NZ5E  USA
Terry L Browning
5563 CR 147 Bono, AR 72416 USA
Email: Use mouse to view..
Ham Member Lookups: 20519
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20140603 0219UTC 18140kHz NZ5E
Date : 03/Jun/2014 0219UTC
Freq : 18140kHz USB
Rig : SDR(PI4THT)
ANT : Mini-Whip(PAORDT)
PC recording
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I have resonant antennas for 6 through 160 meters, all supported by 108 feet of Rohn 45 tower. To reduce interaction, I turned the 40 meter rotatable dipole parallel to the booms of the 6 meter yagi and the 10-20 meter log periodic. My 30/60 meter trap dipole slopes between the tower and a tree. I used 3 sections of fiberglass rod in each top guy wire for RF transparency.
The tower is located at the corner of my father's former farm shop that has a 50x80 feet metal roof. The metal roof serves as the primary groundplane for a tilted 80 meter quarter wave vertical and an inverted-L for 160 meters, both fed from the same feedpoint. I used arrows for spreaders that I shoot from my compound hunting bow. A local archery shop glued string nocks on both ends of the arrows that clip tightly over the wires.
I operate internet remote from my home, which is 4.14 statute miles from the tower location. I have a 5 GHz Ubiquiti internet bridge that supplies internet to my home from the tower location to operate the radio equipment. From my home, I am operating on my own local area network with no detectable latency. I have also operated the station remotely over the internet from several different states, including Hawaii, and from the Cayman Islands. Operating internet remote is like being able to take your tower and antennas with you!
My internet remote radio station consists mainly of a Kenwood TS-480SAT,a Tokyo Hy-Power HL-1.5Kfx amplifier, and a Tokyo Hy-Power HC-1.5KAT automatic antenna tuner. I use the Remote Rig system to facilitate the internet remote base functionality. The Remote Rig system allows me to use the control head of the TS-480 from anywhere that I have access to the internet, in exactly the same way as if the control head was connected directly to the body of the radio with a cable. I utilize a Vivotek IP7133 camera to monitor the front panels of the amplifier and the antenna tuner over the internet.
I use a combination of the automatic band and antenna switching in the radio, the amplifier, and the antenna tuner to automatically switch antennas as I switch bands on the radio. The 80 and 160 meter antennas are tuned to near 1:1 VSWR within each band, but I use the automatic antenna tuner to cover the entire frequency range of those bands. The antenna tuner is bypassed for the other bands.
I ran separate feedlines to each antenna through I.C.E. 330N lightning arrestors. I ran 7/8" Heliax to the top of the tower to both the 6 meter yagi and the 10-20 meter log periodic. The low loss associated with 7/8" Heliax, having resonant antennas with minimum VSWR, and the fact that the radio equipment is located within 2 feet of the base of the tower for minimum feedline length, results in minimum feedline losses.
I have a Microbit 1216H Webswitch that I use to remotely control power to the antenna tuner and also to trigger a Deltrol DPDT 240 volt relay to control power to the amplifier over the internet. The Webswitch is also used to control a Yaesu G-2800DXA rotator over the internet that has an Idiom Press RS-232 board installed in the rotator control box. I can even access the internal webserver of the Webswitch to control the rotator with my smartphone.
When I decided to get back into Amateur Radio after being inactive for several years, I discovered that my callsign had expired beyond our 2 year grace period. I had to retest to get back on the air. My current callsign was obtained through the vanity callsign process.
I had planned to utilize the 180 feet Rohn 25 tower shown below that I had initially erected for a business repeater system on my parent's property on Crowley's Ridge. Crowley's Ridge is a narrow ridge running north/south through the otherwise flat farm country. Since the tower was located 4.14 miles from my home, I started configuring an internet remote station for access to the tower. But, as luck would have it, a tree trimming service got a Bobcat loader hung in a bottom guy wire and jerked the tower off its base and caused it to fall!!!
When the 180 feet Rohn 25 tower fell, I had the option of installing a new tower at my home and setting up a conventional radio station or installing a new tower at the same location on Crowley's Ridge and dealing with the added complications of an internet remote station. That decision was easy, especially since the base of the tower on Crowley's Ridge is 110 feet higher than my home! I installed 108 feet of Rohn 45 tower on the same base (luckily Rohn 25 and Rohn 45 both utilize a 3/4 inch pier pin). The only reason I did not put up 180 feet of Rohn 45 is that I have become afraid to climb and the antennas are therefore much more accessible at a lower height. 108 feet of tower was chosen because it put the log periodic about 1.5 wavelengths above the ground on 20 meters. The extra height above average terrain that is gained by having the tower on a hill lowers the takeoff angle on HF and provides excellent groundwave coverage for 6 meters. This relatively high rural location is also an inherently quiet location for receive. One advantage of height that is often overlooked, is the fact that antennas that are higher above the ground are farther away from noise sources and therefore significantly quieter on receive. The following picture shows the unobstructed view from the top of the new 108 feet Rohn 45 tower toward my home.
