This past week, comments regarding an interesting new low-noise directionally-switched receive antenna popped-up on both the Topband reflector and the IRCA (BCB DXers) reflector.

The new JK BevFlex-4 is reported to work very well without requiring a lot of real estate for deployment. The antenna was designed by Geoff Mendenhall, W8GNM, and Ned Mountain, WC4X.

There are several things that make this package a little different. The antenna can be configured in four basic forms: CLASSIC BEVERAGE, BEVERAGE ON GROUND (BOG) / BEVERAGE IN SOD (BIS), INVERTED EWE, or as a FLAG. What is quite different however is its flexible feedpoint allowing the antenna to be fed at any point along its length when used in the BOG or BEVERAGE configuration. The antenna is completely passive and requires no preamplification although, in some configurations, it is suggested for use above 7MHz.

Full details can be found at the JK Antennas website, as well as the manual and a FAQ page.

The FAQ sheet indicates that it will perform from LW through to 10m but the most dramatic improvement in reception from users has been noted on the lower bands. It sounds like it might make an interesting antenna for NDB DXing as well.

In the BOG form, the antenna can lay right on the ground or be buried (BIS) just below the surface using RG-6 for the actual antenna element. Other configurations allow much smaller, stealth-sized wire to be employed.

An interesting YouTube video of the antenna in action as well as an in-depth description may be viewed here:


Here is one comment from an east coast topbander:

I also bought one this year....deployed it as an EWE, as that’s all the room
I have, small lot in a subdivision.....in order to work them you need to
hear them, and once I put that up, I could hear !!! first put up as EU/VK-ZL
and worked several in the DX contest, but when the african dxpedetions were on, moved it to due east/west., and worked all of them, S01, etc.....front to back is remarkable on 160, it works ok on 80, (mine was 10ft high and 38 ft long) but really rocks on 160 !!!!, and really cuts down the line noise/static I normally hear on my transmit Inv L.

Perhaps this may be your answer for a small effective receive antenna for LW and above but even if not, their website description makes for interesting reading.

Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

This past week, comments regarding an interesting new low-noise directionally-switched receive antenna popped-up on both the Topband reflector and the IRCA (BCB DXers) reflector.

The new JK BevFlex-4 is reported to work very well without requiring a lot of real estate for deployment. The antenna was designed by Geoff Mendenhall, W8GNM, and Ned Mountain, WC4X.

There are several things that make this package a little different. The antenna can be configured in four basic forms: CLASSIC BEVERAGE, BEVERAGE ON GROUND (BOG) / BEVERAGE IN SOD (BIS), INVERTED EWE, or as a FLAG. What is quite different however is its flexible feedpoint allowing the antenna to be fed at any point along its length when used in the BOG or BEVERAGE configuration. The antenna is completely passive and requires no preamplification although, in some configurations, it is suggested for use above 7MHz.

Full details can be found at the JK Antennas website, as well as the manual and a FAQ page.

The FAQ sheet indicates that it will perform from LW through to 10m but the most dramatic improvement in reception from users has been noted on the lower bands. It sounds like it might make an interesting antenna for NDB DXing as well.

In the BOG form, the antenna can lay right on the ground or be buried (BIS) just below the surface using RG-6 for the actual antenna element. Other configurations allow much smaller, stealth-sized wire to be employed.

An interesting YouTube video of the antenna in action as well as an in-depth description may be viewed here:


Here is one comment from an east coast topbander:

I also bought one this year....deployed it as an EWE, as that’s all the room
I have, small lot in a subdivision.....in order to work them you need to
hear them, and once I put that up, I could hear !!! first put up as EU/VK-ZL
and worked several in the DX contest, but when the african dxpedetions were on, moved it to due east/west., and worked all of them, S01, etc.....front to back is remarkable on 160, it works ok on 80, (mine was 10ft high and 38 ft long) but really rocks on 160 !!!!, and really cuts down the line noise/static I normally hear on my transmit Inv L.

Perhaps this may be your answer for a small effective receive antenna for LW and above but even if not, their website description makes for interesting reading.

Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Amateur Radio Weekly is curated by Cale Mooth K4HCK. Sign up free to receive ham radio's most relevant news, projects, technology and events by e-mail each week at http://www.hamweekly.com.

So I’m just a few weeks into learning my new Flex 6500. I had sold my old Bencher iambic paddle a few years back when I got the KX3 and its attached keyer. When the Flex arrived, I quickly realized I was missing a paddle except for an old straight key that WA9EIC had given me. My struggles with the straight key are a story for another day. So off to my favorite online swapmeet places…QRZ and QTH.com. I found an ARRL 100 year anniversary Vibroplex! This one only had the serial number engraved and not a callsign, so it was perfect purchase, and a great match with the 6500.

