Communication – Why Reinvent the Wheel

I participate in and facilitate several amateur radio nets a month. I facilitate once a month a net for Brushbeater alumni and for members of my site, Unchainedpreppers. Typically the ERIN/Unchangedpreppers net runs the second Sunday of each month and the goal of the net is for likeminded folks to try out their equipment, practice receiving & then sending traffic, and to pass along important SIGINT from their AO to all on the net. This article is to share with the AP readers the mistakes that I and folks on the nets have made to help you with your RX (Receiving) and TX (Transmitting).

The process of hosting the net starts about a week before the monthly date by reviewing several propagation predictors. I use VOCAP Online HF Predictions and HF Systems to determine the correct band and time for the net. Next, the Sunday before the net I listen on the radio for other nets around the time, band, and frequency I was planning to have the ERIN/UP net. I stay away from other known and scheduled nets to avoid TX splatter.

Based on my experience with the ERIN/UP net along with other nets I participate in, I have come up with the following reasons why many do not get on the air. These issues circle around transceiver, communication, and antenna. Why reinvent the wheel when you can learn from others.

Transceiver/Tuner

As already stated, the main reason for the net is for likeminded individuals to try out their equipment. Often many of the folks on the net can RX my transmissions but have a hard time being heard when they TX. Some things to check are,

  • Transceiver power out. More times than I want to admit I have found myself TXing on 5-watts versus 100-watts. I tend to participate in QRP (Low Power) contests and being just north of 60-years-old I forget to reset my rig back to 100-watts post a contest. A local ham was having a problem being heard so I swung by his shack with an antenna analyzer, manual tuner, and watt meter. Low and behold my friends rig was set for max power – 100-watts – but when I connected the power meter to the transceiver the radio was only putting out 2-watts. Off to the dealer for repair it went.
  • Internal and external automatic tuners. Not as often as power issues are rigs with a auto tuner issue. If the power coming out of the radio is within specs, I then hook up a manual tuner and bypass the rigs auto tuner. Often the issue is there. The auto tuner cannot handle the high SWR (Standing Wave Ratio) of the antenna they have in the air or it just isn’t working. Typically, most auto tuners cannot handle a 10:1 or greater SWR. By the way, the cost of a manual tuner is about what you will pay to have your internal auto tuner repaired when you look at, shipping, insurance, and labor. Currently, my internal auto tuner works just fine on my Kenwood TS-590s however I bypass my auto tuner on two of my antennas and only use it for my 160-meter antenna. My manual antenna tuner is a Palstar AT2K which will tune a coat hanger.
  • Last, concerning the transceiver end of the equation is your ground. As we read in an ARRL.org article titled Grounding,

After antennas, station grounding is probably the most discussed subject in amateur radio and it is also the one replete with the most misconceptions. The first thing to know is that there are three functions served by grounding in ham shacks: 1. Electrical Safety 2. Stray RF Suppression (or simply RF Grounding) 3. Lightning Protection.

L-R; QRP Manual Tuner over Watt/SWR Meter, Antenna Analyzer, Volt/Ohm Meter

Communication

As already stated, I post the PACE (Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency) typically the Wednesday before the net. In the PACE post I include the date and time of the net. Yet folks who want to participate in the net,

  • Forget that they live in a different time zone than the one in the SOI (Signal Operations Instructions).
  • On a different date. I have received emails from folks wondering where the net was on Saturdays/Mondays. The SOI clearly states the net will be on Sunday Month, day, year.
  • Even if I do all the prep as listed, I still often pick a frequency that will be in use the night of the net or another QSO is happening to close to the planned frequency. When this happens, I post on UP the new frequency or for the folks who request it I text them the new frequency. In essence though, if the net is not where it should be just drift up a few Mhz at a time and you will find it. If that doesn’t work, go to the alternate frequency in the PACE.

Antennas

I saved the best reason for last why folks can’t get out farther than their neighbors television…Their antenna. Some folks are under the impression that any wire placed anywhere can be an antenna. Some of my favorites are,

  • A long wire just hanging down out their house/hotel/boat/etc. window,
  • A dipole or other form of antenna hung in their attic,
  • A store-bought antenna that lays on the ground,
  • A dipole antenna that hangs from their aluminum gutters around the house, and
  • The list goes on and on.

Bottom-line, their antenna’s SWR is north of 2:1 even with an auto or manual tuner.

Case in point, a friend who was having a dickens of a time TXing kept scratching his noggin. I went over to his house with an antenna analyzer to check his antenna. Well the analyzer reported that his antenna SWR was 12:1. I started to dial that number down using his manual tuner and was told to “Stop!” My friend further explained, “that tuner is already tuned properly.”

It turned out that he had been using the same manual tuner settings for his transceiver that he recorded when he had put the antenna up a year earlier. Crap happens when an antenna hangs in the elements and things happen locally around your AO that may have an adverse effect on your antenna’s performance.

