On the air since 1958
First
licensed in 1958 as WV2CHI, I maintained an avid interest in radios and
electronics throughout my life, with many receivers in the house,
and antennas sprouting from my various homes. However, I let my
licenses lapse as, like many others, I pursued other things in life,
and a career. I was able, however, to lug or place in storage
virtually all of my original equipment. These days they're called vintage, and are much in demand; hams call them "boat anchors!"
After retirement, I returned to ham radio, dusted off my Morse
Code, cleaned and refurbished many of my old pieces of gear, and took
and passed 3 of the 4 available exams. Relicensed first as
KE7BUL, and now as W7DDD (Whiskey Seven Triple Delta), I returned to
the airwaves, with an evolving set of equipment and antennas. In
the past year, I have made well over 1000 contacts with hams in every
part of the world, from the Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor, to the
Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean, the Galapagos to Siberia,
from Japan to Argentina, and literally all places in-between.
I've worked all continents and all 50 states, most countries in
Europe and South America, and had a lot of fun. I was worried
that with cell phones, the internet, satellite TV, and the rest,
amateur radio would not be so alluring. I need not have worried -
it's still a terrific high when you call some guy in Tokyo, Moscow, or
Montevideo, with an old tube radio and a bit of antenna wire, and he
answers back. You swap stories and make new friends in faraway
places. And, as Hurricane Katrina proved, when the power grid
goes down, and the cell phones don't work, Hams always get through!
Sitting for my General class license exam. Now, on to to Extra! (the highest class)
My shack today
The 'Main" center of operations
An earlier setup - Kenwood R-5000 SW Receiver - Kenwood TS-830 Transceiver plus Tuner -
- and on the right - a Hammarlund HQ-100 (All tube Boat Anchor).
Hammarlund - if you want a GREAT receiver - learn how to spell Hammarlund!!! They've NEVER made any better!
Mainstay is (was) the Kenwood TS-830S with Kenwood AT-230 Antenna Tuner. Original Tube finals, 100 watts output, and about 23 years old - as good as they get! Bullet-proof. Built like a tank. Laughs at abuse and high SWR's. Great signal and audio reports. They don't make 'em like this anymore. What a great radio!
Mic is a Kenwood MC-50.
Swan 500CX with SS-16 filter and 117XC Power Supply. 35 years young! All tubes, to glow -- and keep you warm on cold winter nites, , and 550 watts PEP. (Original tubes too; I keep buying new finals on eBay, but have yet to put any in! I have a great supply.) Mic is a Astatic Silver Eagle D-104 ( a LolliPop) running straight (base amplifier by-passed.) A very fine radio, and you can work on it - all of it! (I mean work on the innards.)
Those tube radios are great! I routinely run them with SWR's in the 3.0-5.0 range, sometimes higher. They don't complain and I get great signal reports. Try that with those high priced, new fangled, solid-state rigs!!! Yes, yes, you have to tune them up - but what fun is it being a Ham if you can't twiddle a bunch of knobs, and watch a bunch of meters, and explain to any visitors how you're "adjusting the grid and dipping the plate!"
A New Rig
Down below, you'll see my first 'new' rig in, not years, but decades! A Yaesu FT-857D. What a great piece of gear. HF, VHF, UHF.. It's about 6 inches wide x 2 inches high x by 8 inches long. Weighs 4 pounds! Puts out 100 watts. Can't believe people answer me when I call on this pipsqueak --- but they do! The power supply on the right is a Daiwa SS-330W - highly recommended. Hate to say it, but this little job has taken over most of my hammin' life. Recently, I forced myself to get back on the air with the Kenwood and Swan; doggone, I had to re-read the manuals to see how to tune up -- that's how long it had been. Bad boy!)
