A very enjoyable POTA

Posted on March 3, 2024 by webmaster@hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk

With good weather and wanting to get out to test out the ‘unknown dipole’ I headed out to Bolderwood park in the New Forest. I setup the dipole, first I tried with the mast, but the ground in / around the New Forest is very rocky, so improvised and put the antenna in the trees !

Dipole was still in action in the trees !

This took longer than setting up the Alexloop Hampack mag-loop antenna, but I was keen to see what improvements using a dipole in the forest would bring compared to the Alexloop. I was soon setup on my ‘regular’ bench and on the air, making contacts on FT8 on 17m in no time at all !

Bench with the dipoloe feedline going up into the tree

I was amazed at how quickly I was having FT8 QSO’s, it was one after the other, and changing bands with the MAT tuner, made it very easy. I could hardly write down the backup log for FT4 as the contacts rolled in !

the contacts just kept coming and coming !

I also managed a Park-to-Park with M0OVE on FT4 – a real treat and was really excited. It took no time at all to get enough contacts (< 50 minutes) on FT8 and FT4, the antenna and radio was doing a great job. In terms of operation, I found the dipole much easier to use than the magloop as it didnt require me to re-tune each time.

Having made more than enough contacts, I tried SSTV, whilst reception was excellent, getting out on the busy ARRL contest weekend and a busy SSTV CoA was proving difficult, nethertheless I enjoyjed trying !

a busy SSTV SOA – if it was nt SSTV it was ‘CQ Contest’

I tried for some telephony contacts, but the self-presribved midday cutoff was coming up and packing up would take a little while, so tided up and headed home.

Once home I had to work out how to update my ADIF file, which to the thanks of the excellent POTA website, was made easy, so I can add my P2P reference, sure enough,that uploaded without problem. I was really glad so many my digital mode QSO’s where fellow POTA hunters !

Hopefully i will get out again in March and I can enjoy using another antenna, I think its worth experiementing just to see how much a good antenna and 10W can really do !

Until then, 73 !

Unknown dipole testing at the QTH with the IC705

Posted on February 18, 2024 by webmaster@hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk

Whilst tidying up, I found an unknown dipole that was looking rather sorry for itself. All I needed was some good weather and I’ll be able to test it out – and today was to be that day, with plenty of glorious sunshine I was able to do some other work around the QTH and also then test out the ‘unknown dipole’.

I purchased a ‘christmas string light reel organiser’ to wind the dipole onto once I had de-tangled it all. This worked well in keeping the antenna and insulators tidy. I then set about testing the mast having never used it before.

I was impressed how easy it was to get this ‘little’ mast setup, at just over 4m its a reasonable height off the ground, and very easy to pack away. I had the dipole attached and the wires attached to end-points in no time at all.

The SWR of the antenna wasnt spot on 1:1 but at least in the range of being tunable for at least the 40m and 15m bands. I setup my laptop to try testing WSPR with 0.1W of power to see how the antenna would do without any tuner to start with.

I picked up serveral signals, so the antenna and 705 worked well together, I wasn’t to be disappointed with the reach on the 705 with just .1W (milliwat) of power.

WSPR reception on 17M with .1W into the dipole

Having proved the antenna, I then wanted to test FT8, but encountered the same issues I had when using the whip antenna, the radio would cause the laptop to cut out. Thankfully with testing at home, I was able to return to the ‘shack’ and pick up a common mode choke to insert into the feed line between the antenna and the MAT 705 tuner. This did require a few adaptors on the choke, but it worked excellently with WSJTX working perfectly on the dipole antenna.

I was soon getting out on FT8 with no problems at all, using 5 and 10W into the dipole, the MAT Tuner, doing an excellent job whilst I hopped between bands, this was a distinct advantage to the AlexLoop which would require tuning each time, where as the MAT tuner coupled to the 705 took care of the tuning itself every time, which results being between good (<1.5) to acceptable (<2.5 SWR).

I was able to have several FT8 qso’s across the bands, and was really greatful for those that persisted in completing the contact with signal reports and 73. The bands, esp 20m, was very busy and getting out QRP it a challenge ! In a short period of time in ‘noisy’ RF environment I was able to make 5 contacts all across Europe and into the UK.

