Cobbled up shunt coil arrangement

Bolted on to my cabin balcony guard rail

Invaluable to see what the aerial is doing

IC 7000 with Wintest logging

CADIZ

Just got back from my two weeks hols on board the P&O cruise liner MS Oceana and G6PZ/MM.

Shortly after boarding I sought out the Master, Captain Hamish Reid and asked for his permission to set up and operate my/MM station.

After explaining what I wanted to do he said that he basically had no problem with it but would like to “check me out first”. The next day there was a knock

at my cabin door and I was met by a 3 ringed officer who introduced

him self as the 1ETO.  (First Electro tecnical officer)  He asked
me what I wanted to do,looked at my licence,the gear and then said “OK
no problem” and even offered to put a wire up. He then left me his
bleeper number and to call if I needed any further assistance.

Before I left home I set up the G whip mobile aerial and it was
loading up and seemingly fine but hasten to say that once bolted on to
the guard rail of my cabin’s balcony it was resonant but presented a
very high SWR on every band. Fortunately I had a Rig Expert analyzer
with me and could see what was up. The feed impedance was much lower
than the 50 ohms I was expecting. ( 24 ohms) I can only put this down
to the much better ground plane that the ships hull was presenting to
the aerial than the ” lossy mock up at home ” and lowering the feed
impedance, I had to come up with a way of matching it to the coax.
This could be tricky having no tools or materials to hand. I gave the
1ETO a call and to my surprise he arrived at my cabin within minutes.
I asked if he could supply me with some tools and stiff wire to make
up a shunt matching coil.

Within the hour a soldering iron, multimeter, spanners and wire duly
arrived and I set to work, within a short while the coil was
constructed and installed and all was working FB.
I made around 700 contacts on sea days operating from my cabin. (had
to fit in shore excursions etc with the XYL) Most contacts were CW but
I did operate some SSB (mainly on 40M) with a spattering of PSK and
RTTY.
The best DX was VK6 on 30M but all QSO’s were greatly appreciated and
especially those to G and those with CDXC members.
I took a long an IC 7000, Watson switch mode PSU and a G whip
(Flexiten) mounted at a 45 degree angle to the side of the ship @ 30m
or so ASL and logged with Wintest and Mix W. The little Icom performed faultlessly and I also got some very good unsolicited audio reports which was surprising as I did not take too much trouble setting it up and using the default settings .

The G Whip coils did get very warm when using 100 watts CW, so much so that it melted the Raychem covering. The coils were OK but a distinct raise in SWR was noticed as they got warmer, I guess they are only rated for 100watts SSB !

The 1ETO even invited us for drinks and picked up the tab, in

conversation it turned out that he served in the Polaris submarine
fleet in a similar role as myself and was also licensed as a G1 but
had let it lapse a long while ago.
I thought his attention and service was over and above and greatly
added to my cruise experience, well done P&O.

73 Paul
G6PZ

gb10gka-team-member-award-g6pz-1

I had an e-mail from Tony G3ZRJ out lining the GB10GKA activtion to commemorate 10 years since Portishead radio was closed and if possible to involve the G6PZ station. I was more than happy to accomodate this request and be associated with GB10GKA.
The Portishead radio site is now a housing estate on the out skirts of Burnham on Sea but in its day was the premier coastal radio station in the world.
The GKA site is only a few miles from here so It’s kind of appropriate to radiate the GKA call again from near it’s home QTH.
It was a privilege to operate along side Peter G3TJE who finished his professional career as a radio officer at GKA, after distinguished service around the world in the diplomatic radio service. Peter is also a founder member of our contest group.
Tony G3ZRJ also operated the station and it was very nice to meet him and his wife.
Pileups were immense especially on 17m and its not often that you have to tell JA stations to QRX so as to give EU a chance of getting in on the act. Luckily 10m was also in good shape and a lot of fun was had coping with wall to wall callers here too.
All in all a great time and a privilege to operate GB10GKC

73 Paul
G6PZ

Call: G6PZ
Operator(s): GI0RTN
Station: G6PZ

Class: Open-24 HP
QTH: Somerset
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
Band QSOs
————
80: 67
40: 117
20: 120
15: 90
10: 24
————
Total: 418 Total Score = 8,050

Club:

Comments:

298 total bonus. (By band - 57/82/79/61/19)

Ants: 2 stacked SteppIRs, a MonsIR and a 4 square on 80).

Firstly, thanks to Paul, G6PZ, for use of his fine station and his hospitality.
It’s great to operate somewhere which really is plug and play, to the extent of
Paul getting up early on a Saturday morning to wind up the MonstIR tower and the
4 square. The only thing I need to worry about is getting the cheapest possible
Easyjet fare from Belfast to Bristol. Where else would you get hospitality like
that?

Don’t a few tiddly sunspots make a big difference?

Yes, 80m was noisy and yes, polar conditions deteriorated steadily during the
contest, but we had great openings on 15 to the West as far as VE6, and to the
east as far as VK4, a nice Africa opening on 10 to start the contest and a nice
opening to VK6, VK3 (!!!), VU and 5B4 to end it. But the real difference to me
was extending the time we can work Canada on 40. It was great working VEs,
right out to Alberta and BC, in the wee small hours on 40. The second half of
this contest wasn’t as sloooow this year as it has been of late, although the
pre-dawn hour and a half or so remains difficult.

In contrast, I found conditions to ZL quite difficult, except for the early
afternoon short path on 20. Even the evening 40m short path to the Antipodes
was well short of its best, and while I did manage to get mini runs to VK and
ZL on both 40 and 80 on Sunday morning, except for the big guns the signals
were fluttery, weak, and hard work to copy. But each QSO was 25 point gold
dust and greatly appreciate!

Also disappointing was southern Africa on 40 and 80 around their dawn. I
worked a clatter of those guys last year, but I couldn’t seem to get them to
bite this year despite much time with both the MonstIR and the 4 square to the
south.

Paul’s new 4 square on 80 gets out like a cannon! We had it up and running of
sorts for CQ WW, but Paul has continued to work on optimising it and his work
paid off. I felt loud on 80! Working 2 VE6s and VE7 on 80 was a first for me
in this contest, and 8 ZLs were a gratifying haul in less than ideal
conditions.

Thanks for QSOs on 5 bands not only to GB5CC as usual (thanks for that QSY to
10 for a relatively long distance tropo QSO, Chris), but also to 9J2BO (hell,
yeah!), C4Z, H2E and P3J. I think I could have managed 5 banders with VU2PTT
and VU2BGS as well, had they noticed an opening to India on 10 in the last few
minutes of the contest.

I’d worked VQ9LA on 10 on Saturday morning, but bizarrely missed him on 20 for
a lost 5 bander!!! I missed VP8NO on 10, depsite a failed move and G4BUO
managing to work him; and I also missed him on 80, where I worked him last year
and which should have been easy with the 4 square. I also missed VK6LW on 80
for a 5 bander, despite hearing him call other people, and VK6BN on 20 (rolled
eyes) for another one.

Unlike other contests, the universe of potential QSOs in BERU is definitely
finite, at least from G, and the skill is to wring every opening absolutely dry
of QSOs. I left a few on the table, but that’s where the challenge for me to
improve is in future. When 10 opens properly, I think 500 QSOs from G is just
about manageable if activity trends hold. The increasing VU participation is
particularly noticeable. The golden era of the Commonwealth Contest is just
beginning!

Many operators in rare call areas make a special effort to get on for this
event. Manners and courtesy are always great in BERU and I particularly
appreciate the many people who moved bands to give me another a bonus,
especially when they weren’t serious participants themselves, and even more to
the people who volunteered to do QSY before I asked!

There were a lot more non-Commonwealth stations calling me that I’ve ever
noticed before. I can understand it with a BY, XE or W6, but do amateurs in
Europe really need a QSO with a G station *that* badly? The one thing that hit
me when spinning around a wide open 15 in the hour before the contest is just
how many Chinese amateurs are QRV on CW these days. There were about a dozen
BD and BG stations CQing away on Saturday morning. While it’s not relevant to
BERU, it is great news for contesting in general, especially given the decline
in JA participation in recent years.

73

Gerry GI0RTN

  Class: Single Op HP
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  512
   40:  553
   20:  632
   15:   50
   10:
------------
Total: 1747

State/Prov = 58 Countries = 70 Total Score = 223,616

Serge UT5UDX wanted to give this ago following on from his 3rd World result in the WPX RTTY 09.

As usual both IC 7700’s were pressed in to service and didn’t miss a beat. The new 80m 4 square performed very well with over 300 North American QSO’s in the log which was pleasing as I see this aerial still as work in progress.

