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.

Some new arrivals to the EI2KC shack!

There have been a few new arrivals to the EI2KC amateur station. I have not written a blog post in ages, but I have been active on the bands, chasing DX, ragchewing, occasionally contesting and improving the antennas and station setup.

A couple of weeks ago, I secured something of a bargain when I bought a "secondhand" Yaesu FTdx10, which turned out to have been completely unused by its only owner. Not only were the screen protectors still on it, but it hadn't been used and all the settings were at defaults. There wasn't a fingerprint or a speck of dust anywhere on the radio.

The brand new Yaesu FTdx10 is my new main HF/50Mhz rig.

First impressions were quite fantastic, and I have found the digital noise reduction on this radio to be simply outstanding. The noise levels on the low bands in particular are reduced by engaging the DNR button and lowering the RF gain knob. Since its arrival, I have found the FTdx10 to be much superior to the Icom IC-7300 which it replaces - with one caveat. The Yaesu is more complex in terms of setup and menus, but once you get used to it it becomes clear that it deserves its second place rating on the Sherwood Engineering test page. It's the second-best receiver money can buy, after its big brother, the FTdx101D/MP.

To help with noise levels (I have a small garden in the middle of a housing estate), I also invested in a CMC-130-3K common mode filter from myantennas.com, which has been placed beneath the antenna switch in the shack. Furthermore, I have adjusted my nested inverted vees so that the lower ends of the 40m and 80m dipoles in particular are higher from the ground. All these things have improved my station's ability to hear weak DX stations. For instance, in the past few weeks - in the middle of summer - I have worked about five new countries on 80 metres alone. These included 9V1YC (James in Singapore) on FT8.

The new CMC-130-3K common mode filter from myantennas.com.

The Icom IC-7300 will be staying, because I like it so much, and will become my main portable and static mobile radio. I have it fully set up with my laptop and Watson Multiranger antenna for CW, SSB and FT8 operation from my van. I bought side handles for the IC-7300 from WiMo to help protect the radio when lifting it in and out of the van.

My Icom IC-7300 with side handles sitting in the van, operating on 20m FT8.

Just today, another new addition arrived all the way from China, in the form of a mini Putikeeg straight CW key, which cost a mere €38 including postage from China. I made a couple of QSOs with it and am very happy with how it operates. I have stuck it to the metal base alongside my other "cheap" morse key, the TUMD paddle which also came from China. See pictures below.

The new Putikeeg straight key is small but capable. And it looks great!

The TUMD paddle and Putikeeg straight key mounted side by side. I now have the
best of both worlds, and only need to swap out the cable from one to the other!

Ignore the anti-FT8 brigade - some of them don't know how to use it!

This is my first ham radio blog post in quite a while. I have been very active, particularly on HF, continuing to work DX every day, including many of the dxpeditions.

This post, however, is about one subject that seems to raise the ire of many ham radio operators. It is that ubiquitous digital mode that we know as FT8.

Every day, and several times a day, there are spots on the DX clusters (mostly from fake callsigns and cowards who aren't willing to put their name/callsign with their opinion) deriding FT8. It's become a really boring and repetitive routine actually. The anti-FT8 brigade claim that FT8 is a mode that does not require a brain, and that the computer is doing all the work.

V73WE gave me a new DXCC on 40 metres when I worked him on FT8.

They are wrong, of course, to suggest that FT8 ops don't possess intellect or ability. For instance, I use FT8 pretty much every day, but I also like working DX on phone and CW. To successfully use FT8 to make QSOs on HF and VHF does take skill and knowledge. Getting your software (whether it's JTDX or WSJT-X) to communicate with your radio is not always easy, and adjusting your settings to ensure the optimal transmit and receive levels also involves some skill and knowledge.

I suspect, and have done for a long time now, that those who give out about FT8 being "too easy" are, in fact, fearful and ignorant of it. Yes, the fact that so many ham radio ops are on FT8 means that the SSB and CW portions of the bands are quieter than they used to be (except during SSB and CW contests, of course). But why waste time creating cluster spots using fake identities? Who's going to listen to someone who moans about FT8 being too easy? Those regular cluster spots are an annoyance, but you get used to ignoring them.

The fact of the matter is that FT8 levels the playing field to an extent for those of us with modest antennas. As a weak-signal mode, FT8 allows the opportunity to work DX that might not be audible on phone or on CW. If you consider that a form of cheating, well that is your opinion and you are entitled to it. What you are not entitled to is to spead anti-FT8 bile on the clusters, especially when you are not even willing to put your own callsign to those repetitive anti-FT8 messages.

