Five-band HF Linked Dipole [updated January 2025]

An improved build

This antenna was first described in the November-December 2023 Communicator. After a year of using it, I’ve developed some improvements. - Updated January 2025

I appreciate inexpensive but effective antenna design. Sure, you can spend hundreds of dollars to buy a multiband antenna for POTA or GOTA but they are so simple to build, why would you want to? You can enhance your skills and communication capabilities by constructing custom antennas.

One popular and versatile option is the multi-band HF dipole antenna often called a segmented or linked dipole. This antenna design allows for effective communication across multiple HF bands by connecting or disconnecting sections along its length making it an inexpensive asset for ham radio operators, particularly outdoors enthusiasts and those needing a light, packable wire antenna that can be erected almost anywhere, and with good results—better than an end-fed, because each segment of the antenna is pre-tuned during construction, and can be used safely even when no antenna tuner is available.

Ideally it is hung from a pole or tree branch at 20 feet (6m) as an Inverted V, with the center point high and the dipole legs spread at least 110-120 degrees. I have worked the globe with this set-up on sideband and 20 Watts.

 

Oly one side of the dipole is shown 

As before, each of the five sections is cut to the band so no tuner is required. It is a marvellous POTA antenna, far better than any vertical, Hamstick or commercial antenna that I have tried.

You can read/download the updated article at: https://bit.ly/LinkedDipole

~ John VE7TI

Manna80 and other Special Event Stations

 You may wish to add these to your calendar

We will publish a report in The Communicator's next issue.

I would like to inform you about a few special event stations we will put up in the next few months. 

February 14,15 and 16th, PA80OV will be operational from Gennep, Netherlands. 
I will be a guest operator, and probably the organisation has written to you allready, but it is nice to know. 

https://radioclublimburg.nl/pa80ov/

~ Sander

----------------------------

The two others are also very interesting. 

At the end of WW2, the Netherlands suffered a hunger winter. Allied forces conducted a humanitarian action called Operation Manna. 
In April this year, 80 years ago, tons of food was dropped over the western part of the Netherlands, saving many people from starvation and death. 

To commemorate this event, we will activate a couple of stations, including GB80MAN, VE80MAN, VK80MAN, PH80MAN. 
We are hoping Poland is participating as well, and we hope the USA will put up a station. 

https://manna80.radio/the-team-in-the-netherlands/

As you have seen some SES from us, we will put up PH80MAN at a former drop zone. 
I have added a flyer with this mail.  This one is in Dutch, but an English version is under construction... will follow as soon as it is done!

Lastly, I would like to inform you about PA82AD. 
This is a call we used 5 years ago to celebrate 75 years of freedom. We held a DX-pedition but due to COVID, we could not really complete our goals. 
Please read the qrz.com page from bottom up. 

https://www.qrz.com/db/PA82AD

To finish this DX-pedition as planned, we will be operational for a very last time. 

Thanks again for reading, and hope to hear you on the bands. 

73, 

~ Sander PD9HIX

 

A different kind of Foxhunt

Suitable for the urban fox 

From the January-February 2025 SARC Communicator

If traditional foxhunts don't work well for your club or organization, this one might...

The last few months, I've been thinking about a different way to do a Foxhunt.  My vision was to have a Foxhunt available whenever you want, especially this time of year. Not everyone lives in town, and everyone's busy shopping and might not be able to dedicate an afternoon on a specific day for a group search. But what if the fox kept calling you out for a few minutes here and there, whenever you had a chance? No pressure, just try it out and see what you can find with your gear, experimenting with different antennas to get the best results. Go get that Fox!

Where to start with my build? You guessed it: Google and YouTube.  The first step was to make a Fox using things I had in my toolbox. I got a Baofeng radio, Arduino UNO, batteries, a waterproof box, and a Drok buck converter. Simple enough, right?

I first searched using Miss Google and came across this: https://www.hackster.io/nfarrier/auto-keyer-for-radio-fox-hunting-e89b99  "Cool, I can do this," I thought, so I did. After putting it all together, I programmed the Arduino UNO using the Arduino software with the code from that website. I set up the CW message, and everything tested just fine. My vision was starting to come true!

My power supply was an 18 volt 5.0 Ah Lithium-Ion Battery (Makita BL1850b) feeding in the Drok Buck Converter to reduce the voltage to 7.4 Volt for the Radio and that voltage was also perfect to feed the Arduino Uno as it has a 12 volt connection with its own regulator to supply 5 volt to the board.

Tested everything, and boy was this great! One watt output from the radio gave good range. I packaged it all up and headed outside. I found a good hiding place for the Fox, with easy access and safety in mind.

