Demise of one 80/40/20m Dipole

I was QRV in Gordon county briefly - only a couple of weeks. I managed to erect the 80/40/20m dipole I had up in Warren county, which previously flew over Fulton county. It was a cobbled-together mess, made from wire left over from the original 80/40m dipole, newer traps, and old insulators and rope.

Using the Mark III Antenna Launcher, I did a good job casting over a tree in the front yard. Weight sailed up over the tree and came right down beside the trunk. The 1/16" guide line went back out to the antenna launcher, and then the 1/4" nylon halyard came back over. Perfect.

At the far end, I had more trouble. Not wanting to crawl over a fence, I cast sideways to branches overhanging the edge of the yard. The first toss wasn't great, so I pulled it down. Second toss got stuck in the tree, and I lost the weight. I was down to my last antenna weight. I confidently tied it on, pulled back, let it fly, only to watch it sail off the end of the fishing line and into oblivion. Nuts. 

With no weights handy, I couldn't use the antenna launcher. I opted to use a small hammer and toss the halyard over a branch about 20 feet up in the tree. At least I didn't lose the hammer. 

The resulting installation sloped the dipole from about 25 feet on the south end, to about 60 feet on the north end. No matter - it would work. At least, until I could make more weights and get it higher in the air. 

I used it to make about 100 contacts for the NAQP Phone in August, plus a little casual operating. Then I found most of it lying on the ground after a few windy days. Inspecting the remains showed that the wire between the 20 and 40 meter traps had broken. That particular segment was pretty old, being part of the original 80/40m dipole, and might have used wire from the ancient untuned doublet before it.

This meant that one of the 40m traps was still up in the tree. Looking carefully, I could see it about 50 feet up. Untying the rope, I could not get it to drop, and instead pulled the halyard to recover the rope. The wire ended up coming off the insulator, leaving wire and one trap stuck in the tree. Drat.

The rest of the antenna lay across the yard and lower driveway. I don't use that driveway, so I didn't think about it. However, some folks came to visit the parsonage and apparently didn't see the traps laying there. Two of the trap forms got crushed in the process. Doggone it.

I guess I have to rebuild this antenna from scratch, using new wire and traps. That will take some doing, as most of the parts are back in Gwinnett county. Plus, I have to make more antenna weights to put it back up. 

In the meantime, I'm off the air in Gordon county.

Rebuilding the WARC Trap Inverted-V

Inverted V just below beam.

Fifteen years ago, I put up a trap Inverted-V antenna for 30/17m roughly the 12.5m level of the tower -- right above the rotator where the tower necks down to a single tube. A couple of years latter I added 12m traps to have  coverage of all the WARC bands. 

It was my first experiences building trap antennas. Naturally, I did everything wrong.

I originally created the traps using series-wound coax cable traps. They seemed easy enough to make, and pretty weather-proof. I also made the traps resonant in the band.

This article by Tom Rauch, W8JI showed me the error of my ways. 

Coaxial cable traps actually have a rather low Q. And any trap that is resonant in the band in use is going to induce more loss. Tom's advice is to make traps with discrete components, and put the trap resonance outside the band. 

Old coaxial Traps. The 17m traps are only 5
years old, but they are badly weathered.

From the modeling work I've done, a trap antenna works with the trap resonance just about anywhere between the two bands. I tend to push the resonant frequency close to, but just below the frequency - usually by 3-5%. They key is to make pairs of traps identical, so their resonant frequencies are  the same. 

I used a rather small value for the capacitor in the trap. The actual value isn't critical, anything will work. A smaller capacitor tends to couple less energy out past the trap above resonance. You'll always get some current in the entire antenna (unless you operate at trap resonance - but then you'll get the most trap loss, too). 

A smaller capacitor means a larger coil, and on the lower frequencies, this inductive loading shortens the antenna a bit. Pick a coil diameter so that the length / diameter ratio is somewhere between 1/2 and 1, as this generally results in higher Q. 

New traps, 17m on left, 12m on right.

The replacement traps are constructed on 1 1/2" schedule 20 PVC, which is roughly 1 5/8" OD as follows:

• 12m - 6 turns 14 gauge THHN and a 22 pF 6 kV capacitor, resonating about 24.4 MHz
• 17m - 9 turns 14 gauge THHN and a 27 pF 6 kV capacitor, resonating about 17 MHz

I used the existing length of 14 gauge THHN wire for the 12m segment, which, unfortunately, I did not measure. I'd start with 112" each side. the 17m segment is 18 1/2" of 12 gauge THHN each side, and the 30m segment is 93" 12 gauge THHN each side. The 30m segment is doubled back about 8" each side, twisted to connect to the end insulators. The total length of the antenna is about 37 feet.

I trimmed the Inverted-V by running it up the tower to about the 35 foot level using a rope and pulley. I learned this technique from the last time I repaired this antenna. This round, trimming only took four attempts. 

The antenna SWR curves fit perfectly on 30m and 12m, where the SWR is less than 1.5 and 1.2 across the entire band, respectively. 17m the SWR is closer to 2:1, with the lowest SWR at 18.010 at 1.58:1. In retrospect, perhaps I should have trimmed another 1/2" off the 17m segment. 

The apex of the Inverted-V is about 12.5 m high on the tower, about 8 feet below the A3S/A743. I used my RigExpert AA-55 to measure the SWR curves of the A3S/A743 before and after installing the WARC Inverted-V. There was no appreciable change in these curves on any band, which indicates there is little interaction between these antennas. 

80/40/20m Trap Dipole

80/40/20m dipole strung from tower.

I've had good experience with trap antennas. I built an 80/40m trap dipole a decade ago, and it served me well at four different locations. That is, until it met an untimely demise when a rope was cut and the mowers encountered the antenna on the ground.

Wanting to build a three-band dipole, I did some experiments with computer modeling. I found that there was a lot of interaction between the values used for the traps and the wire lengths used. I fussed around with a model for a while. Eventually, I decide it would be simpler to just build one.

I started with the traps. They are made from short sections of 3" schedule 20 PVC. (Having an outer diameter of about 3.25") The exactly frequency of resonance doesn't matter terribly much, just so the traps are identical.

For the 40m traps, I used 9.75 turns of #12 wire with a 56 pF 6 kV disc ceramic cap. This resonates at about 6.88 MHz, just below the band. I started out with 10 turns, but they resonated around 6.5 MHz, which was too low.

On 20m, 6 turns of #12 wire with a 27 pF 6 kV disc ceramic cap. Resonating at about 13.84 MHz, right below the band.

Early version of traps, showing construction.

I then put it together to form a dipole with the following segment lengths on each side:

20m: 17 feet
40m: 17 feet
80m: 20 feet

This made the whole antenna nearly108 feet long. The ends of the 80m segment are looped back on themselves by about a foot and twisted to anchor to the end insulator. I strung it between the tower and some trees in the back yard. It's roughly 10m high. 

