Photos by Finnbjörn Bjarnason of Litlaeyri.
The Array Solutions QSK-Master has now been installed with the Harris RF-110A amplifier and it works beautifully.
The RF-110A had slow T/R switching making it almost unusable for my purposes.
With the QSK-Master, the T/R switching is better than anything I have ever experienced before and with the small modification I performed to control the bias directly from the unit ( a 10V control voltage at 4 mA is switched to control the bias of both driver tubes and output tubes ), the amplifier is now biased to cutoff when it is not keyed.
This ensures much less heat and less waste of power.
The amplifier is even cut off between CW characters in QSK operation.
Samúel, TF2SUT visited my station and was given a quick tour of the facilities with YL Andrea.
A German group is on a DXpedition to Ascencion Island and I worked them on 40 Meters CW.
I need ZD8 on a couple of bands so will keep looking for them.
Here is what their signals sounded like.
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Southern Sudan is being activated as a new entity with the call sign ST0R.
Pile ups have been fierce but I was able to work them on 30 Meters.
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And on 40 Meters SSB:
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The pile ups have been very chaotic and unruly, it seems that constant calling is in vogue and in addition extremely bad behavior may be observed on the transmit frequency of the DXpedition making copy extremely difficult. On top of all this jammers are out in force as well, creating a most shameful spectacle.
EI2KC writes about the ST0R pile ups in his post.
I agree with Andrey, RW3AH in his post, that this is probably the result of dropping the morse code requirement in Amateur Radio licensing.
We now have many former CB freebanders within our ranks who bring their criminal mindset to our hobby now that the only requirement for an Amateur Radio licence is enough money to buy a radio.
To the ST0R team: Thank you for going there and making the effort and thanks for all the excitement!
I found ST0R on 20 Meter CW in a free for all huge pile up this morning. It took only a couple of calls to get into the log and since it took a few tries to correct my call, I was greeted by name by the operator (RA9USU)
ST0R on 20M CW:
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The recording runs for a minute after the QSO to give an idea of the massive pile up.
Here is a video from RW3AH of the ST0R 20m pile up:
Wednesday July 27.: This morning they were quite light on 17 Meters, but I decided to try anyway. When I heard the operator say UP8 I immediately gave my call a few times on that frequency which resulted in the valuable contact.
ST0R on 17M CW:
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I spent a long time calling ST0R on 80 Meters when they first came on, but without a dedicated 80 Meter antenna I am simply not making it through the EU wall.
Later I was ready when they started operation on 40 Meters CW and snagged them within a minute of calling. The operator started listening low in the band moving slightly up with each QSO – such predictable operating makes it relatively easy to work the DXpedition – good work. (RA9USU).
ST0R on 40M CW
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This is what the pile up looked like on the display of my SDR receiver. (click on image to see it full size)
Thursday, July 28:
Things seem to be calming down a bit. After monitoring 17 Meters SSB for most of the day, their signals improved a bit and it only took a couple of calls to make the log.
ST0R on 17 Meters SSB:
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They have now been QRV on 80 Meters for a couple of nights. I have called them endlessly without luck since I do not have a dedicated antenna for 80 Meters (under construction – will hopefully be ready this winter) and have been using my USA Rhombic which has a poor radiation pattern at such a low frequency although it accepts the power readily.
I heard TF3SG work them – congratulations Guðmundur! – and it took me an hour more to finally work them.
ST0R 80M CW:
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ST0R 20M SSB:
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Now I am waiting for them to show up on Top Band and if I can contact them there I will be well pleased.
Start Slide Show with PicLens LiteThe new Harris RF-110A Radio Frequency Amplifier has been installed and tested.
The amplifier has 2 x 4CX1500B tubes in parallel in the output stage (3000W plate dissipation) biased for Class AB1 operation and runs an easy 1 kW output in any mode (key down forever…) on all bands.
It takes 100 W from the exciter through a 30dB attenuator which provides 100mW to a pair of 8122 tubes running in Class A (capable of around 1kW by themselves) which amplify the 100mW signal to 10W to drive the PA tubes.
