N4REE – Minimalist Ham – Code rehab forever

My ATAS-120A Adventure

July 19, 2025 by Bob Easton Leave a Comment

Why this idea?

Several years at this HOA QTH has found me working “backyard portable” every time I want to get on the air. That means setting up and tearing down every day. (Various night time critters are why I don’t leave antennas outside after dark.) The limitation of daytime antennas is how I became primarily a POTA Hunter (not a bad thing), but did no operating after dark. For a long time I’ve been wanting a quasi-permanent multi-band antenna that’s useful any time of day.

A few months ago I simulated a flagpole vertical (acceptable within the HOA) at several locations on the property but ended up finding the best location, appearance wise, really sucked for good performance. Hence, no flagpole; find something else.

One ham here in The Villages FL (world’s largest HOA?), now a SK, successfully used a couple of Tarheel screwdrivers for some years. So, I decided to give a screwdriver a try. At the time I started this adventure, the Yaesu ATAS-120A was an easily available choice. (NO affiliate links in any of my HAM articles)

Hey, aren’t those for vehicles?

Typically, we find the ATAS-120A antennas on RVs, trucks and other vehicles. They are successful for those uses, and my friend Nancy, KD7S, has one on her RV loves it. BTW, Nancy also likes her 650W amp. 🙂 Wander around YouTube and you can find a couple of hams who have used the ATAS-120A like a portable ground mounted vertical, on some low mount with a handful of radials.

I wondered if it would work well mounted on my home, up in the air a bit. … AND, will it work QRP?

Hey, aren’t those for Yaesu radios?

Yes, the ATAS-120A is a Yaesu product and is designed to work with Yaesu radios. Most late model Yaesus include the Up / Down control circuitry, usually with SWR sensing that makes the Up / Down movements automatic. Hit the “tune” button and watch the antenna adjust itself.

Building my own simple(?) manual controller

I own absolutely ZERO Yaesu radios, and my QRP Lab QMX radios certainly don’t include the Up / Down control circuitry. So, … I built my own manual controller. It derives from several articles found online and is basically a voltage divider that accepts 12v in and produces either >10v out (for Up) or <8v out for down.

My implementation adapted a circuit I found online, and is built on a simple breadboard in a plastic project box. Use my schematic if you please, but do your own parts finding and debugging. You’ll learn from it. ;}

Mounting on the house

This offset antenna mast was found on Amazon when I was considering putting the lawn robot’s local antenna in an elevated position. I later ended up using a simple 6′ ground mast for that and had this mast left over for a couple of years. It is perfect for positioning the ATAS-120A at rain gutter height without being (HOA) obtrusive. A “Skyhook” mounting plate and various bits of PVC ingenuity complete the mast.

Rain gutter counterpoises

My looming uncertainty was whether elevated counterpoises could be discovered that make the ATAS-120A an actual antenna. My plan was to run counterpoises inside the rain gutters, out of sight. Yes, before you ask, I did try simply using the rain gutter system as one big counterpoise. Didn’t work; likely because of uncertain continuity between different sections.

My experience with raised counterpoises for the KJ6ER PERformer Vertical Antenna paid off in guessing at good lengths. There’s still part of a spool of insulated stranded copper 14 AWG left from previous experiments at the Casa Easton Antenna Test Range. I started with two 16’9″ counterpoises for 20M and found SWR on 20M was WAY out of bounds. Adding two 33’5″ counterpoises, typically for 40M, brought a lot of SWR harmony. Each of the wires is strung through the gutters, sometimes around corners, and zip-tied semi-taut to the gutter cross braces.

SWR readings near or below 2:1 magically appeared for every band I care about. Maybe this thing will work after all? Maybe it still wants more counterpoises?

