21/2/2010 - APRS Glider Tracker
I recently purchased an MT8000 APRS tracker from Byonics. I intend to test the tracker in a friends glider, to see how far we can track a glider in flight using VHF radio. I use a similar system in my 4WD on HF and VHF.
Using a VHF Radio, a EEEPC running UIView32 and the tracker, I should be able to track the glider for some distance.
The tracker comes just as a circuit board. I placed the MT8000 in a homemade PVC tube case with access to the data port via a removable cap. Here it is with the cap removed.
Here is the VHF radio with TinyTrack4 running as digipeater to send positions to other stations to be gated to the internet.
Here is a screen shot from the computer showing the tracker position on a digital map.
I am really looking forward to testing it in the air.
David
24/1/2010
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24/1/2010 - 52 MHz 5 element Yagi based on YU7EF
I finally got around to constructing a 5 element yagi for 6 meters. As a VK standard call, I am restricted to 52MHz - 54 MHz.
No antenna designs I could find were optimised for 52 MHz, and many operators complain thy cannot use their yagi at 52 MHz. After looking at many different designs, my choice finally came down to that which suited the materials that I had, particularly the 12 mm tubing. The tubing diameter makes quite a bit of difference to the design. Only one of the designs I examined suited 12 mm tubing without some redesigning. I would have loved to make a long yagi, but the 6 element design required a boom about 400 mm longer than my materials, so I settled for the 5 element with a boom length of 4 metres.
The final design was-
Spacings RE 0
DE 1.012
D1 1.315
D2 2.486
D3 3.999
Element Lengths
RE 2.850
DE 2.833
D1 2.661
D2 2.600
D3 2.489
Boom 32 mm x 32 mm square section.
If you use these measurements, elements must be insulated from the boom. I haven't modeled this, but feed impedance should be 50 ohm.
My finished yagi with reflector on the ground pointing at the sky leaning on a tree had SWR of 1.3:1.
I hope more standard calls will make this antenna.
David
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13/1/2010 - Nice PSK to Finland- Perfect Example of Greyline Propagation on 15 meter 21 MHz
I made a nice PSK31 QSO with OH4TI, a great example of greyline propagation
VK4MDX>> OH4TI in KP31IX on 21.0700 PSK 599 > QH30IO @ 13444.5km 332°
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11/1/2010 - WSPR 80m
2010-01-10 19:32 VK4MDX 7.040090 -3 0 QH30io 2 VK7FGMH QE37na 2623 179 2010-01-10 18:52 VK4MDX 7.040107 -25 0 QH30io 2 DG5VO JO71dd 14581 322 2010-01-10 18:28 VK4MDX 7.040095 -24 0 QH30io 2 ZS6BB KG43 11582 235 2010-01-10 18:28 VK4MDX 7.040092 -24 0 QH30io 2 DL2FCQ JO40ie 14983 323 2010-01-10 18:28 VK4MDX 7.040093 -21 0 QH30io 2 F4VNS JN36hc 15324 319 2010-01-10 17:40 VK4MDX 7.040093 -26 1 QH30io 2 F1RXM JN05du 15765 321 2010-01-10 17:26 VK4MDX 7.040090 -22 0 QH30io 2 DH5RAE JN68pv 14741 320 2010-01-10 17:26 VK4MDX 7.040099 -27 0 QH30io 2 DK5EC JO30or 15047 324 2010-01-10 17:16 VK4MDX 7.040096 -23 0 QH30io 2 ON6VL JO20kq 15191 325 2010-01-10 16:46 VK4MDX 7.040090 -28 0 QH30io 2 2E0LIB IO93bg 