Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Sunday, May 21, 2017
QRO - 1 Watt WSPR on 40m
Just took down the 1 Watt 40m WSPR into a 1/4 Vertical with 8 Radials. I had been up for a couple of weeks now and have learned a few things mainly that the Antenna performs better in the W SW direction vs the E NE direction. The Antenna's Ground Plane is tiled so towards the South Pacific the throw angle is lower then the theoretical 30 degrees and towards Europe it elevated. So I would like to build the same antenna on the opposite side of the hill favoring Europe! There is just one tiny little problem its about 600 ft from the Ham Shack. I do however have a solution and its called " LDF4" I have a ton of it that was discarded from where I work the only problem is that its in 200 ft chunks but again I have a plan! Connectors are expensive and ackward but I have a plan to splice the cables together .... again I have a plan!
So here are the results on 40m for the past 2 weeks.....
Top 10 ....
There were 481 unique spots ...
I was comparing my WSPR to a local ham VA3UAL. He was running 3 db less then me at 500 mw and I have no idea what Antenna he is using but he had better SNR into Europe and I had better SNR into the American SW and the South Pacific ....this more or less proved my suspicion about the hill!
Sotabeams recently added a new feature that allowed some pretty good comparisons. This will be particularly good when I am comparing 2 antennas at my QTH.
CF3UAL performs 0.43 db better then I do overall. UAL get to Europe better then me and I get towards the South Pacific better then him! When propagation is open to Europe the number grows to oa 4 db difference in favour of UAL and when its open towards the W SW I do about 4 db better the UAL!
So here are the results on 40m for the past 2 weeks.....
Top 10 ....
There were 481 unique spots ...
I was comparing my WSPR to a local ham VA3UAL. He was running 3 db less then me at 500 mw and I have no idea what Antenna he is using but he had better SNR into Europe and I had better SNR into the American SW and the South Pacific ....this more or less proved my suspicion about the hill!
Sotabeams recently added a new feature that allowed some pretty good comparisons. This will be particularly good when I am comparing 2 antennas at my QTH.
CF3UAL performs 0.43 db better then I do overall. UAL get to Europe better then me and I get towards the South Pacific better then him! When propagation is open to Europe the number grows to oa 4 db difference in favour of UAL and when its open towards the W SW I do about 4 db better the UAL!
1 mw 48 hour WSPR
Had to shut it down today because of power interruptions and the threat of T Storms.
Ran a 1 mw WSPR on 30m into the 1/4 Vertical with 8 Radials, here are the results......
When the weather improves I am going to fire it back up and drop the power another 3db to 500 micro-watts!
How low can you go?
Ran a 1 mw WSPR on 30m into the 1/4 Vertical with 8 Radials, here are the results......
When the weather improves I am going to fire it back up and drop the power another 3db to 500 micro-watts!
How low can you go?
Friday, May 19, 2017
Contacts 2 and 3 on the new Fan Dipole
Signals were weak but I had a 15m CW QSO with a fellow in New Zealand. Mexico to but he was a 59. I was expecting the Central and South America opening but not NZ at 254 degrees the antenna isn't optimized in that direction!
Thursday, May 18, 2017
15, 10 and 6 Meter Fan Dipole
I have just about completed the fan dipole for 15, 10 and 6 meters. I haven't had an antenna on 10 and 15 since last fall and I have never operated on 6 meters. There was quite a bit of fussing to get teh design down but I think I have the final configuration in place and have it reasonably tuned. The antenna is up about 30 feet and runs in an East - West direction. I need to replace the string with Antenna Rope and may add a counterweight for tree swing or I may just leave enough slack for the movement.
Tuning as of this post ....
Freq VSWR
21.0 - 1.4:1
21.2 - 1:1
21.45 - 1:1
28.0 - 2.2:1
28.5 - 1.5:1
29.0 - 1.2 :1
29.5 - 2:1
29.7 - 2.1:1
50.0 - 1.6:1
50.4 - 1:1
50.8 - 1.4:1
51.2 - 2.3:1
Looks to be tuned about right....low end of 10 is a bit high but the rigs antenna tuner should take care of the match quiet nicely.
