I made a couple of CW contacts with the HB-1A QRP rig today. It was harder going than I expected, as no-one replied to my CQs, and I couldn't use 20m because the noise level is so high I have to use the MFJ-1026 noise canceler, and that requires a radio that provides a TX switching signal, which the little QRP rigs don't do. So I had to hunt around for people who were not calling CQ DX and also sending at a speed that is comfortable for me.
On 30m I worked Vlada, OK1FLK who was running a 40 year old pair of ex-Army transmitter and receiver and 150W into a long wire. Then I went down to 40m and found Fred, DL3AMB near the European QRP frequency of 7.030MHz. Fred was using an Icom transceiver but only running 2W so this was a two-way QRP contact.
During lunch I set the HB-1A to 10.1387 USB and fed the output to my Samsung NC-10 netbook to see what WSPR beacons I could receive. I returned to find a whole screenful of decoded stations. The HB-1A is certainly sensitive and stable enough to use as an WSPR receiver but of course it has no audio modulator so it can't be used to transmit.
One problem I have found is that the audio starts to clip on any station whose strength exceeds S9 on the HB-1A meter. This distortion is evident using different headphones and earpieces, and even feeding the audio into a computer soundcard so I can look at it using a digimode program as an oscilloscope display. From the comments received so far on the HB-1A Yahoo! group this isn't a common problem so I guess I'm just unlucky. I don't have much in the way of test equipment so I can't troubleshoot the problem, but hopefully it's just a matter of adjustment and someone will tell me what to tweak.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Monday, October 05, 2009
New arrival from China
A knock on the door this afternoon heralded the arrival of my latest QRP radio - an HB-1A 3-band (40/30/20m) CW transceiver from China.
Shipment had taken just over a week and, unlike products ordered from the USA, there was no customs charge or VAT to pay, so the radio cost me a total of £165.
Opening the box revealed the radio extremely well packed in expanded polystyrene, plus a photo-printed card with a picture of BG2FX in his lab - presumably the builder. There was no manual, but the eBay listing had linked to an English language manual in PDF form that I could print out.
The radio itself seems very well made, the impression of solidity created by the heavy steel case which is well-painted in a black crackle finish. As this is intended to be a portable radio, an aluminium case would have saved a bit of weight.
Unscrewing two screws and removing the bottom of the case revealed a bit of a surprise - the two 4 x AA cell battery holders were not connected together or to the plug that connects them to the circuit board. I will have to solder together and insulate the wires myself. Four rubber stick-on feet were also inside the case, which I fitted to the bottom of the case before reattaching it.
Applying 12V DC from my shack power supply I was pleased to find that the HB-1A worked perfectly. There is no loudspeaker, output is headphones only, and best results were obtained using a pair of MP3 player style ear buds. The receiver is no match for a K2, but it is quite lively. Selectivity is reasonable and adjustable in three steps - 900Hz, 700Hz and 400Hz for CW - but stopband performance is quite poor: I could hear strong CW signals a few kHz away.
Although this is a CW-only transceiver it can receive LSB and USB as well. Tuning is continuous from below 40m to above 20m so you can even receive shortwave broadcasters by zero-beating the carrier. There is no bandswitch, but the HB-1A has 20 programmable memories which are pre-loaded with useful frequencies in each band such as the QRP CW frequencies - and the broadcast frequencies of Radio China!
The front panel key jack can accept either a straight key or a paddle. This is detected at power-on. However, for a straight key to be detected the center contact of the stereo jack must be grounded. Other radios I have go into continuous key-down unless this contact is open-circuited. Why can't there be a standard?
I was pleased to see that I got a genuine 5W output for 12V DC input. At 9V DC I measured 3W output. I haven't tried batteries yet as I have not yet wired up the internal battery holders.
The battery holders are a tight fit between components on the circuit board and there is no facility for charging rechargeable cells whilst they are installed. I will find removing the bottom of the case, removing the batteries to recharge them and then reinstalling them a bit of a nuisance, so I will be looking to install a socket so that they can be charged in situ.
Despite calling CQ on both 20m and 40m I haven't managed to have any contacts yet - I guess conditions aren't all that good right now.
With a power consumption less than half that of the FT-817 the HB-1A should give decent battery endurance on a set of rechargeable NiMH cells. This is going to be used as a portable HF rig, so the search is on for a small and equally robust Morse key for it. I'm trying to think how I can adapt the DinKey - which turned out to be such a disappointment when used with the FT-817 - so it can be plugged in to the 3.5mm key socket of the HB-1A.
That's all I have to say about this little Chinese radio for now, but I'm sure you'll be hearing more about it once I get everything set up for operation in the field - assuming that the weather plays ball!
Shipment had taken just over a week and, unlike products ordered from the USA, there was no customs charge or VAT to pay, so the radio cost me a total of £165.Opening the box revealed the radio extremely well packed in expanded polystyrene, plus a photo-printed card with a picture of BG2FX in his lab - presumably the builder. There was no manual, but the eBay listing had linked to an English language manual in PDF form that I could print out.
The radio itself seems very well made, the impression of solidity created by the heavy steel case which is well-painted in a black crackle finish. As this is intended to be a portable radio, an aluminium case would have saved a bit of weight.
Unscrewing two screws and removing the bottom of the case revealed a bit of a surprise - the two 4 x AA cell battery holders were not connected together or to the plug that connects them to the circuit board. I will have to solder together and insulate the wires myself. Four rubber stick-on feet were also inside the case, which I fitted to the bottom of the case before reattaching it.
Applying 12V DC from my shack power supply I was pleased to find that the HB-1A worked perfectly. There is no loudspeaker, output is headphones only, and best results were obtained using a pair of MP3 player style ear buds. The receiver is no match for a K2, but it is quite lively. Selectivity is reasonable and adjustable in three steps - 900Hz, 700Hz and 400Hz for CW - but stopband performance is quite poor: I could hear strong CW signals a few kHz away.Although this is a CW-only transceiver it can receive LSB and USB as well. Tuning is continuous from below 40m to above 20m so you can even receive shortwave broadcasters by zero-beating the carrier. There is no bandswitch, but the HB-1A has 20 programmable memories which are pre-loaded with useful frequencies in each band such as the QRP CW frequencies - and the broadcast frequencies of Radio China!
The front panel key jack can accept either a straight key or a paddle. This is detected at power-on. However, for a straight key to be detected the center contact of the stereo jack must be grounded. Other radios I have go into continuous key-down unless this contact is open-circuited. Why can't there be a standard?
I was pleased to see that I got a genuine 5W output for 12V DC input. At 9V DC I measured 3W output. I haven't tried batteries yet as I have not yet wired up the internal battery holders.
The battery holders are a tight fit between components on the circuit board and there is no facility for charging rechargeable cells whilst they are installed. I will find removing the bottom of the case, removing the batteries to recharge them and then reinstalling them a bit of a nuisance, so I will be looking to install a socket so that they can be charged in situ.
Despite calling CQ on both 20m and 40m I haven't managed to have any contacts yet - I guess conditions aren't all that good right now.
With a power consumption less than half that of the FT-817 the HB-1A should give decent battery endurance on a set of rechargeable NiMH cells. This is going to be used as a portable HF rig, so the search is on for a small and equally robust Morse key for it. I'm trying to think how I can adapt the DinKey - which turned out to be such a disappointment when used with the FT-817 - so it can be plugged in to the 3.5mm key socket of the HB-1A.
That's all I have to say about this little Chinese radio for now, but I'm sure you'll be hearing more about it once I get everything set up for operation in the field - assuming that the weather plays ball!
1000 miles per watt with an indoor antenna
Congratulations to John, N8ZYA for receiving the eQSL confirming his contact with LZ2BE on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, made using 5W of CW to an indoor Isotron antenna. At 5,219 miles, that works out at more than 1,000 miles per watt, so John can now claim for the QRP ARCI 1000 Miles Per Watt award to hang on his shack wall.
I suspect it may be easier, perversely enough, to make 1,000 miles per watt using only one watt of power, because then you only need to make a contact of over 1,000 miles, which can be done in a single hop. Looking back in my log, the contact I made with George, KZ1H near Boston, MA on 6 April 2009 using my MFJ Cub must surely qualify. I never even mentioned the contact at the time, as I'd spent the day putting a huff and puff VFO stabilizer into the Cub, and had made the contact simply to test it.
The distance from Boston to the west coast of England is over 3,000 miles, so even though the Cub put out getting on for 1.5 watts into my attic dipole, that's a comfortable 2,000 miles per watt. I only received a 419 report for my signal, compared to John's 559. However, KZ1H isn't a member of eQSL so I'm still waiting for a confirmation of the contact.
I suspect it may be easier, perversely enough, to make 1,000 miles per watt using only one watt of power, because then you only need to make a contact of over 1,000 miles, which can be done in a single hop. Looking back in my log, the contact I made with George, KZ1H near Boston, MA on 6 April 2009 using my MFJ Cub must surely qualify. I never even mentioned the contact at the time, as I'd spent the day putting a huff and puff VFO stabilizer into the Cub, and had made the contact simply to test it.
The distance from Boston to the west coast of England is over 3,000 miles, so even though the Cub put out getting on for 1.5 watts into my attic dipole, that's a comfortable 2,000 miles per watt. I only received a 419 report for my signal, compared to John's 559. However, KZ1H isn't a member of eQSL so I'm still waiting for a confirmation of the contact.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Almost worked W6
It has often puzzled and frequently frustrated me that I only ever seem to work Europe from here although the PSK Reporter website shows that my signals are often received in the USA.
