After getting my Full License I decided to buy myself a present. With my full license I can use 400 watt of power on most bands. My current transmitter only does 100 watt so I "needed" an amplifier.
After some searching I decided on the, widely used, Ameritron 811HD. This is a multi band HF amplifier with a max of 800 watt power. I will under drive it to only use the 400 watt allowed. Anything over this will anyway not be good because my antennas are in my shack. If I use 800 watt and touch my dipole antennas I will probably drop dead on the spot. Well ok, let's say I will get a nice shock, to say the least!
The thing I didn't think about was that, next to the linear I would need some other things. Next to the extra cables to drive it (Yaesu has their own cable which set me back 35 euros), I also need thicker coax cable. The one I'm using now is RG58, which is to thin for this kind of power. I guess I will get the thicker RG213, but I'm not sure yet what is the best thing to do. Maybe I will just try first what the RG58 will do. If it melts away I know to get better cable! ;-)
UPDATE (Oct 22, 2012): After getting some advice from a fellow Radio Amateur, and friend, I decided to go for the Aircell 7 coax instead. All reviews about this type are very positive! I already replaced all of my coax with this type.
Read more about this at my blogsite www.pa1ca.nl
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Homebrew 70cm Quad Antenna
I made another antenna; a 70cm Quad antenna, and it works like a charm!
The "bad" thing about quads is that they are full wavelength antenna's, which in HF normally means; LONG ANTENNAS! The "good" thing in this case is that a full wavelength in the 70cm band means; a 70cm (27.6 inches) long antenna! :-) In a quad this means that every side is 17.5cm (6.9 inches) long, almost nothing!
I got some PVC pipe in a home repair shop. This set me back about 50 euro cents per 2 meter (which means about 0.65 USD for 6.6 feet). I needed 50 cm of pipe in this antenna (2 times 25 cm). Next to this I used 70cm of speaker wire I had laying around and a few tie raps to strap it all together.
I checked the SWR with the build in SWR meter of my FT-817. It was all 1:1.1 so perfect! Outside of the 70cm band the SWR got quickly bad but all over the 70cm band it was perfect!
After checking the SWR I tried it with my dual band handheld 5 watt, 2m/70cm Wouxun KG-UV2D and I right away was able to use the Rotterdam repeater from my home (near Utrecht). In general with a "rubber duck" antenna this would be difficult. With the new Quad it was easy! So in the end I got a great little antenna for almost no money, and also did some nice DIY! :-)
The thing to think about though is that the Quad is directional, so try it out a bit and make it "point" towards the repeater you want and keep it there. Also remember to keep the feed point to the left or right side, not top or bottom, if you want to use for the repeaters.
My next project will be either a 2 meter band version of this or a 3 element beam of this 70cm band Quad antenna. I need to think what I "need" more at the moment.
By the way, the 2 meter 3 element Quad homebrew version is described here very nicely.
Read more about this at my blogsite www.pa1ca.nl
The "bad" thing about quads is that they are full wavelength antenna's, which in HF normally means; LONG ANTENNAS! The "good" thing in this case is that a full wavelength in the 70cm band means; a 70cm (27.6 inches) long antenna! :-) In a quad this means that every side is 17.5cm (6.9 inches) long, almost nothing!
I got some PVC pipe in a home repair shop. This set me back about 50 euro cents per 2 meter (which means about 0.65 USD for 6.6 feet). I needed 50 cm of pipe in this antenna (2 times 25 cm). Next to this I used 70cm of speaker wire I had laying around and a few tie raps to strap it all together.
I checked the SWR with the build in SWR meter of my FT-817. It was all 1:1.1 so perfect! Outside of the 70cm band the SWR got quickly bad but all over the 70cm band it was perfect!
