WOW, what a busy few weeks since Christmas. Firstly I travelled up to Yorkshire on Christmas Day via a quick stop off in Nuneaton to see my 3 favourite people outside my family, then while in Doncaster spent Christmas Day with my mum and uncle Ken (mums brother), before checking in to my usual hotel for 4 nights. Boxing day again went to see mum and took her to my cousins for a party before heading back to the hotel. And rather than sit in and be bored I went to the Marketplace Deli bar for a couple of beers, another friend was in there so we went for a small pub crawl before getting in taxis’ and heading home.
Saturday I went for a walk around the lakeside shopping centre to try and find a white t-shirt but it was that busy I just went back to the room in the hotel and decided to get ready to go and meet my old school mate Andy Constantine and his wife Valerie. I have known Andy since we were 11 years old at school and remained friends all this time. A few beers washed down with a good Indian curry ended the weekend. Sunday again I visited my mum and had lunch with her before back to the hotel for an early night – yes I did my usual 4am set off time to get back to Kent before the traffic got heavy on the roads.
New Year was a quiet one with me having come back with a cold/flu type virus which knocked me off my feet so ended up staying home for New Years Eve, listening to the party across the road from me. But being home did give me time to try out my Christmas present from mum, a pair of 12X60 Binoculars to stargaze and watch the boats and aircraft that pass here every day. Before we knew it it was Monday 5th January and a return to work.
Being home gave me chance to try the new Icom IC-7300 MkII I borrowed from work. Setting the radio up to a 10 Meter mobile whip on a magnetic mount attached to a steel barstool gave me a good receive on 15 through to 10M, but unfortunately the SWR was a little high on the 10 and 12M bands but seemed to be OK on 15M. This gave me chance to check out the CW decoder during the contests that were on during the first weekend of January, and make contact with a couple of the WWA stations that are on this month. This radio is now with the RSGB being reviewed ready for an article in RadCom, but we will have it on show throughout the year at the various rallies and shows we are attending.
Now I have the Icom ID-52E Plus here connected to a dual band whip that is on the same base as the 10M antenna was on. I have been looking at the D-Star operation and listening to the reflectors and my local repeater GB7IC. A first for me as I have never used any form of digital voice transmissions before, whether it be D-Star, Fusion, or DMR. But it is interesting to see how many users world wide connect to the reflectors and you are able to speak to them. Not my usual fun in the hobby but it does have it’s place.
So as I say a busy period, and plenty of fun. I promise I will be updating more this year as we go along, and now I am settled I can start and do a lot more blogs.
73 and Happy New Year to you all.