SELLING UP after 3 days

Hi all I am going to sell up after 3 days... Just wasted £575 ... On crap..!!

Spend 3 days on 27.555 USB calling, may as well listen to static on the Radio and stare at £575 cash on my shelf..

BIG REGRETS..!!!

Hi Equaliser, what's your set up? Maybe you've got a faulty bit of kit / connector or cable in there somewhere? I know its frustrating getting new kit and it seems to be not working. Maybe we can fault find and get to the bottom of the problem (if there is one) by talking through your set up and trying to isolate the 'root cause'

Don't quit yet buddy!

Maybe someone who lives close could pop round and check your ser up !

You should of heard something as 11m has been good the last few days (today a bit quieter) with lots of europe with strong signals.
Ireland and Scotland about on the short hop skip too...

Yesterday was so busy i went down to 26mhz to give my ears a rest and make some contacts..a good sign this summer could be decent for more of the same.

Hi Equaliser - sorry to hear. I have come back to CB/freebanding after a quarter of a century away. I have some crappy Albrecht gear over which I heard absolutely nothing until I built myself a 10/11m dipole. I have recently worked North England (from Kent) and all the way to the East of Germany.

First thing to check is your SWR meter. I bought about 3 antennas and couldn't 'tune' any of them. All of the showed high SWR no matter what I did with location, cable, etc etc. Never occurred to me that the crappy 14 quid SWR meter I used was crap/faulty. New SWR meter and hey presto, managed to tune my dipole to close to 1:1 SWR across the UK40 channel range.

What antenna you running and where is it mounted and with what cable ?

Happy to help if I can.

Tx,
Pete 26-CT-3575

pistolpete wrote:

Hi Equaliser - sorry to hear. I have come back to CB/freebanding after a quarter of a century away. I have some crappy Albrecht gear over which I heard absolutely nothing until I built myself a 10/11m dipole. I have recently worked North England (from Kent) and all the way to the East of Germany.

First thing to check is your SWR meter. I bought about 3 antennas and couldn't 'tune' any of them. All of the showed high SWR no matter what I did with location, cable, etc etc. Never occurred to me that the crappy 14 quid SWR meter I used was crap/faulty. New SWR meter and hey presto, managed to tune my dipole to close to 1:1 SWR across the UK40 channel range.

What antenna you running and where is it mounted and with what cable ?

Happy to help if I can.

Tx,
Pete 26-CT-3575

Couldn't agree more Pete, when buying multiple bits of kit, the chances of an 'out of box' failure is probably higher today than ever due to cost implications in manufacturing

Hello Mark,

There have been some fairly big openings on 10 & 11 meters in the last week. Both inter-G and Euro E-skip have been possible. What antenna system are you using?

73's Gary.

Don't give up m8.
I have only been back on a short time after a 25/6 year break.
Set my station up in the bedroom but didn't hear much at all.
Out in the car was a bit better but don't go out that much.
THEN i cleared out my shed and set up out there and the only thing i changed was the coax.
This time i bought the good stuff and plugged it all in and away.
I say away as i only turned it on yesterday for the first time.
First contact was into Italy and a report of 5by9 then i went back on 555 and it was mad but i got hold of an old m8 and well had a good afternoon talking away for around 4 hours.
So DON'T give up just yet it's got to be a fault on a coax plug or something small.
There's got to be a local that can help you out.

I'm sorry, but why go to the trouble of logging in, sitting down and writing a post like this with zero information of setup, equipment etc ? Instead, why don't you ask what can you do fix the situation and make the best use of the money you're after spending, there is a world of knowledge on this forum and it's most likely something simple. These forums are brilliant for help and advice, not so great for coming and having a cry looking for sympathy.

Absolutely spot on Mark after just 3 days the towel is thrown ! Says more about the OP than the actual situation

If the the OP really hasn’t heard a thing on T5 then there is clearly something wrong and with a bit of patience could be soon put right

Craig

Hi Equaliser,

Does sound rather strange you haven't received any replies?

I live in Fife Scotland and can hear German & French channels coming over just now and have just spoken to a 13EK11 a few mins ago.

As I live approx 340m as the crow flies further north, it may be as the guys are suggesting and that you have an issue somewhere. Are you receiving any local stations on any other channels?

Always worth taking a minute to sit back and look at the issue with a fresh pair of eyes instead of getting annoyed and throwing in the towel.

73's mate.

Take a min, take a break and see if any of the local guys on here can assist before you chuck it in.

Sydthecat wrote:

Absolutely spot on Mark  after just 3 days the towel is thrown ! Says more about the OP than the actual situation

If the the OP really hasn’t heard a thing on T5 then there is clearly something wrong and with a bit of patience  could be soon put right

Craig

Been on so many forums over the years (for tractors, cars etc etc) and seen so many of them ruined and taken over by attention seeking posts like this and people replying with comments that give exactly what the OP is looking for, sympathy. I'm not trying to take away from the encouraging words posted above and absolutely can understand the frustration as I've been there ! But if there was info given, questions asked etc to rectify the situation then I too would encourage perseverance but I feel not enough people call BS on posts like this.

Hmmm, the lack of replies too have led me to believe it could be BS, or self inflicted. My order from Knights turns up tomorrow, being off CB since 1987 myself, I'm prepared for some tinkering and trials and error etc. It's a bonus if I can install it, power it up and it works straight away as one wants, but being RF, we know that isn't always the case. I certainly won't be binning it if that's the case, part of the fun is finding out why things don't work and fixing them

MV Communicator wrote:

Hmmm, the lack of replies too have led me to believe it could be BS, or self inflicted.  My order from Knights turns up tomorrow, being off CB since 1987 myself,  I'm prepared for some tinkering and trials and error etc. It's a bonus if I can install it, power it up and it works straight away as one wants, but being RF, we know that isn't always the case. I certainly won't be binning it if that's the case, part of the fun is finding out why things don't work and fixing them

Exactly... Its all trial and error for me too being new to radio. If I need help, I ask, simple... if I can fix it myself happy days (this is where the real buzz in the hobby comes from) and if I can't and need to throw a few quid at a problem to make it go away so be it but I don't like to be beaten

STARSHIP wrote:

GaryWilson wrote:

Hello Mark,

There have been some fairly big openings on 10 & 11 meters in the last week. Both inter-G and Euro E-skip have been possible. What antenna system are you using?

73's Gary.

Hello Gary.
The usual antenna been up for 17 years now. Solarcon A-99. vertical. 20' of the ground only. VSWR 1:2
Still works well on 11M and elseware.
73.
Mark 26CT695.

Hello Mark,

I was actually directing the question to Mark the thread starter who is considering giving up after three days. I suspect that after the band openings last week that his antenna system is not so good.

The Solarcon is a great antenna and sturdy as anything on the market. I no longer have a permanent vertical up I use a long wire for the obvious bands. If I want a bit of 11 meter action I pop up a T2LT on a 10 meter pole and it works a treat for 11 & 10 meters.

Thanks for the reply all the same Mark and of course your valued contributions to the forum. Stay safe!

73's Gary.