Vortex Shedder [028]
Greetings from Warwickshire...
HERE
I’m sat alone in a house on a hill. Not my house. One I’m borrowing while it’s vacant. After a couple of weeks of constructive disruption I’m here to get back into a book project. Somewhere I can write for a few days. It’s so quiet here. All I can hear is the perception of sound. Brought on from experiencing rock concerts from both sides of the barrier. The photographers pit, where I’d wear earplugs while working. And the mosh pit, where attempting to wear them was as futile as donning a top hat for a boxing match.
Although here to do other things, I have brought a few radios. Two duel band handhelds and a rig in the car. I’ve got 2m/70cm with D-Star and Fusion. I’ve hung an inflatable marine band antenna (modified to do 2/70) in the window. To scan and listen in my breaks and no doubt chat in the evening. I can hit GB3MW and GB3XX from the kitchen and on my walks I can hit GB3CV and GB3ME.
After putting the occasional shout out on GB3MW I was reminded how quiet the repeater is. Nothing heard. Then a little while ago Ken M3ZKB popped up and we had a quick chat. Weirdly I normally hear him on GB3OV as he lives the other side of Wisbech. In fact I have heard him hopping a bunch of my local repeaters. Very surprised to get him here though. His take off must be epic as his QTH is about 81 miles from the Leamington repeater. Perhaps conditions are up. He tells me he is running 10 watts through a Moxon antenna.
I need get some audio and words together from yesterday. A great day. I got to operate G2LO 100 years to the day the British Broadcasting Company was formed. Watch this space.
THERE
Recently I was in Paris working for a week. The repeaters I have been able to hit in the past have always been quiet. This occasion was no different. Plus I was given a lead lined room with an inside facing window in a fully booked hotel. All I could do was scan broadcast radio. I know there is a big tower in the city, but spare time was short. I was either in the room preparing, in a classroom lecturing, or in a cafe/bar unwinding. We did get a day out exploring art galleries and museums on a photo walk. The Musée des Arts et Métiers had a huge communications exhibit but little for the amateur radio enthusiast outside of the odd morse key.
GEAR
It’s been a while since I have bought any radio gear. I parted/passed on my trusty FT3D this week so have treated myself to the Surecom SW-102S power and SWR meter covering 100MHz~520MHz.
Hopefully along with my little used Nano VNA I can have a play at making some portable UHF/VHF antennas.
ONAIR
While away in Paris a corner of my sky loop came down in the winds. My flexible fibreglass pole was not as flexible as I thought. So I ordered a 6m aluminium pole, extended it at the bottom with a 2m steel pole, and now it’s better than ever. Having three rigid points and one slightly flexible mast means there is a lot less slack.
I was has still having a lot of tuning issues though. I asked advice on the local net and the hive mind (mostly M0FDA) suggested that I might need a little more power to get the tuner working. I have been really careful with how much power I put into the tuner as I didn't want to damage things. But I had underestimated the coax loss and after taking their advice I upped my tuning power to 10W. Everything started working. I was very happy. I did a few tests using FT8 and compared the 80m Skyloop with my ZS6BKW.
Sometimes I see very little difference between the two antennas and other times the difference can be huge. Take 17m for example.
This is one call on FT8 with the ZS6BKW.
Then a couple of minutes later one call with the Skyloop on 17m.
There’s a little more reach to the West but in this hardly scientific experiment not a great difference.
Here is the same test but on 20m starting with the ZS6BKW.
And then the Skyloop on the same frequency showing a much bigger difference.
I wasn’t going to show 40 meters as I accidentally started with the sky loop. But in future tests I think I will do it this way round as any improvement can been seen on the same screen grab. The sky loop is marked 23 mins and the ZS6BKW at 0 mins.
As there is over 20 mins between calls this could just be fluctuating conditions. I’ll keep testing at different times of the day, but I have a feeling that the Skyloop has the edge in regards to FT8. I’ll have to see if that edge is the same for analogue modes.
I must make more time for HF. I’ve just not been in the shack all that much.
Without handheld radios I’d probably not see any radio activity. I owe a lot to these little portable wonders and am rarely without one close to hand. In fact I can remember the few times this last month when I have kicked myself for forgetting to take one with me. As I’m pretty much where I want to be with gear, I’m spending less money on radio equipment. (Let’s see how long that lasts.) But show me an new all-singing-and-dancing handheld and I’ll no doubt click-to-buy before checking if I can afford it. I wonder if Kenwood is working on something as their radios are looking pretty dated right now.
ELSEWHERE
Fun with an SDR anyone?
This site is for you if you would like to do some broadcast antenna spotting.
The SSTV app looks like an easy way to get into Slow Scan TV.
Vortex shedding is needed on large antenna stays. The kind that broadcasters use. I spotted a pile of vortex shedders yesterday and thought it would make a nice email title.
FINALS
Thanks for reading and I hope subscribing.
Please share this wherever you think it might resonate. Back soon with some audio.
Over
73 de Christian G5DOC
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