K6JSS/5 just did not work out..............

During this past week I was very busy at work and really did not get a chance at all to try to work K6JSS/5. I was planning some weekend time to accomplish a contact and get K6JSS/5 in the log. If you are a follower of my blog you know I have had some on and off troubles with interference. I was not sure if it originated in the house or outside. This weekend when I turned on my K3 there was no "on off " anything the offending interference was S7 all the time!!! So if K6JSS/5 was out there I was for sure not going to hear it. With some narrowing down I pegged the troubles to the 230KV high voltage lines outside my house.  This past week I was doing some research on some of the noise canceling units that were out there. I was considering DX Engineering's NCC-1  this is a great unit and it has fantastic reviews but the price tag is 600.00. I then also looked at the Timewave ANC-4  it was more of a reasonable price and seemed to be affective. The last unit I looked at was the MFJ-1026 and this was the unit I ended up purchasing. I found more reviews and Youtube videos about the MFJ unit than any of the others.  So over the weekend I hooked it up and began to familiarize myself with it. Does it work.........I had read that for some it does and others not so much. As for me all I can say is "fantastic" more on that in another blog posting. As for now this week it looks like K6JSS/0 may be in the cross hairs.

Where there is a will there is almost the best way...............

Using downspout on left

Wire meets "antenna"

 The weather has not co-operated with me in regards to setting up a trial run of my fence receiving antenna I got to thinking......I do have a downspout off the side of the house and it is about 25 feet  and that gave me an idea. I ran some 22 gauge wire out to the downspout.  Sanded off a small section to get a good connection, I then attached the wire with a self drilling screw. I then went into the house and gave it a go. Now this is just a receiving antenna only. It's to get me going on Diversity receive with my K3. I also wanted to use this "antenna" for a  yet to be decided noise canceling unit. But first things first and this is just a hit and miss receiving type antenna for now. Besides the interference I am having is like a sore tooth when you head out to the dentist the pain goes away....like wise the noise that I am slowly moving towards solving  has gone for the moment.
So the down spout seems to do very well at receiving not as good as my tuned dipoles in the attic but it does do the job. I am in the market for a proper very low profile active receiving antenna as well something I can place outside.  As a side line here is the "Murphy moment" it wasn't until I went out to take the pictures today that I realized I was using the much shorter downspout on the right. I have now corrected the problem and will see if the actual long downspout  it better at receiving.

Your thoughts on this proposed receiving antenna.......................

At the back of my home right under my nose has been a great stealth antenna just waiting to be used. I have heard of hams loading up downspouts, rain gutters that make there way around the house, their TV tower and even the aluminum siding on their home. I am just looking for a receiving antenna  so I can take advantage of the diversity mode of the Elecraft K3. Up to this point it has been my High Sierra sidekick antenna but that is hit and miss as that antenna is only out during contests. I have this great metal fence out the back I was thinking about running a wire underground to the vertical metal fence post. Put a jumper were the fence post and horizontal fence support meet. The horizontal section of the fence is about 200 feet long and that seems to me to be an ok stealth receiving antenna??? I guess the best thing is to give it a go and see how it works....easier said than done. At this point the temperature is sitting around -22 C and snow on the ground. BUT things are looking up there is a warming trend coming by Tuesday the temp is rumored to be +4 and rain and just for one day. Oh well seems I may have to wait until spring one day of +4 did not do it as the ground was still frozen. Well let me know your thoughts on this stealth instalation.....have you done it....did it work out???  Any other ideas.....??

Take me to your master.........NOW!!!!!!!

It was time to sit down with a cup of Earl gray tea and read my latest CQ magazine.  A time I look forward to each month. With all the gear that is coming out these days and the options, menus and programing that is packed into such compact rigs things can go wrong and fast. A day of pleasurable and trouble free operating can for no reason turn sour when the rig is next turned on. For some reason a radio can go from normal to abnormal operation.....no fault of the radio and most of the time an inadvertent button pushing or accidental combo of buttons was somehow selected.   Or.....as I have done purchased used gear and it just does not seem to operate properly  and no matter how much you read the owners manual and the buttons you push and release, push hold and release or the dreaded fat finger three button hold and release move..... Oh yes they make these buttons very very tiny and very very close together and to add insult to our dexterity  do it ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!  As for me the timing is just not there and as I maneuver around the rig I just dig the hole deeper. This month CQ Magazine came to the rescue, there was a very good writeup entitled Testing Testing regarding this very thing.  Very simply put "cut your losses and do a master reset" it's the last thing I think to do. At the time when it does cross my mind I push it aside as I don't want to loose the memories, the preset scans and so on.......... but after doing your best to resolve the issue brothers and sisters it's better than loosing your mind DO THE MASTER RESET !!

A QRP (low power) NAQP contest DONE!!!!

I was not disappointed with this contest there sure was lots of action,15 meters was very active and lots of contacts were made there. I did check out 10 meters and it was active as well but for some reason 10 meters causes some RFI issues here. So that part of the ham band was out for the contest. In the evening 40 meter was unbelievable!! My PowerSDR pan-adapter was over flowing with contacts to be had. I had not seen 40 meters that busy in a real long time. The new 40 meter dipole in the attic worked great I had no troubles

Contest time..........

The North American QSO Party (NAQP) will be my first contest of 2011. I have always enjoyed this contest,  f single operator category  the contest is 10 hours in length. The fun starts at 1pm local time so I have loads of time before and after the contest to get things done around the house. There is plenty of local (North American) action so for my antenna challenged station this is welcomed news. The propagation outlook  has been great  with flux reading in the 90's. I plan on putting my second receiver in my K3 to use in this contest. At times I will be taking advantage of diversity mode, also using the main receiver to work 20 meters  I'll use the sub to scout out openings on 10 and 15 meters. Finally if there is a multiplier in a pileup I will leave the sub there (listening with left ear) move up and down the band with the main VFO working stations (listening with right ear). When the multi's pile up dies down jump over and work him.  Contesting for me is a great time to test out the radio and improve my CW skills and once again no macros it's just me and the key......Lastly I will be able to give my new 40 meter dipole a workout as well.  Good luck to all who are taking part and hope to work as many of you as I can.....Now Murphy will strike here and there....just makes the whole contest experience just that much more interesting.