Re: Portable vertical antenna suggestions
 -- Mike NN3I
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Re: Portable vertical antenna suggestions
After much experimenting, I found the DIY antenna system in the attached photo provides excellent results.? Running 100 watts or 10 watts I get really good reports.? It's a great antenna for DX in my experience.? It costs about $100 in parts and is easy to setup and take down.? I use a 17 foot telescoping whip for the vertical. I can extend it to be a quarter wave on any ham band from 20 to 6 meters.? The SWR across any band from 20-6 meter bands can be adjusted to 1.5 to 1 or less.? Keeping the radials about 1 to 10 inches off the ground is critical as is using a 1:1 choke unun at the feed point.? I use 2 to 4 radials, stranded 22 gauge insulated wire, running out to 12 inch plastic tent stakes barely stuck in the ground.?
Two radials provide pretty good omnidirectional radiation.? Going up to four radials supposedly increases efficiency up a few percentage points from around 90% and lowers the takeoff angle a little from what I've read. That's not enough to get excited about in my book? You can adjust the antenna's resonance frequency in three ways -? in increasing order of effectiveness they are (1) antenna length, (2) radial length, and (3) height of the radials above the ground.? The last one is most dramatic.? An inch or two difference in height of the radials makes a huge difference in the resonance frequency of the antenna due to capacitive coupling to the ground.?
I use quarter wavelength radials for the band in use.? Initially, I cut all the radials to one quarter wavelength at 20 meters.? When operating on higher bands, I just wrap enough wire around the plastic stakes to shorten the radials to the appropriate quarter wavelength for higher bands.?? The one inch PVC pipe fits tightly in the Tiki torch stake after a little reshaping of the the top part of the Tiki stake. ?The Tiki torch stake keeps the antenna upright at full extension even on a windy day. Three of my ham buddies have made this antenna with slight variations in implementation and all have found this antenna tunes and performs very well. ?
FYI, radials laying on the ground are no longer resonant, so keep them off the ground.? Note, you can buy a base loading coil from MFJ for 80 and 40 meters ops, but the efficiency and bandwidth of the antenna decreases significantly.? I haven't experimented enough using the base coil to determine the best radials options for those bands.
If you want me more details about this antenna let me know.
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Mike NN3I
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Re: cat control problems - cross posted to R1CBU
I also got the same issue with a Mac/MacLoggerDX with the latest CAT software update.? I have reported it to the Xiegu support team.? Seems they broke it.
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Re: Xiegu x6100 in combination with XPA125B issue
I also am running this combo. I made the mistake of hooking up the house interior ground to the x125b (has a nice ground post on the back). My longwire antennas share a fairly decent ground plane with three rods driven 8 ft into the ground plus radials. The resulting ground loop caused the amp to lose frequency control in auto mode. I also agree that you need a choke coming in off the long wire unun output. Destroyed a cheap amp by not paying attention to this. Anyway, ground loops and RF can do crazy things. Go back to basics (dummy load, as the commenter says) and proceed from there. The combo works well with patience. Good luck.?
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Re: Xiegu x6100 in combination with XPA125B issue
I tied the transceiver at 80m and you were right.. everything is working smoothly.. probably an RF issue caused by the antenna (hamking hvt 400 ) ...I will wait for the dummy load to double check that ..and yes I know I must built a more efficient antenna
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On Thu, Dec 21, 2023 at 09:47 AM, scot forshaw wrote:
So, running R1CBU 0.1.71 and base v1.1.6 CW is nothing short of amazing
I recommend updating the basic one to 1.1.7. Some inaccuracies when working with the battery have been corrected there. In version 1.1.6, the battery capacity is calculated simply based on the current voltage (which is not correct). Version 1.1.7 already calculates real consumption based on current. Although version 1.1.7 still has errors (full charge and full discharge are not calculated correctly) My friend is also a programmer, but not a radio amateur; he recently bought an X6100 specifically to help him figure out the BB firmware of the STM32 processor. Perhaps things will move forward!