I installed an extensive ground system for lightning protection for the 180 feet tower that I now use for my amateur radio station, which includes a copper entrance panel mounted just inside the shop wall. The copper entrance panel is connected by two 6 inch copper straps to the designated single-point-ground rod that is within 2 feet of the copper entrance panel that all the lightning protection devices and radio equipment are connected to. I was also able to connect the AC power ground to my ground system near the base of the tower. This extensive ground system also provides extra groundplane for the 80/160 meter antennas, especially since the ground system is located directly under the near horizontal portion of the 160 meter inverted-L.
To make the ground system more effective, I took a backhoe and dug 3 shallow trenches in 3 different directions from the tower base and drove thirty one 8 feet ground rods into the ground, spaced 16 feet apart and connected by 1.5 inch copper strap. I also installed 3 ground rods at the base of each set of guy wires, resulting in a total of 40 ground rods! To take some of the manual labor out of driving 40 ground rods, I used a diesel powered portable air compressor to run a jack hammer with a ground rod attachment.
I operate HF mobile from my Toyota Tacoma pickup with a Kenwood TS-480HX. I built a bracket from C-channel to mount an electric linear actuator to lay the antenna down or stand the antenna up in about 6 seconds. The linear actuator is controlled with a rocker switch from within the cab of the pickup and I can even lay the antenna down or stand it up while traveling down the highway. Since the Tacoma has a composite inner bed, I also built a frame with angle iron to mount 18 guage sheet metal to the utility track at the top of the bed rails. Mounting the antenna in this way places the counterpoise directly at the feedpoint of the antenna to reduce common mode current on the coax, it raises the feedpoint as high as practicable above the lossy earth, it places the antenna as near as practicable to the center of the metal of the pickup, and it places the antenna about 2 feet behind the metal of the cab. I bonded the additional counterpoise with 4 ground straps to 4 of the 6 bolts that hold the composite inner bed to the pickup frame. I am currently running Hamstick type antennas for 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, and 40 meters, with plans to purchase or build a more efficient antenna for 20 and 40 meters. I can also access my internet remote base from my pickup.
The picture below is a closeup of the hinged part of my foldover. I use a RigExpert AA-30 antenna analyzer to measure the feedpoint impedance of my mobile antennas. I use a shunt coil to bring the resistive part of the feedpoint impedance to 50 ohms at resonance for my 20 meter Procomm (shown mounted) and for my 40 meter Hamstick (40 meter shunt coil shown laying on the counterpoise). I do not use shunt coils for my Hamstick type antennas for 17 meters and higher, since they provide a close enough match to 50 ohms.
I already had a RAM pedestal mount bolted to the passenger seat bolts for a Windows Tablet PC. I used additional RAM accessories to mount the head and body of the Kenwood TS-480HX. The head of a Kenwood TM-V71A is located in the forward cubbyhole in the lower console, with the body of the radio under the driver's seat.
The previous owner of a 1979 Piper Archer II that I owned in the late 90's had removed the ADF wire from the top of the plane and installed a belly mount antenna for the ADF receiver. Since the hardware was still on the plane, I had the ADF wire reinstalled and cut it for 1/4λ on 17 meters. I used an Icom 706 and MFJ antenna tuner to work airplane mobile. I had the avionics shop connect the Icom 706 through the audio panel as COM3 so that I keyed the mic on the yoke and talked/listened through my aviation headset. I also had a 1/4λ whip installed for 2 meters. I could make contacts on the ground on 17 meters. What initially suprised me though, was that HF signals would increase for about the first 200 feet above the ground and then not improve through 10,000 feet!
My second airplane was a 1988 M-7-235 Maule. I had a certified aircraft business band antenna installed on the top wing of the Maule for use with my business repeater system. I could easily hit my repeater at over 200 miles at altitudes above 5,000 feet.
My third airplane was a 2001 Mooney Bravo. The Bravo was such a nice airplane that I could never bring myself to allow holes to be drilled in it for an amateur radio antenna. Also, the Bravo was built for speed and I didn't want to give up a single knot! I tried using a Yaesu VX-6R handheld to work 2 meters from the Bravo, but the metal fuselage limited the range of the handheld and made the placement of the handheld antenna within the cockpit very critical.
