PMR446 DX event on Easter Sunday

I haven’t updated this as I didn’t get round to getting the CB station going due to some unforeseen circumstances.  I logged into Charlie Tango today and discovered that they have a 446 event planned for Easter Sunday that is open to all, and I intend to give it a go.  I plan to use my Intek MT-5050 but will take another PMR as backup, as well as a spare set of batteries, the JVC camcorder I use for my videos, and my laptop for logging purposes.

Charlie Tango have specified channel 8 with no CTCSS for this event, anyone who owns a PMR446 radio can join in, though to be effective you should take to the hills.  If you do decide to take part and head up to the hills, ensure you have plenty of spare batteries for your radio, and also a backup radio just in case.

This event takes place between 12pm and 2pm on the Sunday, though I will be on air from about 11:30am.  Time to make some contacts over a distance on PMR446 without the need for a gateway.

I have installed a copy of yaLOG to my laptop to log the event and will copy it over to the comms computer after the event is done and I go off air, the laptop can run for about 4 hours on it’s battery, which is more than what I need, but will keep a pen and notebook of sorts handy just in case the computer runs out of power.

I hope for a good day and also some good contacts, I’ll keep you posted

73

A hopeful return to CB radio, and a catch up

I recently set up a second desk in my living room, a communications corner if you will, where I have some of my radio equipment and a computer for the likes of the Free Radio Network, possibly Echolink, if allowed in the foundation class license for communication (which I will check with Ofcom and RSGB when the time comes), and logging purposes, and some updates to this blog also

My girlfriend and I plan to see how high the loft space is in the coming weeks, I hope to purchase a suitable loft-mounting antenna and install it there until such times I can install my larger 5/8 wave antenna, although a backup plan is an inverted v mounted to the trusses, having a working CB at home will be beneficial to me, in particular when I have a car so if I am out and girlfriend is here she can keep in touch with me, also be good to get back on the air again anyway, under the handle “red squirrel”, or, for DX work, the callsign 26CT730, my handheld is good and all but not really ideal to use indoors on it’s supplied antenna.  The target date for this is the coming weeks, given that I’m already preparing the corner where the desk with the radios is located for use

I will most likely be on UK7 though will also monitor UK19, if, of course, you cannot reach me on CB, I am always available on the Free Radio Network, usually listening via my gateway but sometimes on the PC now, my gateway has my CB handle in the name, my pc only client does not, if the PC only client shows a grey icon I’m more often than not listening via a radio, which I am doing as I type this in fact, although the gateway is quiet right now.

I have had a few QSOs on the Richmond FRN Gateway (which I run) and direct from the comms computer on the Free Radio Network on the 446Muppets server, there are some nice people on there, so don’t be shy and try it out

I’ve also started up listening to GB3IR, the local 2m band Amateur repeater here in Richmond, although it hasn’t been as active as the FRN gateway in the day or two I’ve been listening to it, I’ve got my multiband receiver (item #8 on list to right) turned on right now listening to that as well, but at this time of day it’s a little on the quiet side, it makes for some good listening, in particular because I wish to get an Amateur radio license, hopefully this will happen in 2012

Oh, and a belated Happy New Year, hope you all had a good Christmas and certainly a good New Year’s celebration

 

73

First post from comms computer

I thought I’d make a post from the comms computer to make sure all is working, but I thought I’d also make a note of something else interesting that I personally have never come across before, my CB radio is powered up and on Channel 19 UK allocation, despite only being connected to a dummy load and SWR meter, some transmissions were received, they were close looking at the signal meter on the rig, leading me to assume a vehicle behind my home was the locale of the transmitting station, I do plan to get an antenna up soon, new year all being well.  This was also a good way to test my home made extension speaker, which sounded pretty good considering :)

That is all for now, but I shall return soon with more

73

Binatone Action 950 modifications

Note, For information only, I do not recommend or encourage modifying PMR446 radios, you do so at your own risk

One of my own Binatone Action 950s has been put forward as the radio, the other one of the pair will remain unmodified

This is the radio in question, this radio will be modified to include a BNC socket and antenna, a power mod does exist but requires some SMD components as well as a switch or two solder pads bridging, the bridge has been made but the components are not present so the radio is still at 500mW

This is the same radio as above but with the antenna removed ready for a BNC socket to be fitted

This is the radio with it’s BNC socket installed, the bottom part of the antenna has been used to accommodate the BNC socket, the BNC socket cannot be soldered directly to the board, a small piece of wire had to be soldered between the centre pin of the BNC socket and the antenna connection on the board, the ground is soldered to a nearby solder pad that connects to ground, for stability the area around the socket will be filled with some epoxy, this should stop it moving about as although the BNC socket is a tight fit, it does move a little so this is recommended

This is the antenna I intend to fit to the radio, Nagoya NA-771, this antenna is a dual band antenna for the 2 metre and 70cm Amateur radio bands, and as the latter includes the allocation for PMR446 in the US (where PMR446 is not used) this antenna proves somewhat suitable

And here is the final result, the radio now has the new antenna fitted, and seems to work fine and has survived it’s operation
Now to see how good it really is
73

