During a break visiting relatives in Western NC I went outside and threw my end-fed antenna up into a tree and sat on the front porch swing and worked stations in Maine, Kansas and Cuba.
Elecraft KX3 -- Palm Single Key -- and Index cards for logging
Portable Ease
The Elecraft KX3 is such a fabulously portable radio. It is very totable with sidekicks panels and cover, the only exposed part during transport is the BNC connector. I just make sure that's pointing "up" in the backpack. I didn't take the time to put the internal batteries back in the KX3 so I carried a small 3ah gel cell battery, good for hours of operation. My antenna is a 9:1 balun fed insulated wire. I get it up in the tree using a throwing weight and heavy line, then untie the weight, attach the wire and pull it up. The coax serves partly as a counterpoise, and I clip two more wires cut to different lengths for additional counterpoise.
The KX3's built-in auto-tuner will tune a spoon so it was no problem tuning the end-fed
Operating
The North America QSO party was in full swing and I was looking for casual ragchews so I headed to 30m and heard a number of QSOs but signals were not strong. Checking RBN from my smartphone I saw that I wasn't getting very good reverse beacon reports.
Reverse beacon reports while operating portable
After sending my call out manually a few times I put the KX3's built in keyer memory to work sending out my call and eventually I received answers to my calls.
I only had about 90 minutes to operate but I had a good time working a few stations and listening to other QSOs. Packing up the radio, key and pulling the wire down didn't take long.
I'm still thrilled to have the Elecraft KX3 for such opportunities.
Coming back to the hobby in 2015 I re-entered as a CW / QRP operator and I searched for a good QRP radio. The Elecraft KX3 certainly qualified and it has been a great radio to use, especially when portable.
Elecraft KX3 -- stellar radio for portable QRP operations
But a few months after getting my KX3 an old TenTec Century/21 found it's way onto my desk and through numerous blog entries you may note that for some reason I kept gravitating to use it rather than my KX3 when I operated from the shack, even though the KX3 beats the old C21 technically in absolutely EVERY regard. I just enjoyed operating CW with the old radio more than the KX3. I couldn't explain why.
Fast forward to late March of 2016. I purchased a used TenTec Eagle from my friend AA4XX and began using it as my primary radio when I wasn't portable. Here again the KX3 trumps the Eagle in nearly every technical aspect and offers dozens more features. I just kept gravitating to use the TenTec radios rather than the Elecraft.
I used the my KX3 for Field Day in 2016 and after I packed up and brought it home the KX3 stayed in my backpack and only came out for portable outings. It did not go back on my desk. The KX3 cried little electronic tears while the Eagle gloated...
Ten-Tec Eagle -- compact / simple HF transceiver
Why no love for the KX3?
Time passed, and over the new year break I got to thinking about what I missed about having my KX3 on the desk; like its RX/IQ output for HDSDR and the ease working DX splits using it's dual watch capability and it's integration to logging applications like the ability to trigger CW macros from my logging software. The list of "nice-stuff" goes on and on since the KX3 contains multiple kitchen sinks... So I re-organized my desk to make room for the KX3 again and operated with it exclusively over the past few days...
I was getting ear fatigue and my ears rang in the evenings. This was not the sort of ringing in the New Year that I wanted. I had been previously operating the same amount with the Eagle over the past month without the earaches. Something was amiss.
Had I finally discovered why I keep going back to my TenTec radios?
Audio, Audio, Audio
So over time, even when I switched back and forth between radios there was a subtle "ouch" occurring when I used the KX3. I enjoy CW and digging out weak signals can be fun... or it can be painful. I guess when I sat down to use a radio and my hand hovered between the "Oh-so-feature-rich" KX3 and the "Nice-personality" Eagle my brain was saying "choose the nice personality" you're happier that way.
But there was a underlying reality to the choice I was making.
Just the facts mam
I used an audio frequency analyzer to capture audio from each radio by sandwiching the microphone in my headphones. It hears what I would hear. And the graphs tell a tale.
Below is one graph for each radio. The RED graph line in each chart is the averaged "peaked" frequency output audio during the same QSO. Ignore the green line as it was just the instantaneous audio at the time I froze the display between takes. The CW sidetone on each radio is set to 620Hz.
I re-ran this capture for each radio a few times during a lengthy ragchew between two stations. The signal strength was around S5-S7. It wasn't a strong signal which is typical of what I work, especially as the Solar cycle winds down.
I tried the captures with and without noise reduction on each radio. The RF was rolled off as evenly as I could determine for each and both were set to a DSP filter bandwidth of approximately 400Hz. Both radios were using the same antenna and everything was as similar as I make it. RCVR EQ was set flat for the KX3.
