BARTG 2018 RTTY Sprint

This is a fun contest. It starts and finishes at a reasonable hour (noon) and as a sprint only serial numbers are exchanged; no reports. The hardest part was that neither the confirmed dates, rules or the experts list were available on the BARTG web site or any hint where they were located before the contest

Radio conditions were poor. 15m only opened for 30 minutes on Sunday morning. 20m didnt have the usual quantity of far eastern DX. 40m was subdued. 80m was good overnight into the USA, the only failure was AD5XD in Texas, despite many attempts. The highlight was being called by YC4BGN on 40m Saturday night giving me the 6th continental multiplier (OC).

The dual vfo FSK configuration using a pair of TinyFSK worked very well using the method by K0SM , Although N1MM v1.0.7013 was supposed to support TinyFSK natively, when tried it showed highly corrupted text in the transmit window meaning it could not be used effectively to see what was being sent! Hence I resorted to the K0SM setup configuration

There were no equipment issues. I used my newly made accesory cable to replace the elecraft made one that caused trouble the previous weekend on the RSGB Data AFS which worked fine switching the KAT500

Results:-

        Band     QSOs     Pts  DXC  Are  Con  

         3.5      90      90    4    0    0   

           7     224     224    9    0    1   

          14     256     256   39   19    5   

          21       7       7    0    0    0   

       Total     577     577   52   19    6   

  SOAB100W section Score : 245,802

RSGB Data AFS 2018

The original plan was to operate with G4BVY from GW0FRE. However he was detained elsewhere so I would have to do it single operator, I decided to use MW2I

As it is a dual band (80/40m) dual mode contest (RTTY/PSK63) I could not just use MMTTY. At his talk on data modes at the Malvern club G4BVY suggested using MMVARI, which I hade never used before. Using it on AFSK you could have one window for RTTY QSOs and one for PSK31 QSOs. With Rogers remote guidance (including a Skype call 10 minutes before the contest!) I managed to get it going

Originally I had intended to use the KPA500/KAT500 at 400/100W output. However during pre-contest testing there were many issues with the switching. Most often with the correct antenna and band selected on recieve, when i went to transmit the amp would change band (sometimes with "Invald" on the KPA500 display) the atu would switch antenna and try to tune it and the KPA500 would fault out.  With time running out a decision had to be made, so i used the K3s barefoot at 100w with its internal ATU and the 2 antenna ports switching between bands

Conditions were poor on 40m, just 6 RTTY (no PSK) qsos into central europe. 80m had a reasonable rate

              PSK        RTTY      Total

80m       52           90           142

40m       0             6              6

Grand Total 148 QSOs

After the contest I investigated the issue further. It was narrowed down to the 15pin to 15pin aux cables supplied by elecraft with the KAT500 and KPA500. One worked fine but the other appeared to have an intermittent short between the band1 pin and the ptt (hence why it changed band when going to transmit).  During the following week I cut apart the molding on the faulty cable and saw how unreliably it was assembled. Although their was a clamp that held the screen, which was doing a reasonable job on the screen, it did absolutely nothing to stop the cables in the bundle moving and rotating. This had happened and the band data lead was wandering around the plug, touching the PTT pin.

I looked at the cost of a replacement cable, but at nearly 50 pounds and the photos not assuring me the cable grip method was any better I decided to make my own

A search of the Farnell website revealed a 15 pin HD metal shroud that had a selection of cable clamps that would grip any cable firmly. They were not cheap (6.52) but I needed reliability.

As the Elecraft aux cable used only 10 cores I found some 10 core+screen cable and made a pair of 1 metre long 15 pin male to female cables; enough for the KAT500 and KPA500. I also made a shorter cable that could be used to connect the KAT500 to the KPA500 when the ATU is sitting on top of the PA,

 I also found my 3 metre 15pin to 15pin all pins connected cable (with moulded plugs), As it had 2 female connectors, i chopped it in half and with two of my newly purchased connectors made a pair of 1.5m male to female leads. These cables are useful when connecting to my K3 switching box which has a possible need for all pins

Making the K3S internal Transverter more External Transverter proof

Having suffered with the K144XV internal transverter's lack of useful output adjustment range, I finally decided to do something about it. The issue is that with the power control fully clockwise the 144 MHz output power is 9W. With the power control fully anticlockwise the output is 1W. This is the only band you cannot turn the output down to 0W!.  If you set the the IF level to -10dbm, fully anticlockwise is still 1W, as is every other setting of the knob.

