What is amateur radio?

Yesterday I got hold of a copy of the RSGB's guide to the Foundation license, Foundation Licence Now! Considering that the book is aimed at people who are not yet radio amateurs - including young children - I thought it could have been better written. The introduction explaining what amateur radio is seemed a bit muddled and used potentially confusing jargon terms like "PSK31" where they really weren't necessary.

It's easy to criticize. So, as I'm presently suffering from flu and don't feel much like doing any work or even playing with the radio, I decided to write my own version of What is Amateur Radio? and add it to my website. I'll be interested to see what you think of it.

SWRing a Slim Jim

I was never entirely happy with my 300-ohm ribbon Slim Jim for 2 metres. I made one up starting with the dimensions given on the Southgate Amateur Radio Club website. My SWR analyzer showed a double-dip with minima either side of 145MHz. I ended up pruning a couple of inches off to get one of the dips to occur in the 2m band. My SWR meter told a different story with an SWR of 2:1 at 145MHz. In the end I put it up as it was and it seemed to work, but my transverter wasn't happy with long transmissions on FM and my FT-817 showed three bars of SWR.

I decided to make another one and this time stick to the Southgate measurements. I got a double-dip as before. But I found that when I used the analyzer's PC control program to get an SWR plot on the computer screen I got a different curve with the minimum spot on 145MHz. Confused? You bet I was!

I decided to take screenshots of the two plots and send them to RigExpert for comment. But hunting around their website I found a downloads page that contained, amongst other things, new firmware for the AA-200. My instrument was running firmware version 8.20 but the latest version is 8.31. I installed it (after a struggle trying to start the device while holding three keys down) and now I get SWR plots that are the same on the LCD and the computer screen! And my made-to-Southgate-measurements Slim Jim shows a nice SWR dip right in the FM part of the 2m band.

I shall be putting it up in the attic at the next opportunity!

Recovering a deleted log

A friend of mine called me yesterday in a panic. He had bought a copy of Windows 7 and in his haste to install it he had forgotten to ensure that all his important files were backed up. Now Windows 7 was running but the data file for his logging program containing details of all his contacts over several years had gone!

I pointed him towards Tech-Pro.net's article on how to recover deleted files. I had an email this morning to say that a trial version of Uneraser had found the missing log file apparently intact. Huge sighs of relief all round! When a file has been deleted, good recovery software will usually restore it, but when a new operating system has been installed on the hard drive a lot of data will have been irretrievably overwritten and all bets are off.

Workington Radio Club

Last night I went for the first time to a meeting of Workington Radio Club. I had known of the existence of the club for a couple of years and it's only a 10 minute drive to the club meeting place, but I used to work until 6.30pm and the club meetings started at 7pm, so there was no time to have the evening meal before going out. However, now that I am semi-retired there is no obstacle to having the evening meal earlier. I recently had contacts with a couple of locals on 2m FM who suggested I came to the club so I decided to give it a try.

I was impressed by how active and well-equipped the club is. They have run Foundation license courses and are planning to run courses for both the Foundation and Intermediate licenses the first weekend in December. I am going to try to persuade my wife Olga to get a Foundation license! She is quite technical, having studied computing at university in the days when electronics was part of the course, so I don't think she would find it difficult. She has even used a soldering iron in the past. I just need to come up with some reasons for her to do it.

One sometimes reads that people have gone to their local radio club and found it cliquey and no-one takes the trouble to welcome them. That certainly is not the case with Workington Radio Club. You could not find a more friendly group of people! I think an earlier evening meal every other Monday will become a regular fixture from now on.

First 500KHz WSPR spots

This evening I received my first WSPR signals on the 500KHz band. Strong traces were regularly received from SM6BHZ 1000km away, while G0NBD 135km away in Cheshire was also received several times at around the limit of readability. Just at the moment of publishing this post a trace from OR7T, 679km away, appeared. Perhaps I'll catch fellow blogger Roger G3XBM soon!


The receiver was my Elecraft K3. The antenna that made this possible was the latest addition to the G4ILO shack, a PA0RDT Mini-Whip.


This remarkable active receive-only antenna is small enough to hold in your hand, and is currently suspended from its feeder hooked over the curtain rod above the shack window. I shall probably write more about this antenna later.