All posts by Brian Quick

Bio for Brian Quick, W1XMM

Bio for Brian Quick W1XMM: to understand how I got into HAM Radio, you first need to know when and why.  I’d been an Amherst Fire Fighter and an Ambulance EMT for about 20 years.  The Radios in the fire trucks were, in fact, HF (33MHz).   We had a lot of interference from other statewide Fire Services.  We did not have cell phones, or at least they were not popular yet.  So, I wanted a backup communications method.  I was first licensed in 2003 as a technician (no code) as N1PHO.  I thought this would be an excellent way to communicate or at least be a good backup.  I’d hoped that my wife would get her license, but that didn’t happen.  Then, cell phones became a BIG thing, and the HAM radio gathered dust.  I attended 2 Nashua Area Field Days in 2014/2015, mostly to help set up.  During the 2015 field day a member told me that the radio does not make the station, the antenna does.  You should spend three times more on the antenna than the radio.  He told me to save up and buy a SteppIR when I could afford it.   I became more interested and wanted to play in the big times, “HF.”  So, I studied hard, and at the 2003 North East Boxborough EXPO, I went down to take my test and Passed.  I attended Field Day 2016 but was too uncomfortable to man a station.  But I found some nerve at my shack and got on the radio.  My first antenna was a 4-band vertical, and my first radio was the same radio I have today, an Elecraft K3S.  I’d spent three times more on the radio than the antenna, but I was saving up for that SteppIR.  After a couple of OOPS transmissions on the extra band segments, I decided to get my Extra license.  So, eight months after getting my General License, I passed my extra license with a little help from the club and their classes.  I did get a SteppIR Vertical, and what a difference it made.  Next was a used Mosely 3-band beam.  That was awesome.  And then, finally, a SteppIR DB18 Beam.  What a HUGE difference!   So much for the HAM in me.

W1XMM QTH
View from SteppIR DB-18 height, looking west
W1XMM QTH
DB-18 view looking South.

Now the BIO, I’m a Systems Engineer.  Thirty-nine years with what is now BAE SYSTEMS.  Prior to that, I was an Army ASA Intercept Radio Repairman (33C20).  So, in a nutshell, I have a career in a field that listened to HF/VHF/UHF radio waves (Signal Intelligence), did the direction finding of that signal, and then JAM ’ed (prosecute) the intended receiver of that radio communications.  Also known as Electronic Warfare.  I “worked” on the hardware and did software integration and testing, but not as the operator.  Of course, in order to do software integration, you need to know how to operate the system.  There is a big difference between operating and knowing how to push buttons and testing that the system did what it was supposed to do.  This is what really helped me make my superb station (yeah, maybe a little bias and/or pride).  Understanding VSWR, signal loss due to cables, and a properly tuned antenna.  I learned to use test equipment to test signal loss, VSWR, and power meters.  It is so easy to over-drive an amplifier and not know it.  This causes your signal to be distorted and/or creates clipping, and you, the operator, don’t know it because you don’t hear the transmitted signal.

What got me out of my stage fright was joining a NET.  I found OMISS by accident and learned the communication skills needed to then work DX and finally contesting.  I’m still not keen on the contesting because there are just too many rude people on HAM radio (maybe everywhere).  OMISS Nets are structured; you can receive a call at any time and then call anyone on the NET when it is your turn.  They use a free program (Netlogger) to see others on the NET and to see when it is your turn.  It also has a feature allowing you to talk with the NET via text.  They call it “Almost Instant Message” (AIM). It takes about 20 seconds to get broadcast to the whole NET.  If you don’t understand something, ask via a text message.  I now have Worked All States (WAS) on five different bands because of OMISS.  They have NETs on eight different bands.  3 NETs every day: 20M, 40M, and 80M.  Then, on the weekends, that’s when they have 10 NETs on those eight bands.  10M, 12M, 15M, 17M, 20M, 40M, 80M, and 160M, then a late 40M and late 80M.  Many times, there are multiple DX stations with regulars from Hawaii and Alaska that join the NETs.  OMISS is definitely a family of HAMs.  Best of all, it’s only $10 for a lifetime membership.  Yes, that was a sales pitch cause I’m a NET Control Station Operator.

