How do you get yours up? Antenna that is...
Total Voters: 37
45F a bit of sun and a lot of wind! Today I escaped being selected for jury duty so opted to get the oil changed in my car! I called and my shop was not too busy and said, “come on down!” So I packed my 30m SST, BLT+ tuner and accessories and took off. Instead of sitting in the waiting area and reading out of date magazines and watching silly game shows, I walked out to the parking lot and threw some wire into a couple small trees. I only got the main 46 feet wire up about 15 feet on one end and sloped it through another small tree and out to my camping table. I ran a counterpoise of 23 feet to the same small tree and hooked up my trusty BLT+ tuner.
My Oil Change Parking Lot QTH for 30m
A quick tune found a couple week signals. I tuned the antenna a bit, called CQ with no luck, then heard a decent 579 signal calling CQ. Bill, NG3O in Columbia, MD replied and although I wasn’t strong (539) he thought he could copy me. He sure did a great job and we enjoyed a nice QSO for almost 30 minutes. Sure is pleasant to work a good fist without any QRM. He said I was his first Oil Change Parking Lot QSO.
A few minutes later, I connected with Rudy, W8RJW in Columbia, SC. He was a strong 589 and gave me a 559. We had a nice qso for several minutes too. It was a fun way to pass the time while I waited on my car maintenance to be done.
The band got pretty quiet afterwards and though I heard a few more stations, it was time to pull the plug, take down the wire and go home. I think I have figured out a new way to pass time when the opportunity is present. Hope you will give it a try too!
72,
Kelly K4UPG
Today was Polar Bear Moonlight Madness Event! I wore my new Polar Bear hat and it brought me luck. I setup in the 3 story prayer tower at Pioneers, my ministry headquarters. That kept me out of the weather and got me up in the air a bit which helped my W3EDP antenna do its thing.
Pioneers Headquarters Prayer Tower on left
Bands were pretty good and there were a lot of QRP signals out there as well as SKCC and FIST ops. I worked a few of my fellow Polar Bears:
Then I worked a few non-PB’s and had some good QSO’s with SKCC members.
Next weekend is the FYBO and the Central FL QRP Group will be operating its first multi station- multi operator event at Sylvan Lake Park in Sanford, FL. If you’ll are down this way look us up. If not, give a listen for K4AHO which is the call sign we will be using.
Here’s to many good QSO’s. Thanks to all the good ops with good ears that heard my peanut whistle 2 watts today.
Yahoo! My teammate, Frank, who lives in Alaska sent me a Grrrrrrrr8 new polar bear hat! Being a new PB (#173) member of the Polar Bear QRP Group, I just had to show it off to my fellow bears… Grrrrr! Bound to make more BSO’s when I am wearing this fine hat!
Most awesome Polar Bear Hat! Thanks Frank!
The Central Florida QRP group is hitting the park this Saturday, 23 Jan 2010. If you are interested meet us at Sylvan Lake Park, Sanford, FL around 0900 in picnic pavillion A or B.
Ya’ll come, hear?
The last few days our local news was full of stories about the cold weather that gripped Orlando. I signed up for a shift to operate special station K3Y/4 for the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) as part of the celebration of the 4th year anniversary of our group. That meant going outside and setting up antennas and sitting out in the sleet and cold rain that was falling. YIKES!
Tough sending even with fingerless gloves
Good thing I have lived in cold weather before. I had to dig a bit, but found my long johns, thermal tee shirt and other cold weather gear. My favorite bear coat, Purdue stocking cap and fingerless gloves finished off my official Polar Bear outfit. I did my duty but nary an answer to my endless CQ’s on 20m, then 40m and eventually 30m! Two hours of calling and zip to show for it. I’ll be back… ya’ cannot discourage a POLAR BEAR QRP Op that easily!
Having fun playing radio in the backyard at my in-laws! Extra fun since I cannot keep an antenna up full time so being able to get on the air when I can is a treat.
Entered my first SKCC SKS Sprint and the rain drove me to cover but managed to make a decent first showing for a QRP guy with rusty CW.
I put together a W3EDP antenna of 84 feet and a parallel 17 foot countepoise that sloped up to about 35 foot high branch. I used #24 teflon wire and some 1/4 in plastic tubing cut into 7 in pieces which I taped to the wires as spacer. Lightweight and nearly invisible in the air makes it a good candidate for QRP portable ops. It’s long, but seems to hear well and worked even after I bent it into an L when I had to get under cover from the rain! Hope to do more testing with this one.
Earning my Polar Bear wings by being out in the COLD. This Florida Bear ain’t used to below 40 degree wx. Brrrr and Grrrrrr!
Nite Ops from the backyard
Nite Ops from the Deck
Several Polar Bears gathered at Lake Sylvan Park, Sanford, Florida and heated up the airwaves with their beary strong QRP signals! Grrrrrrr! Who says global warming is upon us?
