Getting ready for "the season".

Sorry I have been absent for a while but things other than radio have been keeping me busy.

I have at last got round to my Springtime re-organisation of antenna. What has been different this year is that there never was a Winter change over. I did the entire winter season with last Summer's configuration, which meant that five large antennas braved the colossal Storm Arwen. Trees and walls were blown down all around us, but the antennas at GM4FVM, somehow, managed to resist.

The new arrangement is based on my decision to go for single band antenna for now. Great though the two Dual antennas are, I am seeking the extra decibel or two which having separate antennas will (might?) give me. But I will have lost the benefit of halving the space required on the masts. Something has to give and that is my 6m operations. I hope to put up a 6m vertical to compensate, to be used mostly as a receiving antenna to help me work the higher bands. I still have a 6m HB9CV which could be used if I feel the need to get back on 6m more seriously.

Anybody who reads this blog regularly will know that it is only a matter of time before I change everything back and put the big 6m beam back up. I think that is a key aspect to this hobby - keep changing and experimenting so that you don't get bored. Meanwhile there are at least 4 good 6m beams in the garage waiting to be dusted off again.

Antennas at GM4FVM on 20 March 2022

The only new antenna is an 8 element I0JXX for 144MHz. At a bit over 3.5m boom it is a step up on the 2m side of the Dual that I have taken down. Below that is the Wimo 18 element for 432MHz. In the distance is the 5 element 70MHz PowABeam which is now back up below the 36 element Dual for 1296MHz.

This is my first experience of the I0JXX antenna. I was a bit doubtful of the boom getting thinner towards the ends but it is well constructed and looks very strong. The elements are held in place using hand tightened self-locking nylon bushes. Or so it says, as I could not find the strength to tighten them and had to carefully use spanners, even though the instructions said "never do that". Anyway, we shall see how that performs. What is up now may have longer booms but they are much smaller in area, weight and wind area, just in case Storm Arwen returns.

This whole process has been delayed by my dodgy knee which has given several months of pain. As for the other things, well I deal with all that later. Suffice to say I am going again now.

There has been a little tropo opening to welcome me back 

144MHz stations worked at GM4FVM from 18 to 21 March 2021.

Working 4 DXCC on 144MHz with a best DX of 695km is a nice outcome. Even nicer was working OZ2ND and OZ1JMN on 432 MHz, where 695km is even nicer. And just to play the trump card, I then worked OZ2ND on 1296MHz where 689km is really rather pleasant in every way.

Actually, just to show the stage we have reached, as soon as I worked OZ2ND on 2 metres we both switched to 70cms. And while I was then working OZ1JMN on 70cms I glanced at the screen and ON2ND was calling me on 23cms. So Niels Erik doesn't wait for any request, he goes up onto 23cms and calls me expecting me to be there - and I was.

Even though it is becoming common, I still find the idea of all this astounding. A station on the other side of the North Sea will have sufficient confidence in me turning up that he just calls me on 1296MHz. True, I have improved my 23cms station. I now have a second hand 150W linear formerly used by G8SFA and a 36 element beam. However, who would have thought that such a thing was possible? Not me for sure.

Also on the up is solar activity. There have been a few auroras recently, but none produced much radio at this end. However, this is a sign that the long solar minimum lull in aurora activity is coming to an end. The radio aurora peak trails the sunspot peak by a year or two so maybe we are at last near the end of the drought.

73

Jim

GM4FVM