Just the medicine for lowering impedance

Pill bottle balun

Jack-WD4E is a fellow NAQCC member and he sent me one of his QRP creations that I just had to share.

If you are staying on your meds you probably have the perfect enclosure for a QRP Balun.

If I could save RF in a bottle...

Jack encloses his home-brew wound toroids in pill bottles.  

The child and arthritis proof cap keeps the goods away from young and old alike...

Just what the doctor prescribed...

So re-purpose your medicare paid goodness and put it to work for you

Sorry all you entrepreneurs, Jack told me that he's already applied for the patent so you won't be competing with Facebook with this product idea.  He owns it.

That's all for now

So lower your power and raise your expectations

72/73

Richard, AA4OO
http://hamradioqrp.com

QRP in many languages

Thinking Multicultural

Ham Radio and CW is used and heard throughout much of the world.  We live among many great cultures, each with their own language.  

I thought it would be fun to see the QRP motto in different languages...

I am a typical insular American and only know a wee-bit from languages other than English, so if the translations below are in-error blame Google translate.

Translations listed alphabetically

Chinese Simplified:
降低你的力量，唤起你的期望

Czech:
Snižte své moci a zvýšit vaše očekávání

Danish:
Sænk din magt og Hæv dine forventninger

Dutch:
Verlaag je vermogen en verhoog je verwachtingen

English:
Lower your power and raise your expectations

Estonian:
Alam oma võimu ja tõsta oma ootusi

Finnish:
Pienempi teho ja nostaa odotukset

French:
Abaissez votre puissance et soulevez vos attentes

German:
Senken Sie Ihre macht und wecken Ihren Erwartungen

Haitian Creole:
Senti pouvwa ou ak ekspetasyon nou leve ti moun

Hebrew:
להוריד את הכוח שלך ולהעלות את הציפיות שלך

Hindi:
अपनी शक्ति को कम और आपका उम्मीदें उठाएँ

Hungarian:
Alacsonyabb a hatalom és a raise your elvárások

Italian:
Il tuo potere di abbassare e alzare le vostre aspettative

Japanese:
あなたの力を下げ、あなたの予想を上げる

Klingon (note: Klingon's aren't really the "QRP type"):
HoS ghuS je pIHbogh laHwIj pep

Korean:
낮은 힘 및 인상 기대

Norwegian Bokmål:
Lavere makt og større forventninger

Russian:
Опустите ваши силы и поднять ваши ожидания

Slovenian:
Nižje svojo moč in poveča vaša pričakovanja

Spanish:
Baje su energía y elevar sus expectativas

Swedish:
Sänka din makt och höja dina förväntningar

Welsh:
Eich pŵer a chodi eich disgwyliadau


Guess which language takes the most letters to spell the phrase?  
If you guessed German you're close, but another language listed above beat it by one letter.



That's all for now

I drive an QRP Italian car (Fiat 500 Abarth) so...
          Il tuo potere di abbassare e alzare le vostre aspettative

72/73

Richard, AA4OO

Where is that blasted noise coming from?

Evil RF noise in Ethernet over power adapters

My internet comes in at a corner of the house.  In that room I have my cable modem and a WIFI router.  Unfortunately the WIFI is seemingly non-existent at the other end of my house and especially in the upper floor opposite the WIFI router.  I tried re-orienting it and different antennas to no avail.

As a solution, I purchased an Ethernet over powerline adapter.  This routed the Ethernet through the house wiring to receivers plugged into outlets at points where the WIFI was weak, thus providing Internet access to those rooms.  The model I purchased also had ethernet ports which I needed for some of my older devices.

Ethernet over powerline seemed like an ideal solution.

Typical Ethernet over powerline adapter

All was well until a few months ago... I noticed a broadband noise on 40m and 80m in my shack.  I turned off the power to the house and switched to battery on my KX3 and the noise was gone.  So the interference was coming from my house.

The Search

I restored the power and fired up my Yaesu HT which has general coverage receive and tuned it to 7030kHz.  I walked around the house and conducted a bit of a fox-hunt for the offending noise.  The noise occurred at every outlet in the house !!!

I tracked it down to one of the Ethernet powerline receivers.  I unplugged it from the wall and discovered blissful silence.  I figured it had just gone bad.  It was out of warranty so back to the store I went and purchased another set.  This time it was a different brand, as the first one was no longer carried.

I installed the new adapters and everything was fine... for a time.

