Have just come down from Allermuir Hill - it was pretty windy up there. Could only get the 5-ele 2m beam up by keeping it low and holding it in the right direction. Tried a few calls on SSB but no joy.
Fortunately there were enough locals around to get the (one!) point. Managed 3 on 2m FM and 1 on 2m AM, all using the short helical on the FT-817. It’s worth remembering in that area that there are a number of locals that listen on 145.800 AM. I see it’s the only AM contact in GM-land on the database!
Didn’t even attempt the HF dipoles - would have had wire tangled round everything.
The use of 145.800 AM in Edinburgh and satellites interference is long running and fraught. It’s a huge bone of contention in these parts best described as the irresistible force of “we’ve always used this frequency” meets an immovable object of “it’s a pan-European formal allocation”.
Of course using the frequency when there’s no ISS/Shuttle/Satellite in range shouldn’t be problem. Well you’d think so…
I’d think so, too, Andy…the SSTV allocation is too small around here and we have to spread HF! The trouble comes when people fail to give way to the traffic that should be on that frequency.
The bandplan is merely a gentleman’s agreement. Unfortunately, not all hams behave like gentlemen. I don’t refer to John by the way, just to make it clear.
Hadn’t twigged that frequency is FM space to Earth - I see formally 145.806 is the bottom of the satellite exclusive.
You can tell I’ve been off the air for years! - but SOTA is a great way to get active again, in more ways than one - I used to do a lot of hillwalking as well so this will get me back into it. Am enjoying the fun of activating and hope to continue over the winter, though I think a small (25W) linear would help a bit to get down south from this area - so that’s a winter project. The 5-ele homebrew (DK7ZB design) beam seems to be a cracker though - once it’s up. See the photo of a very bendy pole I’ve just added to the SOTA Flickr group.
Also would like to have a go at satellite, EME, … the list goes on. Have dug out my 10GHz waveguide - never got that project done - still have the Gunn diode and mixer diode but I guess I should aim for narrow band. Am certainly interested in doing some activating in the UHF to microwave bands.
Am certainly interested in doing some activating in the UHF to microwave bands.
Well you know you’ll be most welcome. Jack GM4COX, Barry GM4TOE and myself are looking to organise some 10GHz activity next year. So the more people we can get on board the better. Also I’ve been playing with ideas for some GM SOTA awards for SHF/uwave activating and chasing aswell. Anything to increase activity. Of course SOTA chasers don’t need encouraging to beam North. It’s the non-SOTA types who need some persuasion.
