Good news all around

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 It's getting interesting. As you might remember

I hold a full UK M1 license (reciprocal)

I also hold a UK M3 license.

Now I'll get an 2E license (exam sorted out yesterday, nice pass mark)

I've booked my full UK exam for end of January.

My wife also passed her Foundation License exam yesterday, and now she's sitting next to me programming her brand new FT-65E. 

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Today wasn't that bad

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  I didn't have my usual assistant so the little sheep helped instead. Not a bad evening. After moping most of the day finally (yesterday depressed me to no ends) I got out just before 4PM and drove to the usual location and put up the antennas on top of the car. Then I got the FT-847 out - this time microphone included - and hollered a couple of CQs. Once more the US was very strong, heard lots of people from MN and Ohio, even all they way to Nebraska. I was putting out about 25-50W and once more, no one heard me or responded. I start to wonder if FT-818 was a bad idea with its QRP levels! I still love it to be honest, and FT-847 is also a fantastic radio. Later I gave up on 20, tried 40 and 80 but I couldn't get the multi-band tuned up. Then I went onto 145.500 and with the dipole on top of the bonnet (visible behind the sheep) tried a couple of CQs and a G4 from Cirencester responded so we had a nice QSO.  Then I packed up the radios, drove a short distance and tried some n...
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Bicycle Wheel Mag Loop

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A while back I stumbled upon  VK3YE 's excellent video about building a mag loop antenna out of a bicycle wheel. Building some type of loop like this has been in my mind for a long time so I shopped for variable capacitors that could handle this on eBay and got some junk. They weren't cheap. Overall I spent way too much money on this antenna compared to something off the shelf like a number of Am-Pro sticks could have been bought but that's not the fun (or frustration) part of it. I have had some MTB wheels in the garage for years, collected from bikes that have gone to the Rust section of the Silicon Heaven.  So finally this Saturday I got off the couch and wandered down to the garage. After checking out the two front and two back spares, I picked the one that's in worst shape, a front wheel with scored rims which came out of an old Raleigh bike i had picked up from Freecycle which was beyond any meaningful repair. The rim was in a relatively good rust-free shape and t...
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Antenna analyzer - ordered

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 I've got too many antennas lying around, I can no longer remember what they were for. 50MHz? 144MHz, 430MHz? Dual band? Single band? Not a clue. I've ordered a £30 NanoVNA (vector network analyzer) off Amazon, arriving tomorrow with Prime. It looks like one of the many cheap VNAs on Ebay/Amazon but reviews are very good. This will do up to 900MHz but even that's way too high for my current hobby (which is more concentrated on the HF side), and that is spectacular price / performance point. I cannot believe these things exist, about 15-20y ago a Vector Network Analyzer cost big bucks and was a lab bench equipment only companies and insane amateurs could afford - this thing is slightly larger than a credit card and only 30 quids! Simply my mind is blown. I've watched a couple of videos and I'm quite sure this will be enough for my own purposes. I don't have any GHz equipment and don't care about that right now. It will be perfect for managing & testing an...
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