M0RVB ⁽²⁹⁴⁾

Well this got off to a bad start! Ahead of my plan to move the QO100 disk so I can get the electronics in the loft rather than the garage I wanted to test out the Winterhill box to see if I could pick up any DATV on the wideband transponder. The Winterhill box generates the 18V necessary for the LNB so in theory it was just a matter of pulling the coax feed from the bias-tee in the garage and putting that into the Winterhill. That done, I could see the occasional signal but never a picture. Now, I had noticed that the NB beacon strength had dropped a while ago so today I decided to adjust the dish in case it had been knocked. That snowballed! I needed a laptop so I could see the signal strength while at the dish (remember the dish is on the garage wall currently at about 6 foot, so easy reach). Of my two laptops one is a Mac and had no SDR software, the other a Samsung Netbook running Ubuntu and terribly slow. I tried setting up several SDR packages on the Netbook and failed miserably. At this stage I need…

I now have a second Signalink USB complete with the Yaesu cable to go with the FT817. This is actually the third one to arrive here, the second was mis-advertised as having the radio cable - it didn't so it is going back because the price is £20 more than a competitor, a little less than the cost of the radio cable. Serves me right for trying to save a couple of quid! Anyway, FT817 and Signalink all cabled together and no antenna. Hmmm. Ok let's try into a dummy load, should be good enough for across the shack with FT8 running on the Linux box. Nothing received. Ah, it's a Windows box and 1.5 seconds adrift. Sync the time. No change. Ok. Set WSJT-X to 2m and use the front antenna which I have. Nope, nothing sent. It is always a good idea to read the manual before fiddling! Let's change the display to power. Ah. No power... Hmmm. Ok, transmit from the Linux box and I can see that on WSJT-X via the FT817. So it receives fine. Did I mention the manual? Set radio to DIG. Works fine now! Funny, that.

I like to fiddle with stuff but getting antenna a to whatever-it-is b is complex and usually messy. Coax to the loft is all RG213 or Westflex 103 and tends to be a bit stiff and unwieldy so sits attached to whatever transceiver or transverter it was originally put in for. But mixing and matching is my aim. Switches would be equally complex I think. So I am eyeing up a BNC patch panel I used to have in a Land Rover for antenna patching and which has been sitting for 20 or so years sulking in a box of tools. It has 32 holes each designed to take a BNC-BNC through adapter which makes for an extra plug at the rear - maybe a BNC socket wired to whatever kit it is intended for rather than the rear socket would be a better idea. It is the wrong shape of course, better for 4 rows and less width as it makes for long patch leads but if I have all the antennas in the centre I can cut that down - sensible routing is a must. I will still need at least one switch but I have a good…

One thing I am not good at is actually getting on the bands and taking. I tend to dwell on FT8 due to rather naff hearing, but this POTA / SOTA thing has caught my eye now and so I wanted something other than an FM handheld. Enter a used FT817 - not the ND but hey. Yes it is yet another thing to learn but it came with a rechargeable battery and gives 2.5W out on 2m into a dummy load (very quick test, you know, new thing, gotta fiddle!) which the manual says it will set itself to when on battery. Unfortunately I got this a few days after our last excursion which would have been an ideal test. It also came with a cigar-lighter charge lead so it can be charged in the car on the way to somewhere. The rig is smaller than I had imagined, very luggable. It's dwarfed by my SWR meter - I really need to get a smaller one for portable use. I reckon it will be very useful for when I eventually finish off my various microwave kits. On order is a CAT / USB lead. It came with a Bluetooth…

I have been renting a dedicated server for a while now as I had a project on the go that needed a bit of oomph and it was killing the VPS I was using. That project is not going anywhere fast and so I have moved this blog over to a VPS. Hopefully nothing has broken!