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

Feek said:
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.



all_four_sections_are_up-20120107-175020.jpg
Click to expand...
Is that a Sirio 827 ?
I had one many moons ago, I got rid in the end as I couldn't stand the Vibration through the wall when the wind picked up.
Nice setup anyway.
 
Ad_Augendae said:
Is that a Sirio 827 ?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I had one up for 10m and with a tuner, I could get RF into it on some other bands as well. Took it down and replaced it with another Sirio, a Gain Master which then snapped during a storm so I put up another 827, with the weather hoop things to try and stop the vibration. It's got a dodgy join between one of the sections now and I haven't used it for a couple of years. I need to take it down and replace it with a Diamond X7000 that I've got here to give me something for local natter on 23cms.
 
Wish me luck, am taking my Foundation exam this Saturday I have also looked at the Intermediate and if all goes well will start swatting up on that too. Have all the gear and have been listening in to get some idea of operating practice, I have an old Icom IC-735 and a KN 990, I am going to use the latter for FT8.
 
13oots2 said:
Wish me luck, am taking my Foundation exam this Saturday I have also looked at the Intermediate and if all goes well will start swatting up on that too. Have all the gear and have been listening in to get some idea of operating practice, I have an old Icom IC-735 and a KN 990, I am going to use the latter for FT8.
Click to expand...
Don't worry about it, you'll be surprised about how easy it is. If you are stuck for an answer just move on and come back to the question later. Good luck! :)
 
Last edited:
My first exam got cancelled due to the RSGB over booking. Took the exam this Saturday and was rather pleased with myself as I only got 2 questions wrong.

Should get my papers in the post over the next week, then there will be no stopping me. Have even started an intermediate course as I now have the bug.
 
13oots2 said:
Took the exam this Saturday and was rather pleased with myself as I only got 2 questions wrong.
Click to expand...
Excellent news, well done!

13oots2 said:
Have even started an intermediate course as I now have the bug.
Click to expand...
Top man, it's good to start it while the Foundation stuff is fresh in your mind.

It'll all become like second nature when you start putting it all to good practical use.

My new aerial has been delivered, still waiting for the tilt mechanism for the mast to turn up but I won't be putting it up until the weather improves so I'm in no great hurry.
 
13oots2 said:
My first exam got cancelled due to the RSGB over booking. Took the exam this Saturday and was rather pleased with myself as I only got 2 questions wrong.

Should get my papers in the post over the next week, then there will be no stopping me. Have even started an intermediate course as I now have the bug.
Click to expand...
Well done! Don't wait too long to book the intermediate exam. It is all fresh in your mind, the study is straight forward and with practical experience it will also be plain sailing. :)
 
The 9X5RU DXpedition to Rwanda has been fantastic - It's not massively high in the Clublog most wanted list but I only had three slots before they started, 15m and 20m CW and 17m FT8, the former two being from 2013 and the latter from 2018 so I took this opportunity to fill a few more slots.

They've been there for a fortnight and have been on a lot of different modes, really spreading themselves about and haven't been difficult to work, even without an amplifier. Yes, I have an underperforming Hexbeam but I also worked them just on a low dipole on 30m. From the video showing their shack, I guess most of the FTx stuff is automated with just one chap sitting there keeping an eye on everything but that won't be the case with SSB or CW. Their CW ops have very good ears, I managed to get through the pileups very quickly, even when their signals were down at ESP levels. They were really loud on 20m CW at around 18:00z yesterday evening though.

These are the slots I've picked up. I've been saying it for a couple of years but I have to get an aerial sorted for 80m and top band.

V8zcvQ7l.png.jpg
 
So which StepIR have you bought? I am a bit leery about big aerials on masts like yours and mine after a wind crippled the top section of mine over double and cost a lot of time and money to repair. Luckily it didn't go come down on the house.

What I really want is another 60 footer but considerably more substantial so I don't worry every time the wind gets up and have to lower the thing.
 
The UrbanBeam. It's a two element job so not one of the absolutely huge ones. It's two full size elements on 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, 10m and 6m and a folded dipole on 40m and 30m.

Here's the plot compared to the hexbeam (UrbanBeam in red, hex in blue)

3IJoTNk.gif

Attached is a review.
 

Attachments

Looks a bit Moxon like. I will be interested to hear what you think of it. My interest is centred on DATV at the moment, although 10 meters is providing some amazing openings. The big horizontal loop is still up, but not getting a lot of use save on 160.

Are you asembling the StepIR over Easter? Good luck with it, nice bit of kit there :)
 
Chris Wilson said:
Looks a bit Moxon like
Click to expand...
I can see what you mean but a Moxon is a single band, two element folded beam as opposed to a six band two element (not folded) beam and a folded dipole on two others ;)

But yes, it does look a bit like a Moxon.

It's not going up until the weather improves and the garden dries out as it's still like a swamp out there. It'll be done over a couple of weekends because it's not just the aerial, I'm going to replace the coax as well which will be a real chore.

Next thing after that is getting something up for 80m and top band which I think will be a horizontal loop, nowhere near the size of yours, probably about 45-50m of wire in total with a Smarttuner at the feed point. It'll definitely be a cloud warmer but that's better than nothing.
 
Loops are nice and quiet, but to be honest, for receive my small active loop in the woods is as good or better on 160, 80 and 40, into a KiwiSDR. S3 to S5 of noise in the day is pretty good, the big horizontal loop is noisier than that. The Kiwi has the S meter calibrated against a decent sig gen.

40 meters just now on the active loop:

s3.jpg
 
Last edited:
Things are improving at a rapid pace with digital amateur television, far from the blurry and fading images of not many years ago, this is the sort of quality people are transmitting via the Oscar100 geostationary satellite back to a large percentage of the world's radio amateurs. Sad to some, but to me, an amazing time to be partaking of these opportunities.

VLC will decode .TS files

 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom