Category Archives: Antenna’s

Rohde&Schwarz HL-451 Log-per on a Icom IC-7700

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You would think it’s a great wedding to hookup a Icom IC-7700 to a Rohde&Schwarz HL451 Log-periodic. Let me tell you, it is! Last weekend we were building up the command center for the yearly Dutch balloon fox hunting and it happens to be there was a Icom IC-7700 lingering around. We decided to find out how the Rohde&Schwarz HL451 Log periodic would sound, so we hooked it up. I was listening to a USA-station in Michigan who sounds like we’re on telephone. Listen for yourself:

BuddiPole test run

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My birthday present of this year was getting a bit dusty. So after a days work this afternoon I decide to put it in the air for a test run. A few days ago I bought some nice mast pieces of 1m20 each. So I attached the BuddiPole to one of the mast pieces and build 6 of the pieces (the BuddiPole itself around 16 meters up in the air). It was kind of scary standing on the roof, holding the growing mast with two hands in the (little) wind. But it worked! I attached the temporary mast to my other 2m/70cm mast with some tie-wraps. There was virtually no wind, so not much could go wrong.

Back in the shack I did immediately notice the low noise level and strong signals. Of course it’s high altitude is also responsible for that (less QRM) but the SWR is flat on all of the 15 meter band! Thus it’s design and construction is quite nice. In less then an hour I worked 5 new DXCC-entities (countries) on 15 meter: Bahrain, China, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Cuba!
I think we can safely say the BuddiPole is working nice! Next time I’m putting it up in open field.

WSPR on 80m

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Last night I leave WSPR on for the whole night to see what happen. According to propagation rules, the best opportunities on 80m should be around the greyline. In the evening that means in western Europe I should get signals out of the east and in the morning I should get signals out of the west. A little disappointed I was this morning when the only thing I saw is stations from Europe. Could it be my antenna? Bad propagation on 80m? Not enough WSPR-station on the air? I guess my S9 noise level on 80m don’t help much.

BuddiPole arrived

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A great birthday present this year: a BuddiPole! Always wanted a simple but flexible portable antenna for the outdoor activities. Until now I used a glass fiber fishing rod with 2 pieces of wire so I could work on 20m. But that is not a small package which you can drop in your rucksack easily.

The BuddiPole is a cool piece of hardware which you can build almost anything you (portable antenna-wise) would want. It’s usable for 40 to 2m. It’s possible to build a much smaller vertical BuddiStick with the components of a BuddiPole. An ideal solution for apartments or hotel stays where it almost impossible to setup a big (even portable) antenna.

On little side note: when you’re in the ordering process, consider what kind of base you going to add. You can choose the tripod or (in the BuddiStick-modus) the table clamb. Because when you don’t order a base(like I did) you have nothing to put the dipole on.

Now I really need to fix my Yaesu FT-817 so I can test my portable setup on a quiet place somewhere out there.

PACC 2011 @ PI4RCG

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Last weekend another edition of the Dutch PACC contest was active on the bands. Every year it is an exciting time around the second weekend of february. This year for me it extra exciting because as new contestmanager of clubstation PI4RCG. A few months ago I had the idea to build a simple multi-multi-station at our NERA club facility. Just 5 seats with a few wire antenna’s. It turn out to be much more work then I aspected. Continue reading →

Broken antenna-wire due to wind

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Last night a nice storm is raging over the Lowlands. Wind speeds of 9 and sometimes even 10 Beaufort have destroyed my wire loop for 40 and 80m. Okay, it wasn’t very thick wire (0,38mm) but it looked like it could handle a breeze.
Luckily the Cobwebb holds on greatly! Only thing that moves are the wires on it, but I’m surprised the construction hold so well.
Waiting for calm wetter now to figure out a better structure for the wire…

