tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2009-11-12:/Amateur radio and travel.MokoFeed2009-11-12T14:27:26+01:00tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2009-04-30:/2009/04/30/outstanding-in-my-field-6036066/gm4aff2009-04-30T16:37:08+02:002009-04-30T16:39:47+02:00 <p>I spent 7 hours out in the antenna field yesterday fixing the 20m yagi and the 40m rotator and lots of other stuff. I bought a new (Lazy Tongue) riveter so I was able to replace the small (2ft long) broken piece of the 32ft boom on the 20m yagi. The rivets were too big for my pathetic toy one to handle. The tubing for replacing the broken elements arrived this morning, so that's the next step.<br> I replaced the broken Kenpro 600 with a HAM 4 on the 40m tower. I used some crimped connectors for the connections, but one of them was loose. I didn't discover this until the rotator was bolted to the tower. So that's now fixed and working.<br> So even more progress.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2009/04/30/outstanding-in-my-field-6036066/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2009-04-28:/2009/04/28/spring-is-sprung-de-grass-is-riz-6022421/gm4aff2009-04-28T12:53:45+02:002009-04-28T13:00:37+02:00 <p>I saw the first swallow of the year yesterday, which is about (or maybe exactly) the same day as the last two years. I finally collected the new spiggots for the 20m tower, and got the head unit fitted last night. There's so much broken and needing repaired I don't know when I'll get it all done.<br> The Kenpro 600 rotator on the 40m tower has lost 3 teeth off the main gear. Understandable because it was never going to be able to handle a 402CD. Now I have to find parts. The HAM 4 on the 10m tower really just fell apart. One of the limit switches seems to be jammed open and the terminal block on the base has disintegrated. The boom and 2 elements on my 4ele 20m yagi broke so the bits have been ordered for that and a new rivetting machine has been ordered.<br> Have decided to go to GD (Isle of Man) to do the IOTA Contest. This seems to have upset a few folk. None of whom live on the Isle of Man. I don't believe that the Isle of Man is a place to win IOTA from.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2009/04/28/spring-is-sprung-de-grass-is-riz-6022421/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2009-03-08:/2009/03/08/march-144-432mhz-5717904/gm4aff2009-03-08T18:58:20+01:002009-03-08T19:05:19+01:00 <p>Haven't done much radio now since the Stew Perry Contest back in December. Decided to bite the bullet and get the 2m amplifier fixed, and try to rekindle the dying embers of 2m. And it was great fun, with pretty average conditions for me, and a best DX somewhere around 850km in JO32 with DF0MU. I believe some folk worked an EA, which was nice. I did the 6 hour (3 + 3) section - the first 3 and the (nearly) last 3 hours. Seems like the level of activity up here is awful. I believe this is due to the restrictions in the use of the cluster.<br> The setup was an Elecraft K3 with Allan's (GM4ZUK) Elecraft TV144 transverter, an old MuTek MGF1302 on the mast, and a 17 element Tonna at 50ft or so, on the tower nearest the shack.<br> It occurs to me that I bought this house because it's a good VHF site, and I've spent the last 10 years trying to do well on HF with little success. Perhaps I ought to erect a decent system for VHF. Four big yagis would be difficult to keep up though.<br> Here's a pic of the broken head unit off the tower...<br> <img src="http://data5.blog.de/media/190/3300190_4e27fe3798_m.jpeg" alt="Busted Head Unit" vspace="5" hspace="5"><br> The problem I have is that the tower is a very heavy duty 5 section tower, but only the bottom 3 sections are used, so the head unit needs these silly tabs to mate the head into the top section.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2009/03/08/march-144-432mhz-5717904/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2009-01-25:/2009/01/25/cw-skimmer-5447068/gm4aff2009-01-25T23:24:02+01:002009-01-25T23:28:00+01:00 <p>I've spent the last few weeks playing with Skimmer. I use a Softrock SDR receiver, and a Clifton lab Z10000 buffer amp on the IF output of a K3. The sound card in my PC is poor so I don't see much (in terms of bandwidth) but I've got a better new sound card on the way. I found it quite hard to get everything set up and working and had to e-mail some people to get some help. It's wierd that this new technology created such a wave of controversy on the contest reflectors, but very few people are actually playing with it - or perhaps they're not letting on. The info on the web is actually not very helpful, or too simplistic.<br> It was interesting to watch 160m last night during the CQ WW 160m Contest, or 40m during the REF Contest yesterday afternoon.<br> I now have my new shack PC all wired up and fired up. Unfortunately we (my son) seems to have lost our (his) copy of WIndows XP so I've had to install 2000 Pro, which works, but means that I can't beta test iHamLogger, which I had planned to do.<br> Both the AFS CW and SSB Contests are now past, and the 70MHz Cumulatives are under way. And today I competely forgot about the latter. However, it does mean that the year is well under way and spring will soon be here - I see a lot of snowdrops pushing through.<br> I repaired and re-erected the 160m dipole today. I spent a few hours giving away some points in the CQ WW 160m, but I seem to have a problem with every receive antenna in some way now, so that'll be the next thing.<br> Ho Hum.<br> Regarding the comment about Heathrow, my mother deosn't actually live in Canada and isn't dying or dead either. I decided that I would delete my comment though, and try to stick to the ham radio script here. I will probably create a new blog for travel and other related issues. My comments were also off the mark and not particularly well written, for which I apologise.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2009/01/25/cw-skimmer-5447068/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2009-01-13:/2009/01/13/heathrow-5370672/gm4aff2009-01-13T14:03:25+01:002009-01-13T14:04:02+01:00 <p>As one who travels quite a lot, I'm intrigued by the Greenpeace purchase of land on the proposed site of the Heathrow third runway. I simply would like to know what alternative Greenpeace are offering? A passenger in a fully laden Boeing 747 produces less carbon than a driver driving the same distance in a Mini. But it is not possible to get to Kuwait, or Sidney, or most other places in the world in a Mini - you need to fly. So, come on, what is the alternative? I know there are some, but I'd like to hear the argument for them backed by science and logic. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2009/01/13/heathrow-5370672/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2009-01-11:/2009/01/11/stew-perry-afs-cw-etc-5360774/gm4aff2009-01-11T22:15:17+01:002009-01-11T22:15:17+01:00 <p>I spent about 5 hours in the Stew Perry contest - I was pleased with what I could work. We had to go out to dinner with friends on the Saturday night so I missed the JA opening which seems to have been one of the best for years.<br> The 4m Cumulatives got of to roaring start this morning - I only worked 9 stations as I had to get out do some stuff, but there seemed to be a lot of activity and some high serials. Managed to work G4RFR for best DX and a few other good ones, but G3TCU lost me in the noise.<br> Having lost the top of the 80m vertical in the gale in December I decided to tie an 80m dipole to the top of the decapitated tower and slope it to the south. I've never tried a sloper in AFS before. Seems like it was worthwhile, as I just achieved my highest ever score. Also, I tried a new tactic, starting with S & P from the top down, rather than the bottom up, which is always like trying to platt fog ...especially from GM at 1400 in the afternoon.<br> My AFS score are here for interest:<br> 1999 - 212<br> 2000 - 214<br> 2001 - 212<br> 2002 - 210<br> 2003 - 193<br> 2004 - 180<br> 2005 - 220<br> 2006 - 214<br> 2007 - 211<br> 2008 - 235<br> 2009 - 261</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2009/01/11/stew-perry-afs-cw-etc-5360774/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-12-26:/2008/12/26/december-5280965/gm4aff2008-12-26T17:19:35+01:002008-12-26T17:41:39+01:00 <p>I have just returned from a quick trip to Singapore, which also managed to give me Oman, UAE, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the DXFC count (<a href="http://www.dxfc.org">www.dxfc.org</a>). Quite a little adventure in 8 days, taking me to 111 countries.<br> <img src="http://data5.blog.de/media/615/3095615_798ad7f3b5_m.jpeg" alt="Singapore - Clarke Quay" vspace="5" hspace="5"><br> Unfortunately for every up there's always a down. My antennas were hammered in a gale while I was away so I came back to a nice mess. The head unit on the 20m tower had broken off.<br> <img src="http://data5.blog.de/media/603/3095603_1bea854c57_m.jpeg" alt="Broken tower" vspace="5" hspace="5"><br> Allan GM4ZUK came over and helped me lower the shambles to the ground. I've quickly tried to tidy up and put the top band dipole at the top of the tower ready to make a few Q's in tomorrow's Stew Perry contest.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/12/26/december-5280965/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-12-08:/2008/12/08/cq-ww-cw-and-since-5181294/gm4aff2008-12-08T14:10:46+01:002008-12-08T14:10:46+01:00 <p>As it turned out I was unable to even make a stab at CQ WW CW. It was always going to be a no-no on that particular weekend as my son and wife were to have a kidney transplant op on the 3 Dec. In the end events overtook us and he was taken in to hospital as a result of a reaction to Heparin. So, the op was cancelled. We've all got back to normality now.<br> I spent a couple of hours working some nice DX ion 40m and giving away points to my firends and others who were deserving. Please to work 3X5A on six and P3F and others on five bands. I was very pleased to work some Pacific DX on 40m and managed to catch W6, W7 and VE7 long path in the afternoon.<br> The antennas have only been up and working for a week and already I lost the top 30ft from the 80m vertical and a bit of my 20m yagi D1, so now it's a 3.75 element yagi. I busted the 160m dipole while fixing the 80m vertical. They're both back working again, but the resoanace of the 160m dipole will have to be reduced prior to the Stew Perry contest this Christmas. I also have some work to do to put an 80m trap and a set of capacity hat wires on the 80m vertical to make it work on 160m.<br> I made a few QSOs in the 144 AFS contest on Sunday and was surprised at how many people could hear my I started with 25 watts, then switched on the amp ...and ran 100 watts. It's still a waste of time trying to do any 2m contesting with less than 400w from my QTH though. And it was a UK contest, with the big hitters just beaming to Eu and working stuff that way. When you call them they spend 5 minutes asking you to repeat your call then they hear you, give you a report and tell you that you're off the back of their beam. Fine, but you're off the front of mine, you're weak and I can still hear YOU! Sadly a few were heard and called that I never did work. But it is real fun to work someone who is weak, far away and can hear well.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/12/08/cq-ww-cw-and-since-5181294/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-11-24:/2008/11/24/cq-ww-cw-preps-cont-d-5097695/gm4aff2008-11-24T13:57:49+01:002008-11-24T14:04:16+01:00 <p>I spent most of Saturday and all of Sunday daylight hours working on antennas. I hauled up the 160m dipole on Saturday morning only to discover that it was resonant on 2.005 MHz. This was interesting because the wire I use is actually 2-core ex-GPO stuff which is very strong, and seldom breaks. Of course, when it breaks, you can end up with a situation where the actual useful part of the wire that is elecrically connected is not the full length, as had happened in this case. It's more complicated than that because there was already an existing repair, which had a single wire electrically connected through it. Blah, blah, you get the point. It's only a f***g dipole!! But it works like a dream now, resonant on 1840 with 1:1 SWR.<br> Having frigged about with that all morning, I moved on to the 80m vertical, which still needed to be erected in it's 40ft form, get the guys set, then have the top 31 feet added and guyed. I had bought a load of new 3mm rope - stuff which I thought would be a lot better than the blue rope which I (and lots of other people) use. The reason most of my antennas fall down is because blue rope degrades in sunlight. The 3mm rope is for the top set of guys. I noticed that during the day they seemed to go loose, and I had to re-tighten them twice. All seemed to go well, the vertical is resonant on 3650 which was a surprise (but at 71 feet this makes sense). The SWR wasn't too good, but I then spent most of Sunday morning walking out 32 radials and that helped. It also helped to flatten out the SWR bandwidth. It's still not great but that must be due to a problem with the final run of coax from the box in the field to the antenna base, although the last connecting piece was replaced on Sunday.<br> I was quite chuffed to have got all 6 aerials working (after a fashion) by lunchtime on Sunday. Now I started on the receive antennas. Both the ewes and beverages all needed major work. I replaced the terminating resistors on the ewes, and used the new (home made) matching transformer on one (which I had made for Shetland). The beverages required a lot of work. I replaced about 150 feet of wire on the SE one, and sorted out the supports where the horses had tried to eat and head-butt them. The wire was degraded because of so many breaks due to deer crashing through it and rabbits eating the wire at the end where it's in the weeds at ground level. I had to repair a break in the NW one too, but this wasn't such a hassle. Nevertheless, it took the rest of the day. As it turned dark I went indoors to check them. I didn't hear much to give it a good test on 80m but they are working. On 40m it was more successful. I could hear W7WA as clear as a bell long-path. I flashed up the linear to call him only to discover that the indication on the 40m rotator controller wasn't indicating. I checked that it was still responding to rotation commands - it was, so it's another rotator cabling issue to deal with. I worked him anyway, as he was dropping into the noise.<br> As I drove down the road this morning I saw that the top section of the 80m vertical is bent over. Unfortunately the new rope which I have bought may not degrade in sunlight, but it stretches, which is probably a far worse problem!<br> I'm happy to think that all around the world others are also wrestling with antennas, getting them ready for next weekend. And of course, there are lots of people travelling off to exotic parts this week as well. Wish I was!! Good luck to them all!