A Talky Walk

Went for a stroll to the end of the lane and round the cricket field. I went there two days ago and there was nothing of note to photograph. This time the adjoining field was populated by a large flock of sheep. Until I got too close many were lazing in the sunlight:



Several were watching me as I grew nearer:



There were many patches of fungi appearing, starting about the size of my little finger nail:



Some appeared to be fully grown at about 15mm across:



Recently I found that the local amateur radio repeater transmitter was back in operation. (The repeater receives a transmission and the re-transmits it. The idea being that amateurs can use a low power transmitter and the repeater re-broadcasts it at a higher power) Anyway, I had dug out one of my hand held transmitters from where I had stored them several years ago, charged the battery and took it with me to see whether I could make any contacts.



As I walked back from watching the sheep I made a couple of calls through the repeater and an amateur in Boston, Lincolnshire answered and we had a 10 to 15 minute conversation by radio. An activty I've missed for many years. There was a time I used to have radio chats every day when I walked Tramp, the dog I had then, first thing in the morning.

On the return journey I spotted the sunlight shining through the leaves of a Japanese maple bush. A photograph doesn't do justice to the beautiful red glow:





All in all a satisfying walk in brilliant sunlight, even with the cold breeze across the open field.

HAMming it Up

On Saturday I felt in need of a change of scene Ham radio wise. I had been working on VHF and above for quite a while and decided to go back to HF working. Looking at activity reports on the 'net it was obvious VHF conditions were poor but HF was alive with contacts. I retrieved my HF transmitter from its resting place in the utility room. I really must get my aerial cables identified as to which goes to what aerial. It took at least an hour to find the correct one. The transmitter is the bottom one in this photo.



There should have been lots of activity on the 10 metre band but I was receiving a fat zero so I changed to 30m - the magic band. Lots of signals received and plenty of contacts made using the digital mode FT8. I even managed to contact a country I had never worked before. I had received signals from an operator in China but initially couldn't make contact. About half an hour after that he called me and a two way contact was made. That made my day.

I use a web site (pskreporter) to see who is receiving my signals and my 70-75 Watts of RF seemed to be travelling well.



At one stage a Radio Amateur in Ghana reported receiving my signals but so far that is another country I have yet to make a two way contact with.

More Ham (of the amateur radio variety)

Towards the end of last month I invested in a new transmitter.



This one works on three different amateur radio bands and has more power that the ones I had been using. Last Sunday I spent the day re-erecting most of the yagi beam aerials I used to have on the mast.



The radio and the aerials allow me to work on the 2m, 73cm and 23cm bands. The latter is one of the microwave bands. The 55 element aerial for that is at the very top of the mast. Using 23cm depends very much on atmospheric conditions. They were nearly right for me to work a Danish station last night but alas conditions changed before we could make a full exchange of information.

Winding Down

Or should I say winding over?
Yesterday, having finally finished giving the lawn a short back and sides, I decided to change the 2m yagi beam for a more sensitive one. This is the mast once it has been tilted over:



The old beam can be seen still attached to the top of the mast and the replacement is leaning up against the mast. Time will tell whether it has been worth the effort.

 

As conditions for radio contact are changing rapidly it will take a few days, or maybe weeks, to judge whether it is an improvement.