BATC Forum

Hi Shaun and Noel

If you do go out Monday evening it would be good if you could look in this direction IO91SW. I have 10w on 71MHz to a dipole not the greatest set up but I would like to give it a go. 73 Arthur

Hello Arthur,
Yes, I will certainly give you a call. It is going to be interesting to see how this new band works. I don't think it is going to be quite as easy as some think. I am aiming to be set up by 7.00pm, after the heat of the day and still with three hours daylight.
73 Shaun.

I've had a message from Steve M0SKM to say he will be out on Monday night as well so I will try to find a site that is good in boith directions (not easy) but possible somewhere on the ridge between Didcot and Sindon.

It will be interesting to see how it goes, it has great potential based on PMR and 4m mobile experiences but I think rx noise will be a major problem.

I'm seriously thinking about putting a 71MHz input on GB3HV as an experiment, problem is that would probably have to be vertical in order to make the antennae manageable unles there are designs around for halo / big wheel type of arrangement.

I'll post here when plans for tomorrow are firmed up - and this is the band that I was NOT going to get involved in!

73
Noel

That sounds good. I would like to suggest being set up on site by 7.00pm, avoiding the worst of the days heat but still with three hours daylight. I have built another upconverter using a Chinese pre-amp board (31dB gain, 2.7dB NF), mixer and 437MHz LO originally built for Digithin. This achieved first lock with 28dB less signal than the Spectrum unit, so I think I will use this with the Pye filter tomorrow.
73 Shaun.

Some quick research shows at site at Uffington Hill in IO91FN to be potentially workable to Bath and Dunstable / Sundon (and Harwell if Mike is around).

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.57617 ... 312!8i6656

I'll plan to be on site and set up by 7pm - ideally I don't want to take a beam for T/B so will 144.750 vertical, mobile 07881914287 and Whatsapp.

Now wondering if I can improve on my sleeve dipole but can't find any designs for a simple 2 / 3 ele beam that I can build using materials from B&Q (15mm copper tube) in a couple of hours tomorrow. Any ideas anyone??

73 Noel

g8gtz wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 08, 2018 11:46 am

I'm seriously thinking about putting a 71MHz input on GB3HV as an experiment, problem is that would probably have to be vertical in order to make the antennae manageable unles there are designs around for halo / big wheel type of arrangement.

I'll post here when plans for tomorrow are firmed up - and this is the band that I was NOT going to get involved in!

73
Noel

A 4m halo is quite manageable. That's what we had on the GB3RAL beacons. A 3 element beam pointing in my direction would also work!

g0mjw wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 08, 2018 4:44 pm

A 4m halo is quite manageable. That's what we had on the GB3RAL beacons. A 3 element beam pointing in my direction would also work!

Mike I'll be at IO91RU from 7pm tomorrow; I can point the beam your way.

144.750 vertical.

Steve

Just to confirm arrangements; I will be at IO81TK, Bath racecourse and operational by 7.00pm. Since everyone is using vertical for talkback, I will put up a small 3 element beam vertically polarised for talkback, and the 4m TV beam is 3 element horizontal. My mobile is 07378 348 455, WhatsApp ATV south group and I have also just set up a Zello group ATV south - it is open at present, never used Zello before apart from talking to the echo robot, so be patient with me on this one.
73 Shaun.

Hi Shaun,

Just tried to find the zello group and couldn't - is that the exact spelling?

Noel

I found ATV south as a Zello Channel, Noel. Just going through the verification routine now.
David