</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/11/24/cq-ww-cw-preps-cont-d-5097695/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-11-16:/2008/11/17/cq-ww-cw-2008-preparations-5048324/gm4aff2008-11-17T00:19:46+01:002008-11-18T16:54:54+01:00 <p>Last year I went to CT3 (Madeira) to do CQ WW CW. This year, as my wife is donating one of her kidneys to my oldest son, and the transplant operation is on 3 Dec, I am probably not going to be be making a serious entry.<br> I have spent the last two weekends working on getting the antennas at home up to spec. The list of problems is long:<br> Both beverages are broken, both Ewes are broken, the 80m vertical is lying on the ground with broken guys, the top band dipole is broken at three points with the balun also disconnected, the Prosistel rotator on the 20m antenna tower is broken, and the reflector on the WARC beam is lying on the ground.<br> I spent last weekend lowering the big Westower with the 20m yagi, and removed the Prosistel rotator. The rotator controller is indicating 112 degrees all the time and the antenna appears to have spun round at least 3 times clockwise - the coax to the 20m yagi and the WARC beam are both damaged and will have to be chopped and re-terminated. I unwound the antenna by spinning it anti-clockwise 3 times - the limit stop didn't prevent me. Having removed the rotator I opened it up - it was as clean as a whistle, and the pot was working as it should. The Prosistel uses a 10 turn pot - you could turn it 5 times in either direction without damageing the thing. The controller has an electronic stop to prevent that happeneing, but it doesn't always work. Even when the rotator was off the tower the controller was still indicating 112 degrees. This is OK (I later calculated), but the manual incorrectly says it should indicate 000 degrees. The manual is rubbish, but this is made up for by the rotators ability to turn a house. To cut a long story short I eventually found that the cause of the wrong indication was due to a break in the cable underground. The cable runs for about 150 feet in a pipe, and unfortunately, I had to haul it out to find the break. It was an old join that had corroded. Moral of the story is never use a cable with a join, in a pipe. It will corrode.<br> This weekend was spent mending the feeders to those antennas, realigning the rotator, replacing the rotator cable, replacing the 160m and 80m dipole uphauls and getting the tower back up. Added to that I also lowered the 40m yagi tower because the 402CD SWR has gone up over the last year. The point of resonance has gone down to 6940kHz - why...? I lowered the tower, shortened the driven elements by about 2" and found that the point of resonance was now 7120kHz. This always mystifies me! I ended up extending and shortening the damned thing until eventually I had to add 3 inches of WIRE to the end of the driven elements to make it resonate on 7040. Next November I will have to remove these because the thing will decide to resonate on 6940 again.<br> As light faded today I was out there fixing the 160m balun, but it got too dark to see so I'll have to haul that up next weekend.<br> Still, what else is there to do at the weekend!? Rag chew with your old mates on 80m I suppose.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/11/17/cq-ww-cw-2008-preparations-5048324/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-11-16:/2008/11/16/cq-ww-ssb-2008-from-shetland-as-gz0f-5048212/gm4aff2008-11-16T23:48:07+01:002008-11-18T16:55:53+01:00 <p>This year I went to Shetland for the CQ WW SSB and it was a real struggle from start to finish! Shetland experienced the highest wind speeds of the year on the Saturday night (93 mph) and I never did get the main mast and tribander up in the air. But thank goodness, because it would have fallen down in those winds! Propagation from 60deg North is always poor and this weekend was no exception - 10m never opened, and 15m was wierd with signals coming and going all the time. I sometimes felt like a distant voice in the wilderness with a trapped vertical and my trusty HF2V. It was impossible to get a run going on any band and to add to everthing else the power failed on Saturday for 10 hours! And the trip home on the ferry was pretty exciting too.<br> But would I go back? - yes indeed! I really enjoyed myself in spite of everything. Thanks for all the QSOs - it was great to meet up with Hans MM0XAU again and a real thrill to give a lot of old friends the GZ mult.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/11/16/cq-ww-ssb-2008-from-shetland-as-gz0f-5048212/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-08-06:/2008/08/06/summer-update-4549783/gm4aff2008-08-06T10:36:08+02:002008-08-06T10:37:54+02:00 <p>There are times when I lose sight of the original reason for this blog. I was inspired to create this blog as a result of a letter to Last Word in RadCom by some prat who didn’t like contests. He wanted to be able to rag-chew with his mate on ‘his frequency’ on 20m each and every day no matter what. I wanted to ask the question, ‘what have you done for amateur radio this month?’, because that guy obviously hadn’t done a great deal.<br> Anyway, since my last entry I’ve done IOTA and Malcolm GM0DBW has been here to do the IARU. Malcolm’s visit was only the second time I have had a guest operator here. I think and hope he enjoyed himself!<br> I’ve had no problems really with any of the antennas for the last couple of months and my new K3 arrived two weeks ago, which has replaced the right hand FT1000mp.<br> I did IOTA from home this year, having had to cancel Shetland for family reasons. It was great fun, and I managed to endure the entire 24 hours without a break. With a final score of just over 1.9 million, as an EU005 entrant I was quite pleased. I think it would have been a good year to be in Shetland as conditions were better than they have been for some years. I certainly don’t have a winning score though, as I have seen an IT9 on 3830 who has beaten me - he has less QSOs and less mults than me, but obviously worked a lot more G’s for 15 points per QSO. I wish I’d been able to work a raft of IT9’s all Sunday morning!!<br> The K3 finally arrived. It took UPS 9 days to get my radio to me, which I think is ridiculous as another ‘customer’ had his despatched the same day and his took 48 hours to arrive. The box was delayed for 24 hours in California and spent the weekend travelling from East Midland Airport to Germany and back. Their tracking on the web said that their first attempted delivery failed. They claim that I rescheduled delivery for the following day. My house wasn’t empty all week and they never came that day. I phoned them and paid the VAT by credit card. The next day they arrived with the package and demanded the VAT from my son. As he didn’t know why they wanted money (and I would still like to know why) they went away (with the package). I complained that they should have known I had paid – I asked for the driver to return to the house. No, he couldn’t do that. It would be delivered first thing the following day. It arrived at 1600 the following day. This is almost as bad as the time I sent my TS850 for repair to Castle Electronics. The box arrived, but inside the box there was a rusty old car radiator, not my TS850! Even stranger, when I contacted the local courier company who I had used they said, leave it with us and we’ll sort it out. They did. The radio arrived at Castle the following day. What the hell is going on in the courier business!!!? Once again, in my blog, I am only stating facts; you draw your own conclusions!