Moving

Since I got it the FTM510D has been mounted under the shelf above the monitors. While that was ok it meant the mic lead was always caught behind one of the monitors. Having tidied one bookshelf and moved things around moving the Portsdown left a space under one of the three screens. A space, I thought ideal for the FTM510D. But how to mount it neatly... A search for 3D prints for the radio resulted in mainly mobile solutions but I came across a comment on one aimed at an earlier model saying the dimensions should be the same. It seems the FTM150 has the same slidemount arrangement and dimensions. So, off to makerworld - https://makerworld.com/en/models/1181052-desktop-stand-for-ftm-150rasp-may-fit-others - and off to order more PLA because I had hardly any of any sort of black filament. Twenty eight and a bit hours later... my biggest and longest print to date. Anyway, it worked just fine. After trimming the bits the radio slots straight in. The model even has a slot to hang the mic, and it sits just right under the monitor. Four sticky feet to stop it sliding finished it off. Surprisingly all the cables were of sufficient length for the radio's…

Just recently I have been comparing results on 2m FT8 between the Big Wheel and the QFH. I found there is very little diference between them, and although measuring via reported strength via pskreporter is hardly scientific the varying reports between the two - sometimes in favour of the Big Wheel and sometimes the QFH - brought me to rationalise the metalwork currently in the loft. Suffice to say the Big Wheel is no more and I am using the QFH from now on. This not to say that I don't want a nice Yagi and rotator on the chimey but that is a project for another day. Now the next interesting experiment is to see if I can reach FM satellites on the QFH. It should be better suited to those.

I am surprised that I actually managed to do something useful today. For a while now I have been meaning to put a Cross Country Wireless HF/VHF/UHF antenna splitter to use and today was the day. It is now sat upside down on the top shelf above the radios, fed from the discone in the loft and feeding two little LoRa modules, one for TinyGS and one receiving radiosondes. The TinyGS receiver had been running for some time sat in the loft and was previously the only thing connected to the discone. The radiosonde receiver had a 70cm ground plane in the shack and never received anything. Since reorganising the feed it has burst into life, rather surprisingly finding a balloon quite close to this QTH which was apparently launched from somewhere to the west of the Lake District but the data does not show the launch site. Looking at the altitude figure in the data I suspect it is already sat on the ground. Pity I cannot go out right now to see if I can find it. Now, the cabling is RG58 and so not particularly good at UHF. The next step is to put a pre-amp next…