RobL's world of wonder

Good timing

Well whilst on the subject of ebay I've been on the lookout for some time for the E-10 vertical holding grip and heavy duty (professional!) battery pack, missed one or two, especially as they don't come cheap!!  Also since the airshow I figured I could also do with a telephoto lens to pull in the more distant subjects!!

Well good timing as there on ebay was an as new E-10 with the grip, heavy duty battery but also the telephoto, wide angle and macro lens adaptors and all for a good price!!!  Even better before I'd even won the bidding I had a buyer lined up for the soon to be 'spare' E-10!  Sorted!!!!  I love it when a plan comes together!

P.S. Hoped for sale fell through but no matter, the new one is an updated version so both are now in service!

Mobile Radio

A few modifications means the A140 is very nearly a fully operable mobile radio station - I've had 2m FM/SSB and 10m SSB in the car for some time now but all based on magmounts.  Thats fine at VHF and even 20m upwards but a permanent antenna mount for HF is definitely a must if you are at all serious about things!!  So I have set to work with the tin snips, drill and a sheet of aluminium and constructed a mounting bracket which is secured in the lip to the boot/tailgate opening.  Testing has only extended to 10m so far but more will soon follow.

When I bought the FT747 I almost got a mobile mount too but it was more than fifty quid so gave it a miss.  Well good old ebay has come up trumps again and I have got a brand new one in its box for a tenner (not bad considering they are as rare as the proverbial hens teeth!).  It will need a little tinkering and 'falsework' though - modern cars being full of curves, plastic panels and airbags cuts down the options a little but pretty soon JJ will be sharing the passenger footwell with a Yaesu (she can't wait!! ;-)  All being well that should open up the world of 17m, 20m, 40m and 80m mobile once again (it will have been a long time!). 

Of great fun and amusement I recently found a G3's website with pictures of mobile amateur radio in the early 60's.  Topband was popular mobile and its a real hoot to see old vehicles (most notably a Mini van, a Ford Popular, a Hillman Minx and even a Bedford Van) with big antennae for mobile operation, much of it putting to shame a lot of the stuff we use these days (apart from the Americans who take their 'mobiling' VERY seriously!!)  I've always enjoyed mobile operation, going and parking somewhere scenic and chatting to people around the world always had a certain appeal!

73 de 2J0RZD

Jersey Airshow 2007

 

Took the day off yesterday (13th September) to enjoy the Jersey airshow. Its a big'un, 4 hours of aircraft all shapes and sizes and era's - see new photo album - Jersey air show 2007. The show includes a static display of quite a few of the planes up at Jersey airport (though they don't let you get too close unfortunately, such are the times we live in!!

I reached my pre-determined photo location at about 11am and it was already getting busy for the 12.45 start! The choice spot appears to be on the concrete 'steps' to the sea side of 'le fregate' in St. Helier the display being planned around the West Park side of town. Was it a good location...? Well yes and no actually. Modern safety requirements are such that the hard deck for flying is at or about 100ft a.s.l. and the flight line was marked out at approximately a thumping quarter mile or so offshore!!!! Sum result is even using the good old T90 with a 300mm lens the photos are all a bit distant, certainly more distant than I would like.  The vast majority of the 450 or so photos from the E10 digital with 140mm equivalent lens were a waste of time :-( - (results from the T90 will be posted here though once I've saved up nough to get them processed and digitised).  Not only but also St. Aubins bay faces south so most of the time and especially after 4pm at this time of year the planes are backlit pretty much of the time. The answer is to be at Elizabeth Castle with a good lens or on a boat out in the bay!!

           

Anyway it was still a good show, popular highlights were of course the red arrows (marvellous) and the noisiest the Typhoon Eurofighter (awesome) especially with an 8g turn and stratosphere chasing vertical climb to about 8000 (?) feet to close his display - he basically went vertical in full re-heat until you couldn't see him anymore - even through a 300mm telephoto lens!!!! Personal favourites though (apart from those) had to be the B17, A26 Marauder, P-51 Mustang and the good old DC-3.

 

Most unusual were the Antonov AN-2 flying at walking pace without stalling (!!) and the Junkers JU-52 which with its three BMW radial engines just sounds..., weird!!!! Talking of sounds though who can beat a good old Rolls Royce Merlin (Spitfire, Hurricane and Mustang) at full chat and in a slight dive across the bay, sunlight glinting off the plexi-glass canopy. Oh why didn't I become a pilot when I could have had the chance?!

 

Breathtaking as well was the Blue Falcons army helicopter display. If you've ever watched and marvelled at a prop driven stunt plane climbing and hanging on the propellor before falling out into a vertical dive then the sight of someone doing that in Lynx army helicopter is something to behold!!! I'm probably more than a little pleased that I wasn't actually on board though!! ;-)

P.S. For both aviation and motor enthusiasts it was a bad weekend (15th and 16th September 2007) with the news of the death in a helicopter crash of the outstanding rally driver and former WRC world champion Colin McRae (and his young son and passengers) and also the fatal crash of one of the Hurricanes at last weeks Jersey air show at the Shoreham air day with the death of the pilot Brian Brown.  Respect is due to both of them and condolences to their families.

Fun in the sun!!

 

The other weekend was good fun, JJ's daughter Charlotte and two of her children (Imogen and Meg) came over for the weekend to visit and to see some of Jersey. The weather was kind and allowed some suitable children orientated outings (Durrell and the beach at Greve de Lecq) as well as a barbecue on the Saturday night.
One of the kids suddenly announced on Saturday morning that they reckoned I must be a spy having a Maglite torch, binoculars and all that radio equipment and aerials!!!!!

 

Anyway they had a good time and announced that they didn't want to go home so we took that to be a good sign, overseas espionage or not!!!

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!!