3 Element Steppir update and Random Equipment Ramblings

The Steppir is on its way from the factory.  I should see it some time next week.  I am looking forward to the upgrade.  I have the elevated guy support poles installed, and painted.  The are a bit obtrusive in the front yard and have raised some ire from the XYL.  I will need to beautify them in the near future to keep my hobby safe!!!  I am hoping that the cold weather holds off long enough to get the job completed this fall.  I would hate to have a great antenna sitting in the basement all winter while I struggle with the old one.

Speaking of antennas,  I ran my dipole as a Marconi antenna ( t vertical) on 80 meters during the CQWW RTTY contest.  I was running about 700 watts out of the SB220 when suddenly I heard a loud thunk and was rewarded with a massive internal arc in the SB220.  Smoke poured from the tuner shortly there after and it refused to tune on any band.  I removed the Palstar AT-Auto from serrvice and carefully removed the top to access the damage.  It seems that a current sense transformer had given up on me by burning off its insulation and cracking the torrroidial core.  DOWN FOR THE COUNT!!  A new box annd $65 later the tuner was on its way to Palstar.  Fast forward to yesterday (about a week later), UPS delivers a Palstar box to my front door.  The tuner was repaired!!  The invoice was markedd warranty repair and even the return shipping was covered.  I was impressed.  Buy quality equipment and get quality service!!  What a great experience.

With respect to quality equipment.  I had some pretty bad experiences with some equipment I purchased based on price alone from a particular manufactured with a 3 letter name that starts with M and ends with J.  Basically I purcahsed 9 items to rebuild my shack and wound up repairing 8 out of 9 before use.  I was not impressed.  Don't get me wrong, the equipment I purchased worked as expected once repaired but I never should have had to lift the lid on any of it when purchased new.  Since that experience, I made it a point to look at reviews on eHam before I purchased anything. Unfortunately, I learned to late that most of the reviews you see on the gear on eHam are positive because many of the manufacturers contact the writers of the negative reviews to get them removed....  THIS IS NO HELP!!  What I do now and what I suggest to anyone moving forward, subscribe to the yahoo support group for the equipment you are about to buy.  Read the forum posts, if the problems you are seeing are not to your liking, you will be able to save yourself some grief.  Be mindful of the fact that some of the forum posts come from users that are new to the equipment and sometimes cause themselves problems.  After you have monitored the posts for a while and get a feel for the issues you may encounter, then you can make an informed decision and purchase with confidence.

Until next time
73,
Ron
WM9Q

Dxpeditions, W9DXCC and New Software

So tomorrow is W9DXCC.  This will be my first ever attendance.  I have signed up to go to the DX Basics class.  From the looks of it, should be interesting.  I am always looking for an edge with my contesting and dxing. 

I hear a lot of local call signs in the pile ups and they are getting through to the dx stations way before I do.  Could be equipment could be luck or (most likely) could be skill.  My CW Skimmer usage has certainly helped with the CW pileups and I am usually within 10 calls of talking to the DX when I sit down to work them.  I have been spending more time with the propagation charts of late and I know that I have been able to utilize my time better on the air because of it.  I have been working NH8S over the past few days.  As of right now I have 10 slots worked, mostly on CW.  I really have not spent a lot of time trying.  I have, however, spent a lot of time sitting in front of the radio listening.  I have been told that listening is the key.  So I will continue reading, and listening, and learning.

I just downloaded CMSK63.  I am planning on playing with it very soon.  I will be doing my first write up on it after I am comfortable with it.  I know it is still in beta but the first issue I see with it is use of the default sound card only.  On the Flex 5K I have VAC's that will need to be defined as the default sound card each time I use the program.  More on that at a later date.

I have also been working with SARTRACK.  I have been doing some testing of the AWGPE multi port capability with the author.  Folks, the maps in this program are awesome.  The author has done a fantastic job and is continuing to improve it.

Until next time,

73
Ron
WM9Q

CW Skimmer, Airplane Cockpits and Ham Radio

Since I was rained out for my antenna work this weekend, I decided to do some DXing.  I am sitting here with CW Simmer running on the Flex 5000. I just finished working KH8/DL3DXX after about 3 hours of watching the pileup build and the propagation improve.  Funny thing is I only made about 6 calls to get in his log book once I started CW Skimmer. 

I have CW Skimmer tied to the second receiver (RX2) in the Flex 5000.  CW Skimmer from Afreet Software (www.dxatlas.com) is a program designed for Software Defined Radios to decode cw signals across a wide bandwidth. In my case about 10 KHz of bandwidth.  The Flex sends its audio and IQ signals to the controlling computer on what is refered to as virual audio cables (VAC's).  These VAC's can be connected to any kind of digital demod software currently available.  A specific feature of the VAC is its ability to be routed as an in phase and quadrature (IQ) pair of signals.  CW skimmer takes advantage of these bradband IQ signals to allow for decode of a swath of signals instead of the narrow band signal that we are used to. 

