New HAM First QSO

21-05-2019 12:46am #1

First QSO was with a local friend of mine.

2nd QSO was with LA1CI in Norway, near Oslo. Pretty cool !

I just got my license about 2.5 hrs ago, it's all automated once you register via email when applying for your exam, once I applied I had the call sign within 30 mins ! impressive.

My setup is about as basic as you can get, the radio is a Yaesu FT-77, a nice classic looking rig, about 35-38 years old but it works and I got it a few weeks before sitting the exam just to play around with.

Tuner is a MFJ Deluxe versa II.

Antenna is the myantennas.com EFHW 80-10 https://myantennas.com/wp/product/efhw-8010/

I have it strung up between a couple of trees, highest point about 55 feet. The transformer box is about 3 foot off the ground and grounded there at the base of a tree.

No radials needed , it uses a 48:1 UnUn which appears to be the magic compared to a normal end fed with 9:1 which requires a load of radials, this does not.

I got it because it got excellent reviews both on the website and eham.net.

It's a multiband antenna resonant on multiple bands and no tuner is required because the SWR is low enough on all bands, the top end of 80 Meters I use the tuner to flatten the SWR bit other than that no tuner is required on all the advertised bands, ( depending on installation ) but seems to work good for me.

Early days yet, only 2 QSO's .

First a local friend and 2nd a Guy Near Oslo , Norway, he said he doesn't get too many QSO on 80 this far so the Antenna is working well with an old Rig.

I will post the radio setup in another post.

My hope is that I can encourage others into this fabulous and amazing hobby.

I have been a shortwave listener for a few years now , my previous home did not allow much shortwave listening because of a neighbours TV that was on from 8am to after Midnight every night of the year, when it was off I could hear so much it was amazing. The TV knocked out LW, MW and most of SW, incredible ! If I had stayed at that location I would have bought them a newer LED TV. lol

Anyway, I'm in the country now and have 1 acre for antennas lol but had I known as much as I do now I would have got my license years ago, my previous house was a mid terrace and did not allow mad antennas but I could still have worked many bands and even gone portable. The point being, I should have just got the license anyway.

I have seen very good videos of contacts being made from a guy in the U.K to US with just a roof mounted antenna on a van and 5 watts of power, amazing !

It's a great hobby and I hope I can encourage more people into this wonderful Hobby.

Next plan is to set up a proper shack and think about what radio I will buy, but the old FT-77 will do just fine for now, a lovely classic rig, very simple to operate.

SlowBlowin · 21-05-2019 12:54am

Congrats !!!

I wonder how nervous you were on the second QSO ?

I remember my first one, I was shaking ? The first CW QSO is even worse, well done.

When I get my Ariel back up we can arrange a QSO.

I have an FT897 and an icom7600 plus a host of vintage and home brew rigs, but I have been pretty silent for a while.

Do you have any interest in CW ?

21-05-2019 1:05am

SlowBlowin wrote: »

Congrats !!!

I wonder how nervous you were on the second QSO ?

I remember my first one, I was shaking ? The first CW QSO is even worse, well done.

When I get my Ariel back up we can arrange a QSO.

I have an FT897 and an icom7600 plus a host of vintage and home brew rigs, but I have been pretty silent for a while.

Do you have any interest in CW ?

Thanks, actually I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be but think I'd have been a lot more nervous if I was a break station in a group if you get me.

Yes I have an interest in CW which I hope to learn next, it's difficult when I work shift and have 2 small Children to look after when I'm off but hopefully I will get to learn some CW sooner rather than later.

Yeah should arrange QSO, get that antenna up.

I am sorry I didn't do this years ago but better late than never.

CW is tricky of course and worst of all is someone who is very experienced and is way too fast not giving a chance to someone new, I've heard this complaint a lot.

21-05-2019 1:11am

Early shack pics. Basic as you can get lol . I need to get a desk and chair. Using the attic. Not perfect as the roof wasn't raised by the previous owner but it will make a nice snug shack.

[IMG][/img]

SlowBlowin · 21-05-2019 1:21am

Looks like the shack needs some more space, no room for your pen and paper, but much like my first set up !

I love older radios, my favourite is my Eddystone EA12, it needs a lot of work, it was my first radio so must be overhauled.

Make sure you hang on to that 77, a good radio.

21-05-2019 1:29am

Yes the FT-77 is going nowhere ! ;-)

Yeah not much room until I get a proper desk , then it will be fine.

