Making Mistakes Along the Way

Amateur radio is practical: we use what we buy or build. A device can be ugly, deficient, cheap, less than state-of-the-art and still be immensely useful. If it helps you to put a signal on the air you will be successful. There are no asterisks on an operating award because your home brew QRP transmitter was a oddball collection of parts spread across the operating desk, held together with bits of tape and clip leads.

I use computer design tools and breadboards to test my designs. They often remain prototypes for a very long time. Witness my long running project to design and build a digital controller for my prop pitch motor rotators. The breadboard direction indicators sitting on the old 24 VDC power supply and a standalone panel meter is still there and working! Ugly and embarrassing but it gets the job done. 

The new one is getting better although not yet completed. With the weather warming it will take a while longer as my focus turns to antenna and tower jobs. That's okay. I don't need a pretty station to be competitive in contests and the DX pile ups.

Despite all the design and prototyping I continue to make many mistakes. Maybe I discover that a design is deficient and I have to research and try alternatives. Or the design is fundamentally sound but impractical when implementation is attempted. Worse, the design and implementation work, it goes up high on a tower and then fails because it isn't immune to abuse by the weather or the flow of high power. 

I have not been shy about highlighting my mistakes on the blog. And there have been many! I believe my biggest mistake was to attempt to make a hardware-based antenna switching system. At the time I believed that this would be a relatively straight-forward first step toward a software solution. I was very very wrong! It was mechanically and electrically complex, inflexible, overly large and difficult to use.

I recognized my mistake and (reluctantly) discarded it. However, my first software solution was also deficient. I am still using it but it is due for a redesign. The UI (user interface) is confusing to guest operators and even to me at times. I know because I keep pressing the wrong buttons for the wrong radio or antenna. The next version will be much better, I hope. 

There is no shame in making mistakes. That's how we learn. What is shameful is hiding mistakes or denying them and continuing on as if all is well. No one will be fooled by your evasion. Laugh at yourself, accept the lesson and try again -- to err is human.

Other examples of mistakes I've made, and the lessons learned, can be found in the blog. A few examples are gamma matches, 160 meters on the 80 meter vertical yagi, blazing the wrong trail for a Beverage antenna, breakage of scrounged aluminum, and even the choice of manually-tuned tube amps in a station intended to be used by guest operators. Searching my blog for the word "mistake" tags a lot of articles! Many of them are for operating mistakes or small things like forgetting to tighten bolts, but in this article I'll focus on design and construction.

I will also overlook ugly construction. When the ugliness is 100' up the tower, no one will notice but me. When it's on or under the operating desk, I can always cover it. No one dares ask what's underneath the cloth -- most hams have one or more ugly contraptions in their stations.

Analysis paralysis

You've certainly heard this phrase. It means to delay or avoid doing something because there are uncertainties or alternatives. Deciding what is best, let alone perfect, can be fruitless since there may not be one. This is especially fraught when the requirements are skimpy or vague, as they often are for projects hams are wont to build. That is, we really aren't certain what we are trying to achieve. That may be okay in some cases since exploration can be a good way to learn.

The key is to think through the options and research alternatives as well as you are able, then do something. You may choose a poor or non-optimum path, but so what? We aren't building rockets or nuclear reactors where failure isn't an option. When an unforeseen difficulty arises, correct your course or throw it away and try a different approach. Don't stubbornly persist with your first choice, or abandon the project because you are consumed by doubts. 

That said, I strongly advise against jumping into construction with no analysis at all. Many hams work that way, and I did as well when I was much younger. Impatience can be a curse, leading you into the wilderness without a compass. You may find yourself taking two steps backward for every step forward. 

Do at least some planning and design work before jumping into construction, which is usually the fun part. Know your destination and keep aiming at it no matter the bends in the road along the way.

Devil in the details: "minute details can have a big, often negative, impact"

Often the reason we get caught in analysis paralysis is that there can be so many options and details in a project. This is as true for an electronic project utilizing software or PCBs with dozens of components, as it is for towers and antennas where questions about static and dynamic loads, tensile strength and other challenging questions are critical for durability and safety. 

Don't be afraid to ask for help. But for many in-the-shack projects you can work it out without serious risk other than a little money and your time. However, don't simply proceed by trial and error since there are fantastic and free design tools for you to use, and online fora where you can ask questions. Those can help you to avoid many elementary mistakes. Examples of design tools include EZNEC, LTspice, KiCad, Elsie and so many more.

That said, a custom design can entail many pesky details that you will have to work through. The shape or position of one part can impact the success of the project. Let me illuminate this with a project that I am currently working on: a 40 meter reversible Moxon antenna. Let's look at the element switching system component where a relay changes each element to be either the driven element or a director. Both elements have the same component but with the roles reversed.

The linked article contains the switching system design which you may want to review before continuing. The only item from that article I'm reproducing here is the element switching schematic. The central coax switch for selecting the driven element is not included in this discussion. That's for the wire version, while the NEC5 design for the rotatable version I'm building can be found here. Full antenna detail will be published after the antenna is up and working.

On the right is the centre feed point of one of the elements, as it has been assembled in the hay field. On the left are most of the parts for the switching system that will be placed at the feed point. There are a DPDT relay, non-conductive spacers (to support the reflector coil and element connector tangs), solder lugs, custom made aluminum tangs to connect the switching system to the element halves, an ABS enclosure and a coax connector. Here are some of the details I've been considering in the design:

• Minimum enclosure size to accommodate the parts that permits good RF design and that minimizes wind load. It must be strong enough to withstand the weather.
• Minimize lead lengths to the connector, coil and element for low stray inductance.
• Fits over the element hardware and can be secured, while allowing ease of attachment and maintenance. Those tangs will be formed to fit under the hose clamps.

Consider a few of the many details that I must address:

• A high-Q coil tends to have equal diameter and length with space between the turns. For the required 1.2 μH coil those dimensions are on the order of 3 to 4 cm. The fit is tight so I've made the length a little longer than the diameter.
• To adjust the coil (mainly due to lead inductance), one tail must be solid (for support) and one flexible. That is, to compress or expand the coil.
• If the support spacers are too close the aluminum tangs must be positioned outboard of the screws, and inboard if the supports are wide apart. I need them close so that they can be bent outward to fit under the hose clamps (projecting outward from element centre). That increases the risk they could touch, but will reduce stray inductance. Also, the tangs must be appropriately sized (width and length) so that the entire enclosure can be rotated in and out of the hose clamps for insertion and removal.
• Will the enclosure stand on the tangs or be tight against the hose clamps or the large element u-bolts? For the former, the risk is that wind load will fatigue cycle the aluminum tangs and ABS enclosure. For the latter, the risk is that weather and the pressure of the clamps on the enclosure bottom could deform the plastic which might eventually crack.
• Stiff wire must be used for internal wiring so that the relay is held in place by the wires. This is the dead bug style I used in similar cases such as auxiliary coax switches and stack switches. Since #18 solid copper wire has worked in the past I'll use it in this project.

There are other details which I've omitted; there are a lot of them! Perfection is impossible but analysis is still prudent. Yet I will confidently predict that there will be one or more mistakes made in my design and construction choices. 

One mistake already discovered is that the plastic spacers (threaded for #6 screws) won't hold the screws very well when adjusting and torquing the top and bottom screws. Therefore I will place nuts on the bottom screws (for the tangs and solder lugs) to hold them securely. The coil solder lugs on top don't have to grip the spacer as solidly. The screws will have to be cut to measured lengths so that they grip well but don't get close enough to arc or short inside the spacer. 

At this point readers may wonder why I'm going into this excruciating amount of detail. But that's just it: the devil is in the details. Even a simple project entails a large number of decisions about details that will have consequences. Those choices are inter-dependent since they affect each other.

All of us must make many choices, consciously or not, when designing and building any project. When a problem is inevitably encountered, we revise and improve. Mistakes are just part of the process.

