Sunday, 19 February 2023

MINI SHACK PC

FANLESS MINI-PC FOR THE SHACK

My main PC is a gaming machine designed to cope with the insatiable demands of modern Flight Simulations and I decided to move it to a spare room where there's space for all the associated paraphernalia like throttle, stick, rudders, big screen, etc.

In it's place, I put a Laptop in the shack but I really disliked how it took up so much desk space and offered little in the way of display screen, plus it pelted out a fair old amount of fan noise from a side vent. So I had to find a better solution!

Looking around I found some MINI PC's on our local shop's website and was intrigued by their compact size and the fact that they were fanless.

As much as I liked the idea of one of these tiny, silent PC's, I didn't much like the prices - yikes! So I figured there might be some on the second-hand market and started to search eBay for one. There weren't many up for sale and the prices were still a bit on the choppy side.

I then looked on Facebook MarketPlace and spotted someone local selling a mini PC that was small but not quite as tiny as the ones I'd been looking at. Worth a look though, so I went to the seller's house.

 

It was a very compact and fanless PC with an Intel i7 CPU running at 1.8GHz which should be fast enough for any of the radio-based software I'd be running. It also had 16Gb of DDR4 RAM which seemed very generous compared to some of the offerings on Scan's Website.

The unit had a 250Gb M.2 SSD which again, was ample for my requirements. It even had a built-in Wi-Fi Router and room inside the case for another drive and extra memory. It was installed with Windows 10 PRO and came with a mouse and keyboard.

EDIT : 26 Feb : A friend had a brand new, boxed 250Gb M.2 SSD and sold it to me for £20, so the storage space has now been doubled! 

The guy showed me he'd paid £500 and was only asking £300 for it which seemed reasonable, so I bought it. Result!

When I got home with it, I had a closer look and was impressed with the 8 USB sockets (four USB2 & four USB3). There were 2 LAN ports, one Display Port, one eDP port and an HDMI port. There was also a handy audio In/Out pair of jacks.

Once I'd installed it in the shack it was time to load some software and see how it performed with my most often used programs such as ELAD FDM SW2, SDR UNO and EXPERT ELECTRONICS SDR2. These can be quite demanding, so I needed to know if the PC was capable of coping without any stuttering and without me having to fuss over the operation.

I noted that although the processor's base speed is 1.8GHz, it appears to be running at over 3 GHz and every test went well. Using my main shack radio (ELAD FDM DUO) and the SW2 software, there were no operational problems whatsoever - even when I had 4 receivers running. I could also open QRZ to access my logbook without any hint of choppiness. 

There was a brief episode of locked mouse-cursor and I couldn't figure out why, but then I discovered it was because I'd inserted a 128Gb Micro SD Card which it didn't like much. As soon as I removed it, everything went back to normal.

 
I'm over the moon with my little bargain. It fits into the shack very well and takes up very little space as you can see in the photo. The fact that's it's fanless is a real bonus because it means there are NO noises (which seems a bit weird at first). 

As for temperatures, yes, those cooling fins get quite hot when it's running multiple receivers on a 2K screen (2560x1440) but I use a neat app called CORE TEMP which not only monitors the temperatures of each CPU core, but takes action if things got too hot by putting the computer into sleep mode until things cool down. I've tried my best to overcook the processor by running multiple demanding programs, but it doesn't seem to phase it. Sure, temps get quite high in those circumstances and things go from green to amber, but no red - so far.


So basically, this little gem is perfectly capable of running any of the SDR software that I use and more! It's capable of running three monitors too but to be honest, a 2560 x 1400 desktop is plenty big enough to have multiple windows open such as WSJT-X, GRIDTRACKER and SDR software.

£300 for all this?? That'll do! 😍

Video-Clip of the Mini-PC running ELAD FDM SW2 software...



73, Tom M7MCQ.

Sunday, 12 February 2023

HOBBIES - WHY DO WE DO IT?

Over the years I've had countless conversations with people who almost mockingly ask about my hobbies. And I'm not just talking about strangers - friends and family can be guilty of it too!

Obviously, these negative people have no hobbies themselves and they make their mocking remarks without having any real knowledge or understanding of what they're criticising. 

I used to try and justify why I had hobbies, but in more recent years I just stopped trying and I'd change the conversation away from me and my apparently "strange and anti-social ways".

