From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Tom_Gruis=2C_EdD=2C_K=D8HTF?= <donnatom@netins.net>
To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 15:09:54 -0600
Message-ID: <004001c53248$2bb03710$6501a8c0@homehmkh4yu192>
MIME-Version: 1.0
In-Reply-To: <000501c5322f$26584d20$2102000a@ibm>
Importance: Normal
Subject: LF: RE: First QSO's on 136kHz!!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Sender: owner-rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org

Hello de Iowa USA EN31do,

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Doc.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
[mailto:owner-rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org] On Behalf Of Dick
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2005 12:09
To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
Subject: LF: First QSO's on 136kHz!!


Hello!!!!!

After more than one year of building, testing, rebuilding, questioning etc I
finally became QRV today on 136kHz. This afternoon I was QRV from 12.00 to
14.30UTC, and I was able to work the following stations on 'normal CW' :

#1 DL3FDO, Reiner nr. Frankfurt  my first 136kHz QSO ever
#2 DF0WD, Wolf, well known, hi from Bielefeld JO42FD (work them often in 2m
contests, hi) #3 G3KEV, Mal from IO94SH, best DX sofar somewhere around the
500km

In the beginning I had some troubles, mainly caused by the first
transformer, an toroid transforming the 50Ohm from the TX to 135Ohm of the
big coil. This toroid of 58mm diameter ran very hot; to hot..... Due to this
I saw the antennacurrent going down while it became hot.

I don't know  why, because it should be large enough, I thought.

The orginal set up was 50Ohm line from TX, folowed by an toroid transformer
50--135Ohm, connected to the variometer, and on top of the variometer the
big loading coil with taps.

I decided to change all, and put the whole thing upsite-down. So the big
loading coil is now grounded, the 50Ohm coax goes to a tap, like 1/15 of the
total coil length, and finally the variometer is on top of the whole circus
between loading coil and antenna. This set up proved to be ok, and stable.
Antenna current was 1Amp. I could not run more than 300Watt DC input,
because the current protection of the TX came in at higher settings.

I was operating from my car and I could 'smell' the power sometimes, hihi.
Something somewhere inside the TX got "hot"............

I would like to thank all of you for the help provided the last year while
building my LF station.

Hope to work many of you in the future.

73 from Dick, PA4VHF (JO32eh)