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me

This week the noise returned with a vengeance.  Being wiser I went straight to the new adapter and unplugged it.  Yep it had gone bad again.  It was in warranty but I'd learned my lesson.  Whatever sort of RF filtering these devices have doesn't last.  Something zaps them.  I can't plug the receiver into a AC line filter because it stops it from receiving the Ethernet over powerline.

So out they came and back to the electronics store I went.  This time I purchased a WIFI extender with Ethernet ports built-in.  I'm back to blissful RF quiet (to a degree) at my QTH.

The moral of the story

If you have RF noise at your shack and you use these devices, check them out.  They could be the S9 noise culprit.  If you haven't bought them, take my advice and don't chance it.

I didn't think a WIFI extender would work for me because my laptop can't even detect the WIFI in some of my rooms but the WIFI extender (at least the Netgear model) seems to work well.  I now have blessed Internet in every room and no more broadband RF noise.

That's all for now

So lower you power and raise your expectations (and rid yourself of pesky RF noise)

72/73
Richard, AA4OO
http://hamradioqrp.com

The Best CW training app for Android

Morse Trainer for Ham Radio

I'm always on the lookout for useful tools to help increase my copy speed and enjoyment of CW/Morse Code.  Training applications for beginners that teach letters and letter groups are great to get started but after you're making QSOs and copying at useful speeds those apps get a little stale. 

I recently wrote about using the "Morse News" RSS reader application for PCs. What I liked about Morse News was that it would send the text of news articles as CW.  I found it useful as a natural language trainer but I didn't like being tied to my PC during training.  

I wanted a similar application for my smart phone.

Just the mobile ticket to CW training

I'm not sure how I missed the "Morse Trainer for Ham Radio" app up to now but I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and really find it useful.

Morse Trainer in QSO Text Mode

Training Modes

This app has all the standard Morse Code training tools such as letter training, letter groups, callsign training etc. It also can send the most common 500 words as well as a random sample QSO training mode.  That's all great but what I really find useful is the ability to send your own text that you type or paste into the app and even... wait for it... an ebook reader!  

I must really be a geek but I find the ebook reader makes this a must have CW training app for me.  I converted some of my ebooks into plain text (using Calibre) and placed them in the CWTrainer's application folder on my smart phone.  I then choose the ebook mode, choose a book and it will send it as CW to me and keep track of where I left off.  I use this ebook reader mode to break the monotony of my long drive time.  

ebook mode

It's great fun to witness the expression of the person beside you at a stoplight hearing Morse Code pouring out of your car.  Priceless.

I keep the speed higher than I can comfortably copy so I'm missing some of what is sent. There's nothing like reading an action novel where you're missing half of what's going on. Did Tex get shot or not? I missed that word, hehe.

While this app doesn't read RSS feeds like Morse News application for PC's the text and ebook reader modes more than make up for it. The only bug to-date that I've noticed on my phone is that if I rotate the phone while it's playing it will reset where it was reading from back to the beginning. 

Here's a video from the application's author describing it's functions...

And here's a link to the application in the Google Play store.

Update 11/2024 - It appears this app is no long in the Google Play store.  That's too bad.  I found it very useful when learning.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wolphi.morsetrainer

I have no affiliation with the maker of this application.  I just wanted to share.



That's all for now

So lower your power and raise your expectations

73/72
Richard, AA4OO

Stuck at 20wpm

Learning CW is not a sprint

I am in the 9th month of my CW / Morse Code journey and I will readily admit that in my case it has been slow, steady progress rather than a sprint.  Some weeks I think I'm doing well while at others I seem to be stuck or losing my copy skills, even with daily practice and QSOs.

During my off-air training I had raised my copy speed of news stories sent in CW to about 23wpm with 80% comprehension but as that happened I somehow reduced my ability to copy slower speeds. This was especially noticeable in on-air qsos. So I have gone back a bit to practice slower speeds. It's difficult to explain to myself how that happened. I guess I'd become accustomed to the higher speed characters and lost recognition at slower speeds.

As my copy speed has increased, my on-air sending speed has gone up which of course results in the other side of the qso being sent at a higher speed as well. I'm still very limited when I work an unusual FIST or someone who doesn't leave space between their words.  I'm normally starting more of my qsos with a paddle/keyer than straight key now at around 17-19wpm resulting in the responding stations generally working me a couple wpm faster than I send. I'm working fewer straight key operators as I work outside the SKCC frequencies  although I still seem to encounter lots of bug operators.  I happy to work a bug op because I switch to my bug for the qso.  I still enjoy the SKCC group and ops but I can't send well above 16wpm on a straight key so that is limiting me working faster ops. I generally can work the bug around 19-20 wpm on the SKCC frequencies but then I get bug operators coming back at me with 27wpm dits which I have great difficulty copying.

