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Antennas, that is, my name (trademark pending) for the popular (at least among our group) simple vertical antenna kits. I have a couple of related questions (see at bottom) but will first provide some background. These are advertised as 14-30 MHz 1/4 wave, 16.4 ft. length of both stainless telescoping whip and counterpoise (see pix). Strangely, they are advertised as QRP but rated 300W. I bought mine via Amazon, and it arrived in time for me to try it out at Baylands Friday (report below). An OK deal IMO at about $44 (much less on AliExpress et al., but I didn't want to touch them for reasons discussed). Mine came in a plastic bag; jealous of Dave C.'s unit, which came in a nice cardboard box. Intending to operate 10M, I extended the whip and counterpoise to about half length, elevated the counterpoise with help from a cooperative plant. ~1.6 VSWR at about 25 MHz. This allowed the '703 autotuner to converge on 10M, though with plenty of exercise for the tuner relays. 10M was hot--S. America and VK-land boomed in, however they would strangely cut in and out. The MFJ 259b similarly showed the VSWR suddenly going from 1.6 to >10:1. Tightened connections, no change. Substituted coax, no change. Repeated several times and it seemed to settle down. Managed to work Chile, and though it was with some difficulty and I got a 5/1, I was happy. No other contacts, though I heard British Virgin Is. on 12M; on to the bike tour (WX was beautiful). Got home, checked the coax and the red barrel and counterpoise connections, all of which seemed OK. Questions: * Any owners tried disassembling the red barrel? I'd like to do so for a visual, but don't want to break it. * Can anybody recommend some type of inexpensive transport case, maybe a music instrument case? You can get an idea of the size from the pic. I think a flute case would be too small. Thanks, and best, --David KM6RI
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The WX forecast c. Friday morning indicated a minimal chance of rain, so I packed my radio gear and bike and headed to Baylands. It would not be so: upon arrival at the ops site, raindrops began to fall. Headstrong, I decided to take my chances with nature, and set up on the newer picnic bench. I had my IC703 (10W) and Alpha Loop (the previous commercial antenna that I debugged). As raindrops began to fall, I placed the plastic bag with the '703 accessories as a shield atop the radio and tuned to 20M (10M was hot, but Hiroki's transmit energy was a bit intense). Murphy was absent (deterred by the rain?) and my equipment worked beautifully. The Alpha Loop tuned smoothly and the '703 autotuner functioned gracefully. Without optimizing the loop's azimuth, made contacts in Paso Robles and North Dakota (POTA), the latter about 1700 mi. I was quite happy that my gear was working; I love it when stuff just works! The most interesting contact was with special event station VB7MAN, near Vancouver BC (~1K mi). They were commemorating operations Manna and Chowhound, which toward the end of WWII involved the RAF and allied forces dropping food supplies to the starving population of German-occupied Netherlands. You can find background info, a video and a link to a special website at the URL below (QSL Dave C?). I believe they are still OTA, check the link to confirm, and seek them OTA! As the rain intensified, I took mercy on my equipment and packed up and sheltered in my car. After saying 73 to Hiroki and Howard, and after the rain let up, I broke out my bike and did my usual tour to Shoreline Lake and back. Rain was mild starting out, but intensified around Shoreline. Actually saw a few other cyclists. Saw some phombie walkers, who wiped raindrops from their phone screens as they satisfying their surfing addictions. Thankfully I was able to prevent mud from decorating the back of my water-repellant jacket. Despite the non-optimal WX, it was a good day. Best, --David KM6RI ---------------------------------------- https://www.qrz.com/db/VB7MAN
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Appeal from a guy who lives a long way from Baylands
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Every Week I read about who is going to show up for lunch and then play radio at Baylands. It reminds me how much I miss going there on Friday and sharing time with all of you. I learned tons of things every week from you guys. I have a request. Could someone take it upon themselves to write a brief report of who was there, and what rigs and antennas were operated? I would die to know that. I'm sure others who can't make it are interested too. Is this possible? Doug from far off Fresno.
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Friday
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I plan to be at the Baylands starting with lunch followed by ops. Hiroki AH6CY
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Hiroki's Fan Club
Hiroki looks to me like you will have a nice group of supporters at your talk in Pacificon. The pressure is on, better bring your A game. Seriously, it's nice to hear that so many from this group will be there. Thanks, Doug
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How many on this list are planning on coming to Pacificon?
