Shack at 02/05/14

Shack at 02/05/14

Tuesday 31 January 2012

Pleased to say both online logs are now receiving my data since Jose issued version 1.2.4. I've placed the code for both logs on my 'Opera' page.
That's a nice start to the day, just been received in Sidney Australia.

Looks like the latest mod by Jose has complicted things a little though. He wants mean power instead of pep, so now my info is sent as 15 watts + Inverted V (antenna) , which is wrong as I'm still using the Pro Whip. Oh well, no doubt he, and others, will notice and he'll probably sort it.

Have to go QRT for a couple of hour now. Work on the new page later. Bit more brain damage Hi!

Monday 30 January 2012

Not a good day today. Seems whatever I try wants to be a pain *sigh*.

I'll forget about the auto upload facility on Opera until tomorrow. Can't be bothered to go into that now. As to the new web page (via Digital Brian animation on the digital page), I tried with some success to get a couple of scrolling text boxes going, with the view of pasting my Opera spots, and those reflected to me via the internet.

The first option works a treat, but the second insists on behaving illogically. Whenever I paste a sessions spots, either direct from Opera, or from my notepad where the previous session has been saved, the start time will be well into the session ie I'm not pasting the complete session, even though all has been copied. How weird is that?.

SSTV reception has been poor all day too.

That's it, I've had enough for today.

Sunday 29 January 2012

Quiet day today, sstv wise. Opera a bit down on yesterday too. I'm sticking to 20 metres now, so no need to keep retuning the antenna.

Been trying to figure how to incorporate current days Opera logs on the web site, but can't seem to get a scrolling box going with my main web editor (WebSite X5 Evolution) that I can paste to. I did manage it on the secondary editor (Namo WebEditor), but for some reason I could not paste the complete days log. I'll look for more options tomorrow, I'm too tired now.

Saturday 28 January 2012


WB4RQD New record.
Nice one! I just made my first 'Opera' contact across the pond.

Oh not again!. Flamin' contest. Each to their own I suppose, but I wish the stations calling cq wouldn't keep droning on splattering over the sstv frequency *sigh*. I have to kill the sound to stop them getting on my nerves.

Well I new it wouldn't take long for Jose to add some more frequencies to Opera, and here we are. This morning I find 14.065 and 7.038 added to the list. My Pro Whip does seem happier on 20 metres so that's my daytime frequency now.

I did fire up this morning before shopping, but didn't expect anyone else to be around on 20 yet. Wrong!, loads of peeps had beaten me to it.

Here's a screen shot as of 10:28 this morning. Catching on fast!

Friday 27 January 2012

Try the beacon at 20 minutes to allow bigger gap for sstv incoming. Naturally the pics are spoilt whilst I am tx'ing.


New record US5QM, 1580 Miles
Doesn't take long for a new mode to catch on, does it!
Looking promising, HB9DVP has got the sstv ball rolling. Maybe I don't have to climb the ladder again after all Hi!

Looking good!. Eight diferent station receiving me now, including Three Italian's.
PS, I'm now waiting to see if sstv (20 metre receive only) is catered for by the replacement antenna, ie the 30 metre whip I rigged up yesterday. I can hear psk on .070 quite strong at the moment. If not good for sstv reception I'll try it as a straight whip, ie using the inner only. If that fails I'll put up a 20 metre mobile job

Morning all. Fired up 30 metres Opera half an hour ago, but the antenna I used successfully yesterday has now decided the zap my freeview picture *sigh*. Back to the drawing board. I guess it's not that important as I can always turn the tv off anyway, but I would feel better if I could get it right.

Ok, let's try the Pro Whip again. 5 watts out with the whip tuned to 10.135 later, here's the result. Would you beleive it?, no tvi. I have, since last using it, changed the ATU for my MFJ job. I have a sneaking suspician there's something wrong with the Trio. The MFJ does not have a preselected band option like the Trio, so might have something to do with it.

Anyway, we seem to be back in business. Touch wood Hi!.

Thursday 26 January 2012


As 30 metres had died re Opera, I thought what the hell let's have another go at 80 using the Pro Whip before bed. Would you Adam and Eve it, it worked. Tuned up nicely and doesn't cause the tv sig to drop out. So why did it not work the first time I tried it *sigh*. Totally illogical, radio sometimes.

