The K5WLF Blog

The IARU Region 2 meeting will be occurring in El Salvador later this year. The ARRL is asking for input from American hams for what we’d like to see in the new Region 2 Band Plan. It’s probably to our advantage to let them know what we think. In view of some shameful behavior by an ARRL rep at a previous meeting, it may or not do us any good to let them know what we think — but it’s like voting — if we don’t let ‘em know, we can’t gripe if things don’t work out our way.

I don’t know what your particular concerns are. My concerns primarily are regarding the minimalization of the AM mode. My preferred mode of operation is in danger of being pushed aside into some “speciality mode” area(s) of the bands. ARRL says that there are no plans to ask the FCC to incorporate the the IARU Region 2 Band Plan into the FCC Rules. But the point remains that rules have a way of increasing, whether intended or not, and our hobby doesn’t need any more rules.

Here’s the URL to the article on the ARRL website:

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/03/04/11374/?nc=1

I encourage you to read it over, and if you’re so inspired, make a comment and let the ARRL know what you’re thinking and what you’d like to see the IARU Region 2 Band Plan include.

I know I’m going to be sending in a rather forceful set of comments to them, encouraging them to return the AM mode to the mainstream of our hobby, rather than considering it to be some kind of oddity.

73,
ldb
K5WLF

I’d spent most of the evening studying tube data sheets and amplifier schematics and books of RF theory regarding amps, working on trying to come up with a design for an amp using the GMI-11 tube that was designed by the Russians for radar use in the SU-27 and Mig-29. Then I got on the local 2 meter repeater and ragchewed for a while with WA5PB and K5DDL. I cleared with both of them and was getting back to studying when DDL called me again. Told me that KØDT was calling CQ on 1903.

I couldn’t pass that chance up. I hit the “PWR” button on the FT-897D and told Ham Radio Deluxe to go to 1903. Hearing nothing on the freq, I hit the “TUNE” button on the AT-897 tuner and ID’ed after the tuning cycle was complete. Jim (KØDT) came back to me immediately after my ID and thanked me for coming back to his CQ. We had a great 25 minute QSO on 1903. I’m running 100 watts into the homebrew short coil-loaded dipole and Jim told me I was putting S9 on him in Colfax IA. For the entire QSO. He was putting 20 over 9 on me, but he was also running an Ameritron AL-1200 amp. So that’s to be expected.

The moral of the story is: Short Coil-Loaded Dipoles work on 160! There’s no longer any reason to avoid 160 because you’re real estate challenged. Do your calcs, build the antenna and get on topband. It will happen. If you’d told me a week ago that I’d be putting S9 into Iowa on 160 meters with only 100 watts I’d have told you that you’d lost your mind. But it works. It IS possible to get on 160 even if you don’t live in the middle of a section of land. Quit procrastinating, start building and I’ll see you on 160.

73,
ldb
K5WLF

It was an absolutely beautiful day today…for a while. 68° with a light breeze while I pruned and tuned on the new coil-loaded 160 meter dipole. Being limited to a maximum of 98 feet overall for a topband antenna didn’t really sound too promising, but K5DDL and I built one anyway. Got coax to it yesterday and it tuned up on 1805 and no higher. I tried it at 1802 (just to stay legal) and the SWR was even lower. It was almost an AM BC band antenna! I’d run out of daylight by then, so the tuning had to wait until today.

I spent a fair amount of time today, shortening each end a foot at a time — three times. Coming back in the house each time and checking the SWR at multiple frequencies. The third time I overshot my lower target freq of 1880 and it was time to start lengthening it again. Just repetitive motion; lower it, prune it, tune it, write it down. Repeat as required. Finally got it where I want it and the total bandwidth surprised me. I have a 3:1 bandwidth of 40 kHz, from 1880 – 1920. That gives me the lower AM window and 20 kHz in the SSB area. Not too shabby for a short, coil-loaded dipole on 160 meters.

So, all of you that have been saying “I don’t have enough real estate to get on 160″ can quit saying that now and build yourself an antenna. David and I used the information in the ARRL Antenna Book for “HF Antennas for Restricted Space” and also ran some of the calcs on the K7MEM website. Then we added a little bit to the value of the coils to force the wire a bit long so we’d resonate low intially and have to shorten it to get it where we wanted to be. It worked. Much easier to cut than stretch. Actually, I didn’t cut it, I just folded it back.

