2W0LGE – New Callsign

Yay !!! after passing the exam on the 20th November, it has been a long wait, but finally I have my new Intermediate callsign :

2W0LGE

A couple of contacts this morning to warm the sign up, and many more to follow I am sure.

All the best

73

50 ohm Dummy load – on the cheap

Well, I decided I needed a dummy load. I ordered a bunch of 3w @ 510 Ω to put in parallel, so roughly 30W handling (perhaps more with the added cooling for short periods).

So, 10 of them soldered up to some scraps of vero, and a reading of 50.6 ohms taken, so all is good on that front.

solder_weld

I added the so236 to the tin lid, and solder/welded it all up. It will be sitting in a Golden Syrup tin, with a 500+ml of mineral oil. I had to silicone around the underside of the so239 to prevent the oil from oozing up through the connector.

IMG_3140      can_o_whoop_ass

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Ah, job done, and a total cost of less than £8 🙂

73

Intermediate Exam – Passed

Well great news, both myself and Dale (MW6FNV) passed our intermediate exams with flying colours this evening with Newport Amateur Radio Society.

Really looking forward to the new facilities the license provides and the increased power.

Many thanks to Ross (GW3NWS) and John (GW0OAJ) for the expert tuition.

Two down, one to go !!!

73 ! 🙂

DALE_RICHIE_INTERMEDIATE_PASS

CADARS 2m Net Monday Evening

Well last night was interesting. The fog was descending in Magor, but I headed up to the high point at around 7:35pm on the top of Ridgeway, Newport. Dale (MW6FNV) was due to join me a bit later on. It was very foggy up there when I arrived, and turned the radio on and dialled into 145.375 on one VFO and GB3RT (433.000 listen) on the other vfo. The Kenwood TM-D710GE in the truck, with the Diamond NR-7900 mobile antenna, 10 watts.

A call was put out on 2m 375 but nothing heard, I glanced at the other vfo and noticed an S3/4 signal, but the squelch was not opening as it was looking for 94.8. So I had a listen by turning the tone squelch off my end and to my astonishment I could hear GB3CK, on the same frequencies as GB3RT, but a different access tone !  This repeater some 165 miles away, belonging to the Kent Repeater Group. It is located on the hills above Charing in Kent, just this side of Canterbury.

gb3ck

I listened for a while, and the signal was hovering around an S3-S5 so some QSB on the frequency. I decided to put a call in after scanning for the tone (103.5) and I got through. I had a chat with two stations, mother and son. MW6GVZ, Jill, based in Sevenoaks (or is it one oak these days?), and 2E0KJJ, her son Jeremy, based in Canterbury. It transpired that Jeremy was attending the University of Kent at Canterbury, the same uni I went to, some 20 years ago, a small world indeed. We had a quick qso, but fearful of conditions dropping out I said my 73 and listened in for another 5-10 mins, at which point they started dropping down to S1. I was using legal limit power output of 10w from the Kenwood TM-D710GE radio into the Diamond NR-7900 mobile antenna. Fantastic conditions indeed. Their signals were both quality 5, and the repeater giving me S4/S5.

Listening around other repeaters all sorts of stations and signals were being heard, so there did seem to be interesting conditions.

I put another call in on 375 after the excitement of the distant repeater QSO, with power now set to 5w, worried that my signal would be interfering with all sorts. Jim came up (MW6MUN) and Ian (GW8CRH), both 5/9 on the input. Chris (MW6LUK) showed up for a brief 10 seconds, but I gather from a background conversation he was called away, his signal 5/8 on the input (yes I did check even with the short transmission). Nigel (GW7SSN) also popped in to say hi and let us know what he was doing better. Get well soon Nigel !!! His signal another 5/9 on the input.

Sometime later, around 8:40pm Pete (MW0RPB/A), Chris (2W0OGY/M) and Ken (MW0YAC/A) came on briefly to say hi, all great signals, all 5/9 on the input. Pete and Ken enjoying a brew at the Dorallt and Chris on his way home in the car.

I stayed up there for an hour or so after, but wasn’t really in the mood for playing radio as I was rather tired and headed home around 10:20pm ish.

Good stuff indeed !

73

Quick trip to Twmbarlwm

Another trip to Twmbarlwm yesterday, as I was out in Rogerstone on business. On the way back, a short detour into McD’s and then up to the top for an hour or so on the VHF/UHF rig.

Chatted to RQM (Dave), FNV (Dale) and OGY (Chris) on 145.375. A nice couple of hours out of the way of the hustle, bustle, and noise of Newport. The X50 collinear sat on 3m of fibreglass pole, cable tied to the fence post.

73

truck_twmbarlwm

X10 to CBus conversion – Part 1

My mum’s house has a rather old (some 8+ years) X10 install, which was showing signs of needing to be replaced. The alarm system was also having a few issues, so we decided to strip it all out and start again !  There are some 79 X10 modules, which consist of dimmers and relays. The alarm has 48 zones and is a Cytech Comfort system.

A decision was made to invest in CBus 2 and Cytech Comfort 2. We would be running LED bulbs on the CBus system, so an investigation process was undertaken to find suitable compatible bulbs with CBus (yes no one could tell us what to buy). I tested about 6 makes, and MegaMan were the ones to go for. Smooth dimming and no flicker. They worked great ! Mum decided that she wanted Daylight temperature led bulbs, some 6500k. The bungalow has always been quite dark inside, so this might be a welcome change.

