Partition to allow UK Radio operators to install antennas and masts.
If you’re reading this and are a licensed UK Amateur Radio operator please click the link above/below and sign the partition so that we may highlight the subject with the UK government as the RSGB has failed to do this for us for decades now even though members keep asking them to do more on the subject.
Following this a number of girl guides posed questions which were very quickly answered as the ISS passed overhead.
Using my new Wouxun UV-980PL and simple end-fed vertical dipole I got a great signal from the ISS HAM radio station and was able to receive the ISS side of the conversation as the space station approached the N/W Coast of Spain until it eventually dropped below the horizon out of site nearing East Russia.
Below is a short video clip with audio showing the clarity of reception. The ISS peaked at an S9 signal, it was a perfect pass for the special event.
I’m hoping to put up a better antenna for 2/4/6m & 70cm in the next few days so that I can start joining the local nets on these bands and perhaps get contacts through a few more of the FM Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.
I’ll also be writing a full article on the Wouxun KG UV-980PL in the very near future, so if this radio is of interest to you then watch this space.
Going through some old photos today I found a few great memories from the past of my old valve radio stations that I’d restored over the years.
These old radios gave me some wonderful moments over the years and a fair few hours of restoration to get them into operational condition. They sounded great on air and I often got comments from other amateur stations about how warm the audio sounded. Some did also mention the drift of the transmitter with temperature changes but, you just have to accept that when using vintage radio equipment.
M0AWS FT101E Transceiver, FL101 Transmitter, FR101B Receiver and TS520S Transceiver.
Above is my old FT101 line up. It consisted of the great FT101E transceiver, a complete standalone solution that was extremely popular in its day. Below it is the FT101 line up made up of the FT101 transmitter, FR101B receiver and matching speaker.
Top right is the lovely Trio TS520S with the matching digital frequency display which is incredibly rare and very sought after today.
These radios gave me a lot of pleasure for many years and I wish I still had them today.
My second Yaesu valve line up took a lot more restoration than the 101 series and was quite challenging at times but, with a lot patience and time spent sourcing parts I got them back to as close to new operational condition as was possible.
M0AWS FLDX400 Transmitter, FRDX400 Receiver, FL2000B Amplifier and FTDX501 Transceiver.
The Yaesu 400 series line up consisted of the FLDX400 transmitter, FRDX400 receiver and was finished off with the FL2000B amplifier. These 3 pieces of radio equipment looked beautiful in the flesh and were wonderful to operate. Taking a good 15mins to warm up and become stable you couldn’t rush getting on air. This line up was my favourite by far even though they weren’t as good as the 101 line up.
Above the 400 series is the later FTDX501 transceiver with matching speaker. This was a great radio in its own right but, not as much fun to operate as the 400 line up. To the right of the FTDX501 is the matching Yaesu Microphone for the 400/500 series. This mic is incredibly rare and I had to visit many radio swap rallies to find it, worth the effort though.
Top right you can see my old SWL receiver, the great Drake SW4A. I never had a Drake line up as they are quite rare in the UK but, it certainly would had made a great addition to the station.
M0AWS FLDX400, FRDX400 & FL2000B Station being operated by M1ACB and G6ALB
Finally this is a photo of two friends of mine, Steve Thomas M1ACB (Current General Manager of the RSGB) on the right and Andy, G6ALB with whom I spent many hours sending and receiving morse with to get our Class A licences. We had a fun day together operating the old radios and taking it in turns to handle the pile ups!
To celebrate Her Majesty the Queen Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth, U.K. Radio Amateur (HAM) operators can apply for a Notice of Variation (NOV) to use the Q Regional Secondary Locator.
The RSGB will also be operating a bunch of GB70 special event stations, full details on the GB70 website.
I have my NOV and will be on air using MQ0AWS for the whole of June 2022.
This callsign will operate for one month only and so will be a rare one for you to get in your log.
I will be operating on all HF bands 160-10m CW & FT4/8 and maybe some SSB depending on conditions.
All MQ0AWS logs will be uploaded to my website almost realtime and will be uploaded to EQSL at the end of June 2022.
If you hear me calling CQ please give me a call.
More soon …
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