I must admit I do have a lot of hobbies - perhaps more than most...

  1. MODEL MAKING
    (Plastic - aircraft, cars and bikes)
    (Wood - boats and ships)
     
  2. MOTORBIKES
    (Riding - Sports & Touring)
    (Rebuilding Classics)
     
  3. PAINTING
    (Watercolour, Oil, Acrylics)
    (Digital Painting)
     
  4. PHOTOGRAPHY
    (Formerly Film, now Digital)
      
  5. COMPUTING
     (Using & Building)

  6.  AVIATION
    (General Interest)
    (Flight Simulation)

  7. AMATEUR RADIO
    (Operating QRP Outdoors)
    (HF, VHF, UHF)
    (C4FM, DSTAR, DMR)
    (Analogue & Digital)
    (Electronic Kit Building)
    (Experimenting)
     
  8. ShortWave Listening
    (Aviation, DX Broadcast, etc)
      
  9. READING, WALKING, MUSIC and more that have fell by the wayside.

Well, as you can see, I keep myself pretty busy with one thing or another. I do my best not to become obsessive about one particular hobby and regularly move from one to the other. Because amateur radio has so many facets to it and is ever-changing, I probably spend most of my leisure time messing with radio one way or another.

Anyway, back to the reason WHY?

I have never quite understood why hobbies have attracted me so greatly. When most other people get some leisure time, they sit back, watch TV, go to the pub or scroll their life away on their iPhone.

I just can't do that! All my adult life I've had this "feeling" that time is running out and I should be doing something  worthwhile - something constructive - something creative. Making something! Making something happen!

Is that odd? I really don't know. Maybe it's because my father died when he was just 27 years old. I used to worry about reaching that age and following suit, lol. And then when I had my first child, he too died young (15) so that probably reinforced the idea that I need to crack on with something. Of course having a terminally ill child means that you spend those years meeting other families with terminally ill children, further strengthening this feeling.

As I've got older and "climbed the ladder" at work, I've been under more and more stress. I am now the Operations Director at a small company and that basically means that I'm responsible for everything! I have to succeed in every task - which is not always possible - or it takes much longer than you'd like due to having to learn new skills. The pressure can be intense and there are often failures before success comes along!

And this is where I discovered the answer to the question "Why do I have so many hobbies"?

Success! Hobbies can provide success. As daft as it sounds, that only dawned on me a couple of weeks ago. I'd had a particularly stressful week at work and was feeling drained by the end of it. Over the weekend I decided to build a V-POLE using a couple of cheap telescopic whips I'd purchased from China.

 
The antenna experiment went really well and worked much better than I had anticipated. I was feeling elated and my spirits were lifted!

Almost without you realising, these small successes can provide much needed healing and can counter the damaging effects of stress. Sure, some of my hobbies drive me around the bend with their technical complexity, but unlike work, they're voluntary and I can always walk away or seek help from smarter people.

So now, when someone asks me about my 'geeky hobbies', I have an answer that makes them realise that they're missing out.

Enjoy your hobbies - they're good for you. Ignore the ignorant!

73, Tom, M7MCQ.


Wednesday, 1 February 2023

RuckShack

RuckShack!

Ooow, I invented a new word 😂

For a few years now, I've used a LowePro Camera Bag for transporting my radio gear when outdoors on a Field Day or Sota outing. It's proven to be a fabulous choice, being light, comfortable and accommodating.

It's been very flexible in terms of what can be secured in there. The padded dividers can be configured to fit virtually any item thanks to their Velcro fixings and because there's more than you usually need, you can use spare dividers as covers to prevent stuff falling out when you open the rucksack.

This particular model is the Lowepro LP36892-PWW Tahoe 150  and only costs £60 on Amazon, but I actually paid £40 for mine as a second hand item on Ebay. It was in perfect, as-new condition!. It's had a few years of use and abuse now, but it's proved to be tough as old boots.  

And then lo and behold, I spotted another minter on Facebook MarketPlace yesterday for £30, so I snapped that up too. The guy only lived 4 miles away, so that meant I could check it out before paying.


The Tahoe 150 not only has room for my radios, batteries and accessories, but also has a zipped storage area for all those bits and bats that come in very handy out in the field - a selection of adapters, a pigtail, a compass, knife, etc.

