W7YV Ham Radio

I enjoy working QRP and, usually, run 5 watts when working CW or SSB. Sometimes, I get grumpy and turn my power down as low as I can to 792 mW on my ICOM 7300. I figure, if they cannot hear me, they need a better antenna. HI HI There are 1000 Mile Per Watt awards that are offered to Hams that work stations on low power. I have a paper certificate around here - somewhere. I have learned that 1000 miles per watt is Child's Play. As this article shows, there are two ways to reach out and touch someone with less. Turn your power down and you will see.  Fig. 1, Typical 1000 Miles/Watt Award The better your antenna, the better your chances. It has been said, "If you have $100 to spend on your hobby, put $90 into your antenna, $9 into your receiver, and $1 into your transmitter. Recently, I setup a CW 10 M beacon on 28.2365 MHz. It drives a 20 M Vertical tuned to 10 M and is on-air during daylight hours when I am not using the rig. I have been running it at about 5 watts (QRP) with d...

I needed an RF Signal Generator for testing radios. They can be expensive. I found the one described in this article on Amazon for $104 including tax. It arrived today and, given my initial mixed reaction, I thought I would offer this review. Unboxing It came in a well-taped tightly wrapped box with no documentation to be seen anywhere. Lots of bubble-wrap but no docs. The product photo is shown in Figure 1. Other than the front panel, there are no inputs or outputs on any side. Fig 1., Signal Generator, Front View Having no documentation, I searched for a manual. I found a couple but they did not explain the functions. Figure 2 is a useful YouTube video that turned the light on for me, at least so far as my uses are concerned. Fig 2, YouTube Video,  OM0ET I won't detail instructions herein - do your own research. F1 is your Go To button. Testing with ICOM 7300 The author of the video,  OM9ET Paul, Slovak Republic , demonstrated using the product to test sensitivity of a...

 I was explaining to a fellow ham the other day about the need for baluns in the shack. For my purposes, I have a balun on my antennas that are naturally unbalanced. For example, feeding a dipole directly with a coax creates an unbalanced condition. This causes common mode currents to flow on the outside of the coax feed line. This causes the coax shield to radiate into space - most commonly, into your neighbors stereo system. To my surprise and delight, I ran across a YouTube video published by Gregg Messenger - VE6WO where he shows how common mode currents can occur on a feedline. How To Build A Terrible Antenna! Common Mode Current Experiments

Efforts to hear weak signals are hampered by noise. Most often, noise outside of the home cannot be mitigated. However, noise on your own property can often be eliminated. The purpose of this post is to document my Noisy Fox Hunting efforts. 04/4/2025 Broadband noise on 10 M For some time, I've been seeing a band of noise wandering through my spectrum display on 10 M. I finally took time to track it down. My shack has switched outlets, one on the north and one one the south. These are controlled by voice commands. This is cool because I can say, "Hey, Google, turn radio shack off." The outlets are on the north and south wall. The north wall is where all the ham gear is. When I turn the north side off, everything goes down except the radio and the computer. When I turned the north side off, the noise you see in the display went away. I traced it to my main ASUS display. It turns out that, when the screen is active, the noise is present. If the screen goes dark, via a power...

 I was studying an ancient book, "Transmission Lines Antennas and Wave Guides." In the first chapter, it derived the impedance that represented the lowest loss. This was 77 ohms. I asked Perplexity.ai why we use 50 ohms. The answer is below: Question: Coaxial cable often has a characteristic impedance of 50 ohms. However, literature states that the lowest loss is cable having an impedance of 77 ohms. Explain why we have most cables at 50 ohms. What are the reasons behind this? Answer: The prevalence of 50 ohm coaxial cables in many applications can be attributed to several key factors, despite the fact that a 77 ohm impedance offers the lowest signal loss. Here are the main reasons why 50 ohms became the standard: Compromise Between Power Handling and Signal Loss Maximum Power Handling : The highest power handling capacity is achieved with a characteristic impedance of about 30 ohms. This is because lower impedance allows more current to flow, which is beneficial for high...

 This site documents my activities in the hobby of Amateur Radio. It is intended for a wide audience, not only for hams, but also, for those that might want get into the hobby. I was licensed on 1/17/2006, right after Hurricane Katrina. My original call was KE7FMN. Once I obtained my Extra, I was granted the vanity call of W7YV. My favorite mode is CW and I love QRP. I always say, "If they cannot hear me, they need a better antenna."

