Video: patience pays off and Brazilian special event call logged

I was listening to a Brazilian special event station, ZZ80PR, on 40 metres tonight. After the crazy European pile-up had died down, I noticed that he was a bit stronger on my Butternut vertical than on my 40m inverted v dipole. So I decided to sit tight and give him a call . . .

CQWW CW 2012 - EI2KC claimed score!

I have just finished my participation in the CQWW CW contest 2012 and I have to report that it was fantastic for me. With just a 26-foot Butternut HF6V multiband vertical antenna, I managed to work 580 QSOs over the course of the weekend on 80 metres alone. I was participating as single band high power assisted on that band. I worked 65 DXCC and 15 zones. I think my zone count could have been a little bit better but I have no regrets with a claimed score of 60,560.

I just checked my log and it turns out I managed to work five new DXCC on 80m during the past 48 hours, bringing my total worked on that band to 123, so I am chuffed with that. I used the N1MM contest logging software and the interface is the CG Antenna SB-2000, which worked flawlessly.

The work I did on the Butternut on Friday paid off. The antenna can be made to resonate on any portion of the 80m band by sliding the 80m coil up and down. With a flat SWR of 1:1 the Acom managed 1,200 watts at one stage with 0 watts reflected.

Saturday evening was quiet on the band, but Sunday evening was a different story! As all the higher bands began to close, with the contest finishing at midnight, the multi band ops found their way down to the low bands, including 80m, where I had significant action at times. I ran a couple of pile-ups during the course of Sunday evening, and at one stage my rate was 88 QSOs per hour. Very nice, especially for this modest station in a small garden in the middle of a housing estate!

Anyway, I hope that those of you who participated enjoyed yourselves. It certainly was a great pleasure for me, and because 80m is generally poor during the day. I was able to spend some time with the family too!!

CQWW CQ - the story so far

Just a brief update about my participation on CQWW CW 2012. I am only taking part on 80 metres, with a view to increasing my DXCC worked/confirmed on that band. I am in the category 80m single op high power. I did search and pounce from midnight on Saturday morning for about two hours, and then a mixture of run station and search and pounce last night, on and off from about 5pm in the evening until 3.30am this morning.

My old Butternut, which is over 20 years old, was a bit grubby
so I cleaned around the capacitor assembly in advance of the
contest and it's working brilliantly.

At this moment in time, my totals are as follows (bearing in mind that I intend to return to the contest after dark this evening): QSOs: 329; Zones worked: 15; DXCC worked: 61. Total claimed score so far: 36,100.

The band is completely dead now. There's not a single signal to be heard on CW. That's how it was yesterday too, allowing me some time to do a bit of maintenance on the antenna. It is nicely resonant now, 1:1 where I need it, and I was able to get 1.2kW out yesterday with the Acom 1000 with only 1 watt returned!!

Some nice DXCC worked: P40F, PJ4A, HK1NA, J75Z, ZF1A, P40W, VP2V/AA7V, C5A, D4C. I may or may not enter a log. I didn't intend to enter the contest in a competitive capacity, rather just for enjoyment, and to get my DXCC count up on 80 metres. So we will see . . .

Starting to get back to normal maybe?

After a prolonged period dealing with all the issues around the publication of my second book, I have started to become a wee bit more active again on HF. During the past week I have been catching up with the PT0S Dxpedition to St. Peter & Paul Rocks in the Atlantic, and I'm glad to say that I now have nine band slots, making me the third best EI behind EI9KC on 11 slots and EI2CN on 10 slots. I still need 15m SSB and 10m CW so hopefully I will get those slots before the expedition finishes.

A photo of my old Butternut HF-6V

Last night I put some RF into the Butternut vertical on 80 metres for only the second or third time since last winter. I also added a 66-foot radial under it (last year's two radials were both damaged by the lawn mower HI HI!!) and managed to get an SWR of 1.5:1 on the CW portion of the band. And that's where I caught some nice action in the early hours of this morning.

