A nice QSL card in the post this morning: PR0T Trindade & Martim Vaz Islands

 I received this nice QSL card in the post this morning from M0OXO. It's from the PR0T dxpedition back in November 2023, confirming my three QSOs with them on 12m FT8, 10m CW and 30m FT8. Delighted to get card confirmation of this rare DXCC. 

I had only ONE other QSO with Trindade & Martim Vaz Islands, with PQ0T on 20m CW back in April 2015.

In QSO with John ON8EI on 20 metres - and he made a video for YouTube!

Many of you will recognise the familiar tones of the voice of John ON8EI in Belgium. John, who hails from Ireland ('home' call EI4GO), always has a tremendous signal from his excellent station. He records many of his QSOs and publishes them on his YouTube channel.

This morning, I spent a short time on 20 metres SSB, and put out a CQ. I worked a couple of European stations before I heard the familiar voice of ON8EI calling me. I heard John earlier, on a different QRG, and was going to call him but he said he had to leave the shack, so I was delighted when he answered my CQ on 14.165Mhz USB.

Among other things, we discussed the quality of the transmit audio from my new Yaesu FTdx10 transceiver. As you can hear, I think it is quite nice. John's comment was that my audio sounded stronger than my signal, which is always a good situation, especially for busting pile-ups on rare DX!

John runs a Hermes Lite 2 SDR transceiver witht he (free and excellent) Thetis software. As you can see from the video about, it is not only very attractive in appearance, but in audio quality too.

A blast from the past - video of a QSO (EI2KC and WA3SCM) from almost 13 years ago!

It's not often you get sent a video you've never seen of a QSO that you had almost 13 years ago! But that's what happened the other day when one of my ham friends, Don EI6IL, sent me a video he recorded in his shack of a QSO that I made with Dave WA3SCM in Pennsylvania in September of 2012. 

It's a short video, and looking back in my computerised log (I use Logger32 for logging), I see that Dave was the last QSO of the day, in what were challenging band conditions. At the time, I was using a two-element hexbeam, an antenna that was later destroyed by a storm.

Don was listening to our QSO on his Yaesu FT2000 at the time. If I remember correctly, my own radio at that time back in 2012 was the Yaesu FT1000MP.

A new way to listen to ham radio - and other frequencies

I have heard a lot about SDR dongles in recent years, so when an RTL-SDR V4 genuine (not a clone) dongle came up for sale here in Ireland, I snapped at the chance to get one relatively cheaply to see what all the fuss is about.

My RTL-SDR V4 dongle is the latest addition to the EI2KC ham shack.

Now I'll be honest in telling you that I (a) didn't know what to expect and (b) didn't have a clue how to use it, since I've never owned one. It has taken me about a week to get it working properly, and receiving clear signals on the amateur bands and on other frequencies.

Some of my ham friends say that to RTFM (Read The F*ckin Manual) is cheating! They say you're supposed to get some radio equipment working properly without consulting the manual. It's a joke, of course, but it probably refers to the fact that many radio amateurs and shortwave listeners do not, in fact, read the manual when installing a new piece of radio equipment.

The dongle came with an SO239 to SMA adapter, which was convenient, since all my antennas have PL259s on the end of their feeders. I was able to get the SDRPP (SDR Plus Plus or SDR++) software working, but initially it did not seem to be receiving anything from the dongle.

Some Googling and watching YouTube videos soon educated me about certain settings. I had it running, receiving some lower side band signals on the 40 metre (7Mhz) band, but those signals sounded distorted and I was not exactly thrilled.

A screenshot of the RTL-SDR V4 decoding FT8 and FT4 signals on 20 metres.

However, after a little bit of experimenting with some settings, I was eventually able to receive some quite clear signals on various amateur bands, mainly 80 metres, 40 metres and 20 metres. The SDR++ software has an excellent FT8 and FT4 decoding feature, and because the dongle can receive 2.4Mhz of bandwidth, the FT8 decoder works even when you are tuned away from the FT8 portion of the band.

