A broken Acom amplifier, 256 QSOs with AN400, a platinum award and a fixed Acom, thanks to Oleg EI7KD

I haven't written a blog post in a while. That's not to say I haven't been busy! Life is always busy here, between family, work, music, photography, writing and all the other stuff that I squeeze in, including amateur radio!

After going through a bit of a summertime lull, my interest in ham radio seemed to hit a severe downer when my Acom 1000 linear amplifier stopped working. However, instead of giving up on HF and DXing, I was instead suddenly spurred into interest by a wonderful and comprehensive awards programme in the form of the Miguel de Cervantes AN400 awards. The AN400 stations were active across all the bands, using lots of modes - SSB, CW, RTTY, PSK63, PSK125 and even some PSK31!

My Miguel de Cervantes (AN400) platinum certificate.

For a couple of weeks I was working AN400 stations one after the other, on various bands and modes, using a maximum of 100 watts due to the inoperable Acom. While some of these QSOs required a fair bit of time and effort because getting through pile-ups with 100w is not as easy as with 400w, some of them were nice and handy. I made several contacts with the Spanish stations on 10m and 12m during fleeting openings. I even managed a few QSOs on top band (160m), which is a hell of a challenge from this QTH using my paltry antenna system.

I soon qualified for the silver and gold awards, but kept going until I had also received the platinum award (pictured). But, seeing how Declan EI6FR was top of the EI table for the number of QSOs, I set my sights on coming in second place, and as the days went by I managed to get further up the table until I was in second place. Then I was overtaken by Seamus EI3KE, but this put the fight on me so I gave it as much time and effort as possible and when the programme ended last Sunday, I had finished in second place (with 256 QSOs) behind my good radio friend and one of my mentors, Declan EI6FR. Hard luck but also well done to Seamus EI3KE on finishing third. There were over 300 EI stations in the AN400 log.

I'm delighted to say that I now have the Acom 1000 back in the shack, fully working, after a quick and expert repair by Oleg EI7KD. Oleg builds linear amplifiers and is a real genius when it comes to diagnosing and repairing such things. As it happens, the GU74b tube had gone. Oleg quickly sourced a (new) replacement and had it working again in a jiffy. I am greatly indebted to him for this repair.

The Acom 1000 linear amplifier back in the shack after repair by EI7KD.

The Acom has helped me work the S9YY Sao Tome dxpedition on a few bands, most significantly 40m (CW), on which I had never worked S9 before. I also put the AT2SL IOTA dxpedition (AS-176) in my log on both 17m RTTY and 20m CW. So thanks again Oleg. I first met Oleg through Thos EI2JD when we did some contesting together with the EI0W contest team in Clogherhead. Oleg is a CW wizard - able to run 40wpm runs in contests, all using the key and not with the aid of the computer. I am in awe of his abilities.

Anyway, I was hoping to track down the T31T Central Kiribati dxpedition as an all-time new one, but so far have been unable to hear them. Fingers crossed......

Hexbeam repair completed - back up and running

I fixed the SP7IDX hexbeam today - all by myself. I probably should have asked for help putting it back in the air, but most of the work could be done solo. It took about two and a half hours in total. I had to reconnect some of the ropes that hold the spreaders apart. Also I had to remove the snapped 12 metre and 15 metre wires and replace them. The hexbeam has taken a heck of a battering from storm after storm over the winter. The whole thing needed to be tightened up and the wires replaced. It now looks good as new again and is working great, as demonstrated in this video showing the signal strength of a YL special event station:

Below is a short video I made this afternoon of the newly-fixed hexbeam. It looks much tidier now than before. It had begun to look very forlorn, and was practically unusable. The weather this morning was very pleasant - bright and dry - although it has clouded over somewhat this afternoon.

Here is a photo which was taken during the repair work while I was on the shack roof:

The hexbeam leans over nicely onto the shack roof for easy access for repair./

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!