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Hi John , Hoping to get mine soon so we'll have to have a chat then. I think 'Doc' uses his set quite a bit , at least I think I remember reading his thread wherehe was using an old school Morse set. Also Rikuk3 is after one I see so I can only presume he is also 'on air'

Cheers

TD
 
Hi,

Yep I've not yet got to grips with the mysteries of Ham CW.. Here in NZ It's actually a bit difficult to get a Ham rig if you're not licenced. That might be different in the UK.. Currently I've only got a cheapo Chinese VHF handheld bit it hits the local repeater which has IRLP on it. So it might be possible to chat using that....

Any how good luck with the Exam...

73

John
 
Welcome to the hobby John. (I hesitate to call it a hobby, as it is defined by international treaty as a 'service.')

Yep, 817. A good do-everything radio but heavy on batteries. I also have a Elecraft KX1 for backpacking, and the home station has an Elecraft K3.

My 'winter project' is a new CW rig for backpacking. I've ordered a SW40 kit from Small wonder Labs (40m, cw only, 2 watts out, about $60) and hope to put it in an enclosure with battery pack, homebrew antenna tuner, SWR indicator and an integral solar panel on the top surface. The panel produces 60mA at 12 volts, and the radio draws 30mA on receive, so I reckon I will be able to operate indefinitely within reason.

ZL-UK propagation is not great just now, though I have worked VK and Antarctica on WSPR.
 
Doc said:
Welcome to the hobby John. (I hesitate to call it a hobby, as it is defined by international treaty as a 'service.')

Yep, 817. A good do-everything radio but heavy on batteries. I also have a Elecraft KX1 for backpacking, and the home station has an Elecraft K3.

My 'winter project' is a new CW rig for backpacking. I've ordered a SW40 kit from Small wonder Labs (40m, cw only, 2 watts out, about $60) and hope to put it in an enclosure with battery pack, homebrew antenna tuner, SWR indicator and an integral solar panel on the top surface. The panel produces 60mA at 12 volts, and the radio draws 30mA on receive, so I reckon I will be able to operate indefinitely within reason.

ZL-UK propagation is not great just now, though I have worked VK and Antarctica on WSPR.
Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks for the welcome, Yep I'm enjoying my early forays and contacts immensley. With the NZ licence you are restricted in which bands you can operate on for 3months and 50 contacts... So once my 'probation' period is up I'll have a look around for a rig for HF. I did think about and 817 but TBH I'm thinking of an 857 a little less portable but with a bit more output...

IanM said:
I am another. Also a member of RAYNET.
Click to expand...

BorderReiver said:
Me too.

The 817 is a handy little radio as long as you have an ex UPI or burglar alarm battery handy.:)
Click to expand...

I had to look up what RAYNET was but I can see it's a volunteer emergency service..In NZ we have AREC ( Amateur Radio Emergency Corps) I think it's a condition of the NZ licence that as a Ham you might need to prepare to assist in an emergency situation..

I'll probably get involved with AREC as I get into it a bit more.
Do any of you guys have an IRLP node near you?? PM me if that's the case...

Cheers

John
 
I passed my exam years ago but never managed to take up the license. I've just reapplied for a Full callsign and have acquired a Yaesu FT100 (forerunner of FT817). My intention is to learn morse but, in the meantime, I could do with some advice on antennas. I'm looking at an Emtech ZM-2 tuner and some kind of dipole/longwire. Any recommendations?
 
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The Emtech ZM2 is a very nice tuner, easy to build and matches anything to anything, nearly. But it is for low power use. Over 10-15 watts will frythe polyvaricons.

Hard to beat a dipole for reliable cheap performance, but it's single band. A doublet fed with open wire to a balanced atu (ZM2 for QRP, maybe a SEM for 100w) works well for multiband use.

My current set up is a 10m glass fibre fishing pole with a wire attached. At the bottom is a Furuno auto atu (cost to the shipping company that bought it, £1500. Cost to me on ebay, £70!) and a network of buried radials. Works pretty well 80m to 10m.

For portaable use I have used dipoles and long wires but am now going over to an end fed half wave and home made matching unit.
 
Mikey P said:
I'm looking at an Emtech ZM-2 tuner and some kind of dipole/longwire. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

Buddipole antennas get good feedback for portable operation from what I see..

http://www.buddipole.com/

I was looking at a small tuner from Elecraft The T1 the other day again designed for QRP / mobile operation...

http://www.elecraft.com/

Available either as a Kit or prebuilt...

I suppose for simplicity you cannot beat a wire dipole. One thing i did do recently was construct a copper J pole for my 2m transciever. Lots of plans and stuff on the web for all sorts of antennas..


Have fun...
 
I have a Icom IC-E90 and a Yaesu VX-6, along with some HF kit, 4m/2m/70cm mobile/base units and scanners. I enjoy making antennas and building kits but I've not bothered to get a licence and I don't think I ever will as I like having them for emergencies and I enjoy some satellite stuff but I've listened to Ham conversations all over the world and I have to say I've never wanted to talk to any of them. Its mostly 50+ year old men talking about what they had for dinner or how much they spent on their Ham shack. Now I'm not saying that is all of them but it feels like the overwhelming majority after about 6 years

To be honest I think I'm more interested in building things and seeing how they work, then hitting TX. The equipment is perfectly legal to own as long as I don't transmit and I like hunting around and fixing old equipment and I'm happy with that.
 
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Metatron said:
I have a Icom IC-E90 and a Yaesu VX-6, along with some HF kit, 4m/2m/70cm mobile/base units and scanners. I enjoy making antennas and building kits but I've not bothered to get a licence and I don't think I ever will as I like having them for emergencies and I enjoy some satellite stuff but I've listened to Ham conversations all over the world and I have to say I've never wanted to talk to any of them. Its mostly 50+ year old men talking about what they had for dinner or how much they spent on their Ham shack. Now I'm not saying that is all of them but it feels like the overwhelming majority after about 6 years

To be honest I think I'm more interested in building things and seeing how they work, then hitting TX. The equipment is perfectly legal to own as long as I don't transmit and I like hunting around and fixing old equipment and I'm happy with that.
Click to expand...

Most hams get as much or more pleasure from pursuing the technical side of the hobby as they do from just communicating, so you're not alone. The conversation is not always like you describe though.

You get a better chance of an interesting chat on morse - the mode doesn't encourage waffling and trivia.

It is a good way to practice languages. The technical vocabulary is quickly acquired and I often have a pleasant contact in French with France or Canada.

I have worked a good few female operators, and of course there is always the chance of a contact with an astronaut on the space station, scouts/guides at radio jamborees or even the famous - one of my friends worked the late King Hussein of Jordan once.

When abroad, a vhf handie is great. I took one on my trip to the Arctic Circle and worked many Finnish hams who gave me useful local info.

It may be worth getting your ticket anyway as there is much more scope for the technical side when you're allowed to squirt some RF into the ether.
 
Well, I have received my license and callsign (M0GUX), managed to get an FT-100 and then ran out of money!

When I get some cash again, I will be going for the Emtech Tuner as I don't intend to be using a lot of power at my location, and I want to build it myself. It's quite tight and enclosed behind the house and I'm going to have to build a less than ideal antenna; however, that's what it's all about, isn't it? I'm happy to spend time rxing and QRPing for the near future and I'll also have a go at a 'J' VHF/UHF antenna and possibly a 10m 1/4 wave stick. I'm about to lay a bit of turf in my back garden so I'll bury some galvanised chicken wire for an earth under the lawn!
Anyway, we have a V/UHF repeater station nearby so I'll try to use them rather than whacking the power up.
Luckily managed to get in on a group buy for the V/UHF and HF finals transistors as I heard they can be a bit 'fragile' on the FT-100.

Ultimately, I want to do some portable ops so I'll have a look at Buddipole, etc, and a battery. In the meantime, I'm also going to have to try and source a decent 13.8V DC PSU for home use .... man, it never ends....

Hope to hear from you all!

Mike
 
Mikey, would you like to borrow (free of charge) a MFJ 16010 long wire tuner? I have one that I'm not likely to be using for the next 6 months or so. Very small, handles 100 watts, tunes 160m to 10m using a log wire and a counterpoise. Does not have a built in SWR meter but your radio possibly has one built in.

I have an Emtech ZM2 and it is great but of course it is qrp only.
 
Well I took the plunge and got myself an HF rig..

An Icom 703 +. It's on it's way to me now and I'm looking forward to some remote QRP operation.

I did contact SOTA to see if there was a SOTA orginization in NZ.
They replied sadly not but would I like to start one so food for thought there....

I'm not sure if I'll need an external tuner or not with the 703 it has an inbuilt tuner but I'm not sure it able to tune an end fed antenna?
 
rik_uk3 said:
Nice to see you took a look at Elecraft in the end John, take a look at the KX1, perfect for QRP but you will need to learn morse (anyone can push a button and talk, morse is fun).

These guys are just down the road from me
http://www.sandpiperaerials.co.uk/
Click to expand...

Hi Richard,

Yep I've taken a good look at the Elecraft site, some nice stuff on there for sure.

In the end I plumped for the Icom as it has a good reputation and was BNIB but at a used price...

I believe you can get a Chinese copy KX1 off of Ebay for not much cash at all and they get good reviews..

I've got a Emtech ZM-2 Tuner on it's way in kit form.. I've not built anything electronic since school so it should be fun..

Have you got your callsign yet..

Cheers
 
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