The Radio Ham

So have been thinking lately about antennas and deciding what to do at home and at the workshop, I finished building my 3 element LFA which I actually started building about 3 years ago and never got round to finishing, Initially I thought I would put it up at the workshop and maybe put my 2 element Innovantennas Moxon up at home but I decided to go the other way round, the Cushcraft MA5B will be coming down in the next week or so to be replaced by the 3 element 10m LFA, I realise its a monobander but the plan is to build either a rotary dipole for some of the other bands or build a Cobweb for 10 thru. 20 which will include the WARC bands the plan is at home also to put up a G7FEK nested Marconi which will give me access to the lower bands down to 80m which I currently dont have. 

I bought some 450 Ohm ladder line a few weeks ago and have built the nested Marconi antenna but havnt had the chance to put it up yet, that left me with the rotary dipole at the workshop for 10/15/20m, its worked well for me but I feel now that the sunspot cycle is finally starting to show some improvement that im missing out on some of the openings on 10m, to that end I took down the rotary dipole and replaced it with the 2 element 10m Moxon, at a whopping 17ft above ground level (I kid you not) the bottom line is though its working well, a few minutes after i put it up and with not even really turning the antenna in any particular direction I switched on the radio to hear FY5KE Cqing from French Guiana with an excellent signal peaking at 599 when I eventually tweaked the beam heading directlly onto him, the following day I also heard a couple of VKs albeit weakly but at least I heard them and also a couple of North American stns, this bodes well for the coming weeks I hope. 

The downside again from the workshop is ive lost the other bands but I do have a small Cushcraft R5 Vertical which I may strap to the fence so I can at least use the higher HF bands including the WARC bands down as far as 20m, we shall see

Anyway a couple of youtube videos for your viewing pleasure of how the Moxon is working at a pretty low height, the feature picture is of the Moxon in all its glory. 

As you may or may not be aware my workshop is located in the countryside a bit away from my home so luckily I have managed to put the odd antenna up and have a play from time to time during breaks and lunchtime, the workshop shack consists of a little IC-7000 which is a fabulous little radio with great TX audio, especially paired with a very cheap Neewer NW700 Studio microphone, anyway over the last couple of years Ive played with various antennas at the workshop, my 6 element 50MHz Op-Des was up all summer but now weve come to the end of the Es season Ive taken it down, I renovated an old Cushcraft R5 Vertical which has been up for the last few weeks, I have had various other antennas up over the past couple of years which are probably on other blog entries. 

Anyway recently I put up a Comet H422 Rotary dipole for a disabled friend of mine, he had a Proantenna Dual Beam Pro up before which I took down, it was looking very sorry for itself, very green and grimey, my mate said that I could just take it away and see if it was any use to me, forward a couple of weeks to this week, I fished the antenna out of my workshop, cleaned it thoroughly (Brillo pads work wonderfully), replaced the bent and wonky capacity ends and replaced with new stainless steel nuts and bolts.

I put the Dual-beam Pro up yesterday, not really expecting much, its advertised as a non resonant rotary dipole with capacity hat ends, in the centre is some sort of ferrite core balun, its well made to be fair, the antenna requires an ATU, I put it up and connected everything up not really expecting much, my little LDG AT-7000 auto tuner seemed to cope with it on all bands, I wasnt blown away initially but decided to have a tune around and its only fair to say that it suprised me, first contacts where into Khazakstan on 17m, then Thailand, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Cyprus to name but a few so all in all it seems to work.

Well following on from the previous post, Ive started to slim down and sell off a lot of equipment, i originally intended to just keep the IC-7300 and my IC-7000 but im struggling to let go of my IC-7700, its a beast of a radio with a fabulous receiver and ergonomicaly its perfect for me,  also the 200w comes in handy, although mostly I leave it set on 150w and forget it, as far as downsides are concerned on the 7700 there really arent any apart from the sheer size and weight of it, it would certainly leave a lot more room on the operating desk, given the current state of the the country with Covid and the current very fragile state of my finances due to losing a lot of work the money would definatley come in handy, buggar it really is decisions decisions !

