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By John AE5X, August 10, 2012

Neat stuff from Nick N3WG:

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Additionally, Nick has several apps for both Droid and Mac at Pignology.net.

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By John AE5X, May 4, 2012

3 years and a dipole

Carrying on with the tradition of the past two years since moving to this QTH, I’m looking back at entities worked during the year and my dipole’s performance overall in the three years I’ve been here.

(Regarding the asterisk, a 2-week period with a homebrew Moxon for 15m accounts for 1 band-country).

The dipole is (and has been*) my only antenna at this QTH. It is for 80m, fed with ladder line for 10-80m operation and is currently 23m up in the pines, thanks to a homebrew crossbow from way back in the 8th grade.

This antenna continually proves its worth throughout the HF spectrum in both pile-ups and contesting. In so doing, it is my friend and my enemy – my friend because of its performance; my enemy because it’s made it hard to justify a tower/Yagi. But more about towers in an upcoming post… ;-) Continue reading '36 months and a dipole*'»

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By John AE5X, December 16, 2011

de BA7IO

For the second time in a week BA7IO has been putting a potent signal into the US on 10 meters. In the mornings. That means long path - 16,400 miles rather than the “short” path’s 8400.

Sure would like to know what he has for an antoona. I also heard BD7NWF but was unable to work him.

Back to BA7IO:

At 10am my local time I came into the shack after cleaning & tightening the connections on my balun (that I wouldn’t have noticed were needed were it not for my recent 160m antenna work) and saw BA7IO spotted by a handful of US ops, none of whom were near me. Doubting I would hear him, I tuned to his freq and heard him fairly clearly. Definitely workable.

The K3′s APF function gets mixed reviews. Indeed, its capabilities Continue reading 'China, the long way ’round…and the K3′s APF'»

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By John AE5X, December 4, 2011

The running thread on the Elecraft reflector at the moment concerns a number of complaints regarding the K3′s performance during certain conditions during CQWW (CW). Specifically at issue is the complaint by some (quite a few?) that when 4 or 5 weakish signals…say, S3, S4 and S5 – are within the passband of the filter in use, the receiver turns them all into “mush” making each signal indistinguishable from the others.

Said one:

I personally know at least two top-tier contesters that are seriously
considering replacing their K3s with a different rig because of this
single issue, and I personally know two others who did not buy a K3
because of it.  If I knew then what I know now I would not have bought
my K3 either.  I spent a lot of money (tower, antennas, amplifiier) to
be able to put a strong signal into various DX locations, and it is
simply embarrassing to be working a pileup with a half dozen weak
callers that obviously can hear me fine and not be able to pick their
callsigns out of the mush.

The same problem is mentioned by other experienced contesters/DXpeditioners including ZK2V’s comments of the same problem on SSB from Nov 4 here.

Turning off the AGC alleviates the problem thus allowing each of the signals to be heard individually. This of course presents the potential problem of overload in the event a strong station begins transmitting in the passband.

Elecraft is already on the issue, attempting a fix and offering additional capacitors to be placed in parallel with one currently being looked at as the possible culprit.

As may be seen from my previous post, I don’t hesitate to give negative virtual ink to a product when it rates such criticism, but in this case, Continue reading 'The K3 and contesting – when ignorance is bliss'»

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By John AE5X, February 20, 2011

Even without personal experience, we all know that QRO is more high-maintenance than the 100 watt world. I knew going into this that my old (but new to me) AL-811 might not handle the duty cycle of a 48-hour contest – my plan was to back it down to 300 watts at the first sign of excessive heat.

Little did I know that it would be my 600-watt autotuner that would fill the room with that acrid aroma of overheated electronics. Continue reading 'Smoke, New Ones and QRO – 2011 ARRL DX Contest (CW)'»

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By John AE5X, November 24, 2010

The K3 is the first rig I’ve ever operated that allows me to use a receiver bandwidth of less than 500 Hz and I’m beginning to realize that this has benefits that extend beyond my ability to eliminate QRM.

In a pile-up, the K3′s narrow receiver selectivity is helping me even on the transmit end of the circuit when the other guy also has a K3. Here’s how:

If a rare DX station, say ZL8X on 80 meters, is putting a good signal into North America (as he was this morning), the gang calling him is going to be sizeable. Those who’ve been on DXpeditions can correct me, but I imagine the DX in this case is going to have his own selectivity dialed down to the narrowest available, or close to it.

This eliminates QRM for him but it also requires those of us calling him to be more precise in zero beating the station last worked by the DX. Continue reading 'When the other guy also has a K3'»