ON3baf

Honoring the WWI and WWII radio operators by the Athos Remembrance Project - making field HAM radio activations on historical sites !

Museum HBFV www.hbfv.be - www.on3baf.be

08/12/2025

Got the VGC BHM-88 wireless mic in today.
Nifty good solution, replacing my previous version of this one, without the LCD and functions.
Moving along during the day in the museum or workshop, I'm QRV on the VHF-UHF repeaters.
The LCD is great, making it like a portable unit- but you're still working the transceiver in your shack with all of the features !
Runs on the VGC N7500 & 7600, the N76 portable but also in ICOM !

Life is good, 73 !

08/12/2025

Finally some radio time ahead today !
Hooked up my trusty X6100 and started some FT8 on 10m ( using the R1CBU software that boots from the micro SD ). But I got bored after an hour ;-) .
I noticed an opening on 15m, so I grabbed the mic and started calling CQ on 21.215 , a good idea.
I still love the X6100. Never lets me down and since the last firmaware update, all minor stuff has been solved. Period.

Life is good. 73 everyone !

17/11/2025

So... found a good solution for the dreadfull QRM on my endfed wires and the CP6SR2 vertical !
These common mode filters I winded, are stopping a lot of the captured RF by the coax. I started filtering straight after the antenna without result. Now I found out it's the coaxial bread that is capturing the RF from the environment ! Even with a good grounding, nothing changed. I suffered from a nasty S8 to S9 QRM on the endfeds, specially now in the wintertime, living close to a uge hight voltage transfo cabine. Endfeds are notorious to do so, but it was way out of line at some moments.
With the 2 common mode filters it went straight down : on 80m from S9 to S6, on 40m from S8 to S4 and on 20m a drop to S1-S2 !

Sorted out with 2 ferrites and some coax. Done. Me happy ;-) .
Life is good, 73 !

13/11/2025

10m band opening up.
Decided to work 3-5W PEP in QRP today on the Imax.

First QSO of the day was straight into Kuwait - 9K2ES !! Think a made it before the pile up started, 55 over there !

The Imax 2000 base sits at 1/2 wave hight above groundlevel. For best DX radiation pattern it has to be respected. It pays off in QRP !

30/10/2025

An oldschool Imax 2000 is a solid vertical endfed solution for 10m, but also sufficient in resonance for the 15m band. Wideband for sure on 10m, with a good radiation pattern for DX.
Now, I tweeked the SWR a bit better for 15m by the lenght of the top section, so the reflection dropped below 1.3 in the phone section of that band, moving the rings way up to keep it fine in the 10m band. Changing the inductance factor here, on this glassfiber whip ;-), getting the best of both worlds.
The base of the antenna is also at a 15m hight in wavelenght.
Made some QSO's on 8W with CS7/DO5EB and R6OBP for a test, propagation not being at it's best about an hour ago.

Life is good !! 73 !

29/10/2025

The X6100 down to it's minimum on 10m !!
Got a 11m telescopic laying around so I decided to make things work as a "pedestrian QRP " unit :-) .
The LiPo battery fits your pocket and I ran this like a walky talky, after some antenna tuning. Now, by looking for the SWR dip ( the R1CBU firmware offers a nice interface to do that ), I saw it becoming resonant in my hand after shortening the antenna by 2 segments. Being the counterpoise myself, it is reasonable at a max of 1:1.5 over a bandwith of 400 khz.
When you put it down, the SWR stays ok, but it becomes narrowbanded ! With the ATU on, you really go down to a perfect result, but it's perfectly manageble without.
Sooo, a cheap 30 euro telescopic for 11m is my new adition to the "micro-kit to go".
Did some FT8 with it this afternoon with the R1CBU firmware on the X6100, on 3W.

Life is good, 73 !!

25/10/2025

Rain is pooring down this evening, high winds are gone.
Running the CQ calls in auto, why not... for a change ;-)
At a modest 20W on 20m, resonating on the vertical CP6SR2 multibander.

Life is good, 73 !!

25/10/2025

Back to the roots today !!
Plugged in a 11m transceiver today, stuff laying around, for fun.
I spend decades on 11m before I became a ham operator and all HF bands are filled with contests today.... not my thing.
This tranceiver is a genuine President George II, not being messed with, so I managed to get a solid 10W PEP out of it on SSB ;-)

Just crazy to make a couple contacts with it on channel 39 with operators from the States, good propagation on 11m taday. I made so many contact on QRP in those days, literaly with 5W or 10W on some dipole wires.

Never forget where you're coming from.
73 !!

24/10/2025

First time into the small state of Lichtenstein on 20m for me ;-) , thx HB0WR !

24/10/2025

15m is open, using the CP6SR2 antenna.
Nice contact with the beautiful island of Madeira - CQ9A on the Yeasu FT891.

Life is good, 73 !!!

22/10/2025

The 1.0.7 firmware upgrade for the X6200...
Installing and upgrading : no issues.

Activating the 3D waterfall is kind of tricky : selecting the 3D option in the GEN menu, gives an empty waterfall display. No worries, leave it selected and turn the unit off. After turning it back on, the 3D waterfall appears.
The battery indicator issue is fixed, I tested it with my 3 battery packs. That was a uge problem, glad it has been taken care of.

That 3D waterfall is kind of a gimmick to me, but that choice might be different for you.

73 everyone !

22/10/2025

No no no.... not quiting the game here ;-) .
All my antenna's are rebuild for quick removal and deconstruction in partitions, with a reason...
Got a lot of radiators broken here in the past during high wind and storms. Specially the long HF vertical antenna systems and horizontal radials. Wind seems to circulate here like madness.
The weather forcasts are clear about another heavy storm coming up, so... within 15 minutes everything is indoors.

HF remains operational on the wire antenna's ;-) and a V200 for UHF-VHF operations.

73 !!!

Adres

Meensel-Kiezegem
3390

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