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[spam]

Who else has joined up the wonderful world of Ham Radio?
Sadly the mast and large arrays of SA are a thing of the past unless we win the lottery.
Antennae in use at the moment are a discone for 2, 6, 70 & 1296
4 meter dipole abd a R5 for 20-10meters 40/80 vertical on the cards.

Rigs are:
HF: Yaesu FT707, FT840
HF RX FRG7700
4 m Ascom 5000 commercial FM only
6m Yaesu FT 680 + Tokyo Hi power HL86 100W linear
2m Yaesu FT480 (currently being repaired...)
70cm Yaesu FT 780
Handhelds IC2E / FT23 / Maxon commercial
Then 2, 6, 70 and 1296 available on the Yaesu FT736
Scanner Alinco DJ-X1

Additional antenna earmarked for the attic
19 element 70cm yagi
hygain 64B 4 element 6m yagi

Who else is out there and what is your station like??

[Avo]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by spam
[B]Who else has joined up the wonderful world of Ham Radio?

Oh wow, another radio ham!! I got my ZS licence (callsign is ZS2NU) in South Africa in 1981, and used to very active on 2 meters and HF at one stage. Although I have not been on the air for absolutely ages I have retained my licence. Don't have any equipement with me in the UK yet - what I have left is with my brother Leslie (ZS2CD) in East London (SA). I doubt if I will get back onto HF (too much hassle with antennae etc), but would love to be set up again sometime on 2 metres. I was just thinking about this the other day, and wondering to what extent computers, and options such as MSN Messenger, have affected things on the HF bands. It is so much easier to communicate with my family via MSN now. Do you know if there are more women on the bands these days?? When I got my licence I was a rare species ... an endangered species ... on the air!! :haha: :haha:

[spam]

Originally posted by Avo
[QUOTE]Originally posted by spam
[B]Who else has joined up the wonderful world of Ham Radio?

Oh wow, another radio ham!! I got my ZS licence (callsign is ZS2NU) in South Africa in 1981, and used to very active on 2 meters and HF at one stage. Although I have not been on the air for absolutely ages I have retained my licence. Don't have any equipement with me in the UK yet - what I have left is with my brother Leslie (ZS2CD) in East London (SA). I doubt if I will get back onto HF (too much hassle with antennae etc), but would love to be set up again sometime on 2 metres. I was just thinking about this the other day, and wondering to what extent computers, and options such as MSN Messenger, have affected things on the HF bands. It is so much easier to communicate with my family via MSN now. Do you know if there are more women on the bands these days?? When I got my licence I was a rare species ... an endangered species ... on the air!! :haha: :haha:

There are a few about....got my licence back in '81 too though never bothered with the morse as work and interest were in VHF /UHF. Both my wife and I are licenced, BJ got her call back in '94 I think it was....
We are both licenced in the UK but not that active. VHF wise there are a number of repeaters around but 70cm seems to be more popular than 2. The 4m band (70MHz) has also quite a following.
You must get up on HF here. The local stuff is all on 40/80 but with dipoles for 10, 15, 20 and WARC 17 and 12 m bands there is a lot of DX to be had...

I am limited to space and the only way I will get up on 40/80 is going to be with a vertical, I'm also not prepared to go that route and battle with radials untill I have our own proprty, then we will set up properly....who knows we may hook up some time

73
de G1BND

[Avo]

Very interesting spam! My late husband Barry was also a radio ham, and we had endless fun together with this common hobby. When we got married it was also a joke that I had my ZS licence and he was only a ZR. He was very bright and very technically minded however, and just wasn't bothered to do the morse either. I live in an extremely small rented flat in Norwich, close to the city centre, so can't really set anything up here. But I also hope to have a place of my own one day, and will see what I can get set up then. I imagine rigs are very expensive to buy these days. All I have left now is my trusty Kenwood TR 9130 (I think that is the model number ... well something like that!). I guess 2meters will be where I will start, and then take it from there. I have not organised my UK licence yet, as I have only been here 8 months, and had too much else to deal with. Yes, I am sure we could hook up on the bands one day ... Will let you know when I am organised for that possibility! I wonder if there are any other saffers here that are also hams??

73 de ZS2NU ... portable in the UK!

[spam]

Originally posted by Avo
Very interesting spam! My late husband Barry was also a radio ham, and we had endless fun together with this common hobby. When we got married it was also a joke that I had my ZS licence and he was only a ZR. He was very bright and very technically minded however, and just wasn't bothered to do the morse either. I live in an extremely small rented flat in Norwich, close to the city centre, so can't really set anything up here. But I also hope to have a place of my own one day, and will see what I can get set up then. I imagine rigs are very expensive to buy these days. All I have left now is my trusty Kenwood TR 9130 (I think that is the model number ... well something like that!). I guess 2meters will be where I will start, and then take it from there. I have not organised my UK licence yet, as I have only been here 8 months, and had too much else to deal with. Yes, I am sure we could hook up on the bands one day ... Will let you know when I am organised for that possibility! I wonder if there are any other saffers here that are also hams??

73 de ZS2NU ... portable in the UK!

I look forward to it. Try http://www.rsgb.org. In Rand terms rigs here are quite expensive but you can pick up a lot of bargains 2nd hand. Practical wireless carries adverts for most of the dealerships and you should find what you are looking for. My advice would probably be to go for a 2/70 dual bander and ensure that it has programmable CTCSS available as most of the repeaters are tone accessed.
If I'm not mistaken Gaff is licenced as is John101