Well, Hannah and I were able to contact a station in Russia over the weekend. One of the amusing things I’ve discovered about HF, is that while you may be able to converse with distant stations, just talking to someone locally can be difficult.
~Ivy
After a few hours of trying, I was finally able to have a QSO with someone via PSK31! The levels and connectors are a bit finicky, but using W1HKJ’s FlDigi in GNU/Linux works a treat. I spoke with Andrew, VK5EX, in Adelaide with a report of 599 both directions. He was able to give me a few pointers with levels, noticing I was emitting a few more sidebands than I should have been. I really like the idea of PSK31, as it can get through when voice is really hard.
CQ CQ CQ de VK3GNU VK3GNU VK3GNU
CQ CQ CQ de VK3GNU VK3GNU VK3GNU pse k
… ??? de VK5EX VK5EX DE VK3GNU VK3GNU PSE K VK3GNU VK3GNU VK3GNU de VK5EX VK5EX VK5EX pse kn VK5EX DE VK3GNU VY GUD TO HEAR YOU. 1ST PSK QSO 1ST QSO. HOW COPY? 599 IN MELBOURNE NAME HERE IS HANNAH. HANNAH KN… VK3GNU de VK5EX
Hi Hannah, ur report is 599 599 my name is Andrew , Andrew
and Im located in Adelaide South Australia , Adelaide South Australia.
My locator is PF95HA , PF95HA … so BTU Hannah, VK3GNU de VK5EX k VK5EX DE VK3GNU. QSL 599 ES PF95HA. QTH HERE IS QF22. QF22. QF22. USING ICOM 706 ICOM 706 AND 100WATTS. BTU VK5EX VK3GNU… VK3GNU de VK5EX
All ok Hannah, here are my station details. Im using a Kenwood, TS2000 running 25 Watts
with a RigExpert Standard USB Sound card interface into a OCF Dipole @ 30ft.
The software Im using is HRD + DM780 v4.0 SP4. .. Im noticing that your signal has many sidebands and is probably a bit too wide for this mode .. have you adjusted your radio for no ALC . ?? .. maybe knock your power down to 50 watts or less as well … … so BTU Hannah, VK3GNU de VK5EX k VK5EX DE VK3GNU TU VY MUCH FOR THE REPORT. NEW TO PSK SO STILL LEARNING. HAVE REDUCED GAIN AND POWER OUTPUT. USING ONLY A LAPTOP RUNNING LINUX AND FLDIGI USING AUDIO CABLES AND VOX CIRCUIT ON ICOM 706. ANTENNA HERE IS DROOPY DIPOLE AT 4 METERS. JUST GOT LICENSED A FEW WEEKS AGO AND MADE QSO WITH RUSSIA, UE6MAC/0 LAST NIGHT. ENJOYING RADIO VY MUCH. GOOD TO SEE YOU ON THE AIR, AND IT IS ALMOST TIME FOR ME TO PREPARE TEA. THANK YOU VY MUCH FOR QSO AND YOUR SIG IS FINE BUSINESS HERE. BEST 73 AND WAITING FOR YOUR LAST. BTU VK5EX DE VK3GNUe..&Tz3GNU de VK5EX .. al ok Hannah .. ok on the setup there .. It is great to see more lunux / fldigi users . I think that Linux will become the altimate operating system for hams as time goes on. .. Yes very good to work you for the first time , and Im sure you will gain a lot of enjoyment from the hobby. Ive been licenced since 1982 , and I still cant get bored with the hobby .. hi hi .. also notice that your still generating some sidebands there. yre o robably need to knock your mic gain down even further so as to not to ovverdrive the radio .. PSK31 is a bit temprimental with regards to drive levels .. really its probably better to underdrive than ovverdrive things .. also make sure that you have any mic processors etc etc .. tutrned off as well .. so anyway Im sure you’ll be able to adjust a few things there to get your station operating perfecntly, Takes a bit of time a guess , like all things , .. ok then .. well Ill leave you with it , go go and organise tea. I think we are going out for Itallian tonight I believe. .. only 3.30 ish here in adelaide ,, sm we have still got a couple of hours befre we decide where we’re going .. ok then btu for a final and then we’ll go clear … so BTU Hannah, VK3GNU de VK5EX k COPY FIND HERE VK5EX DE VK3GNU TURNED THE MIC GAIN DOWN EVEN MORE SO HOPE IT WORKS BETTER IN THE FUTURE. THANKS AGAIN FOR THE FIRST PSK QSO, HOPE TO TALK TO YOU SOON. BEST 73 ES 88. ENJOY ITALIAN. VK5EX DE VK3GNU CLEARonA VK3GNU de VK5EX 73 Hannah and thanks for this BPSK-31 QSO on 40m, good DX in 200
VK3GNU de VK5EX sk
Had my first DX contact. I was expecting to work North American maybe on 20M. Tuning around 80M when we set up was a bit dissapointing, only noise. Moving on to 40M we got swamped by AM Broadcasts. Tune tune tune. 7080kHz, a faint signal. Listened for a few rounds to make out the callsign. UE6MAC/0. Wow! Arctic DXpedition! No way they’ll be able to hear us on 100W and ice on the antenna. Not only were we able to work him, but we got 5×5! It doesn’t get more distant than that!
