CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: EA5ON
Operator(s): EA5ON
Station: EA5ON
Class: SOSB/10 QRP
QTH: Vilamarxant
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10: 1352 34 116
------------------------------
Total: 1352 34 116 Total Score = 484,950
Club: EA Contest Club
Comments:
For the last 6 years I have operated CQWW SSB as part of the ED5T multi single
team. We love this and have a great time putting on the show.
This year however we had a serious problem right after ARRL phone. One of our 3
towers came down in a storm, bring down our 2 element yagi for 40, our 2 x 4
element stack for 15, and the base of our 160m inverted L. Our team, including
myself, are very busy doing other things right now and the tower is still not
back up yet. So, no antennas for multi single.
In the meantime, my good friend Paul GM0OPK, who has a house near Valencia,
asked if I would be interested in using his newly installed 6 element ultrabeam
in a contest. He is not a contester but wanted to see how his station would
play. I thought about it and since I have been thinking about doing a Single Op
entry for a while, decided to accept his kind offer.
Paul's station is not designed for contesting. It has one single yagi, a TS990,
and an OM2500 amp. Its principally used for DX and ragchewing when he's here in
Spain while taking time off work. I decided that the best way to use this
station for a contest would be in QRP, where I could use the high gain beam to
make up for my very low power, plus use the dual receiver to enable me to call
CQ while doing search and pounce on the second receiver.
Paul was here a month before the contest and I went up one afternoon to discuss
what I would need. I took up a new Yahama CM500 boom headset, which we set up on
the Kenwood, and decided that all I needed other than that was my laptop with
the N1MM logger installed.
A week before the contest Paul texted me to say he hadnt been able to find any
flights but was still looking. I started thinking of Plan Bs but thankfully on
the Tuesday he managed to book tickets and on the eve of the contest I drove up
after a long day at work, set up the PC, moved the furniture a bit, and went off
home for dinner and bed.
A 6am start on saturday, only to be greeted by Paul with bad news: the
Prosistel rotator was acting up and there was no way to get the controller to
tell you where the beam was heading. He had tried in vain to control it with
the PC program but to no avail. So, I turned the antenna while Paul was outside
watching it and when it was pointed on EU, he called me to stop and we left it
there.
A very slow start as usual. Worked a few east med stations and then after a
long and frustrating time of having a VK6 call CQ in my face, finally managed
to make the contact. Then the band started opening and I was able to work UA
and JA stations for a couple of hours, all on S+P. I found out after trying to
call a few double mults in vain that the antenna wasnt where I thought it was,
after that every time I used the rotator I went outside to check the beam
heading visually. Only a few degrees can make a fair difference on a 6 element
antenna so even the visual method wasnt great. Then, an hour later as I was
trying to use the quick reverse feature, the stepper motors got into a fuddle
and started an interminable cycle of changing back and forward. I couldnt get
the controller to respond so ended up pulling the plug and then doing a reset
of the whole thing. It worked fine after that but no idea what had caused it.
At midday I had a couple of hundred QSOs in the log and a number of zones and
countries but missed out on a lot of mults just not able to get through the
pileup with 5w. However when the band opened to the states it was quite a
different story. I was able to work everyone I heard, many on the first call. I
tried running, no real luck until around 7pm when all of a sudden I managed a
run to the US for about an hour and a half. Not the rates I'm used to at ED5T
but I still managed to leave when the band died with 678 qsos in the log and
188.000 points.
At night, I checked the spanish record and saw it was at 852 qsos and 319000
points. Its also the EU record. In spite of my good qso total, the record
holder had managed 34 zones and 137 countries back in 2002 and I was a long way
away from those totals.
Sunday morning was pretty much a repeat of saturday but having the beam under
control meant I was able to work double mults such as VU2, AH2R, and 9M4DX,
plus a few other countries. The band was so crowded that I'm sure many
potential countries were buried in the noise. Running assisted would probably
be a good thing under conditions like that, maybe next year? But S+P was
slower, I had already worked most of the big guns, and had to dig deeper into
the QRM for contacts which then took longer to complete. By lunchtime my score
had crept up a fair bit but was still not close to the record. However once
again in the late afternoon conditions picked up to the states and I was able
to end the run well over the previous record. After a short rest and some food
(I hadn't eaten in 10 hours) I took a tour up and down the band to work all the
south american stations I could hear, adding another few mults to the total.
This contest was a complete and absolute contrast to the last time I tried 10m
qrp in a contest, 2 years ago in ARRL 10m. In that contest, I couldnt make any
contacts at all with 5w, changed to LP, and abandoned after only working 50
stations during the saturday. The conditions this weekend were simply fabulous,
I'm sure the best I've ever seen 10m and probably will take a long time in
seeing again.
Thanks as usual to all that made it happen. For all of those who took the time
to pick my signal out of the noise. To the family for not missing me too much.
And most of all, to Paul and Tracy for coming down and hosting me in such a
great way, it is really and truly appreciated.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Update
Last entry in February, uff. Does that mean I've not been playing radio? No, but means I've not had much time to do any updating. And actually, less time to play radio as well.
The first event after my last entry was my participation in ARRL SSB. I entered 15m HP and had an absolutely amazing time, working over 2000 stations and only missing 3 multipliers (the usual Canadian ones). I had a good head to head race with EA7KW down near Seville and while he pipped me to the post in the end, we had a great time.
However the sad news is that 3 days after the contest, the 80' crank up tower holding the 15m stack and the 2 ele yagi for 40m came crashing down in a storm. No damage to persons or property, and the tower will be salvageable, but the antennas are complete scrap. Juan has done a good job on repairing the tower and we can get around 70' of it to be serviceable again, but for the time being we have no antennas and the tower is not installed back on its base. It has come at a time when all of the TCC members are very busy with other things in our lives and we just haven't had the time, energy, or inclination to do anything about it. Such is life.
As far as the IARU contest goes, we have decided that since we can't take part on 15m, we will take part in 10m SSB instead, since the 10m stack and the optibeam are still working perfectly. We look forward to operating as part of EF4HQ on 10/11 July. Propagation of late has not been good on 10m but we are holding our breath and crossing our fingers just in case :). No other hints as to what EF4HQ has in store, but we are going all out this year to win the HQ category after two years of second place.
In the car, no news ones worked but I did get Myanmar confirmed. My new working hours mean that I cannot come on the radio at lunchtime any more, however I do finish work a bit earlier and in theory will get radio time after work. In practice I am never managing to finish work on time and getting a bit fed up of the situation. Lets see what happens. Today I did manage to get 3 hours of morning grey line operating done, conditions were pretty good considering today is our summer solstice and that the SFI is not particularly high.
As for new antennas, I started a project of comparing different types of vertical antenna and radial systems. However I am finding inexplicable problems to get some of the quarter waves to work and also the GTU is functioning very erratically. More news on that front if I ever get there.
On 20M I have a new antenna which arrived 6 months ago and still haven't had a chance to test. This is a high power end fed vertical for 20m made by the dutch firm http://www.hyendcompany.nl/ . The idea is to hold it up using a 12m spiderpole from Spiderbeam with a base made by a couple of local guys in EA5 which fits under the car wheels, specially adapted for the spiderpole. Lets see if I get a chance to test it out one of these days.
I also received another "new toy" the other day, a four square controller by Comtek, now run by DX engineering. This will need four new 15m verticals, plus I need to cut all the control lines, so it won't be on the air for a while yet I reckon. But looks very promising for 15m contesting from the port!
And the last new toy, received about 10 days ago, is an Elecraft KX3, a great little software defined radio with almost everything incorporated inside, for easy low power operating while out and about. I bought it primarily for the bicycle, but it's first outing was last week for the anual DVGE trig point contest. I worked around 50 stations on 40m just running 5w and a vertical, not the best antenna for local 40m work but its what I had. It'll take a while for me to get used to all the possibilities this rig has to offer but my initial reaction is very favourable.
No photos of any of this stuff. My trusty old BlackBerry has been pensioned off and I now have a Windows phone, which I haven't even tried to plug into the computer yet to download pics. Maybe later.
And lastly, in reply to a petition from German ham Marcel DF1MP, here's a parts list for some of the pieces I use on the car:
Hustler ball mount for the roof: http://radioshop.hamradio.es/es/bases-de-movil/190-hustler-ssm-2-soporte-de-bola-reforzado.HTML
MFJ 1664 screwdriver: http://wsplc.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=1664
MFJ 1979 long telescopic whip: http://www.wimo.com/mobile-antenna-hf-various_s.html
I guess there are more places too.
That's all for now folks....
The first event after my last entry was my participation in ARRL SSB. I entered 15m HP and had an absolutely amazing time, working over 2000 stations and only missing 3 multipliers (the usual Canadian ones). I had a good head to head race with EA7KW down near Seville and while he pipped me to the post in the end, we had a great time.
However the sad news is that 3 days after the contest, the 80' crank up tower holding the 15m stack and the 2 ele yagi for 40m came crashing down in a storm. No damage to persons or property, and the tower will be salvageable, but the antennas are complete scrap. Juan has done a good job on repairing the tower and we can get around 70' of it to be serviceable again, but for the time being we have no antennas and the tower is not installed back on its base. It has come at a time when all of the TCC members are very busy with other things in our lives and we just haven't had the time, energy, or inclination to do anything about it. Such is life.
As far as the IARU contest goes, we have decided that since we can't take part on 15m, we will take part in 10m SSB instead, since the 10m stack and the optibeam are still working perfectly. We look forward to operating as part of EF4HQ on 10/11 July. Propagation of late has not been good on 10m but we are holding our breath and crossing our fingers just in case :). No other hints as to what EF4HQ has in store, but we are going all out this year to win the HQ category after two years of second place.
In the car, no news ones worked but I did get Myanmar confirmed. My new working hours mean that I cannot come on the radio at lunchtime any more, however I do finish work a bit earlier and in theory will get radio time after work. In practice I am never managing to finish work on time and getting a bit fed up of the situation. Lets see what happens. Today I did manage to get 3 hours of morning grey line operating done, conditions were pretty good considering today is our summer solstice and that the SFI is not particularly high.
As for new antennas, I started a project of comparing different types of vertical antenna and radial systems. However I am finding inexplicable problems to get some of the quarter waves to work and also the GTU is functioning very erratically. More news on that front if I ever get there.
On 20M I have a new antenna which arrived 6 months ago and still haven't had a chance to test. This is a high power end fed vertical for 20m made by the dutch firm http://www.hyendcompany.nl/ . The idea is to hold it up using a 12m spiderpole from Spiderbeam with a base made by a couple of local guys in EA5 which fits under the car wheels, specially adapted for the spiderpole. Lets see if I get a chance to test it out one of these days.
I also received another "new toy" the other day, a four square controller by Comtek, now run by DX engineering. This will need four new 15m verticals, plus I need to cut all the control lines, so it won't be on the air for a while yet I reckon. But looks very promising for 15m contesting from the port!
And the last new toy, received about 10 days ago, is an Elecraft KX3, a great little software defined radio with almost everything incorporated inside, for easy low power operating while out and about. I bought it primarily for the bicycle, but it's first outing was last week for the anual DVGE trig point contest. I worked around 50 stations on 40m just running 5w and a vertical, not the best antenna for local 40m work but its what I had. It'll take a while for me to get used to all the possibilities this rig has to offer but my initial reaction is very favourable.
No photos of any of this stuff. My trusty old BlackBerry has been pensioned off and I now have a Windows phone, which I haven't even tried to plug into the computer yet to download pics. Maybe later.
