******** The Official amateur radio thread ********
- Thread starter Feek
- Start date
There's a huge Ofcom consultation. Some of the proposed things are great, some are really awful.
www.ofcom.org.uk
Consultation: Updating the amateur radio licensing framework
We are proposing to make a number of changes to the amateur radio licensing framework, to make sure it meets the needs of today and tomorrow's radio amateurs.
www.ofcom.org.uk
There are some dumb ideas in there like allowing people to change their callsigns when they feel like it and for anyone to be able to run a repeater with no NoV or co-ordination.Gimme the bad news concisely please, not in Ofcom verbosity
On the other hand, Novices get 20W, Intermediates get 100W, Full licences get 1000W (all these on primary bands).
Going back to only allowing people to hold one callsign, so when they progress through, the old one is revoked (how it used to be).
Making regional identifiers optional, allowing 2x callsign holders to switch to M8 or M9 if they want.
Read the document, Chris. It's a consultation so well worth a look, it's not all in legalese.
Responding is going to take me a while. Might need more paper
Superb video. I've actually got Voyage Voyage on 12" single that I bought back in 1989
I've updated the link.
Make sure you fill in the consultation document with your comments, Chris. The more that do, the more chance there is of getting the slightly bonkers proposals rejected.
Mast as been lowered, Hexbeam removed and I've started building the new mast top.
I've got the initial stub, the tilt plate, the SteppIR boom and then an extension pole with a new ADS-B aerial mounted on the top, that's 48 ft above the ground.
Everything's all wired up, new coax on the aerial, controller cable etc, all with the new chokes and cables all tidied up nicely in the shack.
I've got one more step to do on the element housings but the aerial I've got is a slightly different version to the latest manual so I've been assembling it in a bit of a mixed fashion. Hoping to get the final brackets on this week with it all being completed next weekend.
I've got the initial stub, the tilt plate, the SteppIR boom and then an extension pole with a new ADS-B aerial mounted on the top, that's 48 ft above the ground.
Everything's all wired up, new coax on the aerial, controller cable etc, all with the new chokes and cables all tidied up nicely in the shack.
I've got one more step to do on the element housings but the aerial I've got is a slightly different version to the latest manual so I've been assembling it in a bit of a mixed fashion. Hoping to get the final brackets on this week with it all being completed next weekend.
It's a Vinnant CC1090/8-P as opposed to my previous Jettison A3 so allegedly a bit more gain. It's also 7 ft higher than the old aerial.
Yes, it seems better but it's very early to tell as it's only been a couple of days and I think there's been some enhanced conditions. I think I'm getting about 10nm further range and both aircraft seen/tracked seem higher. It'll take a few weeks to be sure.
As I keep saying, we're on our way to solar peak so things are just getting better all the time. I've been without any aerials for HF for about a month and I'm really struggling here so I have to get the SteppIR finished and up soon.
Have you been working exclusively FT8?
It confirms that they are, as expected a multi-element colinear. I was originally considering the 9-PSE but they won't ship that to the UK any more due to previous problems with damage in transit. Clearly that's your fault
It does look repairable though, you can see from each section how they're supposed to be connected. Get your soldering iron out!
It does look repairable though, you can see from each section how they're supposed to be connected. Get your soldering iron out!
Looks like you've already taken it apart? These two joints looks pretty iffy to me. The bottom part looks as though a strand is making contact but the higher one doesn't.
It's a coaxial colinear, the construction details are pretty straightforward but they're a real pain to make, and to make successfully because the measurements are so precise.
Heliax is definitely overkill for 10m (maybe not so if you have a 300m run) and it's not the easiest thing to handle either. My ADS-B receiver is in a box at the top of the mast, I have a run of CAT6 up and power the receiver by PoE and have an 8m run of Hyperflex 10 up to the aerial. They quote 13.4dB loss at 1GHz so my short run is almost exactly 1dB. I can live with that.
Certainly wouldn't consider anything less though.
Also using Hyperflex 10 on the new aerial, a 30m length is just two thirds of a dB loss on 28MHz which I'm happy with.
I've had a 20m roll of 4-50 for years, never really found anywhere practical I can put it.
Certainly wouldn't consider anything less though.
Also using Hyperflex 10 on the new aerial, a 30m length is just two thirds of a dB loss on 28MHz which I'm happy with.
I've had a 20m roll of 4-50 for years, never really found anywhere practical I can put it.
It helps that cycle 25 is ramping up. In a few years time, you can have your receiver connected direct to the 10m aerial, it'll be dead
Yeah, one of the pictures you showed has the centre connected to the braid at the top so I'd expect a short at DC.
If those connections are good (they look better from these new pictures but not fantastic) and the SWR is showing as 1.082:1 at 1090 MHz, I don't know why it's not working for you.
You can. Once. And it won’t radiate well
CQ WW SSB raw (unchecked) scores are up, if anyone put in an entry.
WAE RTTY this weekend.
WAE RTTY this weekend.
I bet one of those is Pete, 2M0SQL.
My SteppIR is down because of the wind but I still have a 10m vertical up which I used to make the contact on 12m. The tuner in the 890 is able to match it.
Day one was OK. I'm doing a single band entry and this is (approximately) what I worked.
My wife is working all this weekend so I'm free to play radio but I had to finish a good few hours earlier than I wanted and the band was still open. Disappointed not to have worked PY or LU today and a bit surprised not to have managed the west coast of the US.
From looking at my HamClock, 10m was flying earlier but generally conditions are nowhere near as good as they've been for the last couple of weeks. Lots of absorption up to high frequencies which doesn't help. This is now (19:30z).
I'll get up a bit earlier tomorrow and hopefully be there as the band opens.
My wife is working all this weekend so I'm free to play radio but I had to finish a good few hours earlier than I wanted and the band was still open. Disappointed not to have worked PY or LU today and a bit surprised not to have managed the west coast of the US.
From looking at my HamClock, 10m was flying earlier but generally conditions are nowhere near as good as they've been for the last couple of weeks. Lots of absorption up to high frequencies which doesn't help. This is now (19:30z).
I'll get up a bit earlier tomorrow and hopefully be there as the band opens.
Oh that's a shame, is it a case of the higher HF bands being closed in the evening?
It's not going away though. We all get a bit of a mojo loss from time to time but the hobby isn't going anywhere.