<br> As regards the K3 itself, I am more than happy. It was easy to assembly (took three evenings), and apart from a small problem with the wrong screws for a particular part, it is a fantastic piece of gear at a reasonable price. I was a little disappointed initially at the physical construction and the way the RF board is attached to the main case, but after talking to someone who is more of a techie than me, I realise that a cast chassis would cost a lot more and would put up the price. The receiver is very quiet, and the filtering is totally configurable. Although I’m not interested in RTTY much, I got it to display RTTY on the screen itself, which is a laugh. There are a few things which need work, as it’s certainly not a direct replacement for the FT1000mp, but who knows? In time it might even replace the left hand radio as the ‘master’. I expect that I will take it on foreign travels too. Now I just need to build the 2m transverter – for me, that’s a big deal, as I don’t like soldering. Watch this space!</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/08/06/summer-update-4549783/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-05-18:/2008/05/18/april-and-may-4189714/gm4aff2008-05-18T15:00:01+02:002008-05-18T15:15:11+02:00 <p>Once again the SE beverage has been vandalised by deer! Haven't had a chance to repair it yet. The reflector on the WARC 4 element beam has fallen off and also awaits repair. I enjoyed working the YK9G expedition on quite a few band slots. The RSGB May 144MHz Contest this weekend inspired me to get the 2m gear working again. Haven't been QRV on 2m for years in spite of having all the gear. A very bad SWR was tracked down to the feeder, an aging length of LDF-250, a very rare type of feeder, which I think has finally reached the end of its life. It has been replaced with LDF-450. Using the FT1000mp plus a MM 144/28R driving a Temp 2002. The antenna is a 17 element Tonna at 45-50 feet with a mast-head mounted MGF1302. Certainly hears well, but the transverter was only delivering a watt or two so my overall output was only 25 watts. Still managed to work 23 stations though.<br> Plans are in place now to do IOTA from Shetland again this year, but from a different location. And the GMDX Convention two weeks ago was well attended. Lots of beer, food and radio banter was enjoyed by all, and it was great to meet some old friends.<br> The only other radio related activity to note are my attempts to update Logbook of the World. The GM0F QSOs which had been wrongly associated with GM4AFF have now been reloaded and linked to GM0FRT. This was a major operation, and it did not all go well. In fact there are still about 5000 QSOs which have failed to re-link to GM0FRT. This won't be an issue for anyone claiming a QSL but is for us if we want to claim DXCC awards.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/05/18/april-and-may-4189714/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-04-08:/2008/04/08/easter-travels-etc-4014510/gm4aff2008-04-08T09:32:35+02:002008-04-08T15:36:56+02:00 <p>The Russian DX Contest went reasonably well. I was a bit disappointed that I was not aware that special contest calls were allowed for this contest. The Ofcom website doesn't show it. Apparently only the new NoV documents show it - and as I'm not the owner of the NoV I hadn't seen it. So I slogged along using GM4AFF and made 1879918 points from 1150 QSOs.<br> Next day we left on our annual family hols - we flew to Gatwick, then to Jamaica, and spent 2 weeks on Ocean Village cruising the western Caribbean. We visited Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Grand Cayman island. This brought my countries total to 104, so I finally cracked the century (long before my '<em>dead</em>'line!). Now we're back it's taking a long time to get over the jet-lag! As always, my photos are viewable at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8057746@N05/"> Flickr.</a><br> <img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/507/2457507_d780f867ec_m.jpg" alt="Lunch in Jamaica" vspace="5" hspace="5"><br> <img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/506/2457506_44cf02d341_m.jpg" alt="Panama Canal" vspace="5" hspace="5"><br> <img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/501/2457501_89bc7be81c_m.jpg" alt="Sue in Cartegena" vspace="5" hspace="5"><br> <img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/498/2457498_4fd13d42b0_m.jpg" alt="Roatan, Honduras" vspace="5" hspace="5"><br> <img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/500/2457500_2cda0d35fa_m.jpg" alt="Stewart on the zipwire" vspace="5" hspace="5"><br> I did the RSGB RoPoCo 1 Contest on Sunday morning, which was actually very enjoyable - it's a great format for a contest! Sadly WinTest doesn't support it so I did it all manually on the key, which makes it even better! This was immediately followed by the 70 MHz First contest. This was really just a waste of time. Something has happened to 4m over the last 3 years - I can hear a lot of stuff that can't hear me. But I'm sure that they are totally unaware of this. It must be a higher urban noise level, and folk running huge power. Conditions were pretty bad too, which didn't help. So I worked 8 people. GD0EMG was a huge signal throughout, even when he was obviously beaming elsewhere (most of the time), and it took dozens of calls before he heard me. When we were working each other he was 59+10 and he was still missing bits of my info. Now I am running 70 watts to an 8 element yagi - so work it out yourself. There were others who I heard throughout and who I called repeatedly, but who never heard me - G4RFR, G3JHM, G4ADV/P. Something has happened and I don't think it's at my end!<br> Last night's 80m CC was a laugh - I forgot about it, until I switched on the radio and immediately heard a G3 calling CQ TEST. It happened that I'd left it on 80m CW. There was 30 minutes left, so I started searching and pouncing and (as usual) kept getting beaten up by more 'local' G's. So I called CQ and had a farily exciting run for the last 20 minutes. Nevertheless, it is difficult to get G stations to move quickly - why do people give their calls again before they send the report? I already know who they are, they're wasting time, and upset the run. DL don't do it. Even F's don't do it. In fact no Europeans do it. Why G's? Must be the software they're using - I wonder what it is?... </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/04/08/easter-travels-etc-4014510/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-03-09:/2008/03/09/antenna-spring-clean-3842800/gm4aff2008-03-09T18:37:42+01:002008-03-09T18:42:17+01:00 <p>Just finished a big antenna clean-up in preparation for the Russian DX Contest next weekend. It all began yesterday with a phone call from the farmer up the road who owns the field next door, which contains most bits of my beverages. He had a contractor coming to 'trim' the trees and bushes around the field perimeter, so I had to remove the beverages or get them chewed up. The tree trimmer machine is one of those viscious flailers that just chews up everything in its path.<br> I made a few QSOs in the Commonwealth Contest and noticed that there will probably be a pretty good competition for the leading positions, with a few stations really doing well, all fairly well matched. That was yesterday - it was probably all different today as conditions will have helped some and hindered others. I didn't get a chance to listen today.