It was a bright sunny day down in IO90, so wanting to make full use I headed off to one of my favourite locations in the New Forest (GB-0112) Boulderwood. Its lovely there as it has excellent benches which my radio can be setup on quite easily, and the surrounding trees are really beautiful.
Set up on my favorite picnic tableBongo doing APRS en-routeA feathered friend looking for nibbles
I was setup in no time at all with the mag loop and started out with FT4 on 20M, then FT8. I was amazed at how good the propagation was today, with brilliant signal reports and a very steady stream of QSO’s – in no less than 20 minutes, I had made the 10 contacts required to activate the park!
FT8 propagation on 10W into the mag-loop was brilliant
Having had so much success on digital modes, I gave SSB a try on 20m, I was not to be disappointed ! A quick self spot on the POTA app (also a benefit of this part of the New Forest, it has mobile phone coverage!) and I made excellent contacts in Switzerland with HB9HZC and HB9BWR with very good signal reports both ways (59 from me, 57 received) With no more than a few minutes wait, I was having a QSO with Jose, EA1BUL in Spain, with a brilliant signal report.
I’m not usually one for swapping bands, but I’d thought I’d give 40m a try as conditions seemed so favorable. I returned to the QRP CoA (7.090) on SSB and sure enough a contact with G0QRL, Don in Devon was to be had ! It was harder work and the SWR was slighter higher at 2:1, but nevertheless a great receive signal report and I got 55 on my 10W of power.
POTA Log for today – if you see yourself there *big thanks*
This was a brilliant activation, and I had a thoroughly good time. With the WX turning slightly inclement I headed back home, thoroughly excited and really impressed with the IC705 and Alexloop antenna – I really love QRP and am amazed at just how much can be done with a good antenna and limited power.
Having had some recent setbacks with not making any (i.e. ZERO) contacts and then NINE and not activating the park (I had a double, so counted 10 contacts, but it was only 9…), I was determined to get out and actually add to my activations of the New Forest. Prior today I’m two away from the award for visiting the park and activating it multiple times (20 needed).
APRS Spotting via 2M (144.800)
Having tested at the QTH with a quick test then a QRT I could see that I could use APSPOT to self-spot to POTA. Some areas of the new forest have limited phone signal, where as today I could reach the internet on my phone, it was great to see RF->Web via APRS DigiPeaters – Many thanks to the people still keeping APRS alive ! I am truly thankful for the digipeaters !
APRS Beacon received en-route and back from POTA activation – thanks to the many APRS Digipeaters!
Beaconing and sending a message for POTA is different, on my Kenwood it is very similar to how shown in the excellent video from Ben Soper, obviously the Frequency changes to the UK APRS of 144.800, i also kept all the text in the message *lower case*
excellent demo of how to self-spot POTA via APRS fom Ben Soper
Ironically, whilst I could spot, I wasn’t able to make any telephony contacts on 17m. Maybe I was asking too much of my QRP setup and compromise antenna. I have made phone contacts on it before, but HF conditions vary and maybe that was the reason why. Propergation on 17M was very come-and-go today, but ranging all over Europe on 10W, I wasnt complaining
17M – FT8
I spent the first set of data communictions on FT8, and there was very much a steady stream of contacts coming in. The whip antenna, tuner and radials where doing a great job, as least as good as my mag loop, but I’d say it was far more portable and easier to setup.
17M – FT4
Looking at the waterfall on the IC705 I could see some activity on the FT4 section of the band, switching to FT4 SDR-Mobile is very easy, just a quick click, the tuner put the SWR down to <1.5:1 and I was off. It was a very steady flow of QSO’s !
