Author Archives: admin

Replacing the Beverage feeding system

I’m replacing my Beverage feeding system. The relays in the switchbox was powered through the feeder which was 40 m of buried RG-6 coax plus 70 m of military phone line in the trees. I had problems with noise from the relay voltages so now replacing it with buried outdoor UTP cable feeding the relays separated from the RF feeder.

The impedance of a UTP pair is 100 ohms and measured attenuation over 100 meters was as follows:

1.8 MHz                1.5 dBs

3.5 MHz                1.7 dBs

10.1 MHz             2.6 dBs

I took the transformers from the old 70 ohm system and measured the 50 ohm SWR all the way through 100 m UTP to a 560 ohm resistor in place of the Beverage wire:

The SWR was 1.35 at 1.8 MHz, 1.05 at 3.5 MHz and 1.55 at 10.1 MHz

 

Today Oct 4, the new beverage feeding system is up-and-running. Works as expected but the ground lead is too long picking up too much signal, especially on 40 and up. Had to move the relay unit from one tree to another. Will try to improve that.

Today November 8 I improved the ground with an extra ground stake. There is also a new NE wire running at 65 Dgs. It’s a 130 m long terminated wire.

 

Aurora and sporadic E

On 21st of December 2016 local K-index was 8 (with 9 as theoretical maximum) with severe aurora. Strange things happened. Sort of sporadic E (or maybe sporadic F) was formed by the strong radiation. So had a QSO with W9YXX in Indiana on 20, late in the evening with 599 signals. Normally the band closes early.  At such occasions the propagation is very patchy. I got a 31 dB RBN spot from WZ7I and a 27 dB spot from K3LR. No spot from anyone else in Europe or anywhere.  I was the only EU station heard at his end he was the only station heard here except for C91PA who was 59 on 20, SSB. The noise was virtually zero with the needle stuck at the bottom stop.

Part of the QSO with W9YXX:

 

So great fun in spite of non-existing normal propagation

Antennarbeten

2016-09-07

Tänkte prova 30m-tillsatsen för min A3WS. Den har legat och väntat i garaget i kanske 15 år. Filosofin har varit att passa på och montera den när det uppstod ett problem på beamen och jag skulle bli tvungen att ta ned den. Nu har ett fästband som hållit koaxen mot bommen gått av. Dags att agera.

Det visade sig bli ett större jobb än vad jag trott. För att kunna ta ned WARC-beamen måste jag ta ned min dipol för 40m och min trebandare FB-53. Jag tillverkade en linbana enligt tips på nätet. Det visade sig vara lättare sagt än gjort att få ned antennerna. Allting trasslar sig med allting och det som ska fungera i teorin har allvarliga brister när det kommer till verkligheten.

Idag har jag i alla fall fått ned 7 MHz-dipolen och FB-53an. Återstår A3WS.

2016-10-24

Efter ett par veckor sitter alla antenner på plats. 30-meterstillsatsen på WARC-beamen går förträffligt. 25 meters höjd verkar passa den bra.

FB-53an har sänkts i frekvens på 20 meter till 14070 kHz. I original ligger den på 14225 kHz. Det förbättrade SWR och F/B-förhållandet på CW-delen. Dessutom monterades 3 cm långa pinnar före trappsen på den närmsta 10/15-metersreflektorn för att försöka förbättra F/B-förhållandet på CW-delen på 10 meter, men det verkar inte ha haft någon större efekt.

Inför lågbandssäsongen har en 160-metersdipol hängts upp och ett parasitiskt element har satts parallellt med befintlig Invvee-dipol. Den antingen direktor eller reflektor genom att ändra längde ett par meter. Riktningarna är SV eller NO. Dessutom finns en inverted vee-dipol med bredsidan NV/SO.

A comparison of Cushcraft A3S and Mosley PRO-96

On August 14, 2016 in the afternoon these two antennas were run against each other at SK0QO’s QTH on Gålö South of Stockholm. They were mounted on separate masts about 18 meters above the ground with water in front in a northwesterly direction. The test was done using the Reverse Beacon on 20m towards North America. The power was 100 watts.
Receiver          A3S dB SNR spots    PRO96 dB SNR spots
W1NT             11, 9                            9, 11
W3UA            19, 23                          16, 23
KM3T             19, 20                          17, 22
K1TTT            6                                   5

This gives that the A3S was on average 1.5 dB stronger than the PRO-96

Jämförelse mellan Cushcraft A3S och Mosley PRO-96

Den 14 augusti 2016 på eftermiddagen gjordes ett prov med dessa båda antenner vid SK0QOs QTH på Gålö. De sitter monterade på var sin mast ca 18 meter över marken med vatten framför i nordvästlig riktning. Provet gjordes med hjälp av Reverse Beacon på 20m mot Nordamerika.  Effekten var 100 Watt.

Mottagare            A3S dB SNR spots                             PRO96 dB SNR spots

W1NT                    11,9                                                        9,11

W3UA                   19,23                                                     16,23

KM3T                    19,20                                                     17,22

K1TTT                    6                                                              5

 

Detta ger att A3S var i snitt 1,5 dB starkare än PRO 96.

Historien om en termostat

Jag har i flera år plågats av en kraftig störning på kortvågsbanden under “eldningssäsongen”. I början trodde jag att det var ett oljeeldningsaggregat, men när alla grannar slutat med oljeeldning var det troligaste en trasig termostat i ett värmeelement. Jag hoppades att termostaten skulle ge upp, men i stället blev störningen allt långvarigare. Nu i vinter har den vid nollgradig utetemperatur kommit på var 5:e minut och varat i upp till en minut.

Jag har tidigare försökt pejla störningen på mellanvågen med en batteriradio med ferritantenn, men störningen har varit alltför spridd i det luftburna distributionsnätet.

