Morse Code practice

Well I havent been very active for a long time now and when I have it has mainly been listening to the HF bands.
However just recently I have been watching some Video's on YouTube of hams operating
portable on top of mountains. One such Ham is Steve NØTU who along with his two loyal goats named Peanut & Rooster, they help to carry his equipment to the summit he manages to work some good dx using only 5w and CW using Morsecode. Check out Steve's Blog.
This got me interested in cw again and I decided after listening to morse on 20mtrs I was extreemly lacking in my ability to decode the code at a decent speed. So I am now practicing to try and build my brain up again.
There are a few ways to do this however, I chose two options. The first is on the Internet using the website called Learn CW Online, which is an excellent site to help the complete novice to the most ardent brass pounders and paddle strokers around.
The 2nd option I went for was to download the program called MorseRunner.
This program simulates a cw contest and prepares you for such an event. not that I think I am ready to enter such a contest I just cannot decode well enough yet.
Anyway thanks to Steve and his goats I have re-aroused my morse interest and will be practicing regularly to get back to my old capabilities.

Thanks for reading --... ...-- ... -.-

More Sp-E's on 144MHz

There was a Sporadic E opening this evening on 144Mhz, sadly, as usual, no stations were contacted here, but hey if it was easy it would become boring.

Over the last few days here in the UK we have had bad weather with flash flooding due to large amounts of rainfall over a short period, and heavy Electrical Thunder Storms making the radio a very noisy pastime. However it does appear to have triggered Sporadic E openings on the VHF bands adding fuel to the flame that Sp-e's are caused by Thunder storms. Its not a proven
trigger as yet but then again it wasn't too long ago that the boffins accepted the SP-E existed
as a mode of propagation on the vhf bands, one scientific phenonemon discovered and proven by radio hams.

Anyway Here is the picture showing the areas who managed to contact each other.
The blue lines are for 144MHz and the Red/Orange for 50MHz and 70MHz Bands.

Map captured from Live-MUF program by G7RAU (with thanks).

First SP-E of Season on 2mtrs

Well yesterday Saturday 12th May saw the first Sporadic-E opening on 2mtrs, (as far as I am aware) for 2007 season.

The reflective area, or cloud, as some like to call it, was located over Italy, and was basically too far away from my location to bend any signals to the UK.

However it is always nice to see it happening and the anticipation that at any moment

it could all change and the band could open up to my area.

Below is a picture showing the areas who managed to contact each other.

Map captured from Live-MUF program by G7RAU (with thanks).

Tropo Sat 5th May 2007

Well I havent managed to catch any Sporadic E openings on 2mtrs yet, So not much worked.
However on the 5th May there was a Tropo opening into europe with many of the big guns
working lots of DX. As for myself I managed to work two stations.
First was DK2MN who was located in Jo32PC he gave me a 5/3 report and I gave him a 5/1 report, he was very weak with me luckily the rigs dsp helped to dig him out of the noise.
Secondly was PA6NL in Jo21BX again the DSP of my IC7000 radio helped to make the contact.
So not much DX but Netherlands and Germany which was pleasing enough.

Here is a Map of Europe with the paths of the countries who managed to contact each other marked on it.

Map captured from Live-MUF program by G7RAU (with thanks).

Thanks for reading.. Mark

Looking forward to 2007 Sp-E

Well I've not been very active since my last entry infact ive not done much on the radio apart from local chat, The main reason was down to caring for my father who became terminally ill with cancer. Sadly he passed away in february 2007 so have also been very busy sorting out his estate etc.

Anyway onto radio now and I have aquired a new Icom IC-7000 which I am pleased with and am just about proficient at driving. So I am looking forward to the Sp-E season starting.
I have started to fire up Live MUF program to keep my eye on for any Sp-E's
I have not got around to building my DK7ZB beam for 2 mtrs but I do plan to do so when time permits.
Anyway glad to be back blogging again. thanks for reading.
Mark GØNMY

I Need Some E's

Well yesterday the 144 MHz Band opened up via the Sporadic-E propagation mode. Alas whilst it was a good opening it did not provide any dx at this location. As can be seen from the map below most of the enhancements favoured southern european countries like Spain, Malta and some excellent double hop into Russia.




The one drawback with this kind of opening is it is very restricted as to where the signals get refracted to. Some of the Big Gun stations in the UK managed to work some of the DX but it just did not bend the signals into my antenna. Ah well maybe next time.
Thanks for reading... Mark GØNMY

The Tale Of The Troublesome 290

I am not QRV on 2mtrs at the moment due to other commitments. So I will tell the tale of a recently purchased FT290 MKII. I bought the 290 off Ebay, it was not too expensive at £70, however when it arrived and I hooked it up I found it had very little output, I contacted the seller who told me that they used it on their local repeater which is possible as they live close to it. Upon Inspection the output device 2sc1971 was duff. I did a quick search and found some brand new
devices on, you guessed it (Ebay) they were £6 which I decided was not a dear price. So I purchased one. It duly arrived and I proceeded to fit it, along with a better bias diode as the old device was a 1n4148 glass diode. I fitted a higher current device after reading an article about diode biasing and the common
mistake of using a small current diode which could break down due to high current loading in SSB mode.

Well I tried everything I just could not get any rf out of the device it was removed and metered atleast 5 times! and it checked out fine. I began to suspect that the device I had aquired had probably been mislabeled as it was drawing current but no RF on 144MHz. at this point I started to doubt my
findings and contacted Chris (G1EZJ) a long standing radio friend. He checked out the radio and also came to a conclusion that the transistor was not what it said it was. At this point I thought I would contact Yaesu to see if they could offer a source for the so called obsolete Transistor. I was very Supprised and pleased to get an email back the following day stating that the device was in stock and was £6 plus £4 postage and packing. which was more or less what I paid before. I ordered the device and prayed it was a faulty device I had fitted previously. I decided to take the device down to Chris's and let him fit it. more for my peace of mind and sanity. Lo and Behold Perfect 2.5W output.
So I came to the conclusion that the RARE devices advertised on Ebay were not what they were labelled. next time i will try Yaesu First!.

Inbetween all this Chris had spotted an FL2025 25W add on PA on you guessed it EBAY. So In like flynn I went and won it again it wasnt too dear £37 with postage. Anyway The amplifier had arrived whilst I was awaiting the 2nd 2sc1971 device for the 290.

The pa had not been connected until I knew the 290 was 100%
Upon hooking up the PA guess what? YES youve got it. NO OUTPUT!.

The FL2025 uses a Mitsubishi brick M57727. I took the system back down to Chris's as he has had a lot of experience with brick devices on 23cms.
And he comfirmed that it was indeed duff. However One thing Chris had done in the past was to repair a 23cms brick that he had zapped.
He removed the plastic cover of the device and metered the different stages and discovered a burnt out bias diode. Now my eyesight is nowhere near good enuff
to start repairing bias circuits on the modules but Chris was in his element, he removed the duff diode metered the device which then checked out fine. So he added a small diode and hooked it all up and 15W output and then with a tweak 25W I was well chuffed and impressed as I did not fancy paying out more money on a new brick.

Thanks Chris!
Since then I have managed to aquire a service manual and the next stage to to get it onto frequency as it is slightly off.
I guess Ebay is basically the same as the old bring and buy at radio rallies where you get the item home and it doesnt work.

Anyway there is the Story. My next project it to build a DK7ZB yagi for 2mtrs
and a mast head preamp. So watch this space and Ill update when I can.
Thanks for reading. Mark
GØNMY