It's not quite Spring in Minnesota

Last week Beth had an all day conference scheduled in the cities. I had the day free so this sounded like a great opportunity for some QRP in a different park.

Plans are made to be changed. The night before Beth's conference we got over 6" of snow and the temperature was forecast to be in the mid 30s. In the past I have participated in the FYBO QSO party but I wasn't planning on it this year. Where might I operate my KX3 from while staying warm and dry?

Eventually I thought of the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting. Located in St Louis Park, just west of
downtown Minneapolis, it is home to a great collection of antique radio, television and broadcasting equipment. It also includes a ham radio club, W0OEP, built around two Collins stations. On Friday I was more interested in the beam outside.

Steve Raymer, the museum curator, helped me get my KX3 plugged into the club yagi and I was on the air, warm and dry: a good combination for a cold snowy day in Minnesota. 20 mtr CW QSOs included VE3OF in Ontario and KK4BOB in Florida. Operating time was interrupted a couple of time, once while Steve demonstrated the museum spark transmitter and the other for a museum guided tour.

Spring and QRP in the Park

Unfortunately spring hasn't yet arrived in SE Minnesota. It has, though, in central Texas. A couple of weeks ago Beth and I were down in Austin, TX visiting friends. My KX3 bag has a designated spot in the car. I rarely leave town without it.

During the week in Austin I enjoyed QRP QSOs with KA3J, W8WL/0, WA9FZP, KC2ZBZ and KI4TS. The most interesting QSOs, though, were the eyeball ones. On April 1 an old friend Dick, W5TA, stopped by for a visit while I was spending a few free hours in a Pflugerville city park.

On April 5 Beth and I took a trip down to Bastrop State Park. Unfortunately, in September 2011, 96% of the park was burned.  Only around 100 acres were saved. The rest is still blackened tree trunks. While set up and operating from one of the overlooks Jerome and his family came through on a hike and stopped for a rest and a snack. His young son wondered what was going on at the next table. Introductions led to a nice conversation about ham radio and a demonstration of morse code.

AWA LC CW Contest

Last week was the AWA Linc Cundall Memorial CW Contest. I used my 1934 style crystal controlled oscillator-buffer (47 to two 46s in parallel)  driving two TZ-20s in push-pull. The receiver was a 1936 vintage HRO Sr.

QSOs included W0CWU (MN), K1TG (CT), VE3AWA (ONT), N0EK (ND), WA9WFA (MN) and WB8APR (MI). Unfortunately, as I wrapped up with WB8APR, my transmitter output dropped to zero. Earlier I had had a hint of trouble when two stations reported chirp on my signal. I was keying the buffer stage, not the oscillator. Any chirp should have been slight. Contest or no contest the transmitter wasn't getting better by itself. After a few minutes of tube swapping and coil reseating I knew I wouldn't be back on any time soon. Eventually I found the problem: a bad solder connection. A little heat and solder fixed it. I had a working transmitter but I couldn't turn back the clock. The contest ended without my making any more contacts.

The HRO Sr and a three stage crystal controlled transmitter does make a nice late 30's CW station, though. It is one of my favorite winter operating positions. I'll be on it a lot. After all it is below zero today, I'm certainly not heading to the park.
 

Bruce Kelley Memorial 1929 QSO Party

This past weekend I was able to put a 1929 transmitter on the air and participate in the AWA Bruce Kelley Memorial 1929 QSO Party.

I stayed on 80 meters making 18 contacts. Stations worked were as far west as VE7SL in British Columbia, as for east as N1BUG in Maine and even a little south to N4GJV in North Carolina.


This year I used a transmitter I acquired from Vance, K5CF (SK). Vance, my step father, gave me my novice test in 1966. He enjoyed ham radio for over 70 years. Several years ago Vance encouraged me to participate in the 1929 QSO Party. Vance's transmitter is a TNT (or Tuned plate Not Tuned grid) transmitter using a single type 210 tube. With 340 volts on the plate it runs 9 watts input and about 2 watts out. Vance built his transmitter based on the one Bill Orr described one in the January 1973 issue of CQ but the original design dates from the 20s. See the December 1929 issue of QST for George Grammer's version of the same transmitter. For an antenna I used a 105' end fed inverted L only about 15' off the ground.

Bruce Kelley Memorial 1929 QSO Party Preparation

Last night I set up my station for this year's AWA Bruce Kelley Memorial 1929 QSO Party. I decided to go with my TNT transmitter this year and, as a book end for ham technology, pair it with my Elecraft KX3 running as the receiver. With 275 volts on the 210 plates my TNT transmitter runs at just under 10 watts input. Output is 2-3 watts....about to be expected for this sort of transmitter.

After confirming via the Reverse Beacon Network that I was indeed getting out on 80 I tried a QSO this morning. I worked W4DBV near Nashville, TN. When quizzed about my signal Bryan reported:

 "I can't really assign your tone a number, and my verbal description is about as close as I can come.  I have heard much worse, and I have also heard other rigs that are about the same as yours -- usually vintage or HB vintage designs, most running QRP levels of power.  Your note did not have a frank buzz, I can say that."

While not the best signal report it will certainly do for this weekend. In the meantime I'll play with the loading to see if I can improve it a little.