So, time to rip it all out ! The old wiring mess :

x10

I ripped all this out with the help of my brother (Julian) and labelled up every wire. Roughly 150 twin and earths. Half of them were pulled up through into the attic space as they are not being used in the new system. These redundant wires were from momentary switches to turn the x10 modules on and off, essentially the light switches in each room. The new CBus system works on a low voltage over Cat5 network (star, bus) to communicate with the wall switches in each room and our father who built the bungalow ran Cat5 to each light switch for future proofing.

So, we starting making a mess !!!

 IMG_3023 IMG_3018

So a plan was formed, and the first CBus modules was installed. Each module has 8 x 1amp dimmable lighting channels.

IMG_3024

Slow progress was made, routing wires and ensuring all labelling was accurate.  There will eventually be some 32 lighting circuits to different rooms and areas around the bungalow, and 12 x 10 amp relay circuits for items such as pond pumps, cabinet low voltage lighting, bath room fans and other such loads that do not require a variable supply, but one that is off/on.

So after a few days the chaos started to take shape…

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IMG_3052

Each dimmer channel goes through a 1 amp MCB, and each relay module has a 6 amp MCB protecting it. At the end of the channels we are running various MEGAMAN led light bulbs.

The next post sometime later this week will see the lighting system completed, and a start on the Alarm system will begin next week.

Cheers !

PS: no blue smoke has been released in the change, and mum loves her new daylight bulbs and touch sensitive switches.

Kenwood TM-D710GE Update

Well, the new one just arrived from ML&S, and it is like night and day. What a difference, fantastic job.   The mod involves moving that 0 ohm surface mount resistor from PAD 0 (the right one in the image) to PAD 2 (the left one in the image). This enables wide band, and cross band repeat.

Thanks to ML&S who did a great deal on it, arrived early next day, and top quality soldering and mod work !!!! I am well happy 🙂

73

ml+s_soldering_mod

TM-D710GE – what a nightmare

So, about 3 weeks ago, on a Tuesday, I placed in good faith an order from a large HAM internet retailer here in the UK for a Kenwood TM-D710GE. A rather large investment into what hopefully was to be a high quality piece of kit, that would last me many many years.

I received a phone call sometime after that same day to advise me that they were in-fact out of stock, at which time I asked if they could perform a wideband mod, and crossband repeat mod.  The radios should be at the retailer on the Friday, so I let the order process carry on as I was in no immeadiate rush.

Monday came with no notification of shipment, but it did arrive on the Tusday, after another phone call on Monday afternoon to find out what was happening.

The radio arrived on the Tuesday a week after ordering, however, there was something seriously wrong with the audio quality. The radio had to be on max volume to hear anything. The mylar speaker in the main base unit had been popped from the inside, somehow, either during manufacture, or as part of the modification work.

See this video on what we needed to do to get it working.

Anyway, after some use, it transpired that the cross band repeat mod had not been done. So the retailer arranged collection on the following Monday, took it back, did the mod, and I received it back today.  Now bear in mind I had previous conversations with them explaining that the 0 ohm from PAD 0 had to be moved to PAD 2. They needed to get confirmation from Kenwood apparently, that the cross band mod was ok to do, leading me to think, they had not actually done this sort of thing before.

So, it arrived back today, we took the lid off, and the following was seen….. what a BODGE !!!

Frayed wires, no 0 ohm resistor sat there nicely, what a mess. I should have been sent the removed 0 ohm resistor when it was removed, but no. It was probably swept aside in a deluge of solder.

shoddy1 shoddy2

I called and emailed the retailer with pictures, and the upshot of it all is, they are collecting it again and giving a full refund. To their credit, I didn’t have to ask for a refund, they offered it me directly as their only ‘professional option’.

I’ve now ordered from another major retailer, with the same requests for the mods, and I should receive it tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted !

What a nightmare !!!!  arggggghhhhhhh

73

CADARS 2m net, close to Wentwood

So the Monday night net came around again, seemingly faster each week. I had previously scouted google maps for another ‘high spot’ location within 10-15mins of Magor (home QTH).  I was rather taken by the area along side the A449, at the SE side of Wentwood.  I headed up to the following spot :

fantastic_spot_catsash

location

What a fantastic spot it was !!  210m ASL, clear views over to Bristol and the West Country, and a small rise/bank (some 10 ft) and then line of sight over to Cwmbran and beyond in the other direction. GB3RT was hitting me at 59+20, a perfect signal.

I was met by MW6FNV (Dale) who was testing out his new 2m/70cms Kenwood TM-V71 install in his classic beamer. I turned off the Defender, and moved into Dale’s beamer and we both worked his radio and antenna. It worked fantastic and the hours flew by.

A few of us gathered on GB3RT around 7:35pm, but later moved to 145.375 for some simplex operation. Stations on air :

Gw1sxt Mike 54
Gw8crh Ian 59
Gw0oaj John 59
2w0ogy chris 57
Mw6mun Jim 59
Mw0rpb Pete (as the net was closing down)

Thanks to SXT for joining us on the net and doing some radio tests, his antenna and setup working great. I think he was running a fixed position 10 ele yagi.

The net ended around 8:30-8:45 but a good natter was had. We were missing FGO that evening, where were you Bill?  Dale and I threw out a few calls on 145.500 and talked to a number of fairly close stations :

G4TBD – Steven, who was coming in on a 53 on 2m but sounding fine. We later switched to his repeater, GB3WB and signals were fantastic.

GW4REX – Phil from Chepstow, also a good signal 58 at least, and M6HCC from Bristol, all working well. We all moved to 5watts and contined our QSO for a good while.  GW8CRH tracked us down and called in for a quick natter, and the evening closed with a chat to Pete (RPB) about all things antennas.

All in all, this was a FIRST CLASS spot, and I am finding it hard not to drive up there again this evening and setup a 2m collinear. Great stuff, great spot, 12mins drive away 🙂

73