Vin G4JTR's top band net on Thursday 30th October at 8pm + zoom info

[John Gumb]

Folks,

From Vin G4JTR, many thanks! Zoom info at end. Even if you are not on the top band net, you are most welcome to join the zoom session for a natter.

"There will be the (almost) Hallowe'en top band net on Thursday eve. 30th October starting at 20.00hours. There will also be a zoom chat session.

I have been asked to co-ordinate this by John, G4RDC and I’m happy to do this.

I understand that not many members will have this capability at the moment but here is an opportunity to see how well you can lash up a system for local contacts. I suggest the following simple approach. 

Antennas.

We are not looking for NVIS ionospheric propagation, what is needed for a local net of stations a few Km apart, I think,  is local ground wave propagation. This means having some component of radiation with vertical polarisation  from the antenna.  An inverted L is ideal. It can be non-resonant  and shorter  than a 1/4 wave, provided your ATU will resonate it.   The ATU can be at the feed point  if you use a remote auto ATU, or in the shack, where the coax feeder will act as a crude counterpoise.   An additional  wire  counterpoise  at the feed point may probably help but not necessarily.

Strapped feeders on a doublet is good.  A short loaded vertical resonated on top band,  if you already have, one will work.

If you run a full sized antenna for more serious Top Band work, I expect it will be fine for local contacts.

Power Level.

I am proposing a net frequency  of 1850KHz  LSB or just below in the high power all mode section of 1840 to 1850KHz. The lowest dial reading we can use on LSB is 1843KHz. This means we can use in excess of 32W   but I will probably limit my power to 50W. Your power  may be limited by “RF in the shack” issues.

So, in summary, I will call on 1850KHz at 20.00 on the 30th.  Or on  the best frequency clear of QRN  just  below and co-ordinate the net as Net Controller and pass it round according to the list of callers.

Best of Luck,

Vin, G4JTR."

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Topic: Vin G4JTR's Hallowe'en top band net

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[John Gumb]

Top band net tomorrow...thanks Vin!

73

John

G4RDC

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[Vin Robinson]

Hi, I will be around on 1850 from 19.45 onwards. I plan to close the net by 21.00 others can continue if they wish.

I will be on zoom as well.

Regards

Vin, G4JTR.

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[nickkerner]

Thanks Vin,

I'll see you on 1850 tomorrow, cheers NK 

Kind regards,

Nick Kerner

(MØNPK / M6N)

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 powered by Three

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[gordonrussell.baker]

All ready to go, Vin

Russell 

G4ZRZ 

Sent from my Galaxy

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[gordonrussell.baker]

It was a great net tonight. Good signals all around. We discussed having the next net on 10m ssb. In the meantime, does anyone fancy trying FreeDV in RADE mode on 10m?

Here's someone trying it on 40m 

https://youtu.be/FiT2Nz4A0EM?si=-9YjvRJO1yvMt1CS

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[Bob Thornton]

I would be happy to try RADE on any band. I am in Fleet and my inverted V pretty much lines up with Reading so I could barely hear Vin and perhaps one other last night.  However I have had a couple of RADE QSO with G4MKT in Lancashire on top band, but more reliably on 60 metres.  The quality now is far superior to that of earlier modes, in fact better than SSB!

Bob Thornton

G3WKW 

On 30 Oct 2025, at 22:27, 'gordonrussell.baker' via Reading and District Amateur Radio Group <rad...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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