A Choke Balun for Phased C-Poles

It is important that the baluns used in a phased verticals match, otherwise the phasing, beam pattern and gain won't be as planned. They also must handle the high common mode potential at the feedpoint. KF2YN shows two different balun designs in his April 2004 article. One is just multiple turns of coax wound around a piece of PVC pipe while the second uses a ferrite core. The ferrite core design, while more expensive, also has much less power loss. For my phased verticals I chose Brian's toroid design. It uses 19 turns of RG-174/U coax wound on a FT-240-67 core. I mounted mine in plastic electrical boxes with an eye-bolt to allow hanging from the bottom C-Pole 40" spacer. This balun does no impedance transformation. The balun coax is simply in series with the antenna feedline.

Phased C-Pole Antennas for some Gain

How many times have we seen 18 wheelers with CB verticals mounted on their mirrors? Doing this, truckers add a little gain on 11 mtrs. With proper spacing this works even better on 20 meters.

Today was a sunny day here in SE MN. The temperature was in the low 70s and there was no sign of rain. It was a great day to meet Rodney, KD0EBT, and Steve, KD0ORM, for a little KX3 time at Rochester's Essex Park. My August 23, 2010 blog post proposing that two C-Poles be fed in phase is based on information in the ARRL Antenna Handbook. Information there states that two verticals fed in phase and spaced 5/8 wavelengths apart exhibit almost 5dB gain over a single vertical. My experiments today seem to confirm this information.

I already have one self supporting 20 mtr C-Pole antenna. I built a second 20 mtr C-Pole. This one hangs from a tree limb like W5USJ 's. A little searching around Essex Pack identified a tree with some open space to the south. I merely hung one C-Pole in that tree and set my self supporting C-Pole about 44' (5/8 wavelength on 14.1 MHz) to the south. This put the two broadside to the east/west. I fed each of the antennas with 50' lengths of LMR-400 low loss coax. At the rig I had a short coax jumper to a tee, connecting my KX3 to both antennas. I let the KX3 internal turner take care of any mismatch caused by driving the two 50 ohm C-Poles in parallel. Measurements using the Reverse Beacon Network showed that these two C-Poles fed in phase and spaced 5/8 wavelength apart really can have 5 dB gain over a single C-Pole.

Now I've another portable antenna option for those days in the park.

CQs on a Quiet Band and KX3 Trolling Mode

Today it was great weather here in SE Minnesota for getting outside (and it was even a lazy Sunday afternoon!). Beth agreed and she also needed a little time to finish some reading before a Book Club meeting. We packed up a lunch and headed for Bear Creek Park here in Rochester.

Bear Creek Park has restrooms, picnic tables and plenty of tall (but not too tall) shade trees. While not on a hill, it is also not in a hole or valley. It works pretty well for an afternoon QRP outing. In short order Beth and I repositioned a table for shade and antenna.

When I flipped on my KX3 I was not impressed with band conditions. Across 20 mtrs I heard very few signals. I had thought I may try out KX3 / SSB by checking into the Elecraft net on 14303.5 KHz but I didn't bother trying. I moved down to around 14060, the 20 mtr QRP CW frequency, checked the frequency with a few "QRL?"s and then tried a CQ...still no luck. At this point I considered pulling out my own book and calling it a nice day for reading in the park. Chalk one up for solar cycle 24. I'm glad I reconsidered.

The KX3 does have what I call trolling mode. It can be set to send a canned message (such as a CQ), wait a programmable number on seconds, and then repeat the message. During the wait time RIT can be used to tune around for calls. The message buffer can be loaded using paddles but the easiest and most reliable method is to use the KX3 utility provided by Elecraft.

After a few minutes in KX3 trolling mode W5ESE, Scott, in Dripping Springs, TX came back to me. We had a fine QSO discussing the Flight of the Bumblebees QRP contest and central Texas. After wrapping up with Scott a short CQ netted a nice QSO with VE3/W8FIB. Tom was taking a break from fishing and running 3 watts using his K1. According to his grid square location his fishing spot is about 30 miles SW of North Bay, Ontario.

Two nice QSOs and a nice couple of hours in the park ... Don't be afraid to call CQ in a quiet band.

Back Home

Beth and I just returned from a 5100 mile road trip. My KX3 went along. Even with hot weather and family obligations I managed a few picnic table QRP QSOs.

One of our first stops was Pratt, KS. With 4 hours of free time I asked around for the local park. Lemon Park has lots of trees, shade and tables...prefect for my afternoon. I had nice QSOs with K5KW on 40 and W7LXN on 30

Another stop was Pullman, WA. Here I had an afternoon in Sunnyside Park. I set up next to a walking trail and the frizbee golf course so I had a couple of eyeball QSOs in addition to the ham radio ones. From here I worked KC4ZPB, W9CC and VE3XY, all on 20 CW.

My KX3 running 5 watts CW feeding a 20 mtr endfed zepp continues to be a fun traveling companion.

Update on Another Portable Antenna

I'm pretty happy with my new end fed antenna. Using it Friday evening through yesterday afternoon I've worked NM, PA and OH on 20 and OH and TX on 30. All on CW from my back deck and 5 watt KX3. While not foreign DX, the contacts have been easy to make. Most answered my CQs. Keep in mind also that most of this time band conditions were poor because of a solar flare/storm.

This one is replacing the 58' wire in my KX3 travel bag.