Tag Archives: HF

Education and Training, General, On The Air

Ham Bootcamp is Coming Up – Saturday May 11th

The Nashua Area Radio Society will be holding an online Ham Bootcamp on Saturday, May 11th from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Eastern Time.

Ham Bootcamp is a program to help new, inactive, and prospective hams gain the skills and information that they need to Get On The Air.  It is open to any interested Ham or Prospective Ham in the US and Canada and there is no charge to attendees.

The morning session is geared toward operating on the VHF/UHF bands:

  • Putting together a Station for Repeaters – How to pick an HT or Mobile Radio and an Antenna
  • Radio Programming Tutorial
  • Making Contacts and Joining a Repeater Net
  • Getting Started with Amateur Radio Satellites
  • Getting Started with Fox Hunting
Abby on Fox Hunting
Abby Speaks About Fox Hunting in Fall 2020 Ham Bootcamp

The afternoon session is geared toward operating on the HF Bands:

  • Putting together an HF Station for SSB, CW, and Digital
  • Picking and putting up an HF Antenna, Feedlines, and Grounds
  • Operating on the HF bands using SSB Voice
  • Getting started with WSJT-X and FT8 Digital

We will also have a breakout session where attendees can choose one of the following sessions:

  • Learning CW
  • Intro to EmComm
  • Finding DX, Logging and QSLing
  • Portable Operating

… and more!

Registration is now open for the May 11th session.

You can get more information about Ham Bootcamp, including a link to register at n1fd.org/bootcamp 

You must register to receive the link to join the web conference.

If you have any questions, you can contact us at [email protected].

 

Activities, Antennas, Education and Training, Field Day, General, On The Air, Station Equipment

NARS Winter Field Day Plans

Brian, W1XMM, has opened up his station for NARS members to operate Winter Field Day  (WFD) on Saturday and Sunday January 27th and 28th so that members can operate WFD with the club callsign, N1FD.  Brian’s station is in a great location, in Antrim, NH and should provide for some great operating.

What is Winter Field Day?

Winter Field Day is an annual event, sponsored by the Winter Field Day Association on the last full weekend in January to encourage development of emergency operating skills.  It is open to frequencies on the HF, VHF and UHF bands.  Here is a summary of the rules. The full rules can be found here.

  • All stations are limited to a maximum of 100 Watts PEP
  • QRP CW limit of 5 watts multiplier of 2
  • QRP Phone limit of 10 watts multiplier of 2
  • Each mode worked on each band counts as 1 multiplier
SteppIR DB18
SteppIR DB18 at W1XMM

W1XMM Station

The following stations and associated bands will be available at W1XMM:

  • SteppIR DB18 40/20/15/10/6m with an Elecraft K3S
  • SteppIR Vertical 80/40/20/15/10/6m with a Yaesu FT991a
  • Log Periodic 50MHz -1.2GHz
  • Inverted V: 80M and 160M (one cable out to both)
Log Periodic Antenna at W1XMM
Log Periodic Antenna at W1XMM

Great Opportunity for New and Experienced Hams!

This is a great opportunity for newly licensed or inactive amateurs to get some operating experience and a top-notch station.  Brian and other members will be available to coach those who are new to HF and VHF operating.

W1XMM Operating Equipment
W1XMM Operating Equipment

Emergency Communications

NARS member Jack Ciaccia, WM0G, who is also the ARRL New England Division Assistant Director for Emergency Communications and Public Service, is encouraging amateurs throughout New England to operate Winter Field Day to developer emergency operating skills.   

We have been challenged by the ARES group to also set up an NVIS antenna and communicate with other ARES operators at set times.  This would be both VHF/UHF and HF.  The ARES is going to use this opportunity to test their communication skills here in New England.

SteppIR Vertical Antenna at W1XMM
SteppIR Vertical Antenna at W1XMM

Join Us

Interested in joining us for Winter Field Day?  Please sign up by Thursday January 25th at 7:00 pm.  Here’s what you can do:

  • Sign up for operating times – See this Forum Post for the link to the sign-up sheet.
  • Join us on Thursday, January 25th  at 7:00 pm for our final Winter Field Day meeting.  See this Forum Post for the Zoom link.  Or contact Brian at [email protected] to get the details if you cannot make the meeting.
  • Show up at Brian’s QTH in Antrim before your operating slot.