I was able to receive some very nice, clear and clean signals on 40 metres in particular yesterday, and sat for a while listening to Denis EI6IF during a POTA activation. I could also hear most of his callers. I am able to use the Butternut HF6V as the receive antenna, alternating that with my random wire.

So far, so good. Tonight, I spent a short time listening to some lovely Chinese music on the AM broadcast band on 7.265Mhz. 

This dongle will allow me to keep an eye/ear on one band while the Yaesu FTdx10 is tuned to another. It's basically a cheap way to listen to two bands simultaneously, and saves on the space required to put another HF transceiver/receiver on the desk.

I will keep you posted about further SWL activities using this little piece of kit. By the way, it cost me €45. Not bad considering all that it offers.

I finally replaced the broken light bulb in my Yaesu G-450C rotator controller

It has been bugging me for a long time, so yesterday I finally decided to do something about it. Several years ago, the illumination lamp in my Yaesu G-450C rotator controller failed. I read some articles online about how to replace the bulb, but was daunted because it seemed a complex job to access the bulb.

The new-look Yaesu G-450C with blue LED fitted. I think it looks great!

17 screws had to be removed to access the 
G-450C bulb.

Yesterday, I plucked up the courage to open the unit and to attempt to at least see what might be involved in replacing the failed bulb.

This required the removal of SEVENTEEN screws. When 13 of the screws had been removed, there was a delicate operation involved in removing the last four, which kept the display plate mounted to the front of the control unit.

Because there were lots of wires connected to this front part, I had to be careful not to pull it away from the unit very much in case I snapped any of the wires.

A short time later, I finally had access to the display plate, and could see the tiny (failed) bulb. I'll be honest and say that at this point, I was feeling quite daunted about my ability to complete this job. However, I decided to go to some local electronic/motor supply stores to see what kind of bulbs they had that could operate on 12V and provided a low wattage (preferably 2w or less). I was able to find a pair of blue LED lights which run on 12V and give out 0.35w.

However, those bulbs were too big to fit in the "holder" where the burnt-out bulb was located. I would have to come up with a solution whereby the new LED bulb would sit in a different location than the old bulb.

The old bulb.

The azimuth indicator display plate.

By carefully snipping some cable ties that kept the small wires bundled together, I was able to get some extra length on the two wires that feed 12V to the bulb. Having done this, it was time to get the soldering iron out for some delicate soldering of the wires to the two copper pins on the LED bulb. I stretched these out, and made a sort-of "hook" on each of them to better support the power wires.

With all that done, I taped up the wires, and began thinking about where I would position the bulb so that it would illuminate the rotator's azimuth indicator. The only place that suited was to the right of the indicator (the original bulb was in the upper-left corner), and with a bit of careful manipulation and some red electrical tape, I was able to fasten the bulb into its new position.

Now I know this might sound silly, but getting the unit back together with 17 screws was by itself a tedious and delicate job. The four screws that hold the azimuth indicator display plate to the front of the controller unit were, in particular, difficult to access - again because I had to be careful not to stretch wires.

The entire job - to replace one small bulb - took me about two hours.

Anyway, eventually I got everything back together and it was time for a quick test. Would it work? I made a short video, which you can watch below.

There's a bit of stray light showing through the 'left' and 'right' switches, but I can live with that. What do you think?

A great thrill to work Ian VK3MO in Melbourne again after almost 13 years

A recent spell of poor conditions on the higher HF bands (20m and above) seemed to come to an end yesterday. Last night, after a busy day at work, I was tuning around on the phone portion of the 20 metre (14Mhz) band. I saw some strong signals, which was interesting as it was after 11pm. 

CE3QY in Chile was booming in on 14.190Mhz, and his signal was 59+ even though I only have an inverted V dipole on that band. I gave him a couple of calls and was soon in his log. I also worked CE4UFC Jorge on 14.210Mhz, but his signal was a 5 by 5.