There is no escaping the details. Buying a product instead of home brewing also entails details in its installation and use: there are interconnection and system details to be worked out. A station like mine is very complex and it can be a struggle to make everything work in harmony.

Accept that mistakes will happen

Saying that mistakes happen is unsurprising and uninformative. What I tried to communicate in this article is to accept their inevitable appearance no matter how cleverly we design and build the contraptions we use in our stations. 

But it is important that we learn from our mistakes; that's one of the wonders about our technical hobby -- that there is so much to learn. Learning can be fun and fulfilling even though we may cringe when a mistake is discovered dangling from a tower or by the acrid smell of burnt electronics.

We should do our due diligence, while being careful not to obsess over preventing every possible point of failure. There lies paralysis, and that's never good. Move forward by trying something when you're stuck, or get a second opinion from someone with greater experience. 

The only time to stop is if a mistake would risk life or property. That's one time that you are advised to seek an expert. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. Nor is admitting and correcting a mistake.

Solid State Amp in the Station

Choosing amps can be a dilemma. Tube amps tend to be clean (low distortion) but almost all require manual tuning and the tubes, although they can last many years in a newer product with protection circuits, are expensive to replace, if they can be found. Solid state amps are typically no tune and instant on, but tend to poor signal quality (IMD), and if the transistors fail they must usually be replaced by different ones since they are evolving (and improving) quickly.

I prefer tube amps for their reliability and clean output. That why I purchased an Acom 1500 a few years ago, and for its coverage of 6 meters and excellent protection circuits. The latter is critical for tetrodes just as it is for solid state amps.

Buying tube amps is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Partly for the aforementioned reasons and also because of guest operators for contests. Many hams, even those licensed for decades, have difficulty tuning amps quickly and accurately in the midst of a contest. It's one of many things guest ops need to learn and deal with in an unfamiliar station. 

I have seen my amps poorly tuned or offline due to an unnoticed fault. The amp protection circuits prevent damage but contest effectiveness is impaired. There are tube amps with ATU (Acom 2000) or with preset tuning points (Alpha 9500) that make them almost (but not quite) no-tune, but they are very expensive.

When an opportunity recently arose to pick up a nearly new solid state amp with a good reputation, I bought it. It's an Acom 1200S. In the picture it is sitting atop the Drake L7 while I tested it. It is paired with the Icom 7600 (lower left) that I purchased last year.

Although the amp receives mostly positive reviews, nothing is perfect. Tubes fail and so do LDMOS and other solid state devices. Perhaps a better tell is that there are not many available on the used market. Skimpy used market data made it difficult to set a fair market value for the amp, which was necessary since I purchased it from the estate of a friend. Two of us have been testing and selling his equipment on behalf of the family.

I now have 3 kilowatt class amplifiers, and two of them include 6 meters. One of the three will become a spare. The Acom 1500 paired with the Icom 7610 will likely remain my daily amp. The 1200S will be amp for the second station, used primarily in contests (SO2R and multi-op). I might split the station for daily use, with one dedicated to HF and the other for 6 meters. I monitor 6 meters quite a lot in order to catch elusive openings.

Let me say a few words about the 1200S before returning to the topic of tube vs solid state amps in my station. I'll discuss the amp's pros and cons from the perspective of my interests. Those may differ from yours.

Pros: 

• Automatic band switching by measuring the input. That eliminates the need to split the CAT feed or to come up with a cable to connect the Icom/Yaesu/Elecraft/etc. band data to the amp. But it needs to a dit or similarly brief transmission, not jumping into normal operation. Hopefully guest operators will catch on.
• The protection circuits are fast and appear to be comprehensive. The one commonly encountered is too much drive for the SWR -- the higher the SWR, the lower the allowed drive and thus the forward and reflected power.
• It's light. That makes it easy to move around. I have accidentally pushed the amp backward by pressing the power button too firmly!
• Perhaps most important for contests, it's easy to use. No tuning, a large display and the colours tell you what you're doing wrong (or right).
• It's only a kilowatt. That makes it easy to stay legal per Canadian regulations, especially for CW, although it's a little light on PEP for SSB. Well, maybe that's just me since there are many that would see consider the power limit as a con.
  

Cons:

• The fan is always on and it isn't the quietest. It isn't loud but I expected it to be quieter when idling since there are no filaments. There are higher and noisier fan speeds when the temperature rises during hard use.
• The T/R relay is louder than I expected. It's louder than my Acom 1500 and the Acom 1000, but quieter than the L7 with its bulky 3PDT relay (I still use the original).
• There is only one antenna jack. Although I have my own hardware and software for automatic antenna selection, it would be nice to have a second port for 6 meters since that antenna is routed separately. For comparison, the 1500 has 3 antenna ports.
• The SWR limit can be a problem for many. In my station that is mostly the case for the non-contest HF bands since I have no resonant antennas for 30, 17 and 12 meters. On the contest bands it is rarely an issue since my antennas are optimized for CW, which I mainly operate in contests. On SSB the drive has to be reduced in a few cases, such as on 160 and 40 meters, and for the TH6. The reflected power must be below 100 watts or thereabouts. It is easy to forget to reduce drive when switching to an antenna with a higher SWR during a contest.
• I am a little uncomfortable with the higher IMD common to solid state amps, and LDMOS in particular. I wish more transceiver manufacturers allowed universal feedback loops for distortion reduction. For example, the DPD feature in the Icom 7610 uses a proprietary interface unique to their PW2 amp.
  

Considering the long list of cons, why would I purchase the 1200S? A solid state amp with more head room or an internal ATU like the RF2K-S or the PGXL (but no ATU) may be superior choices, but even those have their quirks and are substantially more expensive. I may take that step eventually, but not this year.

Every amp has its quirks, good points and bad points. I went into this purchase with my eyes wide open; I am not someone who rationalizes a purchase after the fact. There are better amps on the market and there are cheaper amps. At some point I may replace it with another. However, this one is pretty good and it was available. Time will tell whether I made a good decision.

Every modern amp is expensive. There is no getting around that. If you want cheap, go with a vintage tube amp (but check the tubes first!) and put up with its size, high replacement tube costs, lack of protection circuits and so forth. I sold two of those from the same estate at a recent flea market. There are no wrong choices, just wrong expectations. 

I could fill the blog with the endless rationalizations of hams who are eternally wedded to their amplifier choices. One non-buyer at the mentioned flea market looked over my table of amps and went on an on about the Mercury amp he bought. The same rationalization is also common for antennas, rigs, headphones, and other equipment. I have preferences but I can be persuaded by the performance and features of the unfamiliar or unconventional.

All that said, it is the amp for the second station. It may not see a lot of use. That is, unless another amp fails and I substitute it. Unlike the L7 with its glass envelope 3-500 tubes there is no need for periodic heating of the tubes to maintain the integrity of the seals. It may seem wasteful to have an two mostly idle amps but for my contest operating it is vital to have them ready to go. 

The connections to both the L7 and 1200S are identical and simple. There are just 3: key in, transmitter and antenna. Of course there's also the AC power plug; luckily the plugs on both amps are the same and compatible with my outlets. The amps can be swapped in a minute when they're stacked as shown above. 

If I get ambitious I will reconfigure the station so that one station can be used for monitoring 6 meters and the other for HF outside of contests. I have that flexibility with two 6 meter capable amps. I am sometimes reluctant to warm up the 1500 when a 6 meter opening opening is marginal or brief.

It's a shame that the 1200S doesn't have a second antenna port that I can use for 6 meters. I'll have to deal with it in other ways, such as manual coax switches. I have enough manual coax switches lying around since converting to automatic switching!

One thing I won't miss with the new amp is the post-it notes with tuning suggestions for each band and mode. There will be less stress or reluctance for guest ops when chasing mults and making frequent band/antenna changes.

An Idle Super-station

We are experiencing a major thaw this week. The snow is deep, it's been cold, I had a bad cold, and my personal life has been very busy. That limited my ability to operate (and contest) or to progress many projects. But with the nice weather I did my first tower climbs of the season today -- aligning masts that slipped during a February wind storm.

