Category Archives: weather

2M SSTV comes alive

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Very early on 22nd of June my IC9700 let out a loud SSTV incoming signal on 144.500 – I typically monitor the 2M SSTV band in hope of some ‘local’ activity, so I was very suprised to hear something this early.

Within a few minutes several pictures had been received.

SSTV Test Card – source unsure

The first i was unable to make out the full text, but the next one provided some more useful information.

SSTV message from martellotowergroup.com 2M repeater

I had never seen this repeater before and was wondering if a new one had been setup in the locality, going to the website I found that the SSTV repeater was based in Clacton – some 232km/144 miles away ! The line-of-site rule for 2M was blown away by looking at the elevation profile between the QTH and the SSTV repeater.

elevation and distance between QTH and SSTV repeater

As the the morning went on, more signals went in and amazingly i was able to activate the repeater with the access tone and receive my own picture back. I then had an excellent QSO via the repeater with G4LVD based in Ipswich !

via MB7TV G4LVD
My sent image repeated back with the MB7TV overlay
Completed QSO via MB7TV to G4LVD

Having completed the QSO I was left wondering, how is it I could suddenly receive the SSTV repeater which is so far away. A posting to our clubs mailing list provided the insight – a temperature inversion had caused a opening on VHF between the QTH and MB7TV. Not really knowing what a temperature inversion was, I looked that up, and the met office giving a great explanation. I was just lucky to be listening at the right time and to receive the signal from so far away!

With that I wondered as these are predictable, there must be some forecast, sure enough I found a site that looked to model the inversion that was seen this morning.

https://tropo.f5len.org/forecasts-for-europe/

This means that I will be able to at least listen out at these times and try a QSO again. I’m not sure if I would ever be able to reach the SSTV repeater on mainland Europe, but with P13DFT in Delft in the Netherlands and another Germany, it will be great fun trying ! Heres to more ‘temperature inversions’ and more SSTV QSO’s on 2M!

Jubilee Decorations at the QTH

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With a long bank holiday weekend for the Queens Platinum Jubilee I set about decoration the QTH. Whats the ham radio connection ? Well I mostly re-used antenna masts for the bunting and flags.

QTH Bunting and Flags

After an hour or so I got the bunting and flags up. One line of bunting accidentaly on purpose got caught up in the defunct TV antenna. As it was providing a good support to the bunting, I left it there !

For the Union Jack flag pole I took down the defunct NOAA antenna which is supported by a awesome Barenco tilt base, this makes getting masts up really easy.

Barenco Tilt base

I guyed up the mast it does get it bit blustry in that corner of the garden as its not shielded by any trees/houses.

For the bunting I lowered the 80m end fed antenna on the DX Command mast and hooked it onto one of the guying plates, it went up really easily, that mast is pretty bullet proof and the guying plates are extra strong, allowing the bunting to go over it, with plenty of distance between both (I dare say a few watts in the wire could effect the plastic bunting !)

Dx Commander holding the 80m end-fed wire and bunting !

For the other bunting I used a Sotabeams mast attached to our garden umbrella. It has a fair bit of ‘lash-bonding’ and then sizeable weights on the base to keep it vertical. During raising the bunting flapped around somewhat and got caught in the TV-Antenna ! I did attempt to get it down with another Sotabeams mast, but it is pretty tangle around the base of the TV Antenna ! So I’ve left it there for now.

A happy Jubilee QTH

I was happy to get all the bunting and flag up, I vividly remember the jubilee from 1977 and the street party then and what a happy occasion it was. Thankfully there is a street party tomorrow and am hoping the good weather holds out, its been plenty of fun putting the flag and bunting up and I hope it sets the jolly atmosphere on the street off (although the lower half of the road at the QTH).

Happy Jubilee weekend to you all.

73 / 2E0FWE

POTA – QRP – G-0183 – Chesil Car Park for Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site Provincial Park (Jurassic coastline)

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After a while away from PoTA and a previous experimentation locally with the AlexLoop only bag, it was time for my next PoTA activation. Based on my QTH location (IO90BS) I used the POTA site to find near but inactivate sites. This is becoming harder as PoTA becomes more popular (a good thing) but its always great to go out and activate a site, as the ‘hunters’ will be on the look out for a new location.

WX not the best
Bongo in location
Nice Bench

I carefully planned my trip, starting with the day before. I relinquished my beloved IC-705 purpose built bag (LC-192) for going fully Alex-Loop ham pack native. The main drawback of this bag is the lack of padding and overall robustness compared to the alex-loop bag, but I was determined to minimise what I was taking.

everything for HF ops fitted nicely in the Alexloop bag

Not withstanding the mount itself (I used a bike repair stand) everything fitted nicely in the Alex Loop Hampack bag. This includes in the ‘accessories’ my LiFo battery to keep the IC-705 running for extended time over the internal battery, which as shown in my previous ‘test’ is only good for about 2-3 hours on 5W SSB. The observant will also notice I have my iPad in there, rather than my WinTel based laptop.

FT8 on SDR Control
All IC705 functions via App
SDR Control

I had setup and tested SDR Control back at the QTH, so it should be no surprise that it works well out in the field. What I did notice is that (to its credit) it sets the ‘connectors’ all to WLAN in the app, thus when using the IC-705 microphone (which I currently still prefer), this needs to be set back, else no telephony contacts can be made without the iPad.

WX not the best
SWR on 17m
SWR on 40m
WX and SWR

Whilst the WX (Weather) wasn’t the best to be operating outside, I got setup in the Bongo quite well, at least I was warm and dry, and the IC-705 was at no risk for rain damage (one of the main issues for SoTA, its just not that rugged compared to the KX series of radios). I set about going across the different FT8 frequency/bands. At least this would be a decent propagation test and also make some contacts. I was able to tune in 40M and get the SWR down to 2:1, which resulted in 2 FT8 contacts on 40M. For a magloop I am happy with those results and on a Data mode where the key-time is longer than that for a typical HF QSO. 17M gave excellent SWR readings and resulted in 3 DX contacts. I returned to 20M and worked a further 4 DX stations via FT8, all on 10W of power into a mag loop in pretty grim WX (rain, thunderstorms)

FT8 via pskreporter – into .JP and East Coast America on 10W
Bike stand Bongo Holde
Plenty of contacts
Bike stand and Contacts

Whilst not the activation I was expecting due to the weather, being able to diversify and setup in the Bongo resulted in plenty of contacts and being able to (TBC) activate the park. I was really glad to start out on telephony contacts and people thanking me to activate the park, it really makes it worth the time and travel to enjoy PoTA.

Logged contacts

QRP POTA G-0157 Holt Heath

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Despite the beautiful sunny start to the day and strong winds yesterday with more to come today, I was still determined to get out with the IC-705 and Alex Loop Ham Pack for some Parks on the Air.

Wind speed measured at QTH with Storm Eunice on the 18th

For this activation I only took my Alex Loop Ham Pack bag, with the IC705 in it and accessories. Every thing fitted really well, whilst not as good as the Icom bag, it was good enough for transportation in the Bongo.

I had already visited G-0157 Holt Heath with XYL the previous week to find a nice location to operate from and was easily able to setup the Alex Loop on the bike-stand without any issue. I was soon on 30M FT8 Frequency and making good contacts well into Europe with 10W of power.

FT8 transmitted by Alex Loop being well received on 30M

The QSO’s came in with rapid succession, I dare say that the POTA self spot was really helping this time out as some calls were directly at me.

FT8 Got Busy
Quick to log in WSJTX
And also manually
Contacts and logging

I take pictures of the 73 Acknowledgement as well to ensure i have logs in triplicate, writing down the logs manually also ensures that I don’t double-up a contact, and makes hunting FT8 calls easier. I found a good mix today of calling CQ and responding to other people calling CQ. Going for stronger signals tended to result in the typical signal report/received/73 QSO. In all it took about 90 minutes to get 10 FT8 qsos on 30m – that is with breaks for fresh air and making coffee, so not bad at all.

I then went on to try SSTV around midday, by this time the wind and rain was really howling around the heathland, it was beautiful and spectacular to be operating in such conditions, and the Alex Loop was doing a fantastic job. Sadly my USB cable developed a fault and with the weather getting no better, decided to leave it for another day (i..e I didn’t want a tree to fall down en-route and get stuck !)

I had a brilliant time at Holt Heath and a place I will very much like to return to when the weather improves to setup a mast and an end-fed antenna.

I am already looking forward to my next Parks on the Air outing, but they are getting more further afield now as the nearby ones are slowly getting done…

QRP Bongo Pota G-0157

FT8 QSO Summary (as uploaded to QRZ and PoTA)

Edit – 20/2/22

Many thanks to CU3BL & CU3HY for ‘hunting’ me ! Was glad to see in the park activation that my self-spot had helped!

CU3BL & CU3HJY ‘hunters’ from Azores !

PoTA Prep – Holt Heath G-0157

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With the weather arriving as predicted, a productive day was had in the shack tidying away whilst the rain poured down on Bournemouth.

It has been a wet day as forecast

With another park activation completed for G-0079 with my 10 FT8 QSO’s recorded, I set about looking for the next park to attempt another activation. It was also good to be spotted by a fellow PoTA operating from Germany (DK8MT).

G-0079 confirmed activated by 2E0FWE on 12/2/2022

Even with the bad weather and apart from the early morning walk with Sweety being the only time I had been out, a nice drive survey Holt Heath looked a good way to enjoy a local ride out.

With some online investigation, I was able to determine a position still within the park boundary and a good place to park the bongo.

Bongo parking location

With the location found, Station Manager and I headed out to investigate first hand. Despite the rain, we enjoyed the lovely ride out and finding a new area we hadn’t previously explored. This is a great benefit of PoTA in exploring and finding these new places, and something we can enjoy doing together irrespective of the weather conditions thanks to the trusty Bongo.

Bongo in place
A weather-worn map
Wet underfoot
Initial survey

With the rain coming down I didn’t want to venture too far from the Bongo, it was enough to see the heath land with the gauzy bushes which would be a challenge to operate in, but also the decent paths that could provide a good place to setup if the conditions are good enough. There is plenty of space to setup the End-fed antenna as an inverted V or a sloper configuration for sure. Whilst visibly there was no ‘height’ to give any take-off there was also no obstructions nearby, in the distance some pylons could be seen around a mile away.

Good possibility to setup in these locations

The drive was short, and interesting, the location viable for both mag-loop from the bongo and also the end-fed antenna depending on the conditions come the day. I am looking forward to see how well the IC705 and either antenna will do in this beautiful location.

10m skip FT8

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Having kept an eye on the Kiwi WebSDR I could see plenty of activity on the 10m band, a sure sign that the ‘skip’ from the ‘E Layer’ had picked up. For those ‘new’ to skip, there is an excellent write up here by VK3FS on the behaviour of this ionospheric band.

Here I’ll be showing over the course of just a few short hours how the E-layer built up, the collapsed.

10m skip at 18:04 UTC in IO90BS

Tuning to the 10M frequency for FT8, 28.074, there was allot of activity, transmissions from Europe where coming in the strongest, and even as far as Brazil in South America. It was incredble to see the band so ‘alive’

pskreporter on 10m transmitting 40w

I started transmitting on what had now become a very noisy channel, with plenty of DX around Europe coming in very strong. My own signal from the Hustler 6BTV and 40 watts of power resulted in the QSO’s started to roll in, with little to no reties.

Racking up the QSO’s on FT8

Grid Tracker really came into its own here, making logging to QRZ effortless so I was able to focus on QSO’s rather than uploading ADIF files. This resulted in 2 confirmed QSO’s almost immediately, with an impressive the furthest being 950 miles to IS0SLM in Dolianova.

Band conditions at 19:22 UTC showing the changed in the ‘E Layer’ propagation

Just as quickly the band and opened up, the conditions returned back to the regular behaviour for the E-layer, as seen in the 19:22 and 19:39 signal spectrum from WSJTX.

Band conditions at 19:39 – signals were getting much weaker in WSJTX Wide Graph

By 20:30 I could still be heard but the 6BTV, a vertical and with that being non-directional, wasn’t pulling in the weaker signals for a QSO to be completed.

10m reach at 20:33 with 40W

My reception reports via Pskreporter showed a big difference. I’d be interested to know if this was a phenomenon of the grey-line as the sun set or just the charge in the E-layer collapsing and limiting propagation again.

9 10m QSOs with some great reports and distances

I was still really happy in this ‘short’ time to get so many FT8 QSO’s via 10m. It really is a fascinating band, and one I will do more research with as I continue to improve the performance of the 6BTV and also work 6m with my Yagi antenna

Is skip season coming ?

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The great thing of having a WebSDR is the ability to monitor a huge amount of the HF spectrum visibly.

CB Operators on 27Mhz – mostly SSB, heard alot of French and Irish.

Seeing a sudden surge of red comms in the KiwiSDR, I then set about transmitting WSPR packets. And sure enough, I was reaching Italy with 5W on 10M !

WSPR on 10M with 5W

I still have my 2M/70cm and 6M beam to complete, but this really motivates me to get that done sooner rather than later, I hope the ‘skip’ season is around for a while, but it wont for me thats for sure !

In the mean time, here is an excellent video from Oxford Shortwave Youtube channel, demonstrating the reach he has on his 2m antenna, something I’d reallly like to do with FT8 as well !

A spring clean!

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So with us coming out of winter into Spring (20/3) I really wanted to tidy up. And tidy up everything. My shack had become a really bad ‘mess’ and as an engineer/student/professional this is my ‘small home office’. I’ve had used these Keter Store-It Out Midi Outdoor Plastic Garden Storage Shed around my back garden for storing various things and they have proved really good, in capacity and being waterproof. With an electric screw driver i was able to put it up and thanks to a mild Friday evening, started filling it. Swiftly I had reclaimed my floor and alot of other space in the shack/office 🙂 I then turned my attention to outside the office !

With the bad weather forecast I had already lowered my Nebula, as it look pretty high wind forecasts. I’m pretty sure my mast would of been ok, but I don’t like to take a risk where its not necessary, so the best part of the week I was without HF on my main right (IC7300). The end fed antenna for receiving Weefax was still doing a grand job thou pulling in the images

I took the opportunity to inspect the Nebula and i noticed the main pivot bolt had got seriously bent out of shape, so I took the decision that i would have to rebuild the swivel base with a much larger bolt for the scaffold pole to go thru. I six hours then tidying down the Nebula and al its components. I think for now I wil keep my DX Commanders (I Now have 4) for when I can construct a full phased array with them. I know how good the Nebula is and the classic, so getting a phased array for amazing DX. What I do have now thou is a lovely clear garden, free from antennas apart from my 40m dipole for WSPR and my end fed an NVIS heights for RX.

I have a staggering amount of uni work going on as well as work-work, and I feel that i could get my shack and all my equipment really in tip-top order before mounting another antenna, be it HF, UHF or VHF. Hopefully the weather and longer evenings will mean that I’m not off the air for long (other than WSPR) and soon trying out a new and exciting antenna.

Stay safe, 73.

Al/ 2E0FWE

Nebula tilt base progress 6/1/2021

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So a few very long nights and little sleep, but having been making the most of my lunch-break to get little jobs done on the base as well.

  • bolt and nut
  • industrial superglue
  • and the other side
Drilling holes to put bolts on and apply industrial super glue

On 5/1 i received my Makita routing kit, its not ‘brilliant’ but got the job done as the photos show. Could put it on my Bosch SDS drill and make enough of a gap to get the washer and bolt onto the main bolt. With everything tightened up and in place i gave a very liberal dose of industrial superglue to secure everything in place. A day later it was ROCK SOLID ! very optimistic that i should get no more ‘wiggles’ from loose bolts !

  • that will keep the rain out
  • bolts looking good
  • fell over oops!
  • a quick job
  • waterproofing
waterproofing the base

As ever the English weather arrived right on queue. I had received this *awesome* ‘paint‘ the night before. Its actually for sealing leaking roofs, but principle is that it will keep the water out the wood. It is as thick as treacle to apply but one coat has left the wood well protected.It can take upto a week to dry, but hopefully it will be ‘dry to the touch’ ahead of the weekend so i can guy the antenna up.

Overall, i’m happy that the bolts on the end and glue will keep the mast secure on the bolt, and the paint will ensure the longevity of the wood on the base (or more so than it just being naked!).

Heres until the next update !

Al / 2E0FWE