Adrien Comeau - VE3IAC

10M band RFD Resonant Feedline Dipole Report

2011-11-20T19:47:00.001-08:00

Well, it works!

A few weeks ago I made up a resonant feedline dipole for 10M as an experiment and the initial measurements looked good,. (Post http://acomeau.blogspot.com/2011/10/10m-band-rfd-resonant-feedline-dipole.html ) This weekend I used the ARRL sweepstakes contest as a way to get a few quick test QSOs in.

10M RFD

I threw the end of the antenna up in a maple tree in the back yard, connected up a spare feedline into the house and tuned the antenna up.

The bottom of the 10M band looks good, with SWR <1.5:1. The upper end of the band is just as well.

10M Band SWR

10M SWR

I ran a few QSOs in the contest, as well as a few DX QSOs into Europe. The listing below are the local and DX contacts. 6000km is not too bad for a few meters of RG-174 and automotive wire. I was running the FT2000D (100W+ PEP SSB or 20W PSK)

First Contacts

A dash of calling CQ on PSK tells me, by looking at PSK reporter, that the my coverage easly includes North America and Europe. There was a Brazillian station I could copy but he was not able to return my reply.

PSK Reporter

Humm, so I guess all that is left is to forge ahead with the full 80m version hung from a kite skyhook!

73
Adrien

10M band RFD Resonant Feedline Dipole

2011-10-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

I am interested in experimenting with antenna designs, and those that have properties which make them useful for temporary field usage are interesting.

This post is about the construction and measurements of a Resonant Feedline Dipole cut for the 10M band.

The resonant feedline dipole is simply described as an open ended 50ohm coaxial section with its center conductor extended a measured distance, and with a common mode choke placed the same measured distance back from the "open end".

The central feed point of the dipole is the open end of the coax . The extended center conductor acts as one half of the dipole. The coax's shield from the "open end" back to the common mode choke acts as the other half of the dipole. Power is delivered to the feed point within the coax its self in the usual way coax transfers power. The choke's distance and extended conductor's length are selected in the usual way.

10M Resonant Feedline Dipole

The picture above shows the basic structure. The SMA connector is the coax connection. The coax used is RG-174. After some arbitrary length a snap on choke is used to create the common mode choke. After an additional 7ft 8.25in of RG-174 the coax end is reached. At this point the center conductor is extended with a 7ft 8.25in length of regular 18AWG covered stranded wire.

Center with temporary strengthening strain relief.

5 turn Choke

I used a USB based VNA ( http://www.arraysolutions.com/Products/vna2180.htm ) to measure the antenna's feed point.

VNA 2180

Full Sweep 1MHz to 30MHz showing resonance in 10M band

SWR is the red line in the above figure and the length 7ft 8.25in resulted in resonance being placed in the middle of the 10M band.

The smith chart below shows the input impedance with the antenna connected directly to the analyzer. The second chart shows the change in input impedance with an extended (25ft) feedline. The observation that the impendence versus frequency is somewhat similar asside from a rotation around the chart illustrates the the choke is nearly sufficient to "cut off" the sheld dipole arm.

10M RFD with short (6ft) feedline

10M RFD with long (25ft) feedline

I connected up the iCOM IC7000 and verified that it too saw the same SWR as the VNA.

I can foresee that this form of antenna could be quite handy. It is very simple, light weight and easy to put up either as a sloper, flat top, or even a vertical. Other bands will need seperate versions, obvious changes are needed to strengthen the center connection and higher choke inductance is needed, espically at lower bands.

73
VE3IAC

Heathkit HW-12

2011-10-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

The Heathkit HW-12A is a single "mono-bander" 80 meter CW/SSB transceiver with a 200 watts P.E.P. The "final" power amplifier is based on a pair of 6GE5 tubes.

This transceiver was first introduced in 1966 and was sold until 1974. The HP-23 power supply, which was rebuilt for the SB-101 can be used to put this radio into service.

Heathkit HW-12A

The 6GE5 tube was created for genereal usage as a Beam Power Tube used in horizontal-deflection amplifiers in television receivers of the era.

Heathkit HW-12A Main Tuning and Multifunction Meter

I followed the calibration and alignment procedure outlined in the manual and found the needed adjustments to be clear and straightforward. The is no pesky, final neutralization in this rig and alignment is vastly simplified because the rig only has one band to complete.

Heathkit HW-12A with Tuner, Mic and HP-23 Powersupply

HW-12A ready to go onthe air.

73
VE3IAC

Heathkit SB-101 makes another QSO!

2011-10-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

Heathkit was a significant contributor to the Amateur Radio hobby, their products, in kit form, enabled countless amateurs to explore the hobby in a very important way. Kit building radio equipment was second only to scratch building, but scratch building was a skill that was learned and "progressed towards". The learning's and building enjoyment Heathkit gave us were equaled only by the thrill of operating a radio you could say you understood how it worked.

More information about Heathkit is easily found on the web and you can start at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit
http://www.heathkit-museum.com/

Today's radios, are packed full of features in compact spaces, using surface mounted components that are difficult to impossible for the hobbyist to work with in any enjoyable way. Additionally, today's radios are becoming increasingly a product of the software they run and this truly is in the non-enjoyable space.

Even though many Heathkit rigs are more than 40 years old, I think it is easy to understand why these radios are sought after and restored.

SB-101

The SB-101 is a SSB/CW rig manufactured by Heathkit between 1967 to1970. Is is a non solid state (no transistor) tube based radio. The finals are a pair of 6146 tubes and produces about 100 watts PEP output power. The plate voltage in this section in excess of 800 Volts.

SB-101,... at the controls

The controls on the SB-101 are very nice, and when you operate this radio, as with many of this era, you feel engaged and in control. There is something to be said about not "flying by wire".

This radio, that I was able to pick up at a local ham swap meet, was in fine shape.

SB-101 Inside

The obligatory picture of the innards is to the right. My look inside told me the radio builder paid attention to details and every thing looked in order. The purchase was easy

I did not know it at the time, but I quickly learned that an external supply, the HP-23 is needed to power the radio. Now, I can tell you the sign of a good flea market is one where you can buy a radio on one table and pick up the needed supply at another.


HP-23 Power Supply

I picked up the manual and schematic at http://www.mods.dk/ and started the alignment procedure, the first thing I noticed was the drooping 820V supply. I ordered and installed the HP-23D power supply refurbishment kit from the fine folks at Old Heathkit Parts ( http://www.ultrawebb.com/OHP/index.htm )

Below is a picture of the new printed circuit card and components installed in the base of the supply. It replaces all of the electrical parts of the supply except for the mains transformer and choke.


HP-23 Conversion Kit Installed

With this done the 820V supply increased to close to 800V from the 720V previous value. The balance of the alignment was completed and the 40 year old SB-101 easily wallops out a clean 100W on all bands 80M to 10M.

The vintage mic I have is an Astatic "lollipop" D-104 (another flea market item), and once the needed 2pin mic connector was soldered on, and the 9Volt battery was replace, I could see this old radio wanted to get on the air.

Last night I fired out 2 QSO on 40m,...

Amazing! Thanks Heathkit

Dark Skys in La Vérendrye

2011-08-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

It is the case these days that excellent dark sky take some effort to get to.

La réserve faunique La Vérendrye (http://www.sepaq.com/rf/lvy/) is a nature reserve in the province of Quebec, about a 4 hour drive from Ottawa.

The interesting attribute of this area is it's lack of light pollution. (http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/) You can see form the image below that this area is among the darkest in the close vicinity. The park is contained in the dark boot shaped area north of Ottawa and below the lit areas in the north west.

About 8km south of Le Domaine, adjacent to highway 117 is an abandoned airstrip which provides a excellent observing location. ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=46.9833333333,-76.4833333333&om=1 )

I have to agree with the contributor of this short description, ( http://www.observingsites.com/ds_qu.htm )
that this is likely the best road-accessible site in the region.

Here are a few pictures, we left Ottawa Friday afternoon, arrived early enough to setup before sunset. We observed till well after midnight. We stayed in Le Domaine and spent the Saturday enjoyed the park and sights. Saturday night was just as impressive. We spent the entire time visual observing. I had never seen the Vail Nebula and I was very thrilled.

Setting up and settling in

Getting the battery in place

Celestron 11 SCT and 40mm eyepiece

Looking inwards into our Galaxy

We look forward to getting back to this fine site again soon.

Hola! Peru

2011-08-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

Peru!

This summer was very special for our family. In 2007 the four of us, Josee, Hudson, Roxanne and myself spent a eye opening three weeks traveling back pack, euro-rail and hostel style through France, Switzerland and Italy. A trip we will never forget. Four years later, this summer, took us to South America to visit the wonderfully diverse and very different country of Peru.

Start of four day Inka trail

Central to our trip to Peru was the four day, 40km hike from near Ollantaytambo , to The Lost City of the Inca, Machu Picchu. I can say for certain, we all expected the next few days would be amazing and that our expectations were fulfilled. Our group was lead by Claudio cesar Andia Paz and Amadeo Valer Farfán of Peru Treks . Cesar and Amadeo were very kind to us, and made us all feel welcome and safe. Most of all, they told us we could do it!

Plaza de Armas in Cuzco

Our trip started in Lima, with a sleepless night at the airport before catching our early flight to Cuzco the historic capital of the Inca Empire. At 3400m elevation this is the usual place to spend a few days and acclimatize to the elevation. 3400m is a similar altitude to many of the higher peaks of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia.

Ollantayambo

We visited the near by locations of Ollantaytambo and

Market in Pisac

the village of Pisac .

4200m and still smiling

Four days on the walk to Machu Picchu took us through, winding valleys and along dry sunny hillsides. Day two, saw us edge over a 4200m pass where we could look across to snow patches held in the sun shaded patches across the valley.

Hiking among the clouds

Day three brought a very different experience as we passed along paths that had the illusion of being just below the clouds.

Hail from the night before?

By mid day we were walking through the cool air of a bamboo filled rain forest like climate. Hail from the night before was still on the ground, collected in little areas protected from the sun.

Early morning, day four.

Morning on day four came very early, but knowing Machu Picchu was only a few hours away somehow made it easy to get going.

The Trekking Family

We very very lucky that the weather was good for the entire trip, and the views, of course, were spectacular. The experience means a lot to us.


Amadeo and Cesar

Our guides, Amaedo and Cesar were, A+ and two of the very best.

Dancing on the train

After our trek, we traveled for one day via the Andean Explorer train from Cuzco to Puno and Lake Titicaca. This was a great way to give our legs a rest, but not too much!

Sand! lots of Sand.

We flew back to Lima so that we could take the bus to Ica where we finished our trip with a few days at Huacachina enjoying the incredible sunny days, fun filled sand boarding and V-8 powered dune buggy thrills. A wine tour, horse back riding and relaxing by the pool helped melt away the sunny days in this part of the country where it very rarely rains. It was a hard few days!

My son's dream machine

Summertime in the sun.

Our trip was full of new sights and experiences, lead by our great trek guides and many others along our way. We experienced a very small part of this South American country, but for us, Peru! was incredible.

The balance of our photos are posted on Picasa in our Peru album.

¡Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa' dentro!

:)

Kayaking in St. Lawrence

2011-07-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

Well it has been some time since the past post.

Earlier in the summer Roxanne and I decided to get away for a bit of water and paddling, sometimes it seems that its been too long to be land-locked in the city.

Easy paddle past Sister Island, St Lawrence Seaway.

The maps and ideas we worked from were borrowed from one of the may interesting and informative web sites we found, http://www.paddle1000.com/index.htm . The maps for our trip were the two at the end of the pdf at the following link; route 7 .

We packed up the evening of Friday July 1st and left home early Saturday morning. It was a short 2 hour drive to Rockport which is a cozy little village on the north shore of the St Lawrence Seaway past the east end of lake Ontario. The put-in was a small and crowed slip way, the car was parked, we packed up the kayaks and we were off.

Our plan was to paddle from Rockport, to a camp ground on on the south side of Grenadier Island, then complete the loop around the island and back to Rockport the next day.

Rockport and Grenadier Island in St Lawrence Seaway

Our minds were full of the anticipation of paddling waters of the the "Great St. Lawrence Seaway!" and perhaps share the way with a Great Lakes shipping vessel. Well ho-humm, no such luck, we did not see even one.

We had read and were, as ready as any one could be in a kayak, for the westerly winds that can whip up off of Lake Onratio, but,... again, no such luck. It was blue sky all the way.

The paddle to the camp was so nice not a single picture was taken. I can only describe it as a taste of what Roxanne and I love to do so much. Slipping along the cool blue water, interesting shorelines to gaze along, the sun in our hats, and only each other's voices in the air between us.

Camp was very easy, pitch the tent, ...

make the table and relax.

We forgot the stove fuel at home, so we scrounged around and between the poison ivy, for small dead branches to make a little fire. We finally had supper made and dined on salmon, rice, cheese, french bread and some wine. This is one of our favorites camp suppers and it brought a satisfying end to a great day.

A short paddle out in the evening took us to a small nameless island which has an platform to encourage osprey nesting.

The sunset and cool air brought a calm that turned the water to a mirror finish.

The paddle back the next day was longer than yesterday, but this did not matter.

To anyone who is interested in this trip, I'd say that the camp is as good as any other, clean and relatively quiet. There are a significant number of pleasure craft that use these waters, and drivers are not very sympathetic to the smaller craft and the issues their wake can cause. Particularly at Rockport, the passenger ferry, combined with high power pleasure craft made for a very bumpy time arriving at and departing from the slip. If you are comfortable in a few feet of the occasional "seas" then its not a problem. Of course, a canoe would be a different issue and a much larger concern.

We will be back.

Astro Setup

2010-09-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years it has become the case that updating your laptop implies moving to Windows 7, but for may amateur astronomers our software is limited to run under Windows XP.

This post describes my solution to this problem. At each turn I have outlined hardware and software versions with links to sources where available. Perhaps this may be useful to others who may be looking for a working solution.

Synopsis

Windows 7 Professional can create and run Windows XP Virtual PC, this XP PC can have XP based software and drivers installed and will run your astronomy applications as well. It is important, or at least I decided it was, to have all needed applications available in the XP PC because this will limit switching back and forth between the Virtual XP PC and the host Windows 7 PC in the field, where is can be important to keep things simple.

The sketch below shows the components of my hardware and software setup.

Windows 7 Professional is installed with Virtual PC support enabled. The XP Virtual PC runs as a self contained environment form which all astrophotography can be made. This consists of NexGPS from Celestron to run the hand held GPS receiver via a USB to serial converter. SkyTools 3 is used as a planning and logging tool for all observations. SkyTools interfaces to the mount through the Celestron ASCOM driver and base ASCOM software. Again, a USB to serial converter is used to communicate with the mount on a hardware level. Push Here Dummy (PHD) auto guiding application is used and this application communicates to the mount for guiding updates through the Celestron ASCOM driver and the Meade deep sky imager for guide image acquisition. Nebulosity2 from Stark Labs is used to gather images form the QHY8 CCD through its installed divers. Nebulosity can also be used to gather images from the Meade DSI and or the Canon 50D camera if needed.

Windows 7.

Windows 7 Professional was purchased and installed and used to replace the Windows Vista that was pre installed on my HP pavilion dv7 laptop. This was a bit painful, due to the cost, and I was a bit unsure of the entire path as it was a road not taken, at least for me. There is a step involved to activate the PC virtualization facilities, the details I do not recall.

I updated the memory in the laptop to 8GBytes because when the Virtual PC runs it requires its own share of memory. You need to keep in mind that you are running two Operating systems at the same time and and I found that the host Windows 7 PC and Virtual XP PCs were consuming nearly the 4GBytes that were previously installed. Handling images can be memory intense and I believe this was a good step.

The Virtual XP PC will look something like this when it it running. Maximizing the XP PC's window causes it to take over all the screen area and at this point it will look and drive like you have your good-ol XP PC back.

Astrophotography Hardware/Drivers/Software

GPS to Serial converters to NexGPS

Prolific USB to Serial Converter
* Serial Converter driver software
* Driver link: (CD provided)
* Install File:
* Installed Version: Prolific, 7/25/2005, 2.0.2.1, Signed

NexGPS
* Serial Converter driver software
* Driver link: http://www.celestron.com/c3/downloads.php
* Install File: NexRemoteInstall_1_7_15.exe
* Installed Version: 1.5.0

Celestron Mount to Serial Converter to SkyTools

Prolific USB to Serial Converter
* Serial Converter driver software
* Driver link: (CD provided)
* Install File:
* Installed Version: Prolific, 7/25/2005, 2.0.2.1, Signed

ASCOM Base
* ASCOM Base suite
* Driver link: http://ascom-standards.org/index.htm
* Install File: ASCOMPlatform5b.msi
* Installed Version: 5.0

ASCOM Base Update
* ASCOM Base suite update
* Driver link: http://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/PlatformUpdates.htm
* Install File: ASCOMPlatform5.5.1Update.exe
* Installed Version: 5.5.1

Celestron ASCOM Driver
* Installs a driver for all computerized Celestron telescopes
* Driver link: http://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm
* Install File: Celestron(5.0.20)Setup.exe
* Installed Version: 5.0.20

SkyTools Pro 3
* Complete set of software tools for observation planning, charting, and logging
* Licenced software, link: http://www.skyhound.com/
* Install File: on shipped CD
* Installed Version: 3.1d

QHY8 to Nebulosity2

QHY Drivers
* QHY8 64/32bit winUSB Driver
* Driver link: http://www.qhyccd.com/download.html
* Install File: QHY8Drv.zip
* Installed Version: 2.0

Nebulosity
* Capture and processing application for a wide range of astronomy CCD cameras.
* Licenced Program Link: http://www.stark-labs.com/nebulosity.html
* Install File: setup_Nebulosity2.exe
* Installed Version: 2.3.0

Meade DSI to PHD Auto Guiding

DSI Drivers
* Meade DSI Driver
* Driver link: http://www.meade.com/support/downloads.html
* Install File: Envisage_v7.05.exe
* Installed Version: 2.0

Push Here Dummy Auto Guiding
* simple, yet provide powerful, intelligent auto-guiding.
* Licenced Progam Link: http://www.stark-labs.com/phdguiding.html
* Install File: Setup_PHDGuiding.zip
* Installed Version: 1.12.0

Software Compatibilty Matrix

USB Serial Conversion:= Windows 7
NexGPS:= Windows 32 and 64 bit claimed
NexRemote:= Windows 32 and 64 bit claimed
ASCOM (Base):= Windows 7 support is not clear
ASCOM Celestron:= Windows 7 support is not clear
Starry Night Pro:= Windows 7 support is claimed
SkyTools:= Windows 7 support is claimed
Nebulosity:= Native Windows 7 support is not clear.
PHD Autoguiding:= Native Windows 7 support is not clear.
Meade DSI Driver:= Windows 7 with Envision 7.09 at http://www.meade.com/support/downloads.html
QHY Driver:= Windows 7 support is claimed

Perhaps at this time it may be worth trying windoes 7 native...

QSL cards for IOTA NA-128

2010-07-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

Hi All

QSL cards are in the mail, thanks to all who QSL'd

73 OM

VE3IAC
Adrien

IOTA Activation of NA-128 by VE3IAC/2

2010-04-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

This will be the last update on this post. I hope everyone enjoys the IOTA programme as much as I enjoyed activating this Island.

Total number of stations contacted was 214, using PSK and SSB on bands 40m, 30m and 20m.

The image below shows the vast majority of the final QSO's. I had three pileups, 2 on SSB and 1 on PSK. All three resulted in a run on QSOs and tested my skills to copy under newly discovered strenious conditions. PSK pileups are interesting indeed, as unlike SSB where you can hear many voices each calling their own callsign, PSK simply reverts to jibberish.

The table below lists the QSOs if anyone has droped by to check. I have uploaded to eQSL.cc and HRDlog.net. I have started the process to obtain "AG" status on eQSL.cc but this is not complete at this time, although I expect a week or so to completion.

I expect to complete paper QSL cards and follow up on the IOTA QSL rules this week.

The farm house where we stayed was very comfortable and quiet. The 3 element portable yagi was set for 20m an pointed at EU most of the time.

The snap below is of a sunrise at about 5:00 AM, and yes, every sunrise was as pleasent.

Inside, the operating station was a simple table near the front windows, with a stunning view of the water's edge.

Of course it was not all ham radio all the time, and there were plenty of hours just to take it easy. The WX was super and it did not rain one single day while we were there.

Thanks again, and 73 till next time.

IOTA rocks.
Adrien.

Station	Start Time	Band	Mode	RSTs	RSTr
LW6HAR	2010-05-20 21:17	20m	PSK31	599	599
M0UOO/M	2010-05-20 19:12	20m	USB	52	52
KC1MR	2010-05-20 00:59	80m	LSB	59	59
WJ1W	2010-05-20 00:24	40m	LSB	59	59
OZ/PA1H	2010-05-20 00:22	40m	LSB	59	59
KJ4QIR	2010-05-19 21:41	20m	PSK31	599	599
IK4MGJ	2010-05-19 21:24	20m	USB	59	59
IZ1BII	2010-05-19 21:24	20m	USB	55	55
PB1TT	2010-05-19 21:23	20m	USB	59	57
O5MEV	2010-05-19 21:22	20m	USB	59	59
CU6AY	2010-05-19 21:21	20m	USB	55	59
EC7DZZ	2010-05-19 21:21	20m	USB	55	55
F4ELK	2010-05-19 21:21	20m	USB	59	59
DL6LW	2010-05-19 21:20	20m	USB	59	58
DL2LTM	2010-05-19 21:19	20m	USB	59	59
EI8EM	2010-05-19 21:19	20m	USB	57	59
LY2YR	2010-05-19 21:18	20m	USB	59	59
DL4MP	2010-05-19 21:17	20m	USB	59	59
ON7HM	2010-05-19 21:17	20m	USB	59	58
EA3GWK	2010-05-19 21:17	20m	USB	59	58
SV8EIU/1	2010-05-19 21:16	20m	USB	59	57
IZ5HPQ	2010-05-19 21:16	20m	USB	55	59
IK1WGX	2010-05-19 21:16	20m	USB	55	59
UA6AKQ	2010-05-19 21:15	20m	USB	59	59
KA2ZJE	2010-05-19 21:14	20m	USB	59	59
S58AL	2010-05-19 21:14	20m	USB	55	59
IZ2SNY	2010-05-19 21:13	20m	USB	55	55
EA5UY	2010-05-19 21:13	20m	USB	59	59
OT6T	2010-05-19 21:12	20m	USB	59	55
IZ5IOR	2010-05-19 21:12	20m	USB	59	59
IK8LMP	2010-05-19 21:12	20m	USB	59	58
OZ3DX	2010-05-19 21:11	20m	USB	59	59
IK8WAB	2010-05-19 21:11	20m	USB	59	59
EB3FSS	2010-05-19 21:11	20m	USB	59	59
I8NLC	2010-05-19 21:10	20m	USB	59	59
EA3CJU	2010-05-19 21:10	20m	USB	59	57
EA3GP	2010-05-19 21:09	20m	USB	59	59
EA5GUI	2010-05-19 21:09	20m	USB	59	59
EA5HBK	2010-05-19 21:08	20m	USB	59	59
G7SSE	2010-05-19 21:08	20m	USB	59	58
EB5DXJ	2010-05-19 21:08	20m	USB	59	59
RA6CR	2010-05-19 21:07	20m	USB	59	58
IZ8ETW	2010-05-19 21:07	20m	USB	59	59
M0CVK	2010-05-19 21:06	20m	USB	59	59
EA1BUL	2010-05-19 21:06	20m	USB	58	58
IZ8EJB	2010-05-19 21:06	20m	USB	59	59
SM7BZV	2010-05-19 21:05	20m	USB	59	59
IZ2SDK	2010-05-19 21:04	20m	USB	59	59
RA6AR	2010-05-19 21:04	20m	USB	59	59
PA0DOM	2010-05-19 21:04	20m	USB	59	57
IZ3KIF	2010-05-19 21:03	20m	USB	59	59
SP7ZX	2010-05-19 21:02	20m	USB	59	59
IK2QIN	2010-05-19 21:02	20m	USB	59	59
PI4DEC	2010-05-19 21:02	20m	USB	59	59
DL7JAN	2010-05-19 21:01	20m	USB	59	57
SP3BHI	2010-05-19 21:01	20m	USB	59	55
DJ7YP	2010-05-19 21:00	20m	USB	59	59
WA4RHK	2010-05-19 21:00	20m	USB	55	55
G7BHU	2010-05-19 20:59	20m	USB	59	57
ON6HV	2010-05-19 20:59	20m	USB	59	59
G4XVM	2010-05-19 20:54	20m	USB	59	59
OZ/PA7PA	2010-05-19 19:45	20m	USB	59	59
PA3EWR	2010-05-19 19:20	20m	PSK31	599	599
DF3NC	2010-05-19 19:06	20m	PSK31	599	599
DK5NC	2010-05-19 19:02	20m	PSK31	599	599
KC4SAW	2010-05-19 18:54	20m	PSK31	599	599
EA4FSR	2010-05-19 18:54	20m	PSK31	599	599
EA5DQW	2010-05-19 18:51	20m	PSK31	599	599
DG2JO	2010-05-18 23:05	20m	PSK31	599	599
EA8AQV	2010-05-18 23:00	20m	PSK31	599	599
EA4DS	2010-05-18 22:58	20m	PSK31	599	599
EA4DS	2010-05-18 22:57	20m	PSK31	599	599
UR5FNP	2010-05-18 22:52	20m	PSK31	599	599
EA3UV	2010-05-18 22:51	20m	PSK31	599	599
ON4KEB	2010-05-18 22:46	20m	PSK31	599	599
YU1KA	2010-05-18 22:45	20m	PSK31	599	599
UT2MA	2010-05-18 22:41	20m	PSK31	599	599
IT9TFX	2010-05-18 22:39	20m	PSK31	599	599
DL1ELX	2010-05-18 22:36	20m	PSK31	599	599
DF6AD	2010-05-18 22:34	20m	PSK31	599	599
F5NMK	2010-05-18 22:29	20m	PSK31	599	599
DL4GBF	2010-05-18 22:27	20m	PSK31	599	599
DM4ZPJ	2010-05-18 22:24	20m	PSK31	599	599
CT2FPY/P	2010-05-18 22:22	20m	PSK31	599	599
HB9DRS	2010-05-18 22:11	20m	PSK31	599	599
ON3SSE/QRP	2010-05-18 22:07	20m	PSK31	559	599
DH5DAK	2010-05-18 22:04	20m	PSK31	599	599
ON5KST	2010-05-18 21:59	20m	PSK31	599	599
IW0RDX	2010-05-18 21:57	20m	PSK31	599	599
IW0RDX	2010-05-18 21:55	20m	PSK31	599	599
UR7MA	2010-05-18 21:52	20m	PSK31	599	599
UR4UDI	2010-05-18 21:49	20m	PSK31	599	599
OK1WCF	2010-05-18 21:48	20m	PSK31	599	599
OK1WCF	2010-05-18 21:44	20m	PSK31	599	599
DL2HWI	2010-05-18 21:41	20m	PSK31	599	599
DL2OCE	2010-05-18 21:36	20m	PSK31	599	599
OK1KM	2010-05-18 21:30	20m	PSK31	599	599
CT2IOV	2010-05-18 21:20	20m	PSK31	599	599
VE3LDT	2010-05-18 20:31	20m	USB	59	59
UR5IKN	2010-05-18 20:31	20m	USB	59	59
F4EIZ	2010-05-18 20:30	20m	USB	59	55
HB9MEJ	2010-05-18 20:30	20m	USB	59	55
W9EVT	2010-05-18 20:30	20m	USB	59	59
MW0DHF	2010-05-18 20:29	20m	USB	59	59
KC8CY	2010-05-18 20:29	20m	USB	59	57
W0DHF	2010-05-18 20:29	20m	USB	59	57
UA3AKO	2010-05-18 20:28	20m	USB	59	57
SV1ACL	2010-05-18 20:28	20m	USB	59	59
IZ8MXB	2010-05-18 20:27	20m	USB	59	59
EI2HW	2010-05-18 20:27	20m	USB	54	57
IT9MUO	2010-05-18 20:26	20m	USB	59	57
KD8BIT	2010-05-18 20:26	20m	USB	55	55
7Z1SJ	2010-05-17 22:28	20m	USB	57	57
ON4HIL	2010-05-17 20:07	20m	USB	59	59
SP5AUB	2010-05-17 19:31	20m	USB	59	59
SP5BR	2010-05-17 19:30	20m	USB	59	59
EB7FBJ	2010-05-17 09:33	20m	PSK31	599	599
OK1KT	2010-05-17 09:29	20m	PSK31	599	599
OK1KT	2010-05-17 09:25	20m	PSK31	599	599
CT2FPY/P	2010-05-16 23:55	30m	PSK31	599	578
MM0XXW	2010-05-16 20:49	20m	USB	59	57
HB9MEJ	2010-05-16 20:48	20m	USB	55	55
UA4HUR	2010-05-16 20:48	20m	USB	59	59
IK2FKM	2010-05-16 20:48	20m	USB	59	59
EA5AWC	2010-05-16 20:47	20m	USB	59	59
IZ7EIU	2010-05-16 20:47	20m	USB	59	59
IZ7NLN	2010-05-16 20:46	20m	USB	58	59
RN3OK	2010-05-16 20:46	20m	USB	59	59
UR3IFD	2010-05-16 20:45	20m	USB	59	59
F5NBQ	2010-05-16 20:44	20m	USB	59	59
IK5ZQC	2010-05-16 20:44	20m	USB	59	59
I6CBI	2010-05-16 20:43	20m	USB	59	59
RV6FA	2010-05-16 20:42	20m	USB	59	55
IK1YPF	2010-05-16 20:41	20m	USB	59	59
CT1DKS	2010-05-16 20:41	20m	USB	59	59
IZ5JMZ	2010-05-16 20:39	20m	USB	59	58
IZ1JLN	2010-05-16 20:39	20m	USB	59	59
OZ8BZ	2010-05-16 20:39	20m	USB	59	59
LZ1BJ	2010-05-16 20:38	20m	USB	59	59
DL1TKB	2010-05-16 20:38	20m	USB	59	59
RX6AM	2010-05-16 20:37	20m	USB	59	59
IZ8EFB	2010-05-16 20:37	20m	USB	59	59
RX4HZ	2010-05-16 20:36	20m	USB	59	59
IV3GOW	2010-05-16 20:36	20m	USB	59	59
IZ4NIC	2010-05-16 20:35	20m	USB	59	58
WA4CR	2010-05-16 20:35	20m	USB	59	57
IZ4AWE	2010-05-16 20:34	20m	USB	59	59
IZ5MKA	2010-05-16 20:33	20m	USB	59	58
F4FQT	2010-05-16 20:33	20m	USB	59	58
IK1CJO	2010-05-16 20:33	20m	USB	59	55
M0DXT	2010-05-16 20:32	20m	USB	59	57
PE1ASH	2010-05-16 20:31	20m	USB	59	59
SV1ACL	2010-05-16 20:31	20m	USB	59	59
S59WT	2010-05-16 20:30	20m	USB	59	59
IZ8ENR	2010-05-16 20:30	20m	USB	59	58
S59EKL	2010-05-16 20:29	20m	USB	59	59
EA1CJW	2010-05-16 20:29	20m	USB	59	59
F4ELK	2010-05-16 20:27	20m	USB	59	57
F4ELI	2010-05-16 20:27	20m	USB	59	59
IZ1MLQ	2010-05-16 20:26	20m	USB	59	59
S58WW	2010-05-16 20:26	20m	USB	59	59
PA0DOM	2010-05-16 20:25	20m	USB	59	57
K4HUD	2010-05-16 20:25	20m	USB	59	59
I2TAO	2010-05-16 20:24	20m	USB	59	59
EA5GSS	2010-05-16 20:24	20m	USB	59	59
IW2CLM	2010-05-16 20:23	20m	USB	59	58
LA5Z0	2010-05-16 20:22	20m	USB	59	59
NI0B	2010-05-16 20:22	20m	USB	59	59
G6VKA	2010-05-16 20:21	20m	USB	59	59
2E0MAS	2010-05-16 20:21	20m	USB	59	59
EA2CTQ	2010-05-16 20:20	20m	USB	59	59
IK8TI	2010-05-16 20:20	20m	USB	59	58
US5IQ	2010-05-16 20:19	20m	USB	59	59
SP2Y	2010-05-16 20:18	20m	USB	59	57
EA1BUL	2010-05-16 20:18	20m	USB	59	59
PF1MO	2010-05-16 20:17	20m	USB	59	55
HB9ICC	2010-05-16 20:17	20m	USB	59	59
UR3IFD	2010-05-16 20:17	20m	USB	59	59
EA2CTQ	2010-05-16 19:19	20m	USB	59	58
2E0MAS	2010-05-16 19:18	20m	USB	59	59
LA5Z0	2010-05-16 19:16	20m	USB	59	57
NI0B	2010-05-16 19:15	20m	USB	58	59
G6VKA	2010-05-16 19:10	20m	USB	59	59
OZ/PA7PA	2010-05-16 19:00	20m	USB	59	59
G8YXJ	2010-05-16 18:38	20m	PSK31	599	599
G8YXJ	2010-05-16 18:33	20m	PSK31	599	599
IK5YZM	2010-05-16 18:28	20m	PSK31	599	599
OH6FSO	2010-05-16 18:26	20m	PSK31	599	599
OH6FSO	2010-05-16 18:22	20m	PSK31	599	599
F6AVP	2010-05-16 18:17	20m	PSK31	599	599
UR2MO	2010-05-16 18:14	20m	PSK31	599	599
DG4LAL	2010-05-16 18:09	20m	PSK31	599	599
WA3UYI	2010-05-16 14:58	20m	PSK31	599	599
N3VBN	2010-05-16 14:54	20m	PSK31	599	599
DJ6DG	2010-05-16 09:58	20m	PSK31	599	599
DK3HJ	2010-05-16 09:47	20m	PSK31	599	599
DK3HJ	2010-05-16 09:42	20m	PSK31	599	599
OM7OM	2010-05-16 09:37	20m	PSK31	599	579
F5OPV	2010-05-16 09:32	20m	PSK31	599	539
9A3TN	2010-05-15 21:38	30m	PSK31	599	599
OE6JFG	2010-05-15 21:31	30m	PSK31	599	579
I6CBI	2010-05-15 21:28	30m	PSK31	599	599
SQ5FBI	2010-05-15 21:22	30m	PSK31	599	579
SQ2NNN	2010-05-15 21:16	30m	PSK31	599	599
EB3JT	2010-05-15 21:06	15m	PSK31	599	599
IZ5PQT	2010-05-15 21:02	15m	PSK31	459	599
IZ5ILA	2010-05-15 20:51	15m	PSK31	599	599
IZ5RVG	2010-05-15 20:45	15m	PSK31	599	599
DL1AKY	2010-05-15 20:37	30m	PSK31	599	569
EV1P/P	2010-05-15 20:25	20m	PSK31	599	599
DK1IO	2010-05-15 20:16	20m	PSK31	599	559
F1UMO	2010-05-15 20:09	20m	PSK31	599	599
RN3DL	2010-05-15 15:48	20m	PSK31	599	599
KJ4EZW	2010-05-15 03:11	40m	PSK31	599	599