Ham Shack

I’m now retired and have that Elecraft K3S with a 500W amplifier connected up to a vertical SteppIR for when I work WSJT-X and the SteppIR DB-18 horizontal on a 40’ aluminum tower to work voice.  I’ve moved to Antrim on top of a hill where I can see mountains in Massachusetts.  What a view.  Being away from the city and all of its electrical interference has made a huge difference.  I picked a location where there were no power lines nearby, away from any automobile mechanics (their arc welding is a prime source of electrical noise), and on a hill.

W1XMM Antenna
SteppIR Vertical in the backyard

Why a SteppIR antenna?  The primary reason is that it always resonates at the frequency you are working.  You see, a metal tape runs up and down the vertical hollow tube.  The controller tells the stepping motor to reel out to 0.1-inch accuracy, which is the right amount of metal tape for the frequency at which you are working.  You’ll never need a tuner with this setup.  Is there a downside, yes.  You can only work that frequency, unlike a tri-band antenna where, with some filters, you can work all three bands at the same time (like at our Field Day events).  For the horizontal SteppIR that I have, there are 3 Stepping Motors that adjust two metal tapes at the same time but in opposite directions.  Why 3, one for the director, one for the driven element, and one for the reflector.  Now if you think about it, you can just as easily change the direction of the antenna by changing the director and the reflector antenna length.  In fact, that is as easy as pushing a button on the controller “180˚ “.  Now you’re talking to someone in Maine instead of the whole of the US.  No waiting on a rotor to turn the beam around.  In fact, they have a mode that makes your antenna bi-directional (no reflector).

I’m now trying very hard to learn CW.  Our club has a severe lack of CW operators.  It’s now February 2024, and I want to know the basics of CW by Field Day in June.  It will be a huge commitment on my part to achieve this.  In the Army, they give you eight weeks to learn it.  I’ll be 70 this year and need the extra time.  I started by using flash cards to learn the dits and dahs. DON’T DO THIS.  CW needs to be learned by sound.  I’ve joined “Long Island CW Clue” to help me learn CW.  They have carousel classes (like steps), but you can join the class at any time and then move on to the next carousel.  They start you at 15WPM.  It allows you to learn the sound at a high speed, making it easier to move up in speed later.  By learning the code via flashcards, my brain must translate the sound of dits and dahs to recognize the letter rather than the sound as a letter.

Nashua Area Radio Society activities.

·         In 2016, I helped set up the towers

·         In 2022, I was the Field Day Tower Lead guru.

·         In 2023, I was the Field Day Leader.

·         It’s now 2024, and I have been elected (I volunteered) to the position of Vice President.  It’s a 2-year position.

Other fun stuff I like to do is woodworking and DYI.  I use a laser cutter to make wood inlays, Christmas Ornaments, Christmas lanterns, and other interesting things.

Antrim Craft Fair
At the Antrim Craft Fair

Thanks and 73

Brian

W1XMM

This content is intended for the Nashua Area Radio Society’s use and not intended for worldwide web release.

My experience with Selecting and Installing a New Tower and New Antenna

Our New Home

It started over 2 years ago when my wife and I decided to downsize and chose a home for us to enjoy our final years.  I was also looking for a home that had a view and would allow a ham radio tower to be erected.

New Tower
Antenna and Tower with a View

My home and property

My house is at 810’ above sea level.   I have exceptional views South, and it extends both East and West.  I’m going to describe the home/tower exposure because it’s important for later.