The dipole is fed with good quality RG-8X using 16 Fair-Rite #43 1/2" ferrite beads as a current balun. 

Then began the tedious process of trimming to resonance. I started with the 20m segments, then worked out to 40m and finally to 80m. Patience is warranted here, because it is too easy to cut too much off.

I ended up with these segment dimensions, resonance points and SWR:

20m: 16' 4" - 14.125 - 1.45:1
40m: 10' 4 - 7.165 - 1.2: 1
80m: 21' 8" - 3.76 - 1.1:1

And, yes, I added 20" to the end of each 80m segment. The resulting antenna is about 96 feet long. It covers all of 20m and much of 40m with a 2:1 or better SWR. 80m, by comparison is very narrow. I didn't have much of a chance to use the antenna, but it appears to hear very well. 

I've got a second one I've cobbled together for the Fulton County QTH. I'll need to wait until the tree lose their leaves so I can get it up to operating height for final trim. 

Demise of the 80/40m Dipole

Sad to say, I recently lost my 80/40m trap dipole. Which is too bad, because it was a good antenna. I used this antenna from four different locations in Georgia: Gwinnett, Floyd, Walton and Fulton counties. I made thousands of contacts on this antenna. It had been the first antenna I put up at Floyd and Walton counties, and the only antenna at Fulton county.

It was last up at the parsonage in Fulton county. Apparently a group of teens was doing some volunteer work near the parsonage. They saw the rope tied off to the parsonage fence and thought it was something other than it was, so they untied it.

After this, half the antenna fell down to the ground and was left there. When the landscapers came by to mow the grass, they ran over it....

So, about 80 feet of rope, insulator and one of the traps was completely destroyed. The other half of the dipole is still intact, up in the trees. But most of one element is gone -- clearly the landscapers threw it away.

Plan is to design an 80/40/20m trap dipole, using traps made with coils and capacitors, since they have much higher Q than the coax cable traps. I'll also place the traps on frequencies well off the operating frequency.

What's Next for DXCC?

At the end of summer every year, I start thinking about DXCC. For several years, it was getting more confirmations for 80m DXCC, so I could complete 5BDXCC. Last year, I accomplished that, including the 30m endorsement.

At the time of this writing, I have 109 confirmations for 17m. That band will be next - I'll submit that this year. This will also push me over the 1000 confirmations threshold for DXCC Challenge - I'll do that one at the same time.

The downside of earning DXCC awards on each band is there are fewer bands left.  On 12m, I need just 17 more confirmation. Given the low level of sunspot activity, that might take some doing. However, I did manage to add 10 confirmations since last year, so it is possible.

160m would be the next one. With 46/45 confirmations, it's further off. I'm not even half way to the necessary 100. I will definitely put some work into 160m this winter. But, honestly, DXCC on 160m may take a few years.

Speaking of years, on 6m I have a whopping seven confirmations. In the spring, I figured out how to use FT8 on this band, and while I heard a ton of DX, I only managed to work a handful. Definitely looking forward to the winter sporadic-E season. I think the most excitement I'll get for a while is finishing off 10-band confirmations. I have USA, Canada, Mexico, and Suriname on all 10 bands -- but there's several countries where I just need a 6m contact.

I've inched closer to Honor Roll, with 279/276 confirmed Mixed. have worked about nine of the remaining 64, but I need confirmations. Perhaps it is time to learn more about QSLing effectively.

And, if nothing else, it's fun building endorsements for the bands I already have. That's the fun of DXing -- it's long-term fun.

5BDXCC - YES!

For the last four low-band seasons, I've been hoping I'd capture enough confirmations for 5BDXCC. I had already confirmed 40, 20, 15 and 10m DXCC, I just needed to get to the magic 100 entities on 80m. As I wrote in the fall, I just needed a few more to put me over the top.

At that time, I had 91/90 confirmed on LoTW, plus a couple of cards.

Today, I received a confirmation on 80m from CE2VMF, bringing my totals to 98/97 on LoTW. Plus, I have THREE cards with additional confirmations, which brings the overall total to 101/100.

I remember talking to Jim Streible K4DLI (who now, unfortunately, is a silent key) about his 5BDXCC plaque. Jim said he had spent 35 years earning that award. And Jim earned it back in the day before electronic confirmations, too.

So, when I apply for DXCC awards later this year, I'll be petitioning for 6BDXCC (got 30m, too!).

I'll have to seriously consider ordering the plaque.

The Station Notebook

When I originally set up my station as a novice, I didn't make a lot of notes. I wrote a few things on the back-side of my logbook pages: radios I used, antennas I put up. But, for the most part, I freely made changes to my setup without a lot of documentation.

Some years later, I had a small steno-style notebook lying around, and I used it to record certain information. Like the exact color-code of the RS-232 cables I wired up for my computer. That sort of thing was handy to have written down, because it saved a lot of reverse-engineering later I went to make another cable. But that was about it.

Perhaps a dozen years ago, I read a couple of articles about James Lawson, W2PV, and how he kept copious notebooks about his station. He even solved a sticky problem during a contest, because he kept notes about his antenna installation.

After that, I started writing more things down in my little Steno notebook. Most of it was changes I made to the station -- radios or antenna modifications. Or if something big happened -- like I blew up the amplifier. I recorded a lot more details, and I put dates on everything.

But when I began to spend most of my time out in Floyd County it put my little steno notebook out of reach. I had a new station and I still wanted to keep notes. My solution was dead simple -- I created a text document using TextEdit. I called it Floyd County Station Log.

Looking at it today, it's more like a diary. Each month, I put in a new heading: March 2017. And below that I record anything interesting that I do. I record the things that work, and I also record the things that don't work! If I don't do anything that month, I'll just change the heading to the next month.

The bottom of this document has a list of projects to be worked on. Silly now, since I'm no longer at that QTH: 6m antenna, K9AY controller, 20m and 30m traps for the dipole, tribander-Moxon  times 3 (now that's an interesting project I'll need to write about some day!), remote antenna switch, etc.

This method worked so well, in May 2015, I adopted it for my main station log. Not only did I make new entries, but I also entered all the data from the steno notebook. Plus, I went back through all of my contest comment submissions and recorded all the changes I had made to the station from November 1994 to date.

Today the Gwinnett County Station Log is a reasonably complete record of all the things I've done with the station for the last 22+ years. It has six pages of project notes at the end. Lots of stuff to work on! And, yes, I also have a smaller document for the Walton County Station Log.

I guess my point is that having a station notebook is extremely valuable. It doesn't matter if you use a small steno notebook, a spiral-bound notebook, a composition book with graph paper, a loose-leaf notebook, or a computer document. The important thing is to find a style that works for you to keep notes. After a while, there's just too much to try to remember. So keep good notes.

