At our Contest Station ED1R, we have on each highband 3 Yagis available. In 2012 I built 4 high-power Stackmatches to switch and combine them properly. Since I never liked the way of WX0B’s stackmatch controllers with the rotative knob, a microcontroller and button-based solution were the answer. After a few contests, the solution has proven its reliability and comfort.
One of last year’s projects was the improvement of our Contest Station ED1R. For the various Yagis, we needed smart ways to combine antennas. Instead of buying commercial stackmatches (antenna combiners), I decided to build them up by myself and adjust them to our needs.
During the summer break, it became quiet here on my blog. While Instead of chilling at the beach, I spend a lot of time on new Hardware and Software projects. Most of them are done, and now it’s time to document them. In this blog post, I want to share the construction of a versatile 4:1 Balun. In combination with a ladder line and an automatic Antenna tuner, you can use any dipole on almost all frequencies.
Over the last few years, I spent a lot of time simulating antennas. One annoyance I encountered over and over was the unavailability of values for ground conductivity and the relative permittivity. Two figures have quite an impact on the antenna performance, especially on vertical antennas. This finally led to the conclusion that both figures need to be measured. In early 2012 I built a measurement kit and finally determined ground conductivity and relative permittivity at our contest station.
The community of Flex-Radio enthusiasts who select the DJ Console as their main user interface is steadily growing. Community members are sharing pictures to make it even better. After several labeling solutions, a recent discussion on the PowerSDR-UI Yahoogroup ended up in a haptic improvement for the DJ Console’s tuning wheels.
