GB3HG success

I am pleased to report that I am able to access GB3HG and access it well from my home QTH, had a short QSO with a station in York before the Baofeng's battery hit critical.  You may now be asking why I did not switch to the Wouxun, this was for one very good reason, my previous attempt to access GB3HG was with the Baofeng, and in the interest of a fair run I thought it best I stick to this radio for today.

Tomorrow hopefully will see another go on HG, this time the radio will be my Leixen VV-898 in the car, paired to the cheap Moonraker antenna on the roof, the rig can hear HG no problems in Richmond and Catterick, so it's only fair to see if the rig can open HG.

I will let you know how I get on.


73 de M6RSQ

ShackCam tests, one week on

The shackcam has been running for one week and I am pleased to report that on it's current hardware (after some bodging by me to the Dazzle hardware) that is is working just fine, the website itself has been updated to include my Amateur callsign as the primary callsign, with my CT callsign being secondary as it is not really an official callsign and I've not done a lot of CB or 446 work in a while and the bulk of my transmissions have been on 2-meters since my license came through.

I plan to move all my radio operations (except /m and /p of course) back to the shack in the coming weeks, my handhelds are being charged elsewhere and Echolink is currently running on my laptop though I plan to keep it on there for the foreseeable future, but it's on my phone as well

With the shackcam working as it should be I am happy, the shack computer will be shut down at some stage to allow the monitor to be wall mounted to free up the desk space it currently occupies for such items such as radio chargers, so expect to see changes soon

73 de M6RSQ/26CT730 on CB/PMR446

ShackCam tests

I've put my shackcam back on for testing, this is in part after I discovered a fault with the FTPd running on my server (the server itself is also visible on the shackcam as it is on the shelves that seperate my living room between living area and shack), and to ensure the hardware is still up to the job until a better camera can take it's place, it appears to be but it has been erroring out periodically.

The camera will be on for the next week in order to ascertain if it is working as it should be, if it is then  I have no further work that I need to do, if not then I will need to do some further work, so I can put a proper 2/70 rig into the shack as I plan to operate on both the 2-meter and 70cm bands in the coming months,

The link for the shackcam is unchanged and is on the right hand side of this page.

73 de M6RSQ (or 26CT730 on CB/PMR446)

Blackpool rally

In light of missing the Ripon Rally due to family commitments I made the journey over to Blackpool for the rally there, was bigger than I thought it would be but worth the trip to see what these things are all about.

The journey was fine until I approached and entered Cumbria, wherein the weather took a turn for the worse, this continued onto the M6 through Lancashire, getting better the closer to Blackpool I got,

On arrival at the venue I was spending a lot of time parking my car as there were no spots available, eventually one became available and £5 later I was in the venue, which had the vast majority of the clubs from the North West in attendance along with various sellers of amateur radio equipment, along with used equipment stands, and the RSGB, selling books and offering membership, which I took out and got a free Baofeng BF-888S UHF as well as the latest RadCom (which I shall take along to the club in case anyone wants to read it that is not a member

I was hoping to pick up a 2/70 mobile or base unit, used of course, for home that I could run on the slim-jim or some other homebrew antenna that could potentially cover both bands, I'll keep an eye out for cheap, yet still serviceable, radios for that purpose on the Internet.

So. to sum up the Blackpool rally, a good day out, but get there very early if you want a parking spot, I certainly plan to go next year but only if the weather wasn't as terrible for driving as this time.


73 de M6RSQ

GB3HG access tests

As regular readers may or may not know, I am within range of two 2-meter repeaters, GB3IR, which I can hit very easily with 1 watt as it's just down the road from my QTH, and GB3HG on Sutton Bank near Thirsk, so today I decided to give HG a go.

Test conditions was set up using Baofeng UV-5RC Plus with stock antenna inside my flat.

Keying up at 1 watt was not sufficient enough to open HG, releasing the key there was no response. 5 watts appeared to be enough to open the repeater, upon releasing the key the repeater appeared to be open, however there was no one else listening to give me a report on how well the repeater was actually hearing me or even if it was at 5 watts so I may give it another go, for fairness I will use the same radio with the same antenna with the same power output.

Another nearby repeater is GB3CD but I am not within range of it at my home QTH as far as I know (was unable to hear it before they switched it over to Yaesu System Fusion, not tried since but suspect I still cannot hear it), though it doesn't matter if CD is out of range as it is on Echolink like GB3IR so can do one of two things, connect IR to CD or connect to CD through my phone or computer(s)

I'll post more on this as time permits

73 de M6RSQ

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

First Amateur QSOs

The following morning after obtaining my license and callsign I had my first QSO on the Amateur bands, specifically through GB3IR, with the keeper of GB3IR no less while on my way into work with me having a rig in the car.

I was again on the repeater later on that same day in QSO with some of the local regulars and one of the other newly qualified foundation licensees that passed the same day as myself, and yesterday I had a brief QSO with the remaining two who I had yet to have a QSO with at that point, though I saw them down at the club last night anyway.

I have not called out on the repeater today, but last night I did dig out my Wouxun KG-UVD1P, but sadly not it's antenna so I've put the Nagoya antenna on it which is a longer antenna anyway, I'll be giving this handheld a trial run on the Amateur bands shortly, possibly using it on the Sunday net on GB3IR, maybe good for operating simplex and potentially accessing the other nearby repeater, GB3HG.

On a final note, all Amateur radio related posts as of the day I got my license will be signed with my Amateur callsign, CB and PMR446 will be signed with my CT callsign as before, SDR related posts I will see what's what.


73 de M6RSQ