Inverted Vee repaired

After the Inverted Vee was damaged in a storm, I found Walle PE2WJW willing to go onto the roof. For a week we were looking at the whether. Yesterday the "window for dry whether" was width enough to go onto the roof. Walle first recovered the feeding ribbon and top part of the old Inverted Vee from the roof. I attached new wires (indoors) and Walle installed the new antenna on the roof again. It was dark already, when the job was done.

That evening I listened for a short while. I did hear some activity, but the signals were weak.
The next day I made a QSO with 360 mW with Laszlo HA6NL in the OQRP contest.
Good for more than 1000 Miles per Watt.

I find it difficult to compare antenna's.
Before the the repair, I made a few QSO's in the Croatian CW (Click) on the remaining wire of the damaged antenna. At that time the signals were very strong.
I just looked in the Log and found out, that I also made a QSO with HA6NL with in the Croatian CW.
Laszlo's signal was very strong, 10 dB over S9, so I used 36 mW. hi

So I think that the new antenna is working well, but that the difference is caused by the propagation.

Croatian CW contest

I had great fun in participating in the Croatian CW contest, on a wire of 10 mtr.
I did not expect this amazing result with my crippled antenna. The inverted Vee lost one of it's wires in the storm in November. I used the remaining wire that lies partly flat on the roof.

I had to take it easy, so I did not make many QSO's. But I still had fun. On Saturday I started with 5 QSO's on 40 m, in which I had to use 2.7 watts.

After 2 more QSO on 40 m on Sunday morning , I went to 20 m. I was surprised by the signals on 20 m. The signals were very strong S9 plus 10 dB.
So I immediately decided to use the lowest possible power.

With the pre-programmed messages and the pre-programmed serial numbers in the Morse Machine, I effortlessly made the QSO's on 20 m. 

Please notice:  Propagation and Activity are much more important than the antenna.

Who would expect, that I could make 4 QSO's with just 36 mW on a wire of 10 mtrs. Well, I would'nt.
All the QSO's on 20 m are made with more than 1000 Miles per Watt. So I don't complain about my antenna, but I am grateful  for the excellent propagation.

Half an Inverted Vee

While I was in the hospital the storm damaged my antenna. 
Since I have to recover first, I can not repair the antenna. I found a HAM who is willing do the repair. In the mean time I will use the half Inverted Vee. hi

The top of the antenna came loose and dropped to a point 2 mtrs above the roof. Later the wire that is (was) visable on the photo broke. The wire on the opposite side of the house lies partly flat on the roof. Much to my surprise I managed to make a few contest QSO with very low power. 2.7 W down to 36 mW. 

UA1CEG/P in the Croation CW from the forest

Yesterday I received a fascinating photo story in PDF from UA1CEG/P.

Yuri has been active from the forest in the Croatian CW contest with a homebrew transceiver of 3 watts and a Delta antenna for 20 m.
The photo story in PDF shows the beautiful snow landscape in which Yuri was operating from his Wigwam shack.



The mercury dropped to a value of 15 degrees Celsius below zero. Brrrr. The photo's also show some of the pages from Yuri logbook.
I enjoyed reading and viewing the  photo-story.

Thanks to Yuri UA1CEG for writing the story and to Oleg RV3GM for the translation into English.

Большое спасибо за интересный рассказ. Мне понравилось.


Download the photo story here:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8362439/ContestInForestUA1CEG-P.pdf

Weer thuis Back home

Eind november ben ik met spoed opgenomen in het ziekenhuis. Ik was onwel geworden. Het bleek aan mijn hart te liggen. Nadat de hartslag enkele dagen bekeken is, is er een pacemaker geplaatst. Ik moet het de komende weken heel rustig aan doen.

Hospital

Bert is in the hospital.
He is already getting better,but will be in hospital for the next day's.

Hennie          XYL

Power Attenuator by Mark DL6YYM

Mark DL6YYM designed a power attenuator for 5 watt, using resistors of 1/2 watt. The attenuation of the attenuators, from the left to the right, is 20 dB, 10 dB, 3 dB and 3 dB. Seen from the front. This enables Mark to lower the power from 0 dB to 36 dB, in steps of 3 dB or 4 dB.

Click to enlarge

Mark built a beautiful enclosure for the attenuators.

This picture shows the interior. Seen from the back, you can see the 20 dB section on the right, behind the coax. This section has the larger number of resistors. The 10 dB is visible to the left of the 20 dB section.
At the left you can see the two 3 dB sections, each built with a total of 7 resistors.

Click to enlarge, to see all the details.

