Off Center Fed Dipole Day 2

After a couple of
hours of cutting... then walking up to the deck to take measurements... then
doing it all over again.... it appears that 3 bands is it for this particular design.
I started out with 71' of wire at ~25 of elevation fed at 80% from the end. 
I am now at something like 13.75 + 50.25.

 

10m = 2.5:1 @ 28.1
mhz  (best @ 29.1)

15m = 1.6:1 @ 21.05
mhz (best @ 21.2.)

20m = 2.2:1 @ 14.05
mhz (best @ 13.7)

40m = 16:1 @ 7.05
(doesn't happen)

 

There is a model
for that will work for this OFCD to cover the four bands with a little bit of tuning...
but it is not going to happen today. It appears that
I will need to make a second dipole just cut for 40m.




My two Field Day 2008 antennas will be an OCFD (for 10m, 15m, and 20m)  +
a 40m wire dipole.

ISP Speed Tests

It is funny... for one place that I test my ISP speed... I am only seeing about 1m/1m
best case.



From another size I am seeing 2.4m/1m but that test only goes as far as the Minneapolis
area which is not a great real world test. (Image below.)

It will be interesting to see the new rate packages that should come out over the
next couple of days/weeks with my rural ISP. I am interested in a 2m or 3m package
if I can actually see that level of performance and the price point is right. We will
see what the packages look like shortly.

JPG vs. PNG

I think that I need to start using PNG as my standard image format. Or at least for
when I am doing screen captures. The above example is the same basic image captured
in JPG and PNG.

The PNG looks better and is smaller. I will have to see how this plays out over time.
My initial impress was that PNG's were slightly larger for more complex images. Maybe
that is not correct and needs to be revalidated.

Field Day Antenna Ideas (more)

Here is my first experiment for Sunday. My friend Ford, N0FP did some modeling
for me assuming 25' of elevation + flat top + 4:1 feed point. The picture below shows
SSB freqs which will be close enough... I am planning on an CW only event.

69.5' looks like the next starting point. Remember when copper wire was cheap? I miss
the good old days.

73 de NG0R

Field Day 2008 - Prep

I spent most of the day with my son Ben working on getting prepped for Field Day (next weekend.) We built a nice 4:1 transformer with a 1:1 current balun. The goal is that it will the center piece of an Off Center Fed Dipole. The goal is to be able to cover 10m, 15m, 20m, and 40m. My real goal is 20m+40m... anything extra is well... extra.



My initial attempt covers 10m + 20m well enough to not need a tuner... 15m is very
workable with a tuner... 40m is not going to happen. (It was based on a 66' model.)



I am going to try a second attempt tomorrow (Sunday) based upon a 69' model in an
80%/20% split. According to the model it should work. We will see what happens in
the real world.



My backup plan is to use a 20m dipole and second one for 40m or go to a G5RV. Since
I will be operation QRP in campground I need my antenna to be as efficient as
possible. Second thing is to minimize the amount of antennas... I will be in a campground
not an antenna range.



More antenna testing tomorrow with the kids.

TR-9130

I have an old Kenwood TR-1930 sitting around. I think that my TR-751 (used to drive
my high band transverters) has a problem with SSB receive audio been low. I am thinking
that maybe the TR-9130 might used to compare the audio levels and if needed pressed
into service.

http://www.kb2ljj.com/data/kenwood/tr-9130.htm

The link above has some interesting notes. I have take a couple of screen captures
for future reference in case that site goes away over time.

2008 ARRL June VHF QSO Party

Kind of a small showing on my part.

The grid map shows the 6m locations that I worked.

Almost 2 inches of rain for 6/11/2008

We had about 1 7/8 inches of rain in the rain gauge for yesterday. Living on top of
the hill the rain is not really that big of a deal. The grass and rock landscaping
seems to be doing it's job pretty well.

Testing...

Moving from the old server to the new server... testing.

Roo Season

I spent some time tonight flushing the bleach water from fresh water tank and then
putting in the water filter. The fresh water system is now ready to go. The black
water tank has the toilet chemicals dumped into the tank. I have the fridge/freezer
running with ice cubes in the freezer.

Tomorrow afternoon I need to spend a few minutes chasing down a slight gas smell from
near the valve of the LP tanks. I need some sunlight so that I can spray down the
fittings and look for little bubbles.



Once that is completed we are ready to load clothes, linens, and food.