And lastly, in reply to a petition from German ham Marcel DF1MP, here's a parts list for some of the pieces I use on the car:
Hustler ball mount for the roof: http://radioshop.hamradio.es/es/bases-de-movil/190-hustler-ssm-2-soporte-de-bola-reforzado.HTML
MFJ 1664 screwdriver: http://wsplc.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=1664
MFJ 1979 long telescopic whip: http://www.wimo.com/mobile-antenna-hf-various_s.html
I guess there are more places too.
That's all for now folks....
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Receive antenna experiments at ED5T
This weekend is the CQWW 160 phone contest. With one thing and another, we decided not to actively operate in the contest. However, Elías EB5KT and myself arranged to go up on Saturday night and take advantage of the fact that there was a contest on, in order to do some RX antenna tests.
ED5T is at a great location for the high bands. Our stacked yagis for 10 and 15 metres do great, as does the tribander for 20. We are at the top of a ridge with a nice drop off to most areas of ham population. However, on the low bands, we do not have enough height for good horizontal antennas, the ground is poor for vertical antennas (mostly bedrock), and it is extremely noisy on reception.
For transmitting, we now have an inverted L for 160m, which appears to work, but we don't really know since we have a very high noise level and can't really tell who is calling us. In the past, we have tried the K9AY design, long terminated beverages, and the flag. None of these antennas gave particularly good results. The K9AY was forcibly located near to a metal fence which we think probably degraded performance. The beverages perhaps didn't work too well since local terrain dictates they can't go perfectly straight, nor at a fixed height from ground all along the antenna. Also, these antennas need to be installed before each contest, and for the beverages in particular, hauling two 500m long antennas through the forest and then attaching them to trees is not a load of fun. Whilst both designs work, they do not provide a significant improvement over the transmitting antenna and therefore we continue on our quest for a design more suited to our needs.
One of the tests Elias wanted to do was to use a portable receive antenna to try to find out if there are any locations close by which are better than others, either in noise level, signal strength, or both. In order to do this, he made a monoband Shielded Loop antenna for 160 on a portable pole. We used an FT857 radio with a small battery in a backpack and started testing in different locations.
The results were very interesting:
- We stopped in around 15 different places and tested for noise reduction by turning the loop.
- In most places we stopped, by turning the loop we were able to obtain a null in the noise and except when close to buildings or right under power lines, we could usually reduce from between S7 and S9 peaks down to S0 noise
- We could not pointpoint a particular direction for the noise. In some cases, only moving 10 metres produced a 90º difference in the null location. We are unable to account for this.
- In the case when listening to a frequency occupied by a station calling CQ, in most cases the noise null did not coincide with a reduction in signal strength of the station calling (máximum signal to noise ratio).
- When listening to ED5M, we were able to hear about half the stations they were working. They were using a full size 2 element delta loop at 50m (150') high for TX, plus numerous 650m long beverages and a K9AY, in an electrically quiet natural park about 100km from us.
- We sat the antenna on the top of my car and plugged into my TS590. The absence of noise made the fatigue factor usually present, neglible. It was almost like working on 10 metres. We were able to hear a large number of contest stations without any problem.
The results are not conclusive since we did not use any know reference antenna for comparison (rule nº1 of basic science). However our experience dictates that this was a positive experiment and worth pursuing. For next weekends ARRL contest, Elías hopes to have a Pennant antenna built and install it at one of the locations we found to be good, and that is reasonably close to the shack.
ED5T is at a great location for the high bands. Our stacked yagis for 10 and 15 metres do great, as does the tribander for 20. We are at the top of a ridge with a nice drop off to most areas of ham population. However, on the low bands, we do not have enough height for good horizontal antennas, the ground is poor for vertical antennas (mostly bedrock), and it is extremely noisy on reception.
For transmitting, we now have an inverted L for 160m, which appears to work, but we don't really know since we have a very high noise level and can't really tell who is calling us. In the past, we have tried the K9AY design, long terminated beverages, and the flag. None of these antennas gave particularly good results. The K9AY was forcibly located near to a metal fence which we think probably degraded performance. The beverages perhaps didn't work too well since local terrain dictates they can't go perfectly straight, nor at a fixed height from ground all along the antenna. Also, these antennas need to be installed before each contest, and for the beverages in particular, hauling two 500m long antennas through the forest and then attaching them to trees is not a load of fun. Whilst both designs work, they do not provide a significant improvement over the transmitting antenna and therefore we continue on our quest for a design more suited to our needs.
One of the tests Elias wanted to do was to use a portable receive antenna to try to find out if there are any locations close by which are better than others, either in noise level, signal strength, or both. In order to do this, he made a monoband Shielded Loop antenna for 160 on a portable pole. We used an FT857 radio with a small battery in a backpack and started testing in different locations.
The results were very interesting:
- We stopped in around 15 different places and tested for noise reduction by turning the loop.
- In most places we stopped, by turning the loop we were able to obtain a null in the noise and except when close to buildings or right under power lines, we could usually reduce from between S7 and S9 peaks down to S0 noise
- We could not pointpoint a particular direction for the noise. In some cases, only moving 10 metres produced a 90º difference in the null location. We are unable to account for this.
- In the case when listening to a frequency occupied by a station calling CQ, in most cases the noise null did not coincide with a reduction in signal strength of the station calling (máximum signal to noise ratio).
- When listening to ED5M, we were able to hear about half the stations they were working. They were using a full size 2 element delta loop at 50m (150') high for TX, plus numerous 650m long beverages and a K9AY, in an electrically quiet natural park about 100km from us.
- We sat the antenna on the top of my car and plugged into my TS590. The absence of noise made the fatigue factor usually present, neglible. It was almost like working on 10 metres. We were able to hear a large number of contest stations without any problem.
