In exactly ten days we will gather the team and set course for southern Sweden, with destination Market Reef. A lot of planning has been made; we recently announced all shack details including radios, antennas, and amplifiers. On the 18th we will pack the car full of gear, getting it ready for the 10 hour …
I will attend the annual Norwegian Ham Meeting 2023, held in Jessheim Is- og flerbrukshall near the Gardermoen Airport. The main purpose is to meet up with other DXers and discuss future opportunities, as well as socializing and mingling with other crazy amateur radio operators out there. If you want to say hello, you know …
Yesterday we received the final and long-awaited confirmation regarding our stay at Market Reef, and now all the pieces of the puzzle are in place. The only thing that can stop us now is the weather, so keep your fingers crossed. The team had a short planning meeting yesterday, and we discussed antennas, radios, power …
Time flies fast, and it's almost March already. At the time of writing this, it's just 12 weeks until we start driving towards southern Sweden, with Market Reef as our destination, and one week with constant radio operation from a reef in the middle of nowhere. Sounds a bit crazy when put like that, but …
Time to spill some of the beans regarding the upcoming DXpedition to Market Reef. We're all very excited and looking forward to this operation. All operators have now confirmed that they are committed to the plan, with the blessings of their XYLs. We've received a few requests regarding bands and modes, and we will certainly …
The plans for Market Reef, OJØ, for Q2 2023 are all starting to come together. We have made our reservations at the lighthouse, transport by boat is booked, and the equipment list is being checked frequently. There are a couple of minor uncertainties we want to make sure of before going public with the details …
Yesterday I did some improvements to the "fixed" 20m FT8 "Hulaloop" magnetic loop antenna. I've insulated the end of the capacitor coax thoroughly, by folding the braid back a bit while sealing it with shrink tubing. I also reshaped the pickup coil from oval to more circular shape. The oval shape appears to give a …
This Sunday I attended the DARC 10m contest on SSB as LC1R. This is a two-hour annual contest, and since the openings on 10m have been great lately, I decided to give it a go. The first hour was great, I was able to call CQ and working a pile that seemed to keep giving …
My weekend project this time was to build a cheap magnetic loop antenna. I'm talking really, really, cheap. No variable capacitor, no fancy or expensive parts. The goal was to build a monoband magnetic loop antenna. I'm tempted to call it "mono frequency" also, since there are no adjustments to it, but given the bandwidth …
I'm working on a low-budget 100W transistor power amplifier for HF, based on the FQP13N10. By pairing these $2 transistors in a push-pull configuration, the estimated build cost of a functional amplifier will be in the ballpark of around $20-$30 each. This is only an extremely simple prototype which requires active PTT, has no filters, …
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