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I would like to know how many on this list are planning on coming to Pacificon and supporting Hiroki during his talk? Plus there are 5 more qrp talks including Carol Milazzo. And we will have our usual fun activities Friday and Saturday nights, plus the opportunity to buy a 2025 updated version of the original Norcal 40 kit at a very low cost. All the details are on the CalQrp groups.io website. Doug
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Baylands Tomorrow?
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Anybody up for radio bonding? WX should be beautiful. Best, --David KM6RI
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zBitx Transceiver does it all
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I just ordered a zBitx at HFSignals.com for $178 shipped. Ashhar Farhan's new rig will ship starting in February. Bob KF6ABC
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Elecraft AX3 Antenna
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Elecraft has just announced the AX3 antenna. 6 bands, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12 & 10m. You have to have a tuner to use it. It comes with a very small tripod (3 rods fit in 3d printed base of antenna. Cost 274 dollars. Yes, that is correct. It can be seen on their website. I am interested in others opinions of it and if anyone is going to buy one. Doug
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Friday
2
I will be at the Baylands starting with lunch. Hope to see many of you. Hiroki AH6CY
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Fw: [FARS-Announce] FARS March Meeting - Tonight!
Fact Checking: The active cascode amplifier was invented in 1979 and included in Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits, first edition 2001. They are a refinement of the cascode amplifier which goes back to vacuum tubes. I back in the day, I used discrete transistors for amps into 10's of MHz. The abstract to Ed's talk said they were what made the NanoVNA and TinySA possible. These devices use direct conversion. No amplifier on the front end. Yes, they have mixers and switches for the input circuits. The enabling hardware for these amazing devices is mostly the digital chips and a display that can all be powered by a battery. That said, these hand held devices are can be really handy. ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Steve Stearns via FARS-Announce <fars-announce@...> To: 'FARS Announce' <fars-announce@...> Sent: Friday, March 28, 2025 at 11:08:13 AM PDT Subject: [FARS-Announce] FARS March Meeting - Tonight! Foothills Amateur Radio Society Membership Meeting on Friday March 28 ... Presentation: Broadband (4 GHz) Precision Amplifiers Speaker: Ed Fong, WB6IQN Summary: We are now all familiar with the NanoVNA and the Tiny SA. There are also numerous digital scopes now that are very affordable. An example is the DSO03D12 - a dual trace color portable oscilloscope with probes that easily measures in real time up to 150 MHz. This instrument also has built in DVM and signal generator ¨C all for less than $150. These instruments would have cost in the thousands of dollars 10 years ago. Only the most serious hams own expensive HP or Tektronix equipment So why are they now all so affordable? The simple answer is an innovative operational amplifier (¡°op amp¡±) design. For the last 50 years, op amp design followed a tried-and-true formula that did not change. Dave Fullagar designed the uA 741 in 1968. It had unity gain bandwidth of 1.5 MHz. True, small incremental improvements happened over the years, such as current mode feedback. However, these were evolutionary, not revolutionary. Steady improvement in semiconductor processing gave incremental gains in frequency response (10¡¯s of MHz at most). However, in the early 2000¡¯s a new amplifier topology was invented that allowed controlled high precision feedback gains in the 4-6 GHz range. This configuration is only now finding its way into amplifier text books. Ed will explain this new circuit configuration and how it works. About the Speaker: Ed Fong, WB6IQN, teaches RF Wireless Communications and I/O Design Fundamentals for UC Santa Cruz in Silicon Valley. He taught RF Wireless at UC Berkeley from 1998 to 2011. Ed is the owner of Ed¡¯s Antennas https://edsantennas.weebly.com. Ed¡¯s DBJ-1, DBJ-2, and TBJ-1, dual- and tri-band antennas are popular with hams, commercial and government users, and were featured in magazine articles in QST (February 2003, March 2007, and March 2017) and CQ (Summer 2012), and reprinted in three ARRL books: VHF/UHF Antenna Classics (2003), Antenna Compendium Volume 8 (2010), and Portable Antenna Classics (2015). Ed¡¯s past presentations to FARS include the uSDX+ portable HF transceiver (November 2023), phase-locked loops (August 2023), single-sideband modulation (January 2023), ground-independent vertical antennas (August 2019), and DMR radio (April 2018).
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Does anyone have Eric's email address?
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Does anyone have Eric's email address or Eric, if you are reading would you please email me at doghouse3@...? Thanks, Joy
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Friday
4
WX looks decent. I plan to be at the Baylands starting with lunch. Hiroki AH6CY
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Question about PayPal?
