News/Blogg Archives 2004 / 2005 / 2006 / 2007 / 2009
18-12-2008 Poor NTHELL/VIRGIN (on the ridiculous) support forces site move. At last I can do an update.
Well the last published update to my site was back in August. I have not been able to update my site due to permission errors on the NTL server which, for what ever reason NTHELL have got no clue how to fix. Thank god I kept my QSL.NET space alive. So people please pass on the word that updates are back on the agenda for the G7VOT website and pass on the new URL.
Hopefully the move of the site will run smooth and all links will still work as they should. If you find any dead links then please let me know.
Radio wise I have done very very little. I often wonder why I still have the radio in the shack, as it's just going to waste. At the same time, the bands have been nothing to write about when I have been on the air.
If you have read the previous update below, you will be aware that I sold my audio rack. I am now going to experiment (time allowing) with software controlled audio via the PC using a program called Voice Shaper. This program allows me to adjust the audio to my radio in real time, I can EQ, Compress and De-noise adjust for clipping using this software. All audio goes into and out of the PC soundcard. Initial tests are very good however, I have not performed any on air tests as yet. This software also gives an on screen display of you're audio waveform live. You can also record you're voice with no effects enable and then add EQ etc to the recorded audio and hear the result. Thanks to my old friend Dave (soon to be an M6) for the software, one of many he gave me. Another advantage of this software is that it's freeware and doesn't take up any of my serious lacking, shack space. Also RF issues shouldn't occur, well unless you're PC has problems with RF.
Future plans for radio, well I don't have any other than the above. I will go with the flow and wait for the bands to improve. Other commitments are way ahead of radio at the moment also. My family for one is top of the list and I am spending a lot of time doing the things my kids want to do, fishing, model railways, console games to name a few. I am also doing a fair bit of photography which, I may add a web page on the site soon in order to display my photo's.
Well thanks for reading and thankfully I can finally update the site regularly again.
Oh one more thing, and it's important. Please join the Yahoo group for UKQRM. This group is fighting the fight of the dreaded QRM which threatens to kill our hobby.
19-10-2008 Radio rally's almost dead.
Hi all, well it's been a long time since I have done an update. I have just been busy with work, family and my other hobbies and I had a bit of a problem with access to my site. Thankfully that is resolved. Radio has taken a back seat for the past couple of months, so much so, that I have had only 15 contacts since my last update and 10 of those were in the Work all Europe contest.
So what have I been doing? Well the times I have been on the radio all I have done is listen, I really have not had the motivation to transmit. I have sold my audio rack, however, I do intend to get some other audio equipment once the dreaded expense of Christmas is out of the way.
I also had a slight problem with my FT-950 which I sorted out my self after 4 weeks of email correspondence with Yaesu Japan via Yaesu UK. The RX muted when I selected RTTY-USB and if I TX'd the radio would stick in TX. Yaesu had no answer for it and seemed very reluctant to try any thing. In my original contact with Yaesu I suggested that the problem may well be a firmware issue and suggested a re-flash of the firmware. For some reason Yaesu did not acknowledge my suggestion and just kept asking me to try things that I had already advised them I had tried. I suggested a firmware re-flash to Yaesu several times and each time I had no acknowledgement of whether I should try this or not. Well after 4 weeks of getting no where I took matters in to my own hands and re-flashed the DSP firmware. Thankfully this resolved my issue, however, it has left me with little confidence in Yaesu support. I am not going to make a big issue out of this, whats done is done, however if any one wants further info on my experience then email me.
Well last Sunday I went to the Rally at Lumley. My friend Adrian (M1BOC) called me the day before the rally and asked if I would like to go. I didn't need any thing, neither did I have any spare cash for anything but, I thought I would go if only for a change of scenery. I advised Ade that the rally would probably be poor and that there wouldn't be a lot there as rallies have been going downhill quickly over the past few years. Well myself, Ade and Colm (2E0OCE), who suggested we go in the first place (we will never listen to him again) got to Lumly at around 10am and I knew then that this rally was going to be poor just by the fact that it was very easy to park, there was no queue forming and people that where in attendance were allowed to pay and wait in the Foyer. In the Foyer there was probably no more than 50 people when the doors finally opened at 10.30am. The rally itself took less than 5 minuets and had about 8 stalls including the RSGB and LAM Communications.