<br> Today began with stringing out the beverages again, and renewing a lot of the supports. I renewed the terminating resistors too. Each Beverage is 520ft long and they run about 145 and 325 deg. Not ideal, but certainly a lot better than some directions. I use Ewes at right-anges to them for the other 90 degree sectors. I also renewed the terminating resistors on the Ewes.<br> I moved the southerly end of the top band dipole to the other side of the field because I had had complaints that I was coming over on the telephone. The end is a lot lower now, which is a pity. The move solved the problem and actually improved the SWR a little, also moving the resonant frequency to 1850. A bit high, but it'll do for now.<br> I had had complaints of bad audio on 15m and this was traced to RF getting back down the feeder. I assumed that something was wrong up at the antenna feed point so I lowered and cranked over the tower. I tested the balun and there was about 400M ohms across it. I replaced it with a good spare, cleaned up the feed point, replaced the coax 'joiner' and hey presto, it works like a dream.<br> All that's left to do is crank up the 40m yagi and that's all the antennas working. Let's hope it stays that way for at least the next week.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/03/09/antenna-spring-clean-3842800/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-03-07:/2008/03/07/moldova-3830772/gm4aff2008-03-07T14:15:14+01:002008-03-07T14:47:33+01:00 <p>I made a short trip to Chisinau, Moldova last weekend while working in Romania. This is my 97th country (<a href="http://www.dxfc.org">www.dxfc.org</a>). This was an incredibly interesting visit for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the train on which I travelled was jacked up and all the wheel bogies were changed over to a different (Russian) gauge. This, to me, is an incredible waste of time and effort, but I still found it fascinating to watch. Although all the passengers remain on the train, it is split into discrete carriages and then shunted down two separate tracks before the jacking-up takes place. So, if you are lucky you can actually see the carriage beside you on the other track getting the same wheel change-over as your own carriage. What a palava! For me this was a new experience, but for those I have told, it's old hat apparently - "Oh that was on Michael Palin's TV program the other week", they say. I never saw it.<br> The train itself is a perfect example of Russian railway (over-)engineering too, with a coal fire to heat the water at the end of each sleeper carriage, and two attendents per carriage (a uniformed man to collect your passport as required, and a woman to scowl at you as required). I travelled first class and had to share with a nice lady called Elena, who didn't seem to mind the situation too much. She offered to take me out to lunch and show me the sites the next day, which was nice.<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/chisinau/2390980" title="Chisinau"><img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/980/2390980_cd0b973ff0_m.jpg" alt="Chisinau" vspace="5" hspace="5"></a><br> Sadly Moldova was a bit of an urban dust-bowl. It was windy and dry and most of the dust was probably cigarette ash from the chain-smoking inhabitants. I had lunch at La Taifas restaurant, which was excellent in many respcts, and a real surprise. I had some "Meat in a mug" (their menu translation), which is a traditional Moldovan dish, and really was nice and tasty. It was really more of a stew in a pot. The wine was completely different to anything I have tasted before - it had an after-taste of plums - and wasn't particularly strong. After a walk around the parks and the craft and flower markets my host and I had afternoon tea in the Nistru Bistro with her son and I caught my train back to Romania.<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/chisinau_flower_market/2390978" title="Chisinau Flower Market"><img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/978/2390978_25d138f696_m.jpg" alt="Chisinau Flower Market" vspace="5" hspace="5"></a><br> All-in-all Chisinau was not a tourist destination. There are a lot of military types wearing big hats and the pavements present an interesting combination of people begging beside BMW X5's. There's money about, but those with it are few, and many have nothing. However, I am told that the wine vineyards and cellars make for a very worthwhile weekend trip, so I'll probably be back.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/03/07/moldova-3830772/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-02-15:/2008/02/15/january_gales_repairs~3731837/gm4aff2008-02-15T15:39:20+01:002008-02-15T15:39:20+01:00 <p>I spent last Sunday morning repairing the 40m and 80m antennas. Wasn't too difficult - the top 27ft of the 80m vertical had bent over when one of the top guys broke in a gale. The end of the driven element of the 402CD popped out - it was straightened, re-inserted and the jubilee clip tightened.<br> I still have the 15m yagi to sort out - an unknown problem which causes excessive RF feedback in the shack. Probably related to the outer connection of the coax at the balun or antenna.<br> Received two new FT1000MP filters today - 2khz bandwidth for each IF. Also decided the other day to sell my second FT1000MP and some filters and buy a K3. This should give me a portable radio for travelling, a rig to transvert from and a decent second (or first) radio for SO2R.<br> I now have the parts required to make an un-un which I will use to split the receive antenna output to allow me to use the receive antennas on both radios simultaeously. The un-un will be able to handle 2kW so it can also be used as a basic two-antenna stack-match if desired.<br> I gave a talk on contesting at the local club a couple of weeks ago which I hope inspired a few to try that element of the hobby.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/02/15/january_gales_repairs~3731837/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-02-01:/2008/02/01/january~3664983/gm4aff2008-02-01T17:03:02+01:002008-02-15T15:11:58+01:00 <p>I lost the top of my 80m vertical last night so that's 40m and 80m out of action for the moment. AFS CW was fun, but I haven't had a chance to do much - just gave away some points in the 4m Cumulative events. Otherwise, the family have taken priority this month. I gave a talk on contesting last night at the local club, so perhaps that might encourage a few more into contesting.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/02/01/january~3664983/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2008-01-08:/2008/01/08/40m_beam_u_s~3548115/gm4aff2008-01-08T20:50:54+01:002008-01-08T20:50:54+01:00 <p>I had to lower the 40m beam down to 25ft or so on Sunday. It has lost half of one element. It stabbed itself into the ground last Friday, and then fell over and bent itself. Great. The January gales take their toll. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, as I need a clear day with no wind or rain to repair it, find out what's wrong with the rotator (see earlier post - rotator indication full scale), and probably re-grease the cables.