Finally :-)

Well, when started in 1998 with 1,5WQRP and 3ele Yagi, never supposed to reach such results. 

But 6m need lot's of addiction, perserverance and many hours spent listening to white noises... and sometimes just the right time, and right place..

 Current status 236/235 and it's not my last word ;-)

 

 

ISS SSTV event, April 7-8 2022

Just few minutes a go, had the last pass of this SSTV event, some of the results below.

Always a fun catching #ISS with simple setup - this time FT-817 no preamp, and 3x5/8L professional Vertical, for 149MHz band, feed with 20m of RG213. Because of bad WX antenna mounted on the ground, for sure causing pattern changes, but worked FB anyway 

April 7th , 09:26UTC :

 April 8th, 10:14UTC

 Almost end of pass, 10:21UTC - ISS gone below the horizon

April 8th, 11:54UTC  ISS overhead, high elevation, but bad timing for all pictures... 

 

April 8th, 13:30UTC

 April 8th, 15:06UTC

Long distance Es-TEP event, March 20.2022

 As the TEP season is already pending in South EU and Olive belt countries, here in "Northern" part of EU we can only watch for QSO's taking place and envy. Although sometimes we can work ZS or V5 with piece of luck, longer DX are rare events.

But sometimes 6m can be lucky for us, just confirming the 6m phrase "right time, right place"

That was the case yesturday, when in the middle of TEP opening beetwen South Europe and South America, Chris SP5AOZ in KO02LI worked VP8NO in GD18BH with Sporadic E +TEP over Atlantic Ocean at 17:27UTC.

The distance was almost 13770km.

Congrats for both, pretty unusual conditions, bearing in mind that SFI was only 98 at this time with A=4 and K=1. 

Hope for more luck for us, as the Es season is coming closer. 

ICOM IC-756PRO Bad VFO encoder repair

Below You can see my approach to replace failed COPAL encoder used as main VFO in IC756PRO and few next of Icom 756 family.

Few days a go Kris SQ6ODB asked for help with repair his RIG, with jumping frequency, tuning only up or self changing frequency. Apparently it was a sign that encoder is failed, probably because of age, or just previous owner broke it, with improper knob handling.

As You can see, somebody tried to (?) restore proper functioning, by applying some grease or other stuff to release the axle inside. But the main problem wasn't there. The bushing with the axle was just worn out, lead the axle to be eccentric and thus giving bad impulses.         

Because original used in 756PRO - COPAL RMS-20-250-201-1P encoder is almost impossible to find, I had to go other way, and find something that can replace it. Sure, we have a few on e-bay, but no one was brand new, and there's no reason to spend $130 for the same piece of not working crap. 

Happily found something similar in our electrionic shop, but another problem appear. Original axle is very "long", as You can see above, and those RMS20-250-201-1 found here looks different. 

So only solution was to make small rigid clutch and add another piece of axle, to get close to original lenght.

So, here we are - first I had to make original hole in the front cover a little bigger (~13mm max) , to accomodate prepared clutch. 

Be very gentle, down below the plastic, we have CFFL PCB - easy to destroy when not handle with care. Now the clutch will fit the hole with some margin. 

Thanks to Peter SP2DMB for help with this clutch job. His very old, but still good lathe handled small piece of brass easy and gently. Later, two holes were drilled with M3 thread, and two small sinking screws to get the stuff solid and rigid.  

Now it's time to dig in the junk box for old potentiometer - something that will fit into the clutch hole and add some lenght. And voila! 

Some final height measurements with caliper, and time to reassembly the rig and test it..  

 

Front cover in place, looking good.

        

Now the sliding brake in place

And finally rest of the axle added. 

Lower part, and upper added piece was carefully set to be as coaxial as possible, and secured with small drop of fast epoxy resin. 

Now the RIG operates as good as before for less than $30

73!

  

 

OZ9KY #JO57GG LOG and PIC's update

 On behalf of Henrik OZ8ZS, here's the log of worked stations during activity (dupes not included) :

OZ5KM, G4ASR, G3SHK, OZ1BNN, OZ2TG, DJ8ES, DM2BHG, OH2BYJ, LX/PE1ITR, GM4VVX, OZ1AXG, GM4FVM, OH3AWW. 

# shack and operating position
 

# 4m antenna

#BIRD 43 collection :-)and  2m 2x1kW EME PA

 

Saturday coffee with SP2HHX and SP2GUB

Last Saturday I had a pleasure to host two keen 6/4m friends in my shack.

Thank You guys for pleasant visit, hope to meet You next time maybe in JO94 ! :-)

L-R Włodek SP2HHX, Jurek SP2GUB

Another #JO57GG activity by OZ group

Here's the information received from Henrik OZ8ZS : 

Same as previous Years, group of OZ operators will be QRV 2m and 23cm as OZ9KY in ARRL EME contest during weekend of 20-21 November 2021, on 2m and 23cm. 

Location is the same OZ1GWD qth as previous Years, located in #JO57GG gridsquare. 

23cm dish

2m X-pol Yagis

In spare time Henrik OZ8ZS and Ole OZ2OE ( probaby starting November 19) will be active on 70MHz tropo and MS on usual FT8/MSK144 frequencies, running Yagi antenna with rig stuff by OZ2OE. 

For detailsYou may ask him on ON4KST 50/70MHz chat.