Home made extension speaker

Now last night, feeling a little bored, I had a bit of a brainwave, to convert a broken shower radio into an extension speaker.  This involved removing the PCB, FM antenna, and internal wiring, leaving the speaker in the case, the speaker was then rewired to two long lengths of wire, and a spare 3.5mm plug I had lying around, this was then connected to a few of my radios for testing, though I can’t make a proper test until I connect it to a live radio, such as the Moonraker FA5000 CB as that is what it will be used with, given this was made from an old shower radio there is room for some improvements such as a volume control and a mute switch, I’ll post a picture soon

73

Edit, I now have a photo of the current stage of the speaker


The speaker has been labelled with a model number, to give it a little bit more of a professional look, though the labelling from the radio remains at this time, and the two holes allow for improvements such as a mute switch and possibly a volume control, though the rigs drive the speaker fine





The design of the case allows for the speaker to be mounted to a wall, as shown in the picture, thus freeing up the desk space for more important things

Follow up to PLT post dated 15th March

I thought I’d follow up on the above mentioned post. albeit a week late

A week ago I replaced my DSL modem router as my previous one was starting to fail… badly, so I made a trip to a local branch of a well known UK PC superstore, PC World, purchasing the router was not an issue however on nearby shelves were the horrible radio spectrum destroyers themselves, and quite a few of them, but that was not the worse thing, the worse was to come when I went through the checkout, got home, and unpacked the carrier bag containing the router to find this…

This voucher is blatantly promoting the unfit-for-purpose PLT, in particular at the online gaming community.  If you have one of these vouchers from PC World, please do the radio community a favour and destroy it, please don’t buy the powerline networking equipment, it saves you upsetting your local radio enthusiasts and having Ofcom hassle you to remove the devices, is is really worth the 15% discount, upsetting radio enthusiasts, blocking out broadcast reception, and even disrupting your neighbour’s broadband? I don’t think so

As a radio enthusiast I urge you not to take up this offer and find a wired or wireless alternative

Needless to say I was absolutely fuming with PC World for doing this, in fact had I known about this at the time I’d have given the store manager a link to the Ban-PLT website but I did not know about this voucher until I got home

So please, don’t use this voucher if you have been given one recently, it’s not worth destroying half the radio spectrum and getting a visit from Ofcom because you’ve upset a whole bunch of local radio amateurs or even caused a danger to safety-of-life systems

 

73

Midland Base Camp446, the “Swiss army knife” radio

Now I just added a new radio to my motley collection of radios, the Midland Base Camp446, which is a “Swiss army knife” radio, or so I think anyway.  What makes this radio different from most PMR446 radios is that it is equipped with a flashlight, USB charging port, medium wave and VHF broadcast reception, VHF marine band reception, and a dynamo charging system to charge the radio or anything connected to the USB charger port.  It also features an alarm clock and Morse code function to send signals using the flashlight. It comes with both a home charger and car charger, a shoulder strap, and a Midland branded speaker/mic for ease of use, I tested the speaker/mic with my other radios with a 2-pin standard connector, it worked with my Intek MT-5050 but it did NOT work with my Intek H-520 (the transmit was jammed on with the mic connected), the radio features a high and low power setting so as to save on the battery if you are only communicating over a short distance, it is simple to operate, the volume and power control is rotary, which I like in a radio, the tuning/channel change control is a momentary rotary control, turn right to increase channel, left to decrease, a 4 position switch selects the band, a 2 position switch below that selects the battery type, and a 2 position switch below that turns the light on and off, on the right hand side is the dynamo crank, this can be turned clockwise or counter-clockwise to recharge the batteries or phones, MP3 players, iPods, GPS systems, and PDAs that may be connected to the USB socket in the left hand side, the left hand side also features the flashlight, the speaker/mic socket (2-pin), and the charger socket, the rear has the antenna, which folds down, a very large battery box for both the supplied rechargeable battery pack and normal AA sized batteries, all in all a good radio.

---

Mods:

Note, For information only, I do not recommend or encourage modifying PMR446 radios, you do so at your own risk

This radio can be modified for increased power output (3 watts), and increased channels (LPD433 on the PMR446 only model), or locked to LPD433 only, or PMR446 only
Inside the unit you need to locate 3 jumpers, these are JS4, JS17, and JS16, the settings are as follows

JS4	JS17	JS16	PMR446 settings	LPD433 settings
0	0	0	500mW H/10mW L	disabled
0	0	1	3W H/500mW L	3W H/500mW L
0	1	0	500mW H/10mW L	500mW H/10mW L
0	1	1	3W H/500mW L	disabled
1	0	0	500mW H/10mW L	10mW
1	0	1	500mW H/10mW L	disabled
1	1	0	disabled	10mW
1	1	1	disabled	3W H/500mW L

EDIT: I discovered a service door (it’s an unmarked piece of thin black plastic) in the rechargeable battery pack compartment during a routine security mark, all 3 jumpers, plus a cut 4th jumper were present, the 3 jumpers were closed, in the above diagram, 0 means do NOT cut, 1 means cut, the order is unknown jumper (already cut by Midland), js4, js17, and js16, don’t touch the first jumper.
The picture below shows the location of the jumpers behind the service door

The 4 loops apear to be steel wire, so you may need some very sharp cutters to cut them, to put the radio back how it was just reclose the 3 loops, leaving the left-most one as is

---

I will make a short video demonstration of this radio in the coming weeks, stay tuned
73