May the Forth be with you!!!

 Sorry I just couldn't resist!!! Between Star Wars and Star Trek our world has changed quite a bit. George Lucas and Industrial Light and Magic revolutionized special effects in he movie industry. OBTW: My favorite Star Wars spin off is Mandalorian. It's Star Wars for adults. 

 OK, enough of the sci-fi.....back to the real world of radio and QRP. 

 One of my latest observations is how much the QRP facet of the ham radio hobby has changed over the last 10 years. While there are still QRP clubs out there offering simple CW kits the emphasis has become QRP kits that feature direct digital synthesis (DDS),  digital readouts, digital signal processing (DSP),  built in test equipment, and basically features you would pay a lot of money for in a simple kit that costs under $100! Yup, I'm talking about QRP Labs and their QCX+ transceiver kit ($55 less case) Seriously, this is a great radio kit and has a load  of features that are mind blowing! In addition to the QCX+ QRP Labs also offers a plethora of kits including a GPS receiver, 50 watt amplifier in the event you need to "turn up the wick" on your QCX+ transceiver, a series of band pass filters, station clock, Qrss/Wspr kit, etc. 

Do yourself a favor and wander over the Hans Summers' QRP Labs site: qrp-labs.com and prepare to be amazed. The prices are fantasitc for the kits and the documentation is better than Heathkit.

 About 10 days or so ago I managed to pickup up an original QRP Labs QCX transceiver for 40M, from Ken Evans, W4DU. This was housed in a custom aluminum case and makes a tidy little package for doing SOTA, portable ops. While the original QCX kit is no longer offered, Hans has updated the circuitry and provides the QCX+ which has a different form factor, redesigned circuit board, and aluminum case. I was so impressed with the original QCX transceiver I ordered a QCX+ for 20M. It should be here any day.

 My wife, Patricia, KB3MCT, and I are going to take off on an extended trip to Texas, N. Dakota, NE Pennsylvania and back home. My ham radio goal for this trip is to work some QRP QSOs from the car while in transit. I did this in 1996 on the "K7YHA North American Tour" to celebrate my 50th birthday. At that time I had a Wilderness Radio Sierra with a Hamstick antenna for 40M. Good times!

I don't have a HF installation in the car at this time. So the first order of business is finding a HF antenna that would not cost an arm or a leg and fabricate some kind of mount for it. These newer cars do not have a lot of metal on which to mount an antenna hard point. Gone are the days of the bumper mount. 

So, having l scoped out the Chevy Equinox and spying a class III hitch installed on the rear of the vehicle I opted for a hitch mount with a coaxial-to-antenna connection installed. This will allow me to remove the antenna (and mount) when not in use, so no holes in the car! 

 My choice of antenna is the Hustler mobile whip/resonator series. I have used Hustler products many times over the years. This particular mast/resonator antenna system came my way via Ray Bailey, N4GYN. He happened to have a Hustler mast with 40 and 20 M resonators that needed a new home. In addition to this Hustler mobile whip system I also have a 102 inch CB whip which I had planned on feeding through and LDG Z-11 automatic antenna tuning unit. I may include the whip and ATU as a backup since it won't take up a lot of space in the vehicle.

Power will be provided by the direct wiring to the battery that I use to power the Icom IC-2720 dual band FM mobile installation. Quicksilver Radio (qsradio.com) has a great selection of Power Pole accessories that will allow you to split out the DC power from your power supply/mobile battery so you don't have to run extra wiring. John Bea and I go waaaay back and John is a great guy to deal with. Check out Quicksilver Radio.

 As for an operating position, I plan on using the QCX on 40M by just setting it on the console between the front seats and using a small paddle set by Tony Baleno, N3ZN. I have two paddle sets from Tony: a dual lever iambic and a single lever paddle set. Tony's workmanship is out of this world! His paddles are made extremely robust and I have not adjusted either of my N3ZN paddles since Tony sent them to me! Check out Tony's site: http://qrqcwnet.ning.com. Logging will be accomplished by paper and stubby pencil and later entered into my computer logging program. 

In short, I can hardly wait to hit the road and have some fun with mobile CW.  

In the mean time I am here, perched on the edge of my chair awaiting the FedEx truck to deposit my new QRP Labs QCX+ 20M transceiver kit. Once I get the ops position in the shack to where I can actually find the power panel, I plan on putting both the QCX and the QCX+ on the air prior to our trip. Look for me on the low end of booth 40 and 20M. 

 Stay safe and stay well. 

 Vy 73

Rich K7SZ 

+

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Alas, Poor Mimi, I knew her well (with apologies to Billy Shakespeare).

Tomorrow I must bid goodbye to someone who has been with me for many years. She was always close to my heart but it's time to let her go. 

 Mimi is my heart murmur.....Yes, I named my murmur "MiMi" and tomorrow I will be the recipient of a replacement aortic heart valve and MiMi will be gone. However, my chances of having a fatal heart attack will be greatly decreased. Yeah, me!

 Just thought I'd share. 

 Now, on to other ham radio related "stuff". 

I have been toying around with my new/old ICOM IC-706 MkII G transceiver. Although 20+ years old, it is a solid performer (provide some additional IF filtering is installed) even by today's standards. Covering 160-10 meters HF, plus 6 & 2 meters and finally 70 centimeters, this is an all-in-one small box that operates CW/SSB/FM and data modes. 

 I know that someone is going to ask so I'll just come right out and say it: It's what I can afford and it fills my requirements. Why spend more money than necessary when a used rig will do everything  you want to do on the ham bands. 

 Slap a Signal Link radio-to-computer interface on it, hook up an old laptop running your favorite digital software suite and you are in business. 

One of my primary reasons for obtaining the IC-706 was to mount it in the truck and remove three other radios while getting HF coverage in addition to the V/UHF bands. Thankfully, the truck has enough room in front between the passenger seats to mount this rig without having to resort to spending a lot of cash for the optical cable that allows one to remote the control head from the main body of the radio. 

Another reason is that it offers multi-mode coverage over the most popular HF/V/UHF bands at reasonable power output levels. Additionally, with it's digital capabilities one can run all sorts of digital modes using a small laptop computer or a Raspberry Pi.  

Mobile HF antennas are always problematic. Aside from 10 and 12 meters, the antennas required for mobile operation on 80-15 meters are quite long compared to a quarter wave antenna actually cut for a specific frequency on these bands.  

One of the most popular mobile HF bands is 40 meters. A quarter wavelength on 40 is around 34 feet +/- depending upon which area of the band you want to operate on. A quarter wavelength on 20 meters is around 16 feet +/-, and so on. So, as you can plainly see the bands below 12 meters are always going to be short, and in the case of 80//40-20 meters only a fraction of the actual length needed for efficient antenna radiation. This is the primary reason why obtaining good/efficient HF mobile operation is difficult to come by.

As for HF mobile antennas, there are the coil loaded "hamstick" antennas with a long whip at the top, there are other antennas that offer marginal performance at these frequencies, but, if you are serious about HF mobile performance, the standard 102 inch CB steel whip fed through a remote automatic antenna tuner is hard to beat.

 If you are really serious about mobile HF, the next step up the HF antenna ladder is the "screwdriver" antenna offered by a number of manufacturers. These are NOT inexpensive! I had one on my 2001 Nissan Frontier pickup truck and it worked great. The caveat here is the fact that I had a special antenna mount fabricated by a local welding shop that was welded directly to the frame of the truck. That was a very efficient antenna system and I worked a lot of DX from the truck using an Alinco DX-77T transceiver running between 5 and 50 watts.  

Another annoyance is the noise generated internally by the various vehicle computer systems. A good noise blanker is a blessing, while a very good Digital Signal Processor unit is essential to limiting the noise that gets into your radio and then into your ears. Of course, good engineering practices regarding grounding and bonding of the various sections and systems in the vehicle are also quite important. Do your homework and read up on ways to eliminate or at least reduce the noise your rig hears and you are well on the way to working some decent HF mobile contacts. 

Now for something completely different: Thanks to the help given to me by Brian Page, N4TRB and Larry Brinson, KO4IZU, two local hams, the 5 foot Glenn Martin roof tower, Alliance HD-73 rotator along with the 6 meter Ringo Ranger were successfully removed. Thanks, guys. My days of tower and roof work on antennas are over. 

In the near future that roof tower will be re-mounted on the opposite end of the roof from the original location, rotator re-installed, and some V/UHF antennas installed to allow OSCAR along with 6 meter DX to be available to K7SZ.

I still have two trees to cut up.....yup, the same two trees that ate two of my HF wire antennas. Once that is done, I plan on installing the new G5RV on one tower leg at the 60 foot level and a V/UHF discone antenna on the other tower leg at about the same level. This will complete the antenna farm at K7SZ, at least for a while. 

Stay safe and get on the bands and play some radio!

Vy 73

 Rich K7SZ

 

 

Tales from the Bent Dipole Ranch or I'm Back in the Saddle Again!

2020 was a wild ride. I put this blog on standby/back burner for over  a year. I just got tired of writing and needed a break. I quit writing for CQ Mag in 2012 due to the tiresome ritual of monthly deadlines for column submission. Ham radio is a fun hobby. I have always subscribed to the philosophy that when it is no longer "fun" its time to find another avenue for spare time involvement. 

 

A few weeks ago I was approached by a close friend who wanted to know if I was doing any writing. I told her no to which she replied that since I had a lot of experience and great stories, I should return to writing as an emotional outlet. So I have decided to get this blog back on track. 

 

During the past year (2020) the crew at the Bent Dipole Ranch has weathered a bout of COVID (for all four of us), a new mini Dachshund puppy, a duo of antenna eating trees who cost me two low band HF antennas, and (on my end) a worsening of my feet and lower back due to chronic pain caused by the lack of disk material in my back. In the case of my feet, the left foot has started breaking down after being rebuilt in 2005.This makes for painful walking, and prolonged standing. 2020 was not a fun time!

 

In short, I just didn't feel up to writing so the blog suffered and you loyal readers were left in the dark, lacking my caustic wit and sarcastic comments.  Well, relax....I'm baaaaaack!

Let's start with a recap of the current shack gear. My main HF station is the venerable Elecraft K2 with a whole bunch of options. This is my 2nd one (although I have built two others for local hams). In order to afford new gear I have to sell one or more radios I currently have to get the cash to pony up for a new radio. This K2 came from an estate of a local ham. It works great and I don't plan on selling/trading this radio. 

Recently I picked up a Hallicrafters SR-160 w/PSU. This is a mid-60s radio that covers 80-20 meters SSB/CW. The PSU needs to be recapped and as soon as that project gets done the SR-160 will be my main QRO SSB radio.

 

My ICOM IC-202S has a new friend....an IC-402 for UHF SSB/CW. So now I have the makings of a QRP V/UHF terrestrial weak signal/OSCAR station. The 402 needs a crystal for the VXO circuit to cover 432.2-432.4 MHz. It has the 435 MHz OSCAR crystal already installed. Both radios work great. They are my "pet project" radios. I don't know why I like these ICOM bookshelf rigs so much other than they are not only unusual but they are ultra-cool and work fine (for 40 yr old rigs). Oh, yeah....they are also true QRP radios which fits into my overall philosophy of "doing more with less".

Another recent acquisition is a used ICOM IC-706MkIIG radio set that I plan on using in the truck. This will replace three radios that currently reside there saving some space and offering 160 meters through 70 centimeters coverage using CW/SSB/FM/DATA. The control head can be detached and remotely mounted to save space in the cab of the truck. 

My project Wilderness Radio NorCal 40-A CW transceiver will be completed later this year and I'll detail my mods to this radio set here in this blog. Suffice it to say that this NorCal 40-A is not your daddy's radio! Originally this project started in CQ Mag just before I stopped writing for them. It's been sitting idle so its time to get it out and finish this project.

I have several QRP Guys kits, namely two of their modernized PARASET radios patterned after the WWII PARASET radio that provided much needed information from German occupied Europe. They are both all solid state so its all done with no vacuum tubes. 4 States QRP group has just offered their version of the PARASET called the "Bayou Jumper" in kit form. For just under $100 you get a complete kit that replicates, in solid state form, the WWII PARASET. If the funding is available I may pick one up just for grins. Sounds like a fun project.

On the boatanchor scene I am in the middle of restoring a nice Drake 2B receiver along with a very nice Heathkit HR-10 which was my first ham receiver when I was first licensed as a Novice operator. Aside from a recapping and alignment, the HR-10 should be an easy project. The 2B needs recapping and a full alignment. Again, no big deal, just a large investment of time. 

Two antenna eating trees came down in high winds after soaking rains so I lost two antennas, my 500 ft loop and a multi-band dipole. The 40M Extended Double Zepp (EDZ) is coming down (its been up for 12 years and needs refurbishment) and being replaced with a G5RV multi-band antenna. Before the foliage starts blooming on the trees, I plan on putting some wires up in several trees to hold a 160M end-fed wire and possibly a new (or rebuilt) 40M EDZ. 

 

The tower needs some work: I have to have the 2M 13 element Yagi  re-secured and pointed in the proper direction. Somehow the long-boom Yagi was not fully tightened down on the rotator mast and the winds managed to turn in about 30 degrees. The rotator control cabling needs to  traced out as I have lost the wiring key. The roof tower on the east end of the house is being moved to the western end. On that roof tower will be a set of M2 2meter loop antennas (w/phasing lines), a PAR stressed 6M Moxon antenna and possibly a set of V/UHF Quagis for satellite work. 

As for the military radio gear, I procured a nice AN/TRC-77A Special Forces HF CW set along with an AN/PRC-1088 squad radio (low band FM, fully synthesized, frequency hopping radio), and finally an AN/GRC-109 CIA/SF CW set to play with on military Field Day. 

OK, that's about it for the latest update from the ham shack at the Bent Dipole Ranch. Currently all ham activities here are on hold until we get the master bathroom remodeled. This project has taken on a life of it's own. Once completed, I will be upgrading the ops bench in the shack and redoing the radios to provide an improved work space. That may require a few pictures!! 

Until net time, stay well, stay safe and play radio.

Vy 73 Rich K7SZ