Posted on

World Radio Labs WVG-MK2 Vertical Antenna

My first antenna as a Novice in the late sixties was a 40-meter dipole strung up in our back yard between my bedroom window and a surplus Signal Corps wooden pole that my dad bought at Silverstine’s. It was fed with RG-58 cable, soldered to the two wires across a white ceramic insulator. I probably still have the insulator somewhere, though the wire and coax has long since been discarded. It was an adequate performer and it even worked on 15 meters, but I wanted something a little more versatile. I had an 80-meter crystal, after all.

Despite the warnings from the older hams in the club about a vertical being “equally bad in all directions,” I saw an ad for the World Radio Laboratories WVG Mark 2 vertical. Continue reading “World Radio Labs WVG-MK2 Vertical Antenna”

Posted on

The Phaser

The latest project in the NF8M station is The Phaser. No, not the Star Wars kind. This one is a single-board phasing SSB transceiver that puts out about 4 watts and is designed for digital modes. It’s the brainchild of Dave, K1SWL and George, N2APB. (You may recall George and Milt W8NUE are the designers of the NUE-PSK standalone RTTY and PSK31 terminal. I have one of the early units and it’s a lot of fun!) Continue reading “The Phaser”

Posted on

Six meter beacon temporarily shut down (it’s back on now)

Update: We’re back on the air as of 4 December 2019. Please post reception reports via your favorite retail DX cluster.

As of 4 June 2020, the original transmitter is back in service. It seems to be running at slightly reduced power but that should not impact receivability when the band is open. Already reports have been received from EM31 and EM60.

(Previous post:)

The NF8M/B beacon at 50.0763 MHz is shut down effective 22 November 2019.

The beacon has been using a temporary transmitter (first a Kenwood TS-690, then a Yaesu FT-817 after lightning damaged the 690). I’m working on a replacement for the transmitter and don’t wish to tie up the 817 for a long period of time; thus, the shutdown.

I hope to have another transmitter in place in the near future and apologize for the service interruption.

 

Posted on

Six meter beacon on the air after an extended outage

Update: To take advantage of the 6 meter propagation we’re having, the beacon is temporarily back on the air at 2200z on 3 June using a substitute transmitter set for an output of 8 watts. I also replaced the quarter wave groundplane antenna with a Cushcraft Ringo which hasn’t noticeably changed the effective-radiated power.

The NF8M beacon at 50.0763 MHz is off the air as of 2000z on 24 January 2019 for an unknown period of time. The output seems to be quite dirty and is full of chirpy spurious emissions up and down the band and into non-amateur spectrum below 50 MHz. Also, the antenna sustained some damage in the last week or so, which is probably not the cause of the issue.

The beacon transmitter will be re-examined and repaired if possible; however, there’s a chance that the beacon could be shut down for an extended time period. Further updates will be posted here.