11m conditions

No new doors here

11m only accompanied by the hash of the background cosmic radiation much as it has for billions of years.

Happy to report all Amateur bands busy in one form or another from 1.8MHz to 432MHz.

Here's hoping the winter equinox gives us a little more on higher HF than the flop we've had so far.
(Although a Ham friend is chuffed to bits with a QSO to Chile early a.m. this weekend on mid HF. Good on yer Gary!)

Enjoy your radio, even if only staring at it til conditions improve.

My post about our new front doors was sarcastim by the way ,well radio is not exciting unless your a Amateur it seems now, and poor old relation CBer gets nothing lol

Yeah, got the humour Martin hence the 'winky face'

Even on the multiple bands and Mhz now available to me as a 'Ham' there's still only certain areas and aspects that I personally enjoy. Luckily there's a lot of it to explore!

Similar story with 11m or CB really. Modern interference afflicting 27.5 to 28Mhz has pretty much ruined it and I'd hate to be stuck with just 40UK FM channels, but a lot of us still explore that [ahem] 26Mhz up region with SSB etc. I even noticed some European digital FT8 on mid-block so people are still utilising the bands in one form or another.

Whenever there's a flutter around 27.5 or the 10m band I'll be sure to scout that mid-block region because there's nothing better than a natter with a continental or two


.....and despite my recently acquired 'Ham' status I'll still happily report any CB activity in the hope others get to enjoy it too.

Well I just switched on my little baofeng hand held and on one of the repeaters a couple of old boys waffling about there old QTH work places and reminiscing about when you had to register where your main radio station was and the /a station was which was there works QTH , yeah this sounds as exciting as I'm typing it lol, but I haven't heard a thing on my baofeng for months so it was good to know it still worked,  but I  really can not get or understand with all this lockdown and all these new members joining it's still  totally dead on the radio even on local chit chat uk40 ,I really thought it would bring people out on the radio ,especially when you see all these people joining  on here saying looking forward to copy all of you ,I have only copied one of our new members so far who is local to me but I've seen many others new local members  but never heard them , I think its getting like it did on here a few years back joining for the sake of it weather they have radios or not .

Some weak signals coming into Zurich on 555 (via kiwiSDR). Heard a 71 div (!?).
Perhaps briefly opening up.

Horses for courses Martin, (although I've got to admit I haven't enjoyed repeater work....yet )

Lockdowns have brought a strange turn of events though. How many learned to bake bread, play guitar, or even try their hand at CB or Ham radio? You'll always get people want to try something new with time on their hands and then stumble at the first hurdle. (It's all a bit harder than first seems! )

There were thousands of newly licensed Hams last year in the UK but I rarely come across one on the bands or even the official RSGB forums. With CB you could also argue limited range when there's no conditions. But I think the explosion in prices for radios and such have played a limiting factor. That feigned interest can be expensive!
(Plus we can't exactly meet up at clubs or go around peoples houses to help each other with setups either.)

With that, I'm more than happy that we get the new members and even though repetitive, the questions on basic setups, which radio, which mic, which antenna, etc. At least they're trying

It is, what it is.

In the mean time I'm more than happy to wait out until conditions are such that I hear Continentals calling back "26 Charlie Tango" numbers. Brought a big smile to my face last summer!

Some of us are in it for the long game......as well us old farts know



(If you think that's bad enough, 30 odd and plus years ago the magazines racks were packed with electronics interests....I can't remember the last time I had a conversation with someone about home/hobby electronics!!??!!)

Oh, back on topic
No conditions to report today.......as per usual. Ha!

On topic quickly get it in, same here dead as a dodo bird , as it goes Victor there is a lot of hobby magazines that have disappeared off the shelves  inc the top shelf variety lol , but joking apart , there use to be a lot of modifying car type mags about and as you said radio and electronic type ones too they've all seem to have disappeared from the magazine/newsagents shops ,mined you there is alot of magazines that have traversed to internet conscription now too, but that's not the same as turning the pages of your monthly magazine.

I miss reading all the car mags too, Martin. I still get a paper copy of Evo Mag every month. Fast Ford mag was one of my favourites.

Well it's open now, but I'm not getting good reception. Can hear divs 26, 19 and 14 from here (15).

Sounds promising, Ian.

Got signs of life here but not moving the S meter but i can hear voices in the back of the box.

Yeah some just said on my WhatsApp group 11m is open but not brilliant, went out to the shack and it's so back in the box it's not worth it 


@John yeah I use to get Fast Ford and Performance Ford  every month being a old R.S owner , do you remember Max Power magazine

A bit of a pile up on here to be honest. I can't get out past the traffic and the guys with more watts, but we had UK pretty clear - e.g. Norwich and Chester - on EU FM ch31 around there.
I even just heard a CT calling...

There sounds like a what they call a parrot repeater on EUFM31 I just called out and heard myself after i de keyed the mic

Incase you dont know what a parrot repeater is 
A parrot repeater is a repeater that is set up for testing how far you are getting so when call out to see if you can open it to hear yourself, these could be anywhere in the world set up

I can't hear me Martin lol.
Can hear others but fading in and out.

Apparently we are coming in 5&9 to UK - just had a QSO with a guy in Hull...

It was a faint repeater Alan so it could have far away or not in your range, I was using some extra help to about 250watts

The 555 is wild right now. Lots of continentals very very strong.

I can hear a lot, but I'm not getting picked up with only 4W... the guys with +50W are taking all the calls 

Captain Fantastic wrote:

I can hear a lot, but I'm not getting picked up with only 4W... the guys with +50W are taking all the calls 

 try 27.605

peetassen wrote:

Captain Fantastic wrote:

I can hear a lot, but I'm not getting picked up with only 4W... the guys with +50W are taking all the calls 

 try 27.605

Unfortunately I've only got a legal Jackson II... so that's out of my bandwidth 

Captain Fantastic wrote:

peetassen wrote:

Captain Fantastic wrote:

I can hear a lot, but I'm not getting picked up with only 4W... the guys with +50W are taking all the calls 

 try 27.605

Unfortunately I've only got a legal Jackson II... so that's out of my bandwidth 

to bad, more UK stations at the moment at 605. any clean channel/frequency for you?

This was the 11 Metre DX this afternoon - Mega.

NUBSTER wrote:

Yeah some just said on my WhatsApp group 11m is open but not brilliant, went out to the shack and it's so back in the box it's not worth it 


@John yeah I use to get Fast Ford and Performance Ford  every month being a old R.S owner , do you remember Max Power magazine

I remember Max Power, Martin. There was also Revs and Fast Car. I went to Donington  a few times to the RS Owner's national day.

Sounds like conditions have been good today. I will be glad when this lockdown is over and I can out with the radio.