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M1VPN - DXCC - 233 Confirmed, 240 Worked DXCC Entities

The M1VPN Shack is based around mainly Yaesu Transceivers, and has been built up since 2003.

Transceiver Equipment and Accessories ;

• Yaesu FT-2000 - 160m to 6m HF Transceiver. (Home-base Radio)
• Yaesu FT-847 - 160m to 70cm Transceiver, including 4m. (Home-base Radio)
• Yaesu FT-857D - 160m to 70cm Transceiver (Portable and Mobile Radio)
• Yaesu VX-2E - 2m/70cm Transceiver (Hand Portable/APRS)
  
  
• Kenwood TM-D700 - 2m/70cm APRS Transceiver
  
  
• Sailor RT114B - Marine Band Transceiver
  
  
• ADALM-Pluto - Rev.B SDR - Remote SDR for Weather Satellites, Telemetry and experiments.
• ADALM-Pluto - Rev.D SDR - Remote SDR for QO-100 Station.
• AOR AR8600 Communications Receiver

The FT-2000 is the main station radio, coupled to a Yaesu MD-200A8X microphone with a Yaesu VSPC and a Heil HC-4 DX Dream Machine insert in the spare bay. Additional outboard audio from Behringer Xenyx QX1002USB Mixer and an Audio-Technica BPHS-1 Broadcast Headset. Digital modes are supported with a Microham micro Keyer II Interface.

The FT-847 is the VHF and UHF radio, including 70Mhz (4m) supported by a Tigertronics SignaLink-USB, via the data port and AEA PK-232/Pk-900 TNC for AX.25 Packet. 

Formerly, the FT-847 radio was used for the majority of Digital QSO's, but a shack re-organisation brought the FT-2000 into main station use for digital and phone modes. The FT-847 now is used for VHF/UHF digital modes and Satellite work, which will be developed further over 2024 with the addition of more suitable satellite antennas.

All home base radios are switched through a Palstar AT-2K Tuner, connected to the external HF antennas.

My first non-Yaesu radio, a Kenwood TM-D700E is an excellent for VHF/UHF. The receiver performance is superb, and I've not really read the manual but will enjoy putting the APRS TNC to use. This was going mobile, but I'm not letting it out of the shack now.

For QO-100, Further details, Here

IT Hardware and Software

The shack is operated with a number of software packages, as mainly a digital modes station. The Main PC is a HP X230 Xeon workstation, which has been upgraded with an Nvidia K4200 GPU and 16 Gb RAM. This base unit is mounted in a Hama PC cradle with castors to move with the shack cabinet which is also on casters to move off the wall for wiring and mounting equipment.

The Sat PC is a new addition, to support the QO-100 operations, whilst leaving the X230 for logging and running HF software. Linked by the LAN, all QO-100 contacts are updated into the main Log4OM log. This machine was formerly an ESXi host, which was no longer required, running an Intel i7-970 processor and 12Gb RAM. An additional GPU will be sourced at some point in the future to assist with SDR Console.

Both units run 250gb SSD drives and backup to a Synology NAS, which also hosts network file services.

I have a mixture of software to support the station operation.

For Logging software I used Ham Radio Deluxe Version 4.1 up until Aug 2021, but on moving to a new PC, could not get the old software installed. I had been looking at Log4OM for a while so moved over to this software. It is more modern and has a lot of similarities to HRD 4, but the integration and control is vast. Getting my old HRD log into shape and ready for Log4OM took a week but it is now all working and I'm happy so far. I can recommend ADIF-Master as excellent software for sorting out your old ADIF files.

For contest work, N1MM+ is used and integrated into Log4OM.

For FTx modes, JTDX, WSJT-X and GridTracker, both integrated into Log4OM.

RTTY and PSKJ - FLDigi integrated with Log4OM for logging.

SDR - SDR Console for both ADALM Pluto and FT-847 via OmniRig for ISS SSTV tracking

Antenna Modelling - MMANA GAL

Other Equipment

Array Solutions AIM 4170C VIA Antenna Analyser

NanoVNA-F v2 Vector Network Analyser

Llaves Telegraphicas Artesanas Straight Morse Key - Information

Begali Sculpture Paddle Key #1710

RigRunner 4010 PSU Strip - Saved my equipment after my PSU went over-voltage. This is a must now. 

Microham micro Keyer II

Locator Information

Current Home QTH (2012 - date )

• Lat/Long : 50.48.53 N, 3.11.44 W
• IARU : IO80jt
• CQ Zone : 14
• ITU Zone : 27
• WAB Square : ST10
• DXCC : 135

Previous Home QTH (2003 - 2011) - 50 44.930 N, 3 16.990 W - IARU IO80IR

Portable / SOTA Operations

The FT-857D is the main portable workhorse, and is used both portable when operating in SOTA and Backpackers, and as a mobile station coupled to a Yaesu ATAS-120A motorised antenna. This combination when configured correctly is excellent with the first contact after install being Brazil on 20m.

The following antenna's are used for portable operation;

• 2m - Tonna 9-ele Portable Yagi Array
• 2m - SOTA Beam 3-ele Portable
• 6m - Moonraker 3-ele Yagi Array (modified for portable operation)
• 4m - As 6m, but modified elements  and spacings.
• 20m - Home-made SOTA Dipole (Pre-cut Inverted V configuration)
• 20m - 40m - Home-made Doublet (Ladder-fed Inverted V configuration, tuned with SGC-211 Autotuner)

• Yaesu ATAS-120A - mobile HF Screwdriver Antenna

Portable connectivity is via SSB Comms Aircell 7 or RG58U.

Our sensors are located in the best situations we have in our garden at the old school. They are listed below with information about the situation, calibration and history.

We submit data to the Citizens Weather Observer Programme and therefore comparison of data between local METAR and other stations is available to compare accuracy.

Temp and Humidity

These sensors are located on the Davis ISS, mounted on a 4inch square post, at 1.5m above the lawn. There is a daytime FARS unit fitted to circulate the air when solar energy falls on the solar panel.

Rainfall

A Tipping Bucket raingauge is located on the ISS, at 1.5m above the lawn. There is an option to locate this at the same site as the old raingauge which was located by the Environment Agency, however measurements have shown that this location is better as the height increases the overall area as it is above the fence line. The TBR has been calibrated in accordance to WMO settings. Picture shows the check gauge used to calibrate and check the TBR results are within tolerance.

 
Wind Speed and Direction

Located on the chimney pole, this is out of the main obstructions but the woods to the west will cause turbulence and lower speeds.

Solar and UV

These are mounted on a sensor shelf, on the ISS and are located in the garden. A tree overhang casts a shadow in summer which needs to be addressed.

Monitoring of utility consumption has been made much easier with the advent of Smart Metering, and devices such as the Current Cost device.

We use the Current Cost Envi console connected to a USB data cable which sends data to our Ubuntu Monitoring server in XML. A Home made Perl script then processes this data and records the information in a MySQL database for further processing and storage. Below are some of the graphs of our data so far.

Further analysis is provided by IAM plug-in sensors and mini-clamp sensors to provide individual appliance and circuit monitoring.

A daily twitter feed is also configured to tweet the daily consumption, CO2 impact and Approx cost.

Daily, This Month

Monthly Consumption