Spurious Emissions [038]

Greetings from a house in Kent...

HERE

I’m holed up in a B&B as I’m working with some junior doctors at the local hospital tomorrow. I need to remember this accidental find. It’s £50 a night, on a hill, has somewhere to lock the motorbike and is handy for the Tunnel.

The weather looked like it was going to be dry so I opted for the motorbike. Obviously I missed hitting the repeaters on the way down but I packed a handheld. The FT5D. I nearly lost that recently. (More on that below. )

You may notice that the house i’m staying in has only one antenna on the roof. And it’s the wrong kind. You can’t have it all. At least I’m on a kind of hill. A heady 205 feet asl.

Anyway I thought I’d attempt to hammer out a quick post. Thank you for your patience.

[Current location styled.daredevil.custodial. If you’re quick I might be leaking some APRS.]

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THERE

Recently I was in the Netherlands. The following photo may or may not be a candidly taken snap from the hip as airport security questioned me as to why I was trying to smuggle a walkie talkie onto an aircraft.

But as that itself may or may not be illegal so may I suggest that it could also be an AI render of someone in a white shirt in blue gloves holding what appears to Yaesu FT5D above a grey tray. Perhaps I made it to better illustrate something that happened on the way back from a trip overseas.

I mean… If it was a photo, it’s not a very good one.

So anyway, last week I was heading back from the Netherlands and got to be one of the first people to try out the new scanners that mean you can leave laptops, electronics and liquids in your bag when passing through airport security. Rather than breeze through thinking this is the future, go technology!

I was thinking, I remember this. The good old days of flight. I was still told to take my belt off though. Despite there being absolutely no metal in it.

Then instead of watching my bag glide up and through the machine and glide down the other side, It took a sharp right turn to get some special attention.

Here we go I thought.

A few days before it had been chaos leaving the UK with the airport not only un prepared for the Easter rush but it also had to navigate the air traffic control strikes. As a result I’d spotted a lot of young trainee staff. And here in the Dutch airport I had a young security guard gingerly lifting my shiny Yaesu walkie talkie out of the tray. He turned it round a few times in his hand before looking me straight in the eyes saying

“I can't let you take this on the plane, it will have to be confiscated.”

I’ll be honest, my cheeks clenched. And not the ones on my face. I’ve seen those large fishtanks they have as you enter security, filled with all kind of cool stuff. From engraved Zippos to surgical scissors and hand crafted mammoth tusk Damascus steel pocket knives. Hell, I’ve even made my own contributions to the airport security secret Santa stash. Once when I forgot to take a small Swiss army knife out of my bag, and another time when my bladeless ‘airport safe’ mini Leatherman multitool became the new EDC for the guy who probably already had five. There was no reasoning.

But this radio cost me £500 and I wasn’t going to let it go without a fight. Or at least a non-violent making of a few points. I started with the easiest opener.

“Why?”

He didn’t know. So he mumbled something about walkie talkies are not allowed and if this was a toy then there would be two of them. He then looked around for someone. Possibly someone who’d had more training in these matters.

I remained calm and said “But I’m a licensed amateur radio operator and according to the CEPT agreement I can operate this radio in around 42 countries.”

I was impressed by how confident I sounded even though i’d made up the number 42. Probably channelling Douglas Adams.

“And do you have your licence with you?” He stared at me probably having no idea what such a licence might look like.

I did have it. At some point. I printed a copy off for my last trip but I appeared to have forgotten it this time. Still, I figured I might have one in the cloud and so let out a firm “Yes. Of course I have my licence.”

Realising he had used up all the words he had for a new engagement like this, he put up a hand and called a supervisor over.

The new guy was still much younger than me but had a couple more frown lines that gave me the feeling he’d had more experience of these things.

He looked at the radio, then at me and asked “Do you have a licence for this?”

“I do.”

“Can I see it?”

“Yes it’s on my phone” I said, really hoping it was. The queue was huge and I could tell they were pushed so I softened and added. “Look, It’s just an amateur radio. It’s a geeky toy for those who have watched every episode of Star Trek and want to take their nerdiness to the next level.”

He seemed to like this and smiled. “Go on then.” he said. "And handed me the radio sending me and my half open bag on our way.”

I smiled at him with a nod and then grinned at the new guy. I tried not to but he was looking defeated and angsty. He was lucky I didn’t stick my tongue out. I was also tempted as I walked away to lift the radio and feign calling in an airstrike. But that thought only lasted a fraction of a second before I could imagine exactly how that might play out.

So I just sauntered off to find my family, who thinking I’d be pulled aside for a drug related body cavity search, had gone for snacks without me.

Next time I take my radio away I’m packing a print out of the licence. I wasn’t far off with the number of countries. The internet says it’s 48.

Albania, Andorra, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

Although there are a few places in that list I’d certainly not risk carry a radio into.

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GEAR

This is Ruth, who is pretty local to me.

All going to plan she will soon be a new licensed amateur radio operator. She's already invested in a Yaesu FT-710 plus a great mic and antennas. I popped over to assist installing it in her new shack so she can get to listening. Looking forward to hearing her on the air soon.

I spotted something called a Flipper Zero on eBay and wondered what it was. This video explained a lot.

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ONAIR

My local repeater GB3OV had an upgrade recently and it appears to performing better than usual. It’s where I have been spending most of my time.

I did managed to get WSJTX on my M1 Mac air running Ventura 13.1. A job I have been putting off but it was easier than I remembered.

I’m still testing to see if the 80m loop performs better than the ZS6BKW. The screen grab above shows mostly those stations that could hear me on the ZS6BKW on 10W. The Loop was almost as good but not quite.

Then I tested it on 10m on 5W and ZS6BKW got a ping from the Canary Islands but the loop would not even tune.

12m on 5W and 25W also showed the ZS6BKW to out perform the loop and quite considerably.

I'm wondering if the extra slack in the loop and its proximity to some trees might explain this mediocre performance. I shall have a play with the tension and do some more tree trimming.

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ELSEWHERE

• Before I settled on 73 from G5DOC as a name for this email I briefly contemplated ‘Radio Diaries’. It was never to be though as that has been one of my favourite podcast for a very time. If you haven’t ever heard it, here is a recent-ish episode. The ski troops of World War II.

• Offcom confirm a coronation callsign.

• This is a cool little documentary on HAM Radio.

• This is the website for Lance W7GJ who features in the film above.

• This is my other more regular, slightly more eclectic email.

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FINALS

Thanks for reading and I hope subscribing.

Please share this wherever you think it might resonate. At time of writing there are 245 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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