I saw Scott Andersen’s recent plea for articles, including on the topic of station improvements, so I thought I’d respond with a short article on some station updates at K8EZB. Nothing as sophisticated as some here can report, but, for me, meaningful progress. As previously reported, I am back OTA after a 50+ year lapse in amateur radio activity. I have been working mostly on acquiring/restoring equipment for vintage HF SSB stations but decided to first get going with an SDR radio or two, and also get some experience with digital modes. I started with an IC-7300 in late 2017 and after several months of QSOs on SSB, I moved on to FT8. This was a bit of a challenge as it was difficult to find accurate, comprehensive information on radio and software setup. It seemed that everyone offering advice had slightly different ideas on configuring everything. After consulting several online sources as well as Fred and Hamilton, I was able to conduct my first FT8 QSO in late 2018. I was pleasantly surprised at how well FT8 worked, especially considering the highly compromised antenna I am using.
The antenna is a My Antennas EFHW-80-10HP, an end fed half wave (130 ft) wire with a matching network at the feedpoint. This antenna is advertised as resonant on most bands 80m-10m, and I am generally seeing SWR numbers below 3.0 in all cases, and much lower on some bands. These SWR numbers are higher than the manufacturer specifies, but I suspect this is due to certain compromises on my part. The compromises come about due to installation constraints. My location necessitates a bit of stealth, so the antenna is low (15 ft at the highest point), sloping, and folded back into a sort of V shape; it is also below and in close proximity to several steel clad industrial type buildings. Not optimum by any means. However, this antenna has performed far better than expected. Using WSPR and PSK Reporter, it is clear that the propagation pattern strongly favors northeast-southwest. With this antenna, I am consistently able to work stations throughout the U.S. and western Europe on 20m using FT8. And, on a good day, it does even better. One of my early contacts was Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean. I have also been heard in Japan on 40m but have not completed a QSO on this band in Japan. The DX is pretty amazing, some due to the antenna, but more likely due to the weak signal capability of FT8.
With this early success, I was motivated to upgrade my radio to an IC-7610 in January 2019. This is quite the sophisticated transceiver and I am still learning how to fully utilize its capabilities. Getting the 7610 configured for digital modes was relatively straightforward as much of the setup was very close to the IC-7300. In the process of moving to the 7610, I also added the DX Lab software suite, JTAlert, and HDSDR applications. The DX Lab suite, for me, is not so much for DX use as for basic logging and support of digital modes. This suite is a software tour de force in terms of capability, but also daunting for a newbie to install and integrate with other apps. There is a very active DX Lab forum at groups.io and the pros there answered my question in short order. Dave, AA6YQ, the developer of DX Lab, has spent a good part of his life developing and supporting this FREE software and is on the groups.io forum daily to answer questions and accept bug reports. I also added HDSDR, an app that is driven from the I/Q output of the 7610 and provides a much expanded and configurable bandscope type capability, well beyond what the native 7610 bandscope can do. (The left window in the Screen 2 photo below shows an example of HDSDR capability).
In the process of adding all this software to my “radio” computer, I decided to upgrade this Core i5 processor by doubling RAM to 16 GB, adding a video card to drive a second hi-res monitor, and replacing the HDD with a SATA type SSD. This went smoothly enough and significantly boosted overall performance. At about this time, the TelePost LP-700 digital station monitor I ordered about a year previous (long waiting list!) finally arrived and I added this to the station. This quite an impressive instrument and I am not yet using anywhere near its full capability.
Once the computer was updated, I branched out a bit to add the Win Warbler module of the DX Lab suite to support RTTY, PSK31 and other digital modes. Both modes worked quite well after getting the setup squared away, and DX in these modes was almost as available as with FT8. My first RTTY and PSK31 contacts were in Europe. In recent days I have installed the latest version of WSJT which supports the new FT4 mode and have made several FT4 contacts. FT4 is said to be optimized for contesting, and while I have minimal interest in contesting, I thought it worthwhile to give it a try. Very easy if one already has FT8 running. JTAlert does not yet fully support FT4 but this is said to be coming soon.
Below are a few photos showing the station and some relevant screenshots.
Next on the station upgrade agenda is the addition of an Acom A1200S solid-state amp and companion 04AT antenna tuner. Also considering adding a Yaesu FTdx-101MP once the reported bugs have subsided. No such thing as too many radios!
Rick
K8EZB
