RobL's world of wonder

Radio developments August 07

Well a slight improvement in circumstances has finally allowed the acquisition of the long awaited Hustler 5-BTV antenna for use from home for the 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m (and with subtle modification even 17m) use.  The antenna was finally erected and guyed last Saturday being ground mounted at the back of the house and it just remains to wire in and fine tune so looking forward to that.

Mike assisted with the construction on Saturday though we did get a little sidetracked with a tropo opening on 2m resulting in using the QRP FT290r with the 6element Yagi to chat to a bloke in Newhaven for over an hour (hello Colin G3ZAF) both via Bournemouth repeater and simplex FM.  Which has now prompted the next possible project to materialise in my fertile mind!!!!  Ever on the look out for a future project I got to thinking about our 2m QRP working into Newhaven and figured I could do with a mini-beam up on the TV aerial post - found one (an HB9CV) on the net which looks pretty neat, hardly noticeable I would have thought and I'll probably take down the now redundant TV aerial and use its bracket.  It will probably also replace the slim jim ultimately which is effectively doing bugger all!!  Thinking of having a go at putting it together in copper pipe and connectors so could be worth a try.  The thing should give up to about 5dbd gain and the vertically polarised (for FM) pattern is such that I could fix it facing north east (hence no need for a rotator) and cover the south coast pretty much from Weymouth up to Dover as well as the inland parts like Wells and Weston repeater and beyond in the right conditions!!!!  Blimey..., that has to be worth a try!!!!!  Better get back into scrounging mode I reckon!!!

Toujour St. Malo!

Jersey office has an annual outing (or 'booze cruize') and this year was no exception with a jolly little trip to the medieval walled town of St. Malo just a little over an hour away on the fast ferry.  It was a little bit of an early start with a sailing at 08.45 but allowed a pleasant mornings brief stroll and then a remarkably elongated lunch extending up to the late afternoon sailing time before coming back and adjourning for a 'few' in St'Helier before the battle of flowers parade.  We gave up waiting for that though and headed home being ever so slightly 'the worse' and for my own part I will admit that Saturday morning was a wipe out!!!  Still nothing comes without a price I suppose!

 

Satellite delay!!

Well its been a busy old month so not really had the time to get around to blogging anything very much so by way of an update here goes!!

Ma&Pa were over for a holiday last month and this was followed up by two of JJ's friends visiting for her birthday and then my two illustrious teenagers coming over for a weeks holiday (first time here and on the way back the first time by air which they loved!).  They had a great time and are now looking forward to coming again so we'll have to see what can be done!  Anyway the weather was mainly good and they loved visiting places like Corbiere and especially enjoyed St Ouens beach and Portelet.  I think they were actually sorry to go, Sophie even going as far as to say how she'd like to live here!!!  Well who knows what the future may bring!  They particularly liked if we were in St. Helier going in to visit JJ at work and making her jump when we'd appear next to her!  They also liked renting a four wheeled cycle and pedalling out to First Tower for lunch.  The blooming things are quite heavy though and not too easy to keep going but all attempts to lose it or get it knicked failed though apparently one was buried on the beach once!

Well latterly J's friend Matt has been over again and it would be no surprise to find him spending more time on the island, its really that infectious!

Playing at radio again!

Saturday turned out nice so new radio 'chum' Mike MJ3SZI and myself (with Mikes good lady Vani in tow) headed up to the north coast high ground at Le Platon to try out some radios.  All in all a successful afternoon Mike notching up 18 or so 20 metre contacts to all parts (it seemed) east, with lots of Russian and eastern Europeans contesting.  The only trouble with both of us working off magmounts limiting activity to 20m it kind of rules out both operating at the same time.  So yours truly fiddled about on 10 metres for a while which was a bit flat (5/9 into Croatia though on Es!) and then gave the FT290r its first proper airing on 2 metres with the homemade beam.  Worked well too, good SSB contact to bottom end of Cornwall but he was amplified with more power and after bigger fish in Eastern Europe being geared up for it, but once polarised vertically 2.5 watts and beaming north opened up the Dorchester and Torbay repeaters a treat!!  Best contact of the day though had to be me old mate Jules M1AGY who was tuned to GB3TR, stopped in a layby at the top of the Plympton bypass and less than 3 miles from where I used to live in Plymouth!  Direct distance of about 120 miles I reckon..., on 2.5 watts with failing batteries.  Thats not bad for a first try and was even starting to get a repeater pile up at one stage (if thats possible ;-)  It was then that I turned around and realised I'd managed to get an audience too you see I'd lashed the beam to the side of a bench and was sat with the rig next to me enjoying the sun!  Ah well heres to the next sporadic E lift and sunny day.

Jersey in the rain!

Believe it or not I am now in my sixth month on the island and I can safely say it was the right decision at the right time.  The original basis was a six month work placement and was soon extended to twelve months but the way things have settled down (combined with the way I feel about the place) there is little likelihood of me going back for the foreseeable future.  Those who really know me will undoubtedly have picked that up a long time ago..., lets just say I feel I have found a niche and I am more than happy to stay here and see where it leads

 

Even better JJ seems to be settled too..., I will still admit a degree of amazement that she was willing to uproot herself to come here to join me.  There have been tribulations with various things but all are external matters and we have something here and in being together we are both so pleased and happy about.

We are really getting to know the island too and feel that it has wrapped itself around us and taken us in so to speak.  Its nice to feel that way about a place and I for one am not sure if I've ever felt that way about somewhere.  I like the way it has the feel of a small town or parish, sure people know everyone else and in all probability their business but everyone seems to take a pride in the place too.  Been meaning to put it down for a while but I like the way the streets are not just cleaned but washed down everyday in St.Helier, that it doesn't really matter where you are on the island but it all feels cared for and cared about.  Not being a particularly political animal I know there are grumblings about various aspects of the running of things in certain quarters but hey, where isn't there?!  It is quite entertaining though to listen and just smile when you hear an islander or long term resident bemoaning the organisation of the States (never mind eh!), the level of taxation (no longer the tax haven it once was but still pretty good for a mainlander ;-) and the cost of petrol (significantly cheaper than the mainland)!

Its a bit of a shame that the 'real' Jersey weather hasn't arrived yet but at least we've not disappeared under the flood waters or a high tide yet!!  Hopefully better is coming, the kids will be here for a week in late July and JJ's daughter plus two grandchildren will be here for a long weekend in early September so hopefully summer will have arrived by then.

Radio update for June 07

Well what a funny old month - some quite interesting contacts on HF, have actually come across some people who want to have a chat rather than just saying 5/9 (!!) so all good stuff.  I have been lucky enough too to have come upon some secondhand and surplus radio equipment for 'the right price' so the shack is now looking even better - latest acquisitions include:

Yaesu FT101ZD mk1 - hefty old HF transceiver, sold as seen, filthy dirty, been in a loft for in excess of 10 years and not in a box!  Good receive, has cleaned up nice, no transmit - shame!  Don't know if it'll be tempted back into life, it may take a better tinkerer than me!!  First trial as receive only was listening late one night to USA and Kuwait on 20m with only a patch lead for an aerial!!

 

Yaesu FT290R mk1 - the original portable SOTA rig - excellent condition, cheap as chips on ebay and should work a treat on 2m SSB with the home made 'back pack' 6ele Yagi.

MFJ259 - SWR analyser - just brilliant for fixing building and checking antennas and 'stuff' and has already allowed the resurrection of the formerly partially destroyed Watson 7/8 mobile whip for 2m using a length of s/s weld rod.

Realistic HTX-100 - 10metre SSB mobile transceiver - cheap as chips again and in good nick, ideal for the car especially as 2m FM mobile in Jersey is desperately under used so a bit of mobile HF Es sounds promising, will be connecting it to a...,

DV27 - as new, cheaper than chips!!!!  Bought on ebay (ostensibly for the 5/8" threaded mount and co-ax) for under a fiver which spookily is what the original cost new 25 years ago when your truly was in to CB!!!  SWR comes down nicely in the 10m SSB portion of the band, rated to 50W which is fine as the HTX is 25W out, yet to be tried in anger!

3 band trapped wire dipole - free!!!!  Thanks Terry!!!!!  Was to all intents and purposes redundant in his garage and is the perfect size for the back of L'Abri du Cotil as a slightly sloping 'V' beaming E.N.E. toward France, Eastern Europe and the UK.  Perfect on 20m (no ATU) but dicey unmatched for 15m, 10m iffy unless QRP but does at least allow the proper use of the 10m 5/8 wave for its intended purpose.

