Car 54 Where Are Yooooouuuuu?

Hi Nige,

I'm not sure what's happening at your end but the only time we get pop-up adverts of any kind is the annoying little video box in the bottom right hand corner. They only pop up though when you're not logged into the site and disappear once logged in. 

That unfortunately has to do with the forum hosts rather than ourselves and does seem to be more recent than a past event. However I can see why the forum hosts would want to beef up their advertising revenue - sort of popping shillings into the electricity meter. (The host computers/servers do run 24/7.)

There were some issues regards the site's domain address for a short while but the lads on the admin team have worked really hard to resolve those. We seem to have that back under control now thanks to their voluntary efforts and generous support.


I have checked the site on android with a tablet, an android phone, an apple phone along with an apple tablet as well as a Linux machine and Windows using various web browsers which all seem to work OK. 

I'm lucky to have the resources but then I do keep up with CT as much as I can, wherever I can which is handy with my limited mobility.


You say that you have problems posting? 
It may be worth clearing your cache browser or cookies in case you've picked up 'add-ons' from another site or forum.

Let us know how you get on.


All the best,
Victor

I think it was the 90's when i took the amature radio exam and got that call sign, started out on CB as a teenager in the 80's when the 27/81 radios were allowed. Initially using a maxcom 4E or 7E Apollo and a dv 27 mounted on a wok with some chickenwire in the loft, moved onto a larger extrnal antenna and the York JCB863 adding the Stalker later, 

I have been itching to get back on the air for a while...

I used to be on a few forums late 90's but not radio related I had strange obsession with aircooled VW's and had a 1972 VW camper...

My daughter has come home for a couple of nights but not allowed to do anything overly energetic, so we're going to have what she calls a pyjama day. Whilst am of course going to spend time with her, there is only so many times I can sit and watch Pitch Perfect movies, so will escape for a few minutes here and there to play radio lol.

The volume encoder control on my G90 has started to get a little flaky. Still usable, but my previous experience of cheap encoders tells me that the part's life will not be a long one. That is a bit sad, but expected and a known risk I took when I bought it. When it totally goes I will try and fix it or replace it, or keep an eye open for a cheap used front panel or the 'never quite finished by Xiegu' GSOC pan adapter. In the new year, if the radio doesn't fail too soon, am looking to "upgrade", to something by one of the big three probably, but with the news scaring us about heating bill prices common sense is telling me to hold off shelling out cash just for now. But I am sure a few minutes here and there over the weekend I will be looking and dreaming over some of the radios available currently.

Mike, had a Maxcom 4E too back in the day too. Only a few years after they came out I bought two of them, two 3amp PSUs, a 1/2 wave silver rod and a mobile whip and mag mount from a farmer just down the road for £25 the lot. Old radios go for mega money now, be lucky to get just one good working 4E for that amount.


Re Nige's ad problem, not to hijack the thread and go OT too much, but with one device setup in a particular way I do get ads when logged in at the bottom of the screen that could be irritating when trying to form a post reply. Maybe this is the same set up for you Nige? Not an issue for me really as I mostly use PCs with different browsers with ad blockers and everything is just peachy.

Cheap Chinese android phone (there's a theme there with my radios)
CT Forum Ap using phones built in browser
No ad blockers
https://youtu.be/9C_E3UmRhMs

edit: some of the  text jumping around on the phone screen isn't a forum issue, it is because I have fonts set to mega size to help me see

Mike,

Got a VW camper van wheel hub cap hanging from my shack wall.
Nothing to do with VW as such, just that it's my initials!

A friend bought it for me as a Christmas gift a few years back.....was supposed to be making a guitar with it, but yet another hobby that I don't seem to squeeze enough time for.


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Neal,

Glad to hear that your daughter is home for a bit and hope she is keeping well.

Most encoders eventually go and modern equipment is full of them but luckily not usually too difficult to replace. My old FT757 VFO encoder required a full and tentative rebuild to get it going (rare as hens teeth) and my even older 1970's FT270 has a honking big one with ball bearings, detents and big springs. Lovely feel to that one and the whole thing is built like a tank!

I think everyone back in the day had a Maxcom 4E at one time or another.



No worries with the feedback/input regards Nige's problems with the site, every little helps and especially if we're all aiming to enjoy the forum. Must admit that despite my 'thorough' testing of the site on as many devices as I could I never actually checked the 'app' at all. Mind you I'm not that keen on apps as most thrust adverts upon you whether you want them or not! (More to do with the apps base functions with some other b*gger trying to make dosh - it ain't going into CT that's for sure!)

Appreciate the help especially with posting a video, great work as always.

