Just received...

I have just received the following certificate:

New antenna in my radio shack

After months of considerations - how to start working from my home QTH (first floor, no antenna possibilities) I decided to buy magnetic antenna from MFJ. Fortunately one of MFJ nearest dealers here (FUNKBOX.CH) had one in stock so just before Christmas I become happy owner of such construction(standing actually on my balcony):



Of course I know that I should not expect miracles (such wheel standing on the balcony will never replace 3el. beam 20m. above the ground..). But in comparison with just a piece of wire I had along my balcony it is definitely much better. Quite often I compare both antennas and so far loop is much better than my wire (much better means no signal on wire and quite good on loop) - especially on 7MHz.
Today I will try to work on PSK31 and maybe some SSB.

JUMA Trx

Just received ordered JUMA kit - 40/80m CW/SSB direct conversion transceiver. Now just need to find some spare time to assemble this...

New place for my radio activities

I constantly look for new places around Zurich for my radio expeditions. The ideal would be open spaces (top of hill), accessible by car (including Winter), calm (from noise and HF noise :)) and safe (no bears, wolfs, mines and yetis around).
Once again Google Earth proved it's value - I found Ober Albis - small village on some hill about 25km from Zurich.



Place is beautifully located on the hill side (with open South-West, West and North-West directions so great for afternoon-evening expeditions). There is an open view for town located below and the view is really impressing. I used small place on the road side just enough to erect mast with antenna and leave the car. The traffic is very low (one..two cars an hour) so is really safe and calm. The only problem was HF noise yesterday - not sure yet if is it a result of propagation, the town below or power lines about 100m from this place - needs verification.



Some very strong stations from North America could be heard..




All pictures made there may be found here (click here)

73!

Flumserberg - 2000m tests

One weekend we (with family) decided to visit areas usually visited when covered with snow. Flumserberg is an area where people from Zurich usually ski in Winter (about 60km from Zurich and really nice skiing conditions). We travelled there and used a lift to reach the top of some hill. That was also great opportunity to check what can be heard on such high altitudes.



And surprise - nothing :(( I heard only trace in noise of some repeater and nothing more. The equipment used was maybe not very sophisticated but I hoped that altitude will help a little. Well - the trip was great, views beautiful and lack of success with my radio connections - next time will be better.

Night forest adventure with 20m 3el. Superantennas yagi

I promised myself to have "radio evening" every Tuesday evening regardless of the weather and other circumstances. Today it was the first such event. I went to the forest (to the "picnic hill") with YP3 antenna, 5 meters long mast, FT847 and 18Ah battery. It was about 10 degrees (quite cold) and veeery bad propagation. I made only one short qso, some North American station heard but they didn't hear me. My battery seems to be not enough for power levels > 30W - I have to work QRP or change battery. The new experience was assembling 3 elements Yagi antenna for 20 meters in complete darkness (with head lamp only), erecting it on 5 meters mast and the disassemble again in complete darkness a few hours later. I see my expeditions in Autumn/Winter will be limited due to condensation appearing on equipment- about midnight everything was wet what not necessarily must be good for radio...

Superantennas YP-3

Just received ordered YP-3 from superantennas.com and was eager to see how it works. I chosen some parking with some recreational area above Zurich (with beautiful view for the city and all it's HF noise included :))) But was calm, accessible by car and with enough space to build this construction. Antenna is well designed and easy to mount. I used Buddipole mast (5m) - just for test use is ok but for this antenna is too weak. Actually I'm looking around for stronger and higher mast.



It was just weekend with CQ WW DX contest and I could heard many stations calling but I didn't want to participate in this contest so this time I was just SWL. I tested antenna with VNA and found it working really fine - SWR about 1.4 and really high difference in signal strength when directed towards the station and in other directions. For 20m band my 5 meters mast is definitely too low.