QSL

This week I received the best QSL ever from Masayuki  JA7BEW.  This was the 5 watt Japan contact I made on 10/23/11 ... See the picture below he sent me some cancelled Japanese stamps and a printout of the award that he is going for and needed my call sign.  Very cool, now this is what ham radio is about ....

Peace 

Kelly 

    

QRP with the FT-817

Its been a while since my last post. I need to work on posting more stuff more often .... Anyway to the fun stuff ....
I made my best contact ever on QRP (5 watts) this weekend on 28.537kHz @ 1550hrs 10/23/2011.  I had a qso with Maru / JA7BEW in Hiraizumi Iwate, Japan.  That is 5844 miles or 1168.8 miles per watt... Needless to say it made my day.  I was setting up and testing my 817 and 35.5 foot long wire antenna on a speaker stand and a 13 foot black widow fishing pole in my back yard for the upcoming cub scout camp out.  I plan on taking the rig to introduce the boys to ham radio. I sure hope 10 meters keeps going so I can show the boys.  Below are some pictures I took of the set up. 
Tech stuff 
Yaesu FT-817nd 
MFJ Travel Tuner mod MFJ-902
LDG RBA-1:1 Balun
35.5 feet Poly Stealth wire 
35.5 foot Poly Stealth counterpoise

ProLine LST2BK Speaker Stand ($40 @ Guitar Center)
Black Widow 13 foot fishing pole ( under $15 @ WalMart) 


Let me know if you have any questions 
Peace 
Kelly / k7pw

  

Home Brew Carolina Windom 40

I have been experimenting with wire antennas since I got my technician ticket in November of 2010 and it realy took off when I passed my general in Jan of 2011. I have been reading and researching trying different things and this is my latest attempt at making a wire antenna.  My idea here was to build a home brew version of the Carolina Windom 40 (http://www.radioworks.com/ccw40.html) which sells for $140 ....
Here is my parts list
100 foot roll of 14 gauge Poly Stealth wire $24 (expensive but I think its worth it) (HRO)
30 feet of RG213 $30 (HRO)
PL259 - SO239 $6 (HRO)
Insulators $3 (HRO)
Unadilla 4:1 balun $30 (HRO)
2 feet 4" corrugated drain pipe and caps $7 (sprinkler world)
Total $100
Now you could save some money by using cheaper coax than RG213 but I a chunk laying around so I didn't incur the cost on this build
I am not going to sit here and write how to build this antenna because that has been done and done again on the Internet so do a little research.  Its not rocket science ....
Here is my plan
25 foot and 41 foot horizontal radiator connected to the 4:1 balun
Create a 1:1 air choke (ugly balun) http://www.hamuniverse.com/balun.html
with a 10 foot length of coax on top side to connect to the 4:1 balun
Put it all together and your done
My Ugly Balun

The 4:1 balun

My 4:1 attached to the pole before raising

Finally one of the horizontal legs tied off to my back wall

More to come on this antenna as I test it and see how it performs. First impression seems to be a good performer even though I have in set up in less than optimal conditions (only 16 feet off the ground @ center)
Stay tuned more to come
Kelly
k7pwt
 

Ham Pix

Ham Shack on a shelf

Looking south at the Antenna Farm

The poor white trash version  (lol)

Living in a HOA requires some stealth 

Far Left if you can see the wire is a home-brew Carolina Windom 40

Next to that is a Diamond X200 dual bander for 2 meter and 440 work 

and to the right is the newest antenna a s9v31 with 16 26'9" radials and a 4:1 unun 

The top of the antenna farm