UPDATED 20110417
My name is Rob, and this site reflects my electronics and music interests. It’s radically from the first one in 1997, as I try to keep up with web technology.
The last edit was an update to the Softrock123 page.
My email address is now:
Are there any good ISPs left? TalkTalk are crap. Their access is slow, their contract is lengthy (24 months) and their call centres are in India. Their website technical support is non-existent, and they got my address wrong twice.
As for mobile phone companies... I will avoid swearing on this page! It’s not the technology that’s the problem. It’s the greed of the companies.
Let’s single out Vodafone - a cheesy name for a company! It costs minimum 21p per minute for a very poor quality voice call. To put credit on the phone requires a lengthy connection to their “top-up” line, which has the most irritating female voice ever.
Their website does not work, and is full of smiley faces, but no genuine help. Trying to do almost anything results in “Sorry this service is not available. Try again later”. Their network coverage, if it can be called that, does not include >25%of the country, and yes they do claim to have the “best” coverage. They have the cheek to disconnect the number if it’s not used for 3 months. Of course using a free number does not count as use. If you think any other phone company is different... think again!
The Google map to the left shows where I am in the world. It’s a live object, and can be zoomed and panned like being on Google’s map site. Not that I like Google, they only list your website if you pay them!
In future I hope to make this front page into a mini-blog. For now I will give a description of my amateur radio station.
My 'shack' is different to the traditional type. The rigs are up in the loft, and the shack is basically a laptop PC, microphone, and one control panel downstairs on my bench.
There are many advantages to having the transceiver closer to the antenna. Even more in having the transceiver AT the antenna, but that's not quite viable yet.
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•The bulky equipment is out of the way
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•Fan noise is removed
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•Feeder length is less, reducing losses and EMC problems
My main HF equipment is the Softrock Mk.3 which is a home made radio transceiver. I decided not to buy a commercial one because there is nothing to learn and no “sport” in that. Also in keeping with amateur radio tradition, I don’t like to spend big sums of money. A home made rig is cheaper!
Despite the homebrew philosophy, when I got my license I wanted to get on the air to the locals on VHF quickly. So I bought a Yaesu FT8900. The 8900 is a four band, FM only radio, designed for mobile use. The front panel is removable, so I have the panel downstairs and the rig body up in the loft.
Dependant on propagation conditions VHF range from IO90LT is 40 miles east and 30 miles west along the coast. North is more difficult, as Portsdown Hill is in the way. The hill blocks 70cm signals worse than 2m, as expected. In terms of range, the GB3WW repeater near Port Talbot (160 miles) has been reached several times, under lift conditions. Likewise the GB3WR near Wells/Cheddar (100 miles) is a semi-regular. I have also run the local amateur club net on 2m, nominated because I can hear (almost) everyone!
I also get good results on 70cm, though Portsdown Hill blocks it. My best contact during lift conditions was to open the repeater at Margate, 150 miles away. A temperature inversion forms when the sea is colder than the land, on calm evenings. To experience this it's not essential to be right next to the sea. Repeaters each direction on the coast from Portsmouth improve, but those inland show less change.
From the FT8900 the coax cable feeder to a Moonraker SQBM-1000 vertical is 6m long, made up of 3m Westflex 103, and 3m of Suhner RG400. A lightning arrestor is mounted below the antenna. Lightning arrestors with N-type connectors are cheaper than UHF connector types, because N-type are sold for use with computer networks rather than by expensive amateur radio dealers.
A lot of silver foil is spread under the equipment and throughout the loft. This reduces interference from my computer and other local electrical equipment. On 2m the noise level locally is quite high, but the foil reduced it. On 6m the problem is worse, but the silver foil made no difference. I suspect my antenna is not well set up on 6m. The tri-band verticals really need a balun as they are a dipole at 50MHz.
The following picture shows the storage area for my rigs. Softrock Mk.3 left (with Apple sticker), Yaesu FT8900 body top, Edirol interface centre, Alinco PSU right.