Mark used the PA1B Power Attenuator Calculator, to design the attenuators.
You can find the Calculator on the PA1B QRPp page,  This Calculator in Excel enables you to design an attenuator for any power, using common resistors from the E12-series. E.g. 1/2 watt. Mark used Open Office. Please note, that in Excel or Open Office you must use the decimal COMMA or POINT according to your national language. These attenautors are what I had in mind, when I developed the Power Attenuator Calculator. hi

The shack of DL6YYM.

I thank Mark for sending the pictures and for the great feedback on the attenuators.

LZ2HR

Click to enlarge   

I received an other beautiful QSL card from Hristo LZ2HR via the mail. This time the card had 3 QSO's on it. The QSO with the lowest power was made in the UBA contest 2010 in CW on 14 MHz. I used a power of 98 mW and a Inverted Vee, over a distance of 1180 miles resulting in 12041 Miles/Watt. Thanks, Hristo for the beautiful card.

Armando in Oud Amelisweerd

Vorige maand had ik de mogelijkheid om de tentoonstelling van Armando en een tiental andere kunstenaars te bezoeken. Op zaterdagmiddag gingen mijn vrouw en ik wandelen in Amelisweerd toen ik zag dat er een tentoonstelling was in het landhuis Oud Amelisweerd. Daarop heb ik besloten om de volgende dag de eerste rondleiding om 12:00 uur te nemen. In de rondleiding, die uitstekend gegeven werd door Joris, een vrijwilliger, heb ik alle kunstwerken van Armando en de andere kunstenaars bekeken.

Ik heb ook een Presentatie gemaakt, die je kunt bereiken via de volgende link:
Presentatie: Armando en het Chinese behang Click

Hotel Doesburg

In de herfstvakantie zijn we drie dagen weggeweest. Bij het uitzoeken van de bestemming, viel ons oog al direct op Hotel Doesburg. Hotel Doesburg is een hotel met een bescheiden, omvang. En de stad Doesburg is een Hanzestad met een bescheiden omvang. Het hotel ligt direct aan de aan de IJssel en van uit het restaurant kijk je uit op de IJssel. Zie foto. Klikken voor groot formaat. De kamers zijn gezellig ingericht en het personeel en ook de eigenaar van het hotel is heel vriendelijk en behulpzaam. We hebben genoten van ons verblijf.

               Uitzicht op de IJssel

Vanuit het hotel is het slechts vijf minuten lopen naar de historische kern van Doesburg met zijn mooie straatjes en oude gevels.
Als je via de Veerpoortstraat in loopt zie je al meteen de toren van de Martinikerk boven de huizen uitkomen.
De schuin geplaatste foto is genomen van af het plein naast de kerk.
De beeldengroep (Passi d'Oro) rechts op de foto staat vlak bij het hotel aan de IJsselkade.

Streekmuseum De roode tooren

In de Roggestraat vind je het leuke streekmuseum De Roode Tooren.
We hebben de interessante tentoonstelling: Doesburg, van palissadewal tot garnizoensstad bekeken. Verder zagen we o.a. keramiek en zilverwerk van Doesburgse oorsprong. In de de kruidenierzaak uit 1890, staat de tijd stil.
En wat dacht je van het mamoetdijbeen, dat werd gevonden in de buurt van Doesburg.
Voor de prijs hoef je het niet te laten, want de toegang is gratis.

Het regende pijpenstelen (cats and dogs) toen we woensdag morgen onder de paraplu bij het mosterdmuseum aankwamen. We waren toevallig precies op tijd voor de rondleiding. Met veel gevoel voor humor werd er uitgelegd, hoe de mosterd gemaakt wordt. Ook de bordjes, zo hier en daar in het museum, getuigen van veel gevoel voor humor.

Klik op de foto's om deze te vergroten. 

Click to enlage.

In de Meipoortstraat hebben we heerlijk geluncht bij Bertram & brood en hebben we, later die dag, aan het eind van de straat, heerlijk Chinees gegeten. De muziek was ook Chinees en gespeeld op Chinese instrumenten.

Als je in de Meipoortstraat bent moet je zeker even binnenlopen bij Glas artelier JEVABA. De glaskunstenaar staat gewoon voor in de winkel te werken. Op de foto geheel links zie je de oven waarmee prachtige glazen kunst gemaakt wordt. Er worden ook cursussen en workshop gegeven.

Corrected Layout of the Power Attenuators in Sprat

Click to enlarge

Sprat 152 features the article:
Power Attenuators with carbon resistors from the E12-series,
by Bert PA1B

I spent a lot of time and enjoyed making the drawing of the layout for this article in Sprat. 
But unfortunately the drawing of the layout published is Sprat 152, is  NOT correct. 

Please use this Corrected Layout to build your attenuators.

In the drawing of the layout the resistor R2 should be connected to R1 and R3. The resistor R5 should be conected to R4 and R6.
The arrows point to the right connections.