It also stores my SotaBeams/Hawkins antennas in the front cover along with a pencil and notepad. On the side of the rucksack it has a net pocket which holds my telescoping mast and has a quick release strap higher up to keep it stable.

Having found another of these versatile carriers (at a bargain price), I can make up a second 'RuckShack' ready to go, instead of swapping out radios and rearranging the dividers every time.

Highly recommended product!

73, Tom, M7MCQ.


#ruckshack #lowepro #sota #sotabeams #elecraft #icom #pota #camera-bag

Friday, 20 January 2023

ELECRAFT AX1 MOD by AH6X

Elecraft AX1 Review and Modification

By Rob Ramsey, AH6X

I recently purchased and received an Elecraft AX1 antenna. Since then, I’ve tested it and made two significant modifications that I found helpful and wished to share. 

Though the stock antenna configuration works as advertised, through experimentation, I have discovered it is possible to make it resonant on 10, 12, 15, 17, or 20m. 

Elecraft markets the AX1 as a field expedient antenna that supports operation on the 15, 17, and 20m bands with a tuner. Some tradeoffs were made as packaged: a single 13ft radial, the 46.25in whip, and a 20m/17m switched coil assembly. The stock configuration lives up to its branding and delivers an experience proportional to its compromises. However, more is possible. 

The AX1’s vertical element is too short to be resonant on 20m. This limitation can be overcome by adding additional coil or by using a slightly longer whip antenna. 

The single radial is a similar situation; with a 13ft length, it’s not resonant on any specific amateur band. A multi-element radial could be used with resonant lengths for each of the desired operating bands. These trade-offs were probably made for a variety of reasons. 

First, using this antenna in a resonant multi-band configuration requires an antenna analyzer to tune the whip length properly. 

Second, using a longer whip and multi-element radial would increase the cost. 

Third, a longer whip and multi-element radial weighs more and would take up more room than the stock parts. 

Fourth, a longer whip is less stable when mounted to a small tripod or the radio.

Lastly, tuning the antenna and fanning the radials out would take longer than the original deployment strategy, diminishing the antenna’s field expediency. 


Given a choice, many radio amateurs will choose an antenna analyzer over a tuner. Over the last two weeks, I’ve created and tested a 15/17/20m multi-element radial and, with the help of Jon (KG7KMV), an antenna adaptor for the AX1 coil assembly. 

The multi-element radial has been cut per the standard calculations (see charts at bottom of post), and the adaptor allows me to connect any 3/8-24 threaded whip to the 4mm x 0.70 threaded coil assembly.

 The BuddiPole product line has a large variety of telescoping whips. For this project, I used their Featherweight whip, which extends to 72in (6ft) and collapses down to 13in. With it, the antenna can be easily tuned by collapsing or extending the telescoping whip. 

For the multi-element radial, I used Super Antenna MS135 SuperWire with a 14-16 AWG spade connector and some heat shrink tubing. For storage, I wrap the radial around a SOTABeams wire-winder

This custom configuration allows for a 3:1 SWR in the 10, 12, 15, 17, and 20m bands. Overall, I really like the Elecraft AX1 antenna. It’s a good product, made resonant, with just a few adjustments. See images below. 

I also made a "tool roll". My mother-in-law showed me how to sew a wrench roll for my Elecraft AX1 antenna. I use a similar setup for my Super Antenna. The fabric is light, protects the parts, and makes antenna transport easy.

Let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks in advance! 

Rob, DE AH6X. 

Many thanks for your contribution to the Blog Rob! 
A very interesting read. I love this sort of stuff.

Tom, M7MCQ.















Elecraft AX1 mini-review HERE

Wednesday, 18 January 2023

ELECRAFT XG3 SIGNAL GENERATOR

ELECRAFT'S BEST KEPT SECRET?


Since starting to mess around building radio-related kits, I've recognised the value of having tools in the shack to assist with the hobby, but things like signal generators are normally too complex (to me anyway), too bulky and too expensive.

A case in point was when I needed to calibrate my PreppComm MMX and had to burden my friend Chris at Cross Country Wireless with the task.

Enter the Elecraft XG3! It certainly addresses two of the issues - size and complexity, but they're still on the expensive side at $300 😮 

 



 
The XG3 can be used for a variety of jobs including receiver testing, receiver alignment, RF tracing and a variety of other tasks. Not only does it generate a calibrated continuous wave signal, but it can also be programmed to send RTTY or CW!

