Which is not to say that I’m about to write something that will make you think, or touch you emotionally.
Rather, it’s more like I’m getting rid of a bunch of stuff I ain’t got room for in the next place, we’re sellin’ the house, and moving out to the rural-burbs. Truth be told, we kinda did that IRL, in 2016 or so.
What this is really about is that I’m closing down this blog and have already set up a different WordPress blog elsewhere.
See, I needed the ability to connect my blog to the Fediverse, most pertinently Mastodon. There’s free plug-ins for doing that. But there’s no free plug-ins at the free level at WordPress.com.
There’s no plug-ins at the $4/mo nor at the $8/mo levels at WordPress.com.
$300 bucks a year to get the lowest level that allows adding a “free” plug-in.
Yeah, fuck that. I went to BlueHost.com and at their cheapest level, I can add plug-ins. So that’s what I’ve done.
If you follow me here, firstly, what the hell is wrong with you? But secondly, here’s the new address: n0mql.com
Thirdly, if you’re a Fediverse sort of person, find me at… @kelvin0mql@mastodon.hams.social or @kelvin0mql@mastodon.social
…and how they present challenges to restful sleep. While we’re at it, I’ll talk about an iOS App that I think should exist, but I have not yet found.
My wife and I both snore. In my case, it’s severe Sleep Apnea for which I wear a CPAP, but that doesn’t guarantee that I’m 100% snore-free. I can still make noises, from my head and elsewhere. My wife’s snoring varies considerably, from a rhythmic melodic hum, to chirps, to raspberries, to wheezes.
She’s used an ear-plug for years. Whichever ear is not against the pillow. Now she uses Bose Sleepbuds, but still, only one ear at a time. So when she rolls over from one side to the other, she has to remove one, insert the other. This is more conscious (i.e. wakeful) effort than I’m willing to abide.
I recently started using earplugs. This doesn’t solve the problem, it merely changes the problem. It’s that brain stem thing. Over many generations, the male side of our family has been conditioned that “as the man of the house,” it is our responsibility to remain alert to out-of-the-ordinary noises, so that should the Vikings come a-pillaging, we can spring into defense of our homes and villages… laughable as that may be in reality. So, earplugs that stifle the noise that keep me from falling asleep just irritate my brain stem because I won’t hear the smoke alarm, the phone ring, burglars breaking in, or police helicopter overhead tracking the bad guys through the back yards. Yes, I do watch too much TV, and no, it has not helped.
What I need is a combination of 2 things, both of which already exist on the App Store:
Sleep/Meditation Sounds …of which I’ve found some really cool ones
Baby Monitor / Remote Mic
Though it should be possible to do this with simply my current and immediately previous iPhones, I’ve cobbled together a solution that is almost there. Needs a little refinement. Start with sleep sounds, which mostly is for masking…
Please see my update comment below about this horrible Live365 station.
Because I’m a Ham Radio guy, and musician, I’ve got multiple computers and audio gear. There’s a six-channel mixer on my desk, in my office, which is directly downstairs from our bedroom. So, although I could do it with one computer, I happen to be doing all this with two. Anyway, a 2nd computer has a browser open to the Live365 station pictured above. Its output is one of the sliders on my mixer. It’s not turned up very much.
There’s also a boom mic plugged into that mixer. That’s pushed up to the nominal 0dB line, but not beyond that to “boosted” (which badly raises the noise floor). If my ears could hear a smoke alarm, or other time-to-wake-up sound, so can this microphone. It’s the same distance from the front door, for example. But it’s not in the same room as the snoring from either of us, which helps.
So that’s the “mix”. Now to get it to a pair of low-profile earbuds which block ambient noise very well, and are low-profile enough to comfortably be in the pillow-side ear.
I was in a KickStarter for one of Decibullz products, & I’ve bought several things from them. I’m impressed.
The “bridge” between the mixer on my desk and the earbuds in the bedroom upstairs is two products from the same company…
I’ve had this kludge running only one night so far, but I was impressed by how well it worked. For one quirky example, as I was winding down toward sleep, I heard a “click…click”. Took me a moment, but realized it was the TX relay for my APRS iGate transmitting on 144.39MHz. It’s a familiar sound. I hear it many times a day as I sit at my desk almost within arm’s reach of the thing. It was familiar. It helped convince my subconscious that if something happens that needs my attention, I will hear it. I can hear “household sounds”.
The ideal solution would be a single iOS app that
Downloads the sound loops & stores/plays them locally, so I don’t need internet access to use it.
Has a mixer to set relative volumes of masking/sleeping sound and awareness mic.
Can use the local iPhone’s mic(s) to be used standalone.
Can use a 2nd iPhone’s mic(s) in bluetooth or wifi range to hear from elsewhere.
I’m imagining the sleep-deprived young parent who needs to respond to a baby crying down the hall, but would like to not be kept up by their partner’s snoring in the same room.
The Right and the Left both think someone would have to be SO STUPID to think the way the other side thinks. OK, let’s set that thought aside for a moment. We’ll come back to this.
There’s this guy I was following and often interacting with on Twitter. Seems like a really nice dude, posted about woodworking, retweeted funny memes about the Former Criminal In Chief, etc. We were aligned in a lot of ways. If he lived within 3 houses of me, he’d probably be the one neighbor I’d actually spend some time chatting with. Maybe even help him with a woodworking project, or vice-versa. Possibly even go fishing together.
Then, yesterday, he posted an obvious-tongue-in-cheek admonition about people who choose to back into parking spots. Had to wait a moment for someone to back into a spot. Made a funny little dig. It’s fine. This is fine. But then the replies… oh my god, the replies.
ALL THE IDIOTS noticed that someone had popped the bung out of the bunghole, and came gushing out of the barrel to pile on. Not with anything clever or amusing – no – just to say how much they hate “backer-inners“.
None of these people also complain about waiting for someone to back OUT of a parking spot. No, of course not. They probably stop, wave the backer-outer out, possibly even flash their headlights to let the person know “I see you, come on out.”
Look, ya twits, it’s approximately the same amount of waiting whether the other person is backing IN, or backing OUT. Either way, you’ve sometimes had to wait. But because someone does it not in your preferred way, you’re pissed off, and making moral judgements?!
Well let me clue you in on a little something. IT IS DEMONSTRABLY SAFER to back into a parking spot than it is to back out. Here’s why: Your vehicle (and your head) isn’t designed for greatest visibility backing up. You’ve got blind spots anyway, but they’re much worse behind. So, when is it that you can see the MOST things around the vehicle, MORE about the situation, and BEST determine that it’s safe to proceed backing up?
a. While you’re out in the parking lot aisle, with no vehicles within a few feet of your side windows? or b. While you’re in a parking spot, with enormous black-tinted-windowed SUVs on either side of you?
Basically, what you’ve come right out and admitted publicly is that you hate people because they’re smarter than you, wiser than you, more skilled/experienced than you, or some combination of those three. Now – take a step back – isn’t this exactly how we wound up with #IQ45 and a horribly RWNJ-stacked SCOTUS? Because all the stupidest people came pouring out the ol’ bunghole, all excited for their long-awaited chance to be part of a mob of people shouting gleefully about how fucking stupid they are? Finally, someone appreciates them for their ignorance – they could vote for someone who is stupid “just like me are”?
So yeah… I blocked a bunch of those folks who replied negatively about backer-inners. After a while, I also blocked the nice guy who posted the original tweet.
Yeah, I despise all and block most on the Right. I reluctantly tolerate and endure dumb people from anywhere on the socio-political spectrum. Half of the people are of below-average intelligence, after all, and it should be noted that “wise” and “smart” do not always correlate. But HOLY SHIT, I will not tolerate for a minute those who are stubbornly ignorant, proud of it, and hate anyone smarter than them. Whence come all the most wretched ills of the modern age.
Back in my TCRC heyday, when I was in my 30s and within the first several years of being a radio amateur, Field Day was always a club event. TCRC did 3A, plus a VHF bonus station, plus a GOTA bonus station. Now in the Days Of Covid, I am loathe to hang around in close proximity to others. Especially other hams, given how the right wing is a bit over-represented in our hobby, just like whites are over-represented, and old guys with waaaaaaay too much disposable income are over-represented. So, yeah, no thanks, I’ll keep my distance, and be acutely ashamed of who and what I am in a field by myself.
But anyway, I went out to a field for Field Day this year, instead of running 1-Delta – the Lazy Loser Class. I noticed that @smittyhalibut had posted about a Field Day related challenge, and asked “How’s your Field Day going?”
Uff-da, Mark. That sorta thing will deflate a fella’s enthusiasm, eh?
