I went out for a little bit of /P operating this afternoon for just over an hour as the weather was OK. Had a nice chat on 40m with some UK stations using the end fed half wave set up as a kind of sloper. The end was up 8m on a fibreglass pole just resting against a tree, and the feed end came down to a low tree branch and then into the coupler. It seemed to perform really well on TX and RX. Below is a little clip recorded by Dave M0TAZ. Running 100w from the Icom IC-7200.
Experimenting with an end fed half wave
I went down to the river Thames a couple of mile from home today for some portable operation and some experimenting with an end fed half wave antenna. I recently built a Parallel tuned coupler for feeding end fed half waves from 7-30MHz and this was tested on a few bands. I wanted to try 15m, but the band was full of contest stations due to the Scandinavian contest, so I cut a piece of wire for a 17m vertical. Below is some video took by Dave M0TAZ of me working Chris SM0OWX on 18MHz.
I have used the coupler on a few different bands now in various configurations with good results. I shall add a post with more results after some more tests and fine tuning soon. Here is a photo of the inside of the unit. 73 John.
I finally put up a dipole for 70MHz (4m)
Anytone AT-588 on 70MHz
Today, I finally built a ½ λ dipole for 4m. I have previously been using a folded ½ λ dipole made out of 450Ω balanced feeder, suspended in the loft, which is not ideal. I still had the coax outside on the roof and the pole which were both used previously for my 2m/70cm co-linear, which has been relocated to the chimney, so once it was built, it was simple enough to put up. (more…)
Operating HF from Dungeness ☢
I just got back from a couple of days on the South coast. I spent a day at Birling Gap and walked up the chalk cliffs at Beachy Head, then on Monday, I spent the afternoon at Dungeness. My plan was to do some photography during the day and some HF operating at night.
After a day of strolling around this strange landscape, I finally got round to setting up the HF station. I used an 85AH Leisure Battery, Yaesu FT-897D at 100W and the antenna was an inverted V for 80m up on a 9m fibreglass pole. I was facing a fantastic sunset (and the two nuclear power stations) as can be seen below.
Parked up at Dungeness for some HF operating whilst watching the sun go down.
I used a few different bands, 40m, 60m and 80m. Conditions on 60m and 80m were great for local contacts and I got good signal reports. It was an interesting spot to operate from. (more…)
New look website
I built a website when I got my full licence in 2007 as a place to show a little bit of information about myself. Over the years, more and more content was added.
I thought it was about time to give the whole site a new fresh look and also to start posting regular blog updates of the things I get up to in radio / electronics; this post being the first!
I hope you enjoy browsing this website.
73, John M0UKD.
EDIT: After making this new site in March 2013, I have finally decided to switch over to it today (15th September 2014), over a year later! Most of the old content should still be here, some of which will be removed soon and replaced with much more up to date items. Please contact me if you are looking for something and cant find it, or if you notice any errors 🙂
Echo – AO51 Apollo 11 anniversary SSTV image and audio
On July 20th 2009, AMSAT marked the 40th anniversary of the linar landing, by transmitting a looped audio and SSTV image. Here is the audio and SSTV image I recieved from AO51 satellite, 435.300MHz on 20th July 2009. 1729 GMT.
SSTV Image received Robot 36 format.
Press PLAY above, to hear the audio I received with an FT-817ND and homemade 7 element handheld yagi 435.300MHz
This is my homemade beam for receiving AO51. Wooden boom with bicycle spoke directors/reflector and a coathanger as a driven element! 4:1 coax balun. AO51 is a signal 7 on a good pass with the FT-817ND.
Using a fence as an antenna
I always wanted to try something other than an antenna as an antenna, so I decided to try to join our clubs topband net, whilst out portable and using a wire fence. I spent the morning modifying my MFJ-971 portable tuner, by adding an extra inductor in the form of a T130-2 torroid, with 29 turns, in series with the main inductor inside. This is only in circuit when the tuner is in the highest inductance setting, where it will use the whole wire inductor and my torroid. MFJ say this tuner is for 1.8-30MHz, but its really 3-30MHz, unless youre tuning a 50Ω load! It now works nicely with most things on 1.8MHz.
So, over to the country park I went, set up this tiny station, clipped my feed to the top piece of galvanised wire, and my ground to the lowest piece, and the mesh. To my surprise, it tuned easily, and worked ok to the local contacts. This fence is 1 metre high, and around 150 metres long. Now, i’m wondering what I can use next! John.
FT-817ND and Tuner