My Original Ham Station Rig
In the late 50's (that 1950's for you youngsters), my original novice rig was a Hallicrafters S-38E receiver and a Globe Scout 680A (65 watts - plate modulated) - as a Novice I didn't qualify for voice transmissions, so the plate modulation didn't help me much (!!!) The CW (Morse code) did help drive my neighbors crazy however - but, I outlasted 'em! For whatever it's worth, and being the world's ultimate 'packrat', I kept all my gear, through dozens of moves, and storage routines, and.......I still have them!!! Yes. .....and now ----- they're returning to the airwaves, where they belong!!
Hallicrafters S-38E
Globe Scout 680A
I'll post pictures in the near future.
Some Test Gear
A good old EICO 324 Signal Genrator - tubes (of course) still works great, and I use for alignment.
A Goldstar OS-9020G Oscilloscope - well -- I use it for everything!
Left to Right: 20 meter Hamstick (almost impossible to see); 10 meter Solarcon A99 vertical; TV Dish; Diamond D-130J Discone for VHF and UHF; Par Electronics 20 meter end fed dipole (EF20); and a half size (51 foot) G5RV.
The Diamond is a great scanner antenna, great performance and construction.
The EF-20 is a very good - not great - dipole, a little noisy, but an 'easy keeper.' Mine is installed as a 'Sloper", oriented SE.
Since I have a big metal roof, I fooled around with a 20 m Hamstick on a mag mount. It works great!! Very quiet on receive, I use it mostly with the Swan running about 300 watts. Although I have no antenna restrictions, it's very 'stealthy' as well. Look at the right picture - you can hardly see the thing! Keeps the Missus happy. Me too!
The Solarcon A-99 Vertical and G5RV. The A99 is shortened 12 inches and has the 4 radials (recently) installed (didn't have them for a year, still great performance.) . It is resonant on 10 meters at about 28.475 MHz, and I use it also on 17, 15, and 12m with the Tuner. It's also my main (only) 6 meter antenna. Hell, if truth be told, I've also used it on 20 meters, and yes on 40, and, believe it or not, checked into the Noon Time Net one day on 75 meters!!! (Operator finger trouble, forgot to switch back to the G5RV. Geez, I was wondering why it was tuning so long.) The top is about 40 feet above the ground. I have no ground radials. The right picture shows what the A99 sees - between 5 and 25 miles of salt water running from about 270 degrees to 120 degrees (True). Japan is 300 degrees, Europe is 020-045 degrees, Brazil is 100-120 degrees.
Here's a bit of advice. Yeah, it's a "CB" antenna, which drives a certain number of hams wild. Too bad. If you want a really wonderful, great, stupendous, DX antenna, get an A-99. No, ......I don't work for them.
Thanks for visiting! You can contact me here: Email Contact
Back to Home Page
NOTES
Sitting for my General class license exam. Now, on to to Extra! (the highest class)
My shack today The 'Main" center of operationsMy Rigs
An earlier setup - Kenwood R-5000 SW Receiver - Kenwood TS-830 Transceiver plus Tuner -
- and on the right - a Hammarlund HQ-100 (All tube Boat Anchor).
Hammarlund - if you want a GREAT receiver - learn how to spell Hammarlund!!! They've NEVER made any better!
Mainstay is (was) the Kenwood TS-830S with Kenwood AT-230 Antenna Tuner. Original Tube finals, 100 watts output, and about 23 years old - as good as they get! Bullet-proof. Built like a tank. Laughs at abuse and high SWR's. Great signal and audio reports. They don't make 'em like this anymore. What a great radio!
Mic is a Kenwood MC-50.
Swan 500CX with SS-16 filter and 117XC Power Supply. 35 years young! All tubes, to glow -- and keep you warm on cold winter nites, , and 550 watts PEP. (Original tubes too; I keep buying new finals on eBay, but have yet to put any in! I have a great supply.) Mic is a Astatic Silver Eagle D-104 ( a LolliPop) running straight (base amplifier by-passed.) A very fine radio, and you can work on it - all of it! (I mean work on the innards.)
