AmateurRadio.com

Whenever you get a bunch of guys together to build, fix or mess with something, duct tape seems to be a universal tool. Sometimes though, one of The Guys chimes in with the comment about “well, duct tape is OK but gaffer tape is much better.”  See the Wikipedia entry for Gaffer Tape.

Well, I finally listened to those guys and bought some gaffer tape on Amazon.com. I used this at a recent ham radio event to secure cables, support various masts and lash things together. You know, basic duct tape stuff.

I have to admit that this gaffer tape is really, really good. It is more cloth and less vinyl than duct tape and the adhesive does not leave a residue. Yes, it is more expensive than duct tape. Funny, how that always seems to be the case for higher quality products.

-  73, Bob K0NR

This afternoon I hiked up to Knox Mountain with my wife and daughter. It’s a beautiful fall day. I worked two German stations and a station from Denmark. The trail was covered with dried leaves and as we walked along, we enjoyed the familiar crunching sound and the pungent smell of the season. We reached the pond after hiking 25 minutes or so.

I set up the KX3 under a cherry tree near the pond. I operated only on 20 meters. I tossed a line 50 feet over a branch and pulled up the 10 meter wire. First I heard Soren, OZ0JX in Denmark. What a beautiful signal. He gave me a 559 and we said goodbye.

A few minutes later I heard Rolf, DL3AO in Germany. We have worked a half dozen times before. Rolf was a 599 and he gave me a 559. He told me that he still hikes with his K2 at 80 years old! How wonderful to hear him again. As I finished the QSO Joerg DL2DSL called and we had a quick contact. He was a strong 599 and gave me a 559.

This is a wonderful time of year to hike in the hills. Today it was 21C and sunny. Very warm in the sun. It’s supposed to rain for the next few days, but I certainly plan to come back before the leaves are all gone.

I can hear a sharp intake of breath from some of you, but bear with me…!

You have to admire the way the CBers make the most of the spectrum. For the last month or so, as I’ve been getting back to the car in the evening, I’ve been turning the 10m rig on. By and large the amateur band has been quiet, with the occasional Brazilian station coming through.

Tune down a MHz or so and listen to the CB band and there’s distinctly more activity. The 27.555MHz calling frequency (not legal in the UK, of course) generally has something going on, even if conditions are poor.

I suppose amateurs, if they find 28MHz closed, they head off to another band – whereas the CBers, in theory, only have the one band that they can use, so make the best of it. It must be the VHF operator in me, but I find a half-open band far more interesting than a wide-open band – it’s far more fun to try pulling the weak signals through than having them boom in! So, I admire the guys that are trying out propagation day in and day out and making, from what I hear, some interesting contacts.

When the band is poor or half open – the concept of a centre of activity or calling channel makes some sense. A weak signal somewhere between 28.400 and 28.600 is unlikely to be heard – but perhaps if there was a centre of activity – someone somewhere might hear something.

I wondered whether the 10-10 International group might ‘nominate’ a centre of activity, but could not see that they did – nets at specific times, certainly – but nothing more generalised.

I seem to remember somewhere reading that 28.400 was nominated as an unofficial calling frequency. Perhaps over the winter, when the band is not in great shape, we should make a few calls there anyway and see what happens! I’ll bet some interesting contacts would result.

Maybe some possibilities for 29MHz AM too – some more activity around 29.000 and 29.010MHz AM would be very welcome.

On many bands, it’s all about activity. 28Mhz deserves more of our attention, even when it’s not wide open! See you on 28.400 SSB or 29.000 AM, maybe?

It seems a long time ago that we sat on top of Corney Fell with the sun shining and the winds blowing to set up the clubs NFD contest site. July seems like an age away. I only managed a very short time at the ‘operating table’ and with my current hiatus its taken me a while to catch up with all the results. Andrew, G4VFL popped a comment on the clubs website (http://mx0wrc.org) to say that we’d done a little better than expected. Overall 3rd in section but…

We came 1st in section for 70MHz

We came 2nd in section for 50MHz

& We came 2nd in section for 144MHz

I think we should be chuffed with those results and all credit to Andrew for doing all the donkey work in getting the bits and pieces together.

At 522,000,000 miles per watt, Voyager could be the ultimate in QRP … if you have the right antenna.

There is a geomagnetic storm going on. The noise floor is 12 dB less at the moment. I could work HB3ØOK and 9A282TN on 40m CW. I did hear ZL2AGY (!) but could not work him. Despite of a geomagnetic storm, I could hear the other end of the world.