ARRL DX CW contest

Until I read about it on G4ILO's blog, I'd quite forgotten about this big contest. Rather late on Sunday afternoon and evening I decided to have a go and see what could be worked on 40 and 20m. Although I managed a few US contacts with the 2.5W QRP I do find CW contests hard work: people send SO fast and by the time I've called with my straight key they've usually already had another QSO.  I suspect many these days use keyboards and auto keyers most of the time in contests. Actually I quite enjoy the odd SSB contest as I can talk (nearly) as fast as anyone else. Even with 2.5W SSB it is surprisingly easy to make contacts in a big contest, especially late in contests when the big guns are looking for new stations to work.  Overall, I prefer experimentation, but a contest just for fun can be quite cathartic.

New 481THz receiver working well

Optical RX in small screened box attached to a 110mm drain pipe "stopper"

This morning I built my new optical detector circuit using an SFH213 photo diode, an MPF102 FET head amplifier followed by a 2N3904 amplifier and a low noise op-amp. The output is fed to either a pair of 600ohms sensitive headphones or a PC running Spectran.  The schematic was as in G8CYW's article in PW this month, although I reduced the coupling capacitors to 100n to reduce the gain at very low frequencies to help hum rejection and increased the op amp gain a few dB.  Sensitivity is several dBs better than my previous best design .

Build method is my usual copper clad board with MeSquare pads built dead bug style. The junction of the SFH213 cathode and the gate of the FET must be kept well above the ground though to reduce losses.

To test the set up I modulate a small red LED mounted on the ceiling of my building shack with a 1kHz tone. With all lights out and in near total darkness I compare the level on the audio generator that I can just hear with that of my reference optical receiver. Both the new unit and the test unit are on the bench about 1.5m away from the (just glowing) LED. If the system is working well the S/N is good with the LED barely visible by eye. There are quantitative ways of measuring the sensitivity using Spectran on a PC but this means having the PC out of the room as the display would otherwise desense the RX!

I have yet to test this when mounted in the 110mm drain pipe with 100mm lens. This gives an antenna gain of around 24-30dB. A good test will be the GB3CAM optical beacon which I can just detect with my older head at a distance of around 32km.

HF noise and 481THz experiments again

This morning I notice that most of HF, to 15m at least, has an S6 noise level here. it is making operating on HF a real pain.

Phlatlight QRO LED for 481THz over-the-horizon QRSS tests

Actually I am beginning to think about restarting the 481THz (red light beam) over-the-horizon QRSS tests again. At least at nanowaves you can see the interference! My first project will be to build a new nanowave receiver using the SFH203 detector which should be some 6-7dB more sensitive than my current detector head, which is already impressively sensitive.  Next I want to try out the QRO Phlatlight LEDs I've had for several months but not yet fired up. They should be VERY bright with 100mm lenses, so a lot of care will be needed.

Practical Wireless is currently running a series of articles on lightwave communications written by Stuart G8CYW. This should be an ideal introduction for anyone wanting to have a go at speech over light or long range data transmission (line of sight or non line of sight). Stuart has done more than anyone to encourage light beam communications.

G3XBM website

Please let me have feedback on how you find my new website layout for my main website at www.g3xbm.co.uk . In recent weeks there's been a complete overhaul of the site but I have yet to get any feedback from people who visit it, good or bad.

Please email me at address given on the website and above, or leave a comment here. To prevent spam bots you will have to copy the address into your email package manually as the address is shown as a jpg image, not a clickable link.

Finally may I apologise for the silly nonesense you have to go through to post a comment here on this blog. When I remove the web bot filter ("copy the words you see" stuff) I get loads of rubbish, so felt it was necessary to keep it, despite the hassle. Alternatively you can send me any blog comments by email and I will add them for you.

G3XBM online grabber

This evening I've been setting up my on-line grabber again so that I can monitor VLF, LF or MF activity and upload what I am receiving to the internet for others to see. The grabber is, at this stage, only on intermittently as I experiment. The plan is to have a dedicated VLF or LF receiver and PC for this purpose, so the grabber can be run almost 24/7.

The main weak signal detection is done using Argo software running on my PC connected from my RX via the SignaLink USB interface. The captured signal is then uploaded to a location in my public Dropbox which is then linked to from my webpage. So, what appears on the G3XBM online grabber page is what I am seeing with Argo. The direct link to the Dropbox image is http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15047843/g3xbm.gif .

G3XBM online grabber

OXO on 14MHz

An OXO transmitter on 14MHz

This afternoon I decided to build a 14MHz OXO transmitter. As is often the case, I like to re-use old boxes and project parts, so the FETer box was photographed for posterity, then gutting and used for the OXO transmitter. In this version I did not go for full break-in and instead used a simple changeover switch, but added a push button net function to allow me to net the VXO without the PA being keyed. A small toroid in series with the crystal allows about 15kHz VXO range around the 14.060MHz QRP frequency. I used a 2N3904 for the oscillator and 2N3906 for the keying transistor and a 2N3866 for the PA, but may change this for 4  x 2N3904s in parallel for lower cost. My output is a little low at around 500mW.

It works fine with reverse beacon reports from Iceland and Slovenia and a nice 2-way QRP QSO with IK2RGV who was running 5W.

The OXO really is a classic circuit: you just build it and it works.  Another version is on the QRPkits page.

FT817 v KX3 (part 2)

Thanks for all the many comments both here an in private emails. Basically I am looking for a good second QRP transceiver to work along side my existing 12 year old FT817 that continues to work perfectly. There are times when I'd like to WSPR on one band whilst operate CW or SSB on another. Also, the second transceiver allows me general coverage RX whilst TXing on the first unit. Since I sold my IC703 to a friend the year before last, this has not been possible.

At the moment, I am still inclined to buy an FT817ND rather than the KX3. As YO9IRF said in the earlier post and on his blog, the FT817 is close to the ideal for a portable QRP radio, even after 12 years. Although it does not match the RX performance of the KX3, it does perform remarkably well, and of course it also covers the 144 and 432MHz bands and with all modes. And it is half the price.

Email habits

As someone who gets around 50-60emails a day, sometimes more, even though I am supposed to be retired, the link below offers us all some good sound advice on how to manage emails well. A good half of the emails I get are about projects on this blog or my main websites, so it's my own fault, HI.

My PC or iPod Touch tend to be on for a lot of the day and am almost addicted to reading the emails. Usually I reply promptly but occasionally emails get filed waya having forgotten to reply, for which I make a general apology.

Anyway, here is that link:  http://zenhabits.net/e/

FT817 v KX3

People who own the Elecraft KX3 generally rate it very highly as it is a very feature rich product with  an excellent receiver. However to buy one with all the features such as the auto ATU and the internal battery box is EXPENSIVE. For the price of one fully loaded KX3 one could buy 2 well proven FT817ND transceivers.

One has to question whether the KX3 truly is worth the extra cost. Although a trail friendly radio, the KX3 does have a messy cabling interface with wires everywhere, it would appear, from both sides! By contrast, the FT817 has simple, clean interfaces and is as happy in the field, in your hands or on a desktop.  The KX3 looks functional, but hardly a thing if beauty.

I'd be interested to hear the views if others.

This video, by Jim Mullen, is the first part of 2 that compare the RX of the KX3 and FT817.

8.97kHz VLF amateur activity

DJ8WX's VLF signal received by G3ZJO (frequency is Hz)

This last week or so Uwe DJ8WX has been active again on VLF from his location near Hamburg.  Uwe was the strongest signal I ever copied on the so called "Dreamers Band" a few years ago and his signal is being well received again now. To copy these signals at 8.97kHz requires a quiet antenna location and a very stable, frequency locked receiver. You will NOT be able to hear anything and signals take hours or days to appear on the PC screen using a package like Spectrum Laboratory. Getting a very very stable receiver is actually easy as Spectrum Lab can lock onto one of the strong MSK VLF commercial signals and use this, or a GPS signal, as a very accurate reference. Much more details on the Sub-9kHz Amateur Radio pages.