AmateurRadio.com

Some years ago I went to a BBQ where someone had a wi-fi controlled quadcopter remotely controlled from an iPad. It was very impressive with its on-board cameras for navigation and filming what was happening down below.

I see AE5X has a video showing the inspection of his antennas (from above) using one of these. My antenna farm is trivial by comparison and can be pretty well examined at ground level.

See http://www.ae5x.com/blog/various/youtube-de-ae5x/

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

 

 

Outcome of my damp MFJ 1788

The weather has been up and down up this way from snow and minus 2C then up to plus 14C it's the top end of the temp scale that I enjoy but that will soon come to an end as winter is on it's way! While on the subject of the warmer weather also comes showers and damp weather, for some reason this has an affect on my MFJ 1788 isoloop. In past I have found my antenna to be SWR sensitive to the damp and or humid weather. I had posted on some of the mag loop user groups to see if  others had the same issue. I was not able to get lots of responses but the consensus was that weather really had no effect on others loop! I ended up taking my loop apart and just checking out the insides and all looked good.

The work of the internal tuner

Once the damp and or humid weather changed all was well with the loop. The effect on the antenna is the SWR will not go below 2.7:1 on any given band but any other time the SWR would be either flat or close to it. I posted about this very problem this past summer on my blog and it really was not a humid summer so the problem did not arise that often. Now that it has happened again my own conclusion is the damp weather has an effect on the dielectric characteristics of the air that separates the capacitor plates in the antenna. This by no means is a scientific conclusion but as for simple old me it's the conclusion I am leaning toward. I do have an internal antenna tuner in the Elecraft K3 and my Elecraft KX3,

The SWR of the antenna

this allows me to lower the SWR so the rig does not see the high SWR.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

I remember reading something about this on the Southgate ARC news a while ago. When I tried to find it I couldn’t. Thanks to Hackaday.io I found it again.

So what is it. The website has some big ideas on it but, to me it is a homebrew, simple Az El rotator using open source software and 3D printed parts. Something that, funding willing, I will be able to do over the winter. Info on availability seems a bit scarce but I’ve emailed regarding PCB’s.

Here’s a few links and a video

Hackaday.io Project page

Website

 

 

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

Sorry for a little off topic personal promotion. I've been busy the last few weeks managing the release of my band's (No Refund Band), second CD, Current State of Blue. No Refund Band is a contemporary blues band. The CD is being released worldwide and is already being played in the US and will be heard globally within the next couple of weeks. The band recently won the Houston and Texas Gulf Coast regional competition of the International Blues Challenge (IBC). This is a big deal. We will be playing in Memphis on Beale St. in January competing for the IBC title. In addition, the CD, Current State of Blue, won the "Best Self-Produced" award in the IBC Regional competition as well.

So if you are a Blues fan, give the CD a listen. It is available on iTunes, Amazon and most digital outlets.


Website: www.norefundband.com
Twitter: @norefundband
FB: www.facebook.com/norefundband


Back to regular programming.
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Turned the PRC-104 on today while I was out and left it on spotting signals.

I was using a 3 element yagi pointed South during the 6 hour period.

The radio in use was my PRC-104 military manpack using a signalink USB and Acer notebook.

The following screenshots show the stations that were heard at my location in EN58hh, or Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Fred Lesnick, VE3FAL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Hanz W1JSB and I hiked to the cabin at Knox Mountain this afternoon. We set up a 20 meter dipole as a vertical and worked London, Ontario on SSB and Guadeloupe on CW.

The first bridge has nearly collapsed. Two out of the four main timbers have fallen into the brook. We took a chance and scampered across the far north end of the bridge which still has some cross-boards attached. We went one-at-a-time and made it safely across. My guess is… the bridge won’t be here in the spring.

We had a grand time hiking to the pond. We hadn’t seen each other since sometime in July. At several spots along the trail, we could see where a bear had scraped up the earth, perhaps in search of food below.

The pond is always a beautiful sight after the darkness of the woods.

We had brought two rigs and one antenna. Hanz had his Norcal Cascade, an SSB rig set up on 20 meters. I had the little DSW by Small Wonders Labs.

We tossed a line over a 40 foot branch on the wild cherry tree behind the cabin and set up the dipole as a vertical. The bottom end was weighed down with a water bottle.

Hanz took the first turn.

There were plenty of stations to choose from. VE3LHU was calling CQ from London, Ontario and had a very strong signal. David answered and gave Hanz a 56. “You’re doing a fine job with 3 watts,” he sent. With that Hanz handed the antenna to me.

I went down toward the bottom of the band and right away heard TO10RR in Guadeloupe calling CQ. He had a hard time copying me on the first call, but came back on the second. We exchanged quick 599s and I considered myself lucky to have made the contact. Right away a large pileup formed. Had I waited, I would have missed the QSO for sure.

By now the shadows were lengthening and we were anxious to get back before dark. We couldn’t have had a better outing… it was 52F, and perfectly pleasant for a great radio adventure and hike.

Jim Cluett, W1PID, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Hampshire, USA. Contact him at [email protected].