1w into Hustler 6-BTV

Whilst some might say that lifes too short for QRP. Newly licenced hams take note. 1w into a lossy vertical in a bad location doesn’t mean you’re stuck with QSO’s as far as the end of the street.

All this was achieved with a modest transceiver (IC-7000) and a modest antenna (Hustler 6-BTV with a few radials). The lesson here is that DX isn’t just for those with limitless pockets of cash, elevated QTH’s and antenna systems that can rival your nearest broadcaster. You just might not be talking to the other station!

My FT817 lives in a padded bag when its not in use along with its charger and an old Miracle whip. Now the Miracle whip no longer has a whip courtesy of my youngest who managed to snap it in half. Whilst it isn’t the finest antenna it was extremely useful for travelling. Now I need a replacement telescopic whip and I’m guessing they’re either hard to get hold of or unnecessarily expensive.

The other doom was the CI-V controller (mine is a G4ZLP USB digimater pro+) which has given some sterling service over the last couple of years but now has decided to read the frequency but not PTT or supply audio. Several wasted hours later the status quo remains. Reliability of kit in my shack isn’t that great at the best of times and this just confirms that a law based on expense and reliability. ‘No matter what it costs the chances are that it’ll stop working for no apparent reason’.

At this rate I’ll have nothing left either as a result of a 3 year old or its own suicidal components..

You may remember that a while ago I bought a 2 element lightweight 50Mhz antenna that is currently sitting in a 95% completion state so that will need a bit of finishing off and talking about.

I also purchased a Prowhip 5 band fishing pole antenna on a bit of a whim, partly because I was going to make one and thought I wouldn’t have the time to do it this side of the summer and partly because it was so cheap I doubt I could have got the parts and made one up myself for much cheaper. It calls itself a multiband antenna but its really a 1/4 wave vertical in a fishing rod that will tune to 40m and a few higher bands with a tuner. More on that later.

The other thing I’m involved with is helping with the Workington club (MX0WRC) to try and help out some of the novices and non home brewers to make a simple 3 element 2m band antenna out of ‘stuff from a hardware shop’. There are some well established designs that work but the focus is on getting the guy’s and girl’s to make their own.

I’ll also be helping out with the Fred Whitton Cycle Challenge with the local Raynet group shortly so weekends are looking quite busy .So as you can see, plenty on the plate but no time to get on the air. Something is going to have to stop, my vote is work but I doubt the mortgage will get paid, mores’ the pity.

Saturday had us checking the local communication paths for the various areas. It’s the first time I’ve been involved in any of this kind of thing so Paul, 2E0EET took me through the basics and now I’m looking forward to being a spectator and watching those who’ve trained for months on end to attempt this formidable ride.

It took me over 7:30 hrs when I did it do giving up the same amount of time with the rig at cockley beck (not too far from the Hardknott summit) seems a small price for my earlier enjoyment.

For those who aren’t too sure what it is. WOTA is a bit like SOTA but for the Wainwright Fells in the Lake District. If you don’t know what SOTA is then one explanation is portable operations from summits (or fells if you live here in the lakes). Or as I like to describe it to non hams, working you way up a fell till you get to the top, looking at the view for a bit then getting out a radio (generally in the fog or rain, in the lake district) and saying ‘hello its me, can you hear me?’ ‘yes, it’s me, can you hear me?’ ‘yes, good stuff, who’s next’. I don’t think I’ve had too many positive looks giving that explanation but its better than trying to explain what that pole sticking out of your rucksack is in a howling gale.

Anyway,m back to the point. WOTA was devised by Julian, G4ILO and the first activations have been tabled as the 21st March 2009. So all I can say is happy birthday and my XYL wants a word with you because I’ve not managed to fix the downstairs toilet whilst I’m out operating from a fell top.

Yesterday I made a secong attempt to activate Scafell Pike. Usually I got up to summits alone or with the dog bit this time was with a bunch who were training for the 3 peak challenge. Needless to say the summit was in cloud, it snowed then hailed then rained on me as I came down. Still this time I had a whole load more qso’s and a much more satisfying activation. Wast water (in the photo) is a beautiful lake that is surrounded by some impressive fells. Not as nice a Ennerdale but then again I am a bit biased.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation will be making a big (and very positive) announcement that just might interest you at 0600h GMT on Wednesday 29 February 2012. Come to www.raspberrypi.org to find out what’s going on.

Eben Upton
Executive Director, Raspberry Pi Foundation

Perhaps they’ll be announcing pricing and delivery of what should be very useful lightweight PC’s (is that even the right way to describe them?)

APRSdroid – APRS on your phone. Well worth the money especially now that it supports messaging.

Echolink – Ro real need to introduce this application. Just does what you need to make use of the Echolink network

Electrodroid – A collection of electrical references

Hamsatdroid – Satellite prediction for your phone. Very effective with a simple interface.

Morse code reader – Like all readers its not as good as your ear and as such is limited but a simple application

Morse CT – The trainer that if it was a person would have given up on me learning the code a long time ago. A very patient trainer.

Repeater – Repeaters in you local area. Shows you the distance to your nearest repeater.

Satellite AR – A mixture of Google sky maps and hamsatdroid with a nice ‘point at the sky and see where the satellite is in real time’ interface. Does more than amateur radio satellites.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but these are the ones that have been installed and used. I’ve tinkered with the idea of a log book for when I’m portable but nothing so far has stood up to the old pencil and paper. If a developer makes one that can pick out call signs then that would be smart but I can imagine that’s not going to happen in the near future.

I know there are apps for digimodes like PSK-31 but nothing for things like WSPR or any of the exotic ones. As the next generation of phones come out and these become functional but obsolete the ability to repurpose them must be on someone else’s mind and not just mine.

Progress as you can image was at their pace and eventually I had an extra 20Kg on my shoulders as we went back into the cloud near the summit of Dodd (LDW-174). The summit is low at only 502m but the propagation into both Southern Scotland and Northern Ireland was in effect and I managed a summit to summit before the kids / XYL got bored. Needless to say the dogs didn’t bat an eyelid.

So I’m off the mark for this year and hopefully I’ll be able to get a few SOTA and WOTA summits in this year although I think I’ll avoid carrying the kids. The lake district is an excellent place to live and visit and I’m glad to have made some new contacts for the log and I hope it will help WOTA to grow and grow