Elecraft KX3 CW audio (ignore green graph line)
Ten-Tec Eagle CW audio (ignore green graph line)
The CW audio output from each of the two radios is distinctive
KX3 audio demonstrates
shoulder noise
Eagle has clean audio
There's clearly a CW signal peak around 620Hz in each radio but the KX3 shows a significant shoulder of audio just 9dB down from the peak below the center frequency
Whereas the Eagle has a clear peak presenting a narrow tone range at the sidetone pitch with narrow shoulders down to the filter width.
Confirmation of my subjective tests
When I saw this I literally said "Aha!"
This confirmed what my ears and my subconcious had been telling me. The KX3 is more fatiguing to listen to than the Eagle because it presents more noise in the audio or at least a wider audio signal given the same DSP filter setting. I've always remarked about my TenTec radios that their CW seemed to float above the noise. I believe it's related to the cleaner audio filtering. The TenTec Eagle just has cleaner audio out of the box. It has no audio adjustments beyond AF and NR, no menus for fine tuning. My old TenTec Century/21 sounds the same when using its 500Hz selectivity setting.
In my opinion Ten-Tec just got CW right.
Yes, I have tried using the KX3 RCVR EQ settings to reduce that lower frequency noise and the problem IMO is that the EQ is more for SSB audio. I think the Q for each setting is too broad and when I try to reduce the low frequency noise IMO it just makes the audio sound mushy. I just can't get as "clean" sounding CW tone out of the Elecraft as I can the Ten-Tec.
OK, "sound" is a subjective thing. No two people will hear the same thing the same way and frequencies that bother me may not bother you, but it seems pretty clear from the graphs that the CW audio from the KX3 doesn't match the Eagle.
Summary
Admittedly, my test involved a very small sample size of one radio from each manufacturer. It's just that I'd put the KX3 back on the desk after a many month absence and my ringing ears got me to investigate the cause a bit more scientifically.
I will continue to use the KX3 for portable ops because it is a great self-contained radio and when I work portable I usually operate for much shorter periods so the audio doesn't become an issue.
Man, I hope Ten-Tec can come back from the grave. They sure made some fine radios for CW operators.
With a bit of time over the Christmas break I'm finally getting around to work on things that have bugged me for a while... like my noisy power supply.
My TenTec Century 21 doesn't have a fan and it has a built-in power supply, so no fan noise. My Elecraft KX3 has no fan, so no fan noise and it can run all day from a small 12v battery. My TenTec Eagle only runs fans when the finals get hot and even then the fans are in the interior of the case and are speed controlled, low-speed, high-volume dudes that I have never heard. I can feel air moving through the Eagles vents so I know the fans work, their just silent. But the Eagle needs an external power supply.
The calming sound of CW wafting forth from the Eagle is soon destroyed by a sound not unlike an air-raid siren emitted from my Astron power supply as it kicks its fan into high gear
Problem
My power supply has a single, large fan that makes me jump every time it whirs into action. Admittedly, my power supply was near the bottom of the range in the Astron lineup. I assume they have speed controlled fans, or at least quieter fans further up the product line. I purchased this one used, about 9 years ago, so who knows, maybe their new power supply's have speed controlled fans.
Anyway, on my model, the muffin fan produces a hurricane force blow switched by a thermocouple located on the transistor heat sink (right hand side). It is a very simple design... when the thermocouple trips it closes a circuit to the fan. When heat sink temperature falls below the threshold it cuts off. So the fan is either ON or OFF. Normally the fan doesn't come on when the rig is idling, and it will only come on once in a while at QRP levels. I just never know when, but I'm always anticipating... like the jerk kid that would flick your ear when he walked by back in school (hmm, I feel as though I may have some un-dealt with issues from childhood).
The fan seems to have a knack for coming on when I'm working a station that is fading into the noise and remaining on until I've missed some key piece of the QSO.
Solution
What I wanted to do was keep the air moving like a gentle breeze rather than a pulsing Category 5, but still allow the fan to come on full speed if needed. So the trick was to get the fan to run continuously at a slow speed whenever the power supply was on but still allow the thermocouple to give it the gas.
The label on the fan says it's 1.4w 12v... I rummaged through my junk box looking for 2w and higher resistors. I didn't find a lot to choose from, since I just haven't been at this electronics building stuff all that long. I had a number of very low resistance ones from 2 ohm to 20 ohm and everything else was 650 ohm or higher.