To the North and East the tree line is about 100’ away and the ground slopes away about 40’ down North and a 60’ slopes down to the east.  To the West is nothing for 300 yards and slopes down over 160’.  To the south, there are 300 yards to the tree line which is below the line of sight and slopes down 160’.  Otherwise, we can see 40 miles south and 2 miles west and east.  To date, as a weather front comes through, we have experienced winds at around 45 MPH.  You can see from the photo that the view is spectacular.  I included a topo of where the house/tower is located, from this you can see the hilltop location.

Topo of Tower Location

Antenna Selection: Vertical

One of the first things I was told about selecting an antenna was to wait until you can afford a SteppIR antenna.  It made sense because you don’t have to worry about VSWR. The antenna will change the element length to match the frequency currently tuned to.  I have a Stepp BigIR Mark IV vertical which covers 40 Meters through 6 Meters. This antenna works great for FT8 also.  You just need to make sure you have lots of ground radials. I have 32 40’ radials.

Antenna Selection: Horizontal

I had a Mosley Classic 33, 10M, 15M 20M, tuner for voice, auto tuner had fits if I wanted to do FT8.  I was looking for something that would provide good results for low sun cycle propagation.  That meant wanting 20M and 40M and the other bands would be nice when the sun cycles improved.  I focused on 3 elements vs 4 elements.  So, I settled on the SteppIR DB18, because I could not justify a $2000 increase for an antenna that gave less than 2dB more gain.  Also, this antenna allows me to flip the antenna 180 in like 2 seconds, make the director the reflector and the reflector the director

  • Antenna: SteppIR DB18 7MHz to 50MHz
    • 1 sqft wind load
    • 96 lbs
    • SDA2000
  • Rotator: Alfa Spid Big RAK
    • 1’ wind load, 3,240 in-lbs turning torque, 14,000 lbs braking torque
    • 16 lbs, 2” top to 2.6” bottom.
    • Hold >700 lbs.
  • Mast: ¼” thick walls, 17’ long, 2” at the base and 1 ½” at the top. 5-foot wind load buried 4 feet into the tower

Town Requirements

Some towns only allow amateur radio towers to be 50’ while other towns allow 70’.  Antrim initially had 70’ for amateur radio and if you wanted taller than that you had to follow the commercial tower requirements.  It is now whatever the FCC / State requires.  When I filed for the permit the inspector stated that a building permit is not required for amateur radio towers, but he did look at the request to ensure there was no safety issues, ie., could the tower fall on a neighbor’s house, public roadway, etc. and that I was more than 50’ from the roadway and 25’ to the property line. I had also submitted a copy of my Amateur Radio License, which he thanked me for and requested that I submit my renewal when I do my 10 year renewal.  He then filed all of it into the town records.

It doesn’t hurt to talk to your neighbors to ensure that they will not be upset at you for putting up this (non-hams) ugly tower.  I did this and we agreed that if I put the tower towards the front of my garage it would not be as visible to him.

My Tower Requirements

To start with you have to have a wish list in mind.  Mine was as follows:

  • DIY (do it yourself) Install
  • No climbing
  • Fold Over at the base
  • Would be nice to be able to hang an 80m inverted Vee (65’)

Tower Selection

The easiest way was to start looking at the Rohn catalog.  They have a section in front to get you started.  They start with understanding TIA-222 revision G.  It goes through Classification of the antenna structure, HAM’s will always be Class I.  Next is the EPA (Effective Projected Area) or area (size) of your antenna, don’t forget the mast and the rotor.   Next is what is your exposure, folks in the flatlands of Ohio(?) will be exposure C, here in New Hampshire where we have mostly 100’ trees around most homes and will be Exposure B.  Anyone living along the coast fits the last exposure D.  The next category is what snagged me.  Topographic category, remember the section above where I pointed out the terrain of my house.  I got snagged as a category 3 site, at the top of a hill which means you must multiply the wind load by 2.3.  Damn, that’s 10.1 + 1 + 1.5 = 12.6 * 2.3 = 28.98.  That’s a huge value.