Comprehensively knackered half size G5RV - been re-building that one but should be interesting if I ever get it up high enough!!

Nearer thy God than thee!!

The weather on the mainland the last few weeks has been basically awful, mostly good here which was a bit of luck as Ma&Pa came to stay for a week or so and it stayed fine most of the time.  Yesterday the weather made up for it by pouring all day which was a bit of a worry as today I was surveying a church roof and spire!!  Quite good fun really as I hired a HIAB (or cherry picker) so I literally could get up to the top of the spire and prod and poke it to my hearts content - nothing like a bit of aggressive building surveying sometimes though it was still windy and in truth a bit of a relief to get down again at the end.  As I write this the wind is howling around the office windows (ITS LUNCHTIME!!) and the car is getting sand blasted in the seafront car park in St.Helier and its just started raining again.  Ah well, apparently God wasn't in too vexatious a mood today as I'm still here to tell the tale!

 

PS.  Just joined the Jersey amateur radio club GJ2A which seems great, nice people, good toys (mostly Yaesu's - Rob's favourite ;-) and all housed (like it or loathe it) in a 1943 German concrete communications bunker!!!  Good location for aerials though being up above Corbiere.  All of which reminds me, when it stops raining I've got to get up on the roof to put a couple of antennae in place (10m and 2m) - could do with the HIAB!!

All change!

Its a shame really as J was really enjoying her new job but was a bit concerned as not long after starting she was rather ill.  turns out she has a wheatflour and yeast allergy, hmm, not ideal working in a bakery then so that ended all too abruptly.  Shame as she enjoyed the job and got on well with the people but the hair net and baseball cap were never her favourite fashion accessories!!  ;-)  Still fate has a strange way about it on occasion and the day she left the bakery she had a call to arrange an interview for what is generally held to be the islands foremost department store..., and the next day she was confirmed as having the job - with better hours and pay!!  Not too bad then; funny how things work themselves out sometimes!!

JJ's new job

Getting a job here wasn't as straightforward as J had hoped quite a lot of them requiring 5 years residency and the levels of pay for many of them actually being quite poor!  The image of Jersey as being for the rich is one thing but as a newcomer it apparently is not so easy.  Anyway as is the way of things J suddenly had a crop of interviews and potential offers but best of the bunch was for a bakers in the central market.  Initial concerns over the nature of the work have soon passed and J is now quite enjoying it ..., plus there is a ready supply of bread, buns, croissants, cakes ..., pretty much anything really as there is always more left at the end of the day than they can sell :-)  Downside is all the bread based products could pile on pounds so a little moderation is a good thing.

We have also worked out why once outside of St. Helier there seem to be so few shops especially secondhand shops, bookshops and the like.  Jersey residents it seems like nothing more than a car boot sale!!  We actually happened across three last Sunday morning and now have some extra bits and pieces not only for the garden but some reading matter too!!

Gardening...., do what?!?!?

 Neither JJ or myself have ever been particularly keen gardeners, the spectre of grass cutting and tending what seemed like acres of weed infested suburbia have taken their toll on both of us I suppose but recent developments at L'Abri du Cotil have seen something of a resurgence of interest in all things horticultural!!  I suppose its a symptom of having an outdoors that you really feel you can use for things other than just parking the car or aerial rigging and has resulted in 'obtaining' some local stone to build a front rockery and introducing some terracotta (massive) pots for trees and 'stuff' to the front and the rear.  That as well as the steel balls/boules in pride of place on the front gravel and the place is really looking rather good.  Downside (theres always one) is the significantly large maritime pine tree at one end of the drive that drops 'bits' as well as leaves from other neighbouring trees that regularly cover the front and rear areas as well as getting into the gutters.  So a further acquisition has been a leaf blower (and God forbid) garden vacuum!!!!!!!  Those who know me will be aware of my slight vacuum cleaner aversion but this one is quite cool because it sucks up the leaves and shreds them too!  JJ has challenged me on the whole sitting still and enjoying the garden thing though, being an inveterate tinkerer and potterer abouterer (!!) I always seem to be fiddling about with something rather than sitting still.  Better get back into some serious book reading and view admiring I suppose!