Even less chance of entering the 2m FM Activity contest

As is known, I want to enter the 2m FM Activity contest in June, unfortunately for me another issue has come up, the clutch in my car has failed, I thought it was either a pressure plate failure or a linkage issue, I called the roadside assistance who sent out an AA patrol, they confirmed my worst fears, the pressure plate, this now means that the chances of me operating the 2-metre FM Activity contest are closer to nil as they have been.

Because the car now has to be towed to the garage for the clutch to be fitted I will be disconnecting the antenna from the radio and removing the magmount, control unit, and microphone, the main unit will need to stay in situ as it is difficult to remove.

I will do this as I need to remove everything from the car before returning it to the garage, I could remove the main unit of the 400 as well for Fusion operation from home as a stop gap but I dare not risk it on my biscuit tin antenna as this is an expensive radio and naturally the finals also expensive to repair.

maybe it will work out that I can operate but unfortunately needs must that I have my car back before then as of course as you well know a neighbour forced me to remove my home antenna which I hoped to use.

I will update this further as time progresses.

73 de 2E0EIJ

A year since I was betrayed

As you may be aware, a year ago I was down in Staines picking up a Yaesu FTM-400XDE from Martin Lynch & Sons, before I could so much as set foot in the showroom however I was betrayed by Chance Callahan KD0MXN, who to this day believes he is innocent of any wrong doing and considers me the guilty party.

During this last 12 months I have done all I can to protect the rest of the Amateur radio community from Callahan, that has not been an easy task as part of this relies on the FCC who aren't that forthcoming or helpful, and various other organisations, however it seems that whatever I have done at some point in time is working, as the Sheriff's department local to him is watching him very closely as there are a lot of things he said he would do which are beyond the scope of this blog and are certainly not welcome in the radio hobby.

From the information I have gathered, it seems his local Sheriff's department had, in plaintext, the decryption keys for the Project 25 (America's answer to TETRA) radios used by the Civil Air Patrol squadron of which he is a member, I do not believe that his local Sheriff's department would have held these keys, let alone in plaintext, unless they were monitoring something out of the ordinary, it is for this reason I believe they were watching him, unfortunately someone made a cock-up, the keys made it to an affiliate of the American Broadcasting Company, and anyone equipped with a scanner was able to listen in, bringing the attention of this to Callahan, and subsequently to me when he himself told fellow hams that this happened, he now controls the keys himself, but it proves that the Amateur radio community will oust people like Callahan pretty quickly, it just leaves the FCC to do their part, if they will do their part, I have yet to hear back from them but it's a US government department and it may take time.

With this latest chain of events, I have faith that Chance Callahan won't be KD0MXN for much longer (or be allowed to hold any type of transmitting licence ever again as he openly admitted to not following protocol using the P25 radios issued to him by the CAP), I have held this information for some weeks but did not desire to post it until the first anniversary of Callahan's attack against me, which as you can easily tell has not stopped me being active in Amateur radio, in fact I enjoy radio immensely and feel very welcome and no one on the bands yet has said otherwise as I am a very good operator and am eager to learn more.

73 de 2E0EIJ

FM Activity contest participation in doubt

Yesterday I discovered there may be an issue with one of the rear brakes on my car after having it examined by the garage, and they want to look at it on the 6th June, this adds to the already growing issue of participating in the 2-metre FM Activity Contest.

If the problem is minor and can be fixed then I should get the car back for 5pm that day and be able to get to a high point in time for 6pm though I intended it to be a little earlier, however if the problem is worse than it seems then I will more than likely miss out and have to wait until July, though this would never have happened had my unruly neighbour not forced me to cut the coax to my groundplane antenna.

So the chances of me participating are a little bleak, and with a move of QTH now into the early stages I wonder if I'll get on in July as well, I will keep you posted on this as I really want to give this a go and hope I am in fact able to do so.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Search for a new QTH.... beginning the process

Tomorrow at the first opportunity I will be going to the letting agent to arrange the process that will begin the move of QTH, as the property I looked at meets my requirements, a separate room for the shack, a place to locate the webserver responsible for hosting most of my websites (this blog will remain online as it is Google and not run from my server during the move), a living room that will be just that, a living room, having it combined with the shack for as long as I have has been a pain, and if I am allowed a nice high antenna for 2-metres and 70cm, looking forward immensely to hopefully getting a new QTH.

I will still be active on Amateur radio while the move takes place, but it will of course be mostly from HTs and mobiles, I also plan to use PMR446 to co-ordinate the move between myself and those I get to assist me, proving the worth of radio to the non-licenced and how it can be a valuable asset.

Hopefully a move in date will be given soon, I'll let you know, there are of course a few other hurdles to overcome.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Bicycle mobile revisited.

Having given my bicycle a test run prior to moving to a new QTH I have thought about fitting a mobile set up to it, a 12VDC (or 13.8VDC stable preferably) generator to run a HT with a battery eliminator, perhaps into a SLA battery that is charged as the bicycle moves.  A CB install is certainly doable with sufficient grounding to the bicycle frame (SWR will be checked with myself sat on the bicycle anyway), 2-metres and 70cm should also be possible, though I intend to use the UV-5RC Plus solely for APRS, I can use one of my other 2/70 HTs for voice, the APRS HT can be equipped with a high gain antenna and the voice HT can use a mobile antenna if the logistics of this can be worked out, the CB setup will use the stinger/orbitor antenna that was originally found on the roof of my old car.

The idea seems sound as I've seen a few videos involving an individual who fitted a CRT One CB radio to their bicycle (which of course is unusable while riding hence why I picked a handheld such as the Midland or Intek with a a suitable headset and PTT) however before I do this I'll need to move QTH first as the idea is I ride my bicycle to work or to the gym or even the shops, all of which are within cycling distance of the potential new QTH and the current one though the current QTH is on a hill, the bicycle itself needs attention to its brakes and more than likely a new set of tyres before I start attaching radios to it.

I'll keep you updated

73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730

The search for a new QTH... update

With my search ongoing for a new QTH I had a call from the letting agent I made contact with last Friday, they checked my interest in the property in question and informed me a second identical property was also available, however on the first rather than second floor but this is a minor detail.

The layout of both properties is identical and the shack will therefore be in the same place, my only issue is an antenna, I have looked at the Diamond X30 and X50, Martin Lynch & Sons sell both these antennas with N type connectors on them so a change of plugs on one end of some RG213 is needed, though I cannot seek permission to put the antenna up until I get it, I chose these two Diamond antennas because they work well and don't upset neighbours unlike other antennas, I may choose the X50 over the X30, this demotes my homemade groundplane antenna to portable ops once it has a plug on the coax again, I still can operate 2 metres with my biscuit tin setup or one of my HTs or my mobile setup, the biscuit tin setup will need retuning however.

10 and 11-metre operation won't be possible immediately until I have ascertained the possibilities there, my focus for now is 2-metres and possibly 70cm operation but I rarely hear anything on that band.

I may even get a bigger desk for the shack should it be warranted in the future as my small metal desk is a bit cramped but I can work on that.

So, I move forward towards moving to a new QTH, of course this will take out my ShackCam website which is currently down however the ShackCam itself will not be rebuilt until after the move now.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Search for a new QTH... the beginning

Today I have found a potential new QTH, though antenna prospects are smaller having the shack away from the living room is possible. I would probably be back to the magmount or get permission to have an antenna put on the building.

Other possibilities for this QTH include moving the server used for my websites and the shackcam out of the living room and into a cupboard, reducing noise for both it and the shack, the shack itself can be put in another room away from the living room.

I would like to get moved soon, and with better protection of my address my location will not be known, as I only put a rough location on QRZ.com, this of course will annoy the likes of those that in the past have caused me many issued because they'll no longer have information on me such as this, it is fortunate that only one of these people is part (albeit questionably) of the Amateur radio community.

Well I will keep you informed.

73 de 2E0EIJ