I was able to pack down the antenna and mast easily, whilst taking slightly longer than the Alex Loop, it did make for an antenna I can easily setup and use to jump between bands and seemingly do well having made several FT8 contacts. I was able to get the choek into the accessories bag, so its looking like I can take two antennas out with me when packing the dipole along with the alexloop.

I think I will always carry this antenna and mast with me, its so light and easy to setup/use, it gives the flexibility to operate around the bands without having to re-tune the antenna each time manually. I think it will feature on some PoTA activations soon !

Until then, 73s and hope to see you on the airwaves.

G-0112 11th Feb 2024

Posted on February 12, 2024 by webmaster@hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk

Having worked on antenna projects at home and with good weather the urge to get out and get on the air was strong ! This time it was an morning outing to the New Forest and Bolderwood, which was unsuprisingly busy with familes, dog walkers and folk enjoy the lovely surroundings of Bolderwood.

I setup the 705 and Alexloop, although struggled with getting the loop on securely this time out, just figured it was a case of over familairity – sometimes it just goes ‘on’ but this time it was being a right rascal ! Still, i was on the air quick with the radio setup. I jumped on 20m and started with FT8. No sooner had I self spotted the flow of contacts coming in was amazing !

In no more than 30 minutes the 10 contacts to activate the park was complete – even with a pile up !

The FT8 contacts came in from all over Europe, I was making it into the west coast of the states, but no QSO’s that far today unlike last weeks greyline activation.

FT8 on 20m – great reach with the magloop and 10W of power.

With the 10 contacts needed to activate the park and enough battery for both laptop and radio I tried SSTV, but it was very busy today. I found it slightly annoying that some people seem to serial transmit and dont leave a gap for a response. At least two times there was the same person calling CQ without leaving a gap and just retransmitting, I did however manage to capture a screenshot thanks to the cool CQ SSTV website which pulls in reception of SSTV sites.

I tried a couple of times, but the QRM from interference on the band, as seen by the horiziontal lines on the image, was just getting stronger. I jumped over to 17M being a non contest band and generally good for QRP operations.

My first attempt on the QRP CoA resulted in a partial call sign and no signal report, so I moved further up the band to find a gap. I wasnt to be disappointed and made 3 great telephony contacts on 10W, it was a great experience mix up the PoTA activation with SSB phone contacts, with good reports.

3 Telephony contacts on 17m – DM5MU booming in on 3W

It was great that two of the phone contacts where made my PoTA hunters, showing that the app really worked well. Getting pulled out using low power is a challenge, but great when those signal repots come and the QSO’s are more than the FT8 signal report/ACK. A fine example of this was the SO with ‘Andy’ and DM5MU, who was happy to chat about his amazing Yagi which was running very low power but booming into the new forest with 59+10db! My signal reports was just as good with 5/9!

With all the fun and excitment of making rapid contacts on FT8 and Phone contacts on 17M I felt i had a great time on the radio, I was able to at least get a SSTV decode and enjoyed doing PoTA – one award is the ‘repeat offender’ which is 25 activations from the same location. As the new forest is quite big, its possible to goto other parts and use the same PoTA reference, so something I’m most deifneatly lookin at doing as the year goes on !

Thanks to the PoTA Hunters ! Esp on Telephony ! 🙂

A big thanks to the PoTA huters, esp those who work me whilst I’m only running 10W and patiently give me their callsign and signal reports, it really is a great time out !

Until next time 73 ! 2E0FWE

G-0112 4th Feb 2024 + Webtechnology site updates !

Posted on February 4, 2024 by webmaster@hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk

had spring come early ? The sun was out today!

Some lovely sun kept the chills off today with flowers blooming and when it reach mid afternoon looked like turning into a great afternoon evening, I thought it would be great to make an impromptu visit to Bolderwood to try a PoTA activation.

compare to Janurary temptures, I was basking in the winter sunshin at a 12 celsisus !

I had everything packed away, i did one quick check for the power beiing packed, which it was, but had no idea on the battery level of the laptop, I knew I had used it recently so it shouldnt be too low. I headed off and it was great to to Bolderwood which whilst still pleasently busy, didnt feel over crowded. I’m sure this will change even by the end of the month !

