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Radio Station EA7/G4GCP Operator Nick
Sheard. 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. 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:
Go to the sheard.org homepage. Return to top of page. * PMR = Private Mobile Radio, the name given to business radio in the UK. Updated 21/06/2011 |
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