I bounce between the UK and Germany a fair bit, and despite spending the majority of my time in Germany, I decided that I should get my radio license in the UK. The main reason for that was because I don’t think that my German is good enough to attempt to do an exam in… Continue reading Getting my UK foundation license accepted as a German Class N equivalent
Building, and then adjusting, the 1/4 wave ground plane antenna for 10m
Buoyed by the success of the 20m 1/4 wave ground plane antenna (the blog post can be found here: https://m7isy.rootfs.net/2025/02/28/building-a-1-4-wave-ground-plane-for-20m/), I thought that it would be trivial to build one for 10m. Simply use the exact same design, but half the length of the wire used, as that would mean it would be the right… Continue reading Building, and then adjusting, the 1/4 wave ground plane antenna for 10m
First POTA activation of Tice’s Meadow GB-4296
After managing a couple of QSO’s on HF, and feeling confident with our set-up, we decided to give a POTA activation a go. Before you start, make sure that you have a POTA account created (it can take a few hours to get it confirmed, so make sure you do this in advance). We did… Continue reading First POTA activation of Tice’s Meadow GB-4296
Building a 1/4 wave ground plane for 20m
I’ve been struggling to get HF working for me. I replaced the Yaesu FT-818nd’s internal battery, and figured out that there is a 11.5V threshold to get the full 6Watts out (more info can be found in my previous blog post: https://m7isy.rootfs.net/2024/12/06/yaesu-ft-818nd-the-11-5-volts-that-nobody-told-you-about/). I attempted to check my propagation by using the reverse beacon network and… Continue reading Building a 1/4 wave ground plane for 20m
SOTA Activation report G/SE-002 (Leith Hill)
We decided to try to activate Leith Hill, as after checking the SOTLAS map https://sotl.as/map this was the easiest for us to get to. The tallest hill in Surrey, the summit is 295m high, with car parks taking you quite close to the top, meaning that is a fairly accessible peak. This was ideal for… Continue reading SOTA Activation report G/SE-002 (Leith Hill)
YAESU FT-818nd – The 11.5 Volts that nobody told you about
As stated in other posts, I started my amateur radio experience on a YAESU FT-818nd. A portable radio with an internal battery and an advertised max output power of 6 Watts: Four power levels are available on the FT-818: 6 Watts, 5 Watts, 2.5 Watt, and 1.0 Watt. When using Alkaline batteries or the supplied… Continue reading YAESU FT-818nd – The 11.5 Volts that nobody told you about
Quansheng UV-K5 / UV-K5(8) / UV-K5(99) / UV-K6
It was time to pick a small birthday present for a freshly starting radio amateur. The decision was made towards an inexpensive handheld radio for both the 2 meter and 70 centimeter band. While in the past, the Baofeng UV-5R was THE cheap handheld radio to go for, this seems to have changed now, and… Continue reading Quansheng UV-K5 / UV-K5(8) / UV-K5(99) / UV-K6
Using the Yaesu FT-818nd microphone as a CW keyer
As part of our mission to figure out why we did not have any luck with HF on the Yaesu (see my previous post for more info: Why we bought a battery pack for our Yaesu FT-818nd), we decided to attempt to reach the reverse beacon network. The beacons are in ‘reverse’ because, unlike normal… Continue reading Using the Yaesu FT-818nd microphone as a CW keyer
Why we bought a battery pack for our Yaesu FT-818nd
Whilst my Dad was visiting, we decided it was time to have a go transmitting on HF bands. Well, to put it more accurately, I decided that he needed to trasmit on HF bands! (As whilst I am still in Germany, I cannot transmit). Although we had previously set up the end-fed antenna and mast,… Continue reading Why we bought a battery pack for our Yaesu FT-818nd
Using a repeater for the first time
Whilst my Dad (G8DUK) is visiting, we decided to try the 2 metre repeater located in Blankenese. This meant that we needed to configure the yaesu for duplex operation for the first time. This was actually very trivial, as we just needed to activate repeater operation, and the defaults were exactly what we needed (a… Continue reading Using a repeater for the first time