I clipped test leads to both sides of the thermocouple on the heat sink that controls the fan. I wanted to try different resistor values to see what happened. Predictably, the low value resistors acted pretty much like a closed circuit and the fan ran near full speed. I could have strung a number of the low value resistors in series but that seemed messy and the values were mostly very low. I tried my next lowest value 2-watt resistor, 650 ohm. The fan didn't even come on with 650 ohm resistance. I didn't have anything in between so I put two of the 650's in parallel and it turned verrrry slooowwwly.
You can find TOTAL RESISTANCE in a Parallel circuit with the following formula: 1/Rt = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3 + ... "
Ok I was on to something. Turned out that 5 of the 650 ohm 2w resistors in parallel did the trick... That turned out to be near 130 ohm. I left them hooked up for an hour or so to make sure more current wasn't being pulled than I expected, and they only became slightly warm to the touch so I figured my redneck engineering was good to go. I soldered the bundle of resistors leads in parallel and used some heat shrink to keep it neat.
I've used the power supply for a good part of a day and it stays nice and quiet now. Not silent, but good enough to where I can't hear it at all with my headphones on. A key down test into a dummy load at QRO power repeated times confirmed that the fan will go to full speed after a while but in normal operation, the thermocouple never triggers.
By my low standards, I deem this a success.
redneck ham engineering
Perform this mod at your own risk
This is certainly not a manufacturer approved modification and your power supply may be quite different than mine so tinker at your own risk. Oh, and be careful when you have the cover off a power supply there are multiple, high voltage components in there. Make sure it's unplugged and has plenty of time to bleed off power from the big capacitors before you start messing with anything in there.
That's all for now
So lower your fan speed and raise your quality of life...
I had the privilege to be part of the Knightlites WQ4RP 2016 Field Day event. They are a great bunch of folks dedicated to QRP radio. They operated CW and SSB on 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 6m, 2m and 440.
After listening to CW for nearly 19 hours straight; my brain is turning even normal sounds into morse code... I may have had a psychotic break.
Gary, N3GO, operating 80m straight through the night without leaving the oh-so-comfortable lawn chair
My 80m/15m station
This is my first year operating CW and my first full, field day event. I've dabbled in field day (FD) in the past but did not work it as part of a club.
For this FD I was responsible for supplying the equipment to get a station on the air for 80m and 15m. The WQ4RP club operates QRP only using battery power, so anything associated with transmitting was to be battery powered including the computer. My Elecraft KX3 was powered by a 12 year old 50ah UPS battery and the laptop was powered using an inverter with a large deep cycle battery. Following 20 hours of operation the UPS battery had only dropped to 12.2v The Elecraft KX3 is frugal with power even after hundreds of contacts.
My antenna was the one we'd previously installed at Excalibur during the spring. Paul brought it down for us to use at the FD site. We cut the 40m part of the fan dipole to work for 15m. Tall trees on either side of the tent provided the antenna supports and the tent was positioned to be close to the feed point of the ladder line.
80m - 15m Fan dipole with home brew ladder line
Honda generators powered the lights in the evening and fans/AC during the heat of the day. Honda generators are quiet in both the audio and radio spectrums. Three Knightlite stations used Honda generators to power equipment not related to transceivers.
Power was supplied to all stations by Honda i-series generators
Operating CW during Field Day
Unfortunately for FD operations I'm the opposite end of a CW contester. Since starting my CW/Morse Code journey last year I've just worked at getting my ragchew (conversations in CW) skills improved. I practice listening to the most common 500 words and listening to e-books sent as Morse Code. I'm not good at copying calls, when they are sent at 25wpm. Compounding my new(ish) operator struggle is that FD uses an abbreviated exchange, so it was tough going for me when operations kicked off at 2PM local time Saturday and the exchanges began flying by...
A Field Day CW exchange
Calling Station sends an abbreviated CQ, sometimes the CQ and the ending FD were omitted:
CQ FD N4HOG N4HOG FD
Answering Station sends call by itself, repeating as necessary:
WQ4RP (repeat call after a brief pause if no response)
Calling Station sends my call back to me then his station class and section:
WQ4RP 1E NC
Answering Station sends station class and section:
3A NC
Calling Station sends thank you and that's it, you're done:
TU
Since we were operating QRP we often had to repeat our call and our class and sections. I don't have much experience at copying calls at speeds above 20wpm. The 15m band was weak and most signals were no better than S2 or S3. I was trying to copy calls sent at speeds higher than my norm with QSB (fading) and I was getting frustrated. Paul came and sat beside me to coach and provide some encouragement. He is a patient tutor.
I was advised to operate "search and pounce" rather than sending CQ myself because I needed to hear a caller complete a QSO once or twice to copy their call and their response but even then copying the section was often harder for me than the call. Many of the sections are 3 letter designations that I was unfamiliar with (i.e. California has 10 sections abbreviations). Between QSOs Paul would explain where each of the sections were located. I should have studied up on this stuff prior to FD.
I'd hear the station class (a number and a letter) and then while my brain was chewing on that I'd miss the section. So I was sending a lot of AGN? to get the stations to repeat their response. Sometimes I'd finish a contact and realize I'd mistyped part of the response so I would wait and listen for the caller to go through another contact to hear what they sent to copy it correctly for the log. I wasn't really racking up the contacts.
This type of operating is very challenging for me. While I can understand why contesters enjoy honing these skills, for me, it was stressful and wore me down mentally. I took breaks at least every hour and asked other, more seasoned operators to take the helm (errr. key) while my brain cooled down.
80m magic
When dusk arrived 15m contacts were few and far between and I switched to 80m. Gone were the weak signals and speed demons on 15m. The 80m band was surprisingly QRN free and stations sending FD calls were stacked like firewood throughout the CW portion of the band. Our QRP station was also heard better by the callers with fewer needs to repeat the call or the response. I had more enjoyable time working 80m. Paul still sat with me and offered advice which I greatly appreciated.
Gary N3GO, loves the 80m band and he is the Knightlites anchor man for running 80m through the night. Gary sat down at 10PM to begin his shift on 80m and he didn't get out of that chair until 5AM. I was dozing on and off (more off than on) in the tent and doing my best to head copy what he was working. Seven straight non-stop hours of CW later Gary needed a break and I spelled him for a while. After a bit of rest he was back for more and operated until the band gave out in the morning.
N3GO is the anchor man for 80m through the night shift
WQ4RP Knightlites
The Knightlites operate using the club call WQ4RP. Here are some of the participants from the 2016 FD.
Left to right: AA4OO, WA4GIR, WF4I, (visiting ham in red ????), KD4PBJ, KC4PHJ, AA4XX, AB4PP
Thanks to W4MPS for taking the photo
Photos
"JP" AB4PP -- 20m Band captain
Kurt N4KJK - assisted with 15m CW
6m / 2m / 440 stack - Thanks Alex!
Alex KC4PHJ -- Band captain for 6m / 2m / 440
Joe WA4GIR - 40m band captain
40m Station
40m Loop
Derek WF4I - working 40m at dawn
Sunday daybreak and the 80m station is still cranking
Lots of weed eater support lines tied off at the base of this tree
Summary
My first FD as a CW operator was challenging but fun, The WQ4RP club has some patient and talented operators, many of whom have rarely missed operating a FD since becoming hams. I enjoyed getting to learn from them.
Next year I will make the effort to practice copying FD exchanges prior to the event so that I'm not so overwhelmed. It also turned out I'd made a poor choice for logging software. The RumNLog software for my Mac laptop didn't have a preset for the FD contest. I had to use a general contest setting and now will have to programmatically manipulate the resulting ADIF output to have the necessary fields for submission.
The Elecraft KX3 is unsurprisingly a good QRP field day radio. It's small size, low power consumption and phenomenal internal auto tuner made it a pleasure to work with. It has a knob, button or display element for everything you could want. For instance, the dedicated knob for changing internal keyer speed was very useful to fit each station we worked during an exchange. I also used the secondary frequency display area to check on the power supply voltage throughout the event. The KX3 truly does have the kitchen sink.
Update 7-11-2016
Paul sent me the Knightlites field day results. Lists below. I'm interested to see how our group fared .
Call Used: WQ4RP GOTA Station Call: (none) ARRL/RAC Section: NC Class: 3A
Participants: 10 Club/Group Name: KnightLites QRP Society
Power Source(s): Battery
Power Multiplier: 5X
Bonus Points:
100% Emergency power 300
W1AW Field Day Message 100
Submitted via the Web 50
Total Bonus Points 450
Score Summary:
CW Digital Phone Total
Total QSOs 539 0 58
Total Points 1078 0 58 1136 Claimed Score = 5,680
Keys left to right Nye Viking, Kent Hand key, Vibroplex Original Bug, N3ZN ZN-QRP paddle, Palm Single paddle
My collection of keys has grown over the past few months and I find that I like each for their particular qualities.
Keys from left to right
The Nye Viking is somewhere between a traditional J-38 low style American key and a tall European style. At first I couldn't get any sort of coordination with it even after a couple hours of practice and it stayed in the closet for a few months. Eventually I wanted to leave a key hooked up to the old Century/21 so I didn't have to move the output of my external keyer so the Viking came back out. I've finally become accustomed to it and am even beginning to enjoy it as much as the Kent. I'm amazed at how different two straight keys can be.
The Kent Hand key continues to be my favorite key for straight key operation. The Kent is operated using your entire arm off the desk and when I send using it above 15wpm I get the entire desk shaking with the motion. My desk light starts casting dancing shadows across the equipment from the vibration and with the clacking of the key and the blare of the sidetone the world of CW becomes visceral.
The Vibroplex Bug remains at the center of the collection because I have some strange affinity for the quirky bug. I use it on every QSO where I hear another bug operator or with SKCC operators that are sending faster than 17wpm. It has a non-cosmetic, yet effective, weight added from an old steel spacer to slow it down to a range of 21wpm to 16wpm and some dental floss around the DIT contact spring to reduce the potential bounce which results in scratchy sounding DITS.
The N3ZN ZN-QRP paddle is a work of art and when I'm working higher speed CW it's my go-to key. The carbon fiber finger pieces and lightweight clickety action always puts a smile on my face. I keep it connected to the external Ham Keyer which has a handy knob to for quickly adjusting keyer speed.
The Palm Single to the right is magnetically mounted to a steel base a friend made for me. I pull it off the base when I go portable as it's my go-to key for all my portable operations. But when I'm at the home station I leave it hooked up to the keyer input on the Ten-Tec Eagle because the Eagle's keyer is only Iambic-B mode and I just can't get used to "B-Mode". Using a single, non-iambic paddle eliminates the weird timing of the B iambic mode. I really should learn mode-B since it seems to be standard on Ten-Tec and Kenwood radios.
The 3 stars in the center are the Kent Hand key, Vibroplex Original Bug and the N3ZN paddle
The 3 keys in the middle (Kent Hand key, Vibroplex Bug and N3ZN paddle) remain hooked up to the Ham Keyer and I move the output of that keyer to whichever rig I'm primarily using at the time. That keyer uses Iambic-Mode-A which I'm comfortable with and it debounces the scratchiness of the Bug. I hook the output of the keyer up to either the PTT line on the Eagle or the secondary key input on the KX3. When using the C21 I just use the Nye straight key.
Debouncing a Vibroplex Bug
Side story on the Bug... If you get a Vibroplex bug and hook it up to the PTT line of your radio you may find that you're missing DITS or that the output sounds broken or scratchy. The PTT line of many radios is not "buffered" meaning it is reacting to every contact closure. On a bug, the DIT contact is actually bouncing potentially hundreds of times a second since the contact force is so light and doesn't make a clean closure. Many keyers will filter out those multiple contacts or bounces. My old HAM KEYER weight control actually serves as a DIT weight control for the manual keys as well so it's ideal for use with the bug.
KE6EE offered me this nice explanation of what was going on:
The more usual term for the process of dealing with problems of contact closure is "debouncing." Google and you will find lots of interesting visuals and explanations.
The actual start and finish of contact closures and openings in switches, relays and keys, is not a simple off-and-on process but a series of "bounces." Dit contact closures on a bug are likely to be very bouncy.
Bug dit contact design and bug maintenance and adjustment are critical for minimizing bounce. Ops with Vibroplex-style dit contacts often put a piece of rubber or plastic foam in the U-shaped dit contact spring. The Begali bug uses a unique pointed and spring-loaded dit contact. Many bug ops, from my observations on the air, do not adjust their dit weight properly to minimize a scratchy sound.
Transmitter keying circuits are usually "debounced" in various ways, the simplest perhaps being to put a capacitor across the key contact circuit. A PTT circuit doesn't need to be debounced so it isn't. Keyers often have debounce circuits designed to be used with straight keys and bugs.
Try different keys
So if you are getting into CW try some different keys. I think you'll be surprised by the differences and find that your mood or situation will dictate the use of one key over another. Morse keys on the used market aren't expensive if you shop carefully so you can build quite a collection. They also tend to hold their value if you find that you've obtained a key or two that you just can't grok.
My ever changing station sporting a spiffy new chair
That's all for now
So lower your power and raise your expectations
73
Richard, AA4OO
The bands were very poor today from my home and finding stations to operate were few and far between, especially at QRP power. So I thought I'd take a break from operating and create a brief video demonstrating the CW audio differences between the Ten-Tec Eagle and the Elecraft KX3.
