Any Amateur Radio operators here?

[Jelster]

I took my test some 38 years ago, then did my A licence in about '94.

I haven't operated since about '98 when I sold my gear to put towards a deposit on a house. I'm now thinking of taking it back up, although Ofcom are being very difficult about me giving them "evidence" I passed the test... I've now gone back to City & Guilds to get a copy of my pass certificate which has just cost me £44....

Would be interested if there is anyone else out there that has done the same.

 

[Sky]

Not quite the same, but similar. Sorry to hear you had to pay the C&G.

I got my A licence around '82/3 and haven't been active for many years. I did keep my licence current though and only stopped paying them the £15.00 a year about ten (or so) years ago when they decided to waive the fee.

Earlier this year I checked with Ofcom Online Services to see if it was still valid and although it wasn't, it only took them a day or two to sort it out for me and send me a new licence. I have to validate it every five years myself now by logging into their portal.

 

[Mozthecat]

I did my foundation licence back in February and looking to work through intermediate over next months so that when we move from our current flat I am good to go.

There is very little vhf/uhf Voice action round here in Oxfordshire. Not got any Hf yet but looking at the g90 from Sinotel when ready.

 

[ChrisH]

Just got my license back but I'm lucky that I had my original renewal notice, plus all my paperwork and certificates. I jacked it in 23 years ago but I' just getting my shack set back up. Now it's just a one off payment of £20 to renew your license permanently as long as you go online and validate it once a year.
You'll find it's changed a lot, there's seems to be two slightly different camps.
One is the traditional lot like me who remember FM, AM, Sideband and CW along with SSTV and RTTY.
The other seems to be the modern ex CB yuppy styles who seem to think only digital transmissions are relevant in this day and age.
Personally I couldn't care less except for the few that still seem to think 2m and 70cm are a dead duck and not worth keeping.
What was your callsign ?

G0JPT

 

[Mr Badger]

And before any of you ask.. It is not raining here also!

View: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5hjol2

 

[Jelster]

We moved from London to Wiltshire 15 months ago, and my Brother-in-law (G7KCK) came down last week and he's just picked it up again. I found out that I live 3 miles from 70cm, 2m 6m & 10m repeaters. We were listening to them from time to time last week. He has an FT818, QRP rig but HF through to 70cms in the size of an old 2m mobile.....

I've got a bit of space for some HF antennas now, so will be interested in what I can get up. I still have a couple of 25a PSU's, an SWR meter etc, but I through out a load of packet gear not long before we moved, thinking it wouldn't be of any use :banghead:

I actually worked in the trade for a while, Lowe Electronics, Martin Lynch and SMC, but that was a lifetime ago....

 

[ChrisH]

The Ft818 seems to be a great little transceiver. I looked for an 857 but just couldn’t find a nice one so went for an Icom706. Unfortunately it doesn’t have 70cm but does HF with plenty of power. I went for an Icom IC7300 for a base station and a Yeasu FT400 2 and 70 but that has no sideband.

im still trying to figure out all the digital stuff, it all goes a bit above my head.

Steve what was your call sign ?

 

[Jelster]

Steve what was your call sign ?

I was G6URJ, then G0WSJ. I did keep both active as all the packet stuff (I ran a node) was on the G6 call. I did actually write a book for the RSGB years ago called "My First Packet Station".

 

[ChrisH]

Weird how your g6 is still registered on QRZ but not your G0 but good luck on your return.
Theres some great Facebook groups for Radio Hams these days, well worth a look.

 

[Jelster]

Weird how your g6 is still registered on QRZ but not your G0 but good luck on your return.
Theres some great Facebook groups for Radio Hams these days, well worth a look.

I've joined Amateur Radio UK on FB...