Current Operating mode: IOTA activation complete

Usefull links: PSK activity => http://www.pskreporter.info/pskmap.html?preset&callsign=VE3IAC/2&txrx=tx&timerange=86400&hideunrec=1

Update Log

Wed 19th : 56 SSB QSOs on 20m, many thanks
Wed 19th : 35 PSK QSOs on 20m, many thanks
Wed 19th : 10:30 EDT, 1430UTC : Operating PSK on 20m 14.070MHz

Tuesday 18th : 32 PSK QSOs on 20m, many thanks
Tuesday 18th : 17:00 EDT, 2100UTC : Operating PSK on 20m 14.070MHz

Tuesday 18th : 14 SSB QSOs on 20m
Tuesday 18th : 16:00 EDT, 2000UTC : Operating SSB on 20m 14.329MHz

Monday 17th : 3 PSK QSOs, 4 USB QSOs
Monday 17th 5:00 EDT , 9:00UTC : Operating PSK on 20m 14.070MHz
Monday 17th 4:00 EDT , 8:00UTC : operating PSK on 40m until sun rise

Sunday 16th : 64 SSB QSOs 14.270, and my 1st pile, very challenging
Sunday 16th : 15 PSK QSOs 14.070
Saturday 15th : 14 PSK QSOs, 15m/10m/30m

First post:
I am planning to activate the island of L'ile Verte in the St Laurent Seaway in the Canadian province of Quebec. The activation will be on the week of Monday May 17. I realize that this island group (NA-128) has been claimed by 42% of IOTA participants, however I am looking forward to the trip and the portable operation activity.

IOTA Web site : http://www.rsgbiota.org/index.php

Island Information

Group Name: Quebec Province (St Lawrence Waterway) group

Claimed by: 41.8% of participants.

Main prefix: VE2

Location: 46.83N - 49.28N / 68W - 71.17W

DXCC: CANADA

Activation Information

Callsign : VE3IAC/2
Operator : VE3IAC
Date : Tuesday May 18 to Friday May 21
Time : 6:00 AM - 10:00 PM
Bands : 20m, 40m, 80m
Antenna : 20m -> 3 Element Portable Yagi, 40m -> Doublet, 80m -> 200ft Long Wire
Modes : PSK31 and SSB
Radio : ICOM 756 Pro III
Web Site : http://acomeau.blogspot.com/2010/04/iota-activation-of-na-128-by-ve3iac2.html

Location: L'ile Verte is a small island in the St Laurent Seaway. About 11km long and 2km wide the island is dominated by farm and undeveloped forest land. Only a light sprinkling of summer and permanent residences season the land.

On a larger scale, you can anticipate that DX to Europe, South America are going to be in the cards.

Accommodation: We will be staying at a rented property on the island with plenty of room for the ham gear.

Hope to hear you on the air.

73 OM
VE3IAC/2

S9+ Power Line Noise - one solution

2010-03-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

Power line noise can make a real train wreck out of an otherwise very interesting and compelling hobby. Several hams are fortunate enough to be able to solve power line noise problems at the source. In other cases where it is not possible to locate and fix the offending source the ham is left to other solutions. This post describes how I use the DX Engineering Receive Antenna Variable Phasing Controller - DXE-NCC-1 to combat the power line noise I get in my shack.

I have written several posts on my ongoing power line noise and these may be of interest.

The image below shows the NCC-1 on my radio desk. It is not as small as one might expect as compared to perhaps a related product from MFJ, but it is a nice looking accessory, and fits in very well.

The all controls are easily manipulated due to their generous size. In particular the Phase control knob, which is the large dial on the right reflects it's importance in the entire concept, second only to the balance control.

From Left to right

Attenuation A, sets the attenuation for the signal form Antenna port A. 4 settings are available, 0dB, -10dB, -20dB and -30dB. In my setup I use this port to accept the Rx RF out from the FT2000D
Balance controls the mix level of the attenuated antenna signals. Full left to full right provides 10dB of balance control. If more is needed then the switched attenuators (to the left and right are engaged)
Attenuation B, sets the attenuation for the signal form Antenna port B. 4 settings are available, 0dB, -10dB, -20dB and -30dB. In my setup I use a secondary un tuned (arbitrary length) dipole fit up in the attic.
Phase, Controls the relative phase of the attenuated and balanced antenna port signals at the combiner in the unit.

The unit is bypassed when the Rx port on the FT2000 is not engaged. One push of the Rx port button on the FT2k sends the FT2k main antenna signal to the antenna A input on the NCC-1, where it is balanced and added to a phase adjusted to the NCC-1 antenna B input. Antenna B input comes from the simple noise `Dipole`. The hopefully improved sum is sent back to the FT2k.

The external housing, internal PCB and layout, component placement all point to a design which appears well thought out and mature.

The rear apron has inputs for the 2 input antenna ports, one RF output port and a 12V DC input power plug.

How well does it work?

Before I describe the plot below, I should write a few words on tuning.

The main outdoor 80m windom antenna is much larger than the 20ft noise dipole in the attic and so the signal from the main antenna 20dB stronger. I usually go through the following steps.

Set the main antenna attenuator (A) to -30dB. and place the balance control (BAL) to center.
Set the noise antenna attenuator (B) for 0dB and make a note of the noise level on the S meter and then set the attenuator (B) to -30dB.
Advance the main antenna attenuator (A) until approximately the same noise level is seen on the S-meter. This typically results on a setting of -20dB.
Advance the noise attenuator (B) to 0dB.

Now what is left is to fine tune to cancel out the power line noise.

Usually a sweep of the phase control will show a dip in S meter and audio noise level. As best as possible set the phase at this value.
Now a sweep of the balance will also locate a deeper dip in noise level.
A second iteration of one more phase adjustment and balance will usually locate a sharp cancellation setting.

Like tuning up the old tube rigs, it takes some time to become accustom to the above procedure, but practice yields repeatable results.

The plot below is a log of my S-Meter while a QSO I was monitoring was in progress.

The first block at the left of the trace shows a S9+ noise level with the noise canceller disabled.
Shortly after, the S-meter readings drop to about S3, this is when I engaged the canceller.
During the main part of the plot, you can see a speech pattern from the QSO, including the S3 noise levels between his words.
Near the 75% mark, you can see where I again disabled the noise canceler and the noise level returns to the depressing S9+ level

As you can expect, copy is next to impossible with the canceler not engaged. The QSO is below the noise level. Engaged is a very different story, although the cancellation is not perfect, the QSO is 4 to 5 S-units above the cleaned up noise floor and is very copyable.

73
Adrien
VE3IAC

Island On The Air IOTA - The Planning

2010-02-23T21:17:00.000-08:00

This post is not complete....

It feels as though the time has come to think about and plan for an IOTA field operating expedition.

To date I have operated in two multi operator 2 day ARRL field day operations, 3 single day outings to Champlain lookout, and two 3 day winter operations, both of which were "off the grid" and 100% self supporting.

I have thought of either Summits On The Air (SOTA) or Islands On The Air (IOTA), for some reason I find the island expedition more interesting, perhaps its the water that attracts me as I tend to miss the salty air of the New Brunswick coasts of my childhood.

The IOTA web site is the starting place for planning the options available.

IOTA is an amateur radio activity programme designed to encourage contacts with island stations world-wide. The oceans' islands have been grouped into some 1200 "IOTA groups" with, for reasons of geography, varying numbers of "counters", i.e. qualifying islands, in each. The objective, for the island chaser, is to make radio contact with at least one counter in as many of these groups as possible and, for the DXpeditioner, to provide such island contacts. For both it is a fun pastime adding much enjoyment to on the air activity. 21 separate certificates are currently available for island chasers, graded in difficulty, as well as two prestigious awards for high achievement.
Source: IOTA FAQ

Islands that qualify must meet a few key attributes. These include,

not lying in a river, inland lakes or seas, or largely enclosed bays
a minimum distance from the mainland.
must be either 1 kilometre in length or shown on a 1:1,000,000 scale map.

Clearly there will be a minimal travel involved as I live in a land locked region of the country. Also, there are some real life constraints that will restrict my options.

