K 5 O A I

 

n3umw soldersmoke logo
SK Mike Caughran KL7R
1955 - 2007

http://www.al7fs.us/KL7R.html
http://kl7r.ham-radio.ch
http://www.soldersmoke.com/

 n3umw soldersmoke logo

I was first licensed in 1976 in Asheboro, N.C. with the call WN4AEC. In the 80's I moved to San Angelo, TX where I became KA5OAI. I became an Advanced class license holder in 1992 and even though I had passed the 20wpm code test, I was having to much fun on 40m SSB talking with the VK's and ZL's, I never progressed to Extra, until August of 2009. I dropped the leading A and acquired K5OAI as a vanity call on September 11, 2009.

Most of my activity is QRP CW with some SSB activity. April 2010 I retired my Kenwood TS-450SAT and built an Elecraft K3 to keep my Elecraft K2 company. My main band of interest was originally 40m. When I got back on the air from my apartment in 2006, where I ran a 12' tall Bugcatcher on my apartment's 2nd story tar and gravel roof. Sixteen radials 13' long make it about 50% efficient. For a horizontal on 40m I had a 40m Hamstick dipole at 24 feet.

July 2008 I changed out the single band 40m Bugcatcher for a Hi-Q Antenna model 5/160, now I was working 160m-20m with it. I added a ring around the outer edge of the 16 radials and a single radial each for 160m, 80m, 60m, and 30m. Finally I was back on my favorite band 160m. The 13.5 foot tall 5/160, with an EB8 top hat up one foot over the coil, and a 96 inch whip above that, was 1.3% efficient on 160m so my 70w out became a powerhouse 900mw signal ERP. Can you say QRPp, hi hi?

October 2009, installed a 138 foot long Hy Power Antennas, shortened fan dipole at 25 feet, (5 foot off the roof). It has legs for 160m, 80m, and 40m. It works great for 160m, 80m, 40m, and of course harmonicly it also covers 20m, and 15m. But I added a dedicated 20 dipole to the same feedpoint, it works better on 20m and doesn't require a tuner.

April 2010 the Hi-Q 5/160 was replaced with a Hi-Q 6/160. This time it was configured with three foot of mast above the coil and the EB8 above that for a top hat. In this configuration it operates 160m-17m. Ground is the same with Sixteen radials, each 13 feet long, with an outer connecting ring and a single radial each for 160m, 80m, 60m, and 30m. The Hi-Q 6/160 is said to be 6% efficient on 160m. Now my 70w out will become 4.2w ERP. From 900mw to 4.2w, that's about 7db, so I have gained a full S-unit from when I was using the 5/160. That's like taking a 100w station and adding a 400w amplifier. Feel like a big gun now.

For winter I sometimes add a 96 inch whip above the EB8. It allows me to use less of the 6/160 coil to tune 160m and seems to have given me a 1 s-unit increase in signal strength with stations about 200 plus miles away. The down side is I loose 17m on the 6/160.

As the sunspots return, I am now more active on 17m, where I use a hamstick 17m dipole at 24 feet and a 17m vertical on the roof at 20 feet with six radials 6 feet long. I have now also tied it's ground radials into the radial system on the Hi-Q 6/160. As a result, the 17m vertical doesn't like co-existing with the 6/160, so now it has to be run through a tuner for 10m - 17m.

July 2011, I reluctantly sold my K2, but it was sacrificed for a good cause. I added the KRX3 second receiver to my K3. Now I can listen on 2 frequencys just as I had with the K2 and the K3, but I don't have to worry about mistakenly transmining into the K2 and frying it's front end. All the filters in both the K3's main and second receivers are matched so it also plays well in diversity reception mode.

SKCC #5925     FISTS #12498     FP #1373     GQRP #220     NAQCC #1385     QCWA #33491     10-10 #43634    SKCC #5925    FH #3091

Please QSL via LOTW or eQSL

 

Contesting adventures with my former call KA5OAI:

Contesting adventures with my new call K5OAI:

STEW PERRY contesting fun

2008
Running 100w into the Hi-Q 5/160 @ 20 feet
100w times 1.3% efficiency = 1.3w ERP
2008 Stew Perry results page

2009
Running 5w into the Hi-Q 5/160 @ 20 feet
5w times 1.3% efficiency = 65mw ERP
2009 Stew Perry results page

2010
Running 100w into the Hi-Q 6/160 @ 20 feet
100w times 6% efficiency = 6w ERP
2010 Stew Perry results page

2011
Running 5w into the Hi-Q 6/160 @ 20 feet
5w times 6% efficiency = 300mw ERP
2011 Stew Perry results page

 

  • Skeds and Nets
  • Band Plan and Op Guide
  • QRP Frequencies
  • Contesting Calendars
  • Ham Bookmarks
  • DX Clusters and info
  • K5OAI antennas
  • K5OAI Shack Pictures
  • LTSpice files and Electroluminescent Receiver mods

     

    Christian Nets skeds Last updated October 28, 2009
    Christian Nets skeds Mini (printable size) Last updated December 27, 2008
    HF Nets by ac6v.com
    FISTS Nets skeds by fists.org
    Slow CW Nets List
    Fast CW Nets List
    3.953 Group Roster Last updated October 20, 2008
    3.953 Group.xls < --- spreadsheet styled listings)

    KE7HLR Band Plan PDF Up to date, includes 2007 changes.
    ARRL Band Plan PDF The "Considerate Operator's Frequency Guide" Compiled by Ronald F. Fields/W5WWW

    QRP Frequencies by k0max
    QRP Frequencies by nu7t
    QRP Calling Frequencies (PDF) by n0ss.net
    QRP Calling Frequencies by smeter.net
    QRP Calling Frequencies by zerobeat.net
    QRP Calling Frequencies by njqrp.org
    QRP - CW Nets skeds Partially updated Feb. 3, 2012

    N3EPA Contesting Calendar
    8-Day Contest Calendar Compiled weekly by WA7BNM
    WA7BNM 12-Month Contest Calendar

    Ham Bookmarks Fresh out of my bookmarks Sept 29, 2010
    Older Ham Bookmarks Last updated Dec 15, 2002 .... yea I know I need to work on that little problem .... any volunteers? hi hi

    Access the NEW DX Summit Web Cluster here!
    Online DX Clusters
    http://www.dxzone.com/
    http://www.hard-core-dx.com/
    IOTA
    http://www.dxers.info/index.php
    http://www.dxwatch.com/
    http://www.dxlabsuite.com/pathfinder/WebClient/   Pathfinder Online Call search using multiple sources for QSL info, plus other QSL, DX, and Propagation information and much more.

    KA5OAI Antenna Farm 2006 - 2009

    Building runs Northeast by Southwest and antennas are located on it's 2nd floor roof.
    Warning: Images are about 2mb so they take a while to load."

    K5OAI current Antenna farm 2010

    Antenna related stuff

    My scratch sheets, sorry if they make no sense to you, this keeps me from losing that scrap of paper I scribbled on.

    LTSpice files & Electroluminescent Receiver mods

    These pages are related to my experiments learning to use LTSpice and modifications to the elr.

     

     
     
     
     
    By HIS grace and for HIS glory.....
    _nuff said_ ....

         page last edited Feb.3, 2012 1725z

     

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