Amateur Radio Operators, Beginners Advice?
- Thread starter lostplanet
- Start date
I'm still waiting for my rig of choice to be back in stock, but once I got it, I'd be up for that! I'll be using a portable setup though, so somewhat WX dependant.
I'll have to dust my rig down; I am sitting at around 225m at the house but can get higher locally. I've only got the foundation licence so 10w max.
But yep, very weather dependent to get over all those hills between us all
But yep, very weather dependent to get over all those hills between us all
I only have my 911a set on 10w into a mag loop indoors. I’ll have a listen and try to contact if you give a day and time.
Got through to a guy in Slovenia with this setup but it think it was his antenna that was pulling my signal up !
Got through to a guy in Slovenia with this setup but it think it was his antenna that was pulling my signal up !
I'll have to dust my rig down; I am sitting at around 225m at the house but can get higher locally. I've only got the foundation licence so 10w max.
But yep, very weather dependent to get over all those hills between us all
What rig is that Broch?
I have a Yaesu FT-8800E which was installed in my previous Defender but has never been installed in my current one. The plan is to make the back of my Series III into a civvy FFR but make it all easily demountable so I can operate it on a desk as well.
I also have a Baofeng that has barely been switched on. We were going to use those in the response group but I've now retired from that.
Began with the Drake twins (R4B, T4B) for 100W CW.
Mostly a Yaesu FT901DM all mode but just the original bands. There's a keyer in the 901 so I used a Bencher paddle. Have a good straight key that makes my arm sore quite quickly.
Alinco 2M rig, 45W. The ISS is only 100 miles above us. Some astronauts took up 2M rigs.
Years ago, I was near a river of big junk analog parts. Had a lot of fun building power supplies. QSO topic.
The math is fairly simple for DIY building a 3 element Yagi for 2M with some coat hangers and a sheet of cardboard. QSO topic.
Japanese hams never sleep. They are always on the air. Many admit ham radio is essential for practicing English. QSO subjects included surf fishing and building fishing rods! One country, hams were fascinated with big game hunting here. They all complained about what they called the "cross-bow brigade."
Mostly a Yaesu FT901DM all mode but just the original bands. There's a keyer in the 901 so I used a Bencher paddle. Have a good straight key that makes my arm sore quite quickly.
Alinco 2M rig, 45W. The ISS is only 100 miles above us. Some astronauts took up 2M rigs.
Years ago, I was near a river of big junk analog parts. Had a lot of fun building power supplies. QSO topic.
The math is fairly simple for DIY building a 3 element Yagi for 2M with some coat hangers and a sheet of cardboard. QSO topic.
Japanese hams never sleep. They are always on the air. Many admit ham radio is essential for practicing English. QSO subjects included surf fishing and building fishing rods! One country, hams were fascinated with big game hunting here. They all complained about what they called the "cross-bow brigade."
One of the problems with HF radio is, it depends on what antenna you have and how it is sited, whether you will be able to talk to close contacts, due to the skip, most signals will go far beyond these shores, same when you are listening you can hear the foreign Ham but very rarely can you hear the UK Ham who he is talking to.
Only on very rare occasions have I actually had a QSO with UK Hams, most are over in Europe or out to the East, this is because my antenna is a vertical sited low and radiates that way, I have a few End Fed variations I am playing with at the moment of various lengths , but I am restricted in the height I can have them due to neighbours, so they have to be sited stealthily.
In my shack, I have a piece of wire (end fed) going around the walls which give me very good reception on most of the bands, not much good for transmitting, but as I have 2 rigs I can listen on one and tune and transmit on the other, it is OK for some of the low power digital modes such as FT8 etc. With using two rigs at the same time you have to be careful you don't overload one when transmitting, especially with the new rigs, as they tend to be front end sensitive.
Only on very rare occasions have I actually had a QSO with UK Hams, most are over in Europe or out to the East, this is because my antenna is a vertical sited low and radiates that way, I have a few End Fed variations I am playing with at the moment of various lengths , but I am restricted in the height I can have them due to neighbours, so they have to be sited stealthily.
In my shack, I have a piece of wire (end fed) going around the walls which give me very good reception on most of the bands, not much good for transmitting, but as I have 2 rigs I can listen on one and tune and transmit on the other, it is OK for some of the low power digital modes such as FT8 etc. With using two rigs at the same time you have to be careful you don't overload one when transmitting, especially with the new rigs, as they tend to be front end sensitive.
So had a great day out today doing a v local SOTA activation. Seventeen activations including three summit to summit one of which was in Switzerland.
Just needed 2 x #8 stranded copper for each band on the ground plane with a 4 band 1kw trap vertical for 40/20/15/10. Very poor in wet trees. Very poor. 100W was lots to QSO to the world from a hilltop portable!
Sit in the car with the engine running (Yaesu FT901DM) and chat.
If skip is good, I just might get back up on 15 from this QTH.
Sit in the car with the engine running (Yaesu FT901DM) and chat.
If skip is good, I just might get back up on 15 from this QTH.
Most 'QSO's (chats) are pretty short and to the point, first name, rough location, signal report and thats that but when you chat on a regular basis with other hams or use regular group chats you end up talking about all sorts. The death of the Queen bought out some very nice, very respectful chats I had with hams literally all over the world, same when Covid hit we'd chat about its impact on our communities sort of thing.
Ham radio is a warm and welcoming community and I wish all the newbies to the hobby a warm welcome and hope to catch you down the log.
73, Tim
Ham radio is a warm and welcoming community and I wish all the newbies to the hobby a warm welcome and hope to catch you down the log.
73, Tim
