Another Wire in the Air

Success!

After work today, I was able to hang the other end of the antenna in the walnut tree. It took about 10 tries with the bow and arrow to get the fishing line in the right place in the tree. I looped the end of the antenna wire through the insulator and soldered it together (score another win for the butane soldering iron), tied the paracord to the other end of the insulator, and tied the far end of the paracord to the fishing line - and pulled the antenna up into place.

Here is a picture of the matchbox in the tree.

I had *just* enough paracord to tie the antenna off to the chain link fence. This is temporary; I need something a little better. But, it's up.

I went inside to listen to it for a bit. I found a guy talking on 20 meters and switched back and forth between my original dipole and the new end-fed antenna. For at least this case, the new antenna produced a stronger signal with less noise.  I wonder what it will be like when I *transmit* with it!

In the meantime, here is a quick and dirty and out-of-focus video showing the old and new antennas with that signal. If you listen closely, you can hear less noise with the new antenna; you can also see the signal strength jump from 6-7 to 8-9 on the new antenna.

Oh - and yesterday's stuck arrow was waiting for me, leaning up against the fence by the driveway.

But the spark plug socket and paracord are still up there.

Hopefully in the next day or two I will get the opportunity to play with transmitting.  I expect that it might tune differently than my dipole.

73, K9MJA

The Joy of Antennas in the Trees

Things that happen when you use a bow and arrow to hang a new antenna in a couple trees:

1. You read an article about using a bow and arrow (or slingshot or fishing reel) to hang antennas. From this you learn that you need to shoot fishing line through the tree, and then use it to pull your desired rope/wire back through the tree. You figure this ought to take about a half hour.
2. You try about 10 times to get the line in the right place in the first tree. You finally succeed, run up a 50 foot length of paracord, and attach it to the matchbox transformer. Both the transformer and the other end of the paracord are about 5 feet off the ground, which means you've gone over a branch about 25 feet up. Not too bad.
3. You try about 20 times to get the line in the right place in the second tree. During this time, you continually forget to watch where you are walking and keep getting your feet tangled up in the 100 feet of fishing line lying loosely in the grass. On about the 20th attempt, the arrow gets stuck in the tree branches.
4. You pick a replacement arrow whose fletching is bright yellow so that you can see it better. You try about 5 more times before getting that arrow also stuck in the second tree.
5. You decide to get at least one of the arrows out of the tree. You find the first arrow about 30 feet up. It takes about 70 attempts (along with a trip inside to the A/C and a glass of water) to hit it with a soccer ball in order to knock it out of the tree. During this time, the soccer ball ends up on the other side of the fence four times, requiring you to take a little walk to get to the other side of the fence in order to retrieve it. You now have your first arrow back. You still haven't found the other arrow. Its more-visible fletching now seems ironically irrelevant. It's gonna really surprise someone when the next windy day causes it to end up in the driveway next to the fence.
6. You line up your next shot with the newly recovered arrow and fire - only to have the fishing line immediately detach from the arrow. You hear the arrow bounce off of your neighbor's tree about a hundred feet away and then you have to go find it (since you can't follow the fishing line, which is lying at your feet). The arrow is sticking in the ground next to their shed. You're thankful they're not out in their backyard watching you and trying to stifle their laughter (or wondering why you're trying to rain arrows down on them).
7. You try about 10 more times and get a good shot. You tie some paracord onto the fishing line and tie a spark plug socket (for weight) onto the other end of the paracord. You pull it back and try to let the cord and socket drop through the tree on your side of the fence, only to have the paracord end up wrapped around a branch. You cut the fishing line loose and leave it (and the paracord and the socket) about 25 feet up in the tree. You make a note that you need to buy a replacement spark plug socket.
8. You decide that the walnut tree at the corner of the yard (with its lone branch about 35 feet up) might make a much better second tree, so you stop to regroup and get some help from your son-in-law.
9. You realize that you still need to get the antenna wire through the first tree, so you take about 5 attempts to shoot a second line through the first tree. You attach the antenna wire to this line and pull it through the tree. You hook the antenna wire to the matchbox transformer (along with the counterpoise and your RG8X feedline with its 1:1 toroid RF choke) and pull the matchbox about 25 feet up in the tree. Success. You tie it off to the tree.
10. You realize that you've now been outside for over 2 hours, and that church is in less than an hour. You're a sweaty mess and you desperately need a shower. You tie a knot in the loose end of the antenna wire, put it around the arrow, and drive the arrow into the ground. You'll return in the next day or so (hopefully) to hang the other end of the antenna from the walnut tree.

Further bulletins (and pictures) as events warrant.

A quiet couple months

Busy, busy, busy...

First, my older daughter got married in May.  That took up all of my spare time for a couple weeks.  And then it was a business trip, and helping my younger daughter with her 4-H projects...  and the bands have just been really noisy.  I haven't made an HF contact since May 23rd.  Granted, I've only spent a total of about 30 minutes trying.

My older daughter got her Tech license about 3 weeks ago; I gave her a cheap handheld as a reward.  She and I have been having fun seeing which antennas work better and how far we can push the range on our little radios.