Wild horsesEnjoying the grassand not the radials
It was lovely to meet people out walking their dogs, with a great conversation with a TV Repairman about the old days of broadcast transmission and interference from France. Its great to show people where I have reached with my radio, they are amazed with how far it has gone, also I really liked their little badger-dog who was playing fetch with a ball 🙂 The amount of horses in the new forest is lovely, there is a real mix of animals, this time of the year we see horses and cows roaming around the roads – much care is needed as the youngsters are just starting to get used to the roads, but its amazing to see the parents have such protective instincts for their young. In the Autumn I look forward to seeing the little red pigs which are usually seen around Burley 🙂
Setup todaycomfortable and easyThe lovely bongo
It was one of those days that I really appreciated living near this beautiful location and also having my Mazda Bongo, it has more lives than a cat, but I seem to keep it on the road each year, days like today it makes it all worth it being able to drive out with my equipment, set it. up easily then get back home without issue. Having the 2M/70cm Kenwood transceiver with APRS in the Bongo is great for tracking and now with the ability to self-spot, its really useful!
Kenwood with APRS+GPSso many views like this in the New Forest
Having made a personal best of 32 Data mode contacts, I tried telephony on 17 and 20 meters, but to no avail, but I was far from disappointed, I really felt like I had an excellent time out today doing PoTA, and I cant thank the people that pull out my signal from the noise to make and complete a QSO! See if you spot your call sign in the credits 🙂
POTA GB-0112 New Forest
Really looking forward to the next time I can get out and get on the air 🙂
I traveled to Edinburgh for Quantum Computing Theory in Practice (QCTiP) and with a chance to use my locator of 2M brought my IC705 and Alexloop along. I had originally planned to go out with my radio on Friday evening or Saturday morning, but not being able to stand another Ryanair flight, opted to go on Tuesday evening and get the train back Saturday.
train back to Bournemouth from Edinburgh
I used the handy google maps app to find my way to Craigmillar Castle park, it was a short ride and easy to do from my hotel near Edinburgh university in the old town.
Route to the park via #2 bus
It was a bit of trek from the bus stop to the park, but after being in all day, quite pleasant to get some exercise.
entrance signstunning views
The views from the park where really nice and the paths not too bad, with all the bad weather of late there was only a few patches of mud puddles, otherwise was easy to follow the trail/google maps to the adventure park which I had seen having a nice table to setup on.
all 3 bungeesbut on the air
Getting the Alexloop setup required all three bungees, the wind was not strong but enough that the usual bungee around the table wasn’t enough. I used a vertical bungee to secure the mast and sure enough was soon on the air. I encountered some high SWR and found this was due to the power lead and the feed line being in close proximity, so I worked thru all that and re-routed it, then sure enough was on the air with first 5W and then 10.
The QSO’s came in sporadically, one minute there would be a FT8 pile up, then minutes of nothing, I figured that other stations must be on the same frequency so bounced around the available bandwidth on the FT8 20M range, sure enough was soon edging towards the 10 contacts I needed.
sundownchilly computer, colder operator
At this point i realized I had come quite unprepared for the Scottish weather and whilst I was treated to a beautiful sunset the wind was beginning to really make me cold, thankfully FT8 requires minimal user input. I put my backpack on to keep the wind off me buried my hands deep within my hoodie. A chocopie gave me enough of a sugar rush to keep me going…
at last – 11 contacts!wind having a good time with notebook
With some failed QSO’s (KF9UG) and some completed (VE1JW) I also had a run of 2 almost as I was shutting down (9A4ZM) – i had enough to activate the park. I was able to pack away and head back to the bus stop !
Urban and Countrysidelovely bus stop
I was really impressed on just how one moment I could be in this seemingly wide countryside of Scotland, and next back in the city of Edinburgh. The walk back to the bus stop was made with much haste and was so glad to be back in a wind-protected shelter. The bus arrived on time and I was so glad to be back in the warm ! The short ride back to the hotel was followed by a very nice bowl of shin-ramyen !
Shin ramyan to the rescue !!
I took my ADIF log and uploaded to the POTA website – I had already setup my 2ME0FWE call sign on the PoTA site before leaving for Edinburgh, so it was easy to upload to the regional locator under my main ‘2E0FWE’ owner call sign.
VE1JW – thanks fo the amazing long distance contact !
I was really please to see a splattering of PoTA Hunters, getting VE1JW in the log from Canada on 10W was excellent. Whilst it was hard work to get the radio, battery and computer to Edinburgh, it was well worth it. Going back on the train removed all the hassle of unload the battery, radio, computer at the airport.
This was by far one of those PoTA’s where I learned alot more other than just the radio. Being prepared for the climate being the key one ! Hopefully one day I’ll be able to get back to Scotland and use 2M0FWE again, the scenery of this beautiful country makes it all the more worth it.
After a very busy week, I had Sunday and getting out with my radio to look forward to. Thankfully the weather was being kind to me, whilst not warm, it wasnt raining as we had plenty of that over night !
Plenty of overnight rain at the QTH
I headed out to Boulderwood with the magloop and 705 and was on the air very quickly. Setup is quick and easy with the magloop and I actually learned a good wait to tune the antenna and get the SWR down quicker.
place hand UNDER feedline when tuning = better and quicker matching
I did run into issues starting out with WSJTX and FT8, the time on my computer was just ever so slightly out, but enough for a time sensitive decode of FT8 not to work correctly. I tried updating the time using the windows time server, to no avail ! I had to manually set the NTP server to rolex.ripe.net, sync the time and I was back in action !
control panel timeset NTP sever to ripe’s
I had 10 QSO’s in digital modes done in under 40 minutes, shifting between FT8 and FT4 on 20m, with POTA hunters chasing me thanks to the POTA app and RBN.
Having completed enough contacts to activate the park, I was straight into Telephony and SSB. I went onto 17m, not that was any contests on, but I found it a good band for QRP operation, and sure enough I made two contacts, with EA1EC being a POTA Hunter, proving how using PoTA makes getting contacts that bit easier – when running QRP it all helps !
I jumped onto 20M, which was quite calm for a Sunday, and was able to tune around the band, making a contact with IK0VSY, with a good signal report. 20 meters really was the place to be today, so jumped onto SSTV and the pictures started rolling in from other SSTV users.
I waited my time and started to transmit and I made my first SSTV PoTA contact for 2024 ! I was really chuffed and excited, so big thanks to IK2QIN for the excellent QSO.
SSTV QSO received and uploaded to MAX SSTV by other SSTV receivers (Thanks MAX SSTV website!)
I then span the dial on 20m once more, and made 3 more SSB contacts, it was really great to make the contacts, with IU3EDQ being Portable !, but thanks again to EA2DT and EA4TL for hunting me and making the contact with excellent signal reports, with a 59 from me and a 5-5 for my reception report.
The IC-705 really done me a great service today, and being able to use the the voice repeat mode in conjunction with the ‘massive’ battery power of the ‘ultra max’ battery ensured I wasnt going to run out of power for the radio.
repeat mode and <1.3 SWRon 20m and good resultsrepeat mode saved my voice
Sadly some massive QRM came in on frequency, but I was able to shift up and continue making contacts, that is the advantage of 20m over 17m, that it has more space in the band, so shifting isnt a problem. I quickly posted my frequency change on the POTA app and was able to continue making contacts !
QRM on frequency, maybe a new mode I’m not aware of !the sun did try to come out
As the time approached for me to head to the supermarket to get my essential shopping, i packed up in no time, leaving the bunch and the park as I found it. Bolderwood is such a lovely place to come, its relaxing and gets me ready for the busy week ahead. I had a fantastic time getting out on the radio today.
Big thanks to all the people that made a contact with me today, it really is much appreciated and I really enjoy the amazing hobby that is amateur radio !
thanks for all the contacts !!!
*update 18/3/24*
Would like to say BIG thanks to Alessandro who contacted me with his QSL card, little did I know at the time that IU3EDK/P was up a mountain ! I received a lovely QSL card via email and a link to the activation – how amazing that it was a park-to-mountain activation all on 10W of power !!
Thank you Alessandro ! Please check out the activation from Alessandro here
With good weather and wanting to get out to test out the ‘unknown dipole’ I headed out to Bolderwood park in the New Forest. I setup the dipole, first I tried with the mast, but the ground in / around the New Forest is very rocky, so improvised and put the antenna in the trees !
Dipole was still in action in the trees !
This took longer than setting up the Alexloop Hampack mag-loop antenna, but I was keen to see what improvements using a dipole in the forest would bring compared to the Alexloop. I was soon setup on my ‘regular’ bench and on the air, making contacts on FT8 on 17m in no time at all !