I said it was a beautiful day ‘for a while’. It started cooling off rather rapidly and the wind came up. But the antenna was tuned by then, so it was time to eat and then play electric radio. While I was talking to David, Charles (W5TOP) from Keller (TX) about 100 miles away, broke in and we had a three-way QSO going for a bit. Charles shares our interest in building tube amplifiers for RF, so we had a good talk about tubes and power supplies, etc.

I’ll be selling the Isotron. I spoke a bit harshly about it yesterday and it wasn’t quite fair of me. I knew when I bought it that it was sensitive to large masses of metal near it. My house is metal-sided and metal-roofed. I’d hoped that I could get the antenna high enough above the roof to function well, but it wasn’t to be. It’s a good antenna that’s made to work in a particular environment — away from large metal lumps — and I can’t provide that here. I’ll try to find it a home with some nice hams who live in a brick house with a composition roof. Where it can be comfortable and do its job well.

OK, today we learned that it’s possible to get on 160 even though you live on a postage-stamp lot in the middle of town. Let’s not forget that. If you’ve been procrastinating about getting on 160 because of space restrictions, build a short, coil-loaded dipole. It works. Oh BTW, mine is only about 20′ off the ground. I’m hoping to meet some of y’all on 160.

73,
ldb
K5WLF

I’ve tried the Bilal Isotron 160C here and wasn’t that impressed with it. It seemed that I should have gotten a better signal both to and from K5DDL in Hico (TX), only 20 miles away. I followed all the directions in the manual for adjusting it, and tuned it to the best indications on the MFJ-269 antenna analyzer. But, overall, it just didn’t do what I was hoping for. I know I have a metal house, and the Isotron doesn’t like large metal masses near it, but I was hoping I’d be able to get the antenna high enough to make it happy. It didn’t happen, which was a bit disappointing.

David, K5DDL, and I, built a coil-loaded dipole for 160 that I haven’t gotten the coax out to yet. I’m hoping that I’ll get better performance from the new wire (and PVC) antenna. Don’t know how the pattern or the bandwidth is going to be, but I’m holding good thoughts. Hope it does some good.

The antenna is only 98 feet and that tends to limit the bandwidth. I’m hoping that my choice of 3.25″ coil forms will help (larger diameter coils help bandwidth) and that I’ll have at least 35 kc of bandwidth. Hopefully, some of it will be in the AM window — my favorite place — and a bit in the SSB portion of the band. We planned it to center up on 1900 KC and leave us some bandwidth both above and below that freq. We’ll see. Now I’m just waiting for good antenna working weather on Saturday. Wish me luck. Without luck, I may be doing a lot of tuning and pruning.

73,
ldb
K5WLF

Just a short note here. I made a couple of online orders — well, actually three online orders — over the weekend, and I wanted to let you know about a couple of the vendors that got the products to me so quickly that I’m amazed. And, I’m rarely amazed.

First, is Mouser — http://www.mouser.com/ — one of my favourite (I promised my friend Ash in Ireland I’d spell something his way) electronics vendors. I placed the order online Sunday night and it was shipped Monday. It was here at my house today. Tuesday. Admittedly, Mouser is in Mansfield, TX within 100 miles from me, but that’s great processing on the order and I appreciate it.

Second, Shepler’s — http://www.sheplers.com/ — in Wichita, KS. I ordered a couple of jackets from them Sunday night and they were waiting with the Mouser order on my back porch when I got home. Great order processing and good work on both orders by UPS.

The other order I placed is Universal Radio — http://www.universal-radio.com/ (Reynoldsburg, OH). They’ll be here within a reasonable time. They always are. Universal is my first choice for ham radio gear, supplies and devices. Great prices, good shipping rates and consistently reliable service and delivery. Like Mouser and Shepler’s, Universal Radio deserves your business. And UPS deserves a hand, too.

BTW, let’s all get started on some home-brew gear. Regardless of what it is. Even a small project. Let’s build something! I’m looking to build an amp. A tube amp, as in vacuum tubes, to be precise. I love hollow-state devices. I’ve found a better design than the single-band 160 meter 572B amp I mentioned a while back. This one uses a single 833A and covers 160, 80 and 40. With one more position on the bandswitch and another tap on the tank coil, it should cover 20 as well. And those are the bands I like — I don’t play much on 15 and 10. I’ll keep you posted.

73,
ldb
K5WLF