Permission to use 2 metres arrived in 1968, after four years of experience with 70cms as the bread-and-butter band I guess they decided they could trust the B’s with another band. A friend gave me a nuvistor converter for two, and I used the two metre driver so I was able to get on two rapidly.
The old geographical band-plan was a hoot! As you say, call on “your” frequency and tune the whole band. At the time I got on 70cm I had a homebrew double conversion receiver with an Eddystone drive for tuning, and it took so long to tune the band (55 turns of the knob to tune 28-30!) that I changed to using an Eddystone 840A that I had for BC reception, but this gave the problem of poor image rejection on 28-30 MHz so if anybody was transmitting TV signals their image wiped out my part of the band! Incidentally, at the time if you wanted to transmit TV signals it needed a separate G6***/T licence, this was later scrapped and the G6’s used when the G8’s ran out.
Many congratulations Karl - belated on account of the “W” factor. Might manage to work you one day, but my bands of choice don’t coincide with yours. We are probably more likely to meet up on 2m SSB than 30m CW.
I admire your enthusiasm for chasing and sticking with it despite not having the means for an easy chase.
The only commercial HF rig I’ve ever owned is my beloved FT817 which I owned since 2001 (Cost £799 + £19.99 for the case, ouch! At least I got a free ATX Walkabout antenna ). All my operating is QRP, usually with gear I’ve built from kits. I can appreciate how much effort some contacts can be!
It makes me feel old to think that I did my 2 part RAE 18 years ago as a teenager! I just scraped in for free tuition fees The radio licence was free too. I’m grateful that I passed at my first attempt. HF was where I wanted to be so I stumped up the £20 for a Morse test just over a year later and passed (only to forget all about CW for years!).
Will be in Devon in a couple of weeks for a few days, but I doubt I’ll manage an activation, besides I already have the 2015 pts for G/DC-001 and G/DC-005. February holds a good chance for an activation of G/DC-001, I should take along my FT817 and try for a QSO with you on 40m SSB.
The FT817ND is now being sold new for £439.00 (January 2016 RadCom). £439 is exactly what I paid for mine in October 2009, but the soft carry case (CSC083) was on special offer for £0.01 (Yes, one penny!) However, I did opt to pay an extra £104 for a Collins CW filter.
My rig has a date code of February 2001.
And yes, it has been out into the wilds including two trips to the Isle of Mull.
In fact, now that I think about it, I had an S2S with GW3NYY using this rig from G/SP-008. You were on GW/SW-033 in 2013.
I bought an 817 second hand in 2005 for £540. That included a Feb 2001 FT817, a Tokyo HyPower HL45B amplifier, a Miracle Whip, Soft Case, MH36e8j DTMF mic, a set of NiCds and a laminated quick guide. I sold most of the extras within a few weeks, £55 for Miracle Whip, £40 for the mic, £5 for the guide, £140 for the amp meaning the radio cost me £300. Since then it has had a PA board and driver FETS for £32.90 and a 500Hz InRad CW filter for £65.
It’s going strong still and this year has been used for SOTA in The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Austria, Ireland & Lanzarote.
Yep, separate licence for mobile, separate licence for TV.
Incidentally, the Amateur Radio Licence A was a “class 1” and the Amateur Radio Licence B was “class 2”, whatever that meant! I’ve still got my old receipts!
Brian
PS We got a heck of a pummelling in the small hours, I hope nobody lost any antennas!
There must have been a major price drop in 2006 as I paid a total of £394.90 in November that year which included the 5MHz modification (ML&S description) and a case. The rig cost £349.95 - according to the invoice anyway which doesn’t actually add up! Since then it has had a W4RT 300Hz filter fitted. I also had to have the PLL board replaced courtesy of dire WX on GM/NW-025 - the labour on that was a whopping £80.
Mine’s 1983 and is the 130V, so yours might be earlier Karl. It has only needed the replacement of the receiver RF transformer which is prone to static. At least with no SMDs involved I managed that myself for the princely sum of £14, though it was a wee bit fiddly. There is something to be said for the old rigs, but I am not hauling it up a summit… unless persuaded otherwise for a handbag event.
). All my operating is QRP, usually with gear I’ve built from kits. I can appreciate how much effort some contacts can be!
