Essex 27.305 USB - and thank you!

Hello All!

Firstly, thank you all for your valuable help over the past weeks, I now have my McKinley set up (not expanded yet, still playing about with configurations etc)......
Antron 99 is up with base at approx 25 feet.

Is anyone close to my location - Epping in Essex - able to throw a call out for me so that I can get a report? I am around evenings (20:00 tomorrow onwards give or take, and all day Sat)......

Love to make first contact.....



Rory

Normally on the 305 usb at 4PM  everyday there is a network on there which has stations from Essex to Hertfordshire on it , but if you are about on Saturday and your monitoring 27:305 usb or 27:275 usb which is supposed to be the UK SSB calling channel I will give you a shout I'm only in North London if so leave a post on here in this thread you've started with a time and frequency and I'll try Rory.

Good luck, Rory.

Thank you Nubster - OK, lets say 27.275 USB at 4PM.
Good for you?



Cheers,
Rory

OK Rory mate if any problems either way ie: you  or I  have to cancel before then just add a post on here look forward for the QSO
Martin (NUBSTER)

Hello Lads,

 Ill try giving you both a shout from up here in No Mans Land,  but 4pm is bang in the middle of muppet time here, but I may find a window.

Best 70thirds  Tom  26CZ455

hi rory, im in east hertfordshire/ cambs border , i,ll have a listen as well an try at 4pm

rich j
26-ct3682

Hey Lads,

I'm in the radio black hole of Bedford, (almost sea level!), so managed continental DX but not much UK action.
Who knows, maybe the radio god's will smile that day

I shall set a reminder and give you a go.

73s
Victor

Sorry Rory,
 Just too much traffic my end,,,, but ill keep listening a bit longer

73s Tom

Hi lads,
Ok, excellent.
I’ll be on 27.275 Saturday at 4PM.
I’ll throw out a call every few mins, CT3515.
Hope to catch some of you

Thanks Martin,
Could just about hear you at one point, enough to get your call sign.
Not sure how I was to you?
Rory

could hear you rory in east herts, but to much noise to get you, heard martin as well

ct3682

Well I cant believe I couldn't copy you in Epping, that use to be easy for me about 3 year ago and even before that , I really do believe something has gone up ie: a building or some structure somewhere that's blocking my signals cos I never had problems of getting out and receiving ,will admit I have been noticing my TX/RX not as good as it was and know it's not my radios cos they all cant be doing the same problem lol ,i did hear you but very faint but just readable  well at least we tried but TBH it should of been a easy copy mate.

Should've checked back here first.......

Set my reminder for Sat. 11th 16:00hrs 27.305MHz USB - as per the title....without the update(!)

Been shouting on the wrong frequency!

TBH I had my band scope setup and a flit around the frequencies but didn't get anything here.
Like I said, radio black hole of Bedford, (100ft above sea level despite being 70 odd miles from the sea!! Big, deep, dark, hole!)

Next time...I'll check for a frequency update


73s Lads

Do you know Victor I think my QTH is beginning to or has become a radio black spot, its getting really bad like I mentioned in my last post to Rory , I use to get his QTH area easy TBH I use get up to your area sometimes if conditions was OK , it's getting worse around my way lately and it's not just the normal like interference causing it ,its like there is something blocking out radio waves ,actually sometimes even my TV gets interference now and then  which it never use to, TBH it getting annoying

Hi guys,
Thank you both for your help.
I could JUST hear you Martin, plus your roger beep.
Got very clear contact with Ranger.
It’s odd, as you say, because I got a load of guys yesterday from Canning Town and North London. With my height you are almost line of sight.
Martin, Victor, I’ll hang out on 305 however AM. Give a shout out if you can.
Wonder if mode will make a difference?

Hi guys,
Thank you both for your help.
I could JUST hear you Martin, plus your roger beep.
Got very clear contact with Ranger.
It’s odd, as you say, because I got a load of guys yesterday from Canning Town and North London. With my height you are almost line of sight.
Martin, Victor, I’ll hang out on 305 however AM. Give a shout out if you can.
Wonder if mode will make a difference?

Hiya Martin,

I know what you mean mate. From about 27.400MHz to 28.000MHz I get a lot of hash and not all of it sounds like your typical interference. I do get RFI from a neighbours PLT system and another neighbours solar panel setup, (which I know for a fact as it didn't start until they'd fitted it!). But this noise is more akin to your typical OTH radar sound?!?!

