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 !

Chinese takeaway at the radio club camping weekend.

Last weekend was the Watcombe Radio Club camping weekend, yours truly wasnt under canvas, but merely an evening visitor making the most of everyone else's radio, next year though I plan to do my own station, need to purchase a tent first, it does help.

Anyway I sat myself in front of Andy's (2E0OJE) radio as I know he runs a good radio and even nicer audio with the broadcast mic and EQ deck, and started tuning around 20m - The band was alive and chock-a-block with stations, lots of QRM, and in amongst the noise I heard something that well, just sounded DX, even before he said his call, you just sort of know, and no he didnt have a chinese accent at all.

His call was BD4HF, this got me asking 'where is BD' to Andy as I had never heard of it, a few shouts back and we had exchanged 5/9 both ways, his being a genuine 's' meter reading.

I then turned around to see everyone in the camp behind watching me make the contact, then run off to their own tents to try for themselves, Andy made the trip also, the others wern't so succesful as by now I suspect he had been cluster reported and there was an ever increasing 'pile-up'.

A few beers, good company and great radio, what better way to spend some time.

Myself (in the stripey fleece) writing down a callsign with alan (M6DXU) in the camo and Adrian (SWL).

Alan, M6DXU with andy, 2E0OJE in the gimp mask !

Yes I am dancing to thank the Radio Gods for my contact !!

Feld Hell fun

I have recently been 'told off' for not blogging very much lately, well like most of us especially in the summer, I dont sit in front of a computer, and I haven't been sat in front of a radio much either, so nothing much to blog about.

We have also had guest's staying in the box room/radio shack, so this certainly has not helped, anyway they are all departed now, so I fired up the radio and had a listen around as you do, found some short skip on 20m, thoughts turned to 10m, so a quick look on the cb frequencies is always worth a look as 10m can sound dead, only to hear a lot of Northern England/Scottish stations on fm cb.

A quick look round 28500 and I found MM0SGQ, Steve, in Fife, there was a lot of qsb, but we managed a contact.

This picture is from Steve's QRZ.com page, showing the Forth road bridge and Forth railway bridge, separating Fife and The Lothians.

I like these sorts of pictures, I imagine my little 10 watts jumping across the water !!

You might wonder why I havent mentioned anything about Feld Hell, well my next contact was a first for me using this mode, listening around 7035 and I heard the distinctive clicky noises in amongst the psk signals.

Hopefully the next picture shows the qso I had with IZ1CRA, Piero, in Torino, Italy.

As you may be able to see I had never heard any Hellschreiber signals before, let alone had a qso, so was pretty pleased !

Interesting thing was that there were psk signals that came and went in the bandwidth we were using, these made no difference to the readability of the Hell signal.

Also for the same audio out/alc levels I was getting less RF out compared to PSK31, according to my power meter, perhaps only 1-2 watts.

http://sites.google.com/site/feldhellclub/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellschreiber

Echolink list for the UK.

We are off for a weekend away to the Isle of Wight, and as ever I am always keen to fit a little radio in somewhere.

All I can take is the Maxlog UV dual 2m/70cm handie, but with 5w Rf output is proving pretty usefull, though not until a friend from the club (2E0HOO) kindly programmed it for me.

I have programmed in the local RF repeaters and now thanks to some digging around on the internet, local echolink RF nodes.

These took a bit of finding, until I stumbled across an old blog post by G4VXE fron January last year, so I cant take credit for it.


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Transmission 1 website and forum

Just a little plug for a forum I lurk about on, and yes it is radio related, thank-you !

http://www.transmission1.co.uk/

A great site with lots of user reviews on equipment from PMR to Chinese handies, also a very informative forum with radio related sections including Amateur radio, short wave listening and scanning, oh and even the old chicken band !

In fairness the sites roots are CB, as are a lot of the posters, but don't dismiss the site, as most are very knowledgeable radio users.

Along with a trading section and downloadable manuals, this site's worth a look, IMO.

Behringer Eurorack UB1202 Mixer - The quest for better audio

Impressed with the SSB audio of fellow club member, Andy, 2E0OJE, I happened to see on Ebay this Behringer Eurorack UB1202 Mixer with the correct leads for my Kenwood TS-480.

One click later and the item was mine, and here it is.

It's still early days, and with Andy's help we have set up the audio on-air, I was looking for a mellow bassier audio, I have also set up the custom EQ software via the Kenwood program which you can save to the User setting.

My first contact since I have used the new set-up was with GM8LFB on 10m.

Walk around the Exe Estuary.

With time on our hands and the bands quiet along with the need to get some fresh air, we took a drive out along the nearby coast road via Shaldon, Teignmouth, Dawlish and Starcross, through Kenton, nearly to Exeter, but a short right to a small car park beside Exminster Marshes.


Situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty and protected by The Exe Estuary and surrounding wetlands being deemed by English Nature a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Protected Area, we came across the Turf Hotel is one of the few pubs in the country that cannot be accessed by car. Walking, cycling and by boat are the means employed. There are also 2 ferries from Topsham and one that operates along the Canal from Double Locks.

We are thinking of a train trip to Exeter, bus to Topsham and then the ferry to the Turf Hotel, one or two shandies, then the train back to Torquay..

Multiple PSK signals changing frequency, opinions/explanations ???

I have just witnessed the strangest thing, listening on 7160 to the WAB (Worked All Britain) net when a load of 5/9+ PSK signals just appeared on the frequency, and then a few seconds later went away.

This happened a few times, it wasnt just a rogue station, at first I thought it was someone fooling around, but no when I checked the waterfall, it was numerous signals.

Here is a screenshot of PSK reporter, hopefully you can see my call and the frequency, and the stations recieved, just click on it to enlarge.

UPDATE - This was really so strange that I ran downstairs and picked up a camera and made a video, hopefully it shows what I am trying to say, please I would dearly love some comment on this.

A day out at sea.

Today the XYL had the day off, so we decided to take a boat trip to Dartmouth via Brixham, I also thought I might be able to do some 2m radio, however checking the license schedule only a full UK license holder can operate maritime mobile.


This fantastic boat was built in 1941 and used in the WW2 operating as a Rescue Motor Launch (RML) ship off Portland Bill, she has also done antisubmarine towing duties, she also served as a passenger ferry under the name of the Western lady III between 1947 and 2007, however she was recently found rotting in Poole harbour and was bought and restored by the Greenway ferry Company and now can carry up to 175 passengers and is 112' in length.

http://www.greenwayferry.co.uk/about-us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkJvS13e64Q

UK stockist for the Wouxun handheld's

Martin Lynch & Sons are now the UK supplier for the Wouxun range of handhelds.

http://www.hamradio.co.uk/acatalog/Am_Handheld_Wouxun.html

I've not checked the prices against the Chinese suppliers such as 409shop http://www.409shop.com/, but if you need a radio quicker and with no chance of any import charges (in the UK), then ML&S may be worth a look.

GB6GEO geopark station at Kents Cavern, Torquay

Once again the annual Geopark event is running, and here in Torquay at a local attraction called Kents Cavern http://www.kents-cavern.co.uk/ we have a special event station GB6GEO running on all HF bands and 2m - http://www.qrz.com/db/GB6GEO

To quote from the Kents Cavern site - 'Kents Cavern is a prehistoric cave and award winning visitor attraction. The site was used by Britain’s earliest ancient humans thousands of years ago and today the cave is the only underground visitor centre in the UNESCO Global Geopark, a protected national monument and an internationally renowned prehistoric show cave'.

It's been a while since I have personally visited the caves, however it's definately worth a visit if you are ever in the Torbay area, and as the oldest recognisable human dwelling in Britain, eveidence has been found in the caves dating back around 1/2 million years ago.

The station is being run in conjunction with many other geopark stions not only in the UK but worldwide as well, all promoting their own local areas of natural interest.

I managed to work GB6GEO earlier, on every band from 160m to 6m, which was interesting, if nothing else it showed the signal differences for a multi-band antenna.

And here is the QSL card to prove the contacts !

 

It was good as well to catch up with Nick, 2E0GDQ, and his lovely YL, Tori, (not Amos) and also to meet for the first time, Paddy, M1EIW who owns the TR repeater (!! ;-) and also M6KAR, Karol, who is from Central Europe and loves VW Golf's

PC4T where are you ???

I have just tried to go on his blog at http://dutchhamradio.blogspot.com/ and received a 'blog not found' error - I hope that as Paul put it the 'summertime blues' haven't got to him ?

Hope that you are OK Paul, let us know.

73 Paul.

Not so tidy as Adam's shack..

I think I am going to have to ask Adam, M6RDP to come round a give my shack a tidy-up as I dont think I was born with that particular gene, and the GL generally keeps out of that area, unless she's after a hair band, of which she has 3 draws full.

Having said that I do love my 'organised' clutter, everything works as it should.

Unusual conditions on 20m ? Opinions..

Today from the mobile and with 10 watts I had contacts from my location in Paignton, Devon into N. Ireland with GI4EBS and MI5LYN/M, both were a good 5/9+20dB, with myself 5/9.

These two stations are around 320 miles away, to me this seems like a Sporadic E contact like you would get on 10m, or a typical inter'g' on 40m/80m, I've never heard any 'G' stations on skip on 20m before.

There was no fading on the signals either way.