One of my first HF rigs was a Yaesu FT101B and it has done sterling service over the years, firstly driving a 2m Europa transverter, then playing RTTY and AMTOR on the HF bands. It never had a cw filter fitted, and when I saw a board on ebay recently which had a cw filter fitted I put in a bid and got it. Having had it running in the rig for a few weeks it started playing up today, the receive went dead and the S-meter went full scale. A quick look at it on the extender board made it burst into life, and after coming and going a few times I decided the best result long term was to swap the filter into my original baord. That now donw it's all back together. Now just lstening to some qso's on 40m on my bit of wet string in the loft !, I really must get a wire outside sometime
Last friday we went to the funeral of Guy, GD0LQE. I hadn't actually seen or spoken to him for some time (my fault for not being active on the bands of late), but many years ago he was the manager of a TV shop where I worked. That was well before he got his amateur radio icence, and before he went self employed as a jobbing joiner-cum-handyman. We spent happy times enjoying Guy and Cath's hospitality for little xmas get-togethers over the years Although the church was fairly full I was a little surprised how few amateurs attended, I counted only four including myself. Farewll mate, I can truly say he was one of the 'nice Guys' AR SK (The grandsons have grown uop a lot since that photo was taken) A nice little bit of tropo on 144MHz this morning, worked F6BGR, the beacons are a little up, GB3VHF decoding JT65 at -3dB, and PI7CIS about the usual level just in the noise, but right alongside, a new one to me, ON0VHF chirping away merrily well clear of the noise.
Nothing heard on 70cm but I think people do have to be beaming towards you more on that band, I hear many G-stations on 2m saying Weather : another dull morning, 15c, misty and drizzle in the air I've been suffering local qrm on 2m for a while, I think it's something like plasma tv or an accumulation of other domestic gear, it makes noises wandering about the band burbling and sounding like someone blowing a rasberry ! (and sounding like a buzz in fm mode).
As the driven elements on the ZL specials are 'floating' I wondered whether they were picking up noise so decided to try out putting an earth strap to the boom from the mid point of the back side of the loop. Being balanced I reckoned that it shouldn't affect the rf operation so have just done it on one so far, and there are signs that there is less noise. I can now make up 3 more and put them on the other driven elements in the 7 over 7 pair. There's no noticeable change in swr, still under 1.2 and can still hear PE7CIS beacon @ 631km !. ... or is it just wishful thinking ?
I have been watching Bartel's music and the solar websites for signs of activity, a little aurora happening, just caught one GM cw station but nothing else and faded out again, hopefully this is just a taster for something bigger. Still plagued with qrm on 2m, just sounds like someone blowing a raspberry, I''m going to have to try putting a ground connection on the folded dipole elements to see if connecting the mid point to the boom has any effect. 2m beacons PI7CIS and GB3VHF were slightly up this afternoon/evening PI7CIS was chirping away a solid 529 out of the noise, not bad @ 631km |
AuthorAmateur Radio station GD3YEO Archives
January 2020
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