise, it worked pretty well, but could be shortened. As a vertical, the SWR was higher, and the counterpoise made it worse. I compared the vertical EFHW to the trusty old EFRW in a mostly vertical configuration. That one had exhibited a terrible SWR as well with or without counterpoise. Maybe I needed more radials instead of a counterpoise? I have 2 ARRL antenna books, basic and the big one, so I could read, I suppose. During these experiments, my computer experienced some common-mode interference too.

Custom Antenna Winder

I 3D-printed a nice customized winder with the transformer attached. I modified the code to be parameterized to any size I want.

More VHF

I’ve been discovering I can hear some further repeaters using the spectrum analyzer feature on my Quansheng, so I’ve been adding more repeaters to the scan.

Thoughts on My Vertical Antenna Problem

• You can tune and end-fed at one angle, and it can have a different swr at another angle.
• They’re sensitive to objects in their near field. Is the unun near ground or branches? The same goes for the other end of the antenna. Try changing the orientation.
• The ends are high-voltage, so they’re sensitive to capacitance. The middle is high-current, low-voltage.
• Vertical antenna will have very different conditions at each end. inverted-V or horizontal will have more similar conditions at each end.
• RF comes from the current in the middle.
  • Vertical is an inexact science.
  • The tree effects it.
  • 50ft of coax helps provide RF ground, and less can be a problem.
• Watch height of unun.
• The Smith chart on the NanoVNA can help evaluate what’s happening.
  • Crossover point on the chart can show the tuning and the swr
  • Is it environmental or the wire?
• Counterpoise placement can be sensitive.
• Add radials for vertical.

Interesting Bits from Other People

• Tim, W3QP, did the W2 SOTA campout: 6 summits and 32 contacts, mostly VHF.
• Chuck, NA3CW, talked about accomplishing an 75M net using online WebSDRs to hear, because propagation was so bad.
• Rob, K3VIL, is having fun with his QRP IC-705.

My Week in Radio

• I purchased some power cables that split out the 12V line out of USB-C, so I can power my radio from a USB-C power brick/jump-starter battery.
• Marie and I relaunched my EFRW even higher into the the tree in the front yard. I used the slingshot out the second-story window, while Marie watched that the street and sidewalk were clear.
• I did the RTTY test and FT4 sprint last Thursday.
• I saw some better propagation on FT8 before the weekend’s solar storm: Ukraine, Northern Ireland, and Greenland at the arctic circle.
• While the bands were dead over the weekend, I built a couple new, lighter antennas for POTA. I cut and tuned some 20m-long EFHW wires and tuned them with NanoVNA. I used recycled plastic gum boxes as enclosures and winders for the un-uns and wires. I also 3d-printed a winder that holds the transformer and heavier speaker wire. I’ll test the antennas when bands are obviously better. I’ve not really used an EFHW much, so I’m curious to see how it performs compared to EFRW.
• I saw some recovery today in the band today: Panama, Canary Islands, and the Cayman Islands.
• Ron, WA3VEE, sent photos from the Antique Radio Meet in Kutztown.

My Question for the Night

What are the effects of solar cycle and solar activity on propagation? We’re in a high point of the solar cycle, so 10m is good, but too much and it blacks out propagation?

Discussion

• Vic, KC3TYX, made a VARA-C contact.
• Jim, KC3RFG, found an OCF dipole to be quieter than end-fed.
• Jim, AF3Z, has trouble with his Ten-Tec radio sometimes not transmitting.
• Jeff, W3JAM, wondered if anyone was making 6m contacts over solar storm.
• Mike, W3MFB, noted that 17m sometimes is a pipeline right into Florida in afternoon/evening.
• Tim, W3QP, is headed on SOTA campout.
• Jack, K3YVQ, Is it OK to use GMRS on a radio that does ham freqs and more?
  • Mike, W3MFB: technically, the radio should be locked to gmrs frequencies.
  • on the air, no one would know, though.
  • Ron, WA3VEE: FCC approves radios for particular services.
  • GMRS radios are “type-acceptance”, and the right power limits.
  • Some other radios might be hard to limit to the right power.
• John, KC3WWC: What’s the solar storm do to propagation? Some activity is OK, but too much is bad?
  • Chuck, NA3CW:
    • RF is produced by accelerating (“wiggling”) electrons.
    • Ionosphere doesn’t “bounce” signals, but instead “receives” and “retransmits”.
    • We have loose electrons in the upper atmosphere, good for retransmit.
    • Solar storm ionizes the atmosphere at different levels with varying intensity.
    • Our RF hits ions in lower part of the atmosphere and gets slowed, absorbed (D layer).
    • LF is affected the most, since it moves the electrons further.
    • Solar minimum offers less ionization at any level.
    • D layer, E Layer, F1 layer, F2 layer.
    • Better shortwave propagation at night.
    • Lots more is understood now about the ionosphere.
    • Frequencies are coordinated in SW to adapt to seasonal changes.
    • Electrons free in thicker air recombine more easily, so don’t pass RF.
    • Winter: great distances, because air is thinner.
  • Tim, W3QP: noise also comes up during storm and masks signal.
  • This video from Coastal Waves and Wires explains the effect a bit.