With the free downloadable software, you can program the XG3 to act as a Beacon, repeatedly sending a message - ideal for Fox Hunts or RBN tests. I couldn't quite figure out the syntax of the programming language, so I emailed Elecraft Support and the came back immediately with a great response. I now have "CQ TEST CQ TEST M7MCQ M7MCQ" set in Memory #1.

Most of the time though, you'd be using it to test radio equipment and to assist you with that, it has a number of useful presets.

The RF output has 4 presets ranging from -107dBm through to 0dBm and includes a -73 setting which is particularly handy for testing the accuracy of your S-Meters, since -73dBM is equivalent to S9.

There are 12 Band Settings from 160M to 2M. These are preset to certain frequencies but you can adjust these using the computer software mentioned previously. You can change these frequencies to anything ranging from 1.5 to 1400MHz but great accuracy is only guaranteed below 200MHz. Anything above that relies on the harmonics of the fundamental of the RF signal.


 
Another handy feature of the XG3 is the SWEEP function. Using the PF1 or PF2 buttons, you can initiate a sweep of the signal across a range of frequencies programmed by you.


On the top of the XG3 case is an input for an external power supply, a PC programming port and the RF-Out connector which is BNC. At the rear of the case is a battery tray to carry the 9V PP3 battery. Thankfully, the unit has reverse-polarity protection, because it's oh so easy to put it in wrong 😳

So there you have it. A very nice addition to the shack at a great saving on the new price. I'm quite sure this will be a very handy unit to have around for me and my radio buddies.

73, Tom, M7MCQ.


WM,[15}CQ_TEST_CQ_TEST_M7MCQ_M7MCQ;PF,01,01;

Sunday, 15 January 2023

ANTENNAS : DIY V-DIPOLE (Part 1)

DIY TELESCOPIC-V ANTENNA £35

This is the story of a little antenna experiment. I haven't really got a clue what I'm doing, but I never let that hold me back, lol. 

I was recently walking the streets of eBay when I stumbled upon a pair of telescopic whips with what appeared to be 3/8 UNF threaded ends. This reminded me of an antenna I'd seen on the ML&S website - a MyDel JPC-7 , which was basically a telescopic V antenna mounted on top of a tripod, with loading coils for each leg of the antenna. At £340 it seemed a tad expensive, but in all fairness, you got everything you needed including the tripod and carry-case.

The telescopic whips in question are each over 5M long when fully extended and a pair can be obtained from ML&S for £50, but on eBay I found them for £24. 

Now bear in mind, the cheaper whips that I bought are probably of a lower quality than those offered by ML&S.

When the package arrived a few days after ordering, I was saddened to see that there was only one whip in the box, so I lodged a complaint and quickly received another, along with a 10% refund.

The next thing to order was a V-Shape Dipole Centre, 3/8 to SO-239 at a cost of £11. This would provide the mounting point for the Dipole and give it the V-shape layout for the whips. How strong it is, I'm not really too sure at this point, but it does seem pretty good for light, portable use (ie, not left on top of a roof in howling winds forever).


 
The next hurdle to get over was how to mount the whips to a mast. I had a mast in mind already (my Diamond AM450 4.5M). I started out by fixing the V-Centre SO-239 to a stainless-steel plate from work and drilling holes in the plate to accept a vertically oriented mount or a 45 degree mount (to switch from V to L).



On the reverse side I mounted a Grounding Plug terminated with a female banana socket so that I could easily connect a ground.


With the mast at full height and the whips fully extended to 10 metres, the antenna will obviously be quite a handful without being guyed off. Thankfully, the AM-450 has a built-in guy-ring, so all I'll need is a few lengths of paracord and some tent-pegs.

OOPS!! Change of mind. Although the above design looked really neat and compact, I soon realised that it offered nothing in terms of support to the long whips. Maybe they don't need it - but I was uncomfortable nonetheless, so I went bigger.




Having more space to work with meant that I could offer some support, even though it's only a small amount. I achieved it by placing bolts in the upper corners and isolated them from the whip using part of a Sharpie Pen. Well, you gotta use what's laying around don't you? 😂




I did a quick test to see how it looked but it was incredibly windy, which meant I couldn’t really extend the whips. I did try, but I could see it had all the potential for going pear-shaped, so I only extended the first three sections.