CQ WW SSB 2010

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Last weekend I participated in the CQ WW SSB 2010 contest at our clubstation. First timer for a 48 hour contest. While preparing I decided not to work the full 48 hours. Earlier this year I participated in the PACC-contest for 24 hours and I found that exhausting enough. So I did want to start on saterday morning around 5:00 UTC until 22:00 UTC and return on sunday around 6:00 UTC untill 16:00 UTC. That left sunday evening for breaking up the gear. Everything worked as planned, kind of… We were active from the clubstation with two hams. We had build up 2 seats and there where 4 antenna’s operationable. A 10-15-20 beam, a 80m dipole, a 40m dipole (which hung too low) and a 20m dipole (which hung waaay to low). We swapped seats every once in a while to use the beam for 15m and 20m. 15m and 20m where the bands this weekend. I was able to work a few really far calls and added 19 new DXCC-entities to my log. In total I worked 295 QSO’s. Not too much, but I blame it to the bad antenna conditions (at least for multiple operators).

We really need to get up more monoband dipoles and get them up high! Problem is there are enough high trees around our clubstation but almost none possibilities to climb them. I think we need to figure out how to get the antennas up. For the PACC next year we want to try a multi-multi-station for the first time. So that is gonna need some serious preparations!

Holiday to Dordogne France

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Hello everyone! It was a while since I post something here. Thats because we enjoyed a little holiday in the south of France. Not the Alpes this time but we went to the Dordogne. Very nice trip! We rented a big house with swimming pool (although it was way to cold to swim in it) and a nice garden in a place called La Lardin-Saint-Lazare (JN

When we arrived I immediately setup the ‘travelkit’ containing a fishing rod, about 6 meters high, a few wires for a 20m inverted V dipole, some coax cable and ofcourse my good old Kenwood TS-50 and AT-50. Very nice singals from all over Europe! Noise level below S0 what is so rare these days. Even made qso with Cuba and Florida!

Neighborhood noise

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The other day when I was testing my brand new Cobwebb antenna I noticed something weird. I worked a few stations (EA7IQQ, RV3DMX and RV9LM) and I was pretty happy with the results so far. So I went on the roof to do some finishing touch on the Cobwebb. A little tape here and there to make it a little more waterproof.
When I came back down and listen again, the noise level increased from S1-2 to S8-9! At first I was thinking: maybe the band just closed when I was on the roof. Still it’s a weird thing for the noise level to come up.

But then again I remembered changing something else: I rotate the Cobwebb to be able to reach the elements. So it was in a different position now. Not that that should matter, the Cobwebb is multi directional. Time for a new experiment: the XYL behind the s-meter and me on the roof turning the Cobwebb around. Results? When I turned the front side of the Cobwebb (where the element ends are bound together) to the east, noise level drops to S1-2. When I turned the front in any other direction, noise level increases from S5 till S9! If you take a look at the construction of the Cobwebb, you notice there is less length of element in the front side. Maybe the Cobwebb is multidirectional from a bigger distance, but maybe when a signal (interference) is nearby, the Cobwebb behaves a little directional. It seams like there is a big interference east from my house. When I look at the other side of the street, there is a big old peoples home there. Maybe the source of interference is located there. Time to find out more about this. Although not sure how to begin… Any tips?

First impression Cobwebb 0.2

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A while ago I did a first try to build a Cobwebb antenna. I noticed that even on a very low operating height (about 2 meters above the ground) the Cobwebb received very well. Last weekend I did my second attempt to build a Cobwebb antenna for 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 meter. Gave the construction a little more thought and this time I tuned the wires individually before putting the Cobwebb on the roof. I’ve made sure every element was resonant within the amateur band. No problems. When I put the Cobwebb on my dormer, this thing works like a charm!

On the receiving part I notice very strong signals. The signal strength seems the same as on the 3 elements beam over at the club. Weird thing though is sometimes at 20m suddenly there is an enormous noise level. Up to S8! But a little later the noise level drops to S1 or 2 and I hear a great deal of signals from all over the world. Can it be the opening and closing of the band?

Cobwebb 0.2 new baseplate Cobwebb 0.2 baseplate + mastmount Cobwebb 0.2 Tuning elements on the ground

Cobwebb 0.2 Tuning the elements on the ground 2 Cobwebb 0.2 first 10m element with baseplate Cobwebb 0.2 Ready for testing