Morse Keys - The LTA CRIO and the Kent Twin Paddle

Until now, and for many many years, I have owned only one morse paddle. This piece of art is the work of LTA (Llaves Telegraphicas Artesanas), a Balear Islands, Spanish based company. This paddle is now quite rare as LTA owner, Guillermo Mestre Janer, EA6YG, passed away in 2008. The company no longer exists, and these keys/paddles are no longer made, but there's still a tribute page to Guillermo's work.
The model I have is the CRIO, a dual paddle, gold plated key, with olive-wood fingerpieces. Trully a work of art. All boxed up and in pristine condition.

Anyway, for this week I have selected a kit from Kent Enginners, a UK based company.
The model is the Twin Paddle Morse Key Kit TP1-BP.
The kit goes very well together and this is a quality product. The assembly process takes about 45 minutes (slow pace; double checking everything), including the time to adjust the key for a smooth operation.
You will have to wire your own key to radio cable. There's a cable included but no plugs are sent with the kit as different radios have different inputs.
Here's the assembly process...

It all comes nicely packaged in some plastic bags:

First, position the base correctly:

Make sure you have all the parts before the assembly process. Some parts are really small, so be specially careful with those:

Paddles on, and bearing block aligned with the base:

More work on the bearing block:

  

Placing the feet on the base:

Bearing block fixed to the base:

All done, beautiful paddle:

On and all, my first impression on this paddle is very good. The workmanship that went into the manufacturing process is outstanding. The assembly instructions are simple and easy to follow. The paddle is very smooth and can be setup with great precision. This paddle is an outstanding addition to the shack, with a value that will hold for years to come.

Counting - Radio #2 - The Yaesu FT-817ND

I have been setting up a small station so that I can use it portable mostly during weekends and during next Summer, while on holidays.
The heart and soul of the station is a Yaesu FT-817ND transceiver. It will work together with an LDG Z-817 tuner. Different homebrew portable antennas are planned, among them a 20m wire Delta Loop and a 10m cubical quad.
Here's a nice schematic, done by Lawrence, N7JFP, on how everything will go together after the station is complete (right now I have no plans for the SignaLink USB interface, but how knows... maybe I'll end up using one).

My good friend Pedro, CT7AEZ, got me into working portable and I really want to continue doing it, eventually joining him for some SOTA.
Anyway, today I managed to get some Anderson Powerpoles soldered and ready to work with the FT-817ND. This was my first experience with the Powerpoles and I must say that I am very impressed with their versatility.
So, here are the pictures of the work done this afternoon (a couple of hours).
The pack of x10 15A powerpoles as received from an eBay seller:

  

Each conection takes 4 pieces as in the following picture:

A surplus 5A laptop power supply, that I had in my parts bin, was the ideal candidate for powering the FT-817ND. I still have to take a look at the power supply under my oscilloscope to see how the output looks like. I measured it with my multimeter and it outputs 12,29V.

So, I started out by cutting the original connector and by soldering and assembling the powerpoles:

I checked the internet on how to assemble the powerpoles. The following pictures were very helpful during the assembly process:

And here's how the Anderson Powerpole connector is built on the inside:

After I finished the powersupply I did the FT-817ND power cable. This will be very usefull in the future as I can use the same cable on battery power or using a mains fed power supply:

Power supply and radio cable done:

And, after double checking that the radio plug respected +12V on the center pin and GND on the outer pin, I tested everything with the FT-817. Success!

On and all, I had a couple of hours of fun doing this. The Anderson Powerpoles rock and I will be using them a lot in the future!

Stay tuned for more portable ham radio stuff. Soon enough the weather will allow to use the portable station outside, and that's where all the fun is.

M0PLK Multiband Delta Loop Antenna

Those of us that are into ham radio know that one of the most important parts of a radio station, if not the most import part, is the antenna.
Most of the hams I know have spent, or a willing to spend, hundreds of dollars in transceivers. When it comes to the antenna system, well... it's a different story!
Today I will write about a commercial antenna design that I find interesting enough to write about. It's the Multiband M0PLK Delta antenna
Here's why I find it interesting.

1. It's a muliband antenna. Performs well on 20-17-15-12-10m.
2. It can be used on the lower and higher bands (with reduced performance).
3. It's a loop, so it has a low angle of radiation. This favors DX contacts.
4. Since it's a single loop, it's bi-directional.
5. On a permanent installation it only requires a light duty rotor (a TV antenna rotor) to rotate the antenna.
6. It can be turned by hand, with minor effort, in a portable operation.

It can be home-built in a light-weight format, turning this antenna into a very interesting option for those of us who do SOTA or operate portable.
So, what does this antenna look like? Here it is:

The loop is formed my two aluminum "arms". On top of each arm, wire is used until the feed point. Here's a pictures showing this particular connection:

The feed point is then fed with ladder line that comes down into a balun. After the balun the usual 50 ohm coax is used.
Here are some pictures of the base of the antenna, including the balun:

This antenna is, at this time, commercialized at about 225€, that is about 300USD. Here are a couple of places where you can buy it:

• VPA Systems
• UrBasket.eu 
• UrBastket ebay shop (here you van actually make an offer for the antenna).

If you curious about the antenna designer you can find him at QRZ,com.
And of course, you can read this antenna reviews on eham where it currently rates exceptionally well.

As I own two of these antennas my experience dealing with Artur (M0PLK) was the best. Just to show how good the support is I will share a quick story: when I bought the antennas I had plans to use them right away. Unfortunately when the antennas arrived my job position had changed and I was loaded with work. I had no choice other to check what had arrived and store the antennas, waiting for a better day to use them. Time went by and one year (yes, you read well, one year) latter I found the time to assemble the antennas only to find out that there were a couple of parts missing (some clamps; simple parts really, I should have checked). I e-mailed Artur anticipating that we would ask me why so much time after buying I was asking for missing parts. I never received such a question. Instead, at his suggestion, Artur sent me the missing clamps for the antennas. No questions asked. How's this for support?
So, whatever you do, buy or build your own multiband delta loop, have fun and happy DXing.

 Here are the dimensions of this antenna: