Antennas, Money, and Ham Psychology

During SolderSmoke Podcast #222, Pete lamented the fact that many hams are willing to spend significant amounts of money on "manufactured" dipole antennas that are little more than pieces of wire.  Tony Fishpool G4WIF sent a graphic on the wire antenna he uses (see above).  He also shared an anecdote about G5RV antennas and G-QRP Club founder George Dobbs:  

From Tony: 

The aerial that I’ve had so much fun with, an End Fed Half Wave, cost me £8 ($9.80) for the toroid and the rest came from the junk box. The reel of wire was probably a £1  ($1.25) from a radio rally. You never pay big money for wire at a rally. People take it there to get rid of

it!

It covers 80m and all  harmonically related bands.

My garden is too small so I cheated by using some linear loading to
make it fit. (on the back fence).

WIth 5 watts CW on 40m I can hit the USA reverse beacons most mornings.

It was about £9 ($11) to make - but if you count the Spiderbeam
12m pole, it  was another £98 ($120).

I have a little George Dobbs story relating to aerials. Probably around

15-20 years ago. He was speaking at a radio club near to me so I went along to support
 him and have a beer with afterward.

He gave his usual entertaining (and always funny) talk during which he

paused - and said, as if in confidence to the audience:

“Do you know, I’ve heard, and I don’t know if it is true, that there are

people who actually pay real money for a pre-made G5RV”

I swear that it went very quiet and there may even have been the odd foot

shuffled.    Tony

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Coincidentally Mike, WU2D put out a VERY ILLUMINATING YouTube video on the psychological aspects of ham radio operators and their antennas.  Here it is:

Emilio's Mirror of JF1OZL's Site

JF1OZL's site was for many years a real treasure trove and source of inspiration for homebrewers around the world.  It recently disappeared from the internet.  And I find no listing for JF1OZL on QRZ.com.   I hope Kazuhiro is OK.  

Emilio in Mexico has put up a mirror site.  Thanks Emilio.  We need to protect and preserve JF1OZL's work. 

https://www.emilio.com.mx/jf10zl/

Here is a SolderSmoke blog post on Kazuhiro from 2011: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2011/12/homebrew-hero-kazuhiro-sunamura-jf1ozl.html

Radio Art from QST December 1951

SolderSmoke Podcast #222 Antennas, Phasing, VFOs, 2-Bs, 6 years of N6QW, MAILBAG

After 46 years, finally a dial skirt

SolderSmoke Podcast #222 is available:  

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke222.mp3

No travelogue but… SolderSmoke Almanac!

Memorial Day in U.S.

End of Ramadan so Eid Mubarak! 

#222 marks SIX YEARS of Julian-ismo.  He started on SS 161.  Thanks Pete. 

Thanks to all who sent good wishes on Billy's graduation.  He heads to Boston and the lab in a week or so.  Very proud. 

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Bill was on Ham Radio WorkBench Podcast  

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PETE'S WORKBENCH

-- Antenna Ideas -- Don't Buy that $165 dollar dipole!  It is just wire!   

-- THE PHASING RIG. Does this point to a need for meditation?  Or at least some temporary disengagement? Tribal wisdom from Pete. 

-- DEAN KK4DAS's rig.  The Furlough 40.  Troubleshoot.  Tribal knowledge. 

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-- SHAMELESS COMMERCE DIVISION:   AMAZON BOX -- SEARCH FOR ANYTHING OU WANT THERE.  

-- PLEASE PUT COMMENTS ON THE SOLDERSMOKE BLOG POSTS. 

-- PLEASE CHECK OUT THE SolderSmoke YOUTUBE VIDEOS. 

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BILL's WORKBENCH

n  Shortwave dials and exotic locations.  Java!  

n  Galaxy V VFO Project. Series-tuned Colpitts.  

n  DRAKE 2-B.  Hayseed Recap. Put the skirt back on the old rig.  Reduction drives?   

SHOPPING BAG: 

I got a replacement for the Xtronics 4000 soldering station.  Yaogong worked! 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078WB9Z2R/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1  

Ordered screws and stuff from McMaster -- Came very fast! 

Working on a resistor kit from Mouser. 

MAILBAG: 

VK2BLQ's Phasing RX with an HRO dial.  Cool Retro.  

Adam N0ZIB -- Cool station.  TFT screen Aluminum welded box. FB. 

Karl G7AFT    BITX 40 doing USB and LSB by changing the VFO freq.  Pete's trick! 

Jerry KI4IO  out in nearby Warrenton.   Hope to be able to meet up soon. 

Keith N6ORS's Hot Mustard Phasing Board. 

Mike N5GTF'd FULLY INDOOR Quarantine Receiver.  Need a slogan for the antenna!

Nick M0NTV's Bread Bin 80 Quarantine rig

Bruce KC1FSZ   Quarantine 10 -- Brave man in solar minimum. But I hear 10 is opening.

Talking to Grayson Evans KJ7UM  TA2ZGE about Collins 9.9 MHz transformers.

Talking to Alan Wolke W2AEW about Drake 2-B stuff  Was there a reduction drive?

