RobL's world of wonder

New toy time

Was having trouble using the trusty old FT747-GX mobile, its been a good old workhorse but was suffering some RF feedback issues in the car.  Well Michael SZI had been shopping around for a new HF multimode for the car and came across a fantastic deal on a new FT857D with car separation kit (so you can mount the faceplate on the dashboard and the rig in the boot) so it just had to be done!! New toy works well, in fact first outing netted 57 into Boston on 20 metres and there have been a few pile ups since, even some good Es on 6 metres while the summer has lasted. It will also work well as portable being a little bit more 'butch' than the admittedly brilliant FT817 (that I did have a hankering for) so shall need to try that side of things too (now having a 7amp 'portable' battery to use too). Shame we are running out of summer but winter tropo on 2m and even 10m could be entertaining!!

Jolly Holidays

JJ and I had our trip to France in July with a road trip up through Normandy and actually get to visit and see the coastline that we look across to from home. The weather was kind and saw some lovely places but others whilst we were pleased to see them could have been better:
St. Malo - always lovely
Mont St. Michel - nice but hideously crowded and over commercialised - pity as we'd looked forward to going there but actually preferred the Cornish one!!!!  From there on to Avranches - nice with a cracking good jazz band in the town square while we had our meal
Granville - wonderful town, arrived on Bastille day so lots happening, loved the old town, brilliant hotel
Carteret - misty and wiffy when the tide was out but nice to see the lighthouse and amazingly sandy beaches, good view of home from the cliffs!
Bricquebec - lovely medieval town, nice old manoir and town square, some nice property for sale, cheap too!!
La Rozel - the other one, not a lot there but a big campsite, nice manoir in private ownership on the edge of the village
Flamanville - nice little French town ruined by overhead power cables from nearby N power station
Goury (Cap de la Hague) - lovely little village/hamlet at Normandy's most north westerly point, must be hellish bleak in winter but nice atmosphere, good lighthouse, nice view of Alderney looking almost a stones throw away
Cherbourg - crappy, only good for ferries!!!
Barfleur - gorgeous little fishing town, brilliant food overlooking the harbour for J's birthday, nice surroundings too and Normandy's tallest lighthouse.
Had a cracking time, next anticipated visit, Brittany, in the other direction!!

Big visit in August, the entourage (Mum, Dad, Pat the dog, Sophie and Daniel) all came over for Battle of Flowers week. The forecast was desperate, the sea crossing over was awful with much sea sickness but as is traditional in Jersey the day of the battle of flowers was hot, sunny and beautiful. The tribe stayed over to the following Monday and all had
a good time despite there being six of us plus a hound in a small one bedroom cottage!!!

Astonishing neglect

Well I've neglected the website big time so determined that a sudden rush of enthusiasm should take over and actually do some updates!!! So here goes then, summer has been spent working, travelling, having visitors, sorting out some stuff, playing with toys new and old and quite possibly making some more plans for the future!! As is said, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life, so don't waste it!!

One wet Sunday we happened across Mr Bergerac's old car too!!

