Some success ... not a lot

Took the opportunity to drive down to West Mersea yesterday on the Essex coast (JO01LS) to enjoy the 80 degree + weather.  I parked up as close to the beach as I could, and as you can see even on a blazing hot Sunday afternoon I pretty much had the place to myself. 

 

I managed to sit there for a full 45 minutes before the traffic wardens came and moved me on.  (Yes, on a Sunday.  When it was empty.  Not much to do in Mersea apparently).

 

I did manage to get two people to hear me: a special event station celebrating the Euro 2008 championships which we failed to qualify for, OE2008R, and an Italian station near Pisa, IZ5ICH, which was the further of the two at about 720 miles.  I never thought I'd be so excited to work those two countries!  The OE was particularly apt as last time I was on HF the bands were full of German stations celebrating the 2006 World Cup, which was on at that time.

 

Both the OE and I stations were on 20.  Being earlier in the day than the previous day I found the bands quite flat.  I also had a listen on 40 and 6 with the two new whips I bought but heard very little on both.  I've never heard the bands quite so empty as this and I wonder if it's my set up or all to do with those sunspots - I know it's bad but I didn't realise it would be this bad.

 

I can't work the aerial, and no one's listening

I stuck the 20m whip up on the car; had a lot of trouble tuning it to a decent SWR.  I ended up getting my old ATU and putting it in line - surely I should be able to tune the aerial without one since it is a one band aerial?  I managed to get the SWR "quite low" in the end and drove down to One Tree Hill on the border of Basildon and Thurrock.  (This was about 1700 local time).

 

This is the first time I've tuned into any amateur band since 2006.  Since then we're well and truly in the sunspot minimum so I wasn't expecting to hear a great deal.  I was surprised to hear the band being very difficult from last time - there weren't a lot of stations around but they were a lot further away than I expected.  Some of the stations I heard were:

 

A41MO (Muscat, Oman)

BT1OB (Beijing, special event station for Olympics)

E21EIC (Bangkok, Thailand)

EC8AUZ (Gran Canaria, Canary Islands)

HS0ZEE (Chian Mai, Thailand)

JA1 (didn't catch the full call, he was in Tokyo talking to the ZB2 station)

LA1CI (Norway, about 70 deg N)

TC17GS (Istanbul, special event station to celebrate Galatasary's 17th Turkish league title)

VU2DK (Poona, India)

ZB2FX (Gibraltar, by far the strongest signal on the band)

9H5DX (Malta)

 

The bad news is that they were usually working pile-ups, and none of them heard me.

 

I did call out to a SO station (special call from Poland), and I THINK he heard me as he repeated the golf alpha from my callsign, but then came back to say he was only working C-contest (whatever that was) and didn't come back a second time.

 

So still not sure if there's a problem with the audio on my radio, or the transmission in general, but the aerial's obviously picking something up.

A bit tongue in cheek?

I spent my teenage years fascinated by short wave. When I was 13 I got my first QSL card, from the English service of Radio Moscow, which I tuned into appropriately enough on a Soviet-built Selena Vega which my mother used to listen to the Greek service of Radio Budapest every Sunday lunchtime (don't ask).

When I was 14 I got my first real radio, a Sony ICF-7600D. Discovering SSB, I found the world of amateur radio and was instantly hooked. Joined the RSGB, sent out many QSLs under the membership number BRS-52413 (and I think I even got 2 back!) When I was 18 and A-levels were out of the way, I passed my "B" licence and became G7DQK. Started to learn morse code and got myself up to a nice speed thanks to a little program I wrote on the ZX Spectrum to test myself. Passed the morse test, picked up my "A" licence and a new callsign, G0NGA.

Spunked 1500 quid on a radio I certainly couldn't afford, a Yaesu FT-767GX, and then happily played on air until ... about 1992. Distracted by job, new flat, marriage and beer (many beers), the radio gathered dust. In 1996 I sold the radio and spent all the money on a holiday in Milan (it lasted about 3 days). And that was the end of that chapter ...

... until 2006 when a childhood friend of mine completely surprised me by passing his novice exams and obtaining a M3 callsign. This gave me the bug and I decided to give it all another go. I picked up a IC-7000 and a CP-6, plugged it in and had about 6 happy weeks ... until a neighbour two doors down started to complain that I was interfering with the NINE televisions in his house! I tried to fix the problem but when you're faced with locating the problem in a mile of RF cable where do you start? In the end I gave up, he kept moaning, Ofcom gave my station the all clear but he still kept complaining and it really took the fun away. IC-7000 went back in the box.

Two years later, it's June 2008, and I'm giving it all another go.

Why am I the world's worst radio ham? It's not quite tongue in cheek:

1. I've never used morse code and I've forgotten it all.
2. I know virtually nothing about radios and aerials, how they work, even what plugs in where. Theory means nothing to me. I obviously did once, but that part of my brain is gone forever, which is weird when you consider that I can recall the beer I drank and where I drank it in each of over 30 countries I've visited. Come to think of it, the two might be linked.
3. As for practice - I've never been a powerhouse. I've always struggled to DX even though it's something I enjoy but my idea of fun is sitting on 20m picking up another exotic contact, even though I know full well I am right at the bottom of the pile. Partly due to the equipment, and partly I'm sure due to the nut holding the mike.
4. I've set up my radio in the car. I have wires all over the place, need I say more?

Today I went to Waters and Stanton in Hockley, picked up a mag mount and three Watson whips, for 40m, 20m and 6m. Surely someone will hear me ... is there anybody out there?