Article on RAYNET - amateur radio - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Martin Bush · 1st Apr 2020, 2:32 pm

Hello all

I thought some of you might be interested in this: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.u...ng-east-lancs/

As with all local newspaper websites, someone has been quick to make a "witty" comment. That aside, it's still a worthy read.

Martin

hamid_1 · 1st Apr 2020, 10:57 pm

There does appear to be more activity on 2 metres around here recently. I heard someone from Mid Thames Raynet as well as people using the Brill repeater on 145.700 MHz. I was rather disappointed, having obtained a secondhand Yaesu FT-211RH 2m transceiver and an amateur radio foundation licence last year, that there seemed to be nobody to talk to. I've just recently set up a better aerial - a 2m & 70cm "white stick" colinear instead of the small magnet-mount one I was using. This seems to have brought in more signals, but by listening to other amateurs, it seems like they are also bored being confined at home and are turning their radios back on for companionship. Let's hope it will rekindle some interest in amateur radio.

Still no activity on 27MHz CB here, at least not that I've heard. Some local taxi drivers used to use it for their work, but I haven't heard them at all this year.

As for the comment about a wind-up gramophone and 78 records, well I do have one, and a camping gas lamp, both of which could come in useful if the electricity goes off. Just a few weeks ago, I was describing to a youngster about the power cuts of the 1970s, and how there were food shortages in the shops. I explained that because there was no electricity, there was no frozen food (no working freezers) and no TV to watch either. We certainly didn't have mobile phones or the internet. The young lad almost couldn't believe it, but I experienced it. Now, in a way, history is repeating itself.

Radio Wrangler · 1st Apr 2020, 11:09 pm

I've got a good number of real printed books which need reading. Old technology from before the age of electricity.

David

electronicskip · 2nd Apr 2020, 7:09 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by hamid_1

There does appear to be more activity on 2 metres around here recently. I heard someone from Mid Thames Raynet as well as people using the Brill repeater on 145.700 MHz. I was rather disappointed, having obtained a secondhand Yaesu FT-211RH 2m transceiver and an amateur radio foundation licence last year, that there seemed to be nobody to talk to. I've just recently set up a better aerial - a 2m & 70cm "white stick" colinear instead of the small magnet-mount one I was using. This seems to have brought in more signals, but by listening to other amateurs, it seems like they are also bored being confined at home and are turning their radios back on for companionship. Let's hope it will rekindle some interest in amateur radio.

Still no activity on 27MHz CB here, at least not that I've heard. Some local taxi drivers used to use it for their work, but I haven't heard them at all this year.

As for the comment about a wind-up gramophone and 78 records, well I do have one, and a camping gas lamp, both of which could come in useful if the electricity goes off. Just a few weeks ago, I was describing to a youngster about the power cuts of the 1970s, and how there were food shortages in the shops. I explained that because there was no electricity, there was no frozen food (no working freezers) and no TV to watch either. We certainly didn't have mobile phones or the internet. The young lad almost couldn't believe it, but I experienced it. Now, in a way, history is repeating itself.

The local Ham radio club in the village still has on air meets 3 times a week on 2m and 432 ssb although the weekly physical meet has been postponed until further notice of course .

27Mhz 11m is quiet as usual but there are still a few using it in the week if you listen for a while and also scan the AM and SSB channels too.

ex seismic · 2nd Apr 2020, 9:09 am

Here in West Kent there is life on all the VHF bands. Our local club has a daily morning and now evening nets. I've heard far more 2m calling channel activity than usual, also on 6m and 4m ,both of which have been dead for years up until this week.
There is even some life on CB19.

MrBungle · 2nd Apr 2020, 9:58 am

Some activity around here. Mostly complaining about things!

Aub · 2nd Apr 2020, 11:32 am

Not that old chestnut again. My motivation has never been to, "Talk to someone around the world for free". Did people really take up the hobby just to save money on phone calls?

Aub

2nd Apr 2020, 12:52 pm

Quote:

Did people really take up the hobby just to save money on phone calls?

I took it up for the technical challenge with a result afterwards.
For a long multi-person chinwag it was much much cheaper than the 'phone and open to visitors ('nets' still are).
I quite enjoy the discipline of simplex communication, makes your next sentence fully formed (very handy in meetings).
I also enjoy listening to the radio, broadcast, data and all sorts.
And it has come in useful in crises, mains down, mobile 'phone don't work etc. All my handhelds are now fully charged (not from panic, I do this every month or so anyway).

Finally, it's the journey not the destination.

Well someone had to say it.
73's everyone.

dave walsh · 2nd Apr 2020, 1:26 pm

As Merlin says, a different world Aub. Undoubtedly the conversational side might have been a bit dull and there were "rules" about who could use the "line" ie nobody else but the main motivational emphasis was technical and [pre-Internet] a sense of wonder/achievement that's pretty much absent these days. You would have to be very well heeled to make an International phone call back then. It was a special occasion or emergencies only. That's why people sent audio "letters" on 5" reels to each other. Most of the population can't cope without a mobile welded to them these days. A number of people are finally beginning to realise that "Vintage" RX/TX systems have an advantage though.They don't go down if the Servers do

.

Some of the Hancock programs are quite predictive. In the "Radio Ham" he's a bit of a sad figure, not a technical enthusiast. He bought the kit and talks about how great it all is. "Friends all over the world!" pause and quietly, "None in this country though!" Now Facebook can do the same thing for you with 500 "friends".

Dylan has just put out an amazing Opus about the Kennedy Assassination in 63. Murder Most Foul [Hamlet]. I recall listening to the Funeral Procession in America, as a teenager, on the Short Wave Band of an Ever Ready Battery/Mains portable set. It felt very exclusive at the time. There was no other way to link in like that.

Dave W

Radio Wrangler · 2nd Apr 2020, 3:26 pm

73s for sure, and 88s where appropriate, but definitely no 55s - that relates to an entirely different time of problems.

Just how many different sign-offs were there?

Pip, pip,
David

2nd Apr 2020, 5:11 pm

Ttfn

Junk Box Nick · 2nd Apr 2020, 5:12 pm

"One reason ham radio lost its popularity was the interference from the unsightly massive aerials that enthusiasts bolted on the side of their homes."

So that's the explanation...

HamishBoxer · 2nd Apr 2020, 5:55 pm

Maybe it was my 60 foot trailer mounted mast!Though I never had any complaints of interference etc. 25 years I owned it.

SiriusHardware · 2nd Apr 2020, 6:06 pm

More likely to have been the ubiquitous CB half-wave verticals often seen tottering on top of half a ton of scaffold pole held up by string. They were a very common sight at one time. (I had one as well, but it was mounted on the gable end of the house on a short mast on T&K brackets).

electronicskip · 2nd Apr 2020, 6:37 pm

When I was living at home I did have an 18 foot dipole clamped outside my bedroom window!

G6Tanuki · 2nd Apr 2020, 6:50 pm

Removing the base-coil and reducing the length to 16 foot six, and fitting a few radials of the same length, can easily/cheaply turn a legacy CB 'half wave' vertical into a nice 14MHz ground-plane.

The radials, if made from something with a high tensile-strength and sensibly robust like 16-gauge Copperweld® steel-core wire, really help to stabilise a 'wobbly whip' when mounted high on a pole.

I've got such an arrangement here - works far better than its 12AVQ predecessor.

Someday I'll work out a relay-switched matching arrangement so it can also work on 28MHz - but given the recent lack of sunspots this is definitely a low-priority.

Junk Box Nick · 2nd Apr 2020, 8:16 pm

Well, I'm guilty as charged.

Decades ago and still at my parents' home I had a stacked aerial, 10 ele each, for 144Mhz and above a rather long stacked array for 432Mhz, based on the DL6WU yagi design all on a chunky rotator, and down the garden a vertical that also supported a couple of HF inverted v dipoles.

The neighbours were never very happy with me but apparently I'd been interfering with their TV since I'd had an end fed wire down the garden so that I could listen on SW with my one valve HAC.

paulsherwin · 2nd Apr 2020, 8:25 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junk Box Nick

"One reason ham radio lost its popularity was the interference from the unsightly massive aerials that enthusiasts bolted on the side of their homes."

So that's the explanation...

A big obvious aerial in the middle of a residential area is never going to be very popular, especially if it is a source of interference. Most people view radio amateurs as antisocial nuisances and crackpots, and some of them actually are. You can hardly blame ordinary members of the public for being a bit suspicious.

I used to know somebody who was very keen on RAYNET at the BT research labs (as they then were) at Martlesham. He used to walk around wearing a hi-vis waistcoat with 'RAYNET' written on the back. I always thought he was looking forward to the incipient nuclear apocalypse when he would have been able to use his radio skills and valve equipment (though being very close to RAF Bentwaters, his survival chances would have been pretty slim).

Junk Box Nick · 2nd Apr 2020, 9:08 pm

In mitigation I will just say I had the benefit of a very fortunate and shielded location. There was only one house in any proximity that could see my installation.

Then the CB craze came along and curious things happened in the neighbourhood...

Every hobby has its share of antisocial crackpots.

gm0ekm cecil · 2nd Apr 2020, 9:32 pm

In the 1980's I had a 3 way ssb contact on 20m. into Australia, I was in Shetland and the other station was on the Isle of Wight. I was using a handheld Mizuho qrp radio with an output of 2 watts. My aerial was an ex 1/2 wave cb whip (minus the matching gubbins at the base) with 4 sloping radials, all mounted on top of my 60 foot tower. We had a 15 minute qso. My tower was and still is just over 70 metres from my radio room!

1st Apr 2020, 2:32 pm	#1
Martin Bush Octode Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Oxfordshire, UK. Posts: 1,910	Article on RAYNET - amateur radio Hello all I thought some of you might be interested in this: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.u...ng-east-lancs/ As with all local newspaper websites, someone has been quick to make a "witty" comment. That aside, it's still a worthy read. Martin __________________ Is it live, or is it... no, it's live actually...

1st Apr 2020, 10:57 pm	#2
hamid_1 Heptode Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: High Wycombe, Bucks. UK. Posts: 811	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio There does appear to be more activity on 2 metres around here recently. I heard someone from Mid Thames Raynet as well as people using the Brill repeater on 145.700 MHz. I was rather disappointed, having obtained a secondhand Yaesu FT-211RH 2m transceiver and an amateur radio foundation licence last year, that there seemed to be nobody to talk to. I've just recently set up a better aerial - a 2m & 70cm "white stick" colinear instead of the small magnet-mount one I was using. This seems to have brought in more signals, but by listening to other amateurs, it seems like they are also bored being confined at home and are turning their radios back on for companionship. Let's hope it will rekindle some interest in amateur radio. Still no activity on 27MHz CB here, at least not that I've heard. Some local taxi drivers used to use it for their work, but I haven't heard them at all this year. As for the comment about a wind-up gramophone and 78 records, well I do have one, and a camping gas lamp, both of which could come in useful if the electricity goes off. Just a few weeks ago, I was describing to a youngster about the power cuts of the 1970s, and how there were food shortages in the shops. I explained that because there was no electricity, there was no frozen food (no working freezers) and no TV to watch either. We certainly didn't have mobile phones or the internet. The young lad almost couldn't believe it, but I experienced it. Now, in a way, history is repeating itself.

1st Apr 2020, 11:09 pm	#3
Radio Wrangler Moderator Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Fife, Scotland, UK. Posts: 22,864	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio I've got a good number of real printed books which need reading. Old technology from before the age of electricity. David __________________ Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done

2nd Apr 2020, 9:09 am	#5
ex seismic Heptode Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Tonbridge, Kent, UK. Posts: 686	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio Here in West Kent there is life on all the VHF bands. Our local club has a daily morning and now evening nets. I've heard far more 2m calling channel activity than usual, also on 6m and 4m ,both of which have been dead for years up until this week. There is even some life on CB19.

2nd Apr 2020, 9:58 am	#6
MrBungle Dekatron Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: London, UK. Posts: 3,687	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio Some activity around here. Mostly complaining about things!

2nd Apr 2020, 11:32 am	#7
Aub Nonode Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK. Posts: 2,038	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio Not that old chestnut again. My motivation has never been to, "Talk to someone around the world for free". Did people really take up the hobby just to save money on phone calls? Aub __________________ Life's a long song, but the tune ends too soon for us all.

2nd Apr 2020, 1:26 pm	#9
dave walsh Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Ramsbottom (Nr Bury) Lancs or Bexhill (Nr Hastings) Sussex. Posts: 5,817	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio As Merlin says, a different world Aub. Undoubtedly the conversational side might have been a bit dull and there were "rules" about who could use the "line" ie nobody else but the main motivational emphasis was technical and [pre-Internet] a sense of wonder/achievement that's pretty much absent these days. You would have to be very well heeled to make an International phone call back then. It was a special occasion or emergencies only. That's why people sent audio "letters" on 5" reels to each other. Most of the population can't cope without a mobile welded to them these days. A number of people are finally beginning to realise that "Vintage" RX/TX systems have an advantage though.They don't go down if the Servers do. Some of the Hancock programs are quite predictive. In the "Radio Ham" he's a bit of a sad figure, not a technical enthusiast. He bought the kit and talks about how great it all is. "Friends all over the world!" pause and quietly, "None in this country though!" Now Facebook can do the same thing for you with 500 "friends". Dylan has just put out an amazing Opus about the Kennedy Assassination in 63. Murder Most Foul [Hamlet]. I recall listening to the Funeral Procession in America, as a teenager, on the Short Wave Band of an Ever Ready Battery/Mains portable set. It felt very exclusive at the time. There was no other way to link in like that. Dave W Last edited by dave walsh; 2nd Apr 2020 at 1:32 pm.

2nd Apr 2020, 3:26 pm	#10
Radio Wrangler Moderator Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Fife, Scotland, UK. Posts: 22,864	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio 73s for sure, and 88s where appropriate, but definitely no 55s - that relates to an entirely different time of problems. Just how many different sign-offs were there? Pip, pip, David __________________ Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done

2nd Apr 2020, 5:11 pm	#11
Guest Guest Posts: n/a	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio Ttfn

2nd Apr 2020, 5:12 pm	#12
Junk Box Nick Octode Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: West Midlands, UK. Posts: 1,571	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio "One reason ham radio lost its popularity was the interference from the unsightly massive aerials that enthusiasts bolted on the side of their homes." So that's the explanation...

2nd Apr 2020, 5:55 pm	#13
HamishBoxer Dekatron Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK. Posts: 8,932	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio Maybe it was my 60 foot trailer mounted mast!Though I never had any complaints of interference etc. 25 years I owned it. __________________ G8JET BVWS Archivist and Member V.M.A.R.S

2nd Apr 2020, 6:06 pm	#14
SiriusHardware Dekatron Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, UK. Posts: 11,553	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio More likely to have been the ubiquitous CB half-wave verticals often seen tottering on top of half a ton of scaffold pole held up by string. They were a very common sight at one time. (I had one as well, but it was mounted on the gable end of the house on a short mast on T&K brackets).

2nd Apr 2020, 6:37 pm	#15
electronicskip Nonode Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Gloucester, Glos. UK. Posts: 2,150	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio When I was living at home I did have an 18 foot dipole clamped outside my bedroom window! __________________ Oh I've had that for years dear!!

2nd Apr 2020, 6:50 pm	#16
G6Tanuki Dekatron Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Wiltshire, UK. Posts: 13,996	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio Removing the base-coil and reducing the length to 16 foot six, and fitting a few radials of the same length, can easily/cheaply turn a legacy CB 'half wave' vertical into a nice 14MHz ground-plane. The radials, if made from something with a high tensile-strength and sensibly robust like 16-gauge Copperweld® steel-core wire, really help to stabilise a 'wobbly whip' when mounted high on a pole. I've got such an arrangement here - works far better than its 12AVQ predecessor. Someday I'll work out a relay-switched matching arrangement so it can also work on 28MHz - but given the recent lack of sunspots this is definitely a low-priority.

2nd Apr 2020, 8:16 pm	#17
Junk Box Nick Octode Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: West Midlands, UK. Posts: 1,571	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio Well, I'm guilty as charged. Decades ago and still at my parents' home I had a stacked aerial, 10 ele each, for 144Mhz and above a rather long stacked array for 432Mhz, based on the DL6WU yagi design all on a chunky rotator, and down the garden a vertical that also supported a couple of HF inverted v dipoles. The neighbours were never very happy with me but apparently I'd been interfering with their TV since I'd had an end fed wire down the garden so that I could listen on SW with my one valve HAC.

2nd Apr 2020, 9:08 pm	#19
Junk Box Nick Octode Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: West Midlands, UK. Posts: 1,571	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio In mitigation I will just say I had the benefit of a very fortunate and shielded location. There was only one house in any proximity that could see my installation. Then the CB craze came along and curious things happened in the neighbourhood... Every hobby has its share of antisocial crackpots.

2nd Apr 2020, 9:32 pm	#20
gm0ekm cecil Tetrode Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Shetland, UK. Posts: 79	Re: Article on RAYNET - amateur radio In the 1980's I had a 3 way ssb contact on 20m. into Australia, I was in Shetland and the other station was on the Isle of Wight. I was using a handheld Mizuho qrp radio with an output of 2 watts. My aerial was an ex 1/2 wave cb whip (minus the matching gubbins at the base) with 4 sloping radials, all mounted on top of my 60 foot tower. We had a 15 minute qso. My tower was and still is just over 70 metres from my radio room!