Welcome friends,

I am a member of the German Radio Amateur Club DARC, Stuttgart section, DOK P11

 

               Homebrew Solid State PA ufb             

                               ATNO 318 Central African Republic                      

                        and a new 8-Band Antenna, an UB 640 VL1-3

 

 

This is the shack. The TRX is now a Kenwood TS-590.

 

Since 24/11/2016 my new PA ist ready and working well. I used an old Hewlett Packard Case which is solid and robust. Two 50V LDMOS FETs (each 1400 Watts) are doing a phantastic job. The power supply delivers 54V and 54A (no joke), costs only 200€ (Huawei Server Blade) and is incredible small. Main problem of the PA ist to get rid of the heat (I am using 5 high performance fans and heatsinks in aluminium and copper).
The PA is controlled by an arduino and communicates with a Raspbi V3. It is fully controlled by a HD Touchscreen and/or WiFi or LAN. So one can use a smartphone or tablet, a PC or operate remote by LAN.
There are a lot of safety functions realized, directly on the PA module (extrem fast) and additionally by the controller. All parameters, supply voltage, supply current, temperature, fan speeds, SWR directly after the PA and after the LP-Filter are measured and surveyed. First pictures of the PA are shown.

Rear: left side, the PA Module

         right side, TRX relais and switched Low Pass Filters and two SWR bridges.

 

 

front: Controller Board with a Arduino, the RasbPi V3 and a 7" touchscreen display.

 

Backside: copper/alu heatsink cooled with 4 fans.

More info to come, google "B26 RF 2k5".

 

With the MicroHAM Station Master the PA and the Stepper antenna are tuned automatically. Hot switching is not possible, the PTT-Signal is not transfered to the PA unless everything is set!

 

August 2016 I installed a new Mast, a telescopic Frick Mast with a home brew motor drive. It has two Buttons, "Down" and the antenna is downed during heavy weather, "UP" brings the beam 5m above roof top and 20 m above ground during operation, smooth and silently.

It was really hard work to get the 60 kg Mast to the fourth floor. Thanks to Marcus, Jörg, Dimi and Georg! Here yau can see a very lucky OM after finishing his work. 

 

I have replaced the old Fritzel FB-33 by a new Ultrabeam UB 640 VL1-3 three element extandable antenna. Fullsize in 8 bands and a perfect match on every frequency. So now I can operate also on new bands: 6m 12m, 17m and 30m. One day after implementation I got my ATNO with CY9C on 17m. On the new band! And with the 30m/40m extension I worked ZL9G on the other side of the planet in RTTY and CW. Which surprised me the most was that I succeded in the immens pile-up after a few calls in minutes! Meanwhile I also reached Tasmania, VK7 on 40m.

The antenna was brought into pieces to the roof and then assembled and installed together with a good friend and experienced DXer, Georg, DJ3AA a hard but satisfying work!

The antenna is a good landing place for swallow birds.

Last picture shows the Antenna downed in parking position.

 

This is my QSL card. The picture is showing me and my family in original "Rottweiler Narrenkleidle" (Carnival costumes).

DXing I like the most, since march 2011 I worked 318 DX entities. Turkmenistan is not yet acknowledged. DXCC in three modes, WAE 1-3,WAS, WAC and DLD 100 are the most important diplomas I got up to now. Other ham-activities are contesting and ARDF.

I am member of the AKAFUNK, so I am often using the clubstation of the University of Stuttgart DK0SU

Hpe cuagn!

73 de Wolfgang, DL1WM

 

 

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History of the callsign:

the former owner of the callsign was

DL1WM - Franz Herrmann Silent Key Juli 2010

OM Franz was more than 70 years (!) active Radio Amateur!