The amplifier is cooled with a very noisy 4″ muffin fan rotating at 11,000 RPM – a real screamer – necessitating installation in the adjacent soundproofed equipment room.
The T/R switching is rather slow and clunky by today´s standards – on the order of 200mS until full output is reached due to timing constants in the bias circuit which prevents hot switching of the relays, but by increasing PTT to generated RF delays in the equipment everything functions reasonably smoothly.
An ArraySolutions QSK Master unit is on order to use with the amplifier – once this unit is installed there will be no moving parts inside the amplifier.
The RF-110A generates 3.5kW of heat for 1kW of RF output – this makes it necessary to improve ventilation of the equipment room. It consumes 1kW in Standby mode.
I would appreciate comments on the quality of my signals as I test the unit.
From top to bottom: Harris AM-7224 1kW amplifer, Harris RF-110A 1kW amplifier
Harris AM-7224 1kW amplifer and two power supplies for the AM-7224 amplifiers.
In addition the station has a Harris AM-7223 500W amplifer, an Emtron DX-2SP and an Emtron DX-3 amplifier.
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
This brings my 160 meter totals to 169 entities Worked – 164 entities Confirmed.
Start Slide Show with PicLens LiteDuring my recent travel to Sussex, England, I was served with a heavenly fried egg for breakfast.
My wife and I stayed at Millers Bed & Breakfast in the beautiful historic town of Lewes.
I can recommend Millers without hesitation – we had a wonderful stay.
On the last morning of our stay I was allowed to observe how the lady cooked her eggs and the photo shows my first attempt with the method.
The egg alone was worth the trip to England.
Alexey, VE2XAA visited my station and operated the IARU HF contest with the call TF4X.
He made 1876 QSOs for a total score of 770,400 points in the contest.
Alexey became interested in visiting my station after we worked on 160 meters when he was QRV from Zone 2 in last years CQ World Wide Contest.
Propagation was poor due to Aurora and as a result most of the contacts were made on 20m.
Despite 24 hour daylight, Alexey made 14 QSOs on 160 Meters during the contest.
Before the contest Alexey operated my station as TF/VE2XAA and made another 2,300 QSOs for a total of more than 4,000 QSOs during his stay.
Here are Alexey´s comments on his operation :
First of all I would like to thanks Thor TF4M for a great opportunity to see and use his
Super Station with unique Antenna Farm on the surface of 1500 hectares!
Before the contest I decided to participate in phone category but during first 6 minutes
of the contest was no phone QSO at all! So the mode was switched for CW and run
started on 20 m band – the only opened band at the moment. Time to time I did check
15m and 10m but it was no whisper on the bands. Finally I did a few QSO on 15m with
big troubles but 10 m was close during the contest completely. 20m was surprising: I did
expect that run on 20m will stop after a few hours as usually for my home location; that
will be already no new stations on the band and I can start hunting for multipliers; but
pile-up had no stop! The flat rate of 120-140 QSO was continued after 5, 6, 7…hours
of the run! The stations with High Power, Low Power and QRP had almost the same
signal level! The Otradalur Antenna Farm did a work perfectly and stack-match box
let me separate EU-USA-JA directions just with push on one button! Amazing! In 10
hours I had already more than 1200 QSO only on 20m and did expect to have a good
run on other bands to make same number of QSO for other 14 hours. But after 12 hours
of run somebody on the sky decided to switch off the light, put night Aurora cover on
Iceland and told: OK guys, now you can relax and go to sleep, it will be no propagation
for you for next few hours! It becomes nightmare: all bands closed, only big-guns were
on the bands, QSO rate drops for 10-20 per hour… Nice moment was on 160m: “Arctic
King” antenna was doing the work very well: on each 1 kHz distance I heard HQ or other
powerful stations with S7…S9, but they did not hear my 1 kW signal! Probably they
had other receiving directions except Arctic. With big difficulties spending 2-3 minutes
for each contact I was able to make a dozen QSO on 160m despite 24 hour day-light at
Island! Thor TF4M did not very good antenna, but exceptionally perfect!
Thanks to every one for the contacts and hope to see you in the other contests.
73! de Alexey VE2XAA
