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

A quiet week - and then...

Busy Busy Busy

I had a busy week since last weekend.  With a shortened work week, I had lots to do in three days - so I worked a little extra and left the radio off during the mornings (instead of listening to the MidCARS net on 7.258).  Then, the family spent most of the Thanksgiving holiday at my mother-in-law's house.

I did have to do some water heater maintenance at home on Friday and Saturday, so I did have a little excuse to play with the radio (since I was home and all).

Friday

While waiting for the water heater to drain (which took hours, thanks to the 2 inches of lime sludge in the bottom of the tank), I tuned up on 15 and listened around the band.  I heard EA8YB call CQ from the Canary Islands, so I answered his call.  He said that I was very faint, and he kept asking me to repeat my call suffix.  He never could pick out the "Alpha" at the end.  On one hand, it was a little disheartening because I never completed the contact.  On the other hand, though, I was being heard at 4,000 miles away.

I spent a little time on 10 meters as well; I heard PU2YZP and PP5EI from Brasil, but neither of them could hear me as I replied to their CQ calls.

Listening Up 5

I heard several people Friday on 10 meters calling CQ and "Listening Up 5".  This was my first experience with this type of operation; I had read about it, but had not experienced it yet.  So, when I heard one particular station coming in at S9 and Listening Up 5, I decided to give it a shot.

First, I spun my VFO knob up 5 KHz and listened to all the people trying to answer his CQ calls.  Then I spun back and forth between his transmitting and listening frequencies.  This proved to be error prone and somewhat annoying.

Then I remembered the RIT (Receiver Incremental Tuning) feature.  So, I played with the RIT control until I figured out how it works.

By turning it all the way to the left, the receiver was listening 3KHz below the VFO frequency.  This wasn't quite enough to cover the 5KHz split between his transmit and receive.  However, it was much easier to move the VFO only 2KHz than to try to manage a 5KHz swing without using RIT.

So, I practiced a few times:  Spin the VFO knob about an inch to the left (2KHz down) while pressing the RIT button to turn it on, and I could hear him calling CQ; spin the knob back about an inch to the right and turn off RIT, and I could hear all the responses.

I tried answering a couple times, but to no avail.  But at least I was transmitting on the right frequency.  Several times, I heard a distant station ending in "Sugar David" trying to answer on his calling frequency instead of answering up 5KHz.  After about the 4th instance of this, someone else replied quickly "Sugar David, you're stupid!"  That's not particularly helpful, is it?  I would have answered "Sugar David, he is listening up 5 kilohertz.  Please move up 5 kilohertz to transmit and then listen on this frequency."

Saturday

I only really had a little time to listen.  I heard OD5ZZ from Lebanon booming in at 59+10 on 21.335.  But, once again, no contacts.  I started to wonder if I still had my audio problems on 15 meters.  So, late Saturday evening, I posted a question to the Kenwood Hybrid Yahoo group about how to track down this issue.

Sunday

In the morning, I got a response in the Yahoo group from K9TW, who worried about the driver tube and suggested checking the RF drive - providing steps for doing that:

Can also test the RF drive level on all the bands by turning off  the SG switch and with rig in CW mode flip to send and adjust Car Level for max ALC and watch the key down level to see if it holds where you set it. Do this on all bands and let it rest a little between bands. 12BY7A cathode emission begins to fall off on the higher bands as the tube ages.

So, this evening I performed those checks; all bands held the meter steady for 10 seconds.  It even held steady on 10 meters, which is the first band to go "soft" when the driver tube starts to wear out.  I hope that 10 seconds was a reasonable duration for each test; I was driving the 12BY7A at full output each time, and I didn't want to overheat it.

I haven't seemed to have much luck on 15 meters except in the early afternoon, but I decided to give it a shot anyway in the evening.  I spun around the band, and I heard PY2VI (Brasil) calling CQ on 21.318.  I tuned about 8 Khz away, tuned up the transmitter and the antenna tuner, came back to his frequency, and waited for him to call.  I answered him.

And he heard me.  He kept thinking that my "Juliet" was an "India" (the same problem that EA8YB had on Friday).  I think I might have to substitute "Japan" into my call when repeating it, or maybe I was overdriving the audio a little bit.  But, he gave me a 58 report once he got my call right; I gave him a 57 and thanked him for the DX contact.  He is 17 miles shy of being 5,000 miles away from me - my farthest contact so far.

I jumped up, ran into the bedroom, and told my wife and my daughter that I just talked to Brasil.  They looked at me kinda funny.  (This would be a good time to point out that I live just outside of the town of Brazil, Indiana).

So, I spun around the band some more.  It seemed like the band was closing, but I heard KB7MBI near Seattle calling CQ on 21.285, so I answered him.  We chatted for a bit and then I described the problems I had been having and asked him for an audio report.  He said that I was coming though with a strong 58, with no audio issues at all.  And he remarked that my D-104 and the TS-520 were remarkably well matched and that my audio was very strong and clear.  I thanked him, chatted for about 20 seconds, and waited for him to respond.  But the band had faded away, just that quick.  I threw him a 73 without knowing if he could hear me or not; then I spun around the band for a couple minutes.  Where I had previously heard a reasonable amount of chatter, now I heard nothing.

But the good news is that it seems that I actually did fix my audio issues when I fixed the two bad solder joints last weekend.  I'm going to keep an eye on it, but the big picture is that my sub-$300 eBay special is actually in pretty good shape and working pretty darn well.

73 de Mike, K9MJA