A very special Midland 3001 has landed

It has been a significant amount of time since I posted to this, and a hell of a lot has happened including a trip to the United States to spend time with my spouse.

Anyway on the 8th April 2024 a video from UK FM CB Radio Servicing appeared online where he serviced a Midland 3001 the day before, then a second video of an on-air test on their standard testing route from the premises they operate from to a petrol station about 6-7 miles away with hills and other obstacles in the way that would generally cause problems for radio transmissions.

The radio then went on eBay and a link was provided in the video, me being me didn't think I'd have any chance of buying it and at the end put a £50 maximum bid on, and I ended up the winning bidder and I received it this afternoon.

I do have in process a YouTube video of the radio and I've put it onto my car's antenna mainly receive only, the usual lot that operate illegally in the Middlesbrough area on channel 19 that I often hear weren't on but there was a bit of a lift on and some illegal SSB from the continent was coming in on a few channels.

The radio has the look of a used radio, it hasn't been restored to a factory finish and knowing the paint code from the same YouTube channel that serviced it (and listed it on eBay) does mean I could paint the case covers but I want to leave it as is, it also has a faded power section on the meter and again even though replacement meters can probably be obtained from scrap radios I don't plan to change it, again it's part of the radio's character.

This radio is 42 years old and still going strong, a bit like me, and it does show the age unlike me, well so far anyway

I plan to put this radio in the car in place of the Thunderpole T-3000 which in the intervening period was hard wired to the fusebox, mainly because I rarely use CEPT frequencies.

There are a couple of shorts on the YouTube channel and one is this radio, the main video will be in the coming days though I have another video to do as well on Sunday which is the 2024 Northern Amateur Radio Societies Association Rally in Blackpool at its usual venue, if you see me say hi.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730/red squirrel on CB

Plans to sell refurbished and repaired CB radios

A money-making idea I've wanted to do for a while is repair and sell on older CB radio equipment, as I do have the know how to do this, and will ensure it's done properly, even undoing bad repair jobs done in the past by "rig doctors" and "screwdriver experts" as they are almost always people that claim to know what they are doing but in fact do not, like any transmitting radio a CB radio MUST be set up properly so as to be able to produce up to the legal power output and do it cleanly.

I have been putting together service diagrams to put my plan into action, as I need these, to do the job, I have a spectrum analyser however I cannot just connect a CB radio into it as I need to attenuate the output to avoid blowing it up, so a suitable attenuator is needed, the tinySA website links to one that should do the job, the spectrum analyser is needed to ensure very little of what the CB under test and repair transmits falls within 54-55MHz, as a lot of "rig doctors" will often tamper with the harmonic trap coil not realising why it is there, I need to order a frequency counter and signal generator and though the tinySA works as one it will not go low enough to set up a CB receive section properly.

I also need to order trimmer tools, another thing "rig doctors" and "screwdriver experts" tend to do is use screwdrivers in the variable inductor and transformer cores which breaks them making repairs for people with the right tools hard, most of the time these cores can be turned around and reinserted, which I had to do on my Uniden Uniace 100 (which I'm not planning to sell as it is a personal restoration project).

I have a Zetagi Model 203 power meter, a meter that reads power between 3-30MHz but it still is not the best instrument for the job, it will let me know IF I have peaked each stage of the transmitter correctly and also flag up if the transmitter final transistor is not working as it's been blown by high SWR in the past and the set basically scrapped for that reason alone.

I do have a Philips oscilloscope however it's an older CRT one and I am sensitive to the flicker it produces so do not often use it, so I'd have to get an LCD scope in its place, usually to help sort out the FM discriminator, the Maxon based CBs (Midland and Maxcom and a few others) are known for that going out of alignment.

