SUCCI-R Rig control, CW and PTT

Bought one of these as my Microham cw keyer is a bit bulky and expensive for portable operation. I planned to use my K2 from the car for CQWW CW 2013 using the call MM3T. I have in the past experienced QRM from using USB to serial cables. The SUCCI-R uses a noise filter on the serial link and opto-isolators on the CW and PTT lines to keep noise to a minimum. Cables are simple to make up (same as cw keyer). My location was picked for it's proximity to the sea and height above it. Being very remote I had no QRM so could give the SUCCI-R a good hammering in the contest. After 10 hours of contesting with 400w and a vertical antenna right next to the car, I realised that the SUCCI-R had just worked with no noise, lock ups, corrupted keying or odd buffering that I have experienced with other interfaces. Just brilliant and I can highly recommend it. It's very well put together and required no extra driver Polava when connected to a windows 7 laptop. Work seamlessly with Wintest contest logging software. http://www.kotarov.com/projects/succi

KX3 KXFL3

A big improvement recently by Elecraft. A hardware fix on the KXFL3 dual pass-band roofing filter has removed the tuning noise clearly audible above 21MHz. The loud brrrrrrrrrrrrrrp! on moving the VFO dial has now gone! Hats off to Elecraft for finding this problem and publishing the fix. However, I did have the disappointment of having to put up with this problem for 6 months and would like to vent my frustrations. I had assigned the KX3 to the bucket, but now I'm starting to play with it again. How did it ever leave the factory like this? Surely during IVVQ testing they turned the VFO on a fully loaded KX3 above 21MHz? However, not every user noticed this problem, going by the number of 5/5 scores on EHAM. My only salvation during this period was a German ham DL7VDX (far enough away from the USA mojo to critise) who posted evidence of this fault on youtube (thanks Ron by the way). (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRL4W9ZTbQ0) I could hear my KX3 tuning noise on 10m above the normal 51-2 background noise that a 3 element monoband yagi provides to the rx. Does this mean that quality control at Elecraft is variable to say the least? Maybe my KX3 was a Friday afternoon beer time pup. But lets get back to the fix. Initially we all had to put up with nonsense suggestions and menu fixes like enabling the 8KHz rx shift (which disabled the KXFL3) or enabling the VFO NR (to try to hide the problem in firmware). This reminds me of similar ridiculus suggestions on how to fix the speaker problem, like "just change the AGC threshold to 4 and the rumbling speaker problem goes away!".... please, if you don't know what AGC threshold does, don't open your mouth :-). Anyway I digress, the actual fault brings into question the PCB layout quality at Elecraft. The fix was in hardware and consisted of 3 pins being cut off the KXFL3 connector. These pins formed a serial link to a surplus EEPROM on the KXFL3 board. Altough these serial links seem innocuous in terms of operational frequency (100KHz->400KHz) they contain harmonics (due to clock and data pulse edges) which stretch up into the HF domain. PCB layout of these links needs special attention to ground return signal paths to avoid these harmonics straying from directly below the links (good design) and instead going into other sensitive circuits (bad design). All that is required to prevent this is an uninterrupted ground plane directly below the serial link. I suspect that the Elecraft's modular architecture is a victim of it's own success here, as passing these signals from board to board presents signal integrity problems manifesting in a brrrrrrrrrrp! out the speaker! There are other rx problems apparent only on tuning that disappear when you stop turning the VFO. No one else seems to have noticed them yet, but if you are a cw operator and stop on weak signals in a busy band you'll know what I'm talking about. Opposite sideband supression is suspect coupled with heavy firmware stitching to hide it. I'm still uncertain wether I'll ever be able to use this radio in favour of my K2. I'd like to end this rant on a high note as although I'm moaning here, there is no company out there that comes closer to understanding the customers desires than Elecraft in terms of amateur radio equipment. I'm truely grateful to Elecraft for the K2 and the K3 I own and hopefully in time the KX3 also.

