Cycle 25 is Kicking Butt

Don't know why I didn't write about this when it happened.

August 9th, the daily Sunspot Number (SSN) was 382. That seemed enormously high. I couldn't remember a single time when the SSN was that high. So, I did some digging.

I downloaded all the SSN data, converted into an Excel spreadsheet and did some analysis. The SSN hasn't been that high since 1991. That's 33 years ago!

The SSN has only been this high a total of ten times in my lifetime (since February 1961) -- Five in 1979, Twice in 1989, and Three times in 1991. 

Of course, none of this compares with Cycle 19, where daily SSN values were well over 500 for many days. But those values all happened 1956-1959, well before I was born.

Cycle 25 is shaping up to be much better than Cycle 24, which was really lousy, and possibly better than Cycle 23.  The smoothed SSN has already exceeded the maximum value for Cycle 24, and it is far from over. 

We've already seen a huge change in the bands in the last couple of years. 20m is open 24 hours, and 15m much of that time. 12 and 10m is open every day. I'm hoping we might see some 6m F2 openings. Enjoy it while you can. We should have two more years of these conditions before the cycle starts back down.

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. 

4U1UN (and 4U75UN)

A little more than a year ago, I was looking at the Most Wanted list in ClubLog. I noticed that the United Nations HQ entity was number 30 on the list. In all my years of ham radio, I had never heard them on the air, much less worked them. I wondered if I'd ever have the opportunity to work them at all.

Well, the 4U1UN club has been busy, and late fall 2019, they finished their installation which allows them to remotely operate a transceiver near the top of the UN towers from a room on the ground floor of the building. Since that time, they have been sporadically active. 

I don't know what the rules are for operating 4U1UN, but the station has been active at least some time every month during the past year. They have gone from an entity you'd wonder if you'd ever work, to one that can easily be worked by anyone with a bit of determination.

Over the past year, I've kept a running DX Watch query going to see when they were on the air, and worked them any time I could hear them. They've been easy to work even with compromise antennas.

They confused me in September, as I thought they had gone silent. No, they just switched callsigns. They are celebrating 75 years of the UN with the call 4U75UN. There's a special certificate for working them. They should continue with that call until December 31st.

They'd be pretty easy from the USA on 160m, but I don't believe anyone has ever operated on that band. I doubt they have an antenna, and I head the noise level in NYC is extraordinarily high.

They QSL promptly through LoTW (be patient, it may take a week or two to be uploaded). I've gone from wondering if I'd ever work them to having them confirmed on nine bands (80m-6m) and three modes: CW, Phone and Digital. 

Keep an eye peeled on the spotting networks, and perhaps you can work a new one.

Replacing the AL-80A Bandswitch

The AL-80B bandswitch, compared to the existing switch shaft.

With my wallet being $115 lighter, the AL-80B bandswitch arrived within a week. Now, it isn't the same as the original AL-80A bandswitch.

There are two key differences. First, as you can see from the picture, the shaft layout is different. In the original AL-80A bandswitch has the input network switch wafter in front of the bandswitch, whereas the AL-80B has it behind the bandswitch.

This means you can't just replace the AL-80A switch with the AL-80B switch. The best you can do is to unstack the wafers and put them on the original AL-80A switch shaft.

AL-80B switch with AL-80A wafers.

The second difference has to do with the switch wafers. Electrically, they are identical. The AL-80B switch has the 160m padder cap and the Pi-L network wafers reverse. Since we're going to re-stack the wafers anyway, this doesn't matter.

The Pi-L wafer is positioned differently. The contacts are two positions counter clockwise (as viewed from the front of the shaft) from the AL-80A. This means that a bit of re-wiring is necessary to make the connections.

Wafer-less switch.

Removing the switch wafers isn't a big deal, since I have done this earlier. The rear wafer comes off with all the coils attached, and the padding caps unscrewed, there being only one wire that needs to be unsoldered, and it slips off. The middle wafer has a similar wire to be unsoldered, and it comes off as well. The front wafer has one wire to the padder cap, and it comes off as well.

With all the wafers off, the new switch wafers are stacked on. Because the Pi-L wafer has contacts rotated two positions, they are a little harder to access between the switch and the loading capacitor.

New wafers in place.

Once all the wafters are on and screwed down, the next step is to re-solder all of the connections. I took lots of pictures before unsoldering the old wafers, so I had a pretty good idea of what goes where.