I re-tune my PalStar manual tuner before each net, contest, or just some spare time I have to swing the dial. I also keep records or as Patriotman calls them, “antenna dope sheets”. The reason to do this is to have at hand a list of settings so if you must switch to a new frequency or band you can do so on the fly. But the most important is if you notice large swings in settings. When this happens something between the tuner and antenna has failed; coax connections, balun or balun connections, solder points, or coax.

In closing before you go on the air next time make sure your transceiver, tuner, ground, and antenna are up to pare.  Learn from my and other mistakes. If you have had issues TXing share with the AP readers your mistake (s) in the comments section below. After all, lets not reinvent the wheel.

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By Published On: February 25, 2020Categories: Comms17 Comments on Communication – Why Reinvent the Wheel

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About the Author: johnyMac

17 Comments

  1. Anonymous February 26, 2020 at 08:27

    5

  2. Bryce Sharper February 27, 2020 at 16:54

    I participate in and facilitate several amateur radio nets a month. I facilitate once a month a net for Brushbeater alumni and for members of my site, Unchainedpreppers. Typically the ERIN/Unchangedpreppers net runs the second Sunday of each month and the goal of the net is for likeminded folks to try out their equipment, practice receiving & then sending traffic, and to pass along important SIGINT from their AO to all on the net. This article is to share with the AP readers the mistakes that I and folks on the nets have made to help you with your RX (Receiving) and TX (Transmitting).

    This is my biggest problem: no one wants to do nets. I got into the whole “prepping” thing after a natural disaster after judging the response of public officials and politicians to be incompetent/inadequate. The problem is that things soon get back to “normal,” though my engineering mind increasingly judges “normalcy” to be scarcer and more interrupted.

    I think most people need to at least do some VHF or UHF nets on public bands such as MURS or FRS/GMRS with HTs like the VX-6R or equivalent. The key, like you said, is to know how your equipment works by using it often-enough. I’ve found that the UIs of these HTs are so difficult that they require frequent use. I think the next step is getting a technician license and figuring out how to use repeaters. HF is simply beyond most people and always will be.

    There simply aren’t many hams out here and the existing hams are often not interested in preparedness but rather fudding it up indoors with delicate benchtop rigs. It’s pretty frustrating. Lack of community in any preparedness endeavor is what confounds most of my attempts to try new things.

    Thoughts?

    • NC Scout February 27, 2020 at 17:24

      That’s where you live.

      Not the norm elsewhere.

    • johnyMac February 27, 2020 at 21:14

      Bryce, huh?

      I am sorry but I do not know how to address what you wrote. Was it a question or was it just a general comment? I will try to address it with this comment…There are a lot of hams out there. I QSO’s with hams on the west coast all of the time. Obviously you have to be on the right band at the right time due to propagation. In my article I gave two links to propagation predictors.

      My friends know that where ever I go in N.America I always plan out the repeaters for the area I will be visiting using the RepeaterBook tool and always have QSO’s on 2-meter (VHF). If I am going to be in a area for more than a week I type into my search engine the “name of the county” and “amateur radio clubs” and viola! Up come at least one radio club and contact information. Have you done that to try and find hams?

      You are correct that many hams do not want to talk preps okay…They still are folks you can practice using your equipment and making QSO’s with. Maybe you can even get them interested in prepping, I have.

      Thanks for reading Brother

  3. Bryce Sharper February 27, 2020 at 22:53

    Johny,

    I guess it was a comment. All the guys in my area useful to me are not interested in ham. These are the guys I hunt with or go to church with. The former are interested somewhat in radio because they like to drive around in side-by-sides and shoot deer and communicate with one-another, but often they can get that done with cellular. It’s amazing where cellular works nowadays.

    I think HF/General Class is too much for most of the people I’d like to talk to. I don’t really want to QSO with people on another coast most of the time. I think it’s cool, but I really just want to have a local VHF radio net with like-minded people in preparation for a cellular outage. VHF HTs are less intimidating to newbies I think. How do you start a local MURS or 2 meter net? The local ham club has one but it’s boring and I don’t really want to talk to most of those people. I talked through a local repeater one time and made a contact because I think someone was monitoring it. Should I just get a handheld scanner to see what’s out there and maybe try to join a net that way instead?

    I actually used to work with several of the guys in the local ham club and they’re mostly interested in HF and QSOs a great distance away. They were fairly unhelpful about how to get started.

    • johnyMac February 28, 2020 at 09:23

      Bryce,
      this is my last comment on this specific topic.

      You wrote Bryce, The local ham club has one but it’s boring and I don’t really want to talk to most of those people.. This explains why nobody wants to QSO with you. You get out of something, what you put into it.

