ACS GH Presentations
KJ6ER January Update
Challenger 20M-6M Halfwave Vertical (January 2025) – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Ym2EbsX3F5Zs2oPwLXy-opGgBepnE6g/view
PracticalAntennas.com
Just discovered a new to me antenna site from Practical Antennas.com.
This site is run by Dale Hunt WB6BYU and he also has a youtube channel and one of his first videos I have watched is “3 Simple Wire Antennas. A link to his youtube channel videos is here.
The Dominator Antenna
Here is a link to the documentation from Facebook by Greg KJ6ER on his Dominator Antenna. It is an EFHW vertical, no radials, no tuner required.
73
Al VE3GAM
The Rybakov Antenna
Link to an article I have written on the Rybakov antenna. It consists of a vertical 25′ (7.6 m) wire, matched by a 4:1 unun and with 6 17′ radials. This is a non-resonant antenna, so it does require the use of an antenna tuner.
73
Al VE3GAM
The PREDator Antenna
Here is a link to the documentation I received from Greg KJ6ER on his Predator Antenna. It is an elevated vertical with elevated radials.
For more information about this antenna and to check out an avid fan of this antenna go to Simon VA7BIX’s Youtube channel at Ham Jazz
73
Al VE3GAM
POTA Awards
Made my first POTA contact Oct 7, 2021, this shows the number of states that I have had a contact with someone in a POTA entity (usually a park) since that date. The hardest ones to get checked off are Hawaii and Alaska, in that you need to make a park contact with these states and not just a contact.
POTA Happenings: June 9, 2022
Link: VE-5620 Yarmouth Heritage Site
On June 9, 2022, I operated from VE-5620 Yarmouth Natural Heritage Site, located southeast of St Thomas, ON. Conditions seemed to be marginal, although I did make 23 contacts, 3 P2Ps, the most notable contact was with NL7V from North Pole, Alaska. I was very pleased to make an activation of a new park on the POTA system.
Next I hope to activate VE-5617 Calton Swamp Wetland System and VE-5616 Hawkins Tract.
73, Al ve3gam
Field Day Report
Always look for a field day report from this guy on Youtube, this is a video of his field day station this year:
Building Techniques
Techniques and Strategies for Building Electronic Circuits
Boys Radio Books
Here are a couple of links to books boys may have read about radio many years ago, perhaps even some of you have read some of these:
Neophyte Receiver
Working on this receiver:
Neophyte Two Chip Direct Conversion Receiver – VE3OT Version
The original Neophyte Receiver was published in OST, February 1988, and used the new Signetics Si602 oscillator-mixer chip to directly convert radio frequency signals to DSB audio and the National Semiconductor LM386 audio amplifier chip to provide sufficient signal gain to drive headphones or even a small speaker. This receiver uses an improved mixer chip, NE612, which is a direct substitution.
Mitch Powell, VE3OT, modified the Neophyte using parts on hand so that his Fanshawe students could build a simple receiver, gaining circuit building skills while being exposed to the hobby of Ham Radio.
Two 10.7MHz IF transformers are used as an RF pre-selector, tuned down into the 40m ham band by placing about 100pF of capacitance across the main coil winding. A third IF transformer is used as the Local Oscillator coil, suitably tuned by additional capacitance and a variable capacitance diode, or Varicap, biased by a DC voltage from the 10kW tuning potentiometer. Mitch used two common power rectifier diodes, 1N4005, in parallel as a varicap. Audio from the NE612 is bandwidth limited by a simple C-R-C low pass filter, fed into the 50kW volume control, and then applied to the inverting input of the LM386N audio amplifier. The original Neophyte design used both outputs of the mixer and both inputs of the audio amplifier for improved dynamic range and lower noise, but lacked a volume control.
Component Side Printed Circuit Board View with component layout.
Note that a 0.1uF cap has been added to the LM386 power pin (6) for improved stability. The Tuning Potentiometer can be a 50K linear for slightly reduced power draw.
Dave, VE3EI
Link to original document.