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Hey folks, if you have successfully sold some ham gear and actually received payment via PayPal ... From EU ... I could use some free advice. Been through the online help PP offers, nothing amiss. I just can't get it to work. Thanks, Cliff K6CLS. phone 408 234 9281.
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Hiroki AH6CY gave a talk about his Four band portable delta loop a...
Eric et al, Here is a YouTube recoding of the talk I gave on Wednesday, March 26. https://youtu.be/8B2MP1q1l58?si=ENr-wGk5JxKe3WsD Hiroki AH6CY
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Friday
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I will be at the Baylands starting with lunch. WX looks good for ops. Hiroki AH6CY
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Two members of this group will be doing qrp talks this year at Pacificon
Two members of this group, Carol Millazo and Hiroki Kato will be giving qrp talks this year at Pacificon along with 4 others. Here is a list of the talks Title: Upgrading the Tuna Tin "S" - A Synthesized Multi-Band QRP Transmitter Presenter: Carol Milazzo, KP4MD Description: In the original Tuna Tin "S", an Arduino Nano microcontroller and Si5351 synthesizer module drive an IRF510 MOSFET to a QRPp 0.5 watts output on a single band. In this session we will review the history and design of the Tuna Tin "S" and discuss how we can improve the MOSFET amplifier's efficiency, raise its output power output to a full QRP 5 watts, and design filters for operation on multiple frequency bands. Title: Home Brewing Portable HF Antennas Presenter: Hiroki Kato AH6CY Description: I will present three examples of my home-brewed portable HF antennas. 1. A small vertical antenna for the hand-held radios 2. A magnetic loop antenna with a unique remote tuning system 3. A 4-band delta loop antenna Title: Construction Techniques for Homebrew Projects for Hams. Why? How? Sources? Presenter: Chuck Adams, AA7FO Description: Why? There is a need to build something of interest or need that isn't available already or is not within a constrained budget. How? A number of techniques that have been used for successful building of projects will be discussed. Sources? Where to find parts? Where to find projects of interest that you can build to use and/or learn some area of interest. Where to get help, if needed. Title: Suitcase Portable POTA Presenter: Tommy Gober, N5DUX Description: For anyone not familiar with Parks On The Air, this session will give a brief overview of this "not a contest" that has reinvigorated many long-time hams. Presented by an avid POTA activator that has activated coast to coast and north to south while on work trips, we'll discuss tips, techniques, equipment options and choices, the limitations of being suitcase portable, and the thrill of driving to an unknown park to activate. This session is for newbies and experienced operators alike! Title: The Pacificon 40, an update to a QRP classic Presenter: Yin Shih, N9YS Description: Many hams are familiar with or have heard of the Norcal 40. Designed by Wayne Burdick, N6KR, over 30 years ago, it was a classic design that garnered attention for the Norcal QRP Club and was a seminal event in the birth of Elecraft. Recently, the California QRP Club thought to ask "If we were to attempt a Norcal 40 kit, what would it look like?", which resulted in an updated implementation called the Pacificon 40. The Pacificon 40 blends the vintage Norcal 40 design with some modern day techniques and components. This talk will describe the adaptations and features of the Pacificon 40. Title: Adapting the PicoRx to a Club Project Presenter: John Sutter, K6JDS Description: I will present the CalQRP project version of Jon Dawson's PicoRx SDR receiver. I'll cover inspiration, the design process, mishaps, and results. Topics to include requirements, floorplanning, circuit, PCB, and enclosure design.
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Friday
4
WX looks decent. I plan to be at the Baylands starting with lunch at Bay Cafe. Hiroki AH6CY
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Portable delta loop talk
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Yours truly will be giving a talk on Zoom to a UK group on my portable delta loop on Wednesday, 3/26, next week at 1730Z (12:30 PDT). If interested, open the link for details. https://mailchi.mp/061c13b23919/a-4-band-portable-delta-loop-antenna?e=f7db555f76 Hiroki AH6CY
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Temu
4
? Some of us have been buying parts and accessories from Temu and AliExpress. They often offer extremely attractive prices. But I decided not to continue their service. The AARP Bulletin I just received has a few articles about online fraud. In one of them there is a mention that ¡°Mobile apps collect all kinds of personal info, which can put you at risk, especially in case of a data breach. For example, the popular Chinese shopping app Temu collects so much data that one state attorney general deemed it spyware.¡± There is also a warning that not all Amazon and eBay vendors are trustworthy. Hiroki AH6CY
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Sat 8:39am
Sat 8:39am