I could hear it from the east and west side of town. All was good darn... a few days later I couldn't hear it anymore until I was right beside it. I took the Fox home and discovered the TX (transmit) wasn't putting out power anymore, even though the battery was still good. My Fox SX5 Mosfet transistor must have failed. It must have been spending too much time in TX mode. So, I replaced the radio and changed the transmit message, reducing the time by almost 50 percent.

I put the Fox back in its den, and it was happy again, calling everyone to get searching. Darn... a few days went by, and once again, it stopped transmitting. I figured it must be the batteries. Out it came, and yes, the batteries were depleted. However, the Fox SX5 Mosfet transistor also failed again.

There goes the fox hunt, second radio blown. How disappointed you all would be!  I talked to a fellow ham about Baofeng radios. He uses them more often than me, and he showed me in the manual that the duty cycle is very small, 03/03/54 minutes (RX/TX/Standby). My fellow ham had a spare radio he wasn't using, so I bought it from him.

I did a few more programming changes to adjust the duty cycle.  I also decided to add "MORE POWER!" (à la Tim Allen)  So, I added a second Makita battery for a longer stay in the den.
I relocated the fox to be closer to home, just because I know I'll need to replace the batteries in a few days. For those of you in the area, I hope you all get a chance to find the Fox.

Happy Fox Hunting! 73,

~The Silver Fox VE3BQM

Hams meet Marines

A special event station from The Netherlands

This is an HF activity on January 23 from PA25MC, which will be on the air for just one day to introduce Marines to the world of ham radio. They will try to use as many HF-bands as possible on SSB. They remind us to please remember that Amateur procedures are new to them, but will do everything to get them up to speed quickly. 

Marines are used to speaking English but naturally keep their communications short. The organizers would really appreciate it if you contribute to a successful event by connecting with them!

PA25MC is organized and supported by PI4VBD, the club station of the Royal Army. Their station will always comply with the user regulations and regulations for radio amateurs and has no military function.

PI4VBD Royal Netherlands Army Signal Regiment on air 

https://verbindingsdienst.nl/ 

https://www.instagram.com/signalregiment_pi4vbd/

QSL info for PZ5JT

Read carefully - send your card with return address, and without anything extra direct to:

PI4VBD / Verbindingsdienst,

Barchman Wuytierslaan 198, 

3818 LN Amersfoort, 

The Netherlands

~ Ton and Klaas-Jan

  John VE7TI

The SARC Communicator - January-February 2025

Even better for 2025

New desktop publishing software opens up even more possibilities for the SARC Communicator, the digital periodical of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications. This issue is now available for viewing or download. Another new feature is a smaller version, best suited for mobile devices, available here for viewing or download. The advantage of the larger version being higher resolution graphics and photos. 

The best new feature, in my opinion, is the ability to provide you with a compete Table of Contents [below]. This should enable better accessibility from search engines. 

You will find some great articles in this issue, along with our regular columnists.

Now read in over 165 countries, we bring you 120+ pages of Amateur Radio content from the Southwest corner of Canada and elsewhere. With less fluff and ads than other Amateur Radio publications, you will find Amateur Radio related articles, projects, profiles, news, tips and how-to's for all levels of the hobby.

Download the January - February Communicator in 
LARGE or SMALL format, or read it on-line like a magazine

Previous Communicator issues:

Search for past Communicator issues

and a full searchable index is HERE.  

As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome. 

The deadline for the next edition is February 15th.

If you have news or events from your club or photos, stories, projects or other items of interest from BC or elsewhere, please contact us at communicator@ve7sar.net

73,

John VE7TI
'The Communicator' Editor

The Table of Contents for the January-February 2025 Communicator issue:

