I’ve been busy this fall doing a bunch of station upgrades. It actually started last winter when I built the YCCC SO2R box project. What fun. Then, over the summer, the audio amp in the SO2R box died. So after some sniffing around and e-mails I discovered that somehow I had a bad trace carrying +12v to the audio amplifier. So I added a jumper to the bottom of the board to get +12v back to the audio amp, and viola! Back in business.
So then it was on to other business, which was building the KK1L 2×6 switch and controller. I started with the controller, which went together quickly and easily. Then came the relay board, which went together fairly easily, except that the board has a HUGE ground plane, so soldering connections to ground takes a LOT of heat and patience. Here’s pictures of the completed switch (mounted outside at my single point ground in a weatherproof NEMA box) and controller (mounted in a Radio Shack project box that has been taking up space in the shack for about 10 years!):
It’s very cool to have N1MM control my antennas automatically! Now I just need to save up for an ALS-1300 amp or two.
Another major project was to install a 2 element phased array for 80M. 2 HF2V’s (with 20 radials each using a DX Engineering radial plate), and a Comtek PVS-80 hybrid phasing box. It just got completed today. It’s resonant a little higher than I’d like, so I plan to retune it a little lower in the band. I’m seeing 10% dumped power at 3525, then about 1% dumped at 3650, and back up as I go higher in the band. I was hoping for a better match in the CW and RTTY portions of the band, but it’s not bad for a first shot. Below is a shot of my front yard where the new array lives. Can you see it? Click on the picture to see the whole album of shots of the new antenna.
The final project was to install a rotor on my 10/15M beam. I got a used G-450 from a local ham, and used a Yaesu mast mount that’s been laying around for many years in my garage. Now I can actually turn the antenna without running up 2 flights of stairs and out onto a balcony!
I’m hoping that these upgrades add a few points to my score in CQWW CW this year. I really wish I could get up a 160M antenna before the contest, but I’m not confident that can happen. That’ll be next years project!
See you in the pileups!
73 de Al, KE1FO
