Ponticelli QRP Station Gets New Antenna

At the country place I now have a table on the front porch for the HW-8 and assorted gear. In the picture above you can see the Trastevere Flea Market Pi Section antenna tuner (upper left), a Japanese SWR meter (also from the flea market) , HW8 and Radio Shack speaker, Volkswagen Solar Cell, 12 Volt gel cell, key and cans...
I had been using a piece of wire just thrown up in the trees, but I thought I could do a bit better. I had some TV twin lead in the shack, and there was this useful-looking center connector... I had some AC line cord. Next thing you know I had a sorta-doublet antenna supported by a Roman Pine in Sabina (pictures below).
And it gets out! Worked IT0ULN in Sicily on 40 meters. Then I spoke to another QRP station, 2W0NNN in Wales, on 20. Also UU4JDD/P on Tuzla Island. Finally E53AX in Estonia.
Ioan, 2WONNN, sent this report:

Hi Bill, thanks for the email, I look forward to seeing the pics on your blog too. Very interesting reading, same goes for your QRZ page too. I had to laugh at your DX with an astronaut on Mir!!!

Your HW-8 and doublet is certainly working well; I remember you were completely readable with a good signal about 90% of the time, it was only the QSB that made it difficult. To be honest I was surprised to have a QRP QSO with someone in Italy. I was using my FT-817 with a new Par End Fedz that I'd catapulted over a tree. The top was about 15m high but oriented as a sloper to the north west. I've had a fair number of QSOs with East coast US stations so I thought I'd go for an over-the-pole route to the West coast... there in Italy you're pretty much spot on the opposite direction so I'm not sure it's all that directional!

73 and hopefully speak to you again for more QRP/QRP!

Ioan,

2W0NNN

Sabina QRP Station and Astronomical Observatory

This year, in an effort to get the kids out of Rome, we rented a summer house out in the Sabine Hills, a beautiful area just one hour north of the city. The picture shows a typical scene from the region. I brought out my HW-8, a gel-cell battery, my VW solar panel, the pi-network antenna tuner I picked up at the Trastevere flea market last winter, and about 50 feet of AC zip cord. I threw the wire into a tree and was able to tune up on 20 and 40. First station worked was near Catania, in Sicily (close to where we stayed last month). Also worked Germany and Bulgaria. I hope to use one of the tall Roman pines (like the one in the picture above) to support a vertical wire.

I also have my telescope out at the summer place, and we used it last weekend to look at Jupiter. I couldn't see the recently discovered scar, but we got great views of the clouds, and the four Galilean moons. More to follow...

80 in the morning, LTSpice, QRP Blog

I am an early riser -- I am in the shack with coffee cup in hand each day by 0515. At sunspot minimum, that's just not the best time to be on the air. But 80 meters has come to my rescue. I've discovered that I'm not the only ham in Europe who gets up early. The CW guys are there first; phone ops seem to sleep in a bit. With my HW-8 and end-fed wire, I work a few stations each morning. (Today I worked TK7C on Corsica. ) Later on I listen to some AM enthusiasts who meet on 3705 kHz. And there is some great Italian tech talk (mostly about old tube rigs) on 3643 kHz. I plan on building an 80 meter DSB transceiver. (I've joked with Michael, AA1TJ, that on this project I plan to design first that THEN build.)

I've the LTSpice Yahoo Group for some guidance on how to model bifilar and trifilar toroidal transformers in LTSpice. I'm not sure I'm doing this right.

Found a great QRP Blog this morning: http://www.theqrper.blogspot.com/