• The Rest of the Story: Charles Wheatstone 4
• News You Can’t Lose: Field Day results are in 12
• Page13—News You Can Lose 13
• Radio Ramblings: Reflections 15
• Does  the  Ghost  of  Salvador  Dali  Haunt  ChatGPT? 26
• Tech: A transceiver on your Android phone 27
• Xiegu G90 Review 28
• Another Tape Measure Antenna 31
• POTA is Calling - Will you answer? 32
• A Different Kind of Foxhunt 34
• USA Radio Orienteering Championship 35
• Mastering iCOM HF: A deep dive into filtering capabilities 37
• Schooling ChatGPT on Antenna Misconceptions 42
• LIDS: The Less Involved Data Society 43
• Experimental Maritime Mobile on 630m 44
• From the ATV Journal 48
• B.C. QSO Party 50
• A Light Dipole 52
• An Easy Field Strength Meter 53
• AMSAT - OSCAR 7 55
• Dutch Amateur Radio Operators Detect Signals From Voyager 1 56
• Update on the Local High Altitude Balloon Project 57
• They Don’t Make ‘em Like They Used To… 58
• LingoSat ISS Deployment 59
• Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame Appointments 2024 60
• The Santa Barbara 1925 Earthquake 62
• Ham Radio Outside the Box: Antenna height matters 65
• What Did Beethoven Do For Ham Radio? 68
• VE9KK - The World of CW: I am at peace with the RFI gods 69
• K0NR - 2 Meters:  Handie-Talkie or Walkie-Talkie? 71
• Which Modes Have You Operated? 73
• KB6NU’s Ham Radio: Hurricane Helene 74
• Pico-based SDR runs stand-alone 75
• Foundations of Amateur Radio: The venerable QSL bureau 76 
• No-ham Recipe: Oatmeal brown bread 79
• Back to Basics: Codes & encryption 80
• Profiles of SARC Members: Jeanne Wilson VA7QD 88
• CQ WW DX Contest [CW] 92
• ARRL 10m Contest 94
• RAC Winter Contest 96
• SARC News… 97
• SEPAR Report 103
• Ham Leftovers... 107
• QRT: Blog vs PDF? 108

The November - December 2024 SARC Communicator

Another BIG issue

The final issue of the year. The November-December Communicator, digital periodical of Surrey Amateur Radio Communications is now available for viewing or download. Some great projects and articles in this issue including a terrific Ham IV rotator upgrade, suggestions for affordable test instruments, and complete introduction to 3D printing, with special emphasis on amateur radio applications. Our regular columnists will also provide you with some interesting experiences.

Now read in over 165 countries, we bring you 125+ pages of Amateur Radio content from the Southwest corner of Canada and elsewhere. With less fluff and ads than other Amateur Radio publications, you will find Amateur Radio related articles, projects, profiles, news, tips and how-to's for all levels of the hobby.

Download the Nov-Dec 2024 Communicator 
or read it on-line like a magazine

Previous Communicator issues:

Search for past Communicator issues

and a full searchable index is HERE.  

As always, thank you to our contributors, and your feedback is always welcome. 

The deadline for the next edition is December 15th.

If you have news or events from your club or photos, stories, projects or other items of interest from BC or elsewhere, please contact us at communicator@ve7sar.net

73,

John VE7TI
'The Communicator' Editor

The Operation Market Garden Special Event Station

Commemorating 80 years 

An important stage in the liberation of Western Europe

Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation during the Second World War fought in the German-occupied Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. Its objective was to create a 103 km salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the Nederrijn (Lower Rhine River), creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. This was to be achieved by two sub-operations: seizing nine bridges with combined US and British airborne forces (´Market´) followed by British land forces swiftly following over the bridges (´Garden´).

The airborne operation was undertaken by the First Allied Airborne Army with the land operation by XXX Corps of the British Second Army. The airborne soldiers, numbering more than 41,000, were dropped at sites where they could capture key bridges and hold the terrain until the land forces arrived. The land forces consisted of ten armoured and motorised brigades with a similar number of soldiers. The land forces advanced from the south along a single road surrounded by flood plain on both sides. The plan anticipated that they would cover the 103 km from their start to the bridge across the Rhine in 48 hours. About 100,000 German soldiers were in the vicinity to oppose the allied offensive. It was the largest airborne operation of the war up to that point (Wikipedia ©). Perhaps the most famous, after D-Day, in the history of the Second World War.

As part of Operation Market Garden paratroopers of the Allied forces, such as American, British, Canadian, Polish and Dutch troops, landed in the Nijmegen region on 17 September 1944. The region became a battlefield during Operation Market Garden and most of the inhabitants took refuge in the woods or neighbouring towns. It took more than a week of heavy fighting before parts of the region were temporarily liberated. Many people and military were killed and buildings and bridges were destroyed. At the cost of many young soldiers the important Waal-bridge in Nijmegen was conquered. In our collective mind the entire region was completely liberated in 1944, but this was only for a period of three weeks. There was still hard fighting during the winter and complete liberation was not achieved until may 1945.

YouTube video: Operation Market Garden

The special event

From September 13 to 19 a special event station will be operating in the Nijmegen region of the Netherlands commemorating 8Ø years of freedom. The callsign is PA8ØOMG.

During 7 days they will activate the callsign PA8ØOMG and work amateur radio operators across the world. If you find yourself in the vicinity of Groesbeek and Nijmegen, be sure to visit us throughout the activities of the special event station. We are situated at one of the exact landing grounds of the 82nd Airborne division in 1944. Our website https://radioclublimburg.nl/pa80omg/index.html

~