OZ/SP7VC 4m #JO75NB log. QTH Nexo, Bornholm Isl.

Here is a summary of worked (and NC) stations by Mek OZ/SP7VC from Nexo.

High noises made this activity almost impossible.
Mek suspects that Weather radar located in Nexo gave a constant background noises.
Anyway few station were strong enough to QSO.

Congrats for new #.

QSO list :
June 23.2015 - SP1MVG SSB, DD3SP SSB, DH8BQA SSB, DJ5MN FSK,
PF7M FSK, DK2PH FSK, OK2BRD NC
June 24.2015 - PE1IWT FSK, SP2JYR NC, SP3RNZ NC, SP2FH ISCAT,
M5MUF NC, PA2IP ISCAT, SP2HMR NC, OZ3ZW ISCAT

73!

5V7MI - Togo story - update June 24. 2015

Due to many questions on KST - few important information about Michal 5V7MI activity :


At the moment they are recovering slowly from Malaria disease. No further info about activity.
If I'll get in touch I will post the info to community, as always.



About the QSL service :

1. Michal is doing all this for FUN. This is NOT the DX pedition to Togo, so - no Yagis, no PA's etc..

2. Michal has no QSL manager, no LOTW, no e-QSL and I'm not involved in any way with handling his QSL's.
Another proposal about QSL print or QSL manager service will probably change nothing in his mind.
All this was already discused before.

3. He is sending QSL's himself from the place he is currently QRV, as he did in the past from Ghana as 9G5AG.

4. Any details about "how to" get his paper card are on his QRZ.COM profile.

Full amazing Rainbowtruck story, and wonderfull pictures made by Sylwia, You can read/see here www.rainbowtruck.pl or www.rainbowtruck.blogspot.com

If You wish to express your opinion, questions or good wishes for them, You can leave comment here, or write e-mail directly to them in Togo.

73!

OZ/SP7VC 4m #JO75NB Bornholm and the Cod's

Here's Mek on the road again. Or maybe better to say on the sea? ;-)
He was active yeaturday, but no QSO here, probable cause some Bornholm Radar in Nexo and background noises.
Signal was quite Okay, but he seemed deaf at moments - worked into DL/PA anyway.
He will ship out early morning June 24 from Nexo, and QRV again in the evening probably from another QTH
- at least that's what he QSP.

Here's a fresh pic from him

GL if You need JO75 on 4m!

S.E.S GB1JSS - Summer Solstice Event

Browsing the web and searching for NOAA prediction data, lead me to Southgate ARC page.
Very interesting project. Pity that info wasn't spread around.
Or maybe I just missed it ?

GB1JSS QSL card

Credit: Southgate ARC

More info http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2015/june/gb1jss_summer_solstice.htm#.VYkLe1LLIVR

and GB1JSS http://www.m0pzt.com/?gb1jss

Enjoy reading.

EQUINOX or SUMMER SOLSTICE on 6m - do You believe? You better do!

Still shakin' after big time provided to us by Michal 5V7MI.

If You not heard/read anything about him and his beautiful wife Sylwia,
You must visit rainbowtruck website.

No excuses, please.

The full story is hard to imagine, but true and amazing. Follow the bottom links to see full story.

Below the pictures You'll find full raw list of callsigns logged today in humogenous opening between 5V7MI and Europe.
If You still don't believe that EQUINOX or Summer Solstice is a special day on 6 meters when EVERYTHING can happen,
let me remind You first KL7 into EU, 6M6M last year,
or 2012 West Coast openings into EU.
By the way, first real 2015 opening between NA (W6/W7 as well) and EU took place today as well !

Here's 5V7MI operating position :-) see Rainbowtruck now, heh? - pics still hot.

Big thanks and credits to Sylwia Michalak his wife, for the pics.

Another one closer look - small shack, isn't it?

Okay, here is a raw list, dupes included, reverse order :


F6EKI, DL7CM, EI3IO, IW0FFK, F4GGJ, 9A3KS, I7CSB, SM5EDX, 9A2AA, YU1AM, YT1X, DK1MAX, YU1FW, CT1FFU,
G0JJL, CT1FFU, G3WPF, I5MZY, 9A6TKS, EA7DUD, HA8CE, DL1YM, G0JHC, EA3NW, SM5P, IZ5IMD, DJ2MX, 9H1TX,
I4EAT, I5KG, G4PWA, F8ZW, I4KDJ, IZ0ADG, DJ0MDR, IK5CVV, DF3CB, IK5PWJ, SF7WT, G3NSM, DF1NP, DJ0MDR,
I4KDJ, DF1NP, DF1NP, IK4DRR, S51DI, IK5FNN, CT1EAV, S59A, IZ5NFD, CT1EAV, S59Z, CT1EE, IQ5TT, I4IKW,
SM7OYP, HB9FMT, GW4J, IK5GQK, SP4MPB, SP3RNZ, I5KG, HF0AA, IK6CWQ, SP5EWY, SP4MPB, EI7IX, SP5CFD, EI6JK,
G8BCG, I4AVG, IK5M, F2JD, LY2IJ, HA5JI, HB9FMN, IW5DHN, IK1YED, 4O7CC, IZ1EPM, EA3BKI, GI4SNA, DL5MAE,
I0WTD, IK1WGX, OE9ICI, IK5PWJ, IZ1BII, IK5PWJ, EA6SA, DL8YHR, SK7NM, PF7M, OZ3K, SM7FJE, LZ2WO, IS0GQX,
PC5C, LZ2HM, IZ1DFG, HA9PP, HA0DU, HA7TM, S57TW


LOG UPDATE 16UTC June 21, 2015 - F6ECI, IK8YSW, DF0BV, SV1DH, IK5YJY, SP6GZZ, F6CER.


QSL information - direct only, read http://www.rainbowtruck.pl or http://www.rainbowtruck.blogspot.com
for details.

Congrats to everyone, hat's off to Michal - he is the star today.

FT-847 Low data audio level mod.

Here is another mod for 847 users by RNZ_LAB.
Rumour has it, there's sometimes a problem to set proper level of outgoing audio at DATA jack on the rear. Of course this fault is model specific, and depend on modem type as well. But there's a simple cure for it, tested myself on my FT-847.
Audio level from IC Q1102 is fed to red DATA socket via R1119 4,7kOhm.

All we need is SMD 1206type 2,2k (or 3,3k) resistor. Unscrew your radio, and set it upside down. There is red DATA socket on the rear.
Look carefully for SMD resistor marked in red circle:

Replace the resistor according to suit proper "zero" level of your output audio.
In my case replacing R1119 by 2,2k did the job FB giving 5dB more AF level..

Good luck with the mod.

LY/SP7VC 4m #KO06VB card in the pocket ;-)

After long Es fight yesturday on 4m, today gave very neat suprise.
Just before his trip to Bornholm Mek confirmed his last LY activity,
so DXCC increased to 45 CFM on 4m.

All cards are labelled and stamped, ready to send, either via bureau or direct.
Although I'm not his QSL manager, I can assure anyone, I checked and labelled all the cards he gave me.
Buro card will be send as soon as possible.

GL with his next trip!

A masterpiece - I0QM real BALUN for Yagi Antennas

As You probably know, there is lot's of projects, descriptions and models of more less real balance-unbalance transformers on the web.
Below You can see my example of I0QM real balun for monoband pure resistive Yagi's.
This solution has been widely tested by me with various 6m and 4m Yagis with perfect results compared to so called "choke baluns".

General idea

First implemented in my 6m YU7EF yagi 10yrs a go, still in use with EME antenna. No any overheating, stable SWR/RL and probably (as tested) lower out of band spurs from Russian video's. Pics show resonance in 6m band, and increasing SWR out of band edge below 50MHz, as well as above 51MHz. Look below.

A hint: Various manufacturers of coaxial cables ensure You that their cable has known velocity factor. The fact is, that's a lie.
Nowadays almost all cables are manufactured you know where :-)
In this example ordinary RG213 type with known Vf~0,66 was used.
Calculated lenghts were out of space, with resonance at 48Mhz. Do we need to have R1 TV frequency resonant balun? Certainly not! :-) Try it and measure before final sealing. Cut small part's each end, and trim the lenght until You get perfect 6m band response. That's it!


Coaxial end sealing box - both shields were tinned, and soldered together (gently!) N connector was set in the box, and inner conductor soldered. To get proper shield with N connector small strip of Cu track was soldered as seen on pics. After cooling, box was sealed with epoxy resin.

SWR sweep - balun terminated with ordinary 50Ohm resistance, measurements taken with AA-170 Analyzer :

Almost perfect R/X response :

All parameters :

This simply works! Thank's and compliments to I0QM for this "must have" design.

Good luck with your designs.

FT-847 - another happy user ;-)

Just got very neat message from George SV1JRF, user of Yaesu FT847. His radio after needed service job and adding 4m mods by DMB/RNZ was returned to him last week. Standard mods were applied giving ~70W output with clean RF signal. Much improved selectivity with sharp BPF gave 0,12uV sensivity in result. Below is George's message:

"Dear Greg, I received my 847 today! Amazing, works great!!! I haven't managed to make a qso yet due to bad propagation + poor antenna (2 ele beam), but I heard the local beacon and also some time in the afternoon I heard the beacon which is located in Crete!
Thx for everything!!! Many 73s de SV1JRF"

Another happy 847 user. Great!

Here is another way to do the modification on solder side, improved by the time of first described v.1.0. PTFE silver wires were used. Much safer for interconnections. Beware of two 0Ohm SMD 0603 resistors acting as shorts - small yellow circles.

Overall view on main PCB after modification

If You feel You need improve your 847 performance with new RX low noise PIN diodes, AGC off/on switch, power switch relay, or just simply 4m modification don't hesitate to contact me or Peter SP2DMB.

More hints on 847 and tested mods will be posted in next posts.

73, Greg

Second Ham Radio meeting GAJÓW 2015 #JO80EM

A great time for meeting with old/new friends ;-)

Thursday afternoon group ;-)

Time has come...

Hi all.

Although this site is quite long time here, there's always something more important to do than blogging.
Anyway, some circumstances pushed me to share some of my thoughts, and feelings about ham radio.
So hope I will have time to do it on weekly basis.
CU on the airwaves.
Greg