First measurements

I make SWR measurements 3 ways:

Through the controller. With the antenna connected to the controller, and a NanoVNA connected to the “Radio” port, I maneuver the antenna up or down for the best reading at my desired frequency, usually the QRP CW watering holes for each band.
Once a sweet spot is found, I disconnect the antenna from the controller and measure directly with the NanoVNA. There is a DC blocking network in the controller, L1 and C3, C4, C5, that isn’t completely linear and affects readings.
Leaving the controller out of the circuit, and the antenna connected directly to a QMX, the Hardware > Tune function provides yet another SWR reading. This one is often very close to that of the NanoVNA. These are the SWR readings that suggested this antenna might act as an antenna. The first SWR reading is with the controller inline, the second without. I didn’t include the 3rd way of measuring in this chart, but use it when on the air later.
- 7.040 – 2.062 / 1.784 – 31 Ω
- 10.110 – 1.765 / 2.060 – 78Ω
- 14.060 – 1.760 / 1.295 – 39 Ω
- 18.060 – 1.153 / 1.840 – 57 Ω
- 21.060 – 1.649 / 1.214 – 43 Ω
- 28.070 – 1.675 / 1.149 – 43 Ω

Does it “antenna?”

When I’m completely rigorous, I do a big pile of WSPR runs. So far, only a couple of runs on this antenna, I ran the first with my ZachTek WSPR transmitter, 0.2 w, for 10 minutes at 16:00z on 7/17/25, while we were in a G1 geomagnetic storm with a K-index of 5. The results were 45 spots scattered through mid-USA with the western-most in LA California and the north-eastern-most near NY City. Not the best I’ve seen, but a good start for a very poor propagation day.

How bad was the propagation? So bad that I gave up trying to reach Oregon and mopped the floors in the house. 🙂

Two casual POTA QSOs today proved it does indeed antenna. POTA got me a 539 response from WQ0A Brian Foltz in Kansas City KS. Later in the afternoon, I made one of my very frequent QSOs with WB0RLJ Jim Vaughn in his favorite Chalco Hills Nebraska park. He’s one who gives accurate RST reports and I was surprised with a 559. Both my sidewinder key and my new antenna were working well.

Early AM 40M – still dark. Tuned for 40M, found the band quiet, so sent some CQs into the wild and watched the RBN to see where they landed. Better reach than I expected. Pre-dawn 40M WSPR shows hits all over the USA and on up to Edmonton. Significantly fewer after dawn, as expected.

Too early to tell summary.

A few WSPR runs, 2 QSOs, and some RBN hits aren’t a lot to go on. I’ve watched the YouTube “influencers” gush over new gear with less on the air experience. Yet, so far this performance is very promising for a casual, admittedly compromised, antenna. Will it fetch DX? Nope, but it will be far more available than those that need daily setup and tear down.

AX1 “dummy load” rides a Trike

May 16, 2025 by Bob Easton 3 Comments

We are blessed to live in a central Florida community that has miles and miles of “multiple mode” paved paths which we enjoy daily for trike riding. Our recumbent TerraTrikes are nearly 20 years old and one of the best purchases we ever made. Maybe I can go play radio on mine.

Let’s make the trike radio-active

First the antenna… The Elecraft AX1 has a reputation ranging from “outstanding” to “dummy load.” My experience has shown it very capable when set up well. It’s not for worldwide DX, but for pure fun, and indeed offers fun for POTA activities. Let’s deploy the AX1 on my TerraTrike.

There is a tripod mount widget for the AX1 which fits the standard camera 10-24 screw. I drilled and tapped a 10-24 hole in the deck of the trike’s panier carrier, and used a hardware store bit of 10-24 threaded rod to hold the antenna. My first attempt was with a short stub a few inches long. I learned later that the antenna was happier being elevated, so the remainder of that rod, 36″ minus the short stub, leaves a 32″ rod. Add a couple of nuts and we’re have a 32″ tower. Mount the tripod widget atop the threaded rod and the AX1 to the BNC connector there. Add 5.5′ of RG-316 coax, 13′ counterpoise wire (simply thrown on the ground under the trike), and some “secret sauce” to make an operational 20M antenna.

