On Christmas Eve morning, Friday December 24th 2021,
SAQ Grimeton is scheduled* to be on the air, to send out a Christmas message to the whole world, using the 97 year old 200kW Alexanderson alternator on 17.2 kHz CW.

Transmission & YouTube Live stream
08:25 CET (07:25 UTC): Live stream on YouTube begins.
08:30 CET (07:30 UTC): Start up and tuning of the Alexanderson Alternator SAQ.
09:00 CET (08:00 UTC): Transmission of a message from SAQ.

Test Transmissions
We are planning to carry our some test transmission on Dec 23rd, approximately between 13:00 CET (12:00 UTC) and 16:00 CET (15:00 UTC). SAQ will be on air shorter periods of time during this interval, when we will be carrying out some tests and measurements. Your comments are welcome to info@alexander.n.se.

In addition the following stations will be broadcasting simultaneously:-
Amateur Radio Station SK6SAQ
The Amateur Radio Station with the call “SK6SAQ” will be QRV on the following frequencies:
– 3.535 kHz CW
– 7.035 kHz CW
– 14.035 KHz CW
– 3.755 kHz SSB
– 7.140 kHz SSB

have a great Christmas on the radio
John M0hfh

Has anything changed in the maths since 1937?

Well perhaps the way we calculate and the calculators and computers we use to get the answer. Our test equipment and radio’s have also taken a great leap forward; I have smiths charts on my analyser these days where it used to be complicated and time consuming to get the resolution to complex number problems.

The link below takes you to Frank Jones antenna handbook

http://www.tubebooks.org/Books/Jonesant.pdf

Still valid today? – leave a reply 

I like to try some of the old designs and compare  the performance with some of the improved antenna designs we have today,( Roll on Field day 2021)  but mostly its the detail of the design description that leads to ideas for improvements. 

John (m0hfh)

The Alexanderson alternator will be transmitting on 17.2khz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OErGFaT1esI

Amateur Radio Station SK6SAQ
The Amateur Radio Station with the call “SK6SAQ” will be QRV on the following frequencies:
– 7.035 kHz CW or
– 14.035 kHz CW or
– 3.755 kHz SSB

Thinking about a suitable antenna for use with a kite i decided to purchase UK antennas multi band end fed.

end-fed-antenna-with-mounting-bracket-80-40-20-17-15-12-10m

It seemed sensible to test the antenna matching before attaching it to a kite however the half wave for 80m was too long to put up at my QTH so i swapped it out for a half wave on 40m and attached it to the matching unit; using a mini VNA and MFJ 259B  i set about matching the radiator. The starting point indicated resonance at 6.6mhz so trimming the length i slowly brought it to resonance at 7.04mhz with vswr of 1: 1.2. To achieve this i had to attach a counterpoise of 3m, my only criticism being there was no attachment point for a counterpoise.
The screen shot shows the WSPR test at 200mw from my QTH on the 09/08/2020.
A  CW QSO into Kazakhstan at 50 watts was also achieved, it seems to work well.

Conclusion
Great antenna IP65 rating with good mounting clamp setup will report back when i test the full 80m half wave antenna supplied with the unit at field day.

John m0hfh

Alexanderson Alternator At Grimeton in Sweden will be making 2 test transmissions on 17.2 Khz, watch live on you tube.
https://alexander.n.se/alexanderson-day-2020/?lang=en

The fox hunt on Wednesday evening turned into a damp affair and was attended by Mike g0jmd, Paul m0znb , Garry g7nvz and John m0hfh. Peter Barnes m0swn was the fox who had gone to ground in the Mundy Playing fields accompanied by Brittany M6LVB. First hound to see the fox was John m0hfh using body shielding and a hand held, second was Garry g7nvz and Paul m0znb bringing up the rear. We had a cream cup cakes as our prize and returned to rock street around 9.15, a fun evening.

Hello all

Peter Barnes will be our Fox for this years Pedestrian Fox Hunt.

Starting in the Rock Street car park, Thornbury at 7.30 pm finishing around 9.pm

To help with construction a Photograph of the Primary and Secondary connection.

If you are using a single connection box keep the primary at one end and the capacitor used in the Tank circuit at the other.

Keep the connecting wires as symmetrical as possible

Boxes suitable for this project Screwfix.com  Part no. 33991 and 35121