HF at last.

HF now in operation, ATU in place and a hash up of an antenna, managed a QSO with a station in Staffordshire 180 miles as the crow flies this evening and my first ever HF QSO with Mr Chain even though we have been amateurs together for 19 years now! Gives me more motivation to improve my antenna, I have bought some books and studied a little about the subject which has made me realise I do not have the space for a top quality antenna set up, but has given me a few options on making the most of the space I have available. One set up I have in mind involves a 5.5M mast at the end of the garden which I am anxious my neighbours maybe a little disagreeable about. Not sure whether to approach the neighbour or just put it up and see what happens?

I am a little concerned about noise levels which make listening to distant stations very difficult, the origin of this noise is ‘Unknown’ and may be the result of my dodgy antenna design but could also be due to local interference. There is an issue with power line transmitters for Ethernet communication over domestic mains wiring supplied by the likes of BT for support of their BT Vision services, this radiates interference widely over the HF and VHF spectrum. If any nearby households are using this “technology” I could be in trouble.

Back in the day I got quite enthusiastic about radio and that somehow petered off, now that I have invested in a system that allows a more long range alternative to what I had previously used, the enthusiasm may reignite! Although listening to all the crap at the moment I aint too sure.

Add comment June 16th, 2013