I was on the air in no time, with the Alexloop attached to the bench with a bungie and hooked into the IC705, it was easy to tune into 30m to start with for FT8. I chose 30m as I had alot of contacts at home and its not a band I used /P for POTA before, I made 4 contacts within 10 minutes, so wasnt disappointed. I then moved to FT4 on 20M – it was *busy* even finding a gap in FT4 was getting tricky, but I was glad to find a gap and get out. The laptop was down to 40% power by now, so I stuck it in energy efficent mode, which kept the battery going without issue and no adverse effect on the radio/USB connection.

using the laptop energy efficeint mode to extend the life the laptop

I was pleased with a series of rapid FT4 QSOs on 20m, i later learned these where all PoTA Hunters – whilst I’m amazed by them all in the distance, ranging from Austria and Spain in Europe, it was the DX contact with KC1MMC that blew me away – 3217 miles on 10W of power on a mag loop, I was really happy to say the least.

As the sun went down the volume of QSO’s on 20M just kept rolling in, from 17:17 to 17:25 I was having a QSO on FT8 every 2 minutes ! I had to call it a day as it was getting dark and wanted to get my equipment put away safely, but I think I enjoy coming out at dusk – maybe a small lamp or pen-light will be worth bringing next time.

14 contacts, 5 POTA hunters made happy !

This was a really enjoyable PoTA outing with minimal planning, I was really impressed how well the antenna done and the PSK Reporter picture shows, it can really reach the entire planet !

Digital modes doing really on 10W of power

I have seen videos of great QRP Contacts and am wondering how well I would do, I really think I should give it a try the next time I am out as the setup really impresses me and think it should be good to make some telephony contacts.

Making contact with KC1MMC on 20m FT8

Webtechnologies website update – WSPR Bands added !

I’ve been making monthly updates to my webtechnologies site, which last month I got back up and running so the code would scrape the data from the ‘updated’ WSPR old-db. I’ve now added sections that allow filtering by band. This is all transmitted via the 6BTV which is doing an excellent job of getting out on all 6 bands it is setup for.

Webtechnologies site – now with spots per band functionality.

I’m aiming to keep building more features for the website each month, just small incremental changes, but I’m sure will keep adding making for a feature-rich site. There is so much that can be done with WSPR data, I really enjoy using this mode and its great ot use my programming skills for amateur radio also. Check it out at the webtechnologies site.

Jan 2024 – Antenna update at the QTH

Posted on January 28, 2024 by webmaster@hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk

With some rather nice weather and available time, I was able to get to work on putting up the SOTABeams Travel Mast as a repacement of the DX Commander classic mast which has done me so well for serveral years, and one of the guying rings finally sucumbbing to the storms we had at the start of the month.

Use of electrical tape and jubilee clip to secure mast sections vertically

I put electrical tape and a jubiliee clip on each section to secure and make vertical slipping less of a possiblity. The same method worked very well for the DX Commander in keeping the sections up and those had to take a considerable strain when used in the way to use the split-dipole that the DX Commander is.

Wire up about 2/3s of the full mast height

I attached the wire to the mast via a piece of guying rope about 2/3’s up the mast. I may make this higher the next time I move the antenna, but as is, it clears the house nicely and is a good distance from the ground, I think more height will allow a full half-wave on 20m so something I want to do very much, given I enjoy SSTV on the 20M band alot.

There is very little strain on the mast and a good level of taughtness to keep the wire from drooping and touching the house, the one set of guying wires are holding the mast very well, combined with some decent ground stakes.

I went into test the mast, 20M SSTV was simply flooded with QSOs – unable to get a QSO in as the band was so buys, but I guess thats a good thing showing that the reception was doing well. I jumped on FT4 on 10M as the band was well open.

FT4 on 10M doing very well on the EFHW antenna

I was very please to test the antenna and have a FT4 contact with JS9DS in St Lucia over 4000 miles away !

I’m very pleased with the mast and will improve upon it as the weather and mast moves to allow us to use the front garden more. Looking forward to catching you on the airwaves !

mast update at the QTH

G-0112 – Bolderwood New Forest, Alex Loop to the rescue

Posted on January 7, 2024 by webmaster@hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk

With another bright but cold day, it was a good time to get out and get on the air. This time I was packing my trust Alexloop Ham pack antenna along with the IC705, determined to make an activation on my 3rd attempt from Bolderwood.

