Radio Amateurs (et al!)

It's my local radio club's biannual junk sale - sorry pre-owned delights - tomorrow evening so it's just possible that there might be one there. It's usually the night that my wife hates as I come back with another half-baked idea for a project that never comes to fruition.

And it's usually buying night for me. I seldom sell. I think the last time was at least a decade ago when I put some old Pye Cambridges up for sale. They weren't in the best condition, one had a mouse's nest inside. There were no takers...
 
I never had much of an interest in radio dx although knowing about antennas and propagation occasionally made me popular on holidays.

I was into tv dx mainly in band I and sometimes in band III, with Iceland and Spain being the most common visitors. I made my own aerials partly because by then there wasn't much choice off the shelf but mainly so I could make them as I liked, the largest band I having 6 elements. Then in the 1980s satellite broadcasting started to cable head ends and I got into satellite dx at that time. Fortunately there was a pre-loved market even then so it wasn't as painful as it could have been.
 
Ofcom have released a public consultation on allowing AM/SSB on the CEPT 27Mhz freqs

This won't make it legal to use 27.555 and won't make those old Cobra/Jackson bad boys legal but it will make it legal to use AM/SSB on the EU CEPT 1 to 40 with 4 watts on AM and 12 watts on SSB.

I know it will upset a few in the community who went and passed their ham ticket who will say "pass the ham test" but I for one am all for this and would not mind one bit giving ofcom £10 to £20 a year if they bring back a CB license (not a license with a test but one like back in the day where you go to the post office and swap cash for paperwork)


http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/co...medium=email&utm_campaign=citizens-band-radio

What's everyones thoughts on it?
I've just been over and give them the a yes from me
 
Pay a Fee?

Amateur Licence costs nowt these days!
 
Tivù said:
Pay a Fee?

Amateur Licence costs nowt these days!
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I know they cost nothing but it's not the same, I find it's like comparing banger racing (CB) to F1 (Amateur), Yeah you can work at it and one day join the elite in the GP or you can rag a banger round a track with a lot less rules and a lot more freedom and have a different kind of fun.

Hopefully if the consultation goes well, this will attract more to the hobby and that will in turn encourage more to pass the ham test (me included).
 
I for one have nothing against a CB band ..open to anyone who wants to try their hand at radio ..
It's such a small bit of spectrum anyway..
As to the RAE ...yes I'd have a go at passing it for the 2nd time in my life ..
If it could be done over the web ...like some OU courses.
Im not mobile at all these days ..and the chances of finding a course within walking distance of home isn't likely.
Ahoyyy matys...anyone wanna buy a slightly used eyepatch ?
 
Vipersan said:
I for one have nothing against a CB band ..open to anyone who wants to try their hand at radio ..
It's such a small bit of spectrum anyway..
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FM or *ahem ! *AM ?
 
Channel Hopper said:
FM or *ahem ! *AM ?
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Whatever is deemed appropriate by the powers that be..
I have both in my loft ..
Not that they've seen a rush of power in over 20 years or more.
lol
 
Vipersan said:
Whatever is deemed appropriate by the powers that be..
I have both in my loft ..
Not that they've seen a rush of power in over 20 years or more.
lol
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Hope you warm up those transformers for a few days before they do see a rush of power
 
Transformers?

I'd got VS down as more of a Ninja Turtles kind of guy.
 
I remember giving abuse to my next door neighbour on the cb using AM, my aerial was next to this living room and the signal would regularly burst through his speaker leads.....he wasnt happy when he came round to complain....I had to be careful as my dad worked for the GPO originally and later BT, he had no idea of my specialist CBs i had acquired.
 
I had a secondhand President JFK AM/FM transceiver which broke after a few months, so took it to my dad for repair and that's the last I ever saw of it. Well not quite, I did actually see it, but it was connected to his newly installed antenna on his workshop and he was chatting to people on the Devil's Dyke down in Brighton, didn't have the heart to take it back. :)

It was useful though, as it rekindled his amateur interest, he had been unable to acquire a licence previously, not being a British citizen, but this was after us joining the EU and he was now permitted, amazing how quickly the various antennae sprouted up. :)

With the JFK re-homed, I bought a Superstar 2000 AM dual side band unit, a bit better, but had a 50 channel window, so if the conversation had to be moved up, I had to calculate which channel it was. :) Used this with a Big Jim external antenna at home (was an oversized firestick) and a K40 magmount for mobile.
rolf_CB.webp

At one time I had this rig working in an old 6v VW Beetle, using a 12v battery lashed under the bonnet. :)
 
Current cb's i have are Ham Int Concorde 1 ,2, mulitmode 1,Lafayette 1200, Major 360,588,Ham Int Jumbo 1,York 863 x3, and numerous other 27/81 stuff.
 
I know I have three CB rigs under the bed, will pull them out and have a look later
 
Channel Hopper said:
FM or *ahem ! *AM ?
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From National RAYNET news:

On Tuesday 8th October, OFCOM published proposals to amend the usage of a wider range of transmission standards.

The proposals would seek to allow the use of AM, DSB and SSB, bringing the UK in line with other European Countries.

The consultation period on these proposals will close on 6th November.
Click to expand...
 
PaulR said:
From National RAYNET news:
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Oooooooooo nice, they always said they wouldnt allow high power on 27Mhz because the 3rd harmonic on multiband imported radios was appreciable coming out around 82 mhz which used to be a services frequency(fire brigade i think).
 
Another one of those holy thread resurrections.

I attained the intermediary licence as of sometime last year and have been annoying various people with the sub 10W kit that I own, on a few different frequencies.

I'm still building things , but really don't like the snobbery that goes with the 'must have 50Ohm cable otherwise it won't get out' brigade.

I've acquired an a teen tuner in the past fortnight and , apart from hating the conversion to PL259 connectors to install inline I appear to be correct.

The discone on the roof has the good old n-connector on it and everything below is screw on F or some sma adapter.

I wish the radio manufacturers stopped with the BNC stuff at the top/rear though, a pain in the neck when I need to buy yet another small package from China.
 
Well a transceivers normal output inductance is 50 ohms, thus the need for 50 ohm cables and connectors, PL 259's and SO 239's are a standard for anything UHF and below frequency's, and can handle quite a bit of RF power.

N connectors are good into the GHz range, and a good N to UHF adapter is a must if your converting over to any ham transceiver with a SO 239 input/output.

If your just receiving then any type of connector or cable will work, but once you start transmitting your going to need to start using 50 ohm cable and connectors or you will have serious SWR problems.

Now some older ham transmitters use 300 ohm ladder line, and a long wire, these type are a bit tricky to setup as the match must be balanced out on both sides.

A transceiver with an internal auto tuner is almost a must now days, this keeps the finals from being stressed out and burning up.

Now are you going to be using the discone antenna for receiving only? Or are you planning to use it for both TX and RX?

Some discone's are RX only, the only one I know about that you can transmit on is the one from Diamond antennas, it can TX on most ham bands with out too much auto tune, it's all about the SWR on the transceiver, too high and your into a big repair bill.

My Diamond discone has an N connector, I just used a UHF connector at the far end on the RG 213U coax into the radio, no need for any adapters that way.
 
Blimey where did this thread get resurrected from?!

Ive got my M7 ticket in the last few weeks - all done online with no need for practicals thanks to Covid. So Im now active as MM7KWZ. The Foundation level exam isnt difficult at all for anyone with an interest in tech stuff, I would imagine almost eveyone on the forum could pass without any problems.

Intermediate level has also become available online the last few days, again with no need for practicals at the moment.
 
Blame Channel Hopper...He dood it.:wacko:
 
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