PH2LB shack on the internet.

Spring cleaning in my shack. While stocks last, I'm giving away sets of 2 old stock PCB's for my QRP-Labs broadcast band filter for postage cost only. Checkout: https://www.ph2lb.nl/blog/index.php?page=bc-filter and if you like it, fill in the webshop order form http://ph2lb.nl/webshop/order.php to get yours.

Mar 28, 2023

New K2 mods and articles.

Category: General

Posted by: lex

I have added new K2 mods and articles to this website . . . . (continue reading)

Fieldradio 2015

This page was last updated : 28-Jul-24 16:57:24

26 December 2015

It's been a low and slow hamradio month this last month of the year. Busy at work, the large amount of dutch holidays and off-course visiting family during these holidays didn't leave much room for hamradio activities.

But on the second Christmas day, all the family obligations where done, the kids where back to there mother having Christmas obligations with her side of the family and the XYL and this OM had time to catch up on sleep.

Having recharged the batteries a little, we decided to go for a walk in our favorite nature area near our QTH, the Salandse heuvelrug around JO32fi and off-course some hamradio equipment was taken with us. The walk to the cabin on the top was a muddie one, the weather was clouded but not that could (warmest Christmas in years according the KNMI) and a lot of people had the same idea. Which reminded me of the fieldreport from July 2015 but that wouldn't spoil the fun this time (if you're haven't read it, check it out).

The call tag on my backpack.

The diy 10/20/40m End Fed antenna hanging from the cabin to a nearby tree.

Equipment : Yaesu FT-817, LDG Z817 tuner, 5W in a 10/20/40m DIY End Fed antenna, a 7Ah 12V drycell accu pack and a presentation folder with bandplans, QSL cards (you never know who you meed in the fields), license, pre-printed logbook sheet and a hardbord plate for writing.

A view nice QSO's made and added to the Logbook.

All photo's by XYL Eva :-)

28 Nov 2015

The last months I didn't really have time to get out in the fields, but on 28 Novembe rI went to a birthday in Winsum JO23td (small vilage in Friesland northen part of the Netherlands) and after siting a few hours there, the birthday girl had to go to bed for a few hours (being 2 years old can be excausting). Like 8 february I took a hour for my self to go to the outskirts of the village having a field day setup. The strong wind was bending the antenna bigtime but the car was a nice wind free mobile shack.

Made a few nice qrp contacts with my FT817ND. 2.5W 20m diy endfed with Z817.

15 Aug 2015

On our way to the Veiligheidsdag in Hardenberg we got a tweet from Dares Noord Nederland that the had they station up and running.at 7.077. So we pulled over to the Distelbelt (Diffelen) setup a fieldstation and made a QSO with them. 59 in the pocket :-) Offcouse there were people who had questions about what we were doing so me and xyl Eva took all the time to answer them. One of them was Jaap Schuurman and his questions ended in a interesting talk about technology, ICT, photography and journalism (check-out his website).

The setup : FT817nd with DIY 20m Endfed and Z817 tuner.

1 Aug 2015

After a phone call from my parents that a friend of the family would be visiting us with his family and they needed a extra sleeping place all plans for that day came to hold.

I cleaned our house, made up a bed for the visiting friend (the modelrailroad shelf of my son had to be removed which was on top of the bed) and did all the shopping for evening dinner (from 2 people on the table to 8 needs a little more food).

But when all that work was done, I took a moment to have a small fieldday with my ILER20 in a field near my house. I Was supprised that a contest was going on, so it was a good opertunity to test out the ILER20 in the field. Quite a few qso's are added to the /QRP log and with a power of just 3W.

Happy ham with the results :-)

The setup : ILER20 MK2 with DIY 20m Endfed. Extra 12V 7Ah battery as aditional powersource.

26 Jul 2015

AKA known as meeting with a BOA (park ranger) from StaatsBosBeheer who doesn't know hamradio.

So far so good.Had big plans today working in the field. took all i needed with me : xyl for the company, coffee, some food, my newly build ILER20, diy end-fed antenna, cables etc.

Hung out the end-fed and.......nothing, not even S1 background noise.

Changing the cables left the end-fed box as the source and it had a broken wire on the chassis part and having no soldering iron with me, I thank god I also put a Z-Match tuner in the case. I hooked the antenna wire to the Z-Match tuner making a kind of longwire setup and started tuning.

But before I could scout the bands, a park ranger (BOA) for Staatsbosbeheer showed and asked me (in a very authoritarian behavior way of speaking) what the hell I was doing, letting my know that he was in charge and in function. That he was in function I all ready know because I saw him writing some fine's to a motor guy who wanted to take some pictures of his bike in the field outside the walking paths and to a dog owner of a dogs without a lease.