My current airplane is a 2009 Diamond DA40 XLS. I had a Comant CI-292-3 bent whip aircraft antenna installed under the belly of the Diamond for 2 meters. I am using a Yaesu FTM-10R with the BU-2 Bluetooth module. I use the integrated Bluetooth in my Lightspeed Zulu aviation headset to connect to the Bluetooth enabled FTM-10R, which eliminates the need to wire the radio into the audio panel. I am currently only running 5 watts, because I am supplying power to the FTM-10R through the power port on the dash that is only rated for 2 amps. I mainly make contacts on 146.520 MHz. The Garmin G1000 glass cockpit and GFC 700 autopilot in the Diamond are more capable than the avionics in many jet aircraft! Being a ham, I am as interested in the avionics in an airplane as I am the actual airplane.
I grew up riding dirt bikes and later in life started riding street bikes. In 2001, I took my wife with me to purchase a Suzuki Hayabusa. Wrong, never take your wife with you to buy a Hayabusa, because you will come home with a Gold Wing! In 2005, I sold the Gold Wing and finally bought a Hayabusa. After about a year, my wife was threatening me if I did not "sell the Hayabusa and grow up". I never did understand what she meant by "grow up", but maybe it had something to do with riding the Hayabusa on the back wheel at over 100 mph?
In 2006, I compromised and bought a Yamaha FJR-1300 Sport Tourer. The FJR did not come from the factory with an intercom, so I installed one with a few extras. The radar detector would announce "KA band" through the intercom and the Garmin GPS would play MP3 music and announce turn-by-turn directions through the intercom. The cellphone was also connected through the intercom, as was a Yaesu VX-6R. The thumb operated microphone key for the VX-6R is the red button just below the left handlebar grip. The problem was that, at times, everything would start talking through the intercom at once, resulting in total information overload!
My son, KF5HAP, and I restored an old Dune Buggy. It is street legal. We were pleasantly surprised to find that DUNEBUG was available for a vanity license plate!
I love to hunt whitetail deer with a bow and predators with suppressed weapons. I enjoy reloading for all my firearms.
In 2011, my son Adam, daughter Ashley, and I all shot Pope and Young whitetail deer with our compound bows! As the saying goes, "Hunt with your kids today, so that you won't have to hunt to find your kids tomorrow".
I collect topographical survey data with RTK (centimeter accurate) GPS equipment for agricultural use, mainly for irrigation land leveling. Maybe I should mount a Hamstick behind the GPS receiver on the Argo and start a new type of amateur radio operation, "Amphibious Mobile"?
The tower is located at the corner of my father's former farm shop that has a 50x80 feet metal roof. The metal roof serves as the primary groundplane for a tilted 80 meter quarter wave vertical and an inverted-L for 160 meters, both fed from the same feedpoint. I used arrows for spreaders that I shoot from my compound hunting bow. A local archery shop glued string nocks on both ends of the arrows that clip tightly over the wires.
I operate internet remote from my home, which is 4.14 statute miles from the tower location. I have a 5 GHz Ubiquiti internet bridge that supplies internet to my home from the tower location to operate the radio equipment. From my home, I am operating on my own local area network with no detectable latency. I have also operated the station remotely over the internet from several different states, including Hawaii, and from the Cayman Islands. Operating internet remote is like being able to take your tower and antennas with you!
My internet remote radio station consists mainly of a Kenwood TS-480SAT,a Tokyo Hy-Power HL-1.5Kfx amplifier, and a Tokyo Hy-Power HC-1.5KAT automatic antenna tuner. I use the Remote Rig system to facilitate the internet remote base functionality. The Remote Rig system allows me to use the control head of the TS-480 from anywhere that I have access to the internet, in exactly the same way as if the control head was connected directly to the body of the radio with a cable. I utilize a Vivotek IP7133 camera to monitor the front panels of the amplifier and the antenna tuner over the internet.
I use a combination of the automatic band and antenna switching in the radio, the amplifier, and the antenna tuner to automatically switch antennas as I switch bands on the radio. The 80 and 160 meter antennas are tuned to near 1:1 VSWR within each band, but I use the automatic antenna tuner to cover the entire frequency range of those bands. The antenna tuner is bypassed for the other bands.
I ran separate feedlines to each antenna through I.C.E. 330N lightning arrestors. I ran 7/8" Heliax to the top of the tower to both the 6 meter yagi and the 10-20 meter log periodic. The low loss associated with 7/8" Heliax, having resonant antennas with minimum VSWR, and the fact that the radio equipment is located within 2 feet of the base of the tower for minimum feedline length, results in minimum feedline losses.
