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Old 18th Aug 2018, 10:53 am   #1
GSBX1220
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Default Getting back in to Amateur Radio

Hi

My licence lapsed in 2006, but I was not active for a fair few years before that.

At that time I held the B license and most of my gear was converted PMR gear. I had a Westminster for 2m. I gave that away once I was up and running and moved on to an SMC L8 unit. This was a cracker of a set. It's essentaly a Yaesu PMR set rebadged by SMC. It was diode matrix synthesised, very clean output and no adjacent channel intereference.I also used an AKD 2001 which was the only commercial set in my line up. For 70 I had a Storno CQP 863 which I had crystaled up for the GL & ML repeaters. Antennas were also home made with a mixture of J poles, hb9cv & folded dipoles.

I built a 4 band direct conversion receiver for HF from those Howes kits. I also had a KW2000 for a short while.

in haste, I let a lot of my stuff go. I only have left the AKD, a CB converted for 10m F.M, the HF RX and the Storno. Looking back that was mad but I honestly thought I would never use either the radios or test gear again.

It looks like ham radio has changed quite a bit & I may need to re equip myself.
Question is with what. I'm now a blank page in a book.

I can't do 2m with the AKD as the channel spacing is now too narrow. And in actual fact I never really liked that set as the performance is a bit toy town in comparison with the SMC I had. Does anyone still convert good quality PMR??

I would like to work HF. I'm not interested in DX chasing or contest as I always sort of seen that a bit like stamp collecting. Not sure what to do here. Modern HF sets are a bit black boxy to me. so what do I do here are FT101's still a viable proposition? Is converting a Pye SSB 200 madness even if I can Find one.

I'm limited for antennas, so I'll prob just have an inverted v or such in garden, or a multi band vertical. This has to be stealth though so no crazy beams.

I'm sure you have guessed I'm not a black box operator, that was never really my interest. I was always more interested in the tech.

I was 17 when I was lisensed in 1991. So all this was another lifetime ago.

Edit. Yesterday I posted off my re application to get GM7KIM back, so that's the first step done. Also I seem to have entries in Hamcall and QRZ. How is that since my license lapsed 12 years ago?
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Old 18th Aug 2018, 11:31 am   #2
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

Hiya! Good to hear your interest in the hobby is re-emerging.

Unless you live in an urban area, the VHF bands have become rather dead; in times past I travelled round the UK extensively with Pye Westminsters (and later M294s) and I was rarely without the opportunity of a QSO, either simplex or via a repeater. These days it's rare for much to break the squelch.

As to HF radios: sadly quite a few of the early FT101s and other radios from that era are now rather uneconomic to repair: they suffer a panoply of faults that can quietly drive you insane trying to fix. Same goes for the likes of the KW2000: if you do buy one expect to have to 'rework' the SSB filter and replace a slew of Rs and Cs that will have drifted/become leaky over the years.

My suggestion - get something like a 'Clansman' PRC320: OK, it only gives 30W PEP output but it's got one of the best speech-processors in the business [the Plessey 'VOGAD' chip was designed specifically for this radio] and mine grgularly causes astonishment from other stations when I tell them it's only 30 Watts. By default they're USB-only but it's relatively simple to add LSB. As with any 40-plus-year-old gear there are a couple of parts that are known to be problematic [tantalum capacitors in the PSU] but the rest of the thing is bomb-proof!

Antennas - put up the longest piece of wire you can, and then work out how to feed it. Alternatively, build yourself a magnetic loop: I'm in the process of doing one here for 20M using 22mm copper water-pipe and plumbing elbows.
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Old 18th Aug 2018, 12:04 pm   #3
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

It certainly has changed. since the '80s when I was first licensed you couldn't find a free channel on 2m, now you have difficulty in finding one that's occupied. I am 500' asl in open country and have a beam but still don't hear much. I have my 2m rig in the office and it's on most of the time, some days I only hear one station and I have a good 50 mile radius coverage, up to 100 miles in some directions.

HF is better but conditions are very poor at the moment. The FT101ZD was my original rig and very good it was, also you could repair it yourself but as mentioned there are not many about now. There are some basic HF rigs available on ebay for not too much money, worth a look.

Peter. G0HET
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Old 18th Aug 2018, 12:19 pm   #4
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

Welcome back!

I would join your nearest Amateur Radio club (RSGB could help here), go along to a few meetings and chat to the members, and you'll soon get back into the swing of things and get an idea of what gear you want. HF is by no means dead, whatever some may say.

Richard gm0ogn
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Old 18th Aug 2018, 12:28 pm   #5
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

I am in a vaguely similar situation. I never let my licence lapse, but for some decades I have not been active. Originally on 2m FM with homebrew crystal-controlled gear in the days of the regional bandplan, I then made the mistake of buying a transceiver to be able to get on the 'new' channels and SSB. Within a few months I lost interest.

I am now hoping to get back on the air again, initially on 40m SSB. I have built an ILER-40 QRP transceiver but it still needs some tweaks. The antenna will probably be an inverted-V. I was hoping to do some NVIS, but this is now the wrong time in the sunspot cycle for 40m. Maybe I will put together something for 80m or 4m AM instead?
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Old 18th Aug 2018, 12:30 pm   #6
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

Re the Hamcall entries and others, they trawl each other plus any public callsign lists and self populate.

Once the info is in there, unless the license holder goes in and changes/updates it, it will basically stay there until the site dies.
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Old 18th Aug 2018, 1:55 pm   #7
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

I'm in West Fife, so I can describe what things are like in the middle belt of Scotland.

VHF/UHF repeaters:

Pretty dead compared to what they used to be. The BBC and IBA decided that broadcasting wasn't their core competency and sold off the transmitter sites and contracted out the actual broadcasting of their material. The commercial owners of the sites noticed the presence of amateur radio repeaters paying only a very nominal fee and decided to stick the rents up to full commercial rates. These were far beyond what could be afforded, so the repeaters had to move. The old familiar callsigns have survived but they are now on lower sites with significantly less coverage.CSFMG have done the best they can, but the usage plunged. Far down South, they were worried about there not being enough channels on 2 metres and decided to split the channels from 25kHz spacing to 12.5 kHz. The repeaters were required to be reset for the narrower deviation needed and to exclude any signals which were over-deviating. This took out a lot of radios not modified for the narrower deviation. People were not in a hurry to wind down the deviation because to get good performance they'd really need narrower IF filters and a narrower discriminator characteristic in the receiver. Direct replacement filters weren't to be found. On top of this, the repeaters went over to needing a CTCSS sub-audible tone to open them and to keep them open. Few radios had this. Most people don't modify their radios. Many think a modification is a software option.

So there are many radios out there which no longer can work a repeater. Add in the reduction in the amateur population as the CB boom ended long ago and old age is taking its toll.

I treated myself to a brand new black box. 2m 70cm and with the 23cm option fitted. Knowing optional things soon become unavailable, i bought the DSP boards for both of its receivers, the narrow filters and the TCXO. This was now a well equipped radio, but a lot of money. Up went an aluminium stub mast on the gable end of the house and a co-linear on top of it. I then found how amazingly dead 2m is. The only significant activity is people acknowledging the news transmissions on a Sunday morning.

I now have a much better antenna than the slim jim in the attic which brought me so much fun, and a more sensitive radio. What I don't have are QSOs. The Glasgow side of the country is a bit more active than the Edinburgh side... it always was. But compared to the 80's and early 90's 2m is a featureless wasteland.

VHF/UHF/Microwave non-repeater

It always was quiet, but the decrease in population had quieted it more. There are people active when there are contests or special activity events on, but otherwise there are a couple of ragchew frequencies with light activity in the mornings and evenings.

HF

The activity is far less than you'll remember, but you'll have to go onto HF to get any amateur radio activity. Oddly, the number of contests doesn't seem to have shrunk. There seems to be at least one on every weekend. Contacts are: callsign, RST, name, location and NEXT! which seems as much fun as shading in graph paper, square by square.

Some activity groups have regular nets and there are still regular nets without any particular raison. In general, they seem to be rather welcoming of any new voice.

The shortwave broadcasters have left in droves. There are some left but China seems to dominate. The 40m band has been extended up to 7.2MHz and SSB operation has moved upwards echoing the compulsory bandplan the Americans have to live with. So if your radio stops at 7.1MHz and you're more interested in SSB than CW or data modes, then you'll have a problem.

We're into a sunspot minimum so 80m and 40m are doing all the heavy lifting on HF. You can still find things on 20m at the right time of day. 20m is going well right now with a lighthouse activity weekend going on as well.

The other major change is the immense increase in the number of SMPS in every charger, every doodad, every appliance and every lightbulb. Many of these are junk, made in total evasion of the laws requiring interference suppression. So the background noise level can often exceed S9. If you live away from dense housing, it will help a lot.


If you want to avoid black boxes, there are several opportunities.

The G-QRP club is still on the go and they organise low power activity. Mostly homebrew equipment, mostly HF, mostly Morse.

There are user groups for Eddystone equipment, for ex-military equipment and for boat anchors in general.