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2008/01/08/40m_beam_u_s~3548115/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2007-12-30:/2007/12/30/stew_perry_top_band_distance_challenge~3508571/gm4aff2007-12-30T22:07:35+01:002008-01-08T20:45:27+01:00 <p>I spent 2 hours putting up and attempting to tune an inverted L yesterday morning, in preparation for the Stew Perry Contest contest. I never did manage to get it to resonate in the bottom of 160m, in spite of adding and removing some 40ft of wire in various stages. I gave up. So, I only did a couple of hours using my dipole, which has a very poor SWR just now. I was amazed by how good some of the US stations ears are - they are really weak, and yet they hear me, and I wasn't hammering it. Great fun.<br> I dismantled the inverted L this morning in the 0 deg C frost. What a total waste of time! Where's my balloon?!</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2007/12/30/stew_perry_top_band_distance_challenge~3508571/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2007-12-28:/2007/12/28/inrad_filters~3500986/gm4aff2007-12-28T21:57:31+01:002007-12-28T22:03:44+01:00 <p>I bought a pair of InRad 1.8kHz filters for one of my FT1000MPs last week. I got a big surprise when I installed them - they are so narrow! I think I should have gone for 2.0Khz ones now, but hey-ho, they'll certainly not go unused. I will probably now buy the 2.0kHz ones too, and to hell with the expense. Thank god for the weak dollar!!<br> This weekend sees the annual Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge. This is a super event, which rewards good antennas and good ears. I will be up early tomorrow to put up an inverted L, as I lost the balloon I used to support the 160m 5/8 vertical which was used last year.<br> I just realised that that little snippet was omitted from this blog. Yes, the balloon was lost when I was trying to work 3B7C - I left it up all night and the wind changed direction and increased. I woke up to find it gone. It was a Allsop Helikite, which cost me £120 along with another £156 for the helium. An expensive little antenna, and it's gone!</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2007/12/28/inrad_filters~3500986/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2007-12-18:/2007/12/18/antenna_repairs_etc~3459914/gm4aff2007-12-18T12:32:05+01:002007-12-18T12:33:47+01:00 <p>The old saying, "if it's not one thing, it's another" was once again proved to be correct this weekend. A simple thing like a deer running through the SE beverage meant that it took 2 hours to repair the break and the associated problems at the far southerly end. I also replaced the terminating resistor. Of course, now that it's broken once, it makes it very fragile. It broke twice while I was trying to fix it (in -1 deg C, which isn't much fun). Also replaced the NE Ewe feed toroid, having nicked it to take to Madeira, so that's all back and working. And while I was out there in the frozen tundra, I re-tensioned the guys on the 40m tower, and did a bit of sheep deterrent work around the guy points.<br> I had to repair one of the top guys on the 80m vertical, which I thought would be a 15 min job. 2 hours later I was cranking it back up, having had to disconnect the radial ring at the bottom, tie out the gin pole guys, etc, etc.<br> And then when I returned to the shack, I tried the 40m rotator - why? who knows? - and it displayed hard over, so obviously somethings not right up the tower. That's a major problem. But it does highlight why I keep this blog going - the primary intention was of which was to show how doing contests was not just a past-time which occupies the band to the exclusion of wingeing rag-chewers, every weekend - it's a way of life!!!<br> Meanwhile, I find myself back in Romania (where this morning it was -10 deg C, so the 40m rotator problem will have to wait!</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2007/12/18/antenna_repairs_etc~3459914/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2007-12-08:/2007/12/08/romania_again~3415506/gm4aff2007-12-08T23:36:25+01:002007-12-09T22:08:27+01:00 <p>After all the hassle I went through to get to Romania in June it was a pleasant surprise to be asked to go and work there for a bit!<br> The highlight of my trip was a visit to a farm where pălincă is made. This is a double or triple distilled spirit made from plums and apples, which can blow your head off! I have to thank Doina for organising this great experience. We headed north from Ploeisti to a place called Vărbilău. There were only two car loads. We were shown how pălincă is made, and given a taste of the initial spirit which is produced. This was fairly rough.<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/the_p_linc_still/2201035" title="The pălincă still"><img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/035/2201035_f2c19ca366_m.jpg" alt="The pălincă still" vspace="5" hspace="5"></a><br> The spirit is distilled again, and this time the difference is very noticeable. It's much smoother, and has a plummy appley flavour. It's also a lot stronger.<br> We were then given a taste of the ten year old - this is really nice stuff! At 52° proof it's a serious brew, and is taken to be bottled. A little is kept back for special use!<br> This operation is all perfectly legal and above board. The manuafcaturer gets paid for his sales, and the government tax him on his production.<br> We hadn't tasted all the Romanian delights yet though. Viorel, our host's friend, had prepared pastrama and was now slicing it up while the wood burning barbecue was firing up. Pastrama is lamb coated in pepper, herbs and garlic, and I've no doubt that pastrami is related to this.<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/pastrama_preparations/2201036" title="Pastrama preparations"><img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/036/2201036_1977022ed2_m.jpg" alt="Pastrama preparations" vspace="5" hspace="5"></a><br> And then the Mămăligă arrived. This was a wonderful polenta cake made from maize corn (and cheese too, I think), and is eaten with the pastrama and pălincă.<a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/the_polanka_arrives/2201037" title="The polanka arrives!"><img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/037/2201037_7e836a7d36_m.jpg" alt="The polanka arrives!" vspace="5" hspace="5"></a><br> We were beginning to get very happy now! This was a very pleasant break from work, and showed me a side of Romania which I don't think many get to share.<br> <a href="http://www.blog.co.uk/media/photo/get_stuck_in/2201038" title="Get stuck in!"><img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/038/2201038_797c732c7c_m.jpg" alt="Get stuck in!" vspace="5" hspace="5"></a><br> I must just thank Doina for organising the trip, Emil for driving us, and Bob, Dana, Mihai for their wonderful company. And last but not least, Liviu and Viorel for a wonderful experience which I hope others can enjoy.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2007/12/08/romania_again~3415506/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2007-11-27:/2007/11/28/cq_ww_cw_ct9l_part_two~3362303/gm4aff2007-11-28T00:11:39+01:002007-11-28T00:49:10+01:00 <p>I operated in CQ WW CW this year as part of the CT9L team, on the very generous invitation of Lars DF1LON. It was an unforgetable experience, and gave me an insight into the tremendous propagation that I never get at home in Scotland! As I had some spare air miles I did the trip on a shoe string, but still spent one night in what must be the best hotel in Madeira, the Quinta do Monte, near the top of the toboggan run. There are some photos <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8057746@N05/sets/72157603312272125">here</a>.