I had a fun day on the radio yesterday. It started with the Matrix QO-100 Satellite Impromptu Net at 16:00 BST on 10489.873Mhz. A net that started off as an impromptu event that over the last couple of years has become a weekly staple. Hardly impromptu at all but, we liked the name and so stuck with it.
During the Impromptu net I noticed that my 2m radio was burbling away in the background and that a lot of European repeaters were coming through so, as soon as the net had finished I quickly switched over to my trusty Wouxun KG-UV980PL and started tuning around the 2m band.
2m was alive with repeaters from France, Belgium, The Netherlands and the UK, often beating against each other on the same frequency.
Being near the East Coast and closer to Belgium than I am to many parts of the UK I jumped onto the ON0WV repeater in Bruges. Being S9+ with me I called a few times but, no one came back to me so, I moved on.
Tuning across my Norwich Repeater memory slot I heard two French stations chatting, it was obvious they weren’t on GB3NB as the bell between overs was not the normal chime.
I quickly opened RepeaterBook on my iPhone and searched for repeaters on the same frequency, there are many!
Eventually I worked out that it was ON0HT so I quickly set about loading the repeater settings into the next available radio memory channel. I loaded a few others from The Netherlands at the same time as I was hearing more than normal from that part of the world.
Having the correct settings in place for the repeater I was now able to call in and have chat with the two stations.
Jean-Claude F5JOX and Didier F6DKO were surprised to hear an English station call in but, were most welcoming. We had a chat for a few minutes exchanging details and commenting on the great conditions. Sadly the conversation was eventually brought to an end as there were so many repeaters on the same frequency it became impossible for me to hear them clearly so, I gave them 73 and went tuning around.
The 2m band was absolutely full of UK and EU repeaters with many beating against each other on the same frequency. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was more of a split between the UK repeater frequencies and the EU allocation. Would certainly make it easier to use the EU repeaters in lift conditions.
Later in the evening Roger G8VLR, Steve M0XVT and I were having one of our Impromptu Nets on the 60m band. Often there are others from the Matrix that join in too but, on this occasion there were just the 3 of us.
I’m acutely aware that we often have listeners to our on air chats as I quite often get emails from SWL’s and licenced HAMs commenting on how much they enjoy our conversations. Yesterday evening was no exception as it turns out that we were once again attracting listeners albeit, unbeknown to us at the time.
Later in the evening Alan, G1SQB sent me a message via the Matrix with a YouTube link to a recording of us on the 60m band from that very same evening made by @KevinOReillyswl.
Yes, that’s yours truly waffling on about satellites as normal.
Kevin O’Reilly is clearly a very active SWL as he has many interesting videos on his Youtube Channel that are worth a look.
I must confess that I’ve never heard of the MLITE-880 receiver before but, after running a search I found it to be quite a popular radio in the SWL community.
There’s a very good review on swling.com that’s worth a read.
The short video above shows it to be a surprisingly good shortwave receiver in a very compact, portable package that’s ideal for listening whilst out and about on camping trips or other outdoor activities.
A big thanks to Kevin O’Reilly for posting the video and letting us see how we sound on the other end.
More soon …