Burning down the house!

I ran by HRO after work yesterday and picked up the 2kw gas tube for my Alpha Delta lightning protection in anticipation of firing up my SB200 for the big IARU contest this weekend.  The little amp has not been powered up since we moved from Iowa and I was a little apprehensive about turning it on again for the first time.  Luckily my fears were unfounded because it fired right up without any issue.

I made a few new pieces of coax to get me QRO handling capability - I was only using RG58 from my radio to the entry panel - and got everything hooked up.  I started tuning the amp on 20m, and watched the power meter go up...up....up....to almost 700w.  I thought, "Oh wow!  This antenna loads up better than my hex beam!"  And then I adjusted the meter for SWR and saw the failure in my ways.  I was getting 5:1 SWR, something had gone wrong!  I grabbed the antenna analyzer and saw my 20 and 40m SWR were both very high, while the other bands seemed OK.  Connectors on the new coax all seemed fine so it must have been the antenna...

So I went out to inspect and it only took a moment to see what had happened. 

This wire was attached to the bottom of the 20m element on the antenna, dangling between the spreaders for the 40m radial loop.  Apparently this little bitty stuff (and its insulation) can't handle a few hundred watts while touching other metal parts!  The insulation had burned off and caused the 20m element to short out to the 40m element.  I'm lucky I didn't burn anything else up!  I replaced the wire with some much, much heavier stuff with nice thick insulation and rotated the loop a bit so it fell evenly between 2 spreaders, maximizing the space between them.  It shouldn't happen again but I'm going to look into a more sturdy solution that doesn't rely on a flexible wire.

With that all fixed up, the amp was showing me 400w out on 20 and 40, just in time for the 0300z CW Ops mini CWT.  I ran most of the time and walked away with 52 contacts, mostly on 40.  I've been really happy with this antenna on 40m.

I still have those 527b tubes I got at Hamcom last year I'd like to throw in and test so I may do a little post on that tonight or tomorrow if I remember.

So I guess the station is primed and ready for the big contest this weekend.  I hope to hear you all on the air!

Losing my Religion

Oh life.  It's bigger.  It's bigger than you.  And it is a lot bigger when you have a pair of these....

572B valves

Yeah, the rumors are true.  I have finally taken the big plunge and purchased an amp.  In all honesty, I really have treated my QRP operating in an almost religious way.  I am a purist.  But as you are well aware, my needs and desires have evolved over the years and QRP is no longer the end-all aspect of ham radio it once was for me.  Really, this is all for the better, an all-or-nothing approach to most things is not good!  So my recent excitement and success with DX drove me towards QRO.  First with the homebrew amp for my KX3, then the 590, and now with the new amplifier.  As I've seen others say, power is simply another tool in the ham's toolkit.  It doesn't always have to be on.

The amp is a Heathkit SB-200, good for around 500w on all bands, considerably more on 80 and 40m.  This one was in great shape, probably the cleanest one I saw in the flea at Hamvention.  The guy had $375 on it and my goal was to keep it under $300 and he came back at $325.  I thought it was worth it but I went and got my amp gurus - K0DAS and W0ODS - to review the sale.  Rod (DAS) looked over the amp with an eye on wear and tear, and seeing none, gave me the thumbs up.  Jeff (ODS) was standing behind me literally whispering in my ear "Buy it! Buy it!"  I guess I can't deny that kind of argument!

Doing the deed (K0DAS, Rod in the background. Photo by W0ODS, Jeff)

K3 vs. TS-590 - Initial Impressions

As you recall from the last post, this contest was going to be the testing grounds for a head-to-head comparison of a loaded K3 versus a stock TS-590.  These are the results of that test.

Thursday pre-contest
I picked up the 590 from Dan, WB0LJK, and ran home to really see how she worked.  First impressions on the fit and finish of the radio were positive.  The buttons and knobs feel good, a certain elegance to the look of the radio.  In comparison to Elecraft's offerings, the TS-590 has a less utilitarian feel, and I still think the K3 is a more rugged radio, when you consider the all-metal chassis and lighter overall weight.  Yes, Elecraft's knobs are cheap, but that means when you break one out on some God forsaken island, it won't break the bank to repair either.

I personally find Elecraft's displays to be very good - they're very easy to read and all the stuff you want to see is available without asking a menu item, and the VFO B display is a nice addition that shows the time, power supply voltage etc.  The 590 display is largely uncluttered, but almost too empty.  There's a lot of unused space when operating in simplex mode.  In split, the 2nd VFO shows in the empty space but there's no reason for it to not show in simplex mode.  There may be a menu setting to modify.  On this topic, the nod easily goes to the Elecraft rigs.  

