The radio and electronics blog of Carl Ratcliffe, M0ICR
Couldn’t sleep so thought I’d have a tune around the 20m band. Delighted to see VK0 popped up in FT8, my first VK0 QSO on any band 🙂
From DX news: “Matt, VK5HZ will be active as VK0MQ from Macquarie Island, IOTA AN – 005, starting Mid June 2022. He will operate on HF Bands, SSB, FT8, using ICOM IC-7100 transceiver and tuned whip antenna.”
Icom 7600 100W + fan dipole with 6m element
VO1CH
A great day out at the Dunstable Downs Rally with the gang from the Drowned Rats Radio Group. Glorious weather, a few bargains and a lot of surplus/junk recycled!
10m, 17m, 15m and 20m, combination of RTTY, FT4 and FT8
Very pleased to see my BARTG RTTY score, operating with my contest callsign G2K.
RX/TX: Icom 7600 /
Amplifier: Acom 1010 at 300W
Antennas:
* 80m – Inverted L
* 40m – Dipole and 1/4 wave vertical
* 20m, 15m – Dipole
* 10m – Dipole and 5/8 wave vertical
5th in World – Single Operator All Bands
3rd in Europe – SIngle Operator All Bands and top UK station!
My Certificate
Spacers are 3D printed from my own design (printed in Black PETG for uV protection)
Spacing between each element is 10cm (4″). The spacers (21cm long):
The mast top piece is also 3D printed in PETG:
Email me if you would like the STL files for the spreaders and mast top piece. At £20 a roll of PETG the spreaders cost 17p each, the mast head piece 29p. Less than a cup of Costa Coffee – a total of 18 spreaders. The spacers were printed on my Anycubic Vyper 3D printer.
The mast is a DX Commander Classic mast available from M0MCX at DX Commander here.
Approximate radiation pattern on a Great Circle Map from my home QTH:
The great circle maps were generated here: https://ns6t.net/azimuth/azimuth.html
I know the radiation patterns are not totally accurate, but they’re good enough!
Update 14 April 2022, also worked on 30m.
This makes my Galapogos Island confirmed on LOTW 5 bands:
Two in a row!!