The issue was raised with Elecraft over 3 years ago, but they said there was no software solution. They did point out that there is a drive pot in the module that could be adjusted to make the maximum level suit my transverter. After blowing up the pin diodes in my DB6NT transverters on more than one occasion, it was time to investigate.

Reference to the circuit of the K144XV revealed the pot was labelled R87

After removing the K3S top cover and the Transverter top cover, R87 was physically located between L3 and L4. It is shown in the following picture:-

Next a small hole was drilled to allow a trimming tool to adjust VR4 with the lid still on the transverter, as shown below:-

I set VR4 to give 1.2W with the drive level set in the menus to 0dBm. The adjustment range is similar, but now there is no risk of overdriving and destroying the transverter.

Another advantage of the new configuration is that the positive  voltage on transmit present on the XV connector centre pin is retained for transverter switching. Previously with an external attenuator the DC component was dissipated and an external Bias-T was needed to switch the Transverter.

1296MHz Trophy 2017

Having been to Dorstone two weeks previously for the UKAC with poor results to the North, I wondered whether it was conditions or if there was not just enough time to set up skeds on ON4KST. to work them.  Six hours of operation in the 1296MHz should provide an answer, especially as for the first time i could use the SCC M2I.

As there are no power classes in this contest the full 350W from the 4 x MRF286 amplifier could be deployed (as opposed to the 2 x mrf9060 in the UKAC) to the 44 ele Wimo. 48QSOS were made  with the best DX being DK2MN at 684km Some other noteable dx was PI4GN, PA0S, OT5A/P GD8EXI, GU6EFB and GI6ATZ. The only failure was with G4ALY who by the time i found him on CW my keying paddle springs had fallen apart. The only escapee on ON4KST was G8PNN, who admitted at the RSGB convention had been replying to M21 not M2I 

The conclusion of the operation was that with the extra time some of the weaker northern stations were workable, the site was alright

Things got so quiet towards the end i spent the last hour trying to receive the GB3ZZ DATV repeater. The 46km proved not possible (and having plotted the path on my return home I can see why!)

I also took along the 13cm system with the KX3 which although it could receive beacons produced no power, which turned out to be the KX3 not being able to produce sufficient voltage (~3.5V) on the antenna connector to switch the DEMI TCK IF interface to get the transverter to transmit. After the contest this was resolved by removing R12, replacing R11 with a 100k resistor and changing Q1 to a 2N7000

RSGB National Hamfest 2017

This years visit was made on Friday as usual. There was heavy rain as the outside area opened, so much so that the inside hall was opened early. A used Tonna 50MHz five element  yagi for £20 was purchased from the flea market with the intent of converting it to a lightweight 4m Yagi. Indoors a four section 20' swaged mast was finally bought (I thought about getting one last year!) from Moonraker

The usual big traders were in attendance, although some on a smaller scale than last year, for example Waters and Stanton. It was impossible to get near the QRPLABS stand as G0UPL had to queue of people placing orders. I have still to finally meet him after having previously had many transactions with him from Texas

The highlight of the trip was non transactional! A few months ago I assembled the BATC minituone receiver, but it failed to receive the DATV signal generated by the RPI, even though it passed self test so I put it aside. The BATC would be at Newark and I guessed would have real DATV signals, so I took the receiver along. Noel G8GTZ was only too pleased to try it out and it passed testing with flying colours. Now I can move onto assembling my Portsdown Transmitter modules

CQWW RTTY 2017

5760MHz UK Microwave contest August 2017

Having previously finished encapsulating my 6cm amplifier, I was eager to try for some QSOs. The UK microwave groups 5/10GHz activity contest on July 27, G4DDK had given me a 5Ghz patch antenna which would be easier to use than my 0.6m dish. I ended up packing the 5760 EME transverter, the amplifier , and the KX3. As it was a 12V system everything could be run from the car battery

As the local site at the tump at IO82UA had a good takeoff to many directions North through southwest, it made an ideal starting point; if anything didnt work I would be close to home to get it fixed

The first attempt was with GW3TKH/p operating from the Blorenge IO81LS. Signals were easily exchanged, but holding the antenna in one hand, writing the log entries and tuning the rig was quite tiring!Signals were also exchanged with GW4HQX/p at the same location

.

