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Last year I had a short spell on 6m with a beam in my back garden. The antenna was only 3m above ground level and certainly not expertly set up. Having said that I still made a good few QSO’s within Europe and seemed to have a direct line to EA8.

This year I initially promised myself a portable mast that would be sturdy enough to be raised up to the roof line then lowered when I wasn’t using it to reduce the visual impact. This idea was to keep the XYL happy as she doesn’t share my enthusiasm for antennas and also the neighbours as they’ve hardly passed comment on the vertical and I didn’t want to push my luck.

Mainly through time and budget this didn’t happen (2 sets of brakes on the same car put pay to that) so I opted for the inflexibility of putting the thing in the loft. After a lot of swearing it was installed and I thought that I’d made a big mistake as even though dx sherlock was telling me there was good chance there was Es in the region, the band was empty. Not to be put off I kept turning the rig on and scan through the band every now and then and last night was rewarded with the first QSO’s of the season for me.

I guess the lesson is to not rely heavily on the internet and to not worry if it is just not happening. Check the connections. Check them again and build a kit or read a book if you just get static.

By the way I still haven’t heard a single UK operator this year even though I hear European operators. Also if these Es clouds would make themselves available when I’m at home rather than at work then it would make it a lot easier

Monster in my cupboard / loft

There are always a few events on the calendar that put me in front of the radio. One of them is the sporadic E season. I suppose there are a load of different tools you can use, including the old fashioned ones ….ears. But being a bit lazier I use DX Sherlock. Its a great service that is basically a spotter for contacts on 28Mhz up to 432Mhz and beyond.

One of the more useful services is the email alerts which tell me where to point and the MUF, and the good thing is that I’ve started to get a few emails coming through, which in my book means that the big stations are starting to make contacts and its nearly time for the minnows to get a piece of the action.

This year the yagi in in the loft. Again it is a compromise between height and the opporunity to change the beam direction. Last year almost all of my contacts were Southern Europe and the Canaries with a few in Scotland and funnily enough none in England. So with no funding for a big tilt over tower available I’m limited to what I can do. Hence this years experiment. I say year beacuse dismantling the 5 ele yagi and reassembling it in a confined space is interesting at least. Plenty of swearing and sweating!

Here’s to a good Es season and I hope to meet you on the band