Anyway it would appear we're in business, and here's the screen shot top prove it. At least I can go to bed happy Hi!.
Been messing about with various modes and antennas today. Noticed yesterday that the 3o metre band was the most active overall, re weak signal modes, so today I resolved to get something working antenna wise so I could grab some action.

I had managed to tune the Pro Whip on 3o, but wiped out my freeview signal in the process. I also tried a long wire, but that had the same effect. The 80 metre 1/4 wave magmount on the metal roof had no effect on the tv however, so 'Thinks!' I have various mobile whips in the shed, but infortunately not one for 30. Could I rig something up with them?. After returning from town and grabbing an 'Ocean Pie' for lunch, I reasoned that joining the base (helical) sections of a ten and twenty whip together, with the standard whip on top, I might get close enough to 10 megs to try inserting another coil section that would take care of the other missing whip section. Sounded logical, even if electically it's not the done thing.

Anyway, I joined said sections together and fitted the base to a tri magmount on the metal roof. To my surprise, after connection the MFJ analyzer, the swr was 2.1. Amazing!, and I hadn't even compensated for the missing whip section yet. Well!, if it's happy as it is so be it. Sometimes antennas just defy logic Hi!.

I replace the 80 whip with this new one and went back in to the shack. On connecting the analyser now however the swr was well out. In fact the antenna now resonated on 7 megs instead on 10. All through basically changing to a longer lengthg of coax feeder. That's silly, it shouldn't be anywhere near 40 metres. Oh well, I thought, in for a penny. I connected the feeder to the atu, tuned the radio to a quiet spot on 30 metres and fired 5 watts into it anyway. A bit of twiddling of the inductance, tx'er and antenna controls and I easily had the swr down to 1.1 and an apparent power out of five watts. The ft-897 was set at 5 watts (the minimum) in the menu.

As I have since been received in Moscow and Germany, I suppose there can't be a lot wrong with my signal. Also I'm not freezing my Freeview signal at all, so I think I'll leave it at that for the time being.

As I'm now on qrv on 30 hf I can't play with jt65 as there is no allocated frequency for it. However, there is one for ROS, so I might have a go at that tomorrow.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

How's that for a bit of colour Hi!. Red=qso in progress. Mauve=station calling cq and yellow=my qso with F5RRS. You'll notice I had to send his report twice befor receiving RRR from him. Obviously my sig to him dropped at the critical time.
Got to thinking last night, wonder if I could get something going on 80 metres when 40 goes quiet.

Got a ten metre mag mount on a metal roof used for 10 fm. Don't use it lately, so how about swapping it for an 80 metre antenna?. Could try some jt65-hf and Opera this evening then.

This afternoon I put the 80 metre ant and a spare tri-magmount on the letal roof and used the analyzer to tune it. After I was satisfied with the swr I replaced the 10 metre ant with the 80. All I had to do then was move the feeder from the 10 metre rig to the 897, via an atu. Then I waited 'til dark.

First I tried Opera, which eventually saw me log France and Netherlands, both ways.

Noticing a jt65 trace on the upper end of the waterfall, I switched to that mode and answered F4EFL who gave me -12. The jt65 frequency is 3.576 and the Opera 3.575, which is very handy as I don't even have to retune the antenna. Looks like 80 is where I will park every evening now. Sorted!.
Looks like we're in business.

Radio User is out today, so I'll be picking that up later. Raining at the moment, but at least the wind has dropped. Try out my new wiper blades Hi!. Had to replace a couple the other day.

Noticed yesterday, that although the Whip tunes 30 metres to allow use of Opera mode, my freeview signal get's knocked out. TV antenna is only about 15 feet away from whip. However, the Arno Cobra is even closer, with all it's feeder radiation too and there's no tvi from that.

Might have to concentrate of wspr/jt65-hf on the Arno until a frequency on 40 is allocated to Opera. Shouldn't be long I reckon.

HA2RI sstv is comong in strong at the moment. That's on the whip of course. The Garex active job and a long wire cannot compete unfortunately.
Up at 07:00, shack alive and tx'ing some jt65-hf on 40. However, at 07:40 not a nibble so have now switched to wspr, see how that does for a bit.

Monday 23 January 2012

All gone quiet over there Hi!.

Had a decent day playing with Opera, but all quiet now. Hope a 40 metre frequency is allocated soon then I can use the whip for sstv again.