The radios
The Elecraft KX3 and Ten-Tec Eagle don't have much in common apart from having DSP architectures and both being from American radio manufacturers. The Eagle is devoid of bells, whistles and has no-menus. On the Eagle, what you see is all you get, as opposed to the KX3 which has multiple kitchen sinks stuffed into it's tiny enclosure.
Setup
Both radios have their pre-amps off and DSP bandwidth set to 500 Hz. I have the RF gain reduced by about 15dB on each radio since turning up the RF gain on a noisy day like today just makes for white noise.
During the video I operated the NR (noise reduction) button on the Eagle to demonstrate how it makes a signal pop and in the same manner operate the APF (audio peaking filter) on the KX3. I end the demonstration by reducing the DSP bandwidth down to about 100 Hz on each radio. The Eagle has both 600 Hz and a 300 Hz IF filters so it gets a bit of insertion loss when I pass through the 300 Hz setting. There were no adjacent signals so the IF filtering wasn't doing anything for either radio in this case.
The audio from the Eagle is coming from its built-in speaker, while on the KX3 I'm using an iHome external, self-powered, speaker. The KX3 has an abysmal internal speaker and there's little point in trying to listen to it compared to a radio with a real speaker. In my opinion that speaker is one of the few serious flaws in the KX3.
After I shot the video I realized that there was a bit of a bias against the Eagle's audio because the microphone in the camera was below the top of the Eagle's case and thus wasn't directly hearing the cabinet speaker, whereas it was in direct view of the external speaker connected to the KX3. The Eagle's audio sounds crisper than this in person when your ears have a straight shot to the speaker.
Subjective listening
Audio is a very subjective thing because people can hear the same thing very differently so I won't comment on my opinion on which I prefer.
I would however be curious to hear other's opinions.
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)
I've had the opportunity to bring another wonderful radio from Ten-Tec into the shack. The Ten-Tec Eagle.
Ten-Tec Eagle HF transceiver
The Eagle is NOT a feature laden radio and using it is a bit quirky.
There are no menus on the Eagle. The dual-function buttons you see are what you get. The multi-knob allows adjustments for the various functions.
What it does have that is so common with the Ten-Tec line of radios is absolutely wonderful sounding audio and beautiful full QSK with no strange audio artifacts at full-break-in. It is a pleasure to work weak stations. This particular radio has three 4-pole filters for the IF at 2.4kHz, 600Hz and 300Hz. They are automatically selected as the dedicated bandwidth knob is adjusted, resulting in smooth and clear filtering of CW stations.
I also have a Elecraft KX3 and while it has similar receiver specifications, listening to weak CW with it has a lot of digital artifacts that are not present on the Eagle. I can work a weak station with the Eagle and not be fatigued at the end of the qso.
It also has a nice ATU capable of matching up to 10:1 SWR antennas and of course supports SSB. It covers 160m-6m and can do FM if the 15kHz filter is installed.
Eagle beside its much older brother, the Ten-Tec Century/21
CW the way it was meant to be heard
The solar conditions have been extremely poor over the past week that I've used the rig and are likely to be this way for a few years to come. It's nice to have a rig that makes these poor conditions still enjoyable.
If you love CW do yourself a favor and try a Ten-Tec. They are pricey compared to other rigs and they do not come close competing on price-per-feature but Ten-Tec receivers make for amateur-radio bliss.
KX3 operating on internal battery. What a fantastic portable rig.
I took the BLT+ balanced line tuner out to the Excalibur antenna site to try it out on the doublet antenna that we put up last Saturday. This was the first test of that antenna (40m and 80m using a common feedpoint).
I didn't have much time today and after the first QSO it started to rain so I packed up and left before getting as much documented as I would have liked. I apologize for not recording the actual tuning process and the subsequent QSO.
BLT+ connected to open wire line (under the gloves) going to ta 40m Doublet at 65ft
I had the KX3 operating using its internal batteries and outputting 2w. I was running 2 watts because that is the most efficient PA mode for the KX3. I used the BLT+ to tune the 40m/80m doublet. Balanced line antennas perform better with a tuner designed for balanced line and this was a good test for both the tuner and the new antenna.
Portable shack, courtesy of three plastic chairs
I quickly matched the doublet using the BLT+ using the lowest impedance setting which is also the most efficient. I was glad to see that the BLT SWR LED indicator is bright enough to be seen in direct sunlight. I was wondering about that but you can definitely tell when it dims even in direct sunlight.
Performance
After quickly tuning up I sent my call two times and was promptly answered. The other station was running a Flex 6500 into a KPA500 and a OCF Windom at 50 feet.
He reported me as 559, while he was a 599. He was running a new KPA500 amp at 500w so we were a bit mismatched on power.
Interestingly the difference in 2w and 500w exactly matches the 4 S-Unit difference in our reports if you do the math (each increase in an S-unit requires quadruple the power).
AA4OO sitting back and listening to the QSO
Paul AA4XX kindly snapped some pictures while I was listening to the other operator. This is the Excalibur antenna site but the shack is outside the photo. The Doublet's feed line has not been brought to the shack yet so I was just sitting under the antenna. The open feed line is running along the ground for a bit which certainly didn't help the signal but we haven't installed the posts to carry the feed line over to the shack and I was too lazy to move the chairs far enough away to keep the feed line in the air. In the foreground is some saw-grass common on the NC coast. I'm not sure why it's growing this far inland.
Portable shack at the Excalibur antenna site... The Doublet is 65 feet above my head
Waiting my turn in the QSO... holding the Palm Single Paddle. BLT+ tuner in the chair to the right
Video
Here is a brief video showing how the BLT+ is connected to the Doublet...
Summary
The little BLT+ performed great with both balanced line antennas I've tried. It is easy to use and allows me to use my KX3 with balanced feed line antennas now. I encourage you to build the kit from Pacific Antenna / QRPKits.com .
I wanted to test the BLT+ Tuner portable with a ladder line fed Doublet but my time has been limited. After getting home from work one night I assembled a 40m Doublet fed by 450 Ohm ladder line in my driveway.
I pushed the Doublet up on my Jacktite pole and attached the ladder line to the BLT+ and attached the BLT to the KX3. I had the KX3 sitting on the deck table running on internal batteries.
BLT+ tuning the balanced line antenna
By the time I began my test it was quite dark except for the moon. My headlamp was out of batteries and I was operating by a floodlight up on the eve but I was determined to know how the tuner worked with my portable doublet.
Doublet on Push up pole. Moon in the background.
40m and 30m tuned up 1.0:1 using the high capacitance setting. Tuning was fast for each band using the SWR indicator LED. After tuning on 7030 and sending my call then again on 10110, I tried 14060. Although tuning 14m was a bit touchy it tuned using the low capacitance setting to around 1.5:1 SWR. After tuning I sent my call on 20m. Immediately I received a call from K7JHM, a QRP station in Utah (about 1700 miles away). We exchanged signal reports and station information although copy was a bit rough. I'd neglected to bring my earbuds out and the speaker on the KX3 is pretty poor.
However, the QRP to contact was a success on a portable antenna, tuned with the BLT+ driven by a rig running on internal double A batteries.
I didn't try higher bands because it was so late in the evening so I packed it all up declaring success.
Balanced line tuner doing it's job
Tuning 20m was a bit touchy because my total length of one leg of the doublet plus the feedline is too near a 1/2 wavelength on 20m. I need to add about 7 feet of ladderline to keep it from being near odd 1/8 wavelengths of the bands I want to tune. Or I could add 7 feet to each leg of the antenna. I will need to do that before the next test.
What does an S-Unit really mean and how can a QRP station sound like a 500w station?
The real gain doesn't come from transmitter watts
I rarely go up to the phone portion of the bands. Since I started doing QRP and CW last summer I think I've only made two SSB contacts just because my focus has been CW. But last night I was working on a bench project and tuned the Elecraft KX3 up to the phone portion of 40m for some entertainment.
A station in Rhode Island was testing his amp with a new antenna and was getting reports from various stateside operators. There was a lull where no one was answering his CQ so I thought I'd give him a call. He was peaking at S9 on my KX3's meter and he also sent me a signal report of S9 with some 10 over peaks. I then told him I was a QRP station running 10 watts and heard the usual surprised reaction from a QRO station.
I gave him reports as he switched back and forth from running barefoot ~75w to his amp ~500w. With his amp on he was an S9, running barefoot he was S8. So the amp gave him one additional S unit. In terms of hearing him I would have been hard pressed to tell much difference simply by volume. He was perfectly copyable without noise with the amp off.
We also did some tests with my station at reduced power (as if...) At 10w-12w output I received a S9 to S9+10. Reducing output to 5 watts netted me a S8 report and when I reduced to 1 watt (one watt) he was still able to comfortably copy me and I received an S5. So with my station at 1 watt and his running 500 watts we could still converse via SSB. Ladies and Gentlemen you don't need as much output wattage as you think you do.