Could it be remotely possible that at least some of those who castigate FT8 users do not, in fact, possess the technical knowledge to get their computer working with JTDX/WSJT-X, and are unable to make QSOs using the popular mode? I suspect this to be the case in many instances.

The hobby of amateur radio offers a wide variety of specialisation. You could, for instance, dedicate yourself to QSOs using moon-bounce (EME - Earth-Moon-Earth). You might be interested in building your own HF transceiver. You may be the sort of ham who experiments with various homebrew antennas. You might, like I do, enjoy making QSOs through the crossband VHF/UHF repeater on the International Space Station.

Whatever aspect of amateur radio you enjoy, it will involve a certain level of technical competence and knowledge. Is FT8 a step too far in terms of computer automation? Perhaps for some hams it is, but for all of us who actually use it every day (rather than deriding it on the clusters), it offers a new opportunity and mode with which to contact other hams around the globe.

Australia worked on 80 metres FT8.

You think it's too easy, and that the computer does all the work? I don't care what you think. I am not interested in your opinion.

FT8-bashers would make better use of their time and effort concentrating on those aspects of the hobby that they enjoy, as an alternative to attempting to make the rest of us feel somehow ashamed about enjoying FT8 as another aspect of the hobby.

Quit your whinging. Nobody likes a moaner. If you don't like FT8, that's your choice. But don't try to ram your opinion down our throats. 

Where were all the protests when PSK was a popular digital mode? And do the FT8 haters not have an opinion about RTTY?

In any case, as an FT8 user, I can tell you that working Western Australia on 6 metres (using FT8) was one of the most exciting QSOs I've had in 15 years as a licenced ham. Maybe some day I'll make a similar long-distance QSO on 50Mhz using phone or CW. Maybe. But without FT8, I wouldn't have that DXCC in my 6m log.

And I ain't going to feel bad about it.

PS: On a side-note, surely it is time that all hams wishing to create spots on the DX clusters should have to log in and use their real callsigns? Clusters that allow anonymous or fake spots are a big part of the problem. If everyone had to log in and use their real identity, I suspect that most of the anti-FT8 spots would disappear.

My 50,000th QSO - an extraordinary coincidence

I made my 50,000th QSO as a licenced radio amateur today. Recently, I had noticed that my QSO count was steadily increasing from 45,000, and then 46,000, and so on. As of Thursday, I had reached 49,990. Yesterday, I made another nine QSOs to bring the total to 49,999. I wanted to wait until something special came along for the 50,000th contact.

I was unable to spend long in the shack this morning as I was heading out to play music. In the ten minutes I was at the radio, I watched the DX clusters to see if there was anything interesting to work. Seeing nothing special, I decided to "spin the VFO" on my Icom IC-7300.

On the 12 metre band, I listened on the SSB portion and spun the dial to find out if I could hear anything that might make a good 50,000th QSO. I looked at the spectrum scope and could see some activity around 24.940Mhz. I tuned in to the station and could quickly hear that someone was calling CQ. But who?

"CQ CQ, CQ 12 metres, this is Echo Alpha Five Bravo Romeo Echo, Echo Alpha Five Bravo Romeo Echo, CQ, Q ..."

I recognised the callsign immediately. Luis, EA5BRE, gave me my very first QSO on HF the day I got my ham licence, way back in October 2009. On that day, I received my new callsign af around 4.45pm on what was a Friday evening. I had just left work and was heading home. I worked my good friend, the late EI4DIB (Tony) on the Dundalk 2m repeater (on 145.675) on the way home. My callsign back then was EI8GHB. When I got home, I found the higher bands all dead and there was very little activity on the phone sections of 40 metres and 80 metres. Back then, I did not know CW (something I learned in the winter of 2009-2010 and, having passed my morse test in February 2010, I got my new callsign EI2KC in early March 2010).

Luis EA5BRE

There are only two callsigns in my log for the evening of 30th October 2009, the day I got my licence. They are EI4DIB and EA5BRE. I worked Luis on 7.121 Mhz LSB, my first HF contact as a licenced ham! It was 23:17 UTC, so quite late in the evening.

Luis and I have had only one other QSO in the intervening years - a 17m SSB QSO in June 2017. Luis lives in Alicante and is an active DXer with 10-band DXCC. 

Today's QSO was very special, because of the way I unintentionally stumbled upon his CQ. I felt it was immensely coincidental and just HAD to work him as QSO #50,000, given that he had been my very first HF contact when I began my ham radio activity from this shack 13 years ago.

Here is a short video of some of my QSO with Luis today: