***** NEWS *****

Nice tropo condx last night 09/11 and this morning 09/12 on 2M. worked 3 states and some Ontario. Made first cw on 2M, another first and nice to use the 9100. 2M setup has to be upgraded, I need to get the 13 element beam up. the 2M 4 ele quad works but is vertical polarized.

The 9100 power supply is closer. Shunt/crowbar PCB is built. Fan just fits overtop, now for the small regulator pcb. For now  I'm operating nicely between 2W & 20W from a battery and still use the IC751A for cw & ssb.

PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME QSL"S VIA THE RAC BUREAU FOR ANY OF MY CALLSIGNS, VE3CGA, VA3CGA, VE3MLA. IT COSTS TOO MUCH, I have 1 card waiting for VA3CGA that will cost me $10 plus a surcharge for mastercard, 8 cards for VE3MLA and again that will cost me $10 plus fees.  THESE 9 CARDS WILL NOT BE RECOVERED - SORRY OVER $20 FOR 9 QSLS UNFORTUNATELY WON'T HAPPEN              PLEASE EQSL or DIRECT MAIL or scan the card and send it via email tnxl

Made a 50MHZ dipole from the end element from an old tv antenna, its perfect for 50.150 MHZ (for now).

I moved my quadrifilar antenna onto the roof and attached to the toilet stack (yup ...no crap eh!).  works on the noaa satellites down to ~2.5deg elevation depending on atmospheric condx

my ICOM 751A is now the standby rig. its on the dummy load and it was useful getting control and digi modes set up.

the ft757 is on the work bench waiting for alignment

I built a dummy load, cost about $25, 1 500W tab resistor 50R, a big heatsink, a coax connector and a nice brass shield, looks cool and tested it from 1.8 to 450Mhz. picture is below. the tab resistor spec says its good up to 3ghz

I now own the VA3CGA call as well. My son has moved to BC so I took over the other CGA call. Hope to work him as a VA7TWX once he gets setup

Home set-up: new IC-9100, ICOM 751A, 80M inv Vee, 40M inv Vee, 20M dipole and hygain 18AVT,  FT60 with 4 ele quad,  MOBILE set-up: Yaesu FT757G, homebrew verticals for 20m & 40m all others are hamsticks HTX202 + Mirage amp + 2m 1/4w whip, Vintage radio is a HQ-180 Hamerlund receiver. Having fun exploring sdr with a rtl-sdr v3 dongle.  using hdsdr and the qfh antenna, very impressed with the noaa pictures compared to the pics from the FT60. it decodes just about everything, have it working on winxp, win7and linux mint.

Active since 1970 Most active on 20M SSTV and 2m local and states near lake erie and ontario. Have rtty, cw, and digital modes, and satellites after seeing and hearing the ISS one evening   Now have 4ele 2M quad, 137mhz QHA, 70cm cloverleaf antenna

arrl code certificate for 10, 15, 20 & 25wpm

Ham station is now installed in a custom cabinet with a home brew controller that holds swr/pwr meter, rotor controller, remote antenna switching and audio selection for computer interface.

 

 

I am back on cw with a home brew paddle made of brass with oak finger rests, it works great

Recently have my 20 and 25wpm ARRL code certificate.

heres my 500W 50R dummy load

since Jan 1 2016, my solar powered 2M beacon (VE3MLA 144.290MHZ)  has been operating - antenna is a slim jim up 65', beacon rig is a htx202. FM morse ID, home brew ATMEL controller. Data transmitted includes ID, night/day mode, solar voltage, temperature and grid #. Night mode is every hour, day mode interval is dependant on solar charging voltage and is decreased as solar voltage increases.

2M quad

 

50MHZ dipole & NOAA quadrifilar

20M dipole, 80M inv vee, 40M inv vee

My other hobby is building and flying R/C aircraft. One thing I would like to do is put a beacon in one of the planes, set it aloft in a fairly high circular pattern and see how far it could be heard. I could embed a 2m dipole in the wing and the tiny beacon controller with the FT60 in the fusealage - we'll see. my previous experiment was live video from  a somewhat scale UAV I built in 2006.  Video from this is on you tube   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozyj_9BlOXs

 

 

73's Bob

Rev: VE3CGA - Mon aug 15 17:02:11 2016 EUC: VE3CGA EAUS6OZ1UETE2-34564-1 ve3cga@yahoo.com