Building a ZS6BKW

Inspired by the fun of constructing a G5RVjr antenna (see 'Enough for  G5RVjr'), I tried my capablilities in selfmaking an other antenna with good experiences of fellow amateurs, the ZS6BKW antenna. Again, all info was in reach on the Internet, what would we do without it? This antenna is based on the G5RV antenna and designed by Dr. Brian Austin, ZS6BKW.

 
Because my leftovers were implemented in the G5RVjr, I had to order some parts. After receiving the parcel  with the Lizte and open line (called kippenladder - chickenladder in Dutch), a rainy afternoon was the moment to put thing together to something called a antenna.

After constructing the parts, I hooked the antenna up the atticwindow and the other side downwards to the garden shed. A quick stroll on the bands showed reasonable results so this antenna is on the list to take with me on my holiday.

Birthday present

One of the things I got as a birthday present (and one which I am very happy with) is the HyEndFed Multiband antenna develloped and made by Rob, PA3EKE and Ron, PA3RK.

After hearing some great stories about this wire-antenna on the local repeater, I was very interested and visited their website. My antenna situation is simply said not very good, my selfmade wire dipole antenna is situated in between houses wich results in overseas connection only when there are openings.

After getting this antenna, I couldt wait to place this antenna next to the existing one and connect it to my rig, a Yaesu FT-950. Altough I don't own expensive meters and other gauges, I immediately experienced a remarkable difference. Less noise, more signals! While tuning in on DX signals on different bands, switching between this HyEndFed and my own antenne shows a increasment of 2-3 S points!

Although the 20 meter band is my favorite, I am glad this antenna is a multiband. For this reason, the antenna is equpped with a little coil. On 10, 20 and 40 meters SWR is very good and tuning is not necessary. Even on 80 meters, it works perfect with a litle tuning. All parts are very neatly assembled.

Is my selfmade a quality lacking antenne, or is the HyendFed a very good one. I think I am alllowed to believe the HyEndFed is a very good one. Altough my old and reliable selfmade antenna gave me enough DX-satisfaction, its has to make place!

If youre looking for a great antenna with good results I can recommend this one, give these guys a visit on their website.

New netbook!

Democratic as we are, our 11-year old daughter has a vote in this year's holiday destination. After serveral years of spending time in many different countries, this year we're planning a vacation in Holland! We booked a stay in a bungalowpark with lots of horseriding oppertunities. This gives her lots of rides and me tons of spare time, guess what I am planning to take with me...

In the months before, I want to make a couple of wire antenna's to experiment (follow this blog) on HF, and take the oppertunity to be more present on D-Star. For this reason I ordered a DVAP-dongle at Parmacom. Offcourse for using this dongle I need a computer. Reason enough to buy myself a tiny little netbook. Not a fancy bling-bling state-of-the-art top-of-the-bill model, just a compact 10 inch model (with preferably a little bit of speed) will do.

After reading a few reviews and some googling on the net, I choose a Packard Bell Dot S-E 725. This is a reasonnably priced Dual-Core Intel Atom N550 equipped 10-inch netbook with 1GB memory and a 250 Gb HDD. Good specs, more than enough for the coming holiday. And because our bungalow is having a WiFi connection D-Star fun is ensured.

After completing the pre-installed Windows 7, I installed the apps that I see as standard and neccesary. Standard is also Teamspeak, wich gives me the possibility to listen to my neighbourhood amateurfriends on PI2FLD, my hometown repeater. For managing my Yaesu FT-897, HamRadio Deluxe is also installed.

Can't wait to get my DVAP dongle.....