Bench with the dipoloe feedline going up into the tree
I was amazed at how quickly I was having FT8 QSO’s, it was one after the other, and changing bands with the MAT tuner, made it very easy. I could hardly write down the backup log for FT4 as the contacts rolled in !
the contacts just kept coming and coming !
I also managed a Park-to-Park with M0OVE on FT4 – a real treat and was really excited. It took no time at all to get enough contacts (< 50 minutes) on FT8 and FT4, the antenna and radio was doing a great job. In terms of operation, I found the dipole much easier to use than the magloop as it didnt require me to re-tune each time.
Having made more than enough contacts, I tried SSTV, whilst reception was excellent, getting out on the busy ARRL contest weekend and a busy SSTV CoA was proving difficult, nethertheless I enjoyjed trying !
a busy SSTV SOA – if it was nt SSTV it was ‘CQ Contest’
I tried for some telephony contacts, but the self-presribved midday cutoff was coming up and packing up would take a little while, so tided up and headed home.
Once home I had to work out how to update my ADIF file, which to the thanks of the excellent POTA website, was made easy, so I can add my P2P reference, sure enough,that uploaded without problem. I was really glad so many my digital mode QSO’s where fellow POTA hunters !
Hopefully i will get out again in March and I can enjoy using another antenna, I think its worth experiementing just to see how much a good antenna and 10W can really do !
Some lovely sun kept the chills off today with flowers blooming and when it reach mid afternoon looked like turning into a great afternoon evening, I thought it would be great to make an impromptu visit to Bolderwood to try a PoTA activation.
compare to Janurary temptures, I was basking in the winter sunshin at a 12 celsisus !
I had everything packed away, i did one quick check for the power beiing packed, which it was, but had no idea on the battery level of the laptop, I knew I had used it recently so it shouldnt be too low. I headed off and it was great to to Bolderwood which whilst still pleasently busy, didnt feel over crowded. I’m sure this will change even by the end of the month !
Setup in no timeblue skysa great place to do radio and relax
I was on the air in no time, with the Alexloop attached to the bench with a bungie and hooked into the IC705, it was easy to tune into 30m to start with for FT8. I chose 30m as I had alot of contacts at home and its not a band I used /P for POTA before, I made 4 contacts within 10 minutes, so wasnt disappointed. I then moved to FT4 on 20M – it was *busy* even finding a gap in FT4 was getting tricky, but I was glad to find a gap and get out. The laptop was down to 40% power by now, so I stuck it in energy efficent mode, which kept the battery going without issue and no adverse effect on the radio/USB connection.
using the laptop energy efficeint mode to extend the life the laptop
I was pleased with a series of rapid FT4 QSOs on 20m, i later learned these where all PoTA Hunters – whilst I’m amazed by them all in the distance, ranging from Austria and Spain in Europe, it was the DX contact with KC1MMC that blew me away – 3217 miles on 10W of power on a mag loop, I was really happy to say the least.
Sun went down and 20M opened up more
As the sun went down the volume of QSO’s on 20M just kept rolling in, from 17:17 to 17:25 I was having a QSO on FT8 every 2 minutes ! I had to call it a day as it was getting dark and wanted to get my equipment put away safely, but I think I enjoy coming out at dusk – maybe a small lamp or pen-light will be worth bringing next time.
14 contacts, 5 POTA hunters made happy !
This was a really enjoyable PoTA outing with minimal planning, I was really impressed how well the antenna done and the PSK Reporter picture shows, it can really reach the entire planet !
Digital modes doing really on 10W of power
I have seen videos of great QRP Contacts and am wondering how well I would do, I really think I should give it a try the next time I am out as the setup really impresses me and think it should be good to make some telephony contacts.
I’ve been making monthly updates to my webtechnologies site, which last month I got back up and running so the code would scrape the data from the ‘updated’ WSPR old-db. I’ve now added sections that allow filtering by band. This is all transmitted via the 6BTV which is doing an excellent job of getting out on all 6 bands it is setup for.
Webtechnologies site – now with spots per band functionality.
I’m aiming to keep building more features for the website each month, just small incremental changes, but I’m sure will keep adding making for a feature-rich site. There is so much that can be done with WSPR data, I really enjoy using this mode and its great ot use my programming skills for amateur radio also. Check it out at the webtechnologies site.
Its been quite some time since I’ve had the Alexloop Hampack, and with my QRP, /M and /P work becoming more ‘regular’ (at least one per month) – thought it time to share my views of this antenna system.
Alexloop hampack
Its hard to imaging, but its been just shy (April 2021) that I have had this antenna in my collection. This has given me plenty of opportunity to use it out in the field and for experimentation at home.
I bought this antenna to pair with the Icom IC705, which is undoubtedly an excellent transceiver in its own right – with excellent selectivity and filtering, its a question of putting the right antenna onto it.
The Alexloop Hampack – the good
Lets start what is good about the Alexloop Hampack. All these observations are based on my own usage, so whilst not scientific, they are at least practical and proven.
Its easy to setup
The Alexloop HamPack is very easy to setup. I can arrive at my operating destination and be on the air in minutes. There is no setting up a mast and throwing a wire, there is no tuning a vertical and getting the SWR 1:1 – i can get this antenna out the bag, onto a stand and tuned into the frequency I want to use very quickly. The LED showing the output might look a gimmick, but I can assure you I use this as a visual reference and then checking the radio’s SWR every time I setup or need to retune the antenna.
Its very selective
Now for some this might be a negative, but so far for me its been a positive. When I’m working /M or /P, I am limited to 10W. What I don’t want is to pick up every other station just slightlyoff frequency, and for sure, the AlexLoop gives me that. I can match my IC705 filters to the AlexLoop and get excellent input.
Its designed for and good at portable use
The AlexLoop Hampack bag is very well thought out. It comes with a excellent way of storing the main loop and then the tuner and other parts of the transceiver. I also own ICOM’s LC-192, which is an exemplary piece of portable radio design, however, even thou when I operate /M, I want to reduce the amount of baggage that I take, therefore I stick to using the Alexloop Hampack bag on its own, and regretfully the LC-192 is left at home ! With that, you can be sure if you *dont* have an LC-192 and are considering getting the Alexloop Hampack, the bag will suffice. It is not as good as the LC-192, in terms of access ports, padding and having a full functional HF/VHF/UHF transceiver system on your back, but for HF bands, the Alexloop Hampack bag *will get you on the air*
The bad
The price tag
It almost goes without saying, the biggest ‘bad’ of the Alexloop Hampack is the price tag. When I bought mine in April of 2021 it was £505, now an Alexloop Hampack will cost you up of £600. That is allot of money for an antenna and it really needs to justify its cost.
Using in the field
As I’ve said above, I found using the antenna in the field for QRP /P and /M incredibly good. However, not everyone is running an IC705, there are many /P or /M operators that have good transceivers that can push out 100W. The Alexloop is not designed for, and should never be used for values above 20W on SSB and 10W on Digital modes. If you have perfectly good transceiver already capable of powers above these, then is the AlexLoop Hampack the right antenna for you – I would say probably not, especially if you already own the transceiver, however, if you are designing a /P or /M solution from scratch, my answer would differ…
The Ugly
So is there anything ugly about a so well designed antenna. Well, I for one can say there is. When I received this antenna I found assembling it ‘awkward’ – that is getting the loop over the centre pole. This resulted in a nasty ‘nic’ getting into the loop coax.
I could easily accept this on a ‘cheap’ antenna with no instruction, but of an antenna, that at the time cost me £500+, I really was perturbed why a decent instructional video or document was available on how to set this antenna up. Furthermore, show how the selectivity worked would of been a benefit to a first time ‘loop’ user. Hindsite is 20/20, but when you pay allot you should really get that level of service included, not as an add-on.
Being an IC705 user, I found the Transceiver bag in the Alexoop Hampack to be oversized, compared to the afore mentioned LC-192, its padding/packaging for carrying a transceiver was really not as good as Icom’s own product. To me, this was scrimping on cost, rather than any other reason (i.e. a transceiver would fit in the bag) – and at the price-tag, was a little disappointing.