Well, now that Hannah and I have the new radio, it’s interesting to see the difference it makes compared with the ft-707, and that difference is huge.
Before we could only pick up the odd strong signal on 80 metres, but now we can pick up a whole lot more.
A better antenna would help a heap at home, but unfortunately in a rental property there is little we can do.
Also now looking at joining a radio club, the Eastern and Mountain districts radio club seems to be the most interesting.
And I’m really looking forward to getting licensed.
~Ivy
Well, we finally did it. Yesterday Ivy and I bought a bunch of radio gear so we could get on the air.
We got most the gear from StrictlyHam. Ross didn’t have the tuner so we went to visit Dave from TT Systems. He was really nice and showed us his high power remote antenna tuner project, and even fitted off some coax for us. We couldn’t wait to get to Ivy’s parents’ to start operating. What perfect timing, too. This weekend was both the Lighthouse weekend and the Australian Rememberance Day contest. So after plugging everything in, we tested out the X50 at first on the repeater which could only barely be heard on our Yaesu VX-5, which worked really well. On HF, we were still trying to figure everything out. No matter what we did, we couldn’t get our SWR down. Our dipole was resonant at 1.5:1 for 40 metres, which is what it should be, but infinite through the tuner. Hm. So we ended up listening for a few hours, working out the DSP and other filters. The radio is quite amazing in what it can pick up, compared to the Yaesu FT-707. Early in the day we were able to pick up CE1KR clear as day. South America! Later on a VA2 station from Toronto was on. Only just before the rememberance day contest started at 20:00 local did we finally realise. The bloody tuner was plugged in backwards. I guess thats what happens when you try to operate radio after a few beers.
Once we figured everything out, it worked really well. The contest was a great way to start transmitting on HF. We managed to talk to 30 different Australian and New Zealand stations. We didn’t put a whole lot of effort into the contest, as I had done with previously ARRL V/UHF contests. We ended up going to sleep about 00:30 and listening to the WIA news at 09:00.
Some stations we talked to in Queensland reported we had a strong signal. Quite amazing considering we only have 100Watts and an antenna about 3 metres off the ground. There is much room for improvement, but at least now the upgrades will only be the cost of wire for better antennas 
de VK3GNU
PSK31 has always interested me as a digital mode. Taking up only ~31Hz of audio bandwidth, and a usual SSB signal transmitting ~2.5kHz, you can fit quite a few QSOs in the one passband. This lends itself perfectly to having a single PSK31 call frequency per band, where many people can all co-exist without stepping on each others toes. Today we were finally able to decode PSK31 on 20 metres, at 14070kHz. We heard a signal from the Marshall Islands, as well as W7PTT from Lynnwood, Washington. The fading and noise were pretty horrible. More often than not, the signal could be seen on the waterfall, but all that is heard from the speaker is nasty static noise.
I really look forward to getting a Ic-706 or so, so I can join in.
de GNU
One of the things we can pick up quite well on 40 Metres AM is radio New Zealand, on 7.145MHz it’s kinda neat.
Such a clear signals.
~ivy
Well this is our last week without been able to transmit, next week we will go down to strictly ham, and get ourselves an IC-706 MkIIg (yeah we did want the IC-7000 but the price was a little high.) A power supply, and an AT-7000 antenna tuner.
We can’t really wait.
~Ivy
Well I got the standard learning materials from the Radio and Electronics School and have been going through them quite quickly. They are a little rough and ready, but all the information I need to learn is presented well and explained. Which is good.
I guess I should book in an exam at some stage, the standard license has three parts to the exam. The first been theory, second been regulations, and the third is practical. The only part that worries me is the regulations part of the exam but with more study I should be fine.
~Ivy
Tried to build a 146MHz J-Pole using wire, following some of the online guides. It seems simple enough: stick a half wavelength vertical on top of a quarter wavelength matching section. The ends of the matching section have very high impedence, while the bottom is very low. So, somewhere on that path is 50 Ohms. I must admit my ability to construct isn’t the best, so the joints and connections are probably shoddy at best. Ended up using a 150 cm jumper coax bought from a local supplier. Cut one end off and connected alligator clips, one to the braid, one to the center conductor. Made few loops of coax about 4 cm in diameter as an RF choke. Alas, I’ve been told I have a hum in my transmission. Not having an antenna analyser for VHF, I can’t *really* tell where the 50 Ohm feed point should be, but even just a few millimeters off shouldn’t add a hum. I’m a bit baffled. I guess the best explanation is not enough RF choking, and the microphone or IF stage in the radio are picking up a bit of stray RF. Next will be to add a ferrous material to try and increase this.
Eventually, I hope to build a larger J-Pole for 14MHz. This isn’t a very conventional antenna, but will be the easiest for our situation. Having access to a large tree will allow me to put the ~15 meter tall antenna up rather high. It will have a feedpoint close to the shack, at the bottom of the tree. Best of all, it won’t require a huge amount of radials to get a bit of low-take off radiation happening. Hopefully this will work for a bit of DX on 14MHz.