Those tube radios are great! I routinely run them with SWR's in the 3.0-5.0 range, sometimes higher. They don't complain and I get great signal reports. Try that with those high priced, new fangled, solid-state rigs!!! Yes, yes, you have to tune them up - but what fun is it being a Ham if you can't twiddle a bunch of knobs, and watch a bunch of meters, and explain to any visitors how you're "adjusting the grid and dipping the plate!"
A New Rig
Down below, you'll see my first 'new' rig in, not years, but decades! A Yaesu FT-857D. What a great piece of gear. HF, VHF, UHF.. It's about 6 inches wide x 2 inches high x by 8 inches long. Weighs 4 pounds! Puts out 100 watts. Can't believe people answer me when I call on this pipsqueak --- but they do! The power supply on the right is a Daiwa SS-330W - highly recommended. Hate to say it, but this little job has taken over most of my hammin' life. Recently, I forced myself to get back on the air with the Kenwood and Swan; doggone, I had to re-read the manuals to see how to tune up -- that's how long it had been. Bad boy!)
My Original Ham Station Rig
In the late 50's (that 1950's for you youngsters), my original novice rig was a Hallicrafters S-38E receiver and a Globe Scout 680A (65 watts - plate modulated) - as a Novice I didn't qualify for voice transmissions, so the plate modulation didn't help me much (!!!) The CW (Morse code) did help drive my neighbors crazy however - but, I outlasted 'em! For whatever it's worth, and being the world's ultimate 'packrat', I kept all my gear, through dozens of moves, and storage routines, and.......I still have them!!! Yes. .....and now ----- they're returning to the airwaves, where they belong!!
Hallicrafters S-38E
Globe Scout 680A
I'll post pictures in the near future.
Some Test Gear
A good old EICO 324 Signal Genrator - tubes (of course) still works great, and I use for alignment.
A Goldstar OS-9020G Oscilloscope - well -- I use it for everything!
Antenna Farm
My
antennas are very modest from the perspective of many Hams. No
Beams. No Rotator. No Tower. Most of the time they are
quite stealthy and hard to see, although I have no actual restrictions (just
my own.). I have two unique factors that I have tried to take
advantage of - and they have certainly paid off! I have a large
metal roof that makes an excellent ground plane. And I have large
expanses of salt water spanning one half of the horizon. These
have allowed me to install less than optimum antennas with
extraordinary results. (See Notes at bottom.)
Left to Right: 20 meter Hamstick (almost impossible to see); 10 meter Solarcon A99 vertical; TV Dish; Diamond D-130J Discone for VHF and UHF; Par Electronics 20 meter end fed dipole (EF20); and a half size (51 foot) G5RV.
The Diamond is a great scanner antenna, great performance and construction.
The EF-20 is a very good - not great - dipole, a little noisy, but an 'easy keeper.' Mine is installed as a 'Sloper", oriented SE.
Since I have a big metal roof, I fooled around with a 20 m Hamstick on a mag mount. It works great!! Very quiet on receive, I use it mostly with the Swan running about 300 watts. Although I have no antenna restrictions, it's very 'stealthy' as well. Look at the right picture - you can hardly see the thing! Keeps the Missus happy. Me too!
The Solarcon A-99 Vertical and G5RV. The A99 is shortened 12 inches and has the 4 radials (recently) installed (didn't have them for a year, still great performance.) . It is resonant on 10 meters at about 28.475 MHz, and I use it also on 17, 15, and 12m with the Tuner. It's also my main (only) 6 meter antenna. Hell, if truth be told, I've also used it on 20 meters, and yes on 40, and, believe it or not, checked into the Noon Time Net one day on 75 meters!!! (Operator finger trouble, forgot to switch back to the G5RV. Geez, I was wondering why it was tuning so long.) The top is about 40 feet above the ground. I have no ground radials. The right picture shows what the A99 sees - between 5 and 25 miles of salt water running from about 270 degrees to 120 degrees (True). Japan is 300 degrees, Europe is 020-045 degrees, Brazil is 100-120 degrees.