15387 332 2010-01-10 16:46 VK4MDX 7.040098 -23 1 QH30io 2 G4NRG JO02mm 15291 329 2010-01-10 16:32 VK4MDX 7.040114 -19 0 QH30io 2 DK5AI JO51go 14797 324 2010-01-10 16:32 VK4MDX 7.040093 -22 0 QH30io 2 ON3TDI JO21fg 15181 326 2010-01-10 16:32 VK4MDX 7.040091 -22 0 QH30io 2 G4CAO IO91si 15452 329 2010-01-10 16:32 VK4MDX 7.040017 -18 0 QH30io 2 ON4SAR JO21ce 15201 326 2010-01-10 16:32 VK4MDX 7.040097 -26 0 QH30io 2 G3JKF JO00bs 15461 328 2010-01-10 16:32 VK4MDX 7.040077 -20 0 QH30io 2 WA6MTZ DM14pw 11808 58 2010-01-10 16:08 VK4MDX 7.040197 -26 0 QH30io 2 RN9AOM MO02el 11464 321 2010-01-10 16:08 VK4MDX 7.040087 -11 0 QH30io 2 WA7KGX CN85no 11565 46 2010-01-10 16:08 VK4MDX 7.040090 -26 0 QH30io 2 OH2GQC KP20if 13615 330 2010-01-10 16:08 VK4MDX 7.040105 -26 0 QH30io 2 EB4APL IN80ck 16364 316 2010-01-10 16:08 VK4MDX 7.040070 -25 0 QH30io 2 DD1BT JO43bi 14847 327 2010-01-10 16:08 VK4MDX 7.040096 -28 0 QH30io 2 GW0NKG IO81fm 15602 331 2010-01-10 16:08 VK4MDX 7.040108 -16 0 QH30io 2 JE5FLM PM74 6118 348 2010-01-10 16:08 VK4MDX 7.040100 -26 0 QH30io 2 DJ5SQ JN37tx 15164 321 2010-01-10 16:08 VK4MDX 7.040089 -19 0 QH30io 2 DC4FS JO33vn 14854 327 2010-01-10 15:56 VK4MDX 7.040091 -21 0 QH30io 2 DG4BCL JO43qc 14789 326 2010-01-10 15:56 VK4MDX 7.040087 -20 0 QH30io 2 F1RZV JN18fn 15465 324 2010-01-10 15:56 VK4MDX 7.040091 -24 0 QH30io 2 G3WPD IO91qq 15438 329 2010-01-10 15:56 VK4MDX 7.040096 -28 0 QH30io 2 DJ2SEA JO30cs 15106 325 2010-01-10 15:56 VK4MDX 7.040192 -29 0 QH30io 2 G7GCI IO91tt 15416 329 2010-01-10 15:42 VK4MDX 7.040101 -21 0 QH30io 2 W7RDP CN87xo 11677 44 2010-01-10 15:42 VK4MDX 7.040099 -14 0 QH30io 2 NN6RF CM87uw 11402 54 2010-01-10 15:42 VK4MDX 7.040104 -9 0 QH30io 2 W7YKM CN96pr 11756 45 2010-01-10 15:30 VK4MDX 7.040107 -25 0 QH30io 2 DH1VY JN39kf 15149 322 2010-01-10 15:30 VK4MDX 7.040097 -22 0 QH30io 2 DL4OBE JN48mr 15033 321 2010-01-10 15:30 VK4MDX 7.040090 -20 0 QH30io 2 ON3MAJ JN29wn 15194 323 2010-01-10 15:30 VK4MDX 7.040107 -20 0 QH30io 2 DF1GU JN47tp 15045 319 2010-01-10 15:18 VK4MDX 7.040085 -26 0 QH30io 2 G4PEC IO95ga 15235 334 2010-01-10 15:06 VK4MDX 7.040091 -20 0 QH30io 2 DL1FX JN49gs 15014 322 2010-01-10 15:06 VK4MDX 7.040097 -19 0 QH30io 2 DL9NEF JN59ns 14847 321 2010-01-10 15:06 VK4MDX 7.040094 -21 0 QH30io 2 ON3LA JN29wn 15194 323 2010-01-10 15:06 VK4MDX 7.040109 -25 0 QH30io 2 W6SZ DM14ed 11706 59 2010-01-10 15:06 VK4MDX 7.040090 -27 0 QH30io 2 DK3SML JN49sf 14976 321 2010-01-10 15:06 VK4MDX 7.040099 -20 1 QH30io 2 DJ9NZ JN49gb 15050 322 2010-01-10 15:06 VK4MDX 7.040092 -24 0 QH30io 2 DF9QT JO30or 15047 324 2010-01-10 15:06 VK4MDX 7.040094 -20 0 QH30io 2 PA1SOP JO22hh 15108 327 2010-01-10 15:06 VK4MDX 7.040061 -18 0 QH30io 2 DL4FJ JN49ku 14989 322 2010-01-10 14:54 VK4MDX 7.040089 -22 0 QH30io 2 KC8YJB EN91 14904 50 2010-01-10 14:40 VK4MDX 7.040089 -27 0 QH30io 2 W8LIW EN81go 14705 51
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9/1/2010 - Sunspot 1035 Reborn
From www.spaceweather.com Old and decaying sunspot 1035, declared to be "a corpse" just yesterday, is showing signs of renewed life. Pete Lawrence sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Selsey, UK:
"A welcome view of the sun on a cold January day reveals the remains of AR11035 still alive and kicking," says Lawrence. Beneath the waving filaments and bright magnetic froth ("plage"), a dark core is coelescing in the heart of the active region. That makes it a genuine sunspot again. NOAA has re-numbered the region "1040,
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7/1/2010 - Spotless Sun for Now
From www.spaceweather.com
SUNSPOT CORPSE: After a two-week trip around the farside of the sun, sunspot 1035 has returned, but it not a sunspot anymore. Where there was once a dark-cored behemoth crackling with solar flares, there is now just a quiet splash of magnetic froth. Call it a "sunspot corpse":
Because corpses do not count, today's sunspot number is zero. This is the first blank (spotless) sun of 2010. So far this year, the sun has been blank about 17% of the time--a sharp reversal from the 71% rate of blank suns in 2009.
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6/1/2010 - Weak Signal Propagation Reporter on 80m Overnight
| Timestamp |
Call |
MHz |
SNR |
Drift |
Grid |
Pwr |
Reporter |
RGrid |
km |
az |
| 2010-01-05 18:54 |
VK4MDX |
3.594096 |
-25 |
0 |
QH30io |
2 |
LA3JJ |
JO59bh |
14393 |
333 |
| 2010-01-05 17:50 |
VK4MDX |
3.594099 |
-19 |
0 |
QH30io |
2 |
JF3MKC |
PM74xm |
6102 |
349 |
| 2010-01-05 17:08 |
VK4MDX |
3.594066 |
-23 |
0 |
QH30io |
2 |
DO1TP |
JO31lc |
15042 |
325 |
| 2010-01-05 16:22 |
VK4MDX |
3.594092 |
-22 |
-1 |
QH30io |
2 |
AL2F |
BO49et |
10403 |
26 |
| 2010-01-05 15:20 |
VK4MDX |
1.838096 |
-26 |
0 |
QH30io |
2 |
JASWL |
PM95tg |
6124 |
353 |
| 2010-01-05 14:48 |
VK4MDX |
3.594101 |
-27 |
0 |
QH30io |
2 |
W6SZ |
DM14ed |
11706 |
59 |
| Timestamp |
Call |
MHz |
SNR |
Drift |
Grid |
Pwr |
Reporter |
RGrid |
km |
az |
| 2010-01-05 19:58 |
DH5RAE |
3.594185 |
-19 |
0 |
JN68pv |
5 |
VK4MDX |
QH30io |
14741 |
68 |
| 2010-01-05 19:58 |
DJ9PC |
3.594115 |
-13 |
0 |
JN59po |
501 |
VK4MDX |
QH30io |
14844 |
66 |
| 2010-01-05 19:52 |
DJ0ABR |
3.594194 |
-20 |
0 |
JN68nt |
1 |
VK4MDX |
QH30io |
14755 |
68 |
| 2010-01-05 19:52 |
OH8GKP |
3.594112 |
-24 |
0 |
KP24qt |
1 |
VK4MDX |
QH30io |
13412 |
69 |
| 2010-01-05 19:48 |
DM3XRF |
3.594093 |
-18 |
-1 |
JN39pi |
10 |
VK4MDX |
QH30io |
15116 |
62 |
| 2010-01-05 19:44 |
DJ5SQ |
3.594049 |
-23 |
-1 |
JN37tx |
10 |
VK4MDX |
QH30io |
15164 |
64 |
| 2010-01-05 18:00 |
G8IHT |
3.594070 |
-25 |
0 |
IO94gi |
20 |
VK4MDX |
QH30io |
15286 |
47 |
| 2010-01-05 15:48 |
OH5RM |
3.594047 |
-21 |
0 |
KP30jr |
20 |
VK4MDX |
QH30io |
13489 |
73 |
| 2010-01-05 15:24 |
AL2F |
3.594118 |
-26 |
-1 |
BO49et |
5 |
VK4MDX |
QH30io |
10403 |
236 |
| 2010-01-05 15:08 |
UA0SNV |
3.594121 |
-24 |
-1 |
OO17hx |
10 |
VK4MDX |
QH30io |
9512 |
139 |
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5/1/2010 - Sunspots Continue
From spaceweather.com
Sunspot 1039 is about to disappear over the sun's western limb, but the sun won't remain blank for long. Another active region is approaching from the east, shown here in a Jan. 5th image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory:
The approaching region is old sunspot 1035. It has been transiting the far side of the sun since Dec. 20th.