Summary / Recommendations
So its been nearly 2 years since I’ve had this antenna, I have at least 2 other antennas I can use with the IC-705 when working portable or mobile, and have the actual ICOM bag for the IC705, so what are my personal oonionsf the Alex Loop Ham Pack.
I am person that is time-poor, that is for me to go /P or /M requires planning and organisation, its not like I can just grab my radio and go out when I like, I’m busy. With that the Alex Loop Ham Pack always ensures that when I go out, I will get on the air – its easy to setup and I can make contacts as soon as the antenna and transceiver are matched. I don’t need to setup a mast, wire and ATU for an antenna, the Alex Loop Ham Pack does that for me with its simple and effective compact solution.
The biggest issue to me is the price, today (Jan 2023) it would cost me £600+ to get this antenna. That is a serious amount of money and given it is only capable of 20W maximum, is it the best antenna for the price ? I would say not, that a good dipole, end fed or vertical will outperform this antenna, but would it be as compact, easy and portable ? Probably not.
If you today you don’t have a QRP solution, you really cant go wrong with an IC705 and the Alexloop Hampack antenna, but then you are looking at a solution that is going to cost upward of £2000, to which you can get on the air with a QRP rig and antenna for £100-150 using a ubitx and simple dipole/end fed solution.
There is going to be a big difference in performance of the radios and antennas, and cost might be your personal motivation, where as quality/time maybe the secondary consideration.
Eitherway, the most important thing is to find the best solution you can afford, starting with the antennas as part of the solution, not the secondary, and getting outdoors and on the air.
Its been a busy time, and it really still is – but having plenty of work is a good thing, sadly that leaves little time for ‘hobbies’ – as such a recent hardware failure caused me to migrate my existing Windows PC to a micro PC, I’ve kept Windows on it, but have also installed Ubuntu on it. I’m mostly enjoying FT8, FT4 and WSPR, getting a good range of signal reports on 2M and 80M and automated reports via WSPR to populate the webtechnologies site.
Playing with FT8 on the IC9700 and IC7300
The work I started in September on my dual-band rotator has come to a halt, with the shorter days and busy weekends, I’ve not had the time to investigate a high SWR issue. I suspect water ingress on the splitter at the mast-head, but haven’t got around to even unplugging it ! A recent holiday saw it took me well over a week to just reconnect my radios – I did enjoy the holiday, having enjoyed a wonderful long weekend in Switzerland.
The snow in October atop Rochers de Naye near Montreux
I’m slowly working on getting apps on Ubuntu – my other favourite mode being SSTV. I have been receiving images via QSSTV which automatically get upload to the “Live” SSTV Page.
quality pictures via QSSTV
QSSTV appears to have many more features than MMSSTV, no doubt it will take me some time to learn them all. I do like how it has date-stamped and the frequency received of the pictures, I just have to learn how to use the template editor to create my own pictures.
Well, life never stops here and time is very hard to come by these days, but I’ll try updating the blog a little more often.
With the recent wind and rain, with the rain being very much needed given the recent near-tropical climate, the good weather presented a nice opportunity to take a stroll along the River Stour.
Its been raining alot this week!
I’ve recently received another VC-H1 via ebay – this one complete with its cable and in very good condition. The cable fits a Baofeng UV5R and with the THD7 not having a battery suitable for mobile operation, seemed a perfect time to combine a nice walk and testing out the THD7 with the UV5R.
The River Stour near the QTH
I started off on my usual walk to the local park, which has a nice path to take me to the Stour, there is a bit of road involved, but it was a good place to start testing the UV5R. I had setup FTP auto upload to the 2M SSTV section, so was able to see via the Website – of course I did wait a little just incase someone replied !
First transmission received back at the QTH
The UV5R max power is 5W, so I left it at that. I used normal FM (there is a narrow option) but I believe SSTV is fine as FM. The 9700 receives and sends in FM-Digital mode.