Here's a bit of advice. Yeah, it's a "CB" antenna, which drives a certain number of hams wild. Too bad. If you want a really wonderful, great, stupendous, DX antenna, get an A-99. No, ......I don't work for them.
The half size (51 foot) G5RV. It runs from the house to a fence
post/mast and is oriented NW-SE. It's height is only between 18
and 20 feet, about half what is recommended (one half wavelength on 20
meters would call for a 33 foot minimum height.) However, I DOhave
that nice 5 mile stretch of salt water sitting in front, pointing
right at Europe! At my location, it is an excellent antenna and I
recommend it highly. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary.) I have
used it on 160, 75, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters. It is almost
resonant on 20 and can be used on 40 without a tuner (although I use
one.)
QTH
My QTH
is Hansville, Washington on the West side of Puget Sound, facing North.
Where the heck is Hansville, Washington?
Click the picture, and you'll find out!
Click the picture, and you'll find out!
Thanks for visiting! You can contact me here: Email Contact
Back to Home Page
Copyright 2005 by Robert A. Bogash. All Rights Reserved
Last revised 10 Nov 2005
Last revised 10 Nov 2005
NOTES
Note (1) Effects of seawater
In the ARRL Vertical Antenna Classic book, page 102, the author Brian Edward, N2MF talks of big signals from simple vertical antennas put out by Caribbean Hams operating on the beach. Six graphs show the elevation angles for maximum radiation with various radial configurations and earth characteristics. He states "This elevation angle is determined largely by the earth characteristics a wavelength or more beyond the vertical radiator - in other words beyond the typical radial system." In other words, it's what is in front of the antenna and out quite a ways that's important. for things like take-off angle.
In QST, Nov 2005, page 61, the "Doctor" talks about vertical dipole antennas. He states: "The more serious problem for effective low-angle radiation is the effectiveness of the ground as a reflector at some distance from the antenna. If the surface far from the antenna is highly conductive, such as provided by seawater, the low angle wave front that hits the surface will be reflected in phase with the direct ray and add to the energy at that angle." To get a rough idea of the distances, he calculates the distance to the reflection point for a 50 ft high antenna needing a 5 degree take-off angle to reach a distant DX station. The distance is 571 feet! "While it would be possible to build a ground screen that large,....it is generally beyond the scope of most amateurs." He summarizes by saying "horizontal HF antennas are generally more effective over typical to poor ground, while a vertical can shine over a conductive ground of wide extent."
At my location, seawater extends over approximately 180 degrees of the northern horizon, with the near in distance being approximately 150 feet and the far distances ranging from 21,000 to more than 75,000 feet.
Note (2) Metal ground planes
The roof on my house is 24 gage steel and is more than 5000 sq ft in area. In the ARRL Vertical Antenna Classic book, page 91, John Belrose, VE2CV, discusses short HF mobile antennas. These antennas are shorter than normal and coil loaded to enable them to be used on motor vehicles. Hamsticks are approximately 7 foot long versions of this type antenna and are in common use. There are other brands. In his analysis, he states "Mobile antennas are strongly affected by the structure on which they are mounted." His analysis shows the differences between bumper mounts, trunk mounts, roof mounts, as well as the differences between, say, cars, pickup trucks, vans, and SUVs. It was clear that a vehicle with more steel, and more area (like a van), had advantages over a smaller vehicle, with a smaller roof etc.
He also talks about the directivity benefits from a configuration like a rear bumper mounted whip, where the steel vehicle in front of the antenna provides gain in the direction the vehicle is pointing. He states this can be used mostly when the vehicle is parked, pointing in the direction of desired gain, and mentions parking at the seaside pointing at the ocean! (See Note 1.)
