******** The Official amateur radio thread ********
- Thread starter Feek
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Messi & Paoloni Hyperflex or Ultraflex 10 is about the best bang for your buck these days and you don't need any special tools to fit the connectors, just a couple of large spanners, a knife and a soldering iron. N-types are very easy to fit, there's a decent video here.
One thing to be aware of with the Baofeng, the front end isn't particularly selective and can be quite easily overloaded if you start using it with an external aerial at height.
One thing to be aware of with the Baofeng, the front end isn't particularly selective and can be quite easily overloaded if you start using it with an external aerial at height.
Bought myself a second hand TS-480SAT to put in the car. I've been pondering one of these for a few years and it was offered to me a couple of days ago at a price I couldn't refuse. I've just bodged it into the shack to make sure it's all OK and within a couple of minutes of switching it on, I'd worked a German who was beetling along the autobahn and just running just 25W (him, not me).
Yup, they did two versions, the 480HX which was 200W and the 480SAT which is 100W but with a built in ATU. The control head is larger and heavier than the average mobile radio but it'll be a lot easier to mount in the car than a full sized radio. The main body will go in the boot and be fixed under the parcel shelf.
Looking forward for seeing pics of the dish when it's all done.
Good stuff, I wonder how high you've managed to get it?
PL-259 is the male
SO-239 is the female
Having a stronger signal won't make any difference to your audio level although if the signal is weak to start with, making it stronger may improve the signal to noise.
Baofengs are a bit hit and miss for audio, I've got two of them, one is absolutely fine, the other is quiet. I managed to make it a bit better by slightly enlarging the hole in the plastic case that's in front of the microphone but you have to be really careful when you do it otherwise you risk damaging the insert.
I did some aerial work at the weekend, got it in before the weather gets bad for the winter. Next year, I'm going to replace the questionable, cheap quality RG213 copy with Hyperflex.
Dish looks good @Chris Wilson - I hadn't spotted the picture initially.
I went for almost ten years without any major changes in the shack. I say 'major' but I did chop in my 590S for a 590SG almost exactly half way through and picked up a couple of handhelds as well. The 590 is such a good radio that about the only things I really spent any money on were aerials and even then, once I'd got the Hexbeam up, my only changes were different wire aerials which were cheap to build.
I've obviously spent a lot more this year but no matter how much time I spend browsing the retailer sites, nothing jumps out shouting "buy me". I was waiting for a price for the ID-52 to be announced to see if that tempted me but it's far too expensive. I can get a spare replacement valve for the amplifier for less than that (and am waiting for Acom to send me payment instructions).
My next project is to build the QDX kit I've got here and I'm going to enjoy melting the solder on that build. If I get time, I'll start it one evening this week. It's CQ WW CW at the end of the month and I'm looking forward to that too.
I have a tri-band (2m/70cms/23cms) Diamond on order which should be here some time in December so there will be more aerial work to do. I'm going to take down the 10m vertical and the Diamond X510, use the coax that's on the X510 for the new vertical and the coax that's on the 10m vertical on the X510. That'll give me the tri-band jobbie with the better coax, slightly higher than the current aerial. I don't use the 10m vertical much and it's developed a fault anyway so that's no loss.
While I'm in the shack, I generally monitor the local UHF repeater, the local D-Star repeater and the YSF reflector that's used by local people along with the 890 being somewhere on HF, wherever there's things to listen to. Now the evenings are dark, the higher HF bands are totally dead in the evenings and sometimes I just like to tune up above 40m and listen to broadcast SW stations. Right now, I'm listening to China Radio International on 7,350.000 kHz.
Damn, I always write too much when it comes to radio. I'm still just so enthusiastic!
Aye they did - They were paid for by an insurance claim after a very near lightning strike that did a lot of damage. The main thing it killed was my 847 which in turn was paid for by selling some Eve accounts
There was only one radio at the time which was still available new that included 4m so that's what the claim was for and because it was so expensive, it bought me the 590, the mast and the MA-5B.
You edited your post afterwards so I didn't see your other comments until just now.
I didn't work J5T but did manage to get J5HKT on 30m which I think was part of the same group. Four bands is good stuff, well done. I made one slot with 3DA0RU on 17m but I've not worked HD8 since 2014! The US on 80m is good.
I failed to work FK8IK during CQ WW, he was a big signal but I just couldn't break the pileup, that was a real shame as it would have been an ATNO. I gave up as band conditions changed and he just faded away. Grrrrr.
Yes, I'll just merge this with our big thread..... https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/the-official-amateur-radio-thread.18360534/
There are a few of us
@Chris Wilson How are you getting on, Chris? I missed your post a few days ago.
There are a few of us
@Chris Wilson How are you getting on, Chris? I missed your post a few days ago.
We still have a fairly decent amount of activity here although the storms did take out the aerial at one of our repeater sites. We're going to have to replace both the aerial and the coax (as a 20' pole and the aerial were hanging off the coax for a fortnight), so we'll take the opportunity to take the repeaters away and give them a service as well.
HF has been getting busier and busier recently - We're moving steadily into cycle 25 and I'm feeling confident about it, I reckon it'll be a decent one.
What aerial are you using for VHF/UHF if you can't even put an X30 up?
A few years ago, I went for a talk at the local radio club and it was about radio telescopes.
It was the most utterly boring two hours I've ever had in my life. It wasn't just mind numbing, it was coma inducing. There was a member of the Arts Nobbling Council there who only survived by gnawing one of his own legs off.
So no, I haven't built my own radio telescope
Tried running any of the data modes, there's still a bit of activity on RTTY/PSK even though FT8 is the data king these days.
The bands are waking up nicely as we move into cycle 25 and with the Es season coming, there will be plenty of signals on 10m which won't be as noisy as the lower bands.
Yesterday (Friday) was my Saturday. One end of the 20m element on my hex had come off at the centre posts so I dropped the mast, fixed it and got it back up in time for WPX this weekend and spent a couple of hours this morning just tuning around and working some of the more distant stations that were about. No real DX but plenty from both north and south america along with a fair few far east as well. 15m was nicely active and at time of writing this, 20m is still heaving.Painting the repaired top mast section today, not worth galvanizing the inserted tubular section. I finished welding it up yesterday and it was a bit of a nightmare keeping it all straight and true. So hopefully a magnificent 60 foot erection tomorrow, don't you just love Saturdays
That's going to work really well - It's one of the more impressive setups I've seen for QO-100.
Yup, that’s Bob who Chris is referring to.