Some complain that the AX1 doesn’t work, is just a dummy load. My opinion is that these are the people who don’t understand antenna characteristics beyond reading the advertising hype. They break open the package with “plug-n-play” expectations, or with “my tuner will take care of it” expectations. Some don’t know how to test or adjust their antennas and end up disappointed.

Base loaded vertical antennas are sensitive to radiator length and ground conditions. Those with short whips have especially narrow bandwidth, often covering only a portion of the band they are designed for. Getting them to work at the frequency you want means you need to be very finicky about radiator length.

My secret sauce enables using this antenna with NO tuner. It works because I’ve measured the antenna’s behavior and know the AX1 naturally resonates at the SSB, not CW, end of 20M, or actually beyond in many deployment scenarios. To get resonance down to the CW portion of the band I add a 8″ extension via an alligator clip. Careful adjustment of the whip length then brings it to a beautiful not too steep SWR null.

Along this line, Linus Ly2H advocates using a capacitance hat to moderate the antenna’s reactance component. I’ve tried his suggestion and agree that it helps broaden bandwidth, flattens the curve somewhat. Yet, I find that it also raises the null point up to the 1.5 neighborhood.

I’ll stick with my clip-on extension and this result.

Next, operating layout… I’m not carrying a collapsible table or folding chair on the trike. I prefer sitting in the trike’s seat. But, where to put the gear? My DIY arrangement is made from a simple plastic kitchen cutting board, with a few washers epoxied to it, with a hook and loop patch for holding the Talentcel 3000 mAh battery and QMX radio, and with a non-slip pad to keep my phone in place. The QMX has an absolute voltage ceiling of 12v. So, the blob in the power cable is an inline voltage regulator. I use the wonderful Ham2K PoLo logger on the phone. Some CWMorse keys have magnets built in. The one I’m using did not, but I added them and it now sits nicely on those washers.

Transporting… is easy. The trike has two panier bags, into which I can stow the board, the threaded rod and a couple of Maxpedition pouches which hold the AX1 and the QMX, and other things I might want while riding. …and for places beyond a reasonable trike ride from home, I have a pickup truck that carries both of our trikes.

Note well: NONE of these product links are affiliate links. I don’t need to be making money off of my fellow hams’ interests.

End result… so far… My first tests were from the driveway at my home. Mid morning (14:00z) on 20M isn’t the hottest time of day for the band, but I set up and casually completed 3 hunter QSOs, while fiddling with the antenna in between. Twenty minutes, 559 and 599 RSTs from KY, PA and NY.

That’s a great start for an experiment with a dummy load.

P.S. Lest anyone think that I have doubts about the AX1, check the map below. 82 of the 84 contacts are from INSIDE the screened-in back porch, “lanai” in Florida talk. That’s a 12′ by 30′ area bounded by several rebar reinforced concrete columns and an aluminum structure that supports fiberglass screens. I often deploy the AX1 atop a simple photography tripod about 3 feet high, with a 13′ counterpoise loosely lying on the concrete floor. Knowing how to tune the AX1 makes it a real antenna and not just a dummy load.

QMX+ First run

April 11, 2025 by Bob Easton 2 Comments

My just finished QMX+ by QRP Labs is a 11 band multi-mode transceiver that I built from their kit. Full details here. Pictured below is the result of the “smoke test.” Success on first power up!

Some time ago, I built the little brother, the more compact QMX successfully from a kit. That 5 band version has been delightful in practice, but didn’t have all my choices of bands. It was the “high band” version with 20m-10m. I wanted to add at least 40M. The QMX+ offers that and more. So, after the smoke test failed to produce smoke, it was time to adjust the display (tone down those boxes) and try 40m. Contacts from my Central Florida home to Indiana and Rhode Island happened in the first 10 minutes. Later in the day, after 20m opened, I made contacts in CA, CT and elsewhere.