The results are not conclusive since we did not use any know reference antenna for comparison (rule nº1 of basic science). However our experience dictates that this was a positive experiment and worth pursuing. For next weekends ARRL contest, Elías hopes to have a Pennant antenna built and install it at one of the locations we found to be good, and that is reasonably close to the shack.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Visits to GM1DSK and GM0GAV
Whilst over in Scotland over new year, I made my usual pilgrimage to visit my Elmer. His call is GM1DSK, but to me, has always been Meeeeeester Steve! Steve is as active as his other commitments allow him to be, and up until now using a 100w and all wire antenna station. As luck would have it, Steve just recently got a 30' tower, a 3 element tribander, and a 3 element dual band warc beam, and the day I went to visit, it had just been installed and up and running:
Although in the photo it doesnt look too high and has tres around it, what you can't see is the nice dropoff to many of the more interesting DX áreas, as the QTH is on a clifftop with a river below. When we went to get on the air and see how it was working, Steve stumbled across 1A0KM, an entity he hadn't worked yet. Here's the moment of glory as Steve gets another "new one" in the log:
Next on the whistlestop tour, Steve drove me across to Gavin GM0GAV's place. I hadn't seen Gavin since the days when he worked in the Antartic as VP8GAV, and it was great to see him again. I knew he'd built up a good station but I don't think I was prepared to see such a level of workmanship or such a well thought out design. In the shack is nothing special, but the purpose-built house on a 4 acre plot took antenna placement into consideration at inception, something most of us can only dream about.
The first antenna you notice as you drive up is a relatively modest force 12 XR5 on an 18m high crankup tower, with a 5 element 6m yagi on top.
But as we came along the driveway, I noticed a couple of verticals laying on the ground. We then went out and had a look and it turns out to be a 2 element phased vertical on 80m. The whole field has an extensive radial system laid out under the grass. Each antenna is on a pulley system so that they can be lowered in case of high winds.
Once parked in front of the house I noticed another tower, wound down, with another HF yagi on it. This is a motorised korean made tower which goes up to 28m high and is crowned with an Optibeam OB12-4.
Although in the photo it doesnt look too high and has tres around it, what you can't see is the nice dropoff to many of the more interesting DX áreas, as the QTH is on a clifftop with a river below. When we went to get on the air and see how it was working, Steve stumbled across 1A0KM, an entity he hadn't worked yet. Here's the moment of glory as Steve gets another "new one" in the log:
Next on the whistlestop tour, Steve drove me across to Gavin GM0GAV's place. I hadn't seen Gavin since the days when he worked in the Antartic as VP8GAV, and it was great to see him again. I knew he'd built up a good station but I don't think I was prepared to see such a level of workmanship or such a well thought out design. In the shack is nothing special, but the purpose-built house on a 4 acre plot took antenna placement into consideration at inception, something most of us can only dream about.
The first antenna you notice as you drive up is a relatively modest force 12 XR5 on an 18m high crankup tower, with a 5 element 6m yagi on top.
But as we came along the driveway, I noticed a couple of verticals laying on the ground. We then went out and had a look and it turns out to be a 2 element phased vertical on 80m. The whole field has an extensive radial system laid out under the grass. Each antenna is on a pulley system so that they can be lowered in case of high winds.
Once parked in front of the house I noticed another tower, wound down, with another HF yagi on it. This is a motorised korean made tower which goes up to 28m high and is crowned with an Optibeam OB12-4.
For top band, Gav uses an inverted L with elevated radials.
There are also 3 250m long reversable beverages, conveniently installed along field and road boundaries.
The whole system is controlled from a central switching system in a small shed in the garden.
My thanks to Steve and Gav for their time and for the guided tours (not to mention food, tea, and coffee!). CU in the pileup!!
Sunday, December 01, 2013
SALT WATER BEAMS: Where to go from here?
As previously reported on this website, experiments with centre fed two and four element beams have been done on 10 metres with some degree of success. The design is easy to set up and can be rotated without a huge degree of difficulty and does give some gain, all important factors in my operating. I also tried a two element phased switchable end fire-broadside array with inconclusive results.
However, those antennas have some issues, namely:
- The centre fed design gets to be pretty big for lower bands, requiring bigger supports and/or guying.
- The coax feed did not give me much confidence, difficult to keep it coming off at a right angle, and "hot" mic was a sure sign of common mode currents on the outside of the coax cable.
Since those experiments last autumn (2012), I have been thinking about different options, that might keep the good points of the centre fed designs, and overcome their issues. When considering antennas, I consider them for two different kinds of use. One is for "working a new one". For this kind of use, I put more weight on a quick setup, high gain antenna, and less weight on rotatability.
Parallel to that though, I was also wondering how much of a difference there was between setting up a 3 element yagi and two x two element phased yagis. I asked Elías if he could do the simulation for this one for me and this is what he came up with:
His conclusion is that the 3 element yagi is probably a better choice, giving a broader pattern, easier installation, and only a fraction less gain on the main lobes.
END FED DESIGNS
I have used commercialy made end-fed antennas with some success, both at my mountain house in EA1 (on 20m) and also portable (on 10m). After the difficulty installing the centre fed two element phased beam, I looked at the possibilty of using end-feds for this.
I mentioned this on the air one day to my friend Jim ZL1BOS, who suggested I contact KH6MB Martin, a gentlemen he'd met on his travels in Hawaii and who used end fed beams by the water there. As luck would have it, that very same day Martin answered one of my CQ calls and we talked briefly about the matter. I zipped off an email and got some info back from Daryl W7TAE but never did get all the information I needed. However there is a nice pic of Martin's variable matchbox kit at http://ham.aditl.com/ham-radio/techie-stuff/efhw-tuner/ and some nice photos of their setups on the KH6TE QRZ.com page
The nature of end fed antennas, with high impedance feedpoints, worried me with possible problems with common mode currents, so I had a look to see what W8JI had to say on the matter. And basically he says that while these antennas can be made to work, there are significant possible problems. Since these antennas are often used QRP or low power though, the symptoms at this power level are often not appreciable and therefore go unnoticed. You can read the full story here.
So, although I haven't completely discarded the endfeds, especially thinking of low power and perhaps phased antennas on the higher bands, the end fed is not without its problems.
