• Welcome to The Bushcraft Forum

    You are currently viewing the site as a guest and some content may not be available to you.

    Registration is quick and easy and will give you full access to the site and allow you to ask questions or make comments and join in on the conversation. If you would like to join then please Register

Radio Contest

Harry Palmer

Very Addicted
Messages
1,321
Points
860
Ham radio contest running today on 80m, I've had some great fun, conditions are very good, talked to hams all over Europe and Russia from a portable rig...I'm a happy ham :)
 
Ham radio contest running today on 80m, I've had some great fun, conditions are very good, talked to hams all over Europe and Russia from a portable rig...I'm a happy ham :)


Indeed as LW Says " Good for you" - Radio comms and ongoing communications as we all agree will be of vital importance in a Post Fall world bringing people , skills and communities together to rebuild.
 
just how many radio hams and the like are there in the UK? is it popular or is it a niche hobby?
 
More popular then prepping I'd suggest but yes a niche hobby - probably falling off now as the old schools types that got into it didn't have the internet.

Must have been rare and interesting fun back in the day.
 
I knew one or two old boys who had a radio mast in the back garden. rare sight these days.
 
There are about 80,000 licenses but not all are used actively, last figures I saw showed around 30,000 active hams. Many hams don't operate on short wave so don't need large antennas. You can 'hide' loop antennas in your loft, run a dipole across your guttering and down pipe. Yesterday I used an G5RV dipole strung up on fibre glass poles. I've no fixed antennas as house No2 is now sold and I have to be out by Thursday.
 
i spoke back to the UK from an HF set in a jungle on the foothills of Mount Kenya using a bi-directional wire antenna. it was possible to be linked to a phone line so I rang my girlfriend to show the blokes what could be done. Silly cow didnt pick up......

38
 
Working the UK from a jungle using a bi-directional wire antenna...you did exceptionally well; using CW?

I was running a Yaesu 857d yesterday which as always worked very well, running around 50w. This morning I've been on CW at 5w on my 817D and worked Europe and one USA station...I love QRP.
 
Don't know which radio it was, either HF or SW and it was very dependant on climatic conditions and time of day which may have been a factor in her not answering.....

38
 
SW is usually described as 1.6MHz up to 30MHz while HF is 3MHz up to 30MHz, I think what Harry was rightly trying to say is that they are essentially two names for the same radio band that have come about through changes in terminology as technology has developed.
 
The Foundation test is extremely simple. I'd advise anyone to have a go. It's another skill to add.
 
I don't think of the Foundation level as a test, its more of a quiz and is very simple. I do try and encourage newcomers to learn and use Morse code, more miles for your watt :)
 
I don't think of the Foundation level as a test, its more of a quiz and is very simple. I do try and encourage newcomers to learn and use Morse code, more miles for your watt :)

Do you have any suggestions or tips on how the newbie can best learn Morse?

I've spoken to a lad from 264 Sqd who suggested you literally just have to lock yourself away in a box and brainwash yourself for a couple of weeks.

Any tips?
 
Learn the code, not in dots and dashes but in dits and dars. Listen to Morse, this little app plays text files from your phones and you can adjust the playback speed https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ddsoftware.cw.morseplayerfree&hl=en_GB

Just leave it playing in the background and let your brain get used to the sounds. When my father taught me morse he said that if you listen enough then one day your brain just wakes up and the code makes sense...he was right.

To listen in general this is a good site

http://hackgreensdr.org:8901
 
160m and 80m are alive and kicking :) I've been on for sometime and am now having a milk and brandy before getting some sleep :)
 
Back
Top