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On Friday afternoon, I drove over to Broadway Tower Country Park to meet with Dave G4FRE (WW2R) who is in the country for a few days. It was great to see Dave and chat about all sorts of different radio from LF to Microwaves. Dave’s an inspiring guy and I always come away with some project in mind! Recently Dave’s been playing some QRSS using his N4FRE call which has proven quite interesting. Dave also has been trying out one of the Down East Microwave transverters for 70MHz which look interesting (as do the ones for the other bands) and he mentioned that he’d heard an ON station on 70MHz from his Malvern QTH. We talked about EME on bands from 144MHz to 2.3GHz. A very pleasant afternoon sitting in the sun on the hillside, eating ice-cream!It was interesting listening on the handheld and from the car from Broadway – it’s a good location and I heard lots of stations and repeaters I wouldn’t normally here from home. The new GB3GT 50MHz repeater on Clee Hill was S7 from the mobile and I listened to some interesting QSOs on the GB3TF 433MHz repeater.For my birthday, amongst other things, Julie gave me a handlebar bag for my bike. Conveniently, an FT817 and paddle fits in easy, as well as the trusty IC-E92D handheld. This morning I cycled up to Windmill Hill, a couple of miles from here which has an excellent take off in most directions although isn’t actually very much higher than home.Most of my listening was on 28MHz using the FT817 and ATX-Walkabout antennaThe band wasn’t wide open, but I heard XU7ACY from Cambodia, an Indian station as well as some Europeans on CW with 5B4AIX on SSB. Didn’t work anyone but it was most enjoyable. Before leaving the hill, I worked Rob, G4XUT on the GB3TD 433MHz repeater.This afternoon I was excited to work my first Sporadic E QSOs of the season on 50MHz, with QSOs with EA7HG and EA7/G1WUU both in IM87. Also tried some CQs on 70.200MHz, but no luck so far.

For Easter Sunday, Bassenthwaite Rotary Club of which fellow WOTA enthusiast Phil M0AYB is a member put on, in aid of charity, a Felltop Café on the summit of Latrigg, a very minor but frequently visited Wainwright summit just to the north of Keswick. Phil planned to activate the summit while he was there. The opportunity to have coffee and cakes while activating a summit was too good to resist so I decided to pay Phil a visit and do my own activation. The weather played fair and was glorious, too.

Latrigg is an easy summit – really a foothill of Skiddaw – and so it was not too much of a problem for my back which is better but still not fully recovered. The views on the way up are glorious, which is why Latrigg is a popular target for visitors to the area.

From the summit you look down to the town of Keswick, with its lake, Derwentwater, beyond.

Soon after we arrived I heard Richard G1JTD/P on Yoke in the Eastern Fells, and worked him for a summit to summit. Yoke was not a summit I’d have much hope of working from home so that was a bonus.

Olga and I went and got some coffee and Cumberland sausages in a bap from the café. The coffee was excellent. There was quite a queue for refreshments and I hope the enterprise made a lot of money for Bassenthwaite Rotary Club’s charity.

Phil had brought up a 9 element Tonna on a short mast which he was using with an FT-817 running 2.5W. I was using the Nagoya NA-767 mentioned in my previous post on comparing handheld antennas with the Kenwood TH-D72 and 5W output (though not in the picture.) I worked most of the same stations Phil had, and some of them commented that my signal was similar or close to as strong as Phil’s, which was quite gratifying.

This was the first activation I have done with the TH-D72. I have been hoping that in time I would grow to like this radio but I’m afraid it has not won me over. It’s too big and bulky and the case feels plasticky and not rugged enough to stand the knocks and bumps experienced on a summit. I still prefer the VX-8GR, though as noted in previous posts the receiver of that gets easily de-sensed in the presence of the strong signals experienced on a hilltop with a good antenna.

For Easter Sunday, Bassenthwaite Rotary Club of which fellow WOTA enthusiast Phil M0AYB is a member put on, in aid of charity, a Felltop Café on the summit of Latrigg, a very minor but frequently visited Wainwright summit just to the north of Keswick. Phil planned to activate the summit while he was there. The opportunity to have coffee and cakes while activating a summit was too good to resist so I decided to pay Phil a visit and do my own activation. The weather played fair and was glorious, too.

Latrigg is an easy summit – really a foothill of Skiddaw – and so it was not too much of a problem for my back which is better but still not fully recovered. The views on the way up are glorious, which is why Latrigg is a popular target for visitors to the area.

From the summit you look down to the town of Keswick, with its lake, Derwentwater, beyond.

Soon after we arrived I heard Richard G1JTD/P on Yoke in the Eastern Fells, and worked him for a summit to summit. Yoke was not a summit I’d have much hope of working from home so that was a bonus.

Olga and I went and got some coffee and Cumberland sausages in a bap from the café. The coffee was excellent. There was quite a queue for refreshments and I hope the enterprise made a lot of money for Bassenthwaite Rotary Club’s charity.