A search of IOTA islands that are within driving distance are within 1200km of Ottawa are:

Ref. No.	Distance (kms.)	Distance (miles)	Bearing	Group Name
NA-217	411.11	255.45	121.8°	New Hampshire State group
NA-137	432.07	268.48	110.5°	Maine State West (York to Knox County) group
NA-136	464.32	288.52	156.3°	Connecticut State group
NA-148	472.06	293.32	127.9°	Massachusetts State North (Barnstable to Essex County) group
NA-026	483.42	300.38	160.2°	New York State group
NA-031	489.27	304.02	143.5°	Rhode Island State group
NA-046	534.19	331.93	135.6°	Massachusetts State South (Bristol to Barnstable County) group
NA-128	535.15	332.53	48.7°	Quebec Province (St Lawrence Waterway) group
NA-055	549.66	341.54	94.5°	Maine State East (Knox to Washington County) group
NA-111	589.37	366.22	177.7°	New Jersey State group
NA-014	723.01	449.26	85.6°	New Brunswick Province South group
NA-140	729.79	453.47	188°	Maryland State West group
NA-127	747.1	464.23	87.8°	Nova Scotia Province West group
NA-139	751.35	466.87	181.3°	Maryland State East group
NA-126	765.11	475.42	98.2°	Nova Scotia Province South group
NA-177	795.46	494.28	56°	Quebec Province (Gaspe Peninsula) group
NA-068	800.26	497.26	70°	New Brunswick Province North group
NA-125	830.71	516.18	47.2°	Quebec Province (St Lawrence Gulf) West group
NA-083	860.13	534.46	184.4°	Virginia State group
NA-081	927.71	576.45	89.3°	Nova Scotia Province East group
NA-029	927.73	576.46	75.2°	Prince Edward Island (include satellite islands)
NA-154	979.63	608.71	82.3°	Nova Scotia Province North group
NA-207	996.96	619.48	336.4°	Nunavut (Hudson Bay - Ontario Coast) South group
NA-173	1000.13	621.45	346.2°	Nunavut (Hudson Bay - Quebec Coast) South group
NA-077	1027.12	638.22	56.6°	Quebec Province (Anticosti Island) group
NA-067	1055.69	655.98	184.9°	North Carolina State East (Carteret to Currituck County) group
NA-176	1066.07	662.43	53°	Quebec Province (St Lawrence Gulf) Centre group
NA-038	1103.43	685.64	70.5°	Quebec Province (La Madeleine Islands) group
NA-010	1123.84	698.32	77.7°	Nova Scotia Province (Cape Breton Island) group
NA-094	1166.1	724.58	72.7°	St Paul Island
NA-063	1197.35	744	90.2°	Sable Island

I would prefer to operate as a VE station, so it seems that some candidates are;

NA-128

Quebec Province (St Lawrence Waterway) group

NA-014

New Brunswick Province South group

NA-127

Nova Scotia Province West group

NA-126				Nova Scotia Province South group
NA-177				Quebec Province (Gaspe Peninsula) group
NA-068				New Brunswick Province North group
NA-125				Quebec Province (St Lawrence Gulf) West group

NA-081				Nova Scotia Province East group
NA-029				Prince Edward Island (include satellite islands)
NA-154				Nova Scotia Province North group
NA-207				Nunavut (Hudson Bay - Ontario Coast) South group
NA-173				Nunavut (Hudson Bay - Quebec Coast) South group
NA-077				Quebec Province (Anticosti Island) group

Of the Canadian options I have I must admit that the ones that standa out for me are;

NA-177 Quebec Province (Gaspe Peninsula) group

Group Name: Quebec Province (Gaspe Peninsula) group

Claimed by: 19.4% of participants.

Main prefix: VE2

Location: 48.00N - 49.33N / 64W - 68W

DXCC: CANADA

Group Contains: Bonaventure and Plate

Bonaventure Island is at the eastern most tip of the Gaspe Peninsula.

Bonaventure Island (Île Bonaventure), with Percé, was among the early seasonal fishing ports of New France, and was associated with the lineage of Nicolas Denys. The island became a migratory bird sanctuary in 1919 due to the 1916 Migratory Bird Convention between Canada and the United States. The Province of Quebec acquired ownership of the entire island in 1971 and later grouped it together with Percé Rock into the Parc national de l'île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé (Bonaventure Island and Percé Rock National Park) in 1985. One of the largest and most accessible bird sanctuaries in the world, with more than 280,000 birds, Bonaventure Island is a major tourist destination with boat and island tours from May to October.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaventure_Island

Boat and island tours are offered from May to October. The island features five hiking trails. Park wardens and naturalists also offer guided bird, fossil and geology walks and tours. The park's main interpretation centre is located on the mainland in Percé, in a restored building known as Le Chafaud. The exhibits focus on the park's bird colonies, marine life, ecosystem, geology and history.

The official website for the Park is at the following link.

NA-077 Quebec Province (Anticosti Island) group

Group Name: Quebec Province (Anticosti Island) group

Claimed by: 29.5% of participants.

Main prefix: VE2

Location: 49.00N - 50.00N / 61.58W - 64.58W

DXCC: CANADA

Group Contains: Anticosti

Anticosti Island (French, Île d'Anticosti) is an island at the outlet of the Saint Lawrence River into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, in Quebec, Canada, between 49° and 50° N., and between 61° 40' and 64° 30' W. At 7,892.52 km² (3,047.32 sq mi) in size, it is the 90th largest island in the world and 20th largest island in Canada. Anticosti Island is separated on the north from the Côte-Nord region of Quebec (the Labrador Peninsula) by the Jacques Cartier Strait and on the south from the Gaspé Peninsula by the Honguedo Strait.

Anticosti Island is very large but very sparsely populated (281 people in 2006), mostly in the village of Port-Menier on the western tip of the island, consisting chiefly of the keepers of the numerous lighthouses erected by the Canadian government. The entire island constitutes one municipality officially known as L'Île-d'Anticosti.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticosti_Island

From what I have read I have selected Anticosti Island as the destination, the avilability of cottages and poper places to stay on the Island make this a clear winner.

Getting there:

Getting there is simple enough but will involve a long 20hr hrive and a ferry crossing.

Drive - 1300km 19hrs Ottawa to Havre St Pierre

Ferry - Havre St Pierre to Port-Menier

Ferry Info link 2

This is the only ferry crossing I could find to the island and is not a traditional ferry in so far as your vehicle goes with you goes like this.

The passenger accommodations are much more traditional. I'm not sure I want to see the Pathfinder in the air like this I assume they will not drop it.

Ferry Tariffs link 1

Drive -

It is 155km from Port-Menier to the Cabins at Vauréal, and the recommended driving times are at 60km/h which reflects the rugged nature of the roads on the island.

Island road map link

Lodging -

Source: link

The typical cabin located at Vauréal which are on the north shore look very accomidating.

These Cabins which are avilable in the park can be seen from this link on this page.

Park site general info Link 1
Cabin locations link

Usefull things to remember

The island's only grocery is in Port-Menier
Gas is avilable only in Port-Menier and McDonald Visitors Center, Chicotte-la-Mer Visitors Centre (south shore)
At sites, cabins and campgrounds, you'll need to bring enough water bottles to last your entire stay

Usefull links

Usefull general link

More to come

73 OM

Adrien
VE3IAC

Link for Alain

2010-02-21T18:51:00.001-08:00

Link for Alain

http://www.k5prk.net/files-uploads/ArticlesFiles/Vertical_Buddipole-KE5LHC.pdf

73
Adrien

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Comeaus and Paulsons.

2010-02-21T07:39:00.000-08:00

Hi All

Roxanne has taken up the genealogy bug again and has decided to create a blog to follow her efforts.

Please visit her blog at http://roxanne-comeau.blogspot.com/ , and feel free to comment along.

Adrien

Silent Lake Yurt "DX expedition" Field Report

2010-02-17T17:06:00.000-08:00

Now that we have returned from our outing to Silent Lake I wanted to take this chance to post a note.

Roxanne and I spent 3 quiet days at Silent Lake provincial park in eastern Ontario. Trip dates were Feb, 15, 16, and 17th. I spent most of my time playing radio, while Roxanne read a few novels. We also enjoyed the outdoors, WX was mostly overcast with a few sunny windows, but not too cold.

The previous post has some of my planning information and may be of interest.

The Short Trip In

The truck was unpacked into the snow transportation for the final trip to the camp.

The Yurt is a 14ft circular "insulated" canvas temporary winter shelter and is equipped with a BBQ! The entire space is very basic but comfortable for the duration planned. Cooking is done outside, on the Coleman and Propane BBQ. Heating is with a small wood burning stove. There is no electricity and very very poor cell coverage.

All the wood you could ever need is provided at the edge of the site and it is replenished every morning. Most need a final splitting to make into reasonable pieces for the stove. The wood used by the 6 Yurts in the campground is taken from the park its self on a yearly basis.

The 6 available Yurts book up very quickly and are in high demand, planning ahead and taking what you can get is simply a must.

Food!

Well,... Salmon on day 1, Steak on Day 2, suppers were very yummy.

Outdoors!

Silent Lake is a multi use park which sees several users involved in activities such as ice fishing, snowshoeing, and skiing.

Random Wire Antenna

I suspected the only way I could reliably get on 80m in a park with limited open spaces would involve a end fed random wire antenna. A few days before we left I ordered an ICOM AH-4 tuner form Radio World. A quick trip to Princess Auto and I picked up 100ft of 12AWG wire for the long wire, and 200ft of 14AWG wire to make 4 50ft radials. I chose the AH-4 simply because it works with the 1 button push tuning on the face of the IC7000, successful tuning results in the "tune" indicator being displayed. It is as simple as that. I was pleased with the workmanship of the AH-4.

I tied the AH-4 to a tree close by, pounded a 4ft ground rod at the base, and connected the 4 radials. The 100ft random wire was pitched up in the near by deciduous trees to a height of 30 to 35ft. I use a tennis ball stuffed with washers to whip the antenna up where it needs to go. Works every time, (hi hi)

The 4 radials at the ground.

The random wire end fed solution proved very effective as I received reports of S9+10 to S9+15 on the 100W pk of the IC7K. All bands were 1.5:1 or better (where I tried them) with the exception of the CW portion of 80m.

Yagi

The portable Yagi, is the Super Antenna YP-3. Setup was very easy and I had pre verified the needed element lengths for the the CW portion of 20m. Although this kit can accommodate 20m and above I only used the YP-3 on 20m this trip.

The boom parts snap together and elements are easily assembled although chilly on the fingers. At 20m the elements are loaded and the beam width is about 18ft wide.

Total height is approximately 20ft if fully extended. I was not able to go to this height because of tree limbs which were near by.

Operating Position

A simple table in the yurt serves as both the supper table and operating position.

Battery plant, was 4 gel cells, 200AH, after 3 days of operating, 30% capacity remained in the batteries.

Equipment included, Signal link USB, 12V Laptop "inverter", Battery Booster, CAT converter, Laptop, IC7000 and mic.

On Tuesday evening I knew the gang was at the MARG meeting and Norm NLH was not available, so after I checked into the Sandbox net I gathered enough steam to try 3730 Net Control. Thanks to every one who checked on to 3730, I had a blast! It was so nice to be able to hear everyone!

QSO's

Most DX QSOs were to Europe, although I was also able to contact a few stations in South and Central America. Many US stations and fellow Canadian operators were kind enough to return my calls as well.

Most QSOs were 40m and 20m PSK.
I did check into 3730, Sandbox and Ontars on occasion.

Wednesday morning 7:00 Eastern, I tried my best to work Tx4T Hamradio DX-Pedition to French Polynesia but with no success.

Walk on the Lake

We took a hike around the lake, and stopped for tea on the way back. It clearly would have been a bit nicer if it had been sunny.

Thanks for dropping by to the blog.

73
Adrien
VE3IAC

Silent Lake Yurt "DX expedition"

2010-02-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

It is time to get the ham radio out in the wilderness again and operate portable for a few days.

The destination is Silent Lake provincial park in eastern Ontario. Trip dates are Feb 15, 16, and 17th.You can see my notes from last years "event" at http://acomeau.blogspot.com/2009/01/winter-portable-operation.html

Travel:

The park is about 240km due west from Ottawa where we live. The drive will start early Sunday morning so that we can arrive at the park entrance at about noon time. From the park gate we will drive to the park Warden's office where we will transfer the camping contents of the truck to snowmobile for the remainder of the trip into the winter camping areas of the park.

Location:

Silent lake park is located in eastern Ontario, not far from the eastern sea coast of North America.

Radio Equipment:

The key radio equipment will be an ICOM 7000 which is a compact 100W HF and VHF radio. Antenna tuning, if needed will be delivered with an LDG AT-7000 auto tuner.

Power:

Power plant will be 4 50AH 12V Gel-cells. 200AH should provide me with about 18 hours of operation.

