I am 100% a mobile station due to my home location,so I have really grown to enjoy working Dxing from the beach and over the years undertaken many antenna experiments. You will find me most Friday evenings on 40m from about 17.00 to 23.30 GMT or most mornings when i am driving which i do a fair amount of for work, I use a CHS7 and CHS14 from comet and a old 11m whip for 10m for antennas also i have a diamond screw driver 10 - 80m.

My latest home brew antenna is a 1/4 wave vertical for 80m, this has been a bit of a challenge due to the length and stability but it seem to work well and i am going to run some experiment over the following months before trying to manufacture a pair of phased verticals for 80m.

I am experimenting with a pair of 1/4 wave phased verticals which are spaced at 1/2 a wave length apart, the local council have been very kind and installed about 1 km of stainless steel handrail. I have manufacture two brackets which fit onto the railings.

The antennas are connected by a simple phasing harness which hangs behind the handrail and then to keep the health and safety and grumpy people happy, I have made a hoop to carry the cables to the van.

The antennas are set up on the handrail with end fire being East to West and broad side being North to South, I am able to switch the antennas between broadside and end fire, from inside the van. As for gain the design boasts 3.86dB on broad side and 2.3dB on end fire over a single vertical and so far the results have been very promising. They take about 20 minutes to set up and 10 minutes to put them away.

Before the phased verticals I had been experimenting with a single 1/4 wave vertical on the roof rack of the van this again had proved very good, but like most verticals it would drag in every bit of noise wanted and unwanted! The pictures above are of my old van and my new van with the 1/4 vertical on the roof rack.

Carrying on the experiment I had been trolling through the web for a multi band antenna which I could go mobile with and it would give a reasonable performance, after a detailed research I decided that the Cobweb was the ideal antenna for the job. I managed to manufacture the Mobile Cobweb, which takes less than ten minutes to set up and works well and is very quiet on receive.The pictures below show the Mobile Cobweb first installed.

The only real problem with this was the wind increases very quickly and the loads been applied to the roof rack and van, were soon going to cause a failure so back to the drawing board for a quick design change. So now I have manufactured a heavy duty tilting drive on wheel base and 2" aluminum tubes which are connected by sleeves. This then left me no option but too look for some other antenna to play with and as you can see a 2 element Yagi for 20m works a treat,even if it is windy.

Carrying on with Yagi's I have now manufactured a 4 element 20m full size mono band which is about 12m above one of my vans on a Clark Scam 12, it doesn't get much uses as it is a bit of a task to assemble if you want to go mobile, so I tend to leave it up in my works QTH, if i don't need the van for work!

The inside of my van is my shack,so I have tried to fitted it out with as many of the fixed station equipment as possible, I have a pure sign wave inverter producing 240vac for my laptop and other items.I have a Signalink unit for digital modes and the laptop is connected to the internet via a 3G dongle.Also a 7" color screen which is feed from my Icom 7000. This will displays the radio screen.I have upgraded the standard hand mike with Bob AB5N kit and it is a great upgrade i would recommend it to all IC7000 users.

If you require a detailed weather report please click on the sunshine as i have broken my weather station on the van.

The location in all of the pictures is a place called Meon shore, opposite to the sea is Titchfield Haven National Nature Reserve, if you click on the duck you can find out more about the area. This locations WAB is:SU50

This part of the water is a very good location for catching smooth hounds and I normally have to fight for a good location near the sea with the fishermen!

If you click on the web cam you can get a real time view over the sea. Also by clicking the ship you can listen live to the VHF radio transition for the Cost Guard and general shipping in and out of Southampton water.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE PICTURES BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION

                  WX                Webcam                    Nature                              Coast Guard Radio              M0UOO Website

Several times a year I have a radio QSO party at the beach which normally runs for 24hrs,it is generally a free radio day with coffee and the BBQ running most of the time,we work 70cm - 40m all modes and have a lot of fun.

If you worked me on the week of the 12th December 2010 or the week of the 20th June 2011 from The island of Jersey EU013 under the call of MJ0UOO/M or /P, for information on Jersey click on the cow

On the beach at St Clements and Corbiere Light House on Jersey

2 Element Yagi for 20m at Ronez Point how windy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v-74JOyYpo

Nearly in the sea at La Rocque

QSL cards including SWL are welcome direct to the P.O.Box or via the bureau and are all replied too,but please be patient as i only receive the mail from the P.O.Box every couple of weeks.I operate Ham radio deluxe so your information is collected from QRZ and an automatic EQSL is send after each QSO.I am also operating HRD.Net so you can see if i am on air and also check if we have worked before along with my QRZ.com on line log book. The cluster is running in the van so if you spot me i will call.

I am also an active member of the REAL HF MOBILE yahoo group, which is a must if your are committed to HF Mobile or portable, click the antenna to find out how to join.

Many thanks for looking and good luck,

Richard

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