Serge brought the new RA6LBS  hybrid coupler and control gear from the Ukraine just before Christmas and I installed it over the holidays (RA4LW was coming to install it but could not obtain a visa so he posted it to Serge in Kiev) in the freezing cold and snow. Some more work needs to be done on the phasing lines but I will wait until it’s a bit warmer and I can feel my fingers.

As it stands Serge’s effort’s should gain him N0 1 EU but we will wait and see how it shakes out in the overall standings but Serge seemed pretty happy !

73 Paul

G6PZ

Ops: G6PZ, 2E0CVN, G3TJE, G4MJS, G7VJR, GI0RTN, KU5B, M0CLW

 BAND   QSO  CQ DXC DUP  POINTS   AVG
--------------------------------------
  160   550  18  71  17     902  1.64
   80  1163  29 103  16    1888  1.62
   40  1278  40 144  28    2724  2.13
   20  1515  37 135  27    3104  2.05
   15   763  33 117  10    2064  2.71
   10    14   2  14   0      13  0.93
--------------------------------------
TOTAL  5283 159 584  98   10695  2.02
======================================
       TOTAL SCORE : 7 946 385

G6PZ has spent most of this year concentrating on our LF antennas (see earlier posts) and new to the field is an 80m 4-square and a new topband antenna. We are very pleased with the results and we feel our transmit performance has greatly improved. Conditions seemed quite reasonable on the two bands but it seems some of that may actually be due to the antennas; we had some excellent runs into North America on 160m.

It was nice to see some nice runs to NA on 15m, but not half as a good as in CQWW SSB. That said, we did work a number of zone 3s and some nice mults picked up there.

The first night’s weather forecast didn’t look good and we experienced a freak squall with very high winds and heavy rain experienced for about 30-45 minutes. It was essential for G6PZ to lower the towers therefore this did slightly impact our 40m capability toward the latter part of the night. Furthermore, a relay died in the 80m 4-square phasing unit and that meant we had no direction switching. This was fixed for Saturday night, however, and we were able to fully utilise the antenna.

Just to round things off, the 160m vertical’s SWR increased in the lower part of the band and using a antenna analyzer revealed the resonant frequency had moved to 1910 kHz; this was rectified by adding 1-1.5ft of wire to the top loading and the resonant frequency was 1840 kHz - perfect.

20m closed very early on both evenings and that meant going to LF earlier than expected, some some slower rate hours experienced. We are just thankful that 160m was as good as it was! 40 zones on 40m is also an achievement as we have never worked all 40 zones on any band in previous years!

Call: G6PZ
Operator(s): G6PZ 2E0SQL M0CLW M0DXR G4DBL G4MJS
Station: G6PZ

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Somerset
Operating Time (hrs): 47.5

Summary:
Band   QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
160:    285     11         54
80:     626     18         87
40:     857     35        122
20:    1196     35        128
15:    1239     36        135
10:     171     19         76
------------------------------
Total: 4374    154        602  Total Score = 6,730,668

The weekend has passed and the bands have returned to there normal less busy state, after they we’re took over for 48hrs for the yearly CQWW SSB contest, this year I took the trip down to G6PZ in Weston-Super-Mare on the south west coast of the UK.

I arrived at the station Friday afternoon, and we were soon out in the field doing some finishing touches on the 4 square that Paul (G6PZ) had been working on over the last couple of weeks, and cranked up the MonstIR to its full height I can tell you that’s no easy job!

Simon (M0CLW)

The contest started and didn’t seem to easy going and we found it hard getting any large NA runs on 40m due to lots of QRM, but non the less a steady stream of QSOs where being worked and 80m was near enough the same but picked up slightly at sun rise.

Peter (G4MJS)

During the day we were pleased to see that 15/10m opened up giving us some much needed QSOs and Mults, we spend some time on these bands then moved to 20m later on in the day. During the day we also finished building the quarter wave 160m vertical and laid some much needed radials.

Sunday conditions seemed very much the same, with 15/10m being full of stations during the daytime and during the final hour of the contest 160m gave us a good run of North American stations, and with the new 4sq on 80m it certainly made made us feel loud.

Overall a very enjoyable weekend contesting and socialising with the team! I’m looking forward to the next contest already.

The elements are made in three sections.  The bottom is a 3m  2.5 x .25 inch aluminium tube, the middle is a standard 6m scaffold pole and the top is a 12m  spiderbeam pole.

The first job is to make the overlap joint for the aluminium  sections. I’ve allowed for a minimum of  a 12 inch overlap. Two M10 tapped threads are made in one end of the bottom section spaced 10 inches apart and one inch in from the end. Stainless steel allen headed bolts were then screwed in ready to receive the 2nd section. A M8 thread was put into the other end ready for the feed point connection.