 

[lindsay]

I'm G8PMA and also keep my late dad's callsign renewed in my name G3KME, to use sometimes going down memory lane.
I got my RAE in 1978 and took up the Class B licence, never actually got round to doing the morse but now have full class A privileges aka Full licence since they dropped the morse requirement. Getting up to scratch in cw is on my retirement to-do list.
I had a gap for about 20 years, losing interest, but I kept all my kit and later inherited my dads, and then rather annoyingly sold all of it about 2 years before getting active again! So I now have a range of gear that is bang up to date (well, I started building the shack 8 years ago...).
I'm active on HF mainly digital modes, I suppose because I was always a little microphone shy, and because I'm a professional IT geek. My aerial is a simple end-fed wire about 60 ft long, and I have a few other wire aerials I've tried at different times, and a few vhf aerials in the garage that haven't seen the sky yet.
I was on an RSGB committee for a while, and have been the QSL Bureau sub-manager for the G3GAA-LZZ callsign group for a number of years now, because I always liked exchanging cards and it's interesting to see the great dx that the old boys using morse can achieve.

 

[Jelster]

If it all gets sorted, then Winter will be antenna building for me. At 19 I worked for the country's largest commercial short wave antenna manufacturer (C & S Antennas), then went to Jaybeam for a couple of years before spending time with South Midlands Communications, so antennas are a "thing" for me. I'll make a couple of trap dipoles and have them in either a V or an L in the garden.

 

[ChrisH]

If it all gets sorted, then Winter will be antenna building for me. At 19 I worked for the country's largest commercial short wave antenna manufacturer (C & S Antennas), then went to Jaybeam for a couple of years before spending time with South Midlands Communications, so antennas are a "thing" for me. I'll make a couple of trap dipoles and have them in either a V or an L in the garden.

How did you go on getting your paperwork sorted ?

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

I still have some VHF equip a 2 meter mobile, a Old 2 meter Handheld and a Belcom liner 2 2 meter SSB only radio and a number of CB's from my trucking days. But haven't used them for a good while I sort of became annoyed when they started to issue M0 callsigns to everyone rather than for those that had passed the Morse and them allowed Novices to use all bands. Passed the B in 93 and the Morse a couple of years later. My dad was a radio operator in the military so I ended up building broadcast radios and then later used CB radio just before it was made legal with a friends AM set and then legally not long after. I've often thought a Talk photography SSTV net on either 40 or 80 meters would be a bit of fun !

 

[Server Hamster]

I've often thought a Talk photography SSTV net on either 40 or 80 meters would be a bit of fun!

I've always wanted to be a Radio Ham(ster),

 

[Jelster]

M0PAB formally G7SKU, I still have some VHF equip a 2 meter mobile, a Old 2 meter Handheld and a Belcom liner 2 2 meter SSB only radio and a number of CB's from my trucking days. But haven't used them for a good while I sort of became annoyed when they started to issue M0 callsigns to everyone rather than for those that had passed the Morse and them allowed Novices to use all bands. Passed the B in 93 and the Morse a couple of years later. My dad was a radio operator in the military so I ended up building broadcast radios and then later used CB radio just before it was made legal with a friends AM set and then legally not long after. I've often thought a Talk photography SSTV net on either 40 or 80 meters would be a bit of fun !

Well I bought a radio on Friday, set it up Saturday afternoon and I've listened to over 30 countries during the weekend (currently listening to VE2CSI in Canada on 40 metres). Just waiting on Ofcom reissuing my callsign.

Never done SSTV, that could be fun...

 

[ChrisH]

Well I bought a radio on Friday, set it up Saturday afternoon and I've listened to over 30 countries during the weekend (currently listening to VE2CSI in Canada on 40 metres). Just waiting on Ofcom reissuing my callsign.

Never done SSTV, that could be fun...

Great to hear your getting going again. I’ve been watching out for the ISS transmitting SSTV on 145.800 there’s been some great efforts by members of one of the Facebook groups I’m in. There’s also been a HAM repeater made active on the space station but that’s less easy to figure.
20mtrs has been mad the last few weekends with contests taking all the bandwidt.
what did you treat yourself too ?

