Fall Antenna Projects – A New Low-Band Receive Antenna System

Anita and I like to take advantage of the mild fall weather to do antenna projects at our QTH. We have completed two such projects this fall – the installation of a Two-Element Phased Receive System and a rebuild of the control cable interconnect system at the base of our tower. Our first project was the … Continue reading

Station Automation Part 3 – Antenna Cutover And Final Integration

The final article in our microHAM installation series will be about the cut-over, configuration and integration testing of our station. The first step in the process was to bring the second radio in Anita’s (AB1QB) position into the microHAM system. We also added a PR 781 microphone and boom from Heil Sound to her setup … Continue reading

Station Automation Part 2 – Second Operating Position And Antenna Switching

We have continued our work on automating our station’s operation with using microHAM equipment. I have integrated the second operating position into our station into the system via the installation of a second microHAM MK2R+ SO2R interface and two more Station Master Deluxe (SMD) antenna controllers. This position has a Yaesu FTdx5000 Transceiver and an Icom IC-7600 … Continue reading

First QSOs On The 60m Band

The 60m Band is a relatively new allocation for Amateur Radio Operators in North America. I’ve long wanted to try this band so last evening I took some time to understand what was required and to determine if my available antennas were up to the task. U.S. Amateur Radio operators with a General Class or … Continue reading

2013 Amateur Radio Highlights

Anita and I were quite active on the bands in 2013. Together we made 20,650+ contacts from a combination of our home and mobile stations and we worked a combined 259 DXCC Entities. We were active on all of the Amateur Bands available in the USA from 160m through 70cm except for the 60m and … Continue reading

Receive Antenna For The Low Bands Part 3 – Connections To Shack And Final Integration

We have completed the final construction and integration of our DX Engineering 8 Circle Receive Array Antenna System for the Low Bands. We built our array to cover 160m, 80m, and 40m some time ago. We also had previously constructed a second entry and grounding system to connect our shack to the new Receive Array System. … Continue reading

Station Automation Part 1 – microHAM SO2R And System Design

As some of our readers probably know, it has been part of our plan from the beginning to setup our station for multi-SO2R operation . We took the first step in this direction some time back with the installation of a microHAM MK2R+ SO2R Controller (the box one top of the left radio in the picture … Continue reading

Receive Antenna For The Low Bands Part 2 – Second Shack Entry And Ground Point

When I began construction of a dedicated 8-Circle Receive Array antenna system for the low bands (160m – 40m) some time ago (see part one in this series for details), I knew that I’d have to locate the new antenna system as far away from my tower and other transmitting antennas as possible to avoid … Continue reading