******** The Official amateur radio thread ********
- Thread starter Feek
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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]
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]
Save it, admire it. Ofcom won’t want to see it unless they rock up at your door and ask for it.
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.
Hong Kong and Thailand on 10m at the weekend. Incredibly loud.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nearly 500 Qs in CQ WW CW this weekend, just S&P up through 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m a couple of times. It was fun. What was also fun was tuning round and hearing this chap calling without many takers because he'd just changed frequency. After I worked him, I spotted him and he got busy!
If you fancy trying the exam. I would highly recommend looking up EssexHam. They offer a free easy coarse which teaches you what you need to know to pass the exam. Worked for me
Exactly what I was going to suggest, the Essex Ham stuff is very good, Pete's been a good friend for years (since before he was interested in amateur radio) and he's one of the nicest and most helpful people you could ever meet.
I've been meaning to post in here for a while. I've fallen out of love with the hexbeam, I'm sure the one I got second hand was never really right and it's just put me off. I'm looking at replacing it with a SteppIR in the summer.
I've tried listening a few times for 3Y0J but I've not heard them at all, they're going off tomorrow when they run out of fuel and that'll be it. It's been a nightmare, all they've managed to do is get two stations on with small aerials and 100W instead of the twelve they planned running 1500W. It's been like a zoo, listening to the DQRM and the 'up' police. It's easy to be an armchair critic but I'm amazed at the updates that have come from Bouvet where the team seem surprised by the conditions.
They've done well to even make the activation considering a group sailed there last year and couldn't land but they just seem a bit ill prepared. They've not even been able to get FT8 working correctly, running in F/H mode and transmitting at the wrong period. They've been asking people not to fill slots so as to give as many ATNOs as possible but there are still some muppets who have been boasting about multiple slots.
It's good that FT8WW has been able to carry on. I was very frustrated on Thursday when I was trying to work him on 15m FT8, he sent me a report twice and that was it, I didn't get a 73 and I wasn't in his log upload on Saturday morning and so I tried again yesterday afternoon. That was even worse, he sent me a report once and then straight on to another person with no 73 but when he uploaded this morning, he's logged that one. There's just no consistency in his operation but at least I bagged Crozet Island for an ATNO (#3 in the most wanted).
I'm trying to use less FT8 this year, as I did last year but sometimes there's no other option for DXPeditions like this.
In other news, I'm now decided on a SteppIR UrbanBeam (see attachment) to replace the Hexbeam along with an automatic tilt-plate so I can easily lower the mast. It'll be a big job to do all the work and no doubt will take a couple of weekends (or longer) to complete everything. I'm going to take the opportunity to replace the questionable quality RG213 that I originally used with HyperFlex 10 and to make some new GM3SEK chokes. The SteppIR will give me all the bands that the Hex has with the addition of a folded dipole for 30m. I do have a dipole up for 30m already but it's fixed east-west and lower than this will be. It'll also free up some poles and mountings where I'll fit a horizontal loop to my smartuner for top band and 80m. Of course, it'll be a bit of a cloudwarmer as it'll be low but at least it should get me on those bands.
This weekend was (and technically still is) CQ WPX RTTY. I've put in an entry for 15m and although there were plenty of USA stations on, I was disappointed by the lack of far east stations and practically nothing in south america either. I only worked 47 countries.
They've done well to even make the activation considering a group sailed there last year and couldn't land but they just seem a bit ill prepared. They've not even been able to get FT8 working correctly, running in F/H mode and transmitting at the wrong period. They've been asking people not to fill slots so as to give as many ATNOs as possible but there are still some muppets who have been boasting about multiple slots.
It's good that FT8WW has been able to carry on. I was very frustrated on Thursday when I was trying to work him on 15m FT8, he sent me a report twice and that was it, I didn't get a 73 and I wasn't in his log upload on Saturday morning and so I tried again yesterday afternoon. That was even worse, he sent me a report once and then straight on to another person with no 73 but when he uploaded this morning, he's logged that one. There's just no consistency in his operation but at least I bagged Crozet Island for an ATNO (#3 in the most wanted).
I'm trying to use less FT8 this year, as I did last year but sometimes there's no other option for DXPeditions like this.
In other news, I'm now decided on a SteppIR UrbanBeam (see attachment) to replace the Hexbeam along with an automatic tilt-plate so I can easily lower the mast. It'll be a big job to do all the work and no doubt will take a couple of weekends (or longer) to complete everything. I'm going to take the opportunity to replace the questionable quality RG213 that I originally used with HyperFlex 10 and to make some new GM3SEK chokes. The SteppIR will give me all the bands that the Hex has with the addition of a folded dipole for 30m. I do have a dipole up for 30m already but it's fixed east-west and lower than this will be. It'll also free up some poles and mountings where I'll fit a horizontal loop to my smartuner for top band and 80m. Of course, it'll be a bit of a cloudwarmer as it'll be low but at least it should get me on those bands.
This weekend was (and technically still is) CQ WPX RTTY. I've put in an entry for 15m and although there were plenty of USA stations on, I was disappointed by the lack of far east stations and practically nothing in south america either. I only worked 47 countries.
@13oots2
Excellent news, you really shouldn't have any problems with Foundation, when you look at the syllabus, it's all recall this, recall that so it's basically a memory test with just a few 'understand' bits chucked in. It's a great stepping stone into the hobby. It's not a cakewalk though, there's a lot to remember!
Are you doing a course with anyone or just by yourself?
Good luck, please keep us updated and if you have any questions, I'm sure that we can help you.
Excellent news, you really shouldn't have any problems with Foundation, when you look at the syllabus, it's all recall this, recall that so it's basically a memory test with just a few 'understand' bits chucked in. It's a great stepping stone into the hobby. It's not a cakewalk though, there's a lot to remember!
Are you doing a course with anyone or just by yourself?
Good luck, please keep us updated and if you have any questions, I'm sure that we can help you.
See, you've already demonstrated from that post that you're going to pass with flying colours 
Essex Ham are great, I've said it before in this thread and I don't apologise for saying it again. They got my wife through the Foundation exam and she went in with no real prior knowledge or interest in the subject whatsoever. She just decided one day that she wanted to see if she could do it.
I don't think the 735 has a built in USB port but it'll have an accessory socket so that'll be your way in.
Essex Ham are great, I've said it before in this thread and I don't apologise for saying it again. They got my wife through the Foundation exam and she went in with no real prior knowledge or interest in the subject whatsoever. She just decided one day that she wanted to see if she could do it.
I don't think the 735 has a built in USB port but it'll have an accessory socket so that'll be your way in.
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.
You're going to walk it