Next, was walking through the myriad of settings. Most of all, I tweaked the CW Filters and AGC to my liking. A couple of days into using it, I’m very pleased. It seems a bit more sensitive than its predecessor in that I’m more easily hearing stations in CA and OR. This radio is capable of some DiGi modes, operating as a WSPR beacon, and newly available SSB. My own interest is strictly CW, so I have no comments about the other modes.

For anyone considering building these kits, I’ll suggest some soldering experience to start. The radios are somewhat difficult because of parts size (small) and density (very). The QMX is more challenging than the QMX+ because of multiple layers in a small case. The QMX+ uses a single larger board in a larger case.

Careful work, with no rush, worked well for me. ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED is careful inspection of every joint with a jeweler’s loupe. Smoke usually is the result of unwanted solder bridges. Use the loupe!

For the record, here are power measurements that I have for this radio.

Band	Freq (MHz)	Watts
160m	1.838	5.81
80m	3.573	5.16
60m	5.358	4.62
40m	7.074	4.25
30m	10.136	5.19
20m	14.037	3.88
17m	18.104	2.83
15m	21.094	4.82
12m	24.924	3.20
10m	28.124	4.57
6m	50.313	3.25

This power distribution looks very similar to others in the QRP Labs series of transceivers. Yes, I would like 20m to be a bit better and might mess with the filter torroids to see if I can bump that a bit. Yet, as it is, I don’t think there’s much difference between 3.9 watts and 5 watts. The little brother QMX has reached Alaska and mid-Germany from central Florida with very similar power figures.

Yet another CW tool from Mike and Becky

April 10, 2025 by Bob Easton Leave a Comment

How does your code sound? Do you send with the highly desirable 1-3 dit-dah timing ratio? Do you know for sure? Several tools have been around for quite some time, but none are so easy to use as Mike N4FFF and Becky’s N4BKY latest. Some of these tools want you to download and install software, run the app, etc. Mike and Becky’s new tool needs none of that. Open a browser and off you go. Get one of the dongles for attaching your key to a USB port, and let flail with your best Morse. CW Checker will show you loads of information about your code speed, dit-dah timing, and run a real time decode.

Mike and Becky explain:

I’ve been using it to migrate from a straight key to a Cootie without punishing on-air partners.

New QSO Finder tool for CW operators

March 6, 2025 by Bob Easton Leave a Comment

Let’s make this tool famous!

Looking for a simple QSO … or a ragchew … or a code buddy … or an SKCC exchange? There are a variety of places to find these kinds of QSOs, but usually for only one type of exchange.

Now, there’s a QSO finder that is highly flexible and fabulous for extemporaneous QSOs of various types. Becky N4BKY and Michael N4FFF have just launched CW QSO Finder, a new tool to help you find the kind of QSO you want. Their intro video tells you all about it.

Several other tools exist, but here’s why I think we all should make this one famous:

Spontaneity: Use it right now, when you want it. No need to plan ahead, or sign up for some list that gets updated once in a while and hidden in a box in the back hallway of a website.
Handles a variety of conversation types. POTA/SOTA and SKCC have some very useful tools, but are limited to those respective audiences.
Modern and intuitive: Each availability spot appears as a card that clearly shows the operator’s QSO interests.
Dynamic: Each card lives for 30 minutes, shows when it was posted, is easily modified by its author, and can accept comments from others.
BTW… the “off page” link next to the callsign leads to that person’s QRZ page, very handy for learning more about that CW partner.

CW Learning Forever

January 25, 2025 by Bob Easton Leave a Comment

Best Course – CW Innovations – based on comprehensive ICR (Instant Character Recognition)
Best Learning Tool – Word List Trainer – unparalleled flexibility
Best Advice – watch Becky & Mike below – straight talk from successful people

GOTA – “Get on the Air to get good,” instead of “get good to get on the air.”. It makes a huge difference. With over 2700 POTA QSOs, I’ve gotten somewhat good. Need more, and different types to get better. NOW OPEN for Code Buddies.