A slight aside from ham radio, I just want to give a plug for the most beautiful part of England where I lived until leaving for university - the beautiful part of southernmost Devon known as the South Hams. Our family has lived here from at least 1428, the earliest date in our family history records when one of my ancestors owned one fee of land in the time of King Henry VI. You can understand why I still regard this as my spiritual home even though we enjoy living in East Anglia. We still make regular pilgrimages back to "the promised land" as my dear old dad called it. Indeed it is.
There is a new book of walks in this area called The South Hams Coast by Gerry Miles (see www.devonpaint.nl/ and also available from www.amazon.co.uk). The book is beautifully illustrated with coastal walks covering many of the high spots from where some great VHF DX has been worked. These include Bolberry Down from where G5BY worked the USA on 6m back in the 1940s when the band was briefly available. Today his QTH (see old picture) is "The Port Light Hotel" a delightful place to drink a pint or have a crab sandwich on a long sunny cliff top walk.
28 Dec 2008
27 Dec 2008
G4IRZ Silent key sale - items now sold
On behalf of his widow, the kit belonging to the late Len Winnert G4IRZ was sold today, as one lot, to a private buyer in East Anglia.
Labels:
g4irz,
silent key
25 Dec 2008
Radio Nature
A very happy Christmas everyone. One of my presents was the book called "Radio Nature" by Renato Romero which is a very good introduction to the weird and wonderful world of ELF/VLF natural emissions such as whistlers and tweeks. The book, available from the RSGB on-line bookstore, is an excellent read.
See also his excellent webpages at http://www.vlf.it/ .
See also his excellent webpages at http://www.vlf.it/ .
Labels:
elf,
natural radio,
tweeks,
vlf,
whistlers
24 Dec 2008
Tunnel Diodes rigs
Way back in the 1960s I recall making a simple tunnel diode oscillator as part of a lab project and being excited to see such a circuit used to span 160 miles on 80m by a ZL station despite the power being microwatts only. These days tunnel diodes are almost unheard of.
Recently I spotted a similar tunnel diode TX and RX on AA1TJ's excellent webpages on which you can find more data and links to off-air records made at DX distances.
Recently I spotted a similar tunnel diode TX and RX on AA1TJ's excellent webpages on which you can find more data and links to off-air records made at DX distances.
Labels:
aa1tj,
tunnel diode
23 Dec 2008
G3XBM is 60 today
Well, another milestone passed - I have reached the age of 60 and get a free bus pass for local English buses nationwide as well as a winter fuel allowance. At least there are some perks for getting older.
21 Dec 2008
Elecraft K1
This morning I fired up my Elecraft K1 CW transceiver not having used it for some time. It is such a good little rig. Mine has the 4 band unit and internal ATU option and covers 40, 30, 20 and 15m. The filtering is excellent and the user interface good as long as you can remember the menu system, which I forget often when I don't use the rig for a time.
Within a few minutes of connecting the end-fed wire about 15m long into the back of the rig I had 5 QSOs in the log on 40 and 15m. It is such a perfect CW rig.
More details see the Elecraft website http://www.elecraft.com
Within a few minutes of connecting the end-fed wire about 15m long into the back of the rig I had 5 QSOs in the log on 40 and 15m. It is such a perfect CW rig.
More details see the Elecraft website http://www.elecraft.com
£500 silent key sale - a REAL bargain!
Some weeks ago I mentioned that I had been asked by a niece of G4IRZ to help with disposal of his (silent key) radio gear which included an Alinco DX70 HF transceiver in original packing and an FT767GX, FP707 PSU and lots of other ATUs, SWR bridges, BC221, GDO, etc. Several requested the list, but no-one has put an offer in.
The whole lot is yours for £500, buyer collects from Cambridgeshire.
I believe the actual value of the kit FAR exceeds this amount but I am not in a position to spend time disposing of the items individually. If someone is willing to buy the lot from his niece she would be pleased (as would Len's XYL) and the buyer is likely to make a decent profit if the items are then resold separately. It would also make an excellent complete ham shack for anyone starting out.
Remember, £500 buys a huge LOT of decent gear for Christmas.
Dec 27th: Now all sold.
The whole lot is yours for £500, buyer collects from Cambridgeshire.
I believe the actual value of the kit FAR exceeds this amount but I am not in a position to spend time disposing of the items individually. If someone is willing to buy the lot from his niece she would be pleased (as would Len's XYL) and the buyer is likely to make a decent profit if the items are then resold separately. It would also make an excellent complete ham shack for anyone starting out.
Remember, £500 buys a huge LOT of decent gear for Christmas.
Dec 27th: Now all sold.
Solar data page - new URL
The Solar Data page has a new URL weblink. If you have this saved as a bookmark in your web browser the new link is now http://www.solen.info/solar/
19 Dec 2008
29MHz FM
Just after 7pm tonight (Friday) I hope to do some tests with G4NUA in Cambridge around 29.6MHz FM. We will both be HORIZONTALLY polarised (Homebase-10 wire halos) running around 10W FM. If there are others in the mid-Anglia area who would like to join us then please do call in.
At one time there was a lot of activity on 29MHz FM but there is much less these days or is it just around here?
1930hrs update: successfully heard G4NUA at RS56 but he could only just detect my FM carrier (no modulation) his end. Surprised that we were unable to work each other at this distance with a pair of horizontal halos. On 2m he was 59++ and on 70cms 56. Ted was using the FT8900 4 band 50/35W FM rig covering 10m, 6m, 2m and 70cms - nice radio.
At one time there was a lot of activity on 29MHz FM but there is much less these days or is it just around here?
1930hrs update: successfully heard G4NUA at RS56 but he could only just detect my FM carrier (no modulation) his end. Surprised that we were unable to work each other at this distance with a pair of horizontal halos. On 2m he was 59++ and on 70cms 56. Ted was using the FT8900 4 band 50/35W FM rig covering 10m, 6m, 2m and 70cms - nice radio.
15 Dec 2008
Useful on-line distance calculator
http://copaseticflow.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-qsl-mapper.html
Type in the 2 callsigns to get the QSL addresses and the distance, (in miles or kilometers), between them plus miles/watt. Thanks to KD0FNR for finding this one.
The distance of my 2007 6m QRP QSO with K1TOL works out at 5083kms.
Type in the 2 callsigns to get the QSL addresses and the distance, (in miles or kilometers), between them plus miles/watt. Thanks to KD0FNR for finding this one.
The distance of my 2007 6m QRP QSO with K1TOL works out at 5083kms.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)