I love old rigs too but I think I've come to the realisation that for my main rig I will get something more modern , after exhaustive reviews and youtube videos I think I will get a Yaesu FTdx-3000, it gets great reviews and on eham.net, I am more concerned about sound quality and proper DSP than waterfalls.

Then I can add a nice proper classic Rig to admire sitting on the desk that gets occasional use.

I fear than Ham radio is getting rater too much like using a windows 10 laptop with hand mic........... I'd like to see more traditional rigs, I feel too many Hams now spend much more time fiddling with menus and looking at waterfalls than trying to make QSOs.

SlowBlowin · 21-05-2019 1:30am

Hey if you want to continue the FT theme, how about this for VHF, I will take a picture.

This would look good next to 77...

20190521_012503.jpg

21-05-2019 10:10am

SlowBlowin wrote: »

Hey if you want to continue the FT theme, how about this for VHF, I will take a picture.

This would look good next to 77...

20190521_012503.jpg

Indeed it would look good, I got my eye on the FT-757 GX II.

But for main base rig I might, just might think about the FTdx-3000 which got great reviews for noise reduction, sound and receiver quality.

The IC-7300 didn't seem to fair so well in fact a lot of reviews suggest the 3000 is as quiet with no noise reduction as the 7300 is with it. The 7300 does indeed seem to be a lot noisier and I'm not really bothered with waterfalls and fancy displays even if the 3000 has some display.

Some day I will have a excellent example of a FT-101 type receiver or one of the kenwood Hybrids. That's real radio !

jmcc · 21-05-2019 3:28pm

Well done on the exam and congratulations. Amazing to see the FT-77 still working. Looks like a really well designed radio.

Regards...jmcc

21-05-2019 4:23pm

jmcc wrote: »

Well done on the exam and congratulations. Amazing to see the FT-77 still working. Looks like a really well designed radio.

Regards...jmcc

Thanks, It's good to finally have that all over, couldn't stand the wait after the exam !

Yes, the FT-77 is a great radio for the age and in excellent condition. I love the style of radio. I wish they made more classic looking radios today.

I've my eye on a FT-757 but they are very hard to find in good condition. Probably in the end go for a Yaesu FTdx-3000 as it got excellent reviews for sound quality, noise reduction and receiver quality.

The FT-77 will do just fine for now. A great starter rig. No going through endless menus, just tune and talk.

Have to set up the shack properly and get a desk lol.

21-05-2019 8:39pm

I also got a Xiegu X5105 Rig some time ago that I can finally use properly.

Got a couple of good reports with it in the UK on 3760 Khz. They were very impressed for 5 watts, I was using the base antenna but still.

Got a portable mini 100 watt end fed ordered from hyendcompany in the Netherlands which I will pair up with the X5105 when I am out and about, in my Mothers, Germany etc. It will cover 40-20-15-10 Meter bands and is 20 meters in length. These multiband resonant antennas are great.

Still have to try out the EFHW 8010 from myantennas.com on more than 80 and 40 meters but got good QSo from Northern Norway last night and good report on 5 watts to the U.K earlier so it seems to be doing well.

I might get the 160 Meter EFHW because the one I have is only 40 meters in length so not resonant on 160 meters but I can use a tuner and see how I get on with it, of course the Tuner won't make it resonant it will just allow me to be able to transmit on the band keeping SWR low which keeps the radio happy.

The 160 Meter version is about 80 meters in length, I have no problem with space but installation is a bit of a pain because it will have to criss cross in parts due to trees not being in the desirable location lol.

Anyway , very happy to have my License now that's for sure.

21-05-2019 10:50pm

Got 59 report from S57DX on 20 meters using the Xiegu X5105, 5 Watts, amazing !

I remember watching a you tube video a week ago about a Man in the U.K getting to the U.S on 5 watts with a whip antenna on the roof of his van ! :eek:

Another getting to Australia with 50 watts and a whip on the roof of his car.

Amazing !

24-05-2019 12:46am

Furthest contact so far was with VE9FI from Hampton New Brunswick, Canada. I was over the Moon with that, took a while to contact him as the European stations were running big power but he got me with my little old Yaesu FT-77 running just under 100 watts , he was running 1 Kw as were most of the European stations. I was thrilled , understatement lol. He could hear me just fine and we could have a conversation no problem.

I couldn't believe when he said " the EI station please" haha.