Myself, Ade and Colm spent about 1 hour at the rally, mainly chatting about how poor it was. The best thing about the whole experience was the bacon butty I had. I Bumped into a few fellow hams, Ray (2E0RDO), Alan (M3XAC) and Lenny (M0KOM) to name a few, nice see you you guys. Any way I would like to thank Ade for the couple of hours out of the house, however, I have one suggestion for you Ade. Please don't listen to Colm with his rubbish idea's any more, especially regarding Radio Rallies.
The main thing that strikes me regarding rallies is the lack of basics. No stall's at the last couple of rallies I have attended have had basics such as coax, PL plugs, Mic plugs etc. It's a crying shame really as a rally was always a great place to get the essentials and grab a bargain luxury item while meeting new people and catching up with old friends. The one positive of the rally was the Bring and Buy which had some good items, unfortunately, nothing I was interested in.
Contacts since last update, all 20mtrs unless stated
HB0/DL7JAN (6 MTRS), LY777W, E77EY (6 MTRS), UR5ZVP, JH4UYB, K1ZM, UA9PC, K1DG, UP0L, UA9CLB, VE3AT, JH3PRR, RG9A, W1UE, KI1G, EE5KB and W3XB.
14-08-2008 Sign the PETITION.
Well it's been a long time since we had a serious threat to the welfare of our great hobby. However, this latest threat comes from BT, who see it as a good idea to, install devices in to households in order for said household to watch TV in any room, via a device that uses the mains cable to transmit the TV signal.
These devices have a 200mtr range and totally destroy the HF spectrum with noise. We cannot allow this to happen.
So how can you help. Well for starters you can go to http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/SaveShortwave/ and sign the petition. We need to let the Government know that we are not happy about this and we need to do it now.
Do not leave it for some one else to try and stop. Act now because it will be to late to act afterwards.
Thanks to Ray (2E0RDO) for bringing this petition to my attention via Junksale.
13-07-2008 Another plain update.
Have nothing to report regarding the radio. I have not been to active as I just cannot be bothered sitting in the shack listening. Had some good contacts during the IARU Contest but, other than that I have not done a lot since my last update.
I have worked the following none IARU stations since my last update. All 20mtrs SSB unless, otherwise stated.
YU1DW, OH/OM5MF, UT9MZ, OE2008G, G0NGF (80MTRS), OE2008RI, UE1OTA/P, SX24GRV (6 MTRS), OY/DL2MLU, AN5KB.
The following contacts were all made in the 2008 IARU Contest. Once again all 20mtrs SSB unless, stated otherwise.
F8AOF (10 MTRS), SN0HQ, OZ1HQ, OE1A, SQ4MP, OM8HQ, OL4HQ, DA0HQ, YT8HQ, IU4HQ, SP3GXH, OM8HQ (10MTRS) IU9HQ (10MTRS), TM0HQ (10 MTRS), OL4HQ (15MTRS), SP9LJD (15MTRS), DA0HQ (15MTRS), OM8HQ (15MTRS), 9A0HQ (15MTRS), DJ6QT (15MTRS), OK1OUE, F5KEE, HG6N, S50HQ, TM0HQ, OE1A (10MTRS), IU5HQ (15MTRS), VE3EJ, K9RS, KT3Y (CW), SK9HQ, SP9LJD, OZ2PBS.
02-06-2008 Just a plain update.
Well it's been almost 1 month since my last update and thankfully the bands have shown some improvement. Most of the bands have been open, including the band I love the most, 6 metres. I will list the stations I have worked at the bottom of this update.
Also since my last update I almost went QRT. I suddenly had an urge to get back on to a motorbike, in fact I still want to. I advertised my all my kit on various sites but, only had one offer of a motorbike. Unfortunately the location was way to far away and I just could not get there. I gave my kit around ten days, both for sale, or exchange. Nothing came of it. I had plenty of interest in the audio kit but, I was not wanting to separate everything, so on Friday 30-05-2008, I decided just to keep the kit.
Well the past two weeks have seen some of the best conditions for a while. We have had some great short skip and 6 metres has been fantastic.
With regards to the audio I have had some great unsolicited audio reports. I have even been advised that I have perfect audio. So the rack going through the RTTY port on the 950 sure works well.
So since my last update I have worked the following stations, all on 20mtrs USB, unless otherwise stated.