From there, I tuned downwards, and could see a big signal on the waterfall below. As I tuned in that signal – on 14.165Mhz – a familiar voice could be heard! It was the unmistakeable voice of Ian, VK3MO, near Melbourne, Australia. Ian needs no introduction to radio amateurs. He is quite famous in the ham world. Over the years, many European hams have worked Ian on 20 metres SSB and had the joy of a conversation with him. Ian does not do "59 thanks" reports, but rather engages in dialogue and sometimes spends 10 minutes or even more ragchewing.

As far as I know, Ian only operates in and around 14.160Mhz, and that's because he runs a stack of monoband beams which are obviously resonant on that frequency. The stack consists of four five-element 20m beams on a rotating tower. It's a hugely impressive setup, which yields hugely impressive results.

I listened for about 10 minutes while Ian chatted with M0JWK in England. He mentioned that he would soon have to go to work. As he signed with the mike zero, I decided to give him a quick call. I said something like "Ian, you are 59 plus on my dipole in Ireland, from echo india two kilo charlie".

To my delight, he came back to me. I made a video of our short QSO.

Ian and I made our first QSO in May of 2010, and had further QSOs in August 2011 and September 2012, but we had not spoken since then – a period of almost 13 years!

I was thrilled that he took the time for a very quick chat before heading to work, for which he said he was running late.

I'm not sure how up-to-date his QRZ.com page is, but you can see a photo of his tower/stack on there. It's a world-beating setup, and explains why his signal has often been heard at 59 and 59+ in Europe at nighttime (his morning).

Working Australia is always a pleasure for me, but VK3MO stands out because of his fantastic signal, and his very friendly and chatty nature. Thanks Ian for the quick QSO. You put a smile on this ham's face!

My trusty old Butternut vertical gets a new lease of life

It's been sitting at the end of the garden for years, stored behind the shed. My trusty (and admittedly dirty) old Butternut HF6V vertical antenna is back in the air. I re-erected it last week, but found signals on the bands quite attenuated compared with my nested inverted vees.

What followed was a patient game of "adjust, test, adjust, test, adjust more, test more..." as I tried to bring the antenna into resonance on the six bands where it is designed to operate.

Given that the SWR was high (at least 5:1 on most bands), a quick read of the 28-page manual for the antenna (yes, I RTFM'd!) revealed that when SWR is reading high across the bands, this is likely to be because of a problem with the feeder.

The Butternut is fed with a quarter-wave section of 75 ohm coax which is used as a "geometric mean transformer" to match the approximate 100 ohms of feedpoint impedance on the 20 metre band to a 50 ohm main transmission line.

I suspected that there was an issue with the 75 ohm coax, and particularly where it connects with the Butternut. Yesterday, I disconnected the coax from the Butternut and fed it into the shack, where I was able to cut a couple of centimetres off and begin to reveal the core and braid so that I could re-attach the coax to the antenna.

The coax is difficult to work with because it's very stiff, and the core is solid. I soldered a short length (approx 10cm) of insulated electrical earth wire to the braid and taped it up using insulating tape. I also cleaned the connecting screws on the antenna and replaced the washers with new ones.

When I re-attached the coax, the antenna was sounding "louder" (less attenuated than before), but quick tests at the radio and with an analyser revealed the SWR was still high across the board.

What followed today was an exercise in patience and meticulous adjustments. The Butternut HF6V has three L/C assemblies - one for 80 metres, one for 40m and one for 30m. Upon making adjustments to the 80m coil, I was able to get resonance on that band. In fact, I was really thrilled to get the SWR all the way down to 1.0:1 at the bottom end of 80 - just above 3.5Mhz, where I love trying to work DX on CW.

By old Butternut HF6V is back in the air.