The scaffold pole forms the 2nd part to the element and has to be made ready for the overlap joint with the Spiderbeam top section. I’ve allowed a 15 inch overlap here as I  wanted to give the Spiderbeam pole a good fixing and to spread the loads caused by any whipping over a larger area.

The spiderbeam pole was made up securing each joint with pvc electrical tape, this was then overtaped with self amalgamating tape. It was then slipped over the scaffold pole for a 15 inch overlap.  Two M8 threads were made through each side of the overlap, 3 inches in from the end of the Spiderbeam pole, ready for the M8 stainless steel allen headed fixing bolts. I bent two large flat washers over the profile of the scaffold pole to go under the M8 bolts to spread some load around the Spiderbeam pole when tightening the two together.

A M8 thread was also put into the scaffold pole 2 inches below the bottom of the Spiderbeam pole ready for the wire connection point.

The two were separated and a 6mm pvc covered copper wire was fed through the Spiderbeam pole from the tapered end. It was then pulled out the other end and the pvc cover stripped back over the distance of the overlap. This gives just enough clearance for the spider beam pole to slip over the wire on to the scaffold pole. The bare wire was terminated with a crimp on lug soldered and finished with shrink wrap and bolted on to the scaffold pole with a M8 stainless bolt. The overlap joint was then secured with two M8 stainless bolts and profiled washers and taped up. The wire at the tapered end of the Spiderbeam pole was taped up to form a water tight seal.

As the element is designed to swivel on the bottom bracket and lay flat on the ground for easy installation and maintenance a one man raising and lowering system is required. I purchased 4 inexpensive trailer winches off an Ebay shop. I had first thought about running the rope over a pulley wheel on the top of the post to minimise the angle and reduce friction on the rope. But for the extra work and expense it was not worth it, so I used the Kiss system.

Each winch is secured to the back of a post with coach bolts. I drilled a 10mm hole through the post at the top of the cable drum and pushed the wire rope through. ( the wire had to be taken off the drum first and pushed through from the element side because of the fixed hook on the wire )   I squirted the hole with ptfe grease to reduce friction on the rope. (The rope cuts its own guide slot in to the wood as it is raised and lowered a few times)

The rope is wrapped around the tube and back on its self and secured in a stainless steel eye that is threaded into the tube.

The luffing action is very easy and takes only a minute or so to raise or lower the element safely. When in the upright position the top mount is bolted up and then the wire is removed and clipped on to the back of the winch out of the way.

73 Paul

Four pressure impregnated  posts were sourced from a local farm outlet store. They are 5×5 (1250mm) inch x 2m long. I made 4 holes with a petrol driven hole borer to a depth of 750mm and spaced them 66 ft apart in a true square measuring across each of the diagonals. I then put the posts in and back filled each with a strong concrete mix taking care to keep each post plum. AIthough the concrete had set by the next day I allowed a week for it to harden before the next stage.

The next job was to mount the stainless steel hardware on to the posts, these were fabricated in a metal shop. I drilled a pilot hole for each coach bolt to help start it’s thread start and avoid any splitting. Slightly oversize car exhaust clamps are used to hold the element and to allow for the ptfe sheet insulator wrapped around the 2.5 inch tube.

73 Paul

Connecting radials to a vertical can be a pain. There are some good commercially available systems but it can work out to be quite expensive when you have to have four of every thing. Here I have made a simple radial connection system out of copper electrical earthing bar. Its fairly labour intensive but with some basic  engineering skill it can be made up for a fraction of the cost.

The bus bar is 25mm x 3 mm copper available from electrical wholesalers, the post is 5 x 5 inch so a strip of 20 inches is cut to length and formed to fit around the post. Four strips of 4 inches are cut to length and formed into brackets that are drilled and then soldered on to the bus bar to create the connection points.

The assembly is then installed on the post and secured with a stainless steel screw through the connection bracket into the post. The Radial wires are then stripped back and crimped  on to  lugs and soldered to keep out water and finished off with pvc tape.  OK, I could of used shrink wrap !

The radials are then connected to the brackets with stainless steel bolts with washers. The next job is to resonate each element so that they are exactly the same athough we used one of the elements in CQWW RTTY a couple of weeks ago and it performed very well, just waiting for Vlad RA4LW to come with the control gear and set it all to work.

73 Paul