In the space of about an hour, after midnight, I managed to nab FOUR new DXCCs on the 80 metre band. They were, as follows: VP2V/AA7V, British Virgin Islands; P4/R5GA, Aruba; PJ2/DF9LJ, Curacao; HT9H, Nicaragua (regular prefix YN). Because the Butternut is only a 26-foot tall vertical, ground mounted in the middle of a housing estate, it does not hear half as well as an elevated dipole cut for that band. Hence it is difficult for me to work new DXCCs on it. So it turned out to be a really great night, bringing my total DXCC worked on 80 metres to 118. It's a band I would dearly love to do more on, and to enjoy more regularly, but it is a big challenge for me. Last winter was very rewarding because I got over the 100 DXCC mark for the first time. This winter I will just try to nab more new ones, and try to bring my LoTW confirmations on 80m from 89 up over 100 hopefully.

I have one issue with the Butternut that is troubling me though. After a while, the SWR suddenly jumps from 1.5:1 to about 3:1, and I have to adjust the linear. Then it will, after some time, come back to 1.5:1 again. At least 3:1 is manageable with the Acom 1000 but it's annoying me that the SWR is changing during the course of the night. If there's anybody with any suggestions as to why that might be happening, or indeed with any experience of Butternut SWR issues, I'd be glad to hear from you.

In the meantime, I got some nice contacts this morning, including Lord Howe Island again, this time on 17m CW. VK9/OH3JR was just in the back of the box, and working simplex, so there was considerable QRM. But I heard him calling "EI2?" and got him logged after a minute. PJ7I on 12m SSB was a new band slot and C6AUM in the Bahamas on 10m CW just a short time ago gave me DXCC #210 on that band. Here's my band stats now:

BAND/WORKED/CONFIRMED
160m: 64 / 47
80m: 118/94
40m: 177/130
30m: 188/127
20m: 239/169
17m: 237/149
15m: 224/130
12m: 214/133
10m: 210/134
6m: 72/53

Improvised home brew insulator for my Butternut HF-6V vertical

A number of days ago while operating CW on the 15 metres (21 Mhz) band using 400 watts I turned to look out the window while operating and noticed white arcing sparks coming from a point up the antenna. There was some smoke too. I turned down the power but it was still happening. After stopping transmission I noticed the part of the antenna that was affected was an insulator and I could see from the shack that it was almost burnt out!

The burnt out insulator from the Butternut

So I stopped using the antenna immediately. The Butternut is an important part of the setup here, and a vital antenna in working the world. I planned to take it down and examine it as quickly as possible to see what the damage was.

A couple of evenings later I set to work. I decided to take the antenna apart at a point about six feet off the ground. This prevented me having to disconnect coax and all the stay wires (which are made of strong fishing line). I brought the top part of the antenna down to ground and, sure enough, I could see the insulator was almost melted away in parts.

The new insulator in situ

A few months ago I was gifted a couple of pieces of uPVC that had been cut off a chopping board. You know, one of those things that people chop vegetables and fruit on in the kitchen! Yes, this is where domestic culinary implements meet the hobby of amateur radio. When we say "home brew" in this hobby, we really mean it. If it's made from the right material, it might just end up as part of an antenna! I had been given these bits by Pat EI2HX, with the express purpose of making insulators for antennas if the need ever arose. So thank you Pat!

I set to work cutting away a piece, using a hacksaw, that would  be the same length and width as the burnt out insulator. Needless to say it was thicker, but when I finished with the saw I had a shiny white new insulator. I drilled two holes in it, one for attaching it to the aluminium holder on the antenna, and the other to attach the wire running down the side of the Butternut. After a few minutes of tightening everything up, it was all ready to go back up in the air!

The new insulator

It did look immediately different with the new insulator, but nevertheless appearance does not matter - it's performance that counts! With everything reassembled, the jubilee clip and screws tightened up, and amalgamating and insulating tape added, I was ready to see if it was working.

Some quick testing in the shack revealed that the SWR was still pretty much as it had been, with no ATU in line. I had resonance on the bottom end of 80m (about 1.3:1 at 3.505), and a decent SWR on 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m. I even had decent resonance on 30m! I tuned up the Acom 1000 and put a bit of power into it on 15m, running it for a while. No sign of any arcing - not yet anyhow. 

Given that this particular Butternut is estimated to be at least 20 years old, and that it was resurrected from a very sad state in someone's back garden a couple of years back, it is performing very well. Latest DX worked since the repair was 5N7M in Nigeria on 80 metres CW!