Radio days!
I was over to visit kids and family last October and was able to engineer things in such a way as to be able to get along to the Holsworthy amateur radio rally which made a nice change and was fortuitous!! I've been on the lookout for a 2m or VHF beam antenna for some time, was going to hazard building one but as is the way of these things its getting around to it!! Well at the rally I actually intercepted someone with a rather nice 2x 7 element crossed ZL-special for 2 metres who was asking directions for the bring and buy stall, so a deal was done there and then and I am now the proud owner of a beast which offers 13dbd gain for both FM and SSB at VHF!!! To give yet a further boost the lowly 2.5watts output of the FT290r is also now fed through a 30watt linear amplifier with pre-amp (ebay) for some VHF next summer, possibly sooner!! As a postscript the new set up has so far managed approx 465km from north Jersey into Lincolnshire, and that was QRP switching the linear out in a recent lift!
Its been quite nice to try a little QRP SSB DX'ing with the 290r out portable too, when the conditions are right its amazing just how many other amateurs crawl out of the woodwork on 2m SSB so its always worth a shout when the pressure is high, even during the winter when the sporadic E isn't about.
Had a bit of a mishap in early January though, it gets pretty windy up at Rozel sometimes and we got home one night with some shopping, I took a routine look up at the 10m antenna on the chimney and despite it being dark the initial thought was "wheres that gone???" It had blown down across the roof slope but fortunately (?!?) the Hustler which is ground mounted had broken its fall and no damage occurred to the roof slates..., phew!! The radials on the Hustler aren't looking too bright though but it doesn't seem to have affected the tune on the 5 bands and it still gets out ok on 20m and 80m, I tried!!
Meanwhile its been nice to try a little mobile HF work with the FT747 but on a recent stateside net I had 3 or 4 reports of distorted audio and 'sounds like RF interference'. Well some further mods to the /M may be needed but I think we've isolated it. The FT747 was known as the 'plastic fantastic' because of its metallized plastic casing which is all very well but doesn't serve to insulate the inner workings from RF the way the good old all metal radios (a la FT707) did. May end up wrapping the thing in Bacofoil..., I kid you not!!
Well followers of the doings of the "Randomly Zany Dude" may remember I was lucky enough to get an aged FT101ZD mark 2 for the princely sum of £25 but was receive only! Well a recent Saturday afternoon's tinkering courtesy of Phil GJ4CBQ has got the old campaigner up and running again, it'll still need some aligning and I've spent a few happy evenings with the switch cleaner, meth's and cotton buds but we seem to be getting there! It'll be fun to have the old thing working, I love my FT707 to bits but fancied a 'big rig' to play with. Was watching an FT102 on ebay recently (including AM/FM board, SSB and CW filters) and is the successor to the FT101ZD but ultimately it went for a stonking £475!!!! Thats silly money I reckon for a 25 year old, especially as the 101 cost £25, some switch cleaner and 2 bottles of wine!!!
- Posted by Rob Luscombe on 03/02/2008.
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Weekend away!
Well it was our first anniversary, we've known each other much longer than that but actually got it together this time last year and the rest is history as they say!! Anyway we had a good time when we went to St. Malo earlier in the year for the office 'booze cruise' and decided we must go again for a proper explore so this was a prime opportunity.
We took the fast ferry early on Saturday morning, it was cold but delightfully sunny in France and stayed that way all day so good for exploring and for some photos (though guess who forgot to charge the battery for the camera!!). Food and drink was excellent and not too pricey and we had a thoroughly good time. The Hotel faced onto the old square in the walled city which was promising, the room though was an anti climax facing out over a roof and a wall!! Soon resolved that one though by going down, asking to change to a 'room with a view' (!) which we could but we'd have to pay extra for the upgrade..., a whole 4 euros (which in the event we didn't get charges anyway!!)
Unfortunately Sunday was cool, wet and really windy but still headed out for a little bit of an embibe before finally getting the late afternoon (and slightly choppy!) fast ferry back. We're looking forward to the next opportunity to 'get away from it all' now..., then again we already have up to a point by living where we do!! ;-)
- Posted by Rob Luscombe on 20/11/2007.
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Jersey Rally 2007
Jersey does seem to take its motorsport seriously with oodles of hillclimbs, beach and road races and last weekend was the Jersey Rally through the lanes of our fair island. Plenty of good photo opportunities too!
Didn't have loads of time to devote to it unfortunately but Saturday morning was a good opportunity to wander up near Trinity for the Bonne Nuit stage and watch people old enough to know better having a rant around lanes in cars that are much too fast through roads that are much too narrow! Absolutely fantastic, the sights, smells and sounds are just great and hats off to the driver of the green mk2 Escort RS who spent most of his time going sideways, he may not have been the winner but certainly took the prize for being the most spirited and entertaining driver of the day.
After the rally everything is taken down and cleared away like clockwork the only clues being the skid marks at corners and the occasional dented hedge and car paint left on the whitewash (oops!). I took the opportunity to drive round the route after the road was re-opened and 'flipping heck!!' it scared me at 15mph let alone 50!!!! One corner it took me three attempts to get around in the A140 so in a four wheel drive Quattro its a major feat (and ample use of the handbrake!)
Best bits can be found in the relevant photo album.
- Posted by Rob Luscombe on 15/10/2007.
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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!
- Posted by Rob Luscombe on 24/09/2007.
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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
- Posted by Rob Luscombe on 24/09/2007.
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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.
- Posted by Rob Luscombe on 15/09/2007.
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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!!!
- Posted by Rob Luscombe on 15/09/2007.
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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!!!
- Posted by Rob Luscombe on 13/08/2007.
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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!
- Posted by Rob Luscombe on 13/08/2007.
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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!
- Posted by Rob Luscombe on 13/08/2007.
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