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.

New licence

 

Received a new licence from the Dutch authorities today. It was my own request. The old one was not readable anymore. You need to have this with you when operating especially outside the Netherlands. The card only is enough in the Netherlands itself. I know that there are people that scratch the "not" from "CW not included" away. Because they know CW, but why not do the exam? We cannot do any CW exams here in the Netherlands but you can do it in Belgium.

#6m #4m ES-season 2024 review

 What can I tell about this season. It started reasonable well. Then things happened, or did not happen. Only 4 new DXCC on 6m and 3 new ones on 4m this season is a lot worse compared to previous years. I also didn't spend a lot of time on the radio compared to previous years.

The season started on the 14th of May for me with a QSO to Chile on 6m. CE4WJK was worked in very strong propagation to South America. QSO confirmed on LoTW.

2 June: I worked Italy IZ0TTG on 4m as expected. Not shure if Italy had legal access to 4m at that time. I worked IZ0TTG on SSB. QSO confirmed on eQSL.

4 June: Montenegro 4O6AH worked on 4m. Haven't got the confirmation. According to QRZ.com this station only does paper QSL. 

Also on 4 June I made a QSO on 6m with Asiatic Russia RD9D. Legal or not? We might never know because who knows what is going on in Russia really? QSO is not confirmed (yet) could have been a pirate station as well...

6 June: Malawi 7Q6M worked on 6m. It was a difficult one and it might be pure luck. QSO confirmed on LoTW.

9 June: propagation went to the west. St. Vincent J88IH was worked on 6m. QSO confirmed on LoTW.

23 June: Ukraine UZ5DU worked on 4m, it is with these DXCC always the question if this is legal or not since, like Russia, who know what actually is going on? Also this QSO is not confirmed. Could be a pirate station as well...

So far this was the end of the ES season for me on 6m and 4m. Due to private circumstances I was not able to be on the radio monitoring much. So, there might be DX I missed. But what I heard from others is that propagation was very bad in the last 2 months. Something that has been occured before at the sunspot maximum. However, winter could have F2 surprises for us...

ZX-Yagi 5 element (ZX-5ITB)

  Years ago Ron Eberson had a small antenna manufacturing company ZX-yagi producing very good quality antennas. Especialy in the 11m community it was a well known brand. At least around the ninetees of last century. It appears the company is still there since WIMO Germany has the antennas still for sale. According to this website http://www.zx-yagi.com/. I wonder if Rob is still constructing them when one is ordered? 

Anyway, a well known 11m yagi was the ZX-5ITB, a kind of short 5 element  yagi. I found one on the internet for sale about 22 years ago.  At that time I had big plans for towers and big antennas. I could get it for a nice price and aquired the antenna which was way too big for my tower at that moment. The guy that sold it to me told me it was a 5ITB converted to 10m. Well, I never had this antenna into the tower, it was stored in my garage while other antennas got into the tower. I now thought it was finally time to see if the antenna was still complete and take a measure with an analyzer to see what part of the 10m band it was tuned for.

At first I found a construction manual for the 5ITB but unfortunately it was incomplete. I decided to just put everything together since everything was color coded and pre-drilled. It went well and SWR measurement followed.

These are quite old designs (ON4UN), very populair at the end of last century. Radials mounted directly not isolated from the boom and a large gamma-match which is essentially a large capacitor.

Looks like the antenna is indeed tuned for 10m, probabely the CW part. Not sure because this can shift when the antenne is high into a tower.

I now know everything is in working order. Had to store it in the garage again of course so had to dismantle everything. The antenna is for sale. Not shipping it. €150. If interested write me an e-mail. You can find the e-mail address via QRZ.com.

If anyone knows the correct measures for the ZX-5ITB ? Please let me know...

Update 5-October-2024: Antenna is sold to PD7DD Willem.