 

[Dale.]

Wow, brings back memories. I'm not qualified, I don't have licence but I spent many an hour with a friend though, who had his. I almost thought about getting mine, that would've been late 80s. He had Kenwood gear and it actually started a love affair for me with Kenwood HiFi gear but that's another story.

My mate had a tower in the garden too, he was really into it, he would often speak to people from all over the world, as a teenager myself, it was just amazing.

I had no idea it was still a thing in this digital age, it was all analogue, valves and clicky relays back then. Oh that smell.

 

[lindsay]

I think ham radio has evolved into less of an experimenters hobby and more of a competitive thing these days, with the plethora of contests and much less construction of kit; however there are a goodly number of people building especially QRP (low power) kit and operating it to see what it can achieve, and others chasing personal operating goals such as SOTA (look it up - combines hill walking with radio so very healthy), and yet others (as per the latest PW magazine) exploring higher and higher frequencies that the mobile phone companies haven't yet nicked. Amateur TV seems to be thriving and not just sstv, but high definition digital amateur tv too. Some people throw loads of money at it to buy top radios and loads of metal high in the sky, to win contests, even (mostly Americans and East Europeans) buying remote land to put up vast aerial arrays and setting up multi-radio installations to operate remotely over t'internet. GAS is big in ham radio just like photography!

 

[ChrisH]

I think ham radio has evolved into less of an experimenters hobby and more of a competitive thing these days, with the plethora of contests and much less construction of kit; however there are a goodly number of people building especially QRP (low power) kit and operating it to see what it can achieve, and others chasing personal operating goals such as SOTA (look it up - combines hill walking with radio so very healthy), and yet others (as per the latest PW magazine) exploring higher and higher frequencies that the mobile phone companies haven't yet nicked. Amateur TV seems to be thriving and not just ssts, but high definition digital amateur tv too. Some people throw loads of money at it to buy top radios and loads of metal high in the sky, to win contests, even (mostly Americans and East Europeans) buying remote land to put up vast aerial arrays and setting up multi-radio installations to operate remotely over t'internet. GAS is big in ham radio just like photography!

Think you hit the nail on the head. I’m not quite sure why the experimental fun seems to have become less of a thing. I hear of people amazed when they use their 10w Yeasu Ft818 portable and work Newzealand but we were doing that in the 80’s
I spent part of yesterday building a morse practice kit based on an arduino, it still gave me a buzz when I put a battery on it and it worked. I’ve not even got back on the air after a 23 year break but I still love listening and working out where callsigns are from. All this contest stuff bores the living daylights out of me personally but it’s great that others get a buzz out of it.

 

[lindsay]

Indeed Chris, one of my favourite radio toys is a WSPRLite (I actually have two, for some reason), transmitting 200mW of WSPR signals for days on end, which can be monitored on a website to see the automated spot-reporting that people do, showing (with some aerial and band combinations) that signal to be received globally. Interesting to see the way day and night impact the reception, for example

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

I have been listening to various SSB and AM Nets on CB radio and fancy having a go on that, quite a few people out there. 2 meters is dead in the black country the old repeaters have vanished and I'm lucky if I hear anyone elsewhere on the band Thats put me off bothering with the VHFgear I still have.. I loved building various things QRP transmitters, test gear and antennas and did at one point build a top band AM Transceiver whilst studying Electronic servicing, any idiot can throw money at gear but for me your not achieving anything by doing so.

 

[lindsay]

Brad, I think most of the old 2m repeater chat has moved to the new DMR digital voice channels - not something that interests me personally. I noticed the lack of 2m FM when I got back into it about 7 years ago. I think it was a result of losing the differentiation of class A and B licences and the restrictions on the latter. Now the DMR handhelds have picked up from there for the loads of new Foundation licensees.

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

Can those DMR digital voice repeaters be decoded with a PC ? I only have 25khz spaced radios which may also be why I do not hear a lot but do have a couple of scanners . Losing the differentiation between class A and B licenses really did annoy me I really struggled with Morse/cw and it took me a long time and a lot of effort to get up to 18 wpm for the requirement to be dropped to 5 wpm before I took the test then dropped completely not long after, The next thing I knew M0 call signs we being issued to everyone, I did try to regain my G7 call sign but was told I could only hold the M0 call.

 

[Jelster]

Great to hear your getting going again. I’ve been watching out for the ISS transmitting SSTV on 145.800 there’s been some great efforts by members of one of the Facebook groups I’m in. There’s also been a HAM repeater made active on the space station but that’s less easy to figure.
20mtrs has been mad the last few weekends with contests taking all the bandwidt.
what did you treat yourself too ?

I picked up an FT-891, mainly because A) it was within budget, and B) I want to drive up into the local Wiltshire Hills, throw up a 20m & 40m dipole and do a bit of portable working, keeping the power down.

Plus, I have always loved 6 metres, used to get a real kick out of 100watts and a 5 element beam. I had a big 2M station at one time, 300watts and a pair of stacked 10 element yagis. I worked loads of Europe, even down to the Canary Islands. Thing is, with that antenna set up, I could work all over the place on an old FT290, with just the 2.5 watts output.... No 2M gear yet, that's further down the road, need to make a fan dipole for my portable work first, but a cheap, lightweight collapsible beam for 6 Metres would be of interest too.

I've also been thinking about doing some SSTV reception, not sure what software there is for a Mac...

I think ham radio has evolved into less of an experimenters hobby and more of a competitive thing these days, with the plethora of contests and much less construction of kit; however there are a goodly number of people building especially QRP (low power) kit and operating it to see what it can achieve, and others chasing personal operating goals such as SOTA (look it up - combines hill walking with radio so very healthy), and yet others (as per the latest PW magazine) exploring higher and higher frequencies that the mobile phone companies haven't yet nicked. Amateur TV seems to be thriving and not just sstv, but high definition digital amateur tv too. Some people throw loads of money at it to buy top radios and loads of metal high in the sky, to win contests, even (mostly Americans and East Europeans) buying remote land to put up vast aerial arrays and setting up multi-radio installations to operate remotely over t'internet. GAS is big in ham radio just like photography!

Lindsay, it's still experimental to me, even though I use commercial transceivers, I tend to make my own antennas and move them around to see if I can change the directivity.

Last night I listened to JH7MQD in Japan on 40 metres, the evening before, CU3HN in the Azores. I can't wait to pick the mic up again...

I had some good news from C&G yesterday. They have "found" my certificates and copies should be with me by email in the next 7 days. Which means I can go back to Ofcom and get my old callsign back...

 

[Sky]

What always attracted me to Amateur Radio was HF and the self-build aspect of it. With the exception of a few 2m and 70cm rigs and a Yaesu receiver, I built nearly all my own transmitters, antennas and ancillary equipment. I was a SWL as a '60s kid with an old ex-military B40 and R107/8 and always aspired to HF DXing 'when I grew up'.

I went straight for the A licence because I was only interested initially in HF and although I could have had my licence sooner, I held out for an extra year to practice my Morse to get it up to 15wpm to be sure I'd pass the exam at 12wpm. There was then a three or four month delay waiting for the test at a local marine radio station. CW QRP on 20m and 40m was always a favourite, but I had a go/look at most things before I eventually gave up.

What put me off was the huge influx of ex-CBers who brought all their bad manners and habits with them in the '80s. Thankfully, the majority were too lazy to study Morse and ended up with G8/G6 callsigns and took over the 2m band with their inane drivel. It just went downhill after that.

 

[lindsay]

... I can go back to Ofcom and get my old callsign back...

