Post by Brian ReayPost by Michael HungerDoes anyone know how many of these are in uk circulation please ?
I'd not have thought "thousands" but maybe you are correct. As I recall,
there was a big release of them from one of the utility companies- water or
gas - and the RATS club worked out a neat conversion.
I bought a couple at the Milton Keynes boot sale when the RATS people
were first selling them. They work quite well into my end-fed Jaybeam
7034 half-wave at 23ft. agl (QTH is 375ft. asl) though the Rx is rather
deaf. I dropped the output power to about 9w by connecting a 22K (IIRC)
resistor across the relevant points on the back socket, and ran it into
a BNOS 100w 4m amplifier. It worked very well on Tx, but due to the
monumental level of crap I suffer here from about 14MHz to about 200MHz
from all sorts of appallingly-designed consumer electronics, working the
band is extremely difficult, as a QRM-free frequency is often difficult
to find. That bloody daft Tx timeout is a 'fundamental' pain too. The
Ascom also suffers from intermittent partial keyboard lock - sometimes
the 'down 1 channel' key doesn't work, sometimes it's the squelch defeat
key...
Post by Brian ReayPlus, of course, there are other 4m radios (I run a Philips FM1000) and
there are several models of Key radios that are popular on the band.
I have a Pye MX294 on the band too, but ATM it has several faults, and
is way back in the queue for attention, considering the poor usability
of the band at this location. An excellent rig when it's working though,
and better IMHO than the Ascom. For the moment, I use an AKD4001 at 20w,
which gives reasonable local coverage within a 10 to 15-mile radius
depending on terrain.
Post by Brian ReayThere is 4m activity in this area (Nth Kent) and some Essex 70MHz RF even
finds its way here ;-)
There's some in the Herts and Beds area too. Unfortunately it often
consists of unthinking people who sit chatting on the calling frequency
and can't be *rs*d to QSY, so even if the SMPSU and computer QRM is in
abeyance that day, you can't call CQ.
Post by Brian ReayCertainly, the few commercial 4m antennas doesn't help (although you'll
find a simple to build design on the website below).
A simple half-wave vertical at a reasonable height can work surprisingly
well - and a lot better than a centre-fed dipole; I assume that this is
due to the 'pole-position' mounting of the end-fed half-wave, and thus
no significant interaction with the mast.
--
Regards, Andrew.
Andrew Marshall, G8BUR, M0MAA.
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