I could at least see the UV5R was working fine, as it should be at this relative short distance (less than 1 mile), but nether the less it was good to see al the systems working well together, i.e. RX via Radio, MMSSTV decode, FTP Upload and available via the website.
I headed a little further down towards where I would usually turn right and start the leg ward journey back home, in this case I carried on towards the Stour River via the Kingfisher Barn visitor centre, which has lovely wood carvings all along the path towards the river.
SSTV replay image receivedUV5R and VC-H1RX Picture from the QTH
Having my mobile phone with me and it being a little less busy I was able to generate the tone to test the RX of the UV-5R, I sent the tone and transmitted, the received picture worked really well, with a nice carving of an owl received, which was then re-transmitted back and well received my the UV5R. I’m running 50W into a Diamond X50 back home, so it should come as no suprise that I could receive the picture is relatively short distance, but still glad all the systems worked well.
UV5R THD7 River StourAnother nice RXSweety was really enjoying the walk
I kept walking towards the river, its slightly lower and certianly well below the height of the base of my antenna, but with being 30ft up, is still within line of sight. My pictures were well recived by the replay SSTV station and Sweety was having an equally good time, playing with other dogs and enjoying the cooler air.
Beautiful swansAnother great RXv.slight interferencevibrant colours Great RX and TX
Given the VC-H1 is quite old and transmits in Robot72 mode, I was quite impressed with the colour quality of the camera. I will need to do some research as to what CCD, or other device, it is using for the capture, the colours in the kingfisher memorial seat are quite true to life and with only Robot72 mode being used is a pretty good rendition. We can see the difference between a modern camera on an Iphone compared to the VC-H1 Robot72, but again being able to go mobile and do SSTV is still quite a novelty for me and am just glad it works!
another fine replaythe furthest distancebird spotting location
Having neared Cherry Tree park it was time to head back home, we had walk quite a distance and the walk back home was along the busy roads, so no chance to take pictures there whilst walking Sweety. I was happy that the UV5R at over a mile way gave P5/595 picture results on 5W of power, so I could have a true portable SSTV experience and I felt really great from the lovely walk along the river.
I shall be sure to head back again as with autumn approaching, the scenery will get ever so radiant.
Having now purchased a season ticket for Parking at Upton Country Park (G-0443) I wanted to make a site-visit to check it out.
I first looked up the map available on-line to see what kind of walk I could have.
upton country park map
I parked up and headed off with my little Maltese / poodle cross Sweety to enjoy the survey!
Car Park (bongo in distance)
My objective is to find somewhere where I can work, ideally near the shore/sea as I’m sure even with a magloop that will help with the DX, as shown when I had a fantastic activation down on the Jurassic Coast at Weymouth (loads of Data and Telephony contacts!), I followed the red-path but with the purple de-tour across the bay.
this looks a nice groundsweaty had no objectionsone of many stunning viewsacross the bay
Our route took across a specially built path that crossed a marsh/bay. It was fantastic view across to Poole and many birds could be heard. I immediatly thought how nice it would be to try out the wire-meshing as a counterpoise and right next to the sea ! One to try out for sure. Sweetys paws had no problem on the wire mesh and infact made quite a nice tempo beat as he walked across.
sweaty stealtha perfect framecorgi infoEnjoying the countryside
It really is an idealic environment, its hard to image that an massive urban environment is only minutes away, its pure escapisim coming to the country park. The park/council had installed a lovely ‘frame’ to capture the scene (full pic here) I was really in my element enjoying the weather and taking my dog for a walk. There was few but nice people around (Monday evening 19:00 approx) The Corgi pictures with info about The Queens dogs was lovely touch on the Platinium Jubilee.
The perfect spot ?Some interference ?Lovely woodsThe lovely spot
As Sweety and I’s walk came to end we reached the lovely ‘picnic’ spot – which is a set of lovely wooden seat and table. Whilst its far from the sea, just thinking about operating from here made me really excited. The view was fantastic, a few pylons down the road was the only negative, not sure how much they would effect my experience. The woods was lovely.
A lovely place for anything, but especially radio !
I cannot wait to get back to Upton Park with my radio, it is so near and fantastic location to operate from. I am sure it will get me lots of contacts !