After checking the SWR I tried it with my dual band handheld 5 watt, 2m/70cm Wouxun KG-UV2D and I right away was able to use the Rotterdam repeater from my home (near Utrecht). In general with a "rubber duck" antenna this would be difficult. With the new Quad it was easy! So in the end I got a great little antenna for almost no money, and also did some nice DIY! :-)
The thing to think about though is that the Quad is directional, so try it out a bit and make it "point" towards the repeater you want and keep it there. Also remember to keep the feed point to the left or right side, not top or bottom, if you want to use for the repeaters.
My next project will be either a 2 meter band version of this or a 3 element beam of this 70cm band Quad antenna. I need to think what I "need" more at the moment.
By the way, the 2 meter 3 element Quad homebrew version is described here very nicely.
Read more about this at my blogsite www.pa1ca.nl
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
My new call sign; PA1CA
I got my new call sign! After thinking a lot about it I chose PA1CA. There are a few reasons for this.
First of all; I'm used to the suffix; 1CA, because my old call sign was PD1CA. When trying to call someone in a pileup you often just repeat your suffix.... over and over again..... so I'm used to using this. By keeping the same suffix as I already had, I will make less mistakes in the future.
The PA as a prefix is recognizable all over the world as a prefix from the Netherlands. Most Radio Amateurs will also know that it's the prefix of the Full License and not of the Novice license (which is PD).
All in all, maybe it's not the most creative call sign (more or less what I already had) but it's the most practical one I think! :-)
Thursday, September 13, 2012
I got my F (full) License!
After only studying for 2 months I decided to do the exam for the Full Radio Amateur License and I passed it!!!
This licence compares to the extra license in the USA and is just the highest license you can get when you're a radio amateur. Now I can use my license in even more countries than before. Also if we were to move to another country I could, in most cases, just get the full license in the country we're moving to.
I'm also looking forward to start using all the new bands that I'm allowed to use now. The novice (N) license I had, gave me rights to use the 10, 20 and 40 meter bands in HF and the 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands in VHF / UHF. Now I can use all the bands which is A LOT more! :-) Also the power I can use is a lot more; 25 watt with my old license and 400 watt with the new one.
It will take a week or 2 before the administration is done so until then I can think of what the new call sign will be. A novice license in the Netherlands starts with PD. For the full license I can not use this so I think I will make it start with PA, PC or PE, I'm not sure yet.
This licence compares to the extra license in the USA and is just the highest license you can get when you're a radio amateur. Now I can use my license in even more countries than before. Also if we were to move to another country I could, in most cases, just get the full license in the country we're moving to.
I'm also looking forward to start using all the new bands that I'm allowed to use now. The novice (N) license I had, gave me rights to use the 10, 20 and 40 meter bands in HF and the 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands in VHF / UHF. Now I can use all the bands which is A LOT more! :-) Also the power I can use is a lot more; 25 watt with my old license and 400 watt with the new one.
It will take a week or 2 before the administration is done so until then I can think of what the new call sign will be. A novice license in the Netherlands starts with PD. For the full license I can not use this so I think I will make it start with PA, PC or PE, I'm not sure yet.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
FT-950 Wideband mod
After buying my new (secondhand) Yaesu FT-950 base transceiver I knew I again wanted to do the wideband mod. This is the same mod I did for the Yaesu FT-817 some time ago (I wrote about it in my blog). Because the FT-950 is much larger than the FT-817 I thought it would be easier to do the mod and I was right!
To do the mod you have to turn the radio up side down and remove all 18 (!) screws.
The jumpers that you have to change are on the front right corner.The only thing you have to do is close jumper number 5, this is it!
Read more about this at my blogsite www.pa1ca.nl
Saturday, April 21, 2012
My new toy; an FT-950!
So after I made my new antenna (described in the previous blogs) I found out that I can hear a lot more stations. With this there also are a lot of stations I don’t want to hear; these are the stations on the frequencies near you that are to strong or are just using to many watts!
So I decided that I need more filters and more tuning capabilities, so a base station! After some searching I got down to 2 choices; the Yaesu FT-990 and the FT-950. The FT-990 is an older model and has some very nice reviews. The FT-950 is one of the latest models and the reviews in general are good (not all of them).
