After spending the day in the shack tinkering I thought it was about time to get out and get some fresh air, of course this doesn’t have to exclude radio.. Armed with a flask of coffee I headed off to Hill Head, a 10 minute drive from my home QTH which affords sea front parking literally a few metres from the waters edge when the tide is in. I aimed to just work 10m where conditions were a little changeable but persistence paid off. In all over 80 minutes I worked 18 stations, the closest being line of sight in the UK to the furthest in Argentina.
UK, Greece, South Africa, Canada, USA, Guadeloupe, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.
Todays mobile setup consisted of my Yaesu FT891, TX 100W and Yaesu ATAS 120A. Logging software Ham2K PoLo Portable Logger.
Another Sunday and another Ham Radio Social with 2E0LKA – Sri, M0CJM – Neil, Tiago M7### (awaiting call) and myself M0NRG Nigel. This time we decided to meet up at Sri and Neil’s neck of the woods just outside Basingstoke near the village of Ellisfield. The morning consisted of the usual good company, conversation, radio and of course breckie.. Even though the sun was out it was still a chilly morning with a northerly wind blowing, fortunately a large hedgerow afforded us some shelter from the wind. After a coffee we focused on getting the antenna and radio setup. Todays weapon of choice was the Tactical Delta Loop antenna (CHA TDL) from Chameleon and Neil’s Yaesu FT991a connected using POTA-FLEX 7 Messi & Paoloni Coax Cable, if you have never used POTA Flex it is very light weight and ideal for hanging off of a portable mast. The antenna tuned up successfully on all of the bands that we tried using the FT991a internal tuner. We all had a few contacts on HF also allowing Tiago to have some QSO’s under our supervision.
Today I also wanted to play with some other tech consisting of a DJI Mini 4 Pro Drone, a DJI OSMO 7 Gimbal and DJI Mini microphones. All didn’t go to plan with some lessons learned but I did manage to put a small video together with some of the captured footage. In a nutshell a schoolboy error meant that the audio that was being recorded was from the phone microphone and not the DJI Mini microphone. I will confess that the radio audio that is overlayed in the drone footage was added afterwards as the original audio was not really usable.
Still everyday is a school day…………..
If you fancy joining us please leave a message on the contacts page or email me nigel@m0nrg.co.uk
So another Sunday Ham Radio social, the QTH this time was Coombe Gibbet located on Gallows Down sitting on the border of Hampshire and Berkshire. In attendance were Myself, Steve 2E0OWI, James 2E0HHP, Sri 2E0LKA and Tiago not yet licenced but watch this space.
Today the guys were QRV on 4m, 2m and HF with a good selection of antennas for experimentation. There was even a little smattering of LoRa Meshtastic in the guise of a LILYGO T-ECHO placed on the back of the truck. Although the sun was out it was still pretty chilly on top of the hill . The clear sky enabled good views of the 3 counties consisting of Hampshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire. We of course had the obligatory bacon and sausage wraps and plenty of coffee to keep us going.
There was plenty of wildlife spotted for the day including Hares, Red Kites, kestrels and skylarks who’s song you could constantly hear on the breeze. Either side of the ridge consisted of the Inkpen and Walbury Hills SSSI with the wildlife clearly thriving here. Across the top of the ridge is a byway which in places was quite rough but as were were all in 4×4 capable vehicles this added a bit more fun to the day. During these /P outings where there are members of the public around we generally always get someone asking us what we are doing which then gives us the chance to be an ambassador to and promote this great hobby and today was no exception
A friend joined us today, Tiago who moved to the UK from Brazil. He is very interested in getting his Ham Radio Licence as he has friends back in Brazil who are licenced operators. During this session we took the opportunity to introduce him to HF where he had a chat with a station on 40m and later on with a station in Kentucky on 17m.
All in all another pleasant Sunday Ham Radio Social.
A bit late with this post.. Last weekend Myself Nigel M0NRG, Steve 2E0OWI, Neil M0CJM, Sri 2E0LKA met up at Teglease down on the Southdowns for a Sunday Morning social. On the way in it was quite sunny but as the morning progressed the sky turned grey and the sun disappeared, this didn’t detract from pleasant morning consisting of food, chat, good company and of course radio.
Todays kit consisted of the Yaesu FT891, Mat 30 Tuner and a Chameleon Delta loop mast mounted.
We did a partial WWFF activation of GFF-0018 Southdowns National Park and then some casual radio contacts.
26 in the log for the activation and a few others across the guys afterwards.
Rain and possible lightning was advertised for that afternoon so we were packed away by lunchtime just prior to the rain starting.
