On the air!

Here I am age 17, this photo was taken just before I got my licence!

I received my licence documents through the post 40 years ago today!

Now I remember this well, I came home from work at teatime while working at Telefusion Ltd. When I came in the letter was waiting, at the same time along come George G3ZQS (in his slippers) As I opened the envelope, George said "Come on...what is the callsign then?" "G4AQB" I replied...."Oooh...A Queer Bugger eh!!" said George with his usual razer sharp wit!

After George had gone I rang up Neil G3ZPL to tell him that I had my callsign! I then called Neil on 160m so that he could be my first (legal) contact.

Here is a section of the very first page in my logbook back in 1971.

G4AQB - 40 years today!

OMG! Today is a special anniversary! I got my Amateur Radio Licence 40 years ago today!

The wonderful sound of G4AQB...

I was 17 years old then and worked so hard to study for my Radio Amateur Exam. I had been interested in radio since I was 13 years old, and my first radio shack was in a leaky concrete shed. I spent my time there every night building and constructing my own equipment. At 17 years old I was one of the youngest radio amateurs in the country!

Now today after 40 years I am building my new antenna array and continue to listen on the amateur bands. There have been some times when I have not had time for radio being a teacher, it steals all your leisure time. Now as I look towards retirement, radio is such a wonderful hobby even in this digital world. I have never forgotten how to read circuits and build stuff of my own. Maybe when I get more time I will start to do this in a big way again.

The day I passed my Morse Test!

Sunspot Maximum

We are about to reach the peak of the 11 year sunspot cycle!

So what does it mean? Well, today I listened on the 10m band during the day to find the band open with lots of stations coming in from all over the world! America and Brazil coming in at 5-9 with little noise. Fantastic!

There is much more to come as the predicted maximum is between January and May 2013 with a steady build up of sunspot activity.

So what happens at Sunspot maximum? Basically, the 'F' layer of the ionosphere becomes more ionised and is able to reflect radio signals in the upper short wave bands that would normally have passed through into space. So Amateur bands like 28Mhz, 50Mhz and even 70Mhz will be affected causing long distance radio communication across the world. This will tend to happen more during the day and communication can be made even with low power.

I am looking forward to seeing what stations I can hear and work with my Yaesu FT817 and 5 watts. I still have my FT101E which will give me 150w if I need it!

I remember back in 1980 at the sunspot maximum when I had a converted Belcom Liner 2 in my car and a 27Mhz CB antenna. The stations that I worked with just 10 watts was amazing! I talked to America, Russia and even a guy on a ship in the Panama Canal while driving to work!

I also remember driving home from Yorkshire with Kathleen, my wife, who was pregnant at the time watching an amazing sunset with 3 or 4 large visible sunspots, that was in 1980.

Steve Job - digital hero

Sad news today on the death of Steve Job, the Apple guy! Probably one of the most influential person in modern times, he has written the future of communications and digital technology. His innovations of the Apple Mac, ipod, iphone and ipad set the standards for others to follow. A sad loss for modern digital technology. "Thousands of people all over the world have also been attending Apple stores to leave flowers, notes, and apples with a bite taken from them to mimic the company's logo. Apple's leading rivals such as Microsoft, Google, Sony and Samsung all chipped in with glowing tributes. GS Choi, chief executive of Samsung, which is embroiled in a major court battle with Apple on patents, said Mr Jobs was an "innovative spirit" who "introduced numerous revolutionary changes to the information technology industry". In his statement, Bill Gates said: "The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honour." Mr Jobs built a reputation as a forthright and demanding leader who could take niche technologies - such as the mouse and graphical user interface, using onscreen icons rather than text - and make them popular with the general public. He introduced the colourful iMac computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad to the world. His death came just a day after Apple unveiled its latest iPhone 4S model.

144Mhz / 432Mhz dual band yagi

I spotted a cool dual band yagi on Ebay, 5 element 144Mhz and 8 element 432Mhz all on one boom with a single coax feed. This sounds like just the job!

I ordered this antenna along with a 2 element HB9CV yagi for 70Mhz. I wanted to add a 50Mhz yagi as well, but it would be too big. The weather this weekend was fantastic, temperature 27 degrees, a real indian summer. Ideal weather to put up some new antennas!

It has felt like Christmas this week! I ordered some new antennas and a rotator, at last I am going to have my antenna array back again after many years. My first array was put up on the 24th September 1973. I then had an 8 element yagi for 144Mhz and an 18 element parabeam for 432Mhz made by J-Beam. In 1977 I moved them onto the chimney at my present location and they stayed there until about 1999 when I took them down and threw them away!

Would you believe that I bought this rotator from ebay, brand new from Germany, it cost only £19! Deciding on the antennas was not easy, I don't want a huge array of yagis, but I need something small and compact because this is going to be mounted on the side of the house and can be seen clearly from the street.

I was still waiting for the 70Mhz yagi, but I still wanted to make a start on the array, so my first visit was to B&Q to buy the fixings. Having looked on ebay and the internet, the prices at B&Q was quite reasonable for the 6ft aluminium masts and fixing bracket. Next I needed some coax cable, so a trip to Modern Radio was next. I haven't been to Modern Radio for quite a while, I always enjoy going there...lots of memories! I wanted some good quality 50 ohm coax, but not the expensive thick stuff. Diane at MR showed me some 'Mini RG8' coax instead of the cheap RG-58u. Good stuff at a good price (70p per metre) ideal for my set up, so I bought 20 metres and some BNC plugs.

Spent the rest of the afternoon drilling the wall and assembling the new 144Mhz / 432Mhz dual band yagi. This was easy to assemble, all I had to do was put the elements into the coloured numbered holes.

Now i'm all set up just waiting for the 4m yagi.

G3JJM

Sunday afternoon and raining outside, listening to some stations on 2m. Then I came across a strong station and listened for a while, suddenly, I realise that I know this voice...it was Arthur G3JJM!

I am amazed at the number of stations that are on the air again from long ago. Today I listened to Gerry G2BTO and John G3EGC on the 1963 net on topband. Earlier this week I listened to Steve G3YTI from Darwen. These guys were my inspiration back in 1971 when I was going for my amateur licence 40 years ago.

G3JJM was the first ever radio amateur that I heard on 160m when I was 13 years old. He was talking with Tom G3XCI on a Sunday afternoon while I was having tea. My father and I listened on my 'Roamer 7' radio that I built. We heard it on the 'Trawler Band' which we later found out was Topband. Arthur G3JJM got my R109 receiver from the guy on Folds Rd, I went with him while he made the deal and got it for £1.50p...a bargain!

Nice to hear you again Arthur after such a long time!

50Mhz Halo

Tuesday night brought the 50Mhz contest, some good conditions on 28Mhz so I thought I would see what is around on 50Mhz. My discone seems to work alright, but has a high SWR on 6m, so I decided to connect my 60ft HF longwire to the FT-817 with the ATU connected.

I was amazed at the result!

I found that I could tune the longwire at 50Mhz and during the contest could hear lots more stations and worked some stations using the longwire.I remember doing this once on 4m years ago and worked a few stations there during a contest.I also got my homemade 50Mhz transverter out with the FT101 and this still works fine.Now I am thinking about a suitable antenna for 6m, I have ordered a 2 element HB9CV for 4m and wonder if this will work on 6m as well. I used to have an old Band 1 TV aerial that worked fine on these bands, but when I took my old antennas down I threw it away!

This got thinking about using a halo for 50Mhz. I have never seen one before, but I did use one on 2m clipped on my car window for mobile use. Now I know that I don't have enough room for a rotatable beam for this band, so this seems like a good alternative.

Type: Folded dipole antenna Frequency: 50-52MHz

Overall square size:

Approx 800mm (30 inches)

VSWR: 1.5:1 or better

Power: 200 Watts Connection:

Direct connection to dipole centre
Omni directional

Sounds good to me!