In the end my choice was made mostly on looks; the FT-950 won! This rig just looks much newer and the display really looks very good and sharp.
Another reason why I bought the newer rig is a purely logical one; if the rig breaks down, the parts for a newer rig are easier to find and will be less expensive than for older models.
In the end I’m happy with the choice I made although I haven’t tried all the options yet, by far! I will let you know what I think after using it a bit more!
So I decided that I need more filters and more tuning capabilities, so a base station! After some searching I got down to 2 choices; the Yaesu FT-990 and the FT-950. The FT-990 is an older model and has some very nice reviews. The FT-950 is one of the latest models and the reviews in general are good (not all of them).
In the end my choice was made mostly on looks; the FT-950 won! This rig just looks much newer and the display really looks very good and sharp.
Another reason why I bought the newer rig is a purely logical one; if the rig breaks down, the parts for a newer rig are easier to find and will be less expensive than for older models.
In the end I’m happy with the choice I made although I haven’t tried all the options yet, by far! I will let you know what I think after using it a bit more!
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Antenna part 1.5
Just a quick follow up on my previous blog about a U shaped dipole I made and put up in my attic.
I decided to make it a “Fan Dipole”. This is a dipole which has one feed point for more than one dipole.
Because I’m mostly using the 20 meter band and the 10 meter band I wanted the dipole to be resonant on these 2 bands. So the two dipoles I wanted in my “Fan” were for 10m and 20m. If I could also have put up a third one for the 40 meter band it would have been nice but my attic is just not big enough!
In the end I put up the second, 10m band part of the antenna, and also put a bit more time into getting the 20m dipole a bit more resonant on 14mHz.
It turned out all my work wasn’t for nothing! I got the 10 meter band dipole quickly 1:1 and after cutting of part (30cm!) of the 20 meter band dipole I got it 1.3:1 !
Almost perfect, in my book, and I certainly will not touch it again because I can only make it worse! If I put a bit more power in the dipoles the SWR of course goes down but never more than 2:1 which I find acceptable!
Of course for the other bands I’m now and then using (40 meter and the 11 meter CB band) I still need to tune but that’s ok.
I’m very happy I got my “U shaped two dipoles in one” working! Did I just invent a new type of antenna? ;-)
UPDATE: Just spoke with N3C in Washington, a few hours after the work I did on the antenna. From my location to there is 6167KM and I used a bear foot FT-897 with poor propagation. I guess my new indoor, attic antenna is working! :-) Let's see what it can do when conditions improve!
I decided to make it a “Fan Dipole”. This is a dipole which has one feed point for more than one dipole.
Because I’m mostly using the 20 meter band and the 10 meter band I wanted the dipole to be resonant on these 2 bands. So the two dipoles I wanted in my “Fan” were for 10m and 20m. If I could also have put up a third one for the 40 meter band it would have been nice but my attic is just not big enough!
In the end I put up the second, 10m band part of the antenna, and also put a bit more time into getting the 20m dipole a bit more resonant on 14mHz.
It turned out all my work wasn’t for nothing! I got the 10 meter band dipole quickly 1:1 and after cutting of part (30cm!) of the 20 meter band dipole I got it 1.3:1 !
Almost perfect, in my book, and I certainly will not touch it again because I can only make it worse! If I put a bit more power in the dipoles the SWR of course goes down but never more than 2:1 which I find acceptable!
Of course for the other bands I’m now and then using (40 meter and the 11 meter CB band) I still need to tune but that’s ok.
I’m very happy I got my “U shaped two dipoles in one” working! Did I just invent a new type of antenna? ;-)
UPDATE: Just spoke with N3C in Washington, a few hours after the work I did on the antenna. From my location to there is 6167KM and I used a bear foot FT-897 with poor propagation. I guess my new indoor, attic antenna is working! :-) Let's see what it can do when conditions improve!
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