Three radios, four friends & a random wire [002]
Greetings from Spain...
It’s only been a week since the first issue and more than enough has happened for me to make this a bumper dispatch. I can’t promise i’ll have anything interesting for next week though. ;-)
HERE
I’m currently writing this in the Spanish sunshine. I’m about 20mins from Valencia at around 187m asl.
I’m here on my own assisting in the renovation of a chalet. Mostly getting quotes from others more skilled in the art of these things. It’s a big place. Somewhere that might be good for some radio if you’d like to visit. It’s over 100m corner to corner and there’s a few huge trees at either end. Oh, and as soon as I get the swimming pool re-tiled there’s one of those. Unless I turn it in to a parabolic dish ;-)
Obviously subscribers to this email will get priority invites when the time arises.
For now I’ve been hanging my inflatable 2&70 off the porch to listen to the local chit chat. There’s not many round here that speak English. Next time i’m over i’ll install the HF station.
Anyway, before I was here I was…
THERE
As you might remember from the last email, I was being whisked away for a few days to a cabin (kind of tree house) near the Welsh borders.
This was a birthday treat and outside of some walking, a fancy pub meal and some time away from the kids. I was pretty sure I’d get permission to play radio. So I packed a few things just in case.
There is nothing like getting away from your home QTH to do a little radio. Even if you’re just going mobile and hitting the repeaters along the way. A radio road trip enables you to test new gear, but most of all gets you exercising your short range comms to make new contacts and rag chew with the locals.
Yes on HF you can reach the world without moving from your shack, but making local radio contacts while visiting someone else’s area unlocks a different kind of QSO.
For a start when scanning the local VHF/UHF frequencies you’re less likely to have to battle through the 5 & 9 competitions. This means a relaxed and friendly chat is more likely on the cards.
But radio can be a fickle beast at the best of times, so I had few expectations when trudging up the muddy track to the remote cabin in the trees.
Herefordshire in the winter is still stunning. As was our temporary basecamp.
Halfway between Lower Maes-Coed and Newton, close to the Welsh border the cabin/‘tree house’ was more of a fancy apartment on stilts. And built 250m above sea level I should have felt light headed. My shack in Cambridgeshire is only at 27m.
Hand built by a furniture maker and designed by his architect son, I didn’t dare ask my wife how much it cost to hire. But it was a notable birthday, and this notable luxury was my big surprise. It was gorgeous inside.
Even better with the fire lit and a bottle open. The wine was for celebration and intoxication… The fire, mostly for effect as there was underfloor heating.
ONAIR
That night the wind howled and the sideways rain washed the windows. Too rough for an outside antenna so I tried out my mini loop.
The Whizz Loop V3 is a 10W max power QRP antenna that is said to work from 7-50 MHz or 40 to 6M. I say ‘said’ to work as for me it was little more of a distraction. Inside it seemed to receive a few signals but no one heard me. Still fun twiddling the dial but I wish I’d brought my larger ML40HP Mk2 manually tuned-mag loop. After a little SWL I called it a night and lay in bed listening to the storm instead.
In a gale, a wooden house on stilts might as well be a galleon at sea as it swayed and shook, rattled and creaked. And the tree limbs played the structure like a drum keeping me awake most of the night. And as night morphed into day the weather continued.
After a lazy start I decided to put up my INFL8-Ham 2/70 antenna on a 6m fibreglass pole.
It was still a little windy but trailing the coax through the door meant I could sit in the warm.
I had both my FT3D for a little APRS and the iCom ID-52 for searching local repeaters. I’ll post more about them in the future, pros and cons etc. But in this instance I decided to use the FT3d and it’s basic waterfall to scan the 2m frequencies and immediately found a simplex net on 145.375MHz
Net control was Allan, G3RDC a friendly, welcoming controller who really made me feel part of the group. On frequency with him were Bob G1HWP, Adrian G1NCS and Kieth 2E0OKG.
Funny, upbeat and informative, I really felt like I had struck gold with these guys. In fact my wife was also chuckling at the chat while pretending to read a book.
Through them I was not only entertained but also got a lay of the land and made to feel very welcome indeed.
For the rest of the day we made it into civilisation for a fantastic lunch at the The Walnut Tree. Another part of my present ;-). Followed by a trip into Abergavenny.
Another night surrounded by nature’s might, and the following day was deemed too wet, windy and probably dangerous to go walking in the black mountains.
Luckily my back up plan just so happened to involve some more HF radio.
But I really needed to erect an antenna. Or to be more specific to trail a random wire off a pole and have the wind catch it and carry it into a tree. Not the best set up.
The other end went through a 9:1 balun I bought from Wish.com with a counter poise coming off the coax plug.
…and then into my Elecraft T1 ATU attached to my iCom IC-705.
I think the 705 is an amazing bit of kit. Definitely my favourite radio. And with this wire in the tree tuned in to 20m the 705 came alive.
Initially with QRM though. There was wall to wall noise and hadn’t a clue what was going on. I managed to trace it to a USB charger about 15ft away. While on it gave out 5&9+ of interference. With it off there was nothing but the signals you are looking for. Bliss.
It’s a great multi usb wall charger but i’ll not be using it again. If you have found something that charges four devices but doesn’t bleed all over the frequencies please let me know.
Now free of interference, 20m was very much alive. Mostly with competitions. 17m was also busy but I struggled to get a good antenna match on that. So I persevered with 20m and in very little time had QSOs with SP3DAT from Poland and HA2KMR from Hungry. It felt like an accomplishment on 5W with a less than adequate antenna flapping in the wind. As a bonus the sun was now occasionally showing itself.
And that was pretty much that. We packed up not long after and headed home. Tired but happy after our escape to the hills.
whenever I next get out I’d like to put up the Windcamp Gipsy 5-55MHz portable dipole I got from Martin Lynch and Sons.
I will also at some point get battery power for my 705 so I can pump out a heady 10W.
Outside of making the most of a random piece of wire and fault finding QRM with a handheld radio, my main take away was how much fun a local simplex net can be. It’s said that for every one person on the net there are 10 listening on the side.
Well if that’s you and you stumble upon Allan and his friends, why not join in? I’m pretty sure you will find them as welcoming and genuinely pleased to have stranger drop by as I did.
There are so many facets to this hobby, but this might be my favourite part of amateur radio. Sometimes it’s not about making a 400 5&9 contacts in a day. It’s about making 4 friends over breakfast.
Speaking of friends… I must thank internet friend and fellow Ham G7RUX for his generosity. After I saw him post this tweet I could not help but milk the fact it was my birthday and he very kindly posted me this 49:1 un/un for use with an EFHW (End Fed Half Wave) antenna.
All I need is around 21m of wire and it’ll be good for 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m all in one go, with no need for an ATU.
ELSEWHERE
Should you want to build your own super lightweight EFHW antenna here is a video showing you how.
I’ve been checking out 3D printing projects for my Icom 705. Not that I have a 3D printer. A good friend Steve does though. He is so close to getting involved in radio. If you know him (or if you don’t please give him a nudge. He’d be perfect in this space. An amazing maker/inventor.
If you wanted a Notice of variation for the Platinum Jubilee then now is your chance. (Pretty sure it’s UK licences only.)
FINALS
My wife’s extra tolerance of my radio play was probably the best birthday gift. It’s nice to have the time to do this stuff when out and about.
I’ve had little time in Spain as i’m just about to eat my last meal here and head to the airport. (Via a few hills of course.) It’s been a flying visit.
Next time we chat i’ll be back in England.
Thanks for reading and I hope subscribing.
At time of writing there are 16 subscribers to this email. You are some of the more curious people in radio ;-) And I thank you. Please share this email wherever your fellow HAMS hang out. Especially FaceBook as I don’t go there and you would be doing me a huge favour. Let’s see if we can turn that 16 into 73. The last email was read lots but not many subscribe.
Have a great week!
Over
73 de Christian G5DOC
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QRU?