      73 & God Bless

  4. Homer February 28, 2020 at 14:59

    Good article as usual. It’s my firm belief that anyone who is serious about grid down comms needs to be a member of Amrron. Especially Amrron corps. The amount of knowledge, training and help available thru them is amazing. There is more than likely members somewhat close to you and wanting to practice comms with you as well. Its also a good way to find like minded people.

    • johnyMac February 28, 2020 at 15:35

      Agreed Homer.

      Add to that I highly recommend NC Scouts RTO 101 and 201 class. You do not need to have a license to participate.

      There is also local RACES or ARES organizations that you can use your help in an emergency. It gets my goat when folks write “their is nobody to talk to out there.” The opportunities are endless.

      Thanks for reading and commenting Brother!

  5. Homer February 28, 2020 at 23:47

    JohnyMac, regarding RTO 1&2. Been there and done that.? I would not be willing to join Ares or Races to to there antigun positions. But that said there is much to be learned from them skill wise. Take care

    • johnyMac February 29, 2020 at 10:01

      Homer wrote, I would not be willing to join Ares or Races to to there antigun positions.

      Yeah I hear ya’ with the exception of the RACES group I belong too in NY. As long as someone has a CCW you can sport your concealed handgun. Did you read New York? \”/ Same with the ARES group that I belong to in PA. I do understand that this is not the norm though. Funny story…

      A couple ham’s that belonged to the county’s ARES were asked to go to Porto Rico post Hurricane Maria to help with comms. Our County ARES Officer asked whether we could bring a handgun if we had a CCW. The regional ARES Officer said, “no”. He politely refused to send any of his team to help.

      Last, even if your counties ACRES or RACES organizational response team does not allow firearms, what you can learn is invaluable.

      Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.

  6. Hank March 2, 2020 at 18:59

    Got this off a radio group I follow. Most interesting about the antennas they use. I do not know what a binocular core is though. Thanks, Hank

    Hi all,

    I forwarded a few questions from HF Pack list members to a Special Forces commander whose unit has been using KX2s in the field for three years. He passed along the following additional comments:

    ————

    “We prefer to use Off Center Fed Dipoles (OCFD). They work for us because they present a consistent, predictable mismatch on the frequencies we use. I made a few small baluns out of binocular cores that are 4:1, which handle the output of the KX2 on Voice, CW and digital all day long. Typically the dipoles are strung up arms-reach-high in the field, which gives us easy 300 – 400 mile range in our KX2 nets. If we’re fortunate enough to have a tree, that OCFD with a center height at 10 to 15 feet or so works perfect for NVIS, at least for us.

    “You’d be proud to know my KX2 has survived remote jungles, 14-er peaks in Colorado, -30 degree F temps, a helicopter crash, and gunfights / IED blasts …. I think the radio has held up better than I have.”

    • NC Scout March 2, 2020 at 20:51

      The KX2 is a really cool little rig.

  7. jay bree March 3, 2020 at 11:24

    Good info. There’s altogether too much reliance on “antenna tuners” in lieu of resonant antennas. Antenna “tuners” especially the ones in transceivers…are pretty lossy (the components are small, losses are high) . Yes they’re handy, but at a cost.

    Nothing is as “unfussy” as a 1/2 wave dipole. Especially if you fabricate it for the lowest frequency of use, put a clip lead on each end, and premeasure where to fold back the excess length and clip to suit the frequency of operation .

    • johnyMac March 4, 2020 at 10:20

      hey jay bree…

      I think the reason for “multi band antennas” vs. resonant antennas is space and convenience. I agree that having a resonant antenna is best however one antenna tuned on an auto or manual tuner is best for most.

      I cut my teeth in the amateur radio world using my insulated backstay on our sailboat Mad Max as the radios antenna. Of course I had to use a tuner to make it work. I stayed mostly on 11-meters as it was best to hit ship to shore stations for my wife to call her folks while cruising. Secondly, we used it also to listen to “The Voice of “insert country here“ news and music.

      Thanks for reading and commenting.

  8. Badger March 3, 2020 at 20:31

    NIce article & timely. Thanks.
    And a +1 to the Palstar (have an AT2K also). It is like a Golden Retriever, always there, happy to do (and match) whatever. It’s also built like a tank. The only tuner comparable are the ones Elecraft does. Will find a match not just for the mop bucket, but the wooden mop handle. They have been known to nicely tune a line fence. ;) Their little hand-held portable T-1 is great for the QRP portable, where one really wants to get the most out of that ziploc-bagged antenna as possible. Most tuners built-in to the transceivers act like they were built by lawyers.

    73

    • johnyMac March 4, 2020 at 10:23

      Badger wrote, Most tuners built-in to the transceivers act like they were built by lawyers.

      Thanks brother…Reading that line made me loose a mouthful of coffee all over my laptop!

      Thanks for playing Brother.

  9. Anonymous August 6, 2020 at 14:26

    4.5

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