After wanting to be more serious about 70MHz for a long time and with renewed enthusiasm to get out on the hill top portable I bit the bullet and invested in an Icom IC-7100. In a sense this is the perfect radio for portable operating from a vehicle. All bands and a reasonable form factor […]

Back in September 2013 I was invited to join FOC, which I accepted. Each year the club runs an internal contest called the FOC Marathon. The aim is to work as many members as possible on the traditional contest bands. The weekend was filled with DIY and other household chores, but I did manage to […]

I had hoped to have done some radial work on the Inverted-L by the time CQ160m CW came around, sadly I hadn’t had the time. I managed the last hour or so, with about 40 mins in the chair and worked 25 QSOs. Nothing fancy, but it was nice to get on 160m again, though […]

I entered this contest as M0VSQ, which was supporting The Vulture Squadron Contest Group. However, all did not go to plan. First off I tried to bump the power up a little, but ran into immediate issues on QSO number 1. It turns out the MFJ-994BRT remote ATU at the base of the doublet wasn’t […]

I entered this contest semi-seriously. Still hadn’t got a solution sorted for local skimmer and SO2V techniques so just did my best running and S&P with 100w and the doublet. This resulted in 189 QSOs in 8 DXCCs which looks to have me somewhere half way up the table, much better than last years 150. […]

I was late on for this contest and from my low lying location activity seemed much lower than other months. I suspect partly due to the insessant rain and the fact I was late on. Heard GM6JNJ up in IO75 but didn’t manage to work him. Mostly ‘local’ stuff this month. Hopefully will make a […]

Since I had a re-org in the shack it’s been a few months since I did a 2m UKAC. Bad timing with the evening meal meant I missed most of the first hour. Signals seemed good at the start though I had to QRT after the first 10 minutes or so, then I was back […]

I had thought about entering CQWW CW single-op as G9V from our usual site. Unfortunately the logistics didn’t work out so the backup plan was to enter from home under my own call sign. With a couple of weeks to go I got a message from Gerry G0RTN asking what my plans were, and as […]

Along with M0GEJ, M0SPF, G0HVQ and 2E0SQL I was active as G9V in CQWW SSB. A full write up will appear on the M0VSQ / G9V website in due course. We improved on our WPX scores but antenna trouble set us back on 20m and 15m. Never the less we all had fun after the […]