Andy Cunningham

Well, the results are out!

It looks like I messed up one of my 9 log entries as my final score was 16, not the 18 I claimed.  Oh well, not bad for a first attempt, even if I am 76th out of 85 entries!

Need a bigger aerial!

Something that seems to surprise the un-initiated is the concept of a radio contest. Essentially it’s just a set time when as many people as possible get on the air and try to make as many contests as possible. Scoring is some variation of the number of contacts and distance.

My first attempt was the RSGB organised VHF UK Activity Contest on 1st April Part of the motivation for entering was the fact that it’s a club contest, so all scores get added together to count towards a club total.

I’m sure the neighbours ware wondering what I was up to as I set up the tripod and antenna in the garden, using the new tripod I’ve got (a temporary antenna isn’t an eyesore when it’s not in use!)

Looking at the claimed scores, my score of 18 (9 contacts, x2 for distance) it looks like I’m 4th from bottom! But considering that everyone below me was using higher power level, and I have a very basic antenna and a fairly low lying location, I’m actually pretty pleased with that!

I’ve got a long way to go to get up to the highest scores – the current claimed leader has 165 contacts, x36 for distance, for a total of 5,940. That’s using 4 highly directional antennas, 400W of power, and probably a radio that’s about 10 times the cost of mine! I don’t want to invest that much time and effort, but a better antenna next time might help! Either that or head out to a hill top somewhere and work from there!

Space limitations at home, and not wanting to put up anything obtrusive, have left me somewhat challenged for an antenna for home use.

While there are lots of tricks and tweaks, the fact that remains that the more metal you have, and the higher in the sky you can get it, the better.

I’ve now got three aerials with different compromises, but the overall approach seems to work well.

1) A home made “J Pole” for 2m and 70cm.  This is normally hooked up to the FT-817 to access local repeaters.  With 5w I can reach a fair selection.  If there is a “lift” allowing VHF/UHF to travel further than normal, then I can swap it over to the IC-7000 for higher power.  This is installed in the loft for protection on the elements and fed with about 5m of RG-58 coax.

2) An end fed wire that runs from the roof level across the back garden to a tree, then has a vertical section ending a few feed above the ground.  This seems to have some EMC issues on 80m (it kills the ADSL router when I transmit), but otherwise is reasonably effective and I’ve been able to work central and eastern Europe on 5w using either 20m or 40m.  It’s pretty much deaf to anything local, and also picks up lots of noise – typically S7 or so of background chatter, though the noise filter on the IC-7000 takes much of that out.

Both of these are permanently installed.

3) I bought the Superantennas Rotatable Dipole kit with a 15′ tripod.  This is basically a kit of pieces that will let you build a dipole for anything from 2m to 80m, or a pair of verticals.  Each one has to be correctly tuned for it’s band, and setting them up takes a bit of experimentation.  I typically take the 817 and SWR meter out to the garden to tune it, then hook it back to the IC-7000 for actual use.  It has the downside of needing to be set up for use each time – I’m getting better at that.  But it has a couple of advantages:the obvious portability, and also helping me to not waste time on the radio when I should be doing something else: I have to make a conscious effort to “do radio” and set it up.

I

Since I got my callsign, I’ve been having some fun with several aspects of amateur radio.

Mobile Operation

My primary motivation was mobile operation, and I’ve been most active in this area, largely because it’s something I do during otherwise “dead time” in the car. Most of my activity has been via local repeater stations – mostly GB3BN, GB3FN, GB3RD and GB3NE, though I often call into other repeaters when I’m further afield.

It’s a good exercise in preparation, since you pretty much need to have everything pre-programmed into the radio in advance to make sure you have the right frequencies and CTCSS tones set in advance – it’s too distracting to try and enter all the settings while on the move.

For the benefit of non-hams, CTCSS tones are inaudible tones that are transmitted along with your audio which identifies your transmission as being intended for that repeater, rather than just something that happens to be on that frequency. A typical repeater, using GB3FN as an example, has to be programmed into your radio with a transmit frequency of 434.975MHz, receive frequency of 433.375MHz, and a CTCSS tone of 82.5Hz.  You can see why I have them all pre-programmed!

Most common contacts so far have been with Phil G1LKJ, Richard M3UVR, John G0NOK, Julian M3XPJ, Ian G8NXJ, MIke G4KFK and Pat G4OUC (I think I got all those callsigns right!)

For those interested, the mobile rig is a Yaesu FT-8900 and Maldol HMC-4 quad band antenna.  Highly recommended by me, and seems to be highly rated by most people I talk to.

HF Operation

I’ve been less active on HF, largely due to the need to install a “proper” antenna at home.  Some perseverance has got me a reasonable wire antenna in the back garden that’s largely invisible, which seems to work moderately well.  I’ve made a number of contacts into southern and eastern Europe so far, with Transylvania being the SSB (voice) distance record so far.   I’ve also got a portable dipole that I can set up in 15 minutes or so which will let me experiment a bit more.

