All in the name of radio [024]
Greetings from the shack...
“Without friendship no happiness is possible.” ~ Aristotle
HERE
Do you know good friendships improve your health and reduce your risk of disease?
The amateur radio community is interwoven with those connections. It’s a tight knit network with some friendships spanning decades. They are always doing things for other operators and many enjoy hopping onto local nets for daily updates. Sometimes we even get together in physical space.
I not only managed to pop into a HARS meeting recently, I also got together with a few C.R.O.W.S. in my back garden for drinks.
And why do radio operators make such good friends? They are great listeners. In fact sometimes they make notes when you are talking.
This last week has seen me on a ladder more than off it. I’m guessing you have seen the videos documenting my sky loop install but in case you missed them here is the first, the second, third and fourth.
THERE
When I was a kid we lived in a mobile home on a plot of land that we were trying to get planning permission for. My bedroom was a glorified shed bolted onto the side of one of the two small bedrooms. I had a Thunderpole mk3 on a long section of mains gas pipe and I set up my CB radio on the desk of my cabin bed. If I wanted to chat or listen late, I’d move the radio into the alcove accessible under the desk and behind the inbuilt cupboard. That way I didn’t keep my brother awake who slept in the official in-built bedroom. The bit that had the radiator.
There has been more than a few times over the last few years of my return to radio that something has given me a flashback to these early years.
Today despite the ever present, always on internet, I’ll rotate the dial across the 80m band at midnight, awaiting discovery. I really need to sleep, but I just want to see if anyone is out there. And all of a sudden I’m taken back to the 80’s when it’s way past my bedtime, the TV and local radio has closed down for the night and I’m clicking round 40 channels, listening to see if anyone was still up.
So much has changed. But is also the same.
Back in November 2019 I was yet to be licensed but enjoying CB radio. Occasionally I’d write about what it was like on the air.
Here is an extract from my other weekly email dispatch…
There’s a hill near me. Dotted with wind turbines and higher than anything else as far as the eye can see. Living in the flat lands, I try to drive up and over with the CB on. Just to see what might pop up. With the radio set to scan the channels, you can occasionally grab a snippet of conversation.
Earlier this week I was in the car with my 10 year and although it was a mile out of the way we headed home over the hill. For the minute we drove along the brow, the radio crackled into life with the voices of two elderly gentlemen. They were feint and faded in and then out again. All we got before we lost signal was this…
Old man: “….go well?”
Older man: “….a lady. They gave me a lady.”
Old man: “Really‽”
Older man: Yes everything checked out but I realised I’m 82 years old and that’s the first time a lady has held my testicles.”
My lad asked what they were talking about.
I was smiling and shrugged “A trip to the doctors I think.”
GEAR
I know we have all got to start somewhere but I cringe when I look at the rickety antenna set-ups I’ve had in the past.
All I did for this install of my Sirio Tornado was slide a scaffold pole over the spine of a rotary washing line and guy it either side with some nylon string and the coax.
Yeah. I know.
Thankfully when a wind did eventually beat it into submission it fell against the hedge.
Not that things have improved all that much. Last week (after I got stuck in a tree) I assembled an intricate ladder set up that would have a circus crowd gasp in horror. There are thankfully no photos but I will say that I was counting on it falling slowly over a hedge so that I could ‘ladder vault’.
All in the name of radio. It looked a little like this.
I spotted this choke online. It’s the only thing missing from my sky loop install. But £50 looked a bit steep for me. Thankfully Rich M0OFF came to the rescue and knocked one up with bits he had lying around. He’s good like that :-)
I love hearing about the equipment that other radio operators are using. G4GTP kindly shared his set up with me while we chatted on 80m (3.700). He uses the Hermes Lite.
You can get them from here.
He is also using this SDR console for Windows.
I’m tempted by it but I’d have to know what Mac options there are as Windows is not my drug of choice.
This is his amp though and I’m sorely tempted by it. It looks like this.
That’s one of the issues with this hobby. Temptation lies around every corner.
ONAIR
Just for fun, after getting the Sky Loop into an almost finished position, I cracked out my CRT2000 CB to see if my tuner would bring the wire in on 11 meters.
It did, and on putting out a call on channel 19 I got an immediate response from a guy called Spencer about 6 miles south of me. He was mobile in an industrial estate. The HF was doing it’s thing and getting over a couple of hills as well. Looking forward to seeing if there will be any DX opportunities.
The main downside of dipping into CB after all these years is that people don’t seem to use handles. I much prefer handles over CB DX callsigns. I can remember handles. And ask an old CB’er and they will also be able to remember a bunch of old handles. Not so much CB-callsigns. There seems to be little evidence online of any of the old 60’s and 70’s CB callsign call books or databases either. I wonder if there is a paper stack somewhere that could do with digitizing.
Ever wanted to put up a tower in your back garden but were worried about not getting permission? There is a certain way of going about things that might give you a decent chance. I’ve heard the following story a couple of times but wanted to go to the source. So I contacted the radio operator featured in the tale and he was willing for me to share it if I left out his name and locations.
“When I wanted to put up my tower and applied for planning consent, I was living next to a member of the local Council who promptly told me that “I am not going to have that bloody thing next to me”. I was therefore not expecting a good result.
My first tower in another county was a 60’ Versatower and the local Council there refused my initial application. I decided to appeal by using the written appeal method rather than a tribunal. I am a member of the RSGB and got a supporting letter from the Society and also consulted their Planning Advisory panel.
Together we put a lot of work into the appeal and won.
Some years later I moved east and went to see one of the Planning Officers before applying for my 60’ tower which I took with me when I moved. I took my previous appeal file with me to show him. I explained that if permission was refused, I would be prepared to appeal again, pointing out that this was not a threat, but simply a statement of my intention to set up the best station that I could for enjoyment of the hobby. Fortunately consent was granted by the local Council.
My next move was to a house in a residential estate, so I opted to apply for a 40’ Versatower which I thought would be more acceptable. Again I went to see one of the Planning Officers and he said that there should be no problem in getting consent after I had explained about my experience in other places. Bear in mind that no local authority is keen to go to appeal because of the cost – they are all short of money.
After my neighbour’s reaction and comments to me, I decided to attend the Planning Meeting. I waited patiently for my application to be considered, which included a very detailed supporting letter and enclosed a supporting letter from the RSGB. The reaction of the Planning Committee was extraordinary – as soon as my application was announced, my neighbour (Councillor) declared an interest and left the room. That was followed by an immediate proposal to refuse the application followed by a seconder and the refusal was confirmed in short order. The total time from start to finish was under 3 minutes! My letter and that of the RSGB were ignored.
Again I appealed using the written method and did a very good job in making sure that the Government Planning Inspector would be able to see that I was not given a fair hearing. Although it took several weeks to get a decision, the Inspector granted permission.
After I moved away from the area, the next applicant to that local council for a tower was told by one of the officials that my success in getting permission had paved the way for other amateurs to gain permission for towers. His application was approved.”
ELSEWHERE
If you are currently unable to head out to do any SOTA how about having a crack at the worlds highest website.
Remember we talked about weather balloons? Now you can have cyclone Turtles
Quantum sensors.
I for one look forward to these magical Quantum radio updates.
This old copy of the 1963 communications handbook is fascinating.
“Good friends, a low SWR, and decent propagation: this is the ideal life.”
~ C.R.O.W.S. motto.
FINALS
Thanks for reading and I hope subscribing. And greetings to the new subscribers. You are some of the more curious people in radio ;-) Thank you for stopping by.
Please share this email wherever you think it might resonate. And feel free to leave any radio related stories in the comments.
Over
73 de Christian G5DOC
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