To be honest, I was also not much in the mood for spending any more time outside in the bitter cold after just spending 3 hours cleaning my drive 🥶 
 

Although the weather brightened up by the time the drive was finished, it had got much colder. I’m convinced there’s snow on the way! I’ll just have to wait for a better day to do my trials, but at least I feel happy with the antenna support - it seemed to be strong enough and stable on the Diamond AM-450.

So far so good. But there's a couple of very important components missing here, and that's the loading coils. You can, of course, purchase these loading coils and probably even make your own, but first of all, I wanted to see it I could get away without them by  tweaking the whip lengths and using my Elecraft T1 ATU.

I figured that the best way to start out would be to erect the antenna and connect my NanoVNA to get an idea of where I stood on each band and then adjust the whip-lengths to find the best possible setting. I wasn't really expecting to achieve much, other than to give my tuner the best chance of finding a match. 

The next day the weather improved slightly, so I erected the antenna on the patio, connected a ground wire and raised the mast to 4 metres high. Sadly, my VNA refused to power up, so that looks like another little project to strip it down and see if I can find out what’s gone wrong with it 🤬

In the absence of an analyser, I decided to go straight to the antenna test with each leg of the dipole extended to 5.28M.  I fitted a 1:1 balun to prevent the coax becoming an RF radiator, connected the ATU and jumped onto the 20M band.

I could see straight away from the busy waterfall that the antenna was pulling in plenty of signals on this band. It was quite busy and so I attempted to make some contacts with my IC-705 on its maximum 5W output (internal battery).
 


My first QSO was with Ricardo (LX2AM) in Luxembourg. He was struggling to hear me but was very patient and gave me a 13 signal report. Not the start I was hoping for. Soon after though, I switched to the 17M band and got a 55 from Antonio (IU6QLJ) in Italy.

After that, I got another three contacts on 20M (DL0AH, DH1TT, F4ELA) before switching to 15M to get a 59 from II2WRTC.

Then I moved to 40M and made contact with G3SIG before finally speaking with SP8ALT on 10M.


The rain and wind decided to spoil the fun, so I quickly dismantled the antenna and called it a day. I was quite pleased with this initial test and it was good to make contact on 5 bands. I was surprised to see that the antenna also tuned up on the 6M band (50.300MHz SSB) but there was no one around to answer my CQ calls.

The thing to bear in mind is that this first test was done in a poor location and I very much look forward to trying it out from a hillside or seaside, which is where it would naturally be used.

I also need to look at MAYBE buying or making a loading coil because some bands just couldn’t be tuned - not even with the mighty Elecraft T1 😮. The only trouble with introducing a loading coil is that I’d need two - one for each whip - and I’m not sure I want to go that far. If it gets too complicated, I’d probably just use my SotaBeams Linked Dipole.

The attraction of the V-Antenna is that it has a relatively small footprint which makes it handy to use in certain places.

Ah well, we’ll see what happens in the next test, where I’ll be at a much better take-off location.



Until then, best 73, Tom, M7MCQ.

UPDATE <<< 5th FEB 2023
I altered the mounting plate (again). This time I used a UPVC Chopping Board! It’s light, strong and simple to work with. It also spreads the support-posts further apart from each other which helps.

Today I decided to see if I could get it to work on 4M, so I started by extending each leg to around 1100mm long and connected it to my NanoVNA. I guess I got lucky because the SWR was 1.12:1

With a little more fiddling, I got a perfect match and so I attached my Wouxun KG-UV8G and put out a call. Immediately, my friend Bill (G4CFP) returned to the CQ. He lives in the same town as me, so it was no test of reach, lol 😂 but at least it proved it worked. He said it sounded perfect, so that’s a good start.

Just need to spend a day on top of Winter Hill with it.



G4CFP


UPDATE <<< 7th FEB 2023
I mentioned that the whips were cheap and cheerful at £24 for the pair, well it turns out the quality was not good. One of the end sections completely came out and I suspect that the others will be equally vulnerable. Once this happens, there's no going back because they become very loose - to the point where you would end up taping them to hold them in place.

Obviously that's not good, so I've sent off for a new pair from ML&S.

Buy cheap, buy twice!! 😳