There has been slow progress but nothing worth reporting. I am eager to see the snow recede so that it is possible to do more outside. It is time to shrug off the lethargy of the winter blahs and become re-energized for the coming season. The burden of family duties is finally receding and that will free up more of my time.

It seems strange to some hams I speak with how much time my station sits idle. Some days it isn't powered up at all, not even to monitor FT8. So many towers and big antennas idle and silent. Is that wrong? Is it a waste? Why go to the effort of building a big station and not use it every spare moment that I have? I'm retired, there's time enough to operate.

There are a couple of reasons. First, I am not often interested in chatting on the air. I've never been into rag chewing or even longer QSOs since I'm an introvert. Indeed, that was how I got into contesting when I was a new ham -- lots of contacts and DX without having to chat. The second reason, is that building the station has always been the objective, not so much using it myself. For many hams the communications is the objective and all the other stuff -- putting up antennas, figuring out transceivers -- is a necessary obstacle to overcome. For me the operating puts an exclamation point on my building efforts that confirms that I've built well.

I've been asked by a several hams to remote my station so that they and others can use it when I'm not. That is not so easy with a complicated station like mine. It also doesn't satisfy my own interests. The conversion could be accelerated with commercial equipment -- thus lessening the time burden -- but I prefer to home brew my own control systems. I do it because I can and it is what I enjoy. That means no remote capability in the foreseeable future. Guest operators have to travel to my QTH.

Regardless of how many hours I put in, how am I using the station when I decide to operate?

• Contests, either casual or serious: Those are weekend affairs and there may only be one per month in which I make a notable number of contacts. That includes the majors like CQ WW CW & SSB.
• DX chasing: I am not a serious award chaser. Indeed, I've never applied for DXCC even though I've qualified for many categories and endorsements based on LoTW confirmations alone. I will work hard to log the rare ones, while I'll play games with the rest. For example, using 100 watts or less to see how well my skills and big antennas compete in the pile ups
• Practice: I am a good operator, but to stay good I can't just operate during contests. From time to time I'll turn on the amp, aim the stacks at Europe or Japan and generate a small pile up. Although I do it at less than contest speed, paddle time is paramount to remaining fluent at CW. I find that a continuous period of sending text (not just 599 73) is needed to reduce my error rate when it counts. I don't seem to need the receive practice as much. I've tried MorseRunner and similar tools but I find them too boring for serious practice. I prefer to get my practice on the air.
• Propagation: I enjoy exploring propagation and big antennas help with that. Whether it's searching for elusive openings on 160 and 6 meters, unexpected or rare long path openings, aurora and occasionally meteor scatter, it's all very fascinating. CQing into a seemingly dead band can have surprising results. Often when I not operating I'll leave the station monitoring 50.313 MHz or 1840 kHz (depending on time and season) to spot unusual and unexpected DX. 
• Using what I build: I never build and forget. Whether it's an antenna, BPF, rotator controller or other equipment, an important part of the pleasure comes from making use of what I build. That's true whether I design and build from scratch or assemble a kit. I am not a natural designer so there has to be that payback to incentivize me to put in the time and effort. The incentive is seeing an on air benefit, such as higher contest scores.

Is that a long enough list? It is for me. Every ham has their individual motivations to get on the air.

It is likely that my interests will change. When I am less able to climb towers my focus will need to change. In any case, I don't intend to grow the station too far beyond where it is now. Age brings inevitable changes to our lives. Maybe at the next solar maximum around 2035 I'll be more into chatting since I will have less ability to undertake major projects. It is even possible that I'll remote the station and live an easier life elsewhere!

But for now I build. Although I have been sidelined by many things lately, there has been some progress. Technical articles have been lacking lately since few projects have reached completion. Here's a quick rundown of the projects that I'm actively working on. Expect articles when each crosses the finish line.