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I will setup a reference TX Oleg to test the decoding levels and let you know the results.
Out of interest, I have base FW of 1.1.6 Mar 7th and APP v1.1.7 on the radio...?
The reason I kept the 1.1.6 base band firmware was that the stock base firmware (1.1.7) had issues with CAT and I found this stock combination worked well.?
So, running R1CBU 0.1.71 and base v1.1.6 CW is nothing short of amazing. ?As soon as I update to R1CBU 0.1.8 or 0.1.9 CW pretty much becomes unusable.
I'll let you know how the tests go on a reference TX Oleg
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Frequency scale suddenly miscalibrated
I¡¯ve doing some FT8 with the Xiegu, and in a few occasions the frequency scale was off by a few hundred kHz. After restarting the radio a couple of times, it went back to the right values. Has anybody observed this??
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Product Review - Xiegu X6100 HF/6-Meter QRP
73,
Steve
Are those legal or just inconvenient for the user? So they could've lied when they made this report? I can't read it because it's not that accessible. I wish they had a file or something that had it.
Sabra Ewing
On Dec 19, 2023, at 1:30?PM, Gary <w9td@...> wrote:
?According to the QST review, all harmonics were better than FCC requirements. They did not look for transmitted spurious but noted that there were numerous low-level receive spurious responses. Myself, I know there are some strong receive spurious responses.
Gary
W9TD
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Are those legal or just inconvenient for the user? So they could've lied when they made this report? I can't read it because it's not that accessible. I wish they had a file or something that had it. Sabra Ewing
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On Dec 19, 2023, at 1:30?PM, Gary <w9td@...> wrote:
?According to the QST review, all harmonics were better than FCC requirements. They did not look for transmitted spurious but noted that there were numerous low-level receive spurious responses. Myself, I know there are some strong receive spurious responses.
Gary
W9TD
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If you want to take your electronics background a little further get a tinySA Ultra Spectrum analyzer and learn how to use its functions including the signal generator part. Of course you will need about 80 DB of attenuation for protecting the input. Between the NanoVNA and the tinySA, which are very reasonably priced by the way, you will have your own test equipment laboratory that makes the hobby so much more fun..
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According to the QST review, all harmonics were better than FCC requirements. They did not look for transmitted spurious but noted that there were numerous low-level receive spurious responses. Myself, I know there are some strong receive spurious responses.
Gary
W9TD
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I just installed ver. 19.? Up and working just fine! I'm working through the buttons and dials. Everything looks good and works well. TNX, Oleg!
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KD6YKI - Mike
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Re: Xiegu x6100 in combination with XPA125B issue
i have the same setujp. I use an EFHW antenna (wire in a tree!)). I had a serious common mode issue. I've put a choke (MFJ-915). It helps a lot, but I still have issues on 40 Meters. Have you tried various bands?? Just a thought, 73
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KD6YKI - Mike
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from the QST in depth:
During my testing I did find spurious tones on all bands. However,
these spurious tones were low enough on the HF bands that they were not
discernable when an antenna was connected. However, on 6 meter the
spurious tones varied from S3 to S7, and could be heard with an antenna
connected. They occurred every 100 kHz starting at 50.066 MHz.
And the main article said it met FCC limits for spurious transmissions
Jerry ---- Extra Ham Radio Operator: WF5W Registered Linu=x User: 275424 3D CAD designer
The most exciting phrase to hear in science - the one that heralds new discoveries - is not "Eureka" but "That's funny...". - Isaac. Asimov
On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 2:22?AM < dg1smd@...> wrote: Xiegu has the QST test report on their homepage:
73,
Rainer DG1SMD
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Re: Xiegu x6100 in combination with XPA125B issue
I am quite new to this hobby... it is my first radio and? just got my ham radio license? a week ago... dummy load is on the way... when i receive it, I will update the status of the shack... if it is an RF issue as you say what can I do to fix this?
