Here are some random recollections of recent QSOs:
Triple play!
At WA2HOM Saturday, I decided to forego the CQWW CW contest and make some phone contacts. After listening to some guys on 20m, I switched to 15m and found that it was open. Tuning around, I heard Alvaro, EA2BY working some guy on the East Coast. Now, I don’t have “BY” in my collection of QSL cards from stations whose callsigns spell words, so I hung around until he was finished with the East Cost QSO and got him in the log on the first call. He was running only 20 W, but had a four-element, 15m quad, so he had a pretty good signal.
After that QSO, I tuned around a bit more, then decided to call CQ. I called CQ three or four times before IW1ARK came back to me. That made two!
Just before I left the museum, I decided to tune around on 20m phone. That’s where I worked Bob, W0ROB, to complete the triple play. Bob and I had a great conversation about amateur radio stations in museums. He used to go to Arizona for the winter and has operated W7ASC, the station at the Arizona Science Center.
2m loop
About a week ago, I was blabbing with a couple of guys from one of my Tech classes on the W8UM repeater (145.23-, 100 Hz tone, W8UM-R on EchoLink) when Ron, NB8Q, broke in. Ron was using a 2m loop antenna that he just built. What made the remarkable is that it was inside his mobile home! I told him that he should make a reflector, but he said that he didn’t have enough space for it in his mobile home.
W5LJT (SK)
This evening, I got some bad news. Bill, W5LJT, is now an SK.
i always enjoyed talking to Bill. He liked to talk about the Detroit Red Wings. Despite living in the Houston area, he was a long-time hockey fan, going back to his days as a student at Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. He told me that sometimes he would take a train from South Bend to Detroit to catch a Red Wings game at the Olympia Stadium.
My log says that I had 27 QSOs with Bill over the past ten years. I’m sorry that I won’t be having another one.
Yohei, N8YQX says
Can you provide more information on the 2m loop antenna? I’ve seen commercial 2m loops (ie: M2 HO Loop), but they were typically meant for weak signal (horizontal polarization). Are we talking about the same concept, with the broadside facing the repeater, or is there some magical antenna I have not heard about yet?
Dan KB6NU says
The loop is simply a full-wavelength of wire. If you feed it in the middle of the bottom side, polarization is horizontal. If you feed it at a corner or in the middle of the right or the left side, polarization will be vertical. See http://pa0fri.home.xs4all.nl/Ant/Quad/quadeng.htm for more info.
Yohei, N8YQX says
Thanks for the feedback.
Looking at the article, and running some simulations over real ground, it doesn’t look like I can get the proper feed point impedance using this design for 2m. For the antenna to work properly, it would need to clear the house, which means it’ll be 5 to 10 WL above ground. At that height, the feed point impedance is about 140-ohms.
It’s too bad, since the bandwidth of the antenna seems really wide for a 2m antenna.
Maybe this is a solution for HOA restricted situation only?
Dan KB6NU says
Use some kind of matching network at the feedpoint. Another idea would be to make it not square, but rectangular. See the post on my 10m loop antenna. The SWR for that antenna is very close to 1:1.