My Week in Radio

• Backyard antenna
  • build
    • cleaned up the backyard
    • threw wires high in the tree near the top of the hill
    • took my time
      • routing
      • tied and supported solidly,
      • no stress on connectors
    • first floor window to high on the hill
    • the hill is to the east
  • testing, discussion last week
    • made some contacts on 30m
    • switching
    • FT8 on 15m and pskreporter
    • counted decodes in wsjtx
    • new antenna had fewer decodes on average
    • compared the map - missing europe, since it followed the hill and not enough of the antenna is above the ridge
    • old antenna is mostly flat, but is 2nd floor and above
  • scheme to get more of the wire higher
• Reading the manual for fldigi
  • better prepared for contesting and logging
  • less fixing logs
• Observing some very boring HF propagation
  • if it weren’t for the propagation reports, I’d think I broke something.
  • leaves also came in on my antenna tree

Discussions

• Tim, W3QP, talked about sota.
• Ron, WA3VEE, is helping a new operator shop for equipment.
• Ron’s going to the antique radio show to sell.
• Leon, AA3LH, is practicing CW.
• Jeff, W3JAM, why do we conventionally use LSB and USB?
• Bill, KC3OOK, does internet time sync work through hotspots?
• John, KC3WWC, What are better interfaces to SOTA?
  • map: https://sotl.as/
  • phone apps
    • sota spotter
    • sota activator (update the maps periodically)
  • uploads and data: https://sotadata.org.uk/
  • Tim’s presentation: https://w3gmsrepeater.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/sota-an-overview.pdf

My Week in Ham Radio

• Built and deployed a 1/4 wave ground plane with radials
  • wire soldered to an UHF chassis plug
  • fed from the bottom
  • hung in a tree by cord
• York Hamfest and 2 parks out that way
  • Codorus
  • Sam Lewis
  • EFRW
  • Mostly ft8
  • 40m hot at 5:30pm
  • 2 phone contacts in Canadian parks for park-to-park QSO
  • Took some time to experiment a little
  • Fishing pole mast with 3D-printed fork on the end to catch the wire
  • Stop pulling on coax…loosened ends
• SPDX RTTY contest (Poland)
  • 2 contacts
  • ended at noon UTC on sunday, so ran out of time
• AubsUK firmware for Quansheng
  • 10 scanlists
  • automatic scan on power-up, feature request
• Picked up a new podcast: Ham Radio Workbench
• Simplex Net: heard 16 of the 38 people

My Questions

• with nicer weather and time to experiment with antennas, how would you recommend iterating and experimenting? I have:
  • the QRP transceiver
  • digital modes & pskreporter
  • nanovna
  • some modeling software I could learn
  • the latest ARRL Antenna Book

Discussion

• Dipoles, sloped or flat?
  • Flat leaves nulls toward the ends
  • Sloped fills it in to be a bit more omnidirectional
  • An antenna close to the ground is going to be NVIS
  • Vertical is omnidirectional
• Ron’s seeing infinite SWR on the “screwdriver” antenna.
  • Others have had problems as well.
• Mike wonders about viability of using 6m FM in his area
• My Question: How should I evaluate and structure my experiments with antennas?
  • Conditions change constantly
  • Learn to read solar data
  • Take notes on conditions and try to test in similar conditions
  • Vic’s experiments:
    • endfeds
    • hamsticks
    • radials
    • aluminum screen or faraday cloth for ground plane
  • WSPRnet and pskreporter help gauge how you’re getting out
  • See what you can hear
  • Qualify callsign for different tests, so I can tell them apart in pskreporter: kc3wwc/a, kc3wwc/b, etc
• Ken wonders about TNC for packet radio on HF/VHF
  • Glenn, N3MEL would be the person to contact
• We heard lots of interference and doubling in the beginning of the net
  • This was likely another manifestation of intermod
  • Tropospheric ducting happens more in morning in the summer