New HAM First QSO

SlowBlowin wrote: »

I will keep my fingers crossed for you, do let the thread know, its an annoying wait.

I remember sitting mine, we lived in the South of the UK at the time and my mum drove me to Matlock in Derby to take the test (it was the last minute venue for the UK). I was 14 at the time (in the 70s) and the results took months and like you I was positive I failed, by the time they came through (I passed) I had discovered girls, and it was 30 years later before I applied for my licence.

SlowBlowin wrote: »

The exam was 3 hours long in the this big hall at the main post office, no multi choice, heres the paper I sat (the power of the internet):

http://www.g4dmp.co.uk/rae/rae1976m.pdf

It was a City and Guilds qualification. Then there was morse code too, but that was another place and another day.

Edit: No calculators, only pen and paper.

Deleted User wrote: »

Shyboy, hows it going with the Radio ? are you on much, antenna, your setup ? Curious lol, most of all are you having fun ?

I was expecting an update by now lol

Deleted User wrote: »

Well at least you're making contacts that's the main thing.

The U.K antennas antennas are good they get good reports, get it up high as you can.

My 2nd antenna is the hyendfed.nl 5 band MK III I got from another HAM who didn't want it and I swapped my SDR Play. it's 20 meters long but has a coil for 80M and I need a tuner above 3650 Khz, I could shorten it to be more resonant at around 3700 Khz but I'm not bothered, the radio tuner sorts that out. But the coil would work better than using a tuner on a band that is not resonant. I use the hyendfed antenna for Shortwave Listening and transmitting, I have it hooked up in the sitting room.

Make sure you got a good ground on the coax or at the UNUN.

With this antenna and tuner of the Xiegu G90 I can even work 160M I was astonished, a 20 meter long antenna working on a band that you need a 80 meter antenna, granted not as efficient by a long shot but I got decent reports on it all the same in the U.K.

I like the 450D it's a nice looking radio. You should get years of use from it.

You should be able to make contacts to North America with that antenna with ease.

With my EFHW from hyendcompany.nl I can make contacts to the US and Canada with 20 watts using the Xiegu G90.

I haven't any radios capable of VHF/UHF/DRM I haven't used any repeaters yet.

We should arrange a QSO some night.

Deleted User wrote: »

Yes grounding the Coax is essential, this reduces static on the antenna and helps prevent it getting to your radio which could also damage it.

Usually there is a ground point at the UNUN ( the transformer box your coax connects to ) but this needs to be pretty close to the ground, the Ground wire should be as short as possible. In my case my hyendfed EFHW is up around 40-50 feet at the high point down to about 30 foot on a pole on the chimney then I have the coax grounded before it enters the sitting room.

My other antenna is the myantennas.com EFHW 8010, 134 feet long or 40 meters. This is going to the shack, The UNUN box is about 3 feet off the ground and I have it grounded there and not the coax but it would be no harm to also ground the coax.

The myantennas.com EFHW 8010 starts about 3 feet off the ground, UNUN box there, then around 90 degree angle to a height of about 40 feet in a North/South direction then it turns East to the highest point of about 50-60 feet. Height helps a lot particularly at lower frequencies and the antenna should be around 1 quarter wavelength above ground which is impractical for most on say 160 and 80 meters. So on 80 meters the antenna should be around 20 meters high and on 160 meters it should be 40 meters high.

I get good DX to Central and South America on the myantennas.com antenna, I'm usually on at the right times for there and U.S/Canada is no issue mostly.

So definitely ground that antenna, ground the UNUN or Coax before it enters the shack.

What way is your antenna mounted? and how high is the UNUN off the ground ? and the highest point ?


I'm a big fan of those multiband EFHW with 49@1 UNUN they work great.




For now Friday works but PM me before, around 21:00 should work for me, it would have to be 80 meters.

Deleted User wrote: »

Install looks good, no you won't be able to ground the UNUN, it's too high, Ground should be as short as possible.

You really need a good ground and in the pics below is a good way of doing it, they show lightning protectors, you can install these too if you wish.





