Greetings from IO87ei, and CW contacts!!

Greetings from Grantown-on-Spey in Moray, IO87.

Here is my new antenna :--

For a new antenna it may look like a 6 year old car and a 12 year old caravan. Which is true, and if you look very carefully a very old whip can be seen at the back of the car.

After spending a few days in the caravan, this holiday seemed radio free. Over several days I heard F1OMQ, EB3DCS, IJ1PJH and HB9HLN on 6m metres.But none of them could hear me. As usual I spent ages stringing up dipoles and verticals, but with no result. I could not be heard. 10m was dire in the extreme.

Then it dawned on me that I might get better results using the antenna on the car. I strung co-ax between the car and the caravan. The improvement was dramatic. Suddenly with a socking great ground plane under them, things began to happen using vertical whips.

10m WSPR sprang into life. 6m was humming. However, on these bands I only have telescopic whips which are not really designed for the back of cars. They seemed to work though.

Then I plugged in the 4m mobile whip and worked Marcel SP2HMR in JO94 (1408km). Not bad for a mobile whip. And 59 both ways!

Why it has taken me days to work this out is a mystery to me. By now the holiday is nearly over. However, I may work a few more in the time left.

Note for future reference - organise some proper mobile whips for caravan/car operation.

It just goes to show how the obvious answer is not always the one that springs to mind.

We left for here on Sunday. A couple of people asked me to come on during the RSGB 4m CW contest. ME ... CW??? Anyway, that contest uses post code areas and mine is a rare one - TD for the River Tweed. So I came on and worked G4TSW (558km) and GM4VVX (277km). Just keep me to simple information, don't ask me difficult questions, and keep to 10 words per minute max. Then I am great. In general I am afraid of CW contests. I can sort-of do slow CW, and I can do contests, but both together stress me out. Still, nice to work VVX on tropo for the first time. Clive is not far away but there are a lot of mountains in the way. And our caravan is now up in those mountains.

Next report will probably be from the home QTH and a proper antenna will be in use. But in the meantime, this is getting to be more fun up here.

73

Jim
GM4FVM/P