The battery booster will "step-up" voltage from the gel-cells to a stable 13.5V even as the gell-cell discharge. This helps the radio perform. The efficiency used in the calculation below is 80% and the booster is only enabled on tansmit.


Battery Storage	50	(Ahr)
# batteries	4
Total Storage	200	(Ahr)

Radio	(A)	(W)	Eff.	(min)	(A)
Transmit	22	264	0.8	15	5.5
Recieve	4	48	1	60	3.2

	(A)	(W)
Radio	8.7	104.4
Laptop	3.0	36
Total Average Current	11.7	140.4

Expected time	17.1	(hr)

Antenna: (HF)

HF Antenna will be the Buddipole, I have a configuration for 20m and 40m. Both are L shaped.

Antenna: (VHF 2M) & Repeater Access:

I'd like to have a chance to hit the repeater near by and link with IRLP back to Ottawa. The nearest node is imaged below.

There are really only two nodes which are candidates within 50km of the park.

Operation Plans:

Plans are to operate 20m during the day, and 40m in the evening. I will be equipped to operate PSK and a SSB.

I will not be able to operate VHF and HF at the same time as I will only have the 1 radio.

Packing List:

This is my packing list for the the expedition.

Booster	Battery Regulator	1
Booster	Coax (3ft)	1
Booster	SO239 to BNC adapter	1
Booster	UHF T adapter	1
Budipole	Black Coil	1
Budipole	Carry case	1
Budipole	Dipole arms	4
Budipole	Guy rope ground pegs	3
Budipole	Long whips	4
Budipole	Mini Banana to BNC converter	1
Budipole	Red coil	1
Budipole	Short whips	3
Budipole	SO239 to BNC adapter	1
Budipole	Spare thumb screws	5
Budipole	Tripod base	1
Budipole	Tripod mast (w/ 3 guy ropes)	1
Budipole	TRSB	1
Budipole	Versatee	1
Computer	Fused power cable (15A pair inline)	1
Phone	HTC Phone	1
Phone	USB Cable (Phone)	1
Computer	Laptop	1
Computer	Laptop Power Inverter 12V i/p	1
Computer	Laptop Power Inverter Power cable	1
Computer	USB Mouse	1
Creature	Reading glasses	1
IC7k	Coax (75ft)	1
IC7k	Earphones	1
IC7k	Extra cooling fan	1
IC7k	Fused power cable (30A paired)	1
IC7k	Icom 7000 Power cable	1
IC7k	Mic HM-151	1
Power	12V Gellcell	4
PSK31	12V battery jumper cables	6
PSK31	13pin ICOM to Signalink Cable	1
PSK31	RS232 – CIV Converter	1
PSK31	Signalink USB	1
PSK31	USB Cable (Sugnalink)	1
PSK31	USB to Serial Converter	1
Soft	AT-7000 manual pdf	1
Soft	DM780	1
Soft	HRD	1
Soft	IC7k manual pdf	1
Spare	Fuses (15A Paired, ¼ in inline)	4
Spare	Fuses (30A Paired)	4
Spare	Fuses (40A Single)	2
Spare	Fuses (5A mini Single)	2
Spare	SO239 to BNC adapter	2
Spare	SO239 to SO239 adapter	1
Spare	Spare fuse / misc box	1
Spare	USB Mouse Batteries Spare (AA)	2
Tools	Leather man tool	1
Tools	Tiewraps	1
Tuner	AT-7000 Auto tuner	1
Tuner	AT-7000 control cable	1
Tuner	Coax (1ft)	1
VHF (2M)	Coax (25ft)	1
VHF (2M)	Vertical	1
YP-3	1inch nuts	6
YP-3	Boom – Center (w/ pigtail and h/w)	1
YP-3	Boom – Director	1
YP-3	Boom – Reflector	1
YP-3	Carry case	1
YP-3	Coils ()	6
YP-3	Coils ()	6
YP-3	Cresent Wrench	1
YP-3	Elements (ends)	6
YP-3	Elements (first)	6
YP-3	Elements (tips)	6
YP-3	Hairpin shorting bar	1
YP-3	Hairpin stub elements	2
YP-3	Measureing tape	1
YP-3	SO239 to SO239 adapter	1
YP-3	Spare thumb screws	2
YP-3 (STAND)	Guy rope clips	3
YP-3 (STAND)	Guy rope ground pegs	4
YP-3 (STAND)	Guy rope ground pegs hammer	1
YP-3 (STAND)	Guy rope ring	1
YP-3 (STAND)	Guy rope ring spacer	1
YP-3 (STAND)	Guy ropes (10m)	3
YP-3 (STAND)	Through keys	4
YP-3 (STAND)	Tripod base	1
YP-3 (STAND)	Tripod mast	1
	Pad Paper	1
	Pen	1

Thanks
Adrien
VE3IAC

One week in Italy

2009-10-18T13:19:00.001-07:00

I'll write a bit more but, but here is my link to some pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/VE3IAC/Italy#

Adrien

One way to model a Budipole

2009-10-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

This is a summary of how I do my antenna modeling and this post includes an example of a 20m vertical with a rigid counterpoise.

1. Install the modeling tool 4NEC2 which is available at http://home.ict.nl/~arivoors/ . I run XP and Vista and have no problems with the program. I hope you do not either.

2. I have posted an example file at my documents at the following link. Go to the link and download the model file and save it to your pc where you can find it later. Save it as a plain text file.

3. launch 4NEC2 and load the file from step 2. There may be a few parameters you have to set

Settings->CharImp set to 25 ohms

Because, when this antenna resonates is close to 25ohms, this implies that you have a 2:1 balun like the budipole TRSB and it is set to 2:1.

4. Lets run it. Select Calculate->Nec Output data then select a frequency sweep from 13 to 15MHz.

The output should look like this.
Geometry shows a vertical with a loading coil set mid way.

Sweep shows resonance at 14.05MHz, which is very nice for PSK.

The antenna pattern shows a modest directional pattern, with a lower takeoff angle than can be obtained with a dipole at any reasonable height.

Now lets take a look at the file,

H_feed=2.5 Configuration - feed Height (m) - set this to the height of the versatee

NDipoleArmsR=3 Configuration - Number of Dipole arms on the Red side of the dipole, zero to as many as you want. These things (link), In general you want to get the coil away from the versatee. I think this leads to a better pattern but I cant prove it.

NDipoleArmsB=1 Configuration - Number of Dipole arms on the Black side of the dipole, zero to as many as you want. Same as above

whipTypeR = 1 1 = long whip
whipTypeB = 0 0 = standard whip
Indicate the type of whips you are using, I use a long whip for the vertical, more is better. and a short or normal whip for the counterpoise, the long one places a lot of torque on the versatee.

phiR=90 Configuration - Red Arm Direction (degrees) + is up, - is down, 0 is horizontal
phiB=0 Configuration - Blk Arm Direction
These are angles in degrees, 0 is horizontal, 90 is straight up, so you can see the red (R) arm is up, and the black (B) is horizontal. You can specify what ever angles you want. 0 & 0 makes a horizontal dipole!

coil_TapR=2.392877 Tuning - Red coil tap # turns from the whip end of the coil
coil_TapB=11.10957 Tuning - Black coil tap # turns from the whip end of the coil
OK, these numbers are solved for by the program once you decide what resonant frequency you want. Rounded to the integer, they indicate where to tap the coil. I can not promise the solved solution will be bang on but this is a starting point.

H_cutR_in=0 Tuning - number of inches each whip is pushed in
H_cutB_in=0 Tuning - number of inches each whip is pushed in
This specifies the number of inches each whip is pushed in by. Usually I set 0, but in the budipole examples some times the documents specify a few inches here and there.

H_sectR=6/6 Tuning - number of sections of whip pulled out
H_sectB=6/6 Tuning - number of sections of whip pulled out
These specify the number of extended whip segments.

The items below are fixed and relate to the geometry of the system components.

L_feed=0.05 Fixed - feed wire length (m), fixed to the width of the versatee
H_coil=4.75*0.0254 Fixed - coil length (m), fixed to the physical length of a coil
CoilFactor=1 Fixed - This factor usually set to 1 will scale the inductance of both coils together
DipoleArmLen_in=21.875 Fixed - Length (in) of dipole arm
RedH=28.2uH Fixed - Total Inductance of the red coil
RedTurns=42 Fixed - Total number of turns on the red coil
BlkH=28.2uH*(38/42) Fixed - Total Inductance of the black coil
BlkTurns=38 Fixed - Total number of turns on the black coil
StdWhipLen_in=66.25 Fixed - Length (in) of a fully extended whip
LongWhipLen_in=9.5*12 Fixed - Length (in) of a fully extended long whip
WhipRad=6.719e-4 Fixed - Radius of a whip
K=0 Fixed = controls geometry at feed, usually set to 0, binary input select 0 or 1 only.
OK this parameter is rather nutty, but it controls the geometry details at the versatee, I'm not sure how to explain it, 0 is the right value.

These are the calculated parameters of the model based on your inputs and the fixed values above.

H_armR=(NDipoleArmsR*DipoleArmLen_in*0.0254)+1*0.0254 Calculated - arm below Red coil, Calculated length of the dipole arms specified, each arm is 21.8inches
H_armB=(NDipoleArmsB*DipoleArmLen_in*0.0254)+1*0.0254 Calculated - arm below Black coil, Calculated length of the dipole arms specified, each arm is 21.8inches
L_coilR=CoilFactor*RedH*coil_TapR/RedTurns Calculated - Red Coil Inductance
L_coilB=CoilFactor*BlkH*coil_TapB/BlkTurns Calculated - Blk Coil Inductance
H_whipR=((StdWhipLen_in*(1-whipTypeR)+LongWhipLen_in*(whipTypeR))*H_sectR-H_cutR_in)*0.0254 Calculated - Red whip length
H_whipB=((StdWhipLen_in*(1-whipTypeB)+LongWhipLen_in*(whipTypeB))*H_sectB-H_cutB_in)*0.0254 Calculated - Blk whip length

So, you should be able to adjust the number of accessory arms, the whip types, the angles of the arms etc.

The trick is getting it to solve for the tap positions. You do this with the following solver in 4NEC2.

Above is the solution for 14MHz resonance. How about 7.07MHz?

The model predicts red Coil 42 from the whip end, i.e. the entire coil, and the black 31.6 turns from the whip.

I'll have to give this a try outside and see how close it is to reality I expect some adjustmnts to the model will be needed. Only through doing enough if these I'm learning through trial and error how the model needs to be set for things like the wire diameter whcich has a profound effect on the predictions.

73
Adrien

A bit about us.

2009-10-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

Well,... along time ago there were these kindly folks who came to this country,....

Seriously, This old snap was one of many we found at the house in Richibucto. A few decades ago, Roxanne and I took a keen interest in family tree stuff and this was driven by all of the old family photos which were both at the house in Richibucto and at Roxanne's folks home on northern Ontario.

These are a few of them you might enjoy.

Well the Hudson Family were a good loooking group if I have to say so my self. I simply think this one is very odd as the young fellow standing next to his dad looks remarkably familiar.

The young man is my Mom's father Reg Hudson.

