donderdag 7 april 2016

Cylinder dipoles in the UBA CW 2016

In this UBA DX contest I experimented with  the new built Booster cylinder dipole.

Wingspan 55 cm
The Booster antenna is called Booster, because each cylinder is made out of 6 Energy Booster cans, that are cut open and bolted together. The length of the cylinders is 22 cm (9") and the wingspan of the antenna is 55 cm (22")
The booster is hanging in the dormer window at the second floor. The coil is wound on a 110 mm PVC tube and has 15 turns. The Booster resonates on 10 MHz.

The Booster - One cylinder is made of 4 cut open cans - PA1B

It took my a long time to discover the right setting of the tuner for the Booster on 20 m. At first I could not get a good matching at all on 20 m. The SWR was too high. At the end of the contest, I discovered the right setting for the tuner to get a SWR of 1:1  This is the setting that I always use on 10 m, with the inverted Vee. hi.

The Booster - Wing span 22" - PA1B

The table below shows the QSO's in chronological order.

Booster on 20 m 
The table shows that in the first 5 QSO's, I used the Booster on 20 m. The Booster is longer than the Monster, so I expected much of the Booster on 20 m. But I could not get a SWR of 1:1.


Taps at the center  - ONE turn apart - Click to enlarge
Monster (35 cm) on 20 m
After 5 QSO's, I was a bit disappointed. Just to make some QSO's, I decided to switch the shorter Monster energy can antenna, which is located in the the shack, also on 20 m . This antenna is easy to match. I could easily make two QSO's with UA.

Booster on 40 m
On Sunday morning I went to 40 m. I started with the twin lead two turns apart. I ended up with the twin lead connectors ONE turn apart to get a SWR of 1:1 

Monster on 15 m
The monster is doing fine on 15 m. A total of 8 QSO's were made on 15 m. The signals in QSO number 14 were very strong so I reduced to 800 mW.
QSO number 16 was with R0AA over a distance of 5200 km and was very easy to do.
<<  Read the details of the  QSO with R0AA >>  Click

Booster again on 20 m
My experimenting payed off. I found out by desperately playing around with the tuner, that I had to use a very strange setting of the tuner to get a SWR of 1:1   - Finally I got the Booster working on 20 m. With this setting the last two QSO's were easily made. hi.

UBA CW - Booster - Monster - PA1B
Wat een gein
De blikjes komen van de straat. Ik drink het niet zelf.
 Energy Booster  is verkrijgbaar bij Trekpleister voor 39 Eurocent.