New shack in operation.

Finally got the garden cabin repaired and moved the station in. Temporary random end fed up in a tree until I can erect a better setup. Had to close the curtains as sun washed out the photo.

Looks like a good start Deb, I moved to my current QTH seven months ago and still haven't put my HF antennas up. I'm restricted to DMR and a bit of 2/70 for the time being.


Best 73 Gary.

Looking good there Deb and I hope you get to spend some great time on air sat in comfort.  

73
Victor

Thanks Gary & Victor.

Took a bit of fettling to get a fair match on the end fed on all bands but got there in the end. Spent days wondering how to get the wire up to the tree top, then bought a dog ball thrower, it worked a treat.

Also took a while to sort out the interference from the solar.

Off to a VW festival in Cheshire the weekend after next, so will be calling in to Moonraker for a decent antenna. Also booked for the Bedfordshire Steam Rally in September, so will be active from there mobile/portable.

Deb

Worth all the work there then Deb. Well done.

I must've got lucky with my latest end fed (nice volunteers put it up for me) as it was spot on through the bands with a SWR no higher than 1.8. Happy days!


I've been having a sort out in my shack recently too trying to get my VHF gear back into touch and discovering a local HubNet simplex repeater. Hopefully I should be able to monitor GB3BF, GB3PI and HubNet by the time you're over here for the Steam rally and maybe catch you on air.

Mind you, you'll be right in my back yard so we should be able to catch each other no matter the band or frequency!

Look forward to the opportunity.

73

Victor wrote:

Worth all the work there then Deb. Well done.

I must've got lucky with my latest end fed (nice volunteers put it up for me) as it was spot on through the bands with a SWR no higher than 1.8. Happy days!

Thanks for the kind words, Victor.

When I threw up a temporary 41 foot end fed in the front garden, it matched perfectly on all bands 80 - 10 with a 9:1 unun. For the temporary end fed from the cabin, I chose 58 feet! But the far end is in a tree, and the cabin end is wound around one of the porch supports. I guess that messed up the matching.

The only 2m rig I have is a cheapie Baofeng that, apart from loading UK repeater frequencies on to it, I've never used. But may give it a try at the Steam Rally.

I knew you were in Beds, so assumed a line of sight contact would be possible on any band, will look forward to that.

Here's a better photo than the crappy one I took on my phone. I put the drone up for a pic of the cabin from above, but difficult to see with all the trees around, so binned it.

Deb

I can see you spending many a happy hour enjoying the airwaves there Deb.  



Nice to have a view out of a window so that the old eyes can focus on something further off to refresh them now and then. I'm lucky with a bedroom shack but it's South facing and all I can see out of the window are the houses across the road....although today we have an unusually hot summer day (this summer has been rubbish so far) so I've dropped the blinds. Wouldn't mind but I'd love to have the bigger bedroom at the back of the house with the view over the fields and the Cardington Hangers - not gonna happen though!

Thanks again Deb for sharing your little piece of radio heaven, I do like to see someone else's radio shack and strangely they're always much tidier than mine!


All the best,
Victor

Just an update...

We are camping on the Cheshire Showground this weekend and took the President LIncoln to snag some 10m contacts. But not to be...

On the way there yesterday, we stopped off at Moonraker in Woburn Sands to pick up a few bits and bobs, and ended up trading the 30w pep Lincoln in for an 80w pep President Washington. Really looking forward to using it when we get back home.

Deb

Hope you have a nice excursion and hope you enjoy the shiny new rig. 10m has been poor recently, at least for the times I have gotten to use it. The RSGB IOTA contest runs from this afternoon to midday tomorrow, finger crossed the band will liven up a bit for us all.

I wish President had called this new rig the Washington II or something slightly different. The old one is iconic and a very different beast.

Shack now looking a bit more 'lived in' - much better!   

Deb

Looking good there Deb.

(Far better than my room full of mess trying to figure out where to put all these monitors! )

Only just noticed the guitar hanging up....I have one or two (six!) stacked on the other side of my radio room along with amps, effects, leads etc. One can never have too many passions/hobbies.

Thanks for sharing with us all.

73,
Victor

Victor wrote:

Looking good there Deb.

(Far better than my room full of mess trying to figure out where to put all these monitors! )

Only just noticed the guitar hanging up....I have one or two (six!) stacked on the other side of my radio room along with amps, effects, leads etc. One can never have too many passions/hobbies.

Thanks for sharing with us all.

73,
Victor

Hi Victor,

I do enjoy a strum now and again. Also have a Strat and Roland keyboard, plus amps etc, but the amps are now used in the theatre.

Having multiple hobbies and passions keeps the old brain cells active.

Murky old day here today, so listening to the other BOFs on 40m (7160)

Deb

Hello Deb,

The shack is looking great! what are your thoughts on the President Washington?

That is a great idea, using the dog ball thrower to get the wire up into the tree. I think I'll pinch your idea. I have a really tall couple of conifers in the garden that I want to put the wire in. It will lift my long wire for SWLing. It should lift it a good 5m from its current height.

73s John.

John123 wrote:

Hello Deb,

The shack is looking great! what are your thoughts on the President Washington?

That is a great idea, using the dog ball thrower to get the wire up into the tree. I think I'll pinch your idea. I have a really tall couple of conifers in the garden that I want to put the wire in. It will lift my long wire for SWLing. It should lift it a good 5m from its current height.

73s John.

Hi John, thanks for the nice comment.

The dog ball thrower idea was from YT. It surprised me how accurate it was after a couple of practise throws. I pierced the tennis ball and forced the head of a short 12mm bolt in, this gives added weight. Then put the nut on to tie the thin cord to. You have to lay out enough cord on the ground before throwing. There's one interesting video where the guy uses a fishing reel, but I don't have one so couldn't try that.

I like the Washington a lot. The receive is more sensitive on 10m than the G90 (on the same coaxial vertical dipole) and I've had good reports for transmitted audio. I particularly like the three selections for clarifier; off - rx only - rx & tx. The noise reduction works really well. A couple of downsides; Unnecessary channel numbers are huge, yet the frequency display is small. The channel/frequency knob is small and quite stiff.

The G90 is a great rig! However, I've invested in the Xiegu XPA125B linear amp that has an ATU built in. I also bought an MFJ ATU to dial in the long wire.

Deb

Hi Deb,

You are welcome.

Thanks for the further info on the dog ball thrower. It really is a great idea.

Thanks for your thoughts on the Washington it does sound like an impressive radio.

73s John.

Victor wrote:

Looking good there Deb.

Thanks for sharing with us all.

73,
Victor

Don't think I ever shared how the cabin was built. When we moved to France in 2004, I earmarked a spot about 60m from the house for a cabin/chalet, but couldn't afford to buy one at the time.

A few years later, our local bricolage had 3x3m sheds on sale. Alex had a genius idea; we could buy two at a fraction of the cost of a proper chalet and build them together as one.

Not shown here, but we eventually filled in the double doors and installed single doors that are more spider and insect proof, and a wood burning stove.

Over the years the cabin has been used for family stays, extra sleeping for UK bands that come over to play in the theatre, my music and writing room, and now my radio shack.

Deb

Nice work, Deb.