Post
by radiogareth » Sat Mar 16, 2024 7:15 pm
Mike, Hopefully its just a seal, or a set of seals it needs. I have a spare 45' Clarke mast but is really far to heavy for me on my own. Getting it out of the shed is enough, let alone considering getting it vertical. Garden here isn't wide enough to safely guy it anyway...
The 'S E London contingent' had some fun today, initially me trying to run 51.7MHz DVB-T into my Meteor beacon RX antenna (it's a great match across 50MHz but a near hemispherical radiation pattern). I was using my Portsdown 4 into the Charon down-converter, then into a nice broadband amp I picked up a while back. Justin G8YTZ was not getting copy, despite decent wattage apparently going out. An interval while I looked at drive levels and signals...ugh- no wonder that did not work - more investigations needed..probably decent and tight band pass filters...so I swapped to my 'faulty' Lime Mini (only works when wrapped in bubble wrap and gets hot) and got a much cleaner TX, passing it through my very sharp 72MHz low pass to keep VHF FM clear. Signal received OK by Justin and was seen by Martin G4FKK who reported evidence of multi-pathing. Experiments continued onto 71MHz with Martin being received well by Justin (no 4m antennas up at home as my mast is U/S). We progressed to 146.5 and both Martin and I were received by Justin, Martin using his beam and me using my triband coliner. The same broadband amp works on 2m too, not quite as athletically as it does lower down, but good for a clean 50W of DVB-T.
Justin successfully sent 70cms DVBS-2 back to Martin, but I wasn't planning for 70cms so missed out.
All in all a good days play, cooling solution and proper interfacing needed for my amp now, its no good sitting in a cupboard....
Gareth