Markus DL6YYM found the info on the attenuators for 5 watts on the PA1B QRPp page and sent his questions by e-mail. In this e-mail exchange, I sent the schematic and the drawing of the layout of the 10 dB and 20 dB attenuators, that were published in Sprat 152. Markus discovered that the published layout is not correct, while he was building the attenuator. So here is the Corrected Layout. So I thank Markus, for his attentiveness. 

I already sent the corrected layout to George G3RJV and he replied, that the layout will be in the next issue.

Good luck in QRPp.

10 dB Attenuators

I made a presentation on 10 dB Attenuators.

http://prezi.com/kfquunh0a93x/10-db-power-attenuators/

Please let me know, what do you think of it?

I use a free version of Prezi that I could use for a month. In this time I made this presentation. Now I can not longer change the presentation.

SPRAT 152 arrived

A few days ago Sprat arrived. I was eagerly awaiting the new Sprat. This new SPRAT 152 would contain an article, that I wrote about easy to build Power Attenuators with resistors from the E12-series.

I expected the SPRAT to arrive last week. But when it did not arrive in the following week, I was surprised. Then I went to the interesting Blog of Roger G3XBM, to see whether he already received his copy and writes about it. NO. Then I sent a mail to Roger. YES. Roger did receive Sprat, last week and wrote that he enjoyed the article. Tnx Roger.

I hope you all enjoy the article and have success and lots of FUN with you new build attenuators.
When the S-meter goes up, the power goes down. 

Not received SPRAT?
A quick search brought my to the GQRP club members new page with the following message at the bottom of the page:

Sprat 152 - 28/9/2012 - From G4WIF
The latest Issue 152 is now beginning to arrive but will probably not be complete worldwide until well into mid/late October. Please don't contact me if yours hasn't arrived until the end of the 3rd week of October. Please also don't assume that as your friend in the same town has their Sprat that yours must have got lost - as bulk mail can be unpredictable.

So I had to be pacient. hi

LZ2HR with 360 mW

I received a beautiful QSL card from Hristo LZ2HR. I receive the card not via the bureau, but via the mail. The QSO was made in the UBA contest 2012 in CW on 14 MHz. I used a power of 360 mW and a Inverted Vee, over a distance of 1180 miles resulting in 3278 Miles/Watt.

Did you know that in Bulgaria the Cyrillic alphabet is used.  So Hristo makes an additional translation to the Latin alphabet, when he is using  English words in CW. Wow.


Many years ago, when I was on holiday in Bulgaria, the first word that I could read, was РЕСТОРАНТ. This means restaurant.
Click on the stamps to see the word Bulgaria also in Cyrillic.

BQC marathon

Every year I participate in the BQC Marathon. The purpose of the BQC marathon is to promote the activity of the members of the Benelux QRP Club.
The marathon runs over a year. The aim is to make as many QRP QSO's as possible, on all bands, with the lowest possible power. The lower the power, the higher the points.
By participating in the BQC marathon, I discovered working with very low power for myself. In the last part of the marathon, I have done my best to finish in the top three. Below you can see the results from the QRP Newsletter of the BQC.

This year the marathon was won by Robert PA0RBO, with spectacular score. No less spectacular is the score obtained by Adriaan PA0ATG. Because Adriaan organizes the marathon itself, he ceded his price and converted it into an incentive. This award goes to Erwin PA7N who participated for the first time. Look at the enthusiastic response of Erwin on the price, on his website. By yielding of the price by Adrian I came just in second place.

Elk jaar doe ik mee met de BQC Maraton. Het doel van de BQC marathon is, het bevorderen van de activiteit der leden van de Benelux QRP Club.

De marathon loopt over één jaar. Het is de bedoeling om zoveel mogelijk prefixen te verzamelen op zoveel mogelijk banden, met zo min mogelijk vermogen.
Door mee te doen in de BQC marathon heb ik het werken met zeer laag vermogen voor mijzelf ontdekt. In het laatste deel van de marathon had ik extra mijn best gedaan om bij de eerste drie  te eindigen. Hier onder zie je de uitslag uit de QRP Nieuwsbrief van de BQC.

Dit jaar werd de marathon gewonnen door Robert PA0RBO, met een spectaculair aantal punten. Niet minder spectaculair is score die behaald werd door Adriaan PA0ATG. Omdat Adriaan de marathon zelf organiseert, heeft hij zijn prijs afgestaan en omgezet in een aanmoedigingsprijs. Deze prijs gaat naar Erwin PA7N die voor het eerst mee deed. Kijk naar de enthousiaste reactie van Erwin op de prijs, op zijn interessante website. Door het afstaan van de prijs door Adriaan kwam ik zo maar op de tweede plaats.