Med en riktig magnetisk loop och pejling med FT-817 på 14 MHz kunde störningen lokaliseras till någon av tre fastigheter.

Efter detta anslöts en två meter lång Yagi för 70 cm till FT-817 och då kunde det konstateras att störningen kom från ett garage på en av fastigheterna. Avståndet från mina antenner var 150 meter.

Det visade sig vara en 5 kW Byggfläkt ”Aslut” från Jula, artikelnummer 411032.

Vid kontakt med Jula skulle man försöka få fram en ny termostat. Efter några veckor offererade man en begagnad termostat. Eftersom risken var stor att den också hade problem införskaffades i stället en 5 kW fläkt från Biltema. Prov visade att den var störningsfri.

EMC trouble with a “Home Studio”

A neighbour bought a new “Receiver”, SONY STR – DN 1050 to his “home theater”. I was making a loud noise in his loudspeakers when I was transmitting. His old “Receiver” had no problem. The distance from the antennas is approximately 80 meters. Estimated field strength is well below 3 V / m which is, to my knowledge, the field strength a consumer equipment should withstand. The numbers are as usual not accessible to the man on the street. The disturbance was heard in ” surround speakers ” which had the longest lines.

In an attempt to cure the problem the speaker lines were wound with 5 turns in an FT 240-77 Ferrite core from Amidon . At the same time an extension cord with an equal core with 5 turns was connected between the wall outlet and all units. The disturbances remained, but had changed character. If the antenna was disconnected from the TV digital box, the disturbance disappeared. If a galvanic isolator coupled into the antenna line a weak disturbance remained (Note 1).

Upon contact with the SONY support their only advice was to reset the Receiver to factory settings. How that should be able to cure the problem, they could not explain.

An EMC filter for common mode currents was made for the loudspeaker lines. It is made up of 7 FT-140-77 ferrite cores from Amidon. One for each loudspeaker. The Subwoofer is connected with a special line so it must be winded on a big FT-240-77 core.

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The attenuation on the different amateur band was measured.

The measurements were made according to picture 1 below, with my IC-735 as a signal source.

hogtalarfilter1

Pic.1

 

Results:

Frequency in MHz         U1 Volts pp                U2 Volts pp                Attenuation dB

1.8                                           37                                0.2                               46

3.5                                           38                                0.25                             44

7.0                                           37                                0.23                             42

10.1                                         38                                0.28                             43

14                                            38                                1.1                               31

18                                            34                                1.1                               30

21                                            30                                1.2                               28

24.9                                         25                                1.1                               27

28                                            23                                0.37                             36

In an effort to try to find a point with the lowest attenuation, the frequency was varied and also the impedance at U2. The lowest value found was 20 dBs at 25 MHz.

 

Note 1:

At a later point, it was discovered that the attenuation on shortwave for that thing was only 5 dBs. Therefore a new extension with a ferrite toroid with several turns was made.

 

A line filter was made:
The power cord was winded 7 turns on a ferrite #33 core. 15 turns on line and neutral on a FT-140-43 core and 4700 pF ceramic capacitors.

Nätfilter1

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Update Nov 17 2018:

I got a call from the neigbour where he said the noise was back in the loudspeaker. It totally blocked the sound from the TV set.

There was now a satellite box connected to the receiver.So the obvious reason for the new problem was RF entering the receiver’s HDMI outlet connected to the new box. An RF choke was made of RG-6 coax wound with about 8 turns through a FT 240 torroid core of #31 material. It was connected in series with the satellite box. The old power line filter was also changed with one from GE in a metal box. Idea was better resistance to fire if hit by a strong surge. Click to get enlarged picture:

It was also found out that the 7 line loudspeaker filter had never been installed. And that there had always been a low noise in the loudspeakers when I transmitted but it was so little he didn’t bother to connect it.

Today all filters were connected and no noise could be heard in the loudspeakers!

 

 

 

 

Interaction between the tribander and closely spaced dipoles for 30 and 40m

In order to find out the extent to which the dipoles for 30 and 40m affected the performance of the tribander, a FB-53, a number of measurements were performed. These were carried out in October 2014, and were limited mainly to the 20-meter band. The dipole was mounted about 50 cm below the tribander.

To perform the test I was using a reference dipole a few meters at the side of the beam when beaming North America and also a reference station with which there had been several measurement series over the years comparing the FB-53 Yagi with another tribander. On the average the FB-53 has been 2 dBs better than the other tribander towards North America during afternoons.

The comparisons were made by extensive number of Reverse Beacon spots from the North American East coast and averaging a large number.

The results can be summarized as follows:
With the 30/40m dipoles along the radiator of the tribander and the coax from the dipole shorted at the lower end

  1. -2 dB compared with the reference dipole.
  2. -3 dB compared with the reference station.

With the 30/40m dipoles along the radiator of the tribander and the coax from the dipole tuned at the lower end with a capacitor for SWR=1 on 20m

1. -3 dB compared with the reference dipole.(1 dB worse than shorted coax).
(It was possible to change the F / B ratio by shifting between the capacitor and short circuiting.)

With the 30/40m dipoles along the radiator of the tribander and the coax from the dipole connected to a 50 ohm dummy load at the lower end.
13% of the power fed to the tribander was dumped in the dummy load.

  1. 0 dB compared with the reference dipole.

With the 30/40m dipoles along the boom of the tribander

  1. +3 dBs compared with the reference dipole
  2. +2 dBs compared with the reference station. No interaction between antennas.

Conclusion

The proximity of the 30/40m dipoles to the tribander severely deteriorates the performance of the FB-53.

A second finding is that the gain of the FB-53 is 3 dBd on 20 m.