New 160m windom antenna on the air

No more yagis, not even a dipole, but a 160m windom antenna is now my main (and only) antenna.

With a total distance of 82m, the longest leg is 57m, this is a monster.  
Everything seems out of proportion when taking a picture of this antenna. 
The height of the longest leg is at least 15m with a sloping ending in the far end of the garden.

Thanks to the ON5ZO construction I'm able to put it so high on a (relatively) simple way. 

More important for me, this construction can be storm and lightning protected within a few minutes.
Because I can only be active during weekends in wintertime, I can put it up on Friday and lay it down on Sunday without too much effort.

160 m windom antenna - 25 m going to the roof of the home - 57 m from the tower to the far end of the garden with in between the on5zo construction to keep it high and divide the forces of the wire.

In order to divide the forces I use a vertical wire to fix the antenna to the 15m high intermediate construction (made for a 80m vertical).  This exists of the old KT34XA alu boom and a 5 m spiderbeam on top of it.  From the construction the antenna wire goes down and is connected to the end of the garden with a second wire.

The connecting part is on the tower where I use the existing basic part of the Optibeam 30m dipole.  Both wires coming from the 4:1 balun are first connected to this tube (protected by to fiber tubes to avoid electrical connection).   This prevents that when raising the tower, a wire tough the alu part and give problems.

It was also a method to quickly switch back to the Optibeam in case of problems with the wire antenna.

Measurements are more than satisfying.
In all CW parts, SWR on 80m/40m/20m/10m is lower than 1,5:1, mostly 1,2:1.  Only on 160m I measure 2,2:1 (resonance occurs at 1740 Khz).

SWR on 30m/15m is slightly higher as expected.
SWR on FT8 frequencies are also around 1,5:1 (160m 3:1).

A first test on 40m in the afternoon gives super results with BV, many YB's, and reception reports in VK

To be continued...

How is ON4CCP's 1 Watt project doing ?

Fine !

243 QSO's made with the 30m dipole and the G5RV. 
A total of 314.000 km worked.

It's a hard job, only 1 Watt isn't really much power to use in this solar cycle dip.
Most of the time other stations come to call CQ on my frequency.

Sometimes there is a suprise, like the 9A who came back on 50Mhz (using the harmonics on 30m dipole).  Or the K-station on 18 Mhz, more than 6500 km away.

Looking forward what would and could be possible on 10 meter with a 5 element yagi and a solar maximum.

First FT8 awards arrived

2018 will be a fantastic year in my ham carreer. 


With >3000 QSO until now, 90% in digital mode and all done with a single element or wire antenna, it's a new world that has been opened.


Last days I made some hundreds of QSO on 18 Mhz with the G5RV.  With a height of at least 12m on every part of the legs and an angle of 180° between, the antenna delivers optimal results.
The predicted 4 lobes on this frequency are detectable in the log.  Ie. USA, SA, JA and Middle East. 
Almost no Carribean stations worked.


Everything is now ready to change this wire by the new 160m Windom antenna.  
Just waiting on a day with a temperature  <30°C.


The first FT8 awards arrived via mail (using Ultimate AAC combined with the FT8DMC club.  All handling is automatic based on a standard ADIF log).
.

Worked All Continents on 80m, Worked All Japan on 30m and 500 grids worldwide.


Total cost : 0 €, delivery time : 12 hours thanks to a great job of award manager A92AA. 
DXCC has a problem if this nice way of working by others continues that way.

New project : ON4CCP on the air with.... 1 Watt

After a very successful fieldday -- some need >1 week to send a log to the UBA, so we don't know at this moment if we  won the contest-- , it's time for new business.

I activated my FT817 QRP station on FT8, with only 1 Watt of outgoing power.

Goal is to make 1000 QSO with ON4CCP.
Everybody will receive a qsl, logs also available on Eqsl and LOTW.

It's almost incredible that such a small signals travel allover the world.

