Category Archives: Antennas

Articles about Antennas, Feedlines, Towers and related equipment. Fixed, Portable and Mobile Antenna Articles are included.

Antennas, Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

EME Station 2.0 Part 5 – Control Cables and Rotator Controller

Snow is coming to New England this weekend so we wanted to get the control cables run to our new EME Tower before the ground is covered with snow. The project involved installing a Utility Enclosure…

Source: EME Station 2.0 Part 5 – Control Cables and Rotator Controller

We made some more progress on our 2m EME Station Project this past weekend. We began by installing a Utility Controller on our new EME Tower. With this done, we next ran three control cables through the conduits between our shack and the Tower. The control cables connect to our Azimuth Rotator, Elevation Rotator, and a planned MAP65 Switching and Preamp System.

Green Heron Az-El Rotator Controller
Green Heron Az-El Rotator Controller

With the cables run, we connected our Azimuth Rotator to a Green Heron Az/El Rotator Controller in our shack. This enabled us to get our Azimuth Rotator configured and tested.

You can read more about this part of our EME Station Project via the link above.

The next step in our EME Station Project will be to assemble the antennas that we have on order from M2 Antennas Systems and install them along with an H-Frame and related gear on our new Tower. We are hoping that the winter weather will allow us to get this done before spring.

Fred, AB1OC

Antennas, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter, Station Equipment

Winter Field Day VHF+ Preparations

We are continuing to make progress on our preparation for VHF+ Operations at Winter Field Day (WFD) 2020. We had a lot of fun on the VHF+ bands at WFD 2019 and we are planning to add some more bands for our operation this year.

New Winter Field Day VHF+ Mast

Jamey AC1DC Next To New Winter Field Day VHF+ Mas
Jamey AC1DC Next To New WFD VHF+ Mas

Jamey, AC1DC an I put together a new mast and antennas for the VHF+ bands this weekend. Our new mast comes from Max-Gain Systems. It is a little over 30 ft high and is guyed at 2 levels. We can rotate the mast at the base using the arm-strong method. We’ll be feeding the mast with LMR-600 coax.

Winter Field Day VHF+ Antenna Details
VHF+ Antenna Details

Our VHF+ mast holds yagi antennas for the 23cm, 33cm, and 1.25m bands.

M2 Antennas 222-7EZ Yagi for Winter Field Day VHF+
M2 Antennas 222-7EZ Yagi

Jerry, K1OKD and I assembled a new 220 MHz Yagi for this setup last weekend. We are using rear-mounted yagis on our mast to simplify mounting and feedline connections and to keep the overall weight on the mast at a reasonable level.

With 50 – 100w in, these antennas will produce 450 – 2500 watts of effective radiated power.

Transverters and Transceivers

33cm Transverter
33cm Transverter

The Transverters for our VHF+ station have also arrived from Q5 Signal. The unit shown above is for the 33cm (902 MHz) band.

33cm Transverter Rear Panel
33cm Transverter Rear Panel

Transverters upconvert transmitted and downconvert received signals from one frequency band to another (ex. from the 33cm band to the 28 Mhz or the 10m Band). They also typically include a power amplifier stage that generates 25w – 50w of output power on the target band.

Our station will use transverters along with an Elecraft KX3 Transceiver to put us on three VHF+ bands as well as to add an additional 100W HF Transceiver to our WFD Setup. We will also have an Icom IC-9100 Transceiver to cover the HF, 6m, 2m, 70cm, and 23cm bands.

The Winter Field Day Team is planning some station testing sessions in the near future to get all of our HF and VHF+ rigs ready. All Nashua Area Radio Society Members are invited to join us for these sessions to learn more about the equipment that we use at Field Day. We’ll post information in our Field Day Forum and on our Calendar as these sessions are scheduled.

You can read more about our plans for Winter Field Day 2020 in Jerry’s article here on our Blog.

See you at Winter Field Day!

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Antennas, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Winter Field Day 2020 Is Coming

Winter Field Day 2020 is coming! The dates are January 24th – 26th, 2020. We had a lot of fun at Winter Field Day 2019 and we’re looking forward to the event again this year. The Nashua Area Radio Society will again be holding our operation at Keyes Memorial Park in Milford, NH. We are planning several new things this year. Here’s some more about our plans.

Our Planning Team

Operator Night Shift - The Most Interesting Hams In Amateur Radio...
WFD 2019 Operator Night Shift – The Most Interesting Hams In Amateur Radio…

A team has been working on our plans for Winter Field Day (WFD) 2020 for over a month now. The planning leads include:

  • Jerry Doty, K1OKD – WFD Overall Planning Leader
  • Craig Bailey, N1SFD – Antennas and Power Chairperson
  • Jon Turner, AC1EV – Station Chairperson
  • John Slater, KB1EEU – Shelter Chairperson
  • Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC – VHF+ Chairperson

Winter Field Day 2020 Plans?

2 pm and We Are On The Air! Winter Field Day 2020
WFD 2019, 2 pm and We Are On The Air!

With help from many other members, our Winter Field Day 2020 planning team is putting together a really cool operation. Some of the highlights include:

  • We will be operating on all of the HF bands from 160m through 6m.
  • Our antenna farm will include a 40 ft tower with a tri-bander and wire antennas for 80m and 40m
  • Our antenna farm will also include a second 40m wire antenna (a Delta Loop) that will enable us to have two transmitters on 40m at the same time.
  • We are planning an additional transceiver and we will be entering as a 5O (five Tx Outdoor) station this year
  • We are adding quite a few new bands on VHF and above. We’ll be on 6m, 2m, 1.25m (222 MHz), 70cm, 33cm (902 MHz), and 23cm (1.2 GHz). We will have yagi antennas for all of these bands.
  • John Slater is working on an improved shelter and heating system to keep us warm and dry
  • We will be equipping Rover stations for the VHF+ bands (2m, 1.25m, 70cm, 33cm, and 23cm). These stations will have Phone, CW, and Digital capabilities. We hope this will provide opportunities for enhanced VHF+ activity for all of the Winter Field Day stations in our area.
  • Our computer-controlled satellite ground station will be back

Upcoming Activities

Winter Field Day 2020
New for Winter Field Day 2020 – 1.25m Yagi

We have several activities leading up to Winter Field Day 2020. All NARS members are invited to join us for these activities. Planned activities include:

  • Saturday, November 23rd at 10 am – Yagi building party at AB1OC/AB1QB. We’ve secured several new Yagi’s to use for the VHF+ bands this year. We’ll be assembling the one for the 1.25m (220 MHz) band and testing in our shop. We’ll also recondition the driven element of a large 70cm yagi as well. This is a chance to see how a VHF+ weak signal antenna goes together.
  • Friday  November 29th at 9 am – VHF+ Mast Test at AB1OC/AB1QB. We are planning a second mast for our VHF+ antennas for Winter Field Day. During this session, we’ll be setting up the new mast with the antennas for 1.25m, 33cm, and 23cm to check it out and cut a new set of guy ropes.
  • Tuesday, December 10th at 7 pm – Winter Field Day 2020 Tech Night. We will be covering all aspects of antenna building, station setup, and operating for Winter Field Day 2020 at our December Tech Night.

We are also planning station tests for our HF and VHF+ stations in the near future.

Signups for setup and operating during Winter Field Day will be available at our December Membership Meeting.

We hope you’ll join us for our Winter Field Day activities and operation!

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide