I will be testing on Gun SP-013 on 600m this afternoon. 502.3kHz. Reports welcome.
73
Richard
G3CWI
In reply to G3CWI:
Nothing earlier in the afternoon but I can now (15.30 Z) hear a weak CW signal, too far down in the noise to identify the call.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Hi Brian,
Can hear M0FMT working G3XIZ at present, but no sign of Richard.
73,
Frank
In reply to G3RMD:
Hi Frank
I am back at home. The initial tests were problematic in that I could not tune the 200ft inverted L up satisfactorily. More work needed to get this working. I did put out a few calls but the aerial current was very low.
Thanks for listening Frank and Brian.
73
Richard
G3CWI
In reply to G3CWI:
Richard
I have never listened on 600m before today so I had no idea of what might be there. I listened for you from 14.20 until 14.50Z, but if you were qrv during that period, I heard nothing in the S5 qrn. FWIW #1: I had no difficulty in copying the RST 529 signal from the GW4HXO beacon on 502.1 KHz. FWIW #2: qrn at 16:00Z was S9+15 everywhere.
73 de Mike, EI2CL
Hi all.
My tests yesterday were interesting and showed that 500kHz portable is quite a challenge (I have the RF burns to prove it - note to self “put plastic knob on variable capacitor”). My first portable foray on 600m included carrying a plastic storage box full of bits up the hill so there is much to do to get something viable for SOTA. It appears that only two people have had much success at 500kHz portable before (G0MRF and G3YXM). Both favour kites.
In essence I discovered that 500kHz aerials are very dependent on capacitance to earth and that each portable location is likely to be sufficiently different that an ATU configuration that works in one place, will not be right in another. This means that rather than carrying an ATU, I need to carry an ATU kit that can be made up on the spot. As I found on 10G, the band experts have suggested all sorts of things, many of which would be completely impractical on a mountain (or even a small hilltop)!
A 200ft inverted L was probably a poor choice of antenna as the end 100ft was too low to be helpful and probably only made the system more lossy. Next attempt will probably use a T antenna with 100ft legs. The earth system will be 3 x 25m radials (well short of the 150m that they should be). That give me a total of over 500ft of wire in my aerial system to carry and manage (about 4 x 80m dipoles worth).
Two people have reported that that think that did hear me (just), but as neither called, it was a zero-contact activation. But it’s a start.
It was lovely on Gun yesterday. I was there in the sunshine for a little over an hour and saw no-one. That’s the sort of hilltop that I like.
73
Richard
G3CWI
In reply to G3CWI:
What about WSPR just to make sure the system works?
I feel that to be against SOTA spirit, but that might help you tune your system a bit.
Also, that mean carrying a bunch of other stuff uphill (TNC, computer, batteries for comp…), so that might as well be a big no-go.
cheers,
Paulo, PU2PIX.