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

Handheld CB discussion

I came across a video on UK CB Radio Servicing on YouTube in which Richard G0OJF has a go at servicing a PNI Escort HP62, which as I have worked out is the same radio as the Moonraker Major 42 which also from what I am to believe shares internals with the new "digital squelch" version of the Midland Alan 42, Richard also worked out that the circuit is designed to run off 12 volts rather than 13.8 volts, I wondered if the older Midland 42 Multi, which I own, was OK at that voltage, it is, then I did some digging with my Intek H-520 Plus car kit and concluded that the radio is designed for 9V as it is regulated down in the Intek car kit, whereas the Midland Alan 42 Multi car kit is straight through with no regulation.

The Moonraker variant is the cheapest handheld on the market today, it joins its Midland and PNI cousins on the Moonraker website (they're all fundamentally the same radio), other options out there are the K-Po Panther (which is really a President Randy II and uses a TNC antenna rather than a BNC one and has also been featured on a video by Richard G0OJF), and just recently appeared to market is the TTI TCB-H100 which has a roger bleep and echo facility onboard, as well as a drop-in charger as standard which to my knowledge no handheld marketed previously had one as standard and only the Randy II/K-Po Panther/Lafayette Urano had one as an optional extra, the Intek H-520 and 512 had the contacts for one but one was not made or marketed.

Having owned the Alan 42 Multi for some years (and my XYL liking that radio too) I am keen to see how the Moonraker Major 42 and the PNI Escort HP62 fair, the latter radio is solely the car kit and battery boxes and a BNC antenna are optional, it's also supplied with the Extra 48 antenna of which I already have one, the Moonraker handheld meanwhile comes with at least one battery box and the car adaptor is optional.

Though handheld CBs generally lack in performance due to their compromise antennas, though the longer Albrecht CL27 antennas are available and I have proven that antenna is a good option on YouTube, they can be very handy for communications in a similar manner to PMR446, you have flexibility of all 80 legal channels, I do still advocate their use but to do anything realistic with them a longer antenna is always better, modern ones also don't eat batteries as much as their older counterparts and can be put into low power anyway to save battery power if you don't need a full 4 watts (and some, like the Intek H-520 plus, refuse to even key up at full power when the batteries are at a certain level).

Moonraker do sell 5 PNI CB radio products including the Escort HP62, which I will cover another day, I also hope, finances pending, to be able to take a look at the Major 42 and see how it fairs against a distant cousin by Midland, and also hopefully take a look at some more PNI offerings because they're so affordable it makes sense not to promote these radios to those looking to start out in CB.

Again I hope to discuss this on my YouTube channel though I've not decided if I should do it as a live stream or a regular filmed video, but keep an eye on the channel.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730

both antennas arrived, both scheduled for YouTube upload by Monday

I now have both antennas that I ordered, however the Thunderpole Boomerang antenna was to be delivered by Parcelforce (or Parcelfarce as I call them because they are incredibly useless) and they failed to deliver it to a neighbour as instructed, ignored the fact I rescheduled and left it at Catterick Garrison Post Office meaning after filming the video for the Sirio Hi-Power 4000 (and subjecting it to 70MPH due to a trip to nearby Darlington to do a bank run) I had to call at the Post Office to collect it, with that done editing work was finished for the Sirio antenna and the Boomerang unboxing video was filmed.

A big surprise with the Sirio was that I did not need to adjust it, SWR under 1.5:1 across all 80 channels, for the most part, the top end of 27/81 was about 1.4 which is acceptable, I was to compare between my K-Po and Zetagi SWR meters however this did not happen because another vehicle parked next to my car before I could do that, and the driver did not seem happy that I was even up there, probably because I don't own a dog, unfortunately public land means I have a right to go up there, it is ideal for radio given height and forms part of my mobile standardised test route, now I have the antenna I will be doing a dry run on video before actually doing anything on the air to show you the route from the car.

The only part to do from the perspective of the new antennas is the on-air test of the Boomerang, once it is up and tuned, given the fine adjustments that may be needed I won't bore you and give a final SWR reading as per the K-Po meter, the Zetagi meter, and the one built in to the President Grant II.

