My first F2 at 50MHz: 10th Match 2023 to OC

I left TRX switched ON. What a surprise when I look at PC in the morning. A few nice decoded lines from FK8CP. Little bit later first VK4 went through. It was easy to work VK4FNQ. VK4KEE was the second one. I did copy FK8CP again but I was not able to work him. But nice to see VK stations for 3+ hours and worked 3x DU: DU3LA, DU6/PE1NSQ and DU1/SP5APW. All these QSOs were in +- 70 °.

 February 2023 TEP 50 MHz conditions to Africa

18.2. 2023

21.2. 2023

23. and 24.2. 2023

28.2. 2023 NEW ONE FR4OO

TROPO DUCTING at 2m and 70cm

There was nice tropo ducting after some time. I went to OL7M HF contest QTH, where I do have my remote RIG. I had to change MRF9180 transistor in my small (BY) PA. This QTH is around 300 m asl. and antenna is in 15 m but in W to NW there is a wood.

I made first DX on Sunday evening with GM4YXI with only 3 W and 12 el G0KSC at 1494 km.

OY9JD is my Tropo 2m ODX and nice surprise. He went in and out for 5 hours at distance 1961 km. With around 50 W and 12 el Yagi. 

70 cm remote from cottage (JN89cj):

I went to cottage on Monday evening with some things because we moved there two days later. I wanted to install simply 2 m remote there with my Adalm Pluto SDR with front ends and 7 el Yagi. But I forgot right coax cable :( But I had 70 cm 12 el DG7YBN. The front end is able to run around 4 W RF out. So I installed antenna just a meter above the ground into one small hole between other cottages. Direction around 320 deg. When I connected the antenna, there were no signal, no noise increase. Front end has got very low gain - I count with a pream in the future. Anyway I was able to made many OZ stations and even SM0DJW at 1017 km with less than 4 W and 12 el @ 1m.

Adalm Pluto SDR with the Front Ends: 4m, 2m, 70 cm

LoRa APRS 70 cm tropo:

Also LoRa 433 MHz had got some good DXes. Compare to my remote QTH in JO80CF, the conditions in 1100 m asl. were one day later compare to 300 m asl. You can see nice DX with very small power in mW but with very great LoRa modulation. OK2ZAW-13 is my tracker in car with mobile antenna. OK2ZAW-17 is solar powered DiGi.

LoRa tracker in my car

Stations heard by OK2ZAW-17 in 1100m asl.

OK2ZAW-17 copied by anothers. PWR 10 dBm + 4x dipoles

 

Please visit our new e-shop :)

 Extra Virgin Can 70 - cavity filter for 70cm :)

Vodafone build new GSM site here at the roof in my job. There are three antenna systems for 800 and 900 MHz and this killed my experiments with LoRa at 433 and 868 MHz. I have found very nice cavity filter for 868 MHz at Aliexpress which works great but I need something also for 433 MHz. 

I found 5 l can in my stock with drilled holes and N connectors. Marek OK2DL drilled it many years ago when I ordered these cans for 50 Ohm oil dummy loads :) I have decided to try it. 3D printed part helped with mechanical stability and works also as a nut holder. Tunning screw is metal, what is a bad idea but I do not have better now... The result is not so bad! I focused to very low Insertion Loss where the result is lower stopband and also higher BW. There, the IL is around 0,7 dB and 3 dB BW 9MHz. By the moving the internal loops from the tunning screw you are able to obtain better stopband but higher IL.

 LoRa APRS digi and LoRa Packet Radio experiments

LoRa boards are becoming very popular in the HAM community. Advantage is in price and also incredible sensitivity. With very small power (20-80 mW) you are able to make DX over hundrets of km. 

I have updated my LoRa point in Eagle Mountains to ver. 4.0 :) a few weeks ago. It is solar powered hardware with 4el for DiGi OK2ZAW-17, WX station OK2ZAW-15 (broken wind sensors) and new LoRa Packet Radio experimental 2m APRS RX, node and BBS (OK2ZAW-1 and -7). 

Very nice Tropo ducting came a few days after update. New ODX DF0AP-15 and 707 km!

Inside of the box: LoRa WX station, 2x solar power system (own design), Raspberry pi zero with LoRa module and RTL-SDR for 144,8 MHz APRS RX.

New Packet Radio has LoRa module as a link radio. Raspberry Pi zero works as BBS, node and 2m APRS receiver. All decoded packets from 2m are sent by the LoRa link down to another Raspberry and then to APRS network. Power consumption of the raspberry is 1W + RTL-SDR (running) 1W. Weather station measure temperature, presure, wind (demaged sensor) and voltage of the ACU:

Decoded LoRa packet Radio with APRS packets down at OL7M QTH.