On another entirely seperate subject ive recently started playing on 2m Cw and SSB and having some fun, ive never done anything on 2m other than FM in my 32 years of being licensed so last week i put up a small 6 el LFA and have been playing on the other end of the band, I have managed to work a few into the closer EU countries, PA, F, DL, ON, even managed a GM near Aberdeen and another G near Manchester on CW, the only 2 CW signals ive heard on 2m, Ive been giving a call on CW but so far not had any replies so for now will have to be SSB, not sure why there is a lack of activity on CW on 2m its certainly a shame, the radio im using on 2m is the little IC-7000 which seems to work fine, power out is 50w to the 6 el LFA.

its certainly different from 6m and HF but im enjoying my little foray onto another band, the antenna is only about 25ft so could really do with being a bit higher so I may think about moving it to the HF tower on top of my MA5B at some point

Couple of little vids on youtube showing the 6 element and my IC-7000 on 2m SSB for the first time ever

As you may or may not be aware I have two Jobs, I have been a professional photographer for a number of years now, my other job is working for Innovantennas building the full array of HF/VHF and UHF antennas, alas due to the Covid 19 Pandemic my photography work has all but dried up so I have to rely purely on my work for Innovantennas, in itself its fine but it left me with a dilema to try and recoup money do I sell my photography equipment or do I slim down my Amateur Radio gear, sadly there really is only one decision, in the hope that either later this year or early next things pick up on the photography front I really need to hold on to as much of my photography equipment as i can so ive taken the difficult decision to slim down my Amateur radio equipment and take the minimalist approach, im still passionate about my lifelong hobby but need to be realistic when it comes to finances and work, so over the next few weeks the shack will be slimmed down to the bare minimum, a HF/6m radio and a radio for VHF

I intend to keep my little IC-7000 that im currently using at the workshop, simply because its a great little radio, gives me a chance to play radio on breaks at work and its the radio I intend to take to ZC4 for my little one man DXpedition should these Covid 19 restrictions finally get relaxed, ive already lost out on two trips and am still trying to get my money back from Ryanair for my cancelled trip in March. What I keep in my main shack is the next decision I need to take, I also have a lot of ancillary equipment, ATUs, Meters, Antennas etc that I need to seriously think about letting go, my kids insist im a Ham Radio hoarder, nah honestly thats not the case !!

Anyway just a little update to where I am at this point, keep safe everyone.

On another note using some spare time ive played around at designing some simple new QSL cards for my various calls, nothing groundbreaking just simple cards, hope you like them.

Adrian G0KOM

Without a doubt, my two favourite bands, with that in mind these are the two bands im concentrating on over the summer (if you can call it a summer) I put my 6 Element Innovantenna Op-Des (pictured above) back up at the workshop a couple of weeks ago so i could monitor 50Mhz between jobs, ive managed a couple of new ones albeit on FT8 but at this stage of the sunspot cycle I will take what I can get, would much prefer to work DX on conventional modes like CW and SSB (CW Preferred) but you have to go where the DX is.

A very welcome ATNO in the shape of Jeff TZ4AM in Mali and on CW as well a few weeks ago took my DXCC count to 98 and HZ1SK on FT8 this week took me to 99, very close to the magic 100, although i still need at least 20 confirmed at this point, it sometimes seems easier to work the DX than actually get it confirmed. 

This years Es season has been very hit and miss, unfortunatley the one decent opening into the Caribbean last week was missed as I was not QRV that evening, there has been some nice stuff on 10m and the band has opened up into North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean on a fairly regular basis, there has also been some nice short E’s openings into EI, GI and GM, I have resisted the temptation to use FT8 on 10m or any HF band for that matter preferring just to restrict my FT8 usage to 6m

I have been thinking of taking the Cushcraft MA5B down at home and replacing it with a 3 element 10m LFA, although the MA5B is a 2 element on 10 its still a trap antenna and thus a compromise, im still undecided whether the performance difference between the LFA and MA5B will be significant enough to warrant the hassle of changing them over, still to be decided.

Well its up, I await the complaints. 

