The picture on the left shows some mods on the boom. Radials are all cleaned. Ready to mount everything.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Rebuild of the EA642ZB7 (Part 2)
Saturday, June 15, 2024
First real CW QSO
I called John with CW on the computer. John came back to me....then my computer/radio locked on TX. A moment of panic followed. The only thing I could do was switch off the radio since even the TX off button didn't do anything. Trying to shut down all software and switch back the radio on didn't do the trick, radio did still transmit. In the end I got it back on receive and John was still calling. I had to try with the paddle. Unfortunately I had the radio set on "full break in" which was not really what I wanted. But at the time John came back to me I was shaking to much and decided to make the best of it. I tried to send "TU JOHN" but the paddle didn't do what I wanted, or was it my brain? At least I could send him a standard 599 report and the 73 sign so it is a valid contact. I'm sorry for the inconvenience John, if you read this, it was not what I wanted for my first real CW QSO. But at least it is valid...
Thursday, June 13, 2024
Rebuild of the EA642ZB7 (Part 1)
I guess the design is ok, but the mechanical strength of this antenna is not that good. It is obviously designed to fit in a small box with as few parts as possible. Costs might also be playing a role. First of all the isolation between te dipole halves is probably made of POM which is not really UV resistant. I personally prefer PTFE, it is UV resistant, heat resistant and water resistant. Disadvantage of PTFE is that it is not as hard as POM, at least the PTFE 10mm rod I have. Well you see what happened to the dipole of this antenna...it did get brittle and snapped. The challenge is to repair everything and make a stronger antenna that will last.
It was the first thing I wanted to repair. I thought it would be the most difficult part to remake. But in the end it was easy. I just drilled a 10mm hole through the old center part and pushed the new PTFE rod in. As you can see it looks pretty well.
The antenna was still assembled and I know why. The stainless steel bolts have been mounted without greasing them first. There was nothing on the antenna connections to protect it from nature elements either. Stainless steel and aluminium are not the best friends and so everything was heavily corroded and very difficult to remove. I had to apply brute force to remove everything and even had to drill out one bolt. Results in the photo, these are aluminium connecting pieces to connect the half 6m and 4m elements together inside the boom.
The choke used is consisting of about 11 windings of RG58 (would not be my first choice) on a alu tube. I've been thinking of removing it and use a piece of teflon coax which would probabely be a lot better especially on 2m. However the PL chassis is glued into the aluminium tube and removing it would destroy everything. I decided to clean everything and solder new wires to it. When I reassemble everything I will mount it again and cut the wires at length. It's not the best but I guess it will work anyway.
Sunday, June 9, 2024
#6m St.Vincent worked
Incredible midnight propagation to the Caribbean...
Also seen V47JA and FS/K9EL. Hope to work those this season as well.
Saturday, June 8, 2024
#6m Malawi worked
FT8 is a strange mode. I catched 7Q6M before but didn't get RR73. So I tried to give him a report and R-17 was send back to me as you can see in the screenshot. Strange thing is that 2 others saw 7Q6M giving R-15 to me. Does it make FT8 suspicious?
Friday, June 7, 2024
FT4GL automated, HAM radio community shocked...
The man, the myth (https://ft4gl.blogspot.com/) |
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
#4m Montenegro worked & #6m Asiatic Russia worked
Although I didn't receive the 73 the QSO is valid and in the log. Stupid, I made this screenshot after I returned to 6m. But the QSO is made on 4m for shure.
Legal or not? Work first, worry later...
Monday, June 3, 2024
Inside recently acquired filters
I couldn't resist to open the filters (low pass and balun) I recently bought at the radiorally. The balun is not really a filter, or is it? It filters common mode radiation from the coax though.
Not really anything special. A FT240 ferrite ring wound the classic way with 50 Ohm teflon coax. Made something similair myself in the past. And I think I proved that it worked. Choice of ferrite is important just like the number of windings. The ON7FU filter/choke is well made.
The military low pass filter, or is it a pass band filter, was more difficult to open. I didn't trust this filter because something was rattling inside like something was loose and not right. The casing can not be opened with screws. It looked like a solid iron box but somehow I opened it without damaging the filter.
I really don't know exactly how they made this casing. I estimate that the filter is made around 1950-1960. The loose part was just a piece of solder. It looks like the backside was soldered to the filter compartiments. Not shure how I'm going to close it again, have to think about it.
Sunday, June 2, 2024
#4m Italy worked
6m brought in some Japan and South Korea this morning.
I made 3 QSOs to Japan...