Never the sort to pass up a pun opportunity, I dashed outside to take a quick Pano-Selfie to prove I was really REALLY in a Field for Field Day.
Proving I was in an actual Field for Field Day to @smittyhalibut
Friday afternoon about 4pm, got up to the AirBnB camper & started unloading the truck.
OK, this looks absolutely IDEAL. There’s trees at the right height for getting an antenna 1/2 wavelength AGL, and an open, mowed area for guying a mast if I decide to cobble together a vertical. Plus, operating (and sleeping) in Air Conditioned comfort!
It was about 6pm by the time I was done situating myself in the camper, and started into actual ham radio station setup. Compliant with The Rules, in case I were inclined to actually compete. But I’m not so inclined. Still, it feels right to comply with the spirit of the event.
That evening, verified that all 3 modes I’d intended to operate were working. I didn’t have my normal Win10 big desktop with me, with its easily-integrated-to-everything N1MM setup and RTS keying. Oh no. I was doing this with a Linux laptop that is able to see the USB audio in/out devices when plugged into the radio, but it can’t see the COM port(s). If it’s going to send through the radio, it has to be VOX. And all tuning is manual. This is like the OLD days, when I first was doing RTTY and PSK-31 with an old tube rig.
Programmed the FTdx3000’s FH-2 remote for 3 CW messages. I would make all my CW contacts using just 3 macros. Nothing else.
Now – I had verified during the June VHF contest that I could send CW from Fldigi, but the fastest I could get the VOX to work would turn a leading Dah into a Dit. Not good. So all my macros started with “e (space)”. It’s a kludge. Don’t like it.
But it’s OK. I don’t like calling CQ anyway, I generally run entirely Search & Pounce style. So I listen to a station work 2, 3, maybe even 4 stations (depending on how bad the fading is), to make sure that I already have ALL the other guy’s information before I throw my call out. So I only need to be able to hear a few things:
Did they get my call right? If not, just send it again.
Did they ask for anything again? If so, just send it again.
Did they say either “TU” or “GL” or “73”? Good. Done. Log it and move on.
That first night was a hot, sticky night after a very hot, sticky day. My host’s generator was laboring like a pack-mule to keep the A/C going. The A/C compressor was doing at least a 90% duty cycle. It never completely shut off. The compressor would stop, and the fan would keep going to defrost the coils, but the temp never stayed below the set point of the thermostat long enough for the unit to completely stop. So even though I’d topped off the gas tank just before bed (about 10pm), it nonetheless stopped running at 12:35am. A power outage is a panic-inducing thing when you sleep with a CPAP. It’s like waking up to someone trying to smother you. Instant adrenaline.
Went out to fill and restart it.
It shut itself off after 10 minutes.
Go start it again. Shuts itself down in 30 seconds. Start it again… 10 seconds, shutdown.
OK, time to fire up my Honda generator (which is probably 1/3 as loud as his Coleman), so I can at least keep my CPAP going, and a fan. But that’s a LOT of exercise in the middle of the night, plus the aforementioned adrenaline from the murder attempt, plus all the heat and sweat just from how hot it is. Point being, it was a couple hours before I could get back to sleep. Saturday morning was ROUGH. Felt exhausted & lightly nauseated for half the day. Uff-da.
First thing that made me say “Oh dang, I forgot…” was microphone. Though I intended to use the Heil headset, I also knew it was going to be hot, and that I MIGHT not be operating in A/C. That might get too hot. I might want to switch to the hand mic. But I forgot to pack the hand mic. Derp.
The 2nd “Oh dang, I forgot…” thing was deez big ol’ nuts, which I tie to the end of a guy line, and throw over a branch, to hoist up the end of an antenna. Works on the first try every time. The heavy nut always comes sliding down to the round. I never lose one up in the tree because it gets tangled (like hell I don’t), so I really only need one. But I always bring 2 or 3 (no, I brought zero).
Anyway, I managed to figure out a way to get the antenna up even without deez nuts.
Forgot to bring heavy nuts. So instead of tossing a line, I just fished it. Wish I’d vid-recorded myself doing it. It’d make a lot more sense.
Very windy on Saturday night. Come Sunday morning, the EFHW was not as high, not as taught, and needed some adjustment.
When in doubt, try Duct Tape.
