Anyone who knows me, knows that I enjoy computers, I like to connect my radio to a computer to simplify logging etc. I have nothing against technology in general. I have been in communications and IT for years, professionally.
It's not that I am against data modes. I just don't understand the draw of FT8.
I have tried it and I guess it's OK but it seems that the whole world and its canine companion is using FT8. It's even invading VHF currently. Looking at the waterfall, some people are using incredible amounts of power as well!
As a low signal mode, I can see the interest from a propagation point of view. It's like a 2 way version of WSPR I guess but other than that I fail to see the enjoyment. I know people who have blown the finals on their radios by running them at full chat on FT8! Why? I mean, just why? Where is the challenge?
What about running it at 1W, or maybe 100mW? Of course, you might struggle at times to be heard through all the high power stations using double the bandwidth of everyone else, but at least it would be a challenge. I just do not get it. Linda used FT8 for 3 months on 20-30W and achieved DXCC without any difficulty. It's all too easy.
This year, I am concentrating on CW, from home at least and trying to get contacts is a nightmare. Now I appreciate that conditions are bad but getting contacts on SSB or CW is difficult. It sometimes seems that every band is open with FT8 but nobody is listening on any other mode.
I put calls out for ages on several bands and I can see that the bands are open by the RBN reports on CW but I get very few responses. In contrast, the FT8 frequencies are bouncing. Does nobody want to chat anymore? Are we becoming a hobby of computers talking to each other with us interacting occasionally?
Why not accept the challenge of SSB or CW on the HF bands? If you can't get an aerial out at home, go mobile. You can use a cheap end fed aerial and a battery, it doesn't have to cost a fortune. Portable radio can be a lot of fun, especially if you have a friend to go with. It's much more fun than watching a screen as well!
I am sorry if this came over as a bit of a rant and maybe it is the Grumpy Old Man starting to appear in me? Maybe it is just me, I don't know.
I hope to work you on SSB/CW very soon and have a good chat :)
OFCOM this week released their consultation document on the future of Amateur Radio in the UK and their proposals to move the hobby forward.
It is an interesting if somewhat long document with one or two minor errors but on the whole, a considered look at the hobby I love.
I am going to attempt here to formulate my thoughts prior to responding in full to the document and I hope that ALL amateurs in the UK will do the same. This is REALLY important to the future of our hobby and the biggest changes in some time, right across the licence levels.
Before I start, I want to thank OFCOM for their considered approach to modernising Amateur Radio. It is a complex task, involving parties well outside the UK and outside Amateur Radio as a whole. I do not envy them the task. That said, I reserve the right to disagree with them where I feel they have not thought something through well enough. I also reserve the right to change my mind after due consideration. This is of course, a working document and the changes are due to happen over a three year period. We do however, need to respond to this NOW! The closing date for you to air your views is 4th September 2023. This will come sooner than you think!
I am going to respond to the questions asked in the document in order and also add some of my own thoughts. I would appreciate any thoughtful comments on the proposals, or even my answers.
I was tidying up the boot of the car and thought it would be interesting to summarise the equipment I take portable. It's quite astonishing how it grows but I think I have everything I need now.
Did I really just say that???
It has been a very useful exercise for me. Apart from tidying up the boot and boxes, I got to realise just how lucky I am to be able to have all this gear and get the enjoyment out of using it! I live in an area of outstanding natural beauty, access to places to operate with very little background noise and enough space to play with aerials.
I always make sure to protect my portable radios with decent padded cases. They are not cheap radios on the whole and spending a reasonable amount on protective cases makes a whole lot of sense to me.
My QRP GoBox is a case I have had for some years and I used to transport my K3 in it on DXPeditions. I managed to get a piece of pick and pluck foam that fitted perfectly from eBay and relined it.
The QRO Box also came via eBay and cost a little more but was not overly expensive. It's a great box and nothing inside will come to any harm, short of being run over by a Steam Roller!
My aerials have all been reviewed on the YouTube channel but it was interesting to get them out one by one and think of their individual benefits. They all have a different part to play.
One thing I forgot to mention in the video was tools. It is always handy to have a few small tools available. Allen keys, cutters, screwdrivers, pliers, that sort of thing. A multimeter is handy too. Cable ties and tape complete this section.
I doubt I will be yomping up any fells, so I usually have the car close to hand but I could be very portable if needed and still be able to operate for 2-3 hours with a small backpack.
Portable radio is just such fun and you never know just what is going to pop up. I am just hoping we get some decent daytime conditions soon. I really would like to drop to QRP levels and see what I could achieve there but alas, the present conditions make it really difficult.
This video is a little longer than my usual fare but I hope you find it informative and enjoyable.
Brian and I went back to Dave's field this weekend and had a great time. You cannot underestimate the sheer amount of fun to be had with portable radio, especially when it is a shared experience.
One of the things we wanted to achieve this time was to get Brian's station running well. We identified a bad connector from last week and made a couple of leads up to correct the issue. He took the TS480SAT and powered it from his new Beaudens power station.
This little unit performed flawlessly throughout the day, running the radio at 50W SSB quite happily. The great thing is that it is small and light. Absolutely perfect for this kind of operation. If used at QRP levels, it would last ages! At 50W SSB, it would certainly last for most of the day. As it was, less than half of the charge was used.
It proved to be very quiet, RF-wise, which is obviously the main focus for us :). Bear in mind that the radio in use is not the most power efficient portable radio.
The next thing was how well I could put up the BandHopper. This was erected in much less time than the first and will be even quicker next time. Every day is a learning day!
We managed to get the aerials up just before it started to rain. We quickly relocated the radios to the cars and started to operate. The bands were not great, there having been a couple of minor flares, but as our noise floor was zero, it was not a problem from our side. I started on 40m and Brian was on 20m on the Slidewinder.
In fairness, I think I had the best of it. The bands were not great but 40m is usually fairly busy on a Saturday and I had a slow but steady start. 20m was not as good but Brian was managing a few contacts.
Brian was the first to crack and moved his station outside the car and I followed shortly after. We swapped bands, with Brian on 40m on the Slidewinder and me on 20m on the BandHopper. I discovered that I could lower one end of the dipole, keeping the tension on lightly and altering the aerial for 20m. Much quicker than having to drop the mast.
Much hilarity ensued when Brian moved the slider on the Slidewinder and when checked, it was absolutely bang on on 40m!! I bet he couldn't do it again 😆
I then moved to CW and managed a couple of contacts but the bands were closing in a bit and we decided to close down.
What a great day again though. I can really recommend getting out of the house and just having some fun for a few hours in an RF quiet place. You really don't need much to do it. If you make it QRP, you really need very little indeed and you could easily have a full station in a small backpack, as SOTA and WOTA stations know well.
As usual, I made a video of our day. I was using a gimbal for the first timed I definitely need more practice :)
So the plan was to go and check out a field that we have been given the use of by an amateur friend. Five hours later, we decided to pack up :)
Brian, G0RDH and myself arrived at the field and moved the cars into the shade under the trees. we also planned it so that the tailgates would protect us from full sun as it moved around and on the whole, this worked well enough. The field is mown and firm, so taking the cars on was not an issue.
The one thing I wanted to do was to attempt to put up the BandHopper 3 that I purchased from SotaBeams recently. I wanted to see if I could put it up on my own and I did. Next time I will have a much better idea and of course, I won't be filming at the same time, which will speed things up. Even then, it took very little time.
Well, having put up the aerial, it would have been a shame not to try it right? I was hoping to get a couple of contacts to see how it went. 40m has been a fickle band of late and so I was not expecting to have too much luck.
I could not have been more wrong! I had a few contacts with my own callsign and then switched to GX5BAY, which is the club call of Bay Amateur Radio Group.
Just for context, Bay Amateur Radio Group (BARG) is a loose group of friends who like to play portable radio. We believe the hobby should be fun and that getting out in the field is a lot less stressful than trying to work through S7 of noise at home :)
We did put up the JPC-12 and the SlideWinder as well but 40m was so busy, I never got to try them out!
Brian set up with the SlideWinder but he had some issues with his station that we need to iron out for the next outing. I set up my KX3 for him on the little 6800mAH LiPo battery that I use with it. He went on 20m but the band was busy with activity of some kind and he didn't really make much headway. Again, another learning experience.
So, I set off on 40m calling with GX5BAY and in just a few minutes I had pileups. I fell back on the old way of making a list and then running through before calling CQ again. This worked as well as ever and I can't count the number of QRP and portable stations I worked! Having a zero noise floor helped and everyone was booming in. The RGO ONE excels in this kind of environment. I do love single conversion superhets!
I will admit freely that I was taken completely by surprise at the sheer amount of people calling me. I was running 50W into a portable dipole at about 19 feet! I got great signal reports and so many completely unsolicited 'great audio' reports that I lost count.
I eventually got the chance to switch to CW and managed to work ON6PJ but then the band started to shift and possibly some kind of contest started. Whatever, it got chaotic quickly and as we had been out for some time, we decided to pack up for the day.
Next time we will be more organised and hopefully Brian's station will work as advertised! The weather was lovely and in the shade, it was a perfect temperature. We had plenty of water and next time I will take some tea I think.
We did some filming and you will find the video below. I hope you enjoy it.
Right from the start, I should explain that this is not a generator at all. It is a power bank. My friend Brian, G0RDH bought this and brought it round for me to look at.
I was really surprised at how small and light it is. Figures are fine but there is nothing like actually seeing something in the flesh and checking the weight for yourself.
It actually weighs 2.2kg but if anything, feels even lighter and has a nice handle on the top. The case is a metal alloy of some kind and is very nicely built.
It comes nicely packed and has several leads with it. You can charge the unit from the mains, or from the car with the supplied leads, a nice touch.
The mains socket is quoted as 150W but is not a pure sine wave, so caution is required. This is the one part of the design I do not like. The socket is not covered in any way and it would be easy for a child to poke something in there.
I would strongly suggest using a blanking plate. However, the rest of the unit is very sturdily built indeed.
One of the best features is the inbuilt LiFePo4 battery. This should have an excellent lifespan and is much safer than a LiPo and lighter than an AGM or equivalent leisure battery.
A MPPT controller is built in, so you can plug a 100W solar panel straight in to keep the battery topped up. All in all, a really nice little unit that should be perfect for portable work from close to the car.
As usual, here is a little video. In the video I am not sure what a particular lead is for. It is actually to connect a solar panel.
I had another go from the garden today and managed to nab a park for POTA and a couple of local portable contacts but conditions were appalling! I tried several bands but it was hard going. Even the FT8 frequency (don't even get me started there!) was fairly quiet on 40m.
I did manage to get one CW contact with David, G4HMC who was QRP. Hard work but a valid contact and shows the power of CW. I would never have managed to complete this contact on SSB.
Here is the video, for what it's worth. Completely unedited this one ;)
I have been thinking for a while that although verticals are truly handy to deploy and take up little space, 40m would benefit from a simple dipole. So what to do? Do I make one up? I certainly could. I have done it many times before. I would then need a mast of some kind to support it, plus guys and feeder.
It would then have to be packable and easy to carry if I was away from the car. Do I make it a single band or multiband? Can I get decent lightweight wire that won't stretch in use? How light can I make it?
Fortunately, SOTABEAMS have already invented this and have variations on it!
From the outset, I should state that I have nothing to do with SOTABEAMS and I bought this setup with my own money. The opinions in this article are my own and based on my own findings.
The Bandhopper range consists of a series of linked dipoles. The 4 band (80,40,30,20), 3 band (40,30.20) and the 2 band (40,20). Each one is pretuned, alleviating the need for a tuner. Great for radios like the QCX, Of course, the 40m element would also tune on 15m.
These are completely self contained link dipoles. They come on 3 winders and include feeder, terminated on a BNC connector, and a backstay. The wire and associated cords are bright and easy to see, important if you are anywhere near the public. The centrepiece is designed to drop over the top of a 'fishing pole' type of mast, although you could use a cable tie to help support it on other kinds of support. The feeder includes a nice choke balun and the dipoles are linked via crocodile clips. The whole thing comes in a bag with 3 well engineered ground pegs. The whole thing weighs less than 500g!
The design of this aerial is superb. There are even elastic straps built in to keep everything tidy on the winders. Winding the aerial and feeder onto the winders in a 'figure of eight' style, stops everything tangling.
Now, all this isn't new to a lot of people who have been using these for years on SOTA activations but it is new to me and I am impressed!
So the next thing to think about is supporting the dipole.
I could buy a cheap fishing pole mast. I have used these many times in the past for 1/4 wave verticals. The problem that most of these suffer from is the top sections are very whippy. If the mast is to support a dipole, the last thing you want it for the top to be bending over and potentially snapping over time. They also tend to be relatively long and not easy to carry without holding them.
This is a good heavy duty pole that, when in its packed form is only 22 inches long! It is recommended for the 2 and 3 band Bandhoppers. It comes in a nicely made bag and is well thought out and constructed and weighs 750g.
The great thing about this setup is that it is totally self supporting. I suspect that in really windy conditions, an extra set of guys would be useful and SOTABEAMS have you covered there too but for me, I doubt it would ever be.a problem as I am very much a fair weather portable operator :)
Once in the air, the two legs of the dipole and the inbuilt backstay form the three guys as well. This will take a little practice but once mastered will mean the aerial can be erected in very little time at all.
There is a video on the SOTABEAMS website by Richard, G3CWI, showing how this is achieved. Very simple and easily doable by one person!
Obviously, changing bands will inevitably mean lowering the mast over again but that it just a matter of dropping the backstay and lowering to the ground, linking, then erecting the mast again. The job of only a couple of minutes.
I have a couple of questions about the setup that I would like to have answered if anybody knows?
Firstly, SOTABEAMS state ...
'This is about 6 metres (20ft) up and is the perfect height for the antenna centre. Any higher and the antenna may not work properly'
Now the accepted rule for dipoles that I have always been told, is that to work for a given band, the centre of the dipole should be at least 1/2 wave off the ground. For 40m, this is about 10m, or 33 feet. So, I find this interesting and is possibly a gap in my knowledge. Can anybody help me here?
Secondly, when supported in this way, the two legs of the inverted V will also be less than 180 degrees apart, probably approaching 120 degrees. This would make it somewhat directional I would have thought. Does anyone have any experience of this or is this just another case of overthinking on my part?
I guess the truth will become apparent as I gain experience with the aerial :)
I know this aerial is much loved by those who use it and I look forward to trying it out!
