Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Cashback on Yaesu products
June 27th, 2014 | 
Author: It doesn’t surprise me but G1KQH has told me that Moonraker (and others?) is offering the FT817ND for just £459.95 after a Yaesu cashback deal. I paid £499 from MLS for cash a few months ago.
Based on the favourable change in exchange rate much lower prices should be expected soon. And, of course, the replacement for the FT817ND is nowhere to be seen.
BTW, I recommend you don’t buy patch leads from Moonraker – the ones I bought were useless at both ends with intermittent joints. I guess they just buy these in, but it would be good if they actually checked some as well! All I am saying is Moonraker (and others?) should periodically do quality checks on products they sell. There really is no excuse in the 21st century for selling poor quality goods. I did complain to Moonraker who offered me money back or exchange. Exchange for the same quality? No thanks. Andrew G6ALB kindly replaced the coax connectors at both ends – a decent solution. I guess buying a rig from them is low risk. Patch leads? Definitely dodgy unless you know the supplier checks stock for quality.
A contigious 60m band?
OFCOM is consulting on the agenda items for the World Radio Conference WRC2015 which takes place November 2015. See http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/wrc15/ .
The proposal is to support moves to allocate 5250-5450kHz to the Amateur Service on a secondary basis. This would replace the messy channels currently available. I recommend you write to OFCOM to support this move, which would give us a new ham band at 60m – ideal as the current sunspot cycle declines.
If allocated, it could be a few years before available.
10m, then 6m, WSPR
Overnight, I remained on 10m but the only spots were by Es were from Norway, France, Spain and Germany plus G4KPX( local). No Es “super DX” here sadly!
At around 0904z I moved back up to 6m WSPR. with 1W ERP. G0OQK (98km) was spotted 3 times (so far) with moderate drift or Doppler , G4IKZ (18km) was spotting me at good strength and OH7AI (2000km) spotting me by Es at 0928z at -21dB S/N for the best DX so far today.
Sunspot count is 72 and 20-30MHz propagation “normal” so I’d expect F2 DX N-S today on 10m.
Field Day 2014 – June 28-29th
It’s almost the fourth weekend in June and you know what that means — Field Day 2014 is just around the corner!
Download: Field Day 2014 Information Packet
Are you planning to participate? If so, tell us about your operating plans in the comments below.
(And good luck!)
My European Vacation
Next weekend is the 50th Anniversary of the IOTA Program. A celebration and conference will be held at the Beaumont Estates in Windsor, near London. I have participated in IOTA for over 20 years and will see a lot of old friends there.
I also want to activate a few summits as time allows, which brings me today's highlight. Even though I am jet lagged, I managed to activate Altberg, HB/ZH-015, which is worth 1 point. This summit has been activated 613 time counting my activation today. When I saw that, I thought this must be a drive up and an easy one at that. While this is not a difficult summit, it does require a 2 mile +/- roundtrip and 300 feet elevation gain. Very nice trail and a nice walk.
We had an interesting encounter with three elderly guys on the trail. None of them spoke a word of English and the only German I know it Guten Tag and no spreichten Duetsche. So imagine me trying to explain what I was doing on their mountain. I did finally get the concept across that I was a ham. I'll mispell this but is something like amateurfunk. We had all heard that word. The next obstacle was to explain my morse key. The term "morse code' met with blank stares, but when I said, "you know dit dit a di di dit". Ah, "morse' ya. They were having as much fun with it as I was.
My XYL, but with her camera, so we can't download them to iPads, but I did take a picture of my travel right. An MTR, 13' telescoping pole, 9V battery, ear buds and a micro key. I managed 12 QSO's and activated my first EU summit and my first HB9 summit.
I can't figure out how to get a picture from my iPad to the blog, so pictures will have to wait untill later.
I will try to post regularly during my trip.
This is Amateur Radio Week
in South Plainfield!
Field Day is two days away and the weather here is supposed to be gorgeous! Psyched!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Chinese X108 QRP transceiver can now be ordered
G1KQH has told me that the 9-band multmode transceiver, the X108 from China, can now be ordered on-line.
http://www.wouxun.us/item.php?
Personally, I’d prefer the FT817 but, even with shipping to the UK, taxes and duty , the price is attractive, even if the product looks rather ugly (to me). It still looks “back shed” design to me. Personally I’d rather wait until the Chinese are really there with their designs. Others may disagree, but the industrial design of this product certainly lets it down.
Also, this is a kit, but with very little soldering.