I began the habit of spending some time most mornings before work just listening to higher speed ops chat with each other at speeds around 25wpm on 80m and 40m.  There's almost always a couple of CW qsos going on at that speed between 6-7 AM Eastern time. I miss much of what they are saying but it's a good supplement to the machine generated copy study that I do at lunchtime and gets me used to real FISTS at my target speed of 25wpm. All this listening is of course followed up with actual qsos in the evenings and weekends as time allows at 17-20wpm.

Stuck at 20wpm

Stuck and need help from friends

20wpm seems to be a wall of sorts. I have difficulty reliably having real qsos at and above 20wpm. I've been stuck at this speed for a couple months now and would appreciate suggestions at moving beyond the wall as I find myself still having to ask stations sending above 20wpm with tight spacing to slow down.  Some days it seems to click, but when I think back I believe it has more to do with a good FIST of the other operator than my copy skill. 

All I can reliably say is real people rarely sound like machine generated CW and all the off-air machine practice in the world doesn't reveal my real ability to copy, or not copy, like real qsos do.

So the journey continues. I plan to occasionally blog about my progress and copy speed as much for my own record as anything else but maybe it will be of some encouragement to others as well.

That's all for now

So lower your power and raise your expectations

73

Richard, AA4OO

Bum Rap

How the End-Fed antenna get's a bad reputation

I regularly use an end-fed antenna when I operate portable because it's so easy to just get one end of it up in a tree.  I then only have to get some coax to the balun and attach a couple of counterpoises to the radio ground for the band I want to work and voila I have an easy setup/tear-down antenna solution. The higher the feedpoint the better the antenna will perform, and as long as I have a good tuner I can work a lot of different bands. 

However when used in a shack you hear all manner of stories of how the end-fed random wire antenna absolutely wreaks havoc with RF at the station.  So what's the deal?

What's going on with an end-fed antenna?

I'm still learning about this stuff so here's my simple minded understanding along with some results of my own experimentation.

So when you put some fire in the wire (remember this is alternating current at a particular frequency) the RF will run down that wire and when it gets to the end it will run back.  Part of the power will be radiated, the part that does not will come back and want to push against something.  

In a dipole the power runs out one leg and when it runs back it has the other balanced leg of the dipole to run to and repeats the process until it's radiated either as a signal or heats up your coax. The end fed wire doesn't have that balanced leg to push against so it will flow back into your equipment and radiate from there along with anything it can find to get into that your equipment is attached to.

When your portable, operating low power, this isn't very noticeable and since I'm generally operating from a battery that returning RF isn't heading off into a power supply and into the mains, etc.  But when operating from a shack and especially if I'm operating at QRO levels (gasp!) that RF can generate a hum in your equipment, distort your signal,  bite you on the hand or lip depending on paths to least resistance.  Worst case it can fry something in the shack or nearby sensitive electronic equipment.

Thus the bad rap.

Background

Here's my experience...

At my QTH I reconfigured my external 40m Windom (aka OCF dipole) to an 80m OCF Dipole.  When I was using the 40m Windom I could tune the 30m band without difficulty but the high impedance nodes occur in different places on the 80m OCF and make 30m over 10:1 SWR.  Certainly not efficient and impossible to tune for some internal tuners.  My attic doublet can tune 30m but my attic seems to be an especially noisy place for 30m and it was really limiting my ability to work 30m.  I've discussed the woes of getting antennas outdoors at my QTH previously so I was looking for an easy way to get back on 30m.

I thought I'd give the much maligned end-fed a try

I cut about 150 feet of wire and attached it to the long-wire post of my trusty MFJ Deluxe Versa Tuner II and ran it up around my room and out out my 3rd story window to a tree in the front yard.  It is very stealthy and doesn't raise the ire of the neighbors.

The MFJ matched the end-fed easily on 30m and reception was about 2 S-units less noise than with the attic antenna.  So far so good.  I made some contacts using 5w but was hearing some hum in my headphones so I knew something was rotten in Denmark (sorry Denmark).

