After a long absence from the blog and from radio in general I have really gotten the itch to get back on the air.

So today at lunch I headed to the local park with my trusty KX1 – threw my wire into a tree and got down to business.

I heard a 6 calling CQ – responded and no return

Then I heard a 2 calling CQ – he did respond with QRZ? But he could clearly not hear me.

Call CQ for about 20 minutes on 20 meter around 14.060 and never got a return call.  The conditions must have been pretty bad because I did not hear hardly any stations.  Usually I hear a bunch even if they can’t hear me.

Oh well – it was still fun.

In the next couple of weeks I really want to get my Par Endfedz antenna installed at the house.  This should give me more opportunities to get on the radio after the kiddos are in bed.

Thats it for today!

G4ILO Wonder Loop

I have been wanting to build a magnetic loop antenna for portable and home use. One of the cooler designs I have found is by G4ILO, what he calls the “Wonder Loop“.

So I have started gathering parts for this antenna. The first part I picked up was the air variable capacitor. I found one that has a wide enough range that it should give me good band coverage. It is actually a 4 gang capacitor with these sections 7-20pF 7-20pF 10-320pF 10-380pF

I am assuming that if I use the 10-380pF that it will give a pretty large tuning range. If anyone reading this has any input offer please leave a comment.

This capacitor is coming from LY2KW in Lithuania – I bought it from eBay.

The capacitor also has a gear reduction drive which will make the fine tuning for the lowest SWR much easier.

Okay, I know it has been a long time since I last posted here – I have basically done no actual operating in this time!

One of the problems is that with my KX1 and current antenna situation I have to setup outside on the deck when I want to operate. This makes it a pretty big deal – especially when I just have 30 minutes to play radio.

So while I am off work next week, I am going to permanently mount my Par End Fedz 40/20 meter antenna. I am going to attach one end high on the house (the feedpoint) and then the other end will slope down to the top of our cedar fence. This point will be able to be unattached easily since we live in a convenant controlled neighborhood.

I also have all the supplies to build a PAC-12 vertical – I don’t think I will get started on this project next week, but it is there when I have time.

Once I am up and running next week I will check in here to let you all know how it went!

Today I sent my newly minted QSL cards to the four contacts I have made with my KX-1 rig.

On November 27th – the Friday right after Thanksgiving I worked…

AG4IP – John in Winston-Salem, NC. He was running 2.5 watts and I was running 2 watts into my PAR Endfedz antenna on 14.060 sitting on my deck. He was a good operator!

John also mentioned that he needed he needed Kansas for his WAS – and must have sent his card to me with a SASE that same day.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend I got a chance to play radio a bit and worked a couple of stations (will update in future post).

One of the stations I worked sent me a QSL card – he needs KS for his 20 meter WAS award.

I have been wanting to get a card put together and I finally got it done!

I used a great site at http://www.radioqth.net/qsl.aspx to spit them out, then imported the image into Photoshop to add my image.

I only played radio on Friday night of Webelos Camp. Thursday night Ryan had a hard time going to sleep since it was the first night in the tent. By the time he went to sleep I was almost asleep as well!

I did have some fun showing the KX1 to several of the Scouts and their fathers – the rig plus the antenna generated a bunch of questions!

Friday night I did get a chance to turn the rig on since Ryan was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow!

The Norcal Doublet I made tuned well on 20 but on 40 the swr was about 4.5! So instead I threw my longwire up in the tree and used it for all operating. Luckily I had checked this during the day!

I heard lots of stations on 40. I did reply to a CQ from a 4 station. He heard me but could not copy my signal well enough to even get my call.

I listened and call CQ off and on but mostly listened for abou 90 minutes and then went to sleep.

It was fun, but I am disappointed I could not at least make one contact. There was lots of noise on 40 because some thunderstorms were nearby.

It was a fun experiment that I wil definately repeat. I do think a dedicated and tuned dipole for 40 meter portable work is the ticket if I know I will only be on the air in the late evenings like at these camps.

I just posted the following to the QRP-L list…..

I will be heading out to Camp Naish for Webelos Camp, near Bonner Springs, KS on Thursday morning with my 9 year old son, Ryan.

We will be at camp Thursday, Friday and Saturday (July 23, 24, 25). I will be operating my KX1 with either a 28′ wire or my newly constructed Norcal Doublet that I built from #22 speaker wire. I am taking along my 20′ Black Widow crappie pole that I will strap to the tent pole to support the antenna.

Most of my operating time will be limited to before 7:30 am Central time or after 10:00 pm Central time. I will hang out around 14.060 and 7.030/7.040. You will know its me when you hear someone sending CQ very slowly Still working on my CW speed after a LONG layoff from Ham Radio!

I have only made three contacts so far on my KX1 (very limited operating time!) and they have all been on 20 meters – so hopefully I can make some QSO’s on 40 this week at night.

I am going to make up a special QSL card to send anyone that I work while on the campout – so listen for me if you want one of these “coveted” QSL cards for your collection

Hopefully I can work some of you!

Last night I strung out my speaker wire and made a Norcal Doublet. It has 28′ of feedline and each radiator side is 22′ or 44′ overall. It us a light antenna made from #22 speaker wire from Radio Shack.

I am taking this antenna along with my 28′ long wire to Webelos camp this week. I will use my 20′ Black Widow crappie pole for the center suppor on the doublet and hang the legs in trees.

I can’t wait to see how it works!

I got all the remaining parts of the KD1JV Tenna Dipper installed today.

Of course the torroid is not installed. I shot an email to the QRPL list and found out I could use #30 wire in place of #28 wire. This is good because Radio Shack has this wire in stock. So I should be able to wrap the kit up tomorrow evening.

I am also going to make a Norcal Doublet out of speaker wire. I hope to test this on Tuesday at lunch so it is ready for Webelos Camp that starts on Thursday.

I might try and squeeze in some lunchtime operating tomorrow!

Worked some more on the Tenna Dipper today. Ella, my 4 year old daughtter sat next to me talking and asking questions a mile a minute th entire time. It was a blast. One time she must have noticed that I was not responding while I was soldering. So she said…”Daddy, I won’t ask you any questions while you solder, I will wait until you put that hot thing in the holder.”

Sure enough she was quiet everytime I picked up the iron – funny.

In all the conversation I messed up the installation of the torroid and broke one of the wires when I was removing it. So now I need some more wire before I can finish the kit. I will stop by Radio Shack tomorrow and get some.

So to recap…. Daughters are a blast, and always read directions before soldering!