N3QO » ham radio

New shack photos

jeff — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:38:20 +0000

I got some free time this weekend to sit down and finally get the shack in order. Long enough to get some photos shot.

Tuesday Morning DX commute

jeff — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:15:03 +0000

This morning on my way into work, I went about my normal routine, listening for various NET’s on 80 and 40m. One that I was listening to talked about band openings on 10, 15 and 20m. So I rolled my way down to 10 meter, which I have yet to work mobile and nothing. I then moved up to 15m and then BAM! CO6LC. He has got to be the loudest thing out of Cuba and he’s on the air often! Easily S9+10 to me in the car. After working him and obtaining a 58 report, I moved down the band slightly and worked IZ6BXV from Italy. Tony had a huge signal as well, and provided me a S9+5 report. Not bad for my 100 watts into a screwdriver antenna.

And then there was RL3A, a Radio club centered in Moscow just down the band from the Italian station. Slava, UA4HTT was operating a kilowatt into a 7x7x7 15m stack at his club station, which is probably his signal was so huge and how I got such a great report out of Russia. More information about their station is on their website, http://www.rl3a.ru.

Thanks Ore, Tony and Slava for a fun drive into work this morning.

Field Day Announcement

jeff — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:59:41 +0000

The 1900 Group is planning a Field Day Expedition to Assateague Island, Maryland on June 25th-27th 2010.

Assateague is a desirable operating location for 2 reasons. The first, it’s an IOTA (island on the air), NA-139 is it’s identification. Secondly, it’s in grid square FM-28 which will be a demanded locator if the 6 meter band opens up.

Eric, WG3J has spent countless hours/days working to acquire the necessary permits for operation on the site. Most of that time was spent working with the Park Service for authorization to operate. We plan to be located approximately 100 yards North of the Virginia / Maryland border along the shore.

The website for the operation is finally online. Check it out here!

Linux and Ham radio bond

jeff — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:57:41 +0000

The latest Linux Journal magazine features ham radio. How cool is that?

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N3QO Desk

jeff — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:23:56 +0000

One of the trickiest parts about building a shack is how to set everything up that is both easy to use, makes the best use of the space and can facilitate additional operators (+1). Since upgrading to my HF privileges in March, it was just me and my 746. In short time my YL, Laurie (KB3SIK) obtained her General license and soon had her own HF rig. An L-shaped desk wasn’t going to cut it if we both wanted to operate. At least electrically we could do it with the help of 2 antennas and a set of ICE filters, but ergonomically it just wasn’t happening.

For the last 2 months I had this idea for as stacked desk design in my head. Just this last weekend I finally executed on the build. It measures 8ft wide and can facilitate 3-4 radios in 2-3 operating positions. I also wanted to later design in a 19″ rack under the main desktop for central power supplies, antenna patching/switching, audio processing, etc. The grounding wire interconnected the Alpha Delta switches is NOT the final setup. With some input from Jon (N3INJ), I’ll be using copper strapping as the final station ground bus.
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N3QO – Back on the air!

jeff — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:05:50 +0000

Spent most of the day getting the MA5B back up on the roof since the move from Allentown to Pottstown. I was graced with hearing EK6TA out of Armenia, my furthest I’ve heard yet. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to work him, but it was nice to know the antenna was at least picking it up. In addition an Italian and Irish station were also propogating to me around 5-6PM. You’ll see the ground wire on the outside station ground bus, this has since been changed out to zero gauge copper. I initially needed some form of ground for the polyphasers to discharge any built up static.

The wire routing will also need to change to separate the beam mount and inside station ground from the transmission and rotor control lines. Although so far I haven’t found any RF hot spots anywhere inside. But then again, at most I’m outputting 100 watts.
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Update

jeff — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:51:08 +0000

It’s been a little bit since the last update and alot has happened. With our current residence in Allentown, PA getting worse and worse, we decided to move and everything has happened very quickly. Last Saturday we walked through a house in North Pottstown (Lower Pottsgrove) area and fell in love with the place immediately. Just a week later we were practically moved into the new place.

I feel like I’m in a little bit of radio isolation with not being able to hear my club’s repeater with my HT, and the HF rigs are still all packed away. I can’t wait to get started on the first antenna installation. Not sure which one it’ll be yet. I have a ton of room for the vertical installation in the backyard and a pseudo-flat roof for my beam on the house.

As for the shack itself, I’m in between work spaces. I decided to donate my desks to the DLARC club station (we need it bad) and need to build the console I have in my head for the radios.

Should be an interesting next couple for weeks/months. Plenty of pictures and posts to follow I’m sure.