Gone back to jt65-hf on 40 at the moment using the Arno Cobra again, but no response to my cq'ing. Shame I don't have an antenna for 80 as I expect I could get more response from Opera down there at this time onward. Never mind, can't win 'em all.

Took down the horizontal dipole for 11 as it wasn't getting any use anyway, so to give me another string to the bow I made use of the feeder by putting up an hb9cv for 2 metres I had in the shed (horizontal). Don't have a rotator so fixed it facing East. Never know, if conditions are up and guys start squirting Opera my way from Europe I might be in with a chance. Could also use jt65 or wspr of course.
Here is a link to the O-P-E-R-A software download page

http://rosmodem.wordpress.com/

And here is a link to a handy operating guide by Andy K3UK, as there is no official guide by EA5HVK realeased as yet.

http://www.obriensweb.com/operaguide.html

And a shot of pskreporter showing spots of my station by others (minutes ago) and stations reported by me (small balloons) included in the last 2 hour slot. I think I've got that the right way round by studying my log on Pskreporter.

Morning all!

Just discovered a new mode by EA5HVK, a bit on the lines of wspr last night. Managed to tune the whip to 10.135 usb and fired the program up this morning. Sends beacons at pretedermined intervals, as does wspr, but the spots by other stations are sent back to the sender via the internet. Here is a screen shot of my first attempt On the right side is the reporters screen, where you can see my station having been received by the Netherlands amongst others (In Red). Also on the right is a report from me of the station I had received on the left screen. This one is blue.

Sunday 22 January 2012

All change again Hi!. SSTV pics are nowhere near as clear using alternative antennas to the whip, so I've reverted to the original set up. The whip is back to sstv and the weak signal modes are back to the Arno Cobra. The latter does work as long as I keep the power restricted to 5 watts, which I guess is quite adequate for wspr and jt65-hf. The states has heard me on wspr and a JT65-HF qso has been made into Germany so far, so should be ok.

And now for some lunch while I leave wspr running for a while
Just been playing about with the whip antenna. Although the analyzer says the swr is respectable on all bands except the warc bands, in actual use I can't get any apart from 20 and 40 metres to tune up. Also, upping to ten watts on 20 seems to make the power needle on the Kenwood AT-200 atu fluctuate occasionally, though I did get W4MPS answer me at 12:26. Bet the Italian guys are putting out a bit more than that Hi!

I think I'll play safe and leave the power at 5 watts on both bands whether using jt65-hf or wspr. Don't want to risk a dirty signal going out.

Saturday 21 January 2012



Here's a couple of screen shots since using the whip for wspr on 40 metres, 5 watts .
As a matter of interest I just put the analyzer on the Pro Whip and discovered something very interesting. It actually tunes on all the bands from 3.8 to 144 mhz. Amazing, and I didn't think of analysing it in the couple of years I've had it *sigh*. Before I got back into tx'ing the whip was basically used for receiving sstv on 20 metres and broadcast band listening.

Now I find I don't have to use the Arno Cobra after all, with all it's radiating feeder problems Hi!. All data can be handled on whatever band I fancy using the whip. Brilliant!.

Only problem is sstv is going to have to rely on the garex active antenna, which is not up to the whip's performance. Seeing a picture just arrived on it though, I reckon I can live with that.
After a few days of data I've discovered what I can and can't do re data. It would appear that the E-Ham reviews on the EH Arno Cobra are correct, insofar as rf radiating from the feeder is conscerned. If I try upping the power out from 5 watts, I end up with a distorted signal. However, as 5 watts is about the going rate for wspr I don't suppose that's too much of a problem.

I have made made a few contacts on 40 using jt65-hf with the 5 watts and Arno ant, but as 20 metres is much more lively with this mode I migrate there during the daylight hours and turn the power up to a respectable 10 watts. The Pro Whip has no problem with that, and 10 is about right for that mode I think.

Friday 20 January 2012

Been trying out a bit of JT65-HF this afternoon. So far worked a couple of G's on 40 and a German station using the Pro Whip on 20 metres (All on 5 watts).

15:05 Back to WSPR while I get some tea and bics.

Wednesday 18 January 2012

'Morning all. Not a bad start this morning, 4 traces and 9 stations receiving me so far. Not bothering with town today, nice lazy day in the shack.

