Colin M1BUU

All those kinds of rigs with parallel BS170 PAs are sensitive to VSWR excursions. The absolute worst thing you can do is tweak an ATU with the rig at full power. Either use an attenuator (e.g QRPOMETER) or reduce the rig supply voltage to tune up and then increase the supply voltage once tuned.

My QMX has been fine, I haven't tripped the SWR protection with the latest firmwares - I think the default was put up to 3:1. I run either a home made dipole or home made 7MHz EFHW on 40m and 20m.

Great to catch up with Trainee Search Dog Jura at Kendal Mountain Festival today. It was meeting Jura last year that inspired me to volunteer with my local MRSDE group as a 'body'.

Drove to Barnard Castle this morning. 👀

This Traveller was good only for scrap or total rebuild. The original engine did come back to life with a replacement cylinder head which happened to be laying around. The engine was sold for project funds.

It's not stupid fast, but it can keep up with modern traffic. With the six speed box it cruises on the motorway with ease. Yes, the brakes are good and the mass is low anyway.

Yeah, a little bit more up to date to make it usable. I tripped the engine management light yesterday, looks like we'll have to plug into the OBD port again.

No need for a key, no clockwork in this Moggy. 1.8l VVC twin cam provides the go.

AA batteries are generally a poor power source, but they'd probably work to some extent. A lipo battery and charger would be a good investment and needn't cost an arm and a leg.

150 mile road trip over Shap yesterday, just for fun!

3S lipo 2200mAh, it's just a nice size and lasts for a long time.

It was a bit cloudy yesterday.

YouTube video by EA2BD M1BUU/P in Mt. High Willhays

Ignacio, EA2BD, captured my CW from northern Spain today.

Seems to have been flying ant day on High Willhays G/DC-001 today. 11 QSOs in the bag using my old MTR2B.

Pencil for scale. (Haven't been food shopping yet, so no banana available.)

This pop aisle in Oban Lidl looks very different to the one in the Lancaster store!

It hasn't rained, but millions of wee beasties have descended on Coll

Yesterday was very hot, today was warm but cloudy.

Great thanks! All aims achieved. 😀

Heading to the Inner Hebrides tomorrow on my bike. I'm taking a QMX and dipole and planning to be on air on 40m SSB/CW Wednesday morning and daytime Thursday. Will be signing as MM1BUU/P. IOTA EU-008

No, Kez is the wrong breed!

Volunteered with the search dogs again on Sunday. Here I've been found by SD Kez.

Had the QMX out last week. Seems to work OK.

This is my second one. This time I went for 60-15m as I want the option of 40m SSB. Last time I got a 20-10m version but I don't use 10m! I didn't want to risk re-working a perfectly functional rig, so I bought another.

Smoke test. ✅️
Phew!

Really enjoyed volunteering with Mountain Rescue Search Dogs this morning!

Really enjoyed the series, just a bit sad that there aren't more episodes! Particularly enjoyed the bits about Atlantis as I witnessed the STS-112 launch from Cocoa Beach, and then later went to the press launch of an IMAX film, presented by the whole STS-112 crew.

Was in Wales for the GW SOTA event this weekend. At 2am rally cars were going past the tent for over an hour!

Last year I was weighing my t-shirts and buying titanium cookware, trying to get my all up bike weight below 115kg for my bike tour trip. 115kg is the stated bike+rider weight in the Cube handbook. I've just found out that the 25kg rear carrier load isn't counted in that! Gross weight is 140kg. Doh!

SOTA seems to have fallen off my radar recently but I did manage a brief activation of G/NP-005 last week. I'm still about!