My Next Antenna

I decided to pick up a W4KGH End Fed Matchbox Antenna from eBay.  I thought about building one, but after pricing out the various parts I decided to just buy the kit (and a couple toroids for RF chokes):

I also picked up 50 feet of RG8X (with PL259s on each end) from Amazon.  I love Amazon; I ordered the coax at 5:30 p.m. and it was at the house by 11 a.m. the next day.

I wound 8 turns of the coax through the toroid and tie-wrapped it all up.  Then, having picked out two trees in the yard, and having read an article on hanging antennas in the trees, I set out with a bow and arrow and (as it turns out) an oversupply of confidence.  That story warrants its own post, so that's next.

73, K9MJA

The last month

Starting Off The Year

In the first ten days or so since my last post, I spent some time hanging out on 15 meters and 40 meters.  I made a few American contacts, along with contacts in nine other countries.  These included my first two contacts with Japan - at almost 6,500 miles away, they were my furthest contacts to that point.  I even made a contact with Belgium on 10 meters - that was a pleasant surprise!

40 Meters and RF

I tried making a contact on 40 meters on the 9th.  I answered a call from K0DK - his reply was (and I quote) "You've got a hell of a lot of RF on your audio!"  I thanked him and told him I'd look into it.  I know that I still need grounding - for electrical safety, for lightning projection, and for keeping RF from coming back into the radio.

Ten Days Away

Between the 10th and the 16th, I was away for work, so the radio sat idle just waiting for me.  Once I got back, I was pretty worn out and had plenty to do around the house.  I didn't make any contacts until the 19th, when I had a short conversation with Ted, XE1YQQ, in Mexico.  This was on 15 meters, and he remarked that my audio was very clean and strong.

Knowing that I seem to have RF issues on 40 meters, I decided to stay away from it until I get some grounding.  I had already laid out some plans for a couple ground rods and some #6 wire to bond them to the service entrance ground.  I told my wife about these plans, as well as their cost (about $100).  She said, "Of course, it sounds like you need that.  But on one condition - you finish the paint and the tile in the bathroom first."

You see, the bathroom improvements got put on hold back in November when I got this big heavy box in the mail with a Kenwood radio in it... :)  So, I did do a little more work in the bathroom, stripping off the last remnants of wallpaper border above the light bar over the vanity.  Now the rest of the room can be painted, and the rest of the self-adhesive vinyl tile can be laid (after I strip the old adhesive off of the floor).  And then - grounding!

Winter Field Day

I mainly continued to stay away from the radio for a few more days.  But then, on the 24th, I made a couple contacts with people working Winter Field Day - N5HR on 15 meters and N3FJP on 20 meters.  I heard a number of people who reported that they were working outdoors - which makes sense, considering that it was Field Day and all.

The Past Week on 15 Meters

You know what?  It's a shame that I have to work a full-time job - because 15 meters is a lot of fun between about 10:30 AM and 3:00 PM.  Starting on Monday, I started taking a couple breaks here and there to listen to what was happening on 15 meters.  I was just spinning the knob, not even looking at the DX cluster on dxsummit.fi for the first couple days.  I kept running across country after country and answering CQ calls, often on the first attempt.

During the past 5 days near lunchtime, I made 26 contacts in 23 countries.  (One contact was with KL7YK in Alaska, who reported his country as "Alaska".)  I do admit that I started looking at the DX cluster a couple days ago in an attempt to catch as many countries as possible.

I tried working South Africa and Namibia, but I couldn't punch through the pileups.  I heard Japan starting in the late afternoon when I was too busy to try to work them.  But that's OK.  I've now talked to the USA and 34 other countries, and I've talked as far away as 6,500 miles - all with a 40-year old radio (with possibly all original parts except for one transistor replaced in the late '70s) and 65 feet of wire strung between a couple trees.

Looking Ahead

I've been thinking about antennas; here are a couple things I'm considering in addition to the HexBeam that I mentioned last time:

• Replacing the coax feedline on my dipole with either ladder line or 300 ohm twinlead.  My tuner has balanced inputs and an internal 300 watt balun, so this would be fairly easy to do.
• Stringing a random wire through the trees around the yard so that I can start working 80 meters.
• Building a Swiss Quad for 10 meters.  VK4JU has six homemade Swiss Quads on two masts.  I figure I could start with the smallest one fairly cheaply, and at least give it a shot.  They are reported to have excellent gain and an excellent front-to-back ratio.

 I've been thinking about other things as well... 

• Use of Arduino and/or Raspberry Pi hardware for things like Morse Code keying, frequency display, DDS VFO replacement, etc.  Although since my radio doesn't have the DK-520 adapter for the external DG-5 display, it might be rather difficult to get an external frequency display together.
• Continuing learning Morse Code - although I think I want to start with a straight key rather than a paddle keyer.
• Different logging software.  Currently, I am using QRZ.com for my master logbook and occasionally transferring updates to LoTW and eQSL.  I also just started uploading logs to ClubLog as well.  I trled LOG4OM on my old Acer laptop - it seemed to work OK, although it took a little setup and a little getting used to.  And then the wires to the charging jack broke yet again.  It's time for a more permanent fix there.
• Grounding, shack arrangement, power distribution, mast/tower, test equipment... :)

I'll try not to be such a stranger.  But I think I'm settling in to a more appropriate focus (as in "less obsession") regarding the radio.  A little less time working it than back in December, and probably a little less frequent updates here on the blog.  But hopefully not a month apart!

73 - Mike