(1) A loop wire antenna: This is a one wave length tri-angular shape with a quarter wave length of the 450 ohm ladder feed line attached. At the end of the feed line I use a homebrew 4 to 1 balun with the 50 ohm coax cable connecting to my transceiver. This antenna works the best among the rest of the 40m antennas but it requires the regular maintenance work.
(2) A shortened vertical antenna, homebrew, is used as a back-up antenna. The length of this antenna is about 225 cm long with a loading coil at the bottom tuned at 7.030Mhz.
(3) The last one is a 550 cm long vertical rod antenna using a golf ball retriever and one meter long welding rod at the top. I am using this as a back-up. The antenna needs a tuner to go on 40m band. I will use this vertical for main when I remove the loop antenna taken down this summer.
My conclusions:
The best antenna listed above is the loop antenna. It is said that the antennas work as the bigger or longer the better as you know. The shortened vertical is tuned for 40m band but it does not work well as much as the loop.
73.
Hiro Hayashi, VE3CGC ve3cgc@hotmail.com
“Extra” This video shows how to ride the Japanese railways in Japan.
We do a continuity test by a digital multimeter. The digital multimeter has two deferent types, one has a beep setting and the other has no beep setting using an ohm measurement.
I conducted a little experiment for the continuity test measuring the ohms. The instruction book for my Elenco LCM-1950 shows that the beep can be heard when the ohms for the test are 40 ohms + 20ohms or 40ohms – 20 ohms. That means that the beep can be triggered between 60 ohms and 20 ohms.
Also the instruction book of my NexXteck multimeter says that the built-in buzzer, beep, will sound when the resistance is lower than 50 ohms.
My experiment:
Using the Elenco LCM-1950 multimeter, the beep could be heard at the resister measurement of up to 25 ohms and no beep could be heard when the ohm measurement exceeding 25 ohms.
My conclusion:
For this little experiment, when you do the continuity test using a digital multimeter with the resister measurement, as a rule of thumb, it is considered as “continuity” when the register measurement is up to 25 ohms. When the measurement is exceeding more than 25 ohms, it is safe to say not continuity requiring further check.
Also, you should recognize that the multimeter has a deferent tolerance depending on the manufacture of the multimeter and the multimeter itself. When the resister measurement is, say, 5 or 10 ohms, relatively small number, it is safe to say it is in ” continuity”.
Hiro Hayashi, VE3CGC ve3cgc@hotmail.com
“EXTRA” “ Introducing Japanese Train Stations & Tickets”
When you visit Tokyo, this site is very useful to watch. Please note the convenient train network in Tokyo.
I participated in the straight key night, SKN, for the 2017 new year’s day. I enjoyed going on air for the SKN in the past years. But the situation became different this year. The result was very poor and I could not make any QSO on 40m band.
My set-up:
Transmitter The Hallicrafers HT-18, power 5 watts out.
Receiver The Kenwood TS-450S.
Antenna A homebrew 40 meter loop, up about 6m above ground.
Key A homebrew straight key, published in the QST, September 2006 issue.
Coax cable witch A homebrew using a knife switch.
During the operation on 40m band, I heard K5YAA, N1GKE, AD0AB. I tried to make QSOs with these stations but not successful. I guess that the conditions were not so great and my power was not big enough to make the SKN contacts. Also I noticed that on the band the number of stations on 40m was limited.
73 all.
Hiro Hayashi, VE3CGC ve3cgc@hotmail.com
“EXTRA” A unique Japanese entertainer called “Pico Taroh” appeared and became a big star in 2016 in Japan.
Subject: “I repaired my Daiwa PS-304C.” 「ダイワPS-304Cの修理」
The Daiwa ps304c power supply
The new preset registers installed for repair
The troubled printed circuit board
Back in March I made a temporary repair on my Daiwa PS-304C power supply. Please read my blog, 2016/04/20, for the details. I bought the parts, preset registers, for the permanent repair in Tokyo and have them ready for the repair to go ahead.
The steps for the repair I took:
(1) I measured the ohms set at the existing preset registers on the Daiwa PS-304C before attempting the repair.
(2) I set the ohms on the new preset registers similar to the ohms measured so that the adjustment on ohms can be nil or minimum after the permanent installation.
(3) I removed the existing preset registers with desoldering braid to get rid of the excessive solder on the printed circuit board.
(4) Then I soldered the new preset registers as shown the picture.
The problem I had on the power supply was that no output voltage was generated, the volt meter and current meter both were malfunctioning. After repair made, the output voltage generated 13.7 volts DC but the meters did not work indicating nil. I am not knowledgeable to chase to determine where the trouble is occurring. So I stopped there and I decided to use the power supply without meters working.
Subject: “The experiment of pocket vertical” 「ポケットバーチカルの実験」
toroidal core loading coil, experimental
homebrew loading coils
I designed and homebrewed the pocket vertical I named for portable operation. Please type in “pocket vertical” in the SEARCH located at the top right hand corner of my blog to read the detail articles.
The loading coils were previously homebrewed using a cap of washing detergent. This time an experiment was carried out by using an Amidon toroidal core, FT-114-43, trying to make one loading coil for 37µH and 8µH. This way, I will have one loading coil for 40m,30m,20m and 15m band. It will be compact and easy to homebrew the loading coil required.
The tuning experiment: I set up the pocket vertical for 40m band and 20m band at my backyard. I installed the top elements previously homebrewed and measured the resonant frequencies and SWRs by my MFJ 259-B analyzer.
The result: The loading coil using FT-114-43 did not work the way I hoped and I needed.
F=7.000Mhz SWR=11.4
F=8.165Mhz SWR=2.9 (minimum)
This means that the top element needed to lengthen.
