The Official amateur radio thread

Feek · 1 Jan 2018 at 01:18

My 40m QCX kit turned up this week - I'm going to use it along with QrssPiG as the basis for a remote QRSS grabber. Looking forward to getting it built.

@Nomisf You should do reasonably well with an inverted L on the low bands in your garden if you can get some height. I've been using one with about a 25ft vertical section and around 65ft horizontal down to the end of the garden and it's certainly useable on 80m and I've even worked a few on top band CW out to around 1,000 miles.

Feek · 1 Jan 2018 at 15:22

Started building today, I've assembled the initial part of the QCX, ie the QLG1 GPS module.

Feek · 6 Jan 2018 at 22:52

If you don't want to finish the K2, @Lakeland, I'll do it for you

My QCX build is coming along nicely, I installed the ICs yesterday and got the rest of this done today. It's the ARRL RTTY Roundup tomorrow but if I get a chance, I'll start winding the inductors.

/edit - Forgot to comment... SDR radios have come on in leaps and bounds, the top range Flex radios are absolutely superb. But I still prefer a proper wireless with knobs and buttons rather than doing it via a computer screen.

Feek · 27 Apr 2018 at 15:04

Chris Wilson said:
(And a kilowatt into an antenna as inefficient as this on 2200 meters is actually less than 1W ERP )

Just as well, aren't we limited to 1W ERP on 2200m?

Feek · 27 May 2019 at 21:38

Yup.

The birds love it.

Feek · 22 Jul 2019 at 07:40

I'm not sure that tuner would be good on 198kHz. If you want to find a frequency that's going to be busy every day during daylight hours, tune to 14,074.000 kHz USB and see if you hear data noises in 15 second bursts. If you're not hearing anything there whatsoever then I'd get the radio checked.

Feek · 23 Jul 2019 at 14:41

That's good, you'd rather it was the tuner than the wireless.

Feek · 28 Jul 2019 at 17:31

I've been hanging aerials all day ready for next weekend.

(Holy huge image, batman)

Feek · 29 Jul 2019 at 09:41

Which sadly has no method of raising anything up it, no pulleys, ropes, halyards, or anything whatsoever mounted on it and is completely and totally electrically connected to the body of the ship

We look at it every year and sigh.

Feek · 2 Aug 2019 at 23:14

Can you hear us? We should be loud right now on 40m.

Feek · 2 Aug 2019 at 23:16

Remind me your callsign, I’ll get Tony to listen for you.

/edit - trust me when you’re calling with your call and I’ll get whoever is operating at the time to listen for you.

Feek · 3 Aug 2019 at 22:41

Excellent. I didn’t hear it because I was sitting up the sharp end with a very large G&T in my hand!

Feek · 6 Aug 2019 at 08:04

Yes please - Can you use the email address that's in the publicity for the station?

Feek · 9 Sep 2019 at 11:19

The RSGB is a good place to start - Have a look here.

The syllabus has just changed for all the exams so some clubs may not yet be up to speed on their courses. Where in the country are you?

Feek · 9 Sep 2019 at 11:35

Cromulent said:
I'm based in Surrey.

Of course - Didn't you suggest some places for me to go when I spent a fortnight in Woking? I don't know of any specific clubs in the area but I do get down to Ripley/Send a couple of times a month.

Feek · 9 Sep 2019 at 12:04

You can do it online but I believe you still have to do it at an exam 'centre'. There's also some practical work at Foundation level which needs to be done in an organised environment but it's all pretty basic. I don't know how much the Foundation has changed but it was possible to go from zero knowledge to having a licence in the space of a weekend. There's no real understanding required at Foundation, it's just recall.

/edit - Here's the current specifications and syllabus.

Feek · 17 Nov 2019 at 14:27

Yay! I'm assuming you walked it?

Feek · 27 Mar 2020 at 07:26

stigggeh said:
I've just got a HexBeam

Great news, I wonder which one you went with?

stigggeh said:
i'm quite excited to compare it to my old Cobwebb

Well you're going from a folded dipole to a 2 element beam so you should notice the extra gain and some directivity.

stigggeh said:
Anyone taking part in the CQWW WPX over the weekend ??

I'll be on but it won't be a serious entry from me, just giving away a few points really. My hex is down awaiting repair after the storms and all I've got up is my 30m dipole which I've connected my smarttuner to, just to give me *something* for other bands but it's not very effective.

Feek · 27 Mar 2020 at 11:25

Yeah, I saw that version at Newark a couple of years ago and the big problem I can see with it is the way the spacer cords are joined to the elements as they're exactly the same as the ones I broke over and over and over again under very specific circumstances. Those were while running data modes at a high duty cycle with QRO during contests in the rain or snow. The corona discharge at the end at the end of the elements simply arced over and burnt out the cords which then caused the elements just to drop and hang. If you look at the 'broken aerial' tag on my blog, you'll see what I mean.

During the recent storms, the centre stub of my hex slowly lifted out of the plate after breaking free of the bush and then it folded over until it was hanging there, supported by the spreaders at the top and the coax at the bottom. Then one of the spreaders snapped and it all started looking like a very sad, drowned spider.

I've got it down and the centre stub is going back to Ant for a repair. I'm also going to buy the extreme weather kit and the upgraded 40m balun which gives extra bandwidth. The extreme weather kit is supposed to stop the spreaders from raising due to wind and sinking due to ice and snow. His aerial (without the 40m kit) is rated at 75mph and we had gusts recorded at 78mph just a couple of miles away.

I reckon it'll be two to three months before I can get it all repaired and back up.

Feek · 28 Mar 2020 at 13:32

Vertically polarised beam on VHF?

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

The Official amateur radio thread