We have almost two feet on the ground and when I got up this morning there was a small mound on top of the az/el.
Someone said I was obsessed with the radios over the past few days, so I haven't switched them on today and it's back to work tomorrow.
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Winter is here!
We have almost two feet on the ground and when I got up this morning there was a small mound on top of the az/el.
Someone said I was obsessed with the radios over the past few days, so I haven't switched them on today and it's back to work tomorrow.
Saturday, 29 December 2012
The station
For today, the equipment in the shack consists of two FT-817 radios for hf and satellite work, a Maxtrac for ISS aprs, a TH-6F that travels with me and an old TS-700 that I am just finishing an overhaul on.
The accessories are an Astron RS-35 power supply, 120ah of gel cells, 30w of solar panels, a bank of coaxial relays with controller to switch antennas and rigs, lightning arrestors, a Pelco 570P surveillance PTZ used as an az/el rotator with a homebrew interface, two desktop computers and a laptop running everything on six displays using one keyboard via Synergy software.
The antennas are minimal. I have a fan dipole in the attic for 12m, 15m, 17m and 20m, rotatable dipoles for 10m and 6m, a 23' vertical and two modified Arrow dual band yagis for the satellites.
Like I said earlier, that is today, in the last few weeks I have sold my FT7900 and DX-SR8T but haven't decided if I should get the Flex 1500 or an FT-857.
Next time, satellites!
The accessories are an Astron RS-35 power supply, 120ah of gel cells, 30w of solar panels, a bank of coaxial relays with controller to switch antennas and rigs, lightning arrestors, a Pelco 570P surveillance PTZ used as an az/el rotator with a homebrew interface, two desktop computers and a laptop running everything on six displays using one keyboard via Synergy software.
The antennas are minimal. I have a fan dipole in the attic for 12m, 15m, 17m and 20m, rotatable dipoles for 10m and 6m, a 23' vertical and two modified Arrow dual band yagis for the satellites.
Like I said earlier, that is today, in the last few weeks I have sold my FT7900 and DX-SR8T but haven't decided if I should get the Flex 1500 or an FT-857.
Next time, satellites!
Procrastination
The beauty about procrastination is that you always have something to do the next day!
I should mention that the antenna pictures I posted previously are slightly out of date!
The vertical hamsticks were removed at the request of my wife and replaced with a 10m and 6m dipole. The 10m works well on AO7a down to about 20degrees and my xyl is happier. Not happy, just happier!
I have to try to post more often!
I should mention that the antenna pictures I posted previously are slightly out of date!
The vertical hamsticks were removed at the request of my wife and replaced with a 10m and 6m dipole. The 10m works well on AO7a down to about 20degrees and my xyl is happier. Not happy, just happier!
I have to try to post more often!
Friday, 19 October 2012
Surprise results
Well, I am quite surprised at the results I got when I started comparing the 23 foot ground mounted vertical to the mobile whips on the crossboom!
The mobile whips outperformed the vertical hands down! Even on 40m. I can only guess that this is because the vertical is between the houses and not getting the same view as the mobile whips.
The vertical has about 20 radials in the ground and 3 ground spikes and is fed with 30' of LMR-400.
The whips only have the structure on the chimney and the two sets are fed with RG-58!
I am considering moving the whips off of the boom and locating them off to the one side of the chimney next to the large maple tree. I found I can hear AO-7 mode A on the vertical and mobile whip, but a rotatable dipole on the boom should make a big difference.
I'm going to have to work fast if I want to get this done before winter.
The mobile whips outperformed the vertical hands down! Even on 40m. I can only guess that this is because the vertical is between the houses and not getting the same view as the mobile whips.
The vertical has about 20 radials in the ground and 3 ground spikes and is fed with 30' of LMR-400.
The whips only have the structure on the chimney and the two sets are fed with RG-58!
I am considering moving the whips off of the boom and locating them off to the one side of the chimney next to the large maple tree. I found I can hear AO-7 mode A on the vertical and mobile whip, but a rotatable dipole on the boom should make a big difference.
I'm going to have to work fast if I want to get this done before winter.
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Well, I had a few more problems with the computer last night!!
I really should replace the older one, but that is a project for the winter. Fortunately, I run dual computers, so I will transfer control over to the HF computer.
My 2m WSPR is offline for a bit while I transfer over to the other machine, but in the meantime, I am working on a few antenna projects that I had started.
Where I live, there is a very definite antenna restriction!
My wife does not share my interest in radios and finds the antennas to be unsightly.
We did come to an agreement for the location of antennas and now I am allowed to have the antennas in the area of the chimney on the house.
Since that is a small amount of real estate, I have to put as much in as small a space as possible.
The shack in the previous picture will be Exhibit A.
The pictures below are Exhibit B. Yes, there are a few.
I am still working on tidying up the wiring, but you get the idea
These antennas are my terrestrial/satellite yagis, along with a dual band J pole and mobile whips for 6m, 10, 15, 17, 20 and 40.
The 146/432 antennas work very well.
The rest are compromises, but they seem to do quite well on WSPR!
HF is not a priority of mine since I would need to use a compromise antenna no matter what I ran.
The az/el is a Pelco 570 repurposed PTZ camera mount being driven by a custom interface based on a Basic Stamp 2.
This unit is a small one but could easily run a bigger array.
If it fails, I have a Bosch unit that is even beefier!
the interface is run by SatPC32 and manual control is only available via SatPC32.
I really should replace the older one, but that is a project for the winter. Fortunately, I run dual computers, so I will transfer control over to the HF computer.
My 2m WSPR is offline for a bit while I transfer over to the other machine, but in the meantime, I am working on a few antenna projects that I had started.
Where I live, there is a very definite antenna restriction!
My wife does not share my interest in radios and finds the antennas to be unsightly.
We did come to an agreement for the location of antennas and now I am allowed to have the antennas in the area of the chimney on the house.
Since that is a small amount of real estate, I have to put as much in as small a space as possible.
The shack in the previous picture will be Exhibit A.
The pictures below are Exhibit B. Yes, there are a few.
I am still working on tidying up the wiring, but you get the idea
The 146/432 antennas work very well.
The rest are compromises, but they seem to do quite well on WSPR!
HF is not a priority of mine since I would need to use a compromise antenna no matter what I ran.
The az/el is a Pelco 570 repurposed PTZ camera mount being driven by a custom interface based on a Basic Stamp 2.
This unit is a small one but could easily run a bigger array.
If it fails, I have a Bosch unit that is even beefier!
the interface is run by SatPC32 and manual control is only available via SatPC32.
Monday, 8 October 2012
First contacts for Bill
OK, let's get a backlog of screenshots out of the way.
You have gotta love these reflections! Above, I had 3 reflections from Jay as well as a valid decoded signal!
A lot of time we seem to be seeing these partial signals. Meteor scatter? Atmospherics?
Beats me.
Beats me.
Below may be the first trace that I have for Bill, VE3IQB. Looks good but no decode.
This was just after I swung the yagi to the midpoint between he and Jay, VE3SWS.
It is now 18 degrees off of both of them.
Jay is the first signal and I believe that is Bill about 50hz above on the next segment.
Well, let's give this a whirl!
Who knows when I really became interested in radio.
Maybe it was getting thrown across the rec room when I was 13 after playing in the back of the retired family black and white tv and pulled out that neat looking wire that connected to the picture tube!
Maybe it was sitting in front of the old Rogers-Majestic floor model shortwave radio at my grand-parents place.
It might even have been when I was 8 and stuck the antenna lead from a crystal set into the wall plug to see if I could get a better signal!
Regardless of when, it has been an interest that has been with me for many years.
In the early 70s, I got into the CB craze and did a lot of tinkering on the "freeband" to get away from the mainstream crowd.
I even went into electronics because of my interest and have enjoyed what I do for a living for almost 40 years now!
It took me years to actually get my amateur license, but in 1989, I finally sat down to get my license!
True, I've taken some long breaks from the hobby and in 1993 I sold most of the gear and packed the rest in a box for about 12 years.
Since that time, I have been playing on the fringes with modes and in parts of the mainstream spectrum that most don't bother with! At least not in my area!
Right now, as an example, a lot of people are running WSPR on hf.
Been there, done that! I got involved in that when there weren't many people doing it.
My current interests lie are in the following modes.
SSB Satellites.
VHF WSPR.
A little known mode (in North America) called ROS.
Right now, I am sitting beside one of my FT-817s monitoring 144.489mhz listening to faint signals from three other hams in eastern North America. Yes Jay, I can hear your signal and it sounds good down here! -19 with a drift of 3 at 1754. It shows on the screenshot below.
VE3SWS and I had been conducting experiments with WSPR on 2m for a few months earlier this year.
W8AC would drop in the odd time too.
I had to rework the station and due to work and family commitments had to bow out for a while.
Now that the antennas are nearing completion, I've got the station back on the air and am happy with the results so far.
OK, the shack is a mess! I had to get the antenna system done first. This will change over the winter though. I hope!
Today I have been decoded on 2m WSPR by Jay, VE3SWS in FN06, 312km nw of me, Jim, W8AC in EN91, 488km wsw of me, and Bill, VE3IQB in FN15, 173km ne of me.
Above is a typical screen for 2m which shows drift which is a combination of equipment drift, various atmospheric conditions and in the case of the trace on the right, likely an aircraft, or multiple aircraft reflections. There is a major flight path running to the north of my area and an airport 15km east of me.
Sure the 2m band is unpredictable sometimes, but we are finding that it is open more often than any of us imagined and usually not in the directions the APRS maps are saying! That unpredictability is what lures me to the challenge.
If I wanted easy, I'd email someone or use the phone.
Well, enough for now.
Time for more turkey! It's the Canadian Thanksgiving Monday here!
73
Tom
Maybe it was getting thrown across the rec room when I was 13 after playing in the back of the retired family black and white tv and pulled out that neat looking wire that connected to the picture tube!
Maybe it was sitting in front of the old Rogers-Majestic floor model shortwave radio at my grand-parents place.
It might even have been when I was 8 and stuck the antenna lead from a crystal set into the wall plug to see if I could get a better signal!
Regardless of when, it has been an interest that has been with me for many years.
In the early 70s, I got into the CB craze and did a lot of tinkering on the "freeband" to get away from the mainstream crowd.
I even went into electronics because of my interest and have enjoyed what I do for a living for almost 40 years now!
It took me years to actually get my amateur license, but in 1989, I finally sat down to get my license!
True, I've taken some long breaks from the hobby and in 1993 I sold most of the gear and packed the rest in a box for about 12 years.
Since that time, I have been playing on the fringes with modes and in parts of the mainstream spectrum that most don't bother with! At least not in my area!
Right now, as an example, a lot of people are running WSPR on hf.
Been there, done that! I got involved in that when there weren't many people doing it.
My current interests lie are in the following modes.
SSB Satellites.
VHF WSPR.
A little known mode (in North America) called ROS.
Right now, I am sitting beside one of my FT-817s monitoring 144.489mhz listening to faint signals from three other hams in eastern North America. Yes Jay, I can hear your signal and it sounds good down here! -19 with a drift of 3 at 1754. It shows on the screenshot below.
VE3SWS and I had been conducting experiments with WSPR on 2m for a few months earlier this year.
W8AC would drop in the odd time too.
I had to rework the station and due to work and family commitments had to bow out for a while.
Now that the antennas are nearing completion, I've got the station back on the air and am happy with the results so far.
OK, the shack is a mess! I had to get the antenna system done first. This will change over the winter though. I hope!
Today I have been decoded on 2m WSPR by Jay, VE3SWS in FN06, 312km nw of me, Jim, W8AC in EN91, 488km wsw of me, and Bill, VE3IQB in FN15, 173km ne of me.
Above is a typical screen for 2m which shows drift which is a combination of equipment drift, various atmospheric conditions and in the case of the trace on the right, likely an aircraft, or multiple aircraft reflections. There is a major flight path running to the north of my area and an airport 15km east of me.
Sure the 2m band is unpredictable sometimes, but we are finding that it is open more often than any of us imagined and usually not in the directions the APRS maps are saying! That unpredictability is what lures me to the challenge.
If I wanted easy, I'd email someone or use the phone.
Well, enough for now.
Time for more turkey! It's the Canadian Thanksgiving Monday here!
73
Tom
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