I'd recommend borrowing or buying an old commercial HF receiver or transceiver and having a listen before you spend any real effort or money.

The old favourite black boxes of the 1980s are a lot older now and they haven't aged well. Especially the hot-running, high voltage'd valve ones. If you intend getting one of these going, you're looking at doing a fair amount of rebuilding to get a reliable result. Even the last ZD version of the FT101. Prices are generally low due to low demand.

If you fancy a good old boat anchor:

R1155 price going up as they're now seen as antiques. Some accessories are ludicrous.
CR100 nobody wants them, low cost or free
AR88 £50-£100 seen as nice to have.
Collins, anything Collins, pretty pricey due to rarity and specialist collector interest
RA17 £70 upwards RA117 is rare
RA1772 £275 upwards (nice!)
B40 £25 - 40
HRO £40-70
Of course all are of an age where work is probably needed.

Hope this helps.

David
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Last edited by Radio Wrangler; 18th Aug 2018 at 1:56 pm. Reason: forgot the HRO... how could I forget the HRO?
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Old 18th Aug 2018, 2:08 pm   #8
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

I recently dusted off my 2m rig for first time in ages and had it sat on the local repeater for half a day. Never heard a single call go through it; just the auto callsign ID every hour or so.

Is there much going on on 5MHz in terms of inter-G chat?

B
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Old 18th Aug 2018, 2:32 pm   #9
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bazz4CQJ View Post
Is there much going on on 5MHz in terms of inter-G chat?
5MHz is actually my band-of-choice: with a PRC320 and 100-foot wire I work all over the UK, North-Western Europe etc without difficulty. And yes, QSOs are generally much more friendly and 'conversational' than the "Callsign, locator-number, serial-number, 599 QRZ!" stuff on the other bands.

It's also quite interesting to be happily participating in a 5MHz net with stations in Cornwall, Belgium, Denmark and Scotland, then have an Icelandic station ask if he can join.

For old-timers, yes there is occasional full-fat-carrier-and-both-sidebands AM activity on 5MHz - though be aware that because of the very narrow frequency-allocations you won't make yourself popular with the other band-occupants (amateur and non-amateur) if your signal has modulation-sidebands wider than +/- 3KHz or you're at all drifty. Don't try using a T1154!


My other favourite band of the moment is 50MHz: It's Sp.E season and with just 50W PEP to a homebrew 2-element 'Moxon square' tied to a tree I regularly work all over Europe.
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Old 18th Aug 2018, 3:08 pm   #10
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Cheers guys

Al out of useful replies there.

Yes, I suppose time moves on fast & the rigs I mentioned are now seen as old hat and troublesome. I'll have to do a bit more thinking about HF in that case. For some reasons I thought the Ft101 was bombproof. I loved the KW. It did not like me as I got a fair few zaps off it!

Also good to here a local perspective on what's going on band wise. I was in CSFM many years ago as I used the repeaters mobile. That's what I bought the AKD for.

Since I posted this morning, I have went into the loft and brought my stuff down. I have connected up the 2m set and it's picking transmissions up ok on a simple antenna. Yes, it's dead. Even the CS repeater has nothing going on.

I was listening on 145.500 which was the old S 20, and the agreed frequency to move to was S 21, so I wonder if people are just going with the old 25k spacing.

I may knock up another j pole as I always found them good performers.

I have decided to put a simple wire dipole in the loft for 10 FM so I can initially get going with that.

It also looks like I have also thrown out or given away all my PL connectors, so I'm a bit hamstrung in what I can do just now.

Typical when I want to do something the sunspot cycle is minimum and I have no parts to get stuff up & running.
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Old 18th Aug 2018, 3:33 pm   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
5MHz is actually my band-of-choice: with a PRC320 and 100-foot wire I work all over the UK, North-Western Europe etc without difficulty. And yes, QSOs are generally much more friendly and 'conversational' than the "Callsign, locator-number, serial-number, 599 QRZ!" stuff on the other bands.
Thanks for that; I have an IC-718 which has 5MHz enabled, just need a "100-foot wire" .

B
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Old 18th Aug 2018, 8:14 pm   #12
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

Quote:
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Is there much going on on 5MHz in terms of inter-G chat?
RAOTA (Radio Amateurs Old Timers) have a informal net on 5.279MHz Tuesdays and Fridays at 10.00am. SSB (Uppersideband).