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4/1/2010 - SSTV and Webcam Fun
With the addition of Ham Radio Deluxe and DM780, I can now feed SSTV images direct to my website. I set up a page from my ham radio pages at www.djolsen.com/ham/vk4mdx.html. The SSTV page direct link is here.
Once I did that, I decided a live web cam feed when I am on air would be fun, so using the same EEPC as runs DM780 and HRD, I added a program called Tincam to feed live webcam images (when I want to) to my web site. The main page for this is at www.djolsen.com/ham/cam/cam.html, the first image from this page then is copied to an image on my shack page kinda cool really.
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3/1/2010 - Sunspot 1039 Active
From www.spaceweather.com
Sunspot 1039 is putting on a good show for amateur astronomers. "The active region sizzled and popped as I photographed it on Dec. 31st," reports Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California. Click on the image to view two hours of action:
"It is quite interesting to watch as energy surges and swirls around the sunspot's dark cores," he says.
2010 appears to be picking up where 2009 left off--with sunspot activity on the rise.
Lets hope the increased sunspot activitiy continues to improve radio propogation.
David
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1/1/2010 - First 2m contacts via Tropospheric Ducting
Tropospheric ducting on 31/12/09 provided me with my first contacts on 144 MHz 2 meter band. 144 MHz is usually good for short distance almost line of site type contacts, but tropospheric ducting is one mechanism which can provide long distance communications on this band.
My contacts were all VK3 (Victoria)
VK3MY
VK3AMZ
VK3KH
VK3XPD
VK3AUU
VK3AMZ
VK3ZZF
VK3HJ
Mostly around the 2000 kilometer mark.
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31/12/2009 - Ever Increasing Sunspot Activity
Solar Cycle 24 could hold some surprises yet.
Sunspot activity is on the increase.
December 30 forecast from the U.S. Air
Force predicts a solar flux value of 79 from December 31 to January
3, 80 for January 4-9, and 85 for January 10-18. They also predict
a steady and stable planetary A index of five through February 13.
Geophysical Institute Prague predicts quiet for the first week of
January. You can get an update on the Air Force/NOAA prediction
after 2100 UTC at,
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/forecasts/45DF.html.
Since December 26 we've been blessed with new sunspot group 1039,
which is now just past the zero degree meridian, referenced to
Earth. This is the spot in the center of the solar image. This is
the sixth new sunspot group to emerge in December.
After today we will know the three-month moving daily sunspot
average centered on November, and it looks close to the average
centered on August, 2007, which was 10.17. The moving average has
not been above ten since then. The daily average for the month of
December should be close to 15.7, the highest monthly average since
March, 2008.
