May Long Weekend

In multiple countries there is a long weekend towards the end of May.  Here in Canada it is Victoria Day to celebrate the Queen's Birthday.  This weekend is often heralded as the start of the summer season, with many that go camping or do chores around the house.  As the campgrounds tend to be a zoo and the possibility for snow is high in Alberta for that weekend we decide to stay home.  I had a very ambitious list of items to complete.

In the fall I did not have time to complete the grounding installation for the HF vertical that sits on top of my house.  There had already been one thunderstorm and another was in the forecast I figured it was time to get that item complete.  This was a simple installation I installed a ground pipe clamp to the bottom of the antenna below the counterpoise so that the grounding did not interact with the antenna.  I used #6 copper wire down to the ground where I had a ground plate waiting in hole that I had dug.  On my coax from the antenna I have a lightning protection on that too, so I ran a copper wire from that to the ground plate.  With everything connected I buried the plate back into the ground.  This should be sufficient for my set up.

We had some friends over for a BBQ, a fire and to sit in the hot tub.  In anticipation for the weekend I got the hot tub started on Wednesday and all had started out well.  On Friday evening I opened up the hot tub to see how things were going and I had a sensor error.  Our hot tub is a few years old and we replaced the sensors last year, so I was surprised to see the error.  I will comment more directly on how I fixed this on a future post.

I had recently acquired a dual fuel (propane/charcoal) BBQ grill.  I have never cooked with charcoal, so I want to develop that skill, so we had our inaugural cook of with that.  I learned a lot about placement of coals.  I had over cooked the meat this time, but I will do better next time.

We were running out of steam on Monday, but we got the lawn mowed and the garden bed prepared for seeds.

What did  you get up to over the May Long weekend?  Share your story below with everyone.

S is for Solder vs Crimp

S is for Solder vs Crimp

In the amateur radio world there is a great debate over which is better to solder or to crimp, this goes into coaxial cable as well.  For the old timers they like the strength of solder in that there is a fused connection between the two pieces of wire or the connector.  This connection will provide the electrical continuity that is being looked for.  The downside to these connections is that with the hard connection that repetitive motion of the wire at the joint could also make the joint break at that location over time.  Another weakness of solder is that if there is enough heat either due to resistance (too much current) it will melt the solder and you will lose the connection.

The alternative to soldering is crimping.  Crimping provides a connection that relies on friction to keep it together.  Crimping is really easy and quick, also it is a lot more portable than trying to take a soldering iron to wherever you want to make a connection.  For example I was on the roof last fall installing an antenna and I needed to put an end on it.  It would have been very awkward to pull up the extension cord and my soldering iron up there and waited for it to heat up and shield it from the wind as it is only a cheap 30W iron and hope that it would have worked.  Instead I pulled out my crimpers and made the connection in less than a minute.  People are afraid that if you got water in the connection it would cause it to corrode and not be as electrically sound or that it will pull out no longer being connected.  To alleviate the corrosion issue you can put some dielectric grease which is used in car spark plug wires to make sure it makes the connection.  By covering the joint in grease it will keep the water out of there.  The best way that I have found to make sure that you get a good connection is to have a set of purpose built crimpers, not the all in ones from Radio Shack.  I have found some pairs for a really good price and then make sure that the crimp is on all sides and that there is not a place for the wire to wiggle out of. 

From my experience at work in both high and low voltage there is no soldering, neither in automotive, I am also told that it is forbidden in the aviation world.  NASA will use solder in their lineman’s splice which because of the single use nature of a mission build there is not a lot of repetitive strain loading on the wires for it to fatigue.  Now back when the linesman would use that splice on telegraph wire they did not use solder.  The only place I have come across solder is in electronics, which is too small for crimping.

Anyways, there is some background on the age old debate.  Share with the group whether you prefer to crimp or solder. 

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Titan DX Antenna Install

I have recently received my Titan DX antenna from GAP Antenna.  As I was intending to mount it on a tripod mount on top of the roof of the house I also got the guy kit.  One note on the guy kit is that there are no anchors included with it.  As I am not experienced with HF antennas it took me a bit to figure out how to put the antenna together, and from everyone that I read online it does take a long time to assemble.  So the first day I got it put together, and mounted on the tripod.  On the second day I got the counterpoise installed and connected the end for the coax and attached the feed line. 

They don't mention anywhere in their documentation what the coax was and it is a house brand with no labels, so I called them and inquired.  GAP uses a RG-8X equivalent.  I needed this information because they had a male UHF (PL-259) to go on the antenna, and I had a connector for a male 259 to go on the feed line coax.  Also in my tool box I have a handful of male N connectors.  So I went down to MRO Electronics in Calgary and got a female N connector to go on the coax.  For those that are not as up to speed on coax a RG-8 and RG-8X are not similar at all.

As I assembled the antenna with the self tapping screws provided, I understand why several people have recommended changing the screws out for machine screws with lock nuts.  As Winter was nearing in Calgary and I did not have many days without snow on the roof I needed this to get done and put that off to a future day.

I was unable to get the grounding installed for the antenna, so that will be a spring project before the lightning comes.  Other than that I just need to poke a hole into the house, do some testing and get on the air. 

Below is some pictures of the build.

 The middle section where the coax attaches to the antenna.

Looking from the "top" down the length of the antenna.

A closer look at the center section

The base where the counterpoise will mount

The top covered with a dust cap and a capacitor just inside.