AmRad Topband DX

[Skywave]

This section doesn't get a lot of input. So here's one:

Receiver here is a Racal RA-17 plus 60 ft. centre-fed random wire aerial @ 25 ft. + a good earth.
Date = Dec. 6th.; time = 23:00 local.

Heard I1JVA (Italy) calling CQ (ssb) many times but without replies on Topband (1842 kc/s). His sigs. were RS 5 & 9+. For this band and at that strength, this is remarkable DX. Since he did not receive a reply, no contact took place, so I do not know what power he was running nor his QTH (location).

Al.

[pwdrive]

Hello Al, yes that's a good one, it's not very often I pick up anything on top band hear, although a few weeks ago there was a European contest on and they were coming in thick and fast both CW & SSB, It could have been a coincidence of the event and band conditions happening at the same time.

Lawrence.

[Skywave]

Indeed Lawrence: it's infrequent for me hear anything at all on TopBand.
Do you know what power Italian stations are restricted to in Italy? Is it the same as here in the U.K.?

Al.

[Michaelr]

Top band is not good here for me ( certainly putting s signal out anyway) , but as lawrence commented there were many stations on in the contest of a few weeks ago.

In the 60's it was a very popular band for local nets and there used to be some fabulous discussions between the local hams on AM and SSB.
In those days VHF was not so common.

It would be great to see a revival of the band if it was just on a local basis.

I am a bit cynical about power levels being used today Al !

Mike

[Yorkie]

The Racal RA17 is a superb receiver, and your mention of top band (160M) took me back many years! I'm equipped to go on all bands from 160 - 10 Metres, which I believe has been wide open to the world recently, but I lost interest in amateur radio years ago. A few ramblings down memory lane might be of passing interest, but if not, please burn before reading:D

When I first became interested in amateur radio in the late 1950s, (though I wasn't licensed until 1974, first as G8JIN, then later that year as G4EBT), almost all mobile operating was on 160 Metres, or as it was and still is commonly known 'top band', (or 'granddads' band!). Looked at with hindsight, seemed to oddest band to choose for mobile work due to the antenna issue, because the lower the frequency, the longer must be the aerial. A half wave dipole aerial for 160 M would need to be 80 Metres long (260 ft!). Amateurs got over this by having 'loaded whip' antennas (or as some prefer to call them 'aerials') which consisted of a large coil - perhaps 2" diameter and a foot long, with a whip about ten feet long on top of it, invariably home made. This enabled the output of the transmitter to be matched via an aerial tuning unit to the antenna. Most equipment was home constructed too, either for CW (Morse) or AM voice, with ten Watts maximum output. Being valved, there was the added complication of making a power supply that would provide LT and HT to be run off a 12V car battery. Back then, cars had chrome bumpers, and many amateurs didn't hesitate to attack the back bumper with a Black and Decker to drill a hole through it to mount an antenna, or made some sort of clamp to fit on the bumper. There was much less traffic about back then, so the risks associated with using a microphone (or even a Morse key!) while on the move were less, and the traffic laws were more lax. There were far fewer amateurs, but most were much more active on air than they are today. The advent of the Codar 'AT5' transmitter (miniature by the standards of the day) and its mobile PSU gave a further boost to mobile operating, and covered top band and 80 Metres.

Then surplus mobile PMR sets came onto the market such as the Pye Westminster and Cambridge transceivers which could be modified to work on 2 Metres, so that band tended to take over from top band for mobile use. Then 2 Metre solid state Japanese mobile transceivers such as the 'Liner 2' (sometimes unkindly dubbed 'Liner Spew' because of spurious signals which could appear on adjacent channels). I had one back in 1974 when I lived at Grimsby and often used to go to a high hill at Caistor, where there is clear line of sight across the North Sea, and talk to amateurs in Holland from my parked car. What rigs such as the Liner 2, and HF/LF commercial transceivers did, was to slowly hi-jack what had been a technical, experimentational and constructional hobby, turning it into just another branch of consumer electronics. From the early 1980s when the CB fad came into being, many CBers took out an amateur radio licence and were more interested in operating than constructing, and this coincided with the slow demise of amateurs from the hobby who had gained technical and operating expertise in the armed forces during WW2, and through National Service, which ended in the early 1960s, as radio and radar technicians and operators. Furthermore, as TVs (and radios) became more reliable but more costly to repair and cheaper to replace, the radio and TV servicing trade went into decline, so this too meant that fewer technically trained people came into the hobby. The falling costs of amateur radio equipment, along with other consumer electronics, and the increasing complexity, meant that as long ago as 1985, 'Kenyaesuicom' (Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom et al) had all but cornered the market for amateur radio equipment, and with aggressive marketing, had caused the hobby to metamorphose into little more than a 'plug 'n play' 'out of the box' hobby in which you didn't even have to fit your own plug!

