Contact into West Cornwall on 17m.

If you said to a non-HAM that you got a contact into West Cornwall from Torquay in South Devon on 17m, you would probably not get much of a reaction, however tell a fellow radio fan and I would think they would be quite impressed, as it's probably too short a distance for a skip contact, and too long for a groundwave contact.

However tell your unradio friend it was West Cornwall, Connecticut, USA and you might get some nice comments.

I had a smashing qso with Bert, W2QN and we had quite a joke about Devon and Cornwall, it seems he knows our counties quite well, he also asked if there were any inter-county rivalries, I said there was a little, all friendly of course.

So a contact into Cornwall be it UK or USA is good, personally I don't mind either, it's the quality of the qso that matters.

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Amatuer Radio Blogging...

It's a Friday night, we have a friend staying with us, the beer and wine is flowing, as some of you may know, I am one who likes to enjoy themself...

Two of my favourite blogs have decided to call it a day - Right I am going to cut straight to it, yes blogging can be rewarding, also it can be damn frustrating, you post something which in your opinion is interesting and recieve no replies.

However you post something that you think is somewhat mediocre, and you get loads of replies.

How fickle the public is !

I'll be honest my blog is primarily for me, as a record of what I have done, not just in radio, thing is I am also cursed with a memory of places i have been to like a sieve, so the blog is good for certain things, I can look back and remember.

I will not stop blogging for the foreseable, I hope Paul and Dick do come back sometime and tell us all about their adventures, especially in life and also radio, until then I wish them all the best.

Yes, we have a date for the Intermediate exam !

Here in the UK we have an Intermediate level of the Amateur radio license, as a follow on from the Foundation level, it allows the operator to run 50 watts RF output, a useful gain from the foundation 10 watts.

Well last night at our local Radio Club, I fitted a 3-pin mains plug to the club's soldering iron, why you may ask, well as part of the Intermediate assesment, the candidate has to undertake some practical work, construct a small circuit to demonstrate the understanding of voltage, current and ohm's law, and calibrate a VFO amongst other things.

For someone who used to repair televisions and video's for a living, well lets say of course it has been interesting, but also a little frustrating, still I am no better than the next person and I still have to show that I understand, so it's back to basics.

Funny thing was though I had to redo the mains plug, Ron who runs the assesments, failed me on it !!

And no I didnt get the live and neutral wires mixed up.

I didn't make the earth wire quite long enough, as in the picture it should loop around, so that if the live/neutral wires did become detached, the earth wire should at least still be connected.

Live and learn. :-)

Oh, nearly forgot, September 20th for the exam.

OX3KQ - On top of the world.

I had a nice qso with Jesper, OX3KQ, in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland this afternoon on 17m.

Isnt it nice when you hear an unusual callsign, even better when they are coming in on a 5/9, and as I happened to be tuned on the frquency prior to him calling, I was one of his first contacts, all good for the QRP station and the inevitable DX spotting/big gun stations showing up !

Here are a few pics of Jesper and his club station, looks pretty cold.

Magnificent view towards the East (and Europe) as seen by the 20m-17m beam from the top of the wooden platform.

Jesper OX3KQ doing the CQWW SSB Contest

Worked another country on 2m !

Yes readers, today I worked into Wales on 2m - And the best part of it was that I managed this extraordinary propogational feat on a 5w handheld.

For those of you thinking, wow how did he manage that from Torquay, and for those who are smelling a rat somewhere, well I did talk with Mike, MW3CHZ in Beddau, S.Wales, and he actually gave me a 5/9+ report, the only thing was that I was located around 800' ASL on Crooks Peak, which is in the Mendips, Somerset.

As the crow flies, the contact was about 28 miles, so still pretty good.

You can see the M5 in the first picture, there was a bad crash involving a caravan on the southbound carriageway, that we witnessed on the way up, which caused massive tailbacks.

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The google map shows the road route between Crooks Peak and Beddau, S. Wales.

Churston Steam Rally / Torbay Steam Fair.

This annual event here in Torbay attracts all manner of steam traction engines, from tractors to road vehicles and everything inbetween - http://www.torbaysteamfair.com/.

Along with displays of static engines acting as water pumps and engines connected to alternators charging car batteries, the latter gave me an idea of running a club radio station next year off a steam engine...

This event is just a great day out, the sights and smells are fantastic !

Who do I think I am, Ken Bruce..?

For those who dont know/can be bothered to google, Ken Bruce is a DJ on BBC Radio 2, a fine radio station here in the UK, I still occasionally listen to Radio 1, but being over 40 the law says that I am too old, but not old enough to listen to Radio 3/4, so Radio 2 it is.

I now feel like a Radio 2 DJ, with my latest purchase, used I may add, a Heil GM-5 broadcast mic, shock mount and boom arm, along with a foot switch.

It came with wiring for an Icom radio, which worked very well with another recent purchase, a near mint old-school Icom 735, I bought this in a small lot with an MFJ ATU and a rotator, I actually just wanted the rotator, the idea being to sell on the Icom and ATU.

Anyway as the TS-480 is the main shack radio, I needed to rewire the Icom lead to Kenwood, looking on the internet I found this site - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rg4wpw/date.html.

What a fantasic site, I found the diagrams for the two radio's and found that the only difference was on the PTT line, so I swapped the wires, plugged in, no PTT, then I realised that as the PTT line works to ground, this is on a different pin as well, swapping that did the trick, so I've saved myself perhaps £30 on a new lead, as this lead also plugs into my EQ deck, so has XLR and a 6.3mm jack socket.

Only problem is I now need to sort out some RF issue's on my TX audio on parts of 20m I'm getting now.

Actually I've decided I dont want to be Ken Bruce, I going to be Chris Evans, and why, well because he has more Ferrari's !