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30/12/2009 - 80m Weak Signal WSPR Overnight
Heard Me
Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az
2009-12-29 18:12 VK4MDX 3.594097 -30 0 QH30io 5 G0KTN IO81ti 15554 330
2009-12-29 17:44 VK4MDX 3.594095 -23 0 QH30io 5 DH5RAE JN68pv 14741 320
2009-12-29 16:58 VK4MDX 3.594084 -19 0 QH30io 5 DL0TUH JO43xl 14735 326
2009-12-29 15:40 VK4MDX 3.594093 -17 0 QH30io 5 JA1XRH PM95tp 6166 353
2009-12-29 14:24 VK4MDX 3.594099 -23 0 QH30io 5 N7KJW DM43au 12211 60
2009-12-29 12:56 VK4MDX 3.594095 -24 0 QH30io 5 N8AYY EN72 14557 50
2009-12-29 12:34 VK4MDX 3.594099 -18 0 QH30io 5 JF3MKC PM74xm 6102 349
2009-12-29 12:34 VK4MDX 3.594094 -27 0 QH30io 5 VE6OG DO33fn 12368 39
2009-12-29 12:34 VK4MDX 3.594098 -22 0 QH30io 5 NN6RF CM87uw 11402 54
Heard By Me
Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az
2009-12-29 18:30 OH5RM 3.594192 -17 0 KP30jr 10 VK4MDX QH30io 13489 73
2009-12-29 17:50 DH5RAE 3.594186 -22 0 JN68pv 5 VK4MDX QH30io 14741 68
2009-12-29 14:06 VE6OG 3.594172 -24 0 DO33fn 10 VK4MDX QH30io 12368 266
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28/12/2009 - Solar Activity- A Better 2010
From www.spaceweather.com SOLAR ACTIVITY INTENSIFIES: 2009 is ending with a flurry of sunspots. The latest is sunspot 1039, which formed yesterday and is now crackling with low-level solar flares. Cai-Uso Wohler sends this picture of a B-class eruption from his backyard observatory in Bispingen, Germany: So far, 65% of the days in December have brought sunspots--a sharp increase in percentages compared to earlier months of 2009 when sunspots were surpassingly rare. All six of December's sunspot groups have been members of new Solar Cycle 24. These numbers could herald the sun's awakening from the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century and a livelier sun in 2010. Stay tuned.
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21/12/2009 - Away from Radios For Xmas- Increased Solar Activity
Old Murphy is hard at work :-)
I am away from my radios for 14 days, and we have three sets of cycle 24 sunspots on the sun.
Oh well such is Amatuer Radio
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14/12/2009 - My 6m Yagi Design Dilemma
Being a standard call, I wanted to design a yagi I could use on 52 MHz. I downloaded Quick Yagi 4 (QY4) and fed the numbers required into the program. I added a folded dipole with 100mm spacing to simplify matching and ran QY4. I ran the optimised for gain option. The resulting antenna showed a good plot on QY4.
Not knowing anything about QY4 credentials, I decided to model the suggested antenna in NEC. Being a Mac man, I run CocoaNEC. The resulting plot was to say the least not impressive. I've checked my work for errors, removed the folded dipole in NEC, removed elements etc. Interestingly removing Director 3 which is the odd one out in terms of length progression, improves the antenna. The plot on QY4 shows very small rearward lobes but the plot on CocoaNEC shows a huge rearward lobe. Do I trust QY4 or CNEC?
Do I just build it and adjust using a FS meter?
Here is the QY4 Data
Operating Freq 52.1MHz
Reflector length 2.87849m
Fed element Length 2.71749m
Reflector spacing 1.02323m
Number Directors 4
Element Dia 13mm
Result gain 11.91
F/B 26.21
Imped. 53-2 - j0 Ohms
The plot looked excellent
Here is the CCNEC data
// My 6 element 6 meter for 52 MHz model( "simple Yagi-Uda" )
{ real height, length, separation, reflector ; element driven ;
height = 8; length = 1.365875 ;
separation = 1.02323 ;
setFrequency( 52.1 ) ;
// driven element
driven = wire( 0, -length, height, 0, length, height, 0.013, 21 ) ;
voltageFeed( driven, 1, 0 ) ;
//driven folded dipole lower
wire(0, -length, height-0.1, 0, length, height-0.1, 0.013, 21 ) ;
//driven connection to bottom
wire(0, -length, height-0.1, 0, -length, height, 0.013, 21 ) ;
//driven connection to bottom wire(0, length, height-0.1, 0, length, height, 0.013, 21 ) ;
//reflector, placed behind (negative x axis) the driven element
wire( -separation, -1.439245, height, -separation, 1.439245, height, 0.013, 21 ) ;
//Director 1
wire( .844753, -1.34225, height, .844753, 1.34225, height, 0.013, 21 ) ;
//Director 2
wire( 1.92563, -1.28019, height, 1.92563, 1.28019, height, 0.013, 21 ) ;
//Director 3
wire( 3.23865, -1.314185, height, 3.23865, 1.314185 , height, 0.013, 21 ) ;
//Director 4
wire( 4.96497, -1.25992, height, 4.96497, 1.25992 , height, 0.013, 21 ) ;
//
freespace() ;}
The resulting plot looks like this
Here is D3 removed
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12/12/2009 - Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) - 80m Contacts Last Night
I've enjoyed exploring 80m and 40m with just 2W on WSPR.
Here are last nights contacts.
2009-12-11 15:40 VK4MDX 3.594099 -28 0 QH30io 1 JF3MKC PM74xm 6102 349
2009-12-11 13:36 VK4MDX 3.594089 -18 0 QH30io 1 VK2UB QF59vk 1343 159
2009-12-11 15:32 VE6OG 3.594171 -23 0 DO33fn 20 VK4MDX QH30io 12368 266
2009-12-11 13:34 VK2UB 3.594162 -17 0 QF59vk 2 VK4MDX QH30io 1343 336
2009-12-11 13:24 WA7KGX 3.594199 -10 0 CN85no 100 VK4MDX QH30io 11565 256
And on 40m
2009-12-11 13:12 VK4MDX 7.040101 -26 0 QH30io 1 WB4HYY EM73tv 14746 61
2009-12-11 13:12 VK4MDX 7.040098 -25 0 QH30io 1 K1BZ FM19ne 15310 53
2009-12-11 13:12 VK4MDX 7.040093 -29 0 QH30io 1 VE1VDM FN85ij 16023 37
2009-12-11 13:04 VK4MDX 7.040088 -24 0 QH30io 1 W3GXT FM19ol 15308 52
2009-12-11 10:36 VK4MDX 7.040095 -25 0 QH30io 2 LA9JO JP99gb 13480 341
2009-12-11 10:28 VK4MDX 7.040105 -28 0 QH30io 2 EI7JQ IO63px 15554 336
2009-12-11 10:10 VK4MDX 7.040093 -23 0 QH30io 2 JASWL/P PM95tg 6124 353
2009-12-11 10:04 VK4MDX 7.040178 -25 0 QH30io 2 W1JSB FN43en 15557 44
2009-12-11 10:04 VK4MDX 7.040102 -28 0 QH30io 2 W1XP FN42fo 15607 46
2009-12-11 10:04 VK4MDX 7.040097 -7 0 QH30io 2 VK2ZEJ QF43hn 1904 175
2009-12-11 10:04 VK4MDX 7.040090 -5 0 QH30io 2 VK3XOR QF22mh 2040 184
2009-12-11 10:04 VK4MDX 7.040105 -5 0 QH30io 2 7L4IOU PM95wr 6172 353
2009-12-11 10:04 VK4MDX 7.040113 -23 0 QH30io 2 N1PQ FN42fm 15611 46
2009-12-11 09:54 VK4MDX 7.040086 -17 0 QH30io 2 WA7KGX CN85no 11565 46
2009-12-10 21:30 VK4MDX 7.040088 -4 -1 QH30io 5 VK2KWY QF56gh 1634 167
2009-12-10 20:56 VK4MDX 7.040091 -20 0 QH30io 5 VK6POP OF88bd 3349 239
2009-12-10 20:56 VK4MDX 7.040095 +3 1 QH30io 5 VK2UB QF59vk 1343 159
2009-12-11 13:08 EI7JQ 7.040135 -21 0 IO63px 5 VK4MDX QH30io 15554 41
2009-12-11 13:06 W3GXT 7.040122 -24 0 FM19ol 5 VK4MDX QH30io 15308 285
2009-12-11 11:06 T97JGT 7.040055 -33 0 ID90 1 VK4MDX QH30io 10764 150
2009-12-11 10:06 VK2ZEJ 7.040112 -1 0 QF43hn 5 VK4MDX QH30io 1904 354
2009-12-11 09:32 WA7KGX 7.040197 -17 0 CN85no 100 VK4MDX QH30io 11565 256
2009-12-10 21:50 VK6BN 7.040157 -24 0 OF88ac 10 VK4MDX QH30io 3358 73
2009-12-10 21:28 VK2KWY 7.040103 -16 -1 QF56gh 5 VK4MDX QH30io 1634 346
2009-12-10 21:00 VK2UB 7.040176 -1 1 QF59vk 2 VK4MDX QH30io 1343 336
2009-12-10 20:54 7L4IOU 7.040087 -21 0 PM95wr 5 VK4MDX QH30io 6172 172
2009-12-10 20:48 VK6POP 7.040121 -25 -1 OF88bd 10 VK4MDX QH30io 3349 73
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8/12/2009 - Keeping the 706MKIIG Cool in a North Queensland Summer
My Icom 706MkIIG is my main transceiver , and as such gets used quite a bit. A typical day may see me up around dawn looking for meteor scatter on 6M or tropo on 2m, or just having a chat on 80 meters. Then if I am in the office (my office doubles as my shack) for the day then I will switch over to WSPR. So the rig spends quite a bit of time doing digital Tx either for MS or DX via JT65 or WSPR, and with the summer temperatures running in the high 30 degrees C, the 706 gets awfully hot. Today I set about getting a few bits and pieces together to keep the radio cool.