Pursuit of 5BDXCC IV - 80m

Shunt-feed wires rise up the side of the tower.

For the last three years, near the end of summer, I have written about converging on 5BDXCC. I wasn't close when I only had thirty countries to confirm on 80m. The next year, I had inched a little closer, but taking the proposition a bit more seriously. And last year,  I made some serious progress, and was hopeful I was within striking distance.

Let's review the numbers, shall we? Last year I stood at 89/88, right? Well, turns out, this was slightly off. I discovered that a confirmation of CP1FF on 15m Phone was credited to 80m. This has since been corrected, so I was really at 88/87.

Today, I hold 91/90. Yes! At least down to the last ten confirmations. Not a lot of progress from last year, but at least progress.

I do have paper QSL confirmations for a couple more entities on 80m. According to ClubLog, I've worked 103 countries on 80m. Looking at the data, perhaps a couple of those have busted calls on one end or the other.

This leaves me with two methods of achieving this goal: I can pursue getting paper confirmations from contacts I've already made, or I can strive to make more contacts and get LoTW confirmations from them.

Let's look at the latter.

Last year, I ran into a few obstacles trying to work DX on 80m. Since moving from Floyd County to Walton County, I had to take down the 80/40m dipole and also the very effective 160/80/40m Inverted-L. The 80/40m dipole is up at the Walton County QTH, but the low height and local noise limits its usefulness. With the Gwinnett County QTH just minutes away, I've been more tempted to operate from there, when I can. The 160/80/40m Inverted-L and all the 30 lbs of radials are still sitting in a box. I don't really have a location to put it up right now.

That leaves me with the shunt-feed tower for 80m. I ran into a number of issues last fall with the shunt-feed matching network. The 80m cap had to be replaced. I also found that the shunt isn't as effective as it might have been. Certain times of the early evening, the 80m dipole was much more effective.

Plus, I'm seeing some RFI-related issues when using the shunt-fed tower. These didn't affect the Elecraft K2/100 or the Kenwood TS-430S, but they sure make a mess of the Elecraft K3/100.

I also wanted to put up the K9AY loops with a new loop controller. The new loop controller didn't work properly, and even using the old mechanical switch, I discovered I had other RFI feedback from the K9AY loop feed line.

So, It's clear to me I need to take care of a number of things before fall begins:

• Fix the Shunt-feed network. To improve matching on 80m, I'll add a relay and an extra variable capacitor, which would give me settings for 160m, 80m and 75m. I'll also bypass the control lines to prevent RFI ingress. Decoupling on the feed line couldn't hurt, either. 

• Add Radials. The 29 or so radials for the shunt-fed tower may have deteriorated in the last 15 years, and a few of them have been damaged. I have about 2,000 feet of surplus cloth-covered copper wire, and my plan is to put it ALL down as radials. 

• 80m Dipole. I'm working on a design for a trap 80/40/20m dipole, which may double as a second-radio antenna. That should go back up where the old 80/40m was.

• Amplifier. One benefit of the 80m dipole is I can use the amplifier. The shunt-feed network can't handle much more than 100 watts. 

• K9AY Loops. Fix the controller. Re-route the feed line to avoid RFI pick-up. 

Once all that is done, there's the small matter of being there. I guess I should start operating more from Walton County. Perhaps plan to work a few DX contests on 80m. Perhaps the ARRL DX contest would be good.

How about the former? I've already used ClubLog and OQRS to request paper QSLs for a couple of the contacts for which I have matching information. Those should come eventually.

Plus, I need to go through my batch of QSLs and see if I have anything matching on 80m. I think I did this exercise last year, but I've gotten some new QSLs from the bureau that I haven't processed yet.

The final step is to use ClubLog to identify some of those contacts I've worked and not confirmed and request paper QSLs. Those may take a while to arrive, but at least I don't have to fix antennas or wait for propagation to get that done.

The Venerable TS-430S

The Venerable TS-430S with AT-250 antenna tuner.

I realized earlier this week that my backup rig, the Kenwood TS-430S, turns 30 years old this month. Yup, I bought that rig back in September of 1985. For the next 16+ years, it would be my only HF rig.   I held on to that rig so long, by 1995, I was already calling it "venerable."

How I got to that point is an interesting story. My original Novice setup was an SB-301/SB-401 combo. In my second or third year of college, I sold my SB-401 to my brother Ben (now NJ8J). I still had the SB-301, and eventually I set it up in one of my college apartments. But I lacked a transmitter.

One summer, I attempted to rebuild my Novice transmitter using a 6GK6 and 6146 design published in the ARRL handbook. I added a lot of extras, like a built-in VFO and a KOX (key-operated-switch), with automatic T/R switching. (the VFO and KOX board were salvaged from a home-brew 40m QRP rig project that I assembled, but never could get to work) I never could get any output from that 6146 rig, and it chirped pretty badly.

Shortly after I finished college and moved into an apartment, I borrowed a friends FT-101E. The rig worked great. Because of my crummy antenna situation, I had a lot of trouble making contacts. Eventually my friend asked for his FT-101E back.

Since he bought the SB-401, my brother wasn't using a Heathkit DX-60B he had, so I borrowed it. I pulled the VFO out of the Novice transmitter, mounted it in a box with the KOX circuit board, a power supply and connectors for the DX-60B. This actually worked! I made a handful of contacts, but again the antenna situation really limited me.

In the summer of 1985, I moved to a new apartment much closer to work. It was two stories tall, and there were a number of trees about 30 feet away from the back. I took a couple of 100 foot spools of #26 wire wrap wire and strung them into the trees from my second-floor shack window, fed from the back of a crappy MFJ tuner with a balun. This formed a crude doublet.

For an operating table, I bought a door, placed it on two short two-drawer filing cabinets, and finished it with stain and polyurethane. I did a good job, because this door is still my operating table to this day in Gwinnett county.

I still needed a rig. I decided I didn't want to fool with tube-type radios any more. (That urge would return later) I wanted something that was all solid-state, had a direct-reading frequency display, supported the new WARC bands, and didn't cost terribly much.

At that time, the top contenders were the Kenwood TS-430S and the Yaesu FT-757GX. Both had a reasonable feature set, and were similarly priced around $600. I don't know what tipped me toward the Kenwood. In retrospect, based on what I know today, the FT-757GX had more features -- it does full QSK and has a built-in keyer, as well as supporting computer control via the CAT system. Computer control would be something I would pine for a few years later when I got into contesting.

Back in 1985, I wanted to get the best deal on my TS-430S, and I must have called a dozen different dealers for a price quote. The deal I found was a TS-430S for about $630, including the optional FM board. I placed the order with my credit card -- and this was perhaps the first time I would go into debt for my hobby.