Front switch wafer anchors the coax shield, and adds the 160m padder cap. The Pi-L switch wafer was the only one that gave me trouble. Since the contacts are rotated from the original, this required a bit of extra wire to make the required connections. The rear switch wafter has five connections tot he coil assembly. It took a bit of work to unsolder. This sort of thing is best not rushed and done with great care, to avoid damaging the coils. Everything goes in the same place on this last switch wafer, which was easy once I got all the coil wires into the right positions in the narrow switch contact lugs.

The finished product. Reassembled with new switch wafers.

Sounds easy, eh? But realistically, it was nearly three hours on the workbench.

Moved it back to the operating desk and tested for full output into a dummy load on all bands. No problem on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10m.

For 17m and 12m, I proceeded more cautiously. The AL-80A is designed to operate on 12m using the 10m switch position. It works on 17m using the 20m switch position. But it has often been on 17 or 12m that I've had the most issues with arcing in the PA circuit.

For this reason, I've decided to reduce drive to about 30 watts for 17 and 12m. It's a little less output power, but also less of a chance of burning up a $115 bandswitch.

With the testing done, it was time to button up the amp. Took me about 20 minutes to find 10 of the 13 screws that hold the cabinet top on. I had removed them a year and a half before, but finally found them in a neat pile on the workbench.

The AL-80A is back up and running on all bands!

Ameritron AL-80A - Fixed!

AL-80A re-assembled, needing just 3-500Z and cover.

As I wrote previously, my AL-80A needed a repair. The plate choke was burned, with several windings melted, the protective diode and capacitor on the B- rail to ground had gone open, and I'd found that the amp would not tune on 160m -- due to some melted switch contacts.

I thought it might be a while before I could get around to doing this -- considering the last repair took about a year. However, since I had some parts on hand, I put the amplifier on the bench and got started.

1N5308 diode next to glitch
resistor on rectifier board. And
the replaced capacitor below.

First order of business was to fix the protective circuits on the B- rail. I removed the 1N4007 I had installed earlier. I tested it and found it to be completely open. Which is pretty much what I expected, given that the capacitor had opened destructively....

I replaced the capacitor with a fresh part, and installed a 1N5308 diode, as recommended by W8JI. And I mounted it on top of the board this time.

Next part to arrive was the Ameritron Plate Choke (Part Number 10-15197). It was a thing of beauty, and despite the package having a nice accordion dent in one corner, was intact.

Replacing the choke was actually pretty easy. I figured out I had to unsolder the wire to the parasitic suppressor and plate cap connector, and then the two blocking capacitors. This was much easier with the tube removed. (I put the tube inside the plate choke's packing box). I then removed the mounting screw and unsoldered the high voltage and the bypass cap.

Beautiful new choke installed.

Oh! Did I mention that you need to unplug the amplifier and make sure the plate circuit is completely discharged before sticking your hands into the amplifier? No? Gosh, that would be dumb. Of course, you do that first.

The old choke had a teflon washer under the ceramic, but it completely disintegrated when I removed the choke. I decided it wasn't required, and mounted the new choke directly to the sheet metal base.

The new choke had a slightly different geometry with respect to the lugs at the base and top. I decided to loosen the lug on the top and rotate it about 100 degrees. Otherwise, the blocking caps were not going to reach. To move the lug, I first had to unwind the top end of the winding and re-wind it to the lug. I think the choke wire ends were unsoldered for this reason.

Once in position, the lugs were easy to solder.

The final task replaces the melted switch contacts. I must say I got a lot of positive answers from the Amps email reflector (amps@contesting.com). Their diagnosis of my issues was spot on, and I got a lot of helpful advice.

Vic Rosenthal 4X6GP sent a link to an article about band-switch arcing on the Heathkit SB-1000, which essentially was a clone of the AL-80A. He suggested I should add the corona washer, which would help prevent more melted switch contacts. From what I can tell, my AL-80A is a very early model, and it did not have this modification. George Hall N2CG also sent me an email with pictures of the washer.

A huge thank you to goes to Louis Parascondolas, who not only wrote to me with suggestions on how to replace the switch contacts, but mailed me six contact elements (I needed four), plus the brass 2-56 hardware needed to secure them. Thank you, Louis!

Switch wafers disassembled. This was the hard part.
On left is the wafer where the contacts were replaced,
shown with contacts removed, and glued.

Replacing a switch contact isn't a huge deal. The first step is to remove the switch wafer. That took some doing. I deduced I could accomplish this without doing a lot of desoldering and re-wiring. The rear bandswitch wafer is basically connected to the coils and a couple of padding capacitors. One end of each coil was fastened to the capacitor studs, which simply required removing a couple of nuts. The larger coil had two small phillips screws holding it to plastic mounting blocks. The padder capacitors could also be unscrewed from their lugs. Easy right?

Not so fast! a single wire needed to be unsoldered connecting to the loading cap, and the rear switch wafer slid off with both coils attached.

The second wafer just had three connections, easily desoldered: coax and coil end, coil tap, and the cap. Once those were removed, it slid off.

The third wafer is the one we are after. I unscrewed the connection to the plate padder cap, and slid it off with the coax connection in place. That made it easier to unsolder the coax.

Once you get these wafers off, you have to handle them very gingerly! They are delicate ceramic and can easily shatter. The tricky part is to remove the old contacts. I recommend a drill press and very small drill bits to drill out the rivets holding the contacts in place. Gradually go to larger bits until you have removed all of the rivet material. Go very slowly because you don't want to break the ceramic switch wafer.

This is what I told myself, and I managed to get the contacts off with no trouble. I still had the shell of the rivet, which I carefully drilled out of the first hole. The last hole, of course, was a problem. I broke the switch wafer.

New switch contacts engaged for 160m.

I apparently said something aloud which brought my younger daughter into the basement to see if I was OK. (I was) The wafer was now in three pieces. What to do? I decided that I could glue the three pieces together, and it should hold. Superglue to the rescue! The glue took easily to the ceramic, and soon I couldn't tell where the split was.

I cleaned as much of the burnt contact debris off the two switch wafers as I could. When I was done, you could not see any discoloration of the L network (second) wafer, but there was still a little in the contact well of the 160m padder (third) wafer. The contacted would cover that up.

Adding the four contacts to the switch wafer was really easy.

Getting all the switch wafers re-assembled was the hard bit. I added the coax ground connection to the 160m padder (third) wafer, but I held off on the padder capacitor connection until the very end, so I could place the corona washer.

The L network (second) wafer was a bit problematic. I couldn't remember the orientation of the switching portion of this wafer, as there are two ways to put it on. Then I couldn't remember which wires went where. More pictures before disassembly would have been helpful. Studying the schematic made it clear which way things went.

Corona washer in place.

The bandswitch (first) wafer was easier. The tricky bit was soldering the connections to the loading capacitor.

Last bit was to install the corona washer to the padder cap. A brass washer was specified, but I didn't have one in the junk box. I made do with a steel washer and a lot of solder. I verified the continuity of the connection with an ohmmeter. Perhaps I'll redo this the next time I have to fix the amp. (which I hope may be a while)

After any fix like this, there's always the moment of truth. No sparks turning it on, and a quick test on a dummy load proved it tuned up with no surprises on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 12, and 17m.

Ten minutes later, I had replaced all 13 cover screws and was already using the amp to chase DX on 40, 20 and 17m.

Working great again!

DXCC - Meeting the Challenge

Since I started uploading my logs to the ARRL Logbook of the World in November 2003, I've been working toward the DXCC Challenge. I've been carefully trying to work DX stations on multiple bands, hoping to get my current entity-band totals past the Challenge threshold of 1000.

Well, sometime this weekend, I received enough confirmations to get me past the 1000 mark. At the moment, I have 1003 entity-bands confirmed.

I guess I'll be submitting an application for the DXCC Challenge this year! That along with 30m DXCC.

UPDATE: I also notice that I have exactly 239 current entities confirmed for Mixed DXCC. This means I'm exactly 100 entities away from working all 339 current entities, or 91 away from the DXCC Honor Roll.

Project From a Friend - HF4B

HF4B Parts, after sitting out in the weather
for about 25 years.

I had a friend call me the other day. She was licensed about 25 years ago as N4VMN, but her license has since lapsed. In any case, she had some antennas that had been sitting out at beside her house in Marietta for quite a few years now -- she wanted to know if I might know anyone who could make use of them.

Well, I'm always interested in antenna projects, and I could certainly use some smaller antennas, so I said, sure, I could use them.

She had a slightly bent Ringo Ranger, and an old Butternut HF4B. Ah, the Butternut HF4B. I had one in Stone Mountain, GA from late 1987 until 1991, when I replaced it with a Cushcraft A3S.

N4VMN lived in another part of the same subdivision back then. She gotten licensed, bought a rig, and put up this antenna on a roof tower -- and she did it all without consulting me. While I was a bit disappointed I couldn't have given her advice, I was still impressed that she managed to do it all herself.

