[Lowfer] [Hifer] RY back on the air

[John Andrews]

Paul,

Good luck on copying RY -- the antenna right now is just a horizontal 
105' dipole fed with ladder line, running through a tuner. Works 
passably on receive.

The old RY antenna was a half-wave vertical dipole for 22M, hung from a 
tree branch next to the lake. This gave a clear shot around the western 
side, but was always limited by being at the bottom of a hill that rose 
to the east. Hence, reports from EU were limited. The best DX was 
Australia -- will have to dig up the details...think it was back around 
2001.

That "nice" branch broke off the pine tree a couple of years ago, and I 
gave up at that point, as reports had been very slim in the solar 
minimum. But with things looking up, I'm trying to scout out another 
branch -- may have found a good candidate, and will warm up the 
slingshot next weekend.

The beauty of the 22 meter band is that you can let the stuff run 
completely unattended, use any imaginable modulation technique, and pick 
your own cute ID. Small power, obviously, but there were plenty of 
audible beacons during better solar conditions.

Don't have a lot of radio time right now, and won't until the first of 
the year. The RY rig is homebrew from almost 10 years ago -- a DDS chip 
run by a microcontroller, and a 10 MHz oven-controlled clock oscillator. 
Nice and stable, despite big temperature swings in the camp. But I've 
been thinking about a more flexible arrangement...the trouble is that 
PC-based stuff can get nasty when there's nobody around to do reboots. 
Maybe next year!

John A.

On 5/24/2010 9:57 AM, Paul Daulton wrote:
> John thanks for putting RY back on the air, gives me something to look for
> in the months with no R's.
>
> At FDI M, the ARC I qarp convention at Dayton this month, Hans Summers G0UPL
> put on a talk about qrss and 30 meter beacons. Hans had a $15 kit for the
> beacon and he programmed the ID Chips on the spot. MIke we0h and I bought
> the kits. He sold 100 kits very quickly The beacon freq for 30 meters is
> 10.140, just below the WSPR segment.
>
> I got a chance to display my workbench beacon at show and tell thursday and
> friday night. I handed out over 80 business cards to prospective lowfers
> with my email address ,  and llnks to LWCA, and the Part15 yahoo group, lots
> of interest.
>
> Hans said some of the europeans have copied hifers, wonder if you have any
> copies across the pond? I will try to get the 30 meter ops on our forums. I
> have a plan in the back of my mind to convert Han's beacons to 22m.
>
> Google Hans Summers and it should take you to his site.
>
> Been a few years since I have seen RY, tnx
>
> Paul k5wms
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Andrews"<w1tag at charter.net>
> To: "Discussion of the Lowfer (US, European,&amp;UK) and MedFer bands"
> <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2010 8:46 PM
> Subject: [Lowfer] [Hifer] RY back on the air
>
>
>> Hifer "RY" is back on the air from Raymond, Maine (FN43sv) on 13555.390
>> kHz. Format is DFCW3, with "dashes" 5 Hz higher than "dots". Looks good
>> on an Argo 3 second screen.
>>
>> Reports are welcome. The antenna is temporary...something better is in
>> the works, maybe for next weekend.
>>
>> Copied Hifers NC and WV up there this weekend.
>>
>> John, W1TAG
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