This picture would have been taken in Nova Scoita down in the Annapolis Valley

Perhaps a bit out of order, but, this is good old Main Street Richibucto, I am sure you can tell exactly where you are, and where the 5 & dime was. (c. 1941)

Of course, Dad met Mom when he was in training in Base Greenwood NS. I can only assume that Mom is paying her new found love a kind message of "I wish you were here".

This would have been taken at the Farm in Aylseford.

Well we all know where this is, and many of us have visited this historical site of significent importance to the French Acadian reality.

I can tell you that Dad was very taken by this young lady. There are many pictures of this young couple in the "archives".

Well, I have to post an image of Roxanne. I'm sure she won't mind.

We have 2 children, Husdon and Josee-France. Apparently the 3D movie was so good the family appeared to want to see real life in 3D too.

Roxanne decided to take up the violin, a while back and I agreed that if she could play a Jig, I`d learn to step dance. So far I don`t think I`ll need my lessons soon. (Just kidding, Roxanne)

p.s. Hi Marc, & Michelle

Adrien

Amateur Radio

2009-09-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

This post is just to take a snapshot of where my Amateur Radio hobby has progress to.

I've been licensed for about 2 years now, with the call sign VE3IAC. My radio station is here in Ottawa and although I'm in the suburbs I have space to put up a 30ft tall 40m to 6m multi-band vertical and a 120ft 80m to 6m offset center fed dipole.

The rigs here in the shack span from a 2008 all solid state rig to a 1970's hybrid rig w/ a tube based final.

The Yaesu 2000D is a very competent 200W base rig, it is very fun to play with and has more settings than you can shake a stick at. This rig usually stays at home, although I have taken it out to ARRL Field Day this past summer. At Field Day I operate a digital station running PSK31 which is a digital mode similar to RTTY. I have found a great bunch of guys here in the Ottawa region called the 3730 group. We enjoy a nightly net at 9:00PM Eastern and checkins come from VE1 VE2, VE3 land, and a hand full of US stations.

The ICOM-7000 is a 100W portable rig that I use when I operate portable which I try to do as often as I can. I have a portable antenna called a Buddipole which is a simple component antenna system that uses a combination of whips, and loading coils. Vertical and dipole configurations can be made for 40m to 6m.

On the older side of things, is a pleasent Kenwood TS850S. This rig belonged to my Dad Alcide, VE1JNA. Dad was pleased with his radio and when he became a silent key I made sure I was able to keep the rig back on the air for him by getting my ticket and continuing the hobby. Thanks Dad.

All of these rigs are 100% solid state and each have their strong points.

On the older side, I recently picked up a 1970's Yaesu FT-101E at a local flea market. Sold as-is with some work needed, I was pleased to have it on the air in a few days. I remain convinced it needs an alignment. This is a semi solid state 100W rig with a tube driver and a pair of 6JS6C's finals. This is very different rig to run and some how seems more like a radio than the more recent rigs. It needs more attention to operate and it simply seems right to see the tube glow and hear them crinkle under the load of transmitting.

Above is an image of the contacts I have made over the past few years. These are from either the house, the cottage, or portable operation from the Ottawa Valley Region.

The sunspots are very very low over the past few years and my most remarkable DX contacts were two to New Zealand on 40m near midnight local time.

Thanks for stopping by.

Vern, I hope you were able to find this and enjoyed seeing where this hobby has taken me.

Adrien

Milky Way Widefield, Bubble Nebula, Eagle Nebula / Pillars of Creation (M16), Lagoon Nebula (M8)

2009-09-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

This viewing session was out at Moose Creek again and the new Moon gave the evening a great start. I left the city about 6:00PM and arrived with time to get mostly setup prior to dusk.

Temperatures were forcasted to be just below 10degrees C.

Setup was a Celestron 11 inch schmidt cassegrain telescope for imaging into a QHY 8 CCD camera. Piggybacked was a Willam Optics 90mm Megres refractor for autoguiding into a Meade Deep Sky Imager. Wide field images were taken with a Canon 10D DSLR through a Canon fixed length 50mm f/1.4 lens. Mount was a stock Celestron CGE mount.

Mount was orientated due north by compass and leveled by bubble. I do not adjust the vertical (altitude) of the mount from home to Moose Cr, so, polar alignment was as very easy as usual. When the mount attempts to align to the first alignment star I manually move the mount in azimuth to best center the target star in the finder. I follow this by the usual completion of the two star alignment. Since the mount is provided with long / lat coordinates and time, this manual adjustment in azimuth is equivelent to polar alignment. Even though this is not sufficient for unguided astrophotography, it is sufficient for goto functions and guided astrophotography.

Focus of DSI and QHY CCD was done with Nebulosity. Half width flux were low to medium 2.0's

Focus of the 10D was done by allowing the camera to auto focus on Jupiter. This was about my only quick option, as the sky was dark by the time I was settuing up the DSLR. I did not bother attempting to focus any further.

A dew heater was used on the Schmidt Cassegrain only.

Wide field images were taken piggybacked on C11 while deep sky images were taken. Dark frames should have been used for the wide fields as the 10D is prone to hot pixels, at 5 min exposures. I failed to stop the f/1.4 lens down as many suggest to improve the performance of the optics.

Darks and flats were not used for QHY camera.

Nebulosity was used for imaging deep sky objects.
Autoguiding was with Push Here Dummy Autoguiding
DSLR capture was with ImagesPlus.

Milky Way Widefield

Widefields are Canon 10D camera with f/1.4 50mm fixed focal length lens. Focus was "auto focused" on Jupiter, then set to manual focus to hold focus.

The above image was 25minutes total exposure (5x5min at ISO 400) while imaging the Eagle Nebula (M16).

The above image was 25minutes total exposure (5x5min at ISO 400) while imaging the Lagoon Nebula (M8).

The artifact in the lower right is the horizon. I have noticed that in both images, inparticular the lower one, that the stars have noticble trails near the horizon, while there are no trails at higher alltitudes. I can not explain this.

Next time I will have to do darks as these images are peppered with many hot pixels pretending to be stars.

Note that even though these imges were stacked, I applied no translations, just simply let stacking happen.

This portion of the sky contains the constellation Sagittarius and prominently contains a significant portion of the milky way. Indeed this portion of the milky way is densest as it looks towards the center of our galaxy.

Eagle Nebula (M16) and Pillars of Creation

Lagoon Nebula (M8)

Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635)

Geneal infos:

Field Details
Date/Location: Saturday Septemer 19, 2009, 9:00pm (Start) at Moose Creek Ontario
Instrument: QHY8, through Celestron SCT C11 w/o Focal Reduction
Filters: None
Mount: Celestron CGE
Focal Ratio: Imaging at f/10, guiding at f/4.3
Guiding: Auto through William Optics Megres 90mm w/ Meade DSI and f/6.3 FR
Conditions: Visually clear with moderate humidity
Weather: 9 deg. C
Exposure: 50 minutes total in 10 x 5 min exposures (Gain 0 Offset 65)
Focusing: Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0 (HFR >1.6 typical)
Image Capture: Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0
Autoguiding: Stark Labs PDH

Exposure Details and Processing
Stacking: Nebulosity 2, 10 of 10
Pixel Math: none
Levels/Stretch: Done in Images Plus
Binning: none

A New Old FT-101E

2009-09-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

Well there simply must be at least 1 boat anchor in every shack, and being somewhat new to the hobby I had the pleasure of needing to `go out and get one`.

The Yaesu FT101 series radios were met with quick adoption by the Ham community when these radios were introduced in the early 70`s. Since I have no experience with a tube based radio I quickly set my determination on getting one of these rigs. I was interested in seeing what I could learn both in terms of operating a tube rig.

I was able to pick up at a local flea market, a FT-101E which was in need of a little work.

First Impressions

Simply stated `Very solid`, this little rig weighs in as heavy as the FT2000D, largely due to the built in transformer which supports providing the 230W of input power to the finals as well as the remainder of the radio. It is safe to say that these radios are hand crafted, which is simply great for the operator who wants to get his `hands on`, and potentially also shocked, but lets hope that does not happen.

First Steps

The seller provided me with a set of crystals 3 6JS6C spare finals, with 2 already installed in the Radio and 1 12BY7A Driver. I installed the crystals and the 1 driver tube, plugged it in to AC source and hoped for the best. I was also supplied with a complete hard copy of the service manual which is very complete and has all the information I will likely need.

From here on in, I have structured this post into three sections. Things what work, Things that do not and repairs I have done.

Things that work

The rig powered up, fine, and most things looked O.K. on first glance. Lots of audio, and some signals could be had on LSB. Heaters did light up as expected. All lamps worked as expected, and the cooling fan for the finals ran nicely.

80M/40M/20M/15M/11M/10M Rx
Preselector
WWV 10MHz Rx
100 and 25kHz markers
Bias Adjust; Bias current responds smoothly with adjustment of bias control variable resistor VR1. Bias was set to 60mA as required.

Things that still do not appear to work as expected

The vernier slips as the main tuning dial is rotated.
Meter function switch contacts are poor.

Items worked on

Fixed: Low sensitivity on bands that work. Don't ask me why but I tested PL4, the lamp that is in series with the signal path in from the antenna connector. It was not open, but resistance was north of 100 ohms. The replacement part form the local hardware store also PN 1815 was about 5 ohms. Sensitivity is much better with the replacement part.

Fixed: USB is "as dead as a doornail". LSB worked fine but USB was not operational. I tracked the lack of any signal reception to the Q3 on the modulator unit. There was a repair attempted and this was part of the hint. I noticed that the transistor was not the part called for in the schematic. The design part 2SC372Y was replaced by a 2SC383. Q3, Q5 abd Q6 are all the same device, is responsible for the generation of USB, LSB and CW/AM carrier inputs. I moved the Q6 part too the position of the Q3 and this fixed the USB mode problem. I replaced Q6 with a silicon part 2N3904. Now all modes work, LSB. USB, Tune, CW and AM.
Alignment: Bias. Set Bias to 60mA as required. There is some play in the meter function switch which makes getting a reading a bit awkward.

Alignment: ALC level. ALC level was low, at about 0.3, Adjusted Level control to set ALC level to 0..5 as required in the alignment procedure.

Moon and Jupiter, QHY8

2009-09-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

Skyglow and or moonlight make it impossible to image the typical astronomical objects. Skyglow can be avoided with a drive of up to a few hours from the nearest city, and moon light is accommodated my observing prior to moon rise and after moon set.

Fortunately, there are many objects which are able to punch through skyslow, the planets, Mercury to Saturn are in this group, and the moon its self is a worthy target.

Astronomical Seeing, which is a measure of the steadiness of the atmosphere to light rays, is the next critical aspect of a evenings conditions.

Moon

Comments

This image is to the same scale as the images posted below of the Dumbbell and Trifid Nebula. This can give you an idea of the size of the less familiar astronomical objects. Seeing was good this evening. I am not very skilled at scoring seeing, but I can detect a better than average night from a poor night. On this night, the moon`s surface features were very stable in the C11 at f/10 and a 20mm eyepiece which is moderate magnification.

The screen slot below is from the Starry Night Pro program and shows the moon at the approximate time the image was taken. Also shown is the expected field of view of the 10D or QHY8 sensor on the Celestron C11 telescope.

Object Info

The Earth's natural satellite is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System.