My experience had been that the Cushcraft A3S worked way better than the HF4B, but the Butternut was a solid performer.

The HF4B is a light-weight, trap-less tribander that uses large bow-tie shaped elements and a clever matching network. It supports 10, 15 and 20m, also also works on 12m. I never could get mine to match well on 12m, but it worked OK on the other bands. Being only two elements, it didn't offer a lot of gain, but had solid front to back. On difficulty in dealing with this antenna was it was so three-dimensional, as the bow-tie supports go three feet above and below the elements. Overall, though, it is pretty small. It can be easily turned with a small TV-type rotator.

N4VMN's antenna had spent a couple of decades outside next to the house. I expected after all this time it might need some repairs. The U-bolts are all shot, and will need to be replaced. The bow-tie supports were all bent, but look repairable. All of the bow-tie wires were broken or missing. The matching network tube supports were all bent, but look repairable. One of the element tubes had filled with water at some point, froze, and split about five inches from the center insulator. It might be repaired with a clamp or two, but replacement is probably a better option. The two fiberglass insulators seem to be in OK shape, although they need to have some of the weathering sanded off and protected with a nice coat of flat black paint (as I did on the R7000).

OK, this is going to be a project, but it looks like what remains is serviceable. I could definitely use a small tribander at the Walton County QTH, or even as a South-America facing antenna in Gwinnett County. I'll have to work out a 20-25 foot support to mount it on, eventually.

Sunday Afternoon Dxing

It's mother's day. My wife is taking a well-deserved nap, I've watched all my shows on the DVR, so what to do? I decide I should mosey outside to the shack and see if there's any DX to work. I'm hoping maybe there might be a 6m opening, since it is the Es season.

A quick check of 6m shows nothing happening, so I turn to dxwatch.com and check out some of the bands. I see a spot for V73NS on the west coast on 12m CW. Hmm. Maybe I should listen. At first I hear nothing.  Then, barely above the noise, I definitely hear "73." Intrigued I listen further.

It's just before 5 PM local time. V73NS is definitely in there, and he's calling CQ with no answers. QSB has him coming and going. I drop my call in, he immediately comes back to AA4, but he doesn't have my suffix. A couple more calls, and it's clear he can't hear me as he fades back into the noise.

Noting the QSB, I keep trying. Eventually, as he come back up, he's giving someone a report -- 229. Pretty bad. Oh, wait, here he is again -- he's calling ME with that 229 report. I give him a 559 twice, at the top of the QSB. I get a confirmation. Bingo - in the log it goes.

Wow, just about ESP-level, but a definite contact running over that QSB.

And, today, I get a confirmation in LoTW. Marshall Islands now confirmed on 12m, and CW, and the DXCC Challenge.

It doesn't get any better than that.

K1N - Fabulous DXpedition

My Results from K1N

Well, it's over now. The much-anticipated K1N DXpedition to Navassa Island is now over. Lucky for me, I made it into the log multiple times, which makes me quite pleased.

Granted, it was a pretty easy shot from here in northwest Georgia to Navassa Is compared to other parts of the world. They were quite strong on just about every band, with the exception of 10 and 12m. I never heard a peep from them on 6m.

The pileups in the low bands were completely crazy in the evenings. All of my contacts 30m and below were made in either the 0900z or 1000z hour -- 4 or 5 AM local. That's one of the secrets of working DX -- be on the band when others are not! The one exception was 60m, and, honestly, the channel was so crazy I'm not entirely sure how I made it into the log.

All of these contacts were made with 100 watts and wire antennas, either the Inverted-L or the 80/40m dipole. Working DX does not require huge amplifiers and large antennas.

The team on Navassa Island did a fantastic job handing out contacts despite unruly pileups, deliberate QRM and the usual craziness. I witnessed on CW pileups that extended over 30 kHz with people continuously calling. Finding the listening frequency in the second receiver was an incredibly difficult task, and quite often I was just guessing -- but a few times I got lucky.

As I told my friend Mike, W1YM, now that I have Navassa Is on nine bands, I'm planning to volunteer to operate the next time team heads to the island. Perhaps in 10 years....

Forth Quarter in Centennial QSO Party

No, I don't use paper any more....

We're now well past half-time. It's the beginning of the forth quarter.

Honestly, I'm amazed at the Centennial QSO Party. I have really enjoyed the W1AW-portable operations. I checked my records and I have made nearly 900 QSOs with W1AW-portable stations this year. 820 of those from Floyd County.