Moving to the operation of the radio.  I went at this without really looking at the manual, and found the operation to be pretty straightforward.  Changing modes is by direct entry, which is definitely preferred to Elecraft's method of cycling through modes.  Dan is primarily a voice operator, so I had to set up all the CW options on my own.  Changing the break-in delay and keyer speed are pretty straightforward, although I wish there were dedicated controls for keyer speed like I have on the KX3.  When working weak stations, changing keyer speed is nice to have at hand.  Not a deal breaker though.  Finally, I was ready to put some RF out and low and behold, those T/R relays are loud!  I knew I'd have a different QSK experience than I was used to, but this was loud.  A few quick tweets and it became clear there was a setting out of order.  It turns out when you have the amp keying relay enabled, the T/R switch goes from a nice quiet one to a big loud one!  Once we got that straightened out, the QSK was actually fairly pleasant, for relay switched T/R anyway.  Certainly not objectionable, just something I'd have to get used to.

The menu system on the 590 is just as extensive as the K3 and equally challenging to navigate.  The menu options are grouped by "topic" which helps navigation somewhat.  For instance, you'll find all the CW keyer options together, and all the USB options together, and so on.  The menu items are numbered as well, which makes referencing the menu items quick too.  On Elecraft radios, the menu items are in alphabetical order.  I think I prefer the 590's method better but realistically, you don't have to access the menus for much.  Like the K3, the 590 has 2 programmable function keys which I think can do just about anything.  I know Dan has one set up to transmit a 30w carrier to tune his remote auto tuner.  Unfortunately the 590 places the settings for sidetone volume and pitch in the menus, rather than the front panel.  Varying sidetone volume is not something I do a lot, but it is still far more convenient to have it on the front panel.  It should be shared with the TX monitor option which is on the front panel of the 590.  Again, not a deal breaker.

Speaking of the auto tuner - it is very quick to tune, and seems to do a fine job so far.  On 40m, my dipole has a fairly high SWR (its a little long I guess) and the tuner snapped to a 1:1 SWR in less than a second.  Much faster than the KX3's tuner.  I don't have any high impedance loads so I don't know how well it does with high SWR.  The dual antenna ports are nice though, and the radio remembers what port each band is on so you don't have to worry about going from 12m to 40m and transmitting into your beam on 40m.  The K3 with the ATU option does this too of course, but remember this is standard on the 590!

Front panel controls are well thought out and the layout is good.  One of the nicest features is the 3 memories for each band.  Just hit the band button multiple times to quickly jump around the band.  For example, you can have the first one set at 14.060 for QRP work, hit the "14" again, and the radio will jump to 14.200, and another tap can put you at 14.300.  Makes it really nice for moving around the band quickly.  I believe these are user set values, but I'd have to look at the manual to find out how.  The 590 makes a lot of use of its "MULTI" knob for many of the front panel adjustments, including power, keyer speed, and break-in delay.  Unfortunately it cannot be used to control VFO B when operating split.  This makes split operation essentially a 2 hand operation since you have to hold a button and spin the VFO to tune VFO B.  It doesn't take much work to figure out a one-handed position to do it, but I would still prefer having a separate control.  This is just another nuisance.

Passband tuning and filter width are concentric knobs as they are on most radios.  Being used to a single knob like on my KX3, I often found myself changing the passband tuning, rather than adjusting the filter width like I wanted.  I found a S9+60dB signal on 40m and with the filter set at 500 Hz, tuned away until I could not hear him.  At 500 Hz away, he was silent, with no phase noise present at all.  Even at reduced bandwidths, when moving closer, phase noise was audible, at about an S4-5 level.  Still the DSP was working quite well.  Hundreds of S9+ signals during the contest will really test this aspect of the receiver performance.

Initial impressions of receiver performance are certainly favorable.  The weekly 80m QRP Foxhunt was going on which always offers plenty of weak signals which I could use to test the weak signal performance.  I quickly found the first fox in Wisconsin, who was 10 over 9, and quickly worked him.  I then found the second fox, who was in NH.  This is a long haul for my antenna which is only at 30 feet.  He was very weak but certainly readable with QSB.  The noise reduction settings were very effective and I found NR2 to be the best for weak CW signals.  There was little degradation of the desired signal while maintaining a noticeable reduction in band noise.  Running with the AGC off helped pull the signal from the noise.  Unfortunately I was unable to work him but I would say the 590 at least matched the weak signal performance of the KX3 in this brief test.

Next I set up the USB audio card to run some JT-65.  As I mentioned earlier, all of the USB settings are in the same part of the menu, but I still had to consult the manual to figure out exactly what each setting did.  Using the latest version of WSJT-X, you simply select the USB audio card in the preferences and adjust the computer and rig's audio levels for optimum operation.  It takes some time to get things working correctly but once you have it set up, you won't have to touch it again, which is nice.  For some reason I couldn't get the audio from my Mac to output to the radio but using the Win version of the app (running in Parallels) worked fine.  I'm sure I have something set incorrectly.  The 590 keys on VOX on digital which means you can keep the rig control set up on your logger without having to switch between the apps controlling your radio.  This isn't a big problem if you use HRD on Windows since it has its own control output, but on OS X, there's no way to duplicate COM ports.  I still have not figured out how to do the dual receive of JT-65 and JT-9, but that is a low priority thing for me anyway.  I understand it can be done with the 590 though.