He was running through a newly constructed homebrewed vertical while I was using my 80m OCF Dipole. We didn't discuss what sort of radial system he had installed, but the difference in antennas was likely the deciding difference in our stations. We were about 500 miles apart and his vertical probably had more low-takeoff gain than my dipole, or possibly more ground loss so I probably had better high angle gain on him for the short 500 mile skip. I think the take-away from this exercise is that the antenna is generally the key rather than transmitter power. If I can get 6 dB of gain from my antenna I have in essence quadrupled my effective radiated power. Quadrupled? Yes, Quadrupled effective output power.
Power and S-Units
You've probably heard it before but it's worth a refresher... Our radio's meter display a measurement in "S-Unit". To move the meter up one S-Unit the receiver must hear 6 more dB (decibels). So one S-Unit is 6 dB.
A decibel is:
A Power Ratio: dB = 10 Log P2/P1
A Voltage Ratio: dB = 20 Log V2/V1
You increase 3dB each time you DOUBLE your power
That's worth repeating...
You increase 3dB each time you DOUBLE your power. So to gain one S-Unit you must quadruple your power.
So if you are running 100 watts, to gain one S-Unit using the same antenna system you must increase your power to 400 watts. If you are running QRP SSB (10 watts) that is only 1.5 S-Units down from 100 watts. 100w / 2 (-3dB) = 50w / 2 (another -3dB or 1 S-Unit) = 25w... etc.
Antennas offer the cheapest increase in dB
Note the statement above "using the same antenna system". That's the key then isn't it? It's easier to get 6 dB of gain from an antenna than from wattage. A 40m doublet can offer significant directional gain especially when operated on higher bands. Now unless it's rotatable you will be at the mercy of the directionality of its lobes but if you have trees or tall structures you can very cheaply string up a few dipoles oriented in different directions and for far less money that a 500 watt amp (6 dB). If you can only have one wire antenna you may miss out on some DX in the antenna's nulls but you will have some stellar gain in the direction of the lobes. Of course rotatable yagis and beams are the best but now we are talking about real money again. I'm talking bang for the penny. You don't have to buy a wire antenna. Some Dacron rope or weed-eater line and some surplus insulated wire is all you need. You can even make your own feedline cheaply from electric fence wire and insulators.
We have a great hobby, but there are so many aspects of it that sound like common sense when they really are not... like increase your power.
Increasing power gains you very little compared to a better antenna systems.
That's all for now.
So lower your power and raise your expectations (or your antennas)
72/73 (Note: 72 is a common substitute for 73 among QRPers... as in "not enough power for 73")
Richard, N4PBQ
You can't always get what you want, but you try sometimes...
Recently I've dialed my normal 5 watts down to 1watt (one watt, singular) for all my contacts. To throw some water on the fire I've decided to use my attic antenna which weaves all around my metal ductwork and electrical wiring. Mostly this was to prove a point to myself but it may be enlightening to deed restricted hams that they can use a qrp radio and an attic antenna successfully.
Key lineup... Palm Single (paddle), Vibroplex Bug (circa 1970s), Kent Hand key
It only seems pointless until you try
Calling CQ with 1w QRPp into a poor attic antenna isn't as pointless as it would seem. I didn't have to wait long when calling CQ before I got an answer most of the time.
Now am I going to bust a pileup with 1 watt ? Possibly not but I think that my assumptions about both how much power I need and how big an antenna I need are usually out of proportion with reality.
1 mighty watt
My assumptions are often incorrect
I made QSOs on 30m, 20m, 17m and 10m this morning all at 1 watt. The solar conditions report was not really fantastic, especially for 10m. Yet 1 watt through the attic antenna bagged the only DX I heard on 10m. I had a couple of other multiple exchange contacts on 20m, 17m and one good old fashioned 25 minute long ragchew on 30m where I received a 599 report for my one watt from Bob (NR8M) in Ohio. Admittedly, Bob was booming in and we had good propagation to each other.
The recording below was number 4 or 5 this morning. I wanted to post this one because I was working another QRP station in Arkansas (K5EDM) and we did NOT have great propagation to each other. He was running 5w while I was running 1w so it was QRP to QRPp. In the video you can see that I'm using some of the KX3's tricks to pull the signal up because there was a lot of QSB and noise (note the GEOMAGNETIC FIELD UNSETTLED in the solar report).
I had the volume maxed and was using the RF gain control mostly. I eventually had to turn on the preamp which really washed me in noise but I dropped the RF gain more and eventually switched in the APF (audio peaking filter) which performed magic on this contact. Often I find that APF doesn't help but this time it made a big difference.