Although I can't run any other radio gear on this computer whilst wspr'ing, I can run SBS1 and Virtual Radar server. So that looks like the set up for the forseable future. Data on 40 metres and virtual plane spotting. Well I say virtual, I can always pop outside after getting the heads up and point some 36x70's at the passing trade. Usually at about 18.000 ft by the time Gatwick depatures reach overhead my loctation. Bins actually go up to 60x but I can't hold them steady enough at that power Hi!

Tuesday 17 January 2012



Phew!, did I mention brain damage.

Spent about five hours this afternoon getting wspr up and running. As you can see from the pic above, I finally made it. I've filtered the stations to show only the ones receiving me, which covers the last 4 hours since going live.

I started out trying to get the Signalink interface working, but gave up after a couple of hours. All I could transmit was a horrible noise, try as I might to get levels right. I'm pretty sure the built in sound card has gone toes up, and now I think of it this might be the breason I gave up data a while back.

I then dug out my RigBlaster Pro from the 'junk box'. This needed a bank of jump leads, 5 audio cables, a serial cable and mic input cable sorted out. To cut a long story short I managed to get the radio, computer and interface on speaking terms and proceeded to decorate 40 metres with 5 watts of wspr. As the map confirms I am in business, so chuffed to be back o the air after so long in listening mode.

Unlike the Signalink (USB) the RigBlaster uses the serial port on the desk top computer and the program uses the sound card, so the PCR-1000 is off limits whilst I play data.

SSTV is fed to a notebook from the Satellit 750

Top is a a screen shot of all stations active on 40 metres over the last 3 hours

Monday 16 January 2012

All change again Hi!.

Been monitoring a bit of JT65-HF and WSPR after the episode with the cameras. After visiting another ham's site and seeing that he had his wspr set up using an ft-897 and signalink interface, it suddenly dawned on me that when I bought my own signalink I also got the data lead suitable for my own ft-897. Therefore I had no excuse but to give it another whirl. I wouldn't have to configure all the jump leads in the Rigblaster after all, so no brain damage there then.

This evening I set up the rig and interface and using the Pro Whip to receive, I have sigs on the wspr waterfall. I don't want to use the whip to transmit eg on 20 metres as it would screw up my sstv reception, which is now switched to the Satellit 750 incidentally. Never the same set up five minutes here Hi!.

I have an Arno Cobra antenna designed especially for 40 metres, so that's the band I will conentrate on re wspr. So that's tomorrows activity sorted. Put the antenna up and try squirting some wpsr into it. Being a weak signal mode It's concidered bad form to exceed 5 watts, so I'll be sticking to that.

22:05 Calling it a day radio wise I think. Bit of Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven Western) while I sup some tea, then it's the land of nod. Night all!.
Well after a morning's work this what I ended up with.

I started out fitting a wireless camera looking at the front door, which was about 20 feet away from the receiver. Had to cut the power lead to extend it of course. Waste of time!. Couldn't even get a picture. Moving the camera closer, ie half that distance, I did get a picture but only after positioning by trial and error.

Next I tried in the car port, Only when the camera was about six or seven feet in a straight line from the receiver, did I get a picture. However, it was not good insofar as there were noise bars floating across the screen.

Decided to call it a day with wireless jobs and dug out my original wired camera again. It produced a lousy picture when last aired, but I took it apart and cleaned the lens and inside the glass. It had been outside in all weathers for years after all. I now hooked this up to my little five inch tv, as shown in the pic above. The over exposed look is due to the camera I took the pic with. In reality the image is ok, and should be ideal at night with it's infra red capability.

On a different note, I hear one of the Alpha Uniform club members has had his collar felt, resulting in his radio being confiscated. That's Mick permanently out of the 'Freenband' scene apparently.

It's a risk one takes, being basically a pirate I guess. Maybe, If Mick is really bitten by the radio bug, He'll not give up and will decide to go legit as it were by sitting the necessary exams. Worth it for peace of mind at least, if your reading this mate.

Sunday 15 January 2012


Another quiet day for me. Got a replacement wireless camera for the car port in town today, so tomorrow I'm fixing that up to go with it's mate that overlooks the front door so I can either choose which to show on the tv when it's not used for it's primary role, or have them automatically switch between the two. I say wireless, which is true as regards the actual camera picture. The camera still need 12 volts fed to it, which tend to negate the 'wireless' descriptionHi!. The camera viewing the path to the front door, which is hard wired, is now switched to a 5 inch portable tv. Will include a pic when I've got it all set up.

