NEWS ! On this page, you'll find the news before 2016. At this moment, I use twitter for this section. Please visit: https://twitter.com/gitzo7
Saturday 9th July 2016
Building a Ultimate 3s WSPR transmitter for HF. At this moment for 20, 30, 40, 60 and 80 meter, but will be expanded to all HF bands. Also plans for TX at 500 and 137 kHz bands. This nice kit is GPS locked and is very easy to build (good documentation!). For information please visit: http://www.qrp-labs.com/ultimate3.html
Saturday 18th June 2016
With the station of Rob (PE1ITR) again qrv as PA6TT at the 50MHz contest. Conditions were good and we made almost 300 qso’s. Locator is JO21OJ in a small village called Netersel.
Saturday 11th June 2016
The APRS I-gate PE1RDP-10 is back again. Now with a Microsat WX3IN1 mini. Works nice. http://aprs.fi/pe1rdp-10
Monday 6th June 2016
Last months I was able to work as a volunteer at the hhertz.org group. Our main target was to activate the 70cm and 23cm FM repeaters in Eindhoven again. And we succeed! PI2EHV (70cm) and PI6EHN (23cm) are qrv again and they work as good as calculated. All the information can be found on: http://hhertz.org We also made some HAMNET accesspoints on 5.8GHz
Tuesday, 28 September 2015
My antennas in the autumn sun. The Ubiquiti PBE M5-400 has been equipped with a radome to protect the transmitters against the weather and birds. The same for the dish at PE1ITR’s side of the link. The link is now stable and runs for a week now. Access to HAMNET has been arranged. At this moment via openVPN but a dedicated router will be installed to create a HAMNET accesspoint. Autumn has arrived; the leaves will fall of the trees soon. I’m curious about the effect for the 6GHz link. The signal strength is now around -83dBm.
Friday, 11 September 2015
The 5GHz Ubiquiti Powerbeam M5-400 has been installed. The other side of the link is at PE1ITR. We are testing this equipment for the next Jota. We hope to achieve internet and ATV at our JOTA Blokhut via 5GHz links. More tests will follow. This equipment can be used for Hamnet also.
Rob’s 10GHz beacon on 10368.903MHz is for a few days in my EME tower. The beacon has got a RF power of 200mW and is pointing to PE1ITR. The QRB between our QTH’s is 1310 meter and Rob discovered some reflections in this path. Probably caused by the smoke of the local bio-electricity power plant
Thursday, 25 June 2015
After 2 days working hard, the 432MHz EME stack is qrv again. The antennas are unchanged: 4x 5.5WL DK7ZB. Both RX and TX feeders are LCF7850. Power = Telefunken SSPA. Preamp = ATF54154 0,3dB NF. Phasing feeders are prefab ½” hiflex. All connectors are 7/16” which are good available in my junk box. The 144MHz yagi is moved to the tropo mast. The FM yagi is now at the QTH of PE1BBI.
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
The E-s season has started and I lost the 2 elements HB9CV for 50MHz last year. So I build a new dipole and just installed this. I can heard the R1 videocarriers and LX0SIX on 50.023 already. SWR is ok over the whole band. Feeder is 15m LCF7850 and small jumpers on both sides. Running FT847 with 100watt RF.
Also build today: a 4 way powersplitter for 432MHz. This time with 7/16 connectors for lower noise. Another reason: these connectors were available in my junk box. So I’m building the 432MHz EME stack again.
The third project which I’ve been building on, is a CW decoder designed by WB7FHC. The heart is an Arduino and works very good. I can connect a Junker key and also the LF from a transceiver. The last 20 years, we used a Tono550 during JOTA to let the children play with CW. The Tono550 was connected to a CRT and took much space. The Arduino solution needs a much smaller footprint and can be used /p also. Now waiting for the disclosure to mount all the stuff in a nice shiny box.
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
The APRS digi PE1RDP-10 ran for about 1 year and worked without any problem. Hardware is Asus WL500G-premium router with APRS4R software. TNC is Symec TNC2s and a Motorola GM350 as receiver. Default receive plot around my QTH is:
Saturday, 18 October 2014 For the JOTA we have a nice headquarters building but it’s surrender by large trees. So it’s not possible to reach the local ATV repeater PI6EHV. Even not with the antenna on the 20m mobile tower of PE1ITR. That’s why we made a temporary ATV repeater at my QTH. On 70cm from HQ to my house and on 13cm towards PI6EHV ATV repeater. This worked fluently, for the whole weekend. The JOTA headquarter station PA6JAM was nearby. So we visited this station also. SWL-er SAU and PE1RDP at their ATV station.
Sunday, 21 September 2014
The same signal as below but now in 432MHz. This plot shows the same reflection points as on 144MHz but now much stronger.
Saturday, 20 September 2014
Rob, PE1ITR, made a QRP signal on 144MHz so I was able to make a real time plot of the 3WL 11 elements LFA yagi. In real world, the antenna pattern is not as clean as it is on paper.
