HF on the Air, Finally!

After a very long break from successful HF operation (and the front end of a pandemic), I made it back on the radio with successful contacts. Outside is a G5RV Jr (borrowed from a fellow FLARC member) hung barely high enough in a tree. Inside is my kit with tuner: FT-818nd, Z-817, and a Bioenno 12V/4.5AH LiFePO. Logging is pen and a little notebook.

FT-818 with Z-817 to its right, the microphone dangling down the front of the wooden drawers, and the logbook in the foreground on top of an unweathered bird box.

First contact was a POTA hunt, reaching activator AB8AS at K-7050, 2021-12-27 1835Z on 14316 SSB. Thanks for the contact! It was a basic POTA contact, but it was indeed my first contact in probably five years. Last time I was on HF was at W8EDU in March 2015, I think. A whole different solar cycle!

As mentioned, the antenna is a G5RV Jr in a tree just a bit further down the yard from the basement operating position:

Antenna in a tree. The ladder line is just visible by the rightmost deciduous tree trunk on the left with the balun and feedline hanging above the snow. One leg of the antenna extends to the right side of the frame with insulator and supporting twine visible.

The antenna has been very functional on 20 and 40m, also with a successful contact on 17m. Looking forward to more contacts this week with this system!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hardware Filter Modifications for Quansheng UV-K5 Band Extensions?

The Quansheng UV-K5 ( product page archive ) handheld transceiver has been notable in cheap amateur radios of 2023 by using both a wideband FM chip BK4819 ( product page archive ). With support of 18-620 and 840-1200 MHz half-duplex with 6.25/12.5/20/25 kHz channel spacing, this puts the chip in the range of five ITU Region 2 amateur bands (10m, 6m, 2m, 1.25m, 70cm, 33 cm) and spitting distance from a sixth (23 cm). Presumably hitting 4m and the rare 8m would be within reason as well. The easily hackable firmware indicates at least nominal receive capability up to 1300 MHz, though!
Read more

MEAN WELL HLG-320H Power Supply Actual Teardown and Failure Investigation

Image
Last left off in the preview "teardown" despairing over the potting was my failed MEAN WELL HLG-320H. Then came a great need for mindless stimulation after a day of work and I tried cracking the case again. After the successful prying came picking and cutting away at the potting material to see what's what. Here's what's inside! Image warning: there's a lot to get through this whole device. Click on the photo for the full Blogger resolution. There you go, just a bit more force and the top plate comes off.
Read more

Too Much in One Day: POTA, SOTA, Wisconsin QSO Party (K-1441 and K9/WI-010, then K-4238)

Image
With all the prep done over in the other post and acceptable weather, of course I had to actually take on the adventure. My drive out to K-1441 Blue Mound State Park ( wiki ) was a little on the late side. Stopping in Verona on the way over to acquire some fast food to maintain energy through the event also put me a bit further behind schedule. Soon enough, I arrived at the middle altitude parking lot of the park to hike the rest of the way to summit W9/WI-010 all in Iowa county. Only a bit into the 1800Z March 13th start, but there's still setup and making contacts to happen. View up the trail from just above the parking lot to reach the East Tower on the summit
Read more