I also need to get in a SINAD meter, these fetch ridiculous amounts of money on eBay and are often in America and don't stay on for long, so I have to build one, and found a circuit that should do the job and will get parts for that too, this is more to set up the receiver but the service details I found for the Uniden chassis suggests an AC voltmeter across the speaker terminals and the adjustments done for highest reading on the meter, not the best but it seems to work but I would prefer the SINAD meter route and the instrument does not have to be 100% spot on, just as long as it shows the receiver is properly set up.

Some radios are known for failing electrolytic capacitors (my own Uniden Uniace 100 is tarred with that brush) so I need to keep a stock of these, I have a stock of resistors so far but obviously need the other components, sadly some components such as the Sanyo LC7136/7137 and some kinds of transistors are long since discontinued so are close to unobtainable, crystals are also expensive and I'd only buy them IF I come across radios that are out of specification and cannot be pulled up to frequency properly.

On the sale side once the radios come out the other end and I sell them on car boot sales I need to be able to accept payment, many people don't carry cash now so I figured a card reader would be a good option, I can get one for about £30 and it would pair with my phone to connect it to the transaction system, I'm not planning to sell them via eBay, I may attend smaller radio rallies to sell them on too, however most hams by old CBs for conversion to 10-meters and I don't know many people from the CB side of things that will go to these events.

So time to put my knowledge of radio to making money, and promote wider use of CB, it still has a place in 2022 despite the mobile phone being common, and of course unlike mobile phones it is perfectly legal to use CB while driving.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730 (or just red squirrel on CB will suffice) 

Update to the Uniden Uniace 100 repair

The project to repair the Uniden Uniace 100 I picked up for £20 from a radio rally is coming along nicely, with the radio receiving to some extent I turned my attention to the transmitter, and it now transmits fine.

One of the tuning stages within the transmitter had a broken core so I turned this over and adjusted it with an improvised trimmer tool from a piece of plastic I had lying about, this has brought the transmitter up to a suitable output and the 10dB switch does attenuate the signal as it is meant to do, though the default position on the Uniden Uniace 100 is in fact the low power mode, for high power it requires you push the switch in.

With the transmitter now operational my next job is to replace all of the usual suspect capacitors with new ones and any other capacitors that need to be replaced, these are normally electrolytic capacitors, and with the radio at least 41 years old it would be prudent to change them.

All repairs carried out so far have involved traditional 60/40 tin/lead solder for any soldering work as this is what would have been used by Uniden in 1981 as the powers that be hadn't outlawed lead solder in consumer electronics at that point.

Once the capacitors are done the radio will be subjected to a full retune of both transmitter and receiver as changing them may effect the tuning

I hope this set can give another 41 years of service, who knows, it may outlast me!

73 de M0WNU/26CT730

Uniden Uniace 100 repair project

After attending the 2022 Durham & District Amateur radio society rally I came away with 2 CBs, keeping up my long-standing tradition of buying radios at rallies, these were the Midland 77-095 and the Uniden Uniace 100, both type approved under the original CB 27/81 regime started in November 1981.

The Midland was all fine though if it did not work I'd have swiped the volume control from it for the Midland 38 as I suspect the part is identical, the Uniden was modified to 10-meters and this post is about me beginning to restore it to CB use.

So the first thing I found opening the radio was a board added by another ham long ago, this had a few components including 2 crystals and were tapped into the TX and RX stages of the radio, removing this and reinstating two resistors got it back on frequency but very little TX power, RX was fine bar channel 2, I next removed an errant resistor from the bottom of the board and replaced another resistor that was of an incorrect value, TX still very low output and still this fault on channel 2, I next spotted a link across one of the receive tuning cans and a capacitor across the unoccupied 10.695MHz filter position, removal of the link deafened the receive greatly, I then spotted a cut track leading from one of the tuning cans and the filter to another part of the circuit, this was reinstated and improved the receive by a tiny margin, so the radio is in need of a proper tune up once I get trimmer tools.

I suspect that the radio has been retuned to be optimum on 28MHz, so every stage of both the transmitter and the receiver will need to be gone over several times and the discriminator checked, deviation appears to be untouched as received on my handhelds, the meter has a working lamp but due to damage to the front panel it is held in by sticky pads, and fouled the latching mechanism on the PA switch.

This radio is the second Uniden I own so far as they made the President Grant II, and hopefully the third Uniden I'll have used as the first CB I used was an Audioline 341 that the owner mucked up with a screwdriver in front of me, the 341 using the same board as the Uniden Uniace 200, interestingly the Audioline equivalent of the Uniden Uniace 100 does not have a PA facility.

I'll update as progress on this 1980s classic is made

73 de M0WNU/26CT730

6 years since I was betrayed

So here we are, 6 years ago since I took ownership of the Yaesu FTM-400XDE and the Diamond NR-770RSP antenna that have been my mobile 2/70 setup across now 3 cars, and 6 years since I was stabbed in the back by the psychotic youngster Chance Callahan KD0MXN (who has in fact since renewed his Amateur radio licence in the last 12 months according to the FCC ULS).

Now many people will ask why I've not moved on from the actions of this young man who is unfit to hold any kind of radio transmission licence (he holds a GMRS licence too but that's a moot point unless I am physically in the United States)? The answer is I have and have made more progress in the hobby and my life in general than he ever will, however it is always good to remind the world as to why this young man should not hold a radio transmission licence of any kind, so

Apart from 6 years ago when he stabbed me in the back during my visit to Staines, his actions being based on lies about me, he also:

• was monitored over P25 radios by the Savannah, GA Sheriff's department abusing said radios issued to the local Civil Air Patrol squadron that he was a member of at the time and the FCC and the Savannah Sheriff's department did nothing even when he admitted it on ##hamradio on the now-defunct freenode IRC network (which he did and also openly admitted the decryption keys were leaked and he took control of them)
• Openly admitted to targeting vulnerable WiFi routers when a flaw in the encryption was leaked, again on ##hamradio on the now-defunct freenode
• Gave a then newly-licensed ham some very irresponsible, dangerous and illegal advice on /r/amateurradio on reddit
• Made false accusations about the 'theft' of a clickbait image going around on reddit that actually had been for many many months prior to that, his modus operandi is generally to make false accusations
• And at one point, for clearly committing a serious violation of the network's rules, he was given a network-wide ban from IRC network Snoonet that had lapsed in August 2019.

Given I spent 7 months working at a job that required me to have a DBS check (which is a criminal record check) which came back clear in mid 2020 to early 2021 all of his claims about me have been officially false thanks to a department of HM Government, but the main thing is he cannot harass me on the air as he knows full well what will happen if he does, and I will continue in this hobby and he cannot do a thing about it even if he thinks he can,

73 de M0WNU

Blackpool Rally 2022 attendance confirmed and possible activation of Blackpool tower (not with an unfiltered Baofeng)

So I have made arrangements to be at the NARSA rally at Blackpool on the 24th April, I will be spending that weekend in Blackpool at the Norbreck Castle Hotel, and I plan to go up to the top of Blackpool Tower and do some operating, following up on Lewis M3HHY's "Baofeng the fatal flaw" video's technical aspect, that being Baofeng radios lack front-end filtering or it's woefully inadequate, whereas my Yaesu FT2D should be a little better up there but of course all radios are subject to desense from strong out-of-band signals.

So to add some extra help to get rid of the nasty stuff I will be getting hold of a SOTABeams bandpass filter that screws into the antenna socket of the radio and the antenna then screws onto that, the idea here being that this filters out the worst of the offending out-of-band signals, these being broadcast and commercial from the top of Blackpool Tower.

I will be beaconing APRS from up on the tower should I make it up there as my FT2D can do that, of course this depends on weather as the top of the tower is usually closed during really bad weather and my previous visit to Blackpool did not take me up the tower for this very reason and I was hoping this was going to happen in 2020 but certain virus issues got in the way as we know.

I look forward to the weekend and if I make it up the tower and can get through the mush at the top contacting stations far and wide and poitentially as far as GD (Isle of Man) and you'll see my results and the rally on my YouTube channel after the rally

73 de M0WNU

Fun with fitting roof bar mounts for antennas

I've fitted roof bars to my car and mounted the two antennas to them, the bars are coated in plastic and their mounting hardware is powder coated, however the bolts holding the fitting kit parts to the car showed continuity to the bodywork, the CB antenna at the very least needs bonding, which I have done using a piece of 27A DC rated cable, but this may be posing a problem itself so I will need a braided strap, while DC continuity is all well and good there could be reactance in the copper cable used, so a braided battery strap is needed instead.

This would be run from the bolts on the CB mount. then one of the bolts holding the roofbar mount fixing plate onto the mounting points on the car.

Using the wire, which is stranded, I got two low-SWR points either side of the CB allocations (SWR remains high within the band) once the mount was bonded, with the wire at the full spool length (2-meters or so) the SWR was much lower but it really needs bonding.

The 2/70 colinear antenna is offset from the centre towards the driver's side of the car, early tests on the VNA suggested that on 2-meters this antenna is working fine so I do not know where the antenna is getting its ground from on that band, I've not checked this on 70cm as yet.

As the VNA battery ran out during tests today I tried to power it from the car charger, this created a ground loop because the car electrical system has its negative grounded to the body as well as is the case in many modern vehicles.

Tomorrow I will pick up a braided earth strap of suitable length and try this on the car to bond the CB antenna as I suspect this copper DC cable I've used may not be working as expected.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730

New year and a catch up and eBay goodies

So we enter 2022, a new year and let's start as I mean to go on, so I did in the end buy the Yaesu FT991A after the tax refund I had but yet to get it on HF due to lack of suitable antenna so that's a work in progress.

I took the time to rebuild my desktop computer, as it was woefully outdated and could not process video fast enough. it is now much improved with the original hard disk being used for storage and the machine booting from a solid state drive, a 4K video renders at about the time the video takes to play back rather than many hours, 1080p videos are also quicker also and do not take hours to do.

I also had to rewire the CB antenna magmount after damaging the coax during a trip to the car wash, it is working fine and the SWR is low, one meter suggested almost perfect but other meters suggested that meter may have been a bit optimistic.

And of course, eBay goodies, I won an auction yesterday on what looked like a well used Midland 38, though it appeared not to have a microphone but the one from my existing Midland should work, as Knights sell these as replacements and suggest them for 38s, I am also watching another Midland radio and will bid on it as long as the price does not go too high and I will report back if I win it or not.

For a radio ham and tinkerer like myself it is no great loss if I buy CBs that do not work as I can attempt to repair them, old kit like this can often have failing electrolytic capacitors which should be replaced at the first opportunity, these are easy to spot, other parts like the PLL chips are a little harder to come by for some of the 80s classics as the usual ones used in those are long discontinued, the Midland 38 is a 1990s set so would not use the LC7136/7. prime suspects for other failures in radios like that is adjusted coils done by "screwdriver experts" who do not have a clue what they're doing, turn things with screwdrivers and break ferrite cores in inductors, though more often than not they set the deviation far too high thinking this results in higher power (it doesn't, it makes the radio sound crap and bleedover adjacent channels). so one tatty Midland 38 in the bag, another less tatty one if I win it could be here.

A commenter on my YouTube channel suggested I buy a K-Po power mic, I won't ever do this because I feel these don't really help matters at all, my desk mic is a power mic but has an awful capsule in it, a speech processor mic perhaps will, the most I'd want in a CB mic is a roger bleep but even then that's pushing it, the same commenter told me that Knights can wire the mics to whatever radio desired, however I prefer to do this myself as I generally prefer to wire my own CB mic plugs.

And on the subject of YouTube  I have a video to make which requires I put the antenna up so I best crack on with that.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730 (or just the red squirrel on the CB, and maybe later this year or next year my spouse will be heard on air once again too)

Yaesu FT818 or FT991A? The decision I have to make

So I have a good pay packet on its way on Wednesday and a surprisingly large tax refund imminent I want to buy a set that can do HF and also 2/70 all modes, as I like Yaesu equipment I narrowed my choices down to two, the FT818 (which is effectively an 817 but 6 watts out at full power) or the FT991A which I have been after for some time, which as a nice colour screen, supports all the bands and modes I want except 4-meters, and also supports System Fusion which is my main digital voice mode of choice, as well as allowing USB connection to a computer rather than the specific cable used on the FT818, and also capable of 100 watts out on HF (50 on V/U).

I am really keen on the FT991A because I've been after one for some time and the space in my shack has always been set up with a FT991A in mind, if I choose either radio though I will be free of one issue at home on 2-meters that has plagued me for so long, pager intermod, I also plan to test out the flowerpot on 2-meters with the final chosen radio, which I strongly think will be the FT991.

Operating HF from the home QTH will pose some challenges, an antenna and possibly noise, which I know there is plenty on 27MHz so the rest of the 1-30MHz spectrum will probably be bad as well, however as these radios run of 13.8V DC then they can effectively be run from a battery so I can go somewhere relatively free of noise with a portable antenna (I am already equipped with a mast stand and SOTApole to do this).

Also I have seen these sorts of radios used on 27MHz on YouTube, this is something I won't be doing as I always run legal power, on 27MHz this is 4 watts, a now not so regular commenter on my videos claims I effectively moan on about CB users running higher power, I do often express my dislike of the practice yes however I also say that if people want to do it the it is up to them and I do not endorse it and I also find it is a waste of money to buy something like a Yaesu HF set to solely use it on 27MHz but again it is their choice to do this.

My initial plan for HF was to get something like the uBitX or similar however with this unexpected financial improvement I think something reliable and robust is in order and a Yaesu radio is definitely the way, and already owning 2 Yaesu sets and not ever had any problems means it is justifiable too.

A YouTube video will be done as well, and hopefully I will find a way to do HF from here as well as the usual 2-meters and 70cm

73 de M0WNU

3D printer now here and a couple of other things

 On my last payday I purchased a 3D printer, specifically an Ender 3 Pro which I ordered with a suitable amount of filament to get going, though it came with some filament anyway but only a small amount compared to what I ordered, in both Amateur and CB radio circles a 3D printer is very useful indeed as you can 3D print things like antenna parts and other useful things, one of my first designs was an adaptor to allow my 7-meter SOTApole to sit in my drive on mast stand, I also had a look on Thingiverse and found some SO239 cover caps which are ideal for my radios that are on the display shelves in the shack, though do consider that these radios do get put on air from time to time.

The prior payday I ordered in some Motorola T62 PMR446 handhelds, these seem to work ok and I did a video on the YouTube channel about these, they meet the newer spec of allowing 16 channels here in the UK however that needs activating as they are 8 channel by default.

I also ordered a TinySA which I have yet to finish the video on, and an antenna from Wish that is designed for CB handhelds and is telescopic, which I will be pitting against the Albrecht CL27, the stock antennas on both modern handhelds and the comparable antenna found on my 1980s Realistic TRC-1007, it also came with a magmount so I'll be putting it on the car roof and connecting it to a radio and an analyser to see how it fairs in that regard.

I also hope to look at the new Thunderpole T-600, which I have seen pictures of and know full well who makes it, I already own the PNI Escort HP7120, which is electronically the same radio, but the T-600 appears to use different firmware to allow AM/FM switching on the CEPT channels while in the UK mode, this will possibly be featured after my next payday.

I'll also try and update this more as like everything I have been doing it has been disrupted by a hectic work schedule

73 de M0WNU/26CT730

After many years it may be I get a go in the 144MHz FMAC after all

 So it has taken a few years now however luck has it that on Tuesday I will not be working and therefore can take part in the 2-meter FM activity contest after all, this is of course subject to a lot of things, but I will not be changing job, moving house, or suffering clutch failure on the car (the clutch was changed in November due to bearing failure).

I have logging software on my Hi10 Air tablet ready to go and just need to set up the log for the day, filming will be taking place for YouTube and will be on the channel afterwards so you can see how I got on.

Antenna wise I hope to use my tape measure Yagi, radio will be the FTM-400XDE unless for some reason that is not possible in which case I'll use the FT2D handheld which will make me a QRP station in that case however there is some gain on the antenna which may help should the FT2D be needed, I will also be putting a bulletin of my participation on the contest onto APRS earlier in the day.

As every other time I've wanted to do this contest something has gone wrong I have missed out a lot, this is my first go at a contest if it happens and even though I know full well I will never win it at least I can say I've done it.

looking forward to doing well.

73 de M0WNU

There be pirates Cap'n transmitting SSTV on 27.700 MHz USB rendering UK CB channel 11 unusable

 Yesterday before work I noticed the conditions down on 11-meters (and presumably 10) were good, tuning to UK channel 11, as you'll see in the attached video clip, I heard SSTV transmitted using USB, which is illegal to do outside of the normal CB frequency range and also on 27/81 which is strictly UK use and FM only (no laws state SSTV cannot be used on CB at all however that I know of), naturally pirate operators generally do not care until the authorities actually catch them, at which point the pirate operator is stripped of all equipment and prosecuted.

So while CB does have its uses, in the UK it is authorised as licence-exempt non-interference non-protected, in short you cannot cause interference to others and you cannot report interference as no action will be taken, so these European pirates sadly will stop channel 11 in the UK from working until they realise this channel is active using FM all the time in the UK.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730

Beginner's guide to CB radio videos now live on YouTube

So I finished up with the beginner's guide to CB radio videos on YouTube the other day and got them all batch-uploaded to YouTube, each covering a different subject, I would have liked to do a demonstration of installation in a vehicle but as I don't have a vehicle to do an install in at the moment I can't obviously do this right now but once I get a vehicle I can do this I will do a demonstration of this.

In the mean time here is the playlist so far

If you are new to radio communications and need an effective useful radio setup CB radio is your answer, these work where mobile phones do not so if you are in a group in separate cars you can keep in touch, legally while driving too.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730 (or just the red squirrel will suffice on CB)

5 years since I was betrayed

 So here we are at 5 years since I went to Staines to go to Martin Lynch & Sons for my Yaesu FTM-400XDE, Diamond NR770RSP antenna and Sirio magmount which that antenna is screwed into, unfortunately this day 5 years ago I was stabbed in the back by a fellow ham as you know, Chance Callahan KD0MXN (or is that ex KD0MXN as his licence seemingly expired in November according to the FCC ULS), my belief now is he did it because he believed in his own little sick twisted mind that I was stalking another IRC user that lives in that area which is utter rubbish, why would a ham be in Staines? ML&S of course (unless they actually lived in Staines too).

As you know I feel this young man is unfit to hold any kind of radio transmitting licence (he also holds a GMRS licence which is not something that I am too bothered about because that is not a service used worldwide and cannot propagate worldwide), so why do I feel he is unfit to hold any kind of licence, Amateur or otherwise? here's the list again.

Apart from stabbing me in the back when I went to ML&S 5 years ago he also:

• was monitored over P25 radios while in Savannah, GA by the local Sheriff's department, which he became aware of after the decryption keys were leaked, he openly admitted to abuse of these radios on freenode's ##hamradio and the FCC did nothing
• Openly admitted to planning to attack vulnerable WiFi routers when a flaw in the encryption used on these was discovered and published
• gave a then newly licensed ham some very dangerous and irresponsible, as well as illegal, advice on reddit's /r/amateurradio
• made false accusations about the 'theft' of a clickbait image on reddit, which turned out to be during the rounds for quite some time before that
• and at one point in time was issued a network-wide ban from snoonet, an IRC network attached to reddit in some way, usually IRC channels of various subreddits, that ban lapsed in August 2019.

As Chance Callahan has made countless accusations against me as well that are unfounded and untrue I worried up until November, when his Amateur radio licence appeared to lapse, that I'd have to deal with his abuse on the air, if I do hear him now I am now in a position to report him as a pirate as he does not have a valid Amateur radio licence at this time, and since the last time I posted this to work at the fulfilment centre I was at for 7 months I had a criminal record check, it came back clear thus proving Chance Callahan to be the liar and deceitful person that he is, and I have the British Disclosure and Barring Service to thank for that, and if he calls a British Governmental department liars then that proves my point about him.

My time in the radio hobby has been great since I passed my foundation exam 6 years ago, and my Advanced in 2019 has given me a lot of confidence to continue to pursue such a great hobby where people like Chance Callahan are, happily, in the minority.

73 de M0WNU

YouTube channel project, Beginner's guide to CB radio or at least my way of doing it

I am planning on putting together a series of YouTube videos on beginning in CB radio as I would like more people to take it up again, there was a slight resurgence during the COVID-19 lockdowns imposed on us by Boris and his 'friends', and I have seen in the past couple of years some of the local boy racers using it in their cars (and on occasion impressed by my larger Sirio Hi-Power 4000 whereas they all have Orbitor/Stinger type antennas).

I plan to go into radios, antennas, feeders, power supplies and also what is legal and what is not legal including how CB radio is NOT covered under the mobile phone laws which means you can use it while driving, and sources of the equipment, and clarifying what the various terminology means.

I might also do something similar for those that want to move to Amateur radio however unlike Amateur radio CB radio does not need a licence and has not done since 2006 and you can just use it to talk amongst a group of you, and I'll cover it all in full in the various videos I plan to do.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730

Moonraker Micro CB radio

My recent main YouTube video was on the Moonraker Micro CB radio, which is indeed a compact radio, based on an AnyTone chassis as it turned out so has the 10-meter mode and the naughtiness inside, though of course I have no issue putting this set on 10 it does not have SSB capability and being channelised may require a frequency counter to get an idea what channel is associated with which frequency if you want to use it on 10.

The radio came to me with bare ended wires so I fitted a cigarette lighter plug, rated 5A as this is ample for this radio, to be able to plug it in in the car to do tests, the radio seems to do well, and is good when put against a comparable set, which in my case was a PNI Escort HP7120.

When I did the original bench tests on the radio the power levels were reading lower than expected, however later testing showed it was in fact fine.

Both videos are below

73 de M0WNU/26CT730

A wee bit of an update

I haven't posted for a while and thought I best do, it's been very busy since the igate went on air, which is working great, however it came around the time I finished 7 months at my last job, about a month of unemployment later I found my way back to pizza delivering and have felt a little more inspired to do a bit more.

So I have started up a podcast and am up to episode 3, in the process of recording episode 4, this is called the Ham Radio & Pizza Podcast, which I discuss amateur and CB radio topics and in most episodes review and taste test a pizza, it makes sense as I am a pizza delivery driver and am partial to pizza, after Covid-19 I hope to expand the podcast a bit to include interviews.

I also have started a Patreon to help towards the running of my YouTube channel and the podcast, as I fund both out of my own money and also any radios I have bought in have all been reviewed using my own money, also it will help towards getting better filming and editing equipment so I can eventually migrate over to 4K filming, I currently use 1080p in my main videos however the short ones filmed on my Oppo A72 phone tend to be in 4K as Open Camera can see the resolutions for the onboard camera without resorting to a hack in the Open Camera options unlike my Samsung Galaxy S8 which only allows 4K from the native camera app.