Innovantennas LFA2 3 element yagi for 10m

During the christmas break I ordered the above antenna. The plan was to build and errect it during the break weather permitting. Unfortunately for Justin at innovantennas, this meant dealing with an order at short notice just before christmas. Justin said he'd do his best to get it to me over the christmas holidays and sure enough a box arrived on the 27th by courier. Unfortunately there were no instructions in the box, but the LFA2 is so simple in construction I couldn't go wrong. The materials used are high quality and all the holes are pre-drilled and in perfect alignment. The antenna went together quickly, but it became obvious that there were 4 poles missing from the loop element. I e-mailed Justin as soon as I realised and luckily Justin was still working. Justin asked for a photo of the antenna so he could assertain which parts were missing and very quickly agreed the missing parts. 3 days passed and again the courier arrived with another box that completed the necessary parts.

I have to thank Justin for such excellent service as although the initial order was incomplete it was sorted out proffessionally and quickly and all this over christmas and new year holidays!

Whilst waiting for the missing parts I did 2 things:
1) Decided on a feeding arrangement and built a coaxial balanced feed out of 2 lengths of rg213 and a three way tee piece connector.
2) Profiled my original cushcraft ten-3 (3 ele 10m yagi) with a local ham 4 miles away.
The result from the original antenna:
Signal strengths to local station
towards, s8
180 degrees away, s2+
Noise towards the neighbours houses
towards, s4+
180 degrees away, s1+

I removed the Cushcraft ten-3 and mounted the LFA2 using the same pole and coax but with the addition of the coaxial balanced feed arrangement in-line.

The result from the LFA2 antenna:
Signal strengths to local station
towards, s8
180 degrees away, s2
Noise towards the neighbours houses
towards, s2+
180 degrees away, s0+

I'm not sure the noise figures with regards the neighbouring houses can be relied upon as this is dependant on what they are doing but the noise definately seemed down.

So all in all I'm happy:

pros : lower noise, good materials/construction
cons : the balance point for this antenna occurs at the driven element position meaning that when mounting it to a stub mast the weight has to be offset which can cause the end to droop or raise accordingly.

Elecraft KX3 initial thoughts

I bought the KX3 on a whim, if I'm honest I lose patience with QRP as I have less spare time than I used to have. I like the idea of QRP,  but you have to wait for ideal band conditions and those rarely coincide with my free time.

I bought the kit version and found the build up to Elecraft's usual high standards, everything fitted together perfectly and the chassis has a quality, solid feel to it. The build took a few hours over a couple of nights and no problems were encountered.

Using the radio was slightly less rewarding, basically the radio does what it is designed to do and not what I wanted it to do. For instance:
1) The external speaker reveberates with a buzz sound when the volume is turned up to comfortable listening levels and a large signal is received. Even when external speakers are attached, the KX3 audio amplifer has distorted output on large signals. This is because the radio was designed with low current consumption in mind. Don't expect to fill your shack with booming audio as this isn't possible or desireable on a windy mountain top.
2) Want to connect a linear amplifer? Want your computer to be able to key the KX3? Well the KX3 has a crap minature 2.5mm stereo socket ACC2 to take care of that. Fiddling about with this I realised that this wasn't likely to stand the test of time. How many times would you require to connect a linear amplifier and a laptop to the KX3 on a windy mountain top?

Anyway you get my point, if you want a radio for a windy mountain top the KX3 is great. If like me you are more likely to use this radio the most in your shack, then this is the wrong radio for you.