• The prop pitch motor (rotator) controller is essentially complete. Unfortunately that does not include the interface to the power supply. There is cabling and testing yet to be done. The software is far enough advanced that I can use it as is and improve it after the new controller is installed.
• I have resumed work on the 40 meter reversible Moxon. I am working on the element trusses and the switching system. It'll be a few more weeks before I'm ready to raise it for testing and tuning.
• I am designing and will soon begin construction of a swing gate side mount. The first will be for either the lower 5-element 15 meter yagi or for a new 17/12 meter yagi which I have designed but not yet built. If the swing gate works well I'll build another.
• My small chainsaw died. It has been replaced so I've resumed tree clearing. The snow got so deep and the weather so cold and windy this winter that I cut down far few trees than planned. I need to get it done before the ticks emerge. I also need to clear trees along the Beverage lines since spring will soon be upon us and I won't be able to access the bush again until fall.

While I keep busy with ham and non-ham projects, my station will remain mostly idle. I'm okay with that.

Politics

The title ought to read: Politics and Amateur Radio. This is not a politics blog. I won't discuss politics, but I am occasionally willing to discuss the intersection with amateur radio. There can be many impacts, and this is one of those times. At least in this country -- hams are citizens and patriots. Present circumstances are worth a brief article.

I once discussed amateur radio and war on this blog. This is not so terrible but hits closer to home. After all, a small number of democratically elected governments are playing badly with each other. Hams are making choices, as they must. I don't know how many hams on the US side of the border (if any) care, nor will I ask. Well, it's just politics and why would hams pay attention to that stuff?

Let me take you through some of the impacts on and reactions from Canadian hams. I don't know everyone so take this information under advisement. Yet I know enough and far more non-hams, and their behaviours are identical.

Travel

We've been here before and yet the vehemence of the reaction is unlike any that I've seen. Ever. Canadians can be incredibly easy going but not now. Almost every ham and non-ham I know that had planned travel to the US has cancelled. That's saying a lot. Not everyone of course, so don't be surprised to see the occasional VE portable W-something.

I'm not going to Hamvention. That isn't saying much since I had no plan to go. It's nice but once every several years is enough for me. Others go every year. Not this year. I wonder how many VE2/3 name tags will be seen this May?

Purchasing

The amateur radio market is small and shrinking. Decades ago there were many ham radio equipment retailers across the country. Now there are only a handful and they are taking extreme measures to survive. There are fewer brands, small inventories and no in-house warranty repair. They have diversified into non-ham electronics, and that may now be the majority of their businesses. Many hams now purchase from retailers in the larger US market. 

Foreign manufacturers have few international distributors and certified repair centres. It is no surprise that many serve Canadian hams from the US. That has just become a big problem since many hams refuse to purchase from the US. Again, not all. I see reactions from absolute refusal to shrugs. I am not planning a major purchase for the next year, but if I do it will pose a dilemma.

The label of "foreign" itself is fraught. When I look at brands like Icom and Elecraft, I see both as foreign. Many hams have treated brands like the latter differently. Not now.

It's not just major purchases. US distributors for parts, certain antenna components and other items are commonly used since it is convenient. Some will change their purchasing habits and some won't. It's difficult to assess how behaviours might change.

Used purchases are unaffected since the transaction is local. Local ham flea markets are safe!

Participation

There are hams that refuse to enter contests sponsored by US organizations, and have qualms about LoTW and other services located in the US. I have not changed my behaviour. I still talk to Russians and hams in other problematic countries. Hams communicate and I won't stop doing that. 

The refusniks are a small minority of hams. But they exist and they can be very loud. I know a few.

Attitudes

Everybody has an opinion, and many are too happy to tell you their opinions. I suppose it's understandable to want to blow off steam and get affirmation from others with the same opinions, and even winning others over to their views.

I am not so easily swayed. I listen to the talk and mostly stay silent. Of course I have my opinions but I feel no need to impose them on others. I carefully navigate the social interaction minefield. Speakly loudly is not helpful since opinions are not actionable.

It is understandable that Canadian attitudes to Americans are influenced by politics, and hams are citizens in this regard. It has always been thus. On the other side? Silence.

On the greater global stage, ugly politics may be a small thing. But small things can and do have impacts that will endure for a very long time indeed.