There are other factors of course - despite the present economic gloom, it's a fact that compared to the 1960s and 70s, the UK has become a cash-rich/time-poor society in which time-consuming hobbies such as amateur radio, model engineering, aero modelling, model boat building have all followed the same trend away from constructing. True, there is still a segment of amateur radio in which construction and experimentation does take place - the G-QRP Club for example. Also, the amazingly good Elekraft series of kits - the K1, K2, K3, held in high regard, with a performance the exceeds many top flight commercial transceivers.

My interest in amateur radio and electronics since a schoolboy back in 1950 has always been in construction and experimentation rather than in on-air operating, but with fewer and fewer amateurs even bothering to make their own simple wire aerials, preferring to buy them, I've lost interest in going on air. It shouldn't irritate me but it does, when I hear amateurs saying they're using a 'long-wire' aerial on 80 Metres, when what they man is the longest bit of wire they can string out in a small suburban garden. I was taught for the RAE that a 'long wire' aerial must be at least one and a half wavelengths long, which for 80 Metres would be 120 Metres - 390ft long. A wire aerial say 52 ft long, which I guess is as much as would fit into the average garden is 16 Metres, so far from being a 'long wire' it's just a fifth of a wavelength on 80 Metres!

For a while, when first licensed, I got quite a buzz out of talking to amateurs all over the word - I was soon gained the 'Worked All Continents' award for having QSOs (contacts) and receiving QL cards from Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Jordan, Zambia and so on, but after a while, the novelty wore off, basically, because it dawned on me that anyone else sat in front of the same transceiver sing the me antenna and power at the same time, could just as easily have got te same results that I did. No skill is involved - you just push a button and talk. Different of course on CW (Morse), because that is an additional skill, whereas we learnt to talk at our mothers' knee.

DX holds no fascination for me, and encourages anti-social behaviour with stations all over the place shouting over the top of each other to try to contact someone who has gone to some island on an ego-tripping 'DX-Pedition', which - if only one amateur at a time was on air, anyone could do it. Usually, if you can hear them, you can contact them.

A chum mentioned to me yesterday that you can now buy a two Metre 2 Watt hand held Chinese transceiver for £35.00 (a Baoseng UV3R), and use it via a repeater and IRLP (Internet Repeater Linking Protocol) to contact amateurs anywhere in the world - walk along the street and talk to an amateur in Oz or Japan. My answer to that is 'why would I want to?'

These lengthy ramblings probably sound as though I'm putting the hobby down, but I'm not - I'm just explaining that the hobby is a very different one from when I came into it but that said, many amateurs still derive immense enjoyment from it as I once did, and for those who are housebound, it brings companionship and contact with the outside world, staving off loneliness. Jolly good luck to them. A UK licence is free, and the mandatory starting point - the Foundation Licence, can be gained with about 20 Hrs tuition. Many children too young to be allowed to cross the road without supervision have gained the FL, which permits the use of ten Watts on most bands, using commercial equipment.

The last item I built was an 80 Metre 5 Watt transceiver with digital readout, and an integral 15 Watt amplifier from a design in the long since defunct amateur radio magazine Ham Radio Today. I had fun with it for a while, but got fed up with those who I contacted having no interest in the technical aspects of the hobby often saying 'We're strictly non-technical at this end, running a Keyasuicom FT-XYZ Mk11, it's quite warm here today in Bristol, but rain is forecast'. It's evocative of Tony Hancock - 'is raining not in Tokyo yes?'

I've attached a few pics of my 'Epyphite', based on a design by a Canadian amateur. The last contact I had on it was seven years ago, with the Imperial War Museum station at Duxford. I've not bothered since. I consider myself to be a 'RHINO' - Radio Ham In Name Only' these days, and vintage radio (and woodturning) gives me the technical and constructional enjoyment that amateur radio did a long time ago, when that was central to the hobby. If any amateurs are reading this, perhaps they may identity with at least some of my sentiments about the hobby.

As to power levels, few UK amateurs use the maximum permitted power, which is 400Watts PEP on the DX bands. Most use commercial transceivers which typically have maximum output of 100 Watts into a perfectly matched antenna, but often the antenna isn't well matched and an antenna tuner unit will be used to achieve a match. Many transceivers will progressively reduce the power output if a mismatch is present, and I doubt that many amateurs will attain much more than 50 Watts on speech peaks at the feed point of their ('long wire?') antenna. But that said, 100 Watts is not ten times the power of ten watts - it's just double, and 1kW isn't ten times 100 Watts - it's double. Which is why QRPers manage quite happily to work the world on five Watts.

[pwdrive]

Re power levels in Italy, they come through real powerfull on 40 along with Spain, I would guesstimate it's mv's on my wire not uv's, is it my location or do others have the same ? some of the European operators have real "loud" voices....almost to the point of pain.
ZL & VK comming though good of late on 40 hear, I was listening to a GB to ZL this morning when a W? broke in from just outside Nashville and started chatting to one of the operators in the grouip, he thought he was talking to GB until the bloke revealed his ZL call sign, the guy in the States seemed real made up with his contact.

Lawrence.

[Skywave]

Quote, David: "If any amateurs are reading this, perhaps they may identity with at least some of my sentiments about the hobby."

I am and indeed I do: all of them.
Your motivation / interests in this hobby are very similar to mine. However I have never got round to attempting to learn Morse. Yes, I have made several efforts over the years, but the driving force to learn just never seems to last. Like you, I had a lot of fun as an avid constructor and SWL in the '60's and later when I got my ticket on 2m. & 70 cm. A.M. & F.M. However, when repeaters arrived on VHF, it killed a lot of my interest, along with the growth of ssb. These days, I still can't seem to get my head around the vast numbers of Amateur Radio operators who seem to have such a small understanding of basic electronics and communications principles. Of course, the many reasons for this you have summarised above. With the growth of technology and all that that implies, I foresee AmRad declining into no more than a black-box talking machine hobby, which I, for one, will be sad to see. Nevertheless, I have fond memories of my early transmitting days, and one day I might just get around to restoring an old G2DAF transmitter and an ancient KW Vanguard that are languishing in one corner of the workshop: both need much serious work.

Al.

[Michaelr]

As to power levels, few UK amateurs use the maximum permitted power, which is 400Watts PEP on the DX bands. Most use commercial transceivers which typically have maximum output of 100 Watts into a perfectly matched antenna, but often the antenna isn't well matched and an antenna tuner unit will be used to achieve a match. Many transceivers will progressively reduce the power output if a mismatch is present, and I doubt that many amateurs will attain much more than 50 Watts on speech peaks at the feed point of their ('long wire?') antenna. But that said, 100 Watts is not ten times the power of ten watts - it's just double, and 1kW isn't ten times 100 Watts - it's double. Which is why QRPers manage quite happily to work the world on five Watts.

Very interesting David, what do you mean by "100 watts is not ten times the power of ten watts its just double".

The hobby is much different to what it was years ago but there are still a significant number of people home brewing.Morse is becoming more popular as well and am pleased to say many of the new foundation course licenses are interested in pracricing this mode.

I think the lack of experimentation and building etc is a sign of the times not a failing in the hobby as such. As you probably know , having a keen interest in a technical hobby for a lifetime is great because there is always something new to learn.

Regards
Mike

[Skywave]

Re: power levels in Italy: they come through real powerful on 40 along with Spain; I would guesstimate it's mv's on my wire not uv's. Is it my location or do others have the same? Some of the European operators have real "loud" voices....almost to the point of pain.
Lawrence.

Same here: on 80m. and 40m., many European stations come in here with thumping signals. However, U.K. stations seem few in number by comparison, and when they are heard, they tend to be in the S3 ~ S5 bracket.

Al.

[Andrewausfa]

Good catch Al. I've just acquired an AR-88 so shall be joining the vintage comms receiver club forthwith

There's a German station which I can't find my logs for (dashed home for lunch) who sometimes comes in strongly on 160M.

Talking of UK signals, there's a chap about 300 yards from my house with an antenna farm to match RAF Croughtons. All sorts of stuff. Never spoke to him or anything and never heard him either. I'd assume I'd get swamped by his transmissions while trawling the amateur bands but nothing. But yes UK signals do seem quite weak as a generalisation.

Out of writing time, back to work

Andrew