Did you say earlier that you hadn't more space for a longer antenna ?

If that's the case you can try at some point the hyendfed.nl 5 band MK III, it has a coil for 80m still not perfect but at least it's resonant on 80m and it would be more efficient than trying to use an antenna not resonant nor near resonant on 80m. It's 20 meters long too so getting on 80 m with a 20 meter long "resonant" antenna is really great. I have used it on other non resonant bands too with a tuner.

What tuner are you using for your antenna on 80m ?

This is the one I have, it was given to me as part of a swap with another ham.

https://www.hyendcompany.nl/antenna/multiband_8040201510m/product/detail/3/HyEndFed_5_Band_Black_Clamp_MK3#prod

It works very well and I have this wired to the sitting room, bandwidth is narrow on 80m but the radio tuner sorts that out, mine has a low SWR up to about 3650 Khz above this I need a tuner, I could take it down to shorten it for lower SWR above 3650 or somewhere in between but it works fine for now, maybe if one of the ropes break up the tree I will shorten it then.

Yes we can try QSO tonight or tomorrow, 80m will be packed but we can give it a go. And if your tuner is an external one we can even try 160m.

I can get my 20 meter long hyendfed antenna to work 80m with my 20 watt Xiegu G90 and got good reports into the U.K. I was very surprised actually, when I said "break" and they said "the break station go ahead please" I wasn't expecting a reply at all on 160 Meters. It's a good band if 80 is crowded.

PM me , I can get on around 9pm+ we can find a freq and pm here and try out 160 m too. I can get on 160 no problem with my 40 meter long EFHW from myantennas.com, I need an external tuner but it works. See if you can tune up on 1980 Khz. 160M would actually be better, less competition for space than on 80m

Deleted User wrote: »

No bother, I will have my licence a year in May so I have more to learn.

Grounding protects against static which can damage your radio and cause a lot more noise. It also helps to minimise the amount of RF that gets into the shack, though, with a proper resonant antenna this shouldn't happen. With the EFHW and 49:1 UNUN, they work very well on the resonant bands they were designed to work on and don't allow any measurable RF back in the shack however, when you use them on non resonant bands, for instance, 80m on your antenna then the UNUN does not work very well and is more inefficient and can allow the coax to radiate, causing RF in the shack, solution to this would be to add a radial or two 20 meters long at the ground point but, you would need to eliminate the UNUN and this would be a pain in the ass every time you want to work 80m more efficiently so if using the tuner works well then I would just go with that for now, later on you could try the hyendfed.nl 5 Band MK III with the could for 80m, more expensive but would work better on 80m and is 23 meters long around the same size as yours now or a tad longer Or you could make your own antenna for 80m, A Dipole or Double Bazooka works good too, the Double Bazooka is a single band antenna. You could get one here, it's a long antenna and due to the thickness of the wire it won't be so stealthy looking and use your existing antenna for the other bands. Or get one of the hyendfed.nl 8 band antennas which you can select to be resonant on the CW or Phone portion of 80M which would be convenient and all one antenna.

https://wireantennas.co.uk/double_bazooka.html

Symptoms of RF in the shack would be computer speakers buzzing or hearing yourself in the speakers, it can cause touch lamps to turn up and down, on and off, cause televisions to switch on and off, change channels, this happened to me to an old Samsung LCD tv that had one of those poxy touch panels, no physical buttons and this was not RF shielded so I gave it to my Mother and bought an LG without these touch panels. I have air filters in 2 of the bedrooms that have touch panels and when I work 160M it drives them nuts so I plug them out. But once I work on the resonant bands all is good, now if I could have a better ground in the shack this might eliminate this but because it's in the attic I can not have a better station ground or any ground apart from Electric at the socket but this would only be masking the issues of a poorly designed antenna anyway and as I said, I only have some RF when I work 160m on the myantennas.com EFHW 8010.

Grounding helps protect against lightning too and the Lightning protectors are an extra level of protection. If you do use a grounding system like above make sure and seal the coax connectors with self amalgamating tape, water will get in.

I am impressed the tuner in the 450D tunes that antenna on 80m, although it's incorrect to say it "tunes" the antenna, an antenna with poor swr for the band you're trying to work won't work any better with a tuner, it won't make it resonant nor lower the swr from the tuner to the antenna, the only thing the tuner does is make the radio see a 50 Ohm load ( or as close as possible ) to protect the output transistors or valves depending on the radio. Ideally the antenna should be resonant but a tuner allows you to work a band you otherwise couldn't. You can get an external tuner and practice tuning up on 160m and see if it works, I prefer manual tuners, less to go wrong.

There are a lot of HAMS using Dipoles, G5RV etc as a multiband antenna with a tuner but this is not very efficient but it does work and HAMS have been using this setup for decades. An EFHW with 49:1 is a much better setup because it's resonant on multiple bands with no tuner and unlike a normal end fed with 9:1 UNUN ( which is by far the most popular EFHW ) it doesn't need radials or tuner for resonant bands, the End Fed with 9:1 isn't resonant on any band but yet a lot of people never heard of the EFHW with 49:1 UNUN and a lot of People who have can't believe it works without radials or ( the other half of the antenna ) but it does work and works very well. There have been bitter disputes on the QRZ forum with self appointed experts swearing this EFHW is snake oil and is very inefficient and they still refuse to believe they are wrong despite 99% 5 star reviews of the myantennas.com and hyendfed.nl EFHW antennas on eham.net and on their websites.

Anyway, one key point is to get your antenna high as possible. Perhaps taller poles, it doesn't really matter if one end is higher than the other.

Use that garden, if you think you can get a 40 meter long antenna up then do, the XYL won't even notice it. Get it high as possible, this makes a big difference particularly for 40,80 and 160 meters as the potential for DX is much higher with height, when the antenna is lower down the radiation goes more upright and this is good for NVIS communications for up to 1000 Kms, higher up gives better low angle radiation.

You could also look at a vertical Antenna for 40 meters, this is a good band day and night, you will need radials but the lawn will hide these after a year. Get a tilt base, something like this https://www.dxengineering.com/search/department/antennas/product-line/dx-engineering-tilt-base-antenna-mounting-systems?autoview=SKU&N=department%3Aantennas&sortby=Default&sortorder=Ascending

and you can lower it easily by unscrewing a few bolts.

The vertical will greatly help your chances getting DX contacts.

I can get good DX with my setup but it's up high, starts off 3 feet above ground and ends up 50+ North South/East West config, due to trees not being where make it practical for a straight line install this was the best I could do.

Anyway, that was a long post, I hope your Wife gets better soon. If you can get on later PM me if not we can arrange for another time. I haven't been on the last few nights but hope to get on tonight.

Shyboy wrote: »

Hi Mad_Lad,

Thanks again for the information, I have learned so much in that last post alone. Very interesting that you mention the symptoms of RF in the shack as my daughter was telling me last week that she could hear a voice coming through the speakers on the PC. I did have the radio on at the time, but she says it was not my voice, but a "foreign" one?

I actually contacted Ian at UK Antennas yesterday, as I had heard that he was very helpful with support/advice for his antennas. I also wanted to discuss why the SWR was high for me out of the box. He asked me to send him a few photos of the install and he noticed two major flaws.

The first one being that we have the unun positioned so the beginning of the wire is wrapping around it, not coming directly away from it. This was done totally without realising. He says this is the main cause of my high SWR. An easy enough fix as all I have to do is loosen a few bolts and swivel it.

The second flaw will be more difficult to rectify. He says that I have the end of the wire too close to the bracket, it has to be at least a metre away from it using paracord or nylon rope. He says that he is surprised that it even worked at all?

I don't know how I am going to do this as it will mean that I will have to move the end bracket to allow for the extra metre of rope or the wire will sag down too much?

Until I can rectify it, I am not going to use the HF rig to be safe.

I will keep you posted and we will finally have a QSO once I get this sorted...