Friday, 19 September 2014
Another yagi in the tower; 70cm this time: 5.5WL 16 elements DK7ZB. SWR measurement was ok but I couldn’t receive any beacon. A few years ago beacon ON0VRT was always the strongest but went QRT in 2013. When adding a preamp in the shack, I was finally able to receive the usual tropo beacons. Calculated feederloss between antenna and receiver is 0.55dB. This shows the importance of a decent preamp on UHF and higher. The beacon band without preamp And now with preamp. PI7CIS can been seen and heard easily.
Saturday, 9 August 2014
The new antenna is on the tower. It’s a 11 elements LFA imperial version, 3WL long. Here is the NEC. And this is the NEC of the European version of this antenna. In top there’s a Comet GP98 vertical for 2/70/23cm. The loop is a ALA1530 for shortwave listening. Feeders are LCF 7850 (7/8” by RFS).
On the internet there are several discussions about the man-made noise/QRM picked up by the LFA and the DK7ZB. Since I owned both antennas I was able to made some relative noise measurement. I cannot see the “magic difference” here. In the past I did equal comparison on 50MHz: 6 elements LFA and 5 elements DK7ZB. Both antennas were on same height, at the same time and I could switch between these antennas. Also no difference. Didn’t we had the same discussion about the quad and yagi on HF? Relative noise picked up with 11 elements LFA Relative noise picked up with 10 elements DK7ZB
Saturday, 5 July 2014
50MHz IARU region 1 contest. For the 4th year with the callsign PA6TT in Netersel, JO21OJ. Almost no E-s, MS and Aurora. So al qso’s were made via tropo.
Thursday, 15 May 2014
Yes! The new VHF/UHF tower is installed. It’s the top part of a versatower, length is 4mtr but very strong. I want to use this tower for 50MHz, 144MHz and 432MHz yagi’s. Also for the 2/70/23 vertical which is in use for the aprs-is gateway pe1rdp-10 at his moment.
Wednesday, 15 May 2014 A new panoramic view is made. It can be downloaded here. Size is 33MB.
Saturday, 12 April 2014
The self-made FM yagi is again in the tropo mast together with a Kathrein 728888 UHF vertical which preformed much better than the Comet and Diamond verticals I’ve used in the past. SWR plots must be made and published on this website in the near future. Now wait for E-s.
Saturday, 5 April 2014
Just install a new antenna; the Diamond D777 for scanner listeners. Together with the Bearcat BCT15X I’m able to hear a lot of aircraft communications in both VHF and UHF range. See the ANTENNA tab for swr measurements.
Friday, 21 February 2014
After 7 months qrt, it’s nice to have some antennas back. At this moment only the Wellbrook ALA1530 for HF RX and a Hyendfed for 10/20/40 but let’s start the radio hobby again.
Saturday, July 20th 2013
My house will be expanded with another floor. I will loose my shack on the 2nd floor and also the antenna’s are removed from the house. But the good news is that I will get a new shack on the 3rd floor and the antenna’s will be 2,85mtr higher ;-)
Sunday, July 7th 2013
The annual 50MHz contest under the call PA6TT. In 2012 we were able to reach the first place in the Netherlands. And for now, we have the highest claimed score. But, more important, a very nice contest and we learned a lot. The omni antenna was new and worked ok. Also a possibility to shoot some pictures, my secondary hobby.
Saturday, November 4th 2012
Part 1 of the 50-1296 ARRL EME contest and MAP65 is running. Engine is Linrad and Perseus SDR as hardware. A very nice toolkit ! Also EA4TX hardware for moontracking.
Saturday October 6th 2012
Installed the new FM yagi. Homemade and design based on the Korner yagi. First test shows that the yagi works well. See also under FMDX button.
Sunday July 22th 2012
The Sporadic-E season seems to be over. I heard a lot of stations and still have to count the countries heard on FM this year. Always great to see RDS on the screen from low powered stations from the other side of Europe.
Hopefully a great meteorscatter and tropo season to come.
Saturday July 21th 2012
Just before sunset, the tropo tower went to maximum height (about 14mtr ABH) to notice the difference between the initial 6mtr. As expected onlythe local stations are much stronger. Even too strong in the direction west (city Eindhoven) so the DAC went overloaded. The stations beyond 200km were the same. So troposcatter doesn’t need so much antenna height. Neither does E-sporadic.
Saturday June 23th and Sunday June 24th 2012
The 50MHz with a very nice station, designed by Rob – PE1ITR. Thisyear we used the callsign PA6TT. Our claims are the top score. So maybe our team will win the contest? The team had a lot of fun!
Friday April 6th, 2012
In 1985 I bought a tuner (Pioneer TX950) with power amplifier for 40 Dutch Guilder (about 20 euros).This setup was good enough for a lot of FM DX fun during the 80’s and 90’s. The band was still empty.
But in this new era, the FM band is really crowed and only with small band IF you can do FM DX so I bought this Kenwood KT 6040 and KA4040 amp for … only 20 Euro’s. The ceramic IF’s are still the brand one’s so they have to be changed for smaller ones. Saturday March 17th, 2012
I made a panorama picture on top of the EME tower. Click here to download (size is 14MB) Also an actual picture of the 4x5.5WL EME stack for 432MHz
The oldest son (born in 1997) of my neighbor is also “infected” with the radio virus. On the roof a discone for 30-1300MHz, a 17 elements Cuedee (432MHz) and a dipole for 10mtr. In the garden 2 longwires for HF. The 70cm yagi had been replaced for a Stolle US7 now (April 2012)
Monday, March 12th, 2012
Again a change of antenna in the tropo tower. Now 2 x Stolle US7 for FM/VHF DX.
Friday, January 13th, 2012
My latest addition to the Perseus SDR arrived, the 80MHz FM+ converter. Both hardware and software is working great. You can choose every bandwidth you like and even only choose the left or right band. This will lock out splatter of the neighbor channel. I also changed antenna. The Stolle US7 (nos) was placed in the tropo tower.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The 2nd largest tower of the Netherlands, the 300mtr transmitter in Smilde, was collapsed after a fire at Friday 14th July. A lot of damage and transmissions were also ceased after a small fire in the transmitter Lopik. This morning, Rob (PE1ITR), Smayo (SWL-er) and Arno (PE1RDP) went to Smilde to take some pictures. And the Radiotelescope at Westerbork was also visited.
May 7th 2011
I installed 2 yagis (5 elements DK7ZB) for 144MHz tropo. Enough gain and wide -3dB points.
Weekend, June 18th-19th and July 2nd-3rd 2011
The annual 50MHz contest with the call PC06M. Now at other location (JO21OJ) Netersel. A very small village between Eindhoven and Tilburg. We used a homemade 20mtr tower and 2 times 5 elements DK7ZB.
Saturday, March 26th 2011
The 432MHz is now on the roof and the swr problems are solved now. So the SSPA is now working ok. After 10 years I’ve got the 4 group qrv on 70cm. See the 432MHz section for the complete story. The new 432MHz group on the roof of my house
Saturday, February 12th 2011
The annual PACC contest on HF. I did participate for about 3 hours and my 14 monthsold son was also in the shack. “I can sleep after the contest, daddy. Like all the other hams do”. PE1RDP and his son Jasper in their shack, qrv on HF
Sunday, October 31th 2010
Part two of the ARRL EME contest. Erect a temporary antenna in the garden and did listen to the band. The 2stage preamp (ATF54143) was directly at the power splitter. Also some sunnoise measurements. This was also a test for the new phasing feeders, ½” LCF by Cellflex. The old but good working MM 432/28 convertor. WSJT 9 together with Perseus SDR. The temporary antennas in the garden A nappy (diaper) bag seems to be a good way to protect the preamp ;-) I could measure > 5dB sunnoise with this setup.
Saturday June 19th and Sunday June 20th 2010
For the third year Rob (PE1ITR) and myself participated in the 50MHz contest with the special call PC06M. We had 2 antennasystems: 2 x 5elements DK7ZB on a remote controlled rotator and 1 x 5 elements DK7ZB “fixed” to EA/CT. Also 1 small 144MHz antenna for sporadic E.
We were not QRV the whole weekend due to qrm we made on the electrical systems of our guesthouse. We even get a telephone call from OE that we made interference on PT100 elements!! Lucky it is still my father in law.
On youtube you can find a nice movie. Main system with 2 x 5 elements DK7ZB System 2 with single 5 elements and small 144MHz yagi Our contest shack with PE1ITR in action Conditions were ok with even some E-s to CT on 144MHz The FT1000MP with XV50 worked fine The PC06M engine room
Saturday, May 1th 2010
Rob (PE1ITR), Frans (PA3CQE) and I traveled to JO30AC to participate in The IARU VHF/UHF/SHF contest. We were qrv on 70cm and 23cm with the call LX/PE1ITR/P. A bit cold, cloudy but no rain and (again) a lot of fun. We made QSO’s over 650km, even on 23cm.
Saturday, April 17th 2010 KP4AO is now qrv with 350 Watt and signals are much stronger now. I could here them in SSB and CW. Some SSB examples are below: One cw example is here:
Friday, April 16th 2010
KP4AO with the large Arecibo dish (1000ft or 305 meter) was QRV again on 70cm. This time the output power was only 35 watt but I could hear them good in cw. The gain on the dish is 60dBi. Not worked yet because they have a huge pile-up. But KP4AO will be QRV the whole weekend.
Sunday April 11th 2010
An upgrade of my EME station. Again 432MHz added in the system. Now working with 2x16elements DL7ZB (5.5WL), kW sspa and ATF54143 (0.3dB). Also enough space for 4 yagi’s or even 6 yagi’s (without 144MHz). The RX and TX feeders were also upgraded to 7/8” lcf by RFS Cellflex
Sunday February 21th 2010
QRV in PACC contest for a few hours. My children (twins), just a few weeks old, seems to like my hobby. It’s believed that my son will be a radio amateur too. He already loves my shack.
Sunday October 4th 2009
UHF / SHF contest. QRV with Rob, PE1ITR and Frans, PA3CQE in this contest as DL/PE1ITR/P Weather and conditions were terrible but we had a lot of fun on 70cm and 23cm.
