g7kse.co.uk » Beacons

703 Gone

Alex — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 09:39:29 +0000

My trusty Icom 703 has been sold. Feels like I’ve lost a faithful friend. So there won’t be any beacon monitoring or wspr’ing for a while. I’m looking to get a nice second hand ft817 and spotted one on eBay. I wasn’t prepared to pay as much as the winner so he got it. Still no rush and it’ll allow me to buy the bits I need to make up the portable cobwebb

Thinking of a new rig

Alex — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:19:26 +0000

I’ve spent the last 3 years collecting data from the NCDXF beacons to see if I can hear them using Faros. The results have been displayed on this site as a way of keeping a valid copy of the data away from the home pc’s which seem to give up the ghost or lose data. Lately I’ve been really frustrated that I haven’t really had a spot for a long time.

The rig is fine and the PC is getting the sound in, theres just no spots. So I’m thinking of a slight change of rig so that I can get a bit more out the set up. There are a few hams locally that use APRS and I’m wanting to get a bit more involved, so I’m thinking of putting the trusty and very reliable IC-703 onto Ebay so I can get hold of a FT-817 and a TNC to run APRS both out and about and in the car as well as switching over to WSPR instead of Faros.

I do go up to Scotland quite a lot and have found it would be nice to have something in the car on the way up there and whilst I’m there both on HF and VHF. So that only really leaves one sensible option. The FT-817, a cross country wireless APRS TNC and a mobile whip for the car and my Cobwebb for HF

Well I’m stumped

Alex — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 20:36:21 +0000

Three different antennas, two different rigs and not a spot on the hf beacons to speak of at all. One strange thing that did happen was that the laptop stopped picking up spots on WSPR as well whilst if was on 15m. AT least they looked like spots, matched the profile on the screen that they usually did. Just not decoded. I’ve noticed this before and assume that the problem was at this end with the desktop pc (which is a nettop thing) running windows 7 not picking up things as sometimes it has a mind of its own with the soundcard. I’m going to try and bring back the old laptop from the grave as today seems the most appropriate just to be absolutely sure.

The whole thing doesn’t make sense to me

Beacon station

Alex — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:03:26 +0000

I’m begining to think that something is quite wrong with the beacon monitoring station. So much so that this week I’ll be using it for WSPR just to do some checks. Its been hooked up to the Hustler 6-BTV and will also be TX’ing as well on the 15m band as a compromise.
The idea is to get a feel for wether there is a problem with the receiver or that there is something wrong in the set up as there are so few spots coming through especially as the activity seems to be on the increase

Are we at the bottom yet?

Alex — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:05:49 +0000

The beacon station still going strong but no propagation to speak of. I keep checking the site during the day to see how the 4UN1UN beacon is and I can safely say that it’s getting weaker and weaker. With few or no spots at all in many of the days. It makes you think that there is something wrong with your equipment.

Hopefully this long trough will start to pick up so I have a chance to pull together a secret mast for my 6m beam before the XYL finds out what I’ve done just in time for the Es season! I know she doesn’t read this blog too often so I’m sure she’ll not find out what I’m planning.

I still need to do some fault finding with my Softrock and / or build the second kit. I really enjoyed the first one I bought the second one to try and practice a bit more with the SMD soldering, but unfortunately things conspired against me.

Antenna replacement

Alex — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:18:55 +0000

Having run the active antenna for a month or so it seems fairly obvious that it’s just not pulling in the signals. I’ve swapped it for a wire antenna with a 1:1 balun. The wire is approximately 25m long with a 10m coax feeder. It’ll be positioned in a suitable spot in the garden. From early results it’s head and shoulders above the active and electrically small loft one.

Playing with different antennas

Alex — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:09:11 +0000

After having a week off work to do some heavy work in the garden I punctuated the soaking I got by playing about with some antennas.

As the radio hase been relocted away from the other PC the connection to the loft has been lost which is both good and bad. I get to regain my 2m antenna without having to change things around but teh diamond compact Vee (HFV-5) thats I’ve been using has had to be retired. Partly due to excessive corrosion and partly duy to not being able to find a new space for it. So I’m trying out some new antennas whilst the set up os being fiddled with.

1. Sony AN-1 – Active antenna

My first active antenna, bought in 1989 and not used much except with my Sony ICF-2001D when that was my only radio. Its powered by batteries and is essentially a long whip antenna with a pre-amp attached.

2. Home made loop

Just something that interested me so?I decided on making a relatively large loop (1.5m diameter) out of co-ax and other bits lying aorund the garage.

3. Long wire

I ‘own’ approximately 35m of fence which could be used for a long wire antenna. A small connection through the garage wall would give acces to the fence and although at least 4m is close to the house the remainder is moving away and the last 15 m at a?right angle couldn’t be further from the house. At 1.8m high it should give some interesting alternative results from the other options.

I’ll be sapping round these atennas over the next few weeks to compare the results and to?see?if there really is an opportunity to increase the results I get from the beacon monitoring programmme.

Away again

Alex — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:30:42 +0000

I’m away again for a few days so the beacon station has come with me in case the opportunity to have some QSO’s comes my way……here’s hoping

If I can get at least one 6m QSO I’ll over the moon

Beacon station back up and running

Alex — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:47:04 +0000

Another brief few days away with my trusty IC-703 meant that there were no results for last week. things are now back and running again so the resutls should be coming through nicely

Data being recorded but not uploaded

Alex — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:00:21 +0000

I’m having yet more trouble with my netwrok with data being recorded but no ability to upload. I’ll attempt to solve it quickly