Happy New year to you all who follow the blog ! Apologies for the absence of postings, hopefully I’ll keep them a little more regular, at least with doing a PoTA once a month.
Having watched several of my youtube hamradio favourites I was really inspired to get out with my radio and enjoy it. With amazingly good weather, I headed out to the New Forest, specifically to Bratley View.
Bongo at Bratley View, New Forest
I was quick to get the Alexloop Hampack antenna setup quickly and the IC705 tuned into 17m quickly. Using the excellent SDR Control on the IPad it wasn’t long before the contacts on FT8 started coming in.
POTA 17M from Bradley Park
In under 30 minutes I had made 13 FT8 QSO’s on 17M. I then tried FT4 on 20M, I could pick up the signals ok, but wasn’t haven’t much luck in making contacts.
20M FT4
I headed down the band to FT8 which was busy as ever ! I had no problem getting out and making contacts there.
20M FT8
With well in excess of my required 10 contacts for me to activate the park and with my lunch finished, I headed back to home to enjoy the rest of the day with XYL.
Lunch was boiled egg and sausages – but I had forgotten my pen !
I wasn’t able to locate my pen, so couldn’t log manually, which I usually do just incase something happens to the IPad.
As I was totally dependent on the IPad for logging, I exported and ADIF file. Since I last done POTA there is now an option to upload your own log files, so I set about checking out how to do that. A great video really helped me along.
Tutorial on how to use the POTA upload
The log export from SDR Control is great, but requires a bit of ‘munging’ to get into PoTA format. I found a script ruby-pota-csv-to-adif available here which made getting the file uploaded right first time.
With the upload complete, the following morning most of the processing was complete, I was pleased to see other PoTA Hunters in the log.
EC7AKV & SP8QC contacts amongst many others!
It was great to get back out on the radio and enjoy the simplicity of FT8 – I’m hoping to get some practice and try out using Telephony QSO’s via SDR Control, or just using the microphone, it felt great to be back out with the radio and enjoying it again!
Hopefully I’l have more progress on other radio fronts as well, but until next time, 73!
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.
So during a break from studies and the fact this 70cm antenna had been sat in the shack since mid July, I decided this morning to at least make some progress with it.
The warm weather continues here in England/IO90BS – neighbouring Hampshire is now on a hosepipe ban, I’m hoping with the plentiful rivers and springs that Bournemouth will not be subjugated to such things, but with another 30c week forecast next week, who knows. I’m having to do any outside work very early in the morning else its just too hot to work.
wx in IO90BS
I enjoyed my attempts at satellite communcation with the Kenwood THD7 and Arrow antenna, this is great for portable operation. In the shack I have the ICOM 9700, which is built for satellite operation, as yet I’ve only used the 9700 on simplex and repeaters per-band, so probably 50% less than what the radio can actually do ! The Satellite feature allows split channel and (2m&70cm), so I wanted a solution to use the 9700 at the QTH.
I didnt want to spend a fortune on antennas, so I hunted out a reasoniibly priced 2m and 70cm antenna. For today will talk about the 70c antenna, the DUAL PA432-8-1.2RA. I got mine from Nevada Radio, other places sell them, but I’ve never had any problems with Nevada radio in terms of getting products to me and after sales care.
The specifications for the antenna are very good for the price, and with satellite communications you don’t want an antenna that is very focused (i.e. with alot of elements on it) else it makes tracking the passes a very precise movement across the sky. As I’m using an old TV rotator at 30 degrees fixed tinflation, this should be a good antenna for me.
Assembly was easy enough, the instructions and labelling of the elements are very good to ensure they are put in the right way first time. I have yet to threadlock my screws until the antenna goes up, but will do when I know it is working correctly and raised. There is a choke on there, its important *not* to unclips/cut these, if you’ve not seen a 70cm antenna before you might be tempte dto cut them thinking its packaged this way, and its not, just leave as is 🙂
Once completed I erected the antenna on the bike stand. Initial results were disappointing with the SWR very out of the 70cm band. Rembembering how volitle and sensitive equipment is at this frequency I swopped out the coax, which resulted in much better results.
70cm band and the PA432
I was very happy for about an hours work to get an antenna with high gain and good SWR reports.
As I want to mount the antenna on a horizontal beam, I will need to work out how to attach it (probably another 90 degree holder), but for now I’m glad the antenna is out its box and ready to use.
measurement tools and longer coaxantenna on bike stand
Next week I’ll hopefully get the 2m Yagi built (Diamond A144S5R2) and then can see how to tie it all together.
After a few weeks break of regular PoTA Activations, I was very excited to go out for my planned activation at Lodmoor Country Park near Weymouth.
I had completed my prep the evening before, checking that my batteries and accessories were all packed into the Alex loopham pack bag. In the morning I found that XYL Monica had even made me a pack lunch for my day out, which was much needed later in the day. An early start got me out with walking my dog Sweety at 5AM just as the sun came up, I then headed off to Weymouth, APRS beacon sending out packets as I did so, my full route wasnt covered today which seemed unusual, I did hear APRS packets on arrival in Weymouth.
APRS Recetion dropped off around Bere Regus
I chose to go to Beach Car Park, as this was situated conveniently near to the park facilities, its always useful to have a WC available, also the park itself look great and venturing beyond the comfort of the Bongo to get into the park would be nice.
Car park pretty empty at this hourCampervan just about fitted under the 2″10 restrictionnotice the limit on vansArrival at Beach Car Park
The Beach Car Park is open 24/7, and even free between 18:00 and 08:00, although the signage says ‘no overnight sleeping’. Interestingly I noticed that Motorhomes are banned outright (probably for this reason), and where as my Mazda Bongo is classified as a Campervan would still be limited to a ‘4 hour’ max visit – noticed this of course after I had paid £10 for the full day, and whilst I think during the less busy seasons its unlikely to be enforced, I can imagine during peak times its something to be of mindful of.
good clear mapsnice clean facilitiessmall park but tidypark overview
Before settling into the Bongo and setting up, I popped to the WC, even at this early hour the facilities are open and clean and tidy, nice to see. The park had great maps to help navigate around. There is alot to do here for a family, such as Sealife centre, gokarts, mini-golf, pitch and putt and Sandwolrd – maybe its the kind of place where the youngsters could be enjoy the activities whilst allowing others to be operating the radio, win all round !
lots of exercise/play areasno train today, looks great thogo karts and sandworld open thoalternative activities
Once back in the Bongo I was quickly on the air thanks to the fantastic Alex Loop Antenna – whilst I have other antennas, the ease and speed in which I can get this setup really makes it hard to use the alternatives. Using the bikestand as a support which I can drive the bongo onto ensures that the wind doesnt get the better of it as well !
IC-705 on bongo seat20M was aliveSDR Control in actionSetup in the Bongo
With the magloop just out the door and feedline thru the front window, I could get the SWR pretty much always under 1.5 to 1:1 – 20m was alive with contesters – even FT8 was super busy – the excellent SDR Control really helped – I cant say how good this application is, I am getting more out of it every single time I use it, the ease of logging and connection to the IC705 via Wifi is excellent. FT8 got very busy, so remembering I had FT4 available also, headed up the band slightly and enjoyed a rapid sucsession of QSO’s. Within one hour I was very close to having enough QSOs to activate the park.
Digital Mode QSOs logged manually
I also log manually just to ensure I have a backup, I found today that jumping between bands was getting easier – I tuned 1:1 on 17m in just one go, and by now with a great collection of data mode QSO’s under my belt, felt it was time for some telephony/SSB action.
I piggy backed on the back of the contest, it was great running QRP portable and even the contesters were happy to receive a mobile station, some even going beyond the usual contest rubber stamp asking my about my setup ! I really enjoyed that and a method I will use in the future (I actually was inspired to do this by VK3YE talk on how to get more HF contacts!)
excellent video by VK3YE on getting contacts on HF
After a great lunch in the Bongo, I decided to head out to the park for /P action !
Lunch prepared by XYL MonicaA lovely walk around the parkLots of nice benchesIts not Bushwoods..Walk around the park after lunch
I really enjoyed the walk around the park, I wore the Alexloop hampack bag without any problem. It was quite weighty and at first a little nervous of the straps – thinking about how much equipment and how much it costs tends to make one a little trepidatious in trusting it all to a couple of straps!
Alexloop on the benchlogging with penpacked away easilyEnjoy the Alexloop and IC705 on a bench
Whilst having a table/chair is my preferred ‘comfort’ of operation – and I even passed one picnic table, I liked this location, it was in the shade and the bench long enough to get everything on it without worrying about it falling off. A good bungee allowed me to strap the alexloop onto the bench, only once wobbling over when a big gust of wind came in.
It was nice that there was people interested in what I was doing, even a few comments by the passing runners on what a nice setup, as ever people where amazed with being able to make contacts around Europe – I think peoples perception of Amateur radio is that of huge Yagis and long wires, when they see the little loop and the SDR display with foreign voices booming from the IC705 they are interested to see it in action, I’m always happy to show the log book and talk about it.
I was able to make one more QSO from the bench and really enjoyed that, even on 5W of power the noise floor in the park was so good that I didnt need lots of power or a huge antenna to have a SSB contact. The fact that I had spotted on PoTA app meant other amateurs were looking for me helped for sure.
It was as easy to pack away as it was to setup from the bench, proving how versatile a well organised radio can be.
A beautiful locationBlackberry timeA massive overflow carpark
Heading back to the bongo I enjoyed seeing blackberrys growing and a giganttic overlflow carpark – it looked closed and judging by the meters had been for quite some time. I dare say this could be an excellent place to put a bigger mast and wire-type antenna up. I admired the view from the carpark once more before heading back to the QTH having had a really excellent time out with the radio. I will be back for sure and would like to investigate the bird reserve next time, it really is a big PoTA area to cover !
With the upcoming Hamworthy Park Festival I wanted to see if there was any chance I could reach the QTH. Previous attempts from Poole Harbour were unsuccessful with FM and the Bongos whip antenna, but having a new antenna in the armoury thought I’d give it a try.
I had already tested from the drive way of my QTH, then headed out to what is the nearest high point to my QTH in IO90BS, that of Ringwood Road near to the Matalan – IO90AS. A test of the SSTV repeater there worked well.
Received picture at QTHreplayed picture receivedSSTV Testing from IO90AS
I then headed down to Hamworthy park, as I drove through Bournemouth and Poole the hills behind me which I knew would absorb my weak signal, but I’d thought I’ve got to give it a try.
hand held YagiRX at QTHHamworthy SSTV Test from IO80XR
I had the hand-held antenna quickly setup, it was fun to do it out in the field. I attached it to the THD7 and tried to reach the QTH station.
I was not surprised to not hear the pips back to transmit, but as I had driven there, transmitted anyway to see if anything would be received. I wasn’t expecting anything back as the replay mode hadn’t kicked in, so I would have to wait until I got home to see. Sure enough I had received something, albeit mostly static, but at least the application and radio could pull the signal out.
APRS Provided some interesting information. My route was entirely captured, this is due to the geography of where the APRS stations are located.
Route captured via APRS
If I compare my APRS packet reception to my location of the transmission from IO90AS, the APRS station is just down the road near to Bournemouth University.
APRS received via 2E0UXV
As soon as I go over the hill, all my packets are received from stations to the east.
G8TNU Digipeater
The hills between each location are clearly visible using the useful line-of-sight tool.
Hamworthy Park – QTH
Between Hamworthy Park and Corfe Mullen
A much better chance of reception
So it was great to go out and test, albeit the transmission back to the QTH from Poole was again not successful I was able to gain valuable experience and APRS packet data. I think I will be able to setup another solution utilising the Bongo’s 2M whip antenna and a small laptop for the actual Hamworthy Park Summer Fete, so will put those pieces together and test those out next !
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 G4LVDMy sent image repeated back with the MB7TV overlayCompleted 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!
Today (19/6/22) was my first attempt of using satellites put in place for amateur radio. Having read up and joined Amsat (a very modest fee for quality content!) I targeted AO-91 as my first satellite.
AO-91 – GoSatWatch
I could see there was at least a possible chance of making a contact at 09:14 BST, so I set out with the Arrow II 146/437-10WBP 2m/70cm antenna and my TH-D7 hand-held.
antenna packingin partsconstructed
Having got the antenna built and radio ready (I pre-programmed the optimal tuning in the shack) I setup a comfortable postion to operate from.
I made sure i was ‘aligned’ to the sky with a real magnetic north compass to ensure that I would stand the best chance of being able to hear the satellite as it came over on its relatively low and short pass.
I was astounded that with pointing the antenna on frequency I was soon hearing QSOs from Italy and the Netherlands via the satellitle on 2m and 70cms. As I was about to try calling my THD7 stopped working ! In a rush I got the THD7 plugged into the Bongo power and could continue to receive, but was unable to complete a QSO this time.
Whilst the battery had got the better of me making a QSO, I was really happy that the antenna and receiver worked and even on a ‘low’ short pass I was able to hear QSO’s. I was amazed at how quickly people gave callsigns and grid locations – there was little time more for anything more – I can see why people recommend recording contacts on satellitle and make the log book after.
I headed back to the shack and tried the AA battery pack that came with the THD7, this also failed to power the radio, so I had to engineer a solution ! I found a ‘spare’ connector from an adaptor set and ‘butchered’ that to make a DC power supply from the batteries I usually use on the IC705, these would be more than enough power for the THD7, even with the squelch fully open, to operate receive and transmit for the times the satellites came over.
Conclusion
Whilst my first attempt at satellites didnt result in a QSO I gained valuable experience and could confirm my antenna and transceiver worked correctly. Whilst the in-built battery was bad, and replacements unreliable/dangerous, I was able to manufacture a replacement. I’ve since ordered a ‘cheap’ Digital voice recorder and headset for QSO’s – I think I have a splittler cable, but will find out when the digital recorder arrives how to drive both headphones and recorder.
In all I was very happy to go from 0 experience, to at least listening, which is pretty much what I done on all the bands in the past anyway, so was very happy to make my first steps in amateur radio satellite communication.
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 !
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).