I spent the rest of the evening playing around and chasing DX.  I even worked an all time new one, bringing my DXCC count to 191 worked.

Stay tuned for a post-contest update!

tl;dr Some ergonomic drawbacks, but performance admirable so far

Spring? Does it even exist anymore?

Yes friends, it has been a long and cold winter.  I'm ready for a change!  Luckily there is hope in the forecast and above freezing temperatures are expected next week.  FINALLY!

This weekend is the ARRL DX contest (CW).  As usual we'll be spending most of our waking hours out at N0MA running the big gun station.  This time around we'll be running a different setup though.  Usually I grab the K3 that I built from the shack at work giving us two K3s at the farm, but this time around I'm borrowing a TS-590S from one of the phone guys in the group.  It will be a head to head test of the two radios in difficult contest conditions.  I already know the K3 is my ideal contest radio.  Nothing beats that thing.  BUT a 100w K3 with filters is crazy expensive, and I've heard again and again that the TS-590 is a fair competitor when you consider the huge difference in price - over $4000 for the K3 vs. $1500 for the 590.

Why am I so concerned?  Well, it pains me to say it, but with my recent interest in DX superiority, my QRP signal is not always sufficient for the job.  I just poked my 190th DX entity and I know I'm getting to the point where the countries are rarer and more difficult to work, QRP or otherwise.  My homebrew amp does work but not nearly as nicely as I had hoped.  Couple these with the fact that Steve Weber is going to be introducing a third re-designed MTR that I will likely use portable far more than my KX3, and I can make a pretty good argument for selling everything and getting a 100w radio.  As noted before, a 100w K3 is beyond my means, even if I did sell everything.  Then the obvious choice then remains, but is the TS-590 a candidate at all?

Indeed, I can hardly believe my own ears (eyes?).  A self proclaimed Elecraft fanboy considering selling off his one and only prized KX3 which he complained about waiting for and drove dozens of other hams to buy.  Sounds like a condition, doesn't it?  I did tell my wife it would be the last radio I bought for a long time.  But things changed!  I got the Hex Beam and my DXing life changed!  I was a big player now!  Breaking pileups became possible and working the BIG pileups more likely.  But you know how it goes - once you get a taste of success, failure seems so much more painful.  Still, having the extra power isn't the only benefit to be gained by moving to a 100w radio.

Realistically, when operating portable, I only operate CW.  Why carry a big (comparatively) radio like the KX3 to the field when I can put an MTR in a shirt pocket?  More often than not, I was using the KX3 as a REALLY expensive SWR meter during the summer and operating with the MTR instead.  It is no secret that the KX3 was designed to be operated portable.  The connections and controls are made that way, and it shows when you use the radio in the shack.  That mess of cables coming out of the left side of the radio really does kill the aesthetics of the radio.  If I do not intend to use the KX3 more when portable, there's no reason to keep it unless its performance cannot be reasonably matched by another radio.

So you can see my thought process.  Neglecting all the cool features of the TS-590, its suitability for my operating style and habits is understandable.  Now consider the additional features.  The 590 includes its own built-in soundcard for digital modes, and the best part of that is that it is still only one cable from the computer - a standard USB!  Right now there's 7 cables coming out of the side of my KX3.  I need 4 hooked up to run digital modes.  The 590 needs only one, and I don't have to unplug anything or change any settings to switch between modes!  This would certainly get me back on JT-65 and WSPR and other digital modes.  And since the radio will always have its received audio available to the computer, setting up something to hold a 30 second buffer of on-air audio is super easy, giving me the option to play back the most important moments of QSOs.  (this option is also available as a hardware add on to the radio - something the KX3 does not currently offer)

The 590 has a built in ATU which is no match for an Elecraft tuner, but I'm using matched antennas now, so this is not a big deal.  The nice thing is having 2 antenna connections that are switchable from the front of the radio.  There's an RX antenna jack.  Separate jacks for paddle and straight key.

Make no mistake, the KX3 is made for portable use, and based on size, compromises had to be made.  I stand by the radio - its is the best portable QRP radio there is.  It would really pain me to part with mine, and I am still trying to figure out if it would be possible to not sell it, but unfortunately the numbers just don't work in my favor.

So place your bets and make sure to cut me in - will I be struck by the 590 and fall in love or will I stick to my guns?  Look for the results of this "highly scientific examination" next week!