So now I set out to search for an antenna company to meet my wish list.  Remember, I’m not interested in climbing a tower.  There are lots of towers out there, but I needed something with the ability to handle 29 EPA (that’s TIA-222 talk for wind load).  ROHN towers did not meet my wish list of no climbing towers.  Universal towers have an aluminum tower rated for 35 sqft at 110 MPH winds. Next was Heights Towers, they had aluminum towers rated by the exposure that would meet the requirements.  I love the features that they offer and the fold-over kit.  But not the cost.  I’m retired and don’t make a lot of money, so I opted for the Universals tower.  When looking at these towers don’t forget the cost to ship it to you.  There is a big difference shipping from Florida to NH vs Michigan to NH (more than double).

Tower Height

I read in QST “The DR Is In” article where someone was asking how high does a Yagi antenna needs to be?  His reply was a Yagi only needs to be 43 feet off the ground.  I also know that angle is related to the topology of where the tower is installed.  Therefore my 40-foot tower is great for my topology.

The base for a Standalone Tower

Tower Installation

Did you know that digging a hole for a self-supporting tower is a really BIG HOLE.  5 feet by 5 feet by 6 feet deep?  It took me 2 weeks of digging a couple of hours per day to dig the hole and I move the dirt away.  The last foot was this stone and stone dust mixture.  I only got down a couple of inches per day.  Lessons Learned don’t wait to make the bottom of the hole 5’ by 5’, because every shovel full is going up over 6’.  Why not a backhoe?  They don’t want the dirt disturbed around the hole.  Besides I wanted to DIY.  It takes 6 cubic yards of cement to fill a 5’ x 5’ x 6’ deep hole. I waited almost 2 weeks to raise the tower/antenna.  The concrete was nice and hard.  I actually built the antenna during the curing time.

Another lesson learned, concrete in the center will shrink, next tower (HaHa) don’t level it, instead have the center higher than the sides and exaggerate it.

New Tower
Raising the tower.

Tower Raising

I had some older tower parts and I thought I’d use them as a fulcrum.  On the back of the truck is a hand winch.  Went high enough on the tower (halfway to the top of the actual tower) to anchor onto the back 2 legs.  The fulcrum didn’t respond well so I called a safety assessment time out.  We lowered and only went up about 12’ and only used a 10’ section of the tower.  This ended up working much better but the winching was much harder.  I’d like to redesign the fulcrum and swap out the hand winch with a power winch.

Cable Selection

I choose to use LMR-900 to run from the entry point to the top of the tower.  Worked out to be 110’.    The top of the tower to the antenna is 10 feet of LMR400, from the house entry point to the back of the radio is 15’ of LMR400.

Did you ever want to know how much power you are radiating in the direction of your wonderful Yagi? First, you must determine the power you’re going to lose through the cable at the frequency you’re transmitting at.  Next subtract the cable loss from the power out of your transmitter, say 100 watts. Then look up your antenna gain, convert dBi to dB and multiply that by how much power you are providing the antenna at that frequency.  The results will be how much transmit power you are sending in a direction.  This whole exercise is based on dB and Transmit Power or dB loss/gain.  I had to convert things back and forth to get the right power from dB gain.

Antenna Power Out by Frequency

It’s the little details that are missed sometimes.  Making drip loops to ensure that water doesn’t run down your cable and right into your connector or control box.  Have enough cable for the rotor to turn 360 degrees.  Have enough cable to fold down the tower.New Tower

Tower Completion

I grounded the tower on all three legs.  I used 4 gauge bare solid copper wire from the tower leg to ground rods, 4’ from the tower legs.  I wanted to run the RF cable down the center of the tower.  It made sense that lightning would travel on skin effect (tower legs) and not on the RF/control cables to the ground.  I did not have a good enough method to hold the cable suspended in the center of the tower.  A failure of my ingenuity.

Also, at the entry point into the house, there is a ground rod that I have an RF lightning arrester attached to.  There are no lightning arrestors for the control cables.  This ground rod is also grounded to the point of entry ground rod and is the ground point for all of my radios and support equipment.

At the very top of the tower, I have a wind gage (anemometer) but it doesn’t give me the wind direction.  It’s a very simple device.  It uses a bicycle reader and the anemometer at the top.  Just counts revolutions, it gives you current, average and MAX speed.  It was all I needed, I’ve tried others and they didn’t last very long or did not give an accurate wind speed.

Now the SteppIR doesn’t help me for VHF/UHF and you probably asking why didn’t I put a VHF/UHF antenna on top of the tower.  I have a CREATE Log periodic in my attic on a rotor.  It is able to do a full circle in less than 60 inches.  My cable run is very short, so power loss is kept minimal.   Covers 50 to 1,300Mhz and has 10dBi gain.  I have this going to an antenna switch to go to multiple radios.

So far, I’m getting great reception in Europe.  Had contacts with Japan, South Africa and have been hearing Australia and Indonesia.  One of the reasons I love FT8 is it labels the contact’s country of origin.  Just wait as the sun cycle improves, so will my contact log.

The next project is to complete a wiring diagram of my shack.  I’d like to be able to visually know how everything is wired together.

Hope this helps you with your design and planning process for your dream tower.

It would be nice if there was an Elmer antenna and tower board to submit your ideas to get feedback.

73,

Brian, W1XMM

Supporting your Club for Field Day in 2020

This year because of the pandemic, I’ll be participating with my club for Field Day as an operator from my QTH.  I usually help the club with the setting up field day, but I’m not that strong at manning the positions.  So, this year, I can’t help in the setup, but, I’ll be able to support the club in the overall number of calls but at my own pace.  That’s because the ARRL has changed the rules this year to accommodate for social distancing.  I’ve always participated in Field Day and filed my contacts, but I’ve never had enough contacts to even make honorable mention, but this year I will be allowed to participate in Field Day and my points can go to my club’s overall points.

Field Day plans from Antrim NH, W1XMM

My QTH doesn’t have a large tower, but it doesn’t need to, I’m on top of a hill that looks out 270 degrees.  But along with that great view, I also get strong winds.  It’s not uncommon to get 47 MPH winds (at the top of the tower) as a front moves through.

20' Tower attached to garage - Club Field Day
20′ Tower attached to the garage

W1XMM HAM Shack

“The Shack” consists of an Elecraft K3S Transceiver, a P3 pan adapter, a 500Watt Amplifier (not planning to use for field day), and a KAT500 Antenna Tuner.  For antennas, I have a Big SteppIR MK IV Vertical (40M-6M), and a Mosley Classic CL-33-M (20,15,10M) on a 20’ mast.  I also plan to put up an NVIS antenna for 40M and 80M for both Field Day and 13 Colonies.    For VHF/UHF I have a Kenwood TM-D700.  The antenna for this radio is a Create Log Periodic which is mounted on a rotor located in my attic, short cable run, no need to elevate, and not subjected to weather (high winds).  I’ll be using a laptop running N1MM+ to capture my contacts.

"The Shack" - Club Field Day
“The Shack”

Emergency Power

For the duration of Field Day, I’ll be running on a generator.  It is an EM2500 watt Honda which will be enough for my station.

 Bonus Points

Bonus Points that I will be trying to obtain:

  • Transmitting with less than 150 Watts.
  • Working from Emergency Power 100% of the field day activities.
  • Providing an article about my field day plans to meet the “Social Media” and “Web Submission”
  • Participation in message handling
  • Passing a message to the ARRL Section Manager or Section Emergency Coordinator.
  • Coping the W1AW Bulletin.
  • Participation in Zoom meeting with elected government official as well as local Emergency Management representative.

My points add to the club’s points so I’m trying to maximize what I can do for my club.

73,

Brian

W1XMM

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide