WVDXA Meeting/W8JA Antenna/Misc
Charlie Young
I want to thank Jim and Mary for the wonderful hospitality hosting the Saturday WVDXA meeting. The food was great. I know it took a lot of time and expense preparing the food, and the QTH is fantastic. We all appreciate the effort put forth by Jim and Mary. A great time was had by all!! Sorry some could not make the meeting. Hopefully next time!
State Radio Convention
During the meeting we discussed various topics, one of which was the upcoming WV State Radio Convention in late July. Tom Weaver K8TW contacted me yesterday and offered to put together a presentation on beginning DXing
Using simple stations. He will also include general info about WVDXA and try to recruit some new members. Tom is a retired electrical engineer with AEP and has experience making industry presentations, so this is right down his alley!!
I will contact Ed Messenger today to advise of the WVDXA plan. Tom, we all appreciate your offer to do this and I am sure the rank and file hams attending the Convention will find your presentation interesting.
W8JA Antenna
Jim’s brother John W4ER purchased an end fed antenna plus some coax/rope/hardware and sent it to Jim’s local brother Mike. A coax (RG8X) has been run into Jimmy’s room from outside. A connector needs to be installed on each end of this cable, and the antenna run. On Wednesday morning the plan is to meet at the nursing home to install and hopefully commission the antenna for Jimmy. Mike KD8GWH and David W8IW have agreed to meet Mike Aeiker and me on Wednesday morning, tentatively at 8AM but we may push this back to 9AM. I have not seen the antenna or hardware yet, but do not expect this to be a major job. The biggest complication is installing the outside coax connector from an extension ladder. A hook support is already in place on the building for hanging the matching transformer. If we have hardware issues, we might have to complete the install on a 2nd trip.
Supposedly there are options for the counterpoise, ranging from none, to a ground rod, to a counterpoise wire. If no dedicated counterpoise connection is made, the antenna uses the common mode current on the coax shield to act as the counterpoise. This may work OK, but the feedline is entirely within the building and may cause RFI. We can test it to see how it works.
I will take some extra wire in case we feel the need to run a separate counterpoise wire. We can run it straight down to the ground and then along the ground beside the building, or alternately we could run it along the roof of the building just under the eaves. My preference would be not to drive a ground rod there but we could end up doing that. Options need to be discussed with the building maintenance man while we are doing the antenna install. I have not met this individual, but am told he is helpful.
Jimmy will only be running 100W so RFI may not be an issue. We want him to get out, so we may have to refine the counterpoise in future days.
Anyone who would like to help is welcome. We could especially use someone to do the connector install from a ladder, while others install the antenna. This would save some time. However, I am OK to work from a ladder if necessary.
We have waited too long to get W8JA back on the air, so hopefully his silent spell is about to end.
Dr Artz W8KRA
Steve has been working FT8 nearly every day thanks to WB8CQVV. It is great to have him on the air. His amplifier is repaired, reinstalled and making power. However, his antenna system has some issues. Fixing his antennas will likely require Joe Beam’s crew and that is for another day. However, the antennas are useable with a tuner. He has an MFJ tuner but this seems not up to the job. On Tuesday afternoon I am taking my MN2000 Drake tuner over for him to use. This simplifies the tuning adjustments, as it eliminates the variable coil and instead uses fixed inductor taps with a manual bandswitch. I handles power no problem. I am hopeful this will address his tuner issues and provide a constant, low VSWR load for that big Commander amplifier.
Steve’s rotator system, which we recently repaired, has stopped turning the antenna. It is unknown if the problem is in the controller, the motor unit, or somewhere between. I suspect the controller. I have a known working controller and will take it over there on Tuesday afternoon. We will be able to check the motor circuit and the control cable from the shack end. If the problem is the rotor motor, we may have to get a climber in order to proceed. Hopefully the controller is the issue, and if it is, we should get him operational.
Tree Trimming
Last but not least, my own system needs maintenance. A tree in interfering with turning my EME array north past 90 degrees. With any luck, I can get the battery manlift for the weekend and fix this problem. I might hopefully get the 2M antennas down so they can be modified to XPOL in the coming weeks.
73 Charlie N8RR
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