VHF beacons

With Andrew G6ALB's superb and kind help, my manually turned, Moonraker supplied, dual band 2m/70cm antenna is up and working, no thanks to the rubbish patch lead from Moonraker which had 2 dodgy crimped connectors! The N connector at the mast end has had to be replaced and at the shack end the SMA crimp is intermittent. Andrew is going to replace this with a PL259 plug shortly.

With the patch  lead working (by wiggling!) I can copy the following VHF beacons at any time: GB3VHF  Kent (144.430MHz), GB3NGI N.Ireland (144.482MHz) and PI7CIS Holland  (144.415MHz). There may be others too but I have yet to have a good look. The Cornish beacon seems too far to copy, at least so far. I have yet to check 70cm beacons. On the halo PI7CIS on VHF was just nudging the noise floor, so the 2m beam is certainly helping.

The manual antenna rotation method (out of the guest bedroom window) seems to work fine: I can reach the pole OK and can peak beacons by listening on the shack loudspeaker.

When the shack end PL259 is added, the Westflex cable should no longer be intermittent. The Moonraker crimped connectors will then have all been replaced. Says a lot for Moonraker's quality control doesn't it?  Don't think they can ever check crimped patch coaxes, which I assume they buy-in. A simple sampled ratio pull test is called for. If any fail reject the batch.

Now looking forward to Tuesday evening UKAC sessions to try the beam in contests on 2m and 70cm.

Letter to Moonraker

Sent this morning, no reply today:

"Sirs,

I recently purchased a dual band 2m/70cm yagi, some mast brackets and patch coax cables with attached plugs. Recently I had a stroke and a local ham has kindly offered to do the erection for me because of my poor health.

Unfortunately the installation has had to be postponed because the 20m long Westflex patch lead is rubbish! The N connector end just fell apart in my hands as the crimping is so poor. I would return the lead and ask for a replacement but have little confidence the replacement will be any better. The current plan is for the local ham to replace the N connector with a proper plug, if he can.

Just want to tell you how disappointed I am. In days gone by, I'd have bought the cable and fitted my own connectors but buying the patch leads was meant to save time and effort being disabled. The patch leads were almost as much as the antenna! I was expecting better quality from a good supplier.

As an absolute minimum, please improve your quality control. Expect to hear from me again shortly.

In the meantime, if I have to return anything (for free replacement under Sale of Goods Act) how do I go about this please?

73s
Roger (Lapthorn) G3XBM"

If Moonraker was really interested in satisfied customers I would have expected a  reply by return. I think the company does business on Saturdays, but I shall wait until Monday before ringing them. I am honestly deeply disappointed in their patch leads and apparent indifference to their customers. I may be doing them a disservice, so must wait until next week.

Is it really too much to ask that patch leads are reliably made? After Andrew G6ALB fitted a proper N connector for the antenna end I have found the crimp joint at the shack end is intermittent. This patch lead really is a heap of rubbish. Even one of the Allen nuts on one of the 70cm elements is stripped.

Moonraker? Sorry I am NOT impressed one bit. I cannot see myself ever doing business with you ever again.

2m/70cm yagi erection

Andrew G6ALB is erecting my new VHF/UHF yagi for me as my health is still too poor. He hopes to return later today. Andrew is hoping to fit a decent N connector to the failed Moonraker patch lead. With luck, the whole installation may be done this weekend depending on Andrew's time and the weather.

I am so grateful for Andrew's help - amateur radio spirit at its best.

472kHz spots from G3XIZ

During the day time I get -15/-16dB S/N spots on 472kHz WSPR from Chris Osborn G3XIZ who is 46km away. G3XIZ is about 20dB stronger here, which is about right for the ERP difference (500mW to 5mW).  At night, my reports are poorer, probably because the local noise at G3XIZ is higher? This all seems about right.

Chris has seen my WSPR on 137kHz from the old QTH, but with the 15m  baseline earth-electrode antenna at this newer QTH 137kHz would be marginal or not good enough except perhaps when the band is exceptionally quiet. A longer baseline earth-electrode antenna may allow the path to Chris to be useable on 137kHz again. It may be some time before I can find out.

UPDATE April 26th 0900z:   G3XIZ says my WSPR sigmal is strong enough for a CW QSO. We must have a go sometime.

Moonraker 20m patch lead is rubbish

Having spent almost as much on a low loss antenna lead (20m long Westflex with connectors) as on my dual band 2m/70cm antenna, I was expecting quality. It was NOT. The N connector end just fell apart in my hand - so poor were these crimped joints, so I am unable to complete the antenna erection when G6ALB kindly comes around later to fix the wall brackets. I want this lead replaced but have zero confidence the replacement will be any better! In days gone by I would have bought the cable and fitted plugs myself but cannot because of my stroke. This was meant to have saved time and effort!

Moonraker  - you score 0/10 for quality control on patch leads!  Folks you have been warned!  So far, the 2m/70cm antenna itself looks fine.  Such disappointment and so unnecessary.

LNR FX-4 transceiver?

https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/1278189_519456928132890_1956196588_n.jpg

See http://www.lnrprecision.com/ and scroll down the page.

This looks "Chinese" in origin and I am wondering if this is a badged product?  It looks a bit like a poor man's KX3. It is a 4 band, 5W QRP CW/SSB transceiver.  In the USA it retails for $450. It is clearly aimed at backpackers.

See https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.519456908132892.1073741827.229134337165152&type=3 for some images of the little rig.

DC0DX on 472kHz WSPR

Several spots during the night of DC0DX (467km) running 10mW ERP on 472kHz WSPR. There may have been later spots but sometime during the night the Win 8.1 PC decided to stop the WSPR software running (again). I have reset the clock and restarted the software on 474.2kHz USB dial.

472kHz WSPR unique reports over last 2 weeks

Looking at the results over the last 2 weeks, I see that I've had reports of my 5mW ERP (15m spaced earth-electrodes) from 8 different stations. Best DX is F1AFJ at 607km followed by reports from 3 different Dutch stations. I'll leave the set-up running overnight in case I get any new stations reporting me.

HF wire fallen down

http://www.lnrprecision.com/endfedz/

My Par 10/20/40m end-fed has, this afternoon, fallen down, explaining the high SWR on 10m just now. I think I must have knocked it when seeing if the brackets and pole for the 2m/70cm yagi will fit OK outside the guest bedroom window (they will).   My son, or maybe Andrew G6ALB, will be asked to help re-erection. It has come adrift at the 40m trap I think, so should be easy to fix.  Just need to remake the joint and ask someone to climb a tree (with a small ladder) to tie the end off.  I am just too wobbly for ladders, more is the pity.

I was thinking of fitting the wall brackets for the 2m/70cm antenna myself, but this will prove too hard in my current poor state of health I have decided. I am too clumsy and wobbly (stroke).

For the coming days I'll have to concentrate on 472kHz instead using the earth-electrode antenna.

Interestingly, by about 1516z, there were no USA or Canadian stations being copied here but I was getting/giving decent spots into South America, even with the antenna half down and a poor match on 10m. It appears there was some 10m propagation to the USA for others.

6m super DX

The evening of June 25th 2007 was a very memorable one here: K1TOL (Lefty) was worked on 6m QRP CW from the old QTH when I was using just 2.5W from the FT817 to my V2000 vertical fed by a long and lossy length of RG58 coax. ERP could not have been more than 1W. His big antenna certainly helped, but this was a great contact in the log. The mode was multi-hop Es.

K1TOL's 6m QSL card