Neighbours - who'd have them?
I went out into the garden last Sunday to change over the broken pole for my HF Antenna. I'd been out there for about five minutes when I was accosted by my looney tunes neighbour. He went into a rant about yet more aerials and threatened to report me. For what, I don't know but I retained a dignified manner and didn't rise to the bait (which is unlike me). Then his wife came rushing home from work as he had phoned her to say he was having an epileptic fit. It transpires that my AllStar node blocks their car remote central locking and that my collinear aerial requires planning permission and they can always tell when I'm on the radio because the frequency upsets their dogs. After doorstepping her my XYL was mightily fed up. So, the HF aerial was dismantled and tomorrow the collinear is coming down, even though the installation is within planning regulations. I will leave a smaller aerial up for VHF local use but HF operation will now be either mobile or portable. I have an Ampro 40m mobile whip and I've ordered a Watson Multi Ranger 9 multi band whip and I also have the end fed wire and a 11 metre pole, so I'm set up for some mobile/portable ops this Summer. The FT-897 will be used with a 12V boost starter for power (either to power the radio or to start the car once I've flattened the battery).
Once again the Numpties win. However, I'm not defeated and am looking forward to getting out and about over the Summer to work the bands.
The enrolment form has now been filled in for the Bath Advanced distance learning course and I will be getting into that in July.
I now have two AllStar nodes running. The home node is radioless, being directly linked via a Linux converted laptop. I have a portable Raspberry Pi RF node as well and that will be installed in the car - I just have to remotely mount the Pi, as if the access radio is too close to it my transmitted audio is accompanied by a hum. This is overcome by moving away from the Pi 's psu.
I have updated the control panel software for the DV4 Mini and now have a hard wired ethernet connection to the laptop and it seems to be working much better. I will also be looking into the DV Mega with a Bluestack board for DMR and I'm contemplating getting both Fusion and Dstar handie talkies to complete the Digital station capabilities.
Doing a spot of Raynet duty in June, covering the Grantham Carnival and a proposed SES to commemorate the Queen's official birthday.
73 for now de 2E0ENN
