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Author's posts
Jan 20 2018
Storm :-(
Last week, storm hit the Netherlands with speeds up till 128 km/h. My temporary mast went down. A new base is ready to be mounted. This time with more counterpose and guy wires. The Moxon for 50 and 70 MHz needs some new aluminium. Besides that (and the bent platform) no damage to the roof.
Jan 13 2018
Buying 23cm transceivers in Japan
Last week I’ve received a shipment with several 23cm capable transceivers from Japan. One was the Kenwood TM-541 and two others were Kenwood TM-833’s. The 833’s are quite unknown since there are only brought to the Japanese market. basically it’s the more familiar dual-band 733 but now with the bands 70cm/23cm.
Nov 04 2017
23cm receiver PI6NOS
I’ve build an extra 23cm receiver for the regional 23cm repeater system PI6NOS in Hilversum. Building was quite straightforward. Just take a Raspberry Pi, an RTL-SDR stick and connect it to an antenna (using a band-pass filter not to overload the RTL-stick with crap). The repeater system is based on an svxlink controller so just …
Jul 14 2017
First price Belgium 144 MHz Spring contest
I won the first prize in the Belgium UBA spring contest on 144 MHz. within the QRP segment outside of Belgium. The caveat: I was the only one who send in a log :). Nevertheless I’d like to thank all Belgium stations for there patience working me. I was using about 5 Watts of power …
Jul 04 2017
July 2017 NAC-contest 144 MHz
The first two hours I started beaming OZ and DL. Signals from OZ (and SM) where very loud. From 120 degrees (Germany Ruhrgebiet) I noticed local QRN. That’s why dots are missing in Germany. Later on I directed the beam 270 degrees towards the UK. Unfortunately no Wales or Scotland. The biggest surprise was a …
Jul 02 2017
July 2017 VHF-UHF-SHF contest
New DXCC: SP (Poland) and EI (Ireland). The last one, I was able to work on 432 MHz in SSB and 144 Mhz in CW. Distance: 827km zo my ODX for this contest. I didn’t hear and work SM (Sweden) stations. I had a sked with an OE (Austria) station but unfortunately this didn’t work …
May 22 2017
RSGB 144 MHz May contest 2017
Last weekend the RSGB held the annual 144 MHz May contest. I’ve made 17 QSO’s on Saturday. Just for fun. The log is send as checklog. I”ve made one mistake with G3WSK’s locator. UT1FG/MM was a surprise as operator, active from his boat on the Northsea. The band was quiet dead. ODX was M0WYB with …
May 11 2017
Preparing 23cm station
I’m preparing my 23cm station. Last weekend I’ve made some QSO’s during the May contest but with a very limited set-up. Time to have some more punch. Onboartd is a Gemini SSPA easily capable of delivering 180 Watts. More than enough for the 120 Watt limit here in the Netherlands for bands above 1 GHz. Also …
May 08 2017
May 2017 VHF-UHF contest
Active on 144 and 432 MHz. New was 1296 MHz with a (very) limited set-up: 15-elements yagi (120cm boom) without pre-amp and 10 Watts of output power. Still able to work Belgium, Germany and England.
May 08 2017
Antenna maintenance and QRV on 50/70 MHz
Last weekend I’ve performed some antenne maintenance. The LNA’s for 144 and 432 MHz are in place. I also mounted a small 15-elements antenna for 1296 MHz (23cm). During the contest last weekend I was able to make a QSO with Belgium, Germany and England with only 10 Watts of power and no LNA. I even …
Apr 30 2017
N1MM+ and Icom IC-7300 Waterfall
The developers of N1MM+ software released a new build Amongst bugfixes there is one new feature to mention. Waterfall support for the Icom IC-7300. Read more on the N1MM Logger+ Facebook page or the documentation page on the website. IC-7300 Spectrum display in N1MM+ version 1.0.6221Setup • Keep the noise level low by setting the …
Apr 26 2017
VHF and UHF preamps
Today the preamps for 144 and 432 MHz arrived from Wimo. They are manufactured by the German SHF-Elektronik and powered via the coax-line (My Icom IC-9100 supports 12 volt over coax). Both units have a VOX unit so no need for a seperate PTT-line (for now). Now I only have to find some time to …
Mar 27 2017
HAMNET QSY to PI1UTR
Last week we’ve reconnected the 220 meter high accesspoints in the Gerbrandy tower. Tough I’m not able to physically see the tower since it’s 31km away from my home (I can see the PI2NOS tower 16,3 km from my home) I accidentally discovered the Gerbrandy signal (PI1UTR) on HAMNET is 5 dB louder then the …
Mar 05 2017
March 2017 VHF-and-up contest
This weekend I found a few hours to participate in the IARU Region 1 March VHF-and-up contest. I started late on Saturday due to work for HAMNET and PI6ATV in the IJsseltein Tower but managed to run for about two hours. On Sunday late in the morning I found another few hours to contest. In …
Feb 05 2017
New rotatable tower
Today I’ve made some progress by replacing the antenna tower on the roof. It’s now rotatable. The Diamond X6000 has been replaced for the X5000 so the total length doesn’t exceed the 5 meter due to regulations to keep it license free without the need for a building permit. The 9-element LFA for 144 MHz and the …