Also, on Saturday night, the storm brought a cold front with it. I’d be able to open windows and vents, not use the host’s generator (for the A/C) at all, but instead just run mine. After running TEN HOURS at idle, which is all that’s necessary for the CPAP, or the power supplies for laptop and HF radio, the Honda generator had sipped a mere 1/3 of a tank of gas. It also doesn’t give me any significant noisy birdies on the HF bands. This spot out in the woods an hour North of home is the quietest noise floor I’ve ever seen on the HF bands. 160m (where I’ve yet to ever operate) was still dreadfully noisy, but that looks like it could’ve been from there being any household electrical power within the county. LOL! But 80m on up was all far better than at home in the outer-burbs.
Only 1/3 tank used all night to keep CPAP running.
Sunday morning, I enjoyed coffee while watching the deer graze. It was time to put together a 6m Inverted Vee, cut from what had been a Windom OCF for 40m.
One eats. The other keeps an eye out for trouble. (There was no trouble today.)
I did that – I put up a 6m. Twice. First time, up in the trees. It was cut too long (on purpose). Was seeing only a few local stations. Got one or two to come back to me. Alright, let’s go fold back the ends further, and move it out to the mowed area, on the fiberglass mast, so as to orient it best IN CASE there’s a Sporadic-E opening to Florida, as has sometimes happened in the past few weeks.
Did that. Got the SWR dip to land spot-on 53.3MHz! Only dipped to 2:1, but the dip was a the right freq, and the match was dead-on 50 ohms. As perfect as it’s going to be. Easy enough for the FTdx3000’s internal tuner to manage. Alright. Bring it on.
And? And? Nope. That was it. 6m was not coming alive. Did not manage to work even one more station.
It was now 8:30am Sunday. I’d tried everything I’d intended to try. I’d proven 100% of the things I’d set out to prove. I can get it to work. Single handed. I can get CW to work 2 different ways, even without remembering to pack my Bencher paddle. I could’ve worked any of the other Fldigi modes (but didn’t bother). I could do FT8. I could do SSB. And I could do at least 2 different antennas out there, that weren’t there before I started.
The final somewhat-annual opportunity that Field Day provided is what’s going to happen today. I’m going to wipe the dust off the desk that’s usually hiding under my gear. I’m going to tidy up the cables. My station, once re-assembled, will be neater and cleaner than it was a couple weeks ago when I started taking it apart to move it out to the shed for the June VHF contest… which was my pre-Field-Day trial run.
Drove just over a mile away to the opposite side of the lake nearest my home, to shoot a sunrise timelapse, then a 10-photo burst to do a “super-resolution” conversion on. In both cases, I was shooting through a 1.33x anamorphic lens such that the resultant pic/vid can be more landscape-y than it initially was captured in the iPhone’s camera.
The video might not work out. We’ll see. But the timelapse function on the iPhone did exposure adjustments in abrupt jumps, which seems stupid to me. I’m hoping there’s a way to un-abrupt them in whatever app it is I’ll use to “de-squeeze” for the anamorphic lens.
The photo, however, was processed with The Gimp 2.1, with some python script add-ons. It’s rather huge. Could be printed quite large, I would think, if someone were so inclined.
Lake Peltier, 2021-10-16, 7:49am CT – un-compressed PNG, 108mb, 8000x4500px
The story told happened somewhere in here, probably on County 18.
There have been times when my vehicle has been the fastest one on a given stretch of road. e.g. Late for something urgent, someone in the vehicle badly needs the bathroom, just in an aggressive mood, etc.
There have been times when my vehicle has been the slowest one on a given stretch of road. e.g. There’s something somewhat fragile in the back, & it’s not netted down. I’m towing a trailer with tiny wheels. I’m someplace unfamiliar and trying to read street signs. Just in an enjoy-the-drive mood, etc.
I took Friday and Monday off… definitely a mental health break thing, so I was very intentionally arm-twisting myself into an enjoy-the-drive mood. Some tricks to this:
Head out after rush hour.
Don’t go the same direction most people go.
Take County Highways (i.e. get off the Interstate as much as reasonable).
Use the cruise control (i.e. math and technology) to maintain your speed… not your emotions and your right foot.
An old friend – a guy I worked with way back in the ’90s – wrote a great article about Scenic State Park, and within it mentioned the Lost 40 Scientific and Natural Area. Once I learned that this spot existed, and in light of the drought and forest fires we’ve had up north, I figured I’d acutely regret it if I didn’t go see these majestic, towering beauties before they burned down. It was wonderful. If you factor in the difference in climate between Northern MN and Mill Valley, CA, I think the Lost 40 is as impressive as Muir Woods.
