12.02.2010 21:57:58

adrian

12m opened up well today, didnt do much on it but had a new one in P43JB from Aruba and a few minutes ago whilst listening to some white noise on 30m, (it has a calming affect on me) I heard PJ5NA call cq from St Maarten, I worked him first call 579 both ways, another new one for me, Happy Dayz

09.02.2010 21:30:19

adrian

Wemberleeeeeeeeeeee Wemberleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee were the famous Carlisle United and were going to Wembley, what a fantastic game tonight in the 2nd leg against leeds at Brunton Park, finished 4-4 at the end and then to penalties, the mightly blues held their nerve to win 6.5 on Penalties, Wembley here we come

Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

08.02.2010 20:00:21

adrian

Just tuning round 30m (as you do) heard a small pileup for someone, after a couple of minutes I saw it was R1ANP which is the Progress Base in Antartica, I called a few times and was extatic to be picked up after only a few calls, a nice new one for me on any band and a bonus 8700 Miles on a Rotary Dipole at 10ft off the ground, Happy Dayz

R1ANP

30.01.2010 20:32:28

adrian

Due to a distinct lack of interest latley ive dont nothing on the radio at all, I can count on one hand the contacts ive had in 2010, honestly !

Why, I dont really know I just know there seem to be other more important things going on in my life at this time and radio has taken a back seat, I still listen a lot, I always have done, ive got the radio on in the background now listening to the CQ WW 160m CW contest going on, im not even paying much attention but it just seems that I always have a radio on, its must have some sort of soothing effect on me, I wish :-)

16.01.2010 22:46:13

adrian

Sorry its nothing Ham related, a cross post from my personal blog over at mcgonigle.net

Ive always had a fascination with Skydiving, its a sport ive always watched/followed but never actually taken part in, I have however completed 19 Parachute Jumps, Parchute jumps are not the same as skydiving, well not entirely, Skydiving entails leaving the aircraft and freefalling for a few thousand feet before deploying your parachute, Ive completed 19 Static line jumps which means that my Chute was hooked to a wire line in the aircraft and when I jumped my chute was automatically deployed for me without the freefall bit, I did these 19 Static line jumps many many years ago whilst in the Royal Air Force and have always wanted to progress to doing freefall, normally this would be via an AFF course ( Accelerated Freefall) but now im a family man with 4 children the thought of a malfunction concerns me greatly, What happens if I die, blah blah blah, but recently the urge has bitten again, we had some freinds round this evening, old friends from when we lived in Spain, Andy has the same feeling about Skydiving as me and basically said if I plump for an AFF course he will come with me, thats left me reeling, I want to do this more than I have ever wanted to do anything in my life, even if I complete my AFF course and never jump again I think that will be enough but the thought of something going wrong bugs me big style, I could not bear to be without my family, I love my family more than life itself, is it selfish of me to want to persue my dream of freefall skydiving when I have a young family, I dont know !!! its a situation that i am unsure about and unsure about the outcome, one thing is sure, its something I want to do with all my heart, I need guidance

A little taster of AFF for you

08.01.2010 19:26:51

adrian

Probably not on the bands but here in the G0KOM shack, not been too active over the Xmas and New Year period, Family and other things have taken priority, weve had lots of snow and freezing, almost arctic conditions so that has put paid to any antenna work, I had planned to put up an inverted L for top band but thats on hold for now, my log only shows half a dozen contacts in the last couple of weeks so I have taken a pic of the updated shack, I bought a glass TV stand of ebay only for a couple of quid and took the bottom shelf of it and its now sitting on top of the other main glass shack desk as a stand for the 756 and the TS-690S, I think it looks quite cool, anyway a belated Happy New Year to you all and I hope that 2010 brings lots of rare DX, I bloody hope so anyway

17.12.2009 16:06:09

adrian

Quick video of the shack, one of these days I will get a good quality HD Video Camera, One day, but for now I will make do with the 7 year old Panasonic Mini DV camcorder that I managed to repair last week, which was great as I was about to consign it to the bin

16.12.2009 20:42:20

adrian

The tower has fallen through, the guy who had it was very patient but I just never managed to get it sorted out and could not afford to pay for a hire van and diesel for the 300 mile round trip, so back to the drawing board and a couple of scaffold poles for this poor ham, im really gutted as the tower was exactly what I was looking for, I only have myself to blame

I will pick up a couple of scaffold poles at the weekend which at least will give me something to mount my antennas on, its not what I wanted but beggars really cant be choosers

New ones of note  in the log for me in the last few weeks have been K2V, V32WV, 5R8IC, CN8IG, ZF2AH to name but a few so not a bad haul for my 100 watts and rotary dipoles at 15ft

Not much else to report, I fired up the FT-817ND during the week and gave a  QRP CQ on 30m, I was answered immediatley by a Ukranian stn who gave me 599, happy dayz for 5w QRP with my rotary dipole at the lower height of 10ft AGL, is QRP the way forward, Hmmm I think not but I enjoy the little 817 anyway, im using it more for receiving and its great to stick in the car and take with me when Im out and about, I did notice however that the supplied rubber duck antenna for 2m/70cm and 6m really sux big style, high SWR on 2m and works rubbish, I didnt even attempt to try it on 70cm or 6m, it will stay in the box I think, where it belongs, do a google search on the supplied 817 rubber duck brings lots of similar reports

02.12.2009 19:46:14

adrian

Been doing very little radio last few days, in fact my only contact was today I had a listen on what was a very poor 17m band, almost no signals whatsoever, conditions on the higher bands (anthing above 20m) have been rubbish, well they have for me, Anyway I heard VP5/K5CM with excellent signals (on an otherwise flat band) so I called him and exchanged reports, I only realised that this was a new band slot for me so a bit happier with that, on a completely different note, I have decided (ive only been thinking about it for 15 odd years) to put all of my logs from ZC4MK and VP8COI onto computer, reason being is that A. it would be nice to do it, B. it makes it easier to see what I have worked, C. I will be able to see if I have any outstanding QSLs for any of those rare entities I worked all those years ago, (Providing the Ops are still alive !!!)

I came across a fantastic little program called FLE, (Fast Log Entry) by DF3CB, I wont bore you about it in depth but it does what it says on the tin, enables me to create a log file in ADIF format which I can import into my favourite logging program, (Winlog32 if you must know) this utility is simply brilliant, I have done 900 QSOs from my VP8 Log in probably little over two hours over a couple of evenings, I havent bothered with the Comments and Name fields as that would slow the process down, I can always refer to the paper log for those details, have a look at this utility if you get the chance, its also great if you dont have immediate access to your logging program and want to use a computer to log contacts quickly and simply, anyway have a look here Fast Log entry

Other than that not much else to report, the ongoing saga of the tower is just that, an ongoing saga

by the way, in case your wondering, the Title of this entry merely reflects my trip down memory lane whilst going through all of my logs from 1993 for VP8COI, one of my contacts shows VK9NS who is sadly SK now and I never sent for his card !

29.11.2009 18:03:48

adrian

I had good intentions of playing around in the CQWW contest this weekend not for a contest entry of course but to try and pick up a few new band slots, in reality I just couldnt be bothered in the end, I probably worked half a dozen Q's KP2M was the only thing of note, as i write its completly dark and the bands are closing rapidly, I am only hearing some weak NA and Caribbean stns now plus the odd EU, 15m is totally closed so im now down listening on 20m, Ive had one of those cant be ar-ed weekends with radio so I think im gonna (to coin a classic CB Radio phrase) flick the big switch good buddy, 10-10 we down we gone

27.11.2009 20:53:34

adrian

Conditions seemed to be down today compared with recent days, although there was still some DX to be worked I think there were lots around tyring out their set-ups for the CQWW CW this weekend, anyway 3 nice ones today all 3 were new Band slots for me, first out was ST2AR from the Sudan on 15m CW, he was one of the very few signals on the band with a real 599 signal, next up was purely by chance just changed band to 20m right on top of ET3SID Sid in Ethiopia calling CQ, I think not many were initially going back to him as he wasnt giving his call phonetically and I think a few didnt understand his accent, I got it first time and he came back to me first call, although it took a couple of times to get my call across due to the QRM whilst I was exchanging reports with Sid it was spotted on the cluster and you can guess what it was like after that, so I count myself lucky today for that one, last in the log was 6Y9LM who was a big signal on 20m CW, so al lin all considering condx were not great, not a bad haul, will try and get some new ones over the weekend during the CQWW but im not around much so will have little time to spend on the radio this weekend

26.11.2009 23:43:53

adrian

Bagged 3V3S again today but this time on CW on 17m, KP2/K3CT on 17m CW and finally V31WV also 17m CW for another new Band slot, not a bad haul for this temp antenna, roll on the tower

25.11.2009 21:58:57

adrian

Its looking like Im going to have to hire something to go and pick up the tower which is really pi--ed me off as the cost of the tower is now likely to double with hire costs, allegedly you learn by your mistakes, Hmmm NOT !!

Anyway the low rotary diples have yielded in the last two days, 9G5TT, VP2V/W4DXX, KP2/K3TEJ and 3V3S so not a bad little haul for my less than ideal set-up

22.11.2009 16:08:30

adrian

I find myself getting very frustrated with things lately, I still havnt resolved the issue with the tower and im getting very concerned that the only way to sort this out is to spend money that I havnt got on hiring transport, thats really not on the agenda so the brick wall is still in the way and Im still banging my head against it

finding it a struggle to work some of the longer distance stuff due to the severe antenna restrictions Im having to deal with in light of not having the tower here, my only option in the short term is a 20ft scaffolding pole with a 6ft stub mast from the rotator, at least that would get the antennas up at a reasonable height and give me a fighting chance

On a slightly more positive note, 12m opened up this afternoon quite well, with the low dipole I managed to Bag ZC4VJ and V51AS both new band slots for me, also EA9PY on 17m also a new slot so it was all doom and gloom, allegedly !!

17.11.2009 23:25:12

adrian

Im slowly (and I mean slowly) trying to restore a Jaybeam TB3 3 element tri-bander that I bought earlier this year, its had a hard life but were getting there, I purchased some fine wire wool and some wetNdry sandpaper from Wilkinsons a couple of weeks ago, this seems to be doing the trick, the traps internally are in remarkably good condition, my big problem is the element tips, the tips of each element go into the tapered end of the outer traps, over the years these have fused/Cold Welded together so when I removed the Jubilee clip I was still unable to remove the element end, they are stuck solid and no  amount of brute force works, so where does that leave me, well my next approach (tomorrow) is back to wilkinsons where WD40 is on offer at the moment, a couple of cans of that and lots of liberal amounts of it on the trap ends will hopefully yield some results, I intend to soak them in WD40 and leave them for a couple of days for it to work its magic (fingers crossed) I have a pic of one of the offending element ends here

I hope this works as the Beam is starting to clean up nicely and Im sure I can restore it to its former glory, Im currently using the driven element as a rotary dipole up only 15ft in the air and even thats worked a treat on its own, watch this space