My quest to learn CW (10)

 

Concentrated on callsigns and numbers, important for contesting.

Still do the lessons just to get faster but it is not most important anymore. I do a lot of plain text training which I do on a slightly higher speed of 28/14 wpm. So far this goes well. 

TX training is done with the Begali basic paddle, try to do it most of the days. My CQ of course and QRL?. Some abbreviations like GA, GM, GE, HW, BK, KN, AR etc. Having fun sending BENS BEST BENT WIRE.  

Try to listen to some CW QSOs but still they are way too fast. Found the slower ones but even that I cannot decode. Yes I recognize some letters and write it down only to find out that I cannot make anything out of it. The only thing I can decode successfully are some beacons after listening four or five times writing down and filling in the letters/numbers I missed in the next pass.

I think it is just a matter of continuing and hopefully I will get it in my mind somewhere along the long path to learn CW.

Provisional end of the experimental multiband halo

 Regular readers of this blog know that I build an experimental multiband square halo in 2022. 

After two years in my tower it started to detoriate. Of course this was kind of a prototype and very experimental and I know everything comes to an end. But it was a very solid performer and lots of DX could be worked. 

High performance speaker cable it reads. The thing is....the black insulation is perfect but the red one doesn't seem to withstand the elements...

Isolation just detoriated. 

Wire breaks on almost every corner.

Wires began to hang because the construction is not that solid.

I think I will make a rebuild, Have to search for alternative wire. I might use 300 Ohm twinlead or something else. Have to reinforce the construction as well... Weight is an issue of course. It would be so much easier using a thin single wire like most cobwebb designs use. I might consider that as well since I don't think there is much less performance not using full size loops instead of just dipoles, I could be wrong of course...

3BMOX antenna overhaul (2)

 

A while ago I continued the 3BMOX overhaul. As you can see on the photo I mounted everything according the user manual. Some bolts/nuts were missing and had to make new ones. So far it was not too difficult. Resonance on the 20m a bit on the high side, resonable on 15m but very bad on 10m. I really doubted I did mount something wrong. But measured everything and it everything was mounted exactly the way it should.

Here some measurements:

I asked and read about the issue. It is probably a matter of mounting the antenna too close to the ground. So I raised the antenna 1 mtr. Resonance was still on 28.2 MHz but SWR went down to 2,5:1. It could be right? Unfortunatly SWR on 15m went up from perfect to 1,3:1 after I raised the antenna. I wish I could put it up higher but the antenna is too heavy (22 kg) and big to do it on my own.

My opinion about this antenna is that it is build well except the clamps material that isolates the elements from the boom. I'm not shure what material is used but I think it is POM. From what I heard is that white POM is not UV resistant, the black variation is. This material is also called Delrin, although I think that is a brand name. Personally I stick with Stauff clamps (PP material) when building antennas. The 20m moxon itself is a bit flimsy. I really am not shure what windforce this antenna can have... but that would be another story.

The 10m SWR is a bit suspicious. All the antennas I ever build had good SWR also near to the ground, only the resonance would shift after raising the antenna. However, this is a multiband antenna with sleeve fed dipoles on 15m and 10m. It could be working different from what I am used to.