So – you can imagine my general travel attitude when I chose to leave the hotel at 6am on Sunday, and furthermore decided to take a route that avoided the most popular Highways. I wasn’t in a hurry. For much of this drive, I only saw other vehicles traveling the same direction as I was about 3% of the time. Otherwise I could see nobody ahead of me, and nobody behind. It was reasonably safe to stop, turn around, get out and take a photo, like this one…
Sunday Morning Fog
Ergo, it wasn’t a problem to set the cruise within 2mph of the posted speed limit, like it usually is. No, I’m serious… you can literally get shot at, run off the road, or involved in some other form of road rage incident if you have the audacity to drive slower than 9mph over the speed limit here in MN. But I digress – as this story isn’t about rush hour.
The driver I’m about to describe is just one particular guy, but he shares several characteristics with many other non-commute drivers I’ve seen in the past few years. I was somewhere between MN 65 and I-35. I got on I-35 at Hinckley, so I was crossing Eastward somewhere probably on or near the map shown at the top of this page. I had the cruise set at approximately 54mph in a big, lumbering Chevy Tahoe, when someone in a little 2-door car come up behind me going 5-10mph faster than I was.
Then he hangs 2 car lengths behind me. I can see him gesturing. Nothing vulgar, but he clearly thinks I must be stupid.
We’re in a long passing zone. There are no other vehicles in sight ahead or behind. So I tap the “-Decel” on the Cruise a few times to slow down even further. If this guy has any clue at all, he should interpret this as “Please be my guest – pass me – I’ll make it as easy as possible for you. But no, I am not interested in going faster because you’re tailgating.”
The gesturing intensifies. A couple times, I see him swerve slightly left, as if to get a better view of the opposing lane, and judge whether or not he can pass. The latter of these times, it was just at the beginning of a No Passing Zone.
Pro Tip: Following extremely close to a larger vehicle makes it harder – not easier – to see if it’s safe to pass. It also makes it harder to perform the pass. Do please feel free to contact me if you’d like a lesson on passing on a 2-lane highway. I can help you.
I figured this guy must be about as dumb as can be, though I should point out that in this area there are still many big blue flags and signs for an election which was lost over 9 months ago by someone stupid enough to own a casino and go bankrupt. So yeah – a lot of stupid around here. But again, I digress.
To get this guy to finally pass me, I picked a farm driveway ahead on the right, turned on my right blinker, and started slowing as if I was headed there. He finally zoomed around me.
But really – what an absolute chicken shit – and one of many. Why am I so often finding that people will not pass on a 2-lane county highway? They’ll tailgate, yell, gesture, and turn red in the face, but they won’t simply pass. It’s like they don’t even know that’s an option. This was never a problem in the 1970s to 1990s. Hell, I would regularly see people towing a boat trailer and still passing on a 2-lane. Not anymore.
It seems that our society started to lose the knowledge of the safe and legal 2-lane pass around the same time we started losing the knowledge of how to take a left turn at a semaphore when it doesn’t have a turn arrow.
Over-Mod Boys – a sub-category of mic-eaters. Their voice peaks are badly clipped, and the magic of the CODEC preserves the full splendor of their horrid audio signal.
Nose-Puffers – as they exhale vigorously at the end of each transmission. Often also mic-eaters, these are surely morbidly obese dudes who are out of breath simply from the effort of holding in the PTT button, such that the last bit of air they have left after talking for 20 seconds is blasted directly into the mic just before they un-key and gasp desperately for their next gulp of air.
General Mic-Eaters – every “P” (or other plosive) blasts distortion. Every “S” (or other sibilant) scratches like dragging a Red Solo cup across 65-grit sandpaper. Heaven forbid these lids ever get on HF SSB – what a mess of harmonics they’d emit.
Good Buddies – folks who can’t let go of the CB lingo, e.g.
“handle here is Dick” – just say “my name is Dick”
“personal over here is Dick” – just say “my name is Dick”, and you can’t be anywhere but where you are, so the “over here” bit is just dumb
“got your ears on?” – just sell your radio
“10-4” – just drive over your radio with your lifted pickup truck.
Jargon Junkies – which affects all manner of voice ops (bands, sub-modes), but is especially amusinoying on Digital Fusion wherein, if the voice going into the mic is crystal clear, the voice decoded at the other end is crystal clear. These fellas like to say “Yeah, QSL, QSL” and such. Dude, just converse like a person. Like you’d talk to a neighbor or co-worker. I mean, you never say “ACK, ACK” just because you also use computer networking, do you?