That's great news, I hope they sort you out properly this time.
Well, I (very obviously) was one who benefited from the dropping of the morse requirement. I was too busy in the first year of my teacher training degree to do the morse study, I had really exhausted myself mentally doing the RAE course and old-style exam (longhand essays) at the same time, and having got on 2m, I was quite happy there despite having been an HF swl for about 5 years (in Hong Kong then England - VS6-339 then BRS36694). I did learn morse but only got to about 8wpm, hit the famous block and then got too busy teaching. It's something I really want tp pick up again in retirement, because I have a bunch of little qrp cw rigs I want to built from both kits and circuits from the G-QRP club.
I enjoy 6m too, though it's very much a summer band it seems to me unless you are extraordinarily patient and tenacious. Although I really like the potential; on hf, I think I am more of a vhf person though (6/4/2/70 plus 1296MHz maybe); I particularly like 10m on hf when its open and there are sunspots though.

 

[Jelster]

I did learn morse but only got to about 8wpm, hit the famous block and then got too busy teaching. It's something I really want tp pick up again in retirement, because I have a bunch of little qrp cw rigs I want to built from both kits and circuits from the G-QRP club.
I enjoy 6m too, though it's very much a summer band it seems to me unless you are extraordinarily patient and tenacious. Although I really like the potential; on hf, I think I am more of a vhf person though (6/4/2/70 plus 1296MHz maybe); I particularly like 10m on hf when its open and there are sunspots though.

I did my Morse test at a Martin Lynch "Open Day" (I worked for him at the time). During the rx test, the tester looked at what I had written, and said to me "You spell (whatever the word was) like that", knowing full well I had written down the wrong word altogether

I passed with no errors

I played with 23cms a bit, when I lived in Wingerworth and worked for Lowe Electronics, I had a packet node running 6m, 4m, 2m, 70cms and 23cms. I overlooked Chesterfield, and as its in a bowl the locals struggled to get access to any BBS or DX Cluster stations, so I gave them a route out. I had 5 radios, 5 TNC's and a computer all tied up in that little project. When I moved another local had most of the gear to set it up nearby. Used to love the early days of packet, and TCP-IP, all before we had the Internet...

 

[ChrisH]

I had some good news from C&G yesterday. They have "found" my certificates and copies should be with me by email in the next 7 days. Which means I can go back to Ofcom and get my old callsign back...

Super chuffed for you, I'm probably going to finally get back on the air this weekend. I've built my first Radio project in years this weekend an FMT Morse tutor, wow what you can do with an Arduino and a few extra bits. Great project and put a smile on my face when it worked. Waiting on a QRM noise eliminator that will hopefully get rid of a bit of noise on the HF bands although at a base level of S2 I'm not too worried.

 

[Jelster]

Waiting on a QRM noise eliminator that will hopefully get rid of a bit of noise on the HF bands although at a base level of S2 I'm not too worried.

If only...... Even though I'm out in the country, 160 & 80 are not workable from home, I have 10 over of noise, 40 & 20 are OK, only about S3, 15, 12 & 10 are around S4-5. I need to move the antenna and then sort out some filters...

 

[ChrisH]

If only...... Even though I'm out in the country, 160 & 80 are not workable from home, I have 10 over of noise, 40 & 20 are OK, only about S3, 15, 12 & 10 are around S4-5. I need to move the antenna and then sort out some filters...

Oh sh** I would be tempted to start by running my Transciever off a battery and turning everything off at the main fuse and see if any of it disappears. Apparently it can be anything from broadband modems to solar panels. Make sure your not shooting yourself in the foot first. For me I have a constantly spaced noise on 20 but luckily only about S3-4 but 10 is just laughable with a repeating pattern all up the band. It's more a case of where there might be a QSO than if there might be. Good luck in tracking it down.

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

I was just looking for a three pin 9 Volt regulator so I could power the old handheld I have from 12 volt these things used to cost penny's and are now costing pounds. I think this has probably had some affect on self build , Ham equipment used to be really expensive and is now really cheap if you don't mind Chinese stuff.