Putting two and two together, I figured my house roof was way bigger than a van's, and I had the seawater in front of me. $25 later, I had a 20 meter Hamstick on a mag mount sitting on my roof for experimentation. The results: Sensational ! Very quiet on receive - 2 S units quieter than my G5RV and 20 m dipole in many, many direct A/B comparisons. On transmit, I get great signal reports. When I tell them what my configuration is, other Hams just laugh. But I laugh last. I've since bought Hamsticks for other bands, as well as two more 20 meter units that I've rigged into a vertical dipole configuration for some more experimentation and tests. Oh yeah, as mentioned above - very inconspicuous and hard to see.
Bottom Line: If you have a metal roof - even without seawater in your front yard - try a Hamstick on a mag-mount. You may be surprised.
In the ARRL Vertical Antenna Classic book, page 102, the author Brian Edward, N2MF talks of big signals from simple vertical antennas put out by Caribbean Hams operating on the beach. Six graphs show the elevation angles for maximum radiation with various radial configurations and earth characteristics. He states "This elevation angle is determined largely by the earth characteristics a wavelength or more beyond the vertical radiator - in other words beyond the typical radial system." In other words, it's what is in front of the antenna and out quite a ways that's important. for things like take-off angle.
In QST, Nov 2005, page 61, the "Doctor" talks about vertical dipole antennas. He states: "The more serious problem for effective low-angle radiation is the effectiveness of the ground as a reflector at some distance from the antenna. If the surface far from the antenna is highly conductive, such as provided by seawater, the low angle wave front that hits the surface will be reflected in phase with the direct ray and add to the energy at that angle." To get a rough idea of the distances, he calculates the distance to the reflection point for a 50 ft high antenna needing a 5 degree take-off angle to reach a distant DX station. The distance is 571 feet! "While it would be possible to build a ground screen that large,....it is generally beyond the scope of most amateurs." He summarizes by saying "horizontal HF antennas are generally more effective over typical to poor ground, while a vertical can shine over a conductive ground of wide extent."
At my location, seawater extends over approximately 180 degrees of the northern horizon, with the near in distance being approximately 150 feet and the far distances ranging from 21,000 to more than 75,000 feet.
Note (2) Metal ground planes
The roof on my house is 24 gage steel and is more than 5000 sq ft in area. In the ARRL Vertical Antenna Classic book, page 91, John Belrose, VE2CV, discusses short HF mobile antennas. These antennas are shorter than normal and coil loaded to enable them to be used on motor vehicles. Hamsticks are approximately 7 foot long versions of this type antenna and are in common use. There are other brands. In his analysis, he states "Mobile antennas are strongly affected by the structure on which they are mounted." His analysis shows the differences between bumper mounts, trunk mounts, roof mounts, as well as the differences between, say, cars, pickup trucks, vans, and SUVs. It was clear that a vehicle with more steel, and more area (like a van), had advantages over a smaller vehicle, with a smaller roof etc.
He also talks about the directivity benefits from a configuration like a rear bumper mounted whip, where the steel vehicle in front of the antenna provides gain in the direction the vehicle is pointing. He states this can be used mostly when the vehicle is parked, pointing in the direction of desired gain, and mentions parking at the seaside pointing at the ocean! (See Note 1.)
Putting two and two together, I figured my house roof was way bigger than a van's, and I had the seawater in front of me. $25 later, I had a 20 meter Hamstick on a mag mount sitting on my roof for experimentation. The results: Sensational ! Very quiet on receive - 2 S units quieter than my G5RV and 20 m dipole in many, many direct A/B comparisons. On transmit, I get great signal reports. When I tell them what my configuration is, other Hams just laugh. But I laugh last. I've since bought Hamsticks for other bands, as well as two more 20 meter units that I've rigged into a vertical dipole configuration for some more experimentation and tests. Oh yeah, as mentioned above - very inconspicuous and hard to see.
Bottom Line: If you have a metal roof - even without seawater in your front yard - try a Hamstick on a mag-mount. You may be surprised.