W1XMM My Station

Brian Quick

Liam and I at Field Day 2023.

My Station

Make a Plan
•I want a station with the most features as possible without breaking the bank
•I want to be able to work as many bands as possible.
•Band Priority 20M, 40M, 17M, 15M, 12M, 10M, 80M 6M 160M
•One Transceiver to an all-band antenna is the goal
•Minimizes cost this way
•Minimize distance to antenna to minimize output loss
•Consider seasonal bands and antenna’s
•2M and up separate system
•I don’t want an antenna farm
•I want to be able to work out of my office in the house

Most stations start with the Radio
•Elecraft K3S
•160M – 6M 100W
•Configured with the General Receive Module
•Allows me to scan non-HAM band signals
•Configurable band pass Filters
•6.0KHz 8Pole Filter for AM
•2.7KHz 5Pole Filter for SSB
•2.1KHz 8Pole Filter for Narrow SSB
•.400KHz 8Pole Filter for CW
•Configured with Antenna Tuner Module
•Upgraded to the 1ppm Xtal Oscillator (from 5ppm)
•Would have upgraded to the sub receiver but the K4 came out and they dropped the K3S line

K3S Greatest Feature (My Opinion)
•Elecraft architecture is built around roofing filters.
•First mixer brings the RF down to 8.125MHz
•Roofing filter is applied to the first mixer output
•2.7KHz only passes to the second mixer
•From the second mixer the output is A/D’ed
•The signal is now digital, and many DSP features can now be applied
•Notch Filter to blank out people tuning up on frequency
•Noise blanker to help with white noise
•Noise reduction to pull the signal out of the noise
•14,000 combination to try

Pan Display
•K3S has a wide band RF output that can be displayed on a separate display
•Can also display a waterfall view

Power Amplifier 500W
Solid State Amplifier Power out is dependent on the power input

Antenna Tuner 500W
Antenna Switch 1 – 3 outputs
3 – 30MHz 600W 10:1 SWR
30 – 60MHz 600W 5:1 SWR
Has bypass
With an antenna that is always 1:1 the tuner is not always required

Antennas
•SteppIR DB18
•SteppIR BIG IR Vertical
•Slopping Vee
•80M
•160M
•Log Periodic Antenna
•50MHz – 1300MHz

SteppIR DB-18

What’s to Love About This Antenna
•1:1 VSWR No real need for a tuner
•Push a button to reverse the direction
•No need to rotate the antenna
•Has a separate VSWR table
•Push a button to make antenna bi-directional
•Has a separate VSWR table
•Connect you VSWR meter to radio feed point
•Make adjustments to the Antenna length and store it into memory for that frequency
•Auto tracks the radio’s frequency

SteppIR BIG IR Vertical
What’s to Love About This Antenna
•Full legal Limit 1,500 watts
•1:1 VSWR No real need for a tuner
•80M to 6M frequency range
•Omini directional
•Has a separate VSWR table for each band
•Adjust the Antenna to ¾ wavelength 15M and 6M
•Auto tracks the radio’s frequency

Create LOG Periodic Antenna
What’s to Love About This Antenna
•Good VSWR No real need for a tuner
•50 – 1300MHz frequency range
•In the attic on a Yaesu G-450A rotor
•Turn radius is 71”

VHF/UHF Log Periodic
•Create CPL5130-1, 50 to 1300MHz $459
•500W MAX, VSWR <2.0
•21 elements, 10-15 dBI gain
|•6’ 8” boom, 11lbs
•Installed in Attic; 9’9” longest element
•71” turning radius
•Yeasu G450A Rotor

Tower
•Universal Towers HD35-40
•40 Feet High
•35 Wind Loading
•Base is 60”L x 60”W x 72”Deep (6 yards)
•Hand dug
•Total weight 178lbs
•Tower Wish List
•DYI install
•No Climbing (Can Fold Over at the base)
•Or rent a 40’ lift

Tower 35cuft Wind Load
•SteppIR DB 18 10.1sqft Wind Load
•Rotor & Mast 2 sqft Wind Load
•Total 12.1 sqft Wind Load
•Why such a huge wind load?
•My location is on top of a hill that is open to high winds.
•By TIA 222 Standard requirements I have to take my 12.1 sqft and multiply it by 2.3 or 27.83 sqft of possible windload.
•So far it has not been uncommon to get 50 mph winds as a front moves through.
•Highest winds so far has been 74.5MPH.
•I have an anemometer at the top of my tower.

Slopping Vee
•40’ Tower
•16’ Pole
•160M @ 56’ High
•Running N/S
•80M @ 35’ High
•Running E/W
•Seasonal
•Winter only

POTA Please see Projects/POTA for detail information

Solar Project Please Projects/Solar for more detail information

VHF/UHF RF Switch HF-1.6GHz
Switches the LOG Periodic antenna to the different radios
* VHF/UHF Radio
* SDR
* Elecraft Radio Antenna 2 Port
* Whisperlit
During Lightning storms can just switch to COM positions to protect radios (LOAD position)

AREDN Networks
•First what can you do with AREDN?
•Share your view with a camera live
•Requires an account for security reasons
•Fred’s AREDN backbone has AI camera capability
•Share your weather
•Share your Flight tracker live feed ($37)
•DMR repeaters / ARPS
•VoIP phones / Video Conferencing
•Mesh Chat
•Email (WinLink/Open Email/Citadel)
•File sharing / WEB Services
•Networking tools
•And more to come

Make a plan
•I wanted to share my view with a camera ($300)
•I want to share my weather station and my crazy wind speeds (~$300-600)
•I want to get a VoIP Phone (~$35)
•I’d like to get a 5GHz Disk to access the AREDN net directly (~$300)

My computer and Software
I use Windows 11
* I have 2 27″ Monitors
I use HAM Radio Deluxe
For contesting I use N1MM+
For POTA I use a iPAD running WRL
For working on a NET I like Netlogger