 

Antennas, Featured, General

Temporary 20m EFHW Vertical Installation

I’ve been off the air since moving back to NH in 2020. Since the landscaping has not been completed on the property, it has been impossible to install the radials for a  6-BTV vertical. Radials don’t fare well under the treads of a Bobcat.

A collection of single-band, matched, end-fed half-wave (EFHW) antennas was constructed while I was living in FL. All of these antennas underwent testing on an antenna range consisting of three 10m tall masts spaced 70 ft apart.  These antennas were matched with L-networks. The test results were reported in a separate article[1].

Seeing that July 4th weekend was approaching, I was eager to get on the air for a few days before the landscaper arrived. I decided on a 20m EFHW vertical that makes use of some of the guy ropes that were prepared for FL antenna testing. Figure 1 shows the installation of the 12.5m high telescoping fiberglass mast.  The mast is anchored with a tilt-over base mounting plate described in a separate article[2]. Guying is provided at two levels. The guying radius is 25 ft. Guy anchoring is accomplished with polycarbonate Orange Screws[3]. While these anchors work well in FL sand, they do not work quite as well in rocky New England soil. I managed to snap one of them off in the process of screwing it into the ground.

My favorite knot for adjusting the guy rope tension is the taut-line hitch. I used the taut-line hitch on the FL antenna range for three weeks, and the anchor screws came loose before any of the taut-line hitches did.

20m end-fed half-wave (EFHW) vertical

Figure 1. 20m L-Network Matched EFHW Vertical. The wire antenna and matching network is fastened to the fiberglass mast with rubber bongo ties. The mast height is 12.5m (41 ft). Base anchoring is accomplished with a hinged, tilt-over base mounting plate that was described in another article. Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

The antenna counterpoise consists of a 3 ft (~ 1m) section of outer coax shield, Figure 2. A line choke is inserted after this 3 ft section of coax to terminate the counterpoise. The remainder of coax to the shack is made up of a 40 ft long section of RG-8X.

Figure 2. Matching Network, Coaxial Shield Counterpoise and Line Choke. The matching network was designed for 14.1 MHz. Since the matching network has a wide bandwidth, the antenna wire was cut slightly longer to resonate at the very bottom of the CW band. Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

A Smith Chart is plotted in Figure 3. It shows that the antenna match over the entire band is well within the 2:1 VSWR circle.

Figure 3. Smith Chart for 20m L-Matched EFHW Antenna. A match better than 2:1 match is achieved over the entire 20m band. The antenna wire was cut longer to provide the best match at 14.025 MHz. Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

The VSWR performance is plotted in Figure 4. The matching network consists of a lowpass L-network consisting of a series inductor followed by a shunt coaxial capacitor. The antenna wire has been cut to resonate at 14.025 MHz since I enjoy operating in the bottom 50 kHz of the 20m CW band. It’s not that the VSWR performance was that bad but I just could not understand why the antenna wasn’t achieving a near-perfect 1:1 match. I turns out that the residual mismatch is in the Polyphaser lightning arrestor located in the service entrance panel.

Figure 4. 20m VSWR Plot. The L-matching network exhibits wide bandwidth and good efficiency. The antenna wire is cut to resonate at the very bottom of the CW band where I like to operate. The match is very good but not perfect. This was due to the residual VSWR in the lightning arrestor located in the service entrance panel. Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

I operated a simple station consisting of an ICOM 718 at 100W to make three consecutive CW contacts with French stations. The next three days should produce some interesting DX.

References

[1] Blustine, Martin, Highly Efficient L-Matching Networks for End-Fed Half-Wave Antennas, June 11, 2022. https://www.n1fd.org/2022/06/11/l-matching-networks/

[2] Blustine, Martin, Tilt-Over Bases for Antenna Masts That You Can Build, June 30, 2022. https://www.n1fd.org/2022/06/30/tilt-over-bases/

[3] https://www.orangescrew.com/

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide