The previous Sunday local net on GB3IR

I don't often post about the regular local net on GB3IR unless there is something of note, and, although this is a couple of days late coming, there was something noteworthy the previous Sunday.

First off, the Sunday evening net on GB3IR is open to anyone who can access the repeater either direct on RF or over Echolink, it's not strictly local and it's nice to hear new voices on the air.

So, how is it noteworthy, by use of the Leixen VV-898 and my homebrew yet unfinished dipole of course, it was still hung up and I thought to save the batteries on my handhelds (of which I have reprogrammed to include all 2-meter analogue and System Fusion voice repeaters in the UK), performance wise the antenna was getting into the repeater fine (though I could just as easily use a very leaky dummy load or a piece of wet string though of course I'd not recommend that given that I am very close to the repeater).

This has been the first time the VV-898 has been used for a Sunday net on IR since removal from my previous car, it has not been fitted to the new car as it would be much easier for me to fit a radio with a detachable front, hence my interest in the Yaesu FTM-100DE (which I think is an after-Christmas purchase though I am seeing this rig in the flesh soon to see what it is like), though I am also interested in this rig for the benefit of System Fusion, the ability to turn up the TX power once I have my intermediate, and the APRS side of things as well as I'd like to get a bit more into that, all of these things are beyond the VV-898 (except the APRS with a little bit of extra hardware), hence why it has been now demoted to home radio, and it only puts out 10-watts anyway

The VV-898 seems to be performing well as a home rig on the homebrew dipole, the next thing to do is put the antenna outside and see what it can really do, but first there is waterproofing to do, as for the VV-898, it will be taking place in most Sunday nets on GB3IR and perhaps any simplex nets once I get the antenna outside the window, I just need to waterproof the coax join, I was initially going to use black Sugru but I may use blue Sugru instead as it matches the blue on the dipole elements..

As for the Sunday net itself, nothing of note to mention really apart from the antenna and rig I used, just leaves me to finish it off, roll on payday and a trip to somewhere I can get blue Sugru from

73 de M6RSQ