Quite a distance

The 15" cylinder dipole amazes me time and time again.

Today I was surprised by the cylinder dipole that is made of two  Monster  energy  cans  and a coil that hangs inside the shack, on the first floor. This antenna with a length of 15 inches, has proven before, that it is doing fine on 21 MHz. After a number of QSOs's with Russia and the Ukrain, I made a QSO deep in to Russia.

An hour before the end of the UBA DX contest, I met Alexander R0AA from Atsjinsk. (Ачинск) My paper notes states that the QSO was easy. (makkelijk). This was QSO number 16 in the contest.

Later I realized that R0 must be deep in to Russia. On the map I saw that Atsjinsk lays east of Kazakhstan and north of Mongolia. hi. The distance is 5223 km or 3245 Miles. WOW.

R0AA - PA1B - 5223 km  - Cylinder dipole 15" - 4 watts 

One coil and Two Monster cans
Really amazing. HI.

140 QSO's with the cylinder dipole

Since the ARI contest in May 2015, I made 140 QSO's with 3 types of cylinder dipoles. The table shows the 3 different cylinder dipoles that I used, in several contest in 2015 and 2016.

Build  - Work - Analyse

I made this table to show the number of QSO's, that were made, with each of the three types of cylinder dipoles that I have build.

Number of QSO's with different Cylinder Dipoles - PA1B

I used the Red Bull antenna in the ARI contest on 20 m and 40 m. At that moment 15 m and 10 m showed no activity. But the propagation on 20 m and 40 m  was excellent.
The 6 QSO's on 10 m were made in two different 10 m contests.

The Monster antenna, made of two Monster cans of 500 ml is an excellent, easy to build indoor antenna for 15 m, but also works on 20 m. The table show that it works better on 15 m that on 20 m.

The Booster with it's wingspan of 55 cm (22") is build for 20 m and 30 m and is until now, only used in the PACC.
In the PACC I made 27 QSO's on 40 m. The Booster works on 40 m and 20 m. In the PACC there was more activity on 40 m than on 20 m. But I suspect that the booster works best on 20 m,

The used the cylinder dipoles indoor from the shack or from a dormer window at the second floor, with a power of 4 W or less.

Cylinder dipole in PACC

Booster - Cylinder dipole 22"

In the PACC I used a new cylinder dipole, that I have build recently.
I built the Booster to experiment with larger cylinders and a larger coil. To go below 15 m.

The  Booster  has two cylinders, that each are made
of 4  Energy Booster  cans of aluminium, that are cut open and bolted together. The length of each cylinder is 22 cm. The wing span of the dipole is 22 inches. The coil former has a diameter of 110 mm and the coil has 15 turns. The taps are two turns apart. The Booster resonates at 10 MHz.

The cylinder of 4 cans PA1B

On Friday I made the coil and just before the contest I made the taps on the coil. During the contest I used the taps that are two turns apart. The Booster could not be MATCHED with the taps 4 turns apart. I suspect that the impedance on the end of the twin lead in the shack is too low, or too high, for my symmetrical tuner. So I switched to the taps that are 2 turns apart. I later realized that I did not try taps that are one turn apart.

I started with checking the MATCHING of the Booster on 15 m, 20 m and 40 m. Matching on 15 m and 40 m is very easy. Matching on 20 m is difficult.

Before the PACC, I made the first QSO with the   Booster   on 40 m, with 7S6WRD from Sweden. My RST was 339. hi. Not a very strong signal, but it works.

PA1B in the PACC 2016 

PACC    

I made a total of 32 QSO's with the Booster. 25 QSO's were made on 40 m with 3 W and 2 QSO's with 150 mW. On 20 m I made 5 QSO's with 4 W.

I had no intention to make hundreds of QSO's, but I wanted to know, how the Booster would work. 

Saturday

On 15 m and 20 m there was no activity, So I started on 7 MHz. The first 3 QSO's were made with 2 Dutch stations (PA) and with F5IN, all with S&P. Then I stopped to visit some friend.

Around 17:00 utc, I started again on 40 m. I decided to give CQ. To my surprise, I was visited by stations from DL, HA, OE, OK (4), SM and UA (3). I was pleasantly surprise by the stations from Russia that answered my CQ, over a distance of more than 1300 miles.

Sunday

Sunday morning on 40 m gave a mix of stations from PA and DL. When the propagation peaked, I could QSO with PI4CC and with DL5JQ using just 150 mW. WOW. But in the next QSO's I needed a power of 3 watt. hi.

At about 11 utc I went to 20 m and made 5 QSO's with 5 DXCC countries, all QSO's with 4 W.

During the contest I frequently went to 20 m and 15 m. Most activity was on 40 m, as you can see in the table.

The Booster is doing fine on 40 m and 20 m. I worked 10 DXCC countries from the dormer window with the Booster at a height of 7 meters above the ground.

Cylinder Dipole by PA1B  -  Taps two turns apart
Click to enlarge

Cutting the cans  -  Mooi schaartje hè.

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

QRPp QSO with the Booster

In the PACC I tested a new cylinder dipole - The Booster. I tested on 7 MHz and 14 MHz with 3 or 4 watts. I use my cylinder dipoles as indoor antennas. I placed the Booster in the dormer window.(dakkapel).

As a milliwatt enthusiast, I enjoyed to make 2 QSO's with QRPp, which is less than 1 W.
When the propagation peaked on Sunday morning, I heard PI4CC, with a very loud signal. S9⁺⁺.  I reduced to 150 mW, before answering their CQ and made the QSO. In the next QSO with Erhard DL5JQ, I also used 150 mW. His signal was also very strong, S9⁺⁺. In the next QSO I first tried 150 mW, but I needed the full power of 3 watts to be heard. hi.

Yesterday I answered the eQSL of this very special QSO, with Erhard DL5JQ. After answering the eQSL,  I have sent Erhard an email via eQSL to inform him of my power and my antenna.

Hallo Erhard,
Fabelhaft!! Dein Signal war sehr stark. S9⁺⁺. Ich habe in unserem QSO, einer Leistung von 150 mW verwendet. QRPp. Ich bin ein begeisterter Milliwatter. Wenn die S-Meter nach oben geht, geht meine Leistung nach unten.

In diese PACC habe Ich einen Zylinder Dipol versucht. Meine Antenne ist eine zylindrische Dipol in der Dachgaube. Die Flügelspannweite beträgt 55 cm. Informationen über die Antenne:
http://pa1b-qrp.blogspot.nl/2016/02/the-booster.html
Aber schauen Sie sich auch, das Etikett Cylinder dipole an.

Dank für das nette QSO. Ich hoffe du nächstes Mal zu treffen, mit niedriger Leistung. hi.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Bert PA1B

DL5JQ  - 40 meter  - 150 mW  -  Booster

OK dear Erhard, thanks for the nice QSO and eQSL.

The Booster

First light for the Booster (hi)

The Booster is a cylinder dipole. The two cylinders, are each made from 6 Energy Booster cans from aluminium, that are cut open and bolted together.

Cutting the Energy Booster cans. Click to enlarge

I built the Booster to experiment with larger cylinders and a larger coil to work on 14 MHz and 7 MHz.

The Booster has twice the size of the Red Bull antenna.

The length of each cylinders is 22 cm. The wing span of the dipole is 22 inches. The coil former has a diameter of 110 mm and the coil has 15 turns. The taps are two turns apart.

The Booster resonates just above 10 MHz.

Giving CQ on 40 m with just less than 3 W on the Booster, resulted in contest QSO's with  DL (1), HA (1), OE (1), OK (4), SM (1) and UA (3)

The Booster in the dormer window (dakkapel) PA1B

Taps two turns apart. PA1B

UN3M on the Red Bull antenna

When I putted the Red Bull antenna into use in the ARI contest, I made 9 QSO's on 14 MHz and even 1 QSO on 7 MHz. At that moment I did not know that the conditions were extremely good. The Red Bull antenna with the coil of 14 turns on a tube of 40 mm, resonates on 26 MHz.

So now I was curious, how the Red Bull antenna would do on 28 MHz. 

I decided to participate in the DARC 10 meter contest, to make QSO's with the Red Bull antenna. A contest for 10 meter is a good opportunity to make contacts on that band, because it creates activity. The DARC 10 meter contest is a very short contest, that runs from 9:00 till 10:59 utc. I have been on the band for 90 minutes. During the whole contest, I did not hear any German stations, because of the very short distance to Germany.

After a few minutes I could make a QSO with LY2NK with 3 watts. Then the band was empty, but I had to stay on.
Much later I could make a QSO with UN3M. Nickolay is in the western part of Kazakstan. The distance is about 1950 miles. FB.

QSO with the  Red Bull antenna  on 10 mtr with 3 watts