MM3T IOTA 2010

We took our boat from the marina in Tighnabruaich over to a small peninsula on Bute (EU123). I picked the peninsula because it was surrounded by salt water for about 315 degrees and it just happened to be the nearest point to Tighnabruaich. Unfortunately it was at the base of some hills which blocked just about everything from 0 degrees through east to 180 degrees but hey-ho it was a convenient operating site.

My wife Christine dropped me off on the Island and then set off back to the mainland to watch the village's raft race and fun day. The peninsula was completely isolated with access only by boat. There was a convenient landing beach for the boat and a patch of grass for my sleeping tent. I got a full 3 hours of dry weather to put up the following antennas:
15m j-pole
20m j-pole
40/80m inverted L

I didn't have enough time to put up the 10m j-pole as a black cloud decended over proceedings and I had to scamble for cover under my carp umberella/shack. I started the suitcase generator and I spent the next half hour setting up the PC/rig/cat control/software and making mad dashes out into the rain to adjust for minimum SWR etc. I glanced over to mainland and could just see the Waverley paddle steamer come into the pier through the gloom.

I was in the 12hr/low power/dxpedition/cw category so start time wasn't an issue. I guess it was about 13:30UTC before I opened on 20m. The J-pole was working well and low and behold a mini pile-up emerged. I must have been spotted as the pile-up was now getting serious when the SWR started to climb and I noticed the Elecraft K2 transceiver power output throttling back. The rain had been collecting on the horizontal 5m section of 450 ohm ribbon feeder and caused the SWR to rise. A quick shake of the feeder resulted in the SWR dropping back down to normal. Unfortunately this happened every 15 mins whilst the rain lasted.

High points were working a pile-up of JAs with some NA stns in between, even a west coast NA called me. I had to break away from the radio every so often to scare sheep away from the antennas. A seal popped up at one point when I had the headphones off and stared directly at me for several minutes before disappearing, I wondered if it was appreciating the sound of my morse.

I went to bed after adjusting antennas at about 2am and set the alarm for 4am. Unfortunately as soon as my head hit the pillow I started to hear people laughing and shouting. I guessed they were in a yaght moored infront of the Royal Hotel on the mainland, but their voices were clear as day across on Bute. 4am came and I awoke before the alarm to odd "boooosh" noises out at sea. I unzipped the tent flap and looked out into semi-dark across the water. It took a few minutes to discearn that it was gannets diving for fish about 300 yards off-shore. I had never fully appreciated the size of these birds until I heard the noises they made when they hit the water.

I kept an 1hr of operating time in the bag waiting for 10m to open properly, but in the end I received the "come in MM3T your time is up" telephone call from Christine, meaning I had to just get on with it and then start dis-assembling the antennas before she arrived in the boat.

I made about 688 contacts over the 12hrs so I won't be breaking any records, but hopefully I provided some fun to those who were chasing islands. Anyway, thanks to all who worked me.

Elecraft K3 ERR 12V

I was in the middle of the RSGB 80m club championship cw leg yesterday when the K3 suddenly displayed the above error message "ERR 12V". The KPA3 module (100w PA) went into bypass mode and the radio went into QRP mode and the fans came on at level 2. The power control would not adjust past 12W. I switched the K3 off and on again and it allowed me to set the power above 12w, however when I touched the key the K3 displayed the same error message and conditions.

I did a quick google search and came up with reports of this error message from many K3 users. One report suggested that it would be the pcb connection fingers between the RF board KPAIO3 board or between the KPAIO3 board and the KPA3 board (2 sets of connection fingers create a three board sandwich (RF board/KPAIO3 board/KPA3). The user suggested that a slight oxidisation of the pins can occur and cause high resistance on the 12V line. I took the top off, removed the KPA3, removed the KPAIO3 and examined all parts of the sandwich. I cleaned the pins and re-assembled the sandwich (as did the other user). To my surprise everything now behaves as normal.

When I think about it, this design is pretty flawed. You just have to look at the main pwr lead connections to RF board and then look at the poultry size of these connection fingers (2 connecting sets!) to the KPA3 PA unit which draws the highest current in the radio. What were they thinking about?

Hopefully this blog will help others when the inevitable happens.

Hams4hams call

Rolland (PA3FRO) called today after spotting my blog on the internet. He is most concerned about the quality issues I have with my mast and suggested sending me a better fitting end cap. I agreed of course as without a proper fitting end cap damage to the mast is bound to occur (during transportation etc).

I suppose the rest of my observations are fairly superficial, so hopefully now I can just get on with using it. I haven't errected the mast yet due to space restrictions, but I will report back with my experiences (and pictures).

Rolland mentioned that he has already had repeat orders from satisfied customers and with the low price point I'm not surprised. It always pays to do business with real radio amateurs and Rolland's customer service is second to none.

Hams4hams 18m pole

My Hams4hams 18m pole has arrived. It looks a bit rough round the edges:
1) The mast sections are not cut straight, so the bottom section will always touch the ground on one edge and not spread the load evenly on the base.
2) The gloss finish on the bottom section (only one I can see so far), has several deep gouges that has been crudely covered up with marker pen.
3) The stitching that attaches the nylon draw rope to the bag has compromised the integrity of the bag material to such an extent that slight pressure on it when pushing the mast into the bag will cause the bag to rip.
4) The rubber end stopper is too big for the bottom of the mast meaning that the internal mast sections will fall out every time it is picked up.

I've still to make up the clamps but hopefully it will do the job for a 80m monopole.

MM3T IOTA 2010 Island of Bute EU-123 (Antennas)

With a 10m fishing pole and 10m of wire up it, I can get the following bands:

A 20m Jpole (attach coax at approp point near the shorted end of lamba/4 ribbon feeder)
A 40m lamda/4 monopole and 15m by default (attach coax at the open end of ribbon feeder and add some 10m radials to the braid)

1 fishing rod = 3 bands, croc clips on the coax (just clip to the appropriate points and go).

I'm calling it the skELPer :-). Keeps things simple for IOTA, we don't want to spend a lot of time setting up as hard work detracts from the fun. It could also be used as an end fed zepp with the short removed from the ribbon feeder and a tuner attached instead.

DSP re-work for Elecraft K3

I'm really dissapointed in Elecraft's handling of a recent purchase. I was off work on January 1st and thought I'd purchase a new DSP board for my K3. I purchased the card with the knowledge that there would be a 4 week lead time. 2 weeks after my purchase some erudite questioning on the reflector revealed that the board I had purchased was going to be re-worked and not new as I had been led to believe. I emailed Elecraft 8 weeks after purchase to find out what was happening and they said the delay wasn't their fault as they were waiting for returned boards. I reminded Elecraft that I hadn't bought a re-worked board so any excuses about waiting for returns wasn't valid. I asked for a new board if they couldn't honour the initial deal. I got a very polite e-mail back of the "no-can-do" variety and I am still waiting for my DSP board 12 weeks later. Very, very poor sales and marketing from a company with very good products.

WriteLog

I have downloaded WriteLog and am currently playing in the RDXC contest. I've racked up 300 QSOs in the last 2.5hrs or so with some pile ups and some blank spells. My usual contest software is WinTest so I guess I'm starting the learning curve a fresh, straight in at the deep end.

First of all I couldn't adjust the CW speed and had to resort to Google mid contest as the help file was blank on this subject. I found a post on a contest website explaining it : go into 'setup->ports' (obvious eh?) and adjust a matrix of speeds to your preference, then use page up and dwn keys to shift between these values (what was wrong with Alt V?).

Then I logged a Q without an exchange and couldn't find for the life of me how to get back in the Q and edit it. Again the manual was no help and google again saved the day with someone else asking the same question : using the mouse click on the offending QSO then click again on the offending field and an edit QSO box opens at that field for you (WinTest you just up arrow into the log and tab across and edit it...simple).

I was using the software to assert PTT and CW through a serial port to a MicroHam DK and then on to the rig. This worked fine with WinTest but out the 300Qs maybe 4Qs came out garbled causing me to reach for the key. I closed all other program down and the CW decoder to ease the pressure on the CPU but it still did it occassionaly.

I noticed that if you press enter before you complete the call field you get less time to complete than with WinTest. I found that even although I had completed the call before it was sent, the last letter was missed leading to unnecessary repeats from the other station.

The CW decoder is a great idea and works well. I preffer not to use the RTTYRite one and instead use the standard decoder (that said I didn't look at it at all during the 300Qs). The standard decoder is docked but RTTYRite opens in a separate window which you can't dock. The same goes for the bandmaps, they float on the desktop meaning you have to shrink down WriteLog to see them. WinTest doesn't have a CW decoder but at least the bandmaps are docked.

So far I can't see a way to send a spot on the bandmap straight to the B VFO :-(.

I only have V3 of WinTest so didn't have ESM capability, so it was nice to find that WriteLog does....finally something positive!

Anyway it all sounds negative, but mostly I just have to get used to a new way of doing things. At this early stage I think V3 WinTest is superior, but it has it's quirks too.