I didn't do a lot of operating from that apartment, but I did enjoy the TS-430S. The crude doublet actually worked pretty well. I spent a fair amount of time on 30m, which was a relatively new back then, but I also hung out around the Novice bands on 80, 40 and 15m.

I moved to a house in Stone Mountain, GA, and the TS-430S was my main rig. My antennas progressed from a 300 long wire to a loop skywire, to a 125 foot doublet, eventually complemented by a Butternut HF4B beam on a roof tower that eventually gave way to a Cushcraft A3S. I started contesting in 1986 with CW Sweepstakes. The TS-430S paved the way for a whole lot of radio experience for me.

As a rig, the TS-430S is not a bad performer. There are two key deficiencies that were fixed by it's successor, the TS-440S: a) computer control, b) 100% duty cycle. The TS-440S adds a host of other features (100 memories, internal antenna tuner, selectable filter bandwidths, FSK, selectable AGC) Ironically, the TS-440S would be introduced at Dayton in 1986, just a few months after I bought the TS-430S.

CW performance is reasonable, depending on your expectations. There is no QSK, but the VOX operation from the key is quick and reliable. You can at least listen between words. AGC action is fast. The 500 Hz CW filter is a must-have.

SSB works well. VOX is fully adjustable, and the speech processor produces reasonable results on air. Choosing LSB or USB, though selects the slow AGC, which is annoyingly sluggish.

FM is interesting. I played around with 10m FM in the late 80s. There used to be a few guys in the Atlanta area that would hang out there back then. I think it may have faded, along with a lot of 2m FM.

Receiver performance is pretty good considering the up-conversion design and the vintage. There's certainly some front-end IMD, which you hear as a "sparkle" sound, especially on 10m when it is open during a contest. Usually hitting the attenuator knocks that out. The notch filter is pretty good, provided you are only dealing with one carrier. Of course, you have to adjust it manually. Noise blanker is one of the better ones.

Some contesters would be displeased with the manually-centered RIT. Never bothered me. IF Shift can sometimes help fight QRM -- but not in really crowded conditions.

This rig has some features I have rarely used. General Coverage Receive is one of them. Program scan has got to be the most useless of all -- since you have to manually hold the scan if you hear a signal.

I have made a handful of mods to my TS-430S. I did the 10 Hz frequency readout right away. (Why they didn't ship it from the factory this way, I'll never understand) Back when I used transverters for 2m, I enabled all-frequency transmit. Oh, and I did a simple mod that allows the YK-88C 500 Hz CW filter to be used for SSB narrow. This is useless for Phone, but makes easy work for RTTY.

Running RTTY is a mixed blessing. With the 500 Hz filter and the IF Shift adjusted, it does respectably on receive. The slow AGC is a little bit of a problem. Transmitting, though, should be limited to about 50-75 watts. Be sure to turn off the speech processor.

This rig has been with me at five different QTHs, as well as a host of Field Day operations. Although I long ago bought an MB-430 mobile mount bracket, I have never mounted it in a mobile.

Considering all the rapid changes in electronic and radio equipment in the late 70s to mid-80s, what with the transition from tubes to transistors to integrated circuits, plus the addition of new amateur bands -- it is amazing this rig still holds its own. I certainly didn't expect to be using it 30 years later.

Pursuit of 5BDXCC III - 80m

I wrote of this dream first two years ago. Back then, I thought it would be an easy thing, perhaps to work (and confirm) nearly 30 countries on 80m in a single winter. Boy, was I naive. I only added six confirmations on 80m the entire year.

Can this shunt-fed tower put me over the top?

The next  year, I at least had the sense to understand the difficulty of the proposition. I enumerated things I might do that year. In the end, I only did a couple of them. I did not add more radials to the Inverted-L, I did not bring the amplifier up to Floyd county, I never did finish the new K9AY controller. 

However, I was there a lot. I spent a lot of time on 80m. As a result, I now stand at 89/88 confirmations - I added a dozen over the year. That's twice as productive as the previous year. 

If I can pull it off again this year with a dozen confirmations, I should be able to meet all the requirements of 5BDXCC.

It's going to be interesting. At the moment, the Inverted L, with over 30 lbs of radials, is sitting in a box. I'm still trying to figure out if I can put it somewhere where I can lay down those radials safely. My only 80m DX antenna is the shunt-fed tower in Gwinnett county. 

Wish me luck.

Farewell to the Micro-Shack

Micro-Shack desk in all of its glory, just before I started packing

Impermanence is the only absolute in life. Once you get used to something, it's bound to change. And so it is with the Micro-Shack. It took a couple of months to prepare this space in 2011. Now the time has come to leave.

My wife has been assigned to a new church, so we leave Floyd County and go half-way across the state to the new church in Walton county. The good news is that the new church is just a few miles from my Gwinnett County QTH -- so I'll be able to spend more time there.

For now, though, I wanted to reminisce about this tiny little room where I spent many hours enjoying my hobby. It's hard to get a picture of the place -- camera angles are difficult in such a tiny room. The view above shows a clutter of equipment on the shelves, as well as other electronic debris at the periphery of the very tiny desk. To the right is the storage room door that swings outward (because there's no room to swing inward), to the left a window, and behind me, water heaters, electrical breaker boxes, and a miscellaneous pile of tools on a cheap plastic shelf unit.

In other words, it's a cluttered but well-loved and well-used space.

The operating desk is just 29 inches off the floor. I found this to be the perfect height. At the Gwinnett County shack, the operating desk is a 30-inch door sitting on top of a couple of filing cabinets. It's too high (about 31") and makes for uncomfortable operating. I'm seriously thinking about building support legs for the door and moving the filing cabinets elsewhere.

Micro-Shack just after construction, before
I brought in a bunch of stuff. Note the
nice stack of shelves. Plenty of room for
just about anything. The desk and shelves
will stay with the parsonage.

That desk has seen a variety of equipment. Originally, I had the Kenwood TS-430S there, as well as my "Novice" transmitter and receiver. As I spent more time there, I swapped the Kenwood for the Elecraft K2/100 in Gwinnett. And two and a half years ago, my wife surprised me with the Elecraft K3/100, which I assembled on that very desk.

I build several projects on that desk - several antenna traps, the K1EL K12 keyer, rebuilt the Mini-MOS keyer, as well as a couple of other projects I have not written up yet.

The antenna setup out here in Floyd County has been extremely modest: R7000, 80/40m Trap Dipole, 160/80/40m Trap Inverted-L, and a 6m Dipole.

To be honest, the R7000, despite the rebuild and the ground-mounted radial wires, has pretty much been a waste of time. This antenna never did perform well at the Gwinnett QTH, and while it is better than no antenna, it couldn't hold a candle to the wire antennas in the trees. I don't plan to put it back up, I'll probably sell it off.

The 80/40m Trap Dipole, despite being at a modest height of roughly 10m has done extremely well, especially on 40m. On 80m, I did have some trouble with a weird fundamental overload of the Acer laptop keyboard -- transmitting on 80m would cause the Acer not to accept keystrokes for a short time afterwards.

The 160/80/40m antenna has been the sweetest deal out here in Floyd County. With 1500 feet of radials, it's reasonably efficient, and has worked well even as a random vertical on the other bands. I made my first 6m contacts on this antenna.

I haven't written about the 6m dipole antenna, because there's not much to talk about. It's just a simple  dipole made with junk wire hanging in the trees at about 3m high. When 6m is open, it works!

In this tiny room, I've done a ton of operating. Contests - CQWW CW (3), ARRL 10m (3), RTTY Round Up (4), NAQP CW (3), NAQP Phone (4), NAQP RTTY (3), WPX Phone (2), Georgia QSO Party (3), ARRL Field Day (2), IARU (2), CQWW RTTY (3), Sweepstakes Phone (2), ARRL 160m, Stew Perry (3), VHF Sweeps (2), ARRL DX CW (3), ARRL DX Phone, WPX CW, VHF QSO Party, CQWW Phone (2), Sweepstakes CW, ARRL 160m (2), CQ 160m CW, CQ 160m Phone. Some of them were just a few hours on a Sunday afternoon, perhaps a handful of contacts but there were several I set a new personal best score: George QSO Party, ARRL 160m, SS CW, Stew Perry.

Estimating from my logs, I have made over twelve thousand QSOs from this quiet little room.

Being more than 25 miles from Gwinnett County, I had to start over for WAS. During my brief three and a half years of operating, in Logbook of the World, I have confirmations for WAS several ways:

• Mixed
• CW
• Phone
• Digital
• 40m
• 30m
• 20m
• Triple-Play

As well as being very close on a few others:

• 160m - 49 (AK)
• 80m - 49 (UT)
• 17m - 47 (AL, KY, SC)
• 15m - 46 (DE, MS, SC, WV)
• 5-band - 230 out of 250

A lot of that came from 10 months of very purposeful pursuit of the W1AW-portable operations in 2014, especially on the WARC bands. But most of it was operating a bunch of contests.

Yes, I have a lot of fond memories of this place. Like pursuing the K1N Expedition. It was so much fun busting pileups with just a wire antennas, or getting up at 4 AM to outsmart the competition.

The Micro-Shack wasn't always the most inviting place. In the wintertime, it could be quite cold. The digital thermometer would sometimes read about 45 degrees F on the coldest days. However, a small space heater would warm things up in a half-hour or so. Summertime was much tougher. When it is hot in Georgia, it is hot. I could open the door and run a floor fan to cool things down a bit -- but in the height of summer, it would just blow hot air around. I don't know how I operated contests such as Field Day or IARU in the heat of the summer.

The Micro-Shack wasn't convenient, either. Feel the call of nature? Well, you have to go out of the storage room and walk to the house. More than once I was outside operating late at night and my family would lock the door. Perhaps they were trying to tell me something. I told my wife the next place should definitely have a shack where you don't have to walk out of doors to get to the operating position.

Small, cluttered, inconvenient, often uncomfortable. That well describes the Micro-Shack. However, I will remember it quite fondly. It allowed me to stay connected to my hobby despite being a hundred miles away from my main QTH.

Farewell, Micro-Shack. You may be gone, but you will not be forgotten.

Dipole Back Up!

I wrote back in May that my 80/40m dipole had fallen down when a tree branch broke off and came through the antenna.

While there was no real damage, it did dislodge the rope anchor I had cast over the tree. Because it is so difficult to cast a line into the trees when the foliage is out, I had to wait.

It was fortunate, however, that I did wait. During the summer storms, this same tree shed a couple more large branches. Well, the leaves have thinned out considerably from the trees, and I've actually been out in the woods a couple of times to cast a new line.

Those sessions didn't end well. You see, I'd go out with a weight made of a 1/4 to 3/8" bolt and a few nuts, and on the first cast, I'd lose them. They came sailing off the end of the line, never to be found.

Assembled parts for the antenna launch weight

As I wrote about the Mark III Antenna Launcher, losing weights is inevitable. Given the beautiful fall weather we had this weekend, I decided I was not going to have my antenna raising session interrupted by a single lost weight.

Normally, I'd recommend you construct these antenna weights with hardware you're not likely to use for anything else. This likely means old, corroded nuts and bolts that you've taken off some old assembly. However, I did not have much of this kind of hardware on hand at the Micro-Shack.

Technique for jamming nuts together

Time to fight back with numbers. A quick trip to the local home improvement store found 100 1/4" nuts and a dozen 1 1/2" long 1/4" bolts for about $8. The plan was to jam on as many nuts as the bolt would allow. This would make for a reasonably heavy weight, but one that would fit well in the slingshot pouch.

Assembly is easy. Simply screw the nuts on to the bolt as far as they will go, and repeat. I managed to get six nuts on the 1 1/2" bolts, although I did have one overachiever bolt that received seven.

The finished product. A dozen weights, most with six
nuts, one with seven.

Once the nuts are on the bolt, but loose, take a couple of wrenches and jam them down on the end of the bolt, and then one against the other. Make them tight enough that they won't go flying off when launched into the air.

Less than 20 minutes later, I had a dozen antenna weights. Filled with confidence, I marched outside fully prepared to lose numerous weights in order to get the dipole in the air.

Naturally, given my readiness for sacrifice, I managed to get the line over the tree branch on the first shot. I didn't lose a single weight. Well. I am now prepared for the mid-winter antenna raising season.

I am very happy to have this dipole back up. I have missed it all summer.

160m / 80m Inverted L

Just left and below center you can see the trap hung up on
a branch at around 42 feet.

From the minute I put up the 160m Inverted L, I had planned to add a trap for 80m. First, however, came more radials. With the original four 125 foot radials, the antenna seemed rather quiet, and that should have been a sure sign it was too lossy.

Adding four more 125 foot radials made a big difference. Noise level went up, along with the performance. Eight more 62.5 foot radials followed, for a total of sixteen - eight long and eight short ones. For any antenna with ground-mounted radials, sixteen should be considered the minimal number of radials. At least, for any antenna not mounted near salt-water.

I used this antenna to work and confirm two new countries on 80m phone in the WPX Phone contest. 

OK, so radials are easy. Not cheap, since a 500 foot spool goes for $45 these days. The next step was to add an 80m trap. The easy way to do this is to simply create a resonant trap on the operating frequency and stick it into the antenna by trial and error.

80m trap wound and set up for
trimming, Note the temporary solder
connections with the capacitors.

However, that's not the most efficient. W8JI wrote an excellent article about making efficient trap antennas. Two important lessons from this article: traps work best when they are made from very high-Q components, traps should never be resonant at the operating frequency. 

