Published on Monday, 28th August, 2006 .
Today, James (M0BOV) and myself went up to a car park out side Purley in Warlingham.
What a Day. Didn’t get many contacts, but Tried a few on a 2m Halo, then put up a Long-Wire. My Yaesu FT-897D was set-up on a bench after a small bit of gardening.
The Weather was another Story. To say was changeable was understating it. I had 3 attempts at using the set-up. In between the rig was (hastily) put into the car boot.
After a QSO into Italy on attempt 3, the heavens opened again and I finally admitted defeat. Below are some photos taken when the Sun was out.
Lessons Learned:-
- Check Weather before Operating /m or /p
- Make sure if others are with you operating Have Handhelds ready in case weather sets in
- 1st attempt we didn’t have the handheld
- Remember Wire Strippers (forgot those) or even a full tool-kit
- A WaterProof Log would have helped
- To take a umbrella that didn’t leak
- A few other things I can’t remember now
Published on Tuesday, 22nd August, 2006 .
In earlier posting I mentioned I ordered a Battery for my Yaesu FT-897 from an eBay store. The parcel still hadn’t arrived from 9th August so emailed HamStop.com to query this.
Got a very quick reply, and was posted via USPS on 10th August, but from my past dealings with USPS I know they aren’t the quickest. It would be nice to have for the upcoming Bank Holiday Weekend, although I am not holding my breath.
I have solved the earlier problem with my Solar Charger and the Battery I take out /p or /m. It seems the Jump-start leads have a charge protection, but I found a lead to charge from a car lighter socket I had buried in my shack and have modified so can now charge the pack.
Site Info update:- I have updated the site to enable me to run the lastest (alpha / beta) versions of WordPress and the K2 theme. If there are any problems please let me know so I can feedback, but so far all seems well.
Published on Tuesday, 8th August, 2006 .
Just eBayed on a (Buy It Now) item which will hopefully arrive (without too much import duty) for the 19th August.
The item is a Battery for my FT-897 and I hope arrives in time for that date including charging time.
The arrival date is the 1st problem, 2nd is I don’t have a dedicated charger, but hope with internet, especially the FT-897 Yahoo Group I can sort the problem out.
Published on Sunday, 6th August, 2006 .
Today James (MØBOV) and myself took a trip to East Clandon to operate portable and to “test” some things out.
We setup my FT-897 with my battery pack. We found the Sutton and Cheam Radio Society net, and wasn’t long before we were informed something didn’t sound right.
A look at the voltage meter on the rig showed the voltage was dropping. Oh dear. It seems the battery pack has some kind of protection on the JumpStart crocodile clips to prevent some kind of electrical feedback. I guess I will have to design a connection via the 12v DC input instead.
If that fails, I have 2 12v (7mah I think) batteries for a UPS that were never used.
One interesting thing we found was the Solar Chager (see earlier post) voltage varied quite a bit (partly due to the LED). Ranges we saw went from about 4v to 13v. Steadier was the current. This was from 100mah to 400mah+ in bright sunlight.
Contacts weren’t many. But we had some fun playing with a few different wire antennas. The best which gave a some contacts into Ireland, Scotland and a few in Europe was a Long Wire antenna made from some PTFE wire I got from a Junk Sale at local club. It was strung over trees, around some fence posts and a couple of bushes.
My favourite (and last contact) was with the Marconi Radio Group (MNØMRG / MIØMRG) or rather former WARG member Ted GIØJQQ.
Posted above are a photo (from my Camera phone so not great) of setup and view from car just after we left the car park. We left to chat to John G3OLX as hs camper wouldn’t fit under height barrier.
Who knows what fun we will have next time. We are considering a better way of lauching the Wires into the trees.
Published on Tuesday, 1st August, 2006 .
During my lunch time today (and was nearly late back) I went to Maplin to get myself a 12v Solar Charger for my PowerPack.
The PowerPack is a car jump starter type with 7mah battery, and also includes 12V DC (via cigarette lighter socket or clips), built-in inverter which supplies 230V AC at 150W, spot light, twin fluorescent tubes and an emergency flashing amber light.
Maplin’s own info says “At this rate it will take 125 hours to fully charge a 75Ah battery from flat” so with a quick calculation , I worked out should take around 12hours (or 11.6666667 hours thanks to Google).
One interesting thing (guess being a Ham had to) I attached to a Meter. The Solar panel gave 6-7 volts sitting on my desk, but fluctuated due to some bright spark (pun intended) adding a flashing LED. I have been informed since that although affects the voltage, the LED will not be a massive drain on the current.
I will report back when I have more info.
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