The myantennas.com EFHW-8010 is obviously performing very well .

Radio is amazing, this hobby is amazing, forget the internet , Netflix and facebook this is much more fun !!!!

If anyone is reading this and is a Shortwave listener and listens to ham radio operators like I did for so long then please go to the IRTS website and get the study material and sit the Exam, it's a great hobby.

I heard TI8II from Costa Rica on 17 Meters , 8,300 Kms, now that would have been a contact, unfortunately he stopped calling CQ before I had a chance to reply.

martinedwards · 25-05-2019 11:11am

Get used to missing the interesting ones!

and also get used to using the WARC bands at weekends unless you are a contester....

Mind you, I'm tinkering round with a FT101B and the clarifier is slightly off. No better way to get it set than on the busiest CW weekend of the year, with a million stations all wanting a 10 second QSO!

25-05-2019 6:34pm

martinedwards wrote: »

Get used to missing the interesting ones!

and also get used to using the WARC bands at weekends unless you are a contester....

Mind you, I'm tinkering round with a FT101B and the clarifier is slightly off. No better way to get it set than on the busiest CW weekend of the year, with a million stations all wanting a 10 second QSO!

Ft-101B nice radio ! they don't make them like they used to !

Yes contests are a pain in the ass, they should restrict them to 1 band only.

I read somewhere that there's people making a lot of money , the organisers of the contests perhaps ?

Hams want the awards so they can boast about them on QRZ.com and whatever they're into of course it's just not for me it's just a shame People only want the XXXX QRZ ? you are 59 and of course you have to say "you are also 59" because they don't want to hear anything else they only want your callsign.

This is what IRTS has about contests on the website.

Contests
Where no DX traffic is involved, the contest segments should not include 3500-3510 kHz
or 3775-3800 kHz.
Non-contesting radio amateurs are recommended to use the contest-free HF bands (30, 17 and 12m) during
the largest international contests. (DV05_C4_Rec_07)
Contests should be restricted to 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10m. That is 60, 30, 17, and 12m bands shall not be
used for contests. (VIE16_C4_Rec_06 *)
( * to be ratified at General Conference 2017)
For more recommendations about contest segments see the IARU Region 1 HF Manager Handbook.

It only leaves 3 bands for phone, 60, 17 and 12.

It would be nice if more People wanted to actually talk about the hobby, or anything else.

25-05-2019 6:39pm

I got a new antenna yesterday and tried it in my Mothers while I was there.

With the X5105 and 5 watts I made contact with AN1WHS first call, Antenna was maybe 30 foot highest and 15 foot lowest.

End fed antenna from Hyendcompany.com. See below, impressed with it already. It's resonant on all the 4 bands needing no tuner of course you can use the tuner to flatting the swr out to the lowest. No radials, have to say I am a big fan now of these end fed antennas with no radials, the Myantennas.com EFHW-8010 is a good antenna and performs very well.

Here it is between the two trees , notice the electric wire, there was a good distance between it and the antenna you can't determine this in the pic.

martinedwards · 25-05-2019 7:52pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Ft-101B nice radio ! they don't make them like they used to !

Yes contests are a pain in the ass, they should restrict them to 1 band only.

good luck with that!

Apparently, a high percentage of newer hams are only interested in contests.

It's like cars..... brakes which harvest the kinetic energy and store it in a battery to power the car later? developed in competition, and now feeding through to real day to day use.

likewise narrow filters and all that sort of stuff.

I've never entered a contest, but it's a decent way to test your antenna.

25-05-2019 10:21pm

martinedwards wrote: »

good luck with that!

Apparently, a high percentage of newer hams are only interested in contests.

It's like cars..... brakes which harvest the kinetic energy and store it in a battery to power the car later? developed in competition, and now feeding through to real day to day use.

likewise narrow filters and all that sort of stuff.

I've never entered a contest, but it's a decent way to test your antenna.

Yeah was a good way to test the antenna , I knew I had limited time to test before my two Sons came back outside lol.

We must arrange a QSO on the radio PM me. Be good to chat with someone for a little while, you never know maybe we'll get our own net going.