With my previous 80/40m trap antenna, I had followed half of this advice -- but still used coaxial traps. W8JI found that these traps are much more lossy than those made with discrete components.

And since wire is so expensive, trial and error isn't the best way either. The tricky part about using traps that are not resonant at the operating frequency is that some antenna current flows in all parts of the antenna at all frequencies. This means adjusting one part of the antenna affects the resonance at all frequencies. And while a trap at resonance offers an effectively infinite impedance regardless of the actual values of capacitance or inductance -- off-resonance impedance is definitely affected by the choice of capacitance and inductance.

So, how does one figure out all these variables? Antenna modeling! I used CocoaNEC, developed by Kok Chen W7AY. While it is pretty easy to use the spreadsheet model for very simple wire antennas, I ran into some bugs trying to model trap antennas. After e-mailing Chen, I discovered that Chen recommends the NC interface (a C-like programming language) for modeling, rather than the spreadsheet.

Once I figured out the NC interface, I started to get better results. Then the virtual trial and error part began. Lots of programming, running and bug-fixing later, I had a pretty good idea what was needed to build this antenna.

I found some 100 pF 15 kV ceramic disc caps from Mouser, and used two of them for 200 pF. I used a piece of 3 inch schedule 20 PVC for the coil form. I computed that it would take about eleven and a half turns on this form of close-wound 14 gauge THHN wire. THHN is really designed for house wiring inside a conduit, but it is relatively cheap and easily obtained at your local home improvement store. The wire is secured to the form by drilling 1/8 inch holes through the PVC.

Proper technique for measuring trap
resonant frequency. Note wooden work
surface and nothing metallic nearby.

Unless you have a vector impedance analyzer (and who does?), the easiest way to see if you trap is even close to the right frequency is to use a Grid/Gate/Emitter dip oscillator. Mine is a Heathkit HD-1250. I found it at a hamfest years ago for about $30 including all the coils and carry case. It was modified to add a switch to test the battery condition on the meter, and whoever did the mod did a great job. Only two things wrong with this unit: the lettering around the meter has completely rubbed away, and the foam inside the case to hold the coils down completely disintegrated. (I have never seen a HD-1250 carry case where the foam has held up)

Once you have your trap built, careful technique is necessary to measure the frequency. The coil end of the dip oscillator couples to the trap. Couple too closely, and the trap will pull the oscillator, and it will be difficult to find the exactly frequency. Couple too loosely, and you won't find the dip at all.

I set my trap on a wooden workbench and cleared away everything metal for at least 12 inches around. First, couple the coils very closely to be sure you can find a dip in the meter indications somewhere close to what is expected. Then slowly move the meter away for less and less coupling. The best spot is where you get a good meter indication, but it doesn't pull the oscillator too much -- which you can see as you tune across the dip. From the photo, you can see that the best spot was found with the dip oscillator coil just outside the trap form.

Great -- so you've got a good dip on the meter with the right amount of coupling. What frequency are you on? Good question. Unless your dip oscillator has an output for a frequency counter (another useful mod), the easiest is just to spot the oscillator frequency in a nearby receiver. In reality, the exact frequency of the trap doesn't matter so much, so the dip oscillator dial is probably good enough.

Completed trap ready to install.

I modelled my traps at 3450 kHz, but the trap I built was resonant at around 3350 kHz, which I deemed close enough. I drilled a four more 1/8 inch holes for securing the antenna wire to the trap.

With the trap ready, it's time to install the trap into the antenna. My model told me that the trap should go around 47 and 1/3 feet above the feedpoint. I started at 48 feet and used an MFJ-259 antenna analyzer to spot lowest SWR. About three trims later, I have 44 feet to the trap bringing the low SWR just below 3800 kHz.

Completed trap temporary installed for trimming. No solder
used on the connections yet, just twisted together. Note
how the antenna wire (black) is looped up and back down
the trap. This will hold it securely in place.

The modeling work told me that the 80m frequency wasn't affected terribly by changes to length of the upper portion of the antenna. I did a couple of quick calculations on my phone and cut the upper portion to 67 feet. Low SWR came right in at 1830 kHz. Perfect. 

Using the analyzer, the actual antenna measurements don't exactly match the model. For one thing, the NEC 2 model software assumes perfect grounds, and the actual ground is a bit more lossy. The model shows very sharp resonances, but the antenna measures more broadly -- indicating expected ground losses. 

Using NEC 4 would allow more realistic ground models, but I didn't feel like it was worth the $300 to get a license to it. In any case, the modeling did exactly what I expected -- it guided me to produce a workable antenna design in the field.

How does it play? Works pretty well on 160m still, and I used it in the WPX CW to work another new country on 80m with 100 watts. Of course, it's not the right season for low band work right now, but I think this antenna has promise for next fall.

Of course, I could slip in another trap for 40m. Hmm. Let's fire up that antenna modeling software....

Six Meters

In January, I operated the ARRL VHF Sweepstakes contest. I guess they don't call it that any more, it's just the January VHF contest. I haven't operated this contest since 1992, and have done no VHF events since 1993.

Back then, I had two Microwave Modules transverters: MMT144/28 and MMT220/28. I modified the latter with a new crystal to be based at 222 MHz. I had an F9FT long-boom yagi for 2m, and nothing more than crossed dipoles for 222 MHz. With 10 watts out, it wasn't much, but I made several dozen contacts on 2m. I never did make a contact on 222 MHz.

I sold that gear when I moved from Stone Mountain, GA. Instead, I focused mainly on operating HF, which is plenty challenging.

Upon receiving the K3/100 from my XYL for Christmas, I naturally had to give 6m a try. I've never before had 6m equipment. Well, that's not true. For a while, in the early 90s, I had a JR remote-control radio system on 6m that I used to fly model airplanes. But, you couldn't talk on that radio, so it doesn't really count, does it?

I had already worked four contacts on 6m on December 31st. I figured the 100 watts would be plenty to work quite a few contacts. While I don't have a 6m antenna, I could load up what I had with the tuner and make do.

On Saturday, I was also working the NAQP Phone contest, but occasionally I would take a minute and jump up to 6m and tune around for some activity. Nothing.

Sunday afternoon, I spent about four hours in the shack, mostly listening to static. I worked a few local stations, who could just barely hear me. I was beginning to wonder if I would work anyone outside my own grid.

Then it happened -- an opening. Just before 2300z, I worked K1TR in FN42. Fifteen minutes later, the opening started in earnest. I worked seven other stations up in the northeast in the next 45 minutes, along with about three locals. By HF contesting standards, it doesn't sound like much. But the signals from the northeast were booming in, and they didn't have any trouble hearing me, unlike the locals. The conditions moved like a spotlight down the eastern seaboard, ending somewhere in Virginia.