Phil had brought up a 9 element Tonna on a short mast which he was using with an FT-817 running 2.5W. I was using the Nagoya NA-767 mentioned in my previous post on comparing handheld antennas with the Kenwood TH-D72 and 5W output (though not in the picture.) I worked most of the same stations Phil had, and some of them commented that my signal was similar or close to as strong as Phil’s, which was quite gratifying.

This was the first activation I have done with the TH-D72. I have been hoping that in time I would grow to like this radio but I’m afraid it has not won me over. It’s too big and bulky and the case feels plasticky and not rugged enough to stand the knocks and bumps experienced on a summit. I still prefer the VX-8GR, though as noted in previous posts the receiver of that gets easily de-sensed in the presence of the strong signals experienced on a hilltop with a good antenna.

Series Four Episode Nine of the ICQ Podcast has been released. News Stories include :-

• Ofcom will not interfere on powerline networking interference
• VHF emissions from PLT devices
• 6m band for French radio hams
• AMSAT France disbands
• Digital Amateur Radio for France  
• New Android repeater App for UK radio hams
• Dayton Hamvention live internet broadcast
• New optical communication distance record
• New 70cms D-STAR repeater for East Yorkshire
• New Amateur Radio club in Central Queensland
• Royal Wedding temporary special call signs
• ZM - Amateur Radio Rugby World Cup prefix
• Amateur radio continuing to help in Japan
• NASA - Solar Activity Heats Up

Your feedback, Steve Nichols (G0KYA) Propagation Report and Martin (M1MRB) reviews the Wouxon KG-UVD1P Transceiver Radio.

Series Four Episode Nine of the ICQ Podcast has been released. News Stories include :-

• Ofcom will not interfere on powerline networking interference
• VHF emissions from PLT devices
• 6m band for French radio hams
• AMSAT France disbands
• Digital Amateur Radio for France  
• New Android repeater App for UK radio hams
• Dayton Hamvention live internet broadcast
• New optical communication distance record
• New 70cms D-STAR repeater for East Yorkshire
• New Amateur Radio club in Central Queensland
• Royal Wedding temporary special call signs
• ZM - Amateur Radio Rugby World Cup prefix
• Amateur radio continuing to help in Japan
• NASA - Solar Activity Heats Up

Your feedback, Steve Nichols (G0KYA) Propagation Report and Martin (M1MRB) reviews the Wouxon KG-UVD1P Transceiver Radio.

This is a follow-on post to my recent post “Weird things heard on the radio“. If this keeps up, perhaps I’ll make this a series, though I’m not sure that “weird” is quite the right word. Silly is more like it, and I’ve adjusted the title of this post accordingly.

As I write this at about 18:30 GMT on 23 April,  I am attempting to work 9M2TO from West Malasia on 17m phone. He’s got a good-sized pileup and of course, there’s the usual guys who can’t figure out how to turn their VFO to tune up their amplifier off the frequency. For non-hams who might be reading, this sounds like a high-pitched squeal on the frequency, and is pretty annoying. Aside from it being rude, it’s in violation of FCC rules against intentionally interfering with ongoing transmissions. (I’m sure that it’s against the rules for amateur radio operators in any country, of course.) That’s not the silly part, that’s the annoying part.

Here’s the silly part: As usual, the DX Cops are present, and one of them said the following: “Hey, don’t tune up on the frequency”. Some of you will immediately know why this is silly, but I’ll elaborate: Under normal circumstances, when you are transmitting you are not receiving. Aside from the fact that the guy who was tuning up likely doesn’t care what anyone else thinks, he’s not going to hear the guy yelling at him. All it does to yell is to add to the noise, which is as bad as the guy tuning up.

This is a follow-on post to my recent post “Weird things heard on the radio“. If this keeps up, perhaps I’ll make this a series, though I’m not sure that “weird” is quite the right word. Silly is more like it, and I’ve adjusted the title of this post accordingly.

As I write this at about 18:30 GMT on 23 April,  I am attempting to work 9M2TO from West Malasia on 17m phone. He’s got a good-sized pileup and of course, there’s the usual guys who can’t figure out how to turn their VFO to tune up their amplifier off the frequency. For non-hams who might be reading, this sounds like a high-pitched squeal on the frequency, and is pretty annoying. Aside from it being rude, it’s in violation of FCC rules against intentionally interfering with ongoing transmissions. (I’m sure that it’s against the rules for amateur radio operators in any country, of course.) That’s not the silly part, that’s the annoying part.

Here’s the silly part: As usual, the DX Cops are present, and one of them said the following: “Hey, don’t tune up on the frequency”. Some of you will immediately know why this is silly, but I’ll elaborate: Under normal circumstances, when you are transmitting you are not receiving. Aside from the fact that the guy who was tuning up likely doesn’t care what anyone else thinks, he’s not going to hear the guy yelling at him. All it does to yell is to add to the noise, which is as bad as the guy tuning up.