[ADXA] KH1 Baker Island

Wed Jul 4 23:15:35 EDT 2018

Watch out Pat. You are giving away your age now!!! 866 rectifier tubes, 811A amp and no bandswitch… My Heathkit built separate transmitter and receiver and a LARGE heavy 500 watt 811A amplifier were fun but took up TWO desktops. But it was cheaper than the 75A4 and KWS1 KW setup. Later I had several 75A3 and A4s for nostalgic purposes. Fortunately none of the stuff did FT8 SDR PC assisted QSOs. You had to know how to use a mike and to copy CW and send with a straight key. Flash forward to now, 60 years later ….. Ugggh. HI HI
San

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From: Pat Patterson
Sent: Wednesday, July 4, 2018 8:40 PM
To: Nick Kennedy
Cc: ADXA
Subject: Re: [ADXA] KH1 Baker Island

Sunnye showed no interest is cooking the squirrel!  I was expecting a chunk of carbon on the ground but it didn't have visible burn marks.

So you have a "Triad" versus a "Gang of Four".  My first homebrew amp was a 4 X 811a  deal.  My power supply had 866 Mercury Vapor rectifier tube...cool purple glow. It didn't have  a band switch...just tap a different point on the coil...did 80, 40 and 20.  Bill, WA5AVO, helped me build it and supplied a lot of the parts.  No telling what the IMD specs were...pretty rotten I'm sure. 

Since retirement I've turned into even more of a night owl.  If it weren't for the dog staring at me a 7:30am to go for a walk I'd probably stay up even longer.

I built the 8 ele 432 WA5VJB yagi when I started Roving.  Then I made a 6L 222 VJB special.  They work very well and they really cheap and simple. 

73,
Pat, W5VY 

On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 7:59 AM, Nick Kennedy <kennnick at gmail.com> wrote:
How'd that squirrel taste?

Pat, my AL-811A is just a 3-holer, but I've never used it except on 160. Well, a few years ago I did use it for a needed entity on 20 meters, who seemed immune to my 100 watt calls.

I can see I'm never going to compete in the DX world with guys who carry on email conversations at 1:00 to 3:00 AM. 

Bumping up the frequency a bit - as my latest time waster I'm thinking of making some of those WA5VJB cheap yagis, so when it's time to rove again I can do it a little better equipped.

73-

Nick, WA5BDU

On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 1:18 AM Pat Patterson <patw5vy at gmail.com> wrote:
Dennis,
Glad you improvised to get KH1 in your log on 12M.  They were pretty weak here and peaked briefly for about 5-10 min.  We seem to have a constant battle with noise.  We had a thunderstorm about 5pm today and I thought...great the rain will quieten down some of the noise.  It dried out before 12M opened to KH1!  A couple of weeks ago Sunnye and I were sitting out on the deck and we heard a big bang then our generator cranked up.  I guessed it was the fuse on our distribution transformer and I was right.  We called Entergy and left to go to dinner in a cool spot....our 8KVA generator won't handle the HVAC compressor.   Got a text from our security system that power had been restored and message from the Entergy tech that an "animal" had caused the outage.  Got home and found a squirrel near the base of the pole.  The tech had added animal guard insulators on the transformer HV terminals and the combination switch/fuse holder.  I noticed the next day that the noise level from that direction had dropped a bunch on 2M.  So, I'm guessing there was some loose hardware that got tightened when the new insulators were added?  We live on the lake and KH1 is across the lake....about 250 yards of water to the other side.  Most of the time it is much quieter when I'm pointed over the lake. But their is something across the lake that at times generates S3-4 noise on HF and S2-3 on 6M and 2M.   Haven't figured out a pattern yet.  I've powered off everything in the house and confirmed it's coming from across the lake.  Without challenges DXing would be boring!

Try to stay cool.

73,
Pat

On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 11:08 PM, Dennis Schaefer <dennisw5rz at gmail.com> wrote:
That was me on 12 SSB.  K5UR also worked him, and I think Jim got through OK.  I have a 12/17 meter Force 12 antenna on a  tower close to the house and the street and the noise level is horrible.  I ended up using the C3 that has a 4:1 SWR on 12M and ran only about 300 watts.   It's about 100 ft from the house and noise is not a problem.  I need to do something, maybe let the C3 be the receive antenna and transmit on the F-12.  Or solve the noise, but there are too dang many modems, routers, computers, etc nowdays.

So far, I have them on 20, 17, and 15 CW, 20, 17, and 12 SSB, and 20, 17, and 15 FT8.  I guess I'm not much of an early riser - no low band contacts.

73,
Dennis, W5RZ

On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 10:38 PM, Pat Patterson <patw5vy at gmail.com> wrote:
Bruce,
Glad the propagation gods smiled on you this evening.  The first few days they were hard to hear on any band.  Things have improved the last couple of evenings.  I managed to work them on 12M SSB a few minutes ago.  I heard them calling Jim, WB5AAA, but a DQRMer was tunning up and I didn't hear a completion of the QSO....hope you got 'em Jim.  Also heard W5RZ or N5RZ working them....think it was Dennis.  

Nick, glad you and your "gang of four" (811As) snagged them on 15CW...good deal. 

73,
Pat, W5VY

On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 8:15 PM, BRUCE PLANTZ <k9oz at comcast.net> wrote:
I had just about given up on KH1 and it looked like I was running out of out of time, after a couple of fruitless early morning attempts. But when I came home from dinner tonight they were on 20 CW louder than I'd heard them yet. So I dived into the pileup and got them in the log after only 20 minutes or so. That felt good. 
Bruce K9OZ

On July 3, 2018 at 2:36 AM HamOP <k5yy1 at cox.net> wrote: 
Well, been up since 1AM and seems like all bands in use are in FT8 mode of some sort, it varies. You might know they are NOT on SSB or CW on 40 or 80m. So, guess back to bed and maybe awaken at 6AM or so. Appears the ops are very hot and tired and most are trying to sleep some even tho just an hour past their sunset. Chasing DX is a challenge. Have Baker Island on all bands from past years but RTTY was an ATNO and now only need 60m QSO. Unfortunately they will only be on a short time tomorrow nite I am told. 
Gud luck DXing guys, I am sure nobody in the ADXA is up at this time.. HI 
San @ 2:37AM 

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