Auxiliary antenna for the PACC

At first I did not think about contesting at all, because my inverted V is damaged. In the summer I had great fun with my cylinder dipole with Monster cans on 15 m with a power of 3 watts.

PACC
When I was on the Veron club meeting, I heard that the avid contesters were preparing for our annual contest from the Netherlands, the PACC. So I also got inspired to participate.
But with what kind of antenna?

Antenna?
I did not want to use the indoor cylinder dipole with Monster cans. Because of it's low height of 4 meter above ground level, a power of 3 or 4 W would be needed. And with winter propagation, it is not even sure, whether the 15 m band will be  open.
But most of all I wanted to participate with QRPp on 20 m.

End fed wire
So I begun thinking about an outdoor antenna. With more height I can use less power. To limit the activities on the roof, I came up with an end fed. I had a wire that was too long. But I decided to put it up and see. So on Friday afternoon before the PACC I ended up with this end fed.

End fed with twin lead feeder. PA1B

To get the power into the wire, without radiation in the shack, I use 300 ohm twin lead. The  twin lead also acts as an impedance transformer. I always use a tuner with my antennas. So whatever the impedance at the end of the wire may be, as long I can adjust the SWR to 1:1 it's fine with me. The twin lead has to be long enough to tune. A twin lead of 4 meters works fine on 14 MHz.

I use this type of feeding by twin lead for all my end fed holiday antenna's since 2001.

The antenna at CS8/PA1B

After we booked our holiday to hotel Royal Garden in Porto Delgada on the island Saõ Miguel, I hesitated wheter I should take the portable station with me.
But I am glad, that I did bring along my FT-817 on the 12V - 4Ah battery.

Activity
In the months before the holiday, I figured out that the YODX HF contest fall into our holiday. This is a very fine contest in which everyone works everyone.
If I could use a 20 m long wire, as I did in 2011 on holiday on Terceira, (click to read the article)
I would have great fun in the YO DX contest.
So I decided to take the FT-817 with me.
But at that time I was not sure, whether it would be a success.

The problems:
My FT-817 has a maximum power of 2.7 watts.
On holiday I operate from a 12V-4Ah battery, so the power will be even lower.
The extra weight of the heavy FT-817 and the battery.
Further I did not know, whether I could put up an antenna.
But most of all, if I could only use an antenna in the central garden, it was possible
that all signals from the antenna could be blocked completely.
The XYL does'nt want to be visible while helping lowering a wire from the balcony.

Antenna
At first I tried to make a end-fed sloper from the balcony into the garden, but in the proces of
lowering the wire, the wire got stuck and my wife refused to help any further. End of part one.
When I mentioned, a few days later, that the roof would be the best place for an antenna, my
wife said: "ask the reception".
The lady of the reception (Graça) was very supportive.
I showed her the licence with the authorization to use a portable station from a hotel.
She first contacted the manager and then the men of the technical service to get the access to the roof.
So later that day, the 20 meter wire was "flying above the roof". WOW.
Thanks to Joaõ, for us putting the antenna up together and to Miguel to remove the antenna.

Feeding the antenna
I don't like antennas with a difficult earth system.
So on holiday I use a end fed antenna which is fed like a Zepp via a 300 oms ribbon.
For more info see the article on my site: The QRP holiday transmatch.  (Click)
The 300 ohm ribbon from the room to the wire has a lenght of 4.8 meters.
The ribbon transforms the high impedance of the feeding point of the wire into
a lower impedance at the transmatch, which is connected to the transmitter.

Starting on the 17th of August until the 25th of August a total of 72 QSO's was made.
So the antenna was working very well.

Propagation, activity and antenna

The order of importance is: Propagation -  Activity - Antenna

 When I started as a HAM in 1990 I used a homebrew QRPp transceiver for 7 MHz, which I call the HM7 and an inverted Vee antenna.
In the 10 years that I used this CW transceiver extensively, I worked many European countries with a power of only 500 milliwatts in many normal QSO's and many contest QSO's. The excellent design comes from the book solid state design for the radio amateur.

I used this transceiver as a homestation and on holiday. Homebrew, QRP and CW (morse code) is a fabulous combination.CW is the most intriging mode of all. I noticed that you probably can not come closer to the signal, than in CW.

During the years that I used this TRX, I had great fun and I noticed that the activity on the band is more important than the antenna. With 500 mW the signals of the other stations must be S9 or more. Especially contest stations are eager to work everyone, so many QSO's can be made in a contest.
Further I discovered that propagation is more much important than the antenna. The Inverted Vee is not the best antenna, but the daily changes in the propagation can not be beaten by any antenna.

So to me, the order of importance is: Propagation -  Activity - Antenna