25-05-2019 10:41pm

if you go to 3.740 Mhz right now you will see a British ham 5 Khz wide, how absurd is that ? and what sounds like a German at 4 Khz this is illegal, 2700 Khz is the legal bandwidth for SSB. They couldn't care less !

http://emeraldsdr1.ddns.net:8073/

They've been yapping away for ages and no call signs.......

martinedwards · 26-05-2019 8:13am

Deleted User wrote: »

We must arrange a QSO on the radio PM me. Be good to chat with someone for a little while, you never know maybe we'll get our own net going.

lol, I'd need to have a hunt and find a mic first! I've been purely CW and very occasionally digimodes for about 4 years.....

26-05-2019 10:03am

martinedwards wrote: »

lol, I'd need to have a hunt and find a mic first! I've been purely CW and very occasionally digimodes for about 4 years.....

See there you go, how can there be people talking on the radio when so many use digital modes ?

martinedwards · 27-05-2019 7:51am

To be honest, it's more about the family complaining about me shouting at the radio than the fact that CW ops have better manners and the propogation is kinder to the CW than SSB!

27-05-2019 2:50pm

That’s why I’m in the attic so no one can hear me ! :-)

Made 2 contacts outside in my mother’s today . Belgium and Spain , all on the 5 watt Xiegu X5105. Good little radio !

Too cold and windy to stay outside.

SlowBlowin · 27-05-2019 8:53pm

This was the equivalent of the Xiegu X5105 in my day. A home brew kit putting out 2 watt CW on 80m. I hope to clean this up and run it this year...

I run it from a PP3 9 volt battery and my first contact with it was to Lund in Sweden.

20190527_204027.jpg

bilbot79 · 27-05-2019 8:58pm

What is the deal with this hobby? What do you do with your radios?

martinedwards · 28-05-2019 8:26am

bilbot79 wrote: »

What is the deal with this hobby? What do you do with your radios?

Talk to folk!

a little parable.........

OK, you like fish. go to Tesco and buy a salmon fillet. you know exactly what you're getting.

this is a mobile phone.

Radio is going to the pier and casting a line out. You don't know if you're even going to get a fish, but it could be a cod, a herring or a shark.

and you can tinker with the rods lines and bait to see what works best..... (My antenna is supported by several 10m fibreglass fishing rods so the analogy holds!)

to give you an idea of what's out there, here's a link to some web based radio receivers.

Ham bands are organised with morse code at the bottom, digital modes in the middle and voice at the top. 40 and 20m and the bands most likely to have stuff going on to listen to.

http://websdr.org/

28-05-2019 9:03am

SlowBlowin wrote: »

This was the equivalent of the Xiegu X5105 in my day. A home brew kit putting out 2 watt CW on 80m. I hope to clean this up and run it this year...

I run it from a PP3 9 volt battery and my first contact with it was to Lund in Sweden.

20190527_204027.jpg

Sweet, definitely do get it back on the air !

orm0nd · 28-05-2019 9:40am

Great to see some enthusiasm on this forum. Have a ft950 here along with a ranger811h amp and a hex beam. Haven't been on air for ages.Will have to drop the tower and sort out the antenna system but just now haven't the time or the interest in the hobby.
73.. maybe catch up with you later in the year.

28-05-2019 10:36am

bilbot79 wrote: »

What is the deal with this hobby? What do you do with your radios?

The hobby to me is about radio and the science behind it, experimenting with antennas and seeing how they perform , trying out different radios too.

I have bought my antennas for now because I don't have a lot of time for building stuff with work and kids and all that but eventually hope to be able to build my own.

It's also as martin below said like fishing, you never know where your signal is going to end up or what you're going to find and where.

On my 5 watt radio in the pic above ( the X5105 ) I got to Belgium and Spain yesterday on the 20 meter band no problem they could hear me clear as a bell 5 watts and the 4 band mini 100 watt end fed antenna from https://www.hyendcompany.nl/ strung between two trees in my Mothers.

My base antenna is the myantennas.com EFHW 80-10, 40 meters long strung up between some trees, to get to 160 meter band I need an antenna twice as long lol.

I got to Canada with the EFHW 80-10 antenna last week on my old Yaesu FT-77 putting out about 80 watts. The furthest contact I've had so far, only have the license a week and don't get a lot of time.

You can spend little or spend thousands and some spend tens of thousands on the hobby, whatever floats their boats.

You can get a very old radio like I did starting off, I bought the antenna from myantennas.com it's the EFHW 80-10 , a very efficient multiband end fed antenna that got excellent reviews both on the site and on eham.net. The chap who owns the company worked for cushcraft and designed many of their antennas so he knows his stuff.

