The Good Ol' Days

A life long friend ( fellow pirate ) were talking yesterday about the
good Ol' Days,, and we got up to the mid 80s about 84/85 when we crossed to the Foot/Mouth and some of the long range contacts made on FM and the gear we used. Myself I used a Mk1 Thunderpole,,, remember them bloody great thing with a 3 leg ground plane,,, and legal Comron rig,,, yep a bit basic but they worked,, something became very clear all the DX happened between the hours of 2am and 8am,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, we put it down the "Fmers" were all in bed. So im wondering is the same true today, if you think about it between say 7am and 12pm just about every electrical item in the country is going flat out.. Are we giving up cleaner air for convenience ,,,, I don't know, and without other like minded nutters ill never know, but im gona try a few early mornings and see what happens.

73s Tom

Those days are finished for me staying up half the night ,I like my bed too much LOL ,but a mate of dose shift work and has chances of being up at silly o'clock on the radio and he's had a few long distance copys from his QTH in Enfield and on low power too ,example he was talking to another local breaker to him at silly o'clock the other night and someone came in on the side and ask the normal who's on channel so my mate said who he was and he was in Enfield and the breaker came back asking wheres that ,so my mate told him and the guy said but your giving me 10+db and I'm in Dover and that was on FM ,my mate said the guy in Dover was giving him 8+db ,during the day me and him cant hear each other sometimes and we're only 5 mile apart lol .
Just worked out the distance Tom , its about 90mile dont know what radio he was using at the time cos he has loads may have been his mk1 Lincoln or his Magnum S9 he uses those most but his antenna would have been a Gainmaster and it's up very high too.

Being of the older generation i get up early most days , sometimes 4am to go fishing never really thought about switching the radio on but i will now .
I wish there were more folks on where i live but sadly not many mostly Ham's talking shite .

There seems to be far more interference around from traffic lights,street lights etc giving us grief these days (i cant complain as i get flat zero noise across 11m here) and remember back in the early 80s talking to Watford form here in Sevenoaks Kent using my 6ft firestik in the loft on a ground plane kit and a 4w colt 295...5/5 each way and while i cant remember the womans name i can recall her voice and how well she run the early morning Sunday network..

The nets were something else back then with easily 40 mile contacts made with little effort..

And some of the anticts i got up to on eyeballs with lady breakers would make your hair curl,ah the good ol` days

Oh Cozzmik,

That bought back a few memories. Ill say nothing of the ladies ,,, Ok well might be getting old but you know what say about tunes and fiddle's.
well like my friend Saltire I get up at silly o'clock to go shooting and fishing. now I have to be fair to the family but im up for trying a vampire net say Saturday morning, no time or channel YET, lets see how many might give it a bash and we can work on the details.

What say thee my brothers are we ready for the zimmer frame or the climbing frame lol

When work settles down and i am not on a call shift pattern i would be up for those sort of antics again.
The last few years in late summer/autumn there was a couple of parrot/repeaters active from Russia and Sweden on the mid band FM during mid mornings letting us down Sarf make contact with you up Norf which was great fun...of course some short hop skip will hopefully be possible too this summer meaning some decent contacts can again be made around the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTZl8Wg6gcI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEdi76WfcKE

You have probably seen the above but oh the memories

Defo on the climbing frame..

Oh a smile on your face a tear in your eye and a pain in your wallet,,,,,, but wish we could go back.

Well im not much good at organising and pc stuff so maybe we can get the admin to lend a hand getting things off the ground.

73s Tom

Sounds good to me and I will be more than happy to give it a try.

Stay safe
73's
Dale
26-CT-3550

Cozzmik that antenna in you pic i had one of those but it was called an Avanti Sigma 4  stonker of antenna , my dad went mental when he came home from working away and this monstrosity as he called it was bolted to the side of the house .I caused some amount of tvi back in the early 80's but  looking back it was great fun, best ever was Brasil on 12watts ssb (The wife not me ).
I have a pic of an eyball card which is in a 1981 cb magazine and the blokes name was The Golden Groper  and the picture depicted a girl in stockings bending over a table .

saltire wrote:

Cozzmik that antenna in you pic i had one of those but it was called an Avanti Sigma 4  stonker of antenna , my dad went mental when he came home from working away and this monstrosity as he called it was bolted to the side of the house .I caused some amount of tvi back in the early 80's but  looking back it was great fun, best ever was Brasil on 12watts ssb (The wife not me ).
I have a pic of an eyball card which is in a 1981 cb magazine and the blokes name was The Golden Groper  and the picture depicted a girl in stockings bending over a table .

The siggy 4 was an amazing antenna and i had a couple back in the 80s but the one in my avatar is my Vector 4000 and a approx 30ft its a beast,not so well built as the siggy 4 but ive put wooden dowling inside each section to strengthen it.
It works well and the locals think it is a ships mast so ive been told..

Golden Groper would be done for sexism nowadays hi hi

Hi Dale,

Great stuff mate. The more interest we get the better chance we have it getting off the ground