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 Hello all Lars here.
Looks like I will have about 6 months, before I’m healed and so I have been thinking of a little something to do in the meantime.
You see the rig at the right here, it’s my beautiful Kenwood TS-520 and its a so called “hybrid rig” it means that the radio have both old time tubes and transistors, the tubes are just used in the transmitter “PA”, but easily delivers a nice and clean 100w out.
Now to my crazy idea, if you guys know of anybody who wants to get rid of his old non working TS-520, 520s or 520se, even TS-820, 830 or even TS-530 would work fine, I would be happy to buy for around $90- 100, just as something to do…. As you might have figured out, cheaper is better, since trying to get back to shape, (torn rotator cuff) so I can get back to work again, isn’t cheap…
Mind You, I’m not a repair pro, but hoping to learn “how to”
Thank you for taking time to read this…
Lars KB3WBT
PS: E-mail me at sm7fyw at hotmail.com
 With the risk, that you might say, I can’t do that, I say YES YOU CAN!
The other day, I was looking around for a cheap and simple antenna for my brother in-law. You see, he was asking me if it’s hard to get a amateur radio license, and if the equipment is expensive, so I told him that he could borrow a radio and coax from me, but, I didn’t have any antenna that he could use.
That’s when I got to think about a neighbor of mine, a few years ago, he asked me if I wanted an old CB antenna that had been laying outside for the last 20-25 years, and at the time, I had what I needed, so I said no thank you, but now it might be a good idea to ask him, and guess what, it was still laying out there, he said, all he used it for was to knock down hornets nests. So I got the “antenna” for free, took it all apart, cleaned it up, and put it together again.
 From what I could figure out, it was 11′ tall, and once it did have 3 ground plane-rods. Further more, it also had a coil of some sorts, connecting the center of the PL connector with the 11′ radiator, and since I had no clue of size, or number of turns, I started to look on the net for a similar antenna, but it was still just guesswork. As you can see, on the picture at the right, I used what I had sitting around, so its about 1 1/2 turns. Then of coarse I didn’t know how long the ground-plane-rods originally were, so I came up with a “one of a kind” solution. Since I didn’t have any aluminum pipes that would fit, I went another route, if you look close, I put “inserts” into the 3/4″ holes, then 3 pieces of 6′ fiber-glass rods were inserted, and on the rods, I wound about 7′ 22 gauge insulated copper-wire. The fiber-glass rods can be found at Lowe’s, they are used as “driveway” markers. I used electrical tape, to hold the wires in place, but shrink-tubes would be nicer.
Now too the fun part, would this contraption work?? As I said earlier, this was an old CB antenna once upon a time, but what is it now?? I hooked up my trusty TS-440 sat, it has its own antenna-tuner, so I tuned in 28,500 and hit tune, well it showed SWR about 1-1:3, so I moved down to 28,020 and low and behold, it showed SWR 1-1:2! Well I thought, just because it shows low SWR, it doesn’t have to be a good antenna, so I tuned over the 10m band, and heard a station in El Paso Tx I had worked before, he was about S 5-5, so I called him, and he did answer, and gave me a solid S 5-9!! This told me that it was not just a pile of junk sitting on my back porch, so then I tried to tune it on 12m, and there it showed about SWR 1-1:3, which is not to bad!! This antenna turned out to work all bands, except 17m, and I guess 160m!! Not to bad of a pile of scrap!!
So now, I’m asking all of you, go out and “save” old CB antennas, give them a second chance, and put them to work on our HAM-bands! When you are done, tell us how good it works, and how you managed to save it from the “scrapyard” Good luck, and hope to see your article here soon!
Lars KB3WBT the Antennafarmer
 Hello again all, the Swede is back!
This time I got the inspiration from all the good band openings on 10m.
Openings you say, I haven’t heard anything in a long time!!
Well, I used to say the same thing, after I scanned the band using my vertical AV-620, which for those of you who does not know what that is, it’s a 6-band vertical covering 6m to 20m, and it’s considered one of the best verticals.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to replace my home built 3 element 10m quad, which couldn’t take the snow/ice, without breaking, and of coarse that’s what happened again last winter/spring.
After a research online, I decided to buy an Italian made 4 element beam, the manufacturer is Sirio, and is well known among cb’ers for their lightweight and good antennas.
Since the 27mhz is close to 28mhz, its a breeze, to re-tune the antenna to cover the lower end of the 10m band.
When I got the new antenna, I saw that the element brackets were already pre installed, so then I only had to put the mast-bracket on, (boom in 2 sections) and assemble the elements, put them in their brackets and install the gamma-match.
It took me about half an hour, and a little help to tune the gamma-match for 28,400 Mhz.
After it was assembled, I could not find a pipe that was tall enough, so it ended up sitting at the altitude of 2′ above my lawn, but even at that modest height, I heard CE, LU and PY stations with 59 signals!!
The next day, I got my “expensive” tower out, (top section) so now the beam was about 12′ up, and able to be turned, once again I hooked it up to my Icom 706, and again I heard a lot of stations, coming in with very good signal strength and so did a whole lot of beacons, I’ve never heard before!