This afternoon while having a PSK31 session on 20m running 40W to my attic dipole I once again noticed that my signal had been spotted by Leigh, WA5ZNU in California. Leigh is an Elecraft K2 owner, administrator of the Nabble interface to the Elecraft reflector and one of the developers of Fldigi and we have often exchanged emails so it would have been very nice to actually have a radio contact with him. However absolutely nothing from Stateside was being decoded on my screen.
I continued calling CQ and saw a faint trace that appeared to be replying to me. It was only just discernable visually from the noise and nothing at all was being decoded, so I replied "Sorry I have a high noise level here, I can see your trace but can't copy you at all." About a minute later an email appeared in my inbox from Leigh to say that he had tried calling me and had read my reply! He has a SteppIR at 12m and was running 20W, then tried 35W.
After a couple of minutes I had the idea to try my MFJ magnetic loop as it might pick up less noise. I asked Leigh to call again if he heard me, but he had already left for work. Perhaps we'll try tomorrow on the loop. Presumably Leigh's RX is still on as I have had a second spot from him using the magnetic loop. If PSK31 fails I guess we'll have to try CW!
This afternoon while having a PSK31 session on 20m running 40W to my attic dipole I once again noticed that my signal had been spotted by Leigh, WA5ZNU in California. Leigh is an Elecraft K2 owner, administrator of the Nabble interface to the Elecraft reflector and one of the developers of Fldigi and we have often exchanged emails so it would have been very nice to actually have a radio contact with him. However absolutely nothing from Stateside was being decoded on my screen.I continued calling CQ and saw a faint trace that appeared to be replying to me. It was only just discernable visually from the noise and nothing at all was being decoded, so I replied "Sorry I have a high noise level here, I can see your trace but can't copy you at all." About a minute later an email appeared in my inbox from Leigh to say that he had tried calling me and had read my reply! He has a SteppIR at 12m and was running 20W, then tried 35W.
After a couple of minutes I had the idea to try my MFJ magnetic loop as it might pick up less noise. I asked Leigh to call again if he heard me, but he had already left for work. Perhaps we'll try tomorrow on the loop. Presumably Leigh's RX is still on as I have had a second spot from him using the magnetic loop. If PSK31 fails I guess we'll have to try CW!
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Temporarily Without Access
Over the last few days my internet access has become unusably slow. It's normally OK first thing in the morning but from then on it's all downhill. I don't understand what the problem is. When I do one of the broadband speed tests I get close to 2Mbit/sec which is all I'm supposed to get anyway. But if I try to access anything to do with Google, or just about any website in the USA (which includes my own servers) then the pages can take a couple of minutes or more to load, if I'm lucky and don't get some browser error message instead. Even the BBC website is really slow.
I've been with my current phone company, OneTel, for about 8 years, and I get internet access from them too. Most other ISPs can only offer service if you rent your phone line from British Telecom (BT), which is why I've been reluctant to change providers even though I've been unhappy with the service from OneTel for quite a long time. I've read too many stories of people who have tried to switch phone companies and ended up without broadband or even a phone connection for weeks. But I've decided enough is enough, and in the hope of minimizing possible problems I'm going to try to switch to BT itself. Fingers crossed.
As I live in not only a VHF black hole but also a mobile phone marginal signal area, what I'm about to do counts as living dangerously. I do have a 3G broadband dongle which I got to use when I'm away but it's hard to find a place in the house where it can get a signal. If I get desperate I'll probably have to stuff a laptop in my rucksack and hike up a nearby hill.
So if at some point in the next few days I suddenly stop replying to email or posting to my blog, I haven't become SK, I'll just be TWA. Now to see if I can manage to post this...
I've been with my current phone company, OneTel, for about 8 years, and I get internet access from them too. Most other ISPs can only offer service if you rent your phone line from British Telecom (BT), which is why I've been reluctant to change providers even though I've been unhappy with the service from OneTel for quite a long time. I've read too many stories of people who have tried to switch phone companies and ended up without broadband or even a phone connection for weeks. But I've decided enough is enough, and in the hope of minimizing possible problems I'm going to try to switch to BT itself. Fingers crossed.
As I live in not only a VHF black hole but also a mobile phone marginal signal area, what I'm about to do counts as living dangerously. I do have a 3G broadband dongle which I got to use when I'm away but it's hard to find a place in the house where it can get a signal. If I get desperate I'll probably have to stuff a laptop in my rucksack and hike up a nearby hill.
So if at some point in the next few days I suddenly stop replying to email or posting to my blog, I haven't become SK, I'll just be TWA. Now to see if I can manage to post this...
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