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A very small active antenna

Small active antennas like the “mini-whip” (by PA0RDT) are very popular at the moment. They provide good reception of signals from HF all the way down to the VLF band. Here in the Netherlands Van Dijken Elektronica sells a nice…

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The “PoRG”

The “PoRG” is a very simple but useful device in your ham shack. “PoRG” is an abbreviation for “Power over RG-cable” and allows you to put DC on your antenna cable. Some people call it a phantom power supply. With…

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Summary of our 2014 PACC contest

Another PACC contest for me and Adrian PA0RDA. This year we participated in the D1 multi-operator two-transmitter class for the first time. We did a very good job, we improved our own score, again, which is always our main goal…

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CLog 0.9b released

Today I released CLog version 0.9b, the command-line hamradio logbook. Although still beta, the software appears to be reliable now, even when used in multi-operator contests. These are the changes in CLog 0.9b:

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HB9CV-in-a-box antenna for 23cm

The HB9CV has been a popular antenna for decades, especially on the 2m band where it is commonly used for direction finding (foxhunt). Others create arrays of HB9CV antennas for DXing. Since I needed a simple antenna for 23cm (to…

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ATV image generator using the Raspberry PI

I’ve got a Raspberry PI for a while already, but it hasn’t been very useful until today. I recently started setting up my own ATV (Amateur TeleVision) station. I needed a simple solution to generate a test pattern, something to…

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First ATV transmission

I’m working on a 23cm ATV transmitter. A couple of years ago I already bought some modules from PE1ACB: a baseband modulator, a 23cm ATV transmitter (output 1 watt) and a controller unit. Today I hooked up all modules, together…

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Spijkerradio

Introduction “Spijker” is a dutch word for nail, which you would normally use to hang something on the wall, or to construct wooden stuff. However, (brass) nails can also be used as as solder pad. PA0KLS used this idea to…

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All antennas up again

All antennas are in place already for the 2014 PACC contest. Meanwhile they allow me to work HF bands during the Winter season. Last year the field was in such a bad shape, that we were not able to setup…

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First antennas placed

This year Adrian PA0RDA and I hope to be back in the PACC contest. Our main goal is always to improve our own score, combined with having lots of fun on the bands and test our homebrewn antennas. This will…

J-pole antennas for HF bands

Introduction I’ve been using J-pole antennas on the 2m band from the first day I got licensed. They perform very well, are easy to construct and are cheap. Since Adrian PA0RDA and I have been experimenting with vertical antennas for…

Bad luck

Since Adrian PA0RDA was ill during the contest weekend, and we were not able to setup all antennas due to poor condition of the field, we decided to skip the PACC contest. However, on Sunday morning I could not resist…

Successful contest

The PACC 2012 contest was a great success for us, we doubled our score of last year! Our claim: 843 QSOs x 153 multipliers = 128979 points.

20m vertical repaired

The replacement tube for the 20m vertical arrived. I immediately fixed the fibreglass pole and erected the antenna again. It’s working great again. I also moved the guys to the top of the third element (instead of the second element),…

Wind, wind, wind

December was a very windy month. Most antennas did held, however the fibreglass pole of the 20m vertical broke. We contacted the supplier (DX-Wire, Germany) and luckely spare tubes were available for a few euro’s. So we ordered a replacement…