While I had the antenna sitting “on the ground” it was hooked up to my Icom using about 100′ RG-58, but still very good signals on the rx and I also made quite a few contacts, to see how good side-lobe and F/B rejection it had, because as you all know, to see it on paper is one thing, but what you really get, is something else, so, when you have about 59+20-30dB on the front of the antenna, and you are getting about 8-9 S units on the back, you know it works! (note: not calibrated S meter!)
About a week later, I was lucky enough to get the antenna up in my tower, and results just got better!
Since I have been home for almost a month because of my injured shoulder, I have had the fortune to be able to monitor 10m, from when it opens, around 8-8,30 am, towards Europe and Scandinavia, and yes, apart from about 2 days, yes 2 days, the band has been open!
Around noon, the west-coast beacons are gaining strength (readable all morning though) but after noon people out there start to show up, and then you will hear FO4BM, with good signal, S 54-55, and then the VK and ZL stations show up, they are all easy to work, when there are no pile-up, and that’s with my old boat anchor Kenwood TS-520!
So, if you say that the band is not open, it might be because you just need a better antenna….
What I’m saying isn’t that I have the best antenna there is, but rather that 10m is open, if you just listen with a better antenna.
Don’t forget, that even you technician licensees are allowed on 10m, up to 28,500 Mhz, why not give it your best shot?
The antenna, Sirio SY 27-4 is about $170 incl from H&Y electronics (the cheapest place I’ve found) and it only took 3 days to get it, the weight is also very low, so a TV antenna rotator is more than adequate.
So, now what’s stopping you, get on the fun, get on 10m!
 Hello all readers, this is the Swede again.
This time I have been playing with a piece of pvc pipe and some aluminum wire, the result became a cheap and simple antenna for 70cm.
The pvc pipe is about 57″ end to end and is 5/8 diameter (you can use bigger, if thats in your junkbox) and then a couple of short pieces about 1/2″ used for the reflector and also the driven element. I also got a T pipe, as a “mastclamp” since the antenna only weighs a few ounzes ;)
Here are the element lengths: Reflector loop 28″ Driven loop 26 5/8″ Directors 11 3/4″ to 11 7/16″ in 1/16 steps….
Element spacing: R-DE 7″ DE-D1 5 1/4″ D1-D2 11″ D2-D3 5,85″ D3-D4 8,73″ D4-D5 8,73″ D5-D6 8,73″
I will bring it to the meeting, so if you have any questions, I’ll be more than happy to answer them.
Lars KB3WBT
 Well, as most of you already read, I will show you how to have a chance catching one of those elusive Foxes…
So, today I went to the local hardware store and got some plastic pipe, T’s, 4 way thingies and a pair of hose clamps, the tape measure itself, comes from a garbage bin at work, so its a little bit too thin, but works fine anyway. Apart from that, you also need a few feet RG-58, some electrical tape and 5 inces of 16 gage copper wire.
I was really going to let you come down to the meeting, to get the rest of the dimensions, but decided to give them to you here ;-)
Schedule 40 plastic pipe, think its 3 feet, about $ 1,67, 1 Tee end, that fits the pipe, 2 cross pieces, also same size, a few cents each…. ;-) You will also need 2 hose clamps, that fits the cross things.
 Cut the plastic pipe into 3 pieces, 11 3/8 , 6 7/8 and one more 11 3/8. Put the T on the one end of the 11 3/8 pipe, then put the one cross piece on the other end, next stick the 6 7/8 pipe into the already assembled parts, then the last cross piece onto the 6 7/8 and last but not least, the 3rd piece of pipe, its going to come out something like this: ———————————->
Now to the tape measure itself, cut one piece 41 3/8 inch, two pieces 17 3/4 inch and one piece 35 1/8 inch, you can use ordinary pair of scissors, but be careful, the ends gets really sharp! (put some tape over ends)
Attach the 35 1/8 to the T, make sure its centered, (use electrical tape) next file of about 1/8 inch of the paint on the one end of both 17 3/4 pieces, attach the two 17 3/4 onto the middle cross piece with the hose clamps and finally the longest, to the next cross piece, using the tape again.
When all is put toghether, see picture 3, you will need to solder the 5 inch copper wire, which you have to shape like a U, presolder the ends first, solder it onto the feedpoint, (dont overheat, plastic will melt) then solder your RG-58 to the same point, coax running towards the handle…..
I hooked mine up to my Bird, and it shows very low SWR, so good luck, and if you are interested or have questions, come down to the meeting, and we will help ;-)
Lars FYW
Hi everybody!
As I was sitting here, looking at our exellent home page, I got one of those ideas that maybe I could try to write something of my own, if nothing else, it might encourage all of you readers to do the same, afterall, we can’t wait for Joe to come up with all the articles.
That said, I would like to tell you all, that my tower is back up, my 10m quad is repaired, and the 6m beam is finaly back in the top.
Furthermore, I have a new rotor, it’s now a HAM IV rotating the antennas, so now I can finaly see at what direction I’m beaming (thanks Don, for the rotor cable)
For those of you, who are waiting for the weather to warm up, I will try to get my plans for FOX hunt realized, more about that later…….
If you are interested in fox hunt, please Email me, so we get to know how many are willing to hunt….
This was a lot about nothing, LOL, but never the less, a beginning.
Lars FYW
15 people attended the March QCARC meeting. Nice turnout
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