Monthly Archives: January 2014

Excellent NA/LA MF Conditions

After several months of poor conditions this morning saw some excellent signal strengths from both North American and Latin American stations. A new one for me was HJLI Radio Libertad from Bogota Colombia on 1520 kHz:

I was astounded to read in the February 2014 issue of Radio User magazine that the editor states in 50 years of trying he has yet to hear a North American MF station on medium wave. I am speechless – he lives near the south coast of England. Does he not known how to erect a flag antenna or even point a loop antenna at 300 degrees? Even in last few months when conditions have been poor 1010, 1130, 1390 and 1510 kHz have all been audible here in London virtually every night and early morning.

I really think he should be reflecting on whether he is the right person to edit a national radio listening magazine….

Happy New Year

Been a while since the last post due to Christmas and New Year when not much radio was done. Last week was spent skiing in Font Romeu Catalunya and the only radio activity was opening the local repeater F5ZEZ on 145.6625 with my Icom IC-90 handheld. Repeater had a  few local QSOs on it – especially in the mornings.

Look closely and you may see the repeater (or not…):

IMG_0782 IMG_0781

Back in Blighty I had to pop to Lynchy’s to get my Yaesu DXC 1000 rotator controller repaired which was not turning on. Turned out to be a faulty capacitor – must have been a Friday afternoon fabrication job as the controller is less than two years old and has hardly been used.

However I took the opportunity to pick up a Sark 100 antenna analyser which is a very useful piece of kit. Read (and watch) all about it here: http://www.hamradio.co.uk/accessories-general-antenna-analysers/adonis/mydel-sark110-vector-impedance-antenna-analyser-pd-5427.php

Here is what the SWR and Impedance at 80m looks like on my trapped inverted L described in previous posts:

80m

Recommended as a very useful tool if you do anything with antennas beside extending your handheld’s telescopic for the local repeater!