 

[Jelster]

I was just looking for a three pin 9 Volt regulator so I could power the old handheld I have from 12 volt these things used to cost penny's and are now costing pounds. I think this has probably had some affect on self build , Ham equipment used to be really expensive and is now really cheap if you don't mind Chinese stuff.

Coming back into the hobby after 20+ years away, I was amazed that you can now get a dual band handheld for under £50!! And from what I read, they're not that bad either. What also surprised me is the amount of digital repeaters there are now as well, and the fact that you can talk on your phone via the Internet, to a station mobile on VHF/UHF in the US... Mind blowing really.

 

[Rob 80386]

I started in radio with CB back in 2007, used to enjoy weekly nets on CH10 UK FM, but house moves / lack of space for antennas caused me to take a hiatus from anything serious, until now, the pandemic gave me a unique opportunity to take my amateur licence.
I've so far taken and passed both foundation and intermediate, studying for my full.

My callsign is 2E0YNW

since this is a photography forum, this post would be useless without pics


My rig is

Antennas:

• X30 UHF/VHF
• Moonraker HF-LW40
• Sigma Eurocomm SE-HF-X80 (currently packed away)
• Silver rod CB antenna (currently packed away)

Radios:

• Yaesu FT991A
• Alinco DR-135DX
• Baofeng UV-5R

PSU:

• Nevada 30A

Shack Computer:

• Dell Optiplex 7010 running Windows 7

 

[lindsay]

Well done @Rob 80386 Emily at getting your licence and progressing to Intermediate quickly; good luck with the Full licence course and exam. Glad to have you on the bands.
You have to be careful with ham radio as a hobby - like photography, GAS is a constant risk - as my "shack" photo shows:

 

[Jelster]

Well I now have my licence and have had my first QSO's in 20 years. I'm expecting some bits & pieces to turn up tomorrow so I can make a couple of dipoles to go portable with. Then I need a power source. I really don't want to spend silly money, but LifePro seems the way to go for portable power.

 

[Rob 80386]

Well done @Rob 80386 Emily at getting your licence and progressing to Intermediate quickly; good luck with the Full licence course and exam. Glad to have you on the bands.
You have to be careful with ham radio as a hobby - like photography, GAS is a constant risk - as my "shack" photo shows:
View attachment 296331

that's a nice rig you have there, I get what you mean about GAS, there's quite a bit of kit I would like to have, but I'm limited for space and promised my other half that I'll keep the radio gear in the shack and not all over the house, also have to be conservative on antennas, so they don't take up the garden, hence my current setup which is fairly compact and does the job nicely.

 

[Jelster]

If the rain stops I'm going to attempt to make a 40m inverted V tomorrow. In the evening, all the bands are really noisy except 40m, and that's the one band where my SWR is really high for some reason, So I monoband dipole which will be for portable use, but I want to sling it up at home to see how it works.

I've found out that a Mac, an FT891, and trying to use FT8 don't go together, so I'm going to sort out a Raspberry Pi 4 and use that as an interface to run FT8 onto an iPad via a terminal link. It's almost more about computing than talking to people these days.

 

[lindsay]

@Jelster you should be able to just pretty much plug and play the FT891 into a Mac, using the USB connection. What software are you using on the Mac? I use JTDX for FT8/4 on a MacBook connected to Kenwood rigs but it should be just as easy with the Yaesu rig. I use MacLoggerDX for logging and that works quite happily with JTDX for logging contacts directly.

 

[Jelster]

@Jelster you should be able to just pretty much plug and play the FT891 into a Mac, using the USB connection. What software are you using on the Mac? I use JTDX for FT8/4 on a MacBook connected to Kenwood rigs but it should be just as easy with the Yaesu rig. I use MacLoggerDX for logging and that works quite happily with JTDX for logging contacts directly.

891 hasn't got a sound cars, so I need to use the an interface (SCU-17). I've been using WSJT-X, but will look at JTDX. The issue with the 891 is getting it into Tx, I've tried the one & only driver available and it doesn't seem to work.