TAK-Tenna on 20m

I had a couple of free minutes after the Ontario Swap Shop on 40m and spun the dial on 20m.  I heard the Central Net Control Station (VE4) for the Trans Canada Net on 14.140.  He was calling for checkins and I jumped in and got him on the first call.  My report was a 5/7 and he was about the same back in Ottawa.  Once again a 5/7 report from Ottawa to the Manitoba border is not really a big item but the fact once again I heard him and I worked him…  So far we seem to be going 3 for 3 on getting them on the first call.  Not the strongest signals but they heard me…

The TAK-tenna is gaining my confidence…

73bob

More on the TAK-Tenna… 40m and 80m

After limited results testing the new toy on Saturday I decided to re-install it on Sunday Morning and test things out again for a few hours…

 

The installation consists of my FT 897 set at 100w.  I am using my FC40 Auto Coupler which is installed outside on my VHF Mast and the TAK-tenna is suspended at 20 AGL and connected to the FC 40 using approx 20 feet of 300 ohm twinlead.

 

Just before 0900 eastern I fired everything up and started with the testing.  I have decided to use the same nets I check into on a Sunday Morning as my benchmark.  Due to my setup is impossible to do quick A/B testing so I will forgo actual signal reports but go more towards can I hear them and can they hear me…

 

I was able to hear stations on 80m before I switched from the long wire to the TAK-Tenna.

 

0900 was the start of the North Bay Net on 3.778 and I was able to get a match using the tuner.  I was able to hear several stations in the background and actually make out VE3HMS Ian who was checking into the net.  I was able to hear the NCS who was Paul VA3PC but not well enough to carry on a QSO.  I lost all stations shortly after that.  My noise level is at an S8 which was lower than the normal S9 I get with the long wire but normally I can always hear and check into the North Bay Net from home using the long wire…

 

After giving up on the North Bay Net at 0925 eastern and not hearing any other stations on 80m I decided to try 40m for a while…  Giving the TAK-Tenna the benefit of the doubt I should mention that this is not a 80m antenna so using it on 80 and making the tuner sweat it out is making it more of a compromise that it was designed to be…

 

WA1NPO in Whitman Mass was on 7.260 operating a special event station from what they called a “living museum”  Reports varied between 5/5 to 5/7 so I think the TAK-Tenna works better on 40 than 80.  The testing continues

 

I jumped back to 80m for the OVMRC Pothole Net on 3.760 at 1000 hrs and the results were confusing.  Two station VE3JW and VE3GX were stronger than they usually are.  Both stations are within 1km of my home so its easy to tell the difference between +20 and +40.  VE3EJJ who is in the west end of Ottawa however gave me a S5 as compared to my normal S9.  I could not hear VA3TQX in the Renfrew Ontario area or VE3UUH in Eastons Corners Ontario.  Once again on 80m I am having a S9 Noise level.

 

The antenna seems to be very directional on 80m.  I have it orientated North South which means the best signal reports should be from the east and west.  However there is a really strong null from the north as two stations that are normally are S9 to me are not there at all.  One station only gave me a S1 instead of my usual S9.

 

The Net ended at 1100 EASTERN and I QSy’d over to 7.055 to see what I could hear of the Sunday Morning Roundtable Net which also serves as the warmup for the 40m Ontario Swap Shop.  I was able to talk to Nick VE3NJG in London Ontario and got him on the first call.  Reports were about average for this time of day with an S7 back at me and he was approximately S8.  Concidering the exceptionally long conditions on 40m these days Ottawa to London at 11am is not bad.  Nick, however is talking to several other stations and I am unable to hear them.  I guess they are closer in to me than Nick is.

 

One thing to remember is that in my earlier postings I did mention that I did not follow the construction instructions to the letter.  I am planning two more tests for the antenna.  The next test will consist of swapping out the twin lead with 50 ohm coax and using my 857 LDG auto tuner combo.  The third test would consist of re building the antenna and fully follow the instructions for antenna resonance and then see how it works.  What I am trying to say is that todays results would be a bench mark as I have not really followed the instructions.  When I follow their instructions things should only get better.  Hams do like to experiment and I am no exception…

 

After using the antenna for a few hours now I am “not sorry” I bought it.  It’s a little too early to be really impressed with it as with the poor and unstable band conditions these days make giving an objective review rather difficult. 