SI9AM, LZ0KM, IW9HL, YO4NA, HG1848I, OE2008C, HB2008EM, HB10DX, EM5UCC, E74EBL, HA806NF, OK3RQ, IS0SWW (6mtrs USB), OE2008R, EB2FJN (6mtrs USB), EA1BAB (6mtrs USB), F5EOT (6mtrs USB), F8CKS (6mtrs USB), IS0SWW again (6mtrs USB), SP7HKK (6mtrs USB), PE1DTU, EG8CID, OM2VL, RV3DMX, 8S6KOS, HB2008BL, DA0CA.
07-05-2008 Guess what? More audio.
Well today I was given a Behringer B-1 microphone from some one who used to be a studio sound engineer. While he was having a loft clear out he found it and knew I liked my Behringer Audio kit so, he passed it on to me.
Initial tests of the B-1 against the PR-20 is a win for the B-1. This may change though with actual on air reports. I have added a pic of the B-1 in the SSB Audio page.
06-05-2008 Audio Audio and you guessed it, more audio.
Well I finally got some time over the bank holiday weekend to wire my rack into the rear of the FT-950. All sounds fantastic and I don't have the hum that was present going into the front end of the rig. I have yet to have a report but if the rig sounds anything like it does on air as it does through the monitor, it will be good.
Also on the audio side of things I have got my hands on some fantastic Bose headphones. Bose Quiet Comfort 2, they are out standing. They make my old Sony and Behringer headphones sound like headphones from and early 80's walkman.
I have also updated the ESSB audio page.
24-04-2008 New DXCC, New Behringer Module.
On the 20-04-2008 I had a great 20mtr CW contact with V8FGM from Brunei Darussalam, so that's a new one for the DXCC. I also worked RK3QWW and IT9ABY on the same day on 20mtrs SSB.
I have also got a new piece of Behringer kit, an Autocom Pro-XL MDX1600, this replaces the MDX4600. The reason I have got this item is because it has a De-Esser function.
17-04-2008 FT-950, Loved it, started to dislike it, back to loving it.
Well I have now owned the FT-950 for almost 3 weeks and I am still learning about this radio. I have spent most of this time just listening. 1st impressions made me love it. Then after a week I was beginning to think I had made a mistake in letting the 870 go for the 950 however, I am a believer in giving things time and the 950 is proving that belief to be correct. After almost 3 weeks I am well and truly beginning to love this rig.
If you don't like reading manuals, do not buy an FT-950. If you want to turn on and just key the mic or press the key and away you go, then do not get an FT-950. The FT-950 is an operators radio and it needs to be operated.
At the beginning of the week I was asked by a friend (Neil M0MJT) what I thought of the 950 now I had had it a couple of weeks? My reply was "OK". He asked "Just OK?" I said "Yeah" and proceeded to hit him with things I didn't like about the 950 like the DNR, Roofing Filters, AGC, RX filtering in general. I then decided to read a fair few reviews of the FT-950 and general opinion of the rig on the FT-950 Yahoo Group. 99% of people rated the RX and the filters, so what was I doing wrong?
Last night I sat down and made it my goal to suss out the RX on this rig. I found some weak stations on a noisy 80mtr band and gave my self the challenge of pulling those weak stations out of the noise.
WOW, is all I can say, this rig amazed me. Like I say it's an operators rig. I spent around 3-4 hours experimenting with the Contour, Notch, Width and Shift settings and also with the DNR and Attenuation. Delving deep into the individual menu settings of the Contour Control gave me a Jaw dropping experience of just how good the RX is on the FT-950. That one control can and does pull so much through the noise it is amazing. If the Contour on it's own doesn't beat the noise then rest assured used in conjunction with the Attenuation and, or RF gain it sure as hell will.
The Notch, Shift and Width controls all help beat the QRM from other stations. The NB beats pulse noise with ease. The DNR reduces the white noise level but, can be a little aggressive but no doubt with further experimenting I will get used to the required level needed, the DNR does have 15 levels to choose from each acts differently depending on the sort of noise you are looking to reduce.
I must add that the above is relevant to SSB, CW is another animal and the RX on the FT-950 on CW is way ahead of any other rig I have owned and is sure starting to creep ahead of them all on SSB too.
I have not had to many contacts on the FT-950, in fact I have had 9, 3 CW contacts and 6 SSB contacts with 3 of them being local. TX Audio reports have been good with and without the Audio Rack.
I will do a full review after I have owned the rig for at least 3 months, so watch this space.
Not long after writing the above I had a great new DXCC contact on 20mtrs into Thailand. I have added a Sound bite. I have also added a video of the new FT-950 receiving HS1NGR on to Youtube. I must point out the on the sound bite my TX audio isn't at it's best, I was using the stock mic with a narrow TX bandwidth with the internal EQ and the rigs compression enabled.
29-03-2008 New Rig.....
Well yesterday (28-03-2008) I was taken to just outside of Selby by Ronnie (M3RNO) to complete a deal with my TS-870 for a Yaesu FT-950.
A HUGE THANK YOU TO RONNIE, YOUR A STAR MATE. IF EVER I CAN RETURN THE FAVOUR I WILL.
Got to Selby at around 7.30pm and had a play with the 950. The 950 was mint as you would expect for a radio only 3 months old. I had a quick contact on 80 with Keith (2E0JKD) on his new Capco Magloop, and he thought I was at home. Dave had a play with the 870 and was happy so the deal was completed. Got back to Middlesbrough at around 10:30pm. By the time I had set the radio up it was just after 11pm.
I spent around an hour playing around with various settings on the rig and to be honest the 950 isn't one of those set up and forget about it rigs. The FT-950 is a radio that needs constant interactivity and that's what I like.
Tonight I have played around further and delved deeper into the features on this rig and I am really beginning to be impressed. RX is quiet and the filter is very good but, will be even better once I know my way round the radio better. TX audio is good using the internal Parametric EQ but, at the moment I am unable to use my audio rack, however I am looking into that so watch this space.
Had a contact tonight on 6mtrs with Paul (G0OPH) and it's great to be back on the magic band.
Well that's all for now except to add that I have added a large hi-res of the 950 on the MY EQUIPMENT PAGE.
25-02-2008 Club, Contacts, You Tube.
Well the club is still in planning stages. The biggest hurdle so far has been time or should I say lack of it. Unfortunately none of us have been able to organise a venue due to the lack of time, however we have not given up yet on getting the club running. Any way we will get some thing sorted and set in stone sooner or later, as soon as we can all get together and add the finishing touches.
Contacts since last update are as follows, 24-01-08; YT1HA 1ST CONTACT OF 2008. 27-01-08; UR0UL, YT6M, UA1AQA, RA1AGL, YR1C, EF5K, EG5Y. 03-02-08; HA5ATP. 04-02-08, W2AJI. 14-02-08; YU1DW. 24-02-08; IZ8FQV.
I have started to add videos to You Tube. Some will be Amateur Radio related. The first two I have added are of Ronnie (M3RNO)(1st vid) and Keith (2E0JKD)(2nd vid) in QSO with IZ8FQV. See below.
13-01-2008 New Club.
Well a few of us have got together and decided to start a club. The name of the has yet to be confirmed but favourite at the moment is ERIMUS AMATEUR RADIO & HOBBYIST GROUP. The club is all about fun fun fun and promoting the hobby in a fun and friendly way. We are also not just about Ham Radio but, various hobbies, although 95 percent will be Ham Radio. We aim to train would be Amateurs and we aim to compete in contests. Above all though, we aim to promote Amateur Radio in order to get more people to involved.
I will be dedicating a page to the club in the near future once we have all details confirmed. So keep a look out for details.
06-01-2008 Solar Cycle 24, Archive.
Well I read with interest on www.SpaceWeather.com that Solar Cycle 24 has finally began.
"Solar physicists have been waiting for the appearance of a reversed-polarity sunspot to signal the start of the next solar cycle. The wait is over. On Jan. 4th, a magnetically reversed sunspot emerged at solar latitude 30 N, this marks the beginning of Solar Cycle 24 and the first step toward a new solar maximum. Intense solar activity won't begin right away. Solar cycles usually take a few years to build from solar minimum (where we are now) to Solar Max (expected in 2011 or 2012). It's a slow journey, but we're on our way!"
So things should start to improve, slowly but surely.
I have now archived last years News/Blogg and it can be viewed via the links at the top of the page.
04-01-2008 Not much happening.
Well unfortunately I don't have much to add to the site. I have not been very active on the radio and when I have been on the bands it's been on 2 with the usual suspects.
Will be making some changes to the site in the next week or so as I will be archiving last years news and sorting out the sound bites, which I haven't updated for a year.
Plans for this year.... Hobby wise I don't really have any. I would like a new radio, one capable of 6mtrs and I would like to add/replace some of the audio rack such as a mic pre-amp and a parametric EQ. I doubt I will get a new radio as my XYL is not very hobby friendly and neither are my wages from my job. Donations accepted and job offers listened to, Hi Hi.
Well have a great 2008 everyone and I hope to work most of you.
