First QSO on 80 metres!

Well not actually my first QSO on 80 of course but the first 80 metre contact on the Pro-whip vertical at the YL's home. The Pro-Whip works reasonably well on 20 metres and above for what it is- 6 metres of wire with an unun at the bottom and a single radial wire. On 40 metres it is less effective and of course I have to battle the high noise level here. 80 metres is less noisy but the whip is very inefficient on such a low frequency. I was surprised then to get a reply from special event station ON1418HRT on psk 31.

Weatherproof

I did a little research before weatherproofing the Pro-Whip Balun. To be honest I had nothing to lose. I have a spare 9:1 balun and if the original balun failed I would replace it. I looked into purchasing the purpose made compounds for "potting" electronic components but they were expensive and sold in larger quantities than I needed. In the end I settled on "neutral" silicon sealant, the type used to seal around external window frames. Since this contains no Acetic acid (which is corrosive and is found in the many of the bathroom type sealants) it should not attack the solder joints. The balun is now waterproof as  the box is filled with sealant, it doesn't look pretty (although the picture is of course with the cover off) but it should do the job.

Water

Taking down the pro whip antenna after it had been up for a couple of days in the rain I noticed that the balun  appeared to be full of water! After undoing the screws on the casing  and prising off the "superglued" lid,sure enough it was wet inside. To be fair the maker does not claim the antenna is waterproof and it certainly isn't! I need to find a way of sealing it up. I think the only solution is to fill the casing with something waterproof. Maybe silicon sealant. For now I have emptied out the water and used the YL's hairdryer to dry it out!

Logging

At my home station I still use a paper logbook, I guess I am old fashioned. I have tried logging software over the years but never really got into it. When operating at the YL's QTH I have been doing quite a bit of PSK31 operating using my Acer Netbook PC. I thought as the computer was on my lap, why not use it for logging too? So at this QTH  I am computerised!  I chose the Winlog32 logging software by G0CUZ and have been getting on with it OK. I like the way it uploads my QSOs to EQSL automatically. It also produces statistics of my QSOs so I know that I have worked 33 countries from here, not bad as my operating time is very limited and on some bands I have S9+5db noise level.

 I was surprised to see that I had operated 40 metres quite a bit from here. It is the noisiest band and my 6 metre long pro whip vertical is not very efficient but I have managed some contacts.

So will I go computerised logging at my home station? I am still not sure!!

Fishing for DX

My "fishing pole" antenna (Pro Whip) at the alternative QTH works reasonably well for what it is. After all its just 6 metres of wire with a 9:1 balun at the end and a wire counterpoise. Its not as good as a wire doublet or dipole which would be difficult to put up at the same location but it does seem a lot more efficient than the little "Buddistick" vertical I have used in the past.

Anyway today I had a short period of operation on 10 metres. 7X3WPL gave me a 59 on SSB and I bagged PU2OAJ with 25 watts of PSK31. Not bad for my temporary set up. I have a copper earth rod which I intend to put at the base of the pro whip plus I intend to run some extra radials which can be hidden and left semi permanently which will also speed up the erection of the antenna in future.

A little bit of operating time

I managed an hour or two of radio work from the /alternative location today (the YL's house) having dodged the showers of heavy rain to get the pro whip vertical set up.

As usual from this spot 40 metres was pretty much unusable due to S9+ of noise but the higher bands were OK. I made a few contacts on 10 and 12 metres but the highlight was a nice QSO with HB9HFB, Chris in Basel, on 17 metres band conditions allowed us to have a nice contact, much better than many of the "59 QRZ??" type contacts that seem to be so popular at the moment.

Below is the pro-whip antenna, behind it and of course much larger is the nearby mobile phone mast which I suspect is the source of much of the QRM I suffer at this location. It makes me appreciate how low my noise level is at home.

Murphy's Law!

Operating from the "alternative" location this evening. The pro whip  got me a couple of European QSOs (ZA and E73) on 17 metres.Heard a few stateside stations too. 40 metres has S9 noise here tonight, may be band conditions but this is a noisier location than my home QTH. I had the idea to listen to my remote SDR receiver at home using my netbook here to see if I could hear my own signal. No luck though as the RF from the TS450 is knocking out the wi-fi connection on the netbook!

Alternative location

This weekend whilst visiting the YL I took my Kenwood TS450 along and set up an HF station using the portable "Buddistick" antenna. Operating time was very limited  as it wouldn't be polite to spent my time on the radio when I am supposed to be spending time with the YL, but I did manage an hour or two of radio time over the weekend!
Additionally  the antenna had to be placed in a corner of the small garden, out of the way of inquisitive young children! Sadly HF conditions were not too good  but I did manage a QSO on 40 metres SSB into Northern Ireland as well as a chat to a more local GW station. The Buddistick does work but its quite difficult to tune and changing bands  means going out to the antenna to move a tapping point on the coil.CW is your friend with this antenna , I have always found SSB contacts with it quite difficult. It is an easily portable antenna but its small size has limitations.

Buddistick in position at the alternative location

The "Alternative" shack. (The "Stuff" behind the radio isnt mine by the way!)

As an alternative to the Buddistick for portable work,I have recently purchased a Pro-Whip portable antenna. This is basically a glassfibre fishing pole, 6 metres high with a wire running up inside it, a 9:1 Unun at the base with a wire counterpoise. I have only had time to briefly set up this antnena at the weekend but first impressions are quite good. It is very easy to deploy, tunes from 80-10 metres using just the internal ATU in the TS450 and seems livelier than the Buddistick. I hope to update the blog in the coming weeks with my experience of the Pro-Whip.

Pro-Whip on test in my garden