Ipklondon.uk

 Okay, it has been five days since my Yaesu FT-DX 10 was delivered, I must admit it has been a learning curve after being with the Yaesu FT 450D for so long. I decided to keep the Yaesu FT450D for portable working, yes I know I have the FT891 too but where I can go portable with table and chairs (and of course a flask of coffee) that is where I can use the 450D, when I have to go portable in the car then it will be my Yaesu FT891. So, do I like the FT-DX 10? Yes I love it, all I need to do is sort out my EFHW antenna and it will be perfect for me. I usually go portable in Bedfords Park just outside Romford, it's a nice quiet place, well that is until people come up wondering if I'm doing CB (bloody cheek lol). 

 20M End Fed Half Wave antenna now up and running and working really well, I never thought it would actually fit in my garden, but it does, "Just". If you look on my contact page  Contact (ipklondon.uk)  you will see my latest contacts at the bottom of the page, all of these were made using this antenna, there are 40M, 20M, 15M and 10M contacts at differing times of the day. The antenna still isn't in its permanent position but it's getting there, rather than using a tree as I am doing at present, I intend to purchase another pole at some point. So, the RSGB Convention is now over and I must admit from what I saw online it looks to have been a success, I like this hybrid idea, I wasn't able to attend the event this year, but I did get the chance to see a couple of presentations and also worked the live station outside of the main entrance.

 Nearly halfway through 2022 now, wow where has the year gone, it really doesn't seem that long ago we were saying goodbye to 2021, oh well that's life I guess. We're coming up towards Friedrichshafen time of the year (June 24-26) but alas we won't be there, we are however planning a trip there in 2023, starting out at St Pancras in London, then Paris, then Stuttgart and on to Friedrichshafen, yes all the way by train over several days. It's easier to fly to Zurich then get the ferry across Lake Constance, well yes it is but that's not our way of doing things, we'll be staying two nights in Stuttgart on the way and of course going into Paris to start off with. All in all hopefully a great trip all round. Still working with the school with regards to the ARISS contact, I must admit though I sometimes wonder if in fact it will ever happen, we've had one knockback after another, not the school's fault and not my fault, but when a school is 50% down on i

 Hi folks, Well been a busy week working on my websites, and last Thursday (24th February 2022) I had a meeting with the deputy headteacher of a nearby school as we work on an ISS Contact. It's been a long time in the making too, I took it to the school a couple of years ago, then it all stopped because the teacher that was dealing with it left to work abroad, so we started over, then Covid stopped it once again. So here we are, Post teacher leaving, Post Covid, now hopefully we can move on, it certainly would be nice to get the application in sometime soon after all that has preceded up until now. I also intend to work on two radio video's showing the Yaesu FT 70DE and the Wouxun KG-UV8G the 2m and 4m handheld, so lots going on just getting the time to do them is another matter. So did you manage to work the ISS SSTV stream in December?  It was a great pass over London and I managed to get the image below, I must admit I was surprised to get such a good image considering I onl

 Welcome to 2022 from me 2E0IPK, let's hope it's a happy and safe one for all. So here we are with my second blog, still cannot quite get my head around this at present but hey ho I'll have a go (hey that rhymes).  So sunspots are starting to become a regular thing now and that's pushing up Solar Flux, the very thing we need for exceptional propagation. The SN and SFI at this specific moment in time are SN 38, SFI 99, but they are predicted to rise further this week so all is looking good. No matter where you live Get on the air on HF Bands and make a colossal effort, after all if people are calling and nobody answers people will find other ways to communicate and that's not good for HF that way. Take care all, another blog next month

 Okay well here we go, my very first blog (me doing a blog is like Mr Bean being in charge of the NASA space programme) So here we are, over halfway through November 2021 already. What has happened in 2021 for me, well done nothing of what I had planned to do for a start. Because of this rotten virus many things were cancelled so I had no choice in the matter.  I did manage to purchase two new handheld radio's though, Yaesu FT70DE a nice little 70cm/2M radio with C4FM, nice and clear audio. I also purchased the Wouxun KG-UV8G a 2M/4M handheld, the one band I couldn't operate on was 4M before I got this, the antenna is not next to useless on the Wouxun, it is completely useless, however connected to a 4M whip on the magmount it picks up very well, I will be adding video reviews to these radio's on YouTube very soon. Okay this has been a very short Blog to get me into the swing of things so hopefully soon I'll be back to add more