With my optibeam 1-30m dipole, I was even heard in VK.

Next time I hope to make a full 2 way contact with VK.

After only one weekend, I was able to make 105 QSO's, good for a total distance of 105.000 km.

I never used such a low power level.


Some QSO's were even made on 6 meter (using the 5th harmonic resonance point on my 10Mhz antenna).


Not everything runs like wanted. 
This weekend a problem occured on my Acom1000. 
I suspect a issue with the relay inside the ampli.  A "hot switching error", even with 7W of drive appears on the display.   To be investigated the next weeks.


I also read some comments on FT8 : link

Oh boy, what a high level of literature...

No changes , no evolution allowed; let's climb into our trees in the jungle, together with Adam & Eve.   With such an attitude, Darwin should have been workless.

Strange that those pessimistic guys use internet to complain...

30m dxcc

DX analysis of FT8 contacts

It's one of my interests to analyse why and how contacts can made possible on a specified band.

This weekend I worked a YC6 at 19h UTC.  It was before sunset on my side and before sunrise in Indonesia.  So this contact is a surprise for me.  We exchanged -16dBm and -15dBm.

At 22h UTC I worked another YB.  This time we were both in the twilight zone.  In accordance with the expectations on 80m.  We exchanged -24dBm and -16dBm.

Same graph for the USA contacts.  Although the West coast was in also in the twilight zone around 3h UTC, nobody came back to my call.  I suspect the G5RV in this case.  To be continued

80m DX with a G5RV antenna

This weekend I started a new era in my ham career. 
Go for DX on the low bands.

The plan for the coming years is :

- try different antennas for 160/80/40, i.e. now the G5RV, later the 160m windom and maybe a double G5RV if the windom isn't working as expected on 160m.
- focus on DX for DXCC, WAZ, WAS
- without high new costs
- without too much work

This weekend I've put up my G5RV, since 25 years my most reliable low-cost antenna.
Reliable if some basic rules are respected.
The most important rule is to keep the ladder line a free as possible and at least a few meters above ground.  Second rule is to keep a high angle between the two 16m horizontal wires.

The purpose was to focus on some mechanical aspects, especially on how to keep the wires as high as possible and to check FT8 behaviour on a lower band.

For this test I the antenna was @18m with the wires slightly slopering, but with an angle above 120°.

I made 260 Q's, of which 50 with the US.
Power : 150 W, 7 W drive into the Acom1000 and terminated on a manual tuner in the shack.

First highlight :
YC6JRT and YB0AZ around 22h UTC (sunset/sunrise).  New country and new zone.
I made allready a qso with YB on 80m SSB, but my green stamps were never responded.  This time LOTW allready confirmed one.

These QSOs were made between a series of DL and G callsigns.

It should be an improvement if the user can setup WSJT to make the contact with f.e. longest distance station. 
Now it is only based on response time when multiple stations are answering a CQ.
A checkbox with preferred zone, needed country, etc... should be an advantage for better DX-ing.
And yes... you can call for dx only.

Second highlight : I was able to decode stations with a level of -24 (!) dB.  Stations impossible to hear in morse.

Third highlight : my 150W signal on a non-dx antenna was heard almost everywhere in the world, exept in the western US States.   This will of course change in winter-time.

Even my missing zones CE, XE en ZS were alerting my signal at -10 dB to -17dB, easily workable in FT8 terms.  So for the comings weeks, I can expect more new countries.

I also copied JA, CO (new one on 80m), PY.
I added West Virginia for the WAS award on 80m.

One of the coming days, my 160m windom antenna will arrive. 

With a total length of 83m, a new challenge for my qth. 
Howeve, thanks to the surprising good G5RV results I will wait for autumn-time to use it.

Within the same order, a FT817 cable will arrive to connect to the Microham. 
I'll be able to listen on a BOG on a power-friendly way and see what comes in on the lower bands.