The path SW to GW3TKH/P

 The next attempt was with M0HNA/p in IO91GI. He had linearity issues so no SSB, so we tried NBFM. No problems in exchanging signals, and the best DX at 94km. I next tried with G4ODA. Signals could be seen on spectran in both directions, but not loud enough for a QSO.

The Path  SE to M0HNA/p

I wanted to try with G3XDY and G4JNT, but both were too busy setting up skeds on ON4KST. Hanging around was not possible as I needed to move to the other side of the malverns to work G3ZME/p in IO82QL before the contest ended. I left the Tump and went searching for a suitable location. I found a couple of locations but it is amazing how big the field hedges are on the west of the Malverns which precluded their use. I ended up again going to Ankerdine Hill IO82TF, where despite pointing through dense foliage a qso with G3ZME/P was completed, again handholding the patch antenna.  By this time G4JNT was free, but the Malverns caused a major path obstruction.

A very interesting trip out and some interesting points learnt for future operations

432MHz UKAC August 2017

Time for the annual 432MHz UKAC outing, mainly to try out some new equipment locally before taking it further afield. The new all digital KR400 rotator needed testing, as did the recently rediscovered DEMI ex TV transponder amplifier. Both worked fine. Heavy rain delayed going to site, so only operated 2 hours. However 77 QSOS were made as G4NXO/P, best one being 390km into Paris. Equipment ran a K3S into DEMI Xverter, TV Transponder PA module running 100W into a 21 ele F9FT. The HA8ET mast head preamp was mounted at the base of the mast due to the length of feeder on the Yagi

ADF4351 Signal generator revisited

My previous attempt at building a 35MHz to 4.4GHz signal generator here had been thwarted by  a fake chinese chip recorded  here. From consumer feedback it appeared that much less trouble was being had with the black ADF4351 chinese board with the 2x5 pin header. I also noticed that BATC were using one in their Portdsown DATV Transmitter. So I bought one from "alicehappy858" on ebay

It took 15 days to arrive, and ten minutes to rewire the header. One very important point to note is that the header pin marked "3.3V" is a 3.3V OUTPUT from  from the 3.3V onboard regulator, NOT a 3.3V INPUT.  5-9V needs to be applied through the tiny barrel connector on the edge of the board of the black version.

Having taken care of that issue I again used my modified F1CJN software published here , modified to use the Adafruit RGBLCD shield that I had. The unit locked all the way from 35MHz to 4.4GHz and the Frequency counter agreed. Success at last!

Homebrew PiHPSDR

Having seen the Apache-labs version of the PIHPSDR I wanted to customise it to fill my needs, so I needed to assemble my own

All the needed information , with the software,  is at John Melton's github site https://github.com/g0orx/pihpsdr  The hardware shopping list includes. RaspberryPi 3, 7" Official Raspberry Pi LCD,  8 push buttons, 4 rotary encoders, case and power supply.

All the items were mounted in a 12x7x2" aluminium case obtained from Mouser, The display was held in place with plastic channel finishing strips from B&Q.

Front Panel View

Inner View

Initially I used a $30 rotary encoder that I got off ebay, but being designed for attaching to a motor it was a bit big to go in the box. I replaced it with an HP  HRPG-ASCA # 14F which cost $5 off ebay which fitted nicely into the box.

When first built, I used a 5V 3A regulator bolted to the Aluminium case. However this was dissipating around 8.3V at 2A and was too hot too touch. I tried a series of diodes, each with 0.6V drop on the regulator input, but that also got hot.  The regulator was replaced with a DC-DC switching converter from ebay which kept cool. The negative lead of the power supply, and the negative lead of the RPI were both grounded to the case to avoid negative lead voltage drop issues which caused RPI brownouts

I also included a USB soundcard in the box so i could listen to both audio channels when remote from the ANAN. The audio connections were extended to sockets mounted on the Aluminium box. Due to the close spacing of the USB ports on the RPI, and to allow plugging other items into them, the plastic case on the USB soundcard was removed.

The total cost of the homebrew PIHPSDR was around £120