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Xiegu has the QST test report on their homepage:
73,
Rainer DG1SMD
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Someone messaged that it is in the July 2022 issue.? I haven¡¯t read the review but if it was bad we would all know about by now.
Is QST a magazine or something? Where would I find it? I've looked and looked about spurious emission testing and I can't find anything.
These results will not stop me from using the radio, but it will tell me what precautions I need to take to stay within US regulations.
Did the review say everything is fine or that you need to take special precautions to make sure you stay in compliance while using the radio? I am still looking forward to it and it's the only option For my needs and situation. But I need to know if I can relax and everything will be fine, or if I need to limit the transmissions through specialized antenna set ups and take other measures to stay in compliance.
If the Radio is compliant on its own, I could consider a multi band antenna although I'm probably not doing that anyways. It could be an option though. But if it is not compliant, a multi band antenna is not an option at all. I would need to use the antenna to try to prevent it from transmitting on its harmonics.
I feel like if it were really that spurious, people would be talking about it everywhere, but I suppose people wouldn't know if they were generating third, fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. order harmonics throughout the bands.
And there might be other ways I don't know about that it could do spurious emissions and not comply with the regulations of the US, which is where I am, in ways I don't know and I haven't thought of.
What if I ever used an amplifier later on? That could make those emissions worse and I wouldn't know that they had even been happening.
But maybe they aren't happening and everything is fine. But without testing how can we know? If someone is just using it and they say everything is fine, they either might not know that it is happening to them, or they could have by luck gone on bands or frequencies where they don't occur.
And again, I look forward to using it, but staying in strict compliance with US regulations is very important for my circumstances. Sabra Ewing On Dec 18, 2023, at 6:26?PM, K8SAS <k8sas73@...> wrote:
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Lisa, the review of the x6100 is in the July 2022 issue of QST.
73,
Steve
On Dec 18, 2023, at 8:22 PM, "Lisa WO?L" < lr7521061@...> wrote:
I¡¯m pretty sure that there is a QST review of the 6100.? Though I haven¡¯t seen it it would contain much info on transmitter performance.
If you could that would be great. Could you tell me what the data means since I don't know anything about it? I didn't realize you can have spurious emissions on receive so now I'm curious about spurious emissions on transmit and receive.
I'm sure the people from various countries here do not want to get in trouble with governing regulating entities, or volunteers helping to internally regulate as is done in some countries like the United States.
Will I need to be innovative with my antenna design to eliminate harmonics up and down every band or do I not have to worry about it?
You would think that if people were getting in trouble because of this radio it would be in the reviews.
Sabra Ewing
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I have a good spectrum analyzer good to 1.5 GHz.? I have looked at other rigs, mostly VHF and UHF rigs.? Most of the Chinese rigs do look rather bad.
I might look at my X6100.
73, ron, n9ee/r
Ron Wright, N9EE/R
Hernando Co ARES EC
Spring Hill, Florida also n9ee55@...
On Monday, December 18, 2023 at 01:48:43 PM EST, Sabra Ewing < sabra1023@...> wrote:
I just wanted to make sure this Radio doesn't put out spurious emissions above appropriate levels. I am going to get mine tested if I can find a way to do so as I don't have the equipment for it.
?
For those of you who have the equipment, it would be cool if you could test your own radios and get back to us with the results.
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Re: The Other X6100 Group
In the United States, it is fine for unlicensed people to listen to Pam radios on whatever frequency they choose including HF as long as they don't transmit. How you would know a lot about radios and go through all the effort to set up HF and then not have your license I don't know but if you were in that situation. Or maybe someone else you know has already set it up and you listen or something.
Maybe enough of that and you would get your license so you could transmit.
Also, a lot of older ham radio operators don't know about computers. I don't want to go off of stereotypes, but this is what I think of when I think of my scenario of why someone could be on here who doesn't have a call sign.
What is you are college student trying to help your grandfather with this Radio. Maybe he has had his license for 35 years and is not good with computers. This being an SDR radio, you're fine setting it up for him, and keeping up-to-date on what is going on with the Radio.
