******** The Official amateur radio thread ********

I printed mine out ages ago, put them in the folder with my validation document and the next time I expect they'll see light of day is when my wife goes through all that stuff when I'm dead.

It's a paper exercise, complete waste of time and nobody will care about it. Many amateurs won't do it and from listening to the local repeaters, many foundation licence holders don't seem to think it applies to them because "I only run ten watts" totally not understanding that due to aerial gain, they're transmitting more than 6.1W ERP (10W EIRP) and therefore do need to complete it. That's ignoring the fact that most of them don't even stick to the 10W limit ;)

[/grumpy old git]
 
Those US 10m FM repeaters have been coming in well the odd day these past 2 weeks. Mainly North East / New York. Looks like the solar cycle is starting to ramp up nicely.

When the US comes in on 10m, have a listen around 29MHz AM. Some of those stations are using old boat anchors and sound fantastic. The AM sounds so smooth like a quality broadcast station, and probably putting out several KW PEP.
 
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purplesky said:
Those US 10m FM repeaters have been coming in well the odd day these past 2 weeks. Mainly North East / New York. Looks like the solar cycle is starting to ramp up nicely.

When the US comes in on 10m, have a listen around 29MHz AM. Some of those stations are using old boat anchors and sound fantastic. The AM sounds so smooth like a quality broadcast station, and probably putting out several KW PEP.
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The KQ2H repeater on 29,620.000 kHz with a CTCSS of 146.2Hz is absolutely booming right now.

I did spend about ten minutes calling CQ on 29,000.000 kHz AM but no replies today.
 
Raw scores for CQ WW SSB last weekend are up and it looks like I’ve won my section, same as I did for CQ WW RTTY a few weeks ago.

Worked J28MD (Djibouti) and P29RO (Papua New Guinea) on 17m CW this morning. Big pileups for them both so it was nice to get through. Not ATNOs but one new band slot and one new mode slot.
 
Well done Feek, those are worthy achievements!

I have been amazed just how far WSPR is getting me with a basic 5/8 vertical on 10M connected to the (Max) 0dBm 1mW Drive socket of my TS590. Also how fast 10M changes throughout the day and evening.
 
Well done Feek!

New ones for me these past days, lots of pileups and FT8 F/H:

P29RO Papua New Guinea 12m
3C3CA Equatorial Guinea 10m
J28MD Djibouti 17m
AH0/WA7WJR Mariana Islands 17m
SV7RU Togo 17m
TY0RU Benin 17m
VK9CM Cocos-Keeling Islands 20m
FJ/SP9FUY St. Barthelemy 20m
DP0GVN Atka Bay, Dronning Maud Land Antarctica 17m
VK9XX Flying fish Cove, Christmas Island 17m

There are some quite amazing band conditions at present.
 
Just bought myself a transceiver that covers some of the amateur radio bands, will start off using the CB channels and then join a club to try to get my licence Anyone here using old CB's etc that can offer help advice?
 
@Feek is your man, also this:

******** The Official amateur radio thread ********

I've been asked a few times to start an *** official *** amateur radio thread so after a few false starts I'm hoping this will work. I know a few people on here have got (or have had) amateur radio licenses and so perhaps we can get some chat going here, what you do, what you've done and what...
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk
 
13oots2 said:
Just bought myself a transceiver that covers some of the amateur radio bands, will start off using the CB channels and then join a club to try to get my licence Anyone here using old CB's etc that can offer help advice?
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Diddums said:
@Feek is your man, also this:
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I've merged this with the main amateur radio thread because there are plenty of us here.

I can't really comment on the CB thing, I've never used it and have no interest in it. I'm sure some of the others can though. However, I am interested to know what wireless you've got.
 
Feek said:
I've merged this with the main amateur radio thread because there are plenty of us here.

I can't really comment on the CB thing, I've never used it and have no interest in it. I'm sure some of the others can though. However, I am interested to know what wireless you've got.
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Thanks for merging me.

Will possibly be frowned on starting as a CB user, but we all have to start somewhere. Have done some research and my closest club is about 20 miles away, am not allowed to drive due to meds, so will possibly only be able to attend half each meeting as trains stop around 10ish. It will give me something to aim for as I have too much time on my idle hands.

One thing I am confused about is the legality of AM, USB and LSB usage on CB, from what I have been reading these are now legal in the UK, but I haven't nailed what frequencies I can use. Can someone please enlighten me as to if I have read this correctly, don't want to become an illegal pirate?
 
Not amateur radio but I reckon you guys will find this interesting. The title is a bit clickbaity as it's 1MW ERP, not actual transmitter power but still a great watch.

 
13oots2 said:
Thanks for merging me.

Will possibly be frowned on starting as a CB user, but we all have to start somewhere. Have done some research and my closest club is about 20 miles away, am not allowed to drive due to meds, so will possibly only be able to attend half each meeting as trains stop around 10ish. It will give me something to aim for as I have too much time on my idle hands.

One thing I am confused about is the legality of AM, USB and LSB usage on CB, from what I have been reading these are now legal in the UK, but I haven't nailed what frequencies I can use. Can someone please enlighten me as to if I have read this correctly, don't want to become an illegal pirate?
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There are some superbly professional operators on the CB bands, often ones who have built some stunning gear of their own. There are also some total retards who can barely hold a coherent conversation, and whose level of profanity would make a Victorian sailor queasy.

The consensus of opinion is do whatever you want just so long as YOU DO NOT transmit out of band, either intentionally or accidentally due to junk or faulty gear. If you run a kilowatt plus and have a clean, in band, low harmonic signal and aren't running some sort of net for terrorists you will probably be OK ;)

If you garner umpteen complaints from neighbours or the public / amateur licence holders because you are interfering across multiple frequencies or are calling for the annihilation of whoever grieves you, well, you probably won't be OK... :)

Try it, there are those ham licence holders who shun CB'ers and consider them vermin, but there are some very uppity hams in general so just ignore them.
 
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Feek said:
Not amateur radio but I reckon you guys will find this interesting. The title is a bit clickbaity as it's 1MW ERP, not actual transmitter power but still a great watch.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll watch that later.

Been running WSPR at 1mW (0dBm) from the drive (transverter) socket of my TS590, so thtat' a genuine 1mW. On 10m I have worked some amazing distances with a simple home made vertical. Conditions have been remarkable!
 
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Chris Wilson said:
Been running WSPR at 1mW (0dBm) from the drive (transverter) socket of my TS590, so thtat' a genuine 1mW. On 10m I have worked some amazing distances with a simple home made vertical. Conditions have been remarkable!
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I did the same with the 590 and it's sort of surprising how far WSPR goes. I say 'sort of' because most of our stations can produce a signal, which, given the right conditions can go round the globe. By its very nature, WSPR creates those conditions, it's carefully crafted to be received when signals are very weak, down to nearly 30dB below the noise level and there are receivers dotted around the world specifically looking for those really weak signals. If you transmit there, someone will hear it :)

In fact, I've just fired up my WSPRLite, connected it up on 40m and set it to 5mW. It's going through a bandpass filter, the amplifier switching, through two LP700 power meter probes, through at least two other joins in the coax, then a 30m run of questionable quality RG213 before going through another choke into the aerial so if I'm getting 1mW at the aerial then I'll be surprised.

My first WSPR cycle, you saw me @Chris Wilson, at a distance of 285km. Over two cycles, I've been seen from 115km out to just under 1200km away. It'll be interesting to see how far it goes overnight but I'd be surprised if it doesn't go transantlantic.

It's CQ WW CW this weekend, I'm really looking forward to that.
 
Running 1mW on 40 meters on and off, last night and today, it's remarkable how far it gets. A simple dipole, 60 foot one end (I took it up a tree at the weekend and frightened mnyself witless, coming down is far worse than going up as you need to LOOK down and it's not to my liking;)) Other end is at the top of the mast, which is lowered, so about 22 feet. Far from ideal and fed with dodgy Ebay RG-58

The 10 meter vertical is better as that's got LDF4-50 all the way.

E-mail me your call sign, I've lost / forgotten it :(
 
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