The 706MkIIG has an internal fan of the same type used to cool computers. It only operates when the internal temperature reaches something like 60 deg C. Such a temperature is in my view (and that of most others) too high for electronic components. Most people who do heavy duty operations such as digital, modify the fan to operate all of the time at reduced speed. This is a relatively simple modification but can be a bit fiddly. A good fine point soldering iron is required.
Details of the mod can be found by google search using key words "706MkIIG fan mod". In addition, I installed a second cooling fan on the main external heat-sink at the rear of the 706. This fan is a 40mm computer fan held in place by rawl plugs inserted into the heat-sink fins. The heat coming off this fan is quite impressive, so it must be doing a good job. It is however quite noisy. Some people slow the fan down using a resistor in series, but in tropical north Queensland with temperatures at ridiculous levels at present, I'll put up with the noise.
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6/12/2009 - Travel, Mobile DX and Antennas
I've been on the road quite a bit and fitted the 706MKIIG to the 4WD for APRS, but the Tiny Track was not working. More on that later. For phone on HF, I had the Barrett 950 and 910 autotune antenna.
While traveling in a pretty emote area at night, I put out a few CQ calls on the 40 meter band, and was answered by a couple of VKs. At the end of this, when I was about to sign, a Philippines Station with a boomer signal called me and told me I was 20dB over from my mobile to him in the Philippines!
Once home I worked on the Tinytrack and transfered the 706 back to the shack. I found my ZS6BKW antenna on the ground, so had to reinstall it into the trees.
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15/11/2009 - More Weak Signal (WSPR) Contacts
Here are my latest spots on WSPR.
2009-11-15 10:36 VK4MDX 3.594133 -24 0 QH30io 0.1 ZL2RX RE68pr 3498 140
2009-11-15 10:36 VK4MDX 3.594101 -15 0 QH30io 0.1 KG6DX QK23kl 3661 357
2009-11-14 18:36 VK4MDX 7.040096 -27 0 QH30io 5 OZ1PIF JO65an 14506 328
2009-11-14 16:16 VK4MDX 7.040117 -19 0 QH30io 50 NN6RF CM87uw 11402 54
2009-11-14 16:16 VK4MDX 7.040102 -12 0 QH30io 50 W7RDP CN87xo 11677 44
2009-11-14 16:16 VK4MDX 7.040098 -17 0 QH30io 50 ZS6BIM KG44df 11682 235
2009-11-14 14:38 VK4MDX 7.040083 -5 -1 QH30io 50 KE7NVX DM07bm 11597 55
2009-11-14 14:38 VK4MDX 7.040140 -23 0 QH30io 50 WA7NWP CN87wq 11673 44
2009-11-14 14:38 VK4MDX 7.040080 -4 0 QH30io 50 W6PDD DM04nf 11597 58
2009-11-14 14:38 VK4MDX 7.040099 -14 0 QH30io 50 W5CGC EM12kx 13564 63
2009-11-14 14:34 VK4MDX 7.040100 +11 0 QH30io 50 VK4YEH QG62ll 1105 146
2009-11-14 14:34 VK4MDX 7.040098 -21 0 QH30io 50 DF6XL JO41kw 14881 325
2009-11-14 14:34 VK4MDX 7.040093 -21 0 QH30io 50 JASWL PM95tg 6124 353
2009-11-14 14:34 VK4MDX 7.040094 -15 0 QH30io 50 EI9FV IO63vk 15577 335
2009-11-14 14:34 VK4MDX 7.040097 -15 0 QH30io 50 G3JKF JO00al 15485 328
2009-11-14 14:34 VK4MDX 7.040090 -8 0 QH30io 50 G0ECI IO92 15403
73, VK4MDX
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