 

It is stealth and small…  Its design would definitely confuse anyone looking at it…  Supporting it off the side of your apartment balcony in a fashion similar to how the sat antennas are mounted and then telling them “Its my homemade HD TV antenna”… would work especially if you add in the “I don’t complain about the Satellite Dishes why are you complaining about my TV antenna? Line… A little bit of battleship grey paint and no one would know the difference…

 

The biggest problems with a stealth antenna is that they usually look like antennas and that draws attention to them.  The TAK-Tenna does not look like any sort of transmitting antenna I have ever seen and that is its biggest advantage…  So far it seems to work fine…NOT GREAT… but fine… More on the higher bands in the near future…

 

73bob

TAK-Tenna installed…. first report

Well its up and working???  Its very hard to comment on a new antennas performance when the band conditions are the pittsssssss….

So far the noise level is just a bit lower than the long wire….  I am able to get the antenna to load up on 10, 12, 20, 40 and 80m.  I am unable to get the antenna to load on 15m and 17m. 

My only contact so far was with Larry K3BFQ who lives close to Philly in Eastern PA.  He was a solid S7 with his KW into a 40m double bazooka antenna and he gave me a Zero but he could hear me over the noise for the most part with my TAK-Tenna and the 100w from my FT897.

The TAK-Tenna is suspended from a tree branch at about the 20 foot mark and its being fed with 300 ohm twin lead to the FC40 tuner which is mounted outside on a mast.

I’m really not sure if the poor results are due to very poor band conditions or my high expectaions for the new antenna…

Its obivious to me that more testing is going to be necessary before I can honestly comment on the TAK-Tenna… 

More to follow…

73bob

I guess the “Brits” have them as well…

Lids…

While doing a “google search” for a brand of ATU I found this interesting British Amateur Radio Website… 

While taking a look around I found this page… 

I am sorry to say that it seems like Idiots and lids are not exclusive to North America but it looks like they are everywhere….

73bob

Bill C 118 Passes 2nd reading

After looking back through a couple of weeks worth of blogging I realised that by now there should be some more information on the dreaded Bill C118.  If you follow the links below you will see the debate on the 20th and the 25th of November that occured before the passing of the 2nd reading of the bill.

If you check the status link you will notice that this bill has now been sent to committee and then will be coming back for more debate and then finally Royal Assent.  That is when the proposed bill actually becomes law in the province.

I recomment you read the debates quite carefully as you will be able to get an idea of which direction the committee will be aiming towards in regards to what we will be able to use as far as mobile communications equipment go. 

Enjoy your reading

Hansard November 20th 2008

Hansard November 25th 2008

Status of the Bill itself

73bob

More on Radioworld

If you remember yesterdays posting on the VX8-R I mentioned the good people at Radioworld, their website and the great aftersales service I have reciveved in the past…  Its kind of funny how things seem to run together at times…

This morning as previously mentioned in my “Gravity” posting I was looking at the newly arrived flyer from Radioworld for their end of year sale.  While reading it at my desk in the shack I noticed that there was not much amateur gear listed and so I sent them off a quick email asking if they had sent me the wrong flyer by accident.  I thought I got the general public flyer rather than the amateur flyer…

Much to my suprise the next time I checked my mail which would of been around 90 minutes later there was a reply from Radioworld confirming that I had gotten the correct flyer and that the amateur radio flyer had been sent out earlier…

The fact that they replied to my email impressed me…The fact that they replied to my email so quickly really impressed me… 

Once again I have no financial ties to Radioworld…  Just a happy customer… but as with every retailer your experiences could vary from mine… Do what you want…its your money to spend!!!

73bob

The “Gravity” of the situation…

Well this morning I got a quick lession in the laws of gravity…

I opened up the front door to get the mail after the postal person had delivered the daily fare of flyers and bills to the VA3QV QTH.  As i was holding open the door while reading the “End of Year Sale Flyer” from Radioworld in Toronto,  Sabre our house cat decided to make a break for freedom out the open front door.  I quickly dropped the flyers and headed down the sidewalk in quick persuit of the “Goshdarn Cat“…. (Those of you who know me can substitute for “Goshdarn“)

However in the chase I found out that under the light dusting of snow on the sidewalk was a rather slippery patch of ice…  To say the least…OUCH…

While I was sitting on my duff the cat walked over to me as if to say that I had suffered enough and he just let me pick him up…

Today will be a day trying to fix a bruised ego as I have a weak back on the best of days and today its now weaker than ever…

Remember what goes up must come down…

73bob

No VX8-R for Christmas

Well from what I can find out from reading the recent posts from the Yahoo Groups two (VX8_R and VX8R) Newsgroups on my previously thought to be new handheld it looks like we won’t be seeing the nifty little radios anytime soon…

However the rumors are running wild (still) on features, and also problems with early firmware etc…  The delayed arrival date (looks like after Christmas) eliminates any chance of my family getting me one as my present.  Like most other family types after Christmas will be spent trying to pay off the presents bought so now its looking like Dayton before I look at things again…  Even if only a tiny percentage of the rumors are true about the problems with this unit, it is also souring me on the unit before anyone actually has the chance to use one…

