Out with the Old and In With the New

It's been a while since my last post but unfortunately as usual work and other projects have got in the way of radio. Suffice to say conditions have not been good and the only stations I have been hearing lately are the Europeans and some Russians but otherwise fairly quiet. The delta loop antenna has been useful as it has a quiet receive but as I have said conditions have been very bad.

I have a new transceiver an FTDX5000MP . I saw it on eBay and the seller was asking a fair amount of money for it, but mentioned at the end of his description that if it was the right radio he would also be interested in a part exchange.

I wrote to him asking if he'd be interested in my FTDX9000MP, as I have decided after having the stroke it is now too big an heavy for what I need. Although a fabulous transceiver which normally I wouldn't part with, I feel now the time is right. It's such a heavy beast and takes up half the radio room! 

The seller, a chap from Wales was interested in the 9000 and asked for pics which I duly sent. In the evening he was round at my house having travelled the 110 miles to get to me in the late afternoon, I think he was keen!

His FTDX5000MP was mint having still got the plastic covers over the screens. After a cup of tea and some chatting we did the swap and within an hour he was on his way home with his 9000 and I was happy with my new 5000, all was done and dusted by supper!

The FTDX5000MP is a very nice rig and the size compared to the 9000 is much better for me. Should the need arise I will look for an amp but at the moment I;'m perfectly happy with the 200W. It also has the Station Monitor SM-5000 which incorporates the speakers which is a nice touch.

I will have a play and then do a full write up, but initial reports are good and this seems like an excellent radio. I will miss the FTDX9000MP but I've had some good time with it and now is the time to move on.

Farewell My Sweet!

The M0PLK Delta Loop Antenna

So at last the weather has turned for the better and I have been assembling the M0PLK Delta Loop which came from Poland. I’m amazed at the quality of various parts that make up the antenna, you don’t get this sort of quality with other local commercial antennas.

To start I had to make up the ladder line, I tried to follow the instructions which I managed to find on the website, but of course it was in Polish which was no  help to me. Instead I followed the pictures and I'm pretty certain all was OK, but for peace of mind I did a google translation at the end of the build just to be sure!

Each upright side of the Delta Loop is made from  aluminium tubular extendable poles and the cross section is 12 gauge wire, which is the same for the ladder line, nice and strong. There are excellent plastic connectors for the ladder line, 7 in total which are fairly easy to assemble.

Connecting the cross wire is again fairly easy, it has a couple of wire clamps with the wire circled over the top of the aluminium tubes and then clamped to fix it in position. The centre piece connects the two wires together with the ladder line. The bottom of each aluminium tube is connected by a single wire. The two aluminium poles are then clamped on a vee shaped piece of aluminium by six larger clamps.

The vee already has the balun attached to the aluminium plate, so it’s just a matter of fixing the ladder line to each side of the balun.



The pole are then extended and you add some jubilee clamps to each pole extension. Hay presto, the antenna is then completed!

I should have it assembled and up on its new 5 metre scaffold pole by the end of the week, subject to my work of course! I'll do another blog to see how it actually behaves when in use.

It will be interesting to compare with the homebrew, but I suspect "compare" will be a bit far fetched, but well see. The home brew has had a replacement fibre glass pole added as the one that was damaged was too far gone to repair.

Good news, I managed to assemble the antenna over Saturday and so far without serious testing it's sounding and looking pretty good. Certainly it knocks spots off the homebrew for receiving and transmitting. I did do a very quick comparison with the Hustler and initial results were pretty good. 

I'll do some more testing in the next few days and write up the results. As I write, the wind is starting to pick up again so I may well drop the antenna down for the rest of today. It's easy enough to do as its clamped to one of my scaffolding poles which is in the old sleeve cemented in the ground which was for the yagi. So it can just be lifted out and layed out on the ground for the moment.

It's certainly a lot tighter all round than the homebrew and the aluminium poles seem to be a lot stiffer than the fibre glass. As I mentioned earlier the quality is much better than you would get in the UK!

Delta Loop Set Back!

Calamity, the home brew Delta Loop Antenna has broken. With the high winds and the mini Blizzard we are suffering this morning, there must have been a strong gust and one of the fibre glass poles broke. 

Looks like it's broken clean in two which is a pity, but I have to admit I new it was pretty flimsy so it's not exactly unexpected. But the wind must have been reasonably strong for it to break a glass fibre pole!

I suspect somewhere I have a spare pole or certainly a section hidden away so I should be able to replace. But obviously I'll have to wait till the weather clears. In the meantime I just have the Hustler antenna to play with so all is not lost.

Talking of playing, I received an email from the guy I was hoping to do a deal for the new K3 but that has unfortunately fallen through. The chap decided he wanted to keep his radio. So With the FTDX 9000 MP currently in storage, I thought I'd have another play with it today and unpacked it. Of course once unpacked and set up I was wondering what an earth I was doing trying to swap it, it is such a beautiful radio, I must have been having a mad moment!

Delta Loop Progression

The new M0PLK Delta Loop antenna has arrived from Poland. I've yet to unpack it as the weather has been awful, very cold and damp, not really construction weather. So I'm waiting for something a little warmer so I can build the new antenna at my leisure and not freeze while doing so!

The home brew Delta Loop is working reasonably well, so I'm in no rush while this cold weather continues to build the new antenna when this home brew seems to be working OK. I say that, but QSOing around Europe the signals seem to be down when using the homebrew, it maybe a short or something else as we have had a few gales recently and the antenna is not that strong. However once I get the new one up I'll be able to compare notes and see how they both perform.

I saw an Orion 565 mk2 advertised on a website the other day, I always hankered after an Orion especially for CW purposes as they always seem to get rave reviews. The chap selling was also interested in a swap and as I have a few radios I could exchange, I wrote to him looking for a deal. Sadly though when I saw the Orion in pictures, it was not in such a good condition and needed a lot of cosmetic work to get it up to scratch, so sadly no deal was struck.

Interestingly on swaps, there's a chap who has a brand new K3s literally says it six weeks old. Again a Ten Tec or a K3s are something I've always wanted to own. This chap is interested in my FTDX 9000, so negotiations are currently taking place, if I can get a similar price I paid my brother in law for the FTDX, I'd be very happy with a brand new K3!