I have some counterpoise wires running from the back of the tuner but when I took stock of what I had I realized none of them were 1/4 wavelengths for 30m.  This afternoon I cut some of my surplus insulated 18 gauge wire 23ft long, insulated the end and attached it to the back of the tuner.  I ran the counterpoise into the attic clear of other wiring and what do you know.  No more hum.

I then tried the wattage up at QRO levels and still no hum.  The RF just wanted something to push against to keep it out of the station wiring.  I got good reports from RBN stations so the antenna is working for 30m. 

End Fed performance on 30m

I know that a single counterpoise will likely create directivity to the signal so I'll need to add some more counterpoise wires but the moral of the story is that end-fed antennas are not evil, they are just misunderstood.  Like a vertical, the RF just needs something to push against.  In the case of a vertical if you have insufficient counterpoise at the feedpoint you just warm the earth. But in the case of the end-fed your equipment becomes the other side of the antenna.  Not good.

End-fed antennas can be a useful solution

If you have limited options for deploying wire antennas, the end-fed is about the easiest type to deploy.  I don't think it will give you the propagation of a dipole or doublet but it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand as an option.  Just be sure to cut 1/4 wavelength counterpoise wires for the bands you wish to work and attach them to the ground of the tuner or ground side of the balun you are using for the long wire.

Safety considerations

Keep in mind that the entire length of the end-fed wire is radiating starting right at the point where it exits your tuner/balun so position it in such a way that you or others will not accidentally touch it during operation.  Also take care in how its routed so as not to put it near or run in parallel with house wiring.

Ok so end-fed antenna's get a bad reputation for some good reasons and if you have other options use them first but don't completely put it out of the running if it can solve your antenna problem.

That's all for now

So lower your power and raise your expectations

73/72
Richard, AA4OO

Bugging Out

Vibroplex Bug QSO

Sometimes I'm in a mood to use my bug.  I'm still a relatively new CW operator and using my Vibroplex Original Bug is both novel to me and a challenge compared to my Kent Straight Key or using paddles.

The key lineup with the Bug in the center

I purchased my bug used on a well known auction site for about $65.  It dates to sometime in the mid 1970s but it doesn't differ much from bugs made in the past 75 years.  I have added some weight to slow it down to around 19 wpm DITs by taping a heavy spacer onto the factory pendulum weight as well as adding a heavy metal spacer to the end of the pendulum.  The weight on the end of the pendulum is held on by a simple plastic drywall screw anchor.  I can pull the weight off the back quickly if I want to let it go up to about 25wpm DITs.  Without the extra weights this bug sends at around 27wpm at it's slowest speed and up to... well I don't know how fast because I can't control it at the fastest speed yet and I certainly can't copy others at that speed so I usually keep it below 20wpm for now.

If you haven't used a bug I encourage you to give it a try.  It's a challenging key to get the hang of but the effort to learn it is fun and rewarding. I especially enjoy the tactile feedback from that swinging pendulum and the the click-clacking of the pendulum against the hanging damper.

I was using my Ten-Tec Eagle (model 599) purchased used from a local ham.  The Eagle is a super little QRO radio although in this QSO my output is 5w.  If you have sharp eyes you may see that the power level is set to 7w but that is actually 5w output according to my external meter.  The 100 number under the CW symbol is the bandwidth that I was using.  I generally keep the bandwidth at 500 Hz but there was a station operating above us that I wanted to mask.

Ten-Tec Eagle 599

The Eagle is a great CW rig.  This model has 3 front end crystal filters 2400Hz, 600Hz and 300Hz giving it nice selectivity for any mode. 

I was working Ed, KG4W in VA who is an SKCC member.   If you want to work other manual key stations 3550 kHz is a calling frequency for the SKCC.  Ed told me during the QSO he was using a VIZ vertical bug which is a unique and interesting bug design.  

He reported my signal as 599 and he was 599 as well.  I was running 5w output power to my 80m OCF Dipole. He was using an Yaesu at 100w to a fan dipole.  5w was sufficient for this QSO but if he had reported me as 559 or weaker I would have raised my power to 20w to make copy for him easier.  I enjoy using QRP but when I rag chew I don't want to make it difficult for QRO stations to copy me if I can help it so having the Eagle allows me to raise my power if necessary for the communication.

The QSO

So here's the qso between two bug operators.  I hope you enjoy it...

That's all for now

So lower your power and raise your expectations

72/73

Richard, AA4OO