Its kind of sad that the amateur radio population  who were screaming for a new toy with all the features of the VX8-R such as quad band and APRS and Blue tooth would all take the attitude of “Trash Talking” before they have even had the chance to operate one…  A friend of a friend of a friend who talked to someone said that ” they were having problems with the firmware or whatever” and suddenly there are postings about the poor quality of a radio not even out for sale yet.  The dealers might be taking orders but they have not even seen one yet… 

In Canada…  Radioworld still lists the VX8-R as “coming soon” and has raised the price up from the last noticed price of $500.00 CDN up to $540.00 and they still don’t have one.  With the recent price jump concider that the DSTAR ready Icom 92AD is listed at $600.00 CDN its making me think of trying something new. 

 I will add a comment at this point saying that I hold no financial interest in the Radioworld store.  I have purchased radios from them in the past and have not had any problems with the products or the after sales service.  The fact that they have a well maintained website makes it easy to use them as a reference of Canadian Prices and availability.

The poor Canadian Dollar along with the even  poorer economy will probally make some serious changes to the way we do things early in the new year… 

So for now the VX8-R is on the backburner and I will continue my search for a new handheld to replace my 10 year old ADI

73bob

Well we did get snow…

It happened again… SNOW… 

But it was not as bad (again) as predicted by the weather gurus…  Enough to push up the accident rate in Ottawa and as it was a “wet and heavy snow” most likely enough to ruin a couple of antennas.  I’m kinda glad that I did not get the TAK-Tenna up on the mast yet…  Seeing that I did not snug everything down in case I had to re-built it (see earlier post about this one) the wet snow might have forced me to re-build before I needed to…

Its been a quiet week so far as far as amateur radio goes… Nothing going on that affects me…  and the only plans so far for the weekend is to get the TAK-Tenna up and tested out along with a Saturday morning local ARES Meeting….

I’m still looking for a suitable packet radio for the truck… and perhaps a dual bander as well for voice…  Im thinking of moving the ft 857 into the house as a 70cm/2m/6m SSB radio now that I have the extra masting in the back yard for the TAK-Tenna it also could support the dual band beam and the 6m beam and let me experiment with that part of the hobby for a while.  Normally I don’t do ssb vhf work unless its a contest weekend…

Will the weather co-operate with my plans????

More Later

73bob

Lets talk about the “TAK-tenna” for a bit

First of all you should visit their website  so you have an idea on what I am going to be talking about… and then you hopefully come back here so you can see what I am talking about…

The TAK-Tenna is a limited space, kind of stealthy antenna designed for those of us who are unable to string out the correct amount of wire in the way we would like to…

Right from the get go…  This is not a power antenna… nor do they claim it…  It appears to be an antenna that you can put up in a limited space…  It also does not look like anything I have seen in the past so you can always answer the question (when your neighbors/landlord finally see (find) it) with its a home made satellite antenna for the new HD Television…  Now if that does not confuse them fully I don’t know what will…

When you open the TAK-Tenna box you gasp a bit and take a small step backwards because that pile of parts you see in the box (a bit larger than a extra large pizza box) look nothing like the antenna in the picture on their website…  Once you have gotten over the shock… You can suddenly see where the parts seem to fit in and then you can start building the antenna.

I recomment you keep a picture of the antenna (from their website) with the directions and that way you can always keep it in your mind how it supposed to look when you finish…

This is one antenna that you do not need to be an engineer or a rocket scientist to build.  (Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact I am neither)  I was able to build this antenna mostly following their instructions in approximately one hour.  I should specify that this does not include tuning the antenna but just the construction…  I found the instructions easy to follow and the few diagrams they provided with the instruction manual made things even easier… 

I say “mostly following ” their instructions as I plan to use this antenna in conjunction with my Yaesu FT 897 and my Yaesu FC 40 Tuner.  As you should know by now is that the FC-40 is a coupler style tuner so I did not want to trim any of the lengths of wire incase it did not work as I was hoping.  So version one of this build will be done with no trimming or tuning…  Lets see if the coupler will give me 10m to 80m with a bit of ladder line between the “binding posts” on the coupler and the TAK-tenna.  If it works… fantastic… If it does not work then version two will have me measuring, and using using the antenna analyzer to assist with the tuning…  If version one does not work then follow the instructions for version two…

Ottawa is expecting some nasty weather (SNOW) over the next few days so I’m not sure when I will get the chance to get it up on the 10 foot mast and test things out… 

When I do…  I’ll let you know how things work out… (But at least I got it built)

73bob