Maybe he can set up the radio himself including the computer portion, but he doesn't go on things like this, so you are just keeping track of the news in case you need to tell him anything.
Or maybe you aren't sure if you will get your license, but you were thinking if I did get my license, what Radio would I get?
I know this message is getting too long. I'm just saying there are plenty of reason people could want to be in a group like this without having a call sign, and there are plenty of reasons that your email for other services does not match your QRZ email.
Some people can have five or six different email accounts because it's a good way to separate everything and having one email trying to get six separate inboxes doesn't work that well.
Maybe someone even uses a different email for the FCC because they have one email set aside specifically for government communications so they won't miss anything.
I guess even if I could have multiple accounts under one account on here, I wouldn't use my call sign email because that's not designed for groups and mailing lists. That's designed for the equivalent of QSL cards. And and then when everyone else has their call sign email that they also use only for that purpose it makes it convenient.
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On Dec 18, 2023, at 6:21?PM, Lisa WO?L <lr7521061@...> wrote:
? Sometimes people can be shortsighted.? I don¡¯t see having to have a callsign as being a valid necessity to joining a group.? We need to be more open and accepting to all with an interest, it just may lead to more people getting licensed. I didn't know there was another group.U need need a call sign to learn about the radio. What if someone is trying to learn about it for someone else who does have a call sign who doesn't have time to be on here? what if someone doesn't have a QRZ profile? I do for now, but was thinking of getting rid of it because they do not care about accessibility or universal design. Sabra Ewing ? I¡¯m in both groups? I was just wondering if anyone here was also on the other X6100 group on ?? ?I am trying to learn everything I can about this radio, so I tried to also join the other group.? However, I was rejected because it said my callsign and email address don't match my QRZ profile (they do).? ?Has anyone else run into this?
Jim
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Re: The Other X6100 Group
I agree. Also my QRZ email doesn't match. QRZ is way more public, so I set up a specialized email with my call sign to use with it, and to give over the air so people could contact me there and I could give them this email if necessary. However, I'm in another group using this service that doesn't have to do with him Radio. So if I joined him radio groups using my call sign email, I would have to have two accounts. This thing is kind of difficult to use. I have to turn off emails a lot and go to the app or the website to look at my topics and switching between accounts would be a lot to handle.
If it would be like Google and let me have two emails on one account, that would be great. And for things that don't have to do with him Radio, using my call sign email in those groups would be kind of odd and not that appropriate. Plus, the whole reason I made that email is so ham radiocommunication can stay separate.
KSL cards are not accessible to me, so electronic communications would take their place, and if it's all jumbled up with my other emails that will be really hard.?
Plus, when emailing in a ham radio context, people can look up my call sign easily and that is what other people seem to be doing as well.
But even though this is ham Radio related, I can't use my call sign email on Groups.io. And then it would also be really hard to unsubscribe with my email and then resubscribe with my callsign email and have to explain that to group after group.
So basically I'm in the same boat. My email on here does not match my email on QRZ. And who knows how much longer I will have a QRZ profile because that website is very annoying.?
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On Dec 18, 2023, at 6:21?PM, Lisa WO?L <lr7521061@...> wrote:
? Sometimes people can be shortsighted.? I don¡¯t see having to have a callsign as being a valid necessity to joining a group.? We need to be more open and accepting to all with an interest, it just may lead to more people getting licensed. I didn't know there was another group.U need need a call sign to learn about the radio. What if someone is trying to learn about it for someone else who does have a call sign who doesn't have time to be on here? what if someone doesn't have a QRZ profile? I do for now, but was thinking of getting rid of it because they do not care about accessibility or universal design. Sabra Ewing ? I¡¯m in both groups? I was just wondering if anyone here was also on the other X6100 group on ?? ?I am trying to learn everything I can about this radio, so I tried to also join the other group.? However, I was rejected because it said my callsign and email address don't match my QRZ profile (they do).? ?Has anyone else run into this?
Jim
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Dave
Gary