On another thought train, there are some annoying "features":
1) The buttons are akin to poor quality telephone handset keypads. Sometimes you press and get nothing, sometimes you press and get a double press. I don't remember the same response from the K3 keypad which is similar in construction, so why is the KX3 different? Maybe the designers figure that you'll have shakey hands on that windy mountain top and they have configured the firmware button debounce logic to counter it appropriately.
2) Turning the VFO on bands above 20m emits a burrrrrrrrrrrrrp sound from the speaker (stretched out till you stop turning the VFO. It is at a very low signal level, but once you've heard it, it will annoy you senseless. Yes there are menu items you can select to lessen the effect, but trust me, the noise doesn't completely go away. Some of them also have side effects like disengaging the roofing filter. However I'm sure when you connect a decent antenna and you are on a windy mountain top you'd never notice it.
3) The manual is full of features that haven't been fully implemented yet like DVK, NR and NB. But who is likely to be examining  a manual for the finer features of the KX3 at 3000ft in the middle of a snow drift.

Again, you get what you pay for, which is not necessarily what you wanted. Reading eHam reviews and the Elecraft mailing lists makes sense when you try to figure out what the user has been using it for. A high score normally means the owner also has crampons and an ice axe.

TYT TH-UV3R dual band VHF/UHF handheld

My latest purchase is a TYT TH-UV3R handset. It was bought from Ebay for £34 inc. postage from China. At this price I was prepared for the worst, but it really isn't that bad. In fact, I'm pleased with it. I like that it can be charged from a computer USB port (to mini usb on handset) and that it allows me to monitor 446MHz (that I use to keep track of my daughter when she's out playing) and my local 2m repeater at the same time (using the 'dual watch' or as the manual describes it 'dual wait' :-) feature). I have all the 2m S channels programmed in, complete with all the repeater offsets and CTCSS tones. It is really simple to operate, although the manual seems to be lacking a bit to the current firmware version, as some key sequences aren't as described. As long as you take the manual with a pinch of salt and experiment with key strokes, the correct function can be found very quickly. The build quality is excellent, the display is bright and clear and the rx audio is just like any other handset 5 times the price.

The TYT is shown here between the VX3 and VX7R handsets from Yaesu. Now to sell the Yaesu's!

K1EL WKUSB lite WinKey

A new product from K1EL
http://k1el.tripod.com/WKlite.html
These cw keyers are excellent to allow easy hook up between your favourite contest logger and your rig. The K3 doesn't really need this as it has PTT and CW key via the CAT RS232 RTS and DTR, but for all other rigs it's a must. I've just ordered one at $38 + $10 postage. I also have the WKUSB, but it's quite bulky and I've never used it standalone. The lite version also loses optical isolation and push button memories but the board is now only 2.5 x 1 3/4 inches. I always use mine in host mode with WinTest, so this should be just the ticket.

As you can see from the above picture, the finished result is much smaller than the original keyer and doesn't have those annoying buttons on the top that keep getting pressed in the rucksac. I have mounted the new keyer in a small enclosure from Maplin (£9.99). Just plug the key into the front 3.5mm stereo socket.

The USB connector goes to the computer and the CW and PTT lines (to the rig) now come from the tip and ring of the 3.5mm stereo jack located on the rear of the new keyer.

The kit kit arrived with a lot of components missing, but luckily I was able to source them from the spares box. There were too many many components missing for this to be an accident, so maybe K1EL is having difficulty meeting the initial order rush.

GB5SI Shiant Isles IOTA ref. EU112

After the successful activation of Lunga EU108 (Treshnish Isles) in 2011, our group (Consisting of GMDX group members) will be activating the Shiant Isles EU112 between 15/7/12 and 22/7/12. The Shiant Isles are located between the Isles of Lewis and Skye on Scotland's NW coastline. The Shiant Isles consist of 3 small uninhabited islands in very close proximity to each other (House, Rough and Mary Islands). We will be staying on the north west corner of House Island which should have a great take off from North west  through to South. A second station may be set up to cover the North east through to South east. Working condx are expected to be Elecraft K3 transceivers, Expert and THP linear amplifiers and predominantly vertical antennas. We expect to be active from 80m through 6m and on CW, SSB and RTTY modes. QSL route will be via MM0BQI.
Hope to work you all!