SO WHAT!!!

OK I'll tell you.  With CW Skimmer and my second receiver, I can watch an entire CW DX pile up as it progresses.  I can see the DX station, and decode what he is sending while simultaneously watching the signals of the answering stations(and decode their responses).  By doing so, I can observe how the DX op is progressing through the pile up and plan my attack.  I like to watch the OP to see how far he tends to tune before answering the next station.  This gives me an idea of where to place my station in my waterfall so that evenually he tunes across me.  This method has proven to be HIGHLY effective.  I won't say that I always get the QSO within 6 calls but I don't send for hours and hours trying to work the guy.  It is akin to making a reservation rather than standing in line.  The wait is much less. 

I started off this morning just calling peiodically to see if he would answer.  I sent my call at least 3 dozen times and decided enough was enough..  I kicked off CW Skimmer and started monitoring.  irst thing I learned was propagation was not good enough to hear most of who he was answering.  I monitored until I could see both sides of the QSO and then stalked his responses.  Once I learned how he tended to tune, I put my signal a few signal widths above the last guy he called and sent.  After about the 5th time through, he sent "Q?".  I sent my call again and he responded with my full call and 599.  I sent my response and got "TU" back.  QSO complete!!!  He's in the log!!

So where did the title for this come from?  I have DXlabs running across 2 monitors, PowerSDR and DDutil running in a third and CW skimmer on top.  There are at least  a dozen programs and 500 buttons on the screen.  There are 3 waterfalls including CW Skimmer!  I think back to the old DX60 days and wonder how the heck did I used to make contacts.  It is a different world.

When you are a Little Gun, you can use all the help you can get!!

Until next time
73,
Ron
WM9Q

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY... Come again another day!!

So the utility companies have aprroved my dig sites.  The auger rental is set for Saturday Sept 1.  Now I understand it is supposed to rain on Saturday.  Just great.  All summer, drought conditions.  Now when I plan to get some REAL work done in the yard, Hurricane Issac comes along. 

Oh well,  part of the purpose of the tower and antenna systems is EMCOMM.  If my mods are delayed due to weather, so be it.  God bless the people in the affected area of the hurricane.  I hope that damage is minimal and that they can get back to their regular lives as soon as possible.

Until next time,
73
WM9Q

The Great Tower Upgrade of 2012

So this is where it begins. I currently have a Cushcraft A3S with the A743 40M dipole extension and a Cushcraft D3W rotatable dipole.  These antennas are mounted to a Hazer H2 tram system with a Hygain HAM IV rotator.

The antenna has worked well but was damaged in a wind storm about 2 weeks after installation.  The repairs to the antenna have kept it in the air and functional but I just have not been happy with the performance.

The Hazer tram is a great device for the ability to maintain the antenna system.  It has worked well for me but tends to be a bit noisy in the wind (it clanks and bangs a bit).  The tram is being removed in this antenna upgrade.  It will be placed up for sale at the very next available hamfest/swapmeet.  Believe me, I like these trams.  I installed one on my fathers tower and it has been a god send at his QTH.  They are perfect for the older ham that can no longer climb his tower.  I am planning a slightly bigger load on this tower than the H2 can handle.  It can simply not handle the new load.

 I have purchased a new 3 element Steppir beam for installation on the tower. I will be extending the tower by 8 feet. The tower will be a total of 48 feet high. This should put me slightly above the tree line on my property. I will be adding a new elevated guy system as well.

 The Steppir is due to arrive October 5. In addition to the antenna, I have purchased the 6 meter parasitic element and the SDA100 auto tune kit for my Flex 5000. I am looking forward to the enhanced performance of the new antenna.

The elevated guy system will be installed on the sides of my home.  I have purchased 2 ea 6.625" diameter 10 foot long pipes.  They have 0.28" thick walls and are 197 lbs each!  I am burying them in cement in a hole that will be dug 18" by 5 feet deep.  The pipes will extend 5 feet above my property grade and will attach to the guy lines at that point.  Once they are vertical in the cement I am planning to fill them with cement.  This will enhance the stiffness of the pipes.  The guys themselves are 4000lb test Phillystran.  The stiff pipes were important because Phillystran tend to stretch a bit.  The tower will be guyed at the 45 foot level. The whole system was simulated with Grape Finite Element Analysis and appears to be well with in design spec for the tower up to about 90 MPH winds.

The tower extension is to be accomplished with a new section of Rohn 25AG4.  I am putting a new rotator plate inside the 25AG4 section and will be mounting my HAM IV to it at about the midpoint.  I already have a 10 foot mast that is currently in use on the old antenna.

I will be adding posts to this blog as the work progresses.  This should be fun.


73 and CU on the air!!!