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Right, I bagged some vintage air-spaced variable caps off the bay this week and plan on playing around with yet another ATU over the next couple of days. (How many ATU's do I need?!? )

Have a great weekend all!

Hi Victor, I've tried clearing everything numerous times. Also powered off and on.
I've had the phone (Motorola ) a long time and never before encountered this issue
.

It's very annoying as I can only type a few
Letters, or one or two words before dropping out of reply mode.

I'll dig my tablet out lol.

As for forums being quiet. Its that time of year in my experience. Probably due to people on holidays etc.
Anyway I need a lie down now after the strain of trying to post

Sharpshooter wrote:

As for forums being quiet. Its that time of year in my experience. Probably due to people on holidays etc.
Anyway I need a lie down now after the strain of trying to post

Ah i was wondering as I am new here and see young Victor working hard to keep some activity going, does seem a lot of folks jpin request a call sign then are never heard from again, also looks like a lot of guests reading and some days a fair few members too, perhas they are all SWLing?

Prolonging having to do anything with the encoder Victor I have set and left the volume at 3/4 output and put a variable resister in line between the rig and the amplified DSP speaker. The speaker does have a volume control on it as well, but thought I save on wear on that little control too. Will but me a bit more time.

SWLing? Possibly Mike. I was one before joining here, and still do. Was listening to the Echo Charlie Hell band last night, was interesting in that it seemed just as busy as 40m full of English, French and Spanish. It looks people aren't as scared of being caught on there like they used to be. As far as new members though, the majority that join up are generally not from my area and so I don't know if they ever become active or not.


Today I logged in the forum at 11:00 to see if anyone was around for the 40m net, but seemed quiet, so I just had a quick couple of QSOs with a couple of Field Day competition operators.

Last night I had my first 80m QSO. Using the lazy method I mentioned on another thread here of just matching up my 10m - 40m fan dipole. What's the chances of getting a contact on 160m with it do we think?


Any other people perusing the forum, old members or guests, want to join in and say 'hi' or let us know what you're up to? Going on, you know you want to

Been busy buying more gear.
2x power supplies. 30amp/5amp.
SWR meter/matcher.
2x sirio DV twigs with dipole centre and bracket.
T and K brackets.
Top quality thick coax. (Forget which)
6' pole. (Gutted I couldn't get the 12' one in the car )

Cor ! nice haul you have there, must get me a new more powerful PSU that does not buzz like a wasps nest and cry each time I key up.

There's nothing like a bit of radio orientated shopping.

Well done Nige.

Nige.
What amp is your power supply.

30amp Alan.

https://www.manson.com.hk/product/ep-925/



Ooh my posting problem seems to have disappeared

Anyway I got what turned out to be a bargain fleabay buy after a late night drunken "best offer" was accepted whilst on holiday
Seller was really nice and helpful.
Said he was packing up as most had gone over to ham (knowsley way) which is a shame that he'd packed in.
I told him quite a lot were on PMR in the area too.

In fact I spoke to a ham user from the Wirral last night using a Baofeng on PMR.
He gave a good signal report and told me there is a Sunday net 8-9 that gets quite busy.

I said "great, I'll drive up a hill on my 17watt CRT space U with sirio PMR magmount".
Then I remembered I'm working the next few Sunday nights

The T and K brackets that came with my recent purchase got a makeover last night.
Buzzed the rust off. Primed with, erm ,good quality paint, oven baked, sprayed with, erm ,good quality poly paint and baked again

Well I decided to dig out my Lenovo tablet for two reasons.
One is because of the issues I'm experiencing posting on this site.
And two, a lad at work said he would download a load of films for me so I decided to have them on the tablet.

My woes carry on
The tablet was completely dead and would not power up or charge. So before I bought a new battery I decided to try a long long charge.
No joy. (Cables were working as tested on other equipment)
I stripped the unit, disconnected battery and pressed power button for 20-30 seconds. No joy.
Tried reset holding power and volume up, and other connotations. 
No joy. 

I read that a recharge from another source ie computer, laptop was more favourable so I connected to a playstation 4 and voila, a buzz.
A flat battery/charging icon on screen.

Now I'm not an electronic engineer so I don't know why that is lol, but on further inspection I noticed the SD card slot was damaged, obviously due to the guitar pick I used to unclip the back catching the SD card slot casing.
Luckily I'm more mechanically minded so I removed the cover of the slot completely, discarded the damaged spring and clip, straightened the cover out using tweezers and now the card just slides in without the click.


All back together and the problems I have posting are there on the tablet too

I've swapped to web version from mobile version and don't get thrown out of post mode every few seconds.
So it's an issue I have with mobile mode and only with this site


Anyway, don't throw those dead devices away just because they won't turn on