F=14.000Mhz SWR=8.4
F=19.619Mhz SWR=1.7 (minimum)
This means that the top element needed to lengthen.
Since the pocket vertical antenna is designed to use primarily for portable operation, short top element is better. So this idea and experiment are not working, that is failure.
One of the important requirement on a loading coil should have a high Q. The FT-114-43 coil did not achieve a high Q as much as the wash detergent cap coil achieved. Please read the following materials for making a high Q coil.
Subject: “ The QRP beginner’s Handbook” 「QRP入門ハンドブック」
The QRP beginner’s handbook
A monarch butter fly in my back yard
The QRP beginner’s Handbook has been published in Japanese by the Japanese QRP club on August, 2016 and I contributed two articles to the handbook. I am a member of the QRP club in Japan and was asked to write articles about a year ago.
These articles I wrote are (1) The report of WG0AT, Steve, for his portable operation, (2) How to homebrew the pocket vertical I designed.
The handbook consists of the following chapters:
(1) How to start QRP.
(2) How to operate QRP.
(3) The technical subject of QRP.
(4) The QRP ham community.
73.
Hiro Hayashi, VE3CGC, ve3cgc@hotmail.com
“EXTRA” I was very impressed by this Karate girl for her performance. The performance is called as “ Embu, the Karate form”,
Subject: “The SWR on my 20m and 15m triple bazooka” 「トリプルバズーカのSWR比較」
My antenna farm for 20m & 15 triple bazooka
V shape set up for the triple bazooka antennas,15m and 20m
The last month in August, I reported the re-work on the homebrew 20m triple bazooka measuring 1.0 of SWR from 14.010Mhz to 14.299Mhz at 5 watts of power input. Please read my blog about the details of re-work and SWR measurements.
I also became wondering on my 15m triple bazooka how it behaves on SWR. So I measured the SWR on it and obtained the results below on August 30th. The transceiver used was my Kenwood TS-570 set at 5 watts and the SWR power meter was the Daiwa CN-101.
21.010Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts measured on CN-101.
21.030Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts measured on CN-101.
21.050Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts measured on CN-101.
21.060Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts measured on CN-101.
21.075Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts measured on CN-101.
21.100Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts measured on CN-101.
21.200Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.0 watts measured on CN-101.
21.300Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.0 watts measured on CN-101.
21.390Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.0 watts measured on CN-101.
Please note that both triple bazooka antennas can reach SWR of 1.0 with wide frequency range. And the triple bazooka antenna typically can be tuned with 1.0 of SWR with wide frequency range. I encourage you to homebrew the triple bazooka dipoles as it performs with low SWR which will give you a good feel for use. The triple bazooka is relatively easy to homebrew.
21.010Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts
21.030Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts
21.050Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts
21.060Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts
21.075Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts
21.100Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.3 watts
21.200Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.0 watts
21.300Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.0 watts
21.390Mhz at SWR of 1.0 with 3.0 watts
Subject: “ Re-work of the 20m triple bazooka” 「20mトリプルバズーカのオーバーホール」
The 20m triple bazooka on the ground
The 20m triple bazooka installed at my mini antenna farm.[/caption
I measured the SWR on the 20m triple bazooka on June 30, 2016, and the measurements taken were shown below. The transceiver used was my Kenwood TS-570 at 5watts of power and the SWR meter was Daiwa CN-101.
1.7 at 14.010Mhz, 1.7 at 14.040Mhz, 1.5 at 14.050Mhz, 1.5 at 14.150Mhz, 1.7 at 14.175Mhz. 1.7 at 14.200Mhz.
The measurements of SWR were high and I figured that the SWR value would be reduced by cleaning up the connecting points (soldered points) on the wire. So I took it down to rework the antenna.
The rework has been made as the WX cooled down to 25 degrees C. I disassembled the antenna cleaning the all wire connecting points to reduce the resistance due to the age and reassembled it. The antenna was re-installed at the designated spot at my mini antenna farm. The SWR measurements were taken as shown below. The transceiver used was my Kenwood TS-570 set at 5 watts and the SWR meter was Daiwa CN-101. Please note that the SWR measurements were significantly improved.
SWR 1.0 at 14.003Mhz, 1.0 at 14.020Mhz, 1.0 at 14.030Mhz, 1.0 at 14.050Mhz, 1.0 at 14.060Mhz, 1.0 at 14.075Mhz, 1.0 at 14.100Mhz, 1.0 at 14.200Mhz, 1.0 at 14.300Mhz.
I look forward to QRP contacts at 14.060Mhz in the future.
SWR 1.0 at 14.003Mhz, 1.0 at 14.020Mhz, 1.0 at 14.030Mhz, 1.0 at 14.050Mhz, 1.0 at 14.060Mhz, 1.0 at 14.075Mhz, 1.0 at 14.100Mhz, 1.0 at 14.200Mhz, 1.0 at 14.300Mhz.
Subject: “ A frequency counter kit “ 「周波数カウンターキット」
The unit switched on
The experiment set up
I bought a frequency counter kit when I visited Tokyo Japan in May, 2016. It was about $30 and is capable of showing 1Mhz to 400Mhz. The frequency range is adequate for me to use together with my vintage dip meters to read the resonant frequency.
The kit was factory assembled by 95% ready to use except a case to accommodate the unit. It runs with a 9 volt battery and I added a peace of copper wire, about 20 cm long, inserted into the signal input connector of the unit. The kit can be installed in a case in the future for my project.
The vintage Heathkit dip meter is set to generate 14 Mhz which is shown in the attached picture. With this frequency counter the resonant frequency tuned and measured by the vintage dip meter can be read.
73.
Hiro Hayashi , VE3CGC ve3cgc@hotmail.com
“EXTRA” The Japanese summer festival. Please note that people are dancing in a circle.