Radio goals and rabbit holes [001]
Greetings from the road...
Welcome to the first official issue of 73 from G5DOC.
I’ve been documenting my amateur radio journey in other places and as well as continuing my exploration I will re-visit some of the older conversations to share here.
From now on, this will be a more permanent home for my thoughts and experiments with radio.
As I have said before. I’m just playing at this. So let’s have some fun.
HERE
You are there and I am here, but please remember that we are connected. I’m not here to just talk at you. Reply to this email, ping me through QRZ, leave a comment, drop me a DM or call CQ. You never know, I might even answer.
It’s hard to feel isolated when we’re this connected. All these channels and modes. Pathways and nodes. There’s an energy that exists between us. Cellular, satellite or WiFi, it’s all radio.
I think the most powerful way to connect with someone is to listen to them. To reach out and let people know we’re here. That they can be heard.
Radio is perfect for this and blows my mind. The science appears unpredictable and held together with magic. And although still new to all this, my sorcery has got to a level where I can turn a dial and pull stories from the air. Down from beyond the clouds and into my radio. Stories in tongues I know and others I’m hearing for the first time. If conditions are right I can intercept and connect. Then we converse in English or broken French. At the very least we can share callsigns and an invisible thread is made real. A thread each of us can follow back to the other.
THERE
My Grandad gave me my first SW radio towards the end of the 70’s and maybe my fascination with radio comms started there. Or perhaps it was with my toy walkie talkies, or when I first got a handheld CB in the 80’s. Recently a fellow ham, long time friend and supporting subscriber of this email reminded me that I built my first FM radio transmitter while at school. You may have done the same. It was a small FM bugging device I bought from the pages of a comic.
Back then a shop called Exchange & Mart was the place you went for your gat guns, black widow catapults and Shurikan throwing stars. But it was in the back of a comic where you could find the build-it-yourself bugging devices.
I think I might still have the plans somewhere. I’ll see if I can find them for a future issue. I built my particular bug for the specific purpose of unlocking the mysteries of the school staff room.
And did it work?
Absolutely.
Unfortunately though I cellotaped the covert radio transmitter under the tea and coffee table. So as we stood in a toilet cubicle, taking turns listening to a small FM radio on a mono earphone, all we could hear was the stirring of tea, the clattering of cups and the boiling of a kettle.
More recently I’d heard it was going to be the 40th anniversary of of the legalisation of CB radio and had planned to do a photo project called ‘40 years on the air’. Photos of CBers who never went away. People like Derek M6DDM.
Sadly the photo project was shelved after the lockdowns during Covid made it difficult to visit radio operators in their homes. But in order to initially track down CB operators I needed to get back into CB.
That’s when I found myself standing in a jam packed CB shop called Knights Electrocom. Packed with new and used radio gear I had a flashback to the 80’s and immediately knew that this was going to be an expensive hobby.
I thought the design on the box of a CRT SS 6900 was a joke.
But I still bought the clip-art laced MySpace-retro-cool box containing the latest CB radio and started building my shack.
Initially it was all CB and PMR. They were my gateway drug into ham radio.
Realising there was not much CB in my area I had to get mobile. Joe (Jumping Master) at Thunderpole in Northampton helped me a lot with this. I only really had a CB on my pushbike as a kid and it felt strange having one in the car. It’s weird driving along talking on a communication device. At the moment it’s not illegal to chat on radio while driving. It seems this exception was created because so many government and private organisations (e.g. taxis) use 2 way radios.
But it wasn’t long before I felt I needed to explore more bands. And for this I had to ‘get my ticket’. So from M7XTN to 2E0AKA and now G5DOC.
Getting the first licence is easier than you think. I wish I had got mine earlier. Some people don’t feel the need to progress any further than that, as even at foundation level there is a huge radio playground for you to explore.
If you’re interested in following the same path I took then, cram for a week using the EssexHam.co.uk online course and then contact a local club and do your exam with them. I got a last minute spot on a foundation exam with Peterborough Amateur Radio Club.
Or you can just do the exam online with the RSBG which may be even easier/quicker.
Here is the first blog post I wrote as a licensed ham radio operator. It’s a somewhat longwinded review of portable antennas I was using on my Baofeng.
I progressed onwards as I was keen to operate in other countries. Something only a full licence operator can do.
ON AIR
So, I think we are up to speed now?
Currently I can be found operating between my shack, my car and dog walking mobile. In the shack I’ll be on my iCom 7100 and my iCom IC-705. In the car I’ll either have an Anytone AT-778UV or an Yaesu FT3D with an external mic and antenna. On foot I’ll be on the FT3D, the iCom ID-52 or my Wouxun KG-UV8G 4m handheld.
As I write this with a slightly sore head on the day after my 50th birthday I feel like I’m pretty late to the radio party. Some of the people I chat with are in their 80’s with a good 60 years of experience under their belts.
Meanwhile my already slow brain is trying to catch up as I set myself manageable radio goals.
For example. I challenged myself to get contacts from 50 countries, independent states or autonomous communities before my 50th birthday. And I’m pleased to say I managed it.
So far I have made two-way contact (on SSB, FM and FT8 in the following order) with radio operators from:
England 🏴 / Scotland 🏴 / Spain 🇪🇸 / Czech Republic 🇨🇿 / Finland 🇫🇮 / Russia 🇷🇺 / Lithuania 🇱🇹 / Slovenia 🇸🇮 / Italy 🇮🇹 / Germany 🇩🇪 / Austria 🇦🇹 / Wales 🏴 / France 🇫🇷 / Serbia 🇷🇸 / Denmark 🇩🇰 / Netherlands 🇳🇱 / Canada 🇨🇦 / / Slovakia 🇸🇰 / Austria 🇦🇹 / Luxembourg 🇱🇺 / Belgium 🇧🇪 / Ukraine 🇺🇦 / USA 🇺🇸 / Latvia 🇱🇻 / Switzerland 🇨🇭 / Ireland 🇮🇪 / Portugal 🇵🇹 / Greece 🇬🇷 / Bulgaria 🇧🇬 / Poland 🇵🇱 / Croatia 🇭🇷 / Sweden 🇸🇪 / Romania 🇷🇴 / Hungary 🇭🇺 / Belarus 🇧🇾 / Norway 🇳🇴 / Iceland 🇮🇸 / Cyprus 🇨🇾 / Bosnia 🇧🇦 / Portugal 🇵🇹 / Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 / Turkey 🇹🇷 / Algeria 🇩🇿 / Venezuela 🇻🇪 / Ecuador 🇪🇨 / Brazil 🇧🇷 / North Macedonia 🇲🇰 / Israel 🇮🇱 / Canary Islands 🇮🇨 / China 🇨🇳 / Oman 🇴🇲 / Andorra 🇦🇩 / Japan 🇯🇵 / Thailand 🇹🇭 (6,033m) / Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 / Mauritania 🇲🇷 / Dominican Republic 🇩🇴
It’s well over 50 and according to QRZ the most distant station was Thailand at 6033m. I left the Azores off the list as although I think it counts I could not find an emoji flag for it. The Azores needs to get on to Apple or whoever about that.
[Actually I just thought that as I wrote this email across a few apple devices I have no idea if the flag emojis will even show up for you. Let me know. Especially if you are viewing this on an Android device.]
Yesterday in Stamford I was perusing an antique shop and found these two books for £1.50.
They are just about at my level.
I have no idea how I’m going to format this email moving forward. It might be I just dump stuff on a page and see what resonates. Most likely I will finish with a load of links to take you down some rabbit holes. Like this…
ELSEWHERE
Tooth as a radio receiver?
I’m now a proud member of G8BBC. Member number 84.
Fancy some radio related vinyl? Boomkat records have released recordings of some old adverts that appeared on London pirate radio. Here is a sample…
Click the tweet below to find out the definitive answer as to whether FT8 is ‘proper’ ham radio. Although I have a feeling you already know.
FINALS
Right now I’m sat in the Hereford Morrisons charging the car and have just had a great QSO on GB3ZA with Dave M0RNI. I’m on the way to a tree house in Herefordshire (birthday treat) and have packed the iCom 705 and have a bag full of antennas i’d like to play with. Including this mini magloop.
I’ve not had much time to play with the Whizz Loop V3. I’ll let you know how things go in the next issue.
Till then, if you would be so kind as to share this dispatch elsewhere both G5DOC.net and www.73.contact will link to the sign up page.
Thanks for reading and I hope subscribing.
At time of writing there are 14 subscribers to this email. You are some of the more curious people in radio ;-) And I thank you.
Over
73 de Christian G5DOC
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