WX – I caught the ‘warmer’ part of the day at round 9 to 7 celsius

I was no sooner out the car and onto one of the many available benches and quickly setup. The alex loop was out the bag and with a bungee hook strapped pretty tightly to the bench. I tuned for 20m and got a great SWR of between 1.3 and 1.4 but no more than 1.5 and 10W of power. The FT8 contacts came rolling in, and with a busy 20m FT8 was then onto FT4, for even quicker overs.

It was great to get a mobile phone signal as I tethered my laptop to the phone wifi and could upload my contacts directly to QRZ via the excellent grid tracker application, I still kept a manual log so it would be easy to confirm the order and QSO’s I had today. The Reverse Beacon Network and POTA app was doing me a great service, as quite a few of my contact were POTA hunters. Getting 10 contacts in under an hour was great given just how cold it was, it was nice to see 5 of the contacts are POTA hunters.

I gave SSTV a go, but the signal where coming in thick and fast, I started to see a response to my transmission, but another station came in over the top. I try to use Robot72 and BW12 to keep my over time on 14.2300 short, but most people dont QSY on SSTV, and even then we tend to get other people talking over the SSTV CoA on 20m as well..

Still, having uploaded my ADIF file from WSJTX to POTA I was soon awarded my 2024 activation. Just in the nick of time ! A good start to POTA in 2024 !

POTA 2024 Award – a good start to the year

I am really excited about getting out and do more POTA – its a great start to the year !

73, Alan 2E0FWE

POTA from G-0112, cold but worth the effor

SOTABeams masts and WSPR Scraping

Posted on January 3, 2024 by webmaster@hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk

Good news on several fronts today – the replacement parts I ordered just days ago from Sotabeams have arrived, and amazingly I ordered the correct parts. I now have a fully functioning Sotabeams Travelmast again !

Sotabeams travelmast restored to operational !

Previous testing of Sotabeams travel mast at home, before I went out and snapped it 🙁

I found another Sotabeams mast in the garden, in this case a Whip10000, its probably been sat outside in all weathers for at least a year, if not two ! upon cleaning it up, I managed to get all the parts apart from one, which has stuck fast ! How do i get this unstuck ?!

I also planned over the holidays to get the WSPR scraping on the webtechnologies set up again, as since last year the format on the ‘old db’ changed, which caused my webscraping program to fail. I decided to re-write from scratch and use Python’s panda’s functions to scrape and sort the data. With a bit more Postgres changes I was then able to push data in again !

As time and interest allow I will add more functions as I enjoy the programming and representations of data in different formats from actual transmissions. When I’m 100% sure the code is working correctly, I’ll post the updates to github.

So a quick update and am looking forward to using the SOTA Masts for at the QTH and for POTA activations !

Alan / 2E0FWE

First POTA of 2024 – G-0112 New Forest (again)

Posted on January 1, 2024 by webmaster@hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk

So with new choke packed away and bringing the battery pack, i headed out to Bolderwood in the New Forest, arriving at around 10:15, it was still pretty quiet and I had pick of parking spaces and benches.

I then setup the IC705 with the Toybox antenna and radials, which I found getting the radials out much easier this time. I was able to get the SWR down on 17m to a 1.6~1.7.

With the antenna setup I then connected the 705 without the MAT Tuner to start with, having the large battery with me was really good as it support the LC IC705 bag nicely keeping the antenna and bag vertical. I then went about attachign the choke-wound usb cable to the laptop.

As soon as the USB cable was attached, the QRM returned ! I could hear the FT8 stations coming into WSJTX without problem, but again when hitting transmit, the audio disconnected. Whilst the QRM was much reduced, there was no doubt it USB cable and laptop was still effecting the radio. I went ahead and the MAT autotuner, to see if that improve the situation, i.e. would it act as any kind of choke between the radio and antenna.

The introduction of the MAT Tuner had no effect on the QRM, although I could see that with the longer coax between the tuner and antenna, I could potentially try putting chokes on here also. I disconnected the radio and just tried calling CQ on 17m QRP frequency, but to no avail. I could pull in signals and I tried jumping on the back on other QSO’s but think I wasnt getting out at all with the little whip antenna.

So I think whilst I have other options, I will explore those as well, I have always done well with the magloop, and its a great antenna, but the one I really want to try is the UK Antenna 40M EFHW, but currently my SOTA Beams mast is damaged from its first and only outing. I explored the website and was able to order the 3 replacement broken parts, which only cost £17.28 with 1st class postage.

The 40M EFHW UK Antenna – the next one to try when the replacement mast parts arrive…

I will continue experimenting with chokes and the Toybox antenna at the QTH before going back out with it again, I think with enough power, it would work well as a portable antenna, with QRP/10W,its giong to be hard work to get on the air with it…

Until the next time, 73s !

2E0FWE

IC705 USB Cable Choke

Posted on December 31, 2023 by webmaster@hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk

So a quick update, having received the 5M USB cable and cable ties, i then went on to test out the choke method to reduce/remove the inteference from the IC705 as shown by Temporarily Offline Ham Radio video included yesterday.

The RF Choke comes from here, as I dont suffer RF back into the shack thanks to the EFHW and RF Choke on the feedline, the PSU Choke was not being used. Winding the toride was made quite easy by the fact the choke can be opened up and wound up, once secured with a a couple of cable ties it was easier to put the turns into specifc locations, tighten the cable wraps up, then cut off the excess.

WSJTX in action – no sign of disconnects or loss of audio

I tested MMSTV and WSJTX into the 2M Comet Whip antenna, everything worked fine with no issue of disconnected audio or interference into the radio or the computer. I’m looking forward to taking the setup out and trying again with the Toybox whip antenna to see how it does this time out.

Testing the IC705 with the RF Choke USB cable and laptop with MMSTV and WSJTX

Final POTA of 2023 – G-0112 New Forest

Posted on December 30, 2023 by webmaster@hamradio.knipmeyer.co.uk

So having got everything ready and with the weather, whilst chilly, was ok to go and venture out with the radio. I scheduled on the POTA activation website, and headed off to the New Forest to Bolderwood.

The drive in the Hyundai i10 was fine after its recent service, and was good to stretch its legs on the lively A roads in the area. For a small car its got a decent enough poke to make the journey without issue, as I was just carrying my IC705 and a few drinks.. I did notice I had left my ‘large’ battery behind – so I would be running real QRP from the 705’s internal battery and limited to 5W – still, i was nearer bolderwood than I was home, so pressed on.

I de-tangled the the 30 meters of radials, this took me a little while, but nethertheless wasn’t too problematic, the ends of the radials have a nice round terminator which makes de-tangling more a case of pulling the cables thru, rather than unpicking a ‘rats nest’ of wire (plenty of experience with the DX Commander and radials there!!!) I used the rig expert on 17m got the SWR across the band down to 2.1:1, which for a compromise antenna was ok.

I hooked up the laptop via Wfview, Virtual Comport and WSJTX. Signals came in no problem at all, and decodes appearing in WSJTX without issue. I then tried to TX, the SWR measurement was the same as the Rig Expert, but oddly the TX ‘pulsated’ as if it was getting disconnected. I went thru and checked the settings once more, no difference between home and here, only delta was the antenna. I tried the USB cable I had packed away to remove wifi/wfview/audio port as an issue, but the noise level went thru the roof! So I went back to trying to get wfview to work, at least at home on 2M I did get out (suprisngly!).

it was not to be my day to make an activation….

As I continued to try to connect, I checked PSK report on my phone – not a single RX. I could only put this down to the combination of the antenna and using wfview, as with a magloop and 5W on an ipad, I would at least get out, and as other POTA activations showed, worked without issue.

With 0 contacts and a slight piece of rain, i forgo the activation and headed home determinted to find out what I could do to solve my WSJTX TX issue.

TX issues with the 705 and using the Toybox antenna

Once home I searched around youtube and found several useful videos and this one demonstrated exactly the issues I faced when using my USB cable.

USB = QRM

With that I searched around the house, the longest USB cable I had was 2M long, and wouldn’t take many wraps of the toroids I have, so have ordered a 5M USB cable and some cable ties from Amazon, hopefully they will be here tomorrow, then I can try USB with a nice toroid to see if that removes the QRM.

I also thought that I should of tried with the ATU between the radio and antenna, as I think that would of also acted as a ‘common mode’ choke, but will try the USB route first as that looks the most promising solution at the moment.

Until next time (which is hopefully early in the new year) 73’s !

2E0FWE Site

HAM Radio activites of Alan K.

Category Archives: Antennas