AmateurRadio.com

Over the winter, I confess my 50MHz mobile activity has been confined to a few QSOs here and there through the different 50MHz repeaters that I can hear (GB3FX, GB3ZY and now GB3GT). The mobile rig scans 51.510, the FM calling channel, but nothing has been heard on there for some months, at least when I’ve been around!However, as we move into April, thoughts turn to the Es season which will shortly, we hope be starting up, perhaps towards the end of the month in earnest, building towards a peak during June.For the last few evenings, as I’ve been driving home, I’ve been calling CQ on 51.510 in the hope of raising someone. It will be intriguing to see what mobile coverage is like, compared to 70MHz or 144MHz. And I can’t wait to hear distant stations coming through again! One year, I remember an EA4 mobile station was very active.If anyone within 50-70 miles of me reads this and is around in the early evenings 17:15 to 17:45z or so, please have a listen! Ken, G0PPM near Stroud in Gloucestershire is trying out 50MHz mobile too – so listen out for him.

Over the winter, I confess my 50MHz mobile activity has been confined to a few QSOs here and there through the different 50MHz repeaters that I can hear (GB3FX, GB3ZY and now GB3GT). The mobile rig scans 51.510, the FM calling channel, but nothing has been heard on there for some months, at least when I’ve been around!However, as we move into April, thoughts turn to the Es season which will shortly, we hope be starting up, perhaps towards the end of the month in earnest, building towards a peak during June.For the last few evenings, as I’ve been driving home, I’ve been calling CQ on 51.510 in the hope of raising someone. It will be intriguing to see what mobile coverage is like, compared to 70MHz or 144MHz. And I can’t wait to hear distant stations coming through again! One year, I remember an EA4 mobile station was very active.If anyone within 50-70 miles of me reads this and is around in the early evenings 17:15 to 17:45z or so, please have a listen! Ken, G0PPM near Stroud in Gloucestershire is trying out 50MHz mobile too – so listen out for him.

Just catching up with the week’s VHF news. Really good to see this video of the first ever 70MHz TEP QSO between Greece and South Africa.They start out on WSJT but stick with the video and you’ll hear them work on SSB.Congratulations to you both!And I wish I could get my FT847 to work *that* well on 70MHz. I’ve seen the receive board advertised on eBay. Interesting that Leo, SV2DCD’s 847 will run about 70W output!

Just catching up with the week’s VHF news. Really good to see this video of the first ever 70MHz TEP QSO between Greece and South Africa.They start out on WSJT but stick with the video and you’ll hear them work on SSB.Congratulations to you both!And I wish I could get my FT847 to work *that* well on 70MHz. I’ve seen the receive board advertised on eBay. Interesting that Leo, SV2DCD’s 847 will run about 70W output!

I normally try to steer this blog away from ham radio politics. In my opinion, too much time is spent on politicing rather than advancing the hobby. And in a way, I suppose, that’s what this blog post is about.The RSGB website today carries a statement that the General Manager, Peter Kirby (who, incidentally is no relation of mine…) has ‘left the Society’s employment after the discovery of financial irregularities on his part’.More than that, I do not know.Peter had a difficult job to do, one which I would not wish to attempt. But it seems to me that with Peter’s departure, there is the opportunity for the RSGB to be run by someone who has a vision of amateur radio in the 21st century. It would be good to see the society taking a lead with inspiring people to take part in amateur radio. There is much new and good in the hobby and many new ways (blogging, social media just to pluck a couple out of the air…) to inspire and engage people. Under Peter’s stewardship, it seemed to me that the society was stuck in a 1970s (maybe) time warp – of headmasterly toned communication with similar 1970 styled communication methods being employed.The RSGB needs, desperately, to freshen their image! I know many people, deeply involved with the RSGB that read this blog – people that can communicate their passion. These people are just the one’s who should be writing the society’s blogs, tweets, Facebook updates – as well as the GB2RS audio and video podcasts/YouTube videos.My wife Julie just popped in to ask what I was blogging about. I told her. As she put it – financial irregularities in the UK’s National Radio Society? It hardly paints a positive view of the hobby, does it.Along with my hopes for a more visionary approach to the hobby, it is good to see that Don Beattie, G3BJ has assumed (for the time being) the role of RSGB’s General Manager. A safer pair of managerial hands I cannot imagine, belonging to a REAL radio amateur.Today represents a REAL opportunity for the RSGB.

I normally try to steer this blog away from ham radio politics. In my opinion, too much time is spent on politicing rather than advancing the hobby. And in a way, I suppose, that’s what this blog post is about.The RSGB website today carries a statement that the General Manager, Peter Kirby (who, incidentally is no relation of mine…) has ‘left the Society’s employment after the discovery of financial irregularities on his part’.More than that, I do not know.Peter had a difficult job to do, one which I would not wish to attempt. But it seems to me that with Peter’s departure, there is the opportunity for the RSGB to be run by someone who has a vision of amateur radio in the 21st century. It would be good to see the society taking a lead with inspiring people to take part in amateur radio. There is much new and good in the hobby and many new ways (blogging, social media just to pluck a couple out of the air…) to inspire and engage people. Under Peter’s stewardship, it seemed to me that the society was stuck in a 1970s (maybe) time warp – of headmasterly toned communication with similar 1970 styled communication methods being employed.The RSGB needs, desperately, to freshen their image! I know many people, deeply involved with the RSGB that read this blog – people that can communicate their passion. These people are just the one’s who should be writing the society’s blogs, tweets, Facebook updates – as well as the GB2RS audio and video podcasts/YouTube videos.My wife Julie just popped in to ask what I was blogging about. I told her. As she put it – financial irregularities in the UK’s National Radio Society? It hardly paints a positive view of the hobby, does it.Along with my hopes for a more visionary approach to the hobby, it is good to see that Don Beattie, G3BJ has assumed (for the time being) the role of RSGB’s General Manager. A safer pair of managerial hands I cannot imagine, belonging to a REAL radio amateur.Today represents a REAL opportunity for the RSGB.

As readers of this blog will know, I’ve been letting HF and particularly HF contesting take a bit of a back seat recently. No particular reason, but it’s just one of those ebbs and flows in my interests in the hobby – it’s happened before and I’m sure it will happen again.Last weekend was the RSGB’s Commonwealth Contest, often known as BERU. This contest is quite an individual one and one that you either love or hate. Anyway, that’s by-the-by, I love it and many of my Canadian friends, especially John, VE3EJ take part in it, so I always like to support their activity.I found a few minutes on Saturday evening to make some QSOs, mostly on 7MHz, where I worked John VE3EJ as well as a handful of others including 8P9AA, VY2SS, VE3JM, VO1TA and ZC4LI. I half intended to look at sunrise the next morning, but didn’t get around to it.And then my QRPP contact. QRPP is very low power – generally considered to be less than one watt. On Tuesday evening, I’d heard someone mention that it was one of the 80m CW Cumulative Contests. I tuned around quickly to see who was on and the very loudest signal was John, G3VPW who is about 3 miles from here in a village to the south of us. John was about 40db over 9! I turned the rig down to as little power as I could manage, around 100mw. Although it took me a few calls, I worked John – probably my lowest ever powered contact on HF!