The Go Box

It has been over a year since a contact on HF was logged from AB8XX base. The FT-950 was boxed up last year. There were no antennas up. We are at the top of the solar cycle and propagation is still poor (worst cycle in 100 years). 

So, what do I do? I make a Go Box. An entire shack in a box. The rack mount kit weighs 35lbs and is phone and digital ready  160m to 70cm. Includes APRS and Crossband Repeater functionality as well.

Why a Go Box? Because Amateur Radio is more fun when it can be portable. It is perfect for Parks on the Air and Field Day. All it needs is some electrons and antenna hookups. 

Here's what I managed to squeeze into a single 3U rack mount flight case:

FT-857D for HF/6m, backup 2m/70cm

TM-D710A for 2m/70cm, APRS + Packet

HF semi-automatic antenna tuner

Signalink USB Digital Mode Interface for 857

25A compact switching power supply

7Ah sealed AGM battery

Low Loss Powergate for batt. charging and switching

4 port fused Anderson Powerpole distribution block

4 port powered USB hub for TNC and HF Digital interfacing

32GB flash storage on USB hub

Serial to USB converter for TNC

Custom rear panel for RF, AC, DC, and USB connections

Custom front panel with main buss master switch

2 12v accessory outlets

More to come...

Struck Down

Lightning. Electrons from the sky fried my big 100' oak tree tower. It had to be cut down. No more antennas. No more HF. The base station now serves no purpose.

Here is a photo of the tower before the antennas had to come down.

Ohio State Parks on the Air

This was the first year I was able to participate in the field for the Ohio State Parks on the Air event. Over the course of several hours I was able to activate Caesar Creek S.P. and Little Miami S.P. in SW Ohio. Used the good old FT-897 on solar and battery power with the 16' Buddipole mast holding up a 102' G5RV. See the video.

ATAS 120A Antenna Maintenance

My Yaesu ATAS 120A mobile HF antenna was acting quirky so I disassembled it for inspection. KB5WIA has a great blog entry discussing how to take it apart, inspect, and reassemble this antenna found here. It seems like anything can be found on YouTube nowadays but there have been no videos showing the guts of an ATAS mobile antenna until now. Check it out!

20m 30m 40m Tri-Band Ground Plane, chasing CW DX

I designed and put up this new antenna a few weeks ago. The 80/40m vertical came crashing down in some high wind and all the ground radials needed to be rolled up for spring anyway. I have always wanted to have a decent vertical antenna for 30m so this provided an opportunity to do that while still having a decent 40m radiator as well. Since it was not much more difficult to add another band, 20m was built into it as well. Take a look at the video to see the construction details.

It performs just as any other ground plane. The assembly hangs from a 60' tree branch and the feed point is about 20' off the ground. So far I have worked half way around the world with it on 30m.

It has been quite a while since my last post about the cw key. I have been putting it to use since then and about 2/3 of my DX contacts are now on CW. I do not have the guts to ragchew on CW as of yet though. Fast paced pileups and contest is where I mostly use that mode for now.

73, AB8XX

P3 CW Touchkey

I have had this key a while and thought I would show it off. It is a "no moving parts" electronic iambic key that is touch sensitive and can be found at http://www.cwtouchkeyer.com/HOME.htm. Mine is just the P3 kit and made my own key into a small project box with an internal battery. A switch on the back allows you to select battery or external power pole. The paddles were fabricated out of some 0.032" aluminum I had. It works pretty good. Only problem is I am working on improving my CW skills and am afraid to use it on the air lol! 73, AB8XX

80m 40m Vertical Video

I recently completed the video on the new 80m/40m Dual Band Vertical. It shows some detail of the matching network and also analysis with the AIM4170. Take a look at it!



73, AB8XX