There is absolutely a situation where QSL is the correct thing to ask or respond: on CW (i.e. Morse Code) when the signal is difficult to read, in order to confirm the message was understood – because there is good reason for doubt. It’s commonly also used during difficult SSB conversations, but I’d suggest that “Roger! Roger!” is more clearly understood via voice, particularly over static on sideband.
Log Fetishist – I hear two guys on ––––AMERICA–LINK who have both explained that their equipment is connected directly by WiRES-X, such that neither is making a radio transmission at all. Near the end of the conversation, one will make a big point to say “I’m going to log this QSO on QRZ.com, if you don’t mind confirming that.” Logging it in any way only makes sense to me if you also keep a log of phone calls. But really, who in their right mind would log a telephone call, and also expect the other person to somehow confirm?
Dude – just talk to people, possibly make friends. Relax. There was no radio operating skill, antenna building skill, nor long distance propagation luck involved. The point of logging and confirming is to prove something difficult or unlikely was – against significant odds – nevertheless achieved. If I dial your phone number from, oh I don’t know, any telephone anywhere, and you answer it and say “Hello?”, it is not impressive.
Radio Check Bait-&-Switchers – It goes about like this…
RCB&S: “KD1CK Radio Check?”
Me: (waits several seconds, ‘cuz I’m actually working, don’t have time to get pulled into a long QSO, & I’m hoping someone else will confirm Dick’s gear is actually working and can be heard, then) “Loud and clear, n0mql.”
RCB&S: “N0MQL, thanks, this is KD1CK. I’m in Podunk, Kentucky, running a (some radio) through a (some hotspot). It’s 65 degrees & breezy here right now. Where are you? What are you running?”
Me: (not transmitting again)
Here’s the thing – if you just want to have a chat with anybody anywhere, there’s an internationally accepted way to do that. It’s called “calling CQ”. It’s not that hard. So here’s what you do:
Dick: “CQ CQ KD1CK, Podunk, KY.”
(wait a bit… if nobody answers, repeat the above at least 3x before assuming your equipment might not be working, and if there’s still no answer…)
Dick: “KD1CK Radio Check?”
Me: “Loud and clear, n0mql.”
Dick: “Thank you. KD1CK, calling CQ, from Podunk, KY.” (notice: leaving me the heck out of it)
CQ-Phobia Sufferers – This one is not a peeve, but just an amusing observation. I literally heard the following in the “room” called ––––AMERICA–LINK yesterday:
Guy 1: “(callsign) monitoring on America Link.”
Guy 2: (seconds later) “(callsign) monitoring.”
Guy 3: (seconds later) “(callsign) listening.”
Guy 1: (seconds later) “(callsign) monitoring.”
Fortunately, before this could go ’round the horn a full second time, some 4th person chimed in and called for a specific other (5th) station, the other station responded, and they talked for a few minutes.
But the 1st 3 guys were the Amateur Radio equivalent of me at any High School dance where I wasn’t running sound and/or lighting (which I usually was). Stand on the periphery & suffer the internal battle of what might be worse – some girl coming up to talk to me… or not (it was always not). This is why I became a floor guard & DJ at the local roller rink. Loved music, loved skating, but didn’t have to skate with a partner (most of the time).
I had a few problems with the initial location where I’d put the Tune-A-Tenna.
Due to surrounding structures, etc., I could only orient the legs E-W, which is the shorter dimension of my lot.
Too close to my wife’s office, so QRO was out of the question (while she’s in there).
Metal mast interacting with the antenna.
Well – I have some fiberglass pole for a roof snow removal tool that I seldom use. It’s 4′ sections that snap together. So this past weekend I took the Tune-A-Tenna off the metal mast and moved it. I have it at 24′ now, and have one more section of this blue fiberglass pole, but I don’t think I will attempt 28′ until I can figure out a way to attach a bunch of guy lines to it. It’s too flexible for this amount of weight.
Building a higher (hoping 40′ to 50′), more-rigid mast, with at least the top 8′ of it non-conductive, is in the planning phase. When I get that figured out, it will undoubtedly include a pulley system so the main unit of the Tune-A-Tenna can be brought down to the ground gently – no climbing.