Paul VK3HN about Ceramic filter spurs.

Peter VK2EMU notes no animals were harmed in the making of my videos.  But many electrons were agitated. 

N6QW Phase Shift Success -- It aint over 'till the fat lady sings

I,Q, and HRO: VK2BLQ's Phasing Receiver with an HRO Dial

I had occasionally fantasized about connecting Armand's HRO dial to the rotary encoder of an Si5351, but I think this was more of a nightmare than a fantasy.   I don't think Stephen VK2BLQ went this far -- I suspect that his HRO dial was connected to an analog VFO.  But still, the combination of HRO with I&Q seems a bit edgy...  FB Stephen.  Please send us more info on this amazing receiver. 

  

Hi Bill,

Hope you are safe there with the bad weather.

Recently you  mentioned HRO dials and the need to build a radio around one and Pete has been discussing phasing SSB; attached photo is a phasing receiver on 80 and 40 m, a combination of both HRO and IQ that I built many years ago, and thanks to Pete I shall get it running again.

And Bill, like you I am from the IGY of 1958 and retired with more free time on my hands.

Best regards to you and your family, especially young Billy.

Stephen,

VK2BLQ

Replacing Electrolytic Caps in my Drake 2-B (Video)

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. Here is a very small silver lining for this terrible COVID-19 situation:  I had time to do a proper replacement of the electrolytic capacitors in my Drake 2-B. 

Three cheers for Hayseed Hamfest LLC for providing the replacement capacitor.  
Go to their website to find capacitors for many other old rigs: 
http://hayseedhamfest.com 

SolderSmoke on Ham Radio Workbench Podcast

It was great fun talking to George and Jeremy of the Ham Radio Workbench Podcast last week.  You can listen to the episode here: 

https://www.hamradioworkbench.com/podcast/bill-meara-from-the-soldersmoke-podcast

Thanks to George and Jeremy.  

Homebrew Az-El Satellite Antennas from the Philippines and Australia

https://nightskyinfocus.com/2020/05/18/diy-satellite-tracker/

DU1AU is way ahead of where I was when I was working with Low Earth Orbit satellites.   I just aimed the antenna about 45 degrees up from the horizon,  and spun it around with a TV rotator with me --not the computer -- as the controllers of the rotator.  In essence I did the AZ manually and completely ignored the EL.  This design moves the antenna in Azimuth and Elevation, and has the computer control the movements via an Arduino.  FB. 

DU1AU points to the work of VK3FOWL and VK3YSP.   Their site has very detailed info on how to build several versions of this kind of Az-El rotator: 

https://www.sarcnet.org/rotator-mk1.html

This Az-El project represents a great opportunity to move beyond hand-held satellite antennas,  and beyond my Az-only manual approach.   It also give us a way to bring some real homebrewing into a part of ham radio that has come to be dominated by commercial equipment. There are some Arduinos and some lines of code, some motors and some metal work.  Great stuff!   

Video on Galaxy V VFO IN USE with BITX40 Module -- 40 meter Bandsweep

Check out that fancy frequency readout.   No glowing numerals here.  But it does the job. 

Nick M0NTV's Quarantine Rig: The Bread Bin 80

Hi Bill,

Hope you are keeping well and staying safe.

Just thought I’d let you know about a homebrew project I’ve just completed. I call it the Bread Bin 80 - you’ll see why!

It is a single band (80m) SSB transceiver that puts out 25-30W of clean RF. It uses the familiar pairing of Arduino Uno + Si5351 (with 16x2 LCD screen and rotary encoder for tuning). Other than this though it is largely an analogue beast - which I thought you might like!

I made my own double balanced mixers which work really well. But the Si5351 can’t generate the 7 dBm of local oscillator signal to drive them so I then had to build a simple one transistor RF amp for each clock of the Si5351. I even went above and beyond the call of duty and home-brewed my own IF crystal ladder filter (although this was actually a kit).

The rig has a three stage IF cascade amplifier with 2 back to back JFETs in each stage + AGC and analogue S meter. There is something very satisfying about seeing the needle bob about as you are listening. I also put in a switchable analogue audio filter in front of the audio pre-amp which cuts out some of the higher frequency noise on the band.

Overall I’m really pleased with the rig. I’ve been working stations all over the UK and into continental Europe and getting some great reports. Except the one guy (who shall remain nameless) who wasn’t the least impressed that I was working him on a homebrew rig: he was only keen to point out that my antenna must be far too low to give me such an attenuated signal!!! I guess you can’t please everyone.

Anyway, I’ve done a bit of a write up and included some photos (outside and in) on my QRZ page if you are interested:

https://www.qrz.com/db/M0NTV

Thanks for sharing your home brewing story about your short wave receiver on YouTube. I’ve enjoyed following that and seeing it progress. Those little ‘Altoid’ tins are great aren’t they.

Thanks again for all your encouragement through the Soldersmoke podcast. I really enjoy it.

Stay In The Shack!

73 from across the Pond.

Nick

M0NTV

Nick Wood

www.nickthevic.co.uk