Starting off, spend more on antennas, without good efficient antennas you're not going to use your power efficiently and your radio won't hear as well.

There are various digital modes these days which in my opinion is not a lot like radio as they just use a computer and a radio to send the signal that's it so I'm not a fan of digital modes, probably the only one that interests me is PSK31 , at least there is some form of human contact.

You can talk to people and make new friends, you can talk about anything and you get a callsign from the Government which is linked to your name and address so there's no messing around, no bullying and everyone is usually very friendly. It's not like the internet, very refreshing.

A lot of people are not interested in talking only exchanging callsigns to get them in the logbook, and others are contest operators which means they can get awards for various things like contacting all continents.

Hopefully we can get some kind of Net going with people on this forum and at least we can chat about the hobby or whatever.

When my eldest Son starts primary I'll have some more time, I got another Son in Creche but I'll get a couple of hours I can get on the bike and take my little X5105 and the wire antenna and find a nice spot and make some contacts. I need to get back exercising and it would be great to take the radio along. I miss being on the bike a lot, when my two Sons are in primary full time I will have a lot more time.

I can also get a mobile antenna and put it on a mag mount on the car and head off if the weather is bad, string up the antenna in a tree or get a spiderbeam fibreglass pole for fast deployment.

Lots of options, with the hobby, it means different things to different people, this is just what it is to me. It also gets me away from phones, computers and screens, being there done that, internet is boring now to me, need more to stimulate the mind.

My aim here on boards is to hopefully get more people interested in the hobby and to convince them to get their license, you don't need a big garden and you don't have to spend big money.

28-05-2019 10:39am

orm0nd wrote: »

Great to see some enthusiasm on this forum. Have a ft950 here along with a ranger811h amp and a hex beam. Haven't been on air for ages.Will have to drop the tower and sort out the antenna system but just now haven't the time or the interest in the hobby.
73.. maybe catch up with you later in the year.

Definitely do get back into it, the more the merrier !

I just regret not getting my license years ago but never thought I could do so much even in a small garden in a mid terrace house !

I only realised this when I moved house and have 1 acre to play with antennas and got more and more interested in the hobby and realised that I could have done much more in my old house. Anyway I'm there now and it's great.

bilbot79 · 28-05-2019 9:20pm

What kit would you recommend for a first time buyer with a limited budget?

I'm kinda fascinated with the idea of tuning into places like France and Spain

28-05-2019 9:42pm

bilbot79 wrote: »

What kit would you recommend for a first time buyer with a limited budget?

I'm kinda fascinated with the idea of tuning into places like France and Spain

Depends , are you just interested in listening ?

Then check out the many online sdr's on the internet, they are free and saves you buying stuff and then not being interested. You need to learn the different modes such as LSB, USB, etc, these are used on the Amateur radio bands , you will use AM for the commercial AM Shortwave stations.

If you want a radio then start with something like a Tecsun PL-660 , it's got a very good sensitive radio for Shortwave, for ham radio bands but it's useless on Longwave and Mediumwave.

You should be able to pick one up at a good price.

Get a long wire antenna , about 10-15 meters of wire and attach it to the telescopic antenna on the radio, just remove a few inchs of the insulation to expose the bare wire and connect it and remove it to see the massive difference it makes. But it can overload the radio with strong signals especially at night so you need to use the attenuation button called "DX, Local" DX being minimum attenuation to receive weaker stations.

As a start for long distance station finding you could try to see if you can catch Radio Havana Cuba on 6,000 Khz at 2am - 8am and also on 6060 Khz, 6100 Khz and 5040 Khz around Midnight.

Depending on conditions Radio Havana Cuba can boom in or sometimes can hardly hear it it due to conditions and or static from thunderstorms especially in Summer, lightning can be heard a massive distance away.

RHC English program can have very interesting programming and news you won't hear on Irish media, culture related material you also won't hear on Irish radio you will hear on Shortwave radio.

Then if you get more into the hobby of radio you can expiriment with different antennas and get a SDR Radio such as the SDR Play RSP1A , a good radio but needs a good external antenna purposely built for wide band receiving to cover all bands such as a Wellbrook loop or a Bonito Loop, the Bonito I have a love it. Or if you can find a Bonito MA305 Whip antenna it's astonishingly good for the size of it. A long wire antenna will not work well at all with a SDR radio, you connect this to your computer.

Check out the online Kiwi sdr's here at
https://sdr.hu/

I have 2 online , but are offline now because I ran out of credit for the three internet. Check back tomorrow evening and I should have them back online.

http://emeraldsdr1.ddns.net:8073

http://emeraldsdr.ddns.net:8074/

The best thing about shortwave listening and also Longwave and Medium wave is that you don't know what you are going to hear, what conversation or music or whatever.

Good luck and any questions, ask, it's a very interesting and mostly lifelong hobby if you get hooked.

If it interests you then go to the IRTS website and get the study material for the Amateur radio license and take the exam, once you have the license you can transmit when you want , you will always have it, it has to be renewed every 5 years, think it's free but anyway , get going have fun and hopefully some day you'll get on the air.

I used to think messing about with PC building and raspberry Pi's was interesting but nothing gives me the buzz of making contacts on the radio with only 5 watts of RF power, amazing , sure I'll still play about with them for my SDR projects but computers doesn't give me nearly as much satisfaction as this hobby. ( oh and cycling which I hope to get back into ) :-)

29-05-2019 12:00am

I should also add that it's important to get the antenna up outside as high as possible and away from any house as much as possible.

Homes are plagued with electronic interference called RFI or QRM in the ham radio world.

Devices such as laptops, pc's , laptop chargers, phone chargers , old skool LCD tv's with fluorescent back lit screens are horrible sources of interference that can travel 30 -40 meters away.

Ethernet over powerline adaptors are also horrible sources of noise along with some LED lightbulbs, stay away from generic "Woodies" type bulbs and buy Philips or Osram.

If you get a radio like the Tecsun PL-660 and find it's picking up lots of noise then try locate that noise and see if it's coming from your own house first, the tecsun is a portable battery powered radio , you can cut the power to the house via the consumer unit, just hit the main trip switch until the whole house goes off and see if that makes a difference, if it does then happy hunting :-)

Those in housing estates and apartments will be particularly vulnerable to noise sources which can wipe out all but the strongest of signals.

30-05-2019 12:34am

Jesus, this hobby amazes me more and more, get a load of this.

Was chatting to K8NY ( Bob ) form West Virginia on my old Yaesu FT-77 pulling about 60 watts, turns out he knows a Man I met for the first time at a funeral on Saturday ! He's also a Ham but isn't that amazing ? he was here visiting him last year !

I love this Hobby, it's just amazing haha.

06-06-2019 1:12am

Just got furthest contact so far, I'm delighted , PV8AL , 7.195 Mhz , in Brazil, just running 100 watts and an end fed half wave antenna.

I love this hobby !

7,434 Kms , amazing , love it !

15-06-2019 1:50am

Just got TI2CF in Costa Rica , over 8,000 Kms, good QSO, happy with that. I was using the ICOM Remote RS-B1A V 2 software from the sitting room , the IC-7300 is in the Attic room, the RS-BA1 V2 is a pig to set up but got it working, had some lovely QSO's in the U.K too.

bilbot79 · 16-06-2019 8:28am

Are you able to listen to pilots and police radio etc?

16-06-2019 1:59pm

bilbot79 wrote: »

Are you able to listen to pilots and police radio etc?

Police no, Air traffic yes.

You can get the Shanwick air traffic Shortwave frequencies here.

https://www.iaa.ie/air-traffic-management/north-atlantic-communications

You can google other air traffic frequencies from around the world.

You can also listen on VHF with a scanner to more local frequencies but unless close to the Dublin Airport Tower you will unlikely hear the tower unless you got a good roof top antenna.

To listen first go to my SDR linked below and find the frequencies, you might have to wait a little while to hear anything, reception varies from time to time.

Tune or type in the frequency and select USB mode and not AM/FM etc.

http://emeraldsdr1.ddns.net:8073

If you want to try listen yourself on an actual radio then get the Tecsun PL-660 portable radio and get about 30-40 feet of wire and throw one end up in a tree as high as you can , the way to do this is get a light piece of rope with a weight attached and fire it over a branch high as you can then get the antenna wire and tie it to the rope with pull up the antenna wire via the rope until it gets near the branch then tie off the rope to another part of the tree.

Bring the other end of the wire strip off the insulation a few cm and wrap it around the telescopic antenna on the radio.

The Difference is night and day, ou will be able to hear tonnes more stations, signals with the long outdoor antenna compared to telescopic built in antenna but at night when signals are stronger you can easily overload the receiver which will cause signals to appear where they are not actually transmitting so to reduce this you can use the attenuation switch on the radio, low,med,hi setting.