Well its been a while, had some family issues which have kept me away from radio and the blog, I recently purchased a 2nd hand Cushcraft MA5B due to having a very small suburban plot in the city 25ft x 40ft, so full size HF yagis are out of the question, the rotary dipole I have on the tower at the moment works after a fashion but I really wanted something with a bit more directivity and also something that would cover 12/17m, so MA5B it is, I have no idea how it will perform, Ive only put it together this morning on a small pole in the garden and will hopefully get the setup finished and it mounted on the tower over the weekend, hopefully in time for the VP8PJ South Orkney DXpedition which are currently setting up as I write this and likely to be QRV either tomorrow or Sunday 23rd, watch this space.

Its not a pretty thing by any stretch of the imagination, im guessing even though its supposed to be a mini beam, it still looks bloody big on the ground, my neighbours are going to have kittens.

Been getting worried this one would escape me as an ATNO but they were super strong today on 20m, still took me an hour to work them but managed it in the end, no amps here only 100w out of the radio, I am slowly refurbishing an old Jaybeam TB3 as ive mentioned on a previous post, I put it up as a 2 element just to have a play as I still have a fair bit of work to do, but on a 10ft pole lashed to a fence VK9CZ was a cracking signal, admittedly this was in my workshop which is in the countryside so very low noise level and few neighbours so fairly clear take off for such a low height, anyway for your viewing pleasure, as far as im aware they are there for a few more days so im hoping to bag them on CW which is my preferred mode. 

Strange one, ive seriously downsized the shack, I am selling or have sold most of my equipment and have only been left with the IC-7300 and a borrowed IC-7000 (Thanks to Tony G4LDL) I hope to  purchase the IC-7000 as I intend to use it on a little DXpedition which was due to to take place a few weeks ago but due to the Thomas cook collapse and me losing my flights Ive had to put on hold, why am I selling the rest of my equipment I hear you ask, or maybe you dont really care. a mate has just purchased a TS-990 and an Acom 2000 Amplifier, he has decided to sell his IC-7700 which I have drooled over for more than a few years, so thats the reason, the only downside is its the older first gen IC-7700 so fingers crossed I wont have any PA issues but its just such a bloody lovely radio on receive and a joy to operate I simply want it.

So thats it im flogging everything I can get my hands on so I can buy the Icom IC-7700 watch this space.

I have assembled the IC-7000 along with the matching LDG AT-7000 ATU, a Winkeyer USB, Palm Mini Paddle Key, Nevada PSW-30 PSU, Hopefully a Hexbeam Lite and a 5 element 6m Op-Des, Spiderbeam 12m Pole and a doublet antenna, and the only thing I have left to purchase is some Coax, which will probably be Messi and Paoloni Ultralfex 7,  all are aready and prepped for my trip to ZC4, its just a matter of actually sorting the dates, will be borrowing my daughters laptop and running N1MM+ for logging/Rig Control and CW Keying via the Winkeyer USB. 

So where to start, ive spent a bit of time trying to sort out a small tower in my back garden, finally managed to get the holes drilled I needed to, and despite a few setbacks its finally up, still needs a bit of work but its up, decided to put the driven element from my TB3 3 Element Tribander up simply as a rotary dipole, initially the thinking behind this was its wasnt too big and too much of an eyesore then if all went well it would morph into a 2 element tribander in a month or so, well that was the plan anyway.

Just to add to the story, my Cushcraft R7000 vertical has been up in my garden for 18 months now and ive had zero issues with neighbours or interference, so less than a week after putting the rotary dipole up, admitedly its a little bit above the roofline of the house and visible from in front of the house, anyway my phone rings and its my housing association saying they have had a complaint about my aerials and that im causing interefence to someones TV, Phone and Broadband, utter shite really and i told the guy as much, basically it boils down to someone doesnt like the look of my antennas and has complained and using a ridiculous excuse that im causing interference. 

So where does that leave me, it leaves me with having to have  my local housing association coming for a visit this thursday to inspect my antennas, what will happen, I have no bloody idea, it maybe the end for my plans and I may have to resort to wire antennas, I just dont bloody know, am i pissed off, damn right I am.