A grand day out

Warning!! Radio bit coming!!! I have only briefly dabbled with radio contesting before, mainly with a few VERY low key and none too serious attempts at the Practical Wireless VHF contest so it seemed to make sense to take it slightly more seriously this year.  The rules are relatively simple, it is limited to the amateur VHF band on 144MHz with a power limit of 3 watts and running from 9.00 to 16.00 UTC (GMT) on the second Sunday of June.  Some planning prior to the event netted a prime site on the (nearly) highest point of the island at Le Platon car park on the north coast (looking across the channel to France, Guernsey and Sark with the UK beyond), and a new (to me) antenna, a 10 element Yagi ‘monster’ that could just fit on the roof rack for transportation. Practice run on the Saturday afternoon picked the bones out of setting everything up (with the help of Mike and Vani) but with only one contact into the Torquay repeater, hmm, would have to do better than that!! Weather and tropo forecast for the Sunday was marginal but in the event, once I’d set up and tested everything the sun came out and it was an absolutely cracking day!  I was using relatively dated equipment comprising a Yaesu FT290r mk1 with an external pre-amp but it has to be said, it could hear okay!!  The old Yaesu may be slightly down on power being in excess of 25 years old now but at these levels it really is the antenna and how you use it that makes the difference. I had set myself a target beforehand, a mate of mine back on the mainland (hi Patrick) is dead keen on VHF so I set his score of last year as my ideal (24 contacts across 8 locator squares – the world is divided into squares by the International Amateur Radio Union to identify where in the world you are to other amateurs, generally it only really gets used at VHF and UHF and people will ‘collect squares’!!  (Well, we have to have something to do!!!)  North east (home) corner of Jersey is IN89xf with “India November” being the zone, “89” being the locator square and “x-ray foxtrot” the alphabetical grid identifier within the square to tie the location down to a specific area. As is the way of things a good many competitors will go romping away whether its due to location, equipment or shear manpower so as a single operator there is a theoretical disadvantage.  That said last years winner was a single operator but he was using an array of four beam antennas which probably helped!!  So it was that I got underway at 10am local time (09.00 UTC) and started slowly but reasonably surely to build up a healthy looking log.  By the 5pm (16.00 UTC) deadline I had 28 contacts across 11 squares so beat my personal target and was also pleased to have worked further and more consistently on low power VHF than I have at any time in the past!!  Furthest contact of the day was into IO 93 uk (South Humberside) but I was on occasion hearing Scotland, Southern Ireland, Belgium and even one each from Spain and from Portugal but unfortunately couldn’t get through to any of them. The band seemed to quieten down in the middle part of the day with things being VERY quiet for a long period, as it turned out it wasn’t just because it was lunchtime but the band did drop out (as confirmed subsequently by Patrick who packed up at that time).  Fortunately it opened up enough to get a few more contacts in the afternoon but it was getting hard work by then. So all in all good fun, I enjoy 2m SSB anyway but this was an eye opener at just how far it is possible to get and with minimal power.  There were lessons to be learnt though:

1. The siting of the antenna was good but I needed to be sat with it to turn it OR have a rotator which would mean the added problem of powering it.  I just know I lost contacts because I couldn’t get to turn the beam onto an incoming signal fast enough or accurately enough before they would turn their own beam away from me. 
2. During the quiet bits I needed to be calling CQ more then moving the beam a few degrees then calling and so forth and through 360 degrees.
3. Having a separate receiver and a helper to monitor other frequencies whilst still calling could help matters and spread the load a bit.
4. This all generated some interest for what was going on and could be a good advert for the club so there’s something else to think about.

Quite looking forward to the next one now though!! 73 de RobL 2J0RZD

Historic flight

Came across something in the JEP a few weeks ago about the old Douglas DC3 Dakota (Gooney Bird to those in the know!!) and that due to new rules and regulations they will soon no longer be used for public flights unless mopdified with stuff like padding, oxygen masks and escape chutes!!  Not easy in a seventy plus year old plane and probably not even really needed!!  Anyway a farewell event is touring the country and one of the weekends alotted was to be here in Jersey for Liberation Day (9th June).  So the good old credit card was forced into action and on Saturday 10th I pitched up to the airport for my flight.

It was absolutely brilliant!!  Whatsmore they were taking requests so we ended up flying not only over but right around Rozel for some superb aerial photos of home!!  See 'last chance to see?' photo album.

Back to normal..., briefly

Well as we wave off the last of our visitors for a few weeks its time to take stock and get back to normality for a while.  Work is about as mad as ever (QA audit time too!!) but thats to be expected and hopefully will be helped by the arrival back in January of the new boss who is already making his presence felt and in a good way, long may it continue!  J is doing her normal thing and exceeding the targets she gets set at work and despite muttering about the stock, the deliveries, the pricing strategy and the limited numbers of customers has really turned her department around over the last twelve months and is one of the companies best performers!!!  Ooh she is a clever girl :-)

Meanwhile I've had the unexpected thrust upon me (once again!) and am now the club secretary (designate) for the radio club here in Jersey as well as now being their website administrator with a new club website on www.radioclubs.net/gj3dvc which is worth a look (not that I am at all biased of course ;-)  As part of the fun down there we are currently in the process of refurbishing the radio shack which has to be complete by the end of May (regular updates and pics on the website above).

