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Today at the Bahylands

 

At lunch were Paul Simon, Oliver, Joy, David V., Dick and Hiroki.

WX was fine except it was quite windy. Hiroki's delta loop was bent and whipped by wind making it look like a giant fly swatter flopping back and forth. No damage sustained, however. Joy didn't like wind and and decided to leave early without operating.

Band condx was not great on 10, 12, 15 and 17 though open. 20 was in good shape with many W stations as usual with many SSB signals above 14200. I didn't hear any DX stations on 20. There was one especially loud POTA station from Wyoming.

Hiroki managed an SSB contact wirth a station in Canary Island on 15. It took him to repeat his phonetically spelled call sign (Alpha Hotel Six¡­.) six times before the Spanish station got it right. Hiroki also talked with a Minnesota station on 17.

Hiroki left about 4 when the band condx seemed to be getting better. Dick stayed on to operate and David just started to set up his mags loop as Hiroki left. They might make an interesting report on what happened after 4.

Hiroki AH6CY
 

Interesting discussion at lunch about bandpass filters.? My impression is that each station would likely need to be equipped with one if this effort were to work (filter at station transmitting on band A would suppress harmonics and wideband phase noise outside of band A, filter at station receiving on band B would suppress strong band A signals that could desense that receiver's front end), similar to what a repeater bandpass-bandreject duplexer does.

I just remembered that I picked up a set of 17m, 20m and 40m bandpass filters at a swap last year to play with.? I can bring them next week if there is interest in a test, can include Doug's filter for this test as well.

73,
Oliver KB6BA


On Fri, May 23, 2025 at 6:16?PM Hiroki Kato via <hiroki=[email protected]> wrote:
At lunch were Paul Simon, Oliver, Joy, David V., Dick and Hiroki.

WX was fine except it was quite windy. Hiroki's delta loop was bent and whipped by wind making it look like a giant fly swatter flopping back and forth. No damage sustained, however. Joy didn't like wind and and decided to leave early without operating.

Band condx was not great on 10, 12, 15 and 17 though open. 20 was in good shape with many W stations as usual with many SSB signals above 14200. I didn't hear any DX stations on 20. There was one especially loud POTA station from Wyoming.

Hiroki managed an SSB contact wirth a station in Canary Island on 15. It took him to repeat his phonetically spelled call sign (Alpha Hotel Six¡­.) six times before the Spanish station got it right. Hiroki also talked with a Minnesota station on 17.

Hiroki left about 4 when the band condx seemed to be getting better. Dick stayed on to operate? and David just started to set up his mags loop as Hiroki left. They might make an interesting report on what happened after 4.

Hiroki AH6CY
 

It's been my experience that those who use bandpass filters don't have interference,? while stations that don't use them may have it, depending on the circumstances.? ?This was at the Zuni Loop FD, where we had stations on 80 40 20 15 and 10.? The year before all stations reported interference to varying degrees except the 20 meter station which had a band pass filter. Cam Hartford, N6GA, (SK) built band pass filters for all the other bands during the next winter and handed them out to all of the stations.? Problem solved.
 

Lunch was fine as usual, with Natalia doing a great waiting job. It was indeed a beautiful but windy day, great bike tour to Shoreline Park and back. Pretty good workout on the return thanks to a strong headwind. I had a spare shirt tied around my waist. Thanks to Murphy, the bottom edge of the shirt had an encounter with the bike's rear brake apparatus; I think some detergent and elbow grease will bring the shirt back to spec.
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As Hiroki mentioned, I set up about 4, about the same spot as two weeks ago (since I had been able to make contacts then/there despite the rain). The Alpha Loop and IC703 seemed to continue their harmonious relationship, and voila, quickly made a 20M contact with a portable op near Phoenix (got a 5-5, not bad for me and my setup). The band seemed fairly active, with several POTAs and some Spanish-speaking stations that I assume were DX.?Following from some discussion at lunch, my '703's autotuner seemed up to tuning the Alpha Loop provided I first manually tuned the loop pretty much on resonance.?
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After a while, Jeff (SLAC Chief Industrial Archaeologist, CIA) came by; he discussed his adventures with what I understood to be ultra-HV switching power supplies designed by one Dr. Frankenstein and colleagues. Careful Jeff! After Jeff said 73, Peter and Rosemary came by, and we discussed the joys of beating the system a la keeping household appliances OTA well past their use-by dates. During our socializing, some people of IMO dubious social acumen parked very close to use and broke out what seemed an endless supply of bread crumbs (or some such) on which many (many!) avian buds feasted; to express their gratitude the birds staged a dramatic air show, almost directly overhead, somewhat reminiscent of the Hitchcock thriller. To avoid what radio folks might call undesired spontaneous (not spurious) emissions, and despite wearing hats, Peter and Rosemary said 73.?
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Still headstrong, I continued to operate--I figured I was wearing a hat and could stop by the carwash enroute home. Despite the band remaining pretty active, and despite calling 73, no other contacts. I went QRT around 7 PM. Thankfully, no need for me or the gear to go through the carwash!
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All in all, a pretty good day, excellent therapy. Best, --David KM6RI
 

I decided I was not going to operate today because of the wind. What can I say, I like comfort and if's too hot, too cold, or too windy, I'm out of there. ?
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After our talk of band pass filters at lunch, I went home and brought back Doug's band pass filter for 20. My thought was to give it to Hiroki to try. I realized it required a couple of connectors I didn't have but Hiroki thought he had.
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We didn't talk about the test ?setup but, ?I think the plan could be that ?Hiroki ?uses the filter on 20 at, I hope, the highest power he sometimes uses at Baylands, and see if we hear ?interference with and/or without the filter. ? From my experience I hear CW interference more than SSB?
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Doug, how much power can your band pass filter handle? If Hiroki uses 20 watts will we need a fire extinguisher??
?
Joy
 

It should be fine?

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