First contact with this antenna was on 15m
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
CF3UAL vs VE3LDP
I am TXing a 1 Watt WSPR into a 1/4 Vertical with 8 Radials. CF3UAL is in my Grid Square TXing a 0.5 Watt WSPR. I don't know what antenna he is using so there is some unknowns when it comes to comparing the results.
My Antenna's Radials are tilted up towards the ENE and down towards the WSW. With a more or less perfect ground plane the 1/4 Vertical has about a 30 deg throw. There is no doubt that towards Europe I am somewhat above 30 deg in elevation and towards Australia I am somewhat below 30 deg. I built the 80m Vert at the top of the hill to have a ground plane that went down towards the , E , W and S but is level towards the N. The 80m antenna works really well getting to Europe!
I would put all my antennas up the top of the hill but three is one little problem , its a 500' run on coax! I am currently using LDF4 which has almost Zero loss at HF.
So here it is ..." Simultaneous Spots" from 6:30 pm est until 12:30 am est. Sunset was at 8:41 pm est. Basically propagation is open East......
As you can see CF3UAL is 3.6 db higher towards Europe the I am. Based on the reported power it should be the other way around.
Sunrise this morning was at 06:02 am est. The chart below is from about 01:30 until 07:30 est time.
With propagation open towards the West I am 4.5 db higher then CF3UAL.
My Antenna's Radials are tilted up towards the ENE and down towards the WSW. With a more or less perfect ground plane the 1/4 Vertical has about a 30 deg throw. There is no doubt that towards Europe I am somewhat above 30 deg in elevation and towards Australia I am somewhat below 30 deg. I built the 80m Vert at the top of the hill to have a ground plane that went down towards the , E , W and S but is level towards the N. The 80m antenna works really well getting to Europe!
I would put all my antennas up the top of the hill but three is one little problem , its a 500' run on coax! I am currently using LDF4 which has almost Zero loss at HF.
So here it is ..." Simultaneous Spots" from 6:30 pm est until 12:30 am est. Sunset was at 8:41 pm est. Basically propagation is open East......
Spots: VE3LDP vs CF3UAL - 7 MHz
As you can see CF3UAL is 3.6 db higher towards Europe the I am. Based on the reported power it should be the other way around.
Sunrise this morning was at 06:02 am est. The chart below is from about 01:30 until 07:30 est time.
Spots: VE3LDP vs CF3UAL - 7 MHz
With propagation open towards the West I am 4.5 db higher then CF3UAL.
Monday, May 8, 2017
40m WSPR
Running a 1 Watt 40m WSPR into a 1/4 Vertical with 8 Radials. The Antenna is just up behind the house with a gp tilted towards the sw.
Started the WSPR around 5pm est today about 4 hours ago. Best result would be the long path to Australia , 21947.0 km!
Started the WSPR around 5pm est today about 4 hours ago. Best result would be the long path to Australia , 21947.0 km!
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Saturday, May 6, 2017
24 Hour TX on 30m
This is the past 24 hours on 30m there were 94 unique spots using 1 Watt into a 1/4 GP with 8 Radials.
Going to follow this up with a 24 hour RX using the same Antenna.
Going to follow this up with a 24 hour RX using the same Antenna.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Antenna season has begun!
It was a nice sunny day with cool but comfortable temps just perfect for antenna work....
Retrieved the WSPRlite at the top of the hill. It was driving my 14avq on 20m for nearly a week.
Took down the 80m Skywarmer ( low dipole ). Rerouted the LDF4 to the new switch position but didn't terminate it yet!
Strung the two support ropes for the new 6m/10m/12m/15m fan dipole. Its about 35 ft above the ground and looks to be favoring around 20 Deg and 200 Deg. I currently have no antennas available for these bands , I have never worked on 6m or 12m.
Although the 20m 5/8 vertical works there isn't much to be gained over using the 20m 1/4 vertical so this antenna will be replaced sometime soon!
New and up pretty soon will be a 160m 1/4 Vertical. Would also like to do a 1/4 Vertical for 60m too. I want to move the 40m Vertical up the hill a bit to improve the angle of radiation to Europe.
Retrieved the WSPRlite at the top of the hill. It was driving my 14avq on 20m for nearly a week.
Took down the 80m Skywarmer ( low dipole ). Rerouted the LDF4 to the new switch position but didn't terminate it yet!
Strung the two support ropes for the new 6m/10m/12m/15m fan dipole. Its about 35 ft above the ground and looks to be favoring around 20 Deg and 200 Deg. I currently have no antennas available for these bands , I have never worked on 6m or 12m.
Although the 20m 5/8 vertical works there isn't much to be gained over using the 20m 1/4 vertical so this antenna will be replaced sometime soon!
New and up pretty soon will be a 160m 1/4 Vertical. Would also like to do a 1/4 Vertical for 60m too. I want to move the 40m Vertical up the hill a bit to improve the angle of radiation to Europe.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
20M 14AVQ VS 5/8 Vertical
Switched to the 5/8 Vertical ( just beside the 1/4 Vertical ) last night after midnight.
I have always believed that the T matching network is absorbing some of the RF .... not good! The Antenna works but not as well as I hoped. From time to time it gets me through where the 1/4 does not.
Just made it to Eurpoe with the 14avq and the 5/8 at the same time .....
5/8 Vert
I have always believed that the T matching network is absorbing some of the RF .... not good! The Antenna works but not as well as I hoped. From time to time it gets me through where the 1/4 does not.
Just made it to Eurpoe with the 14avq and the 5/8 at the same time .....
| 2017-05-02 22:28 | VE3LDP | 14.097083 | -32 | 0 | EN94 | 0.1 | HB9ADJ | JN36li | 6492 | 54 |
| 2017-05-02 22:28 | CG3LDP | 14.097131 | -21 | 0 | EN94 | 0.1 | HB9ADJ | JN36li | 6492 | 54 |
There is an 11db difference...14avq blows away the 5/8!
Looking South West the antennas are almost identical ....
14avq
| 2017-05-02 17:06 | CG3LDP | 14.097107 | -21 | 0 | EN94 | 0.1 | KD6RF | EM22 | 1802 | 227 |
| 2017-05-02 17:06 | CG3LDP | 14.097109 | -15 | 0 | EN94 | 0.1 | KD6RF | EM22 | 1802 | 227 |
5/8 Vert
| 2017-05-02 17:06 | VE3LDP | 14.097061 | -16 | 0 | EN94 | 0.1 | KD6RF | EM22 | 1802 | 227 |
| 2017-05-02 17:06 | VE3LDP | 14.097059 | -20 | -1 | EN94 | 0.1 | KD6RF | EM22 | 1802 | 227 |
| 1802 | 227 |
Monday, May 1, 2017
Hill Wins
The past 24 hours pretty clearly show me that the 14avq on the top of the hill gets to Europe much better then the 1/4 Vertical with 8 radials! The 1/4 does better from 180 to 360 degrees and is heard way more often then the 14avq.
The next step will be to move the 1/4 gp to the top of the hill and do another test however its clear to me what the results would be. There is no way the 14 avq with some random radials can outperform the finely tuned 1/4 Vertical specific to the 20m Band.
Over the past hour the 1/4 Vert way outperforms the 14AVQ .... 180 to 360 deg
The next step will be to move the 1/4 gp to the top of the hill and do another test however its clear to me what the results would be. There is no way the 14 avq with some random radials can outperform the finely tuned 1/4 Vertical specific to the 20m Band.
Over the past hour the 1/4 Vert way outperforms the 14AVQ .... 180 to 360 deg
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