I had played on 40M CW on and off. With the KX3, I’m ashamed to say that I became dependent on the CW decoder. Part of it was my newness to CW, but part of it was that it was so darn easy to use…and pretty darn accurate. With the Flex, there isn’t a built-in decoder. You could use any number of digital programs or a skimmer if you wanted. For now, I’ve sworn those off so I’ve been back to doing CW decoding the old way…with my head.  With the Flex, 40M CW is joy. You get on, look around, and you can SEE people calling CQ just by watching the regular pattern of their signals.

It was a quiet night at the Brown household, and I was up in the shacking playing with the Vibroplex and the 6500. Up around 7.105 was an interesting signal. It wasn’t the purest CQ I’d ever heard, but a nice fist and an interesting chirp. I answered and had a short QSO. I remember it well as the transmitter the ham was using drifted after our second round. The thing went outside my filter….I figured it was QSB, but when I looked up at the panadapter I found him about 500kHz south of where we started! Being new to the Flex, it took me a few seconds to find the RIT. I got him tuned back in and found him on top of another QSO.  I kinda panicked and figured the safest thing to do was tell him he drifted a bit and then sign off  and move to another. No big deal. No harm, no foul!

Well today I get a phone call from my buddy Dennis, KE9UA. Dennis asked if I knew I was on YouTube. What??? Yep, seems that N6TLU had done a video on operating a Lysco 600, and little ole KG9DW was on the other side of his QSO! Well, now I’m famous. Or should I say infamous….

Terry is truly an interesting character, both on the air and in his videos. Here it is, my YouTube CW debut, in a supporting role in “Hammered Ham!”

Michael Brown, KG9DW, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Illinois, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

So I’m just a few weeks into learning my new Flex 6500. I had sold my old Bencher iambic paddle a few years back when I got the KX3 and its attached keyer. When the Flex arrived, I quickly realized I was missing a paddle except for an old straight key that WA9EIC had given me. My struggles with the straight key are a story for another day. So off to my favorite online swapmeet places…QRZ and QTH.com. I found an ARRL 100 year anniversary Vibroplex! This one only had the serial number engraved and not a callsign, so it was perfect purchase, and a great match with the 6500.

I had played on 40M CW on and off. With the KX3, I’m ashamed to say that I became dependent on the CW decoder. Part of it was my newness to CW, but part of it was that it was so darn easy to use…and pretty darn accurate. With the Flex, there isn’t a built-in decoder. You could use any number of digital programs or a skimmer if you wanted. For now, I’ve sworn those off so I’ve been back to doing CW decoding the old way…with my head.  With the Flex, 40M CW is joy. You get on, look around, and you can SEE people calling CQ just by watching the regular pattern of their signals.

It was a quiet night at the Brown household, and I was up in the shacking playing with the Vibroplex and the 6500. Up around 7.105 was an interesting signal. It wasn’t the purest CQ I’d ever heard, but a nice fist and an interesting chirp. I answered and had a short QSO. I remember it well as the transmitter the ham was using drifted after our second round. The thing went outside my filter….I figured it was QSB, but when I looked up at the panadapter I found him about 500kHz south of where we started! Being new to the Flex, it took me a few seconds to find the RIT. I got him tuned back in and found him on top of another QSO.  I kinda panicked and figured the safest thing to do was tell him he drifted a bit and then sign off  and move to another. No big deal. No harm, no foul!

Well today I get a phone call from my buddy Dennis, KE9UA. Dennis asked if I knew I was on YouTube. What??? Yep, seems that N6TLU had done a video on operating a Lysco 600, and little ole KG9DW was on the other side of his QSO! Well, now I’m famous. Or should I say infamous….

Terry is truly an interesting character, both on the air and in his videos. Here it is, my YouTube CW debut, in a supporting role in “Hammered Ham!”

Michael Brown, KG9DW, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Illinois, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Things had been pretty quiet on the ham front lately but then I ran into a string of “That’s Not Real Ham Radio” discussions. This happens from time to time…I usually ignore it…but this time I got sucked into the topic.

It started with some HF enthusiasts I know talking about how “digital modes” are just not very satisfying. Their point is that with CW and SSB, there is an audio connection to your ear that makes you an integral part of the radio communication. The extreme-DSP modes such as JT65 insert serious signal processing that essentially removes the human connection.  This can quickly lead to the generalization that these digital modes “aren’t real ham radio.”

