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HAM SIGNAL

Thoughts,observations,experiments, and ramblings in Amateur Radio by N1DAY and KC4SIT.

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Roger Roger Roger

01/22/2018

For those who insist on Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger Roger
Are you &!#$ing me?...,or the case of GWDS

01/20/2018

Title seems appropriate. I spent over a week trying to figure out why my Hafler P1500 only delivered half of its rated mono power mode. Channel A - 70 watts, Channel B - 70 watts...Bridged Mono - 70 watts. How could it be that each channel was working perfectly and that bridged mode wasn't giving me any power boost? Theories abound.... My fellow Cellar Dwellers had some good theories in attempting to fix this. 1. We are transmitting into something other than 12.5 ohms... hence the voltage
Inside tuning on low frequencies

01/18/2018

Anyone who has spent any amount of time on 630M or 2200M knows this drill. Get the antenna tuned in the late afternoon to that near perfect 1:1 SWR and wait for sunset. Then fire the radio up a few hours later and quickly find out that the SWR is rapidly approaching 2:1. That 40 degree difference between afternoon and darkness, especially in northern climates, can play havoc with keeping a narrow bandwidth antenna in tune. So flashlight in hand, like soldiers, Cellar Dwellers march out to
No More Clipping - Taming the Hafler

01/16/2018

As described in earlier posts, I am eyeball deep in getting the kinks worked out of 2200 meters right now. I am using one very cool QRP-Labs Ultimate 3S transmitter to generate a 136 KHz signal at 200 milliwatts which is being piped through a vintage Hafler P1500 Transnova audio amplifier. For those who do not know, the Hafler P1500/3000 amps are odd birds in the amplifier world as their frequency response range goes up to 300 KHz when most amplifiers' audio response ranges stops at 20 KHz.
The 630M/2200M Antenna Recipe

12/29/2017

I have recently received a couple of emails regarding the specifics of my MF/LF antenna that is installed at my qth and KC4SIT's QTH. We have both had good success on the low bands with this antenna and because of it's size and rather unique vertical element arrangement, it also tunes well on all bands from 160-6M. So I am gong to describe the antenna in as much detail as I can here. The vertical elements The vertical portion of the antenna should be as high as you can possibly go.
KIWI SDR

12/04/2017

KIWI SDR? Ever heard of it? If not, you need to check it out. KIWI SDR is simply a website collection of listening radios that hams and other radio enthusiasts located throughout the world make available to anyone who wants to use them. The radios cover multiple bands, modes of operation, and a variety of antenna configurations. If you have ever wondered what your radio signal looks like in the town down the road or half-way around the world, this service is worth a visit. It can be found
2200M

11/24/2017

The time has come to gear up for 2200 M or 136 kHz transmissions here at station N1DAY. My 630M station is humming along now with good, consistent performance and I hope that the lessons learned there will translate to 2200 meters with fewer mis-steps. So far, so good, and I now have a working induction coil that can churn out 2.7 millihenries of inductance and it is resonating my 630M antenna on 2200M with room to spare. The new coil makes my 630M coil look like a pipsqueak. The coil
The 630-40 TX/RX antenna

11/03/2017

The genesis of this antenna is quite interesting. Although I have a really good transmitting antenna for 630M, I am still looking for something better in the receive department. Right now I am using my TX antenna by swapping the induction coil in and out remotely and it works pretty good. I have tried loops, and a variety of ground antennas, all of which have come up short of my expectations. Then somewhere, I read an article about a curtain receiving antenna which was basically a bunch of
Antenna Safety

10/29/2017

In case you haven't figured it out yet, a lot of my blog is devoted to experiments on 630M wspr transmissions. It is a fun activity, but does require operating the transmitter throughout the night to get a good idea of how my station is performing on transmit and receive on this new band available to HAMs. Unfortunately, I am getting a bit forgetful and on more than one occasion have found myself out working in the area of my antenna while failing to shut down station transmissions. A