I have never been a great fan of the RSGB Handbook (usually preferring the ARRL one). However, the latest RSGB Handbook (just published) has been significantly influenced by the success of SOTA. It includes a whole chapter titled “The Great Outdoors” written by Richard G4ERP.
Richard is well known for his SOTA operating and anyone who has met him will have been impressed by his “engineering approach” to SOTA. I saw Richard’s 4 element 2m beam in use last weekend and it is truly a marvelous design. Richard tells me that it is in the Handbook. I suspect that it will be worth looking at for this alone but I am also certain that Richard will have provided much more “food for thought” for the keen activator.
In reply to G3CWI:
I had the privilege of a pre-publication view of Richard’s ‘Great Outdoors’ chapter and I was completely captured by it’s content and design. It contains some supper descriptions of mountain equipment and materials, and you are absolutely right in describing it as thought provoking. As my idea of a well engineered, hill top solution, seems to involve baling twine and tye wraps it looks like I need to get busy over the winter, antenna building and re-engineering!
A great read, and a super bit of work by Richard.
73,
Frank
Books! I remember books, that was what we used to read in the old days before the Kindle and eReader.
Do you know there is a Kindle called the DX? It must be specially made for radio amateurs and stuffed full of radio books ;0)
Seriously I like my ham radio books on the PC so I can find what I am looking for with a search rather than thumbing through a book the size of a telephone directory only to find it was in the ARRL antenna book not the RSGB handbook.
I agree with Richard on the ARRL handbook. I have three and they are all considerably different to each other. Unlike previous up-date versions of the RSGB handbook which are fundamentally the same. I am glad to hear this one is better.