Reasons for resonance..

Well I have been back to work this week and the blog has suffered for it,I thought it would be easy to find time, but no, always something else to do, anyway I snuck out early today and have run the errands and am now in the shack playing with my recent eBay aquisition, an MFJ HF Analyzer.

I wanted to find out where the long wire is resonant, if anywhere, it's currently only around 20 something metres long with 1/4 wave counterpoises in the loft for 80/40/20 and 10m, this is all connected to a 9:1 unun and 50 ohm RG58 coax.

Well the wire on the bands has an swr of around 4:1 to 5:1 - no good for the internal ATU on the TS-480 but well in the range of the MFJ, so I hooked up the analyzer to my antenna switching box, through the ATU and to the long wire, thus meaning I could use the tuner to log the manual settings using the analyzer set to mid band frequencies.

It didnt take long, I have sets of TX,Inductor and antenna settings on the ATU for mid point on each band, giving <2.1:1 SWR at the band edges, with around 1.2 mid band.

80m was harder to tune with a narrower bandwidth, with 160m being impossible to tune.

As an experiment I tried my CB 5/8 vertical, a Sirio 827, and could tune that down to 80m also, this was harder overall to tune with a narrower bandwidth than the wire.

I also found that altering the inductor setting one click aside of the best setting would make the swr worse, but increased the 'useable' bandwidth, I shall have to look into the theory I think.

I have seen the light...

at the end of the tunnel, apart from one shelf to go up to house the flatscreen and freeview the back room redecoration is done.

So today being my last day off from work means I can have some me time, and that means mucking about with bits of wire, hell I know how to live the rock 'n' roll lifestyle !

I do have the car to wash as well, so it's not all excitement today, oh yes an an online tax return to do before the 31st when the IR slap a £100 fine on you.

Of course the radio will be on upstairs..and downstairs via the internet, no need to miss out is there ?

Was hoping to hear Adam M6RDP and Paul PC4T on 7125, usually they QSO on 7185 but apparently Paul SWR is high on 7185 due to the snow and ice, but I heard neither, I know that Adam wont have the same problem he lives like half a mile away and there's no snow here, weve had enough of that malarky lately thank-you.

Off to the Radio Club tonight, I believe that we are going to be using the HF rig tonight to call CQ as part of the Foundation practical assesment, should be fun.

Remotely Radio..

Just a quick one today as I want to keep the blog momentum going as I have been busy with the back bedroom redocoration and DIY, so not much radio going on.

I was recently inspired by a HAM station I heard in Florida who was operating his station in New York over the internet, he could control just about every aspect of his station, from re-booting the wi-fi modem to rotating his antenna array.

With this in mind I just wanted the simplest way of operating, so I found this site which lets you control the desktop of the 'home' pc remotely - https://secure.logmein.com/

Then I used Skype to control the 2 way audio.

The results have been very good on local FM as you would expect, even on SSB I have got good reports locally, no DX as yet.

I will post some more in-depth info when the back room is done...hopefully soon.

Radio+decorating-XYL=Fun..

Pay attention at the back, here is today's math lesson..

Well actually not, too old for that brain ache, but if you are looking at the formula above and thinking what is he on about, then I'll explain.

I have been off work, and the wife suggested a while back I decorate the back bedroom, in fairness to her it needed doing and as I dont get a lot of time off, this week it had to be.

Yesterday I read about a massive solar flare - http://psc.suijs.info/ - and the chances of 11m opening up, I happened to mention this to the good lady to be greeted by 'DONT SPEND ALL DAY ON THE RADIO..' As if..!

Anyway today, brush and roller in hand, busy at it, tuned into the 555 and what do I hear a station from Sweden, very quick QSO as much QSB and back to it.

Later I start hearing some Scottish voices, so rushed into the shack to work a station on FM 5/9 + 60 dB both ways, then Ireland's coming in, managed to work two stations from N. Ireland, one mobile with 5/9's both ways.

The propogation has shifted now to mainland Europe, so for now it's back to the decorating, my DX appetite fulfilled...for now !

Here endeth todays math lesson.

The Radio Club

Hi - This is my first post on my new blog, never had one of these before, never 'twittered' and only occasionally facebook, anyway my new pal at the club, Adam has a blog and I've been following his exploits in QRP and astronomy with much interest as the XYL kindly got myeself a telescope for Christmas.

Last night was only my 2nd visit to the local Ham radio club, as I am looking to take the Foundation license, so that I can use this fine radio properly, even if it is only 10 watts, though talking with Adam, and from my own experience on 27 Mhz, thats often all the power you'll need.

So last night Pete had us two newbies calling CQ on 2m on a pre-arranged sked with some local hams, all good just about as I have called CQ many hundres of times over the years on 27 Mhz, though I had to take care and try and be, how can I put it, a little more 'Amatuer Radio' with my calling than I normally would be !

All good fun though, great bunch of guys, oh and next week we'll be let loose on HF rig apparently, BRING IT ON !!!