ROTARY YAGIS
When considering possibilities for a fixed antenna on a tower, in the case that one day I might be granted permission to do this at the port, I thought about rotary vertical yagis, using the same design criteria I used for my fixed centre fed yagis, but set up like a traditional yagi, the only difference being that the elements are vertical instead of horizontal.
The 2 element design was quite easy to make, using the MFJ 2299 as the basis for this. It could be set up quite easily on a mount like the one I used for the 2 element quad for 15m:
The two-dimensional design of the yagi would make it much easier to install, I could use a rotator, it wouldn't be too hard to change bands, and it would be easy to tune each element with the analyser and then short out the reflector just by screwing in a shorted PL connector.
One of the disadvantages of this system is that it can only be either 2 or 4 elements, since a 3 element design would put the bottom part of the centre element right next to the metal mast. 2 elements is maybe not enough gain, 4 elements is starting to stretch the mechanics of the thing. I couldn't think of a suitable non-conductive support, so I asked on eham just how much the metal mast was change the pattern in any case of a 2 element design. A kind person modelled this for me and you can see the difference here . It shows a significant distortion of the pattern which whilst not making the antenna unuseable, does mean I should probably keep thinking about other options.
TRAILER TOWER / TRAILER YAGI
If you're wondering why I'm not considering using the quad in the photo, it's because the setup is really difficult. However I did look at the option of using a trailer tower for this. I guess there are more manufacturers, but the ones I was looking at were made by Tennamast , a good scottish company :)
Whilst looking at the trailers, and seeing if there was a local manufacturer who might do something similar, it struck me that I might be able to use a trailer as a basis for a three or even four element vertical yagi. But instead of being a vertical dipole design, it would use the "vertical with two elevated radials" design. This way, I could overcome the metal mast problem. And being on a trailer with wheels, to rotate the antenna was a simple matter of turning the trailer round.
I really like this idea. It makes for a really quick setup, since much of the hardware can be left assembled on the trailer and its a case of installing some pre-assembled elements and away you go (a very important aspect for me).
What has made me decide not to go for either of the trailer options in the end is a practical problem of where to store it! In my underground car park at the home QTH there is no space. And whilst I could keep it at my QTH in La Eliana during the Winter, I'd need to move it for the summer for when guests come to the house.
MY CURRENT "BEST IDEA"
As a "variation on a theme", I reckon I can probably make the "vertical yagi with elevated ground planes" work on my car, placed on a roof rack or ladder rack. At first sight it sounds like something that our 11m cb brothers use, but from what I can tell, their installations don't seem to be very well optimised and looks like they get more benefit out of their 10kW amps than the antennas! Installation would not be as quick as on a trailer, but I reckon with a bit of careful thought and planning, I will be able to make this work.
I already tried a basic version of this (see http://www.ea5on.com/2012/11/more-on-2-element-vertical-beams.html) but neither element used tuned radials, nor was the spacing optimum, which would lead me to hope that a properly installed one should work better.
At this moment in time I am sourcing parts if I don't come up against a "DUH I hadn't thought of that" moment, this will sooner or later become a reality.....watch this space, but don't hold your breath!
However, those antennas have some issues, namely:
- The centre fed design gets to be pretty big for lower bands, requiring bigger supports and/or guying.
- The coax feed did not give me much confidence, difficult to keep it coming off at a right angle, and "hot" mic was a sure sign of common mode currents on the outside of the coax cable.
Since those experiments last autumn (2012), I have been thinking about different options, that might keep the good points of the centre fed designs, and overcome their issues. When considering antennas, I consider them for two different kinds of use. One is for "working a new one". For this kind of use, I put more weight on a quick setup, high gain antenna, and less weight on rotatability.
Parallel to that though, I was also wondering how much of a difference there was between setting up a 3 element yagi and two x two element phased yagis. I asked Elías if he could do the simulation for this one for me and this is what he came up with:
His conclusion is that the 3 element yagi is probably a better choice, giving a broader pattern, easier installation, and only a fraction less gain on the main lobes.
END FED DESIGNS
I have used commercialy made end-fed antennas with some success, both at my mountain house in EA1 (on 20m) and also portable (on 10m). After the difficulty installing the centre fed two element phased beam, I looked at the possibilty of using end-feds for this.
I mentioned this on the air one day to my friend Jim ZL1BOS, who suggested I contact KH6MB Martin, a gentlemen he'd met on his travels in Hawaii and who used end fed beams by the water there. As luck would have it, that very same day Martin answered one of my CQ calls and we talked briefly about the matter. I zipped off an email and got some info back from Daryl W7TAE but never did get all the information I needed. However there is a nice pic of Martin's variable matchbox kit at http://ham.aditl.com/ham-radio/techie-stuff/efhw-tuner/ and some nice photos of their setups on the KH6TE QRZ.com page
The nature of end fed antennas, with high impedance feedpoints, worried me with possible problems with common mode currents, so I had a look to see what W8JI had to say on the matter. And basically he says that while these antennas can be made to work, there are significant possible problems. Since these antennas are often used QRP or low power though, the symptoms at this power level are often not appreciable and therefore go unnoticed. You can read the full story here.
So, although I haven't completely discarded the endfeds, especially thinking of low power and perhaps phased antennas on the higher bands, the end fed is not without its problems.
ROTARY YAGIS
When considering possibilities for a fixed antenna on a tower, in the case that one day I might be granted permission to do this at the port, I thought about rotary vertical yagis, using the same design criteria I used for my fixed centre fed yagis, but set up like a traditional yagi, the only difference being that the elements are vertical instead of horizontal.
The 2 element design was quite easy to make, using the MFJ 2299 as the basis for this. It could be set up quite easily on a mount like the one I used for the 2 element quad for 15m:
The two-dimensional design of the yagi would make it much easier to install, I could use a rotator, it wouldn't be too hard to change bands, and it would be easy to tune each element with the analyser and then short out the reflector just by screwing in a shorted PL connector.
One of the disadvantages of this system is that it can only be either 2 or 4 elements, since a 3 element design would put the bottom part of the centre element right next to the metal mast. 2 elements is maybe not enough gain, 4 elements is starting to stretch the mechanics of the thing. I couldn't think of a suitable non-conductive support, so I asked on eham just how much the metal mast was change the pattern in any case of a 2 element design. A kind person modelled this for me and you can see the difference here . It shows a significant distortion of the pattern which whilst not making the antenna unuseable, does mean I should probably keep thinking about other options.
TRAILER TOWER / TRAILER YAGI
If you're wondering why I'm not considering using the quad in the photo, it's because the setup is really difficult. However I did look at the option of using a trailer tower for this. I guess there are more manufacturers, but the ones I was looking at were made by Tennamast , a good scottish company :)
Whilst looking at the trailers, and seeing if there was a local manufacturer who might do something similar, it struck me that I might be able to use a trailer as a basis for a three or even four element vertical yagi. But instead of being a vertical dipole design, it would use the "vertical with two elevated radials" design. This way, I could overcome the metal mast problem. And being on a trailer with wheels, to rotate the antenna was a simple matter of turning the trailer round.
I really like this idea. It makes for a really quick setup, since much of the hardware can be left assembled on the trailer and its a case of installing some pre-assembled elements and away you go (a very important aspect for me).
What has made me decide not to go for either of the trailer options in the end is a practical problem of where to store it! In my underground car park at the home QTH there is no space. And whilst I could keep it at my QTH in La Eliana during the Winter, I'd need to move it for the summer for when guests come to the house.
MY CURRENT "BEST IDEA"
As a "variation on a theme", I reckon I can probably make the "vertical yagi with elevated ground planes" work on my car, placed on a roof rack or ladder rack. At first sight it sounds like something that our 11m cb brothers use, but from what I can tell, their installations don't seem to be very well optimised and looks like they get more benefit out of their 10kW amps than the antennas! Installation would not be as quick as on a trailer, but I reckon with a bit of careful thought and planning, I will be able to make this work.
I already tried a basic version of this (see http://www.ea5on.com/2012/11/more-on-2-element-vertical-beams.html) but neither element used tuned radials, nor was the spacing optimum, which would lead me to hope that a properly installed one should work better.
At this moment in time I am sourcing parts if I don't come up against a "DUH I hadn't thought of that" moment, this will sooner or later become a reality.....watch this space, but don't hold your breath!
Saturday, November 30, 2013
EA5ON CQWW CW 2013
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: EA5ON
Operator(s): EA5ON
Station: EA5ON
Class: SOSB(A)/15 QRP
QTH: Valencia
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15: 351 28 100
10:
------------------------------
Total: 351 28 100 Total Score = 93,056
Club: Torrent Contest Club
Comments:
Wow! What a fun time!
I am an almost exclusively phone op and only started very low-key CW contesting
in 2010. This year I hadn’t taken any decision about CQWW until the Thursday
evening when I decided I would once again do a s+p QRP monoband effort. I also
decided that since I hadn’t done any practice in the last year, and hardly
any CW DX QSOs, it would be a good idea to go assisted. Normally I don’t use
the cluster for SO phone contesting but for this event it would probably reduce
my busted calls a lot and help me out a bit. It looked like I had an SWR
problema with the antenna and was all set to do 20m but a niggling thought made me take
the amp, ATU, and low pass filter out of line and test directly at the rig.
Bingo! Low SWR, so I decided on 15m. I downloaded N1MM to my new PC, did a half
hour session on Morse runner, and went to bed.
Saturday looked good to start off and I managed to make a good number of QSOs,
once I remembered how to send my call and check the cluster calls were OK. No
CAT from computer to rig, so I had to tune the rig manually to the spot
frequencies and do all the sending with the paddle. After a while I tried CQing
at the top end of the band, but following a couple of disastrous attempts at a
QSO I decided to revert to s+p. There were lots of calls not on the cluster but
a lot of those ops were so fast it was impossible for me to copy, so I decided
to concentrate on getting multipliers. Some of the pileups were pretty tough
and no way to break the KH0 or KH2 piles, I could also hear KL7 but didn’t
even attempt it. Slowly the count kept creeping up, but unlike other contests,
very few USA stations spotted. At evening mealtime the band was dead, a quick
check revealed a half time score of 178 qsos, 22 zones, and 73 countries. This
was already better than my best previous score. After dinner I decided to take
a spin round a dead band and was rewarded with multipliers from HK and Z8.
Sunday I decided that it would be hard to pick up many more multipliers with my
puny 5w and decided to try to work the bandmap a bit more intensively. At first
most eastern stations did not copy, with their beams all towards JA, but slowly
but surely the band opened up a bit and I was able to get a few in the log. I
was also able to work Japan, China, and Mongolia, all for double mults. As we
were sitting down for lunch I saw a spot for VK2IM pop up and I tuned to his
frequency, there he was and no pileup! But the dirty looks from the family put
paid to that and by the time I got back, he was gone. Another afternoon without
much in the way of spots so I ended up using my ear, who knows what my busted
call rate will be for those ones. I managed to break a few pileups for mults
like Iceland, Greenland, and Isle of Man, but no such luck with Jersey,
Shetland, or Crete. Once the band was almost devoid of stations I tuned around
again and to my astonishment a barely audible 9L1A pulled me out of a pile for
country number 100. I then tried for ZF1A but no such luck and finally after
working a few Brazilian stations, called it a day.
I realized after doing this that I could have tried using skimmer/RBN for this,
as a phone op I forget these things exist! This might have helped me boost my
score. I also continue to be amazed at the skill of so many ops who were able
to pick my 5w signal out of the noise over and over again. I take my hat off to
these people, hardware helps make a big score but in the end these guys are
just super ops and I congratulate all those who made a big score through their skill
and effort.
Thanks to all for the QSOs.
