Radio


Kenwood	TS50 Base/mobile HF radio 5 - 100 output
Kenwood	TR751E All mode 2m. 25w (quite an ancient radio, but it works well)
Yaesu	FT5200 FM Dual bander (50w/2m. 35W/70cms)
	FT8900 FM Quad bander (35W/70cms 50w/2m. 50w/6m & 10m )

114' random wire running through an SGC 231 Auto tuner - rather restricted here as the back garden is only 35' square. So the wire tends to be a bit bent!

VHF/UHF

Feb. 2003

For the moment just a couple of verticals for the bands, tacked onto the back of the house. But I am sure these will grow............

1st. June 2003

I have just got hold of a Clark type Pneumatic mast, 12m. extended. So will be fabricating the mounting for the rotator cage and getting some 'real' antennas up soon. Look in my photo album for pictures of the construction as it grows!

PS. - Don't tell 'er indoors!

September 2005

All up and running and 'er indoors thinks it looks better now than when I was building it!!!!

Pictures of the build on 'Photo Album'.

My mast and just a few antennas A close-up of the array Old Slow Scan TV Test Card

VHF/UHF FM DX: Some people say it cannot be done! Well it can and I have proved it.

Mind you I was 3/4 the way up a mountain (1100ft.) in North Wales at the time. Being in the right place and having a GW call sign is worth a lot of power..... The Yaesu FT-270r I then used, produced only 25 watts of FM. and the old Yaesu UHF hand held only 1 watt.

I used to live in a village called Bwlchgwyn (5 miles NW Wrexham, Clwyd), Loc: IO83KB and had a 270' take-off. On a clear day we could see from Lancashire in the north to mid Wales in the south, with Greater Manchester, the Derbyshire hills and the Wrekin in Shropshire in between. So you can image, longer distance FM, even on a relatively simple Omni was fairly easy!

Well as I see it, DX can mean different things to different people. If you live in a valley, just getting a few miles away could be DX. Getting over that hill can be just as thrilling as working your first 1000Km+ station.

I listen for repeaters I don't normally hear. Find out where they are. What path it might give me for a simplex contact. (No, I do not DX through repeaters. But I do have a quick chat to some friends in Wales & N.E. England when GB3MP pops up).

How many people actually listen on the input and then ask the station you have heard to join you simplex? A surprising number of station jump on a repeater as soon as there is lift in conditions and do not even try calling simplex. You will hear a lot of stations on these 'pile ups' if you listen on the input........

From my old qth. in N. Wales, I considered anything out of the UK. as useful, into central Europe getting interesting and finally into North & Eastern Europe, the Med. and N. Africa as very interesting...... In the first 2 years at Bwlchgwyn I worked 23 countries on 2m. and 13 countries on the VHF handy........Not to mention regular contacts with Serge U5MIR on the Mir Space Station. Remember, this was all relatively low power FM.

I know it could all be done on CW or SSB on a contest afternoon. But consider this, I did not want 5/9 'On Yer Bike' Next please... I like to have a chat find out about people and make a lot of friends who call in again next time they hear me.

When you live in place like Bwlchgwyn you do not play with small omni. antennas, so within two months of moving in I had put up the first of my beams. It was a second-hand 9 element Crossed Tonna for the 2m. band. About 12 months later I was given another 9 element Crossed Tonna - rather bent after falling off a roof in a Welsh gale. Time for some experimenting I thought.

Phasing harness' were constructed, tested and the whole lot put on the KR400 rotator. Wow! I had complaints from London stations on the first evening of operating. Some even said I must have been running power to be as strong as I was. Nope - won't entertain it.

Now the real FM DXing could start - and it did........Phew how many stations have I worked?

Oh well down to earth in Dunstable and I will have to try a bit more listening and path finding again! Maybe we will have a simplex chat sometime. I hope so.........