Month: November 2021

A few posts and many months ago I posted about my exploits with my Hexbeam and the issues I had with neighbours, to cut a long story short, I took the Hexbeam down and sold it due to an issue with neighbours, I was pretty gutted as for the time I had the hex up it worked very very well indeed for me and gave me the access to the 5 upper HF bands including 17m and 12m with pretty much full 2 element performance, it also gave me in those short few months a few all time new ones, anyway the said neighbour has since left and ive been mulling over the idea of another Hex.

As you will know from my recent posts, ive seperated from my wife of 25 years recently and that has left me devastated, what it also has done is left me not in the best state financially, I had to sell off most of my radio equipment to try and clear debts and try and get myself on a solid financial footing going forward, im slowly getting there but sadly most of the radio stuff is gone, what I didnt do is get rid of my antennas or tower so they are all still in situ along with my one little solitary IC-7000 which has been working wonders for me recently with my little 2 element Moxon on 10m, sadly im missing out on the other bands and to that end ive been contemplating another Hexbeam, I cant afford to buy a new one so ive started looking for a 2nd hand Hex, ive still got a few bits and bobs to sell which should just about give me enough money to purchase one

So thats where I am, im itching to get back up and running on the lower bands from 12m down to 20m,  currently im not too worried about the lower bands but I do have a D3W rotary dipole for 30m/17m/12m which I will be putting up as well which was kindly given to me by Paul MM0ZBH, 40m and 80m im not really worried about right now, possibly in the near future but for now im just concentrating on the Hex and getting back onto the main HF bands.

Anyway thats where I am, I shall keep you updated on my search for a 2nd hand Hexbeam and fingers crossed will be back up and running as soon as possible, the plan to eventually get an IC-7610 is still ongoing it will just take sometime before I have managed to squirrel away enough money to buy it

To coin an America phrase, well it certainly sux for me on a personal level but radio wise things arent quite so gloomy, im still only able to get on 10m for the time being, I purchased a cheap Cushcraft A3S which is in need of a fair bit of TLC to get it back to its former glory, I should really have looked a little closer when I bought it but it was all bundled up, a few of the tubes have been cut and bodged together and a few are bent so it will need a fair bit of work, the traps all look ok though apart from a few missing plastic end caps, one of my fellow CDXC members has very kindly sent me a couple of spare traps with good ends which will help enormously with my restoration, im not sure if once I have gotten it all sorted I will put up as a 3 element tribander or maybe just try it as a 2 element with reflector and driven element, ive still got the neighbours to think of. 

10m has been in pretty good nick for the last couple of weeks and indeed as if ordered to plan the band was wide open for the CQWW contest weekend, I was working but managed to grab a little bit of time whilst at the workshop to bag a couple of all time new ones in BA7LOK and VR2T, also in the last week have managed to work my first VK on 10m for probably 20 odd years, managed to work the 7P8RU Dxpedition and the 3DA0RU Dxped previously, other noteable ones another ATNO in VP9I in Bermuda and then to top it all JT1CO from Mongolia, so all in all its been a great couple of weeks radio wise on 10m, sadly my personal life is still a struggle every day, I think it will take me a very long time if ever to get over my seperation from the love of my life.

I have put up a couple of youtube videos for you to see some of the fantastic conditions we have been having on 10m recently

And lastly as the feature pic for this blog post its the most recent picture of the shack since pretty much everything else has been sold, looking very bare considering the 7700, 7600 and 7300 were in the shack previously 

Onwards and Upwards, albeit very slowly at the mo, Adrian