Long overdue for an update!

Its not that I've got fed up 'blogging' just don't seem to have had the time!! 

Been doing plenty of photography too but since Christmas I've taken the plunge into using the digital for 'RAW' imaging as opposed to letting the camera do all the processing.  JJ gave me the Photoshop Elements 6 software for Christmas which is absolutely fantastic for manipulating images and doing all the fixes you need to get the best results and lends itself to using the un-compressed RAW format straight from the camera.  Only problem is very big files and the time needed to do all the necessary fixes and post processing and then to convert the photos into JPEG format to upload to the internet.  Hence no new photos since Christmas!!  The format isn't terribly user friendly as it slows the camera down too so I'm going to go back to using JPEG for most things and just do certain images in RAW when I want the best possible results.  At least thats the theory!!  I am intending processing a batch for upload here soon though so watch this space as they say!

Not been terribly 'radio-active' (!!) of late either, HF conditions have been poor though the antique FT101ZD has been put to good use once or twice on 20 and 40 metres but VHF beyond the island has been a dead duck for a couple of months now though I did get an honourable mention in the RSGB magazine RadCom last month for my 2.5w SSB contact into Northamptonshire (465km) back in January (Big hello and thank you to Bryn G4DEZ!).

The kids came over for a week last week and had a super time with mostly good weather and are looking to coming back again in August.  Dropped them back over the weekend and then hitched a lift with Ma&Pa to come back on the ferry and they are staying for a week too.  The ferry trip was a bit of an adventure too!!  The ferry got in about one and a half hours late, I kid you not!!!  We left Mum and Dad's in Cornwall at about 9.45am and drove up to Poole where we joined the hideously long queue for the boat which took an extra half hour to board as it was so busy then they couldn't close one of the rear doors as a chain had jammed making us an hour late, that meant we then arrived late at Guernsey, another delay as the Condor Clipper was in ahead of us rather than after us and we actually arrived at Jersey just in front of it but then had to wait for an HD ferry coming out of the harbour, Mum and Dad went off to their car and I went to get off as a foot passenger as I had to go and get my car but the scissor lift had broken down so none of the foot passengers could get off until the cars had gone!!!!!!!  Good old Condor eh?!?!  What is it they say about travelling hopefully??! 

Anyway the Jersey weather is at last showing signs of improvement and the influx of visitors has now started by the look of things.  And who knows there may even be some more photos to look at soon!!

New gadget

The last 12 months in Jersey has seen something of a reduction in my annual mileage from, at the peak over 36k a year in the old E clas to less than 10k a year here in the new A class.  Seems not the best timing to have replaced the VHF rig with a hands free unit but it is undoubtedly better than negotiating some of Jerseys back doubles with a microphone in your hand!

So the upshot has been some shopping around, initially looking at small Yaesu 2m rig and hands free microphone and ultimately has resulted in getting a really good deal on a new FTM-10e with full hands free bluetooth adaptor and headset.  As a radio it is absolutely superb, 2m and 70cms FM and broadband VHF/UHF receive in a unit where you can mount the rig under the seat and the faceplate (which is not much bigger than a cigarette packet) on the dashboard, in this case using the supplied powerful magnet to a screw fixed metal plate.

The unit was relatively easy to fix, not so easy to understand from the mildly 'pigeon English' instructions but with judicious fiddling and playing with the multitiude of menus and functions we got there in the end.  I've been told the transmitted audio with the headset is BBC quality though there is a funny background 'beep beep' noise like a heart monitor sound when using the built in faceplate microphone but it seems to be a peculiarity of the rig.  Yaesu UK themselves said they were mystified by that one!!!

Anyway it should be entertaining to not be worrying about fiddling with a microphone and with up to 50w output power should be fun next time there's a lift.  Record so far in flat conditions is 57+ approx 50 miles into France but you can just tell it'll be capable of so much more!  The good old FT480r is now in service indoors in the shack hooked up to the 30w linear and a switch to the crossed 7element ZL-special so that should find some use still.

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!!!

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!!  ;-)