[UK-CONTEST] Pre Amps

[Ken Eastty]

.
>
> I ALWAYS use mast head gasfet preamps on 6m 4m 2m 70cms and 23cms,

I don't think that Mast head pre-amps are of much use unless you live in 
a very quiet RF environment (like Bryn?) particularly on 2m & below. 
Even here right on the outskirts of Cheltenham just connecting the 
antennas on 2 or 4m pushes the S meter up a couple of S points.

I have a QRM source which has just appeared on 2m, this peaks at S9+10dB 
when I beam E. What frequency? 144.280 - 310! & again .335 - 355. 
Judging by the noise it makes I guess that it's a switched mode PSU 
probably being coupled to the O/H phone lines. I've also had QRM (now 
cured for the time being) which came up right on 70.200!

You could almost believe that these things were deliberate which they're 
not but the coincidence is amazing.

>
> I think that any station that gives a report far far  lower than  the
> received report must really think about improving the set up.

Not necessarily, unfortunately there seems to be a growing trend for 
some stations to give S9 reports on VHF to everyone they work just as 
happens on HF. I still try to give realistic reports on VHF but know how 
upset some people get if you give them anything other than the 
completely pointless 59(9)reports on HF.

73...

Ken

G3LVP