I'm kicking myself for not starting this right off the bat January 1, and pursuing these portable operations on every band/mode combination. Nope, I ignored these operations until February, and at first I was only trying to fill in bands - like 30m, 17m, and 12m - that I didn't have confirmed already.

Now, I'm having too much fun. I'm ducking into the shack each day to try and work a few band/modes that I can. It's been fantastic practice trying to break into the pileups.

I'm really, really impressed at how much I've been able to work with just 100 watts and wire antennas.

And the WARC-band WAS? I'm advancing. 30m - 45 confirmed, 17m - 40 confirmed, 12m - 29 confirmed. And there's still W1AW-portable logs that still haven't been uploaded.

If you haven't tried working these, there's still three months of fun left. Join in!

Half-time at the ARRL Centennial QSO Party

This logbook was last used in 2006.

OK, we are now half-way through the year, and that means we are half-way through the ARRL Centennial QSO Party, with portable operations of W1AW visiting all fifty states!

As I wrote earlier, the Centennial QSO Part is a great opportunity to get nine-band WAS confirmed, since all of the W1AW-portable operations are being loaded up to the Logbook of the Word (LotW).

So, it is half-time! How are we doing?

Well, I can say for one that I have been having a blast trying to work the W1AW-portable operations from Floyd county. With the dipole down, I have been forced to make all contacts with the 160/80/40m trap inverted L. The Floyd county station only has 100 watts (so does Gwinnett county as well, since I blew up the amplifier -- but that's another story).

Sometimes, I've been very successful working stations in every band and mode possible. Other times, it has been very difficult. Just recently, I worked the Alaska operation on exactly one band/mode. One. Conditions just weren't optimal for that circuit. Conditions can also be very weird. I had pretty good success with the W1AW/9 operation in Illinois, working them on all modes from 80-17m. But, I hadn't made any contacts on 15m or above. Then, yesterday morning, I worked them on 15m RTTY early in the morning. Late that the evening, at around 0200-0300z, I worked six more contacts for 15m CW, 12m SSB, and 10m SSB, CW and RTTY. Who would have thought that the band would be open on 10m two hours after sunset?

What's the secret? Well, you have to know how to bust a pileup. Other than that, it's just perseverance. Like working a Dxpedition, early in the week of operations, it is tougher to get through. By Friday or so, it is usually easier. By Sunday, they often are begging for contacts. I temper my patience by calling on Wednesday or Thursday, but I don't waste a lot of time.

And, how am I doing on the whole WARC-band WAS? If you remember, I had no states confirmed on 30m and one each on 17 and 12m when I started. Today, I have 34, 30 and 21, respectively. And there's still more logs to be uploaded from the last month of operations.

So, if you haven't jumped in to the fray, perhaps it is time. Enjoy.

How NOT to Run a W1AW/-Portable Operation

OK, I've been chasing some of the W1AW-portable operations. The light dawned on my back in February, when I realized that these operations could help me achieve WAS on the WARC bands of 30, 17 and 12m.

Managed to work quite a few, some with great ease. Some of it has to do with favorable propagation during the week they were on, but most has to do with the quality of the operators and their scheduling.

Others, I struggled to work at all, and in some cases barely made contacts on some bands. If this is the kind of operation you prefer, here's my list of tips on how to best optimize that outcome:

• Don't operate on the WARC bands. If you're not familiar with them, they are 30, 17 and 12m. These aren't terribly popular, since they have only been ham bands for a couple of decades now. I'm sure some folks don't even have equipment for these bands. Best to stick with the harmonically related bands of 40, 20, 15 and 10m, although I'm not to sure about 15m....

• Don't operate on 160 or 80m, even when it is dark. Rates will certainly be better on 40 or 20m, right. Few hams have the real estate for the enormous antennas required to operate these bands. Best to stay on the higher bands even after the sun goes down -- until the bands close, at least. 

• Don't operate exotic modes, like RTTY. Not many hams will have that fancy RTTY equipment. So, you're sure to work many more stations using good old-fashioned CW or SSB. If you must work a digital mode, make sure it is one of the new-fangled ones, like PSK 63 or JT 65.

• Don't operate split. Takes up too much bandwidth. We hams can't figure out how to set up our rigs for split anyway. Who cares if the rate really stinks, since everyone is calling on top of you. That will make getting the QSO all that much more challenging, right? 

• Don't operate between midnight and 7 AM. We hams certainly need our beauty sleep. They'll be no one to work anyway, right? Everyone should be asleep. And there's no need to start operating early in the morning, especially before sunrise. No one is awake then anyway, right?

• Don't operate more than one band at a time. Hams will get too confuse if you appear on more than one band at a time. Besides, there's probably only one band that's really open, so there's little need to move around.

OK, OK, I kid. I know, these operations are run by volunteers, and not everyone is an expert operator.  It just amazes me at how poorly scheduled a few of these operations were. It was especially frustrating wanting to work these operation on the low bands, and staying up late, or getting up early, only to find they were QRT.

I've slowly been increasing my LoTW totals for WAS from Floyd County. 

W1AW Centennial Operation - The Way To 9B WAS

OK, it took me a month to catch on. I read about the ARRL Centennial celebration. If you haven't heard about it, take a moment to check out the link. What you want to see is the Centennial QSO Party.

I'll wait.

Now, I didn't get very excited about the Centennial Points Challenge. I'm sure I'll work a few points this year just as a natural side effect of operating in contests and other events throughout the year. When I read about the W1AW portable operations from all fifty states (plus US territories), I didn't get all excited either. After all, I already have 6-band WAS. It took the LoTW and many years of work to complete that, doing mostly contest operation, so I didn't make the connection at first.

The W1AW portable operations make it easy to achieve 9-band WAS.

I think it hit me one night when I was looking at spots for FT5ZM. (Great DXpedition, if you didn't manage to work them, well, it wasn't their fault...) I saw spots for W1AW-portable. Some of them were on 30, 17 and 12m.

Now, I said I have 6-band WAS. That's because there are no contests on 30, 17 and 12m. I do operate there, but it's been mostly DXing. I do a little casual style operating with USA stations, but many of these rag chewers don't tend to QSL via LoTW.

I then made the connection -- these highly visible W1AW-portable operations are the perfect way to fill in all the holes in your LoTW WAS confirmations. All of the W1AW-portable contacts will be confirmed on LoTW. They will operate from each state twice throughout the year for an entire week, being on the air virtually all the time. Perfect.

Since then, I've been sneaking into the shack working W1AW-portable on all the bands that I need. I have two award accounts, one for Floyd County and one for the QTH in Gwinnett, so I have a chance to fill in the holes for each.

Don't have WAS? Or need WAS on a hard band like 80m, 15m or the WARC bands? This is your chance. Good luck.

WARC Trap Dipole

Although I've had good success using an untuned doublet on the WARC bands, I made up my mind that it would be nice to have an antenna that didn't require a tuner.

Initially, I built this antenna has a 30m / 17m dipole. The traps are made from 1.5" Schedule 40 PVC pipe, which is about 1.9" in diameter, wound with RG-59U coax. I built them in much the same manner as those I used later in the 80/40m dipole.

The 17m traps are 35 1/2" of coax wound as 4.8 turns. I trimmed these traps to 18.1 MHz. I actually built three traps, the first was a dummy form so I could figure out where I had to drill the holes to pull the coax down tight.

The 30/17m version uses 12 1/2 feet of wire in each leg, and the outer segments are 8 feet. You may have to trim the lengths to resonate the dipole in the band.

Adding 12m requires two more traps. These were made from 26 1/2" of coax wound in about 3 and 3/4 turns. Trimming the 12m traps right on frequency takes some doing, as small changes in length can shift the frequency of the trap considerably.

I inserted the 12m traps 9 feet 5 inches from the center, and then trimmed the length of the outer legs to bring resonance within the bands. I did not do a great job of measuring -- the 12m traps ended up in slightly different locations in each leg. It does not appear to affect the antenna much.

You should measure the antenna at some height, as the tuning will change as the antenna is raised. I did my initial trimming at 15 feet, and when raised to 42 feet, the resonance frequency rose over 200 kHz on 30m, and slightly less on 17m.

I built a current balun into the center mounting box for the dipole, using 10 type 43 1" ferrite beads, slipped over coax inside the box.

Since the WARC bands as so small, antenna SWR bandwidth isn't a consideration. At 42 feet, there's a little bit of a broadside pattern on 30, more so on 17m and 12m. Since I installed this antenna as an inverted V, the pattern is a bit more circular. The traps can easily handle the 700 or so watts on 17 and 12m.

The WARC bands are a lot of fun with a decent antenna. I've worked several DXpeditions with this dipole on 17m. Without sunspots, there hasn't been a whole lot of activity on 12m yet.

This sort of antenna is easy to build and install. There's no reason lack of antenna should keep you off the WARC bands.