I have a Microbit 1216H Webswitch that I use to remotely control power to the antenna tuner and also to trigger a Deltrol DPDT 240 volt relay to control power to the amplifier over the internet. The Webswitch is also used to control a Yaesu G-2800DXA rotator over the internet that has an Idiom Press RS-232 board installed in the rotator control box. I can even access the internal webserver of the Webswitch to control the rotator with my smartphone.
When I decided to get back into Amateur Radio after being inactive for several years, I discovered that my callsign had expired beyond our 2 year grace period. I had to retest to get back on the air. My current callsign was obtained through the vanity callsign process.
I had planned to utilize the 180 feet Rohn 25 tower shown below that I had initially erected for a business repeater system on my parent's property on Crowley's Ridge. Crowley's Ridge is a narrow ridge running north/south through the otherwise flat farm country. Since the tower was located 4.14 miles from my home, I started configuring an internet remote station for access to the tower. But, as luck would have it, a tree trimming service got a Bobcat loader hung in a bottom guy wire and jerked the tower off its base and caused it to fall!!!
When the 180 feet Rohn 25 tower fell, I had the option of installing a new tower at my home and setting up a conventional radio station or installing a new tower at the same location on Crowley's Ridge and dealing with the added complications of an internet remote station. That decision was easy, especially since the base of the tower on Crowley's Ridge is 110 feet higher than my home! I installed 108 feet of Rohn 45 tower on the same base (luckily Rohn 25 and Rohn 45 both utilize a 3/4 inch pier pin). The only reason I did not put up 180 feet of Rohn 45 is that I have become afraid to climb and the antennas are therefore much more accessible at a lower height. 108 feet of tower was chosen because it put the log periodic about 1.5 wavelengths above the ground on 20 meters. The extra height above average terrain that is gained by having the tower on a hill lowers the takeoff angle on HF and provides excellent groundwave coverage for 6 meters. This relatively high rural location is also an inherently quiet location for receive. One advantage of height that is often overlooked, is the fact that antennas that are higher above the ground are farther away from noise sources and therefore significantly quieter on receive. The following picture shows the unobstructed view from the top of the new 108 feet Rohn 45 tower toward my home.
I installed an extensive ground system for lightning protection for the 180 feet tower that I now use for my amateur radio station, which includes a copper entrance panel mounted just inside the shop wall. The copper entrance panel is connected by two 6 inch copper straps to the designated single-point-ground rod that is within 2 feet of the copper entrance panel that all the lightning protection devices and radio equipment are connected to. I was also able to connect the AC power ground to my ground system near the base of the tower. This extensive ground system also provides extra groundplane for the 80/160 meter antennas, especially since the ground system is located directly under the near horizontal portion of the 160 meter inverted-L.
To make the ground system more effective, I took a backhoe and dug 3 shallow trenches in 3 different directions from the tower base and drove thirty one 8 feet ground rods into the ground, spaced 16 feet apart and connected by 1.5 inch copper strap. I also installed 3 ground rods at the base of each set of guy wires, resulting in a total of 40 ground rods! To take some of the manual labor out of driving 40 ground rods, I used a diesel powered portable air compressor to run a jack hammer with a ground rod attachment.
I operate HF mobile from my Toyota Tacoma pickup with a Kenwood TS-480HX. I built a bracket from C-channel to mount an electric linear actuator to lay the antenna down or stand the antenna up in about 6 seconds. The linear actuator is controlled with a rocker switch from within the cab of the pickup and I can even lay the antenna down or stand it up while traveling down the highway. Since the Tacoma has a composite inner bed, I also built a frame with angle iron to mount 18 guage sheet metal to the utility track at the top of the bed rails. Mounting the antenna in this way places the counterpoise directly at the feedpoint of the antenna to reduce common mode current on the coax, it raises the feedpoint as high as practicable above the lossy earth, it places the antenna as near as practicable to the center of the metal of the pickup, and it places the antenna about 2 feet behind the metal of the cab. I bonded the additional counterpoise with 4 ground straps to 4 of the 6 bolts that hold the composite inner bed to the pickup frame. I am currently running Hamstick type antennas for 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, and 40 meters, with plans to purchase or build a more efficient antenna for 20 and 40 meters. I can also access my internet remote base from my pickup.