I will be working from 4pm tonight and as ever will be monitoring UK 19, which is usually full of the burner brigade running illegal power to speak to their pals which the 4 watts can do fine for them but they generally don't have a good understanding of this fact, that and they have the squelch turned all the way up which is a bit ridiculous really, maybe even with them I may notice a difference on this antenna on receive, the one thing that will be noticed is the fact I have a bigger antenna on the car.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730

A couple of antennas on their way

I have placed an order for two antennas, a Sirio Hi-power 4000 for the car and a Thunderpole Boomerang for the home QTH, these antennas should, hopefully, work to set my base line for CB testing in a mobile environment, the base line is to be set as the Thunderpole T3000, the mobile antenna being as long as realistically possible, the boomerang coming in close to the 'spider antenna' for size.

Of course these antennas get a video on YouTube, the first one will be the Sirio Hi-power 4000 as that is the most straight forward to install, installation will be done at my new radio test ground above Richmond at the Hurgill Road end of the old racecourse.

The other reason I chose the Sirio Hi-Power 4000 is due to the similarity between it and the antenna loaned to me (see a previous video on my YouTube channel) which I since had to return as the amateur that loaned me it needed the magmount, the Orbitor/Springer antennna on the car was always going to be temporary, and the Hi-Power 4000 will work with 10-meters though I would need to shorten it and I was never comfortable doing this with a loaned antenna so it is my intent to buy a second Hi-Power 4000 to be tuned to 10-meters so I just swap the antennas over depending on if I choose to use 10-meters or 11-meters.

For CB, tuning will be done on my Thunderpole T-3000 with the car engine running to ensure the radio is running at it's maximum power output, SWR will be checked across the entire 80 channels using 2 SWR meters, my K-Po meter and my Zetagi meter, these meters will both be used with the boomerang when it goes up and tuning will be done on the Grant II, once this is done my base line can be set, all my radios will go through it, even my handhelds with car kits will be subject to this to see how they perform once a suitable speaker-mic can be obtained that won't jam them on transmit.

I will set up a scoring system for the standardised tests, also with a temporary base antenna I'll be able to retest the handhelds in the local area for a follow up video to "Handheld CBs, are they any good?".

Keep watching this space

73 de M0WNU/26CT730

Thunderpole T-3000 is winging its way to my shack

Today was my payday, and factoring in that I have a bit of extra cash left over from my salary I placed an order for a Thunderpole T-3000 CB radio, which so far I have heard good reports about, this radio has already been looked at by RustySkull Productions on YouTube and Lewis M3HHY from channel "RingwayManchester" has looked at the radio this is a rebadge of, the Nanfone CB-689, and tested with another station radio to radio, the other station having the T-3000, was found to work well.

I plan to use this radio as my main mobile CB, even though it does not have SSB which I only really use parked up because adjusting the RIT (or clarifier as it's called on CBs) while mobile is a pain and with SSB you sometimes have to concentrate on the incoming audio which is certainly not ideal while driving, as this radio is so slimline it can fit any modern car with ease either into a DIN sized space or fixed to the dash with a bracket in the normal way.

The unit I ordered is an ex display unit, what that means is that Thunderpole have had it out of the box and had it on display, though they will have tested all accessories to ensure they function, particularly the microphone, which although has an LED in it, or at least a position for one, no LED lights up on transmit, this is because an optional Bluetooth mic is available for the Nanfone unit and would work with this as well, by virtue of the Kenwood HT type connector on the front (as I have a speaker mic and some headsets from Baofeng radios that fit I may test these too.

Naturally I will be doing a video with this radio, power tests (4 watts of course), how it looks and feels, ease of use and hopefully if there are any stations on that day a radio report.

I plan to mount this radio in the car, and ultimately keep my Grant II for portable work on 11-meters SSB, the antenna on the car at the moment for 11-meters is in fact my Orbitor/Tornado Stinger antenna that during the summer my XYL painted white and her and I converted into the antenna we dubbed the 'spider antenna', the magmount is an older version of the Sirio magmount I have in use for my 2/70 antenna, except this older one had near destroyed cable so I had to rewire it using coax from a snail mount I was not using, I will later on be replacing the rear antenna with something similar to the antenna I loaned, I'll have to see if GB Communications sell one of these because I then don't have to travel far and can swap the antennas over immediately, provided I remember an SWR meter because the T-3000 does not have one installed.

I certainly am eager to receive one of the most unique CB radios made today to fit into the most unique Toyota Aygo of them all, not because I've fitted radio equipment in it but because it did a journey from my home QTH to well into Bavaria and back and did not seem bothered, so a unique design of CB radio should complement it nicely.

There is a Sci-Fi connection with the naming scheme of the Thunderpole T-series CB radios, I've spotted it, can you spot it too?

I have started monitoring and calling out on 19 due to the appearance of a Ford Fiesta, a Volkswagen Bora and a pick up truck all equipped with Orbitor style antennas, so I know people are out there using the CB, and I'm pretty sure the drivers of these vehicles have seen the antennas on my car too, and I saw a video on YouTube where a CB operator drives to work on the motorway, gets passed by an HGV and the driver of the HGV calls out after seeing the antenna on the car of the operator that's filming, I suspect he's using a President Grant II in that video, no idea what the trucker was using though.

Hope to catch you on the CB and also don't forget as I'm a licenced Amateur radio operator I can be found on local repeaters in my area and sometimes the calling channel on 2-meters.

73 de M0WNU/26CT730 (or you can just call me the red squirrel on the CB if you like)

RTL-SDR dedicated machine sort of set up

I have an old laptop with a display that has no working backlight, a Samsung RV510, and am putting this machine to use as a dedicated RTL-SDR receiver, it originally served as the now closed Richmond CB FRN gateway, with me having high SWR (and having to use a matcher), it remained closed for quite some time however the machine was in fact hibernating from the very point it was closed down.

It seems to run the SDR# software fine and works with both RTL-SDR sticks (I already know that the cheapo black one works, the NESDR SMArt was tested). so first test was with Soundmodem and APRS, it worked ok, though I don’t think I configured it correctly to pass packets from soundmodem to APRSIS32 so nothing was gated in that experiment.

Next was to decode DMR, it did not do well here either due to there being some noise on the frequency I could not seem to get rid of, though this was in the 70cm band and the supplied magmount is fitted with RG58, trying a piece of 213 and a dipole didn’t make a difference and destroyed my SMA-M to SO239 adaptor almost to the cost of the stick’s SMA-F connector (though the sheared pin was removed with Blu-Tack.

I am going to rehash my Handheld CB and PMR446 videos after either the Ripon or Blackpool rally, the first videos were all HT to HT (or in the 446 video between two units with fixed helical antennas) using this setup, the final location of this receiver of many talents will be next to my “Stranger Things” radio (the Realistic Pro-53 Patrolman, I call it that because it really looks like it was pulled from the Netflix series Stranger Things though I owned it before I heard of that).

The two videos will be done under the same conditions at the TX end, using the same radios (Intek MT-5050 for PMR446 and Midland Alan 42 Multi for 11-meters, both again using the stock rubber duck antennas), the RTL-SDR will be connected to an antenna using a lenght of RG213 to keep loss as low as possible, the antenna will most likely be in the window, outside if possible, and I want to make it from a couple of cheap CB antennas with the 3/8th thread on them as I have a dipole centre configured this way, that arrangement won’t be used for TX as there would be no choke.

The receiver works from as low as 24MHz right up to 1.7GHz. so 10-meters, 6-meters, 4 meters. 2-meters, 70cm and a lot of commercial, licence-free and aviation frequencies are also covered as well as the Amateur bands and CB frequencies, first things first is that I require a new SMA-M to SO239 adaptor and preferably a way to stop the SMA pin shearing off.

On closing I now have an extended battery to record video footage from the camcorder, this is so I can record footage of the Ripon and Blackpool rallies , Ripon is on Sunday (with an aim to have the video uploaded by Monday afternoon), Blackpool is two weeks later (with an aim to have the video uploaded by the following Monday afternoon)

73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730

putting all my RG213 to use and repairing the T2LT

With the crimp-on plugs having arrived earlier this week I set to work fitting them to the cables, starting off with the RG213, which is all now terminated and can be put to use, all of it tested into a dummy load showing no mismatch, these cables should see me through for a while, and will be used to feed antennas over the longer RG58 that came from the cut off piece of the groundplane antenna, which will receive a plug hopefully tomorrow.

The T2LT had a cut in the feedline outer jacket, I have cut this out and crimped on a new PL259 at that point, it will be tested tomorrow provided the wind dies down sufficiently, if not Wednesday, I noticed this cut during the Activate All Counties event last summer but the antenna was still working as the braid had not been compromised, just the outer jacket.

Another antenna I hope to test tomorrow if it gets completed and the wind dies down is the second dipole for 2-meters made from the metal strips found inside the rubber part of car windscreen wiper blades, the antenna is deliberately too long for 2-meters so will be cut to length in the field, it will be fed with the RG213 I have and the QYT KT8900D will be taken with me as it is less prone to pager noise than the Leixen VV-898 and once the SWR meter is removed the HTs may be damaged having a heavy coax connected to them, and should this antenna work it will be my go-to portable ops antenna, for campsite use I'll use my copper-wire dipole as this does work fine as I have had it on the air before.

I will post results of the new dipole on YouTube and on here, the T2LT, however, I will just post on here as I know the antenna does work OK

73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730

Team RoadCom-FS-UK hopefully coming to my shack real soon

Been scouring eBay at CB sets recently seeing if I could find a bargain or two, no Audioline 341s sadly as I am still after one of these to this day, however another radio I've been after for a while did show up, the Team RoadCom-FS, the UK variant of this radio, it fits a car stereo spaced hole (DIN mount) though can be mounted on a standard rig bracket, the radio I found was advertised with a K-PO linear amplifier, which I'd never use on CB other than into a dummy load, an SWR meter with power measurement, useful to have, a magmount that appeared to be a Sirio Mag 145 PL, a through body mount, and what appeared to be an antenna switch, so some testing to do, winning bid of £49! Yes it really was £49, add in shipping it comes to £57, so a bargain even for just the radio that retailed, when new, for £100+ (£135 as listed on Radioworld.co.uk, though of course they report it out of stock as it was new in 2008, making the radio at most 11 years old, my oldest CB is 13 years old this year).

The radio is one of the few that have CTCSS on board that are type approved for the 11-meter band, the original RoadCom,the TTI TCB-1100 and at least one or two Albrecht radios have this as well but it is very rare to find it on a CB radio, "export" radios (those meant for 10-meters) have it due to the fact that 10-meters is an Amateur band and occasionally you will find repeaters there that would require CTCSS to access them, there are no repeaters on 11-meters but FRN gateways do sometimes operate there with CTCSS on board, though this is rare (the gateway in Clacton-on-Sea, for instance, is open on UK29).

The radio started a trend of DIN size radios with front speakers, the Albrecht AE6491 and its rebadged cousins being an example of this, the TTI TCB-1100 is also similar in this regard, both these radios are still available new however.

Naturally on arrival I will inspect the radio and anything that comes with it and test as appropriate, RF generators into dummy loads, cables for continuity, mic audio on the radio's TX during tests, my Maplin linear supply would happily run the radio, however current draw from the linear may require me to use a slightly higher current rated supply, I have an old ATX supply under the desk I was using to power the SS9900 with.

I'll update on this when the items arrive

73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730

The President Grant II lives on!

A miracle? no, simply a blown fuse, I put a lower value fuse (safer than a higher value) than the one already fitted as it was all I had into the Grant II's power lead, hooked it up to my jump starter and off it went, but first I had to do some digging to find out if it was indeed a very expensive paperweight (note that this is an original Grant II and not a premium but it was still near enough £200 when new).

This of course meant breaking out a screwdriver and removing both covers to examine the board, particularly around the power input area, I spotted a diode that I thought may have protected the radio but this did not explain the fact it was not powering up, so the fuse was examined after I did some digging on the Internet and low and behold it was blown, this was a very lucky escape as I somehow managed to reverse the polarity of the cables as I saw red on one which I thought to be positive, turned out what I saw was actually where the red attached to the black and thus resulted in the situation I found myself in on Wednesday

The radio was then powered with the fuse replaced as noted above (a lower rated fuse is safer than a higher rated fuse because a higher rated fuse is less likely to blow under fault conditions, a lower rated fuse does become a pain because it would be prone to blowing when you don't need it do), the display lit up fine, the memory channels were intact, nothing out of the ordinary, the radio covers were refitted and the speaker reconnected (the Grant II is like the TTI TCB-550 in having a speaker that is plugged onto the board rather than the wires soldered directly, wise choice by both President and Uniden), then the transmitter tests, first of was transmitter power, all within 3 to 4 watts into my salt water dummy load, 12 watts for SSB into the same load, audio was tested on AM and FM only with the receiver being my Midland Alan 42 Multi handheld, all good, receive audio was also tested, not a problem, this radio has had an extremely lucky escape, this has further spurred me on to invest in Anderson Powerpole connectors because those would prevent mishaps like this as they cannot be reversed and also the Fuser 6 unit from SOTABeams to add that extra layer of protection.

I am relieved and hope to get the Grant II on air again as soon as possible.

Also here are the pictures of the Grant II during the testing as well as the fuse how I found it, these are also available to view on my Twitter account.

Remember, red to red, black to black or it will be blew to bits or in my case a blown fuse, well done to President and Uniden for including the diode in this radio, if that was not there I'd have a very expensive paperweight.

73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730

New telescopic mast ordered in time for The Big Multimode net and also for portable Amateur HF ops

I have ordered a new mast from SOTAbeams today, this one is a 7m mast as opposed to a 10m mast though this is not any real issue, with there being just under two weeks before the Big Multimode Net I needed to remedy the mast situation.

Though the news I posted yesterday is still fresh in my mind I understand that the hobby must go on and though the net on the 27th is for 11-meters (CB radio) it is still radio none the less, and I will operate that day as 26CT730/P from, I hope, Tan Hill, and hopefully achieve something I've wanted to do for many years, work Roy in Corsica if he is listening and the conditions are good on the day.

The radio I hope to use is my President Grant II, it has had very little airtime since I bought it, and it's legal for 11-meter SSB use.

Of course the mast I've bought will be grand for portable HF ops when I have some portable HF gear (I've been looking at Yaesu FT-817s as these are becoming available a little cheaper due to the 818 but still outside my price range), I will still, however, use type approved CB equipment for 11-meters even in portable ops so anything for Amateur HF will be for exactly that, I believe that the SOTABeams masts are good for long wires, though I suspect two spaced appropriately can support a full sized G5RV when I finally do get the portable HF on Amateur radio off the ground.

The Big Multimode Net is a good way to get interest in the radio hobby, no licence and no special equipment, just a normal AM/FM CB radio and an antenna is all you need to get started, you can power a radio easily off the car cigar lighter socket if it's a normal CB.

There is a second "Activate all Counties" event on the same day as the Big Multimode Net at the same time to get all of the English Counties on the air, if you have a CB setup I urge you take part in this, also if you want to do more than what a set of 80 channels on 27MHz and 16 channels on 446MHz allows you to do then go get your foundation licence, it is worth it.

If you're a CB/11-meter operator I look forward to working you on the air on the 27th June

73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730

The trusted T2LT antenna for 11-meters, how does it perform over a commercial antenna?

Well to find this out YouTube user "Amateur and 11m radio Tim" (sorry Tim I don't know your callsigns yet) rigged up a commercial antenna, a Sirio 4000, and a T2LT, needless to say those results were impressive.

I have built the T2LT myself as you know, and I know it works as I have got out on it and it pulls in a lot of stations though last time I had it out the conditions left a lot to be desired, however for 11-meters it is the most practical antenna you can get, it can be hung from trees or fibreglass masts and it gets you on the air, how much power it can handle is a different matter entirely as I have never actually tested this and there is no legal way to do that, however the T2LT gets its next outing at the end of June.

Going back to Tim's video, it is here so you can make your own decision on whether for portable 11-meter operation a T2LT or a commercial antenna is the right choice for you.

73 de 26CT730

The Big Multimode Nets 2018

With 4 years since we got legal AM and SSB in the UK on 11-meters many stations will be celebrating this anniversary on Wednesday 27th June, this will include myself from a very particular place, Tan Hill, home of a very famous pub (remember the Waitrose adverts at Christmas anyone? It's that pub), and that location is perfect for radio, this is also WX dependent though in June snow is not expected, but high winds can pose an issue as they have before when I took a rental car up there and could not open the door.

I've always wanted to operate radio from Tan Hill, I've done a little on 2-meters up there but with little success, 11-meters has been a band I've wanted to do from there for some time as I know, even on an HT with the correct conditions (see my YouTube channel for my pre DX-pedition evaluation) a lot can be received, one thing that is true with radio no matter what the band is that height is might.

Of course I couldn't go without filming it and putting it onto YouTube for all to see, which of course I shall do.

On the day I should be operating between 6 and 11pm (respecting the locals of course though it is isolated up there so the locals are 95% sheep and 5% people) as 26CT730 of course, hopefully on legal SSB subject to tests of my President Grant II which are due to be done anyway, after all this is a celebration of the legal CB modes, of course the conditions on 11-meters on the day will also serve as how many QSOs I can log not just the height.

Although this is a UK big net what I would really be pleased to do is work Roy 104CT011 in Corsica, as he has been on the list of 11-meter operators overseas I want to work for a number of years (other callsigns used by him are 104ET001 and 104DA101), but again conditions need to be favourable and he also needs to be listening to the frequencies.

My contacts will be logged as well so I know how many I have worked on legal power, I will get a logging system arranged as soon as possible.

Operating conditions will be the Grant II, stock mic, and T2LT antenna on the fibreglass mast in the drive on mast stand.

Looking forward to making some great contacts in my first participation of the Big Multimode Nets

73 de 26CT730

Handheld CB tests

I thought now would be a good time to test out both my handheld CBs ahead of time, the Midland 42 held charge nicely and transmits in both power settings no problem whatsoever, the radio with the power problem is, of course, the Intek H-520 Plus.

Firstly when I found the Intek it was pretty much dead, connecting the charger was the only way to get it working, removing the charger and keying up at 4 watts immediately after plugging the charger in resulted in the inevitable low battery alert and the TX cut out, same at 1 watt, however it lasted about a minute longer at 100mW, to be expected as the batteries were very low charge and are well due a replacement, and I suspect the charger supplied with the radio is absolutely dire and once I replace the batteries I will be charging them out of the radio with a charger rather than in the radio, I initially was going to swap the batteries out with Eneloop batteries however after doing some digging I found 7DayShop do 2900mAh AA batteries for a good price (Eneloop batteries only go up to 2500mAh, same as the Energizer batteries already in the radio), the good thing is that both radios key up fine.

The Grant II is subject to tests next and these handhelds will be used as part of those tests as well, for both AM and FM modulation, for SSB I will have to tune my RTL-SDR to the appropriate frequency I use to do the test as my handheld CBs can only demodulate AM and FM, however I am satisfied the CB HTs are both working as they ought to be.

These tests are required as a prerequisite of setting up internal comms for myself and guest(s) at the National Hamfest, once the H-520 batteries are replaced then I can focus on running more tests.

73 de 26CT730/2E0EIJ

Magnetic loop antennas–a follow up

As I have mentioned previously I have a desire to build a magnetic loop antenna for HF use, primarily with my CRT SS9900 on 10 metres, though something that could cover 12 through to 10 metres meaning will work on CB as well as I still have a keen interest in that side of things despite holding an amateur radio foundation licence and hoping to go for my intermediate exam very soon, as alluded to in my last post.

My antenna situation as you know is very poor right now, made worse due to the fact I live in a first-floor flat, though I have a CB antenna in the attic it functions very poorly with high SWR readings and the need of a tuner to prevent damage to rigs connected to it, though this antenna works on 10-meters as well the tuner does not and to get the SWR to safe levels requires it be tuned with both sides turned all the way up to 10 (the unit is a Euro-CB EM-110 and is really suited to 11 metres rather than 10 metres), 2 metres is currently done with an antenna on a biscuit tin, also poor but it does work.

This is where the magnetic loop comes in, and I saw a YouTube video showing a design made out of copper tubing, with a power meter on the larger loop itself, a variant of this design was also on YouTube by an English member of Charlie Tango (of which I am a member with the callsign 26CT730) for CB use, with the right capacitor and correct dimensions I should be able to build a loop to this design (without a power meter fitted to the loop itself as I intend to fit the loop with a remote tuning system utilising a stepper motor and gearbox) and be able to start using 10 metres, despite the poor conditions at this time on that band I am eager to give it a go, also as I have not played with 11 meters since I scrapped my old car this would be a good opportunity as I understand CB is alive and well and there are regular nets held now, even on the midblock using AM and SSB since those modes became available to UK CB operators in 2014, but naturally I am keen to give 10 metres a go, whether I get a working magloop before or after I get my intermediate remains to be seen however I intend to make sure I get on 10 metres regardless, I have invested in equipment for that band I may as well use it.

I know I can get copper and plastic tube locally but for a suitable tuning capacitor I may have to look to rallies to do so, the requirements are that the tuning capacitor will work happily up to 4kV (though I suspect 50 watts is far below this but I like the idea of a safety margin).

The antenna will be connected with a suitable SWR meter in line almost permanently, my Zetagi Mod. 203W is perfect for this as it covers a frequency range of 26-30MHz for TX power measurement and 3-200MHz for SWR measurement.

I will post more on this subject as it progresses

 

73 de M6RSQ

T2LT revisited

I've been on an antenna theme recently, what with both a Slim Jim and a 2-meter dipole written about (the latter being made, the former an idea I can put to some use), and I continue with a favourite CB antenna of mine, the T2LT, the person who made the original video showing how to build this antenna, Gary 26CTX104, remade the video into a two-parter where he went into a little more detail and built another T2LT, it turns out the video was published well over a year ago and I'd not done a lot of CB at that point and was just starting out on Amateur radio, but CB is a bit of fun now and again but some good contacts can be made on 11 meters depending on the solar cycle amongst other things.

So, as you will know I already have a T2LT antenna built, and have tried it out but using only 4 watts into it (perhaps less on battery powered rigs as these radios are designed to run on 13.8V DC whereas my sealed battery is about 12 volts and a pack of AA batteries don't deliver much for long, handhelds are not counted here) though conditions were not favourable for me

So, the plan is this, get the antenna up on my fibreglass mast, inserted into a parasol base or attached to a secondary mast (no more than 1.5 meters) that will fit a parasol base (this avoids planning constraints as the antenna can be removed with relative ease), run a feeder to my "shack", plug the Grant II into it with my good SWR meter for CB in line (I have 3 CB meters and one VHF/UHF meter) and check to see how well it is tuned up, and try and make some CB QSOs (using my CT call if it is still valid which it should be), naturally I will be carrying out some other tests, I just need a volunteer to sit in the "shack" to transmit, as it's CB and anyone can use it without needing a license, for that test the CB magmount will go on my current car connected to the car adaptor of one of my handhelds, the Intek H-520 would be ideal for this as it has a large readable S-meter over the Midland Alan 42 Multi, though both have an S-meter.

So, I am keen to give this a go so Saturday will be a shopping day for some bits

73 de 26CT730

A year of legal AM and SSB CB

The end of this month will be the first year of us having legal AM and SSB CB, and a "big net" is planned, so what I plan to do, depending on weather, is take a trip to a high point, Tan Hill or similar, and get on the CB for the first time in a while, the Grant 2 has been idle for a while and needs it's legs stretching, so a trip up to a high point will be good for it.

