Topband: Stew Perry Frustration.

[Robb Webb Proprietor of Robb Webb Photography]

Hello fellow Stew's
I had been looking forward to this years Stew for a few months and all my trialling new antennas was in vain. Mother Nature in the form of force 8 gales straight off the sea made my inv L a no hoper. I tried for the first hour but the antenna was too low, due to extreme bending !! And the noise level was way too high. The car was shaking so much in the wind that I felt a little quesy too. 
After an hour setting up and an hour struggling to operate I reverted to the dipole configuration, not wanting to give up on the overlooking the sea location. This was no better as the centre support was of course still at a high risk of snapping. 
So having given up on the sea location I packed everything up and headed in land. Finally, less wind and the dipole was up and the noise level was lower. 
A new problem had appeared on the laptop earlier which again caused me problems. The input to the laptop was refusing to work and only the onboard mic worked. So instead of my usual out of the data socket straight to the mic input on the laptop, I was forced to hang a small speaker in front of the onboard mic and turn up the volume. 
In the end I managed 18 contacts in 2 hours !! Only heard EU stations despite hearing lots of US last year. 
As usual with my portable in the car set up, I still have lots of work to do !! One day I will get it all right!! 
Until then Hey Ho, keep on trying 

Thanks to those that heard my 5W 

Robb 
G0URR/P

Robb Webb Photography
Bringing Photography to life
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