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

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

Sign of things to come?

Yesterday I heard that there was some skip on the CB frequencies, I therefore took my trusty Intek H-520 Plus, switched it on, placed it in my kitchen window and had a flick through, the “muppet” band (also known as CB 27/81 due to the original 1981 type approval) was moderately more active than normal, and there’s hardly any CB users close to me in the first place, on switching to the CEPT band, there were stations coming in from various points on the European mainland, specifically I heard Germany and Holland I believe, if this is the beginning of improvements I may have some good contacts on my big DX day, this will take place during a dry day in the summer months
I took a short video of the possible skip, my H-520 Plus had it’s stock antenna (KA-520) fitted to it

This video will explain what I mean

I’ll leave you with this and you can make your own mind up
73