TL;DR? See the video on youtube.
My greatest limitation up to this point has been my antenna. For a few months, I worked QRP with the end-fed LNR 40/20/10, and it did a great job, although it wasn’t up very high. Putting up a G5RV allowed me to run 100W when my main shipment arrived, but the antenna was not ideal for my location – in particular, the twin-lead feed line, which is a radiating part of the antenna, came down low over the metal roof of my house and I had to tie it off to the side to keep it from detuning. Now, however, I have a “real” antenna up: the K4KIO hexbeam is mounted on heavy duty spiderbeam 10m mast, which sits atop a Yaesu G450 rotor.
It is effectively a two-element antenna on each band (6, 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 meters), but each band is resonant and I do benefit from directivity, particularly in terms of noise reduction. I am hearing better from every direction, but particularly Asia. I’d write more in praise of the antenna, but I’m too eager to actually get on the air and use it…
I have been posting small interim updates on the station’s QRZ site, and as they get stale, I’m moving them over to the blog for the record. Here are updates from last October through the beginning of this month:
June 21 2015: You know the drill — I had much more travel in April and May than I would have thought possible. The hexbeam? No, still not up. I’ve done a lot of metal work for the supports for the rotor and thrust bearing, but I won’t mount them until later this year. I’ll back back in the US from later this week (just in time for Field Day) through the beginning of August. I’ve updated all my online logs and sent an update to Phil, my QSL manager.
9 April 2015: I am in Madagascar for April except for the third week, when I’ll be in South Africa (so maybe you will hear a call from ZS/AI4SV at some point). I am trying to take advantage of the existing propagation while I can. I’ve had some contacts with VK/ZL in the last few days on 10m, including a few on voice. The highlight of my week, though, was tossing out a call on six meters and having a train of replies from around the Mediterranean: Italy, Malta, Jordan, Israel and several others. The K3 limits to about 70w using my G5RV antenna, which is certainly not ideal for 6m operation anyhow. I’ve been talking about putting up the hex beam for quite a while, hopefully I’ll get it done this month.
9 March 2015: I got back to Madagascar in time to spend a few hours on ARRL DX SSB and worked about thirty stations, including the Washington, BC, and the Northwest Territories, but with a predominance in New England. Alaska continues to elude me. I’ll be in Madagascar until the 14th and then away for the rest of the month. I did manage to get the post for the hexbeam anchored two meters deep in the backyard, so when I get back, that will be the first project.
24 February 2015: Thanks to everyone who worked me this past weekend during the ARRL DX CW contest. I hadn’t really planned to participate in it, but suddenly it was Saturday, I was home, and I had a working antenna, so there you go. I was very pleased to get 496 contacts including some states and provinces that I hadn’t previously reached. Work on the hexbeam continues in the background — I just slapped another coat of paint on the support post.
10 February 2015: The G5RV has worked out well, and I have contacts on 10, 12, 17, 20, 30, and 40 meters on it. Again, my limiting factor is local electrical noise, which is very variable. At some point I may try noise cancelation with a local sense antenna.
1 February 2015: I hung the G5RV today and discovered that it barely fits on the property. The matching section comes down over the house, so rather than let it hang straight down, I pulled it to the side and suspended it from a tree branch to keep it away from the metal roof. I can only imagine what this does to the radiation pattern. I swept the antenna with an analyzer, and get < 3:1 on 80, 40, 20, 17, and 10 meters. I get high SWR on 30m, so I don’t expect to run that band, and I’ll have to see how the built-in tuner in the K3 does on the other bands. I hopped on 17m earlier this evening running 100W for the first time for this station. I ran 100+ contacts, so at least I know it is not a dummy load. I am hoping to try out the other bands after work in the coming week.
From my trip to the US last week, I did bring back the hex beam mast, so that longer term project can now move ahead as well. I also picked up a powergate, which provides battery backup. We have intermittent power losses and even if backup power comes on line, I found it awkward to be mid-QSO and lose power. If I was operating split, the K3 would forget the set up and I’d need to reprogram. Now, the radio switches seamlessly to battery until main power is restored. Finally, the TS-450SAT is now set up for digital operation. I had a couple PSK31 contacts last night and will try some more digimodes as time permits.
18 January 2014: In the US for a week of meetings: a couple days in Seattle and a couple in Washington, DC. I should be back in Madagascar at the very end of January. Barring any complications getting the spiderbeam mast through as luggage (Air France says it’s okay in terms of dimensions as a “second bag”), I’ll get to work on raising the hex beam, but this will entail digging a big hole, finding a suitable post, anchoring in concrete, etc. – I’ll get it up as soon as I can if weather cooperates. Meanwhile, I’ll try to put the G5RV in place. I’m also hoping to get a digimode radio on the air in February, so maybe you’ll soon hear strange sounds eminating from the Red Island.
29 December 2014: It has been a little more difficult to get things set up than anticipated for two reasons: 1) worked related travel; and 2) rainy season. It only rains a couple hours on certain days, but when it rains, it comes down hard. I had anticipated making a workshop in the garage, but the floor floods briefly when the rain pounds down. Consequently, project #1 has become raised flooring and shelving in the garage. While that will be an ongoing project for the next month, I’ve started setting up the shack indoors and have created an access route to bring feedlines into the shack. I have brought the coax from the LNR end-fed antenna into the shack and it is now hooked up to the K3. The antenna only handles 25W, but that’s 5x more than what I had before, so at least I am heading in the right direction.
26 November 2014: The station gear finally arrived last week. Due to work, I’ve just started unpacking it all. Now that I have tools and materials, I can start wiring up the house as needed. This is probably going to take a while since I’ll be away on business (and vacation) for much of December. When possible, I’ll continue to operate from the porch, perhaps with a bit more power using the K3. However, now that rainy season is upon us, it’s trickier to operate from that location. I’m hoping to upload everything to date to LOTW this week.
19 Oct 2014: A bit less activity in the last week or so due to business and travel, but still accruing the new DXCC entities as time permits. Some highlights include working my QSL manager G3SWH, Phil, a mobile station in Germany, DF4TD/M and a few stations in the Oceania DX contest. No change in equpment: the main station gear is still on the way, probably delayed a couple weeks by the Air France strike at the end of September. I’ve had some discussions with a local engineering company about putting up a “pylône de télécommunications” to support the hexbeam and G450A rotor, so that project is also cooking in the background.