Having been asked that question before I explained him a few things about /P setups and why we do it. Also showed him my hamradio license card (which he checked in his car on his /P computer) and explained to him that I have no harm intended with my setup and. Validating my license and hearing my story, he started to look more confused by the minuted and told us that he never met a Hamradio operator before in the park.

Knowing he couldn't do anything about it (because I didn't break any laws, the /P setup was in a picknick area and the /P setup is cleanly removed in under 2 minutes) he started to talk about the park and that for some things licenses are needed. For example when you want to make commercial pictures these licenses can go up to Euro 1000,00.

Explaining him that Hamradio is not about commercial gain, but I would be happy to contact Staatbosbeheer by mail or phone and ask them the question regarding working /P in the park.

Fun fact, the location is one of the PAFF locations (PAFF-0016 - Sallandse Heuvelrug (national park) to be exact, more info about this : http://www.pa-ff.nl/p/paff-q-how-to-activate.html )

Update 11 august 2015 : After getting in contact with StaatsBosBeheer, I wrote on 7 august 2015 a e-mail to them asking the information about the above and explaning them why I asked the question. On 10 august 2015, a employee from the organisation confirmed the recieving of the e-mail and let me know the had send it to the department "Beleving en benutten". So the waiting starts.

Update 21 oktober 2015 : Still not having received a answer to the question I forward the e-mail again to StaatsBosBeheer, explaining that I allready send a e-mail on 7 august 2015 which was confirmed on 10 august 2015 but that I haven't received a answer. The same day, the same employe of StaatsBosBeheer confirmed the reception of this e-mail and regrets that the deparment haven't replied and will forward my e-mail again to the department marking it Urgent. So the waiting continues.

Update 26 december 2015 : Still not having received a answer to my question, I have printed out the both e-mails which include the reception confirmation from StaatsBosBeheer and put them in my FieldDay presentation folder. So when the parkranger (BOA) askes questions again, I can show them to him and point out that his organisation, being commissioned by the Dutch government, has to reply within a reasonable time but regrettably failt to do so.

IMHO the case is closed.

The setup : ILER20 MK2 with DIY ZM4 tuner longwire. Extra 12V 7Ah battery as aditional powersource.

27 May 2015

Note : there are a lot of photos missing. The old pages had them linked to my Instagram account, but they changed the URL's and are harder to retrieve.

After having a MicroSoft exam 70-461 (which I passed) I used my lunchbreak to the max. Setting up a QRP fieldstation on one of the two 17.5m high watchtowers of the Kristalbad (JO32jf) using a 12.5m glassfiber pole strapt to the railing to hold the 20m endfed. Nice bunch of new QSO's in the logbook.

The setup : FT817 with Z817 tuner on 20m diy endfed antenna. Extra 12V 7Ah battery as aditional powersource.

6 Apr 2015

Enjoying the second easterday with a nice walk on the Salandse heuvelrug (around JO32fi) with the XYL Eva. After that we found a nice spot to take a rest, I mad ea /QRP fieldday setup. Always nice to listen to ongoing QSO's with just S0~S1 background noise while enjoying the weather, the company and the view.

Didn't make very much QSO's but got a few special eventstation to the list like R12RD, R120RA and 9A19RBM, make some short QSO's exchanging RST and locator with a few other OM's. Most of all it was nice to speak again to Jordi EB3DYS and we had a nice long QSO about the hobby.

Great talking to you again Jordi, always nice to meet you on the bands. 73 de Lex

The setup : FT817 with Z817 tuner on 10/20/40m diy endfed antenna. Extra 12V 7Ah battery as aditional powersource.

XYL Eva taking a break from some work the took with her (the thermo blanket is a must have when you're XYL is coming with you for a walk).

The view from the fieldday location.

11 February 2015

Not a fieldday but starting the third day of the flue I got bored like hell and although all the muscle pain, coughing and sneezing , I dropped a coax connected to my endfed through my bedroom window and hooked it up to my FT817nd. now listing in bed to various hamstation rounds in 40m. much better then TV.

8 Feb 2015

On 8 February I went to the birthday in Winsum JO23td (small vilage in Friesland northen part of the Netherlands) and after siting a few hours there, the kids and I headed to the outskirts of the village having a field day setup. Made a few nice qrp contacts with my FT817ND. 2.5W 20/40m diy endfed with Z817. Qso's with : SV5BYR, RW3DSR, VK6IA, RA3RMG, RA3RQF, DG2RON/P. And heard VK6IA 58 Clear but couldn't break the pile up.

24 january 2015

On 24 january there was the first true snow in my QTH area so the XYL and me went for a nice walk on the Salandse Heuvelrug (JO32fi : 52.3529 - 6.4334). And like always I have my FT817nd with me including the LDG Z817 and 10/20/40m DIY endfed. During a break on the top of the hill, we found a nice place to hanged out the endfed. The XYL took the my camera starting, makes photographs from the area and I fired up the FT817nd to listen for stations. And after some tuning a few nice QSO's where made.