Get going on 4M before the commercial manufacturers kill it!
The four meter band (70Mhz) has been available to UK hams since 1956, about that time quite a few European countries also had 4M. Whilst Britain retained the band, most of the European countries lost...
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Fire!
Well its been an interesting summer (Not that we have had much sun yet) conditions on the HF bands have been poor but its motivated me to make some improvements to the new antenna farm. I finally...
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6M Swiss Style?
With only a sloop I thought it about time to put up a reasonable antenna for the 6M band. About a year ago I bought a 6M HB9CV which I had left in the garage until I felt ready to tackle it.This was a...
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My 6M Junkbox Tuner
Shopping in the local emporium found me face to face with a Tokyo Hy-Power HL602V 6M amp which is their 200 watts beast. I had been considering one of these for a while to complement my FT-950 which I...
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Cool It!
The FT-950 + 6m amplifier from Tokyo Hy-Power is a good combo and works well. In Europe if I can hear them they can always hear me. Actually running 200 watts they can sometimes hear me when I can only...
View ArticleWaifs and Strays
You come across some strange descriptions in the ham radio section of eBay. Some must be strays. But I guess some descriptions enable us to quickly sort out whether it’s a non ham selling something.“RF...
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QRO a go-go
I had some spare cash and with the pound falling fast I decided it would be a good time to invest in a reasonable HF amplifier for my station while my money was still worth something.I already have a...
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At last a good Zepp - or a J-Pole that actually works!
There seem to be a multitude of antennas based on the Zeppelin. Above HF they are usually know as J-Poles but whatever they are called the principle is the same. The basic antenna consists of a ¼ wave...
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The Wouxun KG-699E
I recently worked a local station on 4M FM and was impressed by the audio. I was even more impressed when he said he was using a hand held! I normally expect a somewhat muffed audio but this was...
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FT-897D Transverter interface
The FT-897 has a transverter offset feature, its nice to display the frequency you’re actually working on. But be aware it only adjusts to within 1Khz so you may still have to tweak your transverter to...
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Do or do not - there is no try - in HF RTTY contesting!
I have finally integrated my whole shack so my Microham MKII Keyer, PC, FT-2000 and AT-AUTO tuner are now all in step.I found operating MMTTY and MMVARI as separate appications a bit troublesome. The...
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The G5RV jr on steroids?
A few years back I only had a very short garden (Even shorter than the one I have now!). I guess thats what comes of living in London and not being a millionare. I opted for a 6BTV as it didn't have a...
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A budget LCR meter
It seemed to good to be true, but so far the LCR meter I bought on eBay appears to have been excellent value at only £12.98 (including delivery!!!) - Yes you heard me right!I have been looking to buy...
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6M band pass filter
Irecently lost the 6M front end transistor in my FT-897D. This is a tiny SM transistor nestled in the middle of the PA board.I can't be sure if this was due to early failure of the component (The 897...
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The ANYTONE 5189 4M FM Mobile
Martin Lynch and Son have taken delivery of their first batch of the new ANYTONE 5189 Transceivers. These cover 4M and output is about 40 Watts on high power. I think the specification is 60 watts so...
View ArticleAfter 33 years of RTTY operating here are my 33 whys of RTTY ;o)
This rant is dedicated to Ted who thought I didn't Blog often enough!Why don't some RTTY stations insert a space at the end of their callsign so it doen't run into the following text?Why is there...
View ArticleI do desire we may be better strangers.
Or - "It was hard to code so it should be hard to use" Who would have thought eBay could implement a feaure thats so poorly thought through that I gave up on them. Their new "Shopping Basket" function...
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Look Mum no Hands, or - FSK without using an RS-232 port
In a recent QST (August 2011) I spotted an article showing a way to implement FSK keying using only the audio output from your PC.The article was written by Doug Hall K4DSP who can take full credit for...
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The FT-1907R UHF Mobile
I recently started looking for a UHF transceiver for the shack. I know its easy enough to buy something like the FT-8900 but I have separate antennas for each band & I really wanted something I...
View ArticleA word on fraud
It would appear someone is using my name and call G3VZL to advertise equipment and then defrauding purchasers. I'm not the first this has happened to or the last.If you ever see an advertisement with...
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Round up 'em doggies
Happy 2013 to all, lets hope its a good one. I achieved a good end to 2012 by coming first place in the 2012 ARRL RTTY RoundupOf course there weren't that many entrants for England but I was top. It...
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MY 2M Station
I thought I would post my 2M station details.I have owned the FT-225RD for a number of years. Its been quite modified but nothing that can't be reversed. These includeMutek front endSeparate RX port...
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MB6ISR - The SW London Fusion Gateway
I recently purchased an FTM-100DE so I could have a play with Wires-x and fusionIt’s been interesting to set things up and experiment with this mode.One thing that drew me towards it was that unlike...
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A new addition to the Shack - the Yaesu FT-891
My original shack in a box portable set up used the FT-450D.This is a smashing little radio except in my portable setup it includes an auto-tuner with limited capability and I integrated the Power...
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Fixing the Palstar AT-Auto
I have owned an AT-AUTO since they were first released and its given good service. One area that it let me down was 10M.On 28Mhz the coil can sometimes go into self resonance so tuning isn't possible....
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