2E0RMI page 1 of 3
M3RMI - Foundation licence callsign, 2E0RMI - Intermediate licence callsign.
My current radio interest is amateur radio. I passed my Foundation licence in February 2006 after a training course run by our local club the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society (CARS) & was up & running on 2 metres within a week, using a borrowed rig & a magmount aerial on a biscuit tin lid hanging out the window. Well, amateur radio is all about experimentation ! I soon progressed on to my own 2 metre rig, a Yaesu FT-1802, & a home made slim jim on the roof.
The slim jim comprises a length of 4mm earth wire cut to size & wrapped around pvc conduit pipe, all then encased by 1.5'' white plastic drainpipe. This is clamped to an 18' aluminium scaffold pole (handy being a builder) which sits neatly in a redundant chimney stack. Note the very expensive way
of steadying the pole at the top of the chimney pot - an upturned aluminium saucepan with a 2'' hole cut in the top ! The 18' pole sits 9' in the chimney stack & 9' above, & was originally used for the Chelmsford Calling broadcast aerial. Placing the pole in the stack is not for the faint hearted - luckily a roofer friend was happy to stand on the ridge & drop the pole in from the top (have you ever tried holding an 18' aluminium scaffold pole upright at one end while standing on the roof ridge ?). When we move, the pole's staying...
With the good ground level height here in Springfield plus the extra 9' above the stack, my slim jim aerial gives very good results, & I can access repeaters from Aylesbury to Ipswich & Royston to Hastings under normal conditions.
Also for 2 metres I use an Icom IC-260E, mostly for monitoring either our local repeater DA or MB7IDA Echolink. This also has SSB capability, although my 2 metre aerials are vertically polarised at the moment.
Other 2 metre equipment in the shack includes a 7 element beam (on loan from G4MDB - thanks Bob !) on an old rotator (on loan from G8SCV / G4KCN - thanks Dave !) used on either of the 2 metre rigs & normally giving 2 extra 'S' points on weaker signals.
A very useful piece of equipment is the home brew 'Bylara Bilabong' portable slim jim aerial, ideal for throwing in a suitcase when going away & easy to clip on the curtain rail wherever you are staying ! Built to G4YTG's design out of feeder cable, this also operates well sticking out of the car sunroof on a plastic conduit pole !
My latest acquisition, an Icom IC-T3H handheld. A very good, robust, relatively easy to use handheld, capable of 0.5 watts or 5.5 watts. As with most rigs, this is able to do far more than I need, but is reasonably straightforward to understand for my uses (2m / repeaters / echolink). Recently put to the test on top of Cnicht near Croesor in North Wales, & worked well over to Holyhead.
Note the telescopic aerial used here - seems to improve reception & transmission. Also note the CARS mug - have a look at the CARS website for 'mugs around the world...!' (website listed on my links page).
Staying in Wales, on holiday I operate as 2W0RMI / A. The picture on the right shows a good slim jim - no - at the top of the pole... below is a close up...
I also operate less frequently on HF, & am in the process of upgrading my aerials. I use an Icom IC-718 which is a basic cost transceiver which gives very good results & is also a lovely piece of equipment to use as a short wave receiver. I wish I had this 20+ years ago when I was first interested in short wave DXing.
A slim jim aerial built by my brother Dave 25+ years ago & still surviving well. Now re-activated & capable of working into GB3DW at Criccieth & GB3MP in Denbigh, despite the surrounding mountains.
My first HF aerial was a full size G5RV, & whilst happy with this I am always looking to experiment, so this has currently been converted to a top band aerial 128' long. The long wire runs across the top of the house to the 18' scaffold pole & from here to a pole fixed to the garage at the bottom of the garden resting on top of the rabbit cage (the rabbit & guinea pigs don't seem to mind). Note the top section made from an old kid's swingball pole...
From here the wire goes down to my feed point at the end of the garden - a junction box on the fence - & is fed from the roof shack by RG58 cable. To make up the extra length & to get 128' overall, I wrapped 20' of copper wire around a piece of plastic drainpipe which only takes up about 4' in length.
Also leading from the feed point are 4 copper wire radials running all over the garden buried in the grass. This seemed a good idea at the time until subsequent very hot weather made my carefully cut 'V's in the grass (to bury the copper wire) open up... well - who wants a perfect lawn...
One of the radials is also connected to the aluminium greenhouse (on the advice of some well respected amateur radio colleagues) & to date we haven't noticed any adverse affects on the tomatoes, although Ann avoids the greenhouse when I'm transmitting...
The eventual aim is to convert this to a W3DZZ aerial with 40m & 80m traps, but for the time being I have a random length of wire running from the back of the ATU out of the roof window & to the apple tree at the bottom of the garden for general HF use.
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