Biography

Interests = Amateur Radio - 160M, 2M using a FT-857d. Some construction.

Mountaineering = Well now an Ex mountaineer. But in 1980s climbed the Matterhorn and Mt Blanc twice, also in Wyoming the Grand Teton and Mt Moran. Broke leg in Wind River Range. Hardest climb ever was The Chardonet in Chamonix.

Singing = Ex Crewe Male Voice Choir member. Currently in a Methodist Church Choir.

Computing = Windows 10, Photograph sorting. Android Phone.

DIY aound the house.

The main photo is at my parents house during my hayday of Amateur Radio during the 70s. Using a Mosley CL36 beam at 40'. Now all dismantled.

Aerials current =
1) 2M / 70cms vertical at 9M agl FBK design. Works well.

2) 10M dipole in loft. Just for interest.

3) Long wire LF Bands aerial. 2mm Fencing wire - 2mm galvanised steel, 70M Unsupported from House 8M agl to a pulley at 17.8M in a climbable tree. Then about 10M extra insulated house wire part down the tree. 80M overall.

I think because of the steel and its high permitivity the wire acts as if its longer on 160M. It needs series inductance to tune and is well past the half wave high impedance point. Should it be Copper?? Lastest thoughts= Galvanized poor on short Hi current areials, OK on long ones.

Using a home made L Match ATU. Series roller coaster and variable capacitor Aerial side to Earth. This copper laminate box which is hot to RF also has a Relay and +12V power to switch to a seperate Receive aerial. All wires from ATU to the FT-857 and house wiring is isolated with 14 turns on a old TV Line Output Transformer LOT= 360uH = 4298ohms @1.9Mhz

Earthing of ATU. From the house to the road I have two 17M earth radials. also connected the house central heating copper pipework. But isolated from the house mains wiring as described above.

4) Receieve only aerial. From shack upstairs in house I use various lengths of old LAN 50ohm coax totaling 70m to the bottom of the garden. The last bit threaded 17 turns through another LOT as a choke. Then into a box which has a ferrite core transformer 1:2 turns ratio step up impedance to the drain of a IFR510 biased to about 40mA. The Gate goes via a resistive pad (to stop the unit oscillating at 1Mhz!) to a 50' loop at ground level, well away from VSDL broadband interfearence. This aerial now performs similar to Hack Green SDR - my "Gold Standard" in noise level.

21/1/21 Added a series tuned circuit across the BT lines where it comes into the modem C= 2,200pf quite high and smallish L=10 turns on a 1" dia former. Checked for resonance using a NanoVNA on 1942. Is VERY effective in reducing receive noise and my transmissions killing broadband reception. Think absorbing on that frequency persuades the Router & Exchange to not send there.



QSL Cards - Please don't bother!

Equipment

FT-857d,