Field Details
Date/Location: Monday August 31, 2009, 10:30pm at Ottawa Ontario
Instrument: QHY8, through Celestron SCT C11 w/o Focal Reduction
Filters: None
Mount: Celestron CGE
Focal Ratio: Imaging at f/10
Guiding: non-guided
Conditions: Visually clear with moderate humidity
Weather: 15 deg. C
Exposure: less than 1 minute total in 10 x 0.02sec exposures (Gain 0 Offset 65)
Focusing: Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0 (HFR 2.6 typical)
Image Capture: Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0 (10 exposures taken)
Autoguiding: none

Exposure Details and Processing
Stacking: 10 of 10
Pixel Math: Zero Mean applied
Levels/Stretch: Done in Neb2
Binning: none

Jupiter and Moons

Comments

Again, this image is to the same scale as the images posted above and below, of the Dumbbell and Trifid Nebula. This can give you an idea of the size of the less familiar astronomical objects.

Object Info

There are several prediction tools on the web which will indicate the position of the Jovian moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. For this image to go http://www.shallowsky.com/jupiter/ and enter the time string, Mon Aug 31 2009 20:43:08 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Click on the image above and see if you can see the moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Although the great red spot was expected to be visible I can not convince myself that is it evident on this rather poor image of the planet its self.

On better nights I have been able to see the shadow of a moon on the planet surface.

Field Details
Date/Location: Monday August 31, 2009, 11:00pm at Ottawa Ontario
Instrument: QHY8, through Celestron SCT C11 w/o Focal Reduction
Filters: None
Mount: Celestron CGE
Focal Ratio: Imaging at f/10
Guiding: non-guided
Conditions: Visually clear with moderate humidity
Weather: 15 deg. C
Exposure: less than 1 minute total in 10 x 0.02sec exposures (Gain 0 Offset 65)
Focusing: Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0 (HFR 2.6 typical)
Image Capture: Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0 (10 exposures taken)
Autoguiding: none

Exposure Details and Processing
Stacking: 10 of 10
Pixel Math: Zero Mean applied
Levels/Stretch: Done in Neb2
Binning: none

Hercules Globular Cluster M13 and QHY8

2009-08-26T19:51:00.001-07:00

Comments

I have always wanted to be able to capture compelling images of the globular clusters. Visually, these are some of the nicest objects because many are bright enough in the eyepiece to draw your attention and are pleasing to explore. In a finely focused scope you can see the less dense outer regions give rise to the typically compact and crowded core. Increasing the magnification draws out increasing detail up to the point the scope and seeing can go no further.

I have seen many images of this class of object and was pleased to see how this turned out.

I think there was some icing on the CCD in the QHY8 camera as I have no other explanation for the odd dark regions along the bottom of the image.

Object Info

http://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m013.html

M13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714 and is also called the 'Great globular cluster in Hercules'. It is one of the most prominent and best known globulars of the Northern celestial hemisphere.

M13 is 25,100 light years from earth and contains more than 100,000 stars. The age of M13 has been determined to be 14 to 24 billion years old.

Field Details
Date/Location: Monday August 24, 2009, 9:47pm at Ottawa Ontario
Instrument: QHY8, through Celestron SCT C11 w/o Focal Reduction
Filters: None
Mount: Celestron CGE
Focal Ratio: Imaging at f/10, guiding at f/4.3
Guiding: Auto through William Optics Megres 90mm w/ Meade DSI and f/6.3 FR
Conditions: Visually clear with moderate humidity
Weather: 20 deg. C
Exposure: 25 minutes total in 5 x 5 min exposures (Gain 0 Offset 65)
Focusing: Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0 (HFR 1.6 typical)
Image Capture: Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0 (5 exposures taken)
Autoguiding: Stark Labs PDH

Exposure Details and Processing
Stacking: 5 of 5
Pixel Math: Zero Mean applied
Levels/Stretch: Done in Neb2
Binning: none

Field Operation, IC 7000 and Buddipole at Champlain Lookout

2009-08-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me while reading through the Buddipole information for the Triple ratio Switch Balun (TRSB) that I should be able to make a 20m vertical with a rigid loaded counterpoise.

This antenna configuration would

have a lower take-off angle as compared to the flattop dipole
would be directional to a degree
would be easily rotatable as compared to a wire counterpoise
would not need a standoff stake for a wire based counterpoise
would operate very similar to a setup w/ a longer wire counterpoise

Modeling

I started with some simple modeling in 4NEC2.

The vertical arm is constructed with 3 dipole arms, 1 red coil, and 1 standard whip. Using more than 1 dipole arm helps make the antenna longer and more effective. The loaded counterpoise is built with a single dipole arm, a black coil and a standard whip.

The antenna is brought to resonance at the frequency 14.1MHz which is what I wanted with the following parameters and settings

Vertical

Whip fully extended
Red coil taped 9 turns from the whip end
3 standard dipole arms

Counterpoise

Tilted down at 30degree angle
Whip fully extended
Black coil taped 12 turns from the whip end
1 standard dipole arms

In 4NEC2 I first assumed the red coil had an inductance of 28.2uH for all 42 turns. This is the value I have used in the past. However with this value, resonance was predicted at only 12MHz. Testing the antenna in the backyard confirmed that the antenna does resonate at 14.1MHz. I temporally centred the model at 14.1MHz by scaling the full coil inductance to 69% of the 28.2uH.

The predicted antenna pattern is as expected for a vertical w/ 1 counterpoise.

Putting it all to use.

Nearby to the city of Ottawa, is a federal park with some breathtaking lookouts. For a Ham operator this looks like very nice spots for an antenna, high up over the surrounding land.

The setup was simple and compact, 2 50AH Gelcells, IC7000, Laptop and the Buddipole

The above 2 pictures show the "picnic table shack" and the vertical. The counterpoise made with the standard whip, coil and arm is raised above the ground and this allows the antenna to be "pointed" and also there is no pesky wire counterpoise to string out.

Operation

There was 070 PSK contest going on and there was plenty to listen to. A big plus of this location is the excellent s1 noise level. Many US stations were on the air as expected but notable and very easily copied stations were from Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, and a good selection of European stations including, Spain, France, England, and some Russian stations.

QSOs

Thanks to all who helped make this an interesting afternoon. I had some difficulties with the 7000 running a bit hot due to the hot sun. Also, at times there were a few stations who were answering my calls at the same time and I did my best to unravel these situations.

Start Station Name Country QTH Distance (km)
21:34 IK4JQS Maurizio Italy Molinella 6,515.32
21:23 PD5DP Henk Netherlands Wolvega 5,681.14
21:16 W6DEI Peter USA Berkeley CA 3,893.00
21:05 K0WIU Bill USA Yankton, Sd 1,912.58
20:49 HA6ZB Gyuri Hungary Aldebro 6,836.85
19:53 N4MGA Don USA Rex, GA 1,512.57
19:40 N0EPW Simon USA 1,360.02

Thanks to IK4JQS and HA6ZB for the 6000km QSOs. and thanks for stopping by.

Adrien

Trifid M20 and QHY8

2009-08-16T09:32:00.001-07:00

Field Details
Date/Location: Saturday August 15, 2009, 12:20am at Moose Creek Ontario
Instrument: QHY8, through Celestron SCT C11 w/o Focal Reduction
Filters: None
Mount: Celestron CGE
Focal Ratio: Imaging at f/10, guiding at f/4.3
Guiding: Auto through William Optics Megres 90mm w/ Meade DSI and f/6.3 FR
Conditions: Visually clear with moderate humidity
Weather: 20 deg. C
Exposure: 100 minutes total in 10 x 10 min exposures (Gain 0 Offset 65)
Focusing: Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0 (HFR 2.0 typical)
Image Capture: Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0 (10 exposures taken)
Autoguiding: Stark Labs PDH

Exposure Details and Processing
Stacking: 10 of 10
Pixel Math: Zero Mean applied
Levels/Stretch: Done in Images Plus
Binning: 3x3 Adaptive

Dumbbell M27 and QHY8 CCD Camera

2009-08-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

In May 2009 I became interested in taking a next step in CCD imaging and this would involve a new camera. To date I have been using the Canon 10D for astrophotography.

Camera QHY8

I compared the QHY8, Deep Sky Imager Pro III, and the Orion StarShoot Pro Deep Space Color CCD Camera and decided to try the QHY8 CCD.
The QHY8 uses a 23.7 x 15.7 mm APS-sized 6.1 Meg-pixel Sony Super HAD CCD and has an integrated Peltier Cooler which is stated to cool the CCD to 40degrees C below ambient. This camera is a single shot colour camera. The absence of a IR filter found in consumer DSLRs makes this camera a better choice for many astronomical objects. Ha sensitivity of (QE=50%) allows for Ha nebula imaging.
A review of this camera is at http://www.stark-labs.com/craig/articles/assets/CCDLabs_ATT.pdf
The manufacturer's discussion group is at http://www.qhyccd.com/ccdbbs/
I purchased the camera from the very helpful folks at http://www.kwtelescope.com/QHY_8.htm

Some of the specifications.

Total pixel: 3110 x 2030
Active pixels: 3032 x 2016
Pixel Size: 7.8um x 7.8um square
Colour method: RGB BAYER film on CCD
Effective sensor area: 28.4 mm diagonal
Readout noise: 8-12 e @600 Kpixel/s
QE: 60% at green (Peak), 50% at blue and H-alpha
Microlensing on chip
Progressive Scan
ABG: -110dB
16bit ADC with CDS and Preamp
USB2.0 High Speed interface
T-thread mounting
Rugged custom-fit carrying case
Includes both AC and 12v DC adapters
Dimensions: 3.5" x 3.5" x 2.25"
Weight: 1.2 lbs.(0.55 kg)

Second Light

Although this is not my first light image for this camera, it is my first dark site image.

Object: M27

From SEDS info http://www.seds.org/messier/M/m027.html

The Dumbbell Nebula Messier 27 (M27, NGC 6853) is perhaps the finest planetary nebula in the sky, and was the first planetary nebula ever discovered.

On July 12, 1764, Charles Messier discovered this new and fascinating class of objects, and describes this one as an oval nebula without stars. The name "Dumb-bell" goes back to the description by John Herschel, who also compared it to a "double-headed shot."

This planetary nebula is certainly the most impressive object of its kind in the sky, as the angular diameter of the luminous body is nearly 6 arc minutes, with a faint halo extending out to over 15', half the apparent diameter of the Moon (Millikan 1974).

Field Details
Date/Location: Saturday August 15, 2009, 12:20am at Moose Creek Ontario
Instrument: QHY8, through Celestron SCT C11 w/o Focal Reduction
Filters: None
Mount: Celestron CGE
Focal Ratio: Imaging at f/10, guiding at f/4.3
Guiding: Auto through William Optics Megres 90mm w/ Meade DSI and f/6.3 FR
Conditions: Visually clear with moderate humidity
Weather: 20 deg. C
Exposure: 50 minutes total in 10 x 5 min exposures (Gain 0 Offset 55)
Focusing: Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0 (HFR 2.0 typical)
Image Capture Imaging with Stark Labs Nebulosity 2.0 (10 exposures taken)
Autoguiding Stark Labs PDH

Exposure Details and Processing
Stacking: 9 of 10
Pixel Math: Zero Mean applied
Levels/Stretch: Levels (0, 970, 1.46)
Binning: 2x2 Adaptive

Overall impression
Compared to the 10D camera it is clear that the QHY8 is capable of recording those superb reds that make so many celestial objects beautiful. Not needing darks is also a big advantage and makes the evening out run quickly.

Thanks for dropping by.
Adrien