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