<br> <a href="javascript:window.open(" title="The Hotel Quinta do Monte"><img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/810/2175810_e50f451f6e_s.jpg" alt="The Hotel Quinta do Monte" vspace="5" hspace="5"></a><br> No one would have expected that Madeira would have been so cold, so wet and so windy. We lost an element on our 40m yagi, the rotator on the main tower stripped its gears, and we lost power on Saturday evening for about 40 mins, as did the rest of the island (including Jose CT3NT). The direction of the 40m and TH5 yagis was more or less random throughout Saturday afternoon and Sunday! Each time the broken element (which was still hanging in space) struck the tower it tripped the amp, so it was a trial to simple run on 40m.<br> <a href="javascript:window.open(" title="CQ WW CW 2007 at CT9L"><img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/811/2175811_9ce063fc14_s.jpg" alt="CQ WW CW 2007 at CT9L" vspace="5" hspace="5"></a><br> The operation from CT9L is almost a field day style operation, with the only fixture being the 35ft tilt-over tower. The basement of a small guest house is commandeered and all antennas and equipment are set up and dismantled before and after the weekend. But it was great fun, and the pile-ups were fantastic. The gear comprised a TS850, FT990, Acom 2000, Acom 1010 and a barefoot IC735 for mult hunting. Antennas included a 160m inverted L, 80m 1/4 wave vertical, 80m dipole, 40m 2 ele, TH5, DJ2UT tribander and a GPA40 multiband vertical. I carried three laptops in my luggage (along with other bits and bobs) to make up the computer network and tried to smile as I lifted the case onto the check-in scale (32kg). We all carried a great deal of equipment, with Lars DF1LON bringing an Acom 1010 and a TS850!<br> 10m never really got going although we had a brief opening on Sunday morning. I think, with north/south propagation, we were slightly too far west to get any benefit, but we did manage to grab a good few mults. All the other bands provided constant fun, with 15 and 20m closing very rapidly after sunset. 40m provided hours of pile-ups. 80 and 160m were not particularly noisy. I erected a Ewe receiving antenna in case, but it never really performed at all, which was strange - perhaps due to a poor earth.<br> Madeira certainly seems like a place to be to do well. CT9L is located on the north of the island, which provides a great take-off to all populated areas of the world. It is, however, always windier and wetter than the south, but this weekend was something else (although perhaps not as bad as Shetland).<br> To all who worked us, many thanks.</p> <p>Operator(s): DF1LON, DJ0IF, DJ2YE, DK7YY, GM4AFF<br> Class: M/2 HP<br> Summary:</p> <p> Band QSOs Zones Countries<br> ------------------------------<br> 160: 548 14 67<br> 80: 1579 28 104<br> 40: 2183 34 127<br> 20: 2385 33 132<br> 15: 2219 28 96<br> 10: 159 11 38<br> ------------------------------<br> Total: 9073 148 564 Total Score = 19,224,000</p> <p>Club: Rhein Ruhr DX Association </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2007/11/28/cq_ww_cw_ct9l_part_two~3362303/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2007-11-17:/2007/11/17/cq_ww_cw_2007_ct9l~3312337/gm4aff2007-11-17T21:58:48+01:002007-11-17T21:58:48+01:00 <p>Preparations for this years CQ WW CW contest have taken priority this week. I have now got three laptops all networked together on a WiFi network, and WinTest installed and working on all three. This is a major milestone. I also have made an interface for each laptop - one serial, one parallel and one USB - to allow them each to key and PTT their associated radios.<br> Tonight there's the RSGB 160m Contest (in 3 minutes) so I'll see what I can work in that before I start to pack for Madeira. I leave for CT3 on Wednseday and am really looking forward to a great contest from there.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2007/11/17/cq_ww_cw_2007_ct9l~3312337/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2007-11-04:/2007/11/04/144mhz~3245662/gm4aff2007-11-04T20:44:01+01:002007-11-04T20:45:27+01:00 <p>I have spent the last 2 or 3 days getting my 2m station all sorted out. I am temporarily using a transverter which drives a 100 watt MM brick. I have a 17 element Tonna at about 45ft with a Mutek pre-amp. I had to build a small unit that would allow the 100w brick, the pre-amp sequencer and the transverter to all switch when I key the FT1000MP. Having got all that sorted I could see that I still had an infinite SWR on the antenna, even when the pre-amp was switched out of circuit (i.e. switched off). I can't work this out yet. The system is working well on receive.<br> I have also resurrected my old Tempo 6N2 and will make a winter project out of getting it back and working again. Well, that's the plan.<br> So unfortunately the Marconi Memorial Contest passed me by. I didn't hear much this year - I like listening during the night. There are all sorts of pings and bursts from all over Europe. This morning a French station in JN37, which is 1200km away, was booming in here. I could also hear a DL and a PA. With a really good antenna and power, it could be a great contest from here. Maybe next year.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2007/11/04/144mhz~3245662/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2007-10-29:/2007/10/29/travel_update~3213937/gm4aff2007-10-29T16:58:59+01:002007-11-04T20:48:36+01:00 <p>I have now visited 95 countries (entities), so here's an update of my "Where have I been" map. Recent new countries visited include Vietnam, Qatar, Ghana, Albania and Turkey. I was a little disappointed to miss Togo, as I got the visa, then had to work the weekend. Maybe next time!</p> <p><img src="http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedCountries/worldmap?visited=CAUSAGBBBSBMUVDMGDANPRKKLCVCTQBRCOFKVEEGGAGHKEMUMARESTTZTNALADATAZBEBABGQIHRCZDKFIFRDEGIGRHUISIEITLILUMTMCNLNOPTROESSECHUKVACYQATRJPKZKRTJUZVN"><br> <a href="http://www.world66.com/myworld66">create your own visited country map</a></p> <p>To be honest, their definition of a country is not the same as mine. In fact I've been to quite a few places which are not on their list. Hong Kong to name but one. I use the Radio Amateur DXCC listing, which is used by Radio Amateurs who like to travel too. See <a href="http://www.dxfc.org"><a href="http://www.dxfc.org">http://www.dxfc.org</a></a>. The Amateur Radio DXCC or DXFC list is based on well defined geographical entities. For example, Pitcairn hardly constitutes a country, however, it is an entity. In my opinion the definitive list of countries for those who are not totally obsessed by it is at the <a href="http://www.travelerscenturyclub.org/">Travelers Century Club</a>. Here's a pic taken in Ghana recently. I am still recovering from the parasitic bug which I caught 4 weeks ago - the anti-biotics should start working soon!!<br> <a href="javascript:window.open(" title="Wood Carving Salesmen"><img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/895/2107895_f8b0a8e273_s.jpg" alt="Wood Carving Salesmen" vspace="5" hspace="5"></a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2007/10/29/travel_update~3213937/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2007-10-29:/2007/10/29/cq_ww_ssb_2007_washup~3212104/gm4aff2007-10-29T10:49:45+01:002007-11-03T00:38:30+01:00 <p>Sadly, this year's CQ WW SSB was a complete non-event. I had a few issues which really put a damper on my enthusiasm (which doesn't take much to dampen these days) and my score.