[600MRG] W8BYA Summary - Jan 25, 2021 - 630m

Mon Jan 25 17:49:17 EST 2021

Gedas,

Labdas.

Interesting reading.

I previously used a 43 by 130 foot inverted-L with multiple wires 
shorted at each end.  I used a base coil to ground to match resonance 
and found that a tap about 2-turns up from the ground end matched 
50-ohms to a coax run from the amplifier.  My coil is est 680 ohms 
inductance and used about 2/3 for resonating the inverted-L 
(inductance not measured).

I used a MFJ-269B antenna analyzer modified to tune 400-800 KHz to 
find the proper tap point for resonance.  Z=20 ohms + 0j.  I used 
three 50 to 70  foot runs of 2-foot wide chicken wire on ground for 
radials.  My 120-foot 1-5/8 inch Heliax cable made a fourth radial 
since the shield was grounded.  I calculated EIRP=4.15w with 100w 
output from the amp (converted surplus NDB driven by my K3 at about 0.5mw).

I will not be able to run the Inverted-L this year and going to try a 
Tee configuration vertical with buried radial wires.  The Tee will be 
my 80m dipole with parallel open wire.  Parallel line will be shorted 
to use as a 40-foot high Tee with same base loading coil.  Dipole 
ends will be 30-foot high on push-up masts.

Using my SDR-IQ as Rx on 490-KHz I typically saw noise floor of -115 
to -95 dBm.  That was good enough to receive N6LF (WD2XSH/20) on CW 
in OR and many NDB's out to 1100 miles.  When I have time I am 
considering to build a 6-foot diameter shielded-loop (rotatable) with 
preamp for Rx on 630m (not likely until 2022).  I was once copied in 
Buffalo NY on slow-CW.

KF9D (HI) and GM4OAS are impressive results on WSPR for you.

Not sure when I will have the new antenna QRV (summer-fall 2021, I 
hope).  I have 2-3 major eme antennas to put up this year which will 
take a lot of time/money.

Hope my NDB still runs (haven't tested it for several years).

73, Ed - KL7UW
<http://www.kl7uw.com/630m.htm>KL7UW 630m Topics

At 10:17 AM 1/25/2021, Gedas wrote:

>I wanted to share some observations & reports of my first night back 
>on 630m. I was not QRV last year and the year before that was my 1st 
>year on the band so I do not have a lot of experience.
>
>I started sending WSPR signals out around my local sunset last night 
>and ceased around 5:45 AM this morning. This was the 1st time using 
>the new, short inv-L ant vs. my previous 600' Inv-V antenna with 
>feedpoint at 85'. This Inv-L has it's feedpoint 5' above ground 
>using a vertical radiator of 60' and a single horizontal capacity 
>hat approx 185' long. There is a ~300 uH inductor at the base of the vertical.
>
>The antenna is fed against a pair of opposing 165' elevated radials 
>made of aluminum fence wire. The antenna being within several feet 
>of a 85' tower and many antennas presented a very unexpected and 
>high feedpoint impedance of ~76 ohms ! This required me to design 
>and build up a low-pass L-matching network to bring the SWR down to 
>1:1. The matching network is mounted directly below the loading coil 
>also 5' off the ground.
>
>No surprise here but the Inv-L is not a good antenna as far as low 
>noise pick-up so I will be experimenting with some better 
>alternatives. Noise levels on my Flex 5000 averaged S9 to S9+10 dB all night.
>
>For transmitting being mostly vertically polarized was a huge 
>advantage over the mostly horizontally polarized signal I was using 
>several years ago when I tried 630m for the first time with the Inv-V.
>
>After looking over the reports I was really surprised to see many 
>1000+ km reception reports from stations still transmitting this 
>morning. For example my last reception of Arliss (W7XU) occurred at 
>11:40 AM ! Hard to believe getting decodes at almost noon time from 
>that far away. Arliss must have one heck of an awesome transmit setup.
>
>Looking for even further distances I found my last decode of K0KE in 
>DM79 at 1660 km occurring at 9:18 AM local ! The sun was well, well 
>up by then. Pretty cool. And there were MANY receptions of W7XU and K0KE.
>
>Highlights for me were being heard by K9FD receiving me at -21 at 
>3:30 AM (7003 km), as well as being heard several times by GM4OAS at 
>5716 km. I was able to receive G0MRF (6183 km) a half dozen times 
>but he was not able to hear me. I was also thrilled at seeing that 
>N6LF at ~3000 km heard me at a -9 dB.
>
>As far as being heard & hearing within NA the summary looks like this:
>
>W8BYA
>Hearing: AA8HS, AE2EA, G0MRF, K0KE, K2BLA, K3RWR, K4BYN, K8HTL, 
>K9MRI, KE7A, KN8DMK, N3HSK, NV4X, VE9GJ, W0IOO, W3TS, W4BCX, W4KZK, 
>W7XU, WA3U, WA9CGZ, WB0TEM, WB3AVN, WD8DAS.
>
>
>Heard by: AA1A, AA5AM, AA8HS, AE2EA, AK0SK, GM4OAS, K0KE, K1HTV-4, 
>K1RA-BB, K1RA-PI, K2ZN, K3CLT, K3KQV, K3MF, K3RWR, K3SIW/2, K4BYN, 
>K4RCG, K5KHK, K5VR, K8YBU, K9AN, K9ANF, K9FD, K9IMM, K9MRI, K9XT, 
>KA1LM, KA1R, KD2OM, KD3UY, KD9OWT, KE7A, KF4HCW, KF8QL, KF9KV, 
>KI7KG, KI8FW, KJ6MKI, KK6PR, KM5SW, KR7O, N0LBY, N2HQI, N3HSK, 
>N6GN/K, N6IO/K, N6LF, N7JYS, N8IT, N8UR, N9RU, NO3M, NV4X, NY4Q, 
>VA3ROM, VA7JX, VA7MM, VE2UG, VE3EAR, VE3HOA, VE3MNA, VE6ARS, VE6JY, 
>VE9GJ, W0AY, W0ETH, W0IOO, W0PXM, W1EQX, W1NJC, W1XP, W1XP/1, W3ENR, 
>W3PM, W3TS, W4BCX, W4KEL, W4KZK, W5EST, W6UV, W7XU, W9RAN, W9XA, 
>WA2TP, WA2ZKD, WA3TTS, WA3U, WA3U/W, WA9CGZ, WA9EIC, WA9NWW, WA9WTK, 
>WB0TEM, WB3AVN, WB5PDQ, WB6YAZ, WB9WON, WD4ELG, WS3W, WV5L, WY7BUD
>
>
>All in all it was a very fun night. The SWR on the antenna varied 
>from a 1:1 to 1.8:1 and this is due to the ceramic padding 
>capacitors I am using in my matching network. As long as I kept my 
>TPO to about 20-25W the SWR remained low. I need to replace those 
>caps. At this point I will concentrate on making QSO's. I am 
>available via CW or digital if anyone needs Indiana or my grid on 
>630m. TU all, 73.
>
>Not sure if my coverage map will make it as an attachment but I 
>added it in as a JPG.
>
>Gedas, W8BYA EN70JT
>
>Gallery at <http://w8bya.com>http://w8bya.com
>Light travels faster than sound....
>This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
>
>______________________________________________________________
>600MRG mailing list
>Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/600mrg
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>Post: mailto:600MRG at mailman.qth.net
>
>This list hosted by: https://www.qsl.net
>Please help support this email list: https://www.qsl.net/donate.html

73, Ed - KL7UW
   http://www.kl7uw.com
Dubus-NA Business mail:
   dubususa at gmail.com 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/600mrg/attachments/20210125/810e57ca/attachment.html>