We put up a single feed fan dipole for 40m and 80m at 65 feet which certainly hammered out a signal creating quite a pile up in the UK, particularly Sunday afternoon on 80m. We had no shortage of stations to talk to, so thanks all who hung in there waiting for an opportunity.The evening before, James and I held court through the night picking up ZL, VK, S and N America which is excellent and James’s first copy to VK on 40 meter band – this was very thrilling. Being a Scout Station – and being spotted continuously meant that we were creating quite a stir across the globe.
The day itself was excellent; we had a different Brownie pack through the door every half-hour. Each pack would have a fun chat outside by me before watching the “Hello” film from the ARRL. It’s very American but I can’t find anything short and to the point that can replace this wonderful little blast of interest for children. RSGB, if you have something – please let me know since I would love to show something a little more English.
After the film, they went to Chris and did a kind of “appreciation of morse code” where they could all send their names too. Morse bracelets were new this year – so thanks to the individual who thought this up, I can’t remember who you were now – a Pink bead for a DIT, a purple bead for a DAH and a white bead for a SPACE. They thoroughly enjoyed this activity. If only I could get Cubs to sit quietly and do these little crafts!
Finally they prepared their greetings message and Tim just maintained a pile up the whole afternoon so that when we had some girls ready, he would chose a strong station to get a greetings message through. If there was time, we had our own QSL design factory to top it all off!
That afternoon, we talked to many stations – many had been Guides or Scouts and some even claimed that their first ever radio experience themselves was doing JOTA and TDOTA – so it was wonderful not only to hear those stories but also to let the girls climb over their nerves to deliver a simple message on the radio. It didn’t help when I explained that only the WHOLE world was listening! I’m a rotter 🙂
Although we were gratefully thanked by the Guide District, I must say that it’s a pleasure to share our hobby with young people. We’re slowly building some budding M3s and I’m really proud of our achievements at Dorridge Scouts. If you are one of us and you are reading this, then be proud of what we do – and make sure that your local community understands that being a Radio Amateur is not a thing of the past, it’s bang up-to-date and happening now, on your door-step.
73 DE M0MCX
If you’ve been keeping up to date then you’ll know that I have chosen the TS-2000 as the primary radio on board our new narrowboat, “Wherethehell-Rwe”. At the helm (which is a dead give-away for my yachting heritage) I have specified the RC-2000 which should be rather fun to muck about with as I swan along at 3mph across the countryside. In English then, the TS-2000 will sit at the front of the boat near the bow and 60 feet away at the stern (the back.. or in narrowboat terminology, the steering position), I’ll be running an RC-2000 remote controlled head, remote microphone and remote loud speaker. Clearly I’ll also need a switching system up near the front so that I can also use my toys in the evening in the comfort of the boat.
Five years after becoming licensed, I’ve finally got around to putting a formal station earth / ground in situ comprising 2 x four foot copper rods and a liberal amount of copper wire into the ground on the front lawn. Instead of cutting the last 8 foot off, I used a lawn edger and shoved the copper about 4 inches into the lawn until there was two foot left. Looking around wondering what to do with this, I spotted my massive hammer drill with 24 inch 20mm drill bit. Clearly, it was asking me to drill a hole into the lawn and shove the remainer into it! I did. So I now have 2 x four foot and 1 x 24 inch ground. No idea if this remainder will do any use at all. You never know.
Ideally, you need 12.5 kHz channel selection starting from 446.006.25 which all Kenwood’s do (eg TS-2000 and Kenwood handies) however I don’t believe there’s a way to do this with FM only Yaesu Ham rigs.
Apart from the noise factor (loops are quiet), the vertical seems to make a better impact on transmit more often than not for DX, unless I’m into NVIS or near NVIS (500 miles or so). Even then, up to 1,500 miles, the jury is out – either antenna can win. Beyond 1,500 miles the vertical seems to do a better job most of the time – not always, however my loops are very low to the ground, maximum height of 7 meters. On 40m, I would say the vertical is a better antenna to have almost all of the time unless you need NVIS for local copying – and with the sun spot cycle as it is, you won’t get this for a while yet!
Now.. This is a very different animal to the Skyloops that most people build. If you want a pile-up generator, this is the animal to have. It fundamentally, takes all your RF energy and pancakes it low to the ground in various star shapes. Very Of course, you will sometimes null out the station you want but you could get really clever and change feedpoints with relays. But ignoring the clever engineering, this has changed my mind as to the effectiveness of a high skyloop.
Was I QSB this afternoon on PSK31? Probably!
Close inspection showed that the antenna is a 2-piece 28’6″ (8.5 meter or thereabouts) white fibreglass hollow pole with a 2 foot aluminium heavy-duty sleeve at the base for mounting purposes. This main lower section (of around 17 feet or so) has three elements running the full length embedded inside the fibreglass at time of manufacture from the side feed to the top, in 120 degree arc segments. A heavy-duty male screw fitting at the top, electrically connects to the top section’s female thread.