We cant all have large beams..

Maybe you don't have enough 'estate', the funds wont allow, or more likely the Station Manager has spoken, perhaps you don't actually want a large antenna, either way what does it matter as long as you are enjoying your radio.

I have a HAM friend local to me who uses a SteppIR 3 element yagi antenna, we quite often hook up on 20m to work Stateside, Penn, G0VQY puts out a fabulous signal, rare is his report anything less than 5/9, mine however is often 4/0 to 5/5 on my homebrew 40/20/15m dipole and 100 watts, but do I care, no not one bit, it just spurs me on to improve my station !

However on 10m with the Sporadic E running, my vertical 5/8 does start to give him a run for his money !

Advanced RAE - Passed !

Thanks to Simon, M0TGT, who posted on the blog to say that the results were out, and to log onto the OFCOM website.

I did just this, after the usual problem with the password, why does that always happen when you are in a hurry, anyway once into my personal page, it let me register a new M0 callsign and print out the license requirements.

Hopefully a letter should be in the post to confirm.

73 de Paul, M0PCZ !

PS - I now have to change all my details, QRZ, Ham radio Deluxe, etc, at least I wont have to do it again.

A little update..

I have not been very busy at all on the blog, in fact I was quite shocked to see when I last 'penned' something on here.

Radio wise, nothing much new has been happening, well one event of note, I took my Advanced RAE exam a couple of weeks ago, and will have to wait a least another two weeks for the result, I didn't get the chance to do much revision, however I think it went well, so we'll have to wait and see.

73 Paul.

Backscatter ?

I have had two contacts in the last few days on 10m and 12m to stations in N.Wales and N.England, distances of 170 miles and 241 miles respectively.

Both of these stations, MW0ZZK, Steve, and G0SXC, Kevin, were using Yagi's pointing west and working Stateside, they both took a bit of working as my 5-2/3 signals were competing with 5/7+ Stateside.

These stations are too far way for it to be ground wave, and with no UK sporadic 'e' openings, both stations suggested it was 'backscatter'.

I have tried to google-ing 'backscatter' and have not found a lot of readable info, any thoughts or comments greatly appreciated !

73 Paul.

Better on 10m today.

Managed to crack the Atlantic on 10m just now (1630 local), Roland, K3RA in Baltimore but prior to that a new DXCC with Mexico and XE2AC, Luis with 5/5 exchanged, this makes 59 DXCC now worked.

Unusual contact on 10m.

10m was open yesterday afternoon into Europe and Stateside, however not for the want of trying, I could manage neither, well that's not strictly true as I did manage to contact G0SXC, Kevin in Clitheroe, Lancs.

Signal reports of 5/3-0 with qsb were exchanged and later as I did not get his full qth, I emailed Kevin as I was interested in his opinion as to what type of propogation occurred, it was too far for ground wave. 

Here is the email and the replies..

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

thx paul not sporadic e   its out of season and i was beaming usa  had quite a lot of backscatter that direction so im sure you was too  so your signal was going half way across the atlantic and then bouncing back to me  dont know what antenna you were using if directiona i bet you were also beaming usa

--- On Sat, 23/10/10, Paul  wrote:

From: Paul
Subject: Re: 10m contact
To: "Kevin
Date: Saturday, 23 October, 2010, 21:09

Hi Kevin, sorry, yes 2E0PCZ, located in Torquay, Devon, tell me do you think the contact was sporadic 'e', I would have thought so as I had qsb on your signal, but after reading your page, not so sure..?

 

 

From: 

Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2010 9:06 PM

To: 

Subject: Re: 10m contact

paul you havent given your call sign so i do dontknow where your are was you down in torbay?? yes i use the antenna in the picture and im in clitheroe lancs --- On Sat, 23/10/10, Paul Colyer <> wrote: From: Paul Colyer Subject: 10m contact To: Date: Saturday, 23 October, 2010, 14:23 Hi Kevin,   Thanks for the brief qso a few minutes ago, it was very difficult to hear you and I never heard where your QTH is..   Was you using the big yagi I have just read about ?   I was using a 5/8 vertical, Kenwood TS-480, Heil GM5 mic and the 50 watts.   73 and thanks, Paul.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have a look at Kevins QRZ.com page at G0SXC, and here is a picture of his monster 10m yagi.

Worked into Ireland on 2m FM, then VK and the North of England !

Crazy lift, heard some VK, EI and English stations talking on 145.675, so guessed it was an echolink node, then they started talking about the Cork, Ireland repeater, so a google search later revealed the repeater needed a -600 Hz offset, and no tone required.

The lift easily lasted the hour or so I was on, with signals between a 5/1 to 5/5, very steady with little QSB, I also managed to copy Paul, M6PEW who was accessing a repeater in the North of England, so not sure what was going on there !

Rock Walk, Torquay and the Heaviside Layer.

Here on Torquay seafront we have a place called 'Rock Walk'. This used to be a nice scenic walk along the bottom of a steep cliff face, however nearly 3 years ago the area was deemed as dangerous due to falling tree's and small landslides, so the area was cordoned off.

Well £3 million pounds later it has been reopened to the public, and as I was away for the grand opening, and am also currently dogsitting for my Mother, we (Pepe and myself) decided to take a walk and have a look.

Basically all the tree's were removed as they were a danger, and a gentle stepped walkway now zig-zags to the top, where the views across Torbay can be enjoyed.

View towards Corbyn Head

View toward Torquay Harbour, with the Living Coasts centre top left.

Also dotted around the walk were some plaques with interesting local history, well this one caught my eye as it mentions radio and the ionosphere.

And here is the Pepe Pooch.

So there you go, so when someone mentions the Heaviside Layer, I'll know what they are talking about !

Back from holiday.

And back to work, hey ho, still I managed a little bit of radio, but only just..

As I am not yet an M0, I cant transmit abroad, still I decided to take a small handie, an Icom IC-7E, this particular handheld used to put out 1.5 watts, however it has a fault and puts out probably less than 100mW, so ideal as a reciever, with it's wideband 0-999 Mhz coverage.

Anyway it nearly didnt get through customs at Bristol as they took an interest in it, taking it away to be looked at, and after about 5 minutes, they gave it back to me and sent me on my way.

It proved to be very usefull however, as we went on a cruise holiday I could monitor the ship to shore transmissions around 156.500, only issue was my very poor French, Spanish and Italian language understanding, still I did understand when I heard the Captain of our ship talking to the pilot boat in the port of Rome, asking when we could depart, only to be told that we were last and we had to wait, how rude !

Exam success.

Last night was exam night at the Watcombe Amateur Radio Club, three of us M3/M6 calls were taking the Intermediate License, here in the UK it basically allows the operator to run 50 watts, up from the Foundation level of 10 watts.

Well two of us passed, Alan, M6DXU and myself, here is a pic of us with our pass sheets.

M6PCZ and M6DXU, soon to be 2E0PCZ and 2E0DXU !

It's looking a bit CHILEer now...

Actually it is here in Blighty, still it is the middle of September, but I'm not going to talk about the weather, as you may have guessed.

I have two antennas for HF, the end fed long wire and the Sirio 827. The long wire does a grand job from 17m to 80m, but it's pretty rubbish on 12m and 10m, the 827 however is king on 10 and 12m.

I dont know about you guys, but when I fire up the station, I have one laptop I use just for the internet and one I use for controlling the radio, it's not that I'm flash, it's because I'm too tight to buy one decent machine, when two old lappys do the job.

The internet machine runs QRZ.com, Dx watch, PSKreporter and DX sherlock, with the latter usually on the 10m Europe page.

Anyway last night around 2100 UTC I was shocked to see lots of sporadic 'e' lines between Europe and S. America on DX Sherlock, so time to get the 827 earning it's keep, and so without too much effort, CE2WZ, David, in La Serena, Chile, was in the log with a nice 55 both ways, followed by LU7HW, Gustavo, again 55's.

Pretty much as soon as I said 73, the band closed, and I didnt hear another thing.

Here is David, pic from QRZ.com.

What was really nice is that I hadnt had a HF contact for like 10 days, not without trying, just couldnt seem to get through, yet 10m opens and two contacts that easy, I was beginning to think I had maybe some sort of audio issue, so this 'sanity check' came at just the right time.

Oh and Chile was a new DXCC for me, makes 53 now.

I love going to work at the weekend..

I was at work this afternoon, OK not so good being the weekend, however as I have the place to myself and as long as the work gets done, then the rest of the time is my own, and what better way than to spend my 'lunch-hour' doing some radio from the mobile.

Switched on 20m to hear 'FIELD DAY', excellent, checked the internet, it seemed to be the RSGB contest that was on, I set myself a target of 10 contacts across the remaining time I had.

Well I worked the following -

GM5CX/P - 20m
OZ3FYN/P - 20m
RO3DX/P - 20m
DR0W/P - 20m
OZ2AR/P - 40m
ON4SNW/P - 40m
OZ2EDR/P - 10m
SX7WP/P - 20m
F0TX/P - 40m
M0GBB/P - 40m
MM0KLR/P - 40m
G2AS/P - 40m

Really chuffed to work Denmark on 3 different bands, (quite bizzare really I just kept hearing OZ calls everywhere), including 10m, very surprised as 10 has been quiet for weeks, I need to check but I think the SX contact (Greece) is a new one for me.

Overall I worked Scotland twice, England twice, France, Germany, Belguim, Greece, Russia, and Denmark.

The last contact, G2AS/P, was the Sheffield Radio Club call, in honour of the late HAM, Harold, G2AS.

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.

View Larger Map


View Larger Map

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.

View Larger Map

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 !!