Reception Testing w/e 1st /2nd/ Sept 2012

[Lightspeed]

[Paul]

And for us lesser mortals,
There is a group called "The Official Charlie Tango DX Group"
Mainly Cb'ers some with the ability to "explore other frequencies" and a growing bacon (whoops) ham membership.

Monitoring CT Net Channel UKFM 34, and they scan the PMR446 Band operating from high ground most Wednesdays and Sundays

Their CB name (Muppet Handle) is 104.

A friendly group of guys who won't jump down your throats if you are a newbie and a bit nervous.
Go on, give them a try.

[NorthernRaider]

And for us lesser mortals,
There is a group called "The Official Charlie Tango DX Group"
Mainly Cb'ers some with the ability to "explore other frequencies" and a growing bacon (whoops) ham membership.

Monitoring CT Net Channel UKFM 34, and they scan the PMR446 Band operating from high ground most Wednesdays and Sundays

Their CB name (Muppet Handle) is 104.

A friendly group of guys who won't jump down your throats if you are a newbie and a bit nervous.
Go on, give them a try.

Oooh I'll try and listen out for those folk, thanks both of you for your conmstant efforts on comms.

[The Local Ned]

Plenty of youtube videos regarding the CT guys ( copy that ) Charlie Tango is a well respected and long established group , might join up myself.

[Lightspeed]

Plenty of youtube videos regarding the CT guys ( copy that ) Charlie Tango is a well respected and long established group , might join up myself.

Worth doing Neddie,

the CT group are a very friendly and knowlegable group of CBers, PMR446ists(??) and Hams. Their web site is a useful infiormation resource and their members are very quick to offer constructive advice to anyone setting up a station.

Mainly the Charlie Tango Group is CB-centric, but everyone is welcome to join the party.

There are regular Charlie Tango DB and PMR nets. These will be useful for establishing local contacts in much the same way as Paul has done in his local area.

A couple of weeks ago ioosheric conditions were perfect for sporadic e-layer skip between north and south of UK on CB. Stations operating at fully legal 4w power on CB 27/81 FM frequencies were achieving better than S9 contacts between the South-East and most of Scotland (including Fife, Aberdeen and Lewis). Charey Tango stations were popping out of the noise all over the place, so there must be a lot of them quietly monitoring for good conditions.

[Lightspeed]

Report:

We went up to BOL in the hills yesterday so that I could test my portable HF station during the Field Day. I limited myself to 5w power and simple antenna. Results were good, achieving 40 contacts in 3 hours across Europe and into Middle East. Closest in contact was 100 miles range and longest range was approx 5000 miles. Power was a single 2.2Ah 12v brick which was down to 11.9v at the end of the 4hr session.

All contacts were on the 20m band. 10m was dead.

CB activity was heard from Italy, Portugal, Spain and at the end of the aftrenoon USA started coming through as well.

Did anyone else listen? What did you hear? Please let us know.

[NorthernRaider]

Thanks for the intel and feedback LS, at least we know that after TSHTF we should at least be able to find out if other callsigns are still TXing.

[Lightspeed]

Thanks for the intel and feedback LS, at least we know that after TSHTF we should at least be able to find out if other callsigns are still TXing.

I know what I can hear and what I can reach form various locations. There will be different patterns for different locations and different station set-ups.

This is why every prepper who considers radio comms important should get testing their stations before any SHTF event. Opportunities like last weekend only occur once a year.

All of the contacts I made were specifically targetted at portable field-based stations. For me it was a very useful confirmation that my preparations are functional.

[Paul]

I sit here smiling at the thought that others are cottoning onto why I have a fondness of CB.

Most of the CB'ers I talk to are friendlier and a heck of a lot more helpful than the bacon ever were.
The other advantage is they all use the same frequencies / channels the whole world over.

Not forgetting that the international language of radio is English.
Even when things get tough and they can't speak English, they all tend to fall back to using the CB 10 code which is also internationally recognized.

Cheap, easy to set up, easy to use, no license, no petty regulations.
What's not to love?

I had a field day over the weekend. The skip was brilliant.
Even though I couldn't get back to a lot of them, I spoke to a lot of people. ALL ON 4 Watts. France banging in on S8.
11mike962 10.10