Sunday 29 August 2010

Limerick Sudden receiver

This weekend I continued with the "Sudden Limerick receiver" project. I do this in a leisurely pace and spend my free time also with other things.
So I have watched a DVD of Michael Pailin, "The circkel around". From the 3 DVD's in the box I have now seen 2 episodes of the first DVD.

Yesterday I soldered until all resistors were mounted. At that time, the 2 IC feet, 3 coils and resistors mounted on the PCB.

Today I have some capacitors soldered. When I soldered the rest of the capacitors all components on the PCB.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

Saturday 28 August 2010

Limerick Sudden receiver & Magazines

This morning I began with the further building of the "Sudden Limerick receiver. Meanwhile, all (6) resistors soldered. It's tougher than I thought to get everything straight on the board. It will be my limited experience. Tomorrow publish a photo on the blog.

Yesterday, I received the Electron magazine of the VERON, the September issue. Today I received also the "Nieuwsbrief" of the Benelux Qrp Club. Both magazines are in Dutch.

So enough to read this weekend.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Visit to the Zoo.

The last 1,5 weeks I have nothing done with the radio hobby. After the experiments in the field, I filled my leisure time with other pursuits. My 2 meters transceiver was sometimes standby in the evening but made no qso's.

Last Saturday I was with my girlfriend in the Zoo of Arnhem.






For me it was more than 15 years ago that I had been here. The pictures are a little compilation. After buying a new charger + batteries, a few weeks ago, I can shoot longer with the same batteries.

Saturday, I'm going to spend time to the Limerick Sudden receiver project.

Sunday 15 August 2010

QRV from the Field

Last Wednesday, the predictions for the weather where not so good and we decided to do this activity yesterday. We were lucky: sunshine and good temperatures.

The purpose of this event was to build up the portable mast and see if the additional support is good enough. At about 6 meters height, we made an extra point with 3 ropes. It looked good and solid but from this upper point of the mast was pretty crooked.





The idea is to make the support more higher to obtain a better stability.The upper part have Eric, (PE1FES) and I let down, there was now about 6 meters mast on. The mast was now stable, without curves. The suspension point for the variation of the G5RV/ZS6BKW (2 times 7.77 meters) is here by also lower.


In both situations, I made some qso's. On 20M a cw qso with I6WJB in Pescara. This was my first cw qso while I was standing, we forgot the seats.
On 40M, I made qso's with: F/PH2CV/P (cw), SP9KAT (ssb) and SP9WZS (cw).
TRX: FT817nd with internal battery + later a external battery. The output power was only 2.5 watts.

We have had a lot of fun!

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

Monday 9 August 2010

QRP on 20M

This morning I setup my portable situation on the dining table. This means the FT817nd with internal battery and on the back of the transceiver the ATX-1080 antenna.

First it seemed very quiet on 20M but during the morning I heard a few signals. While I had other activities in the house, I leave the transceiver on 14.060. Suddenly I heard HB9DAX CQ'íng. After one reply Man(fred) came back for me. We made a nice qso, the transmit speed of Man(fred) was a little bit to high for me. So, I have to concentrate me more than normal.

When I removed my setup from the table I wanted to move in the telescope. This is always stiff and one of the thinner parts nodded. It can still be moved in and out but it is not pretty.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

Sunday 8 August 2010

6 meters & J-pole for 2 meters

Yesterday morning around 8:00 local time, I heard during my breakfast signals from the beacon I0JX/B on 6 meters. Unfortunately, no further action was heard and gone outdoors for other activities that day.

Today I borrowed a swr meter to see what the swr is of my homemade 2 meters J-pole antenna made of 300 Ohm ribbon cable. The swr was reasonable, 1:1.4.





The J-pole antenna hung in the doorway to the balcony.

I made a qso via the repeater of Amersfoort (PI3AMF) without problems, 5 watts output. The other station told me that the swr is improving by an RF choke. I got a phonecall and the qso was abruptly ended. Google gave me no answer for an RF choke for this situation. Any ideas?


73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

Thursday 5 August 2010

6 meter antenna

It's almost a week ago since I put my last post on this blog. This means that there was't to much time for the radio hobby.

Last week there was a chance of Aurora Borealis by an eruption on the sun. Unfortunately, the Aurora was to weak for me in JO21RV to hear signals on 6 meters via this propagation.








The antenna for 6 meters has not stood on the balcony for a few weeks. This antenna is a 5/8 wave for 2 meters. With a piece of extended it's now a fourth wave for 6 meters. The extension has now made a final.
This year I made a lot of qso's via Es with this antenna.




Thanks to Eric, PE1FES, for the mechanical work.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