The picture below is a closeup of the hinged part of my foldover. I use a RigExpert AA-30 antenna analyzer to measure the feedpoint impedance of my mobile antennas. I use a shunt coil to bring the resistive part of the feedpoint impedance to 50 ohms at resonance for my 20 meter Procomm (shown mounted) and for my 40 meter Hamstick (40 meter shunt coil shown laying on the counterpoise). I do not use shunt coils for my Hamstick type antennas for 17 meters and higher, since they provide a close enough match to 50 ohms.
I already had a RAM pedestal mount bolted to the passenger seat bolts for a Windows Tablet PC. I used additional RAM accessories to mount the head and body of the Kenwood TS-480HX. The head of a Kenwood TM-V71A is located in the forward cubbyhole in the lower console, with the body of the radio under the driver's seat.
The previous owner of a 1979 Piper Archer II that I owned in the late 90's had removed the ADF wire from the top of the plane and installed a belly mount antenna for the ADF receiver. Since the hardware was still on the plane, I had the ADF wire reinstalled and cut it for 1/4λ on 17 meters. I used an Icom 706 and MFJ antenna tuner to work airplane mobile. I had the avionics shop connect the Icom 706 through the audio panel as COM3 so that I keyed the mic on the yoke and talked/listened through my aviation headset. I also had a 1/4λ whip installed for 2 meters. I could make contacts on the ground on 17 meters. What initially suprised me though, was that HF signals would increase for about the first 200 feet above the ground and then not improve through 10,000 feet!
My second airplane was a 1988 M-7-235 Maule. I had a certified aircraft business band antenna installed on the top wing of the Maule for use with my business repeater system. I could easily hit my repeater at over 200 miles at altitudes above 5,000 feet.
My third airplane was a 2001 Mooney Bravo. The Bravo was such a nice airplane that I could never bring myself to allow holes to be drilled in it for an amateur radio antenna. Also, the Bravo was built for speed and I didn't want to give up a single knot! I tried using a Yaesu VX-6R handheld to work 2 meters from the Bravo, but the metal fuselage limited the range of the handheld and made the placement of the handheld antenna within the cockpit very critical.
My current airplane is a 2009 Diamond DA40 XLS. I had a Comant CI-292-3 bent whip aircraft antenna installed under the belly of the Diamond for 2 meters. I am using a Yaesu FTM-10R with the BU-2 Bluetooth module. I use the integrated Bluetooth in my Lightspeed Zulu aviation headset to connect to the Bluetooth enabled FTM-10R, which eliminates the need to wire the radio into the audio panel. I am currently only running 5 watts, because I am supplying power to the FTM-10R through the power port on the dash that is only rated for 2 amps. I mainly make contacts on 146.520 MHz. The Garmin G1000 glass cockpit and GFC 700 autopilot in the Diamond are more capable than the avionics in many jet aircraft! Being a ham, I am as interested in the avionics in an airplane as I am the actual airplane.
I grew up riding dirt bikes and later in life started riding street bikes. In 2001, I took my wife with me to purchase a Suzuki Hayabusa. Wrong, never take your wife with you to buy a Hayabusa, because you will come home with a Gold Wing! In 2005, I sold the Gold Wing and finally bought a Hayabusa. After about a year, my wife was threatening me if I did not "sell the Hayabusa and grow up". I never did understand what she meant by "grow up", but maybe it had something to do with riding the Hayabusa on the back wheel at over 100 mph?
In 2006, I compromised and bought a Yamaha FJR-1300 Sport Tourer. The FJR did not come from the factory with an intercom, so I installed one with a few extras. The radar detector would announce "KA band" through the intercom and the Garmin GPS would play MP3 music and announce turn-by-turn directions through the intercom. The cellphone was also connected through the intercom, as was a Yaesu VX-6R. The thumb operated microphone key for the VX-6R is the red button just below the left handlebar grip. The problem was that, at times, everything would start talking through the intercom at once, resulting in total information overload!
My son, KF5HAP, and I restored an old Dune Buggy. It is street legal. We were pleasantly surprised to find that DUNEBUG was available for a vanity license plate!
I love to hunt whitetail deer with a bow and predators with suppressed weapons. I enjoy reloading for all my firearms.
In 2011, my son Adam, daughter Ashley, and I all shot Pope and Young whitetail deer with our compound bows! As the saying goes, "Hunt with your kids today, so that you won't have to hunt to find your kids tomorrow".
I collect topographical survey data with RTK (centimeter accurate) GPS equipment for agricultural use, mainly for irrigation land leveling. Maybe I should mount a Hamstick behind the GPS receiver on the Argo and start a new type of amateur radio operation, "Amphibious Mobile"?
53328 Last modified: 2013-11-28 13:04:38, 15265 bytes
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