Rig: IC765
Pwr: 5w
Ant: Optibeam OB6-3M
73 de Duncan EA5ON
Call: EA5ON
Operator(s): EA5ON
Station: EA5ON
Class: SOSB(A)/15 QRP
QTH: Valencia
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15: 351 28 100
10:
------------------------------
Total: 351 28 100 Total Score = 93,056
Club: Torrent Contest Club
Comments:
Wow! What a fun time!
I am an almost exclusively phone op and only started very low-key CW contesting
in 2010. This year I hadn’t taken any decision about CQWW until the Thursday
evening when I decided I would once again do a s+p QRP monoband effort. I also
decided that since I hadn’t done any practice in the last year, and hardly
any CW DX QSOs, it would be a good idea to go assisted. Normally I don’t use
the cluster for SO phone contesting but for this event it would probably reduce
my busted calls a lot and help me out a bit. It looked like I had an SWR
problema with the antenna and was all set to do 20m but a niggling thought made me take
the amp, ATU, and low pass filter out of line and test directly at the rig.
Bingo! Low SWR, so I decided on 15m. I downloaded N1MM to my new PC, did a half
hour session on Morse runner, and went to bed.
Saturday looked good to start off and I managed to make a good number of QSOs,
once I remembered how to send my call and check the cluster calls were OK. No
CAT from computer to rig, so I had to tune the rig manually to the spot
frequencies and do all the sending with the paddle. After a while I tried CQing
at the top end of the band, but following a couple of disastrous attempts at a
QSO I decided to revert to s+p. There were lots of calls not on the cluster but
a lot of those ops were so fast it was impossible for me to copy, so I decided
to concentrate on getting multipliers. Some of the pileups were pretty tough
and no way to break the KH0 or KH2 piles, I could also hear KL7 but didn’t
even attempt it. Slowly the count kept creeping up, but unlike other contests,
very few USA stations spotted. At evening mealtime the band was dead, a quick
check revealed a half time score of 178 qsos, 22 zones, and 73 countries. This
was already better than my best previous score. After dinner I decided to take
a spin round a dead band and was rewarded with multipliers from HK and Z8.
Sunday I decided that it would be hard to pick up many more multipliers with my
puny 5w and decided to try to work the bandmap a bit more intensively. At first
most eastern stations did not copy, with their beams all towards JA, but slowly
but surely the band opened up a bit and I was able to get a few in the log. I
was also able to work Japan, China, and Mongolia, all for double mults. As we
were sitting down for lunch I saw a spot for VK2IM pop up and I tuned to his
frequency, there he was and no pileup! But the dirty looks from the family put
paid to that and by the time I got back, he was gone. Another afternoon without
much in the way of spots so I ended up using my ear, who knows what my busted
call rate will be for those ones. I managed to break a few pileups for mults
like Iceland, Greenland, and Isle of Man, but no such luck with Jersey,
Shetland, or Crete. Once the band was almost devoid of stations I tuned around
again and to my astonishment a barely audible 9L1A pulled me out of a pile for
country number 100. I then tried for ZF1A but no such luck and finally after
working a few Brazilian stations, called it a day.
I realized after doing this that I could have tried using skimmer/RBN for this,
as a phone op I forget these things exist! This might have helped me boost my
score. I also continue to be amazed at the skill of so many ops who were able
to pick my 5w signal out of the noise over and over again. I take my hat off to
these people, hardware helps make a big score but in the end these guys are
just super ops and I congratulate all those who made a big score through their skill
and effort.
Thanks to all for the QSOs.
Rig: IC765
Pwr: 5w
Ant: Optibeam OB6-3M
73 de Duncan EA5ON
Thursday, November 07, 2013
ED5T CQWW SSB 2013
The link is posted on the contesting page too but here it is again:
http://www.3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=kJaRzLfcmamiX
The video:
And the spanish extended text:
http://www.3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=kJaRzLfcmamiX
The video:
And the spanish extended text:
Por fin llegó la hora de la verdad, la prueba del algodón: CQWW! El momento de poner en marcha todas las mejoras de la estación para ver si todo funcionaba en su conjunto.
ED5T tiene su QTH en el alto de El Vedat (Torrent). Es desde luego un lugar privilegiado para hacer radio, y no es por nada que allí estamos rodeados de torres de radiodifusión, televisión, y telefonía. Para una estación de concursos de HF tiene una ventaja adicional, que es la caída brusca del terreno hacia el norte. No obstante, tener una estación de estas características no está exento de problemas. Al pertenecer al ayuntamiento y estar cedido a la STL de URE, estamos sometidos a una serie de restricciones en cuanto a qué antenas podemos montar y luego mantener. Y, cada vez que hay que hacer algo, tenemos que desplazarnos de nuestras casas. Esto quiere decir que muchos de los trabajos se hacen contrarreloj y no se puede hacer pruebas exhaustivas. También quiere decir que algunas cosas se tienen que montar de forma provisional cada vez que hacemos un concurso.
Durante el último año se han hecho bastantes cambios. Es cierto que la yagi de 40m se había probado bien en el concurso de la ARRL, y después de hicieron unas mejoras en base a los resultados. Las dos antenas para 15m se probaron bien en el concurso de la IARU y funcionan correctamente. Pero teníamos las antenas nuevas para 10m que no se habían probado apenas, y también la L invertida para 160m que no se había hecho ni un solo contacto, solo habíamos comprobado el ROE. Los juegos nuevos de stubs para combatir la interferencia entre las dos estaciones se había hecho esta vez meticulosamente usando el mini-VNA y mostraron un rechazo muy bueno, pero se habían montado en su caja el miércoles antes del concurso y sin hacer ninguna prueba de si funcionaban o no. Un año más, habíamos decidido montar antenas de recepción tipo Beverage. Esto implica montar dos antenas muy largas a poco altura, en un bosque donde hay senderos y pueden pasar personas, bicicletas, y hasta caballos. Se monta a última hora, y como siempre, nos pilló el toro, poniendo las picas y coaxiales con linternas, todo el mundo sudando y jurando.