Perhaps conditions aren't so great for local DX as on 27.305 and 27.275, (after realising my mistake - doh!), I've got Germans coming through chatting on FM and a bit further up the band Italian Hola-Coca-Cola brigade. Back of the box like but maybe a bit of Sporadic E is the cause?

But yeah, back in the day North London nets weren't a problem this way.

Still, was a bit of fun giving it a go and I'm questioning my inverted V setup thinking it's favouring Continental DX at the expense of local. I might have to knock together a vertical and see how that bugger goes


Anyway, was worth giving it a go.

Hi Rory,

On the 305 now but all I've got is some Germans chatting on FM. Someone must be getting to them as they started speaking English for a brief QSO. Cant get them myself though.

Anyway, it's been fun but now I've got the "station manager" shouting up the stairs something about dinner

(Why she thought having my radio setup upstairs was a good idea with my gammy leg I'll never flipping know!!)

Take it easy Lads and I'll catch you soon.
If not with my poxy inverted V antenna at least on here

All the best,
Victor

What makes cant get Epping but I'm picking up sporadic Stateside on 27:025 AM what they call the Superbowl, and ATM that is rare for this time of year ,now I've even got back to them (with a little help ) on the rare occasion back in the old days on AM and with ease on SSB and most of Europe.

Yes, it is odd. There must be something in between us soaking away our transmission - or perhaps something low in a really bad luck position deflecting the SB causing us to skip over each other?

We could perhaps give it a try on FM - I'm certainly no expert......... but perhaps a bit more direct with a powerful carrier will do the job? I got several contacts yesterday evening on FM from North London. Very clear.
I'll hang out on 27.305 FM,  tomorrow at 4, if either of you guys are around.

I wouldn't worry Rory, many have tried to fully understand radio wave propogation but the human knowledge is somewhat lacking. Even the advent of computer modelling requires us to program our understanding to create a 'model' and that is rather lacking too.

It isn't helped by 'explanations' and theories showing these lovely straight lines bouncing off perfect ionosphere layers, these are often simplifications. Instead of a shiny laser reflecting off a perfect mirror it's more like a torch shining off patterned and frosted glass, some going through and the reflections being back scattered....except that 'glass' is a swirling and constantly moving reflector!! 

Sometimes those 'reflections' coalesce around a point for a while, which is probably why I was hearing Germans who happended to be chatting on FM. Someone a couple of miles or so from me wouldn't hear them at all!

Anyway, the more I think about it, it was perfectly understandable I didn't get anyone. 

My "back in the day" memory held more information. I used to live the other side of my radio 'hole' and higher, I was running a tall end fed vertical, it was usually quiet autumn evenings and despite some of the London stations back then barely moving my needle, they were a good solid radio 5 clarity. Yesterday was around s5 to s7 of hash with the Germans popping up through that at s9 or so. Perhaps a good day for DX but not much chance of even a fairly local contact.

Never mind, it's the nature of radio....frustrating at times, magically satisfying at others


--------

Martin,
I've probably got at least a thousand of those large steel framed pop up monstrosities they call retail units between us nowadays!
Between them and the man made QRM I'm surprised anyone gets a radio signal out of London at all!
(Ha! That's probably why us old farts remember the 'good old days' and the youngsters don't believe us!)

---------

Anyway Lads, 73s to ya and hope to give you a 5/9 & 73s over the airwaves one day

Oh, Rory. Stick with it mate, you're doing alright

Your right Victor mate I think our good days have gone on CB with all this structure work going up and man made interference, its true though we use get out alot better back then ,its a shame really how it is now cos the newbies TBH have missed out on the really good stuff now it seems the only way to enjoy CB or to get any sort of a decent copy is to live in the middle of nowhere on a massive big hill or up a mountain away from all the cr*p LOL


@Rory , whaych it mate if your going to monitor 305 make sure that the network lot arnt on SSB cos they think they own the channel some of them and if you call out on FM and it interferes with there waffling  some on there get a bit stroppy mate ,TBH I would try 275  on FM as nobody uses it as the UK SSB calling channel its mainly Germans on FM on it or it's clear.

Spot on Martin, I think you're absolutely right!

I remember flying up the nearest hill for a bit of DX back in the day, but it was possible to get good copies from a town or city that now requires you to live rural. Such a flipping pity for the new guys.

Nice tips for Rory as well mate. 
Don't think I'd personally get old enough to understand or comprehend some of the "unwritten rules" and unusual etiquettes of radio. You just try to be nice, yet often unintentionally tread on someone's toes!

Didn’t catch anything on 275 today guys.
I won’t be around much next week, will be working some long shifts.
Thanks for all the info, as always.
Rory