History of old equipment at my current QTH at Sollentuna. Newest date at top:
SatNOGS UHF Yagis
Removed and sold during summer 2022. Was used in fixed polarization and worked OK but I wanted to test something else.
HF antenna EFHW 40 to 10 m removed April 2022
- Antenna homemade EFHW 4010, tunable from 40m to 10m. It is resonant on 40m.
See this post about the antenna and trafo.
Vårgårda VHF antennas sold mars 2022
The VHF Vårgårda yagi antennas was sold in mars 2022.
Also the RHCP/LHCP antenna switch for VHF was sold at the same time (the relay to the left).
EME144 from Minikits See this post – measurement of the relay.
Relay switch for IC-705 until jan 2022
Inside at my office I used a home made relay switch to be able to switch between VHF/UHF antennas and SDR (RX) and IC-705 (TX).
RS-918 HF SDR from may 2020 to dec 2020
Very nice low budget SDR HF transceiver. Sold when I got an IC-705.
MINI-BB Broadband LNA from Sept 2019 to Nov 2020
Mini-BB Broadband LNA from SHF Elektronik used for the SatNOGS station from September 2019 to November 2020, then sold. Used with several antennas (Eggbeater, Crossed Turnstile Dipole etc).
Yaesu FT-817ND to May 2020
Sold my FT-817ND in may 2020.
Vårgårda Yagi 2019 to April 2020
UHF yagis used until april 2020, then sold to other user
- Vårgårda 2 * 13 el on UHF (one vertical, one horizontal).
- Relay EME144 from Minikits placed before the LNAs for polarization switching.
First Vårgårda Yagi setup until october 2018
- Vårgårda satellite kit 2 * 6 el on VHF mounted in 45 degrees angle with fixed RHCP polarization.
- Vårgårda 2 * 13 el on UHF (one vertical, one horizontal).
ADS-B Setup
I did try some ADS-B just for fun. The RX range was aprox. 360 km. Now I have sold the antenna and LNA4ALL.
This is what I used:
- 5/8 1090 MHz antenna from eBay seller stanislavpalo130
- Preamp LNA4ALL with bias tee option
- Aprox. 20 m HFX 50 1336-PVC cable
- Airspy Mini
Software for Windows 10:
- ADSB Spy for Airspy Mini
- Virtual Radar Server
I’m also using a Raspberry Pi 3 as server with the following software:
- ADSB Airspy for Linux
- Virtual Radar Server for Linux
You can read my guide for Raspberry Pi setup here.
VHF/UHF omni-setup until nov 2018
- Vinnant Turnstile Antenna (Crossed Dipole) RCHP 145MHz antenna
- LNA4ALL pre-amp powered with separate 12V feed
- 21 m RFC 400 low loss coax with N connectors
LNA setup to april 2018
- 145 MHz LNA EXTRA-2 and 435 MHz LNA EXTRA-70 from HA8ET.
VHF/UHF yagi setup to may 2017
Old VHF/UHF yagi setup:
- Rotor SPID SPX AZ-01 from SPID Elektronik – computer controlled via USB
- 2 X dualband VHF/UHF yagi DK7ZB design (from VPA-Systems). 5 el on VHF and 9 el on UHF
- 145 MHz LNA EXTRA-2 and 435 MHz LNA EXTRA-70 from HA8ET
- Two relays EME144 from Minikits (one for VHF and one for UHF) placed before the LNAs for vertical and horizontal switching
- Circular polarization for VHF accordning to the WRAPS construction
VHF/UHF omni-setup to april 2017
The N9TAX Slim-Jim antenna with the LNA4ALL preamp was a very good ”value-for-money” setup and I could receive most of the ham sats. But, as a vertical omni antenna there was of course a lot of fading. This setup was changed to a crossed dipole antenna for 145 MHz.
- N9TAX VHF/UHF duoband Slim-Jim antenna
Sept 2015 to dec 2015
When waiting for the dualband Yagis I had the following antennas:
VHF yagi: Vårgårda 6 el horizontal
UHF yagi: Cue Dee 17 el horizontal
Both antennas where very good and I will upgrade the dualband Yagis to Vårgårda during 2016…
HF Antenna
Tested just a piece of wire aprox. 6 meter long. The HF noice floor is very high at my QTH… Not in use anymore, it is better to use one of the many webSDR radios for HF.
Old radio setup -> sept 2015
Two DIY dualband yagis 4 el on VHF and 10 el on UHF, WA5VJB design with wood frame. The VHF yagi was very good. The UHF performed OK. I tried circular polarization but this was a failure on VHF, on UHF it worked OK (LHCP). I guess my homemade phasing cables was not correct.
After only a couple of week the two yagis was broken by wind and did not performed well. I guess I will only use commercial antennas from now 🙂
DIY Dual band yagi WA5VJB with relay and LNA connector box
Old radio setup -> may 2015 to sept 2015
VHF/UHF duoband J-pole antenna from ”stanislavpalo130”, Mini-70 pre-amp (SHF-Elektronik). The J-pole antenna was good on VHF but not a winner on UHF. So I sold the J-pole.
Old radio setup -> may 2015
UHF setup with a GP antenna, was replaced with the duoband J-pole.
Aug 2014 – QFH antenna project
In aug 2014 I made a QFH antenna project for both VHF (2 meter) and UHF (70 cm). The result was not so good so I did not use the antennas. You can read this blog (in Swedish only) about the project.
