On Tuesday 8th August, there was a planned contact between the ISS and YOTA at 1837 UTC, so I decided to have a listen. There was an issue with the ISS VHF downlink during this pass, so the contact was rescheduled to the next pass, at 2015 UTC. You can hear Paolo IZØJPA apologise for the technical issues they had on the first pass at the beginning of the contact.
I was lucky enough to be able to hear both GB4YOTA and NA1ISS from my location, as the YOTA station was operating from Gilwell Park, which is only 18km NW from my location. The video below shows my reception of the contact. Antenna was a Diamond X-50 on the house, into an Icom IC-7100.
I recently built a quarter wave ground plane antenna, so that I could get back on the 4m (70MHz) band. I have made a page showing some images and construction details of this antenna which can be seen here.
Click the image to view construction details of the 70MHz quarter wave ground plane antenna.
In commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of ARISS, a Slow Scan Television (SSTV) event took place between the evening of Thursday 20th July until the morning of Monday 24th July. The International Space Station (Russian Segment) was transmitting a sequence of SSTV images showing the history of ARISS on a downlink frequency of 145.800MHz in FM mode and PD120 SSTV mode.
I started receiving them on the Friday, just for fun, but then thought it would be great to collect all 12 images, thinking at the time it might not be possible. However, over the three days, I did actually manage to receive all 12 images. Some I managed to get a few times, giving the choice of multiple images to pick from, others only the one, but I did end up with all of them. 6 of the 12 images I managed to get with no noise, the other 6 are with varying amounts of noise. Read more to see the images.(more…)
I have been making a few 1/4 wave antennas lately, mainly for UHF and the GHz bands with good success, so I decided to create a calculator to simplify the process and maybe get some people who have not tried one before to give it a go.
For UHF for example, these can be made very cheaply, very easily and they perform well. Try one on 433MHz plugged into your handheld for example 🙂
It’s been a year to the day since I last posted an entry here. I have had quite an inactive year with regards to the hobby. Work takes priority of course, but I will get out and about this year and posting a bit more on my blog / pages. I do have some things to update and new pages to add when I have the time such as constructing a 20 element 1.3GHz Yagi, building a 1.3GHz system & some PSU reviews. l also have a few messages and comments to reply to which I am getting through slowly.
It’s been a long winter but spring is finally here so it’s time to get back into the swing of things 🙂
I recently purchased a 23cm transverter from SG-lab. It’s a 145MHz IF with a L.O. frequency of 1152MHz (default; can be changed). Output power is 2w. Tonight, I had my first QSO on the 23cm band with it with two friends who both have the same transverter, G7UVW and M1GEO. I used a Yaesu VX-6 for the IF, but that went flat, so I switched to the Icom ID-51, which is set to record all QSO’s, so there is an MP3 below!
The transverter comes with a HB9CV antenna etched on a PCB which works really well. I had the ID-51 in one hand and the antenna in the other, holding it out the window. All three of us had the same setup holding the antenna out of or near a window. I first spoke to David G7UVW at 2.2 miles and then George M1GEO at 1.2 miles. Signals were good all round, although it seems the best signal between G7UVW and I was via reflecting off a school building opposite me (or something, the peak signal certainly wasn’t in his direction!).
We are all very happy with the result. I am now going to build a couple of Yagi antennas, look at getting a PA and try out some of the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contests in the summer.
My first couple of 23cm QSO’s using a 2w transverter and a handheld.
The setup of George M1GEO with the HB9CV on a broom stick boom!
Update: The next day, George M1GEO took his transverter up to the 12th floor at UCL in central London. We made contact easily again both with 2w and a HB9CV antenna, over a distance of 14km.
I recently took my power supply apart to give it a clean and replace the fan with something quieter. I have used this supply for a few years and its been good and reliable, so I decided to add a reviews section to the website, starting with my experience using this power supply.
A few of us decided to have a go in the RSGB 21/28MHz contest on Sunday. We used Georges call, M1GEO and a combination of equipment from us all. I brought my 3 element 28MHz Yagi, Dave M0TAZ brought the two masts and his 21MHz 4 element Yagi, while George and his dad brought the Icom IC-7700 and generator. Fred G3SVK also came and done some CW.
UK stations can only work outside the UK and non UK stations can only work UK stations. This made it quite hard work as there was not much activity due to the bands not being in good shape, especially 10m. We could hear some beacons though, although not strong, we received a beacon in Brazil and one in Argentina. We did work some good DX however, including South Africa, Uruguay, Brazil and VP8NO in the Falkland Islands on 28MHz.
The operating table.
Still, we had fun operating outside in the October sunshine for possibly the last time this year!
