Roger G3XBM's (Mainly) Amateur Radio Blog

  At the moment 10m is excellent and there are some 10m only rigs at bargain prices. Many will have a go on 10m only where antennas are smal...

My latest RadCom arrived yesterday. One major dealer is advertising widely (the RSGB must really value this income) and I could not help not...

We have to be grateful for "big" stations with "big" antennas, who sometimes hear us when others might not.  However, th...

For reasons I do not understand my 8m dipole has gone to resonance at about 49MHz. It is simpler to replace the antenna and coax. Assuming t...

On 6m, 2m (vertical) and 70cm (vertical) the V2000 is used. This photo was taken some years ago. On 6m with 1W CW the USA has been worked wi...

Quite a good multi-band antenna is the end-fed via a 9:1 balun. At the end of the wire it presents a high impedance and the 9:1 balun drops ...

Sometimes people want a wideband antenna covering several bands. One to consider is the bicone . these can be quite large, but can cover sev...

At one time, a very popular 23cm antenna, for ATV I think, was the bow tie designed by G8GML (now SK). As I recall it was 2 diamond shaped...

As regular readers will know, I am buying a 23cm 2W transverter from SG-Labs in Bulgaria. I think at one time they supplied a small 23cm PCB...

Next year, all being well, I hope to try some /P 23cm operation in some of the RSGB organised activity contests (UKAC). I am wondering if th...

This antenna has just come to my attention. Like all things ICOM it is expensive. It is meant to cover all HF bands (maybe with a tuner on s...

Most people opt for 5/8th wave antennas when they want better ranges on their 2m handhelds. Some years ago now I made a half-wave antenna fo...

Some years ago I was looking for an antenna for a 70cm contest to take out portable. It performed well with QRP SSB. Like similar antennas o...

In the next 48 hours, I hope to erect a wire dipole for 8m. Years ago this would have been trivial, but I am not good on ladders since my st...

One of the beauties of 10m is antennas are small. A half wave dipole is only about 5m long. A halo is even smaller. 27MHz CB verticals can w...

Judging by the results on FT8 RX today with my very improvised 15m antenna, I am tempted to convert my Par end fed antenna to 15m.  I suppos...

I have just received the latest newsletter from a major UK dealer. It included 2 products that seem pointless to me! For over £115 you can h...

This appeared as a FB memory today. It shows the antenna made from an old coat hanger for 70cm 8 years ago. The map shows the contacts with ...

Last year, this developed a fault.  I strung an end-fed wire using the Par transformer out of the shack window. The VSWR looked low, so I as...

Since taking it down I have realised I can check if the coax was faulty by connecting a 10m dipole (endfed at the shack) and running the wir...