A great start, but some time and patience was needed for 40m, where lots of adjustments of the coil were needed to eventually get the SWR to a respectable 1.2:1 at the top of the band and 1.9:1 on the CW portion. I can certainly live with that! The Butternut will give me an advantage on the low bands because it offers a lower angle of radiation than the inverted vees, which in truth are not high enough at the apex, being just 10 metres at the feed point.

The 30 metre band proved extremely finicky. Very small adjustments of the 30m coil on the Butternut HF6V can shift the lowest SWR frequency by 100Khz! After making something like a dozen or fifteen changes, I eventually settled for an SWR of about 2.2:1 on 10Mhz - realising that that was much better than the 5:1 I had been seeing after just very minor movements of the coil.

For now, the SWR on 20 metres is high. It is reading a 5:1 or slightly higher across the entire band. Not ideal obviously. I did try to change the position of the coil support tube 30 meter L bracket where it attaches to the 40 metre coil, as instructed by the manual, but was unable to see a lower SWR. I will have to think about my strategy for 20m resonance. Should I replace the 75 ohm transformer coax? Or tinker with the 30m L bracket some more? I am afraid to do too much because I have a good SWR on 80m and 40m, where I really want it.

On 15 metres, with no further adjustments the antenna presented an SWR of 2:1 at 21.005Mhz and 1.5:1 at 21.345Mhz, which is nice. The Butternut HF6V does not resonate on 17 metres. On 12 metres, it has an SWR of 1.4:1 across the band, while on 10 metres it had "acceptable" SWR values varying only very slightly from 28.000Mhz to 28.500Mhz from 2.2:1 to 2.3:1.

In all honesty though, if you quickly glanced at my Butternut, you would wonder how the thing radiates at all. It came into my possession just after I got licenced in the winter of 2009. My very good friend and mentor, Tony EI4DIB (now sadly silent key), had acquired it - I think from a ham in GI/Northern Ireland - and had it stored in his back garden. I reckon it had spent a number of years in what might be termed "outdoor storage". It was filthy, covered with grime and dirt, and had long ago lost its sheen.

However, when Tony and I installed it at my QTH back in 2009, it did work. It radiated. I'm not sure how effectively, but I was able to make QSOs. In January 2010, using just 100 watts, I made my first ever QSO with Australia using the Butternut, although admittedly I had to wait until the pile-up dissipated and there was nobody else calling before I could be heard. That station was VI2AJ2010, a special event station for the 22nd Australian Scouts 2010 Jamboree in Appin, New South Wales.

The Butternut was my main HF antenna for a while, before I acquired an MA5B minibeam, and later a hexbeam. I cannot remember when I took it down, but it might be as long as 10 years ago or more. I wondered if it would ever see use again. Thankfully, it is radiating RF as I write this, on 15 metres FT8, and is actually showing an SWR of 1.4:1 on 21.074Mhz.

Last week, when I re-erected it, I noticed that an aluminium strip which was part of the 40 metre L/C circuit was missing. Thankfully, I have some Butternut HF6V "spare parts" (which again I have Tony to thank for, because he spotted them in a box at a radio rally and I got them for next to nothing), and was able to solder a new nut on to the 40m capacitor, drill a hole into a spare aluminium strip and bolt it on.

That was certainly a bit of what might be termed "homebrewing" or improvisation, but it works.

I look forward to testing the Butternut as soon as possible on 80 metres. That band has been very fruitful this summer, giving me four or five new DXCC in recent weeks, mostly on FT8. When I was studying for my ham licence, and even for several years after getting licenced, it was commonly held that 80 metres should be avoided during the summer because it's a nighttime band and the DX was only there in the winter. However, at this latitude (53 degrees north), in midsummer we have an extended grey line, which offers lots of opportunity for DX contacts. 

Some of those new DXCCs on 80 were Angola, Paraguay and Singapore, and on one evening in the past week I worked THREE stations in Western Australia on 3.573Mhz using FT8. It will be interesting to see, using a combination of CW and FT8, and watching the Reverse Beacon Network and PSK Reporter, how the Butternut performs compared with the dipoles.