Archive - May 2024

Taken from Charles (M0OXO) website some interesting news for February 2025.

Following their successful journey to Guyana under the callsign 8R7X, the team is now setting their sights on a new destination in the Pacific region. Their next DXPpedition will take them to the Marshall Islands, scheduled for February 2025.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available. Additionally, the team is in the process of launching a website, which will soon be accessible.

Ranked #100 globally and #58 in Europe, the Marshall Islands hold significant allure, particularly for lowband enthusiasts worldwide.

Follow the team’s social media channels to stay updated on this thrilling adventure.

For the past week or so there has been no access to the ARRL Logbook of the World (LOTW) website, which is the number one site for online confirmations. It seems that some of their pages have been “hacked” by cyber criminals. Luckily, according to the ARRL website there is no data breach that could be harmful. But I would still advise any one who uses LOTW to change their password when it comes back online.

Last weekend (Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th May) members of the HARES club met at one of the other members houses – Tony, G7FSD – to get his antennas in the air for VHF, and to do a repair to his G3TXQ Hexbeam 40M element. The team consisted of Mark (2E0SBM), Ady (G6AD), Dave (G1VNB), Tony (G7FSD) and myself.

For safety and ease of working at a height on the Hexbeam we erected a scaffolding tower to allow us to lower Tony’s original mast and then erect a small tower to mount the antenna on. This was the hardest part, and we had to do some crafty engineering to lower the poles down safely, but with a little brain power and muscle it lowered easily. As soon as the Hex was at the height easily to work on we moved on to the VHF array so we could make room in the garden to sort out the Hexbeam.

This was going to be a lot easier as Tony had a wall mounted Tennamast that has a winch to assist with lifting to the vertical, and he had already attached all the necessary wall mounting brackets. A 2M (144MHz) 11 element cross yagi and a 11 element 70cm (340MHz) yagi were then mounted on a short pole and attached to the rotator, again which had already been mounted to the mast. With the mast now attached to the lower mounting point allowing it to be lifted easily, we connected the winch to assist with lifting. Again some brute force was employed to initially get it moving while Dave used the winch to assist to get it to the vertical. Once in place and bolted up we did a quick test to check all the antennas were still resonant with the analyser and we moved back to the Hexbeam.

This is where it got difficult. When the antenna was removed from the tower we started to lower it down, but with the trees and bushes it soon got caught up and took a lot longer than first anticipated. When we eventually got it down one of the spreaders snapped so I came home and grabbed a spare one I have and took that back to Tony’s. Ady also had to go to his place to pick up another part that we needed so we lost an hour working on the Hex.

During this time Mark, Dave, and Tony tested out the VHF array, and found an issue with the rotator – this had been working fine before going on to the mast as we had set it to the North – where it would only turn about 30 degrees. Testing showed that the rotator itself was trying to turn as this could be heard. So we stripped down the controller to find a nylon cog had broken and a potentiometer looked to be intermittent. This we left for Tony to get repaired.

As soon as we made the repairs to the Hexbeam it was late in the day, Tony had cooked some Pizzas and we relaxed for a short while before heading home to return on the Sunday to complete the job.

Upon arrival, I was a little late, Ady and Tony were already getting the cables ready and sorting out the final parts for the Hexbeam to get it back in the air. We lifted it to a point where we needed just one more body to get it to the top of the scaffold tower and into the rotator on the stub mast. A quick call to see if Mark could come and assist, and thank you to his lovely wife Lorraine she allowed him while she did the weekly food shop. So with Ady and mark at the top, Tony and I lifted the antenna up to a pivot point and they then lifted into the stub mast. Antenna in place and again checked with the analyser it was tidy up the cables and check with the radio.

Back in the shack a final check with the analyser and everything was way out of tune. Tests on the cable found a PL259 had come loose and was the cause of the problem. It also identified that Tony had the 2 cable runs – the 40M element has it’s own feed – had been mixed up and he had been using the damaged 40M element rather than the other 6 elements of the Hexbeam. With this now sorted we left Tony to play on HF and get another controller for his VHF array.

Tony commented that he had never been in a club of any sort before where other members were willing to give up their time at a weekend to help another member out. Not just a radio club but any other club he had been a member of. Our comment was, “well that’s what it means to be a member of a radio club”

I am a member of HARES and on the 1st May 2024 we had a night on the air and demonstration of digital modes by myself an Cezary (2E0HUP). We set up the HF radio and 2 laptops to show what can be done. A 40M end fed antenna in the school playground and the clubs Icom IC7300 for the RF part. I did a quick demo of  FT8 making contact with OH1FOL in Finland using 50W, and then let other members have a go and explain the features of the WSJT-X software.

Cez then demonstrated a phone app that decoded and can transmit FT8 which some members then downloaded and used to decode from the radio speaker. This encouraged them to have a go from Home. As can be seen from the images we also had time to chat and catch up with other happenings. 

We also put Mark (2E0SBM) in a cupboard to fit some N-Type plugs to the coax for the VHF/UHF antenna we have up at the school, we will be having an evening on the air again soon using these antennas, and maybe see if we can get some contacts using Meteor Scatter, which is bouncing the signal off the trails from meteors hitting the earths atmosphere. An enjoyable evening at our club.

We would also like to invite any one in the area to come and pay us a visit anytime, but especially on the 15th May 2024 (our next club night) for a presentation by Lee Volante (G0MTN) on the upcoming World Radiosport Team Championships 2026 here in England. This is where teams of 2 operators operate from the same area using virtually the same equipment in a contest. The teams are made up of operators who qualify over the previous 2 or 3 years qualifying contests. 

We meet every other Wednesday at 7pm local time. The venue address is

Burbage C of E Infant School