Con esto quiero decir que aunque a priori una estación de este tipo tiene buena ubicación para radio, normalmente llegamos todos muy cansados antes de siquiera empezar a operar. Por lo menos este año hemos introducido un elemento lúdico que es la barbacoa antes de empezar el ´test.
Arrancamos muy bien. Yo me había ido a dormir y al venir a las 7 de la mañana me encontré con Victor EA5KV. Primero me contó las buenas noticias, que en lugar de quedarse en las bandas bajas, se había quedado en 20m haciendo running de americanos casi toda la noche. El horario ponía que se turnaba con nuestro invitado Andreu EC5AA pero Andreu quiso quedarse haciendo multiplicadores y la verdad es que los dos hicieron una noche memorable, ayudado por Elías EB5KT y Juan Carlos EA5UF. Las malas noticias, que nadie le había dicho a Andreu que el rotor T2X en torre 2 se engancha con frecuencia y que no se debe acercar a los topes por si se enganchaba allí. Tuvimos la mala suerte que pasó justamente eso y se nos quedó la yagi de 40 mirando hacia el este y la yagi de 15 mirando hacia el sur. Intentamos arreglarlo de noche y a lo bruto, pero no funcionó. Afortunadamente Andreu pudo encontrar una solución y cuando era de día ya giraba todo otra vez.
En ese momento, parecía que la meta que había propuesto quizás se podría alcanzar. No obstante conforme iba pasando la mañana, se nos iban disipando las esperanzas. Nos costaba mucho mantener buenos rates en 10 y en 15 metros, a pesar de tener un SFI de unos 160. Al parecer, la buena propagación se había quedado más al norte, y aunque pudimos trabajar bastantes multiplicadores, no entraban una gran afluencia de corresponsales, ni de Asia ni de Europa. Por la tarde cuando ya debían estar entrando USA con fuerza, notamos otra vez lo que había sido la tónica de la semana anterior, que era la banda abierta hacia el este hasta bien entrada la tarde, con algún americano intercalado, y luego sobre las 6 de la tarde, alguien abrió la propagación a Norteamérica de repente. En este sentido fue de gran ayuda tener este año los stacks, pudiendo trabajar en dos direcciones a la vez, y luego tener más zona de USA abierta al mismo tiempo.
Por la noche probamos las bandas bajas en running pero en 40 era imposible encontrar un hueco para trabajar USA en simplex y acabamos en Split, como en los buenos tiempos. Aunque las antenas de RX no estaban pensados para 40, hicieron un papel bajando bastante el splatter que había, así no era tan cansado para el operador. A pesar de todo llegamos a tener buen rate y solo decidimos volver a 20 al ponerse uno muy fuerte al lado de mi frecuencia de TX. El FT2000 parece que tiene algún problema con el segundo receptor, así que transmitía con la sub y escuchaba el Split en el Main, que era donde llamaba la mayoría de la gente. Más de una vez me llamó algún americano en mi frecuencia de TX. Y lo divertido era ver que los canadienses, que pueden usar toda la banda, llamaban indistintamente por un oído o por otro! 80m era terrible, oíamos que contestaban americanos pero el ruido era tan alto que no se entendía nada. Así que, otra vez a 20m a terminar la noche, pero esta vez sin la gran afluencia de estaciones.
El domingo era una repetición del sábado pero que se notaba durante el día que era más difícil oír a las estaciones más débiles. Aun así, fuimos capaces de trabajar algún que otro multiplicador durante el día y poco a poco iba subiendo la puntuación. Notamos por la tarde en 10m que la antena de abajo era la que mejor funcionaba para la costa oeste, mientras que la de arriba iba mejor para el centro y costa este. Llegamos a pensar que estaban conectados al revés! Pero no, era así, incluso con esa antena y haciendo americanos, me llamó E51USA desde las islas Cook y un neozelandés. A dos horas de terminar, Elías me pasó los cascos, que había americanos débiles que a lo mejor yo podría sacar con más facilidad que él. Me puse, y opté por cambiar de frecuencia, buena decisión porque pude hacer un run de unos 400.000 puntos en una hora, que nos acercaba otra vez a la posibilidad de igualar el record de EA en Multi Single. A falta de una hora, me empezaba a notar cansado y que me bajaba un poco el rate así que se lo pasé a José para que terminara. Hizo todo lo que pudo pero al final nos quedamos un pelín por debajo de los 12 millones de puntos. A destacar en esa última hora, un minuto donde hicimos 4 multiplicadores!
A partir de allí, otra vez a desmontar. Ya habíamos quitado los beverage por la tarde (1km de antenas y 400m de coaxiales), y cuando ya no quedaba propagación en 10, quitamos los cables del stack de 10m, pero aun así tocó recoger los radiales de 160m, bajar la torre motorizada y dejarla arriostrada, recoger los equipos, amplis, cajas de antenas de RX, volver a poner los equipos que normalmente están, y hasta barrer el suelo…..
No somos una estación líder en EU, ni lo seremos nunca, pero este año nos ha dado mucha satisfacción tener una buena puntuación y sobre todo, ver que todo el trabajo hecho nos ha valido la pena. El único ataque de Murphy fue el rotor, el resto de las cosas han funcionado según previsto. Aunque nunca estás a salvo del todo de Murphy, también es cierto que las cosas bien planteadas y bien acabadas suelen dar menos problemas. En este sentido es destacable la labor de nuestro amigo Juan EA5GIE, con un montonazo de experiencia en temas tanto mecánicos como electrónicos. Juan siempre está a pie del cañón con sus ideas, sus inventos, y sus sugerencias. No opera fonía, pero eso no ha sido motivo para no estar con nosotros este fin de semana, hasta el final de la recogida de trastos a las dos de la mañana. Desde aquí, gracias Juan, por tu incansable aportación al equipo.
Como siempre, nada de esto sería posible sin la ayuda de mucha gente, nuestras familias, el ayuntamiento, y nuestros compañeros de URE Torrent, gracias a todos por la ayuda, directa o indirecta, que nos permite disfrutar de esta afición.
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