The power lead supplied for the camera is only a couple of metres, so will have to splice a section in there. Bang goes the guarentee, so hope the thing lasts longer than most of the electronic gadgets I buy.

Haven't really been in a radio mood today, so concentrated on my latest aircraft mag (Airliner World) and monitoring Virtual Radar. Quite unusual to get anything on screen coming in to Southampton, so here's a screen shot taken at 18:51 of a Air Hamburg Citation on finals. Tracked it down to 75 feet.

Saturday 14 January 2012

Not a good day today. Nothing on 11 psk or packet wise, and very few decent pics on 20. Ran SBS1 in parallel, so watched that a lot this afternoon. Had Virtual Radar running off my 'Base Station' as I prefer the Google Earth screen.

Shame the military aircraft don't give their coordinates, which is understandable I suppose. Virtual Radar does recognise the military, and there is a filter facility for it, but naturally the aircraft do not show on the map.

Oh well, Sunday's a new day. Let's hope for better conditions.

Friday 13 January 2012

Best laid plans, as they say. Not a sniff of packet or psk31 all afternoon on eleven.

Updated the shack pick, which included the tnc and the TTI rig. Whether I'll get to use the tnc remains to be seen. Mind you it's the weekend tomorrow, so maybe better luck with propo and operators on air.

Why do some guys have to go overboard with echo on CB *sigh*. Used very lightly and it can enhance the clarity of the signal, but having it set so it repeats everything a few words late is just rediculous.

22:04 I think I'll call it a day in the shack Take a cup of tea to bed and have a listen around the broadcast bands on the Roberts. Night all.
14:15 Wow, Taiwan in one direction and Texas in the other. Can't be bad.

Monitoring 27.5 and 27.540 since noon on the Satellit and Anytone 5555, but not a peep so far. Just my luck conditions are down today.

Full up, I just had a King Prawn Ruby. Nice clear sstv coming in on 14.230 at the moment.
By the left! It's cold this morning.

Listening to a station on the Roberts at 21:50 last night for 10 minutes, but couldn't get an id before it closed down. Frequency 11.865 sig 5/8 qsb. Subject Ausy accented announcer talking about sharks in Australian waters. Looked up Ausy freqs on Prime Time Shortwave, but this one not listed. The NASWA site doesn't mention Australia for that frequency either. One that got away Hi!

Woke at 03:00, so had another listen to WWCR on 4.480 while I supped some tea. Cup empty I switched the radio, and myself, off again until 07:00.

Thursday 12 January 2012

Found the links to my favourite episode of Gimme Gimme Gimme by the way. It's in 3 parts as follows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzqnmQWQjmc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV3wmj3gVVo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mgEMDY_zo0&feature=related
Switched to 80 metres in the eveningbut only 4 stations received up to 21:00 using JT65-HF.

Tomorrow I'm going to give psk31 (usb) and packet (300 bd lsb) a bash on 27 mhz. 27.500 and 27.540 respectively. Receive only of course Hi!. Dug out the old PK-232MBX tnc and tied it to the Satellit 750, I'll make sure there is some packet action before using the serial port on the only pc available as I've got the PCR-1000 tied to it. I'll use Multipsk with that radio to try decoding any packet first. Any positive action and I'll switch to the tnc. For psk31 I'll use DM780.

21:20 and sstv on 20 metres has died of course, so I'm getting close to shutting the shack down for the night.


Trying a bit of JT65-HF this afternoon. Seems very popular mode, and here's a couple of screen shots after about half an hour's monitoring.

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Well the radio station I couldn't id turned out to be WWCR from the States. Got the gen from a shortwave forum I belong to.

No radio listening today so far, had to sort out another problem around the house. Managed to drill through the remaining half of the old tree leaning over my fence. Not mine, so elbowed it in the shrubbery further up the lane (something I wouldn't normally dream of doing). Yesterday I noticed that my old lean too shed had given way at one point and was pushing my other neighbours fence out of line. Bugger!, I haven't use that shed in over 10 years as It's full of junk left by the previous owner. Some of the wall had rotted letting the neighbourhood cats in to play apparently as they had moved stuff about so a pile of thick tiles had collapsed and wedged themselves agains next doors fence.

This morning I spent a couple of hours sorting it out, which meant I had to firstly force my way in past a seized up lock and stuff that had fallen behind the door. What with that today and the tree trunk yesterday, my back has stiffened up something cronic *sigh*. Be ok by tomorrow though. Lifes a bitch, right?.