<br> <strong>I entered the Assisted section.</strong> I don't know why, when you're given your mults on a plate, the rate just falls through the floor. I think it's essential to ignore the cluster until at least midnight on Saturday night. Strangely, as others have said, it's not Single Op Assisted, it's Single Op Distracted. This was borne out by my rapidly failing score on Saturday morning. Using the wonderful WinTest objective facility I could see that I was just falling behind after 0400 without any let-up on my enthusiasm up till then (compared to 2005).<br> <strong>My 15m signal was awful.</strong> I was given a couple of 'bad audio' reports when I started on 15m, although I was unaware of the cause. I listened on my second radio, and sure enough, it was awful. I disconnected everything that might have allowed RF in to no avail. I tried running using the second radio (FT1000MP + Collins 30S1) and it was as bad. Very strange when you get RF feedback in the same manner on two separate radios! It looks like it's the antenna. I had to repair the feeder (as my last blog entry says), so perhaps there's more to the problem than meets the eye. I've never liked the antenna! So 15m was out of the frame.<br> <strong>I couldn't copy stuff on 20m.</strong> This was a real pain in the arse. Conditions were good and the band was busy. I now realise that I am not better than the radio. I've always refused to buy additional SSB filters for my radios. I now realise that I'm not better than the radio, and that filters are an essential part of a decent transceiver. I nearly bought two new ones last night! What next?!<br> <strong>160m set the phone off.</strong> Every time I transmitted on 160m I set the house telephone off. It's done this in the recent past but I never really dwelt on it. This was serious and I couldn't go on. As to why, I have no idea. Was it doing it to the next door neighboor's phone too? Up until July this year it was not a problem, and nothing on 160m (or the phone system) has changed. In fact I actually removed the phone line from the shack earlier this year. It must be RF getting in to the actual phone line, which passes by the antenna field at about 20 feet high. Very simply, it must be over-powering the phone. So, no 160m either.<br> <a href="javascript:window.open(" title="CQ WW SSB 2007 Antennas"><img src="http://data3.blog.de/media/503/2103503_9f9e05fbdc_m.jpg" alt="CQ WW SSB 2007 Antennas" vspace="5" hspace="5"></a><br> 10m was open and was jumping, but for me, only with lots of Europeans. I called CQ and worked strings of DL's and OE's. I felt this wasn't as productive as it might have appeared at first.<br> But it was the 20m and filtering problem which finally did it for me. I find it incredibly difficult to walk away from a contest. It takes me to a place I don't want to go (mentally). I am tired for a start, which I am not good at handling these days, as mild paranoia seems to creep in (I think - I'm not an expert). Then I just get so depressed once I have had a sleep because I feel that I could rescue the situation, but then another side says - no way, you're .5 mil points behind already.<br> So, roll on CQ WW CW! (at CT9L).</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2007/10/29/cq_ww_ssb_2007_washup~3212104/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2007-10-24:/2007/10/24/cq_ww_ssb_2007_preps~3190569/gm4aff2007-10-24T23:00:52+02:002007-10-24T23:03:16+02:00 <p>I was in Ghana for the first two weeks of October (country number 95), so there was quite a bit of preparation for the CQ WW SSB contest last weekend. I cut the grass in the field and laid out 52 quarter wave radials around the base of the 80m vertical. I also repaired the ring to which they attach at the base of the mast. I reinstated one of the LF Ewe antennas (I'd used the bits for a Ewe antenna in Shetland in IOTA) and ran out the feeders to both of them, giving me a NW, SW, SE, NE switched LF receiving capability.<br> I finally finished the voice keyer project which has been half complete for years. I have always been able to key the voice keyer by pressing F1 from within WinTest, but F2, 3 and 4 never worked. SO I have now built a separate box with 3 buttons which is attached to the keyboard which gives me access to 3 voice keyer memories at the flick of my wrist. Luxury. I may never need to actually say "5914" again - the box can do it for me!<br> And lastly, I found during final testing that the 15m yagi feeder was giving me a 3:1 SWR, which had only recently developed. Turns out that rats or mice had been at a joint in the feeder - they love self-amalgamating tape. Water had got in, so I had to chop out a section of coax and replace the joint and tape it up again properly. All back to normal now and ready for this weekend I think. Given that the weather forecast is for strong winds and rain, it will be a traditional CQ WW weekend with all the trimmings. I will still attempt to raise the 20m tower to full height on Friday in spite of this - and maybe even the 15m one too! That'll be a first.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2007/10/24/cq_ww_ssb_2007_preps~3190569/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:gm4aff.blog.co.uk,2007-09-25:/2007/09/25/3b7c_cont_d~3039859/gm4aff2007-09-25T22:35:01+02:002007-09-26T12:50:29+02:00 <p>Well, the 3B7C DX-pedition has ended and now I've nothing to do in the evenings! I ended up with 22 band/mode slots. I missed 15m because I work! Yes, I don't spend all my time in front of the radio. I think they only actually spent about 1 hour on RTTY on 15m while I was at home last Saturday morning, and I literally heard them work an IK5, I was watching the IK5, I had been calling randomly for the whole hour, they were weak, but would copy me, I 'tail-ended' the IK5 and they announced that they were QSY'ing to SSB. I know I would have worked them on the next call (no really, I would)! Total frustration!<br> Similarly, I also think they only spent about 1 hour on 10m RTTY while I was at home last weekend (on Sunday morning). I listened to them and called many times, but they really were too weak with me. If I was that weak with them they would never have heard me over the wall of Italians.<br> I saw them spotted on 160m RTTY, but I never heard them although I did hear some random RTTY signals which were probably blind callers trying it on. And as far as I am aware they never did RTTY on 80m.<br> 160m SSB was the most difficult QSO - when he was loud with me I was weak with him, and vice versa - yes, I couldn't work that out either. And it made for a difficult time, especially with the SV1 who was calling him (on the TX frequency) thinking that he was being worked when it was me (up 5) that was working him, and a tuner who spent about 10 minutes tuning up on their frequency. But I don't care because neither the tuner nor the SV1 will have worked him. So there. Go learn.<br> So, overall I was quite pleased with the final tally. I feel I ought to have caught them on 10 and 15m, but you can't win 'em all. It provided me with a nice distraction for a few weeks, and now I'm totally bored.<br> Not for long though. I'm off to Ghana on Sunday - country number 96. Hopefully, if I get the time, I should be able to visit Togo too. We'll see. Now I'm trying to re-organise my return trip to include a visit to the HF Convention!</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://gm4aff.blog.co.uk/2007/09/25/3b7c_cont_d~3039859/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>