It was never really my intention to invest too much time, or money,
into UHF or VHF. Due to my location, in the bottom of a valley, I
didn't think it would work very well and I would be heavily reliant
on repeater infrastructure. For me, being reliant on infrastructure
defies the object of the exercise which was station to station
communications, should there be some event that would interrupt our
more common communications channels.
After nearly two weeks of operating, my opinion has changed a little.
On simplex, station to station, I have spoken to a handful of locals
, a couple of contacts on higher ground further a field and also one
contact some 26 miles away who gave me a 5 & 9 report. I have
frequently used a Hubnet linked repeater some 20 miles away and made
a number of local contacts via the local repeaters. I have been
pleasantly surprised by my range in certain directions and confused
by it in others. There is a repeater practically on my door step some
4 miles away and I am unable to use it, but I can be heard clearly on
another some 20 miles away. RF is a strange beast indeed.
## Summary
I still don't intend to invest heavily in UHF or VHF but my attitude
towards it has certainly softened over the past week. I have some
better quality coaxial cable which I will install in the next week or
so. Higher frequencies suffer greater losses of signal on poor
quality cable. Without changing the antenna or any other component
this should improve my signal due to reduced losses in the cable.
Like with low powered computers, there is satisfaction to be gained
by operating low power and squeezing the most out of it. Bear in mind
that all the above was achieved with a Retevis RT85 5W hand held
radio that cost 23 GBP, a piece of RG58 coaxial cable and piece of
plastic waste pipe ...
## My station
* Retevis RT85
* Diamond SRH-701 19cm antenna (for portable use)
* Retevis RT85 extended battery pack
* SMA-M to BNC-F connector
* 10m of RG58 coaxial
* BNC-M to RG58 connector
* piece of plastic waste tube (outer of the dipole)
* Ring ferrite to choke the RF from the exit of the dipole.
## Future upgrades
* PSF 1/4m high grade UHF/VHF cable install
* Make a slim-jim antenna from 300ohm ladder line
* Hand microphone ?
