Amateur Radio

I’ve learned a lot this weekend.

I suspect I’ve known this for quite sometime, but I must have had issues in accepting it. I’ve been a listener on the HF bands since the early 1970’s. I got my amateur radio license back in 1976 and have been active on and off ever since. What I recall from those early days was that the only serious problems with interference came from TV line time base and poorly suppressed HT systems on cars and motorbikes. Other than that, the bands were largely noise free. If the signal was there, generally, maybe with a little filtering, you could hear it. The challenge was to get the right aerial for the job and decent receiver. That’s perhaps over-simplifying it, but all I’m doing is trying to make a point.

How all that has changed in the world of today.

We live now in a very different technological world. From a communication perspective, what’s possible today, as opposed to back then, is the difference between night and day. In many ways, it’s so much better. But it has come at a cost, at least to those using the Short Wave bands. It’s not for me to document all the different types of interference that now blight the HF bands (at least in residential areas). Broadband internet systems, poorly designed electronic equipment with little or no attention paid to interference suppression, powerline systems, LED lighting, the list is endless. Even if (and believe me I’ve tried), I take all the measures I can at my own location to reduce or eliminate sources of noise, there is that much around me that it makes absolutely no difference. Sure, balanced aerials help, but overall, the situation is pretty grim. I experience S9 plus noise levels across most of the frequencies I want to use.

Why am I writing this now then? Nothing here is new.

Only for me, it is. We recently purchased a static caravan out in a remote area of the Arnside & Silverdale Area for Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). I’ve marvelled at how much darker the skies are there to enable me to undertake a little Astronomy again. Add to that, last weekend I installed a very basic stealth antenna to enable me to listen to the HF bands again. The aerial is nothing special at all, a traditional 9:1 Un-Un with a fifty odd foot length of wire simply tacked to the wooden fence that runs down one side of our plot. It’s no more than three feet high. It’s fed against a 4 foot earth rod banged into the ground near the un-un. The featured image for this post shows the un-un mounted on the fence. With a small ATU it tunes across pretty much all the HF bands I want to use. So, what was the result? Well, to be honest I was staggered. I’d clearly forgotten how different the bands are when there’s no local noise! The only surrounding problems could be nearby caravans. But by their very nature, they’re tin cans. If there is any noise inside them, and arguably if there is, there’ll be a lot less technology than in a more traditional house, very little of it escapes outside of the caravan. The result? The bands are alive again! I can now hear plenty of activity on all the bands very clearly. To drive the point home further, I remotely logged into my station back home (about 40 miles away) to see what I could hear (in real time) from there as opposed to the caravan. There were many stations I could hear as plain as day at the caravan while getting absolutely nothing back at home.

So, what now then?

Put simply, I expect I shall now abandon any prospective HF operation from the home location and look to operate from the alternative (and quieter) location. I’m even thinking now about more classic /P operation. I see a lot more activity in these areas, POTA for example. Maybe this is the future. And to that end, I’m also looking at rigs that support this concept. Currently, I suspect I may be acquiring an Icom IC-705 or an Elecraft KX2/3. Maybe even both!

I have a feeling a whole new world of HF is opening up before me. Onward and upward!