However, such as it is, here’s the antenna leg orientation:
With it in this orientation, when I lengthen it to best tune on 3.8Mhz, the ends of the elements are only a couple feet off the ground. Would I LIKE to have a resonant dipole on 160-meters? Yes. But I do not have the acreage. If I ever get on 160, it will probably have to be a loaded vertical, or an hour-glass-shaped sky-loop (no, I don’t think I’ll be doing that). Anyway, on 80-meters, the best SWR I can get is probably a bit over 1.5:1, and I’m sure it’s not a great performer.
On 40-meters, however, this thing dials in such that the SWR meter on the radio doesn’t even light the first little segment – no antenna “tuner” is even in the line. Resonant or nothing. No compromises.
I ran WSPR on it for approximately 12 hours.
Roughly 4-6pm, just after getting the Tune-A-Tenna up. Driving approximately 2 watts on 40-meters.By about 10pm that same evening, my 2-watt signal had been picked up overseas.
By 6am the following morning, I had more hits in Europe & Africa, plus Australia. Then again, 2 watts is a lot for WSPR. I need to do some calculations to try to drive the antenna with something closer to 500mW. That’s when I’ll get a better idea of how well this Tune-A-Tenna performs.
On a completely coincidental note, a few days after I first put the Tune-A-Tenna up, I noticed the RF noise floor jumped way up here. I’m used to having S5 to S7 noise on 80, but not nearly so much on 40 or higher. Well…
That, my friends, is an S-9, hashy, broadband noise floor, on 40-meters. And it’s new.
Fortunately, another thing on my to-do list is to install an emergency power cut-over switch panel, so a few of our household circuits can run on a generator during a power outage. This will give me an opportunity to kill circuits one-by-one and see if the new source of noise is in our house or somewhere else. I hope it’s here. I don’t want to go chasing interference in the neighborhood. Ish.
I know I’ve had various flavors of Wire Dipoles over the years. At least one of them was an Inverted Vee configuration.
I’ve never had a tower. I’ve had a metallic mast once before, but what was on it was something where all the working parts of the antenna were above the mast.
A few weekends ago, an old ham friend helped me put this Tune-A-Tenna up.
A week later, I managed to get back up on the roof to finish what I’d started. Then over the next week, I began testing things, and it was going OK for a while. Sometimes. But I have run into some trouble that I bet some of you have spotted already. A metal mast inside the Vee is a problem. Not to scale, and extremely low resolution, here’s kind of the problem I’ve arranged for myself.
…And here’s a rough idea of one way to deal with it. In this sketch, the blue lines indicate non-conductive (e.g. PVC) material.
Someone on the Twitters challenged me that 60m was “hot” for FT8 about a week ago, so I endeavored to try working at least one station on that band – had never worked that band on any mode yet. It was challenging. I have since learned some “tricks” to get it to work.
Notice this is using Memory Slot 5M-03, as opposed to a regular VFO setting controlled via CAT from WSJT-X.
So, when I got this radio, one of the excited exclamations in the manual was that it included the “new” 60-meter band, but they did not re-work the band-select buttons. And I suppose that makes sense, especially given that 60 is not so much a “band” in the traditional sense, but rather is a set of 5 discreet “channels” in which we’re allowed to operate. But, the way WSJT-X works, it expects to have complete control over both VFO-A and VFO-B for split operation.
However, Yaesu published an updated firmware for this radio sometime in 2020, which I had not upgraded. Today, I upgraded it, in part because it now allows switching the VFO to 60 by long-pressing the “14” (MHz) band button. Great, so now I can twirl the big knob through the 60 meter band. But transmitting is still disallowed there in VFO mode. Huh. Weird. But OK.
BUT… this at least makes WSJT-X a little happier because it can adjust the VFO-A… even though it’s not really going to use it. I still have to use the memory channel in order to unlock TX.
Then, because it’s a channel, and not a band, WSJT-X needs a settings tweak:
Have to disable Split on 60 meters.
And then, because changing the mode to USB-DATA in this memory channel is disallowed, I have to re-configure a Menu item in the FTdx3000 so that it gets its SSB “microphone” input not from the actual microphone, but instead from the USB port.
MENU 103 MODE SSB – SSB MIC SEL – USB
This means that the next time I go to some other band and intend to operate regular SSB phone, using the mic, I’ll have to remember to switch this back to saying “FRONT.” What do you think my chances are of remembering to do that every time? Yeah, not good.
kelvindean 