So, antenna wise, the T2LT antenna dropped through the car's sunroof (on it's fibreglass mast which I will have to somehow attach to the car for support) rather than the orbitor that is already on the car, power, initially I was thinking off the 7Ah battery, then onto the car's own battery later once the 7Ah can't deliver enough power, the car of course can be started and stopped as needed to keep the battery topped up, my Sony headphones will be used to provide a better means of monitoring weak signals as always, the station will be identified as "static mobile".

I may initially set up the station (just on the orbitor) on the 27th at Whashton Road car park just after midnight, though I'll drive there before, and see if I can get any QSOs in, and relocate to Tan Hill later in the day after having some sleep, I may return to Tan Hill on the 28th as well for this, and I hope to get a reasonably sized log of all contacts, I've not logged any CB contacts for a while so this will make for a good opportunity to get some CB contacts logged.

If you are on air across the  weekend the net takes place, give me a shout on either channel 14 mids AM or channel 27 mids USB, I myself will be calling on these channels.


73 de 26CT730

Midweek nets

I've been aware for some time of some midweek nets running up and down the UK, until now I've not been able to participate in them.

These midweek nets normally take place for a couple of hours on a Wednesday evening, however I do not intend to use the Midland for this, instead I will be using the President Grant 2 running off my sealed lead-acid battery rather than risk discharching the car battery, for simplicity I will be using the antenna on the car rather than the T2LT.

I should be on air from around 6:30pm tomorrow night, static mobile, more than likely at Whashton Road, in the summer months I probably will make the drive up to Tan Hill again for a DX net and maybe the odd midweek net as that would be the best time.

The battery I use for portable operations is now charging, I have programmed specific channels into the memory storage of the Grant 2, though I do not know if it will retain the memory channels or not, I will take along the dummy load and SWR meter just to be safe and make sure everything is working as it should be when I connect the Grant 2 to the car's antenna.

Hope to hear you and talk to you on air tomorrow night


73 de 26CT730

Evening SSB net

Tonight I made an attempt to take part in an SSB net for a couple of hours on EU 28 USB, though I could hear a station in Corsica I was not able to get back to him, nor another Charlie Tango station on channel I heard in the back of the box, presumably Northumberland, there was  a lot of QRM from the US as well as some QSOs going on, but unable to reach them either.

The T2LT had tuned down fine so perhaps conditions were not favourable for me this time, if the weather is good I might give it another go next weekend, and perhaps work out a shelter that's somewhat better than my scooter's cover.


73 de 26CT730

T2LT update

With the new pole having arrived I strapped it to my scooter, packed up my Grant 2, my most decent SWR meter, my multimeter should I need to investigate any shorts, the dummy load in case I needed to check for any issues with the radio, which I did not need.

The pole was not 100% straight (it was propped up), the T2LT was slightly adrift at the top but otherwise fine, a small loop was also provided for tuning. but no tuning was needed as the SWR was below 1.5 at all times, reception was good across both UK and midband, the tuning loop was positioned slightly above the top of the pole with the main part of the antenna running the length of the pole, the choke also worked perfectly.

Should the weather be good on Saturday I shall be heading back up to the car park where I did the tests and will be going on air properly for the first time in a long time.

73 de 26CT730

T2LT progress

The choke is now wound, the PL259 plug is fitted, and the top of the plug where it meets the cable has had a small amount of Sugru applied to it.

On doing a Google search for "PL259 plugs and Sugru" it turns out that there is no record of anyone doing this which means either one of two things, I am the first person in the world to watertight the cable entry of a PL259 plug with Sugru or others have before me and not really made it public

The RG58 I used is reasonably good quality, it has good braid coverage and a good dielectric, I just now need to measure from the choke to the point in which I will be cutting off the braid, I then need to measure from that point to what will be the top of the antenna (so 8.5ft and another 9ft respectively as per 26CTX104's YouTube video, the 9ft top section allows for some tuning down, folded over and not cut as the VSWR may vary from location to location)

So I look forward to getting the next bit done, then perhaps this antenna will be up and I'll be on air soon :)


73 de 26CT730