Furloughed

I am currently furloughed from my Bus driving job as a result of having diabetes. I'm obviously not ill and its often frustrating not to be able to do things like DIY. However, its for a very good reason. I have though been able to some online courses and, of course play lots of radio and pick up a couple of awards.

It's my birthday coming up and my Wife very kindly bought me two new aerials.

One a 50/2/70 vertical and the other a 2/70 beam. The vertical is up and working extremely well.

New Aerial

Following my purchase of a Yaesu FT991, my first new radio for over 20 years, I have been having fun on HF and more specifically FT8. This mode is fantastic. I am amazed just how far a lowish power signal can go. Anyway, back to the aerial. I have for a long time used a 20m dipole. Works OK but not very well on lower bands. So, after a long while I finally got round to converting it to a doublet. I am very pleased with the results so far. Some little tweaking and a little extra 300 ohm feeder is required to improve ease of use.

Bit of an update.

Haven't posted on here for a while. So, what have I been up to? On the health side I have been diagnosed with Ulcerated Colitis and Inflammatory Arthritis. The latter is the one that causes most problem. I am currently on steroids, which completely clears any symptoms. I wait to see what happens in a couple of weeks. I am lucky to be under the care of the 'min' one of the leading hospitals in rheumatic diseases.

On the radio front I recently purchased an FT991. This is my first radio purchase in about thirty years, so is a steep learning curve to get to grips with a modern transceiver. Itis, though great fun and I am enjoying FT8, a digital mode. Not everyone's cup of tea but is exciting to be able to see where in the world your signals are being received.

As you may know I was trying to obtain my advanced bike test. However, that had to take a back seat while I was getting the rheumatic problem under control. Hopefully with the weather improving I will get to ride for freewheelers this year.

So, there you have it. I will try and keep this up to date and post informations on various things. It may just help someone.