Charly Tango International DX-Group recently added some new special QSL Cards to its pages

One of a kind brand new QSL Card will be surely impressive for our friend Kim Yong Un in the Democratic Republic of North Korea (D.P.R.K.). As one of the worlds leaders he should be transmit on the 11-meter band as well as his country's Radio Stations will provide News and Info from DPRK daily on several short wave Radio frequencies in AM. 

So the team of Charly Tango International DX-Group in Germany thought it might be a good idea to have an E-QSL for division #334 available just in case if you're working one of those pretty rare countries like North Korea on 27MHz.

New E-QSL from Charly Tango DX-Group North Korea

At the Charly Tango International DX-Group's homepage as well as in this blog you will find plenty of QSL-cards which are free to use for sending as an E-QSL or even per mail if you going to print the card of your choice on printing paper.

Chances to catch a Station from far away in the world are still very good because of its highest solar flux which is to expected somewhere this year of 2025. While American Stations could hear signals from Asia by beaming west European's should turn their Antennas east to receive Asian stations depending on propagation. 

It's good known that the path of the High Frequencies are unpredictable so it could be also possible to hear a better reception via the long path by turning the antenna in the opposite direction. 

However, have fun doing a lot's of DX and if you still didn't join us, I mean running a Charly Tango callsign, then just don't hesitate and give our Admin a phone call and get one for free as well as the life time membership in this good known Charly Tango International DX-Group.

Hope to catch y'all in the air. 13CT30, Alex

DX the horizontal way - What's the difference ?

 Now that it will be slowly fall with dropping temperatures portable-DX would not be recommend anymore unless you are sitting in a camper equipped with a heater but indeed being home at the Transceiver could be also an event. Therefore I have build such an easy antenna which also could be interesting to bring it up for the next field day or something like that.

A Delta-Loop-Antenna like that one I've built is an inverted triangle which could be very easy to be installed if you have a portable mast build of fiber. I used to do it with a copper wire of  2.5mm diameter and 11.1m length which will bring the antenna about in range of 27.2 up to 28 MHz. 

Usually a Delta-Loop will have a high impedance of about 100 to 200 Ohms depending on the length of each side of the triangle. The more those three sides having an equal size the higher will be the impedance. But don't worry about 200 Ohms. You can bring it down on the wanted 50 Ohms easily by using an about 1.80m. long koax of 75 Ohms like those TV cables which has to be connected between the antenna and the 50 ohm antenna cable. You could use two simple lamp terminals for fix it between the antenna and the 50 ohm koax just with a little screw driver.

In my case I have already two masts on my balcony and unfortunately there is no more room to build up wider antennas like i.e. a dipole antenna which for the 11 meter band will be at least 5,5m wide so the only chance I have is to do it vertical, that's what I thought until now.

3 Antenna Masts on balcony - Delta Loop in the middle

The electric length of a Delta-Loop-Antenna works for fact equal compared to a Dipole-antenna so your signal being received by someone will be about the same as from a dipole. One more point for the delta-loop is that while a dipole will be installed without the possibility to turn it easy in the right position you can do it easily with a Delta-Loop because of its smaller size. The second good point which speaks for a delta-loop is that you only need one mast while a dipole has two points on which you bring em up in the air. Like every antenna also a delta loop works best if it is installed at least one wave length above the ground which in my case is 11m for the CB-band.

Above the roof (from left to right):
11m. vertical, 11m. Delta Loop, 2 Antennas VHF/UHF

I simply took a PVC-plastic-pipe of 3.20m length and drilled a hole in the middle of it so the top element of my 14 meter long fiber mast from the German specialists Spiderbeam could get through that hole. Then I also got a piece of rope fixing it on top of the mast and to both sides of the pipe to hold the ends of the pipe in an upright position. Then I put the antenna-wire through the PVC-pipe and bend to rest of wire at each side down until it reached back to the mast in equal length. Now, because of my other Antenna's on the balcony which gave me less space to put a wider antenna between it, I measured only 3.20 meters of pipe so I was able to turn that antenna between those other antenna's and, additional to this size the delta-loop has been automatically matched to have 50 ohms impedance so I didn't need the piece of TV-cable to be installed and the SWR shows 1,1:1 at 27.5 MHz.

Delta Loop Antenna: The Drawing

As the band was wide open on that sunny day in October 2024 there were lots of stations to hear. So I called CQ and made contacts all over the world. Sometimes I found out to turn the antenna will be more effective for some stations which were not in the right direction before. In the afternoon there was a spot open to Melbourne, Australia coming in with S7 and I was been heard by S3. Same experience I made with Iceland. My reading was S7 and I was been heard by S3. The States of Maine, Kentucky, Tennessee, and also Nebraska in the US were showing the same effect. They all have been about 4 steps stronger on my S-meter as they could hear me but at last it was good enough to make the connection. The horizontal polarization works really great because of its flat radiation angle which will be reflected somewhere in the Ionosphere or other magnetic charged air layers while on the other hand stations under ground wave conditions I still work better with a vertical because they do the same polarization.

All in total I can say that a smaller antenna won't be the super power thing. That's for sure.  But it will be useful if you're having less space to build bigger antennas. The more space you have available the bigger antennas you can build up in the air and the stronger your signal will be received at the other side of the planet. The more elements you will add to one of those delta-loops the more gain it will have. The horizontal polarization will made up a plus of possibilities by intercontinental DX connections and you can turn it into the right direction to get rid of QRM what comes from other sides. A delta-loop like mine with only one element works equal in both directions as in front and back so if you turning it north you will also work south the same quality. Probably there will be something happen to the regular ways of the radiating HF between antennas set up so close beside each other like mine. Happily I couldn't find any interference but who knows how the aluminum masts having influence on the HF coming out of the delta-loop. I was actually very impressed how this antenna is still working. According to many antenna books there won't be the best antenna for everything, such for any frequency or even for every situation, but all I could say after testing this one is that the Delta-Loop is one of a kind !

Yours Alex, 13CT30.

Mountain DXpedition and the lightning (static) strikes

 It was June the 29th while I joined a nation wide DX event at CB-Radio from a mountain located in the Teutoburg Forest south of Osnabruck (JO42AE). The tower I went on is called Hermannsturm.

While in a pile-up under ground wave conditions I made contact down to Bavaria and other regions in Germany as well as to the Netherlands.

In the meantime severe thunderstorms aproached close to the tower so couldn't make it far this night. I've heard loud noise from my radio speaker discovering it was static in the air coming down through the antenna. 

So I shortly removed the PL-plug from my radio, took a video of what happend, and fast left the tower afterwards to avoid being hit by the appearing lightning.

Warning: Never enter a tower during severe thunderstorm weather conditions !

Yours 13 CT 30, Alex

Back tracking your own HF-signal - The use of SDR technique

Online SDR from Pardinho, Brazil

 Did you ever wonder how to make sure that your signal can be heard in different countries while trying to have a DX-contact with them ?

First of all someone might tell you about it but just in case you don't receive an answer of your CQ a SDR website could be used for receiving your own signal while transmitting which provides you the information about if your signal could be received and it also indicates how strong your signal might be in the area where the SDR is located. A Web SDR stands for a Software-defined Radio Receiver which can be tuned via Internet which gives you the abillity of using a remote controlled receiver far away from your QTH without any human responding to your call.

For connections with South America I like to use the SDR receiver from Pardinho in Brazil which is located about 200 kilometers west from the City of Sāo Paolo. It might be also interesting listening to the range of other stations being received in Pardinho you probably can't hear on your own radio but on the SDR. Sometimes those stations are still able to receive your signal i.e. from North America to which I made a QSO to Florida while listening to that station and my own signal at the Pardinho SDR.

Pardinho Web SDR, Brazil

Just give it a try and set your working frequency at the SDR. Sometimes it doesn't need much PWR to hear yourself back. Beside lot's of Brazilian stations there is a big receiving range from foreign signals available depending on propagation. If you are an Amateur Radio licence holder you might choose a quite frequency for testing your receiving signal to this device in Brazil while CB radio operators have to expect way more QRM most of the time. 

The Pardinho Web SDR belongs to the Ham radio OP William, PY2GN, and its antennas seem to be quite impressive not only from the pictures view but also from the receiving range of his Web SDR compared to others. At last this is why I personally like to use the Pardinho SDR much more than different SDR providers in that area.

Martin, LU9EFO, wrote a special report on Willams Web SDR in Pardinho, Brazil.

For other Web SDR pages I recommend the map of Kiwi-Web-SDR on which you will find the best SDR station for your needs worldwide.

73's and good DX, yours Alex, 13CT30

Avoid TV interference on short wave bands - The "Ugly Balun"

The hamuniverse website describes how it works: A plastic tube, 2 lids, wrap a few meters (about 18 - 21 feet) of RG213 around the tube, connect it close to your antenna and you're good to go between 160 and 10 metres.

I made one of these by myself on a 110 mm savage pipe out of the hardware store in town where I also got those lids in which I drilled holes to put a SO-239 socket into each. Then I got the RG213 coax wound around the pipe 17 times so the length of it is about 6,40 metres on the outside while at the end of the wounds I brought some more of it through a drilled hole into the pipe and fixed it with cable ties, then soldered the coax to the SO-239 sockets in the lids and closed them carefully. 

Thereafter I fired up my hot glue pistol which finally fixed the RG213 unmovable in position. Then some hot glue around the sockets to make the whole thing waterproof and well done, finished !

Basically a so called "ugly balun" could be built with the coax completely outside and with PL-259 connectors on it but I have chosen to do it the hard way which means soldering the coax to the SO-239 sockets and then closing the lids without losing the soldered coax off the sockets. That could be kinda tricky.

But fortunately everything went well and it works like it use to be.

The first try was with a homemade T2LT antenna which is better known as a flower pot antenna after VK2ZOI. But I have calculated the size for 10.4 MHz as well as I built it without the so called flower pot which is the resonant balun in order to connect it with the ugly one.

Then I went outside onto the balcony and fixed a 12 metre portable mast with the antenna to the railing. The result of checking the SWR were quite impressive.

The vertical antenna works resonant on many bands as tested on 60 mtr, 30, 15, as well as at the repeater range on 10 mtr ham band.

Additionally to those bands a regular antenna tuner like those equipped in some transceivers can be also tune it on 80 as well as 160 metre band which I could not believe at the first place but that's simply the way it works.

The following night I kept listening to radio stations from far away and I found out that the receiving range with this antenna combined with that ugly balun was large enough so I could listen to some stations around 500 kHz which I've never heard by using a simple end feed wire antenna without balun at the same height.

I am really not an expert in knowing stuff like that but generally all I found out this night was that the Flower Pot Antenna combined to the Ugly Balun works as good as it gets.

But don't get me wrong, that's just a first result which turned out to be good enough and useful. I haven't done more tests yet so don't ask me for further specs about the homemade balun or even the antenna but better visit the website of hamuniverse.com and of course the page from VK2ZOI on which every information about it is published.

For my project well done I have to thank Mr. Don Butler (N4UJW) for his awesome website which inspired me of building the air wound ugly balun as well as I want to thank John (VK2ZOI) who's website also inspired me to build so many flower pot antenna's for different bands and ranges.

Finally I will end up at this point with my last statement about the Air Choke Ugly Balun. Its purpose is not only to be a resonant balun which turns high resistance low down to the wanted 50 ohms but it also works as a wave barrier that brings radiation out of the antenna only but not off the coax which means the power stops radiating at the balun which for sure is not always that ugly.

73 and good DX, yours Alex (13CT30)