AmateurRadio.com

Martin Harrison, G3USF has passed on the latest issue of the 6 and 10 report which is in its usual place. I hope you enjoy it and don’t get too jealous of Costas’ very full log

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

My website G4ILO’s Shack is currently down. It appears to be down for everyone, not just me.

Sometimes a site appears to be down when it’s really a problem at your end. There’s a really useful site you can use to check if the server is down or not. It goes by the memorable name downforeveryoneorjustme.com. It’s worth bookmarking, especially if you have a website of your own.

I’ve opened a support ticket with the hosting service. Hopefully my site will be back up by the time you read this.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

10m WSPR spots @ G4ILO 5 November 2012

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

Those of you familiar with Rob, MW0DNK’s blog, may have an idea of what’s coming!

Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to play with lots of rigs, many of which I have sold when the time came to move onto something ‘better’. Most of the time that’s good – and after all, you can’t keep everything (so I believe). However, some of the time, you regret it.

The Yaesu FT790 that I had was always a favourite. I used it on FM for the local repeaters and simplex contacts on SU8 (433.200) with friends like Mark G4MEM, Graham G8XRS and Mark G6CMG. Connected up to a 21ele beam, I was thrilled when the 1W of SSB reached West Wales and on one notable occasion, the Isle of Man. I can’t remember when I sold the FT790 or who had it! I think it went when I got my Trio TS780 144/432MHz base station.

But I always remember the FT790 fondly – for being a solid portable rig that was fun to have around.

And so it was that yesterday, I spotted one on eBay. Mislabelled and not getting much attention. There was only one thing to do wasn’t there, really. One surprisingly low bid later and there is one on the way.

They say you should never look back – but it will be fun to see what I can do with a watt of forlorn hope! Let’s hope the rig is in reasonable condition. I shall report back when it arrives.

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

By way of a short announcement........I have added the KX3 page and KX3 video page to the blog.
WOW this is the shortest blog post I have ever done......enjoy them and do comment on them as I would like the feed back.....always room to improve you know!!


Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Is it just me or do you also get irritated when you see or hear someone abusing the term “go to”? As in “The Buddipole is my go to portable antenna” or “G4ILO’s Shack is my go to website for interesting articles about ham radio”. Okay, I made the last one up.

What are they trying to say? That the Buddipole is their preferred antenna or mine is their favourite website? If so, why don’t they just use the perfectly good words that have existed for years to say so?

Who started this? I think I first saw it in a computer magazine about a year ago. Journalists are responsible for spreading many linguistic abominations. I should know. I was one.

I assume that this is an Americanism which has recently crossed the Atlantic but I have no evidence to back that up.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

First thing this morning I played some 28MHz JT65A and was pleased to work ZS2I. After that I got on with a few other things so left the WSPR gear running.

There was an interruption to WSPR service this afternoon whilst Dave G4FRE and I did some interesting JT65B tests on 70MHz. Dave had got WSJT (as well as WSPR) running on his Raspberry Pi computer.

Nice to get a couple of reports, back on 28MHz WSPR from the east coast of the US, just before the band faded.

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].