You can also get a sdr radio and connect it to your laptop, get the SDR play but this can cause other problems such as increased interference from the laptop and the laptop power supply and you will need a much better receiving antenna one designed for shortwave listening.

If using the Tecsun PL-660 keep it away from sources of electrical noise such as LED lights, Old Skool fluorescent tv's , plasma tv, LED TV for the most part seems to be ok. Dimmer switches, Broadband modems etc all introduce noise ont he lw/mw and Shortwave bands sometimes to the point it can wipe out all but the strongest of signals.

Using a good physical radio is nice but everything is going SDR even the amateur radio stuff and eventually commercial built consumer radios but there are very few manufacturers of multi band radios particularly those that include shortwave which is a shame because there is still a hell of a lot on Shortwave and will remain forever, Activity on Shortwave has slowed down for sure but there's still plenty to listen to especially the Amateur radio bands which is as popular and busy as ever.

Most of all Shortwave is fascinating and exciting and a good hobby even if just listening, there's something special about catching signals from very far away without using the internet only antenna to antenna helped by the Earths atmosphere.

21-08-2019 11:05pm

I love this hobby, just made contact with CB70E in Chile on 14.242 Mhz.

Gotta love this hobby, amazing what you can do with 100 watts and an end fed half wave antenna !

The myantennas.com EFHW 8010 is doing good !

SlowBlowin · 21-08-2019 11:12pm

Was that SSB ? Hows the morse coming along ?

21-08-2019 11:20pm

SlowBlowin wrote: »

Was that SSB ? Hows the morse coming along ?

Yep SSB, I was thrilled !

Sadly no morse practice yet. Would be handy if there were good apps on IOS like Android.

martinedwards · 24-08-2019 6:14am

Deleted User wrote: »

Sadly no morse practice yet. Would be handy if there were good apps on IOS like Android.

That MAY be because Hams write the apps and Apple are GITS when it comes to allowing folk to publish stuff!

I Learned with online websites rather than apps.... apple will let you use them..... probably!:p

24-08-2019 10:21am

martinedwards wrote: »

That MAY be because Hams write the apps and Apple are GITS when it comes to allowing folk to publish stuff!

I Learned with online websites rather than apps.... apple will let you use them..... probably!:p

Yes I'll have to do something because it would be nice to have morse under my belt.

The apps I saw on youtube were very handy though.

martinedwards · 24-08-2019 5:36pm

http://www.g4fon.net/CW%20Trainer.htm

the absolute business!

DaveColt · 24-09-2019 8:55am

Nice neat setup!

24-09-2019 7:11pm

DaveColt wrote: »

Nice neat setup!

Cheers, it's different now, got a desk :-) + IC-7300 and use the FT-891 portable + Superantenna MP1 which is really handy to setup.

Shyboy · 04-11-2019 4:13pm

Eventually, after having to cancel back in May, I have my Amateur Station exam on 14th November.

I have been studying most evenings between work and family life but have so much more to do between now and then?

Some of it is quite straight-forward as I have always had an interest in radio, but I am struggling with the electrical circuitry side of it, capacitors, resistors, etc. as I am not from a technical background so I hope there is not too much in the exam about that?

Mad_Lad, I think I remember you saying that you found the exam difficult in general, although thankfully you did pass?

04-11-2019 4:37pm

Shyboy wrote: »

Eventually, after having to cancel back in May, I have my Amateur Station exam on 14th November.

I have been studying most evenings between work and family life but have so much more to do between now and then?

Some of it is quite straight-forward as I have always had an interest in radio, but I am struggling with the electrical circuitry side of it, capacitors, resistors, etc. as I am not from a technical background so I hope there is not too much in the exam about that?

Mad_Lad, I think I remember you saying that you found the exam difficult in general, although thankfully you did pass?

Yes , they threw in some unnecessary questions that I thought were particularly hard.

I know I shouldn't complain because the U.K full license is much , much harder to obtain I believe ? which is again, unnecessary, the idea should be to increase the numbers of Hams not intimidate them with an exam that's harder than it should be.

I got caught up in the electrical end of things, while I'm more technically minded I wasn't familiar with Ohms law etc etc so spent much more time than I should have on the electronics end because if I remember correctly they only asked one question on capacitors or resistors, can't remember which now but you still have to know because a question or more will come up, there's no telling what will come up in this exam or in May.

Know is the beacon frequencies, I got caught on that.

Know the band plan inside out and upside down.

Know regulations inside out, Antennas, SWR , etc.

Everything you need to know is on the IRTS site, forget UK study , forget New Zealand study material, 100% of everything you need to know is on the IRTS site.

I have my license 6 months ( time flies ) now and I love every minute of the hobby, I've spent way too much more than I should or more than the XYL knows

but no one needs to spend big bucks, a simple old radio and antenna will get you on the air.

I'm only now starting to think about digital modes, I ran an antenna to the sitting room for when I'm snug in the sitting room and can't be arsed going to the shack and thought I'd look in to PSK31 , I do not like FT8 and other Zombie modes that have absolutely no human interaction , at least I can still talk to a human in some form , when someone is not just interested in macros but just to try something new , when using PSK 31 I won't have to use the mic and talk with the XYL in the sitting room when she is watching the telly.

PSK31 will also work well when I go to my mother and the QRM is too bad and the kids are entertaining themselves not looking for my attention I can make some qso's even when they are going nuts. I will hopefully give it a go when I am more familiar with how a QSO works.

It's really great to go from Short wave listener to Ham radio. Being able to have QSO with someone in Chile with only 100 Watts is just incredible. I don't be on at the right times for Asia, Australia or New Zealand mostly so have no QSO's from there yet.

Anyway it's a really entertaining fun hobby that will provide me hopefully many many, years of interest.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes !

orm0nd · 04-11-2019 5:23pm

Back on the airwaves here and really having fun.

Worked a lot of JA and a few vk amongst others this am on ft8. Still have to sort more aerials.

Having a lash at the 80 mtr rsgb ft4 contest later this evening.

Best of luck to anyone sitting the exam ..73

04-11-2019 6:38pm

orm0nd wrote: »

Back on the airwaves here and really having fun.

Worked a lot of JA and a few vk amongst others this am on ft8. Still have to sort more aerials.

Having a lash at the 80 mtr rsgb ft4 contest later this evening.

Best of luck to anyone sitting the exam ..73

I don't get the FT8 and similar modes , what's the interest ?

Shyboy · 04-11-2019 10:26pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Yes , they threw in some unnecessary questions that I thought were particularly hard.

I know I shouldn't complain because the U.K full license is much , much harder to obtain I believe ? which is again, unnecessary, the idea should be to increase the numbers of Hams not intimidate them with an exam that's harder than it should be.

I got caught up in the electrical end of things, while I'm more technically minded I wasn't familiar with Ohms law etc etc so spent much more time than I should have on the electronics end because if I remember correctly they only asked one question on capacitors or resistors, can't remember which now but you still have to know because a question or more will come up, there's no telling what will come up in this exam or in May.

Know is the beacon frequencies, I got caught on that.

Know the band plan inside out and upside down.

Know regulations inside out, Antennas, SWR , etc.

Everything you need to know is on the IRTS site, forget UK study , forget New Zealand study material, 100% of everything you need to know is on the IRTS site.

I have my license 6 months ( time flies ) now and I love every minute of the hobby, I've spent way too much more than I should or more than the XYL knows but no one needs to spend big bucks, a simple old radio and antenna will get you on the air.

I'm only now starting to think about digital modes, I ran an antenna to the sitting room for when I'm snug in the sitting room and can't be arsed going to the shack and thought I'd look in to PSK31 , I do not like FT8 and other Zombie modes that have absolutely no human interaction , at least I can still talk to a human in some form , when someone is not just interested in macros but just to try something new , when using PSK 31 I won't have to use the mic and talk with the XYL in the sitting room when she is watching the telly.

PSK31 will also work well when I go to my mother and the QRM is too bad and the kids are entertaining themselves not looking for my attention I can make some qso's even when they are going nuts. I will hopefully give it a go when I am more familiar with how a QSO works.

It's really great to go from Short wave listener to Ham radio. Being able to have QSO with someone in Chile with only 100 Watts is just incredible. I don't be on at the right times for Asia, Australia or New Zealand mostly so have no QSO's from there yet.

Anyway it's a really entertaining fun hobby that will provide me hopefully many many, years of interest.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes !

Thanks Mad_Lad for the head's up. I know that you never know for sure what questions will come up so I am trying to get familiar with every aspect just in case.

Really want to pass so trying to put every spare hour or two into revision...

New HAM First QSO

Comments