  My efforts to document 10 M propagation are listed in this post. 03/14/25 0530Z Another day of a geomagnetic storm. As of 0000Z, the Kp index has advanced to 6 from 5. This does not bode well for 10 M. See  https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/auroral-activity/kp-index.html  for current conditions. 03/13/25 0239Z Today, the Kp index is 5, my 10 M band goes quiet. This is a G1 Geomagnetic storm. I have a beacon located at DN40ap. Through this day, the only responses have been from HI and Costa Rica. The Reverse Beacon Network indicates little activity in the northeast of the US. Very few signals across the band. The only signal I hear is a beacon only 5 miles from me. I expect that is ground wave. So it seems the ionosphere is not propagating my signals. Is this due to absorption or to the 10 M signals simply going through and not being reflected. Explain this. Perplexity's Answer When the Kp index is 5, indicating a G1 geomagnetic storm, it can significantly affect radio...

Table Of Contents Introduction Astron RS-20A Power Supply Battery Source RIGRunner 4007U Super PWRgate PG40S Automatic Shutdown Introduction This articles describes my shack power supplies. The shack operates from AC Mains unless there is a power outage or the 12 VDC Charger is turned off at night. Sometimes, I run beacons through the night and, if the charger is off, I have experienced shutdown of the beacons due to low battery voltage. Astron RS-20A Power Supply This supply provides 16 Amps continuous duty with ICS of 20 Amps. Fuse is a GMC 5A. Line draw: idle 215 mA, full load 3.4 Amps Row 2, Column 1 Row 2, Column 2 Battery Source Interstate Batteries 12V 75Ah Deep Cycle Mobility Battery Group 24 VRLA SLA AGM (Insert Terminal)  RIGRunner 4007U RIGrunner 4007U Super PWRgate PG40S Super PWRgate PG40S Automatic Shutdown The RIGRunner has an automatic over...

I purloined this story from the Internet. It has been a project of mine for 20 years. The other day, I turned 75 and took the last penny out of my box. I used pennies - marbles are expensive. In any case, this was a 20 year project for me. Having pulled the last penny from the box, I can crow about still being alive. I've put 262 pennies back in the box. That will take me to my 80th birthday in 2030. Enjoy the story. I certainly have. ------------------------------ The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable. A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you...

Table Of Contents Introduction Beacon List Beacon Station If You Hear Me Activity Log Introduction I was playing radio the other day and copied a 10 metre beacon on 28.1995Mhz.  I copied VVV VE3IIM/B EN94 73.  Super strong, no QRM and nil QRN. 599. S Meter S1 to S3. I looked him up on QRZ (Tim Smith, Hanover, ON N4N 2R5 Canada) and responded to his request for reception reports.  He responded and we had a nice email chat. Tim was very helpful and gave me some useful research links.  This gave me the idea of running my own beacon using my ICOM 7300 memory keyer capability. I setup a memory of VVV DE W7YV/B W7YV/B DN40 K with a 4 second repeat interval. I am sending this on 10M or 20M. Have not tried 40 or 80, yet, due to antenna issues. The results are intriguing. I was contacted by Jerry, AC5JM, the IARU Region 2 HF Beacon Coordinator informing me that I was not using a coordinated frequency. He provided a list of "clear channel" beacon freq...

I don't have a favorite band. Each band serves a purpose at the right time and place. Right now, I am mostly locked out of 80 and 40 but only due to the fact that my  Skywire Loop Antenna  is down. So, for now, I have a  20M vertical field antenna . See photo of the antenna being used in the field. The guy wires serve as 1/4 wave tuned radials, i.e., the "other side of the vertical". I am able to tune the antenna from 80 meters to 10 meters. On 80, I can get a signal out of the back yard but not far. Thank you, Jesus, for antenna tuners. On my antenna, I placed a  1:1 balun at the feed point  - the grey box where the radials intersect. This ensures that I don't get any feedline radiation. 80 M is a great band for  NVIS  work. My Skywire Loop excelled at that and I usually had armchair copy out to 500 miles or better. 80M serves my CW net interests. I don't do much phone rag chew other than working Special Event Stations in 80, 40, and 20. 10M is g...