Well… after borrowing an antenna analyser and tweaking a few things… I made my second stationary contact using the bicycle mobile station on 20m. This time, using 20W transmit power. I now know where to place at least one of the taps on this autotransformer for 20m use. 😉 The station borrows heavily on the “Wonder Whip” style concept, where an autotransformer provides a means of matching the wild variances in impedance of the antenna, to something reasonable for the radio to cope with.
Shown here, is the station, exactly as it was during this contact. The fibreglass 6′ CB whip has been spray painted yellow to make it more obvious, I plan to put a flag on there so that it resembles a bicycle safety flag (a big one) so it arouses less suspicion. Click on any of the photos for a closer view.
VK4MSL/BM HF: as set up during the contact
This weekend was the day of the Remembrance Day contest, which is one of the major contests ran by the WIA. Tuning around on 20m, I heard Kirby VK7KC booming in a S8 from the apple isle. At first I tried contact with 5W, no dice… then 10W, then 20W… no luck.
I tuned off, and tried a different tap on the autotransformer… bingo, that sounded a bit noisier… I hit the button on the autotuner to clean up any last issues with the SWR, then tuned back and had another go. Eventually after some perseverance, contact was made.
Below is a shot of the FT897D showing the frequency and S-meter reading shortly after the contact was made…. I was weak into Tassie, but that didn’t matter to me… as far as I was concerned, if I got outside metropolitan Brisbane, I was happy.
FT-897D frequency and S-meter during contact with VK7KC
I haven’t yet tried other bands, although I’ve figured out some tap points for 6m, 10m and 15m… and some possible maybe points for 40m although I think the antenna will be very deaf down there.
On 80m it’ll probably be a mostly receive-only antenna, with maybe a Tx range of under 10km… if it’s enough for me to know what’s going on with the AWNOI net before I get home … and to maybe get a message relayed to VK4SD so I don’t get hassled about a late note, it’ll be great. 😉
The transformer still uses a map pin pushed though to select the tap… I’m not sure how well this will go long-term, and I think moving towards using banana plugs (or at the very least, alligator clips) will be a better solution. Switches are another possibility. Something that will be a more reliable connection than a pin pushed through a wire. Shown here, is a close-up of the rear basket, the autotransformer is shown underneath the antenna bracket… which helps provide a bit of capacitance. I find having it close up against the bracket helps, although I made provisions to be able to hang it vertically too (thereby reducing the coupling).
Rear basket showing homebrew autotransformer
For now I’ll probably solder the centre conductor of the coax in place of the map pin, so that it’ll stay put until I can find a more convenient solution. At least I have something on HF that works to a moderate degree. I’ll probably give it a try next weekend on my way to the Queensland Maritime Museum, where I’ll be operating the Bulwer Island lighthouse as VK4MM in the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend. Hopefully I can stir up 20m sufficiently so that there’ll be some activity when 00:00 UTC rolls around.
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