Central Florida QRP Group members, Jim Diggs K4AHO, Don McBride WA3ZBJ, and Kelly McClelland K4AHO are also known as PB#185, PB #183 and PB #173 and were looking for BSO’s with fellow Polar Bear QRP Club members. We are still working on some of the other guys including Wally Crew KG4LAL, Matt W1MDG, and Larry to get PB numbers and get involved with the pack on the ice floes of Central Florida.
The Novembear Polar Bear Moonlight Madness Event turned out to be a fun time. Our group had our traditional very early breakfast and headed out to Sylvan Lake Park in Sanford, FL. Our normal pavillion was already taken so we moved to the B (for BEAR) area and setup shop. It was a bit more difficult to setup antennas but we managed to get 3 verticals, a 40m inverted V and a mini-bac delta loop into the air. We also managed to stomp on each other with cross mod from time to time.
Almost time for another Polar Bear Moonlight Madness Event! Grrrrrrrrr! This coming weekend, Saturday 14 Nov 2009, Polar Bears will be clamoring for position in the ice field and slammin pawerful signals into the air. Bring a rig and join us.
K4UPG Bear pounding brass and gittin' ready for the PBMME!
K4UPG Bear #173 is excited because some other bears is gonna be gathering with the Central Florida QRP Group which is scheduled to meet that same day! So come on out to the Cracker Barrel in Sanford, FL for some sammin pancakes or sumpin else at 0730 EDT breakfast time. If you cannot make the feeding, then meet up with the rest of us bears at Sylvan Lake Park in the A Pavillion area at around 0900 EDT. Ya’ll come, hear??? Grrrrrrrrr!
I took my radio with me to St Louis and tried my hand at Hotel Portable ops. The conference schedule did not allow me much time, but I did get a break one afternoon and took 30 min to play radio in the courtyard. I threw my Coleman Clothesline reel over a tree limb at about 15 feet and paid out about 30 feet of wire and placed about 16 feet of wire on the ground as a counterpoise. It loaded well on 40m with my BLT+ and I worked three stations in about 20 min. Not bad!
St Louis Hotel Portable Airport Hilton
St Louis Airport Hilton Loading the Window frame!
After returning home, the weather in Orlando was great and I hit the nearby lake park for some antenna testing with a Mini Bac in various configurations. I was really happy with the Delta Loop which loaded well on 20m and 40m. This antenna is a keeper and I’ll be doing more testing and learning about how to deploy it.
Lake Fredrica operating position
Buddistick deployed for comparison
Here is the Delta Loop! Can you see the 26 gauge teflon coated wire? Here is a link to an outlined view of the Delta loop. CLICK HERE. The Red line is the feed line which is twisted 1 turn per foot and held together with masking tape. Pretty slick. The “insulator” I used is also masking tape, as are the corner point markers and peak of the Delta. As I measured it I stuck a small piece of tape on the wire.
Mini Bac antenna in 14MHz Delta Loop Configuration
The antenna restricted condo dweller (me) continues to look for a viable alternative to get on the air without having to go outside (think rain) and setup and tear down a portable antenna. I built a new frame for the magnetic loop and tried a few different styles of feed and resonating.
Ended the day with a 1.12 swr on 30m with this setup. I tried (fingers crossed) a dual section polyvaricon cap that I had on hand. It is mounted on a lexan square just below the gap on the mag loop at the top. After some time spent with an exciter loop, I decided to try the gamma match approach and regrouped. Using two stainless steel hose clamps to clamp the 12 guage solid copper wire I used for the gamma match. (actually the same wire I used for the exciter and 1/5 of the 10 ft. length of the tubing used) I cleaned up the copper tubing with a bit of fine grit sandpaper and tightened the braid to the main loop. Then I connected and soldered the center connector to the 24 in 12 guage wire for the gamma match. I drug the end of the gamma match and watched my antenna analyzer for a dip. Once I found the sweet spot, I cleaned up the copper tubing with sandpaper and clamped the wire while adjusting for best match. I then adjusted the distance of the gamma match wire from the loop and fine tuned for the lowest swr on the analyzer. After a good match, I put my Wilderness SST on the antenna and though the band was not loaded and had lots of QSB, I tried to answer a CQ from WB3YIP and getting no answer called CQ myself just to see if anyone would pounce on me! No contact yet, but at least the capacitor did not blow up yet! Sort of fun seeing what it will handle. More later as I get further along in the project. Thanks to CW-Code Warriors Yahoo Group for the help and encouragement they have offered.
Here is the 2nd iteration of the mag loop in my living room
The gamma match in test state
The polyvaricon capacitor-- will it last or burn up from high voltage?
I finally got around to putting a mag loop together tonite. Using 10 ft of 5/8′ copper tubing I made a circle and using some lath strips I had laying around I made a lightweight frame. (too light) I had a nice pair of air variable caps mounted in parallel and made an exciter loop for testing out of #12 solid copper wire. Using a BNC to binding post adapter I hooked it up to my MFJ 207 antenna analyzer. It is showing 2:1 SWR on 7.040 and I think with a bit more capacitance I can bring it down. It is too late to do much more tweaking tonight, but I’ll update you on progress and other experiments. Here’s a quick look at it as it is now in its testing mode.
My first attempt at a mag loop in testing mode now