Anyway, radio wise all I've done is upload sstv all day. This afternoon, I just collapsed into my shack chair and watched an old war film 'The enemy below' Robert Mitchum's a destroyer driver hunting a German submarine. Seen it before of course as All the tv films on freeview have been flogged to death. Watched Rigby, rising damp, for the millionth time last night. Still make me laugh though.

Don't usually go much on American sit coms, but I must admit to liking 'The Big Bang Theory'. Sheldon creases me up. Only uk sit com to have me litterally falling about, was Gimme Gimme Gimme with Cathy Burke and James Dreyfuss. Think I'll see if I can find the episode where 'Zippy' Cathy's long lost son turns up on You Tube. Brilliant episode.

Oh well, that's enough waffle for now. Rosey Lea time.

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Interesting gadget. Re the fake tv advertised on the radio station I mentioned earlier, here's the link to it

http://www.faketv.co.uk/
Awake at 06:00. Turned on the Roberts and found an American station on 4840 who seemed to be paranoid about what they call 'The Globalists' Bankers? trying to instigate a war with Iran.

Apparently with a view to controlling the American?/World? people. Gave up trying to get a station id. Commercial breaks were thrown in, including one pushing 'Fake TV' (Faketv.com) I'll look that one up in a minute. It's a device to give potential burglars the idea that someone is in residence, when it is in fact left empty.

06:38 listening to Ostende Radio giving out navigation warnings on 2761 usb.
07:15 switched off and got up.

Monday 9 January 2012

Well I finally got over the exessively loud speaker on the TTI. I had a look at the onboard speaker and decided playing about with that was unviable, so I then tried foam inside an extension speaker. That didn't work, so then had an idea of using some headphones that had volume controls built in. Out to the shed and after a rummage found some old phones that fitted the bill. Plugged 'em in and Voila!, brilliant. I have them hanging underneath the bench with the volume at a reasonable extention speaker background level. Another problem solved.

One day I'll get a perfect noise free chart Hi!

Found a use for my tv in the shack when it's not in normal use. Noticed it has vga and video imputs , amongst others, so dug out some cable and got my infra red camera operational again.

Here's a pic showing the view down the front path to the non existant front gate Hi!

You can see the wooden support on the right holding back the creeper, erm, woooden fence.
Shows how little space I have here for antennas *sigh*. The Pro Whip is in the centre on the front garden (Don't have a back one). On poles stuck to side of building are antenas for the tv, the Sirio 11 metre dipole , and the v/uhf discone. This pole also carrys the SBS1 antenna. Out of shot is the 10 metre mag mount on the metal roof. Another pole supports the weather center.

The vid is an experiment in uploading to you tube, and the camera is an Alesis Video Track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR6PlVsV4wE&noredirect=1

Sunday 8 January 2012




Just dug out my Radiocom 5.2 dongle and tried a bit of Navtex. Murphies law say the signal will fade half way through the chart *sigh*. Here's the result anyway

Saturday 7 January 2012

Incidentally, a lot has changed in the shack and on my web page since I last posted to 'Blogger' back in the summer, including using upper case I's instead of lower Hi. Started editing the old posts, but got fed up with that. Thought of deleting the old posts anyway, but decided to leave them for old times sake. The page heading pic is the shack as of December 2011. A TTI TCB R2000 rig has been added since.

Of course giving up radio, as indicated back then, didn't happen. After 55 years of radio interest, is it really likely?.

I discontinued my club page, seeing as only three people had shown interest in about six months on line. Happy to stick to my main site now.

Back to Blogger






I didn't fancy the layout on Word Press blog after all, so I've returned to Blogger.

Seem to have a habbit of late that sees me waking up at about 2 am, which means I usually give up going back to sleep until I've had a nice cup of tea at least. Taking advantage of this state I've taken to having a trawl around the bands.

This morning was no exception, so logged an unidentified Bible station on 4840, Voice Of Russia on 7259, Radio Croatia on 7375, Radio Bulgaria on 7400, another unidentified Bible station on 9265, The African service of Vatican Radio on 9660 and Voice Of America on 9884 (All Khz of course).

Back to the land of nod about 03:30, up at 08:00.

Yesterday had been playing about with the appearance settings of Ham Radio Deluxe after reverting to version 4 after trying, and not liking version 5. Like getting new radio Hi!. Here are screen shots of the results, which I find very relaxing and attractive.