HERE
The above video contains a few pieced together clips from my recent antenna experiments. It was late and I was tired. If you hear me mention the ZX6BKW or the ZK6BKW I of course mean the ZS6BKW :-) I can neither confirm nor deny that there may have been wine involved.
Right now I’m hiding in the shack as I really should be building some steps out of sleepers in the garden. I’ve managed a good couple of hours procrastinating and attempting to tidy up. Still a long way to go as I’m hounded by an inability to throw anything away. Most of the time the unneeded items go in a bag, then in a box, then in the attic.
Speaking of which, in amongst the tidy up I found my Nano VNA in this carrier bag.
If times get hard I might put it on eBay. I’ll label it as scientific environmental waste. Someone will buy it. Especially as CERN only do tote bags now ;-)
I have been trying to avoid the news in the mornings as I find the war in Ukraine quite disturbing. More-so as I have family there. My Grandad was Ukrainian and it was his SW listening that first got me into radio. As soon as I see what has been going on there today there will be little inspiration to write anything about radio. But for now, a little escape.
When everything kicked off I emailed my family but also a few of my recent Ukrainian radio contacts. No response from my family but I have made email contact with UR4QX. I asked him about the area around Sumi where my family are from. Yuri was thankful for the email and resolute in defending his country from the invaders. Sadly he didn’t have the best news in regards to where my family are from.
“Christian in the city of Sumy, Putin's army is looting and killing civilians...” And he finishes his email with “Ukraine will win! 73! Christian, we will definitely meet again on the air!”
I hope so Yuri. I hope so.
THERE
Took a trip to where I got my first radio licence. Peterborough and District Amateur Radio Society aka PADARC.
It’s a bunch of miles up the road but always worth meeting fellow hams in the flesh.
There were a good number there but here is a shot of me with Andy M1NER and HJ M7HJR.
Outside of a little time in the shack most of my radio this week has been portable. Pedestrian dog walking to be precise. The photo below was taken by M7UCH. He is still licensed but has mostly put radio behind him. I’ll explain why in a podcast i’ll attach to a future email.
GEAR
It’s official. I have an antenna farm. With the GP9, the Sirio 4m, the 40m long wire, the ZS6BKW the EFHW and a 2/70 Yagi about to go up even Wikipedia would agree that it’s an Antenna Farm. This is good news as there is a farmer in the family that might finally be proud of me.
In the video above I’m loosely installing the Multi Band EFHW from UKAntennas. I aim to get is higher in the the next day or so. I also still have the Windcamp Gypsy to test from ML&S. I’m waiting to be able to head out on a hill for that one.
Also on my trip to Moonraker this week I picked up their new QRP 49:1 EFHW transformer.
It’s tiny for something able to comfortably run 100W. It’s listed at 50W though. More than enough for QRP. I’m keen to test this with my IC-705 but am waiting for some antenna wire, 10m of BNC ended coax and a winder from SOTAbeams. I’ll cut about 66’ or 20.2m for the antenna in the hope of comfortably getting 40 to 10m working well.
Brett 2E0HFW reminded me that with a decent length of coax I might not need a counterpoise. I’ll see if 10 meters is enough for the antenna to tune and if not I’ll experiment with adding a counterpoise.
Of course with so many variables this might as well be witchcraft. This video by David Casler does a great job at explaining more.
The mic lead on my 7100 was a little worse for wear. Also bloody expensive if you want a replacement from Icom. So after taking some advice from radio folk I ordered an RJ45 network cable for £3.49 10X cheaper than I had seen an official lead.
OK so it’s not coiled. But it works great and it came with two little red cable tidies you know will get used for keeping QRP antennas tidy. It’s probably not needed but the plugs are shielded too.
ONAIR
[Doh! I just this second heard on the local repeater that M0OFF has sourced me an RG45 lead from his stash. Very kind of him. That’s what I love about Ham radio operators. There is always a spare thingamajig knocking about.]
Never underestimate how far a watt can get you…
ELSEWHERE
Dad limits kid’s screen time and accidentally nukes the towns internet Via G5DKT
I downloaded the WSPR Watch App.
Here is a short trailer for a film called Radio Silence. If you think you might enjoy some Zombie CB action then here is a link to the full 24min film.
Amateur radio operators in Ukraine have been ordered off the air in state of emergency.
Here are the instructions for the EFHW antenna I just put up.
Members of Poland's national Amateur Radio society are providing WinLink email communications links.
FINALS
Next week I hope to be getting out mobile. Maybe on my bike. Let’s see what the weather does. I’m also hoping to start sharing some audio.
If you happen to be passing GB3OV put a shout out for G5DOC as I’m sometimes listening.
Thanks for reading and I hope subscribing.
Supporting subscribers will get access to the archive and to some extra content I have planned for the feed. This will of course all be delivered via email. Please let me know if you would like your project, resources, local club or experiments mentioned in this dispatch. Also if you have any interesting or quirky radio news let me know.
Please share this email wherever you think it might resonate. Especially in your FB groups as I am rarely there.
Over
73 de Christian G5DOC
..__..
End Fed Half Wave FTW [005]