May 5th and 6th Activity weekend

[g8vpg]

GW8VPG/P should be operational on the Blorenge on Sunday, midday, with 146.5 & 5665MHz. IO81LS. Talkback 144.750MHz horizontal FM or 07378 348 455.
73 Shaun.

[g8gtz]

@ Mike = Sunday

@ Shaun = hope to work you

73

Noel

[g0mjw]

Mike - is there no /p site a bit further away you can to for a real 24GHz QSO?
73
Noel G8GTZ

There are several sites - Bury Down is my usual first port of call but there are quite a few local sites. I expect I can work you from home directly, but if not by reflecting off Didcot power station tower. I know you can work Walbury from there.

If people are going to Bloringe then there is a good site south of Swindon, Hackpen.

Mike G0MJW

[g8gtz]

Well, that was an enjoyable afternoon but not very successful mainly due to the fact that we choose the wrong site to work Shaun out on Bloringe - must remember the Ridgeway above Didcot looks North and not West where Wales is

Mike G0MJW came out and I did just manage to see Shaun for 2 seconds on 146.5 MHz - we then moved to Sparsholt Firs (above Wantage) but choose the wrong spot behind a tree - we both did just manage a 2 way with Shaun on 146 but not 5665 so we moved .5Kms along the track and still could not make 5665 go.

See https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VeLnR ... sp=sharing

Mike and I had still not tried 24GHz so Mike went home and set up in his garden but could not hear each other on NB - despite it being a Line of Sight path...

All good fun and at least the weather was good - hopefully better results later this week in Norfolk....

73 Noel

[M0SKM]

My time was limited this weekend and I was only able to get out Sunday morning. It's my wedding anniversary so I was lucky to get out at all. It was a very enjoyable day; beautiful weather and the usual casual visitors wondering what I was up to.

Met my youngest son on Dunstable Downs and he helped me setup before taking his dogs for a walk. I thought I was early at 9 o'clock but to my amazement he was already there.

First contact of the day was two way with Don G0WFT on 146.5MHz; Don is local but it was good he was around to test the kit with me. Then I had a two way with Arthur G4CPE before switching to 5665MHz. Arthur has a home based system with a flat panel on the rotator, sadly I couldn't see his signal and the contact was one way. On two previous occasions the path proved impossible so one way was a bonus.

After a short break I heard Shaun GW8VPG/P on Bloringe and we had easy 5/9 radio contact on low power; the path is 178km. It was a little while before Shaun setup the TV and I think the 2m signal was dropping off slightly. Unfortunately we were unable to claim a contact on 2m or 6cm although 5665MHz came tantalisingly close. Speaking to G4CPE later in the day; he also saw Shaun's sync signals but was unable to resolve a picture.

There's definitely a good path between the two sites and I'm keen to give it another go at some point.
Later I had a short radio contact with Noel but looked at my watch and realised I had to pack up, apologies Noel I'm pleased you enjoyed your day too.

Note to others who haven’t got there Portsdown kit completed yet; why not get out and join up with those that have. At my age I’d be glad of the help and company.

73 All
Steve

[g0mjw]

Well, that was an enjoyable afternoon but not very successful mainly due to the fact that we choose the wrong site to work Shaun out on Bloringe - must remember the Ridgeway above Didcot looks North and not West where Wales is

It was and Noel is now aware he can operate 5.6GHz mobile, slowly. I think the reason 24GHz failed was it isn't line of sight due to local clutter (trees etc). I know a better site for next time.

Unfortunately there was no other activity on 2m within range on Sunday afternoon and although I was monitoring 144.750 in the morning I didn't hear anything from the Dunstable group. At Sparsholt Firs I received good pictures from GW8VPG/P on the Blorenge on 2m, almost error free at 125kS and some interesting pictures from the site, but for some reason signals would not go the other way, or at higher symbol rates.

gw8vpg1.JPG (202 KiB) Viewed 5274 times

Here is a zipped 125ks H264 transport stream.

GW8VPG.zip

(930.83 KiB) Downloaded 384 times

- the Forum won't allow TS files directly.

This should be a easy path so I can only assume there were problems with the thermals along the ridge resulting in multipath, which might be why the lower symbol rate worked so well. Best to go straight to a better site for this path, like Hackpen I think which we know goes well on 24GHz and 47GHz.

One useful outcome was seeing what Noel had done with the 7" touch screen and Express which is what I was thinking of doing and good to see it worked well. I will order the same case as it seemed good - apart from being upside down which is hopefully an easy fix.

[M0SKM]

Unfortunately there was no other activity on 2m within range on Sunday afternoon and although I was monitoring 144.750 in the morning I didn't hear anything from the Dunstable group.

Apologies Mike; tests carried out locally in the morning were on our local net frequency 144.550. Both Arthur and Don had other commitments so couldn't participate further.

Hopefully we can do something next time round. Well done on the contact with Shaun.

73
Steve

[g8vpg]

Brian G6AUR and myself had a very enjoyable day on the Blorenge. The weather was perfect and it was a pleasure to be outside in such a lovely spot, which made up for the fact that it was not too successful from an ATV point of view! We tried to work Steve M0SKM/P at Dunstable Downs on both 146.5MHz and 5665MHz, but failed. We saw a few sync bars on 5665, but there were some other signals up there that produced bars in certain directions, so we could not be certain. We then worked Ken G4BVK in Bristol on 146.5MHz H265, with good pictures both ways. We spent the rest of the day trying with Noel G8GTZ/P and Mike G0MJW/P, finally getting a brief snatch of Noels test card on 146.5MHz 125ks/s. I hope to be sent some photographs, which I will post when received.
The level of interest from walkers and cyclists was a record and we could have done with an RSGB/BATC information stand! For June, I am contemplating a move to the East, to Westbury White Horse, Wiltshire, on the Northern edge of Salisbury Plain. It is not so high as the Blorenge, but it is a bit more in amongst the main activity in the South and also good to the North.
73 Shaun G8VPG.

[g8vpg]

Some photographs of 6 May 2018, courtesy of G6AUR;