When Hertzian waves, wave back [060]

Greetings from the shack...

HERE

I’m in England. But I very nearly posted this from a holiday in Italy. But as ever, life (as well as amazing food and drink) got in the way.

Then on my return, things got even busier when my other publication Documentally.net got featured on Substack.

So email is a little broken at the moment as I have a glut of new subscriber emails. And with them some lovely subscribers have also dropped in here. Welcome!

I’m not sure what this might mean, or how many will stick around, but if you are a supporting subscriber over on…

…then I will sub you as a one over here as well. Sort of a buy one, get one free.

It’s the supporting subscribers that keep me going and keep this email free for all. Just let me know if I have inadvertently left you off this list.

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THERE

So… The 10 day family holiday in Italy was fantastic. I packed minimal clothing so I could sneak my radio into the bag. I was going to go super light, but ended up packing my iCom 705 and the Sotabeams linked dipole. I also had my Quangsheng HT and a Meshtastic node.

In fact the node was on pretty much the whole time. Sat on the dashboard in the car charging off USB.

I do similar in the UK and can pick up a hundred nodes on a 4 hour trip. On the short journey to the airport in the UK I picked up six nodes. Then while winding our way from Rome, through Tuscany, up to Lake Como and out of Burgamo… guess how many nodes I picked up?

Zero.

The map says 1,221km but it was easily close to or more than 1,600km with all the towing and fro-ing back and forth with a few extra stops. About 1000 miles in all.

At first I thought that Italy might not be on 868MHz. Then I thought my settings were off. Then after checking, I figured it just must be all the mountains and valley’s getting in the way. So I drove up a mountain. Still nothing.

Checking one of the node maps I figured that I may well be the only person with a Meshtastic node in the whole country. Not the best conditions for building a mesh. So I went to look in the forums. Yes! I wasn’t the only one!

There was one more.

Perhaps Italians might not like working modes on less than 1KW. Thankfully I had packed the handheld radio and HF and in the lulls between sightseeing, driving and consuming all the wine, I had a play.

In Rome I could get into a repeater but no one ever responded. Then in Libbiano, our AirBnB was on a hill and I strung up my antenna in a communal space on an old badminton net post. Not ideal as it was more of dog leg, but I hadn’t the space for my 6m telescopic pole and it had to do.

I took two abandoned chairs and plonked my radio on one.

It took me a while to get going as a few of the people who live there came over and asked what this weird Brit was doing. So I had fun explaining amateur radio and what’s possible with a bit of wire.

The callsign I5/G5DOC/QRP was a bit of a mouthful.

I had a great conversation with a guy called Roberto IG9IGO who I’d assumed was in mainland Italy but turned out to be 565 miles away on an Italian island between Malta and Tunisia. Not bad for 5W. (IOTA - AF-019)

And not long after that QSO I responded to a call from M7GWJ Steve, also on 20m. He was 745 miles away working mobile from his car. Great signal and he got me thinking that I might invest in a portable HF vertical as it was doing great for him.

That was the best radio session on the trip as at the next location on Lake Como we spent all our time swimming, seeing family, and more consuming local produce.

On the one occasion I did attempt to set up the radio, I could only square up my dipole and cram it into our tiny balcony.

I had a couple of chats on the local repeaters before switching to 20m using what was possibly the worst antenna set up I’ve seen. I taped the limbs to the walls inside the balcony and they came down the walls and across the floor in front of my feet.

Nevertheless, I managed a quick QSO with Thos EI0W who was 877 miles away in Ireland. I think the lake might have helped.

It was our last night and my Wife wondered if my radio waves might have broke the weather. After 9 days of sunshine we were treated to an amazing storm.

On the way home my Meshtastic node was on in my bag. The moment we crossed the border the nodes started pinging.

60 new ones picked up on the way home.

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GEAR

In my opinion the Yaesu FTX-1F will only beat the iCom-705 as a field radio if it can do APRS as well as 4M (70MHz). We live in hope.

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After following its development for a couple of years I finally bit the bullet and picked up a Flipper Zero. At a great price as well. Still early days of my experimentation and no I don’t plan any nefarious hacking. Especially as I have already bricked one of my car keys experimenting. Here is an old video highlighting what it can do.

So far I have used it to scan for frequencies when out and about, store all the IR codes from my household remote controls, clone the NFC power-ups from my lads Nintendo Switch Amiibos and accidentally brick my car key while trying to open my boot (aka trunk). Thankfully I have a spare. I shall not be attempting the garage door just yet, but I might be interested to purchase one of these.

Extra range would be handy. I also saw that you can trigger doorbells from a great distance. I’m glad these weren’t around when I was a kid. We used to play a game called ‘Rat-a-Tat Ginger’. You might know it as ‘Knock and Run’ or Nicky Nicky Nine Doors. or ‘Ding Dong Ditch’.

To get a head start I used to tie a long piece of tape from a cassette to the knocker and walk round the corner before pulling. Imagine the kind of havoc today’s kids could cause with a Flipper Zero.

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ONAIR

I’m lucky to have a big garden and can fit a couple of decent HF antennas in the air. My ZS6BKW was the first up, and I also had great success with an EFHW (End Fed Half Wave). But the icing on the cake was putting up an 80 meter sky loop. Certainly not something everybody can get in their back garden, but like I said, I'm lucky.

I've had great fun finding the best set up at home and then chatting around the world on it. But once it's up there and doing its thing there is very little challenge outside of putting in the hours and reading the conditions.

Most days on the local repeater I'm listening to someone bragging how they've just contacted the same Australian station 100 times and then telling everybody where they can go and find, Guatemala at five and nine.

Of course it's only five and nine for them. They live on a hill in the middle of nowhere, have a gigantic mast and more watts than you should possibly use, all firing into a massive beam.

What’s left after you have that kind of set up? Sit there and attempt to contact every ham in the world? I can see the attraction in that. Especially if you are of a certain age and less mobile. But this hobby is so vast, and while I am still able, why not change things up a bit?

I bet half the fun was building that massive station. Then honing and refining it. That’s why I really enjoy working portable. And if you really want a challenge, try it from a hotel room or AirBnB with the family temporarily occupied.

You’ve got a window of 30 minutes to set up a station and make a contact before you are missed and calls come from the other room. Now that’s a proper challenge.

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After struggling to string the Sotabeams up in urban areas I was looking for a more compact antenna solution and picked up this ‘No-Tune End Fed Half Wave Antenna’ for £12 (not including the wire). I figured it might be the thing I could just throw out of a window and it would be close to invisible.

So while writing this post I just popped out to test it. I cut a length of wire from a spool measuring 28’ and 8” crimped a copper connector on the end and put the other end on a 10m fishing pole in the garden.

I plugged the other end into my 705 and switched to 20M. There were signals all over the place but the closest on the dial was a French guy on 14.336 F4ILH/P. I answered his call and he heard me first time. I love it when a plan comes together. :-)

He was activating a park on the French coast at the Spanish border 681 miles away and we were 5/9 on both sides. I’m not sure what power he was on but I was using 5W. I rarely stick a wire vertical up a pole but you can be sure i’ll be trying this set up again. The SWR with my rough cut was 1:1.5. I’m starting to really like 20m, but I’m thinking I might cut a few more lengths. What bands do you recommend? Please leave a comment below on anything you fancy. It’s good to know you are out there.

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ELSEWHERE

• What happens when you touch a pickle to an AM radio tower.

• Might I see you at any rallies?

• The RFBitBanger is a QRP off grid radio designed to be made from readily available parts.

• Amateur Radio club changed my life.

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FINALS

Thanks for reading and I hope subscribing.

Liking and commenting gets this publication seen but please do share this wherever you think it might resonate.

What are you up to on the 18th of October? It’s an important date. Check out Cecil Goyder. I’m sure there will be some interesting callsigns floating around.

You are some of the more curious people in radio ;-) And I thank you.

Over

73 de Christian G5DOC

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