Emergency and Event Support

I’m involved with the Hampshire and Berkshire 4×4 Response Group, and have been talking to the local Raynet groups about how the two groups can work together to improve volunteer response in the area.  Encouraging comments so far!

I got my callsign today – woo hoo!   So I am now uniquely identified as to location and operating abilities asM3YFC.  YFC doesn’t stand for anything in particular, it was one of the limited number of M3 callsigns available, and was easy to pronounce both as the letters and phonetically (Mike Three Yankee Foxtrot Charlie).

The first time “flying solo” is always a bit nerve wracking, so it was nice to see a compliment on my operating from Phil G1LKJ  on his blog.

Given my lifelong interest (and career) in computing, one area that interests me greatly is the interaction between computers and radio.

There’s a couple of areas I’m keen to explore:

• Computer logging of contacts.
• Computer based rig control.
• Narrow band Data modes such as PSK31 and RTTY
• Wide Band Data modes or Hinternet.

Computer Logging

The whole notion of logging contacts is an interesting one.  It used to be a legal requirement, now it’s been relegated to a “best practice”, to borrow a term from the IT world.   Do I intend to formally log every contact I make?  No.  But I do want to keep enough of a record that I can tell what benefit has been acheived from different antennae, diffent rigs and so on, and also to keep track of stations I’ve worked (or in non-ham terms, other hams I’ve spoken to on-air) so that I can be smart about who I’ve spoken to before and who is a new contact.

Computer Based Rig Control

Particularly with a small rig like the FT-817 I’ve decided to purchase, computer control offers a huge amout of freedom from the tiny front panel when operating at home or anywhere else I happen to have a PC.   So I’m pretty keen to investigate software that offers a good interface.  I’ve got a copy of FTB-8900 for programming the FT-8900 in the car, but I need something a bit more realtime here.

I’ve been playing with a copy of Ham Radio Deluxe.  It seems to offer good logging facilities via an Access database, superb rig control, as well as integrating with DM780 for narrow band data modes.  I’ve also played with Logger32 which seems more focussed on logging and contest support.

Data modes are a subject for another post, when I know what I’m talking about.

The mobile question is easy – HF operation is too complex for a beginner from the car, so something that gives good VHF/UHF performance is a given.

But for home use, the question is more complex.

Research lead me to two options for the radio: the ICOM IC-703, and the Yaesu FT-817.

If I’d been planning to stick at the foundation level, I’d have gone for the IC-703 with little hesitation.  From all reports it’s a fantastic little rig, offering the full foundation 10W, a superb receiver and a built-in Antenna Tuner.  But, once I get to the intermediate/full license it’s kind of redundant.  It’s not small enough to be really portable, and not powerful enough to drive 50W or higher.

I could go for a whole raft of higher power radios, with lots of features, and keep the power down below 10W for now.  But that  seems to involve more money than I can throw at a rig right now.

So I’m left with the baby Yaesu FT-817.  It does 2m and 70cm, so I can get onto the local repeaters from the house as well as the car.  It’s small, light and rugged, so I can throw it in my hand luggage (hell, I’d put it in a suitcase).   Even when I add an ATU, it’s within the current “gadget budget”.

The subject of a home antenna is for another post.  But for now, I’ve ordered myself a FT-817ND, a miracle whip antenna, and an Elecraft T1 ATU, which I don’t expect to see for a couple of weeks.  This gives me a good starting rig for home use, that will become the basis of a portable rig when I travel and can justify the money for something more capable at home.   I’ve got a few ideas for antennae as well… and that’s also the subject of another post.

My immediate interest in Ham Radio is in mobile operation, so I’ve gone for a first investment as something to install in the car. I spend enough time in there to make it worth while, and it lets me do something interesting with otherwise “dead” time travelling to and from work.

I went for a Yaesu FT-8900 radio hooked up to a Maldol HMC-4 Antenna mounted on a rail mount. The HMC-4 only relies on the ground plane of the car for operation on 10 metres, which seems to be the least active band around here, so the rail mounting is a reasonable compromise. I’ve sited it within reach of the driver’s door, so I can tilt the antenna down without leaving the driver’s seat if I’m going under some kind of height restriction.

The decision about what to have for HF equipment is rather more complex, and will be the subject of a further post.

Receive performance on 2m and 6m is pretty good.  There’s not much activity on 10m FM.  But I’m a bit concerned about the way that 70cm reception has fallen off since I first put the rig in the car – I wonder if I’ve damaged the coax somewhere or some other problem.

Because I don’t have a callsign yet, I can’t do much to test the installation.  Reports to follow!