John
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Old 19th Aug 2018, 8:38 am   #13
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

Depends on wht you budget is and how much you like working on the equipment.
If you talking about AR88s etc how much room you have and how strong you are!
KW transmitters and FT101's etc are still around but you need more than one to keep you on the air whilst you repair the others!
Military gear is usually USB only unless it has been modified.
If 5 megs and the WARC bands are not required the Kenwood TS530 or TS830 could be a good choice. Otherwise a modern rig like the Yaesu FT 857 or 897 secondhand perhaps.
Don m5aky
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Old 19th Aug 2018, 9:53 am   #14
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

Huge amounts of FT-450’s around for sale. Nice rigs. Full DSP IF. Does everything well.
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Old 19th Aug 2018, 10:01 am   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GSBX1220 View Post
I was listening on 145.500 which was the old S 20, and the agreed frequency to move to was S 21, so I wonder if people are just going with the old 25k spacing.
Have to admit that is the case for me, I have never mentally accepted the change or the necessity for it and still think in terms of 25K spaced channels on 2m FM simplex. It was only recently that I grudgingly reprogrammed the channels on two or three of my black boxes to include the 12.5Khz in-between repeater frequencies, as there are repeaters which do use them.

Quote:
I have decided to put a simple wire dipole in the loft for 10 FM so I can initially get going with that.
Your timing for that is a little bit unfortunate as we are approaching the end of the Sporadic 'E' season, which in my rough estimation normally runs from about May to August. Plus, as you know, we are close to the bottom of a sunspot minimum, which runs in eleven year cycles. Lift on 10m can occur at other times during the year of course, but not as often as during the late spring / summer.

Probably your best bands for guaranteed activity are 20m during the day and 40m in the evening, but you'll need to fix yourself up something for those bands.
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Old 19th Aug 2018, 12:43 pm   #16
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David, Radio Wrangler wrote:
. . . "which seems as much fun as shading in graph paper, square by square".

Brilliant! I shall add that to my list of stock responses.

Al.
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Old 19th Aug 2018, 1:42 pm   #17
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

I often suspect that a lot of people monitor the VHF bands, but never speak. Embarrassingly, I am probably an offender here. I always have my 2M set on in the works vehicle, and quite often all day in the workshop. The local repeater (HA) pipes up once in a while with it's voice ident, but rarely entertains an actual QSO. I tend to respond to SOTA calls, as a lot of the area I work in is high ground, and quite often a good signal is received, but I don't generally respond to CQ calls on the repeater. I think it's because although I have been licenced for twenty years or so, and in the radio-comms trade pretty much all my working life, I'm not really a social type, so I'd rather just listen in to the chat than join in! I have had a 4M set for a few years too and the only time I have talked to someone on it was to a good radio friend who lives across the valley. Never heard a peep on the calling channel in all that time. My local friend and I have "our" channel chosen from the simplex allocation and this is used for one to one chats but I suppose someone would only find it in use when scanning the whole band. A bit unsociable I guess. Unsurprisingly no one ever joins our conversation. So there are more than one or two problems out there, but don't let it put you off. I have never lost my interest in it and would miss having the use of the repeater if it disappeared.
Alan.

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Old 19th Aug 2018, 1:56 pm   #18
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

Earlier this year I had a scanning receiver set up in the workshop scanning the 2 metre and 70 cm bands. Heard nothing apart from the odd repeater ID.

Tried simplex CQ calls, but no response. Can't call through repeaters, as I have no CTCSS equipped rig.

It appears to me that all my VHF/UHF gear is now useless junk.

I much preferred the days when I had an AM Pye Vanguard and a 2 metre convertor.
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Old 19th Aug 2018, 2:13 pm   #19
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I think next time i shall just politely decline to renew my sub to the repeater group and explain that I have no CTCSS equipped rigs. The added restrictions seem to have been a contributor to the demise of traffic. Coupling it to their funding might get things changed.

David
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Old 19th Aug 2018, 4:27 pm   #20
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Default Re: Getting back in to Amateur Radio

Though adding ctcss to a rig isn't hard - find the relevant portion of an old Philips TEDX board from an M290 series set and hacksaw out the FX335 with its associated bits and away you go... Lots of old and otherwise junk PMR sets from the '80s and '90s have CML FXxxx CTCSS chips in there waiting to be harvested, often as a plug-in that can be easily adapted to fit anything with a little space inside.

Or get a synthesized PMR set that lends itself to conversion - ready converted FM1200 and Ascom sets are around in numbers. (Tetra Communications?) At least you'll have the ability to access a repeater, even if there's nobody there!

For HF, well it's all down to taste. Something like a late TS830S will give you WARC bands, good ergonomics and repairability but I would more likely go for a DX70 or IC718 myself at a similar price. All the same ATUs and PSUs (get something heavy!) that were on the go 20-odd years ago will still be around at rallies. There's no point making a huge investment until you get back in there.

Colin.
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