How exciting! I'm going to have to improvise a real antenna before the next VHF contest. Something with a bit of gain. Maybe a Moxon, or perhaps a three element beam. Maybe I can hide in up on the hill behind the Micro-shack. Rotating it would be nice as well.

Six Knots Every Ham Should Know

In working with wire antennas, I'm thankful my parents enlisted me in the boy scouts. How else would I have learned all these useful knots? Every amateur radio operator should know how to tie these six knots:

• Bowline - an extraordinarily useful knot. Anywhere you need a knot that won't slip, won't tighten down and is very strong. I use this one everywhere -- when tying ropes off to insulators, bringing wires through insulators, tying ropes to carabeaners, etc. If you learn no other knot, learn this one.
• Square Knot - Got two hanks of rope, neither of them long enough for the job, join them with a square knot. While it won't go though pulleys, it will go over branches with a tug our two. best way to join ropes of roughly the same size.
• Sheet Bend - so, how do you tie your hauling line to the fishing line you've managed to get over that tree? Square knot doesn't work so well when one end is a lot smaller than the other. The Sheet Bend is the answer. Just remember that the larger line gets the "U" and the smaller line is the "X".
• Taut-Line Hitch - need to adjust a rope to a modest tension, but don't want to keep re-tying? The Taunt-Line Hitch is perfect. You can slide this knot considerably to adjust tension. Just don't use it for anything structural, like guy wires, since it can slip down under enough tension.
• Two Half-Hitches - Have a free end of a rope you don't want to flap around loose? Two half-hitches is the choice. I often use it to secure the free end after a Sheet Bend.
• Clove Hitch - Be careful with this one. It works well if you tie to a fixed post that can't rotate. Don't try to use it to raise a mast or left a boom -- with a smooth rope it may turn and then come loose. 

Learn these knots inside, you'll want to have them memorized for when you are ready to use them out in the field or woods. Enjoy.

160m Inverted L

Back in 2001, when Gary Breed, K9AY, helped me to put up my tower, he suggested that I operate the ARRL 160m contest. My excuse at the time was that I had no antenna for 160m. His suggestion was simply to load up whatever I had, that this contest was an opportunity to make a lot of contacts without much of an antenna -- and, besides, it was a lot of fun.

That year, I threw together an inverted L. It wasn't much more than 140 feet of THHN house wire, mounted to a simple particle board frame that could house a series variable capacitor. I ended up removing the series capacitor and just feeding it straight through.

I only had wire and room for two 100 foot elevated radials that were about 40 degrees to each other.

The inverted L never did work right that year, and I ended up using an 80m doublet about 10m off the ground for over 200 contacts.

I never forgot that experience, and I have enjoyed the ARRL 160m contest many, many times since then. I eventually shunt-fed the tower. Over the years, I managed to work all states and over 25 countries on 160m.

Out in Floyd county, I figured I had plenty of space to try out the inverted L again. It's taken a year, but I finally put it up, as you can see from the picture above. Or not. You see, it's about 200 feet up the hill going up about 60 feet into a red oak tree. The remaining 80 or so feet goes east through the woods to another tree. Even if you know where to look, it's hard to spot. Impossible, really.

Putting down radials is more an exercise in finding wire. Copper has gotten very expensive. I bought a spool of 500 feet of 14 gauge THHN wire and cut it into quarters. ($45 at Home Depot! ouch) Then I drug the four wires into the woods. Bad idea. They ended up looking hopelessly tangled.

No matter. I've been untangling wire and rope since I was 10 years old -- I have decades of experience. It took a while, but I rolled out the four radials roughly ninety degrees to each other. I fed the antenna with over 200 feet of the Wireman's best RG-8X, Certified 118. With only four radials, I did not expect much.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The antenna isn't quite resonant in-band. My initial readings showed an SWR valley around 1860 kHz. A little high, but useable. Subsequent measurements from the shack show the low SWR is below 1750 kHz. All the coax makes the antenna broad -- just because of the line losses. (This stuff is rated at 1.5 dB loss per 100 feet at 30 MHz -- losses at 2 MHz can't be much more than 1 dB) For this years ARRL 160m, I just ignored the losses and used a tuner.

My schedule only permitted me to operate for about four hours on the second night. This antenna was extremely effective. I could work just about anyone I could year, and calling CQ was reasonably effective.

The most amazing thing about this antenna is how quiet it is. At first, I thought it might be due to all the coax and ground losses. But, since the antenna was so effective -- at least as effective as the shunt-fed tower, I've changed my mind. It's just really quiet out here in the country in Floyd county.

My plan is to add more radials -- four more 125 footers ($45!) and eight of half that length ($45!) -- for a total of sixteen radials. I also want to add a trap for 80m, and I'll worry about trimming the antenna to resonance at that time.

Mark III Antenna Launcher

The Mark III antenna launcher.

Trees make very nice antenna supports. Very nice, that is, if you can get a rope over the branches. That's always the tough part.

During one of the W4DOC Atlanta Radio Club field days, I watched some of my fellow hams easily put up temporary antennas with a contraption similar to this one. I had to have one of my own, so I built it.

Two ordinary sporting components are merged together to create this oddball contraption. And for what it is designed for, it works well:

• Wrist Rocket - also known as a sling shot. Get the kind that uses surgical tubing as the elastic. I believe I found this unit at a K Mart for about $7. I've had it 20 years, and it still works fine. Eventually, the tubing will need to be replaced when it gets cracked and starts to separate.

• Fishing Reel - the original, or Mark I version, used a closed-face reel that I found for $4, probably at the same K Mart. Mark II upgraded to a 1960 Shakespeare open-face reel that my father-in-law gave me. Unfortunately, the winding handle broke and parts are unobtainium. Enter Mark III - a modern Shakespeare open-face reel for $20 at Walmart.

Wrist rocket and the reel are joined together using a block of wood and a couple of hose clamps. The wood has a channel hollowed in it to fit over the wrist rocket frame.

The open-face reel is important. Although I got a closed-face reel to work, the line had a tendency to bind a bit, which shortened the height and distance I could cast a weight. The open-face reel greatly reduces the resistance of the line playing out.

A bit of advice from using this contraption:

• Wear Eye Protection! No matter how good a job you do, every once in a while the line will snag on something, and the weight will snap back toward you. You might consider wearing a hard hat and a jacket as well.
• Use Appropriate Weight. The wrist rocket is designed for relatively small projectiles. If it is much bigger than the pouch, it won't fly right. Small fishing weights work well, but don't spend a lot of money on them. You will lose weights -- it's inevitable. The weight has to be heavy enough to pull the line down to ground level. If the weight won't fall down to the ground, you'll have to reel it back in and try again. I've had success with using 1/4" to 3/8" bolts with nuts.
• Take Your Time. Pick a good spot and try several shots to get the hang of using this thing. You'll have to aim slightly above where you want the line. You won't always get it in the right spot on the first try.
• Reel in Slowly. When you mis-cast, you have to reel the weight in. Careful you don't try to do it too fast. As the weight comes up to a branch, it will start to swing, and if you reel in too fast, the weight can easily wrap around the branch. At this point, you have no choice but to pull until the weight comes free, or the line breaks. If you pull really hard, beware that the weight can come back at you like a rocket.
• Use 10-15 lb Test Line. Some cheap reels come with line. If it isn't a strong line, best to pull it off the reel and use something known. Nylon line is really cheap.
• Don't haul your halyard directly. Once you have the fishing line over your target, use it to haul up a small rope. I have 500 feet of 1/16 inch braided nylon rope for this purpose. I then use that line to haul up my 1/4 inch dacron halyards. 

An easy project, really. Enjoy building and using your antenna launcher. Just don't go use it when your neighbors are watching....

NAQP RTTY from Floyd County

Had a very limited time to operate the NAQP RTTY, due to other commitments in the evening.

During the IARU, my K2/100 had been acting up with an INFO 080 problem. I attempted to diagnose the issue further on Saturday morning, but no dice. I remove several boards, replacing them with Rework Eliminators, but the rig just seemed to get sicker. It refused to recognize the KPA100 at all, and even with it disconnected, the radio didn't sound right, and gave "not instd" on several options that were still installed. My K2/100 is a very sick radio right now.

So, I had to fall back on the venerable Kenwood TS-430S. I bought this rig new in the fall of 1985, and it has always given me reliable service. It was never designed for RTTY or computer control. (That being the role of it's successor, the TS-440S) But, an old rig is better than no rig, despite having to manually change bands in the logging software.

It was great to hear signals on 10m, and 15m open as well. Had a lot of fun S & Ping between stations. I tried several times to CQ on 20 and 15m, but only one station answered me. A few people I tried to answer CQed in my face. As a result, I'm contemplating moving the R7000 further up the hill, or perhaps hanging up some real antennas.

It seemed like conditions were generally good, just not a tremendous amount of activity. Still, plenty of fun. CU in the next NAQP.


Class: Single Op LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 3.2

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  80:   0      0
  40:   1      1
  20:  33     21
  15:  21     19
  10:  12      7
-------------------
Total:  77     48  Total Score = 3,696

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:

Antennas:
R7000 at 3m high (10-40m)
80/40m trap dipole at 3-4m high (80m, 40m)

Equipment:
Venerable Kenwood TS-430S w/ AT-250 running 75-80 watts

Field Day 2012

Somehow, I hurt my back. Well, I say somehow, but I know how. I over-did it at karate. It's hard when a 51-year-old man tries to keep up with the teenagers. Too much jumping and kicking, and I ended up in so much pain the Thursday before Field Day that I could barely stand. 


Fortunately, I managed to get it under control by Field Day and work some stations from the Micro-shack. I started by putting the 80/40m dipole back up. A rope had frayed in two where it went over a branch. An hour's worth of work and that end was once again up in the trees. I spent some time raising the other end and managed to get it a couple of meters higher. 


I used the Elecraft K2/100. The K2 is really designed for field day. It worked out really well. I borrowed a 12v deep-cycle battery from my camping trailer to operate class 1E. I did end up getting a Low Batt indication after about 3.5 hours, but I reduced power to 50 watts and continued one.

Conditions weren't great. I found nothing on 10m, very little activity on 15, which means everything was crammed onto 20 and 40m. At one point, I could not find a clear frequency on 40m CW -- there were signals every 200-300 Hz. It almost sounded like 160m during the ARRL 160m contest.

Managed to do a bit of running, but this one was mostly S & P. I must say that field day operating technique is significantly below the standard of most contests. There were several occasions where I was calling CQ, someone called, I answered, and they disappeared. It even happened a couple of times when someone else called CQ. I guess people got key (not mic) fright.

Took one break to take my wife out to dinner. About 0300z, my back had had enough of sitting and I had to pull the plug. Maybe next time, I'll be able to stay up a bit later and work more on 80m.

Two memorable contacts. Worked W4DOC -- the Atlanta Radio Club, with whom I have done innumerable field days. Also worked W8SP -- a club which my brother Ben, NJ8J, used to join for field day in WV. I had never worked W8SP before.



Call: AA4LR
Operator(s): AA4LR
Station: AA4LR

Class: 1E LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 5.5

Summary:
Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:                 
 80:    3            
 40:  119      5     
 20:   54     18     
 15:   10      3     
 10:                                  
----------------------------
Total:  186     26      0  Total Score = 896

Club: South East Contest Club

GQP 2012 - Floyd County

The operating position from Floyd County. The ancient
Toshiba logged the Qs, the MacBook monitored
spotting networks.

I managed to put in a pretty good effort for the Georgia QSO Party from the microshack. Managed a total of nearly 14 out of the 20 possible hours operating. 


Much of this was calling CQ. I was pleasantly surprised to find I could keep up a decent rate most of the time. I probably could have scored a bit higher had I not tried so hard to make Qs on every band. 


The station, as you can see is not elaborate. Venerable TS-430S with an AT-250 antenna tuner. Used the R7000 from 40-10m, and the 80/40m dipole for 80 and 40m. The dipole is pretty low -- only 3m high -- so it is a real worm -burner.


The TS-430S does not have the QRM-fighting power of the Elecraft K2. There were a number of times someone moved in close to my running frequency and I had to slide away, because I could hear. 


Running on CW was very effective on both 20 and 40m. Oddly, though, I could never get anything going on 20m phone. 40m was the big-time money band, with over 2/3 of the contacts taking place ont hat band. I started off using the R7000 on 40m, but I found the worm-burner dipole to be much more effective overall. It really needs to go higher. I can't wait to see how well it will work way up in the trees.


Many thanks to the folks who spotted me. I could tell a few times when it happened with a flurry of callers. 


I did have one odd incident on Sunday around 2210z. I had been running near 7042 kHz for nearly a half hour, when suddenly I was blasted with a high-speed, run-together CW that started off OKNOMORE.... and was laced with profanity. I knew I had a problem when I moved up half a kHZ and he followed me a minute later. I switched to phone for 10 minutes then came back to CW in a different part of the band. I hope this lid did not bother anyone else. 


This is my best GQP score ever, with more phone Qs alone than my Phone-only efforts.

Summary:
Band  CW-Dig Qs  Ph Qs
------------------------
 160:      0        0
  80:     53       11
  40:    215      232
  20:    115        4
  15:     16        5
  10:      0        0
   6:      0        0
------------------------
Total:    399      252  
CW-Dig Mults = 44  
Ph Mults = 32  
Total Score = 79,648

Club: South East Contest Club