Radio Station EA7/G4GCP

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Operator Nick Sheard.

QTH Andalusia, Southern Spain. E-mail: G4GCP.   See a view of our village, a fairly typical 'Andalusian white village'.

Married to Susie, who comes from 9M2. She has no interest in amateur (ham) radio - "Why does our house have to look like a ship?" - she asks. Visit The Sheards page and see our portraits. Arrggggh!!

Originally licensed as G8KLY in the early 1970’s, then G4GCP in 1976.

Always had an interest in VHF/UHF and worked in PMR* in the past.

Currently have moved house - only about a mile - in Jan 2011. Changed circumstances provide the ideal opportunity to experiment with antennas.
For HF I previously used a 7 metre high vertical mounted on a large corrugated iron sunshade above the roof terrace (typical of this part of Spain), with additional tuned radials for 40, 20, 15 and 10, the vertical element resonated at its bottom by an SGC SG-230 Smartuner and this setup worked extremely well on all four bands (small picture bottom left of this page).
While initially starting with a vertical HF antenna again, I decided that the new location gave me the opportunity to try balanced horizontal antennas for the above four bands. Details of the current antenna are below under 'The Station' heading.
For a period I ran, at a similar height, both a quarter wave groundplane and a horizontal dipole antenna for 20 metres - the band I use for weekly skeds with the UK - with the ability to switch instantly between them. The results were interesting, with no reported difference in signals received. However, on receive at my end, the noise level from the dipole was down about two 'S' points from the vertical, while providing similar signal strength, thus dramatically improving my receive capabilty. This led, after all these years of using a vertical for HF in Spain, to a permanent (for now) change of polarity here!

Enjoy the technical side of the hobby more than operating, particularly getting ex pmr VHF/UHF equipment going on our bands and experimenting with antennas. Also very much into computers.

Internet and Computer radio related usage has included dabbling with eQSO, EchoLink and Internet gateways, the latter in the UK. Took the CQ100 free trial from QsoNet but didn't subscribe. Although an early and enthusiastic adopter of VoIP for business and domestic telephony, I have yet to be convinced it has much of a part to play in hobby radio. The station was equipped for PSK31 operation in October 2008 and WSPR in January 2009.

The Station operates from our house in the Málaga Region of Southern Spain. The QTH is about 900 feet (275 metres) above sea level on the northern slopes of the Sierra de Mijas and has a clear take-off in most directions except south, where the mountain gets in the way.
The set up is a Kenwood TS140 into separate parallel dipoles for ten, twenty and forty metres at about 40 feet (12 metres) above the ground.
The dipoles are resonant within the SSB section of each band and provide a low SWR without the need for an ATU. The forty metre dipole works on its third harmonic to give covererage of the fifteen metre band, but needs the ATU in circuit to make the SWR acceptable. This was a disappointment and will be addressed in the future.
The three dipoles are fed with a common feeder and a balun from Balun Design at the feedpoint, the whole being similar to a design proposed in the G3LDO 'Antennas' feature in RadCom and illustrated at the top of page 34 of the March 2011 edition.
An Alinco DR-605E dual bander and a Motorola GM900, feeding a dual band antenna and a 70cms dipole respectively, on the TV antenna mast and also at 40 feet (12 metres) agl, take care of 2metres & 70cms FM.
A groundplane antenna for 50MHz and an Alinco DX70 enable operation on six metres, all modes.
 

Regular visits to South East Asia led to operating as 9M2/G4GCP in the past:

  Nick in Penang
9M2/G4GCP on Penang Hill, on the air with a Yaesu FT50.

 Earlier Antenna in Spain    View north
  Previous EA7 antennas.                   View from the terrace of the old EA7 QTH, looking north over the Guadalhorce valley.

Malaga weather now:- Click for Malaga, Spain Forecast Click on the "Weather Underground" image for comprehensive current weather details and a full seven day forecast.
73’s from Nick
E-mail:G4GCP   Email Nick 		Force9 broadband. Use OpenDNS
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* PMR = Private Mobile Radio, the name given to business radio in the UK.                                            Updated 21/06/2011