First participation in the Sunday net on GB3IR

Last night was my first participation in the Sunday night net on GB3IR, most if not all the regulars were on, along with myself and 2 of the other newly qualified operators, and this revealed a problem I was having which I shall outline later.

I was happy to take part in the net as I'd been itching to since I passed my exam, this means I now have something to occupy an hour or two on a Sunday night if nothing else already has, and if I am in the car it's no problem because I have a rig in the car as well as my two handies, out of range of GB3IR I just have to connect over Echolink through my computer, phone, tablet or another Echolink enabled repeater so I have no excuse to miss out.

Now, the problem, I own a speaker mic, which I have had for some years, turns out it's so cheaply made that the audio from it is absolutely dire, I even tested it between the handhelds on a clear frequency to find out, so it means I am going to have to do of two things, new speaker mic or just use the handhelds without, both handhelds, even the Wouxun with the longer antenna at 1 watt,were operating perfectly fine, so the best thing I can do is ditch the speaker mic.

So next Sunday I will be on at the same time, unless something else takes priority of course.


73 de M6RSQ

Tan Hill pre-DXpedition evaluation - video

Here is the video I took up at Tan Hill, it's taken me a while to get it ready for putting on here but I got there, it should give you some sort of idea of what I was talking about in my last post.

73 de 26CT730

Pre-DXpedition evaluation of Tan Hill

I took a ride up to Tan Hill today to evaluate how good a DX spot it really is, for PMR446 use I’d still advise on an external antenna mounted as high as possible, for CB a proper antenna would be beneficial, though I had stations incoming on a handheld, in this case the Midland Alan 42 Multi, notably some foreign stations on channel 8 midblock using AM. I did have a brief flick around on FM and also on 27/81 but AM appears to show more promise, SSB may also be very promising when I can finally give it a go, which may well be at Tan Hill.

I took some video footage on my phone and while I type this I am awaiting it to process before I upload it to YouTube, a later post will be that very video, which includes my very first call on AM, although because I was using a handheld I doubt anyone was able to hear me but with radio you just never know.

All I am left to do is sort out a shelter, build a T2LT and some suitable battery packs, acquire a pole to mount my antenna to, and hopefully I can get back to Tan Hill and keep DXing, I’d like to be up there in August on a Sunday.

So, a video is to come later one when it is finally uploaded to YouTube, and on Monday the President Grant 2 should be here on my desk.

 

73 de 26CT730

President Grant 2 to be ordered soon maybe? (also a shack computer update)

I may place an order for a President Grant 2 next week if my finances look good, this will allow me to operate on SSB, in particular on my DXpedition to Tan Hill, however I will see what's what.

The reason I chose the President Grant 2 is several reasons, it is the first legal rig that allows you to switch between the new modes in the UK band (this is a recent update to the firmware in the radio), the radio is fitted with a power socket on the rear that the power lead plugs in to, this is similar to my Moonraker FA5000, a rig I hardly use now.

The President Grant 2 is easy to open up to export mode, inside there's a white wire and a jumper block, simply snip the wire and move the jumper, at the loss of your warranty and and your own risk, you also would lose the UK setting but you can get this back by moving the jumper back to it's original position.

It support's President's Liberty wireless microphone, a great idea that no one really thought of in the past, means you are not tied to sitting in the shack or your /p station, you can take a wander if you like, up to 100 meters I think it is, much like a DECT phone or a bluetooth headset.

Another nice feature of the rig is a choice of two backlight colours, orange and green, which also includes a dimmer so you're not blinding youself with a bright backlight at night.

There are other features as well on the rig but I'll do a full write up when I actually get hold of one, hopefully in a couple of weeks all being well

My shack computer has had a new motherboard, RAM, and CPU ordered for it, this would help with performance with regards to SDR use, there are incompatibility issues with the hard disk, optical drive, and existing graphics card, the hard drive has had an adaptor ordered for it to allow it to continue to work, the optical drive will be rectified later as it's not important at this time, the power supply should be sufficient for the new board, the only card that will be fitted is to be the CMI8738 sound card that the machine already has and that is compatible with the board.

Performance with SDR# has been dire with the RTL-SDR operating, the FRN client does work... just, the shackcam feed isn't really reliable on the machine (it's controlled by it both hardware and software, though I intend to replace this with a network camera,, which will make it software and link), and with plans to do the Amateur radio foundation exam as well I want the machine to reliably handle the Echolink software.  Another radio software installed on the machine is Zello, this runs reasonably OK but I tend not to use it as I use it on my phone more than I do on the computer.

Programming my Wouxun KG-UVD1P has proven unreliable with this machine, upgrading the internal hardware may be sufficient to remedy this (the official software, that is practically incomprehensible, works fine, the easier KG-UV commander doesn't read the radio properly, though it could be a bug with the software rather than the computer).

I should be taking delivery of the motherboard and it's ancillaries by Wednesday at the latest, for fitting that evening, which will take out the 446 gateway for a couple of hours but this is no real issue, the RAM on the existing board, if compatible, will be used in the 446 gateway computer to hopefully try and improve things, the GPU in that machine will also be swapped out with the one in the shack computer as I feel the one currently fitted to it is wasted in it and would be useful in another installation.

So, a better shack computer and maybe, just maybe, a President Grant 2 will be sitting on my shack desk soon, but we will see :)

73 de 26CT730

Wouxun KG-UVD1P, a good radio?

Today I took delivery of a Wouxun KG-UVD1P, part of my reasoning for buying this is so that I can use it on the Amateur bands when I pass my Foundation exam, at the moment I can use it to listen to GB3IR, the local repeater in Richmond.
This radio has the majority of features that an Amateur could possibly need, DTMF dialling for use with repeaters and the Free Radio Network if you choose to use such a radio on PMR446 or some other unlicensed service, though that is at your own risk (as some gateways are configured to support DTMF), a 1750Hz tone burst for accessing repeaters, split-frequency operation either in VHF, UHF or VHF+UHF, ideal for repeaters, an A/B button is provided to select one of the two frequencies displayed as master frequency, that frequency would be the transmit frequency. It can also be widebanded from about 118MHz to about 500MHz, possibly 520MHz, though the lower range of this is the civil airband which would be illegal and dangerous to transmit in and the upper range is in the television broadcast band, also illegal to transmit in and there’s no analogue broadcasts up there now in the UK at least.
The radio is supplied with a battery, belt clip, lanyard, SMA antenna, and a drop-in charger with LED to indicate when the battery is charged.  My radio came with a programming cable for the computer (A USB type “Prolific” cable though a serial port cable exists), a speaker microphone, and a headset, the radio microphone wiring is Kenwood wired, if you decide to use this as an FRN gateway radio and needed an interface.
The top of the radio has 3 LEDs, one serves as a torch, a green LED flashes in standby, and come on when a signal is received, a red LED comes on when you transmit, these also indicate activity when the radio is being programmed via computer, you can use the official Wouxun software (which is confusing for the most part) or the easier to use KG-UV Commander.
The manual available online for this radio is in the typical “Engrish” one would expect the Chinese to use, however the manual that came with the radio seemed to be pretty much well written, however under the charger on the label came a notice that wasn’t translated all that brilliantly into English about not dismantling it.
The radio feels solid, yet not heavy so not an issue carrying it around, underneath the battery is a die-cast metal chassis.
The radio has an adjustable transmit power, ideal to save the battery, it can transmit at 1 or 5 watts VHF, or 1 or 4 watts UHF.
The radio has a keypad and an LCD display that shows the frequency you are operating on, the second frequency if in dual mode, or a line of text, usually UVD1 though this can be changed, I changed it to UVD1P because I could.
The radio seems to receive well, with it, unlike with my Steepletone and Omega receivers, which have analogue tuning and seem a little on the drifty side, I have been able to positively identify a second repeater I could use when I get the foundation license, GB3HG, located in the market town of Thirsk, though the Wouxun can hear it, I do not know if it would be able to open it on it’s stock antenna and as I am not licensed I am not able to try it, GB3IR in Richmond I’d have no problems with accessing once licensed, I’ll give them both a shot when I get my foundation license.
I am going to put the radio to the test at some point to see just how well it can receive, if it is good enough it should be able to receive my PMR446 gateway, which transmits at 500mW, from a distance, the furthest I have managed is to just before the B6271 railway bridge in Northallerton, around about the gates to the home waste recycling centre, using an unmodified Intek MT-5050 with the monitor button pressed, though I was on a bus and that did degrade the signal somewhat.
I may write a follow up when I’ve had a chance to fully explore what this radio can actually do.

73 de 26CT730