Continuing the discussion from UK operators only: Changes to UK licence (Part 1) - #102 by G7ADF.
Previous discussions:
Obviously it depends on the summit.
Lightweight very old 3 element sotabeam - easy to assemble, compact, lightweight and has a handy fixing for the fishing pole.
Arrow dual band (2/70) antenna for satellite operations. Very lightweight and compact. A bit faffy in assembly but can be used handheld and in calm conditions can be taped to a mast using electrical tape or the like.
Tonna 9 Element Portable (!) beam - Not one for the multiband days or unless there’s more than 1 of you but in summer with an easy summit and the prospect of some E’s can get spectacular results. On one activation of G/SP-010 (Winter Hill) I managed 22 out of 72 qsos with continental european stations on 2m SSB (DL,F,PA, ON,SP)
I did try a simple cheap halo once, but I didnt have a great experience with it.
I’m surprised that more people don’t try vertical SSB as it seems an obvious solution to the antenna problem. I guess old conventions die hard.
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It works both ways! The old Horizontal FM Group proved that FM contacts could take place over significantly greater distances using horizontal polarisation, but it didn’t catch on!
With regard to 2m antenna, the Arrow dual band antenna has a much cheaper competitor from Moonraker, also there is a Diamond dual band antenna where the 2m and 70cm antennas have the same polarisation, intermediate in price between the two. Another quite inexpensive choice is an HB9CV antenna from Moonraker, this is a quite portable 2 element beam with just over 3dB gain. The halo is a cheap and cheerful omnidirectional antenna, but it has less gain than a simple dipole!
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You guys are so off topic that this deserves a new thread.
Someone started a facebook group with that intention. They aim to organise an activity day to promote that very thing.
I have a 4 element yagi which weighs 100g. It is 4 aluminium welding rods and a section of fiberglass mast. The rods pack away inside the mast.
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Use /V for vertical and /H for horizontal?
Back on topic now 
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I used to use one of these for years - Photo is from John M0JDK
Strip 490mm of outer plastic jacket from coax, separate braid from inner then shove in a section 20 or 25mm diameter PVC conduit
Pop Rivet a U clip on and you have a horizontal lightweight antenna!
I drilled a hole on the one end as well, put a cable tie through it and you then hang it from a fishing pole for vertical polarity
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I could be thinking of running a KW of 2m SSB…
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There’s a topic? 
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Sod’s Law or a new law?: By the time someone reads so many off-topic posts that it’s worth suggesting creating a new thread, the off-topic has more or less burned itself out so it’s never worth creating a new thread.
Besides, topic hijacking [Is that a thing?] benefits the hijacker because he gets the current readership that a new topic might not get.
I’ve just realized that this post is itself an off-topic to the off-topic, like an off-topic squared.
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Of course, we could simply change the topic title on this “part 2” …
For me for 2m Portable, I have the following possibilities - some of which have already been mentioned:
- Arrow 2m/70cm with diplexer if using it for satellite work,
- Dual 2m / 70cm Halo.
- 2m Moxon.
- PCB magnetic loop for 2m - mounts directly onto the HT.
- 2m/70cm/23cm Colinear (but a bit big if working portable alone).
- RH-770.
73 Ed.
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I think you are e^off topic now. 
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Continuing the off-topic theme POTA is changing park references. In the USA parks used to have references in the form K-1234, these are going to change to the form US-1234. The changes in the UK are possibly going to irritate a few. Gone are G, GM, GW all will become GB - including GI.
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Hmmm… From the few changes mentioned, I’d guess they’re switching from a callsign-prefix based scheme to an ISO-3166 Alpha-2 based one. I wonder why? There’ll be plenty of scope for “interesting” confusion during the changeover…
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I love the idea they change the code for Greece from SV and the following month change the for San Salvador to SV. Not going to be any confusion there
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Not POTA, more general - On the DX-Heat site - their cluster used to bring up separate flags for England, Scotland, Wales etc. Now they use the Union Flag for all UK countries as they can no longer rely on the RSL being present.
73 Ed.
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Also, GM goes to GB and at the same time Gambia changes to GM…
All German park references seem to have changed almost overnight from DA to DE I haven’t found yet if DA is now used elsewhere.
Hey has anyone noticed there is a date given of 24th March for changing Gibraltar… from GI to GI (i.e. no change as far as I can see!).
The table would suggest that currently both Gibralter and Northern Ireland have a POTA code of GI !
Technically GB, Great Britain does not include N. Ireland. UK does. Look at a UK passport “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. GB, Great Britain is the biggest island of the British Isles which includes the island of Ireland and lots of others. Of course the British Isles refers to the physical land masses and just because you were born and bred on a British Isle does not make you British as people of Ireland will attest. In fact politically Ireland doesn’t recognise the term.
If you want to confuse people, ask the people of British Isles whatever their political or national allegiance may be.
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GB is the ISO-3166 Alpha-2 code for the United Kingdom. Interestingly, ISO-3166 Alpha-2 reserves UK for the United Kingdom. I wonder why we don’t just use that. We recently changed our international vehicle registration code from GB to UK.
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If they are switching to ISO-3166, then the answer’s “No” as there isn’t a country with the code “DA” (yet).
It is alleged that, once upon a time, Ukraine held a claim to the abbreviation “UK”…
I looked up UK in ISO-3166 expecting it to be Ukraine and finding it reserved for the United Kingdom.
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