Also during the time between my last post and this one I have had my first coronavirus vaccine and due my next one in 17 days as of today, the first one did make me feel bad for a few days so I am not looking forward to it and that may result in a slight slowdown in video and podcast output.

With the coronavirus situation in mind, as well as work commitments, I hope to attend the National Hamfest later in the year and also perhaps do a meet and greet with Patreon supporters and also fellow YouTube creators while at the event, of course the state of the pandemic and whether I am able to get holiday for the weekend of the Hamfest remains to be seen, I plan to wait until June before I make a firm decision as that will be when the Hamfest will also be decided.

So if you like my content on YouTube and/or my new podcast you're more than welcome to optionally become an official patron, the link to the Patreon page is here if you would like to do so, you don't have to be a patron, it's completely optional, and all funds from it will go back into the channel and the podcast, whether that is for radios for review or equipment involved in the production of videos for the channel and audio for the podcast.

Don't forget you can subscribe to my YouTube channel and also my podcast is being rolled out across the usual podcasting services so you can also listen and subscribe to that too.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730

MB7UCG goes live on Thursday

 I am pleased to announce that MB7UCG will be on air from Thursday, Ofcom confirmed today that they received my email so I can run it from that date.

I was of course planning to run a walkabout test with my FT2D however that cannot happen until the following week as I am doing overtime that day, however I can test it using my car, though this will not be filmed as it is on my journey to work and I have not set up a camera that exclusively looks at my FTM-400XDE's display

I look forward to hopefully running a successful igate.

73 de M0WNU

Catterick Garrison APRS igate ready to go

 I have finalised everything for the new Catterick Garrison APRS igate to go live very soon including the NoV, the callsign for the unit is MB7UCG, the setup is located in my kitchen  with the antenna outside on the window ledge on top of a Fray Bentos cheese & onion pie tin, once I have the ok from Ofcom I will be doing some tests however I've not heard anything from Spectrum licencing since they sent the NoV.

I have already put one object onto the igate already and previously placed this on the map using my own callsign and that is the location of the local club, however of course due to COVID-19 we cannot meet physically.

I have remote access to the power supply, as required by Ofcom, to shut the unit down in the event that it is required to do this, and the switch that controls the socket has been clearly labelled, the socket is under the counter with a WiFi controlled socket plugged into it and power to that is switched by a fused spur.

I am reworking the website to hopefully reflect the new igate and when Ofcom clear me to switch it on, I have emailed them but I don't know if they got my emails so I will give them a call Monday morning just to find that out, giving their staff levels will be low due to COVID-19 it might take a while to get a reply.

And there will be YouTube videos coming up on MB7UCG.

73 de M0WNU

First post of 2021 (and in a while), some updates, sterile UV5R, and a livestream on Wednesday

 I have not had the time to update this as my work went through its peak period so also that means little in the way of radio.

Firstly the radio camper project is on hold as my spouse has told me I am not to own any product of the Ford Motor Company possibly because of some fire incidents with the Pinto, a US model from around the 70s I believe, so I have to start again from scratch with a vehicle available in the UK that we both agree on, add to that a £300 garage bill for my car in October/November time for a clutch change.

Videos have been coming in short burst and I've started to try and fit in some livestreams where I can, though it's all a learning curve, including trying to keep RF out of the audio chain, I have one coming up on Wednesday.

My latest video has me sterilising a UV5R with a handheld UVC steriliser (which is indeed the real deal) and of course I was very copious with the warnings of the danger of UVC radiation, I am impressed that I managed to find that in a local shop but also worried that people will buy these things and harm themselves due to a lack of understanding of the dangers.

I am still in contract with my current employer for another month at least which is good as I'm putting £10 a week away in my savings (every pay day) to try and save for a 3D printer for both radio and non-radio related projects, watch for that one in the future.

Also hope to get my igate on air under test then unattended NoV in the next few weeks if I can.

That's all for now guys, have a good 2021, hopefully it will be better and rallies will once again be held.

73 de M0WNU