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One more thought. The locking collars on the MGS mast may not hold up well after that mast is up for awhile. They are meant for holding the mast in a temporary installation and the sun will tend to make them brittle. I reinforced them with stainless steel host clamps to take the strain off the locking collars. This allowed me to adjust them so that they would hold the mast while I was putting it up but they did not have to be as tight as would have been needed for the long haul. You can see pictures of how I installed the host clamps on my blog:
https://stationproject.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/a-first-antenna-for-hf-use/
I have two of the very same MGS masts that you have here for Field day. I am planning to put them together on Saturday morning. If you want, you can come by then and I’ll show you how to assemble you mast and get it ready to put up.
Hi Murray,I used a large stainless steel hose clamp to fasten the Balun to the top section of the mast. Take a look at my blog for some more details here –Did you get the guy rings with your mast? You’ll need to guy it at probably 3 or 4 levels. I would only extend the top (smallest) section a few feed as that section tends to flex too much if extended more than that. Take a look at the Blog link above and study the text and pictures carefully. I think you’ll get a pretty good idea of how to install the mast and put the antenna and feed line on it.Also, pay close attention to what Buckmaster recommends for the height of the balun and for the ends. If you can install the antenna in that configuration, you will likely have have minimal tuneup problems. Also, if you can orient the broadside to about 55 degrees true bearing (not magnetic as the declination here is about 15 degrees) you will get the best results in terms of DX contacts to Europe.Good luck with the installation. Take your time and be safe!Best and 73,Hi Curtis,
Very cool! Thanks for posting this! You might also write an article on our Blog. You can get started via this link. You can upload your pictures directly to our site as part of the article and then embed your youTube video in your post. If you can do this in the next week or so, we’d like to include your article in our April newsletter as well.
Would you be interested in operating a satellite station as part of our Field Day operation in June? Several of us have 2m/70cm handheld satellite antennas that you could use for this. It looks like you already have a radio that would work and maybe you have the antenna as well. Let me know if you’d be interested in doing this.
Hi Aron,
Once the radio is in DATA mode on a given band, it will remember that setting. Just touch the mode indicator and select DATA from the screen again to turn off data mode. The radio will go back to SSB after you do this. Touching SSB again will switch between USB and LSB. Hope that this helps you.
Had some time to work some DX here with the IC-7300 the last couple of mornings. Been up early to work VK/ZL and other south pacific stations on 40m. I am using the same 40m Delta Loop that we had at Field Day last year and I am running the radio bare foot – 100W.
I must say that the receiver in the IC-7300 is one of the best that I have ever had the chance to use. It is very quiet and the noise reduction creates considerably less distortion that I have heard on other Icoms, Yasesu and Elecrafts here. I have put about 5 or 6 VK/ZL stations and a very weak station T32TV on Washington Island, Eastern Kiribati in the log on 40m during the last two morning operating sessions. Many of these stations were below S5 and it was easy to copy the weak ones. Considering the price point of the IC-7300, I would say that Icom has got a real winner on their hands.
There is a FW update (V1.12) for the radio. Icon indicates the following changes:
Improvements - Audio processing improvement in SSB mode transmission
- Minor graphic update
I will probably apply this update to my radio sometime today.
Hi Jamey,
I think a slow-speed contest would be an excellent form of practice for you. One of the most important skills to learn early is how to accurately copy callsigns. A contest such as the one that you mention should give you some good practice in this area and will be a lot of fun!
Mike’s advise is very good Jamey. The most important thing for you to do is to get on the air and give it a try!
I had a little time to play with my IC-7300 today. The radio can be set to have a receive bandwidth of up to 3.6 KHz in Digital mode via the CAT interface. I have it working with DXLab Commander and I am able to open the receive BW up to this level using that program. The Tx BW is limited to about 2.6 KHz max in Digital Mode. With the radio set to a 3.0 KHz TBW and in Digital Mode, the usable audio frequency range for Tx is from about 200 Hz to about 2.8 KHz. Outside these limits, the skirts in the Tx bandpass filter kick in and they reduce and somewhat distort the audio signal into the radio. This is identical to what I see on other Icom radios that I have here. I believe that WSJT-X has a mode that can take advantage of a radio with a wide Rx bandwidth than Tx. I hope that this helps everyone.
Great questions Jamey. Others who are more experienced with CW than I may be able to answer your questions better. As a beginner, I would try to work near the top end of the CW sub-bands. This is where the folks who are learning CW tend to hang out. If you send at 20 wpm and space you letters out, I think you might get a similar response from folks who answer you. The 20 wpm rate may be too fast for other beginners even with the added spacing. If that happens, I’d suggest trying sending at 12 wpm and spacing things out as this is probably more likely to be a speed that other beginners can handle. You’ll definitely want to send “QRS” if someone comes back to you too slowly. Once you have a QSO going, you can explain to the other OP how you are learning and they will probably match your speed and spacing if they can.