Roger G3XBM's (Mainly) Amateur Radio Blog

Just now I sent off my entry for the 70cm activity contest last Tuesday. It would appear that interest in this contest is waning. I managed ...

My entry (never a winning score with just 2 QSOs, 10W, short period on air and a 2m omni antenna!) was submitted this morning.  It is my vi...

Better late than never!  Last time, I was rock bottom of the AL (low power) section of this contest that runs every month for a year. One th...

Tonight is the 2m monthly activity contest (UKAC) organised by the RSGB. After 4 QSOs with my 10W and omni (and poor voice!) I gave up! Cond...

Last evening, I was briefly on 2m SSB in the monthly activity contest. After a couple of QSOs I decided to go QRT: with my poor voice it was...

Before my 2013 stroke, I was working on a simple rig for 10m. At the time I was thinking of a dead simple DSB transceiver, but these days a ...

Amateur radio is changing. As mentioned a few days ago, it seems far more are now turning to FT8 instead of SSB. This means the bands seem q...

Every month I take part in the 2m and 70cm UKAC activity contests organised by the RSGB. My voice is poor and I only run QRP to my big-wheel...

Steve G1KQH just pointed me to this inspiring video. Thinking about simple, low cost SSB rigs for 10m, there must be some great ideas here!

Because of my poor building skills, a very kind amateur in Scotland has built and tested my 10m Phaser kit. All being well, it should be bac...

Southgate News has a piece on the history of SSB. See Southgatearc.org/news/2021/august/the-history-of-single-sideband.htm#.YSEdbfLYrrc   .

Every month, if I am free, I go on the UKAC activity contests organised by the RSGB.  Although I submit entries running 10W SSB to a 2m omni...

There is an interesting piece on Southgate News about transmitting out of band. This is particularly important on 60m where the allocation...

My very first experience of 2m SSB was in the late 1960s when our university club station at Liverpool G3OUL had a sked. As I recall we used...

Somewhere, I still have my MX-2 SSB handheld for 2m. The last time it was used must be 7 years ago! I had a lot of fun with mine. It was...

This evening was the 2m activity contest organised by the RSGB. Although the contest runs for 2.5 hours, I managed 48 minutes before my voic...

These days 2m SSB is nothing new, but back in the 1970s there was no VHF SSB commercial gear until the Liner-2. After the Liner-2 came the...

When I first started in VHF amateur radio it was in the early 1970s, when most rigs were AM. Gradually people started using FM gear and th...

How many remember the Liner-2? For me, it transformed 2m operation. Back in the 1970s it was the ubiquitous rig for DXing on 2m in the U...

As usual, I entered the RSGB's 70cm activity contest this evening using 5W and my 2m halo. Only 2 QSOs were made! If I want to make a ...