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

11.11.2009 19:02:06

adrian

had a couple of nice contacts this morning, worked 6V7S in Senegal on 20m and VP2MUM in Montserrat on 15m CW,  this was a new band slot for me so very happy with that one, am waiting for some decent weather so I can continue working on the restoration of the TB3 Tribander, I would do it in the Garage but there isnt room to swing the preverbial cat in there with all the crap Ive got dumped there, I really must sort it out as there would be loads of room to work in, am still having a nightmare trying to transport the tower from Derby to Essex, have e-mailed a couple of people this evening in the hope I can solicit some help

Been speaking to Paul EA5/GM0OPK for last couple of days, I used to speak to Paul fairly regulalry when he lived in EA5 land and I was getting ready to move out there, I moved to Spain in 2003 and Paul moved back to the UK the following year (hope it wasnt anything I said LOL) Paul hasnt moved back to Spain but is only visiting his 2nd property up near Valencia, he will be there fairly regularly from now on so should be able to have a chat quite often, it was nice to hear him again after 6 years

06.11.2009 20:31:00

adrian

Not me of course, my Amateur radio life, I happened to pick up my first log book last night and noticed that I was issued my A license 21 years ago this week and that I had my first contacts the same week.

Happy 21st Birthday to G0KOM, that means ive been licensed pretty much for half of my lifetime.

PS, well actually more than half my life as I had a B class license for a year before I got my A class !!

06.11.2009 09:53:34

adrian

Tuning around 20m last night and band was pretty much dead, just about to switch off when I heard a weak signal, VP2MNK came out of the noise and was S7 out of nowhere, he was working split on 14.178 listening up, I called him on 181 and he came back first time, Happy Dayz, we exchanged 57 both ways, not bad for the rotary dipole up at 15ft, bring on the tower and yagi, I might put up the rotary dipole for 30/17/12m again this weekend as I need VP2M on a few other bands as well, I was hearing them on 30m with the 10/15/20m rotary dipole but not strong enough to work them

31.10.2009 17:16:09

adrian

Checked site this morning to see that the Gallery was empty, not sure why, possibly hacked, just dont really know the server logs dont really give much away, anyway I took the opportunity to trash the gallery and re-install, this time it worked perfectly and with the changes that have been done on the server I was able to import all of the old Albums from Gallery 1 first time, so looking like were back in business, just need to populate the site with all of the info from the old one, hopefully over the next day or two

Been listening around on and off last few days but not worked anything of any note, sat in a pile-up on 21mhz CW for VQ9LA this morning but gave up after about 45 mins, he was peaking 579 here but he just wasnt hearing my 100 watts and my rotary dipole, I cant wait until I can get the rest of the yagi back up and running, but thats dependant on the tower and that still hasnt been resolved at this point, im a little frustrated to say the least

I was tuning around on 20m this evening and for once strayed out of the normal part of the band, went up to 14.050ish or there about and heard KZ1H calling with fairly slow CW, I had to drop back to about 14wpm but I thought I would give him a call, anyway George came back first call and we had a nice QSO for about 10 minutes on CW a bit slower than I would normally use but enjoyable nonetheless, when I look at Georges call he is 85 years old, now that impressed me, excellent CW George and I hope Im still pounding the Key at 85

Today I raise my glass to George KZ1H, may you be active for many many years to come

29.10.2009 21:53:51

adrian

Ive done a little bit of work on the site yesterday, still a ton of stuff to do, including migrating across all of the pages from the old site, the Gallery is now up and running (After a fashion) after some headaches its working at about 90 percent, I still have some problems with some images not migrating correctly, also Ive had some headaches with PHP issues with Gallery and the Graphics Toolkits that come with it but hopefully were getting there, anyway the Gallery is slowly being rebuilt and should be back to its former glory any day now, its currently runnng the default Gallery theme which I hate so I will play about with some other thems as well to try and make it look a little nicer

27.10.2009 18:11:18

adrian

Something has bugged me for years, I know why many rare and semi rare DX calls are obsessed with working North America, its all about Dollars, im sure of it, they want the Americans to send them loads of money, I know whats its like I have operated from two semi rare locations in ZC4 and VP8 and yes North American stns always sent plenty of dollars and there are plenty of them to work but I would never go out of my way to specifically work North America, it never really mattered to me who I worked, I also hear a lot of Italian and Eastern European stns who are obsessed with working North America and it drives me nuts, anyway thats off my chest, I could say a lot more but I wont

CQ North America only please !!!

On a completely different note, I came across a pic of one of these by accident



Now this really takes me back, I was posted to my first RAF Stn as a young LAC in Jan of 1985 after 6 months of Basic and Trade Training at Swinderby and RAF Cosford throughout the later half of 1984, I had always been into radio since 79 when I was first introduced to CB, I knew many Hams and frequented my Local Amateur Radio club before I Joined up in 84, anyway I digress, the story behind the 1772 is when after being on my unit for 6 months or so, and once I had progressed to the lofty rank of SAC i was allowed to work shifts on my own, now a night shift started at 5pm and finished at 8am the next morning, thats a long time to be on your own in a sealed bunker with only a few ops guys to speak to every now and then and a RAF copper on the door, if the shift was quiet I would slip away to the comms room where I had a rack with two RA-1772s all to myself, I spent countless hours listening on the Amateur bands with this receiver, indeed it was a great boon to me when I was learning CW a few years later as I probably spent half of a nightshift short wave listening on 20m and the lowbands, anyway the story could be a lot longer but I have a fond place in my heart for the RACAL 1772 and indeed I might even seek one out in the future to grace the G0KOM shack (do you have one or know where I can find one)

27.10.2009 09:09:51

adrian

Have errected the driven element from my TB3 Tribander as a temp solution, worked well over the weekend in the CQWW Conest, worked about 35 countries, its only at 15ft but for now its better than nothing

16.10.2009 17:43:27

adrian

Im more frustrated with myself, ive now got the shack, half decent radios but still havnt got my antennas sorted out, I really need to get my head in game and sort the antenna system out, still trying to sort out transport for the tower from Derby to Essex but failing miserabely, I really dont want to let this tower slip as its exactly what ive been looking for, fingers crossed

10.10.2009 19:08:22

adrian

Just got back from the convention at Wyboston Lakes, very enjoyable, would have liked to stay for the DX Dinner and Stay the night for tomorrow but its a little bit too expensive for me, had a very enjoyable day though today, met some old friends whom ive spoken to many times on the air and also met one or two I havent seen for a very long time, really interesting talk by Bob K4UEE on the K5D Desecheo DXpedition (Unfortunately I never  managed to work them) but really great talk with some excelent slides and Video, also the P29NI talk was really interesting, will hopefully manage to work them in the next few weeks as they are on their way back next week

My next big problem is how to get the tower ive bought from Derby to Essex, aarghhhhhhhhh

30.09.2009 16:28:54

adrian

Picked up the TS-850S today, has a Kenwood YK-88SN-1 SSB still in the filter box which was seperate from the 850 which was a bonus, even more of a bonus is that it turns out its had the Auto ATU Fitted which turns it into a TS-850SAT, Happy Dayz

28.09.2009 20:19:12

adrian

The group are on their way to Conway Reef

Monday, September 28, 2009    1200GMT
Hello Again,
I had a good contact with the 3D20CR Group a few minutes ago.
Everyone is all OK and looking forward to reaching Conway Reef.
They are under both Sail and Motor Power at present and expect to
arrive in approximately thirty-three hours from now. In other words
they have another day and a quarter of Sailing. Team Leader, DK9KX
said that if he didn’t call tomorrow, he will call me when they have
landed.
Leon,   (K2EWB)