I think its fair to say that most hams think of the HF bands as the center of the hobby…getting on the air, bouncing signals off the ionosphere to talk to someone over the horizon. Some hams will go even further and say that CW is the only way to go. Anything less is just phone. FM and repeaters? Forget that stuff…not enough skill required. And certainly, don’t get stuck on 2 meters.

In a previous post, I argued we should not confuse religion with modulation. I do occasionally make snarky comments about the continued use of AM (AKA Ancient Modulation), but I’ve tried to tone that down in recent years.

What About DMR?

Just last week, I was playing around with a DMR hotspot on the Brandmeister network. It really struck me that people on the system were having a blast talking to each other across North America and around the world. But then that nagging little voice in the back of my head said “hey, wait a minute…this is not real DX…the RF signal might only be traveling 20 feet or so from an HT to a hotspot.”

This caused me to put out a plea for insight on twitter:

I received a lot of good replies with the answers tending to clump into these three categories:

• I don’t know (“That’s Not Real Ham Radio”)
• It’s fun, new technology
• It’s a digital network that brings ham radio operators together

My interest seems to fall into the second category: this is fun, new technology. Which does make me wonder how long this new technology will remain interesting to me. Well, that is difficult to predict but I’ll invoke the principle of try not to overthink it. The idea that DMR is a digital network that brings ham radio operators together makes some sense. In the past, I have argued that amateur radio is not for talking. In other words, if you just want to talk someone, there are much more convenient ways of doing that. Still, there is something attractive about this ham-radio-only digital network.

It really is important to not overthink this kind of stuff. Ham radio is supposed to be fun, so if you are having fun, you are probably doing it right. If you are not having fun, then you might want to examine what you are doing. See my post on the Universal Purpose of Amateur Radio.

Sometimes hams can get a little spun up about those other guys that don’t appreciate our way of doing ham radio. What the heck is wrong with them anyway? I’ve always been inspired by the Noise Blankers Mission Statement:

Do radio stuff.
Have fun doing it.
Show people just how fun it is.

If your preferred form of ham radio is so superior, it ought to be easy to show other hams how cool it is. If not, then maybe you aren’t doing it right. Conversely, as long as other hams are having fun and operating legally, don’t knock what they are doing. In fact, encourage them. We need more people having fun with ham radio, even if it’s not your favorite kind of fun.

That’s my opinion. What do you think?

73, Bob K0NR

The post That’s Not Real Ham Radio appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

My Moonrise

This week I had several days of unobstructed ocean moonrises as the Moon peaked on its monthly northern declination track. Thanks to the recent topping of my next door neighbour's large Douglas Fir, and removal of low-hanging branches, I am now able to track moonrises a little further to the south than before and can add two more EME days that were previously blocked by the large tree. All operations are on 2m JT65B mode, using a 9el Yagi and 140W output.




When I started (April 1) conditions looked as if they should be good, with lunar perigee (Moon's closest approach), degradation (background skynoise) and declination all looking favorable, but I was in for a surprise.

The rising yellow plot indicates the Earth-Moon distance growing further apart (increasing path losses) while the red plot indicates fluctuation in daily skynoise (temperature) near the moon. The blue plot indicates declination track from north to south ... for me, the higher the better.

courtesy: http://www.mmmonvhf.de/eme.php

Listening on the first two days (April 1-2) produced a few weak signals from the larger stations only and nothing from the more common '4-Yagi' stations and, no QSO's ... something was amiss. I can only attribute this to some real-time solar flaring during this two-day period and the resultant short term geomagnetic agitation the flares produced ... but almost as if the 'switch' had been flipped, the third day proved to be much different.

On day three, five new 'initials' were worked including one new state (New York) and two new DXCC countries! Truly surprising was that two of the stations worked were using just two Yagis, with both stations answering one of my 'CQ's.

Good conditions continued for the next few days, bringing my initials count from #87 to # 95, with the following stations all going into the log, turning a disappointing start into one of the best lunar sessions I have encountered:

HA6NQ, LZ2FO (two 13 el Yagis), EB5EEO, K2ZJ (two 14 el Yagis), DK5YA, S52LM, F8DO, PA5Y, SV6KRW, UA3PTW, OK1UGA.

April's operation brought  my 2m DXCC count to 29 and states worked total to 27.

SV6KRW's 4 x 8el Array

EB5EEO's 4 x 32el Cross-polarized Array (16V / 16H)

DK5YA's 4 x 22 Cross-polarized Array (11V / 11H)

As mentioned in my last EME report, I keep wondering when I will run out of stations that are able to hear my